OUR DISTRICT AND OUR SETTLERS.—No. 10.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 61, 8 February 1884, Page 2

OUR DISTRICT AND OUR SETTLERS.—No. 10.

A TRIP UP THE COAST. [BY OUR SPECIAL REPORTER;] TAOROA; When at '• Naboth’s Vineyard; l * Mr. Hirteel’s section, I met Mr. Parker, manager of Messrs. ’ Momerville and Haig’s station at Taoroa; who kindly offered to accompany mo over the run, which is partly situatea in a beautiftil valley, through which a good road has beert out from Waipiro leading to Awanui, but this work has been completed mainly through private enterprise. The station is about twelve miles from Akuaku, and said to be eighty miles from Gisborne. When Messrs. Somerville and Haig tdok up this run in 1878 their enterprise was considered by some knowing ones a very unwise undertaking, in consequence of the existence there of so many Natives, and it being so far from the haunts of civilisation. The Natives about that period were credited with being given to acte of lawlessness, but the fears of those who shook their heads At the wisdom of the enterprieg wAre never realised to any serious extent. This run comprises 11,000 acres of land, some of it magnificent country, about two-thirds being ploughable. The homestead is situated on a flat of about 1,400 aorefi, broken here and there with liitlb rivulete; which afford good WAter lor the stock. The run is Stocked With 5,000 sheep and 550 head .. of cattle. Grass has been laid down by both surface-sowing and on ploughed land. The grass has grown well. A great amount of fencing has been completed, some portions of the run being sub-divided into a number of ?ood-sized paddocks, some of which enclose he old willow trees planted by the mis< sionaries in the early days; These; with* groves of peach trees, impart a special charm to the locality; The run is bounded by Mr. J. N. William’s Waipiro Block on the south side, and on the north by Messrs. Porter and Williams' Mataiia Blocks. I notice a great quantity of Native grass on Taoroa, which; my guide informed me, springs up directly after the fern is burnt off, aud the country stocked with sheep. Mr. Somerville came from England to this colony about nine years ago, and has, iia* addition to his interest in this run, a pretty estate at Tologa, and which I shall notice in due course. Mr. Haig ha* long

been known in his capacity as a surveyor. Latterly his health has been very indifferent, and in consequence it was his intention to proceed to England by the Lochnager, in the hope of recruiting it, but he appear* to have abandoned the idea just before the old wool ship set sail. Forty-five bales of wool, taken by dray to Waipero, left tlieir station this season. Mr. Hirtrel having again joined me. we rode from this locality, along a good road, to within three miles of Akuaku, and arrived at WAIPIRO* where Mr. White’s store aud accommodationhouse are situated facing the sea, and not many yards from the beach. Those who remember the hotel some years ago told me that it has periodically done a little travelling on its own account—that is to say* the mountain side on which it is situated has been constantly shifting seawards, and no surprise will be expressed if the residents there awake up some fine morning and find that the block of buildings has taken another move outwards and got out to sea. Of the probability of this, however, an way-worn traveller who takes refuge at Mr. White’s hotel need feel no alarm whatever for his personal safety. Mr. White was away at the time of my visit, Mr. Nicholls, the Native schoolmaster of Akuaku being spending his holidays in charge of the hotel and the store. The house was quite full, and I had to take a couch in the sitting-room for the night. This was, nevertheless, quite comfortable. Here I met Mr. and Mrs. Somerville and family up from Tologa Bay on their annual outing, also Mr. Prin, the celebrated sign-writer of Gisborne, who had been up for five week* trying the effects of the sulphur baths within a few miles of this locality. The isolation was to him something unendurable, and to relieve the monotony he dropped in occasionally at Mr. White’s. Here it was that I found a petition awaiting signatures praying for the establishment of a money-order office at Akuaku. It ran as follows ;— “ To the Hon. the Postmaster-General. “ We, the undersigned settlers in the district of Waiapu, Cook County, humbly beg to bring to your notice that we are put to very great inconvenience and delay owing to there being no money-order-office at some central spot in the district, and would suggest the establishment of one at Akuaku, where there is already a post-office, it also being the spot most conveniently situated for thj purpose. We frequently have occasion to send away money in larger or smaller sums, and great inconvenience and unnecessary delay are caused by our having to procure moneyorders from Gisborne, some ninety miles away. We therefore humbly request that a money-order-office be established with as

little delay a& possible at Akaaku, which we fully believe will prove amply remunerative.’ , Then follow the signatures of Sir George Whitwoiti Maaeri. Slopford, Niohulla, Porter Mrt Creft tor M, y. p B ok), HirtseH, White, Bruni, Bccaer, Friu. Haig, Somerville, Hard* ing, J, A., ahd Harding, W, H„ Johnston, Cooper, Rowell, and Parker, This would be but a fair request to accede to, especially as the settlers along the Coast are so unanimous as to the place where the Office should be established. It would only be an act of justice on the part of Government to establish telephonic communication along the Coast, Let the questions of titles to Native boundaries become settled, then now life will be imparted to all the diltricts, and settlement will follow as a natural consequence. There is a great quantity of land, notwithstanding the thousands of mountains seen from the sea, eminently suited for agricultural as well as pastoral purposes, and this must ultimately fall into the hands of small farmers. Old settlers along this belt of country would gitehd 0 cordial welcome to a few neighbors. That the climate is good is a certainty, and if proof of this assertion is required) I simply point out the unmistakeable sign—that of the vegetation being green and verdant down to the Water's brink. The following morning I made a start for Tokomaru, to reach which that terror to ell travellers—Ta whiti Hill—had to be ascended and descended. The windings of this old landmark, before you arrive at that deceptive little peak on the summit of the hill, are quite sufficient for one day’s journey. But the awful grandeur of the surrounding scenery—the vast chasms below, into which a false step on the part of your horse would send you headlong, for in some places the tracks bn the ridges are exceedingly narrow—are sufficient to imprint on the memory, after passing over them, a life-long recollection of an extraordinary adventure. Surely the time hbb arrived for the County Council, if they Wish to retain this phrt of the country as a part of their territory, to take some steps towards cutting a safe road between Waipiro and Tokomaru. At the foot of the hill can be seen the homestead attached to Mr. J. N. Williams* run, (Tb be continttetL)