EXCITING ADVENTURES OF A COACHING PARTY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5070, 23 June 1877, Page 2 (Supplement)

EXCITING ADVENTURES OF A COACHING PARTY.

The Maelcrlon News has tho following:— “ Tho coach plying ou tho Forty-Mile Bushroad met with quite a chapter of incidents during the down trip on Tuesday (19th iust.) A twenty-four hours’ detention occurred, tho spare time being put in between Ekotahuua and tho Scandinavian Camp. Tho result was tho coach did not reach Mastorton until Wednesday evening instead of Tuesday. Tho outward trip seems to have been oven more eventful. _ Leaving Mastorton the following (Thursday) morning, it got as far as tho now celebrated Makakaha Block, when tho river, theretofore high, came down in a perfect deluge, rondoring both tho Mauugatainiko and tho Upper Makakaha utterly unfordablc. This opened up rather a bright prospect for tho hapless tourists. Hemmed in on both sides by a mighty rushing river, without a morsel to eat, and no shelter from tho merciless weather excepting what was afforded by tho coach, it can bo readily imagined tho plight was an awkward one. The coach contained two passengers besides tho driver. One of these, a gentleman from Canterbury (tho travelling representative of that popular periodical, the Sun) in search of adventures, is reported to have shaken his head dolefully, and said, ‘ Well, this may suit my hook, hut certainly it does not suit my stomach.’ After their nerves had become

sufficiently steady to contemplate the situation, they made a complete inventory of their available resources, a note of which we are enabled for tho gratification of the curious to subjoin:—One flask of palo brandy with the capsule slightly disturbed, a small vial of painkiller, a few rounds of ammunition and a double-barrelled gun. It was not much to begin a now and untried phase of existence with, still it was all they had to depend upon, and oven that was a consolation, as it enabled them to take iu at a glance tho measure of their extremities. At a still more advanced hour of tho evening two benighted swagsmon made their appearance on tile scene, and although- equally destitute of ‘tucker’ they contributed a few light patches of blanketing, with which the amalgamated party huddled together for the night inside the coach. _ At daybreak scouts were out examining tho river ford, a glance at which was enough to convince them there was not the slightest prospect for getting on. Tho double-barrelled min was now their only alternative, and after boating about the busk for a time, sufficient pigeons were ‘ bagged ’ to make one passably good meal, with which tho entire party had to content themselves for the day. On Saturday neither the weather nor the fords were a bit better, so that there was nothing for it but to make the most they could out of the gnu, by which moans they were enabled to secure just enough to keep them from famishing. In tho meantime the coach-horses, finding the thing rather irksome, took to the river on their own account and made tracks for the opposite bank, on route for tho stable at Eketabuna. At mid-day on Sunday rather a daring horseman, on his way from Woodville, succeeded in swimming tho rivers, and, arriving at Masterton, reported the state in which he had found the coach and its passengers to Mr. Maoara, of the coaching firm. On Monday morniun supplies were promptly despatched to the relief. We have not as yet hoard how tho relief party succeeded in their mission, but from all wo can learn it is not likely they would arrive a moment too soon.