NOTES OF AN OVERLAND JOURNEY FROM WANGANUI TO NEW PLYMOUTH.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 94, 7 April 1876, Page 4

NOTES OF AN OVERLAND JOURNEY FROM WANGANUI TO NEW PLYMOUTH.

':- r £FROM a. Correspondent.] Travelling by coach is a pleasant thin£ n; B.ut " it often necessitates very early;. rising, .and, if the old proverb were fulfilled, passengers by the New Plymouth , f coach ought to be wealthy people. " All aboard," at 530, with no prospect of breakfast for three hours, is af 'serious drawback to the stagecoach, but after starting, all discomfort is soon forgotten on tbis road, and gives place, toad miration of the fine country over which we travel. A mile out from rWanganui we ascend the terrace andiget a glorious view of the whole distrjctV Ruapehu and Mount Egmcnt, wi-n^ their 'show-clad peak?, rising above ;the apparently level country and forming a very, agreeable picture. Here we 'come' to a small lake, from which Wanganui derives its water supply. This lake is private property, and the Town Board object to paying the owner for thiß.'tfse of it, so the Good Templars have tho pleasure of taking a drink of water mixed, with sheep wash, as a portion of the lake is now used by the proprietor as a dip ! From here the road passes 1 through some magnificent farms belonging to Taylor and Watt, and through a highly cultivated country to Kai-iwi, nine miles out; from here for a few miles the country is broken, several valleys crossing our route at rig|it. (.angles, with terraces about 300 feet high between. These valleys, form t i t B>^- very : pleasant contrast to the generally level land, as they are mostly covered with a dense growth of shrubs and fern trees. In all of tbem is f stream well bridged at the bottom. About 930 we arrive at Nukumaru, where we breakfast and change horses. This place was rendered famous in the late- wars by the obstinacy with which the natives opposed the English 1 forces. On one occasion they broke through the pickets and were within a very short distance of the General's tent before they succumbed .o superior numbers. It was near here also tbat they built the strongest pa known in tbe colony to oppose; Colonel Whitmore, but which they unaccountably abandoned (fortutunately,for our forces) the very night before it was to be assaulted. About four miles of fine level land, and we pass the Wereroa pa, which is also famous in our war annals. I think it .was here that Dr. Featherston gained his laurels and the New Zaaland Cross. Descending Wereroa hill we cross the Waitofcara river, and ascend "Co the plateau on the opposite bank, and roll merrily along through farms for several miles to Wsiroa, where quite a little town is springing up.. r. The .old native pah of Okoluku is a few miles in tbe bush from here, and will be long remembered by those who were engaged in the laßt war as having been the scene of a great cannibal feast, where some twenty of our countrymen whojfell in action were tortured and eaten. A few miles on, we cross the cross the Whenuakuro, and the next rivet js j^he Patea, on the western bank of which is the town of Carlyle. Light draught steamers can enter the river, nnd as it is the centre of an immense district, it is looked upon by surrounding settlers as the " town." Dinner over, and away, we go for miles over a beautiful country magnificently grassed, and well laid out in farms, with pretty little homesteads showing up here and there. We' pass Rakararnea and other places with bard native names, and see tbe remains of old redoubts and Maori pahs, each with its tale of some desperate light, or, in crossing some ravine, * we are pointed out the place where the natives laid an ambuscade and tomahawked some unfortunate traveller. It seems very difficult to realise that it was only six years ago tbat this happened, and that at that time all this country' was in tbe hands of the rebels, it- basing unsafe for a large force to travel.through any portion of it, whereas now you xan ride for sixty miles between fences over a country covered , wj i tj?' : ''jra/ms.' ; 'and' homesteads. This district does not in any way owe its advancement to a grand Government Siheplefpf pauper immigration, but to tbe energy of a determined set of colonists, many of whom have had to figbt foF'the : Jand they have now so well farmed. At Hawera, sixty miles from Wanganui, the coach stops for the night. Quite a little village has grown up here,, and it is, I think, about the centre of the finest district in New Zealand. The Waimate plains, which lie to tbe westward, are still io the hands of the natives, who will neither use, sell, nor lease them. The river Waingongoro divides them from Hawera, but it is really part of the diatrict. From this point there are two roads tc; New Plymouth— the coast and the mountain road. The coaoh travels by the former, as the bush road is not yet formed, aud crosses the magnificent Waimate. plains on toOpunake, between which place and Stony river some 25 miles of road is not yet formed owing to (the opposition of the natives, but, as' the country is open, though Boft in many places, a passable track is obtained — but it is a heavy stage for the horses. : The natives have also succeeded in preventing the telegraph-line being erected over this portion of their oountry, aud now the Government are going to carry it round the back of the mountain. From Stony river into New Plymouth, 20 miles, the settlers have made.! some nice snug homes and well cultivated their land. The mouutaio road branches at Hawera, enters the bush at Ketemarae fives miles on, and then passes over many miles of almost

level country with splendid soil. The clearing for the road has been sown with grass Beed, and so rank had it grown that the Government bad this year to employ labor to cut it down to allow travellers to get through. For about five miles the road crosses a great number of small streams, running down from Mount Egmoat, some of which are small torrents after heavy rains. This road is much used during summer, as it saves about 25 miles betwen Hawera and New Plymouth. The Government had a clearing made about twelve miles from the town, and laid out a township called Ingle wood, on' which nearly 300 people are looated, and a great deal of the surrounding district has been taken up, some under the deferred payment system, and a great deal by direct payment, and the sound of the axe and falling trees is everywhere to be heard ; but I hardly think the land here is at all equal lo that nearer Hawera. A line of railway*— a branch from the Waitara one — has been laid out to Inglewbod, and the settlers are in hopes that it will be commenced soon; but we know what this means, for we in Nelson are also hoping for our little line to be extended. New Plymouth is still the quiet place it always has been. The railway train runs out twice a day to the Waitara, but until quite lately carters were able to compete in price with it, and as the passenger traffic is very small, I do not think that any one would be hardy enough to say tbat it pays expenses. New Plymouth bas an excellent reading room, open on Sundays, and can even compare with Nelson for pretty girls, who exceed the male population by about four to three. It has been suggested by some one that the Government should grant all tbe girls a piece of land, which would be an inducement to young men to take to themselves a wife, and at the same time a farm— rather a happy thought. A penal settlement is about to be established, and eventually the convicts will be employed ;n building a breakwater. The natives, round this district still tnaintbat anomalous position they have so long held as regards allegiance to our authority. Thoße-who ought to know say there is no chance of another outbreak, and I believe that so long as J our Defence Minister has the power to dip into the public purse and keep the malcontents quiet, they will prove right. Very lately some natives who had been fighting against us during the late war, have come in and squatted on the Bottlers' lands, and refused to move; what will be the result it is hard to say. Still we are getting a, firm footing all round the country, and tbe natives will, I think, have the sense to see tbat tbey must be the losers in any encounter with us, disastrous as might be the result to the scattered outsettlers in the outset.