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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Nelson, Marlborough & Westland Provincial Districts]

Motupipi

page 213

Motupipi.

Motupipi is a postal and school district about five miles and a-half from the Takaka Post Office. Motupipi is a compound Maori word, “Motu” signifying an island or bush, and “pipi” is the name of a shell fish which is found in abundance on the sea beach. The river bearing the same name is about four miles long. Motupipi was originally surveyed in 1842, and peopled about eight years after by a few early colonists. It has an area of from 1400 to 1500 acres in small holdings, devoted to dairying, fruit growing, and hop cultivation. The local school is one of the oldest in the provincial district, and was opened over fifty years ago. The Golden Bay Coal Company has recently started work on the coast, and coalmining bids fair to become a permanent industry at Motupipi.

Motupipi Public School . This school is situated four miles from Takaka, and seven miles from East Takaka. It is a one-roomed building, and has accommodation for about seventy pupils. The number of scholars on the roll is sixty; and the average attendance forty-five. All the standards are efficiently taught, and the reports of the inspector have been satisfactory. Miss L. Bradley is now (1905) the mistress of the school.

Miss M. Hood assumed charge of the Motupipi school in September, 1892. She had been previously stationed at Clifton Terrace, for three years. Miss Hood had also served as a probationer for two years, and was assistant for twelve months at ToiToi Valley school, where she was educated by Miss Gascoigne, and afterwards by Mrs Evans, M.A. She is now (1905) on the West Coast.

Harwood, Thomas, Farmer, Motupipi. Mr. Harwood is the eldest son of the late Mr. George Harwood, who arrived in Nelson by the ship “Little London,” in April, 1842. He was born at sea on the 11th of January, 1842, while the vessel was on her way to New Zealand. His father and mother were born at Thorn, near Yeovil, Somersetshire, England. As a boy and young man, he faced and overcame, with his parents, many of the difficulties connected with the early colonisation of Nelson, in the days when there were neither streets in the towns, nor roads or bridges in the country; when rivers, gulfs, and shores had to be navigated in canoes; when inland traffic was by means of sledges and drays drawn by bullocks, and there were neither mails nor mail coaches. Mr. Harwood now farms 235 acres of land at Motupipi. It was originally forest land, and was taken up in 1868, but not settled on until 1876. The land is of limestone formation, and about 130 acres have been brought under cultivation. At first Mr. Harwood applied himself to the rearing of cattle, but of late years he has found sheepfarming more profitable, and now follows it. He has always taken an active interest in general and local politics, and has been honoured by the ratepayers with election to two of the local governing bodies, and once as chairman of the Licensing Committee, under the Act of 1881. Mr. Harwood was married, in May, 1898, to the widow of Sergeant Minor, sometime of the Royal Marines. Before her marriage with Sergeant Minor, Mrs Harwood was Miss Rebecca Bartram, and was born in Suffolk, England.

Mr. T. Harwood.

Mr. T. Harwood.

Packard, Peter B., Farmer, “Norwood,” Motupipi, Mr. Packard has 150 acres of land, most of which is cleared, sown in grass and stocked. Mr. Packard was born at Motueka in 1848, and removed to Motupipi two years later with his parents. He took up his present holding in 1872, when it was covered with bush. Mr. Packard is a member of the local Oddfellows' Lodge, and has served on the road board and school committee and other bodies. He married a daughter of Mr. James Baird, an old and respected settler.

Packard, Reuben, Farmer, “Rockville,” Motupipi. Mr. Packard has a freehold section of 150 acres, nearly all of which is cleared, grassed and subdivided into suitable paddocks. It is stocked with 150 sheep, and about thirty head of cattle. The soil is a light loam, and is best suited for grazing purposes. Mr. Packard was born in Motueka in 1851, and educated at Motupipi school. After leaving school, he worked for seven years at “The Grove,” Clifton, chiefly at gardening, for the late Mr. Jabez M. Gibson; and then he took up his present homestead which was at that time thickly timbered. Mr. Packard has passed through all the chairs of the local Oddfellows' Lodge. He married a daughter of the late Mr. Magnus Manson.

Mr. Joseph Packard is the oldest settler in the Golden Bay district. Originally he took up fifty acres, but afterwards purchased a block of 300 acres. Mr. Packard runs a few cows and sheep for his own use, and has a large lemon grove planted with 300 trees. He was born in Suffolk, England, in 1826, and is a self-taught man. Mr. Packard followed farming for some years in his native country, and came to Nelson, in 1818, in the ship “Bernecia,” which brought out the survey party engaged to lay out the Canterbury settlement. He lived at Motueka two years, when he proceeded to Motupipi, where he was engaged as a sawyer. He served twelve years on the first Takaka Road Board, and was also chairman of the County Council for four years. During his chairmanship the Council constructed eight miles of tramway at Takaka. Mr. Packard has been a promi-
Mr. and Mrs J. Packard.

Mr. and Mrs J. Packard.

nent Oddfellow for over fifty years, and is one of the trustees of the local lodge. On the occasion of their golden wedding in June, 1898, Mr. and Mrs Packard were presented with an address by the Oddfellows as a mark of their appreciation of the valuable services rendered to the lodge and district during their long residence. Mrs Packard is a page 214 daughter of the late Mr. John Bartram. The family consists of three sons, who are all residents of the district.

