OUR' TOWN’S BEGINNINGS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 December 1938, Page 5

OUR' TOWN’S BEGINNINGS

THE HARDSHIPS OF TRAVEL BY SEA IN THE FORTIES.

EARLY ARRIVALS

A MASTERTON PIONEER MR HENRY JONES. MASTERTON'S FIRST PLOUGH. I think that another of Masterton’s pioneers worth recording is Mr Henry Jones, states Mr Charles Bannister in a further article on early Wairarapa, specially written for the ‘■Times-Age.” Mr and Mrs Jones left the London docks in January, 1842. Those who came to the colony in sailing ships know something about the unpleasantness of such voyages. The trip was a very eventful one. Besides the ordinary chapter of accidents and incidents, death reigned supreme on board. As many as nineteen died on

the voyage, among whom was the youngest child of Mr and Mrs Jones. We can then understand their joy when they sailed into Port Nicholson, now the city of Wellington. The accommodation there for the immigrants was very rough. All had to sleep on the floor, and there were no partitions for families. The European accommodation was in rough whares, designed and mostly erected by the Maoris. Mr Jones at this time endured .great hardship arid. r pfivdtibn, b'eing'-uhable to secure any work, and experienced great difficulty in obtaining the common necessaries of life. At length things brightened up and Mr Jones found employment hauling timber from the bush to the sawpit, at 5s per 100 feet. The timber being green and heavy and it being a long distance to haul it, his earnings were very small. However, it was a beginning. After this Mr Jones managed to build a small habitation of wattle and daub. With ihe ending of the timber hauling Mr Jones tried the experience of cutting and carting firewood into Wellington. His first work was to make a wheelbarrow. The wood was cut into two-foot lengths and delivered at Is a load. With long hours and hard trips he could make 3s per day. Then turning his attention to shingle splitting which occupied him for four years, by continued hard work he managed to support his family fairly well. When the Masterton Small Farms Settlement was formed Mr Jones was able to ballot and acquire a section on the Makora Creek. (This should be spelt Makoura, white crayfish) from Johnstone Road to Kuripuni Creek ARRIVAL IN MASTERTON. Mr Jones and his son John came up with the first little band of pioneers to saw timber for Mr Dixon, of Worksop Farm. He finished that and sawed some in Wrigley’s Bush for himself. When he had enough, cut for a shack and was going to cart it away, 'he Maoris appeared on tlv scene and demanded payment, saying that they had not been paid in full, which vzas correct, as another payment was due in 1855. Mr Jones resisted as far as he deemed prudent, but had to retire

and abandon the timber and return to Wellington. He then engaged in bushfelling in the Hutt Valley. When he had finished his contract he left a second time for Masterton. This time he took his family with him. He secured a pack bullock for the transport of their tools and sundries, including a box of glass for the windows of the proposed habitations on the sections. On the Rimutakas the bullock’started bucking and fell down a gully. However, no damage was done to the goods and the party carried on, and the bullock’s behaviour improved. They were met by Mr Dixon. After they got their lean-to up they cleared an acre of bush land for wheat and potatoes. These planted, they started to erect a house. Although of rude construction it was cosy and afforded good shelter. Next came the question of furniture and ihe making of this was proceeded with. Tables, chairs, seats, bedsteads, and benches were made from roughly sawn

