Twenty miles south of Auckland,\u00a0 the Smith family took up residence at Wairoa Road (Ardmore) in the Papakura Rural District (Lots 50 and 51).\u00a0 The Wairoa River meandered through the Wairoa Valley to reach the Hauraki Gulf,\u00a0 and many Maoris lived along its banks.\u00a0 A great forest filled much of the valley,\u00a0 and beyond the forest stretched the dark form of the Hunua Ranges.\u00a0 At the very edge of the forest was the land purchased by Benjamin Smith.<\/p>\n
He sold 46 acres,\u00a0 part of Lot 51,\u00a0 to Mr Webb on 4 March 1857.\u00a0 The remainder of the property stayed in the family hands until sold by Mr Samuel Jackson of Auckland,\u00a0 one of the two Executors to the Benjamin Smith Estate:\u00a0 part to Mr Burnside in 1882 and the remaining 57 acres to Mr Corbett in 1883,\u00a0\u00a0 though a financial interest existed until 1891 by way of mortgage.\u00a0 Later conveyances were Corbett to Hope,\u00a0 Mrs Emma Hope to F G Mullins with various mortgage and probate transactions,\u00a0 until the land was finally brought into the Land Transfer System after 1924.\u00a0 It remained for many years in the possession of the Mullins family.<\/p>\n
European neighbours were few.\u00a0 The first settlers of Wairoa South (Clevedon) had arrived only a short time prior to the Smiths.\u00a0 They were Mr Duncan McNichol,\u00a0 his wife,\u00a0 and his partner,\u00a0 Mr Hoye.\u00a0 From Auckland they had travelled by canoe past Waiheke Island and landed at the mouth of the Wairoa River.\u00a0 The Smith family also travelled down from Auckland by canoe,\u00a0 and then walked from Clevedon to their property,\u00a0 which was further up the valley towards Papakura.\u00a0 There were no roads in those days,\u00a0 merely Maori walking tracks to Papakura,\u00a0 which were later widened to allow the passing of bullock-carts.\u00a0 Other early arrivals were Messrs Golding,\u00a0 Hamlin,\u00a0 Wallis,\u00a0 Calvert,\u00a0 Cooper and Henry Hyde and his nephew,\u00a0 Mr Thomas Hyde.\u00a0 The Smith and Hyde families were to be connected by the marriage of Jane Smith to Edgar Bluck in 1881;\u00a0 the second Mrs Thomas Hyde was Edgar\u2019s eldest sister,\u00a0 Ellen.\u00a0 Mary Anne Smith also married a near neighbour,\u00a0 Mr William Henderson.<\/p>\n
The Maoris welcomed the settlers and built the Smiths a large two-roomed raupo whare.\u00a0 In this the family lived for the first three years \u2013 Ben and Martha and their six children,\u00a0 William Benjamin,\u00a0 Peter,\u00a0 Ezra,\u00a0 Walter,\u00a0 Mary Anne,\u00a0 and Priscilla.\u00a0 Later John and Jane were born.\u00a0 Jane\u2019s birth was registered in Auckland by her eldest brother who forgot her baptismal name and registered her as Helen:\u00a0 throughout her life,\u00a0 though,\u00a0 she was always known as Jane,\u00a0 and as Jenny to her family,\u00a0 to her husband and to his relatives.<\/p>\n
Life on the property became earnest indeed;\u00a0 there were trees to be felled,\u00a0 timber sawn,\u00a0 land cleared,\u00a0 crops planted,\u00a0 and stock fed and watered.\u00a0 Fifteen-year-old William Benjamin Smith and his younger brothers all played their parts,\u00a0 and Maori help with some of the heavier work was welcomed.\u00a0 The Maoris provided Kumara,\u00a0 maize,\u00a0 fruit and fish;\u00a0 Ben and Martha repaid them with money,\u00a0 but mostly flour,\u00a0 sugar and help in times of sickness.\u00a0 The tribe was that of Ihaka Takaanini (Isaacs) and occupied a pa at Kirikiri\u00a0 The Smiths and their neighbours were on very good terms with the local Maori population.<\/p>\n
It took Ben Smith three years to clear most of the land,\u00a0 saw the timber,\u00a0 build a large timber house of two stores,\u00a0 and build stables and outbuildings.\u00a0 When all was complete the family moved in,\u00a0 and settled into farming life.\u00a0 The older boys worked both on the property and in the sawmills,\u00a0 felling and milling the kauris growing in the ranges. \u00a0Here they gained experience in the bush and both Peter and Ezra became fitted for the roles they were to play in the 1863-64 wars.\u00a0 By the time Jane was born on 23 September 1857,\u00a0 it must have seemed that there would be few worries about the future.<\/p>\n
The farm was becoming established and with more settlers in the district there was a pleasant social life.\u00a0 The Smiths\u2019 home was on the main track to Papakura,\u00a0 and Martha welcomed the many callers.\u00a0 But,\u00a0 with the widening of the tracks and the formation of the roads,\u00a0 the number of travellers increased.\u00a0\u00a0 Ben,\u00a0 having in mind the many changes of home he had inflicted on his own family,\u00a0 had named his home \u201cThe Travellers\u2019 Rest\u201d,\u00a0 and the many passers by always assumed it to be an inn.\u00a0 Their offers of recompense for food and shelter came to be accepted.\u00a0 A store opened.<\/p>\n
