FROM WELLINGTON SOUTHWARDS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1777, 27 February 1888, Page 3

FROM WELLINGTON SOUTHWARDS

NOTES OF A TRIP BY CRAW LINN

(Concluded.)

We were Bccomodated at Flaxbourne and went on to the Clarence down the Coast. The trip wa3 uninteresting, as the country Is nearly all freehold, and no cultivation of any kind Is to be seen. We stayed a night Kikiranga, a large station where we met with a most hospitable reception and were provided with provisions for our next day's journey. This waa all along the sea coast and the sun blazed down upon us as if In wrath. There was an old patch of garden near what bad once been an out station and the cherries were ripe. " Don't make yourself ill, Jack," I said, tor he was on his back under a tree, and had drawn a great branch down | loaded with fruit (from ffhich he waß feeding voraciously. " Mind your own business," he remarked, " This Is worth living and dying for." We perfeotly gorged ourselves and then went on till we came to the Clarence. Here they are building a cylinder bridge. This bridge has been contemplated for the last twenty years, but In Marlborough nothing is hurried up, and they have actually been at work on the structure for the last two years, and are now stack for timber— waiting till it arrives from New South Wales. " How are we to get across the river ?" Jack asked a man at the encampment of the workmen. " On the wire," he said, Jack and 1 looked at each other, »nd then sat down and lighted our pipes. " How deep?" eald Jack, after a time. " Oh ! you can't wade the river," the man said. "There are three streams, and the ourrent m any of them would carry you away. The wire is easy enough."

" Just so," observed Jaok. " I wish I felt as easy as the wire about ccoaaing the river/

" The wire is tight enough/ said the man.

"lam not," said Jack, but I should have to be before; I risked my blessed self on such a bridge."

But we had to, and it was not so difficult as it looked. There were two wires strained from one side of the river to the other, about thirty chains, (nearly half a mile In all), about for feet apart. The plan was to harg on to the top one and slide along the bottom.

We Btarted, with the friendly bridge man m advance.

" Don't look below at the water," he said.

"I never envied that Japanese wire fellow m St Louis Circus till now," groaned Jack, as he squirmed after me:

.Presently we came to a oylinder and oar guide showed u« two ropes hanging loosa to hang on to while we crawled ronnd the cylinder. I " Let's fall at onee r " Jack said, " and i end It ; don't seem more than fifty feet, we are not flies." But we got round and started across another stream, It was not nearly bo dangerous as' it looked: we landed at last and Jack said. " Yon can let these two ends go now, my friend.'' V How's that !" " Because I shall be In my grave : die of old age before this bridge is finished and I will take my oath I will not crocs the Olarence on a wfre again." Bat he was all rie;ht after some tea at the Accomodatlon House, and even made light of the adventare. From the Olarence to the Kaikonra Is twenty-four miles of heavy walking through Band, with only a few miles of bush now and then for shelter. We were Informed of this and told how to find, some caves where we could take shelter for the night In oaaa we found the journey too much for us. We found the caves first and tbea discovered t^at^ the— walk to.JKlalkoor* would be absurd, bo we lighted a fire and camped. 11 Oh crikey," cried Jack, and m a moment he had grabbed two rabbits, and fifty more rushed out of the cave. If we had wanted we could have stayed m the cave [for a month and lived on rabbits : it was an old Surveyor's camp and we found a billy In which we cooked our rabbits ; we had plenty of everything else with us. It was a splendid camp out and we lay upon the fern and smoked, and talked about our sohool-boy days till Jack said " Don't tempt Providence — you re* member the rain— nothing easier here than an earthquake — go to sleep." And so we did. Next morning we walked into the little sea-side town of Kaikonra In time for a mid-day dinner. The place was quiet — almost solemn; We observed as much to the landlord of the hotel. " Wait till the band arrives," he said. "Musical community perhaps?" asked Jack. "Very." This sarcastically ! We found out that this township Is the only place where the station hands for i fifty miles round, can spend their cheques, and they assemble here after shearing for < the purpose, and the mob has been nicknamed the Band of Hope, cut down to " the band " for short, We were not left m suspense very long. Before night, a | crowd rode m and commenced the harmony. Snoh a scene ensued m lees than two honra. Jack said— "Go it, boys, sheariug comes but ones a year, like Christmas. Wire m:" And they did — the Band of Hope o£ the K%ikoura's is well-known. ! There is no cultivation hardly near the town. The Messrs BnUen brothers have a very good paddock within fonc or five miles. They ere the owoers of the nearest big station and have made a email paradise out of a desert. The grounds are beautifully laid out around the homestead, and the private house Is * very handsome two-storied building of concrete— a better house, m fact, than, can be found m the whole Province of of Wellington The Mesarß Bullen have had a great deal to contend with. When they bought the station some twenty years ago they did not know it was stacked with rabbles ; they know it now. They have spent a vast sum In killing them, and have at last got the upper band. They—the rabbits— are of the kind known as silver grey, nearly black, and they breed— well, like rabbits. A little farther through we came into a wild pig country, and had some eport with the manager of tbe Messrs Bullen's station (known as the Green Hills), some 25 miles from Kaikonra, Tbe country all the way from here to the WaUu Is dreary and uninteresting becanse it Is m the hands of equatters who do not Improve ; Indeed It is difficult to say how they conld Improve iuoh a jumble up of hills and valleys. We got to the outstatlon of tbe jjreat Hlghfield run and Jack said as he sat down m the hut "Well, the Lord be praised we did not keep on up the bed of that Infernal river."

