THE BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND'S VISITATION TO THE SOUTHERN ISLAND in 1848. (From the New Zealand Journal, April 7, 1849)

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 360, 27 September 1849, Page 3

THE BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND'S VISITATION TO THE SOUTHERN ISLAND in 1848. (From the New Zealand Journal, April 7, 1849 )

SIHJ' COVE. Tun wooilland beauties of Ship Cove are scarrely surpassed in any part of New Zealand. High lulls clothed with varied foliage slope down to a small plain ended in a bench, through ihe middle of which a beautiful stieam of \ui l .«r fl ws into the sea. At a cable's Icnstli from the shore a vessel rides at anchor in tent fathoms water. The whole of Queen Chatlotte's Sound has the unusual fault of being too deep, as we found this evening when we were overtaken midway by a furious blast from the south-east ; and, after tryingmany placet in vain, we were obliged to run back the distance wh'ch we had gained, and anchor for the niphl in Ship Cove, where our previous examination, had assured us of shelter. On Sunday, May 7, many of the natives aisembled for Divine service in my little cabin, whica, though not fitted up lilte the Hawk for this purpose, will hold a congregation of sixteen. Most of the paily were baptised men, who bad seen me at Mr. Hadfield's station at Wailwinea. When this and the Eoglish Bervice with my crew were completed, I Bet out in the achooner's bo^t to visit the other villnget in the Sound as far as Te Wera-a-Waitohi, leaving the vesssl to follow on the next duy. Our little boat sailed briskly along with a fair wind and t'de, and by lying close into the shore gave me an opportunity of ascertaining the position of the native villages, which were fewer than I expected, and very scantily peopled. We passed in succession a series of Cook's well known names, Shag Cove, West Ray, and Grass Cove, and came at sunset to a beautiful bay, nearly opposile to the southern passage called Tory Channel, where the prineipil native teacher of the Sound had fired bit abode in a most inconvenient position with none of his people. His taste, however, was more commendable than hit pas - I toral care, for a more beautiful spot, for a man accustomed to cultivate hilly ground, could scarcely be found. In this bay shoals of black fnh and por»oi<e« were enjoying their evening gambols, their dark food c? contrasting strangely with the red light reflected front the sunset on the calm water from which they sprung into the air and fell back again, tracing ull imaginable curves with their awkward bodies in their descent. It never happened to me to see so many fish out of water before. These monsters of the deep were not very pleasant neighbours, for their great amusement seemed to be to jump ai near the boat as they could without

touching it, and then make thcii bow and dive under its bottom . More than once I thought that they wou'd overturn the boat ; antl having no hiumcil afcniua, I could not hope that they would honour mo as their forefathers did Aiion, by convening me to shore. Josoph, the native teacher, whom I found at home in his solitary cottage, gKidly contented to accompany me to the main body of his people at Te Weiu-a-Waiiohi ; and as it was then dusk, 1 was p,lad of his |.:lolnge through tins unknown Inbyrinili of buys iuhl coves. AVo went on under a bright moon which boon >ose upon us, and reached the arm ot the Sound at tie end of which the village is placed. Gnuliully the land closed in upon us, till we were gliding atom; a < anal ol water so landlocked and still, that tlir j.ient 'iifiiculty would be for vc*sel6 to «o in or out without the aas stance of btea in. No spch didiculty aff 'fling our little boat, we BUot alnng with u niUeiy v/uko of pliosjihoiic light, vying in bnghtmsa with the moonlight beyond the shadow ol the lull under which we weie rowing; and about 8 p.m. wo arrived nt the htllo village at the extietnc southeast coiner of the Sound. The usual nativo v.dcoinc of slinking of hands, shouts, ai.d a multitude of questions, ucie scarcelyat an end, when .steaming pumpkins, the food most easily procured, (this being Sunday evening,) showed that ihese villogeis Knew how to s'nkc Hie mean between two duties, and to praclise hospitality without infringing needlessly upon the sanctity of the Loul's day. Onr evening sei vice, followed, with scriptute iv&dv q anil catechising, nn o\ereiso in which the natives delight, and which commands their attention even after the usual houis of retiring to tleep. When our services were ended, Noble, the owner of the house, with the usual native politeness, vacated it for the* uf^ o f me and ir.y p.uty, though rry buit consisted only of Henry Muuhaiu .uici another nntiu 1 num. We should have been glad of more ccnipanions, for the night waa fiosty and the house Urge ; and two tiicd men arc not a sufficient watch to uccure <i grod fire dunng the night. At sunrise on the B{h of Mny, after morning abiu- | tions, in the clear siio.wn which waters the little plain ol Te Wertt-tt-Waboln, I (ook a view of t!\e place which seemed so pieurcsque the night before ; but in candour, it must be confessed, that the native villages, liUe Meltose Abbey, look best by thfi pal<s moonlight. A few straggling houses, and u small palisade oi pah, sic all the dwellings it present on the spot which must become the BHe of an English town. The little plain is already in tulLi'.iHou and 6eems to have borne an abundant wheat crop to its native owners. But ibcy are quite willing to givs it up, reberving only a i»mall part for thcmselvts, thut they mpy have the benefit of living among us. Thay expressed their willingness to retire to the other arms of the Sound for their cultivation, and leave all the auble kui'l round the town for the English settlers.

