PIONEERING life in rural north Taranaki was gruelling for new immigrants seeking a place to settle.
As a tribute to their hardship, Waitara-based author Wally Burgess has written a book and has based it on the history of families from Norfolk Road, near Inglewood.
"The book is specifically about four families," said Wally, "the Dombroskis, the Halls, the Burgesses and the Laurences, really it's about all pioneers and their struggles."
Entitled 'Gramercy' the book combines mostly fact, with a little fiction and describes some of the typical challenges that settler families encountered, including the establishment of a basic legal system in a country that was still developing its own identity.
"When the settlers arrived, all they had was Christianity. The Ten Commandments guided practical matters and people simply had to get on with things to survive, taking all things in moderation."
"The settlers took people on just as they found them and treated everybody fairly because they realised they needed to work together to survive."
It was research into Wally's own family that guided the direction of the book, and much of its detail was gathered from the hours he spent listening to his mother's stories as a child.
"I had bad asthma as a child and would spend two days out of school, at home every week. I heard plenty of stories then," he said.
As well as family anecdotes, Wally spent hours at the Inglewood Library and with Inglewood Genealogy records looking into the progress of the four families from when they first arrived.
"The Dombroskis were mainly farmers in Norfolk Road, while the Laurences did both farming and building and were originally from Maketawa."
"The Halls were strictly builders and built a flourmill at Lepperton and the Burgesses were engineers who ended up on a farm. They were from Ireland."
Wally's 18 months of research also looked into the lifestyle and technology associated with those pioneer days, finding out information like how families had to wash their clothes, the role of pig-hunting, pioneer farming techniques, the early relationships between the settlers and Maori and small-scale industries like fungus gathering and pit sawing.
"Reading all about what everybody had to do in those times just reminds me how grateful we all should be for what these early settlers did."
"They really do deserve our gratitude, acknowledgement, thankfulness and recognition."
While the book is based largely on factual research, it reads like a novel with Wally bringing fictitious characters into the story to progress it on.
"I've added a love story to it, but it all takes place in the context of this Inglewood pioneering background and ties in well."
Wally's self-published book, 'Gramercy' is available online from www.zenithprint.co.nz or from Wally on (06) 754 4653. It is also available at local libraries.
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