NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16488, 2 March 1914, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

This day fifty years ago marked an important chapter in the adventurous story of white settlement in tlie North Island. It witnessed one of the final stages in the conquest of the Waikato Valley from the Maoris, a task that cost more than three millions of money, and placed in the hands of the New Zealand Government an area of over four million acres of land. March 2, 1864, was the day on which the first steamers ascended the upper part of the Waikato River, the portion above Ngaruawahia, generally known in those days as Horotiu, a name which has reference to the swiftness of the current. This name has now fallen into disuse, and the whole of the river, nearly two hundred' miles in length from Lake Taupo to the sea, is known as the Waikato. Prior to 1863 no steamer had floated on any part of the Waikato, but the war and the presence of ten thousand troops quickly made things very lively on this great waterway, and war steamboats as well as the ordinary class of river craft were constantly passing up and down, taking soldiers and munitions of war and food supplies to the front.

The first steamers to venture up against the powerful current of the Upper Waikato from Ngaruawahia were the Koheroa and the Pioneer, with Commodore Sir William Wiseman and a detachment of the 65th Regiment on board. A Royal Navy officer, Lieutenant Coddington, was in charge of the Koheroa, which was a sternwheeler, built of iron, The Pioneer was a remarkable craft, also built of iron, and propelled by an overhanging stem wheel with feathering floats. She was specially designed for warlike work and for running tho blockade of the Maori musketeers. She had been built at Sydney for the New Zealand Government, and although she only drew two feet six inches of water she behaved better on the voyage across the Tasman Sea than did the convoying ship, H.M.S. Eclipse. She was 140 feet in length, with 20 feet beam, and on her decks were two iron cupolas, each of seven feet diameter, pierced for rifle fire, the communication being from below. To prevent the vessel from being boarded' by the Maoris in the event of her going aground, a three-inch pipe ran fore and aft, flush with the gunwale and connected with one of the boilers. This pipe was pierced with a series of holes, so that continuous jets of boiling water could be thrown on any enemy rash enough to attempt to carry her by boarding.

The two reconnoitring river-craft steamed up the strong Waikato as far as Kirikiriroa the first day and anchored there, at a spot where tho town of Hamilton now stands, twelve miles above Ngaruawahia. The next day the naval and military party went on in the Koheroa and got as far as the Narrows, a place where the river runs swiftly through a gorge. Here two military surveyors landed with their instruments, but while they were at work they were sighted by the Maoris, with -whom this part of the country was swarming, and they hurriedly retreated to the steamer, which immediately got under way for tho return trip. The party had an exciting time in getting clear of the Narrows, where they expected to bo fired on every moment. The Maoris lighted 6ignal-fires and great columns of dense black smoke were seen rising up from near the spot where the steamer had anchored. The object of the expedition was successful, good soundings of from eight to twenty feet being found all tho way up. This excursion up an unknown river through a ’hostile country led to the pioneer steam service being extended to where the town of Cambridge now stands. The service was continued with different and larger steamers, carrying passengers as

well as cargo, until the completion of the railway made it no longer profitable.

It is not generally known that the King of Spain is sovereign over a little territory of about 3000 acres in France. It is situated in the Eastern Pyrenees and is surrounded on all sides by' French villages and towns. It remains Spanish territory by virtue of the Treaty of the Pyrenees signed in 1659 between Louis XIV. of France and Philip IV. of Spain. In 1650 when Louis XIV. married the Infanta of Spain a new delimitation of the frontiers took place, but the Spanish plenipotentiary absolutely refused to givo up the territory of Llivia as it is called. He even, demanded the creation of a neutral zone in the shape of a road right across the French territory so that Llivia might have direct communication with the Spanish frontier. This was granted and the two nations bound themselves to levy no Customs duties on merchandise passing on this road. Since that date no alteration has been made in the treaty and Alphonso XIII. is absolute sovereign over Llivia and its 1500 inhabitants as his ancestors have been for more than 250 years.

A strange story of official interference is told by the secretary of the Imperial Merchant Service Guild, a body which watches over the interests of officers of the British mercantile marine in all parts of the globe. Some time ago the steamer Augustine, plunging through a raging sea, sighted a Greek steamer on the point of foundering. The hapless Greek sailors were drowning by the time the' Augustine got near enough to effect a rescue, and two or three of the British officers plunged into the raging waves at once and succeeded in saving most of the men. “So impressed were the Greek Ministers,” writes Mr Moore, “ that they informed the Imperial Merchant Service Guild that they had decided to confer upon Captain Forbes and offioers of the Augustine the decoration of the Order of the Redeemer of Greece. In due time, the orders not being forthcoming, the Guild made official inquiries of the British Government. It was then elicited that, in deference to the desire of the Board of Trade and Foreign Office, who had officially suggested in so many words that they did not approve of such distinguished awards being granted in 6uch cases, the Greek Government had modified their decision, and instead of the order were substituting silver medals.” The Guild advised the officers to refuse to accept the medals and there tho matter rests. Why the British authorities interfered at all is a mystery.

Mr William Jennings, the former parliamentary representative of the great King Country district, which is inadequately described by the name of the electorate Taumarunui, is still actively bestirring himself in his old constituency. He has been travelling this newly-broken district, the largest, if one of the least populous, electorates in the North Island, for the last twenty years, and few men know it as thoroughly as he does. Recently he made an effort to preserve unspoiled for the public the beautiful gorge of the Tangarakau, through which the main road from the Waikato line to Stratford, in Taranaki, has been carried. His effort has been so far successful that the Government is now making a deviation in the route of the railway to connect the Main Trunk with Taranaki bo as to avoid the gorge, which was on the original route. The Tangarakau is a more picturesque place than the celebrated Manawatu Gorge, which during recent years has been shorn of its greatest beauty by the destruction of the bush on its sides, and some day it will be more famous. It is little known as yet, as it is deep in the wilds, and those who travel it are for the most part busy pioneers who are not particularly concerned with scenery on its own account.

But the Tangarakau is not quite safe yet, as “ certain people in Wellington,” as Mr Jennings stated at a King Country meeting last week, are endeavouring, to cut up the beautiful gorge and clear the forest off it. This move the late member for the district is strongly opposing and he is endeavouring to enlist public sympathy on the 6ide of the threatened bush defile. Mr Jennings has no craze for bush-preservation in good farming country—he believes in turning every acre of useful land to account—but like many others who have travelled the backblocks he believes earnestly in the importance of keeping the forest growth untouohed on the steep banks of rivers and in gorges like the Tangarakau, as well as on the tops of ridges and mountains. His efforts, and those of Mr Ell and other prescient colonists moving in the same direction, are all for the public good, and the North Island farmer and traveller of the next generation may have good reasons to honour with thankfulness the work and the memory of these sturdy champions of tho native forest.

Fifty thousand trunks of trees have to be sacrificed every day to make the paper necessary for the printing of the ’ English journals and periodicals managed by Lord Northcliffe, either as proprietor or as principal director. His lordship long ago gave up drawing on the forests of Norway because of the continual rise in the price of European timber and he is now at the head of a company which is exploiting the timber resources of Newfoundland. Here the industry has created a regular town of 3000 inhabitants, all employed by the company. The trees are felled and carried by water to the saw pis, where huge circular saws cut them up into small pieces, which are then pounded by steam beetles into a paste which is sent by ship to Gravesend, where 1000 tons of paper are turned out of the factories every day. This is the output which is found necessary f„r the printing of the 25,000,000 copies of the sixty different journals anti periodicals controlled by Lord Northcliffe. ...