CHAPTER XXVII: PEACE.
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CHAPTER XXVII.
AFTER, nine years of turmoil and bloodshed, peace was restored to Taranaki, but the restoration came about in such a dubious manner that the joy which usually attends the cessation of hostilities was witheld from the long-suffering people of the district. By many, the massacre at the White Cliffs was looked upon as presaging another and still more terrible chapter of war. Many settlers fled from their farms to New Plymouth, and a few with their families left the Province with the intention of not returning until the rebellion should cease. There was also a temporary revival of military activity. A force was sent to the South to surround Titoko Waru, and another to the North to make reprisals on the Mokau murderers. Colonel Whitmore embarked some of the latter in the Colonial s.s. Sturt, and proceeded to the Mokau Heads. Finding the country very difficult for military operations, he merely fired a few shells on to the shore and returned. The refusal of the Maori King to aid Titoko Waru and the Maori rebels, together with the paucity of Colonial troops, and the poverty of the Colonial exchequer, induced the Government to cease military operations on the West Coast. Gradually, therefore, it became apparent that the war was at an end, and gradually a sense of security was restored to the settlement. The change from the intense excitement of war to the quiet of a small agricultural and pastoral settlement was very great. No longer the reveille was sounded at daybreak from Marsland Hill to arouse the garrison and the inhabitants of the besieged town, and to give the weary night pickets license to leave their posts for their home and their firesides; no longer the "alarm" called all men off duty to arms, and to face the foe; and no longer the mournful dead march wailed out its sorrowful strains over the remains of the fallen brave.
Owing to the drain made upon the Colony by the war, the peace was attended by great commercial and financial depression, and New Plymouth suffered most severely in this respect by the entire withdrawal from it of the Imperial troops and military establishments.
THE IRON SAND
Along the shores of Taranaki exists a very considerable quantity of magnetic iron sand, which has been washed out of the tufa which surrounds the base of Mount Egmont by the rivers and carried to the sea beach. It appears to be a sublimate of iron and titanium, produced by volcanic agency, and converted into a black
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magnetic oxide while in a heated state by contact with heated steam. Its analysis is as follows:--
Magnetite ............ 71.0
Titanite ............ 8.0
Quartz and Olivine ... ... ... 21.0
100.0
It produces in smelting from 50 to 61 per cent, of iron of the finest quality, the tensile strength of which has been discovered by experiment to be greater by 33 tons 5 cwt. to the square inch than that of the best English iron. The iron, when converted into steel, has been put to the most severe tests by many eminent steel and tool makers in Great Britain, and has been admitted by them to be unsurpassed by any in the world; its closeness of grain, brilliancy of polish, keenness of edge, elasticity and strength exciting general admiration, and leading to a unanimous statement that it must some day supersede all other brands of steel for the finer and more expensive branches of the cutlery and edge tool trade. In 1848, Mr. John Perry, carpenter, and an old settler of the Province, made an attempt to smelt this sand by erecting a small furnace on the banks of a small stream which flows into the Huatoki River on the Carrington Road. Mr. Perry was encouraged in this work by His Excellency Governor Grey, who promised him a lease of the sand if his experiments were successful. Mr. Perry found a great difficulty in the fineness of the sand, which made its way to the bottom of the furnace before the fire could operate upon it with sufficient power to smelt it. Some small quantities of iron were, however, produced by him, and forged into small articles by Mr. Wood, the blacksmith. After this, Mr. C. Sutton made some experiments in the same direction on the town cliff, near to Mount McCormick, but was unsuccessful.
In 1858, the Provincial Government of Taranaki granted a lease of the iron sand to Captain Morshead, a retired officer of the Hon. East India Company's Service, who went to England for the purpose of endeavoring to raise a company to work the ore. Captain Morshead, returning unsuccessful from his mission, in 1869 a firm from Wellington, trading under the name of Henochsburg and Co, erected a furnace on the South Road, just outside the boundaries of New Plymouth, and attempted to work the sand. Partial success attending these operations, the firm was expanded into a company, bearing the title of the Pioneer Steel Company. Failing to make the metal flow freely from the furnace, the company suspended operations, and deputed Mr. Chilman to the iron masters of England to represent to them the value of the ore, to obtain information as to the best method of reducing it, and to sell the works if possible and raise a new company. Mr. Chilman returned, having effected the sale of the lease and
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interest of the company to Mr. Walduck, and with some valuable information.
