OUR FIRST VISIT TO KARITANE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19475, 9 May 1925, Page 15

OUR FIRST VISIT TO KARITANE.

VI. Written for the Otago Daily Times,

By Aeoha Very few now left of tho “ Old Brigade” who made our life so very pleasant at Karitano. Still, among us is Mr Jack Antoni, good churchman and excellent neighbour, a brother of tho lovely young Maori who mot us with a sledge on our first visit. Poor Mrs Tom Woods, then so happy and care-free, and beautiful, was to know many sorrows, not tho least ol ■which was to see several lino stalwart sons return from tho Groat War only to fade away and die in their peaceful old home. Their soldiers’ graves, with little white crosses, bearing their names and regimental numbers, are tho only soldiers graves in the old Karitano Cemetery, and are lovingly tended and cared for by Incur uncle, Mr Antoni. Then there was 9 lcl 'Webster,” who never was called anything else. Ho had lived at Karitano for 4(1 or 50 years, all alone, an old bachelor, a quaint figure, with his little tutt ot whiskers under his chin, and tho rest ot his face, all round his mouth, shaven' like tho Bo’sn in “H.M.S. Pinafore. Hishabit of “pacing the quarter deck m the middle of conversation was a bit disconcerting at first, but one got quite used to it. Right in the middle of saying something ho would turn on his heel, and a " J 30 paces, then back again before you know whore you were! Ho always did i . writer once twitted him about being an “ old bachelor.” and ho related his incredibly simple love story " You see, living in tho place 1 come from she onderstood wot 1 meant. VJ . laughed, “was that your stylo of lovemaking'” “Now you can laugh away, but she knew all right, so once when I came ashore from a longish voyage i ent her a, message to meet me next c at tho top of her street at halfqnuJ eight, without fail. Well I wwtoa there more’u an hour, and from turned up, so I never sot eyes on her trom thatclay to this. Only a. few years.ago I met an old shipmate o’ mine down a* i ort Chalmers, and he ses to me Bill. >oa never married; well, neither did Liz., sfio s living an old ’maid,’ well over sixty now still g at the old place. life’s learned to write, or what a different life story theirs might have been. Old Mr King, for many years our post master, had travelled most extensively, and could talk well on all he hadsee. IBs greatest passion was music, and yet here ho had drifted, and lived for 30 years with little other music than that Ho had the scores of all the old oper stored about his little crib, and .used to take them out at night, following the bright scones of other days, humming himself the arias once sung by some celebrated ptima donna who had l ’ cc T J 1 " particular friend. Ho knew only tho operas and music ol the Victorian Era, lor dining his 30 years’ residence at Karilane ho Leu it not more than two or three times Hero ho lived, alter all his travels, with a small army of white cals and little wide poodle dogs. How ho loved those little white objects!, 1 have a photograph oHum taken in the ’nineties with about 30 ot these creatures round him, and ho looks rather a lino figure, too, U "ffi pathetic, in a frock coat and white pith helmet, which he had worn m ■ s monocle hanging on a hUu;k Hilk ibbO | Ho had been a very handsome man, ami well educated. , ■ ( .i,. Many an exciting adventure disturbed the calm of that peaceful little oom>m,mly. One night, or rather early morning, about 2.30 a fearful uproar began, ihoro weio shouting and screaming across ho river Everybody hastily rose out of bed, and old Drake, a very powerful rower, even in Ins old ago, who know every trick of tide and wind rushed in for “Risks, ’who was also a powerful rower. In fact, both Mr Drake and he had belonged to volunteer rocket brigades, Mr Drake in Tasmania am I “Risks” in Timaru. Both had been-picked for manning lifeboats, the latter on that terrible day in Timaru when the boats were wrecked and many lives lost. Oft these two went, tide and wind against thorn, in pitch dark, for there were no electric torches those days. ’they thought from the shrill screaming , that they wore to 1 rosc-Uo women and children, ana what did they find? Two drunken fiahorinon in about two feet of water! When they arrived back nt the jetty the whole Kaik there to welcome thorn, one man. huddled up in one end of their bout and the other man being lowed behind, these two in their gratitude turned on tho valiant rescuers and gave them a few of the moat sultry language for “interfering. Poor old Drake and silent Risks did look foolish, and that joke against them lasted u s for a long time. Then thero came Mr and Mrs Downio so good and kind to minister both to tho minds and bodies of our Maori neighbours. I 1 irst they came ns visitors, then for a time they wore residents, and on tho walls of the little cottage from which the first Hussar funeral wended its way hangs a personal Jotter from Karl Haig himself to Mr Dowie. thanking him for war work done, and praising our Now- Zealand soldiers. Many soldiers visiting the Dowies tako down that framed letter and road it—and wo feel a glow of pride, if (hey do not. Tho love stories of Karitano I pass over How many a romance far surpassing fiction has had its Milting in this quiet little corner of the world! How many lives have had their current changed by .a careless visit there —unless, indeed, all is arranged for us by Fate! In that harmonious community, whore all was rustic sweet simplicity, where all vied with each other in neighbourly acts of kindness, there have only occurred a very few jarring incidents, and for those people wore responsible who lack vision, and never put down very deep roots. Dr Truby King made a wonderful change for Karilane. Ho planted trees and built pretty houses, so that now there is beauty where once was barren hill and desert sands. He really had made (he "wilderness to bloom.” and muter (he new Native Land laws, which permit of sections being sold that have boon “tied up” all these years we may soon have hundreds of visitors who will bo heartily welcome, all our hope being, that they will have as happy times ns we have enjoyed since “our first visit to Karilane."

Mr W. At is ter Crawford, of Christchurch, writes that “an old Maori told him many years ago that the first occupant of the now oldest cottage at Karitane was an educated Englishman, who abducted a very lovely Maori girl in Wellington, brought her down the coast in a ketch, and established her in what was then a really beautiful residence at Karitane. However, she would have none of it, or of him, and ran away. He then disappeared ” An incident -omiected with Mr Drake comes to my mind through this letter. One day ho passed Mr Drake ami myself on the jetty. Mr Drake at once asked who he was, as some years before Mr Crawford had hailed him from the other side of the river. Coming over lie told Mr Drake that, ho was going to visit some girls stopping in a cottage on the point. Mr Drake directed him where to go, and said to mo; "I’m blowcd if lie didn't leave a half-crown on the seat of the boat, and before I could say anything he was halfway up the point, so I took the coin up to the house, threw it on the table, and told the kds to make merry with it next time the hawker’s cart came round, as I’d as soon take nay for bringing a man over the river as I would for giving him a drink of water.” Mr Crawford has heeu married many years to the girl ho went to see that day, and they have travelled far and wide. I wonder how many ho met abroad who would scorn a good tip? “Anglican” lias corrected mo on one point. On looking up the life of Bishop ficlwyn I see lie must have been at Kariraiie several years before the date I gave, as in a letter dated January, IS-14, fie mentions having stayed at Karitane with (lie Watkins family. He also stated that there had been a Church of England teacher there —not ordained—for a year before the W’etdoyans we,it there. The Hussars about whom “Mounted” incpiires, and who were never beaten in the Dloyd Findley competition, were all Waiicouaiti and Karitane men —Messrs Allan and Harry Orholl, J. Muir and Robert Templeton. There is a beautiful photograph of them taken together on their horses.