WAIAPU.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 227, 2 December 1874, Page 2

WAIAPU.

(fBOM oun OWN COBBESPONDENT.) November 28. In the flourishing days of the Waiapu Mission much attention seems to have been given to horticulture and arboriculture—two departments of civilisation in which Missionaries have often made themselves conspicuous in practically inculcating. I lately paid a visit to a well known spot in this locality, which forcibly calls to recollection the tasteful industry of its former occupants—the Church of England Missionaries. It is appropriately called “ The Missionaries' Gardens,” from its immediate proximity to the Mission Station, and is delightfully situated on the banks of the Maraihara—a tributary of the Waiapu river—and about a mile above the mouth of the latter stream. For fertility of soil and extent of scenery, as well as for comparative seclusiveness a more eligible site for mission buildings and gardens could not, perhaps, be chosen. It is, in fact, a little paradise ; and one cannot but regret that the fanaticism of some of those for whose spiritual and temporal benefits the place was selected, as a centre of operations, should have culminated in the destruction of the houses, with their appendages, erected by the Missionaries, as was done during the Hauhau insurrection. The Station was wholly burnt by the infuriated and villainous Hauhaus ; and the gardens and orchards were also more or less demolished by the same ruthless enemy, of whose maddened career there are many other painful traces in the district. Notwithstanding these devastation the gardens still preserve their identity in a measure. The destruction of the fences by which they were enclosed, left them unprotected from the incursions of quadrupeds of all kinds, whose ravages are painfully visible ; whilst the frequent visits of the neighboring natives have also been baneful to them. The area occupied by the gardens is considerable, and the diversity of fruit trees, shrubs, and flowers with which they have been stocked is greater than any one unacquainted with the difficulties attending the introduction of these to such an inaccessible part of the country, as Waiapu was when the local mission was founded, would scarcely believe. Of peach and pear trees there are yet many—some of them apparently in full bearing. One of the latter species is a noble specimen, supposed to be nearly fifty years old, and was, doubtless, amongst-the very earliest trees planted. The circumference of the trunk of this tree, near its base, is fully four feet; and its branches are so spread

as to afford shelter to forty or fifty persons under it. It is loaded with fruit, which, however, from the propensity of the Maoris to pluck ft whilst yet green, is not likely to be allowed to ripen. There are several other trees of smaller dimensions that appear to be very productive. Accacia trees and various European and New Zealand shrubs are numerous and thrive well. There are large beds of strawberries, and a variety of gooseberry and current bushes ; but these being all but hidden by rank and noxious weeds, including a good sprinkling of thistles, they yield little fruit. Much care appears to have been bestowed upon the rearing of flowers—of which there is no end. Although these have, from lack of culture, partially degenerated into wild flowers, yet their multifarious forms, and variegated hues, and tints of exquisite beauty, charm the visitor. The gardens are overrun with bramble and rose bushes, manuka scrub, and docks,' which are rapidly monopolising the ground to themselves, and thus assimilating it to the uncleared wilderness by which it is surrounded. On a pretty cultivated plain within a mile of the gardens, the early missionaries planted a score or two of willows, which, at the time of the last war, had attained enormously large dimensions, and formed ornaments to the locality; but these the Hauhaus, in their eagerness for mischief, also destroyed by ringbarking and cutting them down. Portions of their decayed trunks still remain as relics of barbaric revenge. It is an old saying and a true one, that “ Heaven helps those who help themselves a saying which appears to be well understood at Poverty Bay, whose people are setting an example before their fellow-colonists which is worthy of being followed. In the matter of “ helping themselves ” they cannot, I think, be surpassed in New' Zealand, and in this they are to be commended ; for self-reliance is the basis of prosperity and independence. Scarcely anything worth possessing can, now-a-daj s, be obtained from the Government without persevering agitation and pressing representation ; and even these means are sometimes found to be ineffectual in persuading those in high places to make certain concessions which are essential to the welfare of the country. There is, therefore, stern necessity for prompt action and courage in making grievances known at head quarters, vrith the view of obtaining proper redress, as pointed out in your leading articles of the 11th and 14th instant, respectively. In both these you tender good advice, which should be readily taken aud acted upon. The resolutions passed at the recent public meeting at Gisborne, concisely set forth the wants of the district, and these wants being of such a nature as to admit of no denial, the Government should be urged to comply with the reasonable demands of the people, by a personal interview with one or more members of the Cabinet, at Wellington; and as there are amongst the local representatives at Poverty Bay—l mean representatives of the Provincial Council and Highway Board—several gentlemen who are, in my respect, qualified for the faithful and efficient discharge of this duty, there is no reason why so important a matter should not be immediately attended to. Now that there is every probability of the Northern Provinces being abolished, the Central Government will, in prospect of this consolidation, be less reluctant than ever to make grants to a thriving district like Poverty Bay, which has been sadly neglected by the Province of which it forms a part. We are particularly w'ell pleased here with your persistent advocacy of the interest of this part of the East Coast, which are inseparably identified with those of Poverty Bay. In my last communication but one I adverted to the almost intolerable inconvenience to which the European residents here have been lately subjected, from lack of adequate supplies of the necessaries of life, arising chiefly from the difficulty of getting such supplies conveyed hither, with anything like regularity. The Luna which passed here about three weeks ago for Auckland, and which was expected to bring stores from Gisborne for our Resident Magistrate, did not, however, condescend to accord this accommodation, although the weather was all that could be desired for lauding purposes here at the time. Capt. Fairchild does not seem to be altogether inclined to study the convenience of those who are in the Civil Service—like himself —and who reside in this isolated part of the colony.