A WANGANUI IDYL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 361, 10 March 1881, Page 3

A WANGANUI IDYL.

In the early days of the settlement, a young Cornish lad named John fell in love with a Cornish maiden named Margaret, and in the progress of time the two determined to be married. The Wesleyan missionary tied the knot in a homely edifice of rushes, and in a very homely sort of way, John could not read, and signed with a cross ; Margaret was no scholar, and signed the marriage form with across 5 their two witnesses were illiterate, and also signed with crosses j and the parson forgot to attach his name to the document. The wedded pair went forth and commenced the business of married life. They were both sober and industrious,but Margaret having by far the most brain power was master. They had a small and fertile lann near the Waiwakamo, now, alas, covered with sand, where they depastured their cows and pigs, kept their poultry, made their butter, cut their hay, and grew their vegetables and fruit. Carts were luxuries in tnose days that only the wealthy could indulge in, but Margaret nothing daunted, and strong and willing to work and succeed, drove her butter to market in a wheelbarrow, and drove home in the same vehicle goods necessary for her household, while John was out earning money and while the elder children shepherded the young . babies. The lease of their little farm expiring and having saved a little money, these industrious people removed to Wangani, and there they came possessed of property which is now worth about L7OOO. We are sorry to say that the happiness of this pair did not keep peace with the increase cf their wealth. A few years ago they separated, John returning to Cornwall and Margaret staying at Wanganui. Not very long ago it came to Margaret’s ears that John was comfortably settled near to Bodmin, that he had taken to himself another wife, and that he was getting around him another family, who would probably be made to be the possessors of the wealth that Margaret had so diligently labored to help him to obtain. After hearing this news the energetic Margaret could not rest. The idea of another woman and another woman’s children reaping the results of her life-long labors to the deprivation of her own children was more than she could bear. She accordingly paid a brief visit to New Plymouth to gather together the scanty proofs of her marriage to John, and departed by the last steamer en route to England. In three months hence what a happy meeting there will be in the neighbourhood of Bodmin. —“ Taranaki News,”