IN THE ’SIXTIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 January 1939, Page 6

IN THE ’SIXTIES

LETTERS OF MAORI WAR PERIOD

CASTLEPOINT VOLUNTEERS.

EARLY DAY IMMIGRATION PROBLEMS.

Aspects of early colonial history in New Zealand at a somewhat critical period are touched upon in interesting fashion in two letters written in 1864, one of them by Mr John Groves, of Castlepoint, and the other by his son-in-law, Mr. W. B. Williams, who was then in Auckland, having a little earlier paid, a visit to the Waikato. Brief as they are, these letters deal informatively with some of the activities and problems with which the pioneers were concerned. Mention of the prizes offered in rifle shooting matches shows, for instance, that Volunteer training was taken very seriously at Castlepoint and elsewhere in the days of the Maori War. Specific evidence is offered also that the absorption of immigrants raised some difficulties even when New Zealand was populated much more thinly than it is at present. Mr Williams, whose letter from Auckland is dated January 13, 1864, wrote in part:—

THE WAIKATO IN 1864 “We arrived by the Lord Ashley the day before New Year’s Day. Since then I have been to the Waikato for a week. It is a most beautiful country, I have not seen anything like it in any other part of New Zealand. The land is of the best description, with a plenty of fine timber. I wish this war (the Waikato campaign) was settled so that the lands were thrown open for sale, but in the meantime I must try to get something to do, as it will not do to be idle. . . “I have sent you a lithograph of the King’s palace at Ngaruawahia. (The Maori capital had been abandoned by the Maoris in the course of the Waikato campaign and occupied by British troops in December, 1863.) There will be a wonderful alteration there in the course of a few years. I believe that place Will become the capital of New Zealand. There is any quantity of good land, a plenty of timber, good coals and a noble river, and every indication of a goldfield within a few miles of it; so I cannot see What more is required to make it a flourishing place. . .

“A young man from Ryde, in the Isle of Wight, called here this morning. He is a Volunteer in the Waikatos. He is a carpenter by trade and is getting 15s a day from the Government, besides his pay and clothes, bedding and rations as a Volunteer.” The lithograph of which Mr Williams speaks is still extant and is an excellent and interesting production of its kind. It shows in the near foreground, not far from the river, buildings designated by Mr Williams as the King’s Palace, the King’s tomb and a meeting house, all of them good examples of Maori architecture. The bell tents of the occupying British troops are also shown. Most of the Maori whares were located at a distance of about half a mile from the buildings named.

Mr John Groves’s letter was written to his brother, Mr Barney Groves, then resident in Bewdley, Shropshire, and was dated May 6, 1864. Mr Groves forwarded to his brother the lithograph of Ngaruawahia which has been mentioned. A SHOOTING ACCIDENT. In an opening passage, Mr Groves dealt with some family details and observed that all members of his family were well except his son Harry, “who has never been properly well since he shot himself.”

This is an allusion to an unfortunate accident which befell Mr Harry Groves when he was pig-hunting, in company with a number of friends, at Aohanga. The affair happened probably in 1863. As he was waiting for a pig to be bailed up, Mr Groves had rested his rifle, butt to the ground and with his hands crossed ovei’ the muzzle. A frisking dog came into contact with the weapon and it discharged, Mr. Groves being shot through both hands. The wounds he sustained were severe and in the circumstances dangerous. The nearest available medical man, Dr Hanratty, was located at Greytown. He was the first doctor to practise there. One of Mr Groves’s companions, Mr J. A. Perry, at once set out for Greytown to bring the doctor, having to journey nearly 100 miles on horseback to do so. The remaining members of the party meantime conveyed Mr. Groves to Castlepoint, where the doctor arrived four days after the accident had occurred. Partly no doubt on account of the delay in getting skilled treatment, Mr Groves, as his father’s letter indicates, made a slow recovery.

Referring to the Maori War' then still in progress, Mr Groves wrote:— “We have just received news that there has been another fight and thirty of our men killed and eighty wounded. Twelve officers are killed, but we cannot hear how many Natives. “We are all Volunteers here. All three of my sons belong to the Volunteers.

“The country is in a very unsettled state, but you will know more by the papers than I can tell you. Our Volunteers had a firing match last week for £5 and my youngest son (John Groves) got it. There is to be a firing match on the 16th of next month for all the company for the Government prizes. There are to be twenty prizes, the highest is to be £5O and the three lowest £5. . . Guthrie (Mr Thomas Guthrie) is captain of the Castlepoint Volunteers. . .” A DISTRESSED IMMIGRANT That even in the 'sixties there was trouble at times in finding work for immigrants appears from another passage in Mr Groves’s letter: “I got a letter last week from J. T.— . I have not heard of him for above this twenty years. I did not know but he was in London. He is at Canterbury, in New Zealand, and has been for two years and a half, and is very badly off. He sent to Guthrie to ask him if he could give him some employment, he did not

care what it was, to do. There are so many immigrants sent out that there is no employment for them.”’ In concluding his letter, Mr Groves mentions an acquisition of land: “I was in Wellington in March last to see about a piece of land. I was in there last March twelvemonth and bought 801 acres, but you must not think it like the land in England, all fenced and cultivated. It is all rough and open country. You have got to fence it as you can. My two sons live on it —Harry and John. I am often over with them. It is about twelve miles from Castlepoint. I have got a great many fruit trees planted, but I will tell you more about it next time I write to you.”