OUR DISTRICT AND OUR SETTLERS.—No. 2.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 32, 5 January 1884, Page 3

OUR DISTRICT AND OUR SETTLERS.—No. 2.

Tov OUR SPECIAL REPORTER.] (Continued,) TOANGA. It is said that a Scotchman and a Scotch thistle will flourish anywhere, Scotchmen, as a rule, make good settlers. They are hardy, and capable of much physical endurance, Once they get a hold in a place it is seldom they relinquish it. Their motto is onward, and the stronger the opposition—the fiercer the battle—the harder they fight. The Colony of New Zealand is indebted largely to the enterprising spirit and the steady plodding of the sons of Scotia. Poverty Bay, especially, jowes much to her Scotch settlers. Perhaps there is not one among their number more deserving of a good word than the worthy proprietor of the homestead of Toanga, situate six miles from the town of Gisborne. Mr. Ewen Cameron, the gentleman to whom I refer, came to New Zealand from Scotland in the year 1860, and during those twenty-three years has seen many changes in this Colony. He has been here in times of peace and war, and watched the progress the Colony has made in settlement and commercial enterprise. In the course of my travels on New Year’s Day I received an invitation to pat m the evening at Toanga, which I gladly accepteu. in the old world to me there was a peculiar charm attached to spending a day or two in roaming over the fields aid under the roof of the jovial old English firmer, hospitable spirit makes one at o ice feel that the invitation is cordial and your welcome is warm. The visit to Mr. Ewen Cameron’s pleasant home caused my thoughts to recur to those old days when once before I was told off as a Special Commissioner, and spent a most pleasan-, time in putting on record the beauties, the pleasures, and drawbacks of many an old English farmer’s lot. But I must not write up my own history. My business at present is to nring into prominence the homesteads of Poverty Bay—a district no visitor can deny is possessed of many charms, and has, in consequence of its troublous times, laid claim to a page in the history of this future great nation. I allude to the massacre, because the spot I visited on Tuesday was one of the scenes of the bitter trials of the early settlers of Poverty Bay witnessed. Toanga,the residence of Mr. Ewen Cameron, is an estate comprising 270 acres, and abuts the main road a short distance from the Roseland Hotel. From this road, on the left, the same as that leading to Bushmere, is a road passing through the estate, and which is made use of largely as a round-about-way in travelling from Gisborne to Waerenga-a-hika. From a great distance is seen towering the magnificent two-storey house Mr. Cameron has just ejected. As the traveller passes that way, the sight of the numerous trees—not this year so heavily laden with fruit as they were last and previous years—his “ teeth must water ” as his eyes gaze upon the luscious burdens carried by every tree in this wellkept orchard. The estate is cut up or divided into twenty-one paddocks, a good substantial fence surrounding each one of them, a well-hung gate at each point of entrance, to which is fixed a fastener the proprietor calls his patent, an invention entitled to considerable merit. There cahnot, and I say so with all due deference to the farmers of this district, be a neater or betterkept farm and sheep and cattle-station in Poverty Bay. Mr. Cameron’s motto is—“ A place for everything, and everything in its Elace.” Toanga was not always the smiling omestead it is at the present time. When Mr. Cameron pitched his tent in Wilson’s Redoubt, in the year 1871, just within twenty chains of where his present imposing residence now stands, there were little or no traces of civilized life on the land. There was not a road in the district, and what are now wellcultivated paddocks was then dense scrub, with a preponderance of flax and cabbagetrees. It was here, away from the haunts of civilized life that the forethought of Mr. Cameron led him to pitch his tent, in company with a man and a boy, and the little party set to work in earnest to clear away the scrub and the bush, and fit the land to receive the plough. The fruits of years of incessant toil are seen to-day in the pretty-well-appointed home and systematically-cul-tured lands surrounding it. Fresh meat was very scarce at that period, provisions were not so easily obtainable as* at the present time, and therefore to a little band of hardworkers like Mr. Cameron’s party, the prospect of a meal of roast pork was elating, and like most pioneer settlers they were prepared to run some risk to obtatn it. The opportunity they longed for came one day as they were taking matters easily and lounging in the front of their tent. “ A pig I ” shouted the boy. Away went the party in hot pursuit. Whether they got the best of the animal, or not, I cannot say, but one thing is certain, thev met with an expertence long to be remembered. Mr. Cameron and his party lost themselves within the precincts of the Toanga estate, and it was ten o’clock that evening ere they reached their tent, hungry, footsore, and ill. Thev had lost their way in the scrub, and only obtained a reconnoitre of the Big River by ascending a tree, against which a ladder was then fixed, at Waerenga-a-hika, in a section now held by Messrs. Smith Bros. This tree was the “ look-out ” for ascertaining the course of the river, by means of which the pioneers were enabled to trace their own localities. I give this incident to illustrate the changes that have taken place in the valley where Mr. Cameron’s estate is situate since that time, and the transformation effected in converting waste lands into fertile meadows, in which grow luxuriant crops, and in other places browse cattle, sheep, and horses. There is a picturesqueness about Mr. Cameron’s estate not common to all homesteads in this beautiful New Zealand home of ours. In every direction will be found growing, and one shaddowing the land with their wide-spread branches, a large number of willow trees, which not only adorn the various paddocks, but afford acceptable shelter to the live stock in hot or wet wether. Clusters of trees have also been planted in the comers of the paddocks. On this farm there is growing a little of everything. There are luxuriant crops of grass and grass-seed, potatoes, mangolds, barley, oats, maize, carrots, <fcc. It can with truth be said that the land here is worked systematically, and to the very best advantage. Should any persons arrive in Poverty Bay with the idea of settling here wish to see a farm on which to model their own, I recommend them to pay a visit to Toanga, where I feel sure the worthy owner will accord a welcome and show them round.

