EARLY MASTERTON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 September 1938, Page 4

EARLY MASTERTON

ARRIVAL OF THE FOUNDER MR JOSEPH MASTERS. SELECTION OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS. Continuing his survey of early Masterton, Mr Charles Bannister in the present article deals with the life of Mr Joseph Masters, the founder of Masterton. Mr Bannister has taken his information from a booklet entitled “Early Masterton.” pubished by Mr Masters’s grandson, Mr J. lorns. Mr Masters was born in Derbyshire, England, in 1801. He was educated at Rugby. He joined the Queen’s Guards, in which he served for five years and then resigned. Mr Masters was instrumental in securing for Mastenon that valuable endowmonf now known as the Tru«< Lands Tvus'. He was also responsible for fouiriiiv Alfredton, naming it after Prince Alfred, its original Maori name being Moroa. .In the “Daily Mercury” of April 5 .1870, Mi- Joseph Masters relates some of his experiences. “Having had some conversation with a returned convict, I made my mind to go out to Sydney or Van Dieman’s Land,” he wrote. “I was recommended to John Gore and Co., No. 26 Laurance Lane, Cheapside, who engaged me to go out as cooper to their establishment. On our way out the captain, who was sole owner, put into Lagos, an African island. One of the apprentices fell overboard and sank twice, but I jumped into the sea and held him up until the boat came and rescued us. The carpenter

was taken very ill and was unable to work, so I did his duty for the remainder of the voyage. At the end, the captain made me a gift of £7, a very welcome gift to a new colonist. I finished my contract with my employer and was getting on well, but unfortunately I undertook to assist a friend who had a case in Chancery, the delay of which ruined me. Having to begin afresh, I thought I would try a change. I went up to Sydney. A few days before I started I went with a friend for a swim, when I noticed a soldier swim past, but soon disappear. I immediately proceeded ’ to where I saw him last, swimming ! with my face under the water. I soon : saw the undertide was carrying him out towards the sea. I dived down 1 and brought him up, and managed to get him into shallow water where I got help. He was one of the 51st Regiment. and was three weeks ill in [ the hospital afterwards. INTERVIEW WITH GOVERNOR.

“I’visited Synm'-y. .mti being an old P.M. Freemason, I was received by the brethren most kindly. Seeing nothing that suited me I wrote to my wife, and daughters to meet me in Welington, New Zealand, then being colonised by c. company. I paid a visit to Auckland and the Bay of Islands and arrived at Wellington in March, 1842, and had the honour of installing the first Master of the first Freemasons’ Lodge in New Zealand. I have been several times Master of the New Zealand' Pacific Lodge of Freemasons, English Constitution. Being a good tradesman I soon had a good business and I may say got tolerably wealthy . My daughters married steady men and with the little assistance I was able to give them, are well off, too. In the beginning of 1853 I had an interview with Sir George Grey, the

Governor, who was about to introduce some new land regulations, in accordance with a despatch received from Earl Grey, the then Colonial Minister, directing him to ascertain the opinions of the colonists as to the setting aside of the Australian Lands Act and reducing the price of Crown Lands in the colony. He at the same time expressed his own opinion that the minimum upset price might be most advanrtageously reduced from £1 to 5s or 10s shillings per acre. The proprietors, purchasers under the New Zealand Company, considered their vested interests were being interfered with, and great opposition was apparent, as their land had cost them £1 per acre, and no one in the province of Wellington could purchase a bush section from them under £3 10s per acre, and when cleared and sown in English grasses would be £lO per acre. VISIT TO WAIRARAPA. “In order to strengthen Sir George Grey’s hands, therefore, I and some others drew up a petition to Sir George Grey to reduce the Crown lands to 5s for grazing lands, and 10s for agricultural land per acre. At the same time I suggested to Sir George Grey that the man of small capital, if only possessed of £2O, should be allowed to invest as well as the man of £lOOO, and he entertained my views and put 40 acres in the land regulations. I induced him to set apart 25,000 acres, but I had to go up to the Wairarapa Maoris and induce them to sell the land to the Government which they did. I went to several pas on the western side of the plain and induced those Maoris to sell. Sir George Grey bought from the Maoris on September 1, 1853, 150,000 acres for £2OOO, less than 3|d per acre. I was appointed leader of the committee consisting of Messrs Chew, Jackson, Tocker and

