JOURNAL

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 475, 2 November 1850, Page 3

JOURNAL

Of an Expedition Ova laud fi am Auckland to TaranaJci, hi ™<iij <>f Rotorua, Tmipo, ami the West Coail undertaken in the Summer of 18'K)—50, by His Excellency the GovERNOR-iN-Cmu- of Kew Zealand. [.From the " Maoiu Mni>si^Gi.n."J [Continued.] When the feast was over tl c Koreio bcunn anJ lasted {or about tlucc Lours. The principal aul'ject dis^

cussed was the erection of a mill, for which they wanted the Governor to semi them a European mill-wright and miller ; this of course could not be acceetU-cl to, but His Excellency promised to advertise for one for them, and to render such assistance as he could, without creating any invidious distinction between them and other native tribes. He also promised that if they would send some young men to Mr. Morgan's industrial school and model farm at Rangtawhia, near Otawhao, he would— as soon as he received a certificate of their being able to plough — send them a present of a plough Mid a horse, for which they seemed to be tolerably thankful, but tried very hard to obtain a promise of two horse, to which, however, the Governor would not co.isent, ' as they have already several of their own, which only require a little training. Their next request was to have a seperate wing of the new market place in Mechanic's Bay, at Auckland, set a part for Ngatihana, and their nume painted over the door, as they said their tribe bore so bad a character amongst the natives, that they would not associate with them in a place of that kind, lest Ngatihaua should steal their things. This request, however, was so manifestly absuid, that of course it could uot be entertained for a moment, the Governor telling them that all Mechanic's Bay would scarcely hold the buildings that would be required if each tribe hod a seperate wing, and if Ngatiham got it, of course other tribes would expect it too. The conference was at last broken up by the ringing of the bell, and we all adjourned to chapel to attend evening lervice. Tuesday, December 18th.— Rose at four, but we had so much tiouble in proem ing additional natives as bearers for our things that we were delayed a long time before we could start. The natives are certainly a most provoking set in this way. At first theie were plenty of men willing to go, but somehow they had made up their minds that they were to receive half-a crown a day each, and nothing would induce them to stir for less ; so that our rate of wages being fixed at eighteen pence which could not be raised without either 'increasing the pay of all those we had already engaged or else doing them a great injustice, we seemed to have but a poor chance of starting at all Had we engaged to give them what they demanded, we should have not only run short of funds ourselves, but we should have been committing a great injury on future travelle s, who could never have obtained bearers afterwards at a lower rate. Te Waharoa hud no men of hit own to gjve us, as they were all absent At the plantations at Wnikito, and William Thompson was, as has bsen already said, from home ; through the influence of a petty chief, we contrived after cousideu.ble delay to procure the services of three men, one of whom would however only accompany us as far as Patetere, where we excepted to obtain the asiutnnje oi som« more nun, At last after taking leave of Te Wa* haroa and his frianda and thanking Mrs. Nicholas for a 1 her kindness, we quitscd Matamata at about niae o'clock, having lost five hours in bargaining for the additional men. Our natives were all very heavily loaded, as from our having calculated on being abe to obtain as many men here as we might requite, but a small number had been hired in Auckland, on account of the diffi ulty of procuring water conveyance for them in the first part of the journey. We soon passed through the belt of wood which lies to the southward of Matamata, and which is only übout half a mile in breadth in this part ; and at a distance of about three miles from the settlement we came to the site of the intended mill, which is a pretty spot on the banks of a small stream running into the Waitoa and just where a bend in the watercourse forms a sort of natural pond affording great facility for the construction of a considerable reservoir of watsr by throwing a dam across the stream in a narrrow place, which looks almost at though it had been so arranged by nature for the purpose. The pakeha parly, with Te Heuheu and his wife, soon passed ahead of the others, for which we were afterwards very lorry as we took the wrong path at a crusts road and found ourselves advanced about three miles in the direction of Tauranga when a native came running after us to tell us we were wrong, and we bad return the whole way, thereby loosing about two hours to in a scorching sun, which rather disturbed the accustomed tranquility of the old chiefs temper. We halted at noon by the side of a stream, andhaJ a most refreshing bathe in the clear cold water, whilst some lunch was being prepared, consisting of lea and fried bacon, of which we partook with great latisfaction, having eaten nothing since five o'clock in the morning. As we were on the point of starting again, Mr. Nicholai rode up on hit return to Matamata from Otawhao, and he gave 113 rather a disheartening account of the state of the rivers, which he said were very much swollen from the late rains. However, as he had managed to get hia horse across them we thought upon reflection that we might contrive to ford them on foot. Having remained here about an hour altogether we started again but did not find our difficulties so great as we had been led to expect; we crossed three or four swamps, some of w'uich were of considerable iizf, but none very deep. The worst obstacle we met with was a creek called Mangawhero, which was rather deep, and the ford over which we had great difficulty in finding, in consequence of having left the natives behind. We got over pretty well however, the only accident having fallen to my share. I missed a somewhat precarious footing upon the root of a bunch of reeds about eighteen inches below the water, und tumbled over head and ears into a deep hole, getting of course completely ducked. It is a very bad plan to travel too far a head of the natives on one of these journies, as we found on many occasions upon this expedition, as they are constantly stopping to rest and smoka their pipes, by which means if the pakehas aie not with them to urge them on a greut deal of time is sure to be unnecessarily thrown away. On the other hand I know of nothing more iiksome than to be oblidged to travel at the pace of the natives, which to an Europeun if, in a day's journey infinitely more tiring than stepping out at one's naturul rate, to say nothing of the dis agrceablenesa of being oblidgcd to be incessantly sco'ding ami urging them on. Upon this occasion— though we reached Mangawhe:o certainly not later than four o'clock — it was nearly dark befote the natives cime up, and we were obhdged to encamp at a distance of übout half a mile beyond the creek, although on leaving Mataniata we had hoped to reach Putetere this evening, the distance at computed by the Bishop, and published in the Itineiary in the Church Almanack being six and twenty miles. About nine o'clock two women arrived at the camp on their way from Patctere to some of the settlements near Matamata, who proved to be iclalions of, or in some way connected with Te I'leuheu, whom they were much surprised to meet to unexpectedly, and their joy at seeing him was of course expressed in the doleful manner usual with the New Zoalanders. Wednesday. December 19th. — Hose at a quarter past three and started at four afler our u9ual breakfast of a pannakin of hot tea and a biscuit which we ate during the lime the natives were striking the tents and prepaiing for a start. I may as well here explain our usual dietary, which consisted first of the breakout abovementioncd, (if breakfast it can bo called) ; then at some time between half-past nine und eleven (occasionally e»en as late as noon) we hailed and partook of a regularly cooked meal, coi.sisiing geneially of ;

