THE WEST COAST DISTRICTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4950, 2 February 1877, Page 3

THE WEST COAST DISTRICTS.

(BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.) . , It will be seen that I have made a change ' in-the heading under which these letters have appeared. This is in consequence of my ... haying extended the limits of the trip con,l teinplated when I left Wellington, so as,_ in i' -addition to the Kangitikei-Manawatu district, ■J to take in that lying along the West Coast as s.i'far, as Hawera ; and, if time permit, to also > the Wairarapa and East Coast. One '' moat pleasant feature in any travelling about* ' what was the province of Wellington is the comparison you are enabled to make between 1 the apparent condition of portions o£w*-the 'at present and their, condition some" i.;.years past.. Nowhere does such a comparison ■ ' 1 give’more gratifying results than in the neighSod of Marton, on the road leading to. ng ton. I had occasion to travel over this ■■/road some four years ago, and not being unob-. servant at the time can now bear witness to

■ the improved condition of'the farms and of ' settlement along it. More especially is this '/•noticeable around a very pretty part of the road, called Bonny Glen; but I may say that right into Turakina the remark applies. Tura- ! Rina is some nine miles from Marton, and vaboiit twenty miles farther on we reach what is " 'the chief town of all the portion of the .coast , that I have been travelling over— • WANGANUI. ■ 1 'This town and district form “historical?’ - ground in the records of New Zealand coloni- •' fation; In his well-written work, the youthful promise of which has not been fulfilled, Mr. ... E; J. Wakefield tells us a great deal about the earlier settlement of Wanganui. It was here '' lived a wonderfully gentlemanly and in general ;■ gentle chief, between, whom and Mr. Wake- ’ field there was mutual friendship, and of whom *■ a, more recent writer tells how the old ranga- . tira once, feeding with hia own handsa Iktaori whom the performance of certain. •- : funeral ceremonies had rendered tapii, detectejd the irrpligi ous , snatching and conveying to his-mouth a particularly choice morsel - which he feared the chief might overlook. The " Maori gentleman took no apparent notice at the time, but presently. invited the tapued one :■ to accompany him on a walk, and so soon ah ' -they had got out of sight and hearing of their , pa* the good old conservative preserver of ■ most sacred customs turned swiftly on the offender, drove a tomahawk deep into his brain, - and dropped him in hia tracks. ! And after these, the classic days of Maori-

doxa, came the times when settlement was ac- ■ companied by war, and when, as the blockhouses still standing on the sandhills show, the s .colonists metaphorically resembled the nation • Of old the men of which went armed with the ’ M«lhghr 'But it is not with the painful h|4- ‘ " tory of the past that the special correspondent i of to day has to do. The tale of mistakes and mismanagement on the European side, of craft jmd cruelty on that of the Maori, ha? been too often told, ftfhere is little fear nowadays that V morning will bring news' of a farmhouse and yromen and children killed,-or- •! , that the night sky will redden as; roof-tree - 1 and'rafter are given to the flames. Wanganui ' preserves marks of former and troublous times, • --bucthey are lost amidst the surrounding evi- ( /deuces of peace and-prosperity. InfaCt, J whether in the whole; North Island there'cquld be found a more practical example ’’ of the times that were and the piping times of ‘peace 'that, are than the chief town of our West Coast affords.. At Korerareka, at th* Bay of. Islands, it is true one may yet see ./the.e shot-holes in the church that tell of r"Johnny'Heke’s fighting days;"and in-the .churchyard the headstones record many a ' ' death in battle. But there is no contrast to