Mr. David Scott , who resided at Motupipi for over forty years, now (1905) lives in retirement in Nelson. Mr. Scott was born in Fifeshire, Scotland, on the 26th of July, 1832, and was apprenticed to the trade of a shoemaker. He did not like the work, however, and left it to become an engineman with the Edinburgh and Northern Railway Company, in whose service he remained for six years and ahalf. In 1859, he left the Old Country in the ship “Golconda,” and landed in Nelson on the 26th of December of that year. Disappointed in his expectations from friends who had induced him to come out, he went direct to Motupipi, and assisted in the formation of the first road in the district, from the mud flats at Motupipi to Clifton. He afterwards went digging for gold in various parts of Nelson, and on the Otago goldfields, and worked at Dunstan and Waipori, but with little success. Thereupon he returned to his home at Motupipi, and took up 600 acres of land from the Government. In connection with this undertaking, he and his wife had to put up with many hardships, as provisions were often scarce, and the crops a failure. Sometimes provisions ran so short that the potatoes, after being sown for a few weeks, had to be grubbed up again and eaten. However, working hard, early and late, Mr. and Mrs Scott made headway, and, after twenty-five years of fairly successful occupation, they sold their farm in March, 1897, and went to live in a pretty cottage at Motupipi, where they had twenty-three acres of land. Mr. and Mrs Scott have had a family of five sons and seven daughters. One daughter died when she was nineteen years of age, but the rest have grown to manhood and womanhood, and all are married. There are about sixty grandchildren, and the family in all consists of nearly ninety persons.

Mrs Wallis.

Mrs Wallis.

Mr. and Mrs D. Scott.

Mr. and Mrs D. Scott.

Mr. Henry Wallis , sometime of Motupipi, was one of the pioneers of Takaka. He was born in Hampshire, England, in 1826, and was brought up to farming, but subsequently engaged in railway work. For about ten or twelve years he carried on ement works in Kent. He came to Nelson in the “John Masterman,” and landed on the 10th of February, 1856. Mr. Wallis was on the Collingwood diggings shortly after gold was discovered, and was camped next to the late Mr. W. C. Hodgson, afterwards inspector of schools under the Nelson Education Board. He served as a maltster with Mr. Thomas Field, of Nelson, for five years. In 1864 he settled at Motupipi, where he carried on business as a brewer for about ten years, when Messrs Wallis Brothers assumed charge of the brewery. Mr. Wallis also farmed seventy-five acres of land, and did fairly well with it. He died on the 8th of February, 1888. Mr. Wallis was a member of the local road board and an Oddfellow for many years, and took an active interest in church affairs.

Golden Bay Coal Company , Motupipi. When Dr. F. Von Hochstetter, a geologist of world-wide reputation, visited New Zealand with the object of reporting on its geology to the German Emperor, he pointed out that coal of an excellent quality, and of the same geological age, could be secured at two places—in the North Island, near Auckland, and at Golden Bay, in the province of Nelson; and as the coals were of a high quality, he expressed the hope that the day was not far distant when mines would be worked at those places. As a matter of fact, enterprising people soon opened up mines, and met with a measure of success, notwithstanding the difficulties of transit. But the Maori war interfered with the industry, and the mines, for a time, appeared to have been forgotten; but, as a demand for cheaper coals grew, mines were opened at Drury, near Auckland, and Golden Bay, Nelson. The coal at Golden Bay occurs in several seams or layers. The uppermost seam is about two feet in thickness, and is of a sulphury character; but it is intended to reserve this for a special chemical process, to obtain ammonia, in which it is rich, and so meet an agricultural want. The second seam is about six feet in thickness, and is well adapted for steam or factory purposes. The third seam, a few feet below the second, which is narrow, is of a very pure quality, though largely mixed with fossilised gum, and is excellently suited for making gas. A few feet lower down, there is a fourth seam, four feet six inches in thickness, of a very superior class of coal for household use; and at present (1905) a shaft is being sunk to work this seam. The company expects to place this coal upon the market in a short time, and its sale appears to be assured, as already large orders have been obtained for it. The property is 150 acres in extent, and the facilities for shipment are of the very best, as the coal can be worked by drives and shallow shafts, situated just above high water mark, and the river channel admits of scows of 150 tons coming within fifty yards of the mine's mouth. The alluvial soil on the surface above the coal carries gold, and it is expected that this also will be worked in due time. The limestone on the property can be made remunerative, as the company can use its own coal for the burning. The Golden Bay Coal Company is composed chiefly of Auckland and Wellington shareholders, with Mr. Andrew G. French as the managing director.

Mr. Andrew Gordon French , Managing Director of the Golden Bay Coal Company, is a native of Lan- page 215 arkshire, Scotland, and received his education at the Glasgow University, where he took special courses in all the sciences. At an early period of his life, he, for many years, filled the post of technical manager for the Sheffield Smelting Company, the oldest and largest bullion smelting works in Great Britain. He also acted as adviser in metallurgy for some of the largest firms in Swansea, England, and in that capacity was identified chiefly with the treatment of refractory gold and silver ores. Mr. French has been associated with some of the largest mines in the world, and has done expert work for important mining companies and metallurgical
Tyree, photo.Mr. A. G. French.

Tyree, photo.
Mr. A. G. French.

works in the United States of America. He is known in metallurgical circles as the first to differentiate the chemistry of metallurgy from general chemistry, as a matter requiring specific professional knowledge and treatment. Mr. French has done expert work in connection with the Mount Morgan mine, in Queensland, and at mining properties in Newfoundland, Mexico, Germany, and England; and he has lectured, by special request, before various scientific societies in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and other large centres. He first visited New Zealand in 1895, and since then he has made frequent trips to the Old Country.
Aorere Bridge, Collingwood.

Aorere Bridge, Collingwood.