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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 65

Note A., p. 5

Note A., p. 5.

Seeing that Hawke's Bay lias become so noted for its numerous and fine large cattle, it may not be altogether out of place to give in a note their first introduction into the District; which may, at least, amuse the Breeders who read or hear of it. I brought here with me, in 1844, five head; viz., 2 cows, 2 heifers, and a young bull. One of the cows was a red poley, a well-formed creature; one that had been a few years before imported by me from Parramatta N.S.Wales (selected from Mr. Marsden's celebrated herd) to the Bay of Islands; the other was a white and yellow long-horned cow, also a good one. And here I may relate a curious incident respecting the red poley; on my vessel arriving at Ahuriri, and anchoring off the Bluff, the Captain, who had never before been in Hawke's Bay, (I acting as pilot,) went in my whaleboat and sounded the bar entrance to the harbour, and for some way within it. Presently lots of natives came off to us in several canoes, so that the ship's deck was soon uncomfortably crowded. The Captain, however, did not enter the Ahuriri, though he would have done so (he said) if a change of weather should come on, his vessel a brig of 160 tons being rather large, but anchored off the Waitangi Mission Station, where he discharged all his loading for me. I may also hero mention as a thing of the past, never more to be seen in Hawke's Bay, that on that occasion we had no less than 120 canoes at one time around our ship, which with the fierceness of the people, at first alarmed our Captain pretty considerably. While at our first anchorage, we determined on landing the cattle there under the Bluff, and while these were getting ready, a high dispute arose among the Natives on Board, at the head of which was the Chief—Te Waaka te kawatini (subsequently so well known to the settlers here), and the dispute was simply this,—that the said red poley cow was a horse! it was referred at last to me and soon decided. There being no grass then about the Waitangi Station, the cattle wandered a good deal seeking food, and were with difficulty found and brought home. By-and-bve the red poley was killed just after calving; the fierce wild pigs having absolutely eaten away the teats and adjoining parts of the cow! through which she had miserably died, and was so found by us very soon after. We sought diligently all around for the calf, but could find no trace of it, no remains; and we supposed that it had been eaten too. I got several natives to dig a large and deep pit to bury the cow, and this was done; and a week or so afterwards the little red calf (like its dam) was accidentally found dead, lying whole and stretched out across its mother's grave! One of the two heifers fared much the same in calving as the poley cow; we knew her time was page 66 near, and had kept up a pretty good watch over her,—but there being yet no food close at hand, and the great flood of 1845 happening, (the greatest by far that I have ever known,) the winter too having commenced, and the great difficulty of getting any of the Natives to do any thing properly, owing to their being wholly unused to all our work, and to the disagreeableness of the job of searching that wet and tangled flat half-naked and in wet and cold weather,—and then (as I take it) the propensity of cattle to seek some retired and sheltered spot for calving,—she wandered far away, so that she could not be timely found; at last she was found, recently dead, killed!—with the head of the partly expelled calf gnawed off and all the surrounding soft parts of the mother including her udder!! This, however, was mainly if not entirely done by a big ferocious bull-dog or half-breed, which the Natives had some time before obtained from a ship off the Cape at a high price as a pig-dog. I scarcely need add, that I could obtain no redress: I had "to grin and bear it." My time of power and influence among them had not yet come; indeed, I was scarcely settled down, and had quite enough to do to hold my own against the suspicious and powerful tribal Chiefs (or petty Kings!), who were all, at that time, determined heathen and opposed to Christianity. In a few years, however, patient perseverance was rewarded, and things were wonderfully changed. Ultimately that savage dog was obliged to be killed; not, however, until after he had done me much mischief.

I could also give several other strange anecdotes respecting those few cattle and their offspring,—and of what I had to put up with respecting them, during my early years of residence here,—which would scarcely now be believed!

I may, however, add a brief history of the first Horse. This animal was obtained by me from Poverty Bay (overland), in 1846; it was a fine strong docile creature, a bright bay gelding with black points, and named Cæsar. I have already mentioned " the great flood of 1845,"—that completely destroyed all my first farming! or, laying-down of two paddocks (about 4 acres) in ryegrass and clover. I had got the ground cleared, dug up, drained all round—the situation being very low—and partly fenced, at an enormous amount of trouble, not to mention expense; and the grasses sprang delightfully; when the heavy flood came and destroyed all!—The silt deposited on that occasion, (as I subsequently informed Dr. Featherstone, then Superintendent of the Province, at his official request,) measured, in some spots in my two paddocks 2ft. 4in. in depth, and in none less than 4—5 inches. To return: there was no grass about the Station, or indeed anywhere on all the low lands around, for the horse; so that, in the following autumn, (during my long absence from the Station,) the poor horse died! mainly from want of proper food and the wet plashy state of the whole low country around. Had I, however, been there, I would have turned him out on to the long beach between Waitangi and Ahuriri, where he could have found a scanty picking on dry ground; but those in charge feared to do so, lest he should seek to go back to Poverty Bay, and in page 67 doing so, attempt to swim the Ahuriri and be carried out to sea. I was told, on my return, that the frogs of his four feet had swollen out like balls or cushions, so that for a long time before his death he could not stand. The Maoris were then, at the last, greatly interested in saving him, and gathered coarse grasses and leafy shrubs at a distance in profusion, and brought them to him. Though broken-in to saddle, he was never ridden by us.

I should also give a brief outline of my early troubles attendant on my first attempts at farming:—viz. the bringing-in to cultivation a few acres of the wild waste, by preparing and laying it down with grasses. I have already mentioned the heavy flood in 1845, and the deep deposit of silt it left; that was bad enough, and destroyed all hopes of grass for the first year. But that trouble and disappointment, great though it proved to be, was but slight when compared with the greater trouble that arose from the fencing not being completed! I have said, that the 4 acres of cleared land were "partly fenced"; and thus that ground remained for nearly four years! and it came about in this way. In order to please the five head Chiefs of these parts, (who were then exceedingly poor, and badly off in money and clothing and moveable goods, and very jealous of each other,) all the work required by me must be shared between them, so that themselves and their people might get a little of the payment,—indeed no Maori could undertake any job without first obtaining the assent of his Chief; therefore it was arranged that each principal Chief was to have part of the fencing to erect. With four of them I managed pretty well, and during the first year of residence they completed their shares of the work; but Te Hapuku, who had the long W. side to erect, delayed it, and would not allow his tribe to touch it, (and, of course, none of the others dared to do so!) And this was solely owing to my refusal to advance him any thing more, he having already largely overdrawn the sum fixed for the job (at so much per fathom). And during this long period the numerous half-wild pigs of that place (surrounded as it was on three sides by water,) came in herds to eat down and root up the clover, and to destroy the drain!—which, at first, was a very well made and effectual one. It was about four years before Te Hapuku allowed his share of the fence to be made, and it was the worst piece of work of the whole lot, composed of roughly split white pine from the "Big Bush" near by, and badly put up; while the E. fence, composed wholly of totara, laboriously brought from Kohinurakau 25 miles distant, dubbed down, and securely cross-bound to the rails, stood sound and good for 20 years and upwards. Those early years were, indeed, a time and school for patience!