Alexander (Sandy) M^cHardy looking proud and resplendent in his highland dress

Who Am I ? - Alexander M^cHardy was the fourth child of John M^cHardy and Sophia Dunbar. His grandparents were Peter M^cHardy and Elspit Michie who married in Glenmuick Parish in 1801 9his grandfather Peter is listed as living in Ruthven Parish, Forfarshire). His father John was born in Ruthven Parish, Forfarshire. Alexander was born at Easter Dunandhu in the westernmost part of Corgarff, in the Parish of Strathdon in Aberdeenshire). The family moved down the glen to Easter Corryhoul sometime between 1831 and 1833.

Simon M^cHardy Clark, a descendent of his younger son Percy, writes.

Alexander went first to New South Wales, then after about a year proceeded to NZ. Always a skilled stockman, he obtained contracts to supply cattle/meat to the govt. forces in the Maori Wars, and made good. He had met his future wife (Annie Barber) when he had been in service at Castle Newe where she was a maid (she came from England!). She was sent for and the started life near Napier. Soon, in partnership with a Mr. Colman, Alexander bought a large parcel of land, 23,000 acres on the Hawkes Bay coast near Waipawa. This he divided between his two sons (he also had two daughters). The elder, Leslie, got the southern half, Blackhead. The northern half, Aramoana, went to the younger son Percy, my grandfather. . No part of Blackhead remains in McHardy hands, but most of the original Aramoana is still owned and/or run by my cousins or their children. Aramoana itself, with its historic listed homestead and woolshed, has a fifth generation M^cHardy at the helm, and he has sons!

Aramoana and Blackhead

There is an air of the eccentric and the fantastic along this attractive stretch of coast. Sheep farming on a spectacular scale has left a dream of a Highland manor, built in wood, by an exiled Scot, at Aramoana. Although the names of the pioneers, the Nairns of Pourere, M^cHardys of Blackhead and Aramoana, Hunters of Porangahau ares still represented, their original vast acreages have been sharply whittled down. Such spectacular manifestations of their lonely lifestyle as the private race course at Pouerere and the polo field at Aramoana are no more. Sadly the great late 19th century homestead at Blackhead succumbed to fire and that at Pouerere to the bulldozers. There are now good roads and physical isolation is a thing of the past. The little ships of Richardson's line no longer ply the dangerous coast. The sense of remoteness remains and with it an indefinable texture of style, the obstinate grandeur of building something out of nothing and reaching out beyond such loneliness to trade with London and the wide world.

These hills were among the earliest to be farmed in Hawke's Bay. The first sheep, merinos, laboriously driven along the coast from Wairarapa, were let loose in the fern here in 1849. Charles Nairn started off in New Zealand as a boy immigrant with nothing to his name. He learned Maori, became an interpreter for the surveyors Northwood and Tiffen and clearly picked up their good eye for the land. He helped negotiate the original lease at Pourerere from the masterful chief Te Hapuka, whose fondness for the creature comforts of the Europeans was at least one of the factors helping open the door to European settlement. As Te Hapuka sold, Charles Nairn bought. After farming leasehold here for 15 years or so, he established his title to the land in 1866/67 for 7s 6d an acre. Five years later he sold 22000 acres (8900 hectares) to Alexander M^cHardy and his partner Coleman for £2 10s an acre.

Aramoana
Alexander's retiral home

By that time the original flock of 3000 sheep had grown to 22300. So two New Zealand dynasties were founded. Alexander M^cHardy was a Highlander born and bread. How far he travelled is made clear in a letter of commendation written by his laird on the eve of his departure for Australia.

First you were my shepherd, tending my flock of sheep, again my Gillie or Sporting Servant, then again my Indoors Servant or footman attending at my table and performing all the above offices with credit to yourself and the approbation of Lady Forbes, myself and my children.

By the end of his energetic life Sandy M^cHardy could probably have bought and sold Sir Charles Stewart Forbes Bart., and he would certainly not have been bothered about the approbation of the pampered children of Castle Newe, Strathdon, Aberdeenshire. Forty years after leaving, he paid a visit to his home village of Corgarff. Now, I am told, there stands in sharp contrast to the local stone of the place, a corrugated iron clad hall which he funded and helped build. Five of the eight children of John M^cHardy in Corgarff emigrated, three to New Zealand. It is likely the clearances played a part in this exodus [Note: There were no clearances in Corgarff]. In an ever so slightly defensive reference to his letter the laird of Castle Newe says, 'You are aware Sandy how I have interested myself for the children of Corriehoul and you yourself have filled more than one situation in my service'. Eight years after Sandy left the glen, his father, John M^cHardy, wrote stoically of the hard lot of the Highland tenant farmer.

