Page 3 Advertisements Column 1

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 2, Issue 138, 21 October 1913, Page 3

A request for permission to harness the Hunua Falls in order to supply electrical current for the surrounding districts is being forwarded to the Governor-in-Council by the Manukau County Council. At the last meeting of that body the chairman (Mr H. R. Mackenzie) referred to the movement which had been started in the Papakura, Manurewa, and Papatoetoe districts in this connection. He thought that while the scheme might not materialise for a few years, it would sooner or later develop into one of outstanding importance. He looked forward to the day when the country districts surrounding the Hunua Falls would not only be supplied with electric light, but would also have electric current for the driving of milking machinery, etc. Members of the Council agreed that the scheme was worthy of serious consideration. On October 13th, in Auckland, a number of the survivors of the Ganges immigrants met to celebrate the jubilee of their landing. The Mayor of Auckland, who expressed pride in the pioneers and their descendants ventured to say that none of the early settlers were of a finer stamp than those who came by the Ganges. A large number of them formed the Pollok Settlement, on the Manukau side, near Awhitu. The Maori war was in progress when the Ganges arrived, and the male passengers were at once enrolled for the defence of their adopted country. They did their duty as citizen soldiers nobly from the outset. That was a fine spirit, in strong contrast to tho modern shirking of defence duties. He understood some large families arrived by the Ganges. Nowadays that was not fashionable. Mr G. J. Garland (chairman of the Board of Education), who married a descendant of an arrival by the Ganges, referred to the hardships encountered by the early settlers at Pollok. He remembered tho iir-t wheeled vehicle that was used in Pollok was a hand-cart, to which shafts had been fixed. He said those who came out by the Ganges were people determined to become settlers, no matter what hardships were entailed. Mr Robert McEwen, one of the Pollok settlers, gave a few reminiscences of the hardships incidental to pioneer work in a new country. He, however, said, in conclusion : *' Still the bush calls, and if I was a young man again I would again go out to tho back blocks."