Masters to select sites for small farms and townships. We selected two. The first we called Grey Town after Sir George Grey, 50 miles from Wellington. The second was named Masterton by the settlers after myself. The price of this land was £2l for 40 acres of rural land and one acre of town section; otherwise £1 for the town acre and 10s per acre for the rural land. In order to push the settlement forward, for at this time we had no roads, I closed my business, and put my shoulder to the wheel. My health, from confinement to business. began to suffer, but in travelling through mud, over mountains, and wading and swimming rivers, my health greatly improved, and I was never better in my life. Our mode of travelling was with two pack bullocks. JOURNEY VIA THE COAST. The journey from Masterton to Wellington around the coast occupied four clays, the return journey the same. It often happened that we had to remain in the bush or on the plains under a

flaxbush all night as the last accommodation house was 25 miles from Masterton, por was there a single house between, except a large stockholder who refused shelter, as the small proprietor was looked upon as inimical to the large proprietor. I could enumerate many instances of very petty spite shown by these gentlemen to prevent us suceeding, but they are past and gone. We have now a tolerably good road, ’ with -a mail coach three times a week. I have been three times, elected a member of our Provincial Parliament. It is reading your paper that induced me to write this; you might extract something from it that may be encouraging to some poor little Arab similarly situated as myself. I think every facility ought to be given to boys to bathe in early childhood, as it gives them such confidence in the water, and enables them to become good swimmers. Last autumn I had a narrow escape. Had I not beep a good swimmer I must have been drowned, as the coach capsized upon me in the river. I had in my arms a child only three years old. I passed the child from under and lay quiet myself until the current shifted the coach, when I floated from under only a little bruised.”

MAORI VERSION. Mr Bannister proceeds to' give the

Maori version of the coming of Joseph Masters, Hohepa Matata, as they called him. Mr Bannister writes: — My old friend Tukanohi and I were out on one of our many fishing expeditions. This time we were camped at the lower end of the Kaikokirikiri reach. Our hinakis were set at the top end, so as we could pick them up on our home trail. Tu told me that the first time he saw Hohepa was at the Ngaumutawa pa. They had been netting upokororo, native grayling, in the river close by, where we were camped. When they arrived at the pa in the evening Hohepa was there with a native companion. After the customary greetings, the Maori women announced dinner by saying “komaoa te kai” (food is cooked). The food that evening was upokororo. New potatoes and ti kouka, and the heart of cabbage tree tops, all cooked in a Maori oven, “umu.” As Mr Masters had not eaten any food since early in the morning he did full justice to this welcome spread. That evening Hohepa asked the Maoris if they would like a town

built somewhere near them, pointing out the things they could buy from the shops, and all the things best for the Maoris. Hohepa stayed with them for three days on his first visit. The day before he left he asked them if they 'would sign a “pukapuka” (paper) telling Sir George Gray that they would sell some of their land to make a town; but not all of it. They would not sell the land close to their kainga or pa. The blocks of land mentioned in the pukapuka were Manaia,. Upper Plain, Masterton and Opaki. ARura G was to be reserved, also Kaikokinkiri., and some other parts. The .jVtaoris, ; signing the pukapuka were Retemana, Heremaia, Ropiha, Weroroa, Tukanohi, Penehamini, Paora Tihei and others. These were the leading Maoris of the Masterton district. The next day Hohepa left for Wellington by the coast way. He was well fortified with food both inside and out. Tu said the Maoris called Hohepa “te tangata tika”. (straight man in his dealings). He also pointed out to me the “tino” (very spot) where the whare puni or meeting house stood. That was on the bank of the Makakaweka Stream on the north side, about half-way between Scharnweoer’s Road and the Ngaumutawa Road, now the Chinese gardens. This was in January, 1853. After this he made several visits.