"SOMETHING HIDDEN”

Hokitika Guardian, 2 June 1927, Page 4

"SOMETHING HIDDEN”

THROUGH THE ALPS TO WESTLAND.

| Written for the “Sun,” Christchurch]

To the plainsman there is invariably something provocative in a range of high, forbidding mountains, The liillborn knows hills, and loves them. Ti is natural for his feet to wander iroin hill to bosomy lull, to dip down into gentle valleys and make their way across wimpliiig creeks. It costs so little effort to climb a liille bill. The crossing of a mountain range is a vastIv dilferent matter.

Then. too. there is glamour in the word ••west." I'Tuin the time when some early (rihe in Europe came out mi the shores of the North Sea and wondered what lay beyond the horizon, men hate sent their thoughts winging westward. They have talked of the west, sung of it. jived for what it. might hold, died for what it did not yield them. Correspondingly, the name " Westland " is magical. Westland, Laud of the West, the laud the other side the mountains. Who, especially il he is a plainsman, could fail to quicken to it s appeal r Whicli is preliminary to a confession that quite recently, in company with seviral hundred other trippers, I made it one-day excursion into Westland. As the long train climbed from Lite plains to the fool-hills, ami from the foot-hills to the ridges, I. sought to read in the faces of my fellow-travel-lers the motive that had brought them So far afield.

There were some, no doubt, to whom the excursion appealed as an exceedingly cheap day’s outing, others who s.tw iti it a rare opportunity to indulge in it spree. Others, again, took occasion to visit relatives or to renew acquaintances on the Coast. But most of its, I am certain, whether wo arc aware of it or not. went for no other reason than to find a Something hidden o'er the ranges. To conquer the mountain peak, to journey into the glamorous west—surely these arc amongst the oldest derives of the human mind. They were in the eyes of the exciirionists a.-- tile tunnel was cleared and the train emerged into the sunlight of Otira Valley; Even though we had come bv rail, and not, as should proper adventurers, afoot; even though any excursion must necessarily hi. a banal ali'air. there was somctliiim triumphal about us. We had gone west ; and we found the Something Hidden. When, then, did we find r in the lirst place, loveliness incredible, tlm beauties of jagged peak and xoltlyrouiided bill : lakes that were like sheets of lapis lazuli, ringed with emerald and olivine; valleys that | wandered lazily north or west ; rivers tender and rivers fierce ; and above all. the glory of virgin forests, billowing over the landscape in illimitable seas of green. We found the Void (.nasi, the Black Coast, tile coast of a thousand charms; we. saw Kanieri and the amber lights in the Arnold Jiivcr: and we looked on Tasman’s Sea. Nor was the -ensation of ndvontming left behind when, the beauties of mountain and valley passed, we came out on the sea-coast. There are many people who tell you. unhesitatingly, that Greymouih is frankly ugly, that Hokitika’s main stieet. is hue. liable. Such are also the sort who insist that Hokitika hits neither romance nor interest. Vet for two blissful hours I prowled about Hokitika, convinced that at the earlie-r possible moment I must travel to Hokitika again; for here is romaiue yet unwritten, u tale ' to he tohl.

Should you doubt me. and I suspect there arc hundreds who will. I ask you to stand in Bevel! Street and vision l’or yourself the town ns it was in the gold-digging sixties. I’ieture the ships from San Francisco and Sydney wild Hobart Town, crowded into the river, the litter of diggers’ duffel along the bench, and the noisy, cluttered street. Thou (onto hat k and persuade me. if you can. that Hokitika is either uninteresting or unromantic.

Even in Hokitika’s quaint little library there could he spent a week ol profitable days. I defy anyone to read unmoved the record ol human endeavour contained in the old newspaper files. The hardships of the' goldseekers who pushed their way into precipitous ravines and opened up new claims, tho tragedies of tho many wrecks with their appalling loss of life on beach and bar. the tales of the trail-makers, tho huslnneu, the surveyors—they are there, enshrined, let up hope, lor all time, llie story ol tally "Westland is an onie in which every good New Zealander should take wholesome priilm And the Westland of to-day? To me there is romance in the fact that the days of gold-seeking having passed, men now win from the earth a more solid wealth In the form of black (lia+noncls; and in the knowledge that many descendants of those who either tramped or shipped to the Coast of the roaring sixties are to-day living in Westland as coal-minors or sawyers or farmers. It is characteristic of Nature that she beckons men to new countries with a linger dipped in gold. Having thus lured them to scratch the soil in the hope of gaining quick wealth, she retains them to serve her own needs.

In Westland, then, I discovered romance, beauty, interest. Some unforgettable pictures remain. The historic wharf at Hokitika, tho snarlling Grey River, the desolation of the old Brunner mine, placid Lake Afoaua, a little slim rimu standing like an exquisite forest maiden on the edge of the hush, the last glimmer of the afterglow above Tasman’s Sen—it is no visionary El Dorado that will take me hack to AVestlaud. So, when 1 find m.vself unable, to withstand the provocation of the Southern Alps, 1 shall again adventure over the ranges and find me the Gijld Const , the Black Coast,' the coast o| a thousand charms. \ AIONA TR ACY. New Brighton.