IN THE EARLY DAYS.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 July 1919, Page 10

IN THE EARLY DAYS.

SURVEYING SOUTH TARANAKI IN 1866-67. EXCITING EXPERIENCES.

[Knowing that Mr. Percy Smith, late Surveyor-General, made the survey of South Taranaki in the early days, a News' reporter saw Mr. Smith, who is still hale and hearty, despite his advancing years, and he readily assented to give the paper an account of his experiences in South Taranaki in 1866-07.] Mr. Smi,th said:—

The country we had undertaken to survey extended from the Wiaitotara river on the south, to the Waingongoro River on the north, and as far inland as we could go. It is, as may be seen from the .train, a very beautiful country now, thoroughly cultivated, but in those, days, covered with fern and here and there a little grass that was self-sown, with bush in the gullies, and bounded island by the virgin forest to an average width of about four miles from the coast. There were no people living in the district other than the military, which consisted of H.M. 18th Regiment (the Royal Irish), which held redoubts at Waitotara, Patea (headquarters), Kakar&mea, Manawapou, Turuturu, and two redoubts at the mouth of the Waingongoro. iiittle ? +, !amers came to the Patea river and long convoys of the military train supplied the troops with stores, etc., and it was by this means we also had to obtain our supplies from Wanganui.

A ROUGH TRIP. Mr. Smith's party left New Plymouth on April 10, 1866, by the "Stormbird," experiencing a very rough trip on rounding Cape Egmon,t. It was far top rough to enter the Patea river, and so they had to go on to Whanganui, which, of course, meant additional cost. Mr. Smith put up at Gorton's, and it was soon found that there was no chance of the local steamer "Gundagai" going to Patea, so Gorton tried, and was able, through the kindness of Captain Leech, D.A.G., to obtain one of the transport carfe. The convoy consisted of about 20 carts, and a military eßcort, furnished by the military train. The first night they camped at Alexander's, without food, and the next day reached the Waitotara redoubt, where Mr. Smith found an acquaintance of his—Lieutenant Jones, in command, whom he had met at Obromandel, before he joined the Army. The next day the party travelled to Patea, where another acquaintance—Mr. Innes, of the commissariat—was found, and he treated them with kindness and allowed the party to draw rations from the stores, which, was a great help. They pitched camp at the river flat below the military camp, which was composed of iron huts. The 300 men of the headquarters regiment were under command of Major Rocke.

SURVEY WORK COMMENCED. Work was commenced at once and by the 3rd May the party removed to Kakaramea, haying done all that could be done about Patea. At Kakaramea they camped for a long time alongside the redoubt under the command of Captain Briggs. The camp here is B.till visible as one passes in the train, the camp fireplaces showing in a little cliff. The survey soon began to extend beyond the open country into the bush, and the danger of coming across 1 the natives became very great. The plan was adopted of never returning to the same place on the following day, and as was afterwards learned, this saved their lives, as the natives used to see them returning home and would then go and lay ambushes for them, thinking they were sure to come back the next day. One of the Maori positions was a bluff not more than a mile from the redoubt, overlooking the Patea river, and known as ("Gentle Annie" It was here poor ißroughton had been treacherously murdered by the natives not long before, when he went under a flag of truce to convey a message from the Governor.

COyERING PARTIES. On June 7, Captain Newland's party of military settlers arrived ,to furnish them with covering parties. They had been engaged at Opotiki for some time past. C. A. Wray, Williams' brother-in-law, also came to join as a surveyor. He had been in the Indian Navy and was afterwards resident magistrate at Wellington. They had now five parties at work, and had hopes of doing well out of our risky work. On June 13, Carrington arrived to see how the surveys were getting on and on the following day with Major McDonnell and 12 troopers they rode out to choose sites for blockhouses for the military settlers who were arriving soon to relieve the 18th Regiment, in command of whom was Major McDonell. Among the many narrow escapes of the members of the party Mr. Smith states the closest he ever had was about this time. The same party, but with only one trooper, left the camp &« ivakaramea on June 15 to choose further sites for blockhouses, and reached the Waingongoro the same evening, when they were hospitably received by uaptain Dawson. The redoubt was situated on a rise on the south side of the river, witji another on a high hill to the north named Rangitoto. The country was very open and covered in grass. Major McDonnell had a talk with a Maori chief, who was a kind of go-between (in reality a spy). His name was Wiremu Manaia. In the course of the conversation the Major mentioned that they were returning to Patea the next day. The old man returned to his home at sunset, and told his peopm nftout the interview and that the party were returning to Patea the next day.

AN-AMBUSH. Mr. Smith's own journal then tells the story of what happened. It says: At 12 we started back and got on well as far as the Waihi stream, some three miles from the Walngongoro. Here Lieutenant Whirihana, of the Native Contingent, who was with us, shouted out that we had better ride fast, a3 if any of the Hauhaus were about they would be near there. My horse being fresh would insist in keeping several yards in front of the others, and just us we got to where the General's road.turns nfi' from the Kitimarac road I- heard Whirihana call out to me something that T could not catch at first. When I managed .to pull up my horse I found they had all stopped, and I heard them call out "Hauhaus" and saw them pointing behind me. I turned my head towards a clump of flax bushes, and there saw a lot of Hauhaus about 40 yards from me, rising up out of the flax, and at ,the same instant they poured out a

volley at us,' Of course we galloped off as fast as" possible, with' the bullets flying about us on all sides, for they kept up an incessant fire for a long •way. Some of,the bullets were unpleasantly near, and I could see them and hear them striking the flax and fern on either side of us as we rode away. .... We galloped back to Waihi, where we saw another party trying to cut up off, and then back to the redoubt,' very thankful to God for our miraculous escape. None of uu was hit, .though there were 40 Hauhaus firing at us as fast as they could. Had it not been for Whirihana's sharp sight we should have ridden right into the ambush and probably all would have perished. Captain Dawson gave uh an escort, of ten troopers and 50 men of the infantry as a guard ,to go part of the way towards Patea. Upon reaching the scene of the ambush we saw some of the Hauhaus in the distance, hut we rode on with our escort and reached Manawapou, from whence the troops gave us another escort to our camp at Kakaramea. The Hauhaus were now beginning to come about inland of our work, but we had strong covering parties of Colonial forces', though I always feared they would not have been of a very dependable protection if we had come into conflict with the natives.

