THE STORY OF THE BELLS

Evening Star, Issue 20132, 23 March 1929, Page 4

THE STORY OF THE BELLS

WITH OTAGO’S EARLY HISTORY PHASES OF COLONISATION It is spring in the year 1848 in what is now the city of Dunedin. The peace of the ages rests on the place, a quiet solitude reigns everywhere. The waves murmur as they lap gently the shingle of the -beach, from where green-bushed hills move upwards to the horizon bounded by the high Flagstaff. Hustling flax and quivering toi tois occupy what little' flat there is, with here and there nikau palms to give an exotic effect. There coma the sudden inllthrented song of thetui, the _ cooing of the large native pigeon as it flutters among the tall miros in search or berries ; sounds breaking in on the continual twitter of the bright-phnnaged smaller birds. Smoke ascends Irani a few mud and grass huts balanced on little cleared patches of hillside or halthidden in the flax. Saplings comprise the framework of the huts, which are walled by clay and thatched with a combination of tussock grass t fern, and flax. An odd hut is roofed with shingles. All seem to be mere appendages to the huge clay chimneys at the end of the huts. A crude exterior ami an equally crude interior. A 1 other Ivarth covers the floors, a packing case for a table, a section of tub or a whale, s vertebra 4 for chairs, and a bunk io sleep on in the corner comprise the iunnture—truly a wee “hut and a hen. ’ The sweet tinkling ol a hell—that wonderful historic bell whose history yon will learn—startles the native songsters. It is a summons In the laithfnl to service. The faithful? Who and From where? They are the brave pioneers of the John V icklifle and the Philip Laimr. How they cling to the sound of that hell! ft lias a double token—one sari, the other lull oi hope. The hell awakens haunting thoughts of Home, of village church bells tar across the sea on lair shore. They have just come through a cold, wet, dreary winter, but to-day they obev the hell's summons with light hearts. Spring and sunshine hrne come, and a kindly Divinity, acting through the medium of a lathoiK preacher, will give them now coinage and new hope. From all points of the compass people approach the church. Some come Irom the vicinitv of the North-east lane;, and cross the M a ter of T.eitli by means of a tree fallen across the stream. A railing of supplejacks gives security to

the wayfarers. Little dinghies bring small bands- from Anderson's Bay, aim the splash of their oars on the smooth water of the harbour is plainly heard. From Halfway Bush a few are seen coming down tho broad hack of the ridge that runs out into tho bold promontory of Bell Hill. Others coiuo from Green Island along the range hy Look-out Point, and reach the town by the wooded slo]>es now crowned by the buildings of Stafford street. Tho hell continues to ring as they gather in. The church holds about 200 people, some of whom sit, perforce, on shingles about a foot high. It is a plain weatherboard structure with throe small windows at each side, a door at the end, and the whole painted white. The people listen to the _ sympathetic discourse of a tall, spare, dignified man, who radiates a spirit of help and comfort. He is Dr Thomas Burns. Those who have come from a distance fill in the time between fore and afternoon services by a little stream in a wooded gully long since obliterated hv the filling up of Battray street. They talk of Home, of their prospects in the new land, and eat their humble lunch. The ringing of the bell calls them in again-. Does anything remain of that scene, of that day? Vos, the little hell, which you will find close to the secretary’s office in the Otago Karly Settlers’ Museuirn It is there like its huge, sonorous successor, which rests on a concrete pedestal let ween First Church and the firs bordering the manse, to remind posterity of the debt it owes tho pioneers. But in 1848 the tittle hell was nearing tho end of its career. Let.yonr mind wander hack to the laics of the notorious convict vessels of Botany Bay, a dark page in Australia’s colonisation. It was in one of those ships where indescribable cruelties were done to chained poor devils of prisoners, and which are so graphically depicted hy Marcus Clarke in • For the Term of His Natural Life,’ that the hell served

its apprenticeship. The oonvict ship after many years’ work was converted into a hulk, and the bell fell .into the hands of Mr Johnny Jones. Imagine it in the possession of that bluff, honest, ready-fisted man—the founder of the first English settlement in Waikonaiti and the first ineivlurn in .-ill Otago. Mr Jones placed it on his whaling vessel, the Magnet, which sailed these waters 100 years ago. Listen to it sounding out the watches on the whaler, or giving an urgent adl to all hands to man tno boats ami give chase, as a whale is m sight! After years of sailing the Soul horn Ocean the bell was resigned from its post to act in a widely differing 111j paeity on the first mission station in the South Island. Jones, shrewd business man that he was, lelt that- bis few English folk relatives, and rough whalers, would bo better oil’ lor a little religion, and accordingly applied loi a missionary in Sydney. The Kev, A'atkin came as a representative of the Wesleyan ministry in 1840. A mission house"was built and the boll placed in it. When the first humble First Church was built Jones knit the bell, and subsequently gave it to Dr Hums. it took the place ol the little cannon (which rests under the bell in the .Museum) in sounding out the hours ol the day. But. the cannon, despite its .supersession, hud its gala day when it sounded out a royal salute of twentyone guns to the Queen, 132 lons, the first steam vessel to arrive in Dunedin. The rncmo'-alile date was August 28, 1858, and the vessel, which came from Melbourne with a mixed cargo and nine passengers, was received with great jubilation. The little bob caused Church Hill, the resen - set aside hy Mr Kettle (who first surveyed and set out the town of Dunedin), acting under instructions from the Now Zealand Company to define three areas for church purposes, to be renamed Bell Hill. It is claimed by Dr T. M. Hoekcn that the bell sounded out the eight working hours of the day. eight hours being all that Dr Burns required of his workmen. Dr Burns was in no sense a large employer