fried bacon or of fresh pork, fowls, or any other piovisions we might chance to haye 3 with invariable accompaniment of tea. The bacon was kept as a stand" by, and only used as a pis-aller when nothing else was attainable, as the thirst it produces is bv n.< mcanfc pleasant on a long d.ty's march. Our hi t for this meal generally lasted about an hour and a half, and sometimes even two hour?, especially if it chanced to be at a settlement, and on starting again we (ravelled until a final halt was made for the night, usually at five or six o'clock, when the dinner or supper, whichever it may be called, was generally ready, the tents pitched, and the travellers relumed from bathing in some neighbouring stieam, at about the same time. This meal was of precisely the same description as the one preceeding it, tea, that invariably found aud almost indispensable travelling beverage, being the never failing accompaniment to every meal. At a distance of about a mile from our camp of last night we had to cross a very rapid creek, waist deep, called Oraka* The morning was beautiful and the view as we walked along, was very fine, being bounded on each side and in front by wooded hills at various distances, whilst behina us stretched an immense plain the prospect over which was tci minuted by thr Mitainata wood, which now began to look Very dis'ant. The plain we had walked over yestejday anil had still to tiavel upon till we reached tlie high land at Patetere stretches in one unbroken level from that high land to the sea in Hauiaki gulpli, a distance of about a hundred miles. The land between Matamataand Patetero is very low, and though intersected by several creeks, is still insufficiently drained, and contains many swamps The soil is, except in detached pieces here and there, | of inferior quality, producing principally fern anil manuka ol stunttd growth. Still there are veiy ptctty spots by the banks of the sti earns wheie may occaiionally be found a patch of wood and a small piece of most excellent soil. At a little distance from Oraka, we came to a small lake about an acre in extent, in the middle of » swamp and which the natives said abounded with eels, and on the top of a litile ridge just above, a lahui or mark to pre-erve the eels wai erected; it was made of an old rusty musket barrel stuck in the ground, to which the stock was tied with a piece of flux, and a bunch of kakaho (reeds) topi suck on like a p'urae of foathen. The natives always treat a rahui with much respect, considering it an act of great dishonesty to catch eels, or any other fish, to hunt pigs, snare ducks or parrots, or in fact destroy or in any way game of whatever kind | which it is erected to preserve. So strictly is this rule carried out, that a short time ngo — (and even now ia some parts of the inland) tlie infringement of a rahui would be considered quite a sufficient casus belli to give rise to a bloody war between two tiibes. In passthia rahui, Symonds who was in advance of the rest of the party (his usml position), cut the Governor's initials on the stock of the musket. Just beyond this we had to pass the Waihou or Thames, which is here but insigntlicant creek, running in north-easterly direction. It is crossed upon two little sticks forming a j somewhat crazy kind of bridge, anything but pleasant to venture over, as the water is a considerable d.stance below, a fa'se step or a breakdown of the ricketty bridge would precipitate the traveller souse into the waicr 'ieloiv, from which he would probably find considerable difficulty in extricating himself owinjj to the steepness of the banks which are moreover thickly clad with a rangled muss of briery vegetation by no means easy to scramble through. On reaching the high land beyond the liver, we came to a cross road, one way leading to the main track to Tauranga, and the other to Patetere. Here wo found the advanced party halted being uncertain which was the right road. Wejfound