We had beea directed right enough from the Greenhill to the Oonway river, which, by the way, divides Marlboroagh from Canterbury, but when we got down a great outting to the riverbed there were two riven and they both joined. We were told to take the left hand branch and look oat for wheel tracks. We did as we were told, found the tracks, crossed the river five hundred times — more or less — then lost the wheel tracks and ourselves too. This river runs In a shingle bed between banks two hundred feet high, and for miles we saw no way oat. At last and close on sundown, we aaw some bags of hone feed protected by a wire iioand them on the edge of • creek, j Jack aat down and groaned. " What's { tie matter t" I said : "We are aU right k dow. Matt be near some place.",

"Yon Idiot," said Jack, "don't yon nee they feed here. Well, they don't have to feed » mile from home only. We are out for the night m the bed of the Oonway instead of the bunka of the atatloa." Bat we were not : We found some track that led as up a outtlug some distance farther on, and we saw smoke, Only a tired man, who has' lost his way m a strange country and thinks be will have the heavens for hia roof that night, knowa the feeling of joy that the eight of a Bmoking chimney gives him. We were saved, anyhow, and hence Jack's exclamation. We had miaaed our way for all our oare and had we not found tha tcaok again would have been m a meas. We walked over the Whale's Back the next day (It is as Its name denotes, a mountain somewhat m the form of a whale), and without anything worthy of note reached the township of the Waiaa at dark, end Jack aald — "Not another mile on foot If I know it. Order sapper." Only a few yeara ago this township was represented by one shanty and a forge. Now, there is a church, stores, a good hotel, and » eplendid bridge. What more do people want 1 ? The colony grows quick enough In some parts, and Is safe yet even If we do borrow • few millions more on it. The main thing is will the Government lay out the money so that this generation can gat a little advantage. It Is til very well to borrow if there Is something to borrow upon, but posterity will have a right to howl if we leave them a legacy of barren country and empty towns. This could not be the case if the owners of land would stay m the colony and cultivate the soil ; that is, lease It for long terms, and at moderate rents. From the Waiau to the Huranul is about 24 miles acroßß a plain. There is St. Leonard's station on one Bide, and Culvecden on the other, about 8 miles apart the homesteads are, all this grand country is m private hand?, St. Leonard's was Bold to Mr George Duppa nearly 30 years ago, for 53 an acre, 130,009 acres. He sold the whole lot afterwards for a lump sum, £150,000, and went home ; he had £50,000 down, and the rest was to remain for 8 years at 10 per cent interest. Now, can a colony afford this kind of thing, for one little bit of country to keep a man like an English noble on a tour, when he ought to be expending his money m the colony that gave him the power to desert it.

Jack got savage, and said, " Who are the fellows anyhow, who got hold of this grand block now ; and what do they mean by starving men and sheep together 1" . "It Is a bad season," said the host of the hotel at Culverdon.

•• Is It ?" said Jaok. " Have you been without rain for 50 years that you make such a howl about one dry season ? Last year you were dripping wet ; that did not suit you. Who knows best : you or God Almighty ? Who made the country : you or the great architect 1 lam getting eick of this general growl, and would like a change. In the North, where Natnre has done so much, the settlers have the Maori; Now, he la a difficulty, I admit, and a mighty hard nut to crack, but even with Buoh an obstacle m the way of colonisation as the native, the people m the North Island don't yell like you do m the South' What m thunder do you want?"

"Oh we want oheap land for one thing," aald our host ; " how can we get that when all the oountry for fifty square miles or -so haa been sold to a few men, who do not know enough to ba Lords of thefa manors?"

Jack ordered m drinks and said — " Do you mean to tell mo that all this grand national estate haa been parted with by the Government of former years to a few people ?" " From .here right across the Hurnnul down through Glenmarok,theland Is all freehold. Some of It fcas been cut up up and sold but the men who have bought it are not the men to do any good for the country. I oould tell you.-— no 1 won't say all the landlord said eald. There are people olive who do not like to bear the ttutb, and somehow It happens that they are a kind of salt of tbe earth, and would be all that need be required of them If old Dame Nature bad not Btarted wrong with them, and handicapped them too heavily. It is right enough for tbe old woman to let an ex-butcher or whaler, or some other- chance shot from tbe Old Country, flake a fortune m a colony but ruy fclond Jack saya that there ought to be an Act passed to prevent these fellows going home and making exhibitions of themselves, besides bzinglng the colony Into dlsoredit." "Anyhow," be added, 11 We must have a look at Cheviot hills." So we got faoraea and rode through St Leonard's, tbe back or front of which station, — aa the case may be, — joins that of tbe property known as the Cheviot hills, belonging to the Hon William Robinson. Thisgentleman came from South Australia many years ago. He Is quite a persunage now, and has, without doubt, the best station m New Zealand. It Is nearly all freehold, and there is a sea frontage, and the wool can bo ehlpped at a short distance from the place where it is thorn. No expense has been spared about the private honse and the grounds, which is beautiful. Ajgood deal of tree planting has beeu done' and gamo is plentiful. We were wail repaid for our visit but Jack grumbled a bit at the luck of some people. And here our tour from Wellington southward may be said to have eadel for taking the coach to Oalverden, we there got into a train and were speedily landed at Chriatchuroh.