I am happy to say we had a fine crope the best ever we had in Corryhoul but the corn is so low in price.....by the time I paid tolls and expenses it came to very little money but thank god we have plenty meal and seed of our own if it were not the Catle is selling well we would not pay rent and our servant lad 20 pounds a year........it is a great loss to me not to have sheep only I cannot help that in the meantime I must do my best........

If we are to take from that the conclusion that the laird had a monopoly on sheep raising in the glen, John's son Sandy was soon to make amends. By 1890 he had nearly 60,000 sheep on his two Hawke's Bay properties and no doubt many more in the Manawatu.

Did Sandy ever forget Corgarff ? He had been a famed Highland dancer and was said to have been called to Balmoral to dance before the Queen. In New Zealand his more humdrum skills with the laird's sheep came in handier. Starting out as a drover, he soon saw his opportunity by supplying meat for the military commissariat during the Waikato land wars and in the campaigns against Te Kooti. He would collect stock from as far south as the Wairarapa and drive them north a long this coast for shipment out of the fledgling port of Napier to the battlefields. It was a hard apprenticeship to a fortune. An excellent judge of stock, he seems to have recognised early on that successful farming on a large scale calls for diversification. Interlocking support in good seasons and bad, on dry ground and wet, is essential. He raised and fattened stock on his inland holdings and ran them on the coastal block he aquired here at Blackhead in 1873. In 1891 returns record that he was then running 21,032 sheep at Longlands across the back of the Hereruanga Plains and 36,800 at Blackhead. During the 1880's when Hawke's Bay suffered a prolonged three-year drought, he set out to acquire more land in Manawaru where the rainfall is more certain.

Blackhead Station

So the poor boy from Corgarff became squire of many acres in New Zealand. By the 1890's he could afford to be expansive. The country was prosperous and so was he. In his 60's by then, he built two grand houses on the coast. Kauri trees from the coromandel were felled and sawn for the purpose and the timbers shipped here, then floated in to the beach. A team of 12 builders lived at Blackhead for two years to construct a 36 roomed, two storeyed mansion for the eldest son. Then they moved to the next bay at Aramoana. There they built an elegant, distinctive house for Sandy to retire to. It was in the Scottish baronial style, like the houseof Sir Charles Forbes Bart., of Castle Newe.

Subdivision has now proceeded as far as seems possible without destroying the viability of the farming units. Land is now another investment holding, often an object for speculation. It is difficult to use it to foster the settled life. Large establishments like this were once the focus for the lives of scores of people, - fencers, stockmen, shepherds and rouseabouts. Now there is only the family. Seasonal gangs come and go. They occupy the shearer's quarters at the giant wool shed built 80 years ago down by the shore. On the hill behind is a memorial to Alexander M^cHardy and Annie Barber, the Norfolk servant girl he met in the Highlands where she worked for the Forbes clan. She followed him to the Antipodes and lived here at Aramoana after he died. Her grandaughter remembered her as 'never lifting a finger in the house'. Why not if you started life hard! "To all the sowers of the land", the inscription says. With our professor friend we had a marvellous walk from the bay called Blackhead, once the headquarters for the farm, to Blackhead Point.

The Late Mr M^cHardys Funeral

An Imposing Spectacle

[Hastings Correspondent]

The funeral of the late Mr A. McHardy yesterday was a memorable event. To pay their last tributes to their old friend, who was also one of the pioneers who made the colony what it is, and important branch of the Empire, hundreds of persons came to Hastings from north and south, even from beyond the boundaries of the province.

Early in the forenoon visitors began to arrive and by 2pm, the time at which the funeral started, the town was crowded. At 12.55pm a train of six carriages came in from Palmerston, and shortly afterwards a similar train reached here from Napier. The body arrived on Saturday night, and was placed in the residence of an old friend of the deceased, Mr. W.A. Beecroft, who carefully carried out all the arrangements in connection with the solemn event. The coffin was of polished rimu, elaborately mounted with silver plate. A crystal plate over the face of the deceased enabled all who came to take a last look at their friend.

On the coffin were placed the principal wreaths, that near the head being on of Scottish heather brought from Wanganni by Mr. W. P. Stuart, from the Caledonian Society there. Also on the coffin was laid the sword and other regalia of a chieftain of high rank. The wreaths were so numerous that a separate hearse provided for them was not sufficient.

