MR. E. J. WAKEFIELD'S TRIP INTO THE INTERIOR OF THE NORTHERN ISLAND.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, 23 April 1842, Page 27

MR. E. J. WAKEFIELD'S TRIP INTO THE INTERIOR OF THE NORTHERN ISLAND.

{Concluded from our last.'] A Inler wan .soon constructed of stout poles and plaited flaxen straps; and four "natives w.«re hired to relieve each other as porters. The day before starting I went to take my leave of old . Heuheu, pursuant to his request. After the usual greetings had passed, he told me at once that be suspected that our two parties had met, one from J'oniki and the other from Wai,-' temata, to consult over his land with a view' to buy it .or even seize it forcibly at a later season. <r .lf this be your wish," said he, *' go back and tell mywords to the people -who sent you. I am king here, as my fathers were before me, and as King George and his fathers have been over your country. I have not, sold mr chieftainship to. the Governor as all the chiefs round the sea coast have ' done, nor have I sold my land. I will sell neither. A meaaenger was. here from the Governor to bay the and the other day, and I refused : jf you. are on the same errand, I nfiwt yoii too: You white

people are numerous and strong; you can easily crush us, if you choose, .and take possession of that which we will not yield : but here is my right arm, and, should thousands of you come, ' you must make me a Blave, or kill me, before I will give up my authority over my land. When you go, you will say I am big-mouthed, like all the other Maouries who have talked to you; but I am now telling you that "by which 1 mean to abide. Let your people keep the sea coast and leave the interior to us, and our , mountain, whose name is sacred to the bones of my fathers. Do not bring many white people here, who may encroach on our possessions till we become their slaves ; but if you can make up your mind <to come yourself now and thenand visit this mean place, whose people are slaves, you will always find the same welcome. The place and the people are yours — go to Wanganui." The old man said all this calmly and withput working himself into a state of excitement ; but when he disclaimed any intention of swaggering, and, in holding up his right arm from beneath his mat, displayed his Herculean proportions unimpaired by the sixty years that have whitened his hair, I could not help admiring his calm and manly declaration, and believing it to be, as he said, true. I succeeded, after much trouble, in making him understand that we had all come to Taupo cut of curiosity only, and with no view of acquiring land ; and assured him that the southern pakehas, at least, would never annoy him by any attempts to wrest from him his sovereignty or his land. On the Ist of January we all left Tokanu, my companion being carried in his litter, and attended by about a dozen natives besides the porters. A large train also accompanied us as far as Roto aira. I selected two boys to carry my things, as I intended to push on a-head from that point. The progress of a large party of natives is always very slow, and we were two days reaching the eastern end of Roto aira, round the northern and eastern spurs of Pianga. This mountain is an extinct volcano, of which the crater opens to the north. The natives call it one of Tonga Riro's wives. The road leads partly through wood and partly through extensive clearings on the side of the mountain, from which there is a beautiful view of the valley of the Waikato. This valley continues to be about four miles in width as far as you can see to the southward. We passed several pretty villages on the road. On emerging from the wood on the south-east side of Pianga, we were gratified with amagnificent view of Tonga Riro and the other mountains, the clear valley between them and the wooded sides of Kai Manawa, and that through which a river called the Potu drains the waters of Roto aira into the Waikato. Descending through a plain of grass and fern, prettily dotted with clumps of wood, we stopped for the night at a settlement named after the river, close to where it disgorges itself from the lake. The level ground between Pianga and the shores of the lake is covered with the most luxuriant grass. A broad belt of timber encircles the middle of the mountain, whose <bare and ragged summit shows plain proofs of former eruptions. - . On the third an event occurred which delayed us here another day. A quarrel arose between a chief who had accompanied us from Taupo, named Tauranga, and an inhabitant of a village removed from ours about 100 yards. They met on the greensward between the two pahs; and Tauranga charged the other with having stolen some totara slabs, belonging to bis uncle, from the wood, and claimed restitution or payment; the other retorted, asserting his own right to the tree from which the slabs had been cut. They both waxed wroth, running up and down in short parallel lines, .brandishing their spears, and trying, apparently, who could talk most and quickest; " E kakari, c kakari" (a 1 quarrel, a quarrel), was now shouted in both villages, and about thirty people rushed out from each side to see the sport. Tauranga soon challenged his opponent to drop his spear and wrestle, and the other accepted the offer and threw him after a short struggle. The spectators now rushed in on both sides : old women, as well as men and boys, seized. 'the nearest offensive weapon; tomahawks and cutlasses were brandished, and j5 general melee* took place. The result was Me or six broken heads in about two minutes, anfl the wounded men pointed to their blood, anfl called for support from their respective friends. Many of the young men now threw away the sticks and clubs witfrwhich they had begun the affray, and ran to the pah for fire-arms. 1 stopped one boy who^v-as-run-ning to load one of my double-barreßed^uns, not wishing to be implicated even by proxy; but seeing several men who, armed with their own pieces, .were hastening to the spot, too excited to listen to reason," 1 called to my companion and proceeded to take up my position in a deep, narrow gully out of the reach of stray shots. The affair would no doubt hays ended fatally, and probably originated one of the endless feuds which exist even among the different families of the same tribe, had not an old ctilef natoed Pehi, who has the highest authority at this end of the lake/hastened to restore peace. He ran down~ to the scene of conflict, armed with an/Ad caVtf ry sabre, with the flat of which 'he administered sundry impressive admonitions to the Beads of the most furious ou both sides. - He reproached them with their folly in thus .creating divisions among themselves; wfcen they were bound to remain united against their common enemies, at Waikato and Wai totara, and urged^them to draw off before an injury hod' been received on either tide which might call for more blood as ah atonement. His mediation was accepted;. and although both parties continued^ running up and ''down, threatening each other and making the most hideous grimaces for nearly half an hear, So more violence took place, and both parties wuhdreif