written, or rather cut in the ground on one of the roads, the following words — " E hoa ma, fiacre uke, kei Oraha mitou. Na ■•'» (lllrgible rame) ; i c. " Fiiends travel on you will find us at Oraka." We had not b:en here many minutei before two natives anived who had j come from Patotere to meet vi and who boon releived us from our difficulty in regard to the road. They told us the message wiitten onthegiound had been written by the maori women who had arrived at our camp last night for directions for some men who were to follow them. We at once resumed our jourmy, Symonds and I starting ahead with our native guides, whom however we soon left behind, as we did not want them, there bcimg only one road, and that so plainly marked, that we could not go astray. A little before reaching Patetere we entered a very pretty valley, or gorge, of somewhat strange formation, the- hills on each side, which ore very sleep, being composed of a kind of conomerate rock uhich crops out inseveial places in huge sleep blocks. A small creek runs down the centre of the valley, the soil of which is of the very best quality, and which would form a romaikably nice bituation for a farm. There are gi eat numbers of these gorges in the neighbouihood of Patelere running down from the base of the high land behind, ant' opening out upon the plain, and at the head of neurly eveiy one is a patch of pretty wood. Having walked to the head of the above mentioned valley, we ascended a veiy steep hill, and on the top found uni selves at a small cluster of houses, fenced round, failed Te Toa. A native came out aud told us there was no person thrie but that we must cross a valley, through a dense vvoo'l to the principal settlement about a mile dhtanf. We accepted his offer of guidance, aud ulter scrambling through the forrest, thick — as the New Zealand wood'i always are in a valley— nith kareao, or supplejack, and as ascending a precipitious hill ( n the other tid^, we arrived at Patelere at half past eight} having been it must be remembered, all the morning without any thing to eat except the biscuit we had taken with our tea previous to starting, since when from the time we had been walking, and the pace at which we traveled the ground, we ccrtain'y could not have travelled ieis, than twlve or tint teen miles. We were thercloie, as miiy be imagined, pretty hungry by thii time, an« tuiinedutely got the natives t') boil a few potatoes for v-, expecting the remainder of the party lo anive in little more than an hour, at it had teen arranged to bieakfasl at ten, and we .thought th^y ould not be much, moie than an hours walk behind us. II iving regaled our»elve» with, half a dozen potatoes, some cold water and a pipe, we luuied to look ab .ul us. PaU-tere is a miserable place, containing about h*!f a doz£U s>mall huts, inhabited by twenty or thirty of the most squal-lid-looking creatures I ever icm •aibk.'r to have sei'en, neurlcy every one of whom ij bfiliettd with ihe horuble cutaneous disease so common amongst the natives, to a disgusting extent. The village is hitualed at the skirts of thegicat forest of lluutevc which bonds the view to thetotith cast and eas.t ; but tothenoith west, a-id south there is a very fine piospect, extern ing to the north over the plain we lnd just crotscd till it is terminated by the forest at MdUinaU. Towaidb the wtM, and sou'h-west the 'view sti etches over a beauliiul district ot country, «nd is hounded by the Maiiog.ikawa and Muungatautati hills; and us the tye BAcT'pjj round to winds the south the piospect extends over it g 1 eater space, and is bounded by various more distant hills, until it is finally tei minuted by the edge ol the wood lo the south-east. WmUt we were waiting 1 tho arrival ol the rest ol the party, 1 bpoU- to home ot tho men about engaging an beaieis foroui loads, and three fine young fellows agreed to join, appaiently with. ; gieat good will, on he urn* the teims ixplriued to them.