THE EARLY DAYS OF OTAGO.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 40, 15 February 1872, Page 2

THE EARLY DAYS OF OTAGO.

o (From the Otago Daily Times). The story of the landing and early adventures of the two pioneer parties of emigrants who arrived at Port Chalmers on the 22nd March and 15th April, 1848. —who landed, in fact, on the shores of a new and uninhabited country, with the untrodden ferns and the unbroken bush all around, with no accommodation provided no immigrants' barracks, and no tents to

erect — 326 brave souls ! stout-hearted men and women —is full of the elements of romance: so'full that I wonder it has never been portrayed, as it ought to have been; that, borne on the mind of some of their number beyond those stern realities, and into the quiet oi the settlers home, when that had been achieved, it should not by pen or pencil have been reproduced. The John Wicklifie was the first to reach Port Chalmers with 90 passengers; the Phillip Laing, Captain Ellis, with 236 Scotch emigrants, the. second. Arriving at the setting-in of a most - inclement season, the most severe winter that has been experienced since the foundation of the settlement, they were subjected for the space of nearly two months to one continued down-pour of rain; and imagine what that meant in their circumstances! It was of course impossible that the women and children should go ashore for some time, and they remained accordingly on board the vessels, while the male adults did their best towards making

the necessary -preparations. Hopeless, dreary prospect, just at this first blush of their future life it must have been to these poor folks, pacing the decks of their ships day after day, and eyeing the drenched shores of the promised lavd — the land that so long had been pictured in the fairest colors on their imagination ! And little did these handicraftsmen — the weavers, tailors; shoemakers, and bakers — -that in large (just too large) proportion made up their number, know of hut or whare construction I But necessity ia tbe mother of invention and they proved equal to the occasion; and plenty opportunity had the gentler sex also, when at last they were taken ashore, of showing an equal spirit of heroism. We are told of its having been nothing uncommon to see " delicately brought up ladies .engaged in the difficult operation of cooking, while gentlemen had to hold umbrellas over the heads of said ladies, io order to prevent the kitchen fire from being extinguished." It is marvellous what a power of adaptability such circumstances evoke, proving that in even those whose energies have been cramped by the bonds of artificial life,. there exists an innate force, bravery, and endurance tbat, but ior these, would never have been discovered. By our too excessive refinement do we not oftentimes causa but scant justice to be done to the noble natures that have been given us? Is it, after all, a real good to experience no hardships, to have no trials to battle with, no difficulties to evercome ? While, therefore, I would do no despite to the true manliness and womanlines of these brave bands, I would make no moans over the circumstances that brought out such qualities. And while (I may say, also) I would be second to none in the respect I entertain for them, as a well chosen picking out of that class of rough honest Scotchmen who, under heavy eyebrows, and dull, unimaginative looks, have more in them than a stranger would believe of the true spirit of adventure, of speculation in their souls ; I don't take kindly to that adventurous title to our respect which they, one and all, were too fond of setting vp — that continual drawing of a parallel between themselves and the Pilgrim Fathers of the New England Stateßof America. They were in no sense the victims of persecution , which developes a peculiar firmness of character and nobility of purpose. That cannot be imitated, and to simulate it without the reality is but to enact a travesty that must soon break down, the reality riot being possessed — those stern virtues that are born of a pure and high motive. They left their homes with a sufficiently honorable purpose—to elevate the condition of themselves and their families. Let them be cod ten ted to have accorded to them that honor ; wisely and cautiously projected and enacted. We confess to a desire to have the idea of banishment, in connection with emigration, eradicated from people's minds. Local attachment it is natural to cherish to the place of our birth or up-bringing. But are the colonies places of banishment or expatriation ? Are they not included in the Empire of Great Britain, which is made up (so to speak) of urban and suburban portions, the home realm, and the colonial realm ? And the more especially since the world-girding wire brings many of Britain's dependencies, virtually as near as if less than even the Channel interposed. I admire the spirit of Mrs. Macarthur, the one lady in New South Wales who was of sufficient social rank to be invited as a guest to the table of Governor Phillip, in 1839- ; and who ventured to emigrate " in the infant years of New South Wales, ere a fleece was shorn, or a wheat field waved its golden grain j " but, as we are told by judge Terry, " who survived in the colony for fifty years after her arrival there, and did not close her honored life till she saw her adopted country far advanced in civilization. In a letter which she wrote on the eve of her departure, dated Chatham Barracks/ Bth October, 1789, she says : — "Do but consider if we live apart as we must, it is much the same whether I am hundreds or thousands of miles distance from you. The same Providence will watch over us there as here. The son that shines on you will also afford me the benefit of its cheering rays, and that too in a country where nature bath been so lavish of her bounties, where flowers abound, and where fruit will likewise be the reward of culture."

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