Ngaruawahia.

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2086, 19 March 1898, Page 2

Ngaruawahia.

Among the good gifts bestowed on man the faculty of forgetting unpleusant experiences and deepening the T colors of pleasant ones shnuld take a high place. On TuuraJay our reporter took train for Ngaruawahia, It was a fair morning when he embarked, but as the tram sped southwards, through the dreary champaign known as the Waitoa Bush, a few fugitive rain drops, avant court&fe of an impending deluge, appeared from time to time on the carriage windows to the conster nation of the holiday-makers. It was not, however, until the train pulled up at Morrinsville, and the melancholy swish of the rain-ladened wind swept over the roofs of the carriages that the 11Q male and female passengers from Te Aroha woke up to the full significance of the fall in the barometer. It was curious te observe the effect on the passengers. Those who had brought mackintoshes or umbrellas' unconsciously assumed an attitude of superiority towards their more unfortunate fellows who were without. ‘We are experienced travolleis aud are well acquainted with the vicissitudes of travel.’ 4 We belong to that thoughtful class which provides itself against any and every contingency.’ Their looks of aelf-satisfac tion seemed to say. Everybody knows Ngaruawahia, the prettiest station on the main-line, where the hills rise from the river, banks until, as en Thursday, their heads are hidden in the gray clouds. The village is situated at the confluence of the Waipa and the Waikato rivers; its name means the ‘ meeting of the waters,’ and here formerly stood the capital of the Maori King, Potatau X- The opening of the railway and the construction of the rail and road bridge whhh now spans the Waikato at this point completely altered the conditions of life in Ngaruawahia. In the old days we can imagine life was as slow as the Waipa stream over whose placid bosom still seems to hover the spirit of long departed Maori romance. We might oarry the simile further, and liken the new order of things to the hurrying, swirling waters of the Waikato River. Every available spot where shelter could be obtained was occupied immediately after the arrival of the train. Many of the girls were in summer frocks, and it was pitiable to see them on the ‘delta/ while the races were going on, standing under lhe dripping trees like nineteenth century Andromedas. Then the sun, like Perseus in his conflict with the dragon, would get the beat of it, and the sweet creatures would emerge from shelter all smiles and laughter, only to be driven back again by the blustering weather. King - Mahuta’s Royal Maori Band and the Rotorua Baud played during the afternoon. The war canoe races, according to our reporter, afforded capital sport. The crew of the Publicana being obviously by far the best, and winning every event for which they entered . Yesterday our reporter compared notes with a good number of people, and in spite of the bad weather and the discomfiture of the return journey, strange to say, everybody declared that they had enjoyed themselves immensely.