REMINISCENSES OF THE EARLY WAIRARAPA SETTLERS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1607, 12 February 1884, Page 2

REMINISCENSES OF THE EARLY WAIRARAPA SETTLERS.

By John Hall, {Prom the Wairarapa Standard). The Government were now bent on having the three mile bush felled and cleared; the line had been out, and all the west side had been taken I up by absentees; on the east and on the south end, a few Greytown sections had been laid of!', as far, now, as McPartlen's. "We (the same party of five) took the contract. But before starting I was determined to have my house up, so all the party .helping, we soon accomplished this. I had bought at the Hutt a two year old heifer in calf at £9 and a yearling at £5 as my first stock. We again raised a strong party —among which were three or four natives-and worked with a will; we first pitched our wliare on, I think, Mr Ticehurst's section, now the property of MrUdy. One of our party offered himself as cook, but he was going to kill two birds with one stone; he was getting 6s ut day cooking, and was working at his trade. As no man can serve two masters so we soon found it, for. wo got nothing lit to eat, and had to call on our own cook again. Here we got our beef from Manaiu, Mr Donald's, at 57s 4d per cwt by the half or quarter beast; potatoes, lOs per cwt; .flour, 37s per cwt, at Greytown, packed over to us, by bullocks. Paying the same wages as before, our party consisted of 18 all told, About this time emigrants arrived from England per illack Ball line; the Government sent a strong party to the foot of the hill on this side; among which were some of our present well-known aristocrats,' some of whom have retired on Government pensions. Road making now went ahead, not only here, but at the foot on the other side, and Mungaroa, From this time there was plenty of labor, and the Government made good use of it. We found in this bush located one solitary individual named Dodds, who had taken up 100 acres. He had about three acres felled, -where now stands the old Pioneer; Hotel; he joined, our party. In advancing we came to one totara tree in the centre of the road, It: was ton feet in diameter, or sixty feet inch-; cumference; our two best - axe men took him in hand and if oyer'two menworked at a tree they didj for two days they worked to sefi which was the best man, until a breeze in the top laid him low. In due time we had to shift the whare, and pitched close to where Mr Moore's store now is; here we had to dig a well fourteen feet deep. Some one had set fire to the bush at the end, and it followed us, so what with smoke and mosquitos we were much troubled. On one' occasion 'when I had been to Wellington, returning to the whare I found it forsaken; looking round, everything was removed. On coming into daylight, I saw my white trousers literally covered with flies of no ordinary size; following them up I found them encamped where Mr lay's hotel is now I was told the mosquito:! and flies had fairly conquered them. At this time Mr Masters obtained a grant for a bridge over the Waiohine, Mr Roy the Engineer, finding the line cut through the low ground on the north side of the river impracticable for road making; came up with two surveyors to explore a site, They worked down the river until they came to where the bridge now is, there was then some. bush at where Ngature's pah now is, and they cut a line up to our contract; which caused the curve.in the road; on the south side they' intended' to cut a straight line to the end of the township near to where the river bed is now; htfound it impracticably and therefore

had to niafee a curve where the Maori ~ whares are now; this was added to out contract ; so the whole length when measured up amounted to six and a quarter miles. The upptf end of our work 'was troublesome;"" the weather being hot and no water ; we had to dig holesjn the swampy bush, but the water was bad, and therefore we were glad to finish as soon as possible, after which we built a small bridge, and took our departure to the other end,' pitching on the little clearing by the Mongatarari stream, We had built a bridge the south end " also, which has been removed since. We now had to work on both sides of the river j but Christmas coming on, the irten promised that if I would get them up a two gallon keg of rum, not one of them would come to Grey town; this I much doubted,, but I had. to comply; soon Christmas Eve two of them came to my house, I had plenty - green peas, so I sent a bushel of peas, plenty of dried fruit for puddings, and the keg, with strict orders, not to broach it till they got over; but alas, the temptation was too great, for Blackett, our best man, broached it before they got to the river. While engaged on this contract, Mr Hastwell came up with a cart and two horses. We wereathome at the time. While staying he lost one of his horses; looking for it he fell in with Mr Terry, and told him that he had come lip to see if there was a cliauce for a carrier; as' we had been often disappointedly, ourJfcjp carrier, he brought him to once gave him an order for half a toil."; " of flour and various other goods; 1 this was the first order in Greytown, which duly came to hand, When I gave him another written order I forgot one . item—l cwt ironmongery. I told him in Mr Kempton's whare about this, when another young carter, heaving it, got into town first, got what I ordered, and brought it to me; but I never paid him'for so doing, At this stago Mr Kempton found his whare was not half large enough, and therefore, must prepare to build a house.' Before Christmas day was past I found that thejceg was empty, and sent some of the men in Greytown for more. Christmaspassed, we gathered ourforces together and finished our contract. On one occasion, when in Wellington, I saw some passengers landing on the Customhouse wharf, and got into conversation with one who proved to bo the doctor of the ship, who informed me that lie intended to settle in the country, I suggested to him Greytown, but he did not come at the time, Afterwards he came and settled in a whare near the end of our contract; that doctor is our present DrSpratt. Our party now brokej up, and we worked on our land for a little while, Mr Terry living with me for a time. He had secured the section, now the property of Dr Spratt, from P. M. Hervey, of Wellington; his own was was away many miles, adjoining the land of Mr B. P. Perry, of the Taratahi. We built a house for him, and, in'sinking a well, about II feet down, Mr Terry came on a solid bottom, in the shape of a large tolara tree. On working on one side of it, and cutting part of it away, we found it was as sound as the day it fell. Here arises a botanical and geological question: how long had that tree been there 1 The first is easily solved; the well was dug between two roots of a matai tree about 2 feet 60r9 in diameter. How old was that tree ? This, of course, is easily answered by counting the rings in the tree for each year's growth. This we did not do, but we can suppose the age to be from 100 to 156 years. Of course this cannot be solved —geologists would differ widely upon such a matter. About this time, wo (Terry and myself) sent the first agricultural produce to Wellington in the shape of a box containing a large horn carrot, weighing 91b, and a potato weighing 3|lb, and the remainder of the space filled with eggs; the former were exhibited at the Thistle Inn, at Wellington, by Walter Freeman, as specimens of Wairarapa produce,