A Trip to Patetere.

Feilding Star, Volume III, Issue 105, 17 May 1883, Page 3

A Trip to Patetere.

+* I.COMMUXICATED.] It will interest many of our friends in Feilding to hear how we got up to the "New Block," so I send a little account to tbe Feilding Stab, and trust that those who remember the early days of the Manchester Block will note the differences which appear in my description of difficulties here, as compared with those that confronted us nine years ago, when Feilding was a swamp, and Palmerston but a very tiny village. Our journey from Waitara in the Oreti was a very quiet and .pleasant one ; quick run, calm sea, and such a moonlight night; 13 hours from Waitara to Onehunga was nothing nnder such circumstances, and we all felt quite well and able to enjoy a couple of days in Auckland, which never looked to better advantage. The recent heavy rains have induced a perfect spring growth, and flowers were plentiful— such magnificicnt dahlias and chrysunthamums I have rarely seen. The train brought us as far as Hamilton, and from thence to Cambridge in a small Cobb's coach, where we stayed at a botel for the night. Various preparations kept us late in starting for our new home. Amongst other things we made room for a huge bouquet of chrysanthamums from Major Wilson's garden. If flowers will grow at Patetere aa they do in tbe gardens of Cambridge, then I at least shall be happy. While we were in Cambridge we had unpleasant news that the two cows sent over to Lichßeld (which is the name of tbe site chosen for the new town, and therefore where we have built our house) ** i.-' met with some serious adventures .eh would probably result in their useless for purposes of supply of milk, as one had declined to proceed any further than tbe Oxford Hotel, which is on the border of the Block, and the other was so troubled at her changi of quarters that she bad declined to give any milk. •JOiese are only minor evils, however, and make no great obstacles as condensed milk is in plenty in our store-room. So off we start in a Yankee waggon with three horses. Children and parcels and portmanteaus, all comfortably arranged, and with new country to look at, bracing air, and beautiful sunshine, we accomplished the first part of our journey very well. Oxfoid was reached about 1 p.m., and we stayed to get some bread and butter and milk for the little folks, and our good horses needed a rest. From | the balcony of the hotel we could see the two white specks which mark the town of Lichfield, one being our house and the other the accommodation house in course of erection. We left the made roads at Oxford, and were content with a track over the fern-covered hills snd plains; 12 miles to get over, and then we reached the white speck, now to our closer rision no longer a speck, but a very nice, comfortable house, painted, and fairly well finished, with a good view from the verandah. In this clear and bracing atmosphere I think we shall not have mnch need of a doctor, and the rainfall, although very heavy, does not produce the sloughs of mud which we used to : Have in Feilding, at least in tbis part of thi country. Of course wben the roads go through bush there will be a repetition of bush experiences. We like tbe appearance of the town site We look over on Te Aroha, the. Tauranga chain of hills, the Mungatiutara mountain, which is, roughly speaking, King Country, and tbe hills and dales, gullies aud rolling plateaus will be in tbe future very beautiful country. The Natives have burnt away all tbe forests which once clothed the land, and the result is fern. When busy hands have planted, and ploughed, and built, tbis part of tbe North Island will compare well with the more favored spots on the West Coast. Of course from Palmerston to Taranaki the land lies which may be called tbe garden of New Zealand. I have the greatest belief in the Manchester Block, and think those who bare a foothold in that special ■ottlement cannot better themselves. This is different country altogether, but to many it will possess great attractions, because at once the plough can be used, and it is a grand root-growing soil. We bare been poking about, and find numerous charming little nooks or sheltered valleys, which look to us most suitable for vine growing and orchards, and I should think that from the great ease of v.orking the land, all small industries should flourish. Water is plentiful, and a stone of a kmd easily worked, which can be got almost anywhere at a depth of four to ten feet. Our chimneys are made of this stone, the bouse rests on stone piles, and we are putting up a dairy and washhouse oi the same material. It is cut with a large knife, or saw, but on being exposed to tbe air it hardens like tbe Oamaru stone. Instead of bushmen, as in Feilding, we require stone masons, and the axe is changed for tbe chisel. We fuld be glad indeed to have a few acres tbe forests on tbe Manchester Block near to our house, for coal is very expensive while there is no railways, and the pieces of half burned timber which tell the tale of fire destroyed forests are not plentiful. The {.reat difficulty on tbis Block is tbe want of timber, and until tbe bush, distant from Lichfield about six miles, is opened, and a sawmill at work, we cannot take people on tbe conditions which were possible on the Manchester Block. If a man can build bis own cottage of stone, then there is plenty of work, and when we look over the miles of uninhabited country which needs busy bands to utilize and beautify it-— one longs to be a magician to unite tb« forests of Manawatu with the rolling open country of Patatere.