OUR DISTRICT AND OUR SETTLERS.—No. 27.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 143, 29 May 1884, Page 2

OUR DISTRICT AND OUR SETTLERS.—No. 27.

[by our brecial tieporter.! reponoaere. This is the name of the estate occupied and owned by a very popular gentleman in Poverty Bay, W. K. Chambers, Esq., chairman of Cook County Council. The homestead is reached either by travelling through Patutahi, and along the valley a little more than a mile beyond Lavenham, or by the main road from Gisborne to the hotel at Waerenga-a-hika, and crossing the Repongaere ford, a very formidable stream in seasons of wet weather. The distance from town by this route is called ten miles. The estate comprises 9.000 acres of land, three-fourths of which is freehold. 1,200 acres of the land is flat, and well adapted for agricultural purposes : the remainder is hilly. At present there are only 850 sheep on the run. Periodically there is a much larger number. The yield of grass seed this year is 1,500 bushels, Mr. Chambers cultivating only sufficient to meet his own requirements. The estate owned by this gentleman is all along the flat dotted with some of the oldest and best fruit trees in Poverty Bay, including apple, pear, plum, and peach. There are numerous beautiful willow trees, which afford shelter for the stock. Repongaere House, the residence of Mr. Chambers, a fine large building, with seven gables, was erected only a few years since. It stands on a fiat situate under the brow of a range of hills on an elevation of about fifty feet from the level of the valley beneath it, and has two storeys, from the main road to which a very good carriage drive has been laid out. Along either side rows of trees have been planted. On the mounds adjacent to the residence a number of pines and ornamental shrubs are planted, and have made considerable growth, whilst flowers grow in every direction in profusion. Opposite the drawing-room verandah, down in a little sheltered hollow, is a lawn tennis court, where the merry laughter of the lovers of this favorite pastime often rend the stillness of this otherwise peaceful retreat. Mr. Chambers came to Poverty Bay from Napier eleven years ago, but he has been in New Zealand about thirty years. He was born in South Australia, his father, Mr. John Chambers, having been one of the first whe left England for the Bendigo rush. Mr. John Chambers has all through his life devoted much time to the study and development of inventions, and may be regarded in the light of an inventive genius. The latest scientific achievement, of so much value to the colonies and England, refrigerating fresh meat, and carrying it 16,000 miles fresh and sweet, has caused him to turn his attention to that subject, and now he is developing, with the view of patenting it, a refrigerating apparatus likely to eclipse all previous inventions of that character. Our Mr. Chambers is, therefore, a born colonial, and the son of a scientific gentleman of no mean attributes. At home he is the pink of perfection as a host, and given to hospitality. Abroad, he is jovial, and a hale fellow well met. Repongaere is a favorite rendezvous of the elite of Poverty Bay, and no wonder, with a host so hospitable and so many attractions afforded both in the furnishing and decorations of his house and its almost boundless surroundings. During the shooting season large parties assembled at Repongaere. At the rear of the house, over the hill, and situate about a niile-and-a-half distant, covering about 300 acres of land, is the Repongaere Lake, a splendid sheet of water. Daring the season this lake abounds with wild duck. Thither sportsmen proceed on moonlight nights or at early dawn, intent on bringing home good bags. Some are eminently good shots, and they give proof of their skill in returning to their hosts comfortable quarters heavily laden. In other cases matters are reversed. Some go away groaning under a heavy weight of cartridges, which they fire off almost indiscriminately, and return with no other burdens than their guns, and a heavy heart at their non-success. This is not the fault of the lake or the ducks, but arises sometimes in consequence of a little treachery on the part of their visionary orbs. Whisky, of course, they never take! Is it not the sport, and not the game the lake is visited for ?

