A VISIT TO MARLBOROUGH.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 97, 23 April 1873, Page 2

A VISIT TO MARLBOROUGH.

[by; a former resident.] '-14 y FROM NELSON TO BLENHEIM,' Having determined upon enjoying a two or three days' holiday, I started for Blenheim on Thursday evening last in the smart little steamer Wallace, with the iri-j tehtion of proceeding by coach from the 5 . inland capital of Marlborough to Picton,,; "■ and thence by the Ladybird back to Nelson. Punctually to the time appointed ' we got under weigh, and glided out of the, harbor, and were just preparing to make.. ,i the straight run up the Bay, when a sharp and peremptory order from, the captain to the man at the wheel to * port " or "starboard," or do something that indicated that an obstacle was to be avoided induced us to look a-head, when, at a very sharp distance from our' bows was to be seen an unilluminated small craft making for the entrance to the harbor. We had not gone a'hundred yards further when the steersman observed that he thought he could see another sail a-head of us, and this with the assistance of a night glass was now. discovered to be the case, and a little more dodging was required to avoid a collision with a schooner that only showed, her lights just aa we were down, upon her. Up to that time I was under the impression that all vessels, whether large or small, were compelled to carry lights at night, but either 1 was in error or the regulations that provide for so necessary a precaution are most glaringly infringed. Some day we shall perhaps learn that carelessness of this description is not always to be indulged in with impunity. These little incidents over, we once more got into our right course and steamed away at a smart pace in the direction of the French Pass. Did nay ideas run in a poetical groove 1 might be induced to say of the boat in which it was my good fortune to have embarked that " she walked the waters like a thing of life," only she did nothing of the kind, but, what was far better, she bustled away over the tiny little wavelets of Blind Bay like the brave little steamer she is, and gave us the impression ( although no opportunity was afforded her of ' giving a practical proof of it, that even id ' stormier seas she would have been equally at home, and gone oh her way in the same,, persistent business-like style, ..The .PasSj by moonlight was a beautiful sight, but- , before time was given us to admire the strange beauty of the* hills on either sidev- ■< as their size and shape were exaggerated : and contorted in that uncertain light, /^we^ had passed --through the narrow cjb&nnel," with the tide rushing pastus on either' side, and were once more in what, cdm- ! paratively speaking, might be termed the open sea. Six bells and a cold southeaster reminded us that blanket bay would be a snug place in which to bring ourselves to anchor for the night, and accor.ijf-;', ingly the passengers found their way. io'to i the comfortable little cabin below, -add soon assumed a horizontal position }'m '; ! which they lay and listened to fthe' 'monotonous thud thud of the;engineß,!an?ll the incessant beating of the paddles ; on. the water, which to those unaccustomed; to their music, did .not tend to induce]' sleep. However, the night, though a long one, came tb an end at last, and on rising, in: the morning we found ourselvesanchored off the mouth of the Wairati river, waiting for the rising.of the tide to give a sufficiency of waterJto enable us'; to vcross the bar. This occurred about . 9^o'cibck^ . few minutes after which we' w.sr§tai^i^m^ ' side the noble W^

very short time, for after ascending it for two or three hundred yards we. had to leave the^broad sheet of water it presents, * au'uf enter .'the narrow, tortuous Btream. of ! tbeOpawa, that leads to Blenheim. And | now commenced what one of our passengers graphically described as •' the rummest piece of navigation " he had ever seen, and he waß right. It was a rum piece of navigation. If you can imagine the letter S wriggling and writhing in a violent attack of convulsions you may be able to picture ;to yourself the course of the river Opawa. If not, you may give up all idea of attempting, to guess. what it is like, and the best thing you can do is to go and see it for yourself. To give some notion of its F<,r remaindtr of news, see fourth page.

eccentricities I may, mention that in the course of our travel we passed a group of gum, trees, and steadily steamed on for half an hour or so when, to my astonishment, I found that although we had in the meantime traversed some miles of water, we were still within a few hundred yards of them. Some suspicions as to the peculiarities of this river navigation were aroused in my mind shortly after crossing the bar by seeing a number of oars brought out and placed in a handy position on deck. To what use they were to be applied I soon learned. After a rare straight run for two or three hundred yards our captain remarked — *' Now we're coming to an awkward bend." Awkward it was. We could see the river up to a certain point on our right from which it appeared — for we could only guess, as to see it was impossible with a jutting promontory before us shutting out any further view — to^turn off at an acute angle to the left again. The signal bell struck, and the paddle wheels responded immediately by going at only half speed, another ring, and they altogether, and with the little way she had on her, the Wallace stealthily approached the bank on her starboard bow. To deviate her course in time was impossible, for her bows must be well up past the angle before it would be of any use to attempt to turn her, and so on we went slowly until her nose was well into the bank, while her stern was also touching lower down the stream. I looked back for an instant, and on turning round again was, I must say, intensely amused to find that our skipper, who evidently had been up there before and knew well what he was about, had stepped ashore, and was examining tbe vessel's bow to see whether it had penetrated the bank to any distance. He seemed to think that there was a chance of shoving her off, and the order was immediately given — " Look alive, boys, jump ashore and put your shoulders to her." The " boys " did look alive, and in an instant they were on the bank shoving with all their might. But the Wallace did not seem to care about this sort of treatment. She was all there at sea, and took rather a delight than otherwise in treating with disdain the big rollers she occasionally had to encounter in the Straits, but to be converted into an amphibious creature in so unceremonious a way she looked upon as infra dig, and so she sulkily resisted all efforts to get her off in this manner. What was to be done ? Captain Conway was not to be beaten, and the order was speedily 'given to lower a boat and carry a line across to the other side of the river. I looked, and everybody else looked, to see what tbe line was to be fastened to when there, for no post or tree'or anything of the kind was in view. But tbe ingenuity of the captain and crew was equal to the occasion. I have in my day travelled a good deal on horseback, and have frequently had occasion to welcome the appearance of a flax bush wherefrom to cut a leaf for the purpose of patching a broken girtb, strapping on my blankets, or even of converting it into a bridle, but my experience of the useful plant was not sufficiently extensive to lead me to suppose that it could ever be turned to account in navigating a sixty-ton steamer. However, we live and learn. In a twinkling our warp was fastened to a friendly flax bush, which bravely stood the strain placed upon it by the windlass on board the steamer, and in a few minutes we had the satisfaction of seeing her mud-stained bows once more pointing up the river. We met with two or three other adventures of a similar though less aggravated nature in our passage up, and I could not help admiring the cool and ingenious manner in which Captain CoDway met and overcame all these difficulties, which to a less experienced hand must inevitably have proved insuperable. The scenery on the river sides is in several places exceedingly pleasing, trees having been planted by many of the settlers to protect the banks, and we occasionally sailed through beautiful overbanging groves of willows, amid the stumps of which were every now and then j to be seen little flocks of pokekos, which would look up at us with an interested though perfectly fearless air, although we were so near to them that a good stockman with a moderate-sized whip could have knocked them over from the paddleboxes. Good rough feed for cattle was growing luxuriantly on both sides, and every now and then we passed comfortable looking homesteads, near some of which steam threshing machines, of which I counted no less than five, were at work knocking put the grain which was to supply freight to the mosquito fleet that trades between Blenheim and Nelson and Wellington. On Mr Charles Redwood's farm, a conspicuous object was a brick Baalthouse, of larger dimensions than any of which Nelson can boast, in which the barley he and the neighboring farmers grow; ia/ coriver'tsd into malt, wheeled a dozen y^rds ] into the vessels; that frequent the river, Ja_d >y .; them die-

