A TRIP FROM HAMILTON THROUGH PIAKO TO THE THAMES VALLEY AND BACK AGAIN.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 733, 27 February 1877, Page 2

A TRIP FROM HAMILTON THROUGH PIAKO TO THE THAMES VALLEY AND BACK AGAIN.

WRTTTHN BXPRBB3I/T FOB THE ' WAIKATO TIME*).' Having heard so muuh about the beauty and fertility of the Piako couutiy, 1 became anxious to have a look, through it and the Thames Valley, but the difficulty arose as to guide and companion, since 1 am not fond of travelling alone through a new couutry, and do not like to find I have travt lied milea in the wrong direction, to be brought up standing upon ihe back of au unfordable river, or upon tu< edge of a deep precipice However, I i last eaw a way out of this' difficulty. Heariug that the pt iMon appointed by Government to collect the Agricultural Statistics in that district was about to proceed up»n his duties, t hastened to interview that gentleman, with a view 01 placing myself under his care and guid ance. I was successful, and arranged to start on the following Tuesday, at 9 an • As punctual as the clock, you might have i seen me at the rendezvous, efficiently mounted aud equipped, but my companion was not th-re. I began to fear Inhad placed ine false However, afte<diligent search aud enquiry, I found him iu his garden, wibh hi* famdy. He is a married man, with a family of one eon, about two years of age. He pleaded tbr unsettled state of the weatbtr (there had been rain upon each of the previous two or three days, and » cloud coull be dea. oried this morning in the distant horizon) but, being a parent myself, and judging from my own feelings, I cams to the conclusion that.the weather was made an excuse, the difficulty being he dislike t«» part from iiii loved onus—leariu« them, to go into, to him, an country, without the knowledge of the danger* awaiting him. Were his wif/to be left a widow, with so large a family, he mu-t have felt that it was not the .New Z *aland Government who would become ' a father to the fatherless, or a friend to the widow' in such a cas?. In about an hour, however, he * sjave fo th-i wiuds hit fears,' and bid his wi'e and family a f nl farewell, aud we started. It was re solved to go direct to the extreme end of my friauds district, and do his work as we returned. Nothing occurred during the hrst few miles to detract from the pleasure of the ride, until within two or tbrve miles this side «.f the bwamp Com paoy's new road up to 'The Station' The small clou 1 wa desc ie I before we started, low gave « >unds of abundance of rain. So, putting spurs—no, n>t spuns, neither of us wearing them, but whips to our horse*, we made 'tracks' to the station, witnout getoiug more fcrun a few drops of rain. Here, we found tho manager, Mr Reynolds, had gone to Auckland, and the person in charge wan ill in bed. Still, this did not prevent my friend from obtaining the necessary information as.to the number of aores ploughed, number of acres in grass, ditto ditto in other crop, &o, nor of getting the sick mail's signature, verifying the facts. This much accomplished, wd had a kind invite to dine, which we accepted. This over, we were trea el to a look through the grounds and garden, the gardener being our guide. lb was enchanting -this is the on ! y way we can express our surprise and delight at the

variety, cxteuc and beauty, nob only of th« vegota'»le», but also of the flowors and scrubs. The variet and growth of different! jjid(d4 abundant Bed' of almost .*i.t''kjuiils of (forest pilots, rangiug from i|i!V )S e j'.ist »ho«[iug abovj ground to tboie I'vo |>r throe feet high, ready to bo planted 6ut.|,his tv-xt season. (The cjmpany^refK jjheU format and ornament tl trees )■ / vcr'ijs'iif, land and huuilre Is of tre<s are .lrojidyipkhio'd out arouu.J the station, adiiare loykiiig well. The sight well iepai l ua.fiSr our rida.

