A PIONEER PASSES.

Wairarapa Age, 3 February 1927, Page 4

A PIONEER PASSES.

DEATH OF MR. JAMES ROBIESON SENR. Mr. Jas. Robieson Senr., who died at his residence, Pownall Street, yesterday morning, was a pioneer settler whose earliest memories of the Wairarapa dated back nearly seventy years. The late Mr. Robieson was in his eighty-ninth year. His death will be regretted by many friends, and not least by older residents of the town and district. Born in London, on February 23, 1838, of a Scottish father and English mother, Mr. Robieson unfortunately lost both his parents at an early age. At the age of 12 he sailed for New Zealand with his sister and brother-in-law, the late Mr. C. R. Carter in the barque Eden, 600 tons and described in the sailing advertisement as a "fast and comfortable passenger ship!" As a matter of fact, the voyage lasted just on six months, including calls at other places, including New Plymouth and ‘Nelson, and the anchor was dropped in Wellington near the end of November, 1850.

The late Mr. Robieson was partly educated in London, and says in his memoirs that it was intended that he should continue in Wellington, but there being no suitable school available at the time he went to work for his brother-in-law in his business, starting at Gd per week and his keep. During eight years' work, outside during daylight and inside at night, writing up accounts and so on, he rose in stages to 3s 6d per week.

He relates how he then obtained a week's holiday, and came to the Wairurapa (in J 858). There was no road, he says, north of Featherston, which then consisted of one "pub" (probably Abbott's (just at the foot of the hill), and some private houses, and the "pub" was a "lively one." From Featherston one had to pick one’s way amongst stones, through bush and across rivers. „

Grey town, ho says, consisted of about six buildings, including the hotel and store. 'Carterton was “The Three Mile Bush” of those days, and had about a mile of formed road. In 1860 he came to the Wairarapa for good, to manage his brother-in-law’s station on the Taratahi, which consisted of what is now known as Middle Run and Parkvale, and the country round about. In 1863 Ije married a daughter of the late A. W. Renall. He says it was a snort courtship, and she was the best of wives. He goes on to relate that, there being no church available, they were married on the top floor of Renall’s mill (since destroyed by fire), by the Rev. W. Ronaldson, on April 11, and that, travel being expensive, and difficult, and money scarce, there was nc honeymoon trip, and they went “home” the next day, just as happy as if £lOO (a prodigious sum in those days) had been spent on a “honeymoon.” Later on in the same year he leased his brother-in-law’s station, but through the breaking out of scab (a scourge in those days), he left the place after a few years little richer than when he W'cnt in.

About 1887 he bought the farm at To Whiti, known for many years as r * Cavelands. ” This was mostly bush, and with a rapidly-growing family he, like many another of his time, found the farm insufficiently productive for his requirements, so, leaving the farm in the capable hands of his wife, he set out in true pioneering fashion to augment. his income by outside work, his first job, he relates, being on the old wooden bridge (lately replaced by concrete) over the Waingawa. From that he took up contracting, and finally gravitated to inspecting for the Government, first at the Opaki bridge over the Ruamahanga, and later on railway and other works. By this time the farm was “ coming into its own,” and he was enabled to run it so there he remained until becoming too old for this work. He retired to Masterton, eventually settling in Pownall Street.

The late Mr. Robieson was one of the oldest (probably the oldest) of the old Wairarapa residents, and though of a retiring disposition, taking little part in public affairs, was a true member of the fast-diminishing old pioneering band. Honest, hospitable, industrious, and kindly, and, like the rest of those old pioneers, his word was his bond.

It was his delight to relate anecdotes of the old days, both in Wellington and Wairarapa, and especially humorous incidents of the Maori scare in the Wairarapa, when he was a member of the cavalry commanded by the late Captain Donald, of Manaia. He avers that, in talking to the Maoris afterwards, he discovered that they were more scared than the whites. .

As a tribute to the New Zealand climate, it may be mentioned that though Mr. Robieson lived within a few weeks of being 89, it was predicted that he would not live to reach New Zealand, so delicate was he.

It is worthy of note that Mr. Robie: son liberated the first red deer in the Wairarapa.

In 1887, to hj.s lasting grief, he lost his wife. The family consisted of seven girls and six boys. Eleven of the •family are still living and two dead (Miss J. Robieson, who died in Masterton some vyears ago; and Norman, the youngest son, who was wounded on Gallipoli, and, dying on his way from Alexandria to England, was buried at sea near Gibraltar.).

The funeral will leave the residence, Pownall Street, at 2 o’clock this afternoon.