PAGES FROM THE PAST.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 September 1921, Page 9

PAGES FROM THE PAST.

NEW PLYMOUTH BEFORE THE

SETTLEMENT.

ITS PRISTINE BEAUTY.

By

“Juvenis.”

New Plymouth and district are acknowledged to be highly favored by Nature, and perhaps can justify the claim so often heard that they are “the Garden of New Zealand.” But before the advent of the white man, with his axe and match to cut, fall, and fire the bush in order to clear the land from which to obtain sustenance and to build up a strong and thriving community, the district must have appeared a very beautiful one indeed. In 1833 5 a young man named George Shaw, aboard the brig “Annie,” stepped ashore, and his impressions are recorded in a letter he wrote to his cousin in Norfolk. He draws an interesting picture of the district. He says:— ' On the morning of our ninth, or tenth day out, we sighted, what on our first survey gave us the idea of looking on a distant field at large cornstacks, darkened by penumbra. However, as we got nearer to them, lo! these imagined cornstacks of ours, turned out really to be a cluster of cone-shaped rocks, some of which were on the shore, and others were in the water, and approaching an altitude of, I should think, from about fifty to five hundred feet. A SPECTACLE OF PHYSICAL BEAUTY. I, after about an hour’s steady ga?:* ing at these high peaks, was called down io breakfast; but. as soon as that was over, I came upon deck when, there were unfolded, as the morning advanced, a spectacle of physical beauty far transcending anything which I had ever seen, either for sweetness of aspect or for majesty of form. I continued peculiarly infatuated with the perspective. This, I ascertained at the time, was what Captain Cook gave the name tn of Egmont. This mountain, Egmont, rivetted the eyes towards the direction in which it towered, with an unspeakable tenacity. Its summit, I was then told, had an altitude of between eight and nine thousand feet! and had, as we then• observed it, a sort of aureole, as a crown: this, by and by, dissolved, and unfolded a deep tippet of snow, with a pinkish-looking tint upon tbe surface where the sun's rays fell. Carrying the vision further downward, stunted vegetation almost concealed the cone’s surface: nearer to the base, gigantic trees seemed to crowd, and rise as if aspiring to attain a magnitude corresponding to that which supplied their own specific vigor! I was so deeply absorbed by the contemplation of this enchanting view, that, for hours. I stood with my breast pinned as it wore against the rim of the bulwark in profound and silent thought. Several times was I called to put away things which, in reckless disorder, w r ere strewn about mv berth; but T continued deaf to all calls. From this point of observation, it seemed that the whole of |the land, from the mountain to the sea. was occupied by nothing but trees —one mass of variegated foliage exquisitely tinged, and quite unfamiliar in appearance, over an area of many miles! However, on more careful scrutiny, there could be distinctly noticed along the winding shore, at unequal intervals, what we supposed indicated groups of huts, with small patches o-f green vegetation around. Over looking the sombre strand could be observed several abruptly-rising cliffs, but the greater part of the stretch upon the margin of the great ocean here, seemed to he gentle-sloping down ;, with here and there a roundish knoll interspersed. AT THE SUGAR LOAVES. T can hardly name the regret which I felt, when, making for Cook’s Straits, the good ship ‘Annie’ bore vs away from this thoroughly enchanting spectacle. However, as though the gods had taken a fit of compunction al their severing us so soon from uiisatiated delight, Ihe wind from the south, which bad been blowing only but moderately throughout the morning, turned, all at once, into quite a. hurricane, inasmuch as wo could not face the straits, and there remained, no help for us, but to put back and take shelter under the Sugar Loaves. Our Captain looked glumpy at this contretemps; hut it was not so with the majority of the crew. Well, as far as I myself was concerned, I could not have asked for anything much better. My position in this brig. I may as well explain, was rather of an indefinable I nature, a sort of nondescript one—-a 1 status betwixt a passenger and a sailor. When all was made secure, the anchor dropped, and darkness fell. I confess that T was in no way displeased, when asked by the skipper, to keep an eye for a time, outside the hull, so as to give seasonable warning in the event of any Native canoes doming stealthily about. At this special duty, truth compels me to state, that my eyes were much ofioner directed to the neighboring land than to the immediate environment. of water. Then, regal Egmont, the loveliest spectacle imaginable, still boldly stood out. as a sublime glory under the far-fetched light of the stars! of the myriad constellations!