Upon leaving wo resolved to roach Mr MiclcHy'g place (hit nigh,, if possible, so we hurriel on ro tli3 Piako store and bote.L „ Soon...after„waohiuß„the road fro hj the staiio i we overtook a nun* driviuj{sliee|», a'so a mi-i driving a dray, who info-mnl us th y hid been caught MV%e,sterna we so narrowly escaped, and had received a flue dreuchiug. On arrival lit Mr Crawford* we .rested and ref eshod both ourselves ah I horses '" Here we met Mi* Moon, who kinJly undertook' ;t^;guide; us to . our deHti • u>Uiou, and as we hal yet a long way to g» and uot vvalimg to get, benighted «e hurried away, and pushed along at a briaU r*tt». Alt went well for some miles unt;l .Letting in.the n-igtoar.hood of >r when our gu da suddenly -lew r>iu and said: 'Now here are two diffi-

cutties to c,hose bet ween,, oue is, \i we go •loiifi this track (pointing bo our 'left) we out off a mi.ie or a mile and a half, but there is a ltbb<e water up tii the road, which will you do, go rounder take this nearer cut wiMi the water upon is ?' As tho evening shadea were drawiug around ■ve chose; the sboter road with the little drop of. water, but 'we had not aone far lefobe we di«cnverod that the water upon the road was no", a little drop, but frequently up to tha horses knees, with, uud holes may, However, we pushed »n, when, suddenly we found our homes drop into wat.r up to the saddle flips, which caused s ime of us to carry w t tr.jwseis, and boots full of \ water to the end of our days jou'ney. We were very urry uovir We ha I elected to take the <nort cut. However, nothing daunted, we continued to hurry on, having y t •toin.i f »ur or five niiiea.to go and the «uu beginning to set AH at once our guide s'.ruok off into the fern ca, ling after us to •illoW, saying hj re is the bridge (ovnr he Wuitoa river), we saw i.o trajk but ■'nil wed implioitely. We had not gone far before we were brought to a stand still, and w.ere beginning lose confidence n our, for, behold, in front of us, m. the b)ttom.of a steep cutting a raviue of about eight ! chains broad covered ; with s une two to four ft-et of water, but we saw uo bridge we thoug.it our friend was tiking u-« another 6. his 'thort outs with a lit le;water &c., bujino-rthis was really the best and only roal—we couil see no >rtdge uothing but an expanse of water running at some three or four knots per hour, and a quanity of grown timber, "out he assured us this was not the bed of the river but as we were through it we shoull come to the bridge—9o saying he plunged, in. Ofcoursewe were forced to follow, we moved along slowly, having no stop every now and again to back our hor«t s so that the ti-tree which had been used as fascines might drop off the'bind egs of our horses between which it had wattled itse f. After traversing Bome even chains of this d<-lighttul road we 11s -.oevrod thi bridge standing as an island (it was totally surrounded by water). On the further side the water *as deeper and the dip of the bridge ■sudden. The bri Ige looks much like a m •nuihent— a monument erected to the vvtadom of somt.ody. If it be like we found it in summer what will it ba in the winter? I cannot tell who is to blame in the maiter—we were told there were two or three better places rieir to it were '•he river could easily be bridged from hank to bank and that s >kh one off red to erreotsuch a bridge for £ls more thin the present structure cost,. I may state that the uext, day after we lorded over, Mr Moon's waggon in trying to cross got stuck so that that gentleman had to send two or three men to oarry the goods on to the dry ground, then drag the waggon over.. Had niy riend and I arrived alone at this point etrlitr in the day I doubt very much if *e would have been brave enough to have taken it, not knowing what luud.of bottom we should have found. Safely icroas, we were thaukiul, an«i soou after reached Ma kay'«i pl.ee where vo found •ur friends house crowded, and therefore gladly ao<epted Mr 'Moon's kind bospi 0 Wity at whose house we arrived just at Jark. Up early next'morning, bat did not start btfore 10 a.in.', as our kind host who had volunteered to pilot us on to Omaha could not start earlier; so to pass the time, we visited a native euctmpment close by wh re the natives were engaged cHching and preserving els. We saw about twenty thousand preserved and hung up uuier cover from •"•he weather. The natives staged they had three thousand Use hundred 'U three All the eels wera nearly >f auYqual size, ranging from tift'.eu to inched in length, larger orien •-lug r< jsoted.as not nice., .The ladies of thrt enutuapmeut wera engaged gitting a :.»n 1 Maori under weighs which deilighted my statistical fried, w 10, - appeirs,. notwithstanding all nia travels, lud never bebed thahke befjre Ke was with the operation and cleanliness observe I. For fear some ot y ur re.tdars m iy not know what is meant by a copp-r Maori and bow is is worked 1 will bicfly describe what we saw. Firdt a hole is dng in th-* t ro md in shape ind eiza not unlike a larye three legged pot, tilt this ull vvith stones about the diz-j of your list, light a good fire upon thum put on more stones—then wnen well heated b'o.w off dirt. with a sack. Then lay eels wrapped three together in maze or flax leaves upon the stouea and then cover with clean corn leaves, next put p<Matoes nicely scraped and well washed—ditto pumpkin—cover all over wi hj mure leaves then potat 'ops to keep put dirt next over the top a bucket of co d water. cruat 'he whole over with earth, to keep iu the at am, and the thug is d<»ne. Here, my friend's astonishment found vent. Would they be cook d niJely, potatoes of various S'z-is, pumpk'n-=, eels, all done at th- same time? How long would it take? Only half-au-hour. Well, to be sure. What a saving in p its and pans No lifting off tha lid to tiry the potatoes, no opening of oven doors to see how th-.' meat was progressing. He would like to »ee the result. At last the earth was removed, also the top leaves, then dirt and dust blown and wiped off, then the other leaves, and then—well, to be sure, '•ovv nice! How heautiful! Evti'ythiug done to a turn. Yes, he would take an eel— eaufiful! How he would enjoy it, had ho ouly a piuoh of salt. He wai

