A LAND OF PROMISE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 99, 17 October 1911, Page 3

A LAND OF PROMISE.

) i. ALONG THE ROAD TO WIIAXGAMOMOXA. j A GREAT COUNTRY OPENING UP. s (By our special commissioner.) I- No. I. Ever been to Whanga' when the roads are bad—l mean when the settlers call them bad, and declare them impassable? - Ever ridden for hours on a horse that i hauls his feet out of two or three feet , of mud with a sough and a splash, and > slides them down again to the bottom : of the winding channel of slush which i goes by the name of a road, doing per- • haps two miles an hour, or thereabouts? 1 SPC " a six-horse waggon with a load of less than a ton travelling at the rate of nine miles in five hours along a road which we call an "arterial" road—save the mark? And seen those horses taking their absolutely essential spell every few hundred yards? Fortv miles, then thirty, then twenty—with the intermediate and lessening numbers hailed with a silent but fervent thanksgiving—of this sort of road have been for years past the means of "communication" between Whangamoniona and the nearest railway station. Now the slippery, toggy ribbon of mud which winds its way over and through and around those •'saddles'' and "flats" loses its terrors. The heavy waggon traffic from the town to the backbloeks traverses . only a few miles. The rest of the road

is declared to be in good order. The railway is coming. It has come to the 33-mile siding at the head of the Pohokura flat and at the foot of the Whangamoniona saddle. Cartage rates which used to be anything up to £ls or £2O per ton have fallen now to £1 or £2 a ton for the passage over the "saddle," and into the stores or homes at Whanga' no one has any use for the longer appellation out there—and it costs only 8s 4d a ton on the raifivay. The cost of the necessaries of life are falling in consequence,'and the settlers can now go "outside" with less inconvenience and expense, and with greater speed. What a world oE meaning in that word, "outside!" Men, women, and children, settled in the backwoods of Taranaki, with miles and miles of practically impassable road over long, winding bills and skirting great swamps intervening between them and the land of towns and

trams and railroads and post office clocks, sum up that world they have left in the one word "outside." They are creatures apart. > DAYLIGHT DAWNING. But the dar:. days of the Whanga' settlement and the country round about are nearly at an end. Soon the shriek of the locomotive will awaken the echoes in the Whangamoniona Valley, and trains will run to and beyond the littie township which is the centre of a great dairying and grazing district to be. The v.:iter was in the midst of it all last week, and it was perhaps fitting, although mighty unpleasant, that he should have the opportunity of contrasting the ride on the railway on a u> ii|.autn'ely warm day with the ride o 'i.r tie Whanga' saddle on horseback, in tiMi'chirg rain, and over n r--.t.l tint was already a couple of feet deep as the result of two days' copious rains. But to begin at the beginning. A SKILFUL JEHU. 1 Half-past ten, 10.3,7, 10.iO - :'s he ntver crming? We were standing on the verandah of Mr. J. McClugg.tge's house in Orlando street, Stratford, uwiiciug the arrival of the conveyance wlii-oi ivas to take us to the Skinner road ballast pit, there to connect with the Public Works Department's train which runs through to Pohokura, ballasting the newly-cou-■structed railway line. At 10.45 there was still no sign of the waggonette, and | we had to catch a train four miles away at eleven o'clock. Then "Jack" swung | his team out of Regan street into view at a smart pace. All aboard! No waiting. no delay. There are six of us. and the driver, and he kneeis in the bottom of the Cortland to make room. The horses seem to know what's wanted. We've just said "right, oh"—a second or two too soon--when they're off. llow we rattle down the East road, inwardly, cursing that mob of sheep which delays us for a few .seconds near the Kahouri

bridge, and every now and again praising the driver and the steeds for the pace kept up. Near the. Skinner road all eyes are strained to the south, and someone yells. "There she is!" as a puff j of steam becomes visible, "Dan" is the sprinter of the party, and off he goes by a short cut to try and delay the train. We go on to Mr. West's gate. Mr. West makes no objection, it seems, to the general public using his farm as a short cut to the railway. Most of the men have come "outside" from