, this in a district happily settled and rich in J , cultivation, peopled and covered with flocks , and herds, nor in a thriving town with' all ; appliances and institutions of modem city life. But at Wanganui, whilst the marks of fighting ■ still stand, whilst in the graveyards are the • headstones of .many ,a regular soldier and voi lunteer who died not in their beds ; and whilst even by the wayside are memorials to I the brave ; there is above and around all these, i most happily- blotting them out, or overshadowing them in-the general tfiew, the human hive that civilised settlement has' year by year enlarged, the works’ which civilised settlement half accomplished,! and the Christian churches ■ which speak of peace on earth and goodwill , towards men. ; . . A bird’s-eye view of Wanganui., is easily obtainable. It lies in the break of a tableland, caused by the flow of the Wanganui River to the sea. Standing ion- either the northern or southern edge of this break, the town .and the valley up the river for some miles are at your feet. Old Maori tradition aficl f tiie evidence of one’s present senses attest that the site of Wanganui was at one time the bed of an estuary by which the river reached .the. ocean. An upheaval and the subsequent accumulation of sand 'destroyed the estuary, and sent the river curving beneath* some bold bluffs on the southern side, leaving’a wide and sandy flat between it and the abrupt ascent to the table-land on the northern side, and compelling the river to seek , the sea by its present narrow channel and somewhat shallow though not unsafe bar. .Lying, in well , laid-out symmetry, with broad and regular streets; the township j of Wanganui may be said to take,in the whole; of ‘ this sandy flat, which as building and settle--ment have progressed over it has become thick with good buildings, dotted in many places’ with trees, and covered wherever space was left between the houses with green, sward, gay flower gardens, fruit • trees, and vegetablepatches. The river, as I hayekaid, runs in a curve between the town ..and some high bluffs opposite it, to. one of which,some bid country patriot has given the 'name;- without, imparting the altitude, of Shakspere’s Cliff.' Cqmtnuni- ; cation’ with the Southern bank of the riveri is maintained by the handsome' iron bridge, with cylinder piers, which has been described some thousand and one times, which is to Wanganui what St. Peter’s is to' Rome or the dry dock is to Port Chalmers. Like many other grhat or useful works, the bridge is susceptible of improvement, not on its original design but in its present appearance and the care taken of it. From both a picturesque and a utilitarian, point of view it stands sadly in need of a coat of paint. It has been for some time in the care of the Town Council, and it is gratifying to know that the question of painting it has formed the subject of .au animated discussion, and has called forth as much municipal elo-, quene'e as' have the Bulgarian atrocities. The bridge, however,' has now become the property , of the Harbor Board elected, last Monday, and" as the members of that body, I believe, have pledged themselves to” paint.. it, and preserve : the interests entrusted to their charge, all may yet be well. . -, ; . The bridge leads directly from the south country, from which the river Would otherwise cut off Wanganui, into the, main street of; the town, an open and handsome one, Victoriaavenue. The town has the advantage, besides being on pretty level ground,, of being laid out : after the most modem fashion in rectangular blocks, formed by streets running parallel to each other from the river up - to the base of . the hoi-them cliffs, crossed again- by. streets . running east and west. Victoria-avenue contains , .many welUappointed , shops,...the-buildings. of the various banks/doing business;in-the .town, and one side is a street of churches, all notable for. being, from an architectural .point of. view, kept fully up to -the increasing, requirefnents of the place.' Inhere, are four; of these places of worship—that of the Church of England, under the care of the Rev. Tudor ; ■ the Roman Catholic, the Rev. Kirke; Presbyterian, the Rev. Treadwell; and Wesleyan, the Rev. Beavan. The rental valuation of Wanganui, for. ’ 1875-7 was £34,000; on which .'