Personal Notes and Reminiscences of Members of the

Reminiscenes from Mrs Hannah Barnes, nee Old[i].

I have been asked to write something about the old pioneer days. I am afraid I am not much at writing and I don't know where to begin. I don't know whether I will ever reach a finish but I will give it a trial. I think I had better start by tell you about my parents arrival in New Zealand.

They arrived in New Plymouth in Jan 1843, after being on the sea for about 4 months. There were no fast steamers in those days, they were all sailing vessels. When they landed in New Plymouth they were taken ashore in surf boats. There was not even a wharf for them to land on. The town, such as it was, was mostly raupo whares and not too many of those. As soon as father could get a section of land he went farming, but he had to clear the bush off before he could get anything off it. Then when they could grow anything there was not much chance of getting it sold. They used to chip in a bit of wheat where they burned the bush and they used to thresh it by hand

They got a small steel mill and ground their own flour by hand. It was hard work too. I have had a try at it, so I know. There was not much machinery in the country for the farmers those days. The family all had to help as much as they were able. And everything had to be done by hand. There were no milking machines nor separators. The milk was set in pans and skimmed and churned for market. All country children learned to ride a horse. It was the only way they had to get from one place to another without they used their own legs, which they often did. There were no railways or telephones, not even telegraph wires. We were lucky if we got a mail from our nearest friends once a week. Mails were carried from Wellington to Wanganui and from Wanganui to New Plymouth on horseback.

Early in the fifties my father received an offer of a small farm and some work near Wanganui, so he walked from New Plymouth to the Westmere. The only way was round the coast all the way and ford the rivers. He left Mother and the children behind till he could get a home for them. When they came down they had to come by boat which took them two days, if not more. When Father walked from New Plymouth he had to stay with the Maoris and they told him the white people should not have come out to New Zealand because this country was for the Maoris. They said there were only a few white people here and the Maoris were going to drive them all into the sea. One place where he stayed one night the old Maori lay across the doorway of the whare so Father would not get away without him knowing. The old chap went to sleep near morning so Father thought that was his chance to get away. So as soon as it was light enough to see the track Father got up quietly and stepped over the Maori without waking him. I don’t know whether the Maori tried to follow him when he woke up or not.

Father stayed at Westmere for two or three years, then he was told of a farm this side the river that he could lease. He brought his family over and things went well with them for a while. Then the Maoris were getting very troublesome all round Wanganui. All the settlers were asked to send their wives and families into the town for safety and the husband and grown up sons stayed to protect their property or they joined the volunteer. After a short time things got a bit quieter, so the mothers and children were allowed to come back to their homes. The war was not over for a long while after that. A few months after we came back to our home the farm was sold so we had to have another move. Father tried to get another improved farm but he could not hear of one. Just then there was some government bush land opened for selection so he bought a section of 200 acres and had to clear some of the bush before he could build a house for us to live in. There was no road within three miles of the place and no grass for his milking cows. As usual good friends come to our assistance. One man told Father to turn the cows on his place till he could get some feed for them. The next thing was to get a house ready do he dug the clay from the ground and built a house with that for the time being. My mother and older sisters while washed the house all through, floors and walls too with papa or blue clay and made it cosy. Now the trouble was to get the children educated. Schools were few and far between and the younger children could not walk so far over hill and dale.

The few settlers that were near called a meeting among themselves to see what they could do. Father said he would give the ground to build the school on and another neighbour said he would do the most of the building with a little help. Then they went round with a subscription list to get money to pay for material. That is how they got their first school. Then they had to pay 5 shillings a quarter per head for three children, if they had more than 3 going to school they got them for the same. Then some of the teachers had to teach two schools. They used to teach one school one afternoon and next morning and then travel in the dinner hours. So are you surprised we are not better educated? That was not all. The parents had to put the teachers up without any allowance for their board.

