A PAGE FROM THE PAST

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 295, 8 May 1911, Page 6

A PAGE FROM THE PAST

THE TARANAKI WAR. (Canterbury Press, 1861). To us in the South, war simply means increased taxation; to a Taranaki farmer, it means the burning of his house, the destruction of his crops, the ravishing of his flocks; perhaps the death of some of his relatives, maybe his own. Wnat wonder, then, that the probability of such a catastrophe occurring should ab sorb every other thought, should paralyse the arm and sicken the heart? Years of hostilities have completely broken the spirits of the old Taranaki settlers, and many of them express their determination to abandon the settlement for ever should the flames of war be again lighted in the district. This determination is not to be wondered at. Seven years of hardship and "hope deferred" is a long space of time to take out of a man's life, he he young or old; and when an indefinite period of similar trial looms in the J distance, it cannot be expected that peo-' pie should await its coming. The de- ] serted block-houses around the town, and ■ traces of old earthen ramparts, recall the time when New Plymouth stood, or was supposed to stand, in imminent peril; when ineapaeitv ran riot, and blazing homesteads lighted iu> the horizon night after nisht. while hundreds of men were kept in garrison or dragged uselessly about the country, with miles of baggage waggons at their'heels. Old settlers have dreadful recollections of those days, when every man, rich or poor, had to take up arms, and any of them will regale you with a vivid narrative of his personal' experiences. Nor need you go far to find a spot where some striking incident of war took place. All around, from the edge of the town up to the boundaries of the settlement, are places which have gained a sad celebrity. Here a skirmish took place, there a respected settler was murdered. The ground is sown with memories. Although the boundaries of th" settlement have been greatly extended since the native outbreak in'iß6o, and. cultivations now spread over a large area, then occupied by fern or bush, vet the country has not re-assumed the beautiful aspect it presented at that period. Then the open land cut up into farms, was thickly dotted with pleasant-look-ing homesteads, while bright green meadows and crops stretched away in every direction. Two or three little villages, with their pretty houses embowered in trees, and rustic churches, half reminded one of old England. The settlers, as a body, were prosperous, though not making fortunes, and if their seclusion from the world had made them slow going and narrow-minded in their notions, it had always cemented them together byties of marriage and long acquaintance, so that the community seemed almost like a large family. The war made a radical alteration. Families were scattered about the colony; the presence of a large body of troops and military service changed the whole current of ideas of the young men; and when the military settlers were introduced, an entirely new element was infused amongst the population.