WAIIIAU— •THE GRAVES. After morning prayers, I started with my friend Joiephjthe native teacher, as my guide, to walk to (he plain of Wairau. The path lay for a short dutance through the native corn-fields, but soon led to a, woody passage between two high hills, with nn ascent co easy and gradual that a native road for dragging canoei out of the wood hail been made for sevci.il miles, on both aides of the low intervening ridge which scpara'ea Queen Chailotte's Sound from the valley of the Timinaiino, one of the tributaries of the "Wait au. In about half an hour we reached the summit of the bonk on the side of Waitohi, but the descent to the Waircu Is longer and nioro gradual. At fust we followed the direction of the native canoe road, but when 1 hat was lost in the vaiious branches which led to the places where the great trees had been felled, we turned off into the surveyor 1 ! liacks, with which the whole of the ralley of the Tuamarino is now inteisected. After three or four hours' walking, a distance probably of fight or ten miles, we emerged from the wood into a narrow valley closed in on ei'her side with steep barren lulls, with the Tuamarino winding through it in the midst of a narrow strip of maishy (lit. The whole of the valley could be drained without difficulty, as the lied of the swnmps is high above the ordinal y level of the river. A fevr clumps of trees on the n'vei's banks seemed to indicate thbt "he whole valley had once been a part of the forest. Another hour's walk brought us to the end of our journey, and n place of dcrp interest to me, — tlits scene of the conilict of the Wain.v. My native guide underst od at once, fiom his own national custom, that I came to show my report for this dead by visiting their graves. I had another object also, which was to fxum.no the spot with a view to make an application to have it reserved and set apart as a site for a chuich and burial ground. The whole hiblnry came painfully before my mind, as I 9tood on the place where so many useful lives w^ie uselessly lost, and where some of the best friends of the native people were visited vi iih the penulty deserved only by their bitterest enemies. There was the deep unfurdable stream of the Tuamnrmo, with its lotten and hollow "banks ; and the crossing-place where Ilangihaiulu'r, canoe, moored across, the stream, foimed a temporal y bridpe ; and on the other side the thick jungle of flax and reeds, backed by a cop^c of laige tiinbor, which made it alrooat impossible lor an En^'iub force to cope wiih the natives ; and which, il we hud been the victois, would have prevented vi from making a Mtigle prisoner among the vanquished. On the other eide of the river, along which the paih to the Wairau lies, the ground jticlf explained the circumstance of the affray. Close lo the river, within a neat fence of stakc c , are thegiaves of those who fell at the fiist affray which followed the random shot accidentally filed while the party were rccrossing the river. Fiona this poim the line of retreat was evident, by which some wore led into the j>lajn of Wairan, wheic tl.ey escaped to ibe sra ; but Captain Wakefield and the other gentlemen, with a view no doubt to save the lives of their men, a&cended, in the sight of the pursuers, a round knoll of fern ri« aiiig immediately from the uver; and theie their grave j.s marked by a simple fence, in full sight of the plain of the WiiiiMi, for which they lost their liven in vain, The half of the Middle Island would have been too ('early purchused at the j rice of the life of Captain Wakefield alone. The whole of the plain las tince been bought, at a price which I will not mention, lest I should stem to piece it in companson with these inestimable lives. Icucc to their mortal remains In the lonf ly graves by the etill waters of the Tuamarino ! From the top ol this knoll, upon which I hope to see a church creeled, the whole plain of the Wairau in clearly seen, v-ith the liver w.nding in its wide bed of gravel, which, in nil the rivers ol the Middle Island, is the only sign visible in dry wrnther of the torrent which often deluges the j lain. On the side of the sea the view is bounded by the headland of Parinuiowhiti, connected with the fir.ibsy downs of Kuparatehau, at ihe southern rxircnw y of which (he s>»ov*y peaks of Tapuacmi'u olom* in tho view over the jil/iin. The distance fio « N Iso i is vety considerable, whether by lend oi 6 a; llin vu.m"..t rud at preutnl practicable Leni"- six f y or seventy miles in length. But an easy chain ol communication can be ebtabli bed by water horn Nelson to Cio.ulle, ll.ubour, in Blind Bay; from the noil hern arm oi Cioixillc, over a native canoe porlige into the rclonm (Iloieri) Kivcr, and thence by a similar poitdgein o Queen thai lot tes Sound, and bo to Te Wera a^Vmtolii, and tlnousli the Tuamaimo