The amusement the backblock settlers get they made for themselves They would all join in together and get up a picnic or a sports meeting and have it on one of the farms. Everybody within distances used to come to our little gathering. Sometimes we would have a dance or a social evening. Some would sing, and some would play a concertina or an accordion or something of that kind. We did not have talking pictures in those days. I was a real country girl so I can’t tell you much about town life. The first I remember was when we were called into town when the Maori war was on and I was not quite four years old. We were all staying at the hotel this side the river. It was then called the Red lion. The name has since been changed to Royal. There was one little shop on this side the river and it was up on a bank just below where the end of the bridge now is, but on the other side of the road.

There was no bridge across the river so we had to get across in a ferry boat or a punt. The first time I remember crossing in the boat I thought it was lovely to be able to put any hand over the side of the boat and touch the water. I was not afraid.

When the bridge was built and opened for traffic there was great rejoicing. For some time after the bridge was first open we had to pay a penny every time we walked over it and a shilling every time we took a horse & cart over. I think it cost sixpence for a horse. So you will see we got nothing for nothing. To equal things they put up a tollgate on the top of St John’s Hill. My earliest recollections of the town were sand hill and sand flats with a few buildings up the Avenue and a few scattered about from Wilson St to Harrison St. All along the river bank on the town side were Maori tents and whares and any time you went along there you would see Maoris of all ages lying in the sun. A favourite place of theirs was up among the trees in what was then called the market square. Now it is the pretty Moutoa gardens. The Maoris in those days were very free and easy. They used to sit about on the pavements in any part of the town and smoke their pipes and rub noses with others as they came along. Sometimes they would try to copy the white people and buy a new pair of boots but they would often carry them on their shoulder because they could not bear their feet pinched.

I don’t think there is much more I can write now without I come down to a later time so I think I better finish off here and perhaps some day I might write of some of my adventures after I was married and moved to the back blocks once again with my husband and family, if any one would care to read it.

Reminiscenes from Mrs Hannah Barnes of Fordell (II)

Oh how I wish I had kept a diary of principal events through my life. Then I might have been able to write up something of interest to my family. But I must just do my best without. To begin, the first thing I remember clearly was when I was about three years or a little over. When the Maoris were fighting around Wanganui, all the settler’s wives and families were ordered into Wanganui. We, with many others, were put up in the Red Lion Hotel on the left bank of the Wanganui River. The Hotel is still there in the same place but it has been rebuilt quite recently. There was no bridge of any kind across the river at this time. Anyone wanting to cross the river to get into town had to be rowed across in a boat or if they wanted to take a horse and cart over there was a punt a bit further up river. I think when we went in to town that time it must have been the first time I was ever in town or it would not have been s vivid in my mind to last all these years. There was one little shop a little bit below the bridge that is there now, on the other side of the road, and there was an elderly lady and an assistant used to keep it. Where the steps and the lift are now was a very steep hill and I remember my older sisters wanting to climb to the top and of course I wanted to too and they said I was too small so child-like I cried and mother made them come back and get me, but I don’t know whether I was pleased or sorry before I got home. We did not often get over to the town. It used to cost something and there was too many of us to take us younger ones over often.

The farm Father was on was a leasehold about five miles out of town on the No 2 line. About twelve months after we came back to the farm it was sold and father had to look around for another place. He tried several places to get a farm but he could not get an improved one. The was some government land opened up for selection so he bought 200 acres in the Denlair and it was all bush and no road to it. He had to then turn to and fell enough bush to build a house for his family. He dug a big hole in the ground and puddled the clay and built a house with the clay and he felled pine trees and split shingles to cover the roof with. Then he took his wife and family up there to live. I remember the day we went up there to live. Mother and the older ones of the family walked up and some men that they knew helped to carry us younger children on their backs. There was one neighbour up there and they took us in and kept us there for a few days till Mother had a bit of a rest and they got the place in a bit of order. Of course us children thought it was lovely with great big trees all around us but I don’t suppose Father and Mother thought it so grand with no grass for our cows to feed on. We met good neighbours which is a blessing. A man about two miles away told them to turn the cows on his place till there was feed for them, so that was a help. When we have good neighbours and good friends we have a lot to be thankful for. After we had been up there a few years, I can’t say how long but I know I was only a small child, one of my sisters took ill and they sent to Wanganui for a doctor. The doctor came out and he said they were alarming themselves unnecessarily because it was only a bad cold, but she took ill about Wed and she died the following Sunday. That was my first knowledge of death. Doctors were very scarce in Wanganui at that time, I think there was only one doctor in the place to be had. If we wanted a doctor a messenger had to go for him and either wait in town till the doctor rode out to see the patient and go back again to order what medicine was wanted. It was a whole day’s wait before you could get a doctor and then get the necessary treatment.

