“Yes,” he said, “I am.”
“Well,” I said, “you probably won’t remember me, but I do remember you and all the pleasure you used to give us. Are you all out here? Where are the girls?”
I introduced myself, and he did remember me. The result was that he asked me to stay to their evening meal, which invitation I gladly accepted.
As he landed from the ladder he laughed, and he said, “I’m afraid I’m not much of an adept at tarring. It’s only been my second attempt, and it takes me such an awful time to get rid of the amount of the tar which I so freely distribute over myself. But I am sure you won’t mind our primitive ways, and if this abode is not as pretentious as the old castle in County Cork, still we can all give you a very hearty welcome.”
I put up my horse in the shed which did duty as a stable. He told me that the two sons were away with the milk cart, while the girls were hard at work doing the evening’s milking of the cows and feeding the poultry, and would shortly finish their day’s work. In the meantime, we would have a pipe and stroll round what he called the domain. We were a cheery party that met at that evening meal. The girls appeared, looking sweet in their very best clothes. The old man and his sons put on evening dress. The centre room was a living-room, drawing-room, dining-room, smoking-room, library, all combined in one. The table on which dinner was served was made of rough boards resting on a couple of trestles, but covered with the best of damask tablecloths and silver ornaments. The dining-room chairs consisted of empty packing cases. Such were the difficulties that the early settlers had to contend with.
Some years afterwards I was paying an official call on one of Her Majesty’s ships at Adelaide, South Australia, and the commander asked me to go into his cabin, where I saw a photograph of a sweetly pretty woman. I recognized it at once. It was one of the three sisters with whom I had dined some years before. I mentioned the fact, and asked him if she was a relation of his. “Very much so,” he said; “she is my wife.” He then told me all about the family, and that they had done well, and the farm had been a great success.
CHAPTER XII
A MAORI MEETING
At this time Tauranga itself was a centre of another kind of activity. Exeter Hall had exerted its wonderful influence in attempting to settle all sorts of questions affecting the Empire and the management of Imperial interests in the colonies, the governing of which had already been handed over to the care of those who had so ably developed them. Exeter Hall had influenced the Imperial Government to call upon the New Zealand Government to make monetary compensation to the Maoris for the loss, or so-called loss, of portions of the land which had been taken from them as the result of the Maori War.