■timber. It was eight years before Mr Jones was able to purchase any articles of imported furniture. All chimneys were made of clay, and they served the purpose, and stood the weather very well. Mr Jones was of a kindly disposition. In the case of sickness Mr Jones was generally the first to visit anybody ailing. In his garden he grew a wonderful lot of herbs, such as dandelion, pennyroyal, peppermint for colds, horehound and a lot more. 'He'also found out''from the Maoris that fiaxroot tea was a splendid laxative, and koromiko had just the opposite effect. If he went to see a sick friend (we were all friends in those days) and found out what was wrong, he would send a bottle of his herbal medicine with the reminder to return the bottle, as bottles were scarce articles in Masterton. SPIRITUAL NEEDS. Mr Jones began to think about the spiritual needs of the settlers and their children, his first effort being to open a Sunday school and he acted as first teacher. It was during the ministry of the Rev J. S. Rishworth, who was the first minister appointed by the Wesleyan conference to the Wairarapa, that Mr Jones was proposed as local preacher. His last service was held at Wangaehu in 1895, after having traversed the Masterton district, Wairarapa Valley and the Forty Mile Bush, conducting no less than 450 services, besides innumerable class meetings and years of Sunday School teaching, truly a splendid acnievement. In 1894 the partner of his joys and sorrows showed signs of failing health and a general breakdown, finally passing away in 1895. It was the end of a fine Christian woman. Mr Jones carried, on the farm till the time of his death, which occurred in 1902, ending/ the good life of a man who had earned Ihe deep respect of all who had come in contact with him. Mr Jones left behind him sons who have made names for themselves. Mr John, who first owned Hawkhurst, Mr James of carrying fame, who went to Eketahuna and made a success of storekeeping; Mr Henry, who was one of Masterton’s first bak-

ers —and it was bread that he and his wife turned out—and Mr Edward, who carried on the farm at the back of the original section, but on the other side of the Kuripuni Creek. This was a swamp section, and it was a problem of no mean magnitude to drain and plough it. As it was stumped and drained, the soil sank and fresh stumps kept coming in sight and the horses pulling the plough used to get bogged. At last the owner was rewarded with a splendjd farm. Mr Edward also went in for a carrying business. In the 80’s he carted iron and timber for bridge building on the railway line between Masterton and Woodville. Mr Edward Jones died a few years ago. His son, Air N. Jones, is still running the farm. I can remember Mr Henry Jones, Senr., coming up to our shop, riding a white mare and carrying a basket of butter on his arm. I used to hold the mare while he did his shopping. Jones’s butter was much sought after. The

saying was that a pound of Jones’s butter and a loaf of Jones’s bread were good enough for a king. The other morning I saw a lad carrying a can of milk. Upon inquiring who he was, I was told he was Norm’s son. That made him of the fourth generation. The Jones’s have stuck to cows and cows have stuck to them. At Mr N. R. Jones’s house at Kuripuni there is ~a drawing of Mr Henry Jones, and Mr Murdoch ( McKenzie ■'with' a” their own* construction, with a yoke of bullocks. These two pioneers used to plough small patches of land for the early settlers. It was the first plough used in Masterton. Mr McKenzie’s section is now occupied by the Memorial Park and Methodist Children’s Home, down to Colombo Road. Mr H. J. Jones, of motor fame, is a son of the second Mr Henry Jones. FIRST BALLOT FOR SECTIONS. The following names are those of the persons who were successful at the ballot box in. 1854 at the Crown and Anchor Hotel, Wellington, when the Masterton Small Farms sections were drawn for. Some of the sections were never taken up. Others were sold directly afterwards at advanced prices: —W. Anketell, W. Baldwin, W. Baldwin, Junr., C. Bennington, H. Bentley, W. Burgess, G. Chamberlain, E. Chamberlain, W. Chamberlain, T. Chamberlain, S. Chamberlain, H. Chewe, Child, J. Cole, C. Collett, Crayne, R. Creig, C. Cundy, C. C. Crosse, Dagge, C. Dixon, M. Dixon, M. Dixon, L. Evans, A. Hayward, R. Hare, A. Hart, J. Harding, J. Hewitt, B. Hunt, R. lorns, C. Jackson, H. Jackson, H. Jones, J. Jones, R. Kibblewhite, W. Knight, J. Gambert, B. Lucas, J. Masters, J. May, J. Mathews, W. Mitchell, W. R. Nix, B. P. Perry, Potts, C. S. Pratt, A. Prentice, A. W. Renall, A. Rinson, V. Smith, J. Smith, Sullivan, Sykes, T. AV. Tankersley, A. Tinny, J. Tucker, J. Wallace, W. T. Ward, T. Webb, G. Woodroofe, J. Wrigley.

Mr Bannister acknowledges extracts included in this article, taken from the booklet on “Early Masterton” written by Mr J. lorns.