CHAPTER III: DISCARDED.
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CHAPTER III.
MR. TUCKETT, the chief surveyor, was with the party at the Wairau, but being a member of the "Society of Friends," and therefore not countenancing any steps of an aggressive character, had remained at a distance from the korero, and when he heard shots fired retreated at once to the boat at the mouth of the river, and was taken on board the brig. After the lamented death of his chief, he was for a time acting agent of the Company at Nelson, and during his brief tenure of the office, made fresh efforts to extend the small farm system that Captain Wakefield had initiated and encouraged.
As there were so few employers of labour
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either engaged in farming or other works, there was a great redundancy of labour in the settlement; in this respect there was a failure of Edward Gibbon Wakefield's 'Theory of Colonization,' as capital had not been attracted in sufficient proportion to properly balance the labour element, or if attracted, it had been repelled by the pernicious system of allotment before referred to.
Prom whatever cause, the fact remained that there was a large number of men and families solely dependent upon the Company's employment; and when that should cease, with no tie to bind or attach them to the settlement.
Captain Wakefield therefore endeavoured to establish cottier farming, but with very limited success. About twenty families were settled in the Riwaka Valley, who being supplied with seed wheat and potatoes gratis, land upon easy terms, and employment in forming necessary roads in their neighbourhood, began vigorously to devote such little time as was not occupied in road making, to the cultivation of their land. A few provi-
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dent families had been induced by the same encouragement to settle at the Waimea and Motueka; but the chief occupation at the latter place was sawing timber for the Nelson market, as there was a fine extent of bush unappropriated, that any one was free to enter to fell trees, and saw timber without let or hinderance. This gave occupation to a considerable number, as it was work at which novices soon acquire a fair proficiency.
As summer was approaching and some of our party being desirous of doing a little cultivating in the spare time of morning and evening, if land could be obtained in the neighbourhood of the work, the time on the road work being from 8 to 5, four of us resolved to apply to Mr. Tuckett for the lease of a 50 acre section with right of purchase, and the seed wheat and potatoes granted under such circumstances. E., not having anything to do at his own trade, was invited to join; he, the overseer, one of the road party, and myself, being the four applicants. The application was readily granted, and operations were immediately commenced as the
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season for sowing was fast slipping by. The section was admirably suited for our purpose, not only from its contiguity to our day work, but from its including a small wooded valley, which, being chiefly scrub and small trees, the larger trees being some distance apart, and only one here and there requiring to be felled, was easily cleared.
We soon had two acres cut down, burnt and cleared, and the wheat sown, chipping it into the rich loose bush mould with adzes, and we shortly had the satisfaction of witnessing its dark green verdure giving promise of a luxuriant crop.
As December was the season for potato planting, there was plenty of time to get a good patch cleared; we were very busy in the early mornings and evenings, often working by moonlight, and had made sad havoc with a beautiful stretch of bush that was ruthlessly laid low before our axes, when orders came for the summary removal of our road party to assist in cutting a large ditch through a swamp at the Waimea. This brought our agricultural operations to a sudden standstill,
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our only consolation under the circumstances being the knowledge that the wheat was growing, and that we had as much land cleared for potatoes as we were likely to procure sufficient seed to plant, as two or three months of summer sun would render the brushwood cut down so combustible, that when fired it would leave the ground in such a clear state, that no after labour would be required but planting the seed.
During the next two or three months the change was consummated to which I have already referred. No boat-building work offering, I continued at the road work, and as its distance from town necessitated an enforced absence all the week, my opportunities for counteracting a change that was gradually, but surely taking place, were necessarily limited.
For some time it was felt rather than perceived, and fearful of giving way to what might be only the promptings of jealousy, I fought against the vague suspicion, lest any action of mine should precipitate a change that I could not help feeling was impending.
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And so matters progressed until it was no longer possible to mistake the altered feeling of my fiancee. There was a rude awakening from what had been a very pleasant, all absorbing day dream, a crushing blow to many fond anticipations, accompanied with a sensitive consciousness that could not help contrasting my, at that time, comparatively hopeless position and prospects, with the superior advantages enjoyed by my rival, which deprived me of all power of protest and resistance. I had many reasons for believing that she had also long struggled against a change, that circumstances had in a great measure rendered inevitable.
On arriving on Monday morning at the scene of our future work, I found several gangs of men concentrated upon one spot, which from the limited out-look afforded me, standing as I was knee deep in water in a dense mass of bulrushes, which reached far above my head, I judged to be near the centre of a large swamp; we had had to scramble for about a quarter of a mile through the rushes and slough to reach this position.
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I could not help wondering how any number of men set down in the middle of a swamp like that, were going to solve the engineering difficulty of draining it without some outlet.
I afterwards learnt that another party of men were working towards us from seaward, and had completed from fifty to sixty chains of ditching, but in the meantime we were isolated, and working at great discomfort, and under serious disadvantages for the due progress of the work.
I also very soon discovered another innovation that was freely commented on by the men in no very complimentary terms, namely, the presence of a time-keeper whose duty we were informed it was to deduct an hour from each man's time who paused from work for a few minutes.
These and other vexatious changes, and our position in that part of the swamp, were for some reason that I never learnt attributed to the influence of a Frenchman named Vallie, who henceforth was to have complete control and superintendence of the men and works.
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He was expected to visit the work in the swamp during the week, and there was some kind of understanding between a section of the men to be revenged upon him in some way.
About the middle of the week he made his appearance equipped in a pair of long boots and an eye-glass; I don't mean in quite the style of the native chief who upon being requested by the missionary to set an example to the others attending church, by putting on some clothing next time, appeared in a pair of boots and a paper collar. As he neared the scene of operations, stepping nimbly from tussock to tussock, unfortunately for himself he first encountered the advanced guard of the party who had resolved to signalize the honour paid them by his visit.
