OLD RANGITIKEI.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1709, 28 March 1913, Page 8

OLD RANGITIKEI.

LECTURE BY MR. J. G. WILSON. AN EARLY TRAVELLER. (By Telegraph—Special Correspondent.) Marton, March 27. Mr. J. G. Wilson, president of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, has just delivered an address oil "The Early History of tlie Kaugitikei," and in the course of eomo interesting reminiscences, he said that the first wliite man who looked on the fair land of Kaugitikei of whom lie hail been able to find record was Mr. Colenso. lie was a printer, who" cumc out to the Bay of islands in the 'lJU's, where he printed a Maori Bible. There he fell in with Mr. Williams. Mr. Williams and his brother had come to tho Bay of Islands with tho Rev. Mr. Marsden. Mr. Marsden first came there ironi Sydney, and preached tho first sermon ill New Zealand in 1814, and preparations are now being made to celebrate this centenary. Mr. Colenso was sent as missionary to the East Coast by Jlr. Williams in IS-U, and two years later ho determined, to visit tho Natives in Mokai and I'atea. Taking with him several Natives, he travelled over the ranges, but food fell short, and although he looked down upon tho promised land, he had to return to Ilawke's Bay. The following year,'however, he determined to go ill by Taupo, and "this he did. In his description of the journey, Mr. Colenso says that* after crossing the desert he came to some burnt trees, and, the weather breaking, the company had to pass two days in miserable shelter. The party then went down tho bank of the Moawiiango (laudpounding moa lie says this means), and for the last day had to subsist oil raw potatoes until he was weloomed by the Natives at a pa called Maketu, on a. hill in the Pukeokihu country.

After recuperating for few days here, and becoming acquainted with the Natives. lie went along the ridge to Pukeokalmu, and so on to the Kaugitikei River. To get down to tho bed of the stream he had to clamber down a precipitous cliff so steep that it was only by clinging to the bushes and bits of ilax, tho Maoris had tied on to them that they could get down. Half-way down lie became so afraid that the Maoris had to carry him down. After crossing the river he came to To Awarua, a wellknow pa, on what is now-Mr. Riddiford's grqzing-ruu. i'roin here, Mr. Colenso weilt up to tlie ranges, past what. is now called the Mokai-l'atea trig, and crossed over into Hawke's Bay, near where Hampden now is. lie tells tlie story of how the Maoris at Te Awarua came to grow tobacco. Selling their pigs and everything saleable they could lay their hands on, they went'to Wangauui, and purchased some tobacco seed, 'l'hey then cultivated with great care land to receivo the seed, and sowed it, watching it eagerly, tho expectation of their coming joys growing day by day. They wero doomed to disappointment, for it turned out to be docks, and no doubt the error of tho Wangamii merchant is the origin of the docks in tho Rungitikei.

Although this visit took place in 1847,' Sir. Bidwell, a naturalist, had ascended Kuapehu in 183!), but-lie'entered the'district h'om Taupo, and returned that ivay, so lie did not come into liangitikei. Tile speaker gave a description of the geological position of the liangitikei River and the formation of its beds froin its first trickle to tho mouth. The Haut;ipu sprang from tho desert, and tlio' Moawluingo came out of the eastern slopes of the Kaiuianawas,and the Rangitikei from the western slope of the same range of mountains. Most of the land had been raised up from tho bottom of tho sea, and the papa rock was the accumulated deposit of the animalculae and fishes of countless ages that died ■ aiid sank to the bottom. In some cases the formation was known to be IGOO feet deep, and when this became soil it mado very valuable land, because of the phosphate contained in it. Lower down the river the formation is a mixture of clay and papa, and just below Hunterville the l-iver lias laid its, own foundation of silt mixed with clay." A'variety of soils is therefore brought down by the' liangitikei from tho different formations, and this made tho soil much richer nearer the mouth. >