.there; was levied ja general rate of Is. in the £, productive of. some £1500; a special rate fori.paying interest’ on money borrowed for public,works of Is. in' the £, of which only Sd. in the £ was required; and the Council' having now completed a water supply to a certain extent, la water rate is levied on the percentage according" to valuation prescribed by the Municipal Corporations Act of' last session. There are from. eight to ten miles of streets metalled, or'made fit for traffic; and the town contains fully 500 houses, and has a population closely approaching4ooo. Thetownarea ia 640 acres, butincluding the town belt,-which runs,from the river, : and around the : northern/side, and the racecourse, which Is a public reserve, the absolute municipal area is 1000 acres. ; Mr. Watt, one of the oldest and. most, enterprising ’ of the settlers, is,May or. , ' i Great natural,facilities exist for affording’ a water supply. These have not jet been fully taken advantage of, nor. so far as they have been utilised. have they been in the best manner. " Nevertheless the benefits conferred by ! the-water' supply already affordejl under municipal. management Are very great.. About a mile from the /centre of the city, to the north, at a. go,6d? elevation; is a natural reservoir;, known-‘as’, Virginia'Water, with a surface area of^twenty acres, and of consider-; able’depth, aa as 78ft. in places. It is formed, by a great deposit of clay, which faaturally” lines, a,follow/ and, collects and retuyhs the"-surface-water that in ...similarly shaped hollows m’its immediate neighborhood percolates : and escapes through the, sand, of which the country hereabouts mainly consists. At a cost-of J £14,000 the Town Council connected, this,reservoir with'the, town, and distributed its supply by meana of ,some, seven miles of pipes. , Poor /Millar,/ F.S. was Town-Engineer almost.until the completion of the works, apd the Council /being as indepeni1 a_hody..ras”.Councilß usually are,. .and Millar being /Millar, a; severance of the -connection ,’J between., : the //parties occurred, which, in regard to the. water supply; has not been attended by the happiest results. Millar proposed to take, the. water .from the lake by means of a species ; of gigantic syphon; which under the control of the laws of natural science would, until the water lowered- to a certain point, keep itself and the pipes full,, and, heed no pumping. But on Millar’s departure/a new plan was, adopted. 1 .The; supply, pipes as they neared the reservoir ; were kept op a gentle slope," and-.were conducted into the lake on a gentle slope t in the opposite direction. / The result is that they.do hot keep themselves full, and that a- pump had to be erected .'right; in the middle of the main road to the north, which here skirts one end of the lake,-and at:which relays of men work like horses/ at intervals, being-covered by a primitive canvass erection, which flaps in the wind And - frightens’ passing-animals. I saw a gen; tleman..contemplating the remains of a buggy and'holding a horse, upon which a few fragr 'meats -of harness remained, whilst he ad;' dressed space in spontaneous , and : Strong eloquence, and gave hia : opinion of the sciehtific ideas which had 'entered into the existing plans for supplying Wanganui with water. I have said that the water-supply-scheme is at present incomplete ;-but'l did not refer to matters just mentioned, oh'which there are! doubtless divergent ideas, and; with regard to which I can offer of- course no professional, but merely an observant opinion. The cause of incompletion is this. When Virginia Lake was taken as to the source of! supply, the authorities had • riqt calculated, on two things: a claim' for compensation by the owner of the property, J or the nature of .the lakh; ; The'-claim for .compensation.ls to J be Settled by -a/court of -law,' and 'consequently can only be‘ afforded -mention here. ; The nature'of the fake, is .'the chief matter. Virginia Water is, as F,have said,- praotfehlly a mere collection of surface-water, and . until it was used as a gigantic tank,for . the kept a pretty equal level , under the. operation of natural laws.- But since art has assisted nature, the 'water, has been,' founjl to have decreased steadily, and at. a rate.quite siifficient to create a justifiable dread for. tfie future. Anotherdake, Into and' out of which a perennial streamlet,, runs, lies, to the westward, and Mr,. Watt, the', owner, has, in the spirit which it would be well if all "'colonists displayed,

