THE TIRITEA GORGE AND PALMERSTON NORTH.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 260, 7 November 1906, Page 6

THE TIRITEA GORGE AND PALMERSTON NORTH.

BEY. X. A. DAVIS. ® Environment has probably more to do ■with the production of a type than hereditary. In America everything is big and everything is in a hurry; the "Rockies" are the longest chain of skypiercers on earth, the Missisippi is the world's greatest river, blizzards and earthquakes and railway accidents and insurance companies set a fierce pace, and the people take their place in the running. Australia, on the other hand, is a land of chance and speculation. Farming is almost a gamble with the elements, and everything looks thirsty and democratic. Hence the Australian type. But in New Zealand environment is almost a synonym for beauty. Nature has lavished her resources to produce a land of mateluess charm. The bluest of sapphire skies canopys a Feagnit land of marvels, shimmering snowpeaks, rivers that wind through forests of myriad tinted emerald, volcanic wonders, placid lakes, and a sea coast indented with fiords and sounds and harbours that fairly exhaust the treasury of weird and fantastic fancy and bewitch stolidity into an ecstasy of romantic dreams. The type of the New Zealander to be should be the ideal of the world, a man with a poetic soul, an eye for beauty, and a brain dear and fit. There is no other land quite such as this is. Go where you will, within a trilling distance there is some wonderland to be seen.

A couple of friends at Palmerston North suggested a day at the "Intake." Accordingly we started - out early, and crossing tile bridge over the Maiiawatu were soon on the Tiritea-road. At the first hill top we reined in to look back at the busy little city of the plain with the snow-clad Ruahines beyond, and out toward the north-west Ruapehu and further west again Egmont's peak. Resuming our drive, we were soon descending the Tiritea valley, a broad expanse of sheep lands, brilliant in the spring with the tender leafage of the early weeping willows and poplars. Four miles on we came to a. ford. Herd , we turned our horse out and prepared to negotiate the remainder of the way on foot. One of us carried the camera, another the lunch, and the. third a bag for specimens.

AVc elected to leave the road at once, preferring to enter the Gorge whore it began to close down on the babbling brook. I was told that this is a good trout stream. It certainly looks as if it might be_ Sometirr.es it runs over shining sands; then it leaps from rocky Jodgn to deep eddying pools. Ferns overhang its waters. The native clematis hangs in festoons of white glory over its bosom. When the rata is in bloom it must be gorgeous, for it is everywhere. Up on each side, rugged cliffs rise Lighcr and higher as go on. There is a fairly well-made track most of the way leading to the main turn-cock. Then you must scramble through bush as best you can for about a mile until you reach the main road and turn down the hill again to the "Intake" track. Here you cross a swaying wire suspension foothridge, with a notice displayed warning you that ""Dm bridge will only bear two passengers at a time." Then you turn to the right, and in a minute you realise that this is one of Nature's sanctuaries. There are wild pigs and cats in abundance further up. The tui and the hiiia and the weku are to be seen i here at times. But to-day the only anhnal life in evidence is that of the thrush, whose mellow roundelay sounds like a psalm of praise echoing through the aisles o£ Nature's Temple. The ferns include a number of varieties of adantiums. polypodduma and todcas, with, of< course, the ever present punga. There is nothing very rare m the vegetation, but it is aJJ beautiful, liner banks of bush 1 have never seen. In one place a giant tawa had fallen across the river. A "sucker" trunk as long as itself, although only about six inches in diameter, had fallen with it in such a way that it formed a perfect handrail to this rustic bridge, and made an ideal picture. About three miles from the ford we reached the concrete dam where the Tintea is banked back for Palmerston's water supply. The dam is about twelve feet 'across, with a by-wash of about eight, making an effective cascade. Above the Intake there is a beautiful sylvan pooL Tho water is very clean and sweet. The sandbed is sharp and free from mineral just at this spot. But there arc pockets down stream that it would be interesting to prospect. This granite and quartz country- may prove some day to have a gold value. From the standpoint of the "Scenery Preservation Society" we may hope not, but in this matter-of-fact utilitarian world, even the artistic New Zealander with capital to invest may not fret very sorely if a forest of poppet heads should ever replace the pungas and rat as.

At present Palmerslon is very inadequately served by twelve-inch ' mains. Tlwse are to be replaced by eighteen-inch pipes, and the work is now in hand One wonders at the short-sighted policy of those who planned the present servieo. ihe existing dam appears scarcely adequate, and in a gorge where tho expense of a reservoir scheme in keeping with Uncertainty of a largely increased demand for water at no distant date would be relatively small, surely ordinary prudence would indicate the need for 'a vigorous policy. From the In Lake we retraced our steps, reaching the ford just as the bun was dipping below the hills. We returned by a path along the crest of the southern ridge bo that we were able to look down upon the ravin:;. This gave us an entirely new view of it, and one whose interest was scarcely les* than the other. Visitors to Palmerston North should, by all means, visit the Intake. The road to it is good all the way. Tho bush is worth seeing, and if you have a fairly sunny day you will have an outing to be long remembered. Of course the Manawatu is on a larger scale, but to my mind it is inferior in wild charm.

Palmerston North is itself worth a visit. It is a very typical inland New Zealand town. It is probably the most prosperous of our second-rate centres, not quite as large as Invercargill or Wanganui, but threatening to rival them both. It is tlie junction station for the Napior, Foxton, Wellington, and New Plymouth railway line?. Thorn is no richer country in New Zealand than that which surrounds it. A drive along the Bunnythorpe-road, or around by the cemetery reveals well-worked country side. The sheep look well. The cattle are sleek. The grass ia green as an emerald. The homesteads are clean and well kept. A number of factories are busily at work in the town. Iron-found-ing fei-ems to be a good trade here. The shops around !!?a Square are well built and up pour In Up. well stocked and busy. A large now post, uflice has recently been opened, an»3 in the beautiful gardens ii)

the Central Square an observatory is being erected in which there is to be placed a gocd telescope and an up-to-date astronomical equipment. The poorest thing in the town is the- samples of ecclesiastical architecture. Excepting the Congregational Church, the buildings in question are wonderfully and fearfully made. But that I suppose is due to the rapid growth of the place with whose requirements these structures were once quite level. Generally, however, the poverty of thought and neglect of art-dis-played by New Zealand architects is disappointing. In such a land one expects better things. It is to be hoped that the old order will change in this respect and our sense of the beautiful over-rule our utilitarianism sufficiently to cause our city builders to learn the lesson nature is teaching them on every hand in "God's Own Country," that beauty does not lessen values but enhances the joy of living, and is therefore worth a, thought.

Along the banks of the Manawatu an excellent public park and gardens has been laid out. and is being developed. The native bush thus preserved almost in the heart of the town is a valuable asset. In years to come it will be highly prized. I suppose the walk along the river bank, the Esplanade it is called, must be close on a half-mile. The swiftlyflowing river gives an added charm to it, and the traffic bridge visible here and there through the trees heightens the effect. In the summer on hot evenings it must be delightful to get away from the dusty thoroughfares and into this bit of bush, where one can forget the din and bustle of commerce, and listening to the song-expressed passion of the feathered folk, and dream of the blue skies and green sward of the free expanse of wild wood-lands of which tin is a bit left behind, as civilisation in its onward march has stamped it out.