Ben was a gregarious person;\u00a0 he liked people and wanted to know what was happening in the world around him and beyond.\u00a0 Also,\u00a0 he was not the sort of person to refuse \u201cmanna from Heaven\u201d,\u00a0 and when the Licensing Act came into force he applied for and was granted a \u201cBush Licence\u201d,\u00a0 which authorised him to sell liquor until 10pm.\u00a0 He was no stranger to this trade:\u00a0 his brother,\u00a0 John Smith,\u00a0 was the owner of \u201cThe Bricklayers Arms\u201d in far away Longcot,\u00a0 and it was at that Public House that he and Martha had probably stayed after their return from California.\u00a0 With Officers and men of the Royal Irish Regiment stationed just two miles away from \u201cThe Travellers\u2019 Rest\u201d,\u00a0 <\/b>and with the Local Volunteer Forces most active in the area,\u00a0 and military men living on his property,\u00a0 how could a prudent man not take advantage of the situation? <\/b>\u00a0Besides,\u00a0 he liked to be at the centre of events,\u00a0 the Land War between Europeans and Maori had moved to the locality,\u00a0 and as the Reverend Lush was to record of Ben Smith in his Journal:\u00a0 \u201cHe knows all that goes on for miles around!\u201d<\/p>\n
The house more than met the requirements of the Licensing Act,\u00a0 which laid down that a house for which a licence was sought \u201cmust contain at least two moderate sized sitting rooms and two sleeping rooms actually ready and fit for public accommodation,\u00a0 independent of the apartments occupied by the family of the Licence Holder,\u00a0 and also be provided with a place of accommodation on or near the premises to prevent nuisances or offences against decency\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ben provided stabling for between forty and fifty horses,\u00a0 and for a time during the War period a detachment of Cavalry was quartered there,\u00a0 as were the Forest Rangers.\u00a0 The Cavalry moved to Papakura and the stables became the usual stopping places for persons wishing to feed and water their horses:\u00a0 for the horse was then the main provider of transport,\u00a0 although for transporting produce bullock carts played their part.<\/p>\n
The Rev. Vicesimus Lush in his Journal entry for 28 June 1860 gave a contemporary portrait of Ben.\u00a0 He wrote:<\/p>\n
I left their hospitable house (Wheelers) and rode four miles to an Inn called The Travellers\u2019 Rest kept by a \u201ccharacter\u201d by name \u2013 Benjamin Smith \u2013 a short,\u00a0 stout,\u00a0 strong man with a great beard and bushy whiskers.\u00a0 He received me with great respect and soon placed before me a capital tea with very tempting hot beefsteak.\u00a0 Shortly after tea mine Host entered and entertained me for an hour and better,\u00a0 with some of his adventures in California among the gold diggers.<\/em><\/p>\n Ben Smith did indeed have a great,\u00a0 bushy beard as evidenced by his portrait,\u00a0 which,\u00a0 together with one of his wife,\u00a0 adorned the bedroom wall of his daughter Mrs Jane Bluck for most of her lifetime.\u00a0 After the death of her eldest daughter,\u00a0 Miss Lillian Bluck,\u00a0 Ben\u2019s portrait disappeared;\u00a0 that of Martha Smith became the property of Jane\u2019s second daughter,\u00a0 the former Beatrice Bluck,\u00a0 and hence to the writer.\u00a0 It is now with the National collection in the possession of the Alexander Turnbull Library,\u00a0 Wellington.<\/p>\n Three years later,\u00a0 after the outbreak of hostilities between Maori and Pakeha in 1863,\u00a0 Ben fortified the house and provided shelter not only for his family and guests but also for many local families.<\/p>\n At this time,\u00a0 Vicesimus Lush was to write:<\/p>\n When I reached Ben Smith\u2019s \u2013 The Travellers Rest \u2013 I pulled up to have a chat:\u00a0 his house is fortified after the fashion of the Kirk,\u00a0 the outside encased with 3 inch timber and where the windows are,\u00a0 loopholes left for firing through.\u00a0 This may give a feeling of security to the family but it makes the inside of the house monstrously dark and dismal.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Twenty miles south of Auckland,\u00a0 the Smith family took up residence at Wairoa Road (Ardmore) in the Papakura Rural District (Lots 50 and 51).\u00a0 The Wairoa River meandered through the Wairoa Valley to reach the Hauraki Gulf,\u00a0 and many Maoris lived along its banks.\u00a0 A great forest filled much of the valley,\u00a0 and beyond the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83,"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53\/revisions\/83"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bensmith.falkor.gen.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}