freely gifted this to the town. An expenditure of £9OO or £IOOO will connect this latter, Lake Westmere, with • Yirgihia ; Water, when Wanganui will have a water supply which ; no town in the colony will be ' able to approach by way of comparison. ' t A company to supply the town with gas has been formed. ' The capital'is, £10)000, with power to increase to £20,000.- Nearly all the shares are taken up, and the necessary’ plant is i almost, daily expected by a small vessel, the Mosquito, which - has sailed from Liverpool direct for Wanganui. ■ i The public buildings and churches of - Wan-' ganui are as a rule' erected exactly where the original plan of the town'designed that they should, not, be! This plan, ‘ signed •F. Dillon 8011, and. dated 1846, is that now used by the municipal authorities, and- excepting the circumstance already mentioned is for all practical purposes; quite correct; * The Gourt House and Town'arid -County Chambers, as’ well as the Athenaeum or Literary Institute, are in the' market-place, the place assigned to them in the'map, but each is' exactly’ in that parti ofthe square ah initio appointed for the other, Whllst.the police station, gaol, &c., are in quite different spots from those intended—the; old: blockhouses on a sandhill being used for thelatter. The-principal uses to which the market-place (I cannot call'it a square, seeing-that it is a:; triangle).are at present put, are for the temporary lodgment of travelling Maoris, the drying-of under- garments,- the parade I of. volunteers,' the site 'of a- very 1 pretty .monument! to a number 1 of native -'allies who fell fighting-for the pakeh'a,'and the growth, of a magnificent crop of docks. ', ;

By .those who' noticed the smaller events oflast session of Parliament .it will be .remembered that a pretty lengthy debate occurred] as to alleged mismanagement,), or rather want] of ■ management, of a certain endowed or industrial, school and : trust in Wanganui, !The lands h01d : in trust for the school comprise' a very large' portion of the actual area with'iu the municipal '■ boundaries, ‘ahd the circumstances * of' the case l were,if I remember rightly, detailed and made the 1 ’subject ‘of comment' in the leading columns I of i theNEW ; ZEAi,AND‘ Times. Since-the close jofthe session the Church pf'England,Bishop [of • Wellington,' Bishop Hadfield,'has visited Wanganui, and I am now -informed that streets are" . to be opened through the trust property, and efforts made to develope it; or,, iu other words, to procure from it the large' rental which it is asserted it should produce; This, of course) has nothing to do with: the - position taken up by the members for Wanganui last session, and by , a. large .section of the citizens,. that the trust should be utilised,‘in. the interests of the general public, in a completely undenominational manner, and not as attached to a particular religious sect. . - . - • i . Three questions- just now agitate the public mind ,'in Wanganui. - The , destruction by the river of a portion 1 of its'bank. The opposition offered by ~the same' to its own utility as a -harbor at its mouth and for some miles above;, and the doubt is to whether tl;e town will beconnectedby a branch'line with the main railway, which crosses, the ‘river and passes •north a couple of miles above the centre of the township. As to the first of these questions, the river, a thorough New Zealand cue, liable to heavy floods, Shifting in Jts course, and, treacherous, : has worn away a -'great quantity of the bank on the town side, at'a place called Taranakfquay, where , the ‘current 1 • impinges upon the species of peninsula.which forms the town. - -Indeed so destructive has the water been here that the roadway', which should be a chain -in- width, is barely half that. 'On the opposite side-and just below, the stream, turned in its'course by the obatruc tion it has been endeavoring' to remove, has so worked upon a roadway gunning, at the base of a cliff that certain protective work has been rendered necessary.- Hitherto the Town Council haye’ had the care of river conservation, and though* some -damage)has -been done there-really seems little ground for apprehension that much more will occur... 