On July 27 Captain Newland sent three carts for our party and we removed camp, to Manawapou, where all the Colonial troops were then camped. The next day several of our men (we had between 30 and 40) s.truck work, considering it too dangerous to go out with such small covering parties as the troops gave us. On August 1 the Major and about 300 men went out to attack the Hauhaus 1 at Pokaikai, and many of our men went with them. They returned next morning, having killed seven and brought back five prisoners. The attack 4 took place at dawn and Aperahama, a man of consequence, was one of the killed.

DARED NOT GO INLAND. By this ,tinae we could only carry on our surveys along the coast and dared not go inland, for the Hauhaus were in force in that direction. On August 4 Williams, Wray and myself, accompanied some 200 men of the forces to attack a Maori village near Manutahi, we ,to look at the country, but we did not flnd the village in the dark but secured the cavalry horses which hod strayed. After a fortnight of lateness we got to work again inland of the redoubt.

By August 13 all .the work that could be done was completed about Manawapou and the party moved up to • > The Round Bush," the true name of which is Hawera, and from it the present town takes its name. The whole of the troops had moved up before us- A few days before the Major and party had been fired into just a mile away, and soon after our arrival the Hauhaus fired into the convoy carrying stores to the 18ths, near Waihi. We were now in the beautiful level country around the modern town of Hawera and the surveys made rapid progress. The amount of work accomplished depended upon the nature of the vegetation, and the amount of danger they were prepared .to run. The party were paid by the mile. Here ( the party had many experiences of brushes with the Hauhaus, who frequently fired upon their different sections. The surveyprs, of course, never left their camps without being fully armed. About the end of September trouble was again experienced with the men on the same grounds as before, and in consequence work was much delayed. On October Ist Major McDonnell and all hands went out to attack a Maori village on the north bank of the Waingongoro, at Pungarehu, and on his return next morning told us they had attacked the Tillage at dawn but before they fully destroyed it they were attacked on the flank by others from an adjoining village and had to retreat, losing several men, among whom was C. Wriglit, one of our men. who had volunteered to go out with them. They killed 35 of the enmey and brought back some prisoners. All the men killed were given a military funeral.

SIR GEORGE GREY ARRIVES. On October 23rd his Excellency Sir George Grey arrived in camp. Soon after his arrival he sent for me, and we had a long conversation about the survey and the great delay owing to the want of covering parties. He proposed to raise a corps of "guides" composed of those nativgs who had given in, to be under the direction of, and for the protection of the surveyors. It was settled at this that the 18th Regiment should move Up to Waihi redoubt and assist in harassing the Natives and so help the surveyors, as the Government were anxious to get the military settlers on to their lands, and save the expense of paying them. Soon after this 320 men of the 18th marched into camp under the command of Major. Rpcke. The Governor and staff also returned and camped with thj troops. Everything than pointed to' a long delay in the work and so Messrs. Wray and Smith decided to visit their families, and they left camp on October 31, 1886. On November 24, Mr. Smith said, the "Rangatira" came in from the north, and as it had been reported the Hauhaus appeared to have cleared out of the country he had ,t° return to his work. He reached the Waihi redoubt on the 28tli.' The country on which they were then engaged was mostly inland of the Tawhiti stream. The ISth Regiment furnished excellent covering parties, and they were very willing to help whenever tliey could.

FALSE ALARMS. "On January 1, 1867, from the camp at Turuturu we saw some very large fires inland and the Natives said the Hauhaus were burning some large swamps existing in that part called Te Ngaere, We also heard that the Waikatos, who had oome to Pungarehu t were going back because the people here would not fight. About this time our post was strengthened by the addition of Captain D'Aubrey's company of the IBth, as it was believed the Hauhaus were coming about again. There were many alarms about that time, but nothing come of them.

"On FebruA-y 27, having concluded our work about Turuturu, Colonel Gorton sent us some carts and we removed to the mouth of the Walngongoro and camped alongside the 18ths,'to lay out a township, which really never came to anything. While at this, camp we ex-, perienced a most furious gale which blew 1 down every tent in the whole district except one of ours at Waihi. It was impossible to stand against the wind, and two of the transport horses were blown over a cliff on to the riverbed below, one of them being killed. Subsequently work wqs carried out. at Waihi, Mamitfthi and eventually on April Iff.' Smith rode into Patea—the first time for a very long while—and the next day to Wbugunii. Hare-'he received letters

of instructions from the Hon. J. C. RM nond to out up the~country lying between Waitotara and Whenuakuita rivers for the Bth and 10th Companies, T.MS, and Rangers, and (this work stopped his contemplated visit mime. After the survey of that area Mr, Smith said he agreed with the Native Departrr.ont to go to the Chatham Islands on survey work, and thus ended his great survey in the South Taranaki which had been fraught with many difficulties and dangers from the natives, and also the difficulty of getting provisions, and last though not least, the delays in getting advances from the Government. The area surveyed wu roughly about 140 square miles, cut up into 50-acre sections with the necessary roads. Incidentally' Mr. Smith states that he saw many of the 50-acre sections which surround the township of Hawera sold for 10a per acre and some for as little as £lO the block.