JOURNAL

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 453, 17 August 1850, Page 2

JOURNAL

Of an Expedition Overland fiom Auckland to Taranaln, by uiaij of Rolotua, Taupo, and the West Coast undertaken in the. Summer of 1849 — 50, hi/ His Excellency the GovunNOß-iN-Cinur of New Zealand. [Fiom the " Maoiu Messengkii."J Wednesday, sth December, 1849. — Having: made all the necessary preparations, we embarked at 2 p. m. on board the Bishop's beautiful little yutch the Undine, in which hit Lordihip had kindly undertaken to convey us as far at the anchorage of Tararu, near to the Mission Station of Kawerunga, at the mouth of the Tlianaci, whither lie was about to conduct the Rev. Mr. Lanfear, for the purpose ot introducing him to the native* as their new Minister in •uccession to the Rev. Mr. Dudley, recently returned home. Thence we were to pioceed up the Thames in a boat which was towed down by the schooner for the nurpose. Our party consisted of Hi* Excellency Sir George Grey, K. CJ. 13. ; Lieutenant Sjmonda Staff Oflicer of Pensioners; Mr. Cuthbert Clarke, artist ; Mr. G. S. Cooper, Assistant •Piivaie Secretary ; Pirikaw.iu, a clerk in the Native Secretary's Office, as Interpreter j and Peter Brady , cook. The chief Te Heu Heu, o( Taupo, who had travelled to Auckland for the purpose of escorting tho Governor on the projected journey, was alio one of the party, which wus completed by his train of wives and follower!, and a few natives we had engaged in Auckland to do duty as baggage carriers. We were also accompanied by Captain Rough, Harbour Master, who was to return irorn the Thames with the boat, when she should have conveyed us us far as the river is navigable. It was a beautitul afternoon, with a floe breeze from the westward, before which the little vessel scudded merrily along and conveyed us to the bay of Te Huruhi on the