Mr. Walduck failing to make use of the works, or to avail himself of the interest of the Pioneer Company, another Company was formed chiefly by the exertions of Mr. E. M. Smith, who had discovered a method of preventing the choking of furnaces by the iron sand by forming it with clay into compound bricks before subjecting it to the fire. This Company bore the name of the New Zealand Titanic Steel and Iron Company (Limited), Its proposed capital was £50,000, in. 5,000 shares of £10 each, with power to increase to £100,000. Of this capital £20,000 was called up and expended in works at the Henui, including a blast charcoal furnace on the best American plan, and a powerful engine and apparatus for producing a hot blast. After the works had been completed, and everything was in readiness for commencing operations, the Company shut up the place and refused to charge the furnace. At the earnest solicitation of the shareholders residing in Taranaki, and on their guaranteeing to protect the Company from loss or damage, permission was given for experimental operations to be conducted. The first of these was an experimental reduction of ore which was chiefly haematite from the Parapara mine at Nelson. The next experiment was that conducted under the supervision of Messrs. E. M. Smith and D. Atkinson, by which iron sand alone was reduced. On Saturday the 23rd of September, 1876, the furnace was tapped, and 3 tons 15 cwt. of metal in pigs was produced, which has since been tested in England, and reported to be iron of the best possible quality. After these experiments the furnace was blown out and the works have since remained in a quiescent state.
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT.
On the 15th October, 1859, Mr. F. A. Carrington succeeded Mr. H. R. Richmond in the Superintendency of the Province, and was re-elected to that office on 22nd November, 1873. At the end of 1876, Provincial institutions were abolished by the " Abolition of Provinces Act, 1875."
THE LAND FUND.
By the "Financial Arrangements Act, 1877," the compact of 1856, under which certain sums were paid to the Northern Provinces in order that the Southern Provinces might enjoy their own land funds, was broken up, the Act providing that the land fund of the colony should become general revenue, except 20 per cent, which is to be paid back to the Counties for local purposes, and except in the case of the Provincial District of Taranaki, which is to receive one-fourth of the land fund of the district for the purpose of assisting to construct a harbor at New Plymouth. From the time the compact of 1856 had been ratified by the "Public Debt Apportionment Act, 1868," to the Abolition of the Provinces, Taranaki received the sum
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of £2,200 per annum as interest on the £32,000 which had been allotted to it by the Act of 1868, and by this sum the Provincial Government was almost entirely supported, the Province having no land fund owing to the refusal of the Maoris to part with their waste lands to the Government.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
With the exception of the formation of new districts as colonisation has extended, the Road Districts have remained unchanged since 1858. For several years the town of New Plymouth was treated simply as a road district, and its roads were repaired by rates raised under the provisions of the Roads and Bridges Ordinance, and expended under the supervision of Commissioners. But in 1863 special provisions were made for the improvement of the town by the constitution of a Town Board by an Ordinance of the Provincial Council. This Ordinance, with some amendments, remained in force till the 11th of August, 1876, when, by the exertions of Mr. W. H. Scott and other members of the Town Board, New Plymouth was proclaimed a Municipality by His Excellency the Governor. On the 22nd of September, 1876, the following gentlemen were elected members of the New Plymouth Borough Council--J. Ellis, R. Chilman, W. H. Scott, A. Laird, D. Callaghan, T. E. Hamerton, A. Standish, J. M. Vivian, and Walter Read, and Mr. L. H. Cholwill was chosen town clerk. On the 11th of October following Arthur Standish was elected the first Mayor of the Borough. The towns of Carlyle, Raleigh, Hawera, and Inglewood have Town Boards, established under the provisions of the Town Boards of Taranaki Ordinances of 1872 and 1875.
In 1876 the town of New Plymouth was raised, and a stone bridge erected over the Huatoki River. This improvement, which was in many respects desirable, was necessitated by the construction of the railway in the town. Since the establishment of the Municipality, extensive improvements have been made in the Borough. Bridges have been built, streets formed and metalled, and other important works effected. In February, 1878, the assent of the burgesses was given to the raising of a loan of £25,000, on the security of the endowments of the Borough--some of which, through the exertions of the Mayor, had been then recently obtained--for the construction of water works, gas works, and the general improvement of the streets of the Borough.