and abhorred politics, hut he had j hoindit on behalf of a number ol friends i -it Homo many sections, and thought they would be more valuable for being cleared and fenced. Ho commenced l» [■nan on his own account at Grant’s Braes (now Wavcrley). Knowing the i hardships and awful conditions of work in the Homeland, Dr Borns had promised his people of tho Philip Lamg that as far as his influence carried they would have good pay and short hours of toil in the new hind. H Dr llockcn is redd, then it van he justly claimed Burn; was the real originator of'the eight hours movement—a boon t . ;1 r wery country in the world where , it obtains is proud of. I The New Zealand Company, under tin) agency of Captain Cargill, v.a;-, Hu; largest employer of labour. The pa.v was ds a day for labourer,. and 5s for tradesmen. The hours were | 'from 0 to 0, an hour for breakfast at I 9 and dinner from 2 to -4. A half- j ilav was observed on Saturday. For j the first year or two I hero wen-, however, few real employers. Settler-, to , a large extent assisted cadi other, employing themselves in cutting timber, 'fencing posts, or firewood, or splitting .shingles and bringing them to market. Neighbours _ exchanged labour and necessaries, ami very ht.iio money passed from hand I" hand. Then- was mutual co-operation unknown’ to-day. In ISol the little hell and toe church were parted, the hitler to mid ignoniinionsly. The ehnreh, as well as Iming used as a school, performed nmlti fa nulls other dulie-. Meetings ot ail j kinds wore held within it- walls; lee- | tores and concerts, flower shows, the first Provincial Council meeting, and j Governor Grey s first levee. finall, j it was used as a woolshed, hut was freed from this iniquity by lire sixteen j rears after its erection. Ihe hell was i tossed from pillar to post until re- I trievod from a. stable, yard by Mr j Hoeken, who had a line appreciation -of the value of tilings historic. Along with all the rest of Ids rich collection , the hell became a valuable addition to i Otago’s prized possessions, ami is in i its proper .sphere, surrounded by ihv I relics of its own time, j Tin; huge hidl which sncceodcn the 1 old one is familiar to living old idm,niies- Were it possible that it. could 1 ho rung to-day, with what memories -it would be charged, witat ojil-linie

‘scenes would be re-enacted ! AA hub a rushing hack oi the swiit tide ot past ' years T As its sonorous tones ring the cail to labour and to rest, can you , not picture the sturdy, independent little figure of Captain Cargill in his undress ol Ayrshire grey, his Kindly look, and that wide woollen bonnet surmounted by a, Jlatning red toone, which he was so enamoured ol 1 >urely von can see the steep promontory ol 'Bell Hill, that most familiar early landmark,' which was cut, down lor harbour reclamation purposes. Present First Church, the culminating effort of Presbyterians’ industry and courage and a ol great architectural beauty, occupies a remaining terrace of Bell i I ill. 1 lie rise between the Exchange and the Octaeon, marked by closely-packed largo buddings, is all" that is recognisable | 10-dav ol d. Could the most lai--1 leaching imagination ol tin* early days i visualise the ‘ towering white Hulk ol ! (he new Public Trust Office, thrusting 1 upwards to the sky on the slope ol I i.ie uni r We think not. [ For a number ot years the big i bell carried out inan.v and varied 1 duties, including Unit oi lire-bell, and I many active figures long dead mu-1 I have rushed to clang its urgent sum- | moils al- first sign of a. blaze. _ i hero ! were no town clocks, factory whistles, '■ telephone or radio time messages t lien, | and the bed acted as a -regulator on | erratic watches and cloaks, the hell now lies cracked and useless under the I shadow ol First Church. On one side it hears the admonition “Time is short,” and on the other ‘‘loathe First Church of Dunedin, Bev. Ihns. Burns, minister. Irom a lew friends and members ot the 1‘ roe ( linreli ol I Scot land.” ’I Ik l makers v, ore C , and 0. Mears, founders, ItSoO.