A PAGE FROM HISTORY.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1920, Page 11

A PAGE FROM HISTORY.

SOME REMINISCENCES _ The land sale to be held next Saturdav in respect of property in the estate of lat . e Joseph Hawken will call up memories of the early dys on the coast (saj's tile Hawera Star). The property to , be sold is portion of the land near Kakara?j, that , was originally granted to soldiers who fought round about New Plymouth in the first Maori war. In the early fifties the late Mr. Joseph Hawken was farming around New Plymouth, a " ( ' 'eased, amongst other places, the old Mission Station, embracing the country between the breakwater and th« present site of the town of New Plymouth. Even in those days he had to pay 30s an acre rent for it. On the outbreak of war he joined Sir Harry Atkinson's company of Bushrangers, ftnd at the conclusion of hostilities bought from his comrades their allotments of land at Kakaramea. He then came down the coast to his new holding, and after a while brought his family, his horses, cattle, two drays, etc. Needless to say, there were no roads in those days—about 1867—but a Maori boy, who was then in the Institute at the Mission Station, drew a plan which enabled Mr. Hawken and family to negotiate his teams and dray to their destination. Mr. Hawken and the late Mr. James Ball, who had the adjoining farm, were the first white people to settle in this locality. After having got a bit settled Mr. Hawken went back to New Plymouth—always travelling by night—and brought his sheep through, and these were the first sheep that came into South Taranaki. The country between Kakaramea and New Plymouth was all Maori land in those days, and Honi Pihama was then at Pihama. The family had not long been settled at Kakaramea when Titokowaru'g war broke out, and although Mr. Hawken succeeded in getting his horses and cattle away lie had to lea.ve the 1 sheep behind. The Maori* quickly took possession of these, and drove them to the old Toumaha pa, near Kakaramea, where doubtless they ate a good many. General Cameron and his troops shortly afterwards came along, and the Maori chiefs had a "Jcorero," the outcome of which was that they agreed to allow Mr. Hawken to collect the remainder of his flock of sheep. He set out around the bush clearings to round up all he could find, but as he was followed by an old Maori with a gun he did not make a particularly good muster. When Titokowaru's war came to an end the Government offered to lend money to soldier settlers to assist them in developing their land, but the rate of intterest was II per cent! And thers was no suggestion of lending this money on any kind of second-rate security; the settlers had to deposit their deeds as security. The late Mr. Hawken applied for a loan of £3OO on the security of 800 acres of land that has since proved to be amongst the finest and richest land on this coast. He sent his deeds to Wellington with his application for a loan, but tJhe loan did not materialise, and after writing many letters and waiting eighteen months he finally decided to make a journey to Wellington—no light undertaking in those days—but whether he finally secured his loan or not is not quite clear. Eventually the late Mr. Hawken and family settled down to the business of farming. They grew a tremendous lot of wheat and oats on this rich seacoast Jand. They got as high as 70 bushels to the acre of wheat and up to 100 bushels of barley. Great quantities of ryegrass were cut off the land, and it was from here that the seed was secured that eventually sowed most of the Waimatc Plains.

In the early days, when cattle and sheep were scarce, prices were good; sheep were worth about 30s each, and cattle about the same price as now. One of a team of horses was sold at Kakaramea for £6O. They received as high as 2s 9d per lb for tiheir wool—, some of the first wool sold in New Plymouth.

As time went on and settlement progressed more and more stock was raised, and as there was no market of any consequence prices camo down to such an extent that thousands and thousands of sheep wore boiled down solely for their tallow. Then was the time*that legs of mut/ton were hawked about for sale at a shilling apiece because they were worthless for boiling down purposes. Markets were sought elsewhere for cattle, and numbers wero shipped through Waitara to Auckland and elsewhere, but the returns were very small In the early eighties freezing works were sltarted in Wellington, but in the initial stages did not afford much relief* fat heifers mMsing only Us to 10s per head. Settfers In those days had moat strenuous and difficult times, but those who succeeded in folding on ultimately reused tha reward