SOME ACCOUNT OF THE GREENSTONE COUNTRY IN THE MIDDLE ISLAND.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 1, Issue 18, 30 August 1849, Page 2

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE GREENSTONE COUNTRY IN THE MIDDLE ISLAND.

(Continued from our last.) Erratum.—At tenth line of the second column of the article on this subject, in No. 16, for "86" read 286. I mentioned in the last number the names of the Karamea, Mokihinui, and Kawa Tiri Kiveis, which flow into the sea between Capo Farewell and the Ata Huta. 1 shall now. give a short description of the districts about these rivers. Tlio country from Wanganui, near Capo Farewell, to Ara Hura, the Greenstone Kiver, and for eighty miles farther to the. southward, is covered with one continuous forestt save where, here and there, the rocky and snowy summits of the mountain ranges break through this, and their ridges and spurs, branching off towards the coast, form the precipices which I have before described* So different is the nature of the vegetation there, to that of New Zealand generally, that in only two places along the whole distance can fern-root be procured by the traveller. The land about the embouchures of the rivers is of the most suitable nature for the growth of wheat, and is of such nil extent as to be capable of maintaining a very largo population ; but at present it is but a dark and pathless forest into which even the native had never penetrated, save, perhaps, the traveller, who would occasionally leave the coast track and go a mile inland in search of the woodlion, or the fugitive of an almost exterminated tribe who (led to the bush and died there. The tribes of the nearest settled districts know nothing of us to where thissc rivers lake their riso. They have a name for some 1 snowy summit which is discernablo from the 1 coast, bnt know not what is the nature of iho : country behind the first mountain range. Along nil these districts uf line laud no food is grown, and the traveller has to hurry on ' past the level snndy beaches which form the shore of the vallies, that he may obtain shellfish and blubber amongst the rocks of the ; rugged coast beyond. It is very doubtful win ther these vallies wore ever at any time peopled. The Ngahitau and Ngn To Tumata Kokiri tribes that formerly inhabited the Middle Island, occupied cluelly the northern and e.isurn coasts, 1 nnd only visited the western ?hure in <|uest of gicenstone or to obtain sealskins. A section of these people retreated to the rocky fastnesses of the Karamea country upon the invasion of the Ngatctama and Kawhia tribes. Thence, nfter a succession of fights in which their strength was broken, they dispersed, going yet farther to the south-westward, where, at the Ara Hura River and towards Milford Haven (Waka Tipu), a community of about 70 persons, half of whom are of the Kawhia tribes intcrmairiod with Ngahitau, are all that remain of them, and the only inhabitants of a coast country of 475 miles in length The incessant wars which seem to have engaged the Ngahitau, the Tumata Kokiri, and the Itangitani even before the Kawhia tribes crossed Cook's Straits, preveuted the population of the Middle Inland encreasing to such ! an extent as that these vallies could be peo- i pled. The circumstance of the frosts which i occur in the winter season in the Aliddle Island must have rendered it, in some mea- 1 sure, an unattractive locality to the tribes of' the Northern Island, especially at that period when, before the introduction of the potatoc and corn, the natives had to procure their food from day to day in the woods on the sealio.icli. Passing the month of the Kawatiri or I3uller Island, the tiaveller has again before him a rugged and precipitous heach track of about CO miles to Kararoa, the most northern village of the Greenstone country. There is, however, during the whole journey much to compensate along the most rocky paths for the difficulty of travelliug. Amongst tho reefs, at low-water, some kind of shell-fish or blubber is generally to be procured, and in the winter season the Weka, or wood-hen, comes down from the interior forest to the rocky coast to live during the frosts upon tho marine insects of the sea-wced. These birds, although miserably thin at such times, are a very valuable acquisition in food for the tra-

veller. The Korara, or penguin, is also occasionally to be found. These birds come to the shore nt night and remain in crevices of the rock, or in thickets near the bench, until daybreak. Their cry, which resembles the noise of the wailing of a child, guides the bushman to their retreat, when with the aid of a small dog the bird is speedily drawn forth, biting, however, and fighting in its defence bravely, ere it is taken. Often during the greater part of a dreary winter night the traveller is occupied in the pursuit of these birds, and coarse and oily as their flesh is, he is amply repaid if he can kill three of them

ere daybreak. On the sandy beaches of the level portion of the coast country, food is very scarce, and is only to be obtained with much difficulty. Pwtiki, or soles, may sometimes be found, at nifc'hf, in the pools of the tide flats, and attracted by the glare of a reed torch which is carried, may ba speared in the shallow water. Pigeons, also, during the winter season may be snared amongst the underwood in the forest; but the capture requires much dexterity. and occupies more time than can be spared during such an expedition. A dend ling, washed on shore by the surf, or a blind eel found on the sand, with some of the root of a species of 'reed which grows on the sandhills, will often have to suffice the traveller for food for several days ; and should the river in such a ease happen to be flooded and impassable, the extiemo of privation must bu tlic result. (7'o be continued.)