IN DAYS OF OLD.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1064, 15 February 1913, Page 4

IN DAYS OF OLD.

GERMAN VISITOR OF 1876

HIS IMPRESSIONS OF

MANAWATU,

primitive travelling.

A Palmerston correspondent sends the following to the Evening Post: — When in Melbourne recently, Mr R. M’Nab picked up a book in the German language which recounted incidents of travel in New Zealand. The author was Max Buchner, of Bavaria, medical doctor. He visited New Zealand about the year 1876, and some of bis impressions which have been kindly interpreted for the purpose of this article by Dr. Rockstrow, of Cuba Street; are decidedly interesting. It is rather a coincidence that Dr. Rockstrow distinctly remembers the visit of Dr. Buchner to Foxton.

The voyager tells of his brief stay in Wellington. He was there at the time the provinces were being abolished, and he says the country was in an uproar. The South Island, he said, was opposed to the change, and the North, which had all its Maori war debts to pay, favoured it. “The Colony,” he. says, ‘‘seems to have a great future before it.” All the Germans at Wellington came to shake hands with him. He was considerably astonished because the men did not wear gloves. The hotels were very good, cheaper than those in Germany. They only charged 8s a day, zs for a bed, and is 6d for meals. But the beer was not fit to give to the pigs !

PROM WELLINGTON TO FOXTON

“I went to Napier and Hawke’s Bay,” says the writer. He travelled partly by railway and partly by coach, the journey occupying three days. He passed through Johnsonville where the children were bathing in a little creek by the school. They had breakfast at Parawhenua Hotel and pressed on up the Paekakariki hill. The roads, he says, were so narrow that foot travellers scarcely had room to get out of the road of the coach. ‘‘Afterwards we came to the top of a mountain. (Paekakariki)—a steep bank about 200 metres deep falling away down to the sea. There we could see the whole Indian Ocean stretching out* . . . Then with hearts

in their mouths they went down the “great mountain.” The roads were, narrow and very bad ; “we all sat there expecting every moment to go dovyu into the There wa* no protection at the sides and as the horses went flying down stones were scattered in all directions and our hearts nearly ceased beating. Ladies who were in the coach begged the driver to stop and let them get out, but he only laughed and plied his whip the mote. I had thp greatest respect for this coach driver.” He could well understand the saying he had heard in Wellington that the coach drivers never had an accident. He regarded the man’s prowess with wonder. Two of the ladies pried out and screamed so that they nearly made the horses bolt. AN INTERLUDE. Dr. Rockstrory laughed heartily as he translated this passage. “ 'Vou were over that track pretty frequently yourself, Dr ?” “Ah, yes ! I once went over with a coach driver who was beastly drunk, and the Bishop of Wellington took thp reins (” AT OTAKI. At Otaki the German medico was amused to see Maori women squatting about smoking pipes. Maori girls, fine looking with deep black hair, unbrushed, with bright yellow shawls, Jay about the road watching the coach come in. He was much taken with the fine Maori Church. ON TO FOXTON. They pushed on to Foxton. Shortly before reaching there they came to the beautiful Mauawatu River. “We had to cross over in a ferry. It was not easy to find the path from the road to the ferry, and the coach driver had to get down and look for the wheel marks with a lantern. He discovered we had come on too far, and we had to drive back. The flax grew so thick and high it was difficult for the horses to get through. At last we got out and were ferried over the Manawatu.” They bad dinner at Whyte’s Hotel, Foxton. “A large dining room with a, very good dinner laid out and our coach driver presiding at the table like a captain on a ship* But in the.next room, not very clean, there was a lot of liquor consumed, and some of the Maori women were in there with their expensive mats and shawls vaunting their spirits.

A few weeks before the railway from Foxton to Palmerston, about 37 kilometres, was opened. The hotel was full. Amongst the passengers was a fane robed Maori, chief. He was in a state of fear that he would not wake in time to catch the train next morning. “He had a watch and showed it to me every few minutes to see what time it was. At midnight he commenced lighting his pipe to keep awake. His uneasiness interfered with our sleep, and the other white people commenced kicking up a row.” FOXTON TO PALMERSTON. Dr. Bruchner was amused with the railway between Foxton and Palmerston—really a tramline. It was very primitive and was run very lackadaisically, he said. They had to get water and fuel for the engine. It was a very cold morning, and the trip was so slow that they suffered very much. The engine was ready but there was no driver. “Charlie! Charlie,” called the guard, but there was no Charlie. After about a quarter of an hour Charlie came, but the fireman had not turned up, and they all went to look for'him. After a while when they had found him and had got going they discovered the mail bag had been left behind and returned for it.

Everyone turned out along the road to see the train go by. Several times they had to stop because the wood rails were out of place. At last after several miles in dense bush they came into the open into a place called Palmerston. Trees were standing about in The Square. They had breakfast at the principal hotel in Palmerston, and then passed on. All the narrator says about Palmerston was that it was in the midst of heavy bush, and comprised a few wooden buildings and some huts.

Half an hour, and onward they went, 'over the Manawatu river, through the famous dangerous gorge, and then on to Hawke’s Bay,