EARLY MASTERTON

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10641, 21 May 1912, Page 5

EARLY MASTERTON

TO-DAY'S ANNIVERSARY. "ttIHE FIRST BAND OF SETTLERS. SOME INTERES'J INC.' REMIN'IS- ■.•■-■ OENOES. Fifty-eight years ago to-day the Jirst 'band of Ibona fide settlers arrived in Masterton-. They consisted of the late Mr Michael Dixon,' the late Mr John Oole, Mrs Adams (then Miss Dixon), and Mr David Dixon. The party left .. Wellington on foot, driving cattle for Settlers who (had taken up land in the Masterton Small I arm Block. They iw re a fortnight on the road, and arrived here on Sunday., May 21st, 1854. There was merely .a track over , the (Rknutaka, and the party had to ford the Whole of the rivers. .FORDING THE RIVERS. • , Four days were spent at Morrison's IBusfh -homestead, .waiting for the Ruamahanga river to subside. The cattle were swum across the river, and the party were put over it''on'the following morning in a cailoc. The route, jfchen pursued was to Ahia.nihe, thence •fto Te Whiti, and across tlhe Taratahi too Masterton. The final halting place (Was in the (neighbourhood of the Dixon estate, at the end of Worksop Road. .)• Here there were two Maori huts in iwihidh the party canr.jped, practically (without fo'od, and with very little 'dotting.. On the evening of their airrival the late Maori cLiof Ihaia WhaIkamairu visited them and supplied them with-potatoes, hVtir, etc. .. MASTEIRTON IN THOSE DAYS. '. .A large portion of Mastertr.n. in tiiose days was standing buob. Xuri-

"puni was.iknofln as* "Donald's liorse- - paddock" (the late Captain Donald. * /being then. in. possession cf the Man- • /oia- estate). ; The l'e Ore Ore and OpaM Pllains,- and the northern por- " Vitiori of Masterton, .was occupied by the "late Mr Richard Collins as a .sheep ■ -and" cattle - itTi. The pioneer tfo'wns',imen- first, set to work toVfirid their 'town acres, Which they fond drawn before leaving Wellington. Mr Cole fount! his town acre on the edge of ■the bush ,w*&re Mr Hartley's boot ishop now stands, and Mr Michael iDixon discovered his at Kuripuni. Meanwhile, Mir David Dixon .was in charge of the mdb cf cattle, and he ifonnd it am enisy task, asi a boy, to keep them- from straying. Messrs -Cole and ■Michael.Dixon set to;,.work .. (to' clcnr their town acircd, and in a .few .weeks' time Mr Cole-was enabled W) .erect a .slab hut (wjiih slabs split from fcotara trees on his section). THE EIiEST FAMILY.

■Albout three months after the first party arrived", tthej were fbllowed by "the late Mr Chirks Dixon (father df v. Mr: David Dixon), and the remainder of .the family. Th.Vwas, in" reality, . the. first Jamijy to settle in Masterit'on.; Meanwhile-, the advance party 'had'obtained their supplies by packing them acrtos© tiho llimutaka from the (Upper Hutt. The origir.ul' Mastorton '■>' Small Farm Settlement- Association comprised one liundred town acres, land subsequently those who settled Rn the town 'were each enabled to ac : <"}uir.? a, forty acire section ara well. The town acres cost £l each, and the ■forty-acre sections lCra per acre. Mr Obirles Dixon had the first choice of «. forty-acre section, having purchased tb? -right of this choice from la Mr IDownos for £5. Mr Dixon chose seci».iofl? "No. 4 cf the Small Farm Settlement '(afterwards known as "Worksop ffiVirjn).

LATER AIMUVALS. LA. few months later Mr Jam.es Wrigr ley arrived, and was followed by the fjornis .and Bennington (families. Then iwime the Bentfeys, thio Jones', 1 the Chamberlains, the Daggs, the Cranes, •and, later, Mr Joseph Masters, after wh'om the town ro'as named. The '4ate Mr Masters was one of tine trustifies of the dissociation, and it w'a's on Wis aocourit that 'Sir George Grey inamed thai town, after him. The regaining trustees w-etre the late Mr C. R. [Carter, 'H. H. .Jackson, James 'Allen and A. W. Kenall. Tlie fortylaere ee.cltacnis were not available for .some m'onthis. after the arrival of the 'fitfst party. THE IsWriTVEvS. There were severail Native settlefmente in the district in those days, the largest pah being at Te Ore Ore. 'The Natives, wfho subsisted on potatoes,, Indian corn, etc., were friendly 'disposed, and did all they could to ■inssiLst the pioneers. The; only two Ssun-ivors of the ortiginffl party of set•>tlpr,s are Mrs William Adams "and Mr ©avid Dixon, both of wihom..are hale 'hind 'hearty. . '