On the abolition of the Provinces, Taranaki was divided into the Counties of Taranaki and Patea. Taranaki County is entirely within the limits of the Taranaki Province, but Patea County is partly within the Wellington provincial district. Taranaki County is bounded towards the north by the eastern boundary of Kawhia County, which is formed by the centre of the Mokau River from its mouth to its most northerly source, and by a right line thence to the Rangitoto Mountain; towards the east by a right line to the source of the Ongaruhe River, and thence by the centres of the Ongaruhe,
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the Ngahuinga (or Tahua), and Wanganui Rivers to the junction with the Tangarakau River; thence towards the south by a right line to the eastern corner of the Mangaotuku Block, thence by the southern boundary of that block to its south-west corner, thence by a right line to the eastern corner of the Ahuroa Block, by the eastern boundary of the last mentioned block to the Patea River, thence by the centre of the Patea River to its source in Mount Egmont, by a right line thence by the source of the Taungatara River, and by the centre of the last mentioned river to its mouth; and towards the west and north-west by the ocean to the mouth of the Mokau River, the commencing point.
Patea County is bounded towards the north by the southern boundary of the County of Taranaki hereinbefore defined, from the mouth of the Taungatara River to the summit of the western water-shed of the Wanganui River, near the eastern corner of the Mangaotuku Block: thence towards the east by lines from hill to hill along the said summit of the said water-shed by Mataimoana, Taumatarata, Taurangapiopio, to Paparangiora, thence along a ridge separating the watersheds of the Waitotara River and Kai-iwi Stream to Tutukaikatoa; thence by a ridge and the summit of the Rangitatau Range to the nearest corner of the Auroa Native Reserve, thence by the northern boundary of the Waitotara Block to the Waitotara River, and thence by the centre of that river to the ocean; and towards the south-west by the ocean to the mouth of the Taungatara River, the commencing point.
The County of Taranaki is divided into three Ridings, namely:-- Moa Riding, Omata Riding, and Waitara Riding. The first representatives of these Ridings were--Moa Riding: R. Trimble, T. Kelly, W. Courtney; Omata Riding--H. Brown, H. D. Vavasour, W. Berridge; Waitara Riding--F, L. Webster, B. C. Lawrence and J. Rattenbury. Colonel Robert Trimble was elected the first chairman, Mr. J. B. Lawson county clerk and treasurer, and Mr. T. K. Skinner the first permanent engineer, Mr. G. P. Robinson having been at the first establishment of the County Council partially and temporarily employed in that capacity. The "Counties Act, 1876," being of an indefinite and permissive character, time will be required for the full development of the county system. At present the County Council of Taranaki has taken over the management of the main roads and the principal bridges, but in all probability the various Road Boards will be merged into it, and the whole of the roads and bridges outside of the municipalities and beyond the jurisdiction of the Town Boards will be subject to its administration.
IMMIGRATION AND PUBLIC WORKS.
To raise the Colony from the depression under which it labored by the drain on its resources consequent on the Native Rebellion, Sir Julius Vogel projected a scheme for promoting immigration and public works. This scheme was embodied and given effect to by the "Immigration and Public Works Act," and "Loan Act, 1870." By the
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authority of these Acts large sums of money were borrowed in the London market and applied to the purposes of bringing immigrants to the Colony and of constructing railroads and other public works. Various sums from these funds were at times voted by the House of Representatives for Public Works in Taranaki, but only a portion of them were expended in the province. In 1874, the sum of £20,000 was voted for opening up the track leading from Mataitawa to the shores of Cook Strait, near Hawera. The duty of administering this money fell on Major Atkinson, who gave His Honor F. A. Carrington, Esq., the Superintendent of Taranaki, and Mr. Kelly, the Provincial Secretary, carte, blanche to expend it, the result of which was the opening up of the Mountain Road from Sentry Hill and the Junction Road, and from the Meeting of the Waters to Inglewood and onwards towards the Patea River. In the Session of 1877, a further sum of £10,000 was voted for the completion of this road.
On the 21st of August, 1873, the first sod of the New Plymouth and Waitara Railway was cut at New Plymouth amidst great rejoicings by Mrs. Henderson, daughter of F. A. Carrington, Esq. This line was opened on the 14th of October, 1875, after which a branch was extended along the Mountain Road, and was opened for traffic to Inglewood on the 29th of August, 1877. The first portion of this line was constructed by Brogden and Co., Railway Engineers and Contractors, of England, under the superintendence of Mr. Henderson. The line was surveyed by Mr. C. W. Hursthouse, who is at present the Resident Engineer of the line, and is engaged in extending it towards Patea. In June, 1874, Mr. W. M. Burton was appointed Immigration Agent to the Province by the Provincial Council, and shortly afterwards proceeded with Mrs. Burton to England, via San Francisco, where he was engaged for three years lecturing in the agricultural districts of the East of England, and in superintending the embarkation of emigrants for Taranaki.