Mr. Chambers was elected a member of Cook County Council four and-a-half years ago, and is now, for the second year in succession, chairman of that important local governing body. He had previously been a •member of various Road Boards, two years sitting as Chairman of Waikohu Board. As a public man, Mr. Chambers has always evinced a disposition and worked hard to accomplish works tending mostly for the general good. On the occasion of my visit I told him he was not at all a good member of the County Council. If he had been, a good bridge would ere this span the Repongaere stream, and likewise procure a good thoroughfare to his own residence. What is the use of holding an important office unless the greatest good is accomplished for the greatest number. It is an axiom that the greatest number is number one. Therefore our County Chairman having neglected to bridge the stream in question, has been sadly remiss in his duty towards the said number one. I have had occasion during the currency of my sketches to several times censure the County Council collectively, a sort of conglomeration with no body to be kicked, or soul to be saved. But I must say, that, taking them individually I have never yet found either of them guilty of any attempt to enhance their own interests or specially benefit their own properties at the expense of the ratepayers. Corruption, whatever may be their shortcomings or oversight cannot be a charge laid at their door. Some very important and most expensive works have been undertaken by Cook County Council, and the odds they have had to contend against have been large. The country is far too extensive, and the income from rates, although the ratepayers are heavily taxed, too small to satisfactorily accomplish the large amount of public works necessary to the comfort of travellers and the well-being of the community in general Road making is expensive work, and keeping the thoroughfares in a proper state of efficiency will be still a serious drain upon the exchequer until arrangements can be completed for obtaining good metal suitable for standing the wear and tear caused in this district by vehicular traffic. The subject of this sketch, Mr. W. K. Chambers, has long recognized the necessity of making an effort to obtain a permanent supply of metal from Patutahi limestone quarry, which stands in the centre of a very large district, and has endeavoured to induce the County Council to aid a syndicate to lay down "and open up a line of tramway from Gisborne to Ormond, with a branch line to quarry, by giving them a monopoly of the right to quarry stone, supply it at a fixed price to the Council, and also to carry passengers and merchandise. His scheme is a very feasible one, and if once put into practice would prove highly beneficial to the entire district. I make reference to the matter in this sketch simply to show that our County Chairman is a worker and no idle drone. In his general attendance at the meetings of the Council he is very regular, and must sacrifice much in giving his time to public matters. I must now revert again to the subject more strictly pertaining Io his homestead and his station. This year the output of wool

reached 107 bales. The lambing season was most successful—the increase being a trifle over 98 per cent. On the estate about twenty miles of fencing have been erected. The station is equipped with all necessary appliances, workmen’s whare, woolshed, <Src. The land is bounded by the Auckland Agricultural Company’s holding at Okahuatiu, the Tanihanga block, Patutahi, and Ormond military settlement, forming a range of about fifteen miles. The flats carry seven sheep to the. acre—the hillsthree. Bymeansof high-class farming the flats should carry nine sheep to acre. Travelling to this district three years ago was very much more difficult than at the present time. From Makaraka to the bridge on the Patutahi route, and from Waerenga-a-hika forward, horses in wet weather would get bogged. On one occasion about that time a newly-married couple were being driven to their country home, the carriage being drawn by four horses, but there was such a super - abundance of mud that the horses could not proceed, and the

party has to ride. There is a striking contrast in the state of the roads at the present time. There is also a contrast in the peaceable times now enjoyed here to what existed when Mr. Chambers was a member of the Light Horse Volunteer Corps, of Hawke’s Bay, and even about the period of 1873, when land questions greatly agitated the Maori mind, and threatened the peace of the district. The following copy of a circular I fell across during my visit to Repongaere as showing the then unsettled state of affairs will not prove uninteresting to those who have since that time come to dwell in Poverty Bay; “ Gisborne, August 25, 1873.—The Government having decided that the Court of Land Commissioners shall continue, it is very advisable that the settlers shall second their actions taken at the public meeting held at Gisborne on the 15th instant by attending the Court to-morrow, (Tuesday), at ten a.m. ( Although no disturbance is in any way anticipated on this occasion, the attendance of a large number of settlers will have a very gook moral effect upon the Natives, and let them know that the European population is interested in the dignity of the Court.—J. B. Poynter, Chairman of meeting.” Poverty Bay has passed through strange and turbulent times, but, thanks to the energetic spirit of our early settlers, the dark and troublesome times have passed away, and the blessings of peace and concord can now bo enjoyed. Homes like Mr. Chambers’ are being gradually founded upon the old battlements of Maori warfare, and the talent of the artist, and the skill of the artizan, have rendered pleasant spots, first brought under the civilising influences of the plough, where in times past barbarism and savage butchery were the delight of the people. At Repongacre a splendid English home has been founded where once sections of New Zealand’s native people fought with and conquered their enemies, and, as a finale to their victories, squatted around their pah fire and enjoyed a feast of roast man. (To be continucdt)