HAWKE'S BAY'S FIRST FLOCK

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 19, 15 October 1937, Page 19 (Supplement)

HAWKE'S BAY'S FIRST FLOCK

Ha\vke's Bay's firsfc flock is believed to liave been brouglit into the province in 1842 oi* 1843 by tlie late Mr. Henry Stokes Tiffen, a surveyor, who had a run in the Wairarapa, and who had secure'd from the natives the lease of a large area of country in Hawke's Bay. Just what that pioneer settler , tlioughfc *-as he tr.avelled for days over trackless country, liill and dale,- without' seeing human habitation, can onlv dimly be realised to-day, but it is such men who bore the brunt of the eai'ly pioneering work, who laid the foundation of this province's development and prosperity. In 181-9, Mr. H. S. Tiffen 's brotlier, the late Mr.-F. J, Tiffen, who for niany years owned the Elmshill property at Patangata, now farmed by his so'n, crossed into Hawke's Bay from the Wairarapa, with a flock of 3000, which ' were driven by Mr. Northwood, Mr. Tiffen, and others, a'ssisted.by some Maoris, by ' way of the East Coast, to Pourerere, a ruh of 25,000 acres which Mr. Northwood and Mr. Charles Nairn had acquired from the native owners. This journey of 140 miles occupied four weeks, the only stations en route being Pahau and Castle Point. Owing to the absence of gra'ss it was found necesSary to take 2000 of the sheep inland to the Omakere portion of the Pourerere run. It was from such sinai! begihnings that Hawke's Bay's flocks have grown to their present vast num.bers. .