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Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2009, 19 February 1907, Page 1

AS OTHERS SEE US. A VISITOR’S VIEW OF GISBORNE. Tliei following references to l’ovorty Bay liavo uppoared in si series of articles in the London Standard funn the pen of Hi'. Frank T. 13ollon, who visited Gisborno on si lecturing lour recently: But I must bid farowoll to Auckland. The Tsirnworsi waits for me, and we are presently spinning southward down the gulf towards Gisborne —my next halting place. This is a coast to test seamanship. From Auckland round to Wellington there is no real shelter, and, when the

mighty southern steamers must cither put out lb sea .uni hrcM.'.t it, not (luring to attempt a landing at any of the ports, or pass on, with their disgruntled passengers, to the shelter of one of the safe liarhours aforesaid. This happened to a ship which passed us on her waynorth, and although the weather was not what a seaman would call bad, she had, owing to the enormous Pacific swell breaking in on the coast, to give np all idea of landing her passengers. to say- nothing of her cargo, at Gisborno, and take them on to Auckland. 'When wo passed Past Cape the weather was sublime, the sea like oil, and the sky above cloudless and serene, hut that terrible swell tossed us about like a cork in a mill race. However, we came into Gisborne, Poverty Bay, on Sunday, and anchored quite close to what has been ironically termed the harbour, rollng and tumbling about there in strangely bewildering fashion. Presently I saw some small steel vessels making their way, apparently, through the land, hut behaving as we were doing: that is, rolling and tumbling about with wonderful agility. They soon emerged from behind what I coidd then discern was the horn of a breakwater, and immediately became easier in their moments. When, however, the tenderfine stout-built steamer of about 200 tons —got alongside, it. was possible to seo how great was the motion on this calm day and to imagine, what an impossibility- it would be to carry on any work if the wind was blowing into this unprotected hay- instead of, as it was now, blowing out. The master of the tender, being an old shipmate of mine, invited me on the bridge to see the entrance to the harbour, for which I was very grateful. for it was a revelation to mo. This little community of less than 9000 soids, being in possession of a magnificent sheep country, and having built up for themselves the largest frozen meat export trade in New Zealand, felt themselves most severely and painfully handicapped for want of a harbour. Not, be it understood, for vessels of any size; that they could hardly hope to effect, but one from which they might carryout their produce to ships at anchor in the bay. So they consulted Sir John Coode on the construction of a breakwater, behind which the small steamers might come down from the little river Waimata in safety and empty into the bay-. Ho gave his opinion, indicating the best position for, and mode of construction of, the break-

water, which apparently did not coincide with their wishes. In the result they disregarded his advice and huilt the present breakwater, which for a time served fairly well, but alas! the channel behind it began to silt up from the scour of the river, which, as rivers are wont to do in all mountainous countries, occasionally ran in spate, overflowing its banks, and bringing down enormous quantities of detritus. In tho hope of obviating this, the local authorities built' a groyne running parallel with the breakwater, and making a sort of canal running out into the harbour. But unhappily they extended this groyne until it was equal in length to the breakwater. Then when the prevalent swell rolled in it struck the end of the groyne, rebounding up the channel, and made such mighty turmoil that jo urney ' up*, 0 as 1 said, the weather was exceptionally fine, but this tiny steamer required two men at the wheel, which was spun hard up and hard down continuously as the groat swell rolling in after hyr swung' her from side do side

PROSPEROUS COMMUNITY. I need not labor this point, but may say briefly that it is one oi : those blunders easily made but most difficult to repair; aiid now this small, energetic community, having burdened itself with a debt of a quarter of a million in order to facilitate the shipment' .of its produce, finds itself in a rather worse position than before. It is, as may be imagined, a very sore point indeed with the townsfolk, who do not know whpri to blame, and who do got see what good blaming would do after all. Yet, in spite of all this, it is by all accounts the most prosperous in proportion to its size of any town in New Zealand- Tim papgos of hills hereabouts form,' jib 1 am told, ideal pastures for sheep, when they have been treated in the following fashion. The native surface growth is burned off and grass seed is sown among the ashes. This presently, under the beneficent skies of this beautiful country, clothes those heretofore barren ranges with living green of such sueculentt nutritiousness that it will “carry” ten sheep to the acre, sheep which fatten and breed with scarcely any attention in such fashion as we in England have had ample demonstration of, and which find within easy reach a roudy market. I confess that it was difficult at first to realise the value of those lofty ranges of hills, where cultivation is quite out of the question, hut in the light of this expert information, and of what I saw of the ,'llocks of sheep streaming down to tho freezing works, to ho presently dealt with in oxhaifstive fashion, I began to understand how and why it was that New Zealand ranked so very high among the countries of the world as regards her export trade-—£9 per head as against £2 8s from the United States, by the admission of one of their own experts, Gisborne is, historically speaking, almost the most interesting place in the whole of New Zealand. Close to the site of tho present town is where Captain Cook first landing in tho country and blamed it, on the spur of the moment, Poverty Ray—. a name which it stil] holds, b.eeause the qatjves take a delight in 'tlie irony of the appellation, in contrast to tho Bay of Plenty, which, though only the next bay northward, has done nothing so far to justify its grand title. This little place was also the scene of tho Poverty Bay massacre, wherein between thirty and forty whites were massacred b: Maoris, under the redoubtable Kool'i, as a direct result of tlm inevitable, invariable blundering of the home authorities. It is not' a little remarkable, however, that it should have taken so long for this place to attain its present dimensions, even when the limitations of tlm jiarbour have to he taken into consideration. But, since that is a feature of every part of Australasia that I have visited. I need not do more than allude to it in passing. I/ike Auckland, Gisborne suffers from a want of good building stone, which prevents the eceoiion of any really imposing buildings, since aU builders are in a • conspiracy to hide, under stucco the brickwork of which all the best buildings are constructed—a most 1 futile and pernicious proceeding, directly conducive to bad work. The older buildings are of wood, which is honest, at any rate, if flimsy in appearance. It is not so in reality, as New Zealand boasts some of the finest building timber m tlie world—so good, in fact, that it pa vs to import solt wood from America and Scandinavia and export the native woods for other purposes. Gisborne is a bequtifull.vvJ.iiKi out little town .with wide, level streets, and as yet, no imposing buildings in them—a town where everybody seems contented and prosperous, although there is an utter absence of swagger, such as usually accompanies the "possession of considerable means in other countries It would appear that here, at any rate, the Socialistic schemes of tho New Zealand Government have resulted in a general levelling of tlie people in point of comfort. a certain limitation of growth, and a great air of contentment, for I have heard no one as yet speak of hard times.

AN EXAMPLE FOE CHICAGO. Viewed from the sea Gisborne Rives one the idea of consisting of only a small collection of houses clustered about the lower slopes of the encircling hills, and the stranger instinciivolv wonders where the town can bo the distance of those hills from the sea being so very deceptive. But once ashore, it is seen that there is