tributed throughout the colony. About a conple of hundred yards below the store of Messrs. N. Edwards & Co., at Blenheim is a slight indentation, some six or seven feet deep, in the right bank of (he river, and this affords the only opportunity in the neighborhood of turning a vessel of the size of the Wallace round. Accordingly, her J3tern was here made fast to a willow treerand with- the assistance of her rudder and paddles, and the current, she was swung round, with her bow pointing dowr the river, and was then moored to a clump of osiers, the silt ; thrown up by the Omaka at its junction with the Opawa preventing her nearer approach to tbe town. Taking my carpet bag, and bidding good-bye to our courteous captain, I walked over a beautifully green paddock, and entered Blenheim after an interval of eight years which had elapsed since my last visit to this peculiarly-situated little town. In that time considerable changes, I found, had taken place, the most noticeable of which was the growth of the trees that did not then exist, but -which now from a little distance, now give the town the appearance of being situated in a grove. When last I was there, the houses were indiscriminately sprinkled over the township, apparently without any regard to order, now, some of the streets, which at that time had only names, have taken to themselves shapes, new buildings having sprung up and filled the gaps which left the visitor in doubt as to the direction the rows of houses were to take at some future date. Some fine stores have been erected, as well as three churches, the Church of England, tbe Presbyterian, and the Roman Catholic, which form conspicuous features in the landscape. Time, did not allow of my taking a trip into the interior and visiting the old familiar scenes, and I was compelled to content myself with ascending the firebell tower and from thence obtaining a view of the country extending towards the Taylor Pass, and the Waibopai and Wairau Valleys. I climbed the steps expecting to see, as in the days of yore, a treeless, brown, tussock-grassed plain, which was then used as a sort of common on which everybody's cattle grazed at pleasure, but as I looked round from the elevated position I occupied I felt that I was in what was almost a strange country. The grand old hills that framed the picture were, it is true, unchanged — the Devil's Arm Chair still seemed to offer a resting place well adapted for the person of his Satanic Majesty ; Mount Patriarch looked as hoary and as ancient as ever; the "Bounds" yet bore the old rugged aspect ; neither the "Ned," nor that frowning mountain that did rejoice, and I suspect still rejoices, and to the end of time will rejoice in the uneuphonious appellation of " Bloody Jack," still reared their beads against the bright blue sky unmoved and unchanged — but beneath them, the aspect of tbe country had undergone a complete reformation. Farms fenced and cultivated, homesteads surrounded by groups of trees, paddocks, that from their greenness spoke of tussocks turned under tbe sod, and English grasses and clover growing in their stead, all indicated the vast strides that have been made in the direction of comfort and civilisation. That* view from the Blenheim bell tower reminded me more forcibly than anything else could have done, that since last I looked on the scene below me many of the milestones in life's journey had been passed, for the changes that had taken place in the interval could not have been wrought in a day, or a month, or a year. Many of tbe latter divisions of time must have been required to bring them about, Blenheim is far from being a bustling or a busy town, still there is an appearance of progress about it that speaks well for the energy and activity of the country settlers, on whose exertions its prosperity depends, and I found upon enquiry that, in addition to the numberless wool drays that pour into its streets in the shearing season, waggon loads of flax were a common sight, aod that they afforded sufficient inducement to the smart little packets of the Anchor line of steamers to make frequent trips across to Wellington. In addition to this? the produce of grain is something considerable, while timber forms a large item in the list of exports from Picton, but of this I shall have to speak at another time. I It was my intention to have remained j a night at Blenheim, but there were some doubts of my being able to spend a few hours in Picton, at which place I had some business to transact, if I waited for the next day's coach, as the hour of the Ladybird's sailing from that port was uncertain, consequently I was compelled to start in the afternoon of the day of my arrival. I have already extended my notes to a far greater length than I anticipated,: and must therefore postpone any further account ot my little holiday tripuntil another day. ' .[ (To be continued), . C