v<-ry fond of silt..' Had they no salt? No. What a pity. It would have been "lelioui, <Lo, After tasting enough to preserve friendeshiu with our friends, we bid them adieu, and returned to seek our guide, whom we found ready for starting, bub going ou foot; but, to prevent our : being delayed in cousequenee, ha had provided us with another guide, in the oersou of ' Pakeha William.' This man's history is somewhat a mystery. All he knows cf himself and hia relations is, that when an infant, his father, in a seini-di-unken state, brought him to the natives, and >.old him for half-a crown. Hia purehisors took great ore of him, roared him, Bent him to native school, &o, , Three years ago, William oou'd not talk '

tfagliah, but now he npeiksh fliettly lie can read an I write thj native language but ho': the Enjliih. We found William an ob'iging, respectful and intelligent guidef* free Pakoha Mvorfc'boun ■«**istlrjjljfc.'He did not get druik h»d abundance "ist opportunity.Ho was full of informal m respecting tracka, ro»d» and' routjs. Wo left Mr Moon's plaoaatlO am., an I p-oceeded to: the rite of Mr Mackay's new home, now in ooure of erection, where we found the •man in chirgft,' from whom ray statistical fri>nd soon learned the 'number of acres ploughed,' and obtained the neces* siry signature. Here, wj entered upon the awamp r.)ad, which, several times a'ong our route; we hid been told we could uot cross, as its wa? s> bad. Yet, we determine.! to try, for, after our experience at the VVaitoa Bridge, it must be soma<hi>.g very ba I that would hinder us .reaching the Thamei river. About a mile from Mr Maokay s, we had to hair. Here was the bid place, not mora than three yards yef, very dangerous. Wo dismounted, and our guide kin.lly offering to try his owa hone through it first. He did so, and the horae sank to bis belly, but, with a plunge, threw forafe j -t On to firm ground, and jumped out. VVe could but follow, which we did safely. L'hi3 was the ouly real dangerous bit if road throughout -bur journey. It is oil what is at present known as Mr MaoUay's road— made by that gentleman. This bad spot is only about nine feet long, yet the road party. Wallis and Moon's, would ather run the risk of losiug a horse or two in transporting provisions than fill it up. It could be made goad by two or taree meo, in half-a-day, but it is nobuly's business, and travellers must run thj iisk. ( To be continued)