Everything depended on the horse at that time. When I was about eight years old my eldest brother[1] got married and he brought his wife to live near us for the first twelve month. She was a little Scotch woman and we were all very fond of her. When my brother and his wife moved away they leased a farm down nearer town and we moved into the house where they were living. Soon after they shifted my sister next younger than me went to live with them, to help look after their baby. Shortly after that my two oldest sisters[2] got married and they all took up land in the Waverley district. That was just after the Maori war ended or at least things were quieting down. About a year after my eldest sister got married another of my sisters died[3].

That left mother with only me to help her with the housework. We were milking cows and there were no separators in those days so we had to set the milk in pans till the cream rose to the top. Then we used to skim the cream off and make butter and feed pigs and calves with the milk.

Soon after my sister died or just before, I forget which, the Wanganui Bridge was opened. It was a great day for Wanganui when that bridge was finished and opened for traffic. We used to have to pay a penny to walk over it and six to ride a horse and one shilling to take a conveyance with one horse but that was better than having no bridge, only a boat or punt. They used to be able to open the middle of the bridge and let small steamers go up river. Wanganui was small then to what it is now. After we got as far as the Masonic Hotel there were very few buildings, only ferns and manuka scrub all along from the river to where the railway now goes round the town. They started and made the railway line from Whangahue to Aramoho. Then we had to take a cab to the town. If we wanted to go any further we had to take the coach, which used to run to New Plymouth and another one to Wellington. The coaches used to run about three times a week to each place. They would go down one day and back the next. Then there was more lengths of the railway opened till we could get right to New Plymouth but it was not opened right through to Wellington till 1885 or 1886

In Nov 1879 I met my future husband. He came out to Denlair to help build some additions to the school and two years after we were married. His people were all living in Wellington at that time. Two years after I met my husband first we were married and lived near my father and mother on a few acres my father gave me. John built a small cottage of rooms and though the house was small we were very comfortable and happy, but work was very scarce everywhere. There was not much doing at the building trade so John went out with one of my brothers cutting firewood, fencing and bush felling. When he could get a job carpentering he was pleased to take it but there not much and others to do that kind of work that were better known. After we had been married a few years Mr Richardson asked him to go in with them. He said it was no use them working against each other, so they joined forces and they carried on under the name of Barnes and Richardson [until he] had to give up though ill health. Then it was still carried on by one of his sons and J. Barnes till a few years ago when Mr Barnes's health broke down.

Before that he took up a bush farm in the Mangamahu district. There was no road into it so we still had a hard struggle in front of us. We had Grandfather Barnes living with us at this time but he was too old to do much on the farm. He used to tend to the vegetable garden and cut the wood and do odd jobs. But I am getting ahead of my story. Some five years before we took up the bush place I lost my mother, which was a sad loss to me. She was a good mother to her family and after she was gone the home never seemed to be the same. We lived in the same little house but my husband had built two more rooms on when his father came to live with us and the family was growing. By this time there was three children that had to be considered. We had a pretty hard struggle and the oldest children were getting old enough to go to school. We thought we better look out for a bigger place so we could bring in something to help out a man’s wages, which were not big.

We tried several places without success when there was some bush ground opened up by the Government for selection and we managed to secure a section of 300 acres. There was no road to it and not a stick felled, only a bridge track within about three miles of the place, then after that we had to ride down a long ridge with only a sheep track, and when we got to the creek or small river we had to ford through big boulders and swift flowing water and steep banks both sides. The men went up to the place and felled a bit of bush and left a little to be felled and got in a few acres of grass. That was all we could do at first. Then we got down another fifty acres. As soon as they could manage it Mr Barnes and his father went up and built a whare and divided it in four rooms, but the timber was very green and everything used to get wet and mouldy. Then I sold out my little home where we had lived very happy if we were poor for nearly 13 years. By that time I had six children[4] and the youngest was six months old[5].

