UP FROM THE 'FIFTIES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 87, 21 February 1941, Page 11

UP FROM THE 'FIFTIES

Early Pioneering Days At Te Waimate

TE WAIMATE: EARLY STATION

LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND. By

E.

C.

STUDHOLME

A H and A: W

Reed. (300 pp. illustrated. 15/- net.)

the pioneers is better than no book at all, the mere announcement of Mr. Studholme’s reminiscences was good news. The men who can tell such tales are now a very small company, and as often as one can be persuaded to speak, we move a step nearer to the truth of our own past. S INCE the worst book about But Mr. Studholme is interesting in himself. He is a survivor from one age who has lived on into another. The big stations are gone. Boundary-riders and bullock drivers disappeared last century. The men who now shear thirty thousand sheep could be carried with ease in one lorry. The rivers aré bridged, the swamps drained, the flax and nigger-heads have vanished with the wild pigs. Wild dogs sound slightly mythical. Even the stockwhips on which Mr, Studholme lingers so affectionately belong now to the circus or the museum. But Mr. Studholme himself is no museum piece. He has changed as times have changed, adapted himself to his environment, and in some important respects modified it. Some of his most interesting pages are notes on birds, fish, and native and imported trees. His chapter on the moa, though it is very short, raises some questions that experts will find it hard to answer — unless of course they accept his conclusions and feel that no answer is called for. But it is the old station life that is his real contribution — the fencing, the burning, the mustering, the shearing, the endless riding, and then, following what he now regards as an unfortunate decision, the prodigious harvestings. He is also frank enough to say that huge sums were dissipated in foolish adventures in other parts of the Dominion — stations bought and stations sold as, "like most pioneers, they (his father and his uncle) kept moving on, looking for more vacant spaces which they might occupy with advantage." Most of these were occupied with marked and occasionally ruinous disadvantage to the Studholm brothers themselves. And yet they survived everything, thanks first of all to their restless energy, and in the second place to the enormous possibilities of the original station at Waimate, which has never changed hands except by inheritance, It is curious to find a New Zealand book ending with a two-page pedigree from Burke, but it is not curious to find it liberally lit up with original verse, since verse-writing was a habit of the pioneers, and in the original Mrs. Studholme’s case a little more than a habit. The book is generously illustrated, and has an enthusiastic introduction by Mrs. Woodhouse, (who some years ago wrote the story of the Rhodes family, for three generations neighbours and friends of the occupiers of Te Waimate.)

MAKING NEW ZEALAND PICTORIAL SURVEYS OF NEW ZEALAND: Nos. 28 and 29. "Racing" and "Polynesians." The two latest numbers in the Pictorial Surveys series issued by the Department of Internal Affairs are "Racing" (No. 28), with text by J. W. Heenan and S. V. McEwan, and "Polynesians" (No. 29), written by Pearl and Ernest Beaglehole. It would be easy, and safe, to say that both are admirably printed, authoritatively written, and illustrated with all the variety we now associate with this series; but that might suggest a formula. It might even suggest monotony, when in fact no numbers have been more interesting. "Racing" is of course written for those who go to races; or go someGe NEES Sogn Sa OO wg

times. But it is mot just a record of starters and winners. It is all these startings and runnings afid winnings and losings seen in their social aspect through a hundred years; for the "first race-meeting in Wellington and probably in New Zealand was held on January 25, 1841, as part of the celebrations, extending over several days, of the first anniversary of the landing of the settlers." We raced, that is to say, almost as soon as we walked-certainly as soon as we had roofs over our heads -and this survey gives the reason and some of the consequences. The story of Polynesia raises different issues, and is presented for a different public. The prime purpose is to show who are our Polynesian kinsmen and who are not, where and how they live, and. —

superficially at any rate — what they think. It is a case where text without illustrations would leave our impressions vague, while the combination of the two is almost as illuminating as a winter cruise. And to make even a hasty visit to all these groups would cost at least £50. To study them in this picture-book costs a shilling. MARCHING SONGS We acknowledge from the publishers, Messrs. Newson and Stroud, of Rotorua, four patriotic marching songs: "There Will Always Be a British Empire," and "Good-bye, Soldier Boy; Good-bye" (by Frank Bunn, Gore, and Jess Stroud, Christchurch, the first arranged by Claud Haydon, Wellington); "The Prodigal Son" (written by Mrs. W. Mackenzie and composed by Miss A. Mackenzie of Napier); and finally, "Faithfully I Wait For You" (words by Rose Trellis, Cobden, music by Jess Stroud, arrangement by Claud Haydon). They are not classics, but they will give pleasure to the people for whom they are intended.