The first symptom of insubordination was by one of the men coolly surveying him in true theatrical style through a piece of flax, twisted up in the form of an eye-glass, and as this marked attention was not fully appreciated, but on the contrary provoked some threatening language, a number of the men immediately
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began to display great activity in tying flax together to form a rope, on perceiving which and divining something threatening in their looks and actions, he commenced a hasty retreat, not pausing this time to step from tussock to tussock, but plunging recklessly through the slough and water, followed by about 30 or 40 of the men. On emerging from the bulrushes the party came out where the other men before referred to were ditching --here a long section of the ditch had been dammed in order to bottom another portion of it and was consequently full of water to the surface.
While walking alongside of this with a numerous and noisy retinue, he either slipped, in his trepidation, or was pushed in, and for a minute or so was floundering in a very inglorious manner in a seven-foot ditch of very dirty water.
He was quickly extricated, however, and after being tenderly tilted, to empty the water from his long boots, was permitted to quietly retire, with very dampened spirits from his moist reception.
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A charge was laid against one man, and he was lodged in gaol, but it, the gaol, was of such a primitive character that his comrades found no difficulty in unceremoniously liberating him, and I do not remember any further proceedings being taken in the matter.
Mr. Vallie, after his involuntary bath, retired from the appointment, considering it impracticable to manage such an unruly lot of men, and the public works resumed their accustomed serenity. After working some time in the swamp, the party I was engaged with (for I may observe the men were divided into gangs of about twenty, with an overlooker to each gang) was drafted to another part of the Waimea, where the work being dry, it was much pleasanter, and shortly after this change came another still more agreeable.
Mr. Fox had succeeded Mr. Tuckett as the Company's agent, and in order to facilitate the cultivation of land by the men employed on the Company's works, initiated a system of piece work on the roads, but limiting the quantity to be executed each week to what was considered an average week's work by day
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work, paying the same wages, but allowing the men to do the required quantity in as short a time as possible, by which arrangement they would have more time to devote to their cultivations, and the Company's work would not suffer.
This was a very politic and wise arrangement, as there was not only a marked increase in the amount of work executed each week, but there is no doubt it materially assisted to permanently settle many families of the working class in the settlement, who would otherwise have left on the suspension of the Company's expenditure, which took place about nine months later.
By this time I had become so well accustomed to the work, that on the introduction of piece work, I could execute my portion as well and expeditiously as any of them, namely, in two and a half or three days, though it took some four and five days to complete the required quantity.
The allowance was twenty four cubic yards of ditching, including the pitching the earth, and forming the road a chain wide, but leaving
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a clear space of seven feet between the made road and ditch on either side; this involved pitching the earth a long distance, and I remember there used to be frequent disputes between parties working on opposite sides of the road about filling up the centre, some not throwing the earth far enough. The price was 9d. per cube yard, or 18s. for the week's work as before. It was considered such good pay at the time, that for a few weeks, until prevented by fresh regulations, many left their ordinary occupations to engage in it.
Blacksmiths left their anvils, town-carriers their teams, and in a few instances shopkeepers their counters, and returned to their usual employment for the remainder of the week.
And yet it required downright hard physical exertion, and longer hours each day, so to shorten the time in which to complete the allotted task, as would then only make it equal to the present ordinary pay of a day labourer, namely, 8s. per day.
When the agent discovered that many were taking advantage of the arrangement without
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having taken land, or intended taking any, it was ordered that all such should no longer be allowed a share in the employment. A clerk was deputed to visit all engaged on the works, and take down the quantity of land owned, and in cultivation; or the quantity and situation of any land a workman was willing to occupy and cultivate, a negative answer to all of which being a summary dismissal from the work. One man, owner of a cart and pair of bullocks, and whose ordinary employment was as town-carrier, but who had found it advantageous to do the quantum of piece work so long as the condition of taking and cultivating land was not insisted on, was waited upon by the collector, and in answer to the query of how much land he was prepared to take, said, with ironical gravity, pointing to a large hill near his dwelling, at the entrance of Brook Street Valley, "put ma doon th' whole o' th' Sugar-loaf Mountain."
While I was thus occupied December was near at hand, and it became necessary to see about the potato planting; some time before this E. had crossed the bay to build a boat for
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some young men residing there, and had not yet returned.
Upon visiting the scene of our former labours and making inquiries, I found that one of the original quartette, the overseer, taking advantage of our absence (for the remaining partner had disappeared I knew not whither), had sold his and our interest in the cultivations without our knowledge or consent, so all our labour was lost and we could get no redress.
Up to this period I had continued as one of the family at E.'s, still regarding their house as my home, notwithstanding my altered relations to one of its members; but this arrangement I felt could not be continued much longer. To be received with coldness and indifference by one upon whom I once had centred all my hopes of happiness, was painful and depressing to a degree, but to be the voluntary witness of endearments lavished upon another, I felt was subjecting myself to an unnecessary trial of my fortitude that it would be wise to avoid.
E. had now found employment at his own
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business, so I thought it a fair opportunity to retire, and provide a home for myself elsewhere.
Upon his return from the Riwaka, and finding that I had left the house, and made a beginning upon my own account, he strongly advised me to go to the Riwaka to settle; telling me it was a very pretty valley, with plenty of good land, and nearly all the residents well known to me, they having been fellow-passengers in the 'Indus,' and Company's work to be had on the same terms as on the Nelson side.
I thought the best course to pursue was to follow his advice, and accordingly removed to the Riwaka, arriving there on new year's day, 1844. So one eventful year had nearly passed away since that memorable morning in February, when, the prospect taking its tone from the gladsome mind of the observers, all appeared so fair, so bright, and charming.
