NORTHERN JOTTINGS.

Evening Star, Issue 3429, 17 February 1874, Page 3

NORTHERN JOTTINGS.

No. 1. FROM WELLINGTON TO TARANAKI. (From our own Correspondent.) The longest and pleasantest coach ride in New Zealand is from Wellington to Taranaki. It takes you four days to be tooted through in Young’s coach—getting on board at four or six o’clock in the morning, and riding on and on from twelve to fourteen hours a day. You climb over one long hill, travel over several stretches of sea beach, short distances of metalled road, and over and through the richest, most fertile, and unproductive piece of country in New Zealand. There are some good patches of land in Southland, Otago, Canterbury', and the Waikato. I have seen and travelled over the whole of them; but there is no portion of this South Britain that can compare for fertility and richness with that part of the North Island extending from Wanganui to the Urenui—a township some twenty miles north of New Plymouth. A Maori chief, one of my companions, when riding over this magnificent stretch of country, remarked to me, “ Friend, was not this land worth fighting for?” It will be remembered when the Public Works and Immigration Policy was initiated, and it was proposed to spend money in making roads and railroads to develop and bring to market the resources of the North Island, a section of our political men declaimed in no measured terms against this expenditure of money, maintaining that the land in the North Island was worthless, all pumice and shingle, where grass would n«*t grow, and a sheep to fifty acres would scarcely find sustenance. _ "Wellington got into special bad odor on this land question ; and it was declared that she possessed in the < way of landed estate but barren hills, raupo swamps, and dense, impracticable forest. Whether these assertions were made in ignorance or malice, matters nothing at the present time, as the fact is now well established that the Province of Wellington has some of the best open and forest land in the Colony. A large portion of this open belt of country, some seven miles in width, extending forest-wards from the sea shore, is still in possession of Native owners, who will neither sell nor lease ; and it is given up to the production of fern and flax, where wild pigs congregate and multiply, and hordeof horses and cattle wander at will. When I say the land is in possession of Native owners, it should be remembered that the Maori retains possession of it although confiscate ; and that any man locating himself on this land would have to arrange with Maori owners instead of the Government, The object of the General Government seems to be to obtain a double title to some portions of this country, by purchasing at a fair price the land already confiscated ; °but the best heads among the Natives are dissatisfied even with this proposal, considering it will be better for the future interests of their race to have a number of European tenants on their lands paying them annual rents than to sell the freehold of their possessions. With this Native question I shall have something to say in another letter. A few years will, however, materially alter the character of this land that is now comparatively waste. The white clover that grows so luxuriantly over the portion of this country in occupation by the whites is speedily spreading over the Maori domain, working out the flax and fern with a persistence and rapidity residents, or visitors at intervals, can alone estimate. Thus ten or fifteen miles away from any cultivation clover will in patches be found, killing flax and fern, growing knee-deep and green nearly all the year round. The land laid down in this district, I was informed from several of the largest resident sheep-owners, will carry three sheep to the acre all the year round. Starting from Wellington at six a.m. you reach Foxton about seven in the evening; start again at five the next morning, and reach Whanganui about four p.m. Half your journey to Taranaki is then over. Otaki contains a public bouse, a post and wire office, and a considerable Maori population. Foxton, on the north bank of the Manawatu river, is a straggling village, with a of about 200 people. You pass two other thriving townships between Foxton and Whanganui, on theßangitikei-Manawatublock. The bulk of the laud between Wellington and Whanganui is, however, much inferior to that north of the second town in the Province of Wellington. It is chiefly level forest land, extending long distances inland, and where . Scandinavian,” “Fielding,” and other special immigrants are located. It may not, perhaps, be out of place to remark that the immigrants sent out by the Fielding selectors appear a far more respectable and prosperous class of people than thpse given us by the Agent-General. They arp landed at Wellington, thence sent on py steamer tp Foxton, where they are taken charge pf by Mr Halcombe, and conveyed $o their allotments. Thp next day’s journey frpm Whanganui brings thp traveller tp Hawera at about 7 p.m., Whore ho will experience a novelty in hotel flppommpdation f being lucky if he can obtain anything clean eat, or snatch a couple of hours sleep ere he starts at half-past four or five the next morning on his last day’s stage. With the exception of some abominations called hotels, that once flourished in Southland, those at Hawera are the worst in New Zealand. When vhey are not full of drunken Maories they are full of drunken whites, who make night hideous and sleep imposssible. Bein" in the heart of the Maori country, the cuisine is of a character only adapted for Maori palates, and about as repellant, unclean, and unwholesome looking as can well be imagined. Hawera is a new township built on confiscated land, close to Waihi and the Waimate plains, where the value of land ami the population double annually, and which promises to be the centre of the richest grazing and stock rearing portion of the Colony, In jumping these long distances the town of Fatea has been omitted altogether, but this can be said of it, that it is the most important and flourishing tpwp to be found on the road between Wellington and Taranaki, Whanganui excepted. The tame for fertility of the Patea district is in all men’s ears. The worst day’s journey of the whole four is’, however, from Hawera to Taranaki. It can be done under favorable auspices from twelve to thirteen hours. There are several novelties, however, about this last day’s travel. You got nothing to eat fpr 80 miles, unless you carry your provender yW- There is npthing to drink along the road saye water and Mapri rum—a pungent Jcind of beverage composed, I have been told, of a small amount of rum, a large amount of water, and fortified with cayenne pepper and sulphate of copper or some other abomination; From Opunake to Stony River yoh traverse through land qver which Tito fVPWftri) and Te Whiti hqjd control; where no poad is allowed to be made j po telegraph wire

stretched; no white men’s horse or bullock allowed to wander ; no stable or hotel allowed to be erected; and where Hoani Pihama sends a Native guard—one unarmed man—with the coach to ensure the safety of her Majesty’s mail and Mr Young’s passengers for the wellearned subsidy of L2OO per annum. When you reach New Plymouth about 7 p.m., after four days’ travelling in the coach, and have replenished your inner man, you feel disposed to go to sleep, thankful that your journey is at an end, and that you were induced to come overland.

Independently of travelling over new country, this journey by coach has much to recommend it. The horses are good and well found; the drivers are steady and obliging; and you feel pleased and astonished at the energy and perseverance of the founders of the line. Further, there are historic points of interest all along the line of road; here a Native, there a European redoubt; on that eminence a block-house, on another one in ruins; there was the place, the driver tells you, the first Hauhau flag was hoisted ; there such Mjd such a battle was fought; here her Majesty’s troops were repulsed ; there is a Maori Golgotha; and all the way throughnames, and rivers, and hills, bringback the recollection of hard fighting and past bloodshed. To southern eyes the scenery is pleasant. Tongariro, Ruapehu, and other mountains can be seen along the road, while Egmont—“ our magnificent and beautiful mountain,” as Taranaki’s Superintendent calls it—seems for 150 miles to be either before, behind, or abreast of the traveller. The scenery cannot, however, be compared to that of our own Alps—hill and vale, forest and plain, being all one bright green foreground.