AN EASTER MARCH.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2047, 6 April 1907, Page 1

AN EASTER MARCH.

Press Association. ■WELLINGTON, yesterday

Though thoro was no Easter encampment hero at Easter, a company of engineers, 17 strong, umlei Limits. Coady and Fitzgerald, essayed a march from Wainuiomata to Eeatlierston, and had to contend with many difficulties. They proceeded to Wainuiomatu on Friday, and after a brief camp resumed the march. Vorv early in the trip the men had an opportunity to study the art of finding their way out of difficulties. The first ridge they mounted did not help them on their way. A painful climb only revealed the fact that they had to go hack and start afresh. They tackled another, and later on found that they could not get through the dense hush on to Orongorongo. They were compelled to make their way along a crook, and this passage occupied five hours. They got into the Orongorongo at G o’clock in the evening, and had to bivouac in the middle of the riverbed, for the hanks were too stoop to be climbed. They lit a fire, boiled the billy, and ten minutes after throwing, a sop to tlieir appetites, which the arduous journey had highly magnified. all were asleep. At 4.4 din the morning they continued the march, and had to walk in the water till midday, when they reached a road. The. last four hours on the flat were covered in a heavy hailstorm. It is estimated that the men walked forty miles, of which 2G ir, rough bush required twenty hours. Once the men got into the open they stepped out briskly, and did the remaining 14 miles in four hours. Every man came in footsore. Most of them finished the journey in bare feet. Only four pairs of boots survived the buffeting that they received in the beds of the rivers and creeks and other rough places. The footwear of others was' worn and torn right away. One man had to do 14 miles with bare feet, and the others, averaged six miles in that condition.