Our supposition, by the by, about the huts, turned out to be a correct one. We could see the smoko ascending in the places at they had, in the daytime, been distinguished. I got relieved of, my anything but. onerous duty, as the second watch came on. and quickly afterwards was below under the benign influence of the mythical heavy goddess. CANOE LOAD OF MAORIS. Just as daylight was beginning to show, towards five, in the morning. I was hurridly aroused, to come upon deck, and look at a canoe close at hand, laden with Maoris! In a trice.. I made I my way upon deck, and peering with i Qjy eyes—not thoroughly as yet open—i through the still imperfect light, at this ' object of concentrated interest. The i occupants of the attenuated arges ' evinced alternately an expression of sliy--1 ness and an eagerness to approach. Our Captain got a white flag out, and hoisted it on one of the yards, but such, with these Natives, did not somehow appear to be understood. Observing that they hod spears, and some of them shoi«( green-colored clubs in ’their possession, it was considered advisable to distribute muskets out to the crew. After a little delay, oho of our hands aboard, bearing the soubriquet of •'Portuguese Joe,' hailed them with a smatter of words in their own tongue, which had the desiro.l effect, for. directly, the chief came bv himself, unarmed.

amongst us, and, one by one, after one another, of his scanty-.clad retinue soon followed suit, till all that there remained in their canoe was but a blear-eyed, wrinkled old woman. After gorging themselves with the food supplied them aboard, almost to bursting point, they left just as they had come. Tn little over half-an-hour again, a few of thehi returned, bringing along with them a lot of large pumpkins and melons, which [ took to be as a set-off for what they had received from us. They also brought in this, their second trip, an old, doubled-together, sick English seamen, who answered to the call of Joe. Grundy. A PAKEHA MAORI.

Joe was of herculean build, although quite a wreck with the terrible affliction of chronic rheumatism. From this decrepit European, we learned that there was nothing with the present associating Natives to justify alarm, as, just at that time along the. coast, the Whites stood in exceedingly high favor, from their being the main cause, a short time previously, of making their enemies lick the dust, by the using of old ship-canpon against them. I was myself but a short time in getting ingrafted into the favor of this seaman, being anxious to learn as much as I possibly could about the place. From Grundy, I had this desire thoroughly gratified—in fine, as much, or most, than 1 could well retain in my mind: besides, I had quite used up al] the white space in my notebook. Grundy regretfully informed me that his <»M mates had all left him, to pursue their avocation of whaling at places elsewhere.

LEGENDS OF THE SUGAR LOAVES.

Poor old Joe seemed assiduously solicitous that I should learn all the Native names of every particular object presented to my sight. lie commenced by imparting the known titles of the divers Sugar Loaves; and there was not one out of the whole bunch, but Joe attached, or said there was attached, some legend to. “See.! look i here'! young sir,” said he, putting out his rheumy index finger. “That tallest cone you see on the land is Paritutu. where, its said, that once a Maori wench defended herself, single-handed, from, a whole mob of Waikatos, who were after This gir in hot pursuit. Mikotahi, yonder one, nearest the land, with a flat crown, was where the skeletons of three Southern Sea pirates wore found, supposed to have been entombed alive in a cave! Indeed,'* added Joe. “that’s nothing but correct. I’ve seen the bones of their skeletons with ray own eyes. I Moturoa, the one which we are now 1 nearest to, was where the Ngatiawas, ’ wives and daughters of those Natives ; round here, were put up for several I weeks for security, during the late AVaii kato invasion which I was telling you I about. That one. next in size, the centre a little depressed you’ll see at the top, goes (by Us, as ‘Saddleback,’ hut : its Ma.oti name is Matumahunga. Upon ; it. I am given to understand.” said Joe, “that, At one titne, all the Maori refractor/ people wore placed for punishment. Tfee Lion Rock —we can just here get a- glimpse of the corner of it —is where, at one time., a terrible struggle took place between a strange sea-mon-ster and one of'the Natives. The Sea! Rock, further west,” Joe continued, “just barely seen out of the water, is where they tell that, once upon a time, one of their seal-calves suckled a human baby. The Maori." remarked by interlocutor. “arc a most extraordinary kind of people for bestowing distinctive names on every object, no matter what it be, which comes anyway near their range of vision. The most insignificant rock, indeed, which you now can see. jutting above the waves, has with them a special term."