'A .good deal of expenditure his been incurred, > .over. £3OOO I was informed, and of .this £IOOO was spent in one year; ,but l ean assure the citizens of \)fanganui that if they only saw' the. inlminent ’ danger to the whole township ,bf Balchitha which .the iijrdads ’ 6f' thfe 'MhlynCux Mver’ are causing, they would look"Upbh their dwja.trqubles)as light indeed. The most judicious'and effective protective work’.against the ravages of the river 'that has r teen' done at Wanganui, - has'been'the” planting of-'wiDowsp and though subsequent to .their planting, .the banks have b.een_workfid away, there is', hot wanting evidence:that:ina short time they'will have quite conquered the current. . ■■■■ 1 But the main topic at Wanganui is “the harbor.” Five or six years ago the river, once the bar-was passed, was'easily navigable by the vessels and steamers . capable of passing - over the bar.- Since that' time, however, a series of floods brought down large snags and , formed an extensive shoal about a mile below the bridge. A Harbor Board has been forraec),, and the election of those of its members who dp not belong to it ex officio, was the subject of much interest on Monday last. Now, two subjects- will present themselves to this Board. First, what can be easily and';not ex-, pensively, accomplished,. the .imprpye.raent of the navigation of the river itself. All that is wanted in this direction/is' .some dredging -work, and the removal of,a couple qf snags, and the subaequentemployment of adredge whenever -necessary to'prevent- the wbrk done being rendered useless. There is a proposition for making the chahnerdeeper by reclaiming apoytiou of the shoal, and‘so narrowing l the river;' but those . who advocate.. tjiis. - ooursp .; should remember that all reclamation must tell upouthe. quanj tity of water-passing through 'the Heads, anq muatj, have its -.-. effect in ; lessening /she. sooujwhich keeps the bar as it.is., But there is placed before the Harbor -Board *by not a few ■a.further work,; namely,, ;the’ improvement of the nver mouth to such an extent as to render it available, to foreign shipping ; in, othef words, : to'make'Wanganui obtain its goods from the Home country direct.; I am aware that in writing of this topic-I.am touching dangerous ground, and .risking the treading upon‘corns in a metaphorical sense. ' Thera seems to he an impression that anyone from! Wellington who jitters a.word in, deprecation 'of-the’ scheme’that would endeavor t 6 make Wanganui accessible to, large ships,’ mrist be actuated by jealousy, or fear of rlyajry be-j tween Wellington >an'd 'Wahg'ahui'. '' Such if| not, my case.- :The,.simple, fact in regard to ' such woiks as' would enable,Wanganui, to tradq direct with Home is that they are not worth undertaking. : In- •.the,.,:, 1 first-;:place > -, their cost, even if they . could . be carried out, which is problematical,' would be*- some) thing enprmous; and would not be justified, nor see the interest on their capital cost,, .even if thC'-inost ' sanguirie' as' td trade wero jealiaed. Next, even.supposrngthat after "a gigantic expenditure . Wanganqi were ren| dered accessible by Home r shipping, it is a matter-of considerable doubt' if : Home l shipping would come. Even if the’district were . magnanimous. enough to remit all harbor chatges and m’ake‘some ‘ other , resource pay, the interest on the' cost of deepening permaj nently thq entrance. to' the river,, still there would remain the fact that the extra freight aiitf extra itishrande ; charged. for' Coming to Wanganui would make - ' it absolutely cheaper to ship goods from Home to. Wellington, and thence by steamer to Wanganui, than to ship them to the ‘latter port direct. Let' it be rej memberedj.in Wellington transhipment charges are abolished; that Wellington is accounted as safe a port as any in New Zealand to enter i that the bulk of the trade' must come, to her; and that the despatch of a ship to Wanganui would be regulated by purely local-wants—-that isrtq j»y the wants of ; a fine, but by no meaoa limitless, district; whereas shipment Wellington means shipment to a'dozen other places. The tact that in the case of, the plant for the local gas works it has been found cheaper to despatch a small vessel from; England to Wanganui direct, does not in, the take away from the force of what I. hilye .Urgedi An exception but proves ‘ the rule/ Blit therC is much good- and useful ’ work * to be - Ac com ‘ plished by the Harbor. Board;if, instead, of aiming at.what is next to impossible, they will accomplish that which is quite practicable, and offer every possible facility for the large coastal trade of'which'Wanganui must hi always the Centre, 'and which < could easily make her quite,--as important :a place as Wcl-

