JOURNAL

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 541, 9 October 1850, Page 4

JOURNAL

Of an Expedition overland from Auckland to Taranaki,byway of Rotorua, Taupo, and the West Coast, undertaken in the summer of 1849 — 50, by His Excellency the Gover-nor-in~ Chief of New Zealand. [From the Maori Mestenger.] Saturday Bth. — Rose at five, and the first thing done was to cool our burning skins, still aching from the effects of the mosquito onslaught, in the limpid water of the Thames, during which time breakfast was in course of preparation. We were delayed till nine o'clock this morning, having to wait for the turn of the tide, when we started for Opita ; here we landed and found that one canoe only, of the two we had bespoken the previous day, was ready for us, the other being on shore and could not be launched without delaying us longer than we could afford to wait. Here the Kaweranga canoe left us, after we had paid for her assistance Bs. and six figs of tobacco — this payment, however, included a basket of potatoes which had been sent on after us in the afternoon. We had great difficulty in making arrangements to get the natives to go on with the canoe which was ready, and as for the other we bad to give it up altogether. So much difficulty had we, that to avoid unnecessary delay, it was determined that two of us should remain behind to make arrangements about the canoe, while the boat proceeded on her journey with the rest of the party. Our principal difficulty was owing to the absence of Te Amo, the chief of this settlement, who was somewhere down at Hauraki, and in consequence the natives were more exacting and less manageable than if we had had the assistance of their chief. After a delay of about an hour, we succeeded in obtaining the services of a fine stout young fellow named Opita, and half a dozen others, who as the sequel proved, turned out to be the very best men we had in our party, being not only stronger and better travellers, but also better tempered, and in every way more agreeable and useful men than any others we engaged on the journey. We hurried them off without making any definite arrangement as to pay, and I imagine our success was mainly attributable to the presence of Te Heuheu, before whom — '(being a chief of so much importance) — the natives were ashamed to appear too hard or too exacting. We found that our canoe, though not a very large one, was capable of containing a very fair load, and that she was moreover very fast, and we pulled merrily along through some extremely pretty scenery, till we arrived at a small mahinga or plantation of potatoes at* a place called Putakina. Here we found that the boat had stopped a short while before our arrival, and that some tea was being prepared by way of lunch. This place is inhabited by a few monstrously wild looking savages, headed by a tall man called Whakareho; he had a small pair of twinkling black eyes, with a very peculiar formed mouth, and an immense black beard, which upon the whole gave him a very remarkable expression of countenance. We obtained a canoe and crew from this gentleman and then pushed on for ,Moki, a place about twenty miles from Opita, where we arrived at about five. This place, like Putakina, is not a settlement, but only a small potato cultivation, with about ten natives living on it. We encamped here and made all as snug as possible for Sunday. The weather still very fine, but slight indications of an approaching change are observable. Did not forget Saturday night, but drank "sweethearts and wives" with the usual honours, which being done we prepared our beds and set to work to regale the mosquitoes with as great a quantity of tobacco smoke as we could conveniently raise. The Thames mosquitoes must however have differently constituted lungs from others