Old Joe, at this stage, after a fir of coughing, was about to proceed still further with his Maori lore, but, eravin" as I was to get at. as much as I could, of all that was known about the place, Joe had quite exhausted by this time, my not very meagre supply of patience, and so as to, meanwhile, finish. I called upon the steward to bring something, which I knew well Mr. Grundy should fully appreciate.

In the course of the afternoon, T fell in again with old Joe, at a pah named Ngainotu, situate upon the first rising ground overlooking the bay. There was an open space, partially cultivated, on the declivity loading up to it; but every whore else seemed to be lightly covered with forest scrub. INTO THE BUSTI. T had, somehow, an irresistible yearning to penetrate'for some distance into the bush. I supposed that the many adventurous stories which 1 had irreedily perused in boyhood, of virgin bush life, furnished to,- me, at this moment, the odd impulse. I therefore, quietly slipped away without acquainting anyone with what I meant to be after. A small compass, which I had in m.v pocket, im-bu-etl mo with the confidence that there was little to fear from losing my bearings, at any rate; and, here also. I as* pertained for my further consolation, that there was not such a thing as a wild beast. I succeeded, after two hours’ rough travelling, in finding a dominant elevation, where I cpi?.d see a long distance over the tops of the trees. Such was near to four miles. 1 made it, southwest, from the shore I had started from. BEWITCHING LAN DSC APES. ' From the summit of this selected point of observation, I beheld everything I considered conducive for the transposition of this strange country into a rich and cultivated boundary. There, were likewise a succession, no matter in what direction the eyes were cast, of singularly bewifching-likc landscapes; and quite dissimilar, I noted, in contour and floral dressing, from any which I had over looked upon, on the other side of the equinoxal lino. Scattered far between, I discovered tiny spaces of clearings amidst the virgin forest trees. Then, also, caiue under my observation, irregular lines, straight and curved, of silvery-like effulgence, denoting, as I concluded, limpid rivers. It was nov hard upon evening; never(theless, culpably indiscreet, as justly may be considered inv fixed resolution, taking into thought the. peculiar lonesomeness of my position. I made my mind up io survey stately Egmont in one of its sunsotting phases, as 1 had done in one of its sunrising ones. I called to mind then, that there was a young moon, which would yield me j rather better than an hour and a-half oi her reflected light: and that, 1 calculated, would bo sufficient to last until 1 was within a “Ship ahoy." of the brig ‘Annie’: which, by the by, I had described from this eminence, like « troubled spectre over-awed by formidable Titans. Most luckily, though, on this particular occasion, there was no eaus n given to makf* me regret ar. all my rash waywardness. A brief optical mensuration of the cone, co-eva-1., per*

haps, with Creation, was to me a sufficient recompense for all my waiting, and all my labor. In a word, I was inexpressibly enamoured with all the surroundings. J. seated myself for a short while upon a flat crowned rock: took out of my pocket, steel, flint, and tinder: procured with these a kindling, and enjoyed a comfortable smoke. Then, subsequently ruminated for a space of half-an-hour. or thereabouts, on the numerous incidents which had enlisted my attention ihroughoru. whai I regarded u«s being one of the most important days that 1 had experienced in life. ENQI' IS.ITI VELY BEAUTIFUL \ VIEWS. Whilst continuing keeping my eyes directed upon Egmont, Old Sol, in all its majestic glory, began to dip in the western horizon, throwing upon the side of the mountain nearest to whereon 1 was placed, exquisitely beautiful shades of light on columns of vapor, which gradually split up into irregular images.again coalesced into highly-pleasing symmetrical figures, constituting a vision ) of loveliness, which can, in mortal rang-: 1 . < have luit few paa’illels. Even when this unspeakable grand | solar display was over, I was so trans- I ported with delight, as to feel reluctant • to leave the vicinity. But a. sense of 1 the propriety of speedily migrating, I urged me, after a brief whiles pondering, 1 to retire. Through the less perfect light, on my way to the sea-shore again, for the most I of the. way. 1 kept constantly stumbling over obstructions—-unscathed, however— I I got on’-coned aboard by eight bells.” ■ istic sect” instead of ft r