NEW PLYMOUTH HARBOR.
In 1866, Messrs. Balfour and Doyne were employed by the Provincial Government to survey the New Plymouth roadstead for a harbor site. This work was executed by these gentlemen, and plans of harbors at the Sugarloaves and opposite to the town projected by them at a cost of £2,000. In 1866, the Provincial Council passed the Harbor Trust Ordinance, which set apart Mount Eliot, some land at the seaward end of Brougham Street, and at the mouth of the Huatoki River for harbor purposes. In 1875, the Provincial Council passed the New Plymouth Harbor Board Ordinance, constituting a Harbor Board consisting of nine members, six of whom were to be elected by the members of the Provincial Council, and three to be appointed by the Governor in Council, vesting the harbor reserves and one-fourth of the land fund of the Province in the Board, and empowering it to raise a loan for harbor purposes of £350,000. In 1877, an Act of the General
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Assembly was passed limiting the borrowing powers of the Board to £200,000, and simplifying the mode of raising the loan. The first members of the Board were:--elected by the Council---Majors Atkinson and Brown, Messrs. Syme, F. A. Carrington, A. Standish; appointed by the Governor in Council--Messrs. T. Kelly, H. Weston, and G. Curtis. Mr. Carrington was chosen chairman and treasurer, and Mr. J. B. Lawson, secretary. In 1876, a new plan for a harbor at the Sugarloaves was projected by Messrs. Carruthers and Blackett, connected with which was a scheme of a central prison at the harbor works. At the time we write, Messrs. Carruthers and Blackett's harbor design is under the consideration of the Governor in Council, while the central prison scheme has apparently fallen through.
THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
On the 10th of June, 1871, the electric telegraph was open from New Plymouth to Opunake. On the 15th of April, 1872, communication was opened with Wellington, partly by telegraph, and partly by mounted messengers, who rode to and from Opunake and Hawera, between which places the natives would not suffer the telegraph line to be erected. On the 29th of June, 1876, direct telegraphic communication was obtained with Wellington by the Mountain Road; and in February, 1878, Waitara was placed in connection with the telegraph system.
JUDICATURE.
For many years Captain King, R.N., officiated as Resident Magistrate of the district, but when, by reason of his age, he was compelled to seek retirement, he was succeeded on the bench by Mr. Flight, who in his turn succumbed to age, and was succeeded by Mr. H. R. Richmond, who filled concurrently the offices of Superintendent and Resident Magistrate. Mr. Richmond having fulfilled his term of office as Superintendent, and failing to obtain re-election, this arrangement fell through, and Mr. Harry Eyre Kenny, a barrister of considerable promise, who had for some time efficiently filled the office of Registrar of the Supreme Court and Clerk of the Resident Magistrate's Court, was appointed Resident Magistrate, and has since in conjunction with that office been appointed District Judge. In the early days, Mr. Donald Maclean, afterwards Sir Donald, held the office of Inspector of Police. He was succeeded by Mr. H. Halse, who was succeeded by Sergeant Dunn, who was succeeded by Sergeant Duffin. At the commencement of 1878 the Civil Police and Armed Constabulary were amalgamated, and Mr. Sub-Inspector Kenny was appointed to command the division performing civil police duty in New Plymouth.
THE LITERARY INSTITUTE.
At the foundation of the Settlement, the New Plymouth Company sent out a copy of the "Encyclopaedia Brittanica," as the nucleus of a public library for New Plymouth; this has been religiously preserved,
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and around it from time to time have clustered other works, until the library has assumed large proportions. The Taranaki Institute consists of a general library, and a library of reference, containing a total of 3,000 volumes, also a free reading room, well supplied with periodical literature and newspapers.
EDUCATION.