Back in the bush we went but just before we were ready to shift we lost our only two horses. It was a great loss to us for we had no others to take their place. It was a very rough winter that year and there was a lot of sickness among horses. The roads were very bad for any traffic. We could not buy a harness horse anywhere and we could not borrow one so there was only one thing to do. Mr Barnes bought one that would do to ride or pack and my brother lent us one. Having the children small I had not done much riding for some years but there was no help for it so I took the baby[6] six months old and the father took the next to the baby[7] and started off for that long ride into the very heart of the bush in the middle of the winter.

I am never likely to forget that ride if I live to be a hundred. I had to ride all the way from Fordell right up around the ridge road and then down through a man's property, which must have been nearly forty miles with a baby on my lap. By the time I got to the whare I did not care what happened. All I wanted was to go to bed. I had another little boy[8] that I had to leave behind with my sister till his father could go for him which was a fortnight after we went up to our new home. The two girls[9] stayed behind with the schoolteacher till after their exam. They were there for about three weeks but as soon as the exam was over their father went down to Fordell for them. It was a bitter cold day, the day he brought them home. They were young to travel so far on horseback. One was a little over nine and the other was not quite eight. You will see that my children had to rough it while quite young. I was so pleased when I had them all under my own roof once more and could look after them. The next time I came down to Wanganui was when that baby was a year old. Then his father and I rode down, but there was the two of us to carry the baby so it was not so bad.

We were not in there more than six months before the surveyors came in to lay off a road for us all on the creek valley, so it was not very long before they had several gangs of men on to make a bridle track but it was a good while before it was finished and of course we were at the top end and was the last to get the road or at least the last but one When we did get a road it was only a pack track. That meant we had to take out our wool on pack horses for about six miles and we had to pack in all our stores, but even that was a blessing to what we had before which was up ridges where there was no road. When the bridle track was made we could ride to Mangamahu and bring home anything less than 501bs on our saddles in front of us. That was when the road was not blocked with slips or the culverts washed out. This very often happened two or three times a year. They started to make the cart road from the Mangamahu end but they let 2 or 3 contracts as soon as possible, so we were living in hope.

When we could get a horse and gig four miles above Mangamahu we thought it was glorious, for any of us that was old enough could catch a horse and go for a ride to our neighbours or go down to the store for goods. As soon as there was a chance of a road we tried to get someone to cut timber by hand so we could get a house built. Mr Barnes and his father had a try at it but the old man was too old for that work and neither of them knew much about it. Just about that time Mr Barnes got a good bit of work at his trade, so it was better for him to let the cutting of the timber while he was building for other people. We had a great job to find a man to come and do it. We heard of one man that was cutting timber away up the Whangaheu valley so Mr Barnes myself got our horses and rode over hills and gullies and when we got there that man and his mate had finished their contract and left. That meant another long ride to look for another. Next time we both went over the hill to Hunterville and we had that trip without success. On our road home we called into a neighbours place and it came on a severe thunderstorm. Anyone that has not travelled those hill tracks could not understand what is was like to ride over those tracks in the pouring rain but we got home just about dark without accident. We had many a rough ride together. Soon after that there was two men came in the valley to cut timber for a neighbour so we got them to cut ours. Then the next trouble was to get the other material for our house. They had to pack doors and sashes on horse back for four miles. After waiting and struggling under difficulties we got a nice comfortable house built. By this time we had a very fair orchard and garden. I made a nice little flower garden in front of the house and flowers done well when I was well enough to keep the soil loose and the weeds down. I had some very good flowers.

There was always the drawback in getting the children educated. There was a neighbour father up the road that had 3 boys of school age, so he asked my eldest daughter if she would teach them if the education board would give us a little help. We had four to start and the neighbour below us had one girl so that made eight. The board was quite agreeable so we gave up our sitting room through the day. She taught those children till they passed the 4th standard. Then we got a man teacher and one of the neighbours petitioned the government to build a school on the other side of the river and said there was a lot more children would attend if it was over there.

