COAL IN TARANAKI.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 June 1922, Page 9

COAL IN TARANAKI.

EARLY REPORTS. ' WHAT “INSPECTION” MEANT IN THE “SIXTIES.” WANGANUI TO OHURA, VIA TAUPO. (By “Juvenis.”) (IV.) I On January we crossed the Moa- ■ whanga by a bridge (Tuhape) about six* paces across, the banks being quite perpendicular and the river about a hundred and fifty feet below. I think this was the first bridge 1 had seen of Maori construction. On the way to Pakehiwi, a small village unenclosed, we passed excellent sheep country, well grassed, undulating, and.dry except in i a few flats which may be wet in winj ter. Here we were favored with a j small tangi, and had to make a hard i bargain with one Tauku, the only perI son who could go on with us. He ini' sisted on ten shillings a day for himj self and twenty-five for his horse, to igo to Taupo, and to this we were ‘obliged to consent. We had reached a ' considerable elevation and .the nights iwere cold. We had, however, a fire on j the floor of the whare, and a company j of seven or eight Maoris of various ages. A damsel tried to get the cow in, so that we might have some milk j for tea, but the cow would not “bail i up” as the 4 young lady correctly exi pressed it in English. We passed a ; very communistic uight. !• On the morning of January 23 a bell [rang for Karakia, or prayer. We afterwards breakfasted and after recovj ering the horse which had strayed, we jmade a start, passing over a rolling country covered with grass, ferns, tutu, spear-grass, etc. At 1 p.m. we ascended Te Horo-o-moe-hau, a landslip. From this point Ruahine stands out well; it appeared bare, with bush in patches. Ota ire bore S. 25 degrees W. At 2.20 p.m. we reached the pretty village of Turangarere, the principal residence of jthe late chief Herekiekie, situated on i the rjght bank of the Hautapu. Here 1 there is celebrated waata or storehouse, i very large and highly ornamented with ■carvings. There is also a fine waterfall ! about twenty feet high, and here I got • marine tertiary fossils. Next day we passed through a good grassy country until we crossed the Waitangi, which appears to mark the boundary between the marine tertiary beds and the igneous rocks of Ruapehu. We now travelled over some volcanic ashes, with a gradual ascent towards the cone of Ruapehu. We were now on the Onetapu, or sacred ground, a high waste and barren plateau, covered deeply by snow in winter, torn by floods and winds, and presenting a remarkable picture. of wildne s and desolation. This plain must be much higher than Patea, where the Maoris informed us that the snow never lies after midday. Tuaku uniformed me that, some little time be- • fore he was born, a party of one hunidred and fifty Waikatos were caught here in a snow-storm and took refuge in a cave at Ruapehu; after finishing ‘the food they brought with them, they 1 ate their slaves, then their children, land thei l each other, until at last only • two escaped. | At 10.30 a.m. we reached the banks • of the Wangaehu, which here is a dismal stream, soaking through sand and igneous boulders and giving out a strong sulphurous smell. The bed of the river was most unpleasant for travelling on, and the sand was blowing. At noon we stopped at a snow stream to dine. This is a new stream which burst out after the fall of the avalanche which caused the destruction of of the Wangaehu bridge. From this point the, centre of Ruapehu bore northwest, Ngauruhoe, N.N.W., the Kaimanawa ranges N.N.E. We observed the course of the avalanche from Ruapehu which had done the damage mentioned. It had descended from the neive, or probably the glacier, on the east side of that mountain, and crossed the inclined plane, for several miles, tearing up bushes and scarring the surface in its way. Its progress was arrested by the further bank of the Wangaehu, which ran at right angles to the course of the avalanche. The mass of snow and other matter now formed a dam, behind which the waters accumulated until they acquired sufficient force to burst the obstruction and to sweep its fragments to the sea, in the course of which they destroyed the bridge near the mouth of the Wangaehu, at the distance of at least fifty or sixty miles. From the outline and general appearance of the Kaimanawa Range, I saw at once that it was composed ’of palaeozoic or mesozojc rocks, similar to those o-f Tararua and Ruahine. Structurally considered, I suppose it may be looked upon as the highest land in the' North Island, although it is inferior in height to Ruapehu, whose sharp and weathered volcanic peaks show clear against the sky at a height of 9200 feet above the sea. Crossing the watershed we passed a rock, on one side of which the Wangaehu rises, a dirty and sulphureous river which flows south to Cook's Strait; while on the other side rises the Waikato, a clear and sweet river, which, flowing through the valley between Tongariro and Kaimanawa, falls into Lalce Taupo near Tokanu. At 4 p.m. we came in sight of Lake Taupo; a haze hung over it from the smoke of Ngauruhoe, which drifted in that direction. This mountain now stood out in full mass, a regular volcanic cone of great beauty. Far away to the north of the lake Tauhara, an old volcano was in sight. We' crossed several roaring torrents descending from the Tongariro to the Waikato. Some were swept and some sulphureous, while the ground passed over was composed entirely of volcanic products, lavas, trachytes, dolerites, ashes, and sand. The trees were stunted and alpine in character, but produced on the banks of streams a pleasing - effect. At f o p.m. we encamped on the banks of a torrent below Tongariro, called Waihohonu. It was very beautiful; the stream raged and foamed oyer huge boulders of igneous rocks, and the banks were topped and fringed by dwarf black birch. The stream was clear and cold. We found Tuakau a very handy, civil fellow. He made no difficulty to-day in going back a long distance to find my geological hammer, which I had dropped. January 25 we made a start at 6 a.m. our road lying over the flanks of Tongariro, the mountain itself, however, being hardly visible. We passed over a succession of flats or low ridges separated by black birch gullies, with fine mountain torrents running through them, with Kaimanawa range in full view on our right. We reached Rotoaira, a fine lake lying between the north side of Tongariro and an old volcano which lies TokMB 0» ■

