HILLS & THE SEA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 September 1938, Page 7

HILLS & THE SEA

LIFE AT CASTLEPOINT I — MISS KATE GROVES’S LETTERS. SOME PIONEERING HARDSHIPS. Details of pioneering life in New Zealand, as seen through a woman’s eyes, are touched upon in letters written shortly after the middle of last century by Miss Kate Groves, daughter of Mr and Mrs John Groves, who arrived in Castlepoint with her parents in 1855. After she had spent some years at Castlepoint, Miss Groves married a Mr William Williams, of whom few biographical details are now available, though the information has been handed down that he was in California in the famous gold rush days of 1849. In New Zealand he went to the Thames gold rush and spent some years in that region. Later he returned to the East Coast district and rented Flag Creek Station, Tinui, from Mr John Groves and occupied it until it was sold to Mr D. H. Speedy in 1886. For several years after that he managed Mataikona Station, owned then by the Hon Charles (later Sir Charles) Johnston. Mr and Mrs Williams spent their later years in Auckland and both died there. They had no children. Writing to her uncle and aunt in England, from Castlepoint on March 11, 1857, Miss Kate Groves, as she was then, gave an extended account of the serious illness of her mother and went on to observe that but for the impossibility of leaving her mother, she would have preferred to be away from home, getting her own living. "I feel somehow, not quite independent,” she wrote, “although I am my own mistress and there is not anything I want but what I can have.” VERY BAD TRAVELLING. “You cannot conceive what sort of a place this is,” the letter continues. “There is nothing but hills and sea stretching as far as the eye can see. There are hills beyond hills. It is very bad travelling on account of the numerous rivers, which are very dangerous unless you are acquainted with the fords. I have been farther from home than any of the rest, even farther one way than Aunt or my cousins. I have been twenty-three miles one way and eleven the other. We are obliged to go everywhere on horseback. We have no difficulty in getting a horse, as one or other of the gentlemen will always lend us one. Our cousins have all a horse each. ... “There is one very great drawback here. There is no church or schools here. Father thought of sending our two youngest to a place called Ahuriri to school, but that is the same distance away as Wellington and he does not like the idea of their being so far from home. “I received a letter from Uncle’s sister, Mrs Allen, the other day and she told me that both Henry and William (Miss Groves’s brothers) thought of coming out —by what she said they are on their road here now. I think that if they were to come Mother would be much better, for she has a continual weight on her mind wondering if they will ever reach this far. How many dozens of times has she wished they were here even before she was taken ill, so I hope her wishes will be realised and that very soon — it is the universal wish of us all. I believe William is married, so we shall have a new sister to greet if they should ever come...” IMPORTING GORSE SEED. In a short and hurried letter, dated at Castlepoint on March 4, 1862, the former Miss Groves, now Mrs Williams, said, in part:—“My husband is just on the point of starting for Wellington, so that I shall not have time to say much to you. I expect William will not be back for a fortnight. They have not much facility for travelling. There is no way of going anywhere but on horseback, which is very tiresome if one has to go a long journey. We are all very good horsewomen. Mr Guthrie is in Wellington and is not expected home for three weeks. He is gone in with cattle. Father wishes you to get him two or three pounds of gorse seed and some rhubarb and any other kinds of seeds you can get and put them in a tin box and get it soldered down and direct it to Father, care of Messrs Bethune and Hunter.”