of the species, as they seemed rather to enjoy the smoke than otherwise, or else per-, baps they bit us all the harder in revenge — be that as it may, we scarcely bad a wink of sleep the whole night. Sunday, Dec. 9tb, — Still superb weather, almost too hot if anything. We had some eels for breakfast, cooked in a way which was new to most of us, called kohe or kqpe, and which is done in the following manner : — fern stalks are run down the whole length of the fish (which is not skinned or in any way prepared for cooking) from the mouth to the tail — then two eels thus skewered are wrapped in leaves of the raurekau tree, and tied together with flax, when they are roasted before the fire with one end resting on the ground and the other leaning against a stick supported in a horizontal position in front of the fire for the purpose. When cooked in this way, they are eaten leaf and all, the leaf serving as a relish, and are considered t>y the natives a great delicacy, though they proved rather too rich for our European stomachs. At noon we had native service, and a very fair sermon from an old native teacher named Marakai (Malachi) who had followed us on from Opita, after which the Governor, Symonds, and I ascended a high hill called Te Papa at the back of the settlement, about half a mile from the river. Hence we could trace almost'the whole course of the Thames from Waiharakeke to its mouth. i We could also see a great portion of the Piako, I with the whole of the country lying between j the two rivers, which is a dead flat and very 1 swampy — it is in fact an immense valley, a ridge of hills running on the east, between the Thames and the coast (of which ridge Te Papa is one) and another to the westward of the Piako. The valley extends far beyond Matamata, and may indeed be said to reach as far as the high land at Patetere, a distance of about 100 miles from Hauraki. The land between the Thames and Piako appears for the most part unavailable, at least at present, and until a considerable sum has been expended in drainage, which from the flatness of its surface, would be a difficult as well as an expensive operation ; but on the right bank of the Thames, i.e. between the river and the range on which we were standing, is a large extent of very valuable land, drained and watered by several streams — some of them indeed considerable creeks — running from the hills into the main river. This belt, as it may be called, of land varies much in breadth in different places, the result of the winding of the river and the irregular course of the range, which is in some places at a distance of perhaps from five to ten miles from the river, ! and at others either the main ridge or spurs j from it run close to the banks of the stream. The valley of the Thames contains a considerable quantity of valuable timber — there is one large wood on the Thames in the shape of a nearly regular parallelogram of perhaps thirty miles by eight, through which the river runs; it extends from Hauraki to a little beyond Mr. Thorpe's plantation, and contains quantities of Kahikatea, Totara and other valuable timber. Above this the river runs through low swampy ground, with small patches of rugged wood here and there on the banks. We saw the peak of Tongariro and several hills on the Waikato, Waipa, and the West Coast, and Symonds took the following bearings with Cator's compass, viz.; — Pirongu, 203 deg.; Maungakawa, 195deg.; Tongariro, 163 deg.; Maungatautari, 339 deg.; Thorpe's station, 345 deg.; Kaweranga, 339 deg.; Taupiri, 337deg. 30 mm. Monday, December 10. — Rose at half-past four. Mosquitoes in thousands, and sundry other appearances indicative of an approaching change in the weather. It was still very fine, however, and by six we had breakfasted, packed up our traps, loaded the canoes, and were ready for a start. This being the highest point on the river to which the boat could conveniently reach, we took leave of Mr. Rough, and started in our Maori conveyances^ The river is rather dull at this part, being so thinly inhabited, but the scenery is nevertheless very pretty in many places. We were nearly all day under the foot of a magnificent hill called Te Aroha, the highest peak of the range on the right bank of the river. It is wooded from the top nearly to the base, and from it run several spurs and minor hills, which add greatly to its appearance. Beyond (farther south) is another peak nearly as high, called Te Aroha Uta, but of this we could not obtain a good view to day. j Halted at noon for lunch on a level spot on the left bank, where stands by itself a large totara tree, on which we cut our names and the date. Started again in about half an hour, the appearance of the weather every moment looking more and more threatening, and landed at four p.m. at Mangawhenga, a little creek with a patch of wood at its mouth. About this time it began to rain pretty smartly, so we lost no time in pitching the tents, and preparing for a wet night. When the tents were pitched and we bad had some dinner, the Governor and I went out with Whaka- : reho and some other natives in one of the

canoes to witness the sport of eel- spearing. They have a bayonet fastened on the end of a pole about eight feet long, which they thrust into the banks, as the canoe quietly drops down the stream, in places where they know by experience that there are eel-holes in the mud. When the man with the spear has transfixed an eel, he calls out "ka tv ! ka tv !" — he is struck ! be is struck ! — and while he holds on by the spear, another man jumps out of the canoe with a large hook in his hand, about the size of shark hook, with which he pulls the eel out of the mud after grubbing for it with bis hands, in which operation the natives often get severely bitten by the large fish. During the time that the canoe is going down the stream, and the spearer is thrusting his weapon into the banks in search of sport, one of the other natives, generally the man who steers the canoe, repeats the following karakia, or religious ceremony, for the success of the fishing— " He kai mau te tangata, Makutunrai, mahara mai. Kei reira to hara, Harahara aitua, harahara a tai, I pakia ai koe, i rahau ai koe, Niniho koi tara, Ida u o niho, Niniho koi tara koe Kei te tai timu, kei te tai pari, Kei a Rangiriri — haukumea, Hautoia, nau ka anga atu, anga atu ; Nau ka anga mai, anga mai."

" Oh may the fish hereafter feast and feed upon the man whom thus I curse.* He who by his witchcraft, and wishing me ill luck is the real cause that none of you will take my bait. What have you done that they should thus bewitch, and with their ill omens and curses reach you. You've been by witchcraft touched, by curses smitten. "Those teeth of your's are sharp and fit to bite, come then and with them firmly take my hook — those teeth of your's so keen and sharply pointed. At the ebb tide you are best caught, or at the flood. Then you again return to Rangiriri'sf fount. Come pull away at my bait, drag out my line. If finished is your nibbling then begone, but if you'll bite again, then quickly come." This karakia, however, being a remnant of their former state of heathenism, has, it must be understood, like all their other ancient ceremonies, fallen, since the introduction by the Missionaries of the Christian religion, almost entirely into disuse. The sport to-day was not very goed, even with the assistance of the above karakia, as they only caught one eel, but it was an enormously large one, so large indeed, that they were obliged to use a knife to sever the vertebral of the back before they could draw him out of his hole. Towards nightfall the rain increased, and gave every appearance of a decided change in the weather, to the great danger of our provisions, for which we had brought no tarpaulins, not having calculated upon encountering such bad weather at this season of the jear. (To be Continued.)

* This is a curse upon some unknown enemy of the fisher, who has bewitched the fish so that they will not come to his bait, thereby causing him ill luck. + Kangiriri is a fountain in the sea near Hawaiki (the land from which the ancestors of the maories first came to New Zealand), and ia the source whence spring all fish.