FROM GISBORNE TO MELBOURNE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1062, 18 April 1882, Page 2

FROM GISBORNE TO MELBOURNE.

[Written for the Poverty Bay Standard ] No. 111. (Continued from our Last). The town is reached after a lengthy ploughing through the black iron-sand with which the shore there abounds. It is extremely fine and soft, your feet sinking to the ankles ; there is no attempt at road making there, as I was told that the rollers come up to the engine house, at times, carrying everything before them. Emerging thence we are relieved by the presence of some well-formed and tolerably broad streets ; but, like many other towns in New Zealand (of which I shall write by-and-bye) the pathways seem to have had but scant attention. The drainage seems to be good, if not perfect, and the streets are clean. Houses of business, hotel accommodation, and the public institutions all appear to have had a liberal attention commensurate with the requirements of the public ; but there is an atmosphere of standstill progressiveness about the place—if I may be allowed the expression. Every one seemed to be bustling about, but with a listlessnesss suggestive of indefinition of purpose. Whenever 1 see a man winging his way through the streets at 11 o’clock in the morning, with arms going like a windmill, and coat tail answering the purpose of the sails thereof, bring up suddenly, and leisurely enquire who the strangers are just going into the hotel, and when I subsequently see the said man come into the said hotel, and tell the fair Hebe that he will “ put himself outside a longsleever,” and does it accordingly, 1 don’t think that man is so very busily engaged as he would have his rteighbors believe. J saw several of these peripatetic steam engines in the town of New Plymouth, men, who, although not perhaps representative of tho whole community, were types of a class to be found everywhere, and constitute what I call the humbugs of business society. The hilly nature of the site on which the town stands, naturally suggests picturesqueness in outline and detail. There are four principal streets, more or less hilly, in which there are some buildings of rather ambitious architectural pretensions, and which lead to suburbs where private dwellings rear their heads, indicating the ease and coinfort with which their occupants pass the leisure time of life. We noticed two or three windmills, which betokened Native or local industry of some kind, and we passed a brewery or two, whose presence was unmistakable from the huge stench that pervades these places where cleanliness is unobserved, and water not abundant. 1 remember the brewery business well, fur I extracted some fun from the predicament of one of our party who, in quest of a certain brewery, peered into every apparently uninhabitable, and dilapidated building he came across. I urged it was hardly likely t hat such places as those would be the manufactories where our principal beverage is made. “ Oh,” replied my friend, “ that is just the place for a Colonial brewery at the start. Whenever you smell a smell that comes from a shanty, with one corner sinking to the earth, a few weather-boards gone, and the shingles moss-grown, and weather-worn, be sure you are in the neighborhood of a brewery—it may he mean and unpretending, but it is a brewery nevertheless, and I urn mistaken if I don’t find the one I seek to answer that description.” And sure enough it was ; and so little known that it was not until we had traversed the town for an hour or two, that we came across it, situated in a b ick street, whose slow-des-cending rivulets of stench, and other stale beer abominations crossed and re-crossed our path in such noisome confusion as to pollute the atmosphere, and indicate the subject of my friend’s enquiry at the same time. The business for which the visit was made, being over, we took as hasty a departure as possible ; but it served the purpose, subsequently, of some good jokes and stories told by my friend of his early and later experiences in the up-hill struggle of impecunious Colonial brewers ; and it passed into a bye-word, by which we kept the joke alive during the rest of our sojourn together, that whenever we smell a smell, and espied a building resembling a dilapidated cow-shed, it was unanimously pronounced to be a Colonial brewery on a small scale, and I need not say we were sometimes not very far out.

From the limited observations we were able to make, I should say that to any one with the spirit of contentment and resignation powerfully operating on a passionless soul, New Plymouth offers a certain class of attractions, but it is not that class that would tempt me. New Plymouth, like Nelson, is one of what the Americans call the “ one-horse” places of the Colony. No vessels call there except steamers, and very small craft, although overland communication—which you miss so much—places the inhabitants at any rate within the outer circle of the circumference of tho world. Continuation of the railway line, so as to complete its continuity with the interior, and Wanganui and Wellington will do much for tho interests of Taranaki; while the money spent upon the breakwater will stifle the cries of an impatient nursery of full-grown infants, who, lapped in the “garden” of a most salubrious climate, require to be spoon-fed by indulgent caretakers, with such farinaceous food as a Colonial Treasury can supply. The result of my visit is t hat I should not like to reside in the township of New Plymouth. We left our anchorage about noon for Nelson, and enjoyed the first bracing, cool breeze we had experienced since I left Gisborne. It was then about a fortnight, during whioh time we had had nothing but calms, and successive hot days ; the pleasant head wind we then enjoyed was exceptionally welcome, for it cooled our parched feelings, and caused the steamer’s