Whanga' and Pohokura, and consequent-1 lv are laden with a hundred and one j parcels. But we make good headway, and find Guard "Jack" Murtagh and his engine and rake of trucks, with a hybrid van and passenger-car yoked up in the rear. Someone savs we've been only a quarter of an hour on the road, thanks to Freddy Gooch's fine pair and skilful driver, TE WERA TERMINUS. Toko, Gordon road, Douglas. Iviore, Iluiroa—all are passed in turn, arid then here we are at Te Wera, the terminus of the Railway Department's section, 23 miles from Stratford. The stumping jack and plough have been busy, and the country is being "broken I in," a fact very evident to anyone who ! has not been on the line for some time. There must have been something suspicious about our party, for presently our old friend Tom Lis ton strolls up to take stock. The life of a constable at Te Wera, be confesses, is none too strenuous. The place was lively enough a while back, but the tented population of co-operative laborers has moved on as the line prgressed, and Te Wera. the bustling back blocks railway terminus of a while ago, has. the air of a deserted village to-day. Of course, it is still the terminus proper. Here the daily timetable trains start,, and here they conclude their journey. The service beyoni". this point is of the "wild-caf variety, the ballast trains running to suit tinwork on the line and not being scheduled except nil Tuesdays and Saturdays, when there are time-table trains to connect with the Stratford-TV Wera service inwards and outwards. POLITICS OBTRUDE.

Here, as everywhere, the people are keen on knowing how the most, noted man of the Whanganiomona backbloeks fared at the hands of the electors at Strafford on the previous evening, and "Joe" seems to be holding a scries of levees. He's apparently a popular man out here, and one has only to ask Ihe settlers to understand why. lie breast his bread upon the water". an I Inow reaping his reward. Terribly troubled waters they have been, and

muddy, but (be "guide, philosopher and friend,'' the pioneering storekeeper of thi' bai'klilocks. the universal provider, kind-hearted and generous, and often keeping farms and fanners afloat by bis liberal ami timely assistance, Ims a cheery word for everyone in return for

/ the "Hullo, Jo'e!" which greets 'him \ everywhere, it's the maiia of the Me- \ Cluggage, and ".Joe" is the '"rangitira" • of the ha;iu. [' OX TO POHOKURA. I We are running now on the section I not yet handed over to the Railway Department. The line is practieallv complete, but the section will probably remain under the control of the Public Works Department until the line reaches Whanga'. The settlers are ap--3 parently not concerned about the con--1 trol of the line, and, if anything, seem ? to prefer things as they are. The bal- * last trains run frequently and fairly : regularly, and passengers are picked up I and set down as required. Goods traffic i is carried on regularly, and goods trucks ■ run right through from Stratford to the 33-mile siding every night. Several residents told ns they preferred the Publie Works Department service to the Railway Department's, because the rules were more elastic. The officers under the Public Works Department have an enviable reputation here for their consideration and co.irt.esy, and the guards on the ballast trains do everything in tlieir power to enable the public to get the utmost benefit from the line so far constructed. Mr. J. lilack is in charge of the goods shed at I'ohokura, and Mr. King at the 33-mile siding, so there's no pilfering of goods as was the case before these officers were appointed. At iPohokura we alight, and are met by one of those noble women who have made backbloeks life bearable for many. ;She is Mrs. Melvor, and she is caring for the latest arrival in the household of her daughter. A great nurse is Mrs. M.. and she's a storehouse of stories of life ill the bush. HEAL HOSPITALITY.

At Mrs. Wildornioth's we begin to sample the hospitality -of the bush settler. The word has a different meaning out here. It means that whilst we are in the house we are welcome to practically anything that's in it. The gossip during the meal touches on life in the pioneering days, and someone mentions a poker. 1 was the only man present who didn't laugh, but I didn't know, you know. So McCluggage told the story. Once upon a time, about seventeen years ago to be a bit more precise, the storekeepers in the backbloeks put their heads together and decided to inaugurate a system of t cash trading. The first man to arrive at the house of a certain customer was our friend and cicerone, Mr. Joe McC'luggage. The lady of the house wanted a bar of soap, and "Joe" produced it. "A shilling, please," he said, and ''all right," said the customer. "But." be went on, mustering up his courage, "I want the shilling before you get the soap. We've all decided to stop the credit business." She grabbed the poker, and furbished up her vocabulary. "What, you son of a seacook (or words to that effect, as the lawyers say), would you stand there and hold out the soap in one hand and ask for the 'bob' with the other? I'll break your head in with the poker you (suppose we say 'son of a sea-cook' again)." The lady had killed the cash trading scheme, nipped it in the bud and j crushed it wiili a threatening poker. "Here you are. missus," faltered Joe, "take the soap, and pay for it when you like." And he left quickly. "But," the old lady chimed in, "I never dealt with anvonc else in all these seventeen years, until MoCluggage Bros, sold out." (To be continued.)