Lake Taupo. At Rotoaria we had to shake hands with the whole tribe drawn up in line. To my horrorj 1 found that it included a man suffering from the disease called “Ngeringcre,” or Leprosy, which consists of a rotting away of the extremities, and is probably contagious. We found the natives hospitable; they cooked food [for us, including beef preserved in fat, • which was not unpalatable. We bath!ed in the Pouiu. the stream which I flows from Rotoira to Taupo and i caught a brace of tuiau. We reached j Tokanu before dark, riding round the base of Pihanga. Here we found poor I Biggs, who was afterwards killed at Poverty Buy. At the time of our visit Tokanu presented a lively scene. The great chipf Herekiekie had died about a year before. His body had been deposited In a small wooden mausoleum erected Specially for the purpose, with a small glass window, through which the body might be seen; and the inhabitants of all surrounding districts had collected to celebrate his obsequies and to perform the prescribed tangi, to say nothing of the feasting. We strolled round the village and were struck with the extent of the cultivations; much was in tobacco, each cultivator appearing to have a small plot to himself. Here we mot Hare, Herekiekie's brother, a ■ fine manly-looking fellow; and here a I very ludricous incident occurred. Te i Herekiekie's widow was squatted cry- ■ ing beside a pjuia (hot spring), and j Deighton, seeing her, went up as an I old acquaintance to pay his respects. ;She secured him with her mantle and I commenced a tangi. Deighton succumb- : ed, and said to Biggs and myself, “You | may as well go, for I shall be kept here for an hour or two.” However, in about half an hour, he was ble to rejoin us. On January 26, I visited the scene of the landslip at Terapa, where old Te Heu-Heu’s village was swallowed up with all its inhabitants, himself included, about the year 1847 or 1848. Terapa lies a short distance to the westward of Tokanu, and the cause of the disaster was very apparent. The whole side of the hill above the buried village steams with hot springs. These j springs had loosened the hillside, heavy rains had completed the business, and an avalanche of mud had swept over the devoted settlement. In the afternoon we walked to the waterfall of tfie Waihi, about two miles from Tokanu. These falls are very beautiful, and coni sist of 'three cascades, the lower one : about twenty feet high, the middle one ' about one hundred and thirty, and the ! upper one twenty. The rock is a hard and compact igneous rock covered with ! dense forest, and the quantity of water : considerable. The peach trees were covi ered with unripe fruit. On our return :we went to the hot springs to bathe. We found one geyser bubbling up to a height of six or eight feet. It kept this elevation for five minutes and then subsided into a normal boil. We bathed in a hole with a temperature of 98 degrees, and observed a lady with her ■ large family seated in another. These ■ hot springs are admirable for keeping the population clean. The greater part •of the population here have not learn--1 ed to observe Sunday in the strict way I established in other parts. j In the consequence of the absence gi : roads, the natives at Lake Taupo find great difficulty in supplying themselves with articles of European manufacture, which are now necessaries of life to them. To supply themselves with clothing they are obliged to go to market at Whanganui or Rangitikei, and in this way they come into contact with European ideas. The difficulties and distance are too great to take produce from Taupo to Whanganui for sale. We bought a-pig for £l, killed it and prepared it in fat for our further journey. On the 29th Mr. Law, the newly-ap-pointed resident magistrate for the district, walked in, very wet, on his way to the Rev. Mr. Grace’s, and set off in the rain for Oreti, near Pukawa, the residence of the missionary. Mr. Law told me a .story illustrative of the respect the Maoris have for logical repartee. An old chief was brought up before the runanga for supplying our troops with potatoes on their march to Maunganuiateao.. and when interrogated. replied, not the Bible require us to feed our enemies?” The answer was held to be a complete and satisfactory justification of the chief's conduct. On January 30 we got a canoe and paddled over to Pukawa, at the southwest side of the lake, passing beautiful cliffs of dolerite on the way, covered with bush. VVe walked to Oreti, the house of the Rev. Mr. Grace. After dinner, we walked to Te Heu-Heu’s pa. The old chief is a dark, insignificant looking old savage, known formerly under the name of Iwikau. He was coarse in his language and evidently fond of a joke. He cannot be baptised, as he declines to put away five of his six wives, although they are neither young nor pretty. Old Te HeuHeu’s monument rs here, he of the sad story of Terapa. His body was taken to Tongariro with the intention of throwing it down the crater of Ngauruhoe, but the bearers did not accomplish the ascent, and the body was brought back to Pukawa. I believe they have since deposited it somewhere on the mountain. Hoani informed me that there is a whirlpool in the middle of Lake Taupo, inhabited by a- tamiwha, who whirls the capoes round and round, and then devours them and their occupants. On January 31 we breakfasted on Kokupu, a small fish which seems to abound in the lake. Kingi, the son of Herekiekie promised to get me a horse to visit the Kaimanawa range, but there was always a difficulty in the way, and 1 had at length to give up the Kaimanawa visit in despair. T had no direct refusal, but the proposal was always evaded. What with the constant damp atmosphere and the steam from the puias, I found the climate of Tokanu most relaxing, inducing semisomnolence. Mr. Law called to say • good-bye; he informed me that Wi Kingi, of Taranaki fame, was living an idle life at Ngaruawahia, and that he and the king were puppets in the hands of Rewi.