S. W. side of the island of Wuiheko by 4 o'clock. Here we anchored, and while dinner was being prepaied, landed to see our f>icnd William Jowetr, who lives in. this bay. The village is a wretched looking place, containing not more than 30 or 40 inhabitants, in an ill constructed pa surrounded by a very smull extent of cultivation. Hoete and his wife appealed vciy glad to see us, and biought us into their house, which is built of ruupo, but in the bhape of an English house, it was however, sadly out of lepair, but clean and neat, and contained some Em opcan furniture and other implements, which gave it a superior appearance to the generality of native houses. Poor Jowett whs vciy ill, having lieon suffenn" for some time from pains and swelling of the limbs occasioned by eating putrid maize and other simitar delicacies with which the native! arc accustomed to regule their pl-ites and ruin their constitutions. A. komiti, or meeting, of women, was being held in another part of the pa, to which our attention was directed by the loud tones and energetic gesticulations of the speakers. On drawing near to see what was going on, it appeared that the topic was the usual subject of conversation amongst the gentler sex of all nations anil coniplexiom — to wit — articles of diess, the low having been occasioned by an accusation which one lady hail brought against another of having stolen her petticoat. It ended however, in the acquiital of the accused, and the conversation, as a matter of course, turned upon scandal, on which interesting topic the assembly was earnestly engaged when we If ft them. We returned on bourd the Undine, at 6 to dinner, and made a most excellent repast off some College fed mutton. After dinner we got under weigh, and again brought up at the eastern «*ide of the island in Maxwell's Buy, also called Te Iluruhi, at about 9 o'clock, when we bad prayers after which came the opeiation of stowing us all away in the small vessell, whkli requiied all the Bishop's skill and experience, acquired by long practice, to manage effectually At length, however, the packing was completed ; the maoriea and College boys in the hold, the boat's crew in the forecastle, and the remainder of the party in the cabin, gome in the bunks, some on the fl jor, and others including the Bishop himself, on the narrow side lockers. Thursday Gtli. — Got under weigh at 4 a. m., a beautiful morning and the birds singing sweetly— as they always do in the New Zealand woods— in the trees with which the shores of this pretty little bay are clothed. It is indeed a treat to a poor fellow who is generally confined in an office for the whole of liii time to feel himself in the open world, surrounded by all the beauties of nature on a New Zealand summer's day, and far away from the dull monotony of official routine and the diurnal study oMdry matters of every day business between the seldom varying hours of 10 and 4. The wind was very baffling, often dying away altogether and then springing up in light airs from ull points of the compass, but mostly fioin the S.E., and as this was dead against us, we made but poor progress; We reached, the Tararu anchorage, however, by about 4 o'clock, where having dined, we landed and'set out to walk to Kuwerangu Mission Station, which is litutited at the head of a small creek called Mataparu. We left our bedding on the beach to be carried after us by the na'ivci, and the provision! and other heavy bagg.ige to be sent round in the boat, which could not be dove till about 10* p. m., when the tide would have fljwed sufficiently to float the heavy boat up the creek. Our walk was about three miles in length, nearly the [ whole of n oTer a beautifully cultivaied flit, inhabited by a great number of natives, whose houses are scat* tered about in all directions in the midst of the cultivations. There is no pa. As we walked along, the Bishop introduced the Governor and Mr. Lanfear to the natives who w<s met. They seemed very glad to see thsir new Minister, but his name wu s a dreadful puzzle to them -they at last hit upj n " Runapia," which was the nearest approach they could , na ke to the sound or the English word. After many delays we at length reached tha Mission house, which is prettily situated on a steep rite of about 150 feet from the head of the Mataparu Creek. It is a fine roomy wocdeu house, but in a sadly neglected state, the verandah, being in fact in perfect rums, windows broken, and bearing all the evidences of a long unoccupied house. The garden which is very large, and was once a good one, is utterly gone to the dogs, or pigs rather, for we saw three enoimous giunters tied by the leg in the midst of what had been a strawberry bed, and gtubbing under the root* of a fine peach tree. There were a few peach and apple trees, and some figs, but they were being fas>t choked up by multiflora rosei, sweet briars, &c, which have overgrown the garden. The Chapel, which is hituated about 300 hundred yards from the house, is a large raupo building, with glass windows, but is last failing to pieces, being almost ronfless, and all the windows broken. It contains a very neat pulpit and communion table; The Bishop performed service here, concluding by deliveiiug a B hort but impressive address to the natives, introducing their new Minister. Service being ended, we returned to the house, where the Bishop and Mr. Lunfear took leave of us, and we went iniide to see what we could get to cat, having none of our own provisions with us. At first it appeared as if we should have rather an uncomfortable night of it, as— through some misunderstanding of the orders—l'irikavvau, who was to have superintended the bringing on of the bedding, arrived without it, and the native caretaker of the house informed ub that there wa« actually nothing to eat in Hie establishment. However, we packed off Mr. Pinkawau and the other natives for the bedding, and after a great deal of talking, &c, the caretaker managed to discover a small piece of bacon and a few antiquated potatoes, which his wife prepaied for our supper, and to this lie added a small quantity of tasteless tea, which was found in the Surgery, amongst a lot of gallipots and medicine bottleu This looked rather bad at first, but following the example of the Governor, who certainly seems to care as little as any man for the creature comforts, we put a good face on the matter, lit a tremendous fire in the sitting room, and with the help of an old chair, a kitchen form, two empty boxes, and light hearts, we managed to make it out pretty well after all. The bedding arrived at about 10, and we laid our blankets on the floor, and prepared to make the best of our position ; but there was yet a difficulty to be overcome, the boat would soon arrive, full of provisions and very heavy, and if she remained in the creek all night we should be delayed till a late hour in the morning before she could be got out again. So it was determined that as soon as ihe arrived ihe should be sent off to a place called Te Kopu— about three miles distant by land, but ner rly nine by water, and that by a very difficult creek, and among.it inumerable mud-flats— there to await us in the morning. About £ pait 10 the boat arrived, and Mr. Rough und I went down to give the men their orders, at which the poor fellows grumbled not a little, and naturally enough, as they had already had a difficult pull of about five milc3 up Fi oiii the schooner. It was alsoneceisary to engage a native to pilot the boat to Te Kopu, which after considerable difficulty we raanuged to do, and at length saw them fairly off, when we returned to the home, turned into bed, and notwithstanding all our difficulties, slept somewhat more comfortably than we had dove oa the previous night. Friday ,j7th.— Rose at 4, and started for Te Kopu at a little before 5. Ou the road which runs across^ a

