EARLY SETTLEMENT ISOLATION.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 205, 7 October 1916, Page 5

EARLY SETTLEMENT ISOLATION.

To illustrate the isolation which the early pioneers of New Zealand experienced, it was mentioned in the course of a paper on " Old Hawke 's , Bay," read before the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Society by Mr. W. Dinwiddie, that in 1849 Mr. F. J. Tiffen brought a flock of sheep to graze at a remote inland run. For nearly three years Mr. Tiffin lived there almost alone, his nearest neighbour being the Eev. W. Colenso, of the Waitangi Mission Station, 25 miles distant. To the southward the nearest Europeans were at Castlepoint.. 7U miles away. "When Mil Tiffen was called to. Wellington to give evidence at the trial of a man called Good for murder, he had to walk 340 miles, and carry both food and blankets with him. Yet this hardship he eagerly undertook as a Arelcome change having seen no European men and no women for nearly two years.