The Feilding Settlement

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 54, 23 October 1890, Page 3

The Feilding Settlement

V-3i- Following Letter,- relating to th« "..;. i Manchester Block, described by tin v.* writer as the "Feilding Settlement,' x 'f V is taken from the New Zealand Mai "": ".. Newspaper,- of the 7th of March ■ .'■ I started from Palmerston for Feilding <m Tuesday last. The road passes close ho Waldegrave's Royal Hotel, and enters the forest. The road is level, well formed, and mettalled with shingle obtained from pits sunk beside the road. The land on either side is owned principally by Natives, but a few clearings have been commenced by Europeans at intervals, and tiiere are one 1 or two rude huts erected on the roadside, which are occupied by roadmen. Seven miles through the bush brings you to tbe river Oroua, over which a substantial wooden bridge has been laid. The Awahuri Hotel, C. W. Shultze, proprietor, is within a few yards of the bridge. It is a five' or six-roomed bouse, with kitchen and stable behind it. The bush land here trends away to the north, and, as far as the eye can reach towards the west, the country is open flax and toi toi land. There is a Native settlement, Awahuri, adjacent to the Hotel, and when I arrived a motley group of the inhabitants had assembled on the verandah of the house, . aud were regarding with curiosity the newly-arrived emigrants by the Ocean Mail, who were partaking of a hasty " snack " of- bread and cheese. The two races here certainly dwell together in concord. Here they were hobnobbing and sitting cheek- by jowl. There were none of them well-dressed; indeed, judging from appearances, one would suppose that they never leave off a suit of clothes so long as two threads of it hang together, and the adhesiveness of the fibre must be •considerably strengthened by grease. In such out-of-the-way places as this the Natives pass a great deal of their time in gambling. Brag, Don Juan, euchre, and , poker, they play with the skill of a St. Louis blackleg, .but they usually play for ' the love of the thing, and for small Btakes. Sere was a party hard at work at the . ztoble game of penny brag, to which, I am Informed, they devote a considerable portion of their days and nights. They are so fond of the game that when one of the party was " cleared out" he was promptly supplied afresh by the largest winner. It was amusing to listen to their broken .English ; and they relieved their' excited feelings by vigorous thumps on the table •with their great brown fists. When the housemaid, a daughter of Hibernia, came to lay the table for dinner, she had some .trouble with these gentry. She was evi•dentiy a " new chuni," and had not quite got over her apprehensions with regard to tbe noble savage. When she essayed to lay the table, four noble savages placed their chairs upon it, perched themselves npon them, -and resumed the game. Molly contemplated these proceedings with arms akimbo and an air of astonishment. ■ She appeared to meditate offensive measures* but had recourse to a handy weapon-^-her tongue. She 'slanged' .the noble savages until they were obliged to retreat in dismay; she called itheai "bastes," "black divils," "dirty haythen savages," *' murthering villains,' ' aud various other epithets, and would no doubt have attacked the enemy with a broom handle had .they not prudently retreated. I noticed that the natiye women here were plentifully bedecked with jewellery, one young lady having no less thau three wedding rings on her marriage finger. Most of the ornaments, however, were of brass. Itinerant jewellers make a good thing cut of the Maoris. They sell pinchbeck and " Brummagem" goods . '■■ at high prices, which the deluded natives - as genuine goods* The purchaser is a proud man for a few . weeks. .'^He can look with contempt upon tbe mere '"'possessor of shark's teeth and greenstone as belonging to a lower order. He can claim for his own jewellery the merit of . being the only genuine article in the -settlement. But a few weeks pass, and his dream is over. The gaudy thing of yesterday loses its brilliancy, and stands forth as palpable brass. ' The itinerant Jewellers don't go twice to the same place. They say it doesn't pay. Leaving this interesting group to their orgies, I pursue my way towards Feilding. A few chains- beyond the • Awahuri Hotel; the road, or rather bush track, to Feilding turns off at right angles from the metalled road,;. pursuing the proper left bank of the Oroua River, through • toi toi .'and flax land. About a mile from; the, : - Hotel is the native village of Awahuri, inhabited by the .Ngatikawhatua, a hapu "of the Ngatiraukawa. Crossing a small stream which falls into the. Oroua, the character of the country continues about the same for four miles, excepting a small bush which crosses the road about halfway to ''Feilding. ' Within a mile of the township you come to the homestead of Messrs James Whisker and John Hughey. Here are several well-fenced paddocks, a substantial dwelling-bouse, dairy, barns, sheep, 500 cattle, . horses, and numerous . pigs. Messrs Whisker and Hughey came to the district about 8 years ago, leased 900 acres of land from tbe natives, and have remained here ever since. All through the troublesome times on the West Coast, with the notorious Wi Hapi and his band of fanatical Hauhaus within a few miles of them, repeatedly warned ] to depart, their lives often threatened, sometimes sleeping in the flax swamp, with -their stock and household goods prepared for instant flight,. all through this Messrs Whisker and; Hughey clung desperately to the place, working hard, but slowly and surely progressing. Gradually land was cleared and cultivated, flocks and . , herds increased in number, they sent 4 their butter on packhorses to Wanganui,' sometimes sold a few head of cattle, grew their own vegetables, and ate wild pork. Now they can muster 500 head of cattle, including 50 milch cows, many sheep and horses, and their pigs ' overrun the country for miles. Last year they fed their pigs upon potatoes, but still for lack of a market were obliged to allow tbem to rot. They now supply the Feilding immigrants with fresh meat, milk, 'and vegetables, payment being guaranteed by the Corporation, and they intend, I believe, immediately to erect a store and butcher's shop on the ground. I may mention also that Messrs Whisker and Hughey have an excellent little orchard. I can speak of the fruit with some confidence, having made a pretty good hole in some of the trees. The track from this homestead leads across a low flat, with soil of excellent quality. The Corporation will have to make a road over this before the wet weather sets in, or it will become impassable. The township of Feilding at present consists of a weatherboard store, an accommodation-house (in course of erec tion), a few bark huts, some tents, and a long barracks, also built of bark, and capable of housing about a dozen families. Parties of the immigrants who had already arrived were : at work clearing roads into the bush. Passing through a small bush about a quarter of a mile, the open land is : reached, _ and here Canvas Town is situate, consisting of about a score of bell tents. The immigrants by the Ocean- Mail had just reached the settlement. The women and children who had ridden on the waggons had been much tired by the jolting. They were warmly greeted hy their fellow-settlers, and ia a few minutes were comfortable

housed in tents and bark huts. There was a good deal of joking about the journey and their new home. One ' woman said it reminded hey of " The ' Rocky Road to Dublin," and another , recalled— " The days when we went gipsying, 1 A long time ago." (To be continued in next issue.)