Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1891. Some Wonderful Statements.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 17 February 1891, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1891. Some Wonderful Statements.

We can understand our friends at Home being puzzled at the kind of life colonists lead, after reading the description in the Oirh Own Paper of last December on "Kate Marsden." On the strength of information gained from this lady, the writer gives some curious information about the lite at Nelson. Miss Marsden is credited with having spent a year in the Nelson district in attending the sick, and it is said that she was kept very busy. That she was adventurous goes without saying, when " she never questioned where she was going ov how. She was fetched sometimes by a couple of men, or she was sent for, and went alone. A two days journey or a five — it was nothing to her." That she was eccentric apppft-s in the statement that " she was ready when summoned in a few minutes, putting on her bonnet and taking with her, of course,

her little medieme ciiest, and something elSe which you will not guess, a few pairs of old boots and shoes, without which she rarely took a journey." She did not encumber herself thus to save her " poor feet," but she carried them to relieve the poor and afflicted, as " it frequently happened that she met young En-! glishmen of good birth tramping ■ along in search of work, and then she never failed to piit the question, " Are your feet sore?'* to which, as a rule, the answer came, " Yes, indeed they are." In that case she would stop (though on her Way to an urgent case of aickhess ?) and attend to and bandage their travel-worn feet, and give them a pair of boots from her stock." On one occasion she asked the Maories, as she had a long journey to go, and one beset with dangei', to lend her a buggy. They kindly lent her one of theiv make, apparently, as it is described as " a large cumbersome carriage, very light, having four broad wheels." The Maories also lent her two thoroughbreds (?) to pull this buggy, and off she started all alone. "On the way she saw a herd of wild bulls (?) coming ; she knew her only safety lay in rushing towards them as fast as she could, for if you walk to meet them they will walk to meet you, but if they think you stronger than they, it frightens them. So she stood up, and yelled and cracked her whip and urged her horses on, and succeeded in passing them safely. But further on she came on eight more, with their heads down and looking dangeious. She lashed her horses, and urged them on, and; being thoroughbred, they simply flew. One of the bulls gored the horse nearest to him, ripping its side, but she dared not pause, and eventually the bulls were left safely behind. That night she slept in the forest alone, after having sewn up her poor horse." Miss Marsden is evidently an entertaining companion, even if given to exaggeration, as the same writer says " She tells wild and thrilling stories of mid-night journeys through trackless (?) bush, solitary (?) nightwatches by camp fires, hairbreadth escapes from wild (?) creatures, fording raging torrents, and swimming for life" (with her little medicine chest, and her few pairs of old boots and shoes ?) No wonder that the listener is reminded, as he says he was, of Bret Harte and Rider Haggard. If he had not been so entranced, a little practical enquiry might have shivered these traveller's tales from their very slight foundation. We have been much amused, as no doubt our readers will be, at the "facts" herein stated, but it proves how little really is known of the colony when a first-class paper can publish such nonsense.