AN EARLY SETTLER PASSES.

Shannon News, 18 October 1921, Page 3

AN EARLY SETTLER PASSES.

A PIONEER OF THE COAST.

It is with regret we have to pub lish tne death of a former well known resident in the person of Mrs A. M James, wife of Mr Wm. James, of Pal merston North. Mrs James left the land of her birth, County Cavan, Ireland, at an early age, emigrating to Australia in the first place, landing in Melbourne on her twentieth birthday, May 5, 1870, alter a voyage lasting thirteen weeks in the sailing vessel Crusader. Marrying in September, 1873, she lived in Melbourne for a time, where Mr James was in business, but early the following year she left with her husband lor the Bendigo diggings. The quartz reefs had quite recently heen discovered, and Bendigo was rapidly filling with gold-seekers, • consequently dwelling-houses were exceedingly hard to procure, and tents soon became numerous. Mrs James often told her more fortunate friends of recent days the trials of the housewife in that day, her cooking stove being nothing'more than an oil drum turned on one side, and many an excellent meal was turned out of this improvised oven. Leaving Australia, Mr and Mrs James came to New Zealand in the ship Otago, whose captain was well known by the characteristic psuedonym “Hellfire Jack”; and landing in Port Chalmers in 1875, lived in one of the first houses to be erected in South Dunedin. Coming to the North Island, Mr James bought the farm on Rahui Road, Otaki, which' he held until quite recently, from the Manawatu Railway Co., at the first land sale held on behalf of the company by the 7 late Mr. G. T. Kennedy McDonald. The hardships of the old pioneers are not realised by the present generation, and Mr and Mrs James probably had their share. The Rahui Road was not formed at this time, and access to the property was gained by river. On a small clearing some three acres in extent, Mr James erected his first habitation—a whare of manuka saplings, with walls and roof of totara bark, and . prepared portion of the clearing lor potatoes, un awakening one morning he found flood water in the whare, which gradually rose to about three feet-in the building, and was marooned in that inevitable plight until the. waters subsided. Needless to say no potatoes were dug lrom that piece of land; he had pitched his tent in the wrong place. Before building a dwelling Mr James consulted one ofOtaki’s most respected Maoris, Mr Naihe; pro- ' nounced by most pakehas “knife, as to the immunity from flood of a certain piece ol high ground, and was iuiormed that no water had been known to cover that piece of -land foi at least 50 years. In the year 1892, , however, record flood swept the countryside, when everything was lost, and it was reported in Otaki that the . family themselves had" been swept out to sea, and this rumour would doubtless have proved true had it not been lor the daring rescue work carried out Uj liiv luuJi.o. i.-ii c,u.in«e.., me wen uuuvvn adn.t^ui - , neaimg •me U'uuoie, oeoureu me services m iavv, well Known nauves -tale ivir nom Tawneru, belter lmuun us "Big jack, anu ivir iruii te vvnuraj, proceeued tu the scene and enecieu a rescue, iu show me ciuvairuus nature oi me Maoris', it may be mentioned nere Uuu “Big Jack” had that morning nurieu a uaugnter, leaving the gravesiue to participate m the resuce, and it is to tiie daring work of this gallant native, who piloted the fishing boat owned by ' Mr Tom Morris through the eddies anu whirlpools of the hooded countryside, that the family owed their saiety. The only livestock saved was a calf which took refuge in the wrecked house, and the farm horse,- well * known in the . otaki district as “Jerry,” which Mr James purchased in Wellington and brought the first load of requirements , for the farm up the beach. By a strange co-incidence the fiorse had formerly belonged to Mr Thos. Roacli, who is. well known in Otaki, and as this horse was particularly good in water, his services were commandeered to convey each member of the : family to the boat, which could not reach the house owing to driftwood, “Old Jerry” returning himself to the / house to receive his next burden of human' freight. This flood is still referred to by the few old hands still left in Otaki as James’ flood. The settlers showed every kindness, and offered practical and material help, but as all were just making - a start, Mr and Mrs James declined their kindly offers and set about to retrieve their lost fortunes. It must be admitted

that it was only the quiet perseverance of the old pioneers that made it. possible to overcome such apparently insurmountable difficulties, and this same perseverance very often had its Origin in the mother of the household. Mr and Mrs -Tames could look back on the days when they made over 3001 b of butter a week by the old method of setting the milk in pans, skimming and churning the

cream all byJtiand. Later on came a power-driven separator, and later still the founding of the Otaki Co-op. Dairy Co., of which Mr James was a director from its inception to the time of his departure from Otaki; and his milk was the first to be received on that) red-letter day when the factory first threw its doors open to the farmers of the district. Leaving the-farm to their two sons, William and Charles, Mr and Mrs James left Otaki to reside in Palmerston North in the year 1905; and it was at her late residence, 203 Ferguson Street, Palmerston North, that Mrs James passed away on September 24, Thus we part with' the links of the chain that bind the past history of 'this district, "and indeed the whole Dominion, with that of the present and future generations. Mrs James leaves a husband and family of eight children and twentysix grandchildren, to" mourn their loss. The children are: George (Auckland), William (Shannon)'. Charles (Inglewood), Robert (Bunnythorpe), Mrs Le Couteur (Wanganui), Mrs Houghton (Runnythorpe), Mrs Vagg (Bay of Plenty), and Miss Ethel (PalmerstonNorth).