OVERLAND TO THE LAKES. [BY A TRMP.]

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1368, 7 April 1881, Page 3

OVERLAND TO THE LAKES. [BY A TRMP.]

Rotorjja by mooalightfe at her best; though,unlike some moonlight belles, she bears the fresh light of early morning equally well ; but when the silver moon is "looking down alone" over th© beautiful slumbering waters, and tipping the gentle ripples with silver, and the sighing of the summer night's breeze ; the rustling of . the reeds and the long-feathered grass along the banks ; the lapping of the water on. the sands and the ory of some swamp bird are the only sounds, save an occasional distant oooey, or the not by any means unmusical wild eong of some Maori girl, then there id an amount of romance and tenderness about the scene that is highly captivating to some highly gifted beings — such an Jones, who finds it awfully jolly you know, because it makes a fellow feel so sad, quite inclined to cry you know, upon my soul awfully jolly; or such as ■ Brown who finds it tho fwightfully nithe for thpooning with old Thimpthonth girltb, or old Wobinthonth thweefi little wife. The girlth like him to make a wow on hith cornopean, thomething thoft and thweet like, like " Old Brown'th Dead" you know, or thomething of that thort, while they thing thomething like " Thlap bang, here We are again," in thentimenttl thtyle you know. It ith fwightfully nithe you know, worth all five noteth, 'pon my thoul. At such a time, with the island of Mokoia lying darkly on the lake, one can fancy he hears pretty, fond Hinemoa, sighing from the bushes near as she listens for the sweet sounds of her lover, Tutanekai's flute, calling her to swim across to happiness. The still, holy light, calls up the pictures of what shall be as well as those of what has been, ' "and Hinemoa's little idyll will give place to many a more startling romance of beauty and love, innocence and crime, smiles and tears— for we may be sure that comedy and tragedy will continue to make up the chequered page of man's history as long as the race lasts. Here will stand some heartbroken desperate victim of deceit and mistaken trust, as he turns hia face to heaven before seeking his last rest in the still dark waters, there some conscience-stricken, modern Peter will turn with horror from the thought of his own contemptible baseness, all the gentle, noble, self-denying love he has so ungratefully abused, or all the immensity of the trust he has foresworn and turned from with such blind folly, will strike on his brain all at once, as the cock's crow struck the note in the old old story, and he will sink crushed and weeping bitterly. The trumpet note of doom that sounds the finale of many a tale of blood shall wake up the echoes of Rotorua in days to come as certainly as the musical tinkling of Hicks' banjo shall accompany the enamoured youth's gentle warbling of "Come and wo' ll Boftly glide Over the silvery tide, While o'er us far and wide Pale stars are twinkling." •• Here let the night wind shriek, and the plover fly, Bntthou, goby," Will be again the haughty parting of some mistaken one with all his sweet young fancies, as he hardens from that hour into the cold impenetrable man of the world. The fancies so abhorred by my Teuton f nend must go a long way at the present time to make up for the want of the reality of human interest in the daily history of the sweet lake, so softly murmuring to itself as it sleeps in the silver moonlight. But the hour has struck and the sleeping beauty must wake, and theip will soon be a chapter of rapidly ohanging action on every side of beautiful Rotorua as her admirers press forward for her notice. The morning of my second day's acquaintance •with lake life in New Zealand, was as fresh and blooming an dimpled Hebe's cheek, and I beg to inform my readers en passant that that young lady is not the barmaid at either of the Ohinemutu hotels, as parboiled Moses, and stewed Montmorency de Montefiore, otherwise Snug the Joiner sat down with immense appetite to partake of the good things of this life at Mm Morrisons well provided table, and I made arrangements with my yesterday's companion for a stroll to Whakarewarewa, to look at the springs and geysers to bo sepn up there. At about three miles distance to the ripht from tho town of Ohiuemutu, one crosses a pretty little stream rushing across the track, and about deep enough to oblige a pedestrian to roll his unmentionables above his knees and shuffle off his mortal coil of boots and socks. Here he will be pressinply entreated by a number of Maori children of from six to twelve years of age, to allow himself to be carried over by any one of them he likes to select for the sum of one shilling. If he i*, in any way, a portly man, and weighs over 14 stone he may calculate pretty correctly his chances of being carried safely across the foaming torrant by a valiant young Maori of six years old, and will in all probability decide to allow his shilling to remain in his pocket. Having manfully - crossed on his own legs, he will be^in his experiences by cheerfully ascending the bank towards a Maori pah that he will see before him, when he will inevitably be confronted by an ill-favoured old scoundrel much tattooed and largely given to bounce, who will demand a shilling for a sight of the springs, and will threaten to refuse permission to pass unless at once obliged with that trifling swindle. It would afford many men so stuck up an unimaginable pleasure to knook this old gentleman about a good deal, to kick him considerably and use him as a test of the boiling powers of some of the springs, but unfortunately this is a civilised country, and many such pleasures are denied to a tourist. Taking a glance at the pools of sulphurous water or mud, boiling desperately around, and here and there a crack in the baked crust ' of the earth from whioh the steam rises in jets of more or less power, I stopped to pay a visit at a Maori whare in which, according to the custom of the country, a couple of pakeha invalids have located themselves during the time of their treatment of. the oases from which they may be suffering. This is now rather a favoured way of enjoying a month or so of ,the springs among the , class whose means are limited, or whose patience , ; under suction is not unlimited. A Maori 5 jfaupo whare or hut, made of rushes, is rented at a few shillings per week of the '*' natives by the patients, who fit it tip to their own tastes, and either make , an agreement with the Maoris to find thorn in food and do their washing, and | so on, for about £1 per week, or get their , own stores from Taur&nga or Ohinemutu. ' The latter is rather a primitive style of j living Tmt it is perferred often where ,twQ Or three men are camping to- , gether to the delight of always having ' the 1 "hut failed with Maori visitors, making Maori 1 cbtnment upon every movement and every possession of the pakeha in a r hu^laballoo style of eloquence that would try "the 'nerves of .a,u eighty ton gun. <"Tnere were two y r oung gentlemen .staying tVth'ere irt this style, at the time of my visit, who had nearly completed their course of cure of chronic rhumatism, from „ whicfy one of them ljad been almost a ; helplee* cripple a few week's back, and j,yii. now' a straight active, young fellow once more through the qfscaoy of, Old Dam^^atu^'a patient tfejitmenf;. . ' ' " '{Vi iecoiitihuett.) "