In the early days of the settlement the education of the young was sadly neglected. No provision was made for general instruction by the Plymouth or New Zealand Company, or by the Government of the Colony; the district was also too sparsely populated, and the people were generally too poor for private teachers to hope for support in the pursuance of their avocations. Mrs. and the Misses King rendered important service in the instruction of the female children of the more wealthy classes, and Messrs. Murch, Sharland, Batkin, and Beardsworth at different periods gave instruction to the boys of New Plymouth. Many of the poorer children were taught to read in the various Sunday Schools of the town, and Mesdames Homeyer and Parker kept preparatory schools. Many children, however, grew up without instruction. During the war the children who were sent as refugees to Nelson received instruction in schools specially opened for them by the Government, and also in the Nelson Public Schools. When the families returned from Nelson the Wesleyans established a school, which was conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Schofield, and afterwards by Mr. and Mrs. Collis.
In 1857, the Provincial Council passed the Education Commission Ordinance, which authorised the Superintendent to appoint a Commission to enquire into, and consider what system of Education should be adopted for the Province. In 1868 the Council passed an Ordinance for making provision for the establishment and maintenance of schools in the Province. The result of this legislation was that a few schools were established, but the funds at the disposal of the Provincial Government were so small, that the system of instruction inaugurated by it was very imperfect. In 1874, His Honor the Superintendent held meetings in the various districts surrounding New Plymouth, for the purpose of testing public opinion respecting a projected provincial measure for placing public education on a sound basis by the levying of a household rate of £1 per annum for its support. Notwithstanding very great opposition to the scheme, the Council passed an Educational Ordinance dividing the Province into two Districts, constituting Boards and levying a household rate. The members of the Boards were elected by the people, the first members of the New Plymouth District being:--A. Standish, H. A. Atkinson, B. Wells, H. R. Richmond, C. W. Hursthouse, H. Govett, and Mr. W. N. Syme. B. Wells was chosen chairman, W. Northcroft secretary and treasurer, and W. M. Crompton inspector. The funds of the Boards consisted of the household rate, the rents of lands set apart for education purposes, and grants from the Provincial Government. By the exertions of the Boards a very
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great improvement was effected in the educational system of the districts. The teachers were encouraged by the increase of their very small salaries, the blockhouses scattered about the country were utilised as school houses, and many new school buildings were erected and schools established in various parts of the Province. In 1877, a Colonial Act of a provisional character came into operation, by which all the public schools of the Colony were brought under the control of the General Government, and in 1878, by the Act of the session of 1877, public education became free, secular and compulsory, and was provided for out of the general revenue of the country in connection with educational endowments.
THE HOSPITAL.
Dr. Peter Wilson for many years performed the duties of Colonial Surgeon in New Plymouth, his patients being chiefly Maoris. Since the war the hospital has been chiefly a local institution, and is now supported by the Borough, and County Councils. Dr. T. E. Rawson has for many years filled the office of Provincial Hospital Surgeon, and Mr. and Mrs. Hill that of Steward and Matron.
THE BOTANIC GARDEN.
In 1875, by an arrangement between the Provincial Government, the Board of Education and the Board of Public Trustees, which was ratified by the Taranaki Botanic Garden Act, a large piece of broken land at the south of the town of New Plymouth, and abutting on the Carrington Road, was set apart for a botanic garden and recreation ground. The Board of Trustees consists of T. King (Chairman), R. Bayley (Hon. Secretary), R. C. Hughes, J. Gilmour, H. Ford, J. T. Davis and T. Colson.
ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETY.
During the war pheasants were introduced from Nelson. On the 27th of January, 1871, skylarks were introduced from Nelson by Mr. H. R. Richmond. Since then sparrows have been introduced from Auckland by Mr. A. Colson, and greenfinches from Nelson by Mr. Harley. The society has introduced the Indian mainah from Nelson, and partridges, blackbirds, thrushes, and goldfinches from England, by the aid of Mr. Burton, the Immigration Agent. The society is supported by fees paid for licenses to shoot game and by donations. Mr. C. D. Whitcombe is the Secretary.
Fresh victories of peace are being gained year by year; fresh fields are gained from the leafy and wooded wilderness; roads, railways and telegraphs are being extended, explorers are out in the interior searching for metals and minerals, and for lines of communication with other districts; local government promises to operate beneficially, attempts are being made to provide the district with a
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haven for ships, and the towns with the comforts and luxuries of civilised life. The pioneers who came to the wilderness in the full vigor of manhood are now aged, but they can look backward on the heroic struggle they have endured in their endeavor to plant an empire under southern skies, and look forward to the fruit of their labors which their children will possess as an inheritance.