For many years past Poverty Bay mutton and beef have held their own in Auckland market and the adjacent district. No one has assisted to gain that fame for the district more so than Mr. Cameron. To have good stock at command it was necessary to lay the foundation by judicious importation, which was not lost sight of. He also purchased whenever he could the best animals in the district, and the natural outcome is that as a large exporter his sheep and crttle go off readily in Auckland market. During the past five years Mr. Cameron has exported an average of 20Q0 sheep per annum and 125 fat beasts, foftaddition to horses. The largest number of bullocks he has sent away in any one year has been 300. At £2 10s. per head for cattle, and 3s. per head for sheep, large sums have been paid in freights to the shipping companies, who, notably the Union Company, have not always kept faith with Mr. Cameron in placing steamers at his disposal to take away the stock sent to Gisborne for shipment. There are now on the station about 2,500 sheep and 600 head of cattle. In one paddock, containing rich clover feed, and which presented an interesting picture from the balcony of Mr. Cameron’s house, was a herd of 99 bullocks, fit for the knife. If there is any better beef in the Bay, then we should feel proud of the enterprise of our settlers and the district we live in. Well may the good people “ smack their lips ” when sitting down before the roast beef of Gisborne. That the beef is prime may be inferred from the fact that, at the Christmas meat show in Auckland, Mr. Hulme, butcher, had exhibited in his shop a white heifer which took first prize as “ ship-borne fat cow, bred and fed by Mr. Ewen Cameron, of Poverty Bay.” The beef, said a paragraph in the Auckland Weekly News, “ was of a beautiful color.” From the balcony of the new fourteenroomed house, a view is commanded, obscured only by the circle of a thousand hills in the distance, of the immense plains forming the valleys of Poverty Bay. From the

roof of the house, the spectator can look do\ Vh over Patutahi, and its fertile hill and da Vi lands, while the ships lying at anchor M Gisborne harbor, awaiting the wool clips of the district, are distinctly visible, and lend enchantment to the scene. It was from this elevation I cast my eyes aroufid, and beheld by the aid of my telescope large numbers of milch cows, beautiful in form and feature, handsome in the extreme. They were taking their evening meal of clover, which grows so freely in the paddocks allotted to their exclusive use. The horse stock is not large, but good quality has been secured, both in saddle and draught animals, To show the superiority of this class of stock I may state that at the last Agricultural Show, in Auckland, a pair of best draught horses, bred by Mr. Cameron, but disposed of by him, carrying his brand, took first prize in the draught class. A few choice animals attracted my attention and they comprised a brown filly 2-years old, a beautiful creature, a pair of chestnut ponies, and some rising young draughts. Mr. Cameron practices the system of tying his young stock in the paddock, the result being most safisffictory by bringing them under subjection, those who have never had a bit placed in their mouths being quite docile—and easily managed, While on the question of stock, I must not miss this opportunity of stating that Mr. Cameron’s brand of fat bullocks has, for three years in succession, carried off first prizes at Auckland Shows, although the honors have not been accorded this district. Not having spent any time in the country for many years past, innovations upon old systems were rather interesting to me, especially as I watched the progress of the Parog.’.n Mowing Machine, which cut down the rye grass at the rate of an acre per hour. Mr. Cameron is to be congratulated upon the possession of this pretty homestead, but my readers must not for one moment imagine he has brought it to its present high state of cultivation without encountering many difficulties and meeting with disappointments. By the floods here a few years ago he suffered considerable loss in the destruction of live-stock and the wreckage of his fences and other spoliation. It is a great pitv the River Bank Preservation Bill brought before the House prior to that disaster, in which so many settlers suffered in common, was shelved; and many entertain the conviction that had our representative in Parliament pressed forward the passage of the Bill, and a sum of £4OO been expended to divert the current of the river by throwing up a bank in the bend of the river above Messrs. Smith Bros’, and Mr. Hardy’s wool-shed, the overflow of water on the lands would have been obviated. This is a debateable question, and does not come in for discussion in the nature of my communications. Before I left Toanga I visited the redoubt, in which are growing several kinds of fruit-trees planted by Mr. Cameron, who has endeavored to preserve this memorable spot by means of a substantial fence around it. The old turf walls tell too plainly that exciting scenes were once witnessed in and from that place of shelter from the shot of the invaders. Some distance beyond I paid a visit to a very old spot, where once stood a comfortable home, and where, thirty years ago, Mr. Goldsmith planted walnut, cherry, peach, apple, elderberry, and other trees. The cherry trees were bearing profusely. There is promise of a great crop of walnuts. As I intend paying Mr. Maurice a visit shortly, a description of this spot must be deferred till a subsequent occasion. (To be continued.)