furnaces to glow with a more fervent heat. There was what may be termed a “ nice” lot of passengers on board—not too many, nor too few. Amongst them were some ladies who, during the evening, sang and played in the social hall—a retiring apartment for which the Hawea and other of the Union Boats are notable—and thus helped to pass the time with agreeableness. It is not my province to dwell too much on the sentimentalisms of our journey ; still, after all, what is life stripped, and thoroughly denuded of sentiment—of the more heart-felt, but soul-stirring passages which make that life endurable ? To my mind a sea voyage in agreeable company —such as 1 wasfortunate enough to mingle with from Auckland to Dunedin—is one of the few blessings sent to us. Of course everything else must bear harmony. On this occasion the air was balmy, and in just that force of agitation and lowness of temperature as to make the aggregation of humanity the more to be desired. Most of the passengers preferred the quarter deck to the hall, and there, in coteries of threes and fours, sat and chatted away the time with merry jest, repartee and story telling, heightened, the while, with constant waitings on the evening breeze of some well-known favorite air. Yrs, it is on shipboard that one can form a pretty accurate estimate of one’s fellows ; and it is on shipboard where, if he or she, has any disposition to be kind, can find a field for an extended exercise of our generous impulses. So also, do the peculiarities and good and bad breeding of persons become apparent; and I regret to say that I noticed several on board the Hawea. Of course boors are to be found everywhere, but on board steamers they seem to take exceptional, almost fiendis'i, delight in being utterly oblivious to any consideration to tie wants or susceptibilities of others. Rushing to the menu table, and occupying seats If ore the bell rings ; asking (no, requesting) for something to be passed to them, with an air of uncull ivated authority, rather than of social compliment; paying no attention to that precedence of position which ladies always command at the hands of gentlemen ; using rough and blasphemous language in an under tone, but within hearing of those for whom it is not intended ; smoking and spitting about the deck, are a few only of the social misdemeanors one always meet. with. Then there aie others who know not how to “feed within doors” so to speak, who make as much noise with their mouth, as a horse at his corn ; “ coves what saucers their tea,” pick their teeth at the table, and wipe their nose with their napkin. I (indeed 1 may say a dozen of persons, for it was constantly remarked) was much annoyed at one person, a Government official not unknown in your parts, who answered the last description to an extent quite painful. We altered our position once or twice, but to no purpose, for whatever place we occupied at table, after a few moments, either at soup or coffee that unmistakable “sough” that my grandfather used to describe, not inaptly, like a sow eating at a trough, would catch our ear; and as this lasted at every meal, three times a day, we had such a benefit that made us rejoice to find that we should part company with our disagreeable companion at Nels< n, whither we were speeding. We had a rough time of it crossing the Straits, but beyond that, which lasted but three or four hours, the passage was excellent and thoroughly enjoyable. We arrived at Nelson about three in the morning, and in my next I shall tell you what I think of that place.

Intelligence has been received from Waikato that Te Kooti sent a message /to the Uriwera tribes, asking if he could receive asylum, if necessary, with his few remaining followers. No answer has yet been received. I'urukulu. who murdered .Sullivan, has gone inland. \\ iniata’s whereabouts is unknown. The Ringite criminals are uneasy at the ]»n spect «>f the opening up of the country. IL. Ji. lit raid. A story is told of a recent case in NewYork in wl ich Mr James Ch ret ham accused Ins wife of cruelty. He was an old and feeble man, and the lady but middle-aged. He complained of her |H»uring ice-water and vinegar down his ba--k, and boxing his ears. Mrs Cheetham admitted these impeachments with a light heart and much freedom of manner. ** Your Honor,” she said to Judge, “ I don't know how to fight, but I can everlastingly catch hold of a man and squeeze him so that he can’t give me a black eye. My husband accused me of saying au reroi.r to Mr Lake, which he said meant, * Goodbye sweetheart, till next we meet,’ which 1 couldn’t find in the dictionary * * * I did very gently pour fix glasses of iced water down his back, and one tumbler of vinegar, to preserve him for future reference. * * * He said I had gone to a picnic with a young man, which I denied I asked him to take it back (apologise), which he refused. I then proceeded to box his ears. I asked him again, and he said, ‘ I am sorry, my jewel, but it is the truth.’ I boxed his earsagain. I gave him a third chance, and he stuck to it. Then I did box him. The correspondent of a contemporary, writing from St. Petersburg on Januray sth, says : —“The position of the Jews is becoming intolerable in Russia at present. Even the richest and most influential families are thinking of leaving the country, seeing it useless to attempt struggling against the fanatic hatred of an ignorant, almost barbarous people. The civilised Russian ‘ intelligence,’ far from trying to calm his people, literally pours oil upon the fire, thereby showing howthin is the varnish of civilisation covering them Not the least indignation is felt in St. Petersburg at this most crying abomination. The newspapers pooh-pooh it all, and consider the ■whole thing as rather a good joke. They distort all the facts, and represent the shameful orgies of a “ Christian ” people, on the greatest feast of the year, as a sort of merrymaking, as if the Jews were so many rats that haver been routed out of their holes. Whatever may be the natural atipathy felt by Europe in general against the Jewish race, it will certainly never countenance this persecution, now become tlie order of the day in orthodox Russia.” The European Mail says : —“ The controversy as to whether the safety of the country would or would not be endangered by a tunnel between England and France is beginning to wax hot. Sir Garnet Wolsely having delivered himself of a very strong opinion on the one side, Sir John Adye has taken occasions to express an equally, decided opinion upon the other side, The SurveyorGeneral of Ordnance ridicules the notion of two or three thousand Frenchmen being able to seize the English end of the tunnel, and to hold it until sufficiently reinforced to conquer England. *lf ever an enemy was so foolish as to attempt au invasion in that way, and even succeed in sending through a few thousand men, he F should be quite ready to take down some of the Kentish Volunteers and frighten them away.’ Sir Andrew Clarke, another officer of wide experience and high scientific reputation lias expressed himself to similar effect.”