ON TEES MOUNTAIN ROAD SIX MONTHS AGO.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 418, 19 April 1879, Page 2

ON TEES MOUNTAIN ROAD SIX MONTHS AGO.

(Communicated.) “ Hkad it is,” cried Biown, ns the nimble (sixpence ceased to spin. “ we’ll do the Mountain track.” Within an hour we had passed through Norman by and plunged into tlie bush and ilie mud. The splendid timber, the abundant cocksfoot grass, and tlie ungrateful rata vine strangling the tree that first supported it, afforded us theme for conversation for the first ten or twelve miles. But when we began to ride into the rain, which seemed perpetual near the Mountain, and into deeper mini, where we could only make three or four miles an hour, I began to complain that we had not gone by tbe beach, and Brown began to talk about bis travels. This was a firstclass bush road—talk about mud—l ought to have been in Australia, or at Hokitika, or in America. He knew two men in America who began to cut down a largo tree to saw telegraph poles; the trunk was good for three twenty-five feet lengths. They got him about half down the first day; all the night it rained very heavily, and in the morning the ground was quite sloppy, and blest if the tree could be found. But there was one thei - e they had not noticed that would run two lengths. After losing a lot of time in wonderment they tackled it, and got it about half down by night, when it again began to rain. In (he morning the ground was quite soft, and the tree was gone, but there was one there that they had quite overlooked, which would run one length ; so concluding that a certain old gentleman was getting hard up for fuel, and had carried off their trees, they began to fell this third one, determined at all hazards to get it down by night ; but the rain again stopped them when the work was nearly done. Next morning the rain seemed to have cleared off, and the tree —why it had cleared off too. Every chip and trace was washed away, so there was nothing for it but to tackle a tree, which, strange to say, they had not noticed before, that had no trunk, but whose limbs promised some small logs. They worked bard, and just got it down by sun set, when they both sat down on the stump, and looking at the sky, began to discuss the weather. Presently they were startled by catching sight of the stin that they thought had set, a glance showed them that they were fifty feet from the ground and rising rapidly. They passed that night on a stumo seventy-five feet high, and a good thing for them too ; for that very night the Indians came down and catch my eye, so that he might finish with effect, when his horse suddenly dipped into about three foot of mud, and he rolled innocently out of his seat. “ Well,” I said as 1 helped to scrape him, “ what did the Indians do ?” But he asked me to do something to Indians in genera! that was quite beyond my power, and the story has never been finished.

We trudged on in silence till Wo crossed the Patea river, and came upon a vast mass of charred logs and stumps. I remarked that the felling must have been done in dry weather, as none of the stumps were 75 feet high ; but Brown requested that I would do with the stumps what lie had before wished me to do with the Indians. The water and the mud spread wider here, and a few ducks were seen here and there. Presently a solitary human being put in's head out of a halfrotten tent, and intimated that if we didn’t keep well to the left at the next pond, we would never bo heard of again. Brown repeated the request with respect to the pond that h'e had before made on the behalf of Indians and stumps. We took the hint, however, and found the mud only two feet deep. Half an hour brought us to a slab hut, on which was daubed “Stratford Hotel.” Brown by this time was washed pretty clean by the rain, and as he turned round before a roaring tire, and sipped something stronger than tea, his temper visibly improved. Presently he asked the landlord where the town of Stratford was. “ Back among them logs and slumps," was the reply. B. was going to say something about the City of Eden on paper, when a seedy-looking old man with spectacles slipped in from another room and broke into the conversation with “ Yes, sir, that is the city of Stratford ; the place, sir, with the brightest future of any in New Zealand. Are you aware, sir, that the Government have their eye on this city, and intend, to make it at once the Manchester, the Liverpool, and the Brighton of the South ? But I see your dinner is wailing ; if you don’t mind my company, I’ll explain some great projects.” We at once ordered another plate, and the seedy gentleman began with glistening eyes, “Being m Wellington last session I formed myself into a deputation and waited upon the Minister for Public Works. On my mentioning Stratford on Patea, ho said, ‘ Oh, you’re about the Harbor Bill; yes, I know, Mr Sh ’ No, I said, that’s not my business just now ; we do want the bar improving, and the river clearing out, so that our commerce may have access to the highway of nations; but we will not trouble the Government about that, as there are already some parties taking o-ut the sewage free of cost, and an enterprising firm offers a good figure for the stones to mettle the streets of Normanby extension. But my business, sir, is with matters of far greater importance —importance to New Zealand, sir, and to the world. I come, sir, to propose that Stratford be the junction of the inevitable Mount Egmont railway with the main line—the Minister here interrupted me to say that he was pledged not to entertain any new scheme before the main line had been continued to Gnowhere in Otago, and the branch line had been constructed to Brawdaker’s run in Canterbury. But, said I, the immediate necessity’ for those lines is just the reason why the Egmont line should he undertaken at once. If it start from Stratford and reach the top by winding round and round the mountain ten times, it will cost, with plant and all complete, just £4,000,000, This sum would not cost more than £200,000 per annum, while the earnings of the line would be nearly five times that sum. First, each inhabitant of the colony would make the ascent at least once a-year. Now, at £1 per head, there is a cool £415,000. All the inhabitants of the North Island would go at least twice a year; there is another £160,000. Second, at least four hundred thousand visitors would be attracted annually from other countries to that spot in the universe where the beauty of nature and the skill and enterprise of man are most perfectly combined. There is another £400,000, not to mention the benefit to the colony of having such a stream of visitors. Third, the New Plymouth Harbor Board and the Insurance companies would be glad to subsidise the line, as they wanted a high signal station, in order to communicate with vessels before they got dangerously 7 near the harbor; the line would exfable them to have the

station-on the very top of Mount Egraont. Fourth* the lino would enable the Government to convey: an American swivel gun up the Mountain,: which, whan once swung and loaded at both ends, would effectually overawe the peninsula, and seltle the native difficulty for ever. The hon gentleman interrupted me to say Shat the idea was splendid, but did not' belong; tb his department. I then went on to show that the line would open up a large ice trade with Australia ; also that the working expenses would be small, Cor coal would only be required on the first trip up, as ever after, the train in coming down would generate sufficient heat to take it up again. The Hou Minister said mine was llie most business-like scheme ever laid before him, and it had his heart}' approval. He could see thfit it would save the colony half a million a year, and soon pay off the public debt. No more money should be squandered on roads, but as soon as the main line reached Stratford, before advancing an inch into the wastes beyond, the branch line up the Mountain should be undertaken, and Stratford should soon become the pivot on which the prosperity of the colony would turn. He would suggest doubling the reserve on our (own sections. While he had been saying all this, the seedy man had eaten a hearty dinner, and he still talked on, while Brown lit his pipe and I paid for three. He told us of his project for Stratford water works, which was to put in a tunnel so as to lead pipes into the old crater of the Mountain* and so secure a splendid pressure of about 8,000 feet. Brown thought this would be handy for putting out bush fires in the town, but would be awkward if the Mountain again became active, and the fire-engine spurted lava instead of water. As we mounted and rode away, the seedy man followed us out* saying, “ Mark my word* we fear the rivalry of no city in the hemisphere—except No mum by.” We rode away thinking what he could mean. For the six hours that the next twelve miles occupied, we cogitated on the matter. Cogitating, we arrived at Inglewood ; still cogitating* we got into the train, and whizzed away at the rate of.seven or eight miles an hour-. Next day as we walked up a street in New Plymouth, the seedy' man passed us, and I asked a friend who be was. “He?” he replied, “Oh he’s a loafer, was neverknown to go without a dinner, and never known to pay for one.”