swampy flat by the sid« of the river, we passed over the lemains of a very laige canoe called Tangnrouwhakaiuwha, which had bien destroyed and buiied there seveial ye^rs as>o, when the Nganuhi under Hongi committed a terrible slaughter on the Ngatimaru and other neighbouring tribes at this very place. Found the boat at Te Kopu, with a canoe which we had engaged the day previously at Kaweranga, and, having bieakfasted on the beach, started with the joung flood up the Thames- At first the water was very low (being springtides), and we grounded several times on the mud banks, which caused considerable delay. About a mile up the river we passed a fishing canoe, from which a kopapa shoved off with two natives in it, one of whom proved to be a man named Juhn Prince, who speaks English ; he had been to sea in a svhaler, and has seen England. He said he would Lave offered to pilot us up the river, but had to attend to his cultivations. We bought two stiingi of ells from him for a li' tie tobacco, and pulled on. Some distance further on, the native whom we took as a guide, pointed out a ti tree growing on the left bank of the river, by itself and close to the water s edge. Thiatreeis called Te Ilau-tupna, and is sacred; the natives say that when a clnel of Ngatimnru dies, liis spirit .sits on the top of that tree for some d.iys, and is lieard by the native priests crying, from which noise they pretend to take omens. No one except the priests, however, ever hears them. The scenery on this part of the river is very pretty — the course of the stream being tortuous, and the bauks wooded nearly all the way up, especially the left or western bank — and ■when you turn a bend in the river, and open up a fresh reach of from a quarter of a mile to a mile in length, the bauks thickly wooded with trees of different shadeß of foliage, and the wateis calm as glass reflecting the clear blue sky of a beautiful day in the middle of summer, the effect is extremely picturesque and pleasing. We passed Mr. Thorpe's house about 4 p. m., and eucamped on an uninhabited spot about half a mile furihtr on, called Ngoiatoke. Here we were most cruelly persecuted by mosquitoes and sand-flies, which appeared as if they were determined not to lose an opportunity, evidently so rare, of having a feast $ they bothered poor old Te Heu Hcu greatly, who not being accustomed to the annoyance — (such a thing as a musquito or sandfly being quite unknown at Taupo)— did not Know what to make of it, and at length fairly lost his temper. While dinner was preparing, two of the party went on in the canoe to Opita, about three milts further up the river, to try and get some potatoes, in which, however, we were unsuccessful. OpiU ia a wretched place, containing about a dozen miserable raupo houses all tumbling to pieces. We found the natives in a very poor condition, not a living animal had they, save four geese, a hen with a brood of young chickens, and a few skeleton-looking dogs ; they had neither potatoes nor kumeras, but were living on fein root and a few ccli which they catch now and then. We bespoke two large canoes to be ready as we pass to-moirovv morning, as the Kaweranga canoe was to leave us at Opitu, and the boat 8t the end of to-mor-row's journey. We then returned to the camp just in time lor dinner, which we enjoyed on the grass, after which we all walked to Mr. Thorpe's, who received us v«ry kindly, and showed us over his garden and orchard, which are spacious, and in very fair order ; the latter contains a gieat number of fruit trees, which were all in bearing, but none of the fruit was ripe except some therriei, which looked very nice. Mr. Thorpe is a very enterprising and useful settler and one who deserves to be fortunate, as he seems likely to be. He posseises a splendid herd of cattle, among/t which are 25 cows regularly giving milk, and a number of fine bullocks literally rolling in fat, such in fact as would be almost invaluable in Auckland. Mr. Thorpe employs no servants, all the work being done by his own sons with the occasional assistance of some natives in the planting and hat vest seasons ; lie has 30 or 40 acres broken up and planted with potatoes, wheat, and a proportion or fine meadow grass. We were struck by the gteat number of beet—from 40 to 50 hives— al of which looked strong and healthy, and fiom the honey of which they make meßd. We received an invitation to tea, and breakfast next morning, Irotn which, however, we excused ourselves, and Mr. Thorpe, as we were taking leave him, gave in a bottle of milk, for which, as it is a great treat in th>' bush, wewtre of course very grateful. The scenery about here is very pretty, and the effect greatly improved by beautiful hedges of the multiflora rose, all liteially covered with a sheet of blossom, which enclo c tl c paddocks, and nearly cover Mr. Thorpe's house. Claike took a sketch of the place fiom the bank of the river. Having walked ov«.-r the grounds, seeing and admiring all that was to be seeu and admired, we took leave of Mr. Thorpe and returned to camp to tea, after which we retired to our respective beds, where each of us was in turn highly amused at the various eontiivances of the others for setting at defiance our common enemies the mosquitoes none of which contrivances, however, proved completely successful, as we were nearly devoured alive, even in spite of ail the smoke we could maaage by our joint efforts to raise in the tent. [To be Continued ]