valL-y to the Wairau. This route would only Involve about twenty milci of ea<y laud earmgo ; all the rest bemg a good navigation in inland waters.

SITB TOR TRINITY COLLEGK, OTAKI. May 17. — My Otnki friends a companied mo to soarcli over their land for the hot tile for u college. In the midst of all the disputes uml wus- of this distr.ct, it was generally agreed that 500 or 600 acres should be freely given u|> to t lie bishop and his successors for this piu pose, in Older that the native and English youth might he trained up together in the knowledge oi thetiue God, and in the habits of civilized Me. The only difficulty antes oil the ground of the supposed claim ot sume of the Company's oiiginal pinchaseis to part of the laud proposed to l>° gruited to the college. In order to pas'? over the bestb'niutions, I a\oidul the splend d road nhich the Government has now curried through the llgiolciwi valley, and followed the old horse track by PuKciua to Pinuua. Two beautiful sites were offered on this line of rond ; but the approaches to them from Wellington are too difficult. Coining down to Taup > on Poiiiua Laiboni,wc dined with our native ally, Kawiri I'u.iha, and then ciossed the neck ot the Irubour to Win i cm, a peninsula immediately opposite to the island of Mann, vheiea gpacc of GOO acres is sepaiated from the main land by the bay of Titahi and the harbour of Porirua, with an isthmus ot thiec-quarteisof a mile between the two wateis. Though isolated in its position, it is within a mile or two of the main ro »d to Wellington, seventeen miles distant; und it lias also a ready communication with that port by Porirua harbour and Cook's fctrait. About 200 ucies of the land are c )vered vith wood, but the lemainder is open, lising into grasby LiHb, with steep declivities to the bta bcu.li. Witireii itself is a bold headland looking full u^ou the islnnd of Mana, and commanding a beautiful view of the hills of the Middle Island. In the centre h :iu old native clearing, with large trees scorched by fne, standing on the spot on which I hope, in siibmUsun to Divine Providence, that Tiinity College may be built : but I have learned this lesson by the losses with which we have been visited, not to picsume upon nny thing that is not yet attained. My companions, Thompson, Te Rauparaha, and Levi, left me heie, and I went on alone across the bandy flat of Porirua harbour, and reached the Wellington load as the sun went down. What an agreeable change from former journeys thiough the deep mud and UUcti trees ot the tottivi fl.it! —a road perlectly smooth, and almost level, enabled metoiiocecd as ronilbilably by moonlight as in broad day. A few m leb on, 1 found my native scholars crouching over a fire, hungry and blcepy, aa they had gone lound by the government toad, and had eaten nothing all day. An outlying settler supplied them with an empty house, and allowed them to dig some potatoes fiom hit ground ; and after seeing them in a fair way to be comfortable, I went on my road to Wellington. At Hawirey Chapel, in the middle of the Poiirua wood, the village evening school was still going on ; and there I rested for an hour, examining the scholars, and pai taking' of the Eeasonable hospitality ot the schoolmaster; who showed his sense of that duty, which is more frequently [ ructised in the simple hamlets in the bush, thau among the richer communities in the towns. I resumed my walk with renewed vigour, and reached Wellington Parsonage about eleven p,ii. The Undine, I found, had arnved safely on the Saturday before. My dear Iriend Mr. Hadficld was still alive, but the symptoms oi Ins disease hud showu uo signs of improvement. But it was a great blessing to hear that I might again enjoy the benefit ol his counsel, and listen to the wisdom of a Chusiian death-bed, For four yeais his whole life has been nothing more than " commeniatio mot tu>." [To be Continued.]