At 2pm the body was carried out to the hearse by eight bearers, who were selected from employees at Blackhead, from amongst those who had been longest in service of the deceased. A body guard of Scotsmen in full Highland costume, was formed, and they marched on each side of the hearse in which the coffin was borne. It had been arranged that a dirge should be played on the bagpipes, but in accordance with a specially expressed wish, it being Sunday, this was not done. Thos of the bodyguard in Highland costume were: -

Messrs R. Smith (Pahiatua), W ? Stuart Wangaret ?, Hector(?) McKenzie, ? Helan, J. McDonald, A. Martin, H. Martin and F. Sutherland (of the H. B. Highland Society). The others were Mesrs J. V. Brown (president Napier Caledonian Society), T. Parker (secretary H. B. Highland Society), D. Campbell (Wellington), A Jack (Palmerston). the mourning coach following the hearse contained Mr. P. McHardy brother, and Messrs Leslie and Percy McHardy (sons of the deceased).

The total number of vehicles in the procession was 105, including six of Mr Rymer's large conveyances, brought to Hastings for the purpose. The number of horsemen was very large, and the total length of the procession was over a mile.

The scene at the graveyard was extremely affecting, one that will not soon be forgotten by those who took part in it. The coffin was carried from the hearse by the Blackhead employees, and the last rites to the deceased were impressively performed by the Rev. A. Whyte M.A., Presbyterian minister of Havelock.

Wreaths were sent by the following societies, public bodies, and private friends: -

Manawatu and West Coast A. and P. society; Manawatu Racing Club; Palmerston North Bagpipe Band; Palmerston North cabmen; Manawatu Cycling Club; Pahiatua Caledonian Society; Wauganui Caledonian Society; Hawke's Bay Highland Society; Napier Caledonian Society; architect and builders of members' stand Palmerston A. and P. Society; employees Beaulieu station; employees Royal Hotel; employees Blackhead station; Mr and Mrs P. McHardy; Mr, Mrs and Miss Knowles; Mr and Mrs Vautier; Mr and Mrs Close; Pourerere station (per Mr Busby); Misses Busby; Mr and Mrs J. H. Coleman; Mr and Mrs T. H. Lowry; Mrs and Misses Lowry; Mr and Mrs F Moeller; Mr and Mrs G. Pirie; the Misses and Mr Beechcroft; Mr E. J. Watt; Mr and Mrs A. T. Danvers; Mr and Mrs E. Gilbertson; Mr and Mrs Alick Williams; Mr, Mrs and Miss Beamish; Mr and Mrs David Canning; Mr and Mrs W. Nelson; from Palmerston - the Revd. Father Patterson; Mayor of Palmerston (Mr W. T. Wood) and Mrs Wood; Mr and Mrs Howse and Mr and Mrs Ball; Mr A. T. Beale; Mr and Mrs J. M. Johnstone; Mr and Mrs Hoskins; Miss D. Woods; Miss C(?) Woods; Mr and Mrs L. A. Abraham; Mr and Mrs R. S. Aabraham; Mr and Mrs Pickerlog; Mr and Mrs Leigh; Miss McKenzie; Miss Ina L. and Mr Norman Gillies; Mr and Mrs L. G. West; Mr and Mrs ? Gillies; Mr and Mrs Arthur Russell; Mr and Mrs Cotter; Mr and Mrs Mathew Henry; Messrs F. J, Shepherd and H. Dickett; Mr F. S. Macrae; Messrs J. and H. Copeland; Mr and Mrs Batchelor; Mr and Mrs R. Crook; and from the coachman to Mr ? Abrahams.

Among those who came by the Palmerston train were Captain Russell M.H.R.; Messrs W. T. Wood (vice president) Manawatu Society; D. Watt (secretary); and the following members of the committee R. S. Abraham, L. Wallis, M. Cohen, F. W. Sewell, S. R. Lancaster, H. Stevens, J. O. Batchelor, and others; Mr D. Pringle, secretary of the Manawatu Racing Club; Messrs West M. and J. Copeland, Clarckson G., ? Hall, F. Nathan, Birbeck, Johnson, F. Bunting, J. Small, J. Roper, ? Turner, H. Wawline, Bell, J. Harrison, H. Owens, and Mr H. Gillies 9who undertook full charge of the funeral arrangements at Palmerston). Amongst others present were Messrs J. D. Ormond, M. L. G, Beetham (Wairarapa), J. H. Coleman, T. Tanner, ?. W. Knowles, L de. Pelichet, J. N. Williams, W. Shrimpton, D. Potts, A Jones (Waipukurau), A. J. Cotterill, Sydney Johnson, A. Guy, W. White (Kaikora), Arch McLean, A. Lockie, and almost the entire employees of Maraekako Station.

About 4.30 pm the train left for Napier and at 5.15 pm the Palmerston train steamed away; and in half an hour the town had resumed it's usual Sunday aspect.