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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Taranaki, Hawke's Bay & Wellington Provincial Districts]

Mr. Frederick John Tiffen

Mr. Frederick John Tiffen, one of Hawke's Bay's earliest settlers, was born at Hythe, Kent, in the year 1828, and is the third son of the late Mr. William Tiffen, of Hythe and Folkestone. He came to New Zealand in the barque “Louisa Campbell,” on his seventeenth birthday, and arrived in Wellington, via Nelson, after a voyage of 130 days. Here he awaited the arrival from New South Wales of a shipment of 758 merino ewes, to the order of Messrs J. H. Northwood and H. S. Tiffen (an elder brother), who had entered into partnership as sheep-farmers on the Ahiaruhi run of 9,000 acres in the Wairarapa Valley. Some idea of the difficulties of travelling with sheep in those days may be gained from the fact that the journey of seventy miles took eighteen days. In the following year, 1846, the adjoining Tauanui and Taratahi runs were similarly leased, and in the management of these properties Mr Tiffin found congenial employment. But the distance, from civilisation was occasionally keenly felt. Mr Tiffin has still a vivid, recollection of a journey on foot to Wellington, a distance of seventy-five miles, with a dislocated shoulder. A road over the Rimutaka ranges afterwards reduced the distance by about fifteen miles; and when Mr. Tiffen had to visit Wellington again on foot, he was able to accomplish the journey in two days each way. In 1849, with the assistance of Mr. Northwood and others, including half-a-dozen Maoris, he drove 3,000 sheep by way of the East Coast, to Pourerere, a run of 25,000 acres, which Mr. Northwood, assisted by Mr. Charles Nairn, had secured from the native owners. This journey of 140 miles occupied four weeks, the only stations en route being Pahau and Castle Point. Owing to the absence of grass, it was found necessary to take 2,000 of the sheep some miles inland to the Omakari portion of the run. There Mr. Tiffen took up his residence, and for nearly three years lived almost alone, his nearest European neighbour northward being the Rev. W. Colenso, of the Waitangi mission station, twenty-five miles distant. Five miles still further on, at the Western Spit, lived Messrs Alexander and Anketel, traders, but to the southward the nearest Europeans were at Castle Point, seventy miles away. When Mr. Tiffen was called to Wellington to give evidence at the trial for murder of William Good, he had to walk 340 miles, and carry both food and blankets with him. Yet this hardship he undertook as a welcome change, having seen but few European men, and no women, for nearly two years. In 1852, having been over five years in the employ of Messrs Northwood and Tiffen, he again walked to Wellington, this time accompanied by a Maori, by an almost unknown track through the so-called Forty-Mile bush. Hawke's Bay was at that time part of the Wellington province, and Dr. Featherston, the superintendent, being desirous of turning this track into a road, Mr. Tiffen was asked to make a report on the route, through Mr. A. Ludlam, member of the Provincial Council for Ahuriri, by which name the northern portion of the province was known. In this report it was estimated that the bush was seventy miles in extent. Mr. Tiffen then went to Australia, where he found the gold-fever raging. He joined a mounted patrol, and did escort duty between Bathurst and the Turon fields. Within a year, however, he returned to New Zealand, landed in Wellington, and thence walked to Homewood station, in Hawke's Bay, a run of 10,000 acres, page 411 which had fallen to his brother through the dissolution of the partnership with Mr. Northwood. He was placed in charge of the stock, and successfully set to work to cradicate scab, from which the flocks had not been entirely free for seven years. Later on, Mr. Tiffen was appointed inspector of sheep and registrar of brands, under the Provincial Government of Wellington, and held the positions for twelve years, during which period the sheep in the district increased from 55,097 to 164,312. At the same time Mr. Tiffen was manager of the Gwavas and Milbourne sheep stations. In 1859 he acquired his present “Elmshill” estate in Hawke's Bay. He married the second daughter of the late Dr. Monteath, who, with his wife and family, had resided in Wellington since 1839. Mr. Tiffen has three daughters and four sons; the latter own 17,000 acres of land in Poverty Bay, which Mr. Tiffen had acquired from the natives by renting and purchasing.