The school was built but it was not much use to us because the river used to rise so suddenly that what was a creek in the morning might be a raging torrent by the time the children wanted to come home at night, and the children further down the valley did not attend well, There was a lot of short time and bad roads even in the summer time. I have come out myself and could not get back again the next day.

One time I came down to Fordell on a Friday and wanted to get home on Sundav and where I was it was fairly fine, so I started for home and when I got down where I could see the Whangaheu river it was running bank high. 1 knew there had been heavy rain but I did not think it would be so bad as it was When I got near Mangamahu someone told me not to attempt to go up the creek road because they had a terrible downpour and there were no culverts on bridges left on the road. I did not know what to do so I went up the ridge where there was no road. When I got two or three miles from Mangamahu the road was blocked, all but about a foot, I got around that but when I got about four or five miles further on there was a very bad slip right across the road so I got off my pony and thought she would get over if any horse could, but I nearly lost her. The mud and wood was deeper than I thought and all wet underneath so she sunk down right to the saddle flaps. I held on to the reins of the bridle and spoke to her and she made a big struggle and got out all covered in mud and dirt and [? I was] tired, I was all on my own and not a house near and I could not go back, so I went on down to the bottom of the hill to a whare. I knew it was no use trying to get the pony over the river for it was too high and full of big boulders. I took the saddle and bridle off and let the pony go. Then I was properly stranded. I went to the river to see if I could crawl across on a tree but there was not a tree to be found so I put one foot into the water and the current was so strong it just whipped my foot from under me as though it was a straw. I thought “That is no good”, so I went back to the whare.

By this time I was wet nearly to my waist. I had cooled several times when I was away up near the top of the hill. There was nothing for it but stay in the whare all- night and no tea. I looked round to see it I could find a match but no match could I find. There was a bit of dry wood but nothing to light it with. The man the whare belonged to told me after that he had always kept a box of matches there till a few days before when he went without any so he put those in his pocket. It was a bitter cold night and I was wet. I took off my shoes and stocking and rubbed my feet and legs to try and get them warm and I looked round to see if I could get a rug or something I could see was an old tent flag. I took that and waited for morning. As soon as the daylight came I slipped on my shoes without any stocking and walked around for about a mile and a half through newly burnt bush till I got opposite my home.

Just as I got there I seen my eldest son come out for a bit of wood so I called out to him and he ran in and called his father and they both came down and John carried me across the river on his back. The river had gone down a good bit by this time and it was wider there than it was up at the ford. The next day they went over and got the pony and my things I was carrying. They wanted me to go to bed and sleep all day but I was not feeling like sleep after what I had gone through so I had a cup of warm tea and the girls got me a hot water bottle and went to lie down till I got warm. Then I got out and moved about again. I never had any bad effects from my adventure.

That was only one adventure of many I could tell you about while we were on that place. Many a time Mr Barnes would say in the morning “Would you like to go for a long ride” if he was going somewhere to see a job or to consult a man on business of some kind and I would always go with him when the girls were old enough to do the work. When he was working away from home he used to come home on Saturday nights and if he wanted anything from Wanganui in a hurry he would say “Do you think you could go to town on Monday morning and get it?’ There were no telephones and only mail once a week. I don’t think I ever refused it I was able to go. I used to go down one day and stay with any sister and go into town the next day, and then I would go home the third day.

We stayed on that place for thirteen years but the roads and schooling were always a drawback and the grandfather had an interest in the place and he got very discontented. He used to like to go to Wellington when he could get out, but the roads were against him and money was not very plentiful. So decided we would sell out and let him have his share. We had a better chance of educating the children if we came out from there. Our nearest neighbour said if we wanted to sell out he would like to buy, so we both went down to Wellington and consulted the grandfather and he was quite agreeable.