to plaster the wounded skulls. A reconciliation took place in the afternoon over a grand feast Old Pehi's . warlike recollections were excited by the brush ; and he stood up for some time to relate to the young men the deeds in which he had gained his glory of yore, in company with other chieftains of renown. He entered with great spirit into his description of various ' skirmishes, and concluded by saying, with a laugh, as he threw away his spear: — "Ah, but this was a very good little affair; there was no mischief done ; it was very good play for the hands." .• ,4th. Crossed the Potu, which is a rapid stream, about as large and deep as the Hutt, And crossed the plains towards the eastern side of Puki Onaki. After crossing two. or three email tributaries of the Waikato, we stopped at one called Mangahoho iti, as it began to rain. This was about six miles from Potu. „ sth. The path continues along the declivity which slopes from Tonga Riro and the other mountains to the Waikato valley. The whole country consists of mania or grass plains similar to those on the western side, except where the gullies ofthe small tributaries are filled with timber. This is chiefly of two sorts — the towai, and the toa toa, a small tree, which is much prized by the natives for walking-sticks, and only grows, they say, in the neighbourhood of Tonga Riro. The stick, underneath the bark, is of a bright red colour, which takes a fine polish. . The gullies are so numerous as to render the journey very tedious. We only progressed ten miles to-day, but crossed eight of these. Two of the streams, Oturere and Wai hohonu, run in gullies 300 feet lower than the level of the path. At the latter we were again stopped by the rain. ,-. 6th. Proceeded along the prairie, crossing fivff more tributaries of the Waikato. After walking about eight miles, along the hitter part of w^ich the land was partly dry, barren, and almost devoid of vegetation, and partly morass, we arrived on the edge of a sandy desert, exactly resembling those which line the coast between Kaputi and Wanganui. from this point Tonga Riro bears S. 75° W., and Para te tai f TongaN. 50° W.^ This, too, is the highest point of the, prairie path \. and here we caught the last glimpse x»f Lake Taupo, of which we Jjaij a magnificent view all the way from Manjfihohol "The path now descends, and verges 4o .the, south-west, across the sandy desert, Onetapu, or Sacred Sand. Here another path branches off to the head of the Manewatu, by way of Patea, a place near the source of the ttangitiki. This path crosses the valley ofthe Waikato, and plunges into the broken country fprmed by the south-west spurs of Kai Manawa. The natives describe it as a very tedious path, .with many hills to, ascend and many streams to cross. About three miles along the sandy desert brought us to the Waikato, about half a mile ifpm its source, which is in one corner of a rugged, cavity in the south-east side of Tonga Riro. 3 lt is here quite an insignificant gutter. The desert now assumed a new aspect. Huge .masses of rock, of the most diversified shapes ■ and sizes, are piled on each other, and disposed r,over the sandy slope of the mountain in various ,fprms, and the rocks themselves seem painted , jritfr various colours, as though stained by some bituminous exhalation. A short mile explained the latter appearance. A strong sulphureous smell struck my nostrils for some hundred yards l^efore arriving at the Wangaihu, which stream nses within one hundred yards of the source bf the Waikato, and joins the sea nine miles pn this side of Wanganui. It is about three yards wide and a foot deep. As I crossed it I tasted ; t^e water, which some .Maouries had told me ; was wai tai, or seaj water, and others wai kawa, qr bitter water. The latter. r .were right ; for it tasted exactly like a strong dilution of ink. I ■ must leave it to persons more skilled in natural j phenomena to explain the causes of the taste r and ingredients of the mixture. I had to walk t .about six miles more before I got to any fresh water ,tp wash out the nauseous taste. This was !a, tributary of the Wangaihu, called Wai on. whose banks we encamped,. having ./caught a stray pig, .from a drove belonging to .me which Pakau had driven along a few days before., 0 , 7ih. Started at daylight, and descended frqm , the side of Tonga Riro into a plain level with the valley of the which Jiere takes a t sudden bend, to the eastward, and disappears , amojng some broken' wooded country. Turning , round the corner of one of the ridges which slopes from the mountain, we proceeded for ten jmUes along a narrow strip of plain, which Juts . for into the forest that teaches from, .the southern face of .Tonga Riro to the Wanganui. i Crossing .two .tributaries of the Wangaihu, w^e now plunged into the forest.. The rest of the journey needs no accurate description. The path leads .„ jwpr the. most impracticable hilly forest country ;,that I. have yet seen so large an extent of in '. New Zealand ; after., about five miles of flat forest land, there is nothing but a succession of .fteep ridges to Wanganui. , Some qf these ascenta were at least three miles long, and.^between each ridge a tributary of the Wangaihu 4 >'is crossed. The largest of these, ia the Mangawero, about twice the size of the Hutt., 1„ . On the evening of the 3th we reached . the potato-grouudß on, the table-lands above Iku-. .'. rangi, the pah which I have mentipned ia my /ftscent ofthe Wanganui, haying traversed about . . 45 miles of forest. Our food . was but, and wte were glad to make a supper from the, pqtafges vhich have been abandoned by the Ikuisngi ' '„ people* through fear of being surprised, by a. war . party from Taupo. The next mprning we , descended the hiUjgot a canoe, and proceeded down tbe river. The upper rbs^j, by the ManKMiui, is by fair the easier of the two; but both J9wst b« difficult iis whiter, when the streams are v swollen by the melting of the snows from Tonga Riro. -^ v J. f"