BACK TO ARMAGH

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 347, 7 May 1928, Page 13

BACK TO ARMAGH

BOY WHO RAN AWAY FIFTY YEARS’ ADVENTURES MR. R. HEWITT RETURNS When a 15-year-old lad ran away from school in the North of Ireland, his passage to New Zealand cost him £2, £1 being a bribe to the immigration officer. The return trip, which begins on the Niagara to-morrow, is costing nearly £2OO. Mr. Robert Hewitt, who is known widely through New Zealand as farmer, speculator and motor salesman, is making his first trip back to County Armagh after more than 50 years’ residence here. Tales of adventure made him run away from the Brookfield Agricultural School in County Antrim in 1875. He borrowed £lO from an aunt by telling her a “whopping big lie," and ran into adventure on the trip from Dublin to Plymouth, the ship being almost wrecked. He landed from the Hereford in Lyttelton in ’76 after a voyage during which no land had been seen, and went to the Addington immigration barracks. There he was employed by Mr. Robert Lambie, who was then farming at Lincoln, Canterbury, and who is now in Taranaki. Mr. Hewitt was employed as a farm labourer, and in six weeks he was able to ease his conscience by sending the borrowed £lO back to his aunt. WILD PIGS SOLD In those days butter-fat brought about 4-2 d a lb and most of the cream was used for cheese-mak-ing. Wild pig hunts were made about once a fortnight and the pigs were taken to the Addington sale yards, where they brought anything up to 7s 6d a head”. Mr. Hewitt went to Invercargill in a few months, and after buying some sections in the town of Gore, lie took on a job of carting timber with bullocks from the Seaward Bush. He recalls that to fit himself for the job lie useid to practice on a stump with a stock-wTiip. When the Coolgardie diggings began, he mortgaged his sections to go, but resisted the temptation and went to Napier, getting work on the breakwater. Once he agreed to go up to Farndon with a policeman to arrest some Maoris for debt, and he had a wild set-to before the two “wanteds” were brought back. On another occasion he helped a policeman to capture a madman at Cape Kidnappers. After being employed on the farm of Mr. Fred Sutton, M.P., he went to Mr. F. G. Gordon’s run at Cape Kidnappers and shore his 75 sheep a day.- He decided to go to Australia and sailed in the Kate Tatham. A hurricane came up, one mast went overboard, and the ship was blown back 300 miles. TOOK COOK’S PLACE During one of the critical periods, when all hands were on deck, the cook was struck by a block and killed. Mr. Hewitt, although he had no experience of the culinary art, volunteered for the job, and had the satisfaction of landing the ship’s company in excellent health in Newcastle. Australia held no prospects for men without capital, so he returned and became a farm overseer for Nelson Brothers at Tomoana, Hawke’s Bay. After nine and a-half years he bought a farm at Okau, Taranaki, and drove stock up to the place along the Whitecliffs beach and through the mailman’s tunnel. Selling his farm, he came to Auckland and speculated in mining shares of the Waihi, Grand Junction and Crown. Though advised to’ buy more when the hydro-electric scheme was begun, he sold, for some reason he cannot explain, and received £lO 2s 6d for shares which immediately afterwards fell to £2. Farm dealing in Te Aroha district was successful, and then Mr. Tlewitt began to be interested in motor-cars. He became a salesman, and was one of the first agents for the Austin.