lington. The bar . at* present is a good and ' safe one:, for steamers "drawing , ten, or eyen twelve feet of water, and' the river above the bar only wants proper care to enable vessels quite equal to meeting all the requirements of the place to come up; to .the town and depart with'safety. In somewhat intimate connection with this matter is the extension of the • railway-into the total; but'on that question I propose to write when describing the railway ■ works'themselves-'subsequently. V ! - ' ' * With the courteously rendered assistance qf ) : Mr. Woon, the Collector of Customs,’ I am enabled tb'present what after ' all should be by far' the most interesting and agreeable reading with regard to'Wanganui, ,namely, ' Certain figures in connection iwith her trade which 'show the extent and importance Of the district of which she 'is the port. The-net Customs duties for they Car ended December 30, 1876, were £24,703.105. 6d; All other Receipts were £338 7s/ lod., or a total : of, £25,041 18s. ■ 4d, The pilotage rates for the same period-were £326-178.' lOd, "*The total value .of - imports of ■ British and foreign goods which paid duty or were otherwise, cleared at the :Custom; House during the year was £58,900. It must be.bot-ne in mind,, however,- that 1 beyond thisi'there should ibe taken the value of duty -paid and free goods imported ..coastwise from ports in the colony, ’ duty upon which >was paid elsewhere. If one . were- to - judge- by the- total value - of- t’.’.e exports of 'produce' as ‘ officially ‘recorded jof Wanganui for the year under notice, no great ■ impression iwould be made. The value of these exports was £5, being the supposed worth of a package of-plants exported to Sydney, N.S. W. But'this sum only represents the produce ex- , ported-,direct to Great Britain'or the Austi-a- ---; llan Colonies, and is quite apart from exports .coastwise.! Nearly all the' wool produced.in -the -district is shipped coastwise to Wellington ;f6r- transhipment- on! boardjEnglish, ships, and augments .'the apparent, value of 1 the exports from there, i. How- much ’ it augments tljat yaluermay be judged 1 when ,1 mention that the -quantity. and * approximate; value' of the wool exportediboastwiSe 'from Wanganui during the year!;ended ,30th<-,Decembery. 1876;'was 5489 bales,, valued* at £120,758. , Wanganui also does a large trade in the' export of .sheep ahd -cattle,.-During/the .past:,.-.year'.,2290 cattle, valued at £22,900, and 31,790 sheep, valued at £19,074, were exported!; and - these figures are not, it must be borne in mind; .inclusive jof the large, number of sheep and -cattle driven overland to Wellington for consumption there. '.Whilst upon this subject it is interesting to not© that, in past years most 'of the sheep and cattle have: been! exported *to the West' CqOst diggings oft the Middle Island, and to Auckland ; but that the trade in the first oajse' has' fallen off, and in the'latter has almost ceased, and that not from causes to be alto-' gather,'regretted. Despite the; Kumara rush/ the export of cattle and sheep to the West Coast has so decreased that one of the steamers previously employed in the. trade; the St. 'Hilda, is now and has been for some time'past lying idle in the Wanganui River,' The'fact is, that cattle and sheep are now driven over-) laud from other portions .of the Middle. Island to the West Coast ’ diggings,' and so supply the demand thel-e. In the base of Auckland, too, the railway to the - Waikato and the opening up of communication with other out-districts, has • enabled the places that should naturally supply Auckland to so supply her, And,; as I have said, I do not think that this alteration • from what was a somewhat abnormal state of things is to be regretted. During 187.6 there were exported from Wanganui, 121 horses (including stud horses), of a value of £1515. The tallow exports were 124 tons, valued at £3720. The last figures in connection with the trade of the . port which I can give, show that during the year there were entered 551 vessels (362 being steamers), of an aggregate tonnage of 88,344 tons, 1 and there .were' cleared outwards 551, vessels (354 being steamers), of an aggregate tonnage of 38,252't0n5.