EARLY PALMERSTON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1573, 6 July 1916, Page 4

EARLY PALMERSTON.

Palmerston N. is nearing its jubilee. Our Palmerston morning contemporary says: “Since the first sound of the settler’s axe startled the tuis in the rough clearing, Palmerston has progressed much. Today the town is one of the most populous and progressive in the Dominion, and the story of its progression is a history of triumphant achievement in the face af almost insurmountable difficulties.”

In an interview with Mr John Stevens, ex-M.P for Manawatu, he informed our contemporary that in 1858, when he first knew Palmerston, it was a. rough open space surrounded by almost impenetrable bush, the habitation and the haunt of a few straying Maoris. Mr Stevens was living at Rangitikei at the time, there being a small settlement there, and in company with a Maori boy, the son of a chief at Awahuri, who knew the topography of the country, he came to the clearing where Palmerston now stands. The track was from Awahuri, bearing east to where Bunnythorpe is. The boundary of the cleared land lay from Terrace End down to the Gas Works, the northern boundary running to a creek near the Family Hotel. All the remainder was bush, except for a few places along the river where the Maori had made his abode. The first settlers naturally had to contend with great difficulties. They had to cut down the bush, erect dwellings, and build roads. In this connection Mr J. T. Stewart, who was Road Engineer to the Provincial Government, made the first road from Rangitikei to Palmerston. There was very heavy and dense bush all the way to Rangiotu, and this was turned to good account by an enterprising firm of contractors, Bi’ogden and Co., of London, who had a contract with the Government of the day to construct a railway from Wellington to the Unit, ami from Blenheim to Picton. They required totara sleepers for the railway, and these were got from around this district, especially at a place called Totara Grove, near Terraco End. From this place they had a tram line laid to Foxton, from which port the wood was shipped. That was also incidentally, the beginning of the Foxton wharf, over- which there has been of late so much controversy. Mr Stevens said that the road from Palmerston to Awahuri was made about 1869, he thought, by Mr Anthony Nathan. He recalled a ride over the mountains to Palmerston from Hawke’s Bay, there being no road through the Gorge. The roads then in existense were mere bridle tracks. To show how bad they were, it took Mr Stevens live hours to go from Palmerston to Awahuri, and this on horseback. The road was at the time being formed, the stumps of felled trees being drawn out of the ground. Many an equestrian went floundering into these mudholes in consequence. In these places there are now firm, well-kept roads, over which motor cars whir their way at fast rates. In those days the road from Wellington to Wanganui was by the sea beach, and was a. very long and arduous trip. Many rivers had (o he forded, and this was done in canoes, the horses swimming behind. All stock were made to swim the rivers, with the exception of sheep, which wore ferried across, some 20 or 30 at a time, in canoes made for the purpose. The settlors who came to the Rangitikei district arrived in horse drays, or came up in small schooners, being landed at the mouth of the Rangitikei river. The settlement in Rangitikei proper began in 1849, but the settlement in Palmerston North did not lake place till well over ten years later.

In Mr Stevens’ opinion, Palmerston is the best inland town in the Dominion, and it has a great future before it. Land has increased in value locally to a wonderful extent. He gave some striking evidence in support of this. He participated in the Moari War in the district between Wanganui and Kangitikei in 1865, being a commander of cavalry. He thus earned what was known as his “military script,” that was, land to which he was entitled because of his military services. This was valued at about £3O, and with this he took up two half-acre sections at £ls a-piece, near the Terrace End school. Two years later he sold the sections at £(SO a-piece; and now they would at the lowest possible estimate be worth £2OO each. Thus had Palmerston grown.