We sold and bought a section in Fordell near a good school and Mr Barnes and our sons built the house we are now living in. While we were getting the house built we lived in the school house and when the house was finished we moved in on Christmas Eve, but a few months before we moved into our new house our eldest daughter get married and her and her husband went back to Mangamahu to live for the first year of their married life, Then they took up a bush section right away back in the bush once more. Her father also took up a section near them and the two eldest boys went up there to live and help clear the bush. None of us had a road within about ten miles of the place and they had to carry in their food and all other stores, mostly on their backs. When they got some bush felled and a few acres in grass, they got a few sheep but they still had difficulties for they had to drive their sheep away from home to shear them, then they had to pack the wool on horses. They were on that place for seventeen years and got about half of it cleared and grassed when the war broke out and we had not done well while there. I am not going to say much about that place because I was not up there often. I had my home in Fordell and only went up to where the boys were about four or five times.

When the war broke out I think I faced the hardest battle of my life. No one knows what it is but a mother when she has to say good-bye to her sons when they are going away to fight and I said good-bye to three[10].

The day the last two sailed out of Wellington harbour their father met with a dreadful accident. He went to help a man get in his crop and the horse he was driving fell forward and Mr Barnes slipped off a load of pressed straw and the heavy dray and the load went over his head and neck. One of the men came up and said there had been an accident and they were bringing him home so I got the bed ready for him but I had no idea what had happened. A few minutes after one of the men came in and asked me if I would go down to the paddock so I did not wait for any more but as I got to the garden gate he said wait a minute we don’t want you to walk, one of the neighbours is here with a car. They did not tell me what to expect when I got there. They did not know whether we would find him dead or alive when we got there. My daughter was staying at the place where her father was hurt, so she had tried to get a doctor but she had a job to get one in at that time but she had got one to promise to come out before I got there and she was out in the paddock bathing her father's head. When we got in sight of where he was the man that came for me said "It is his head that is hurt”. He was not unconscious, so as soon as he seen me he said "Take me home". The men said “Do you think we should take him home before the doctor comes?” I said “Yes, take him home". We just got him home in [???] the Matron said I must stay near or where there was a telephone because I might be wanted at a moment’s notice. The men that took us in proved good friends and helped me out all they could. One got a place for me to stay with his brother and his wife near the hospital gate and they would not take any pay while I was there. My husband was in the hospital for four or five weeks, but he was never well after although he got about and done light work but he could no do anything for months after he came home. I nursed him as well as I was able as long as he lived. He always complained of pains in his chest and gallstones but I think a lot of it was from the accident. The doctor that attended in the hospital said his lungs were bruised. Many a night neither of us got any rest for every time he moved with pain I was up to see what I could do. He lived long enough to see the three sons come home from the war. The one that went first came home last and he was engaged to a girl in England[11]. At that time his father was feeling a bit better, so with the help of some of the other sons they manage to build him a nice little cottage and the young woman came out and they got married at our house and they have lived near us ever since.

Don’t think from what I have written here that my life was all trouble and sorrow, because it was not. I had many years of happy married life with my husband and family around me. After I came to Fordell, to live I had many calls to help others in cases of sickness and sorrow. Even to the present day there are times […?] I feel it is only a little now a days. If I can’t do any thing else I can give a cherry word and a pleasant word often goes a long way.

[i] (R. Barnes, May 2006: These notes are a transcription of a transcription (by my father, A C Barnes) of a document prepared for (or by?) the Fordell Institute. My father’s typing has been scanned, OCR converted to text in Word 2000, and corrected. The original documents are in the Whanganui Regional Museum, in the WR Barnes Papers. Notes in italics are later additions by me. I’m have not been sure which “errors” to correct, so some have been left and others corrected. There are a few places where there seems to be a few words missing – I’ve marked these by [?]. Footnotes are mine).

Hannah Barnes, 1860-1939, was the daughter of John Old (1821-1896) and Mary Jane (nee) Knuckey (1828-1887). John and Mary met on the Gertrude as they emigrated with their family to New Plymouth in 1841 and were married in 1845 in New Plymouth. Hannah was the eighth child, and seventh daughter of this couple, if we include the first two daughters who didn’t survive beyond one day