THE PIAKO COUNTY. [By our Travelling Reporter.] Matamata.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1397, 16 June 1881, Page 3

THE PIAKO COUNTY. [By our Travelling Reporter.] Matamata.

A inw days ago I paid a visib to about the finest estate on the improvement of which capital has been most liberally and judiciously expended to be >»een in this part of Now Zealand and judged for myself of what I have heard to be one of the finest herds of cattle owned by any one loid of these isles. Every aspiring knight of the paste and scissors who seeks to get rid of his supeifluous high spirits, alcoholic or otherwise, by a day or two's rurahsmg, even down to a certain individual who loftily thanks* the Lord that he, being of ducal descent, writes not as other men write, a " tissue of mendacious falsehoods," thinks he is called upon to visit Matamata and commit his impressions thereof to paper, though when lie gets there he generally finds his peculiar powers haidly so beautifully adapted to the description of a lnoad estate and its management, as to the discovery of other people's private affans tlnough the medium of the keyhole, or the indulgence in a certain style of pot-house scurrility that has gained him a name and unlimited gin in his own class, and he rarely gets beyond the totting up of a few dry facts, such as the number of acres ; the owner's and manager's names ; the number of pufa he passed on his load ; the quality of the liquois obtainable m each, and the quantity he imbibed ; the whole account being as intei cstmg to the general public as the perusal of his own unpaid washerwoman's bill would be. It shows, theiefore, the kindest feeling on the pait of the owner of Matamata towards the press, that he still gives a com tcous reception to any of its representatives, and is willing, if they will allow him to do so, to treat even Messis Pistol, Bardolph, and Nym as gentlemen of an honoiablc profession, howe\er much such gentlemen may have made the veiy name of it stink. Passing once moic along the line of the Waitoa Valley, and tluough, or on the borders of scvcial fine estates on which the work of improvement is being rapidly and eflectually carried out, I managed to urge my grand To Aiohan steed to the boundary of the Matamata Estate. Here this truly admit able animal came to a stand ; ho had done sixteen miles at a pace of not move than four miles an hour, and he decided positively that this was all he would do m any one day. "Afflictions sore long time to boie," but he was prepared to die rather than go beyond that point, so after a course of bucking and tiying to bite and kick all creation, he fell to trembling and "coming the misery dodge," as the old professional beggars call it when they begin shivering: find gronning in front of any kindly-looking- passer-by likely to be a dupe. This being the first occasion of my tiding this sweet creature I was likewise unaware of the amount of guile of which he was capable and was taken in thereby, and pitied him and dismounted. Then T led him, and would even have carried him, if it had been possible, back to the nearest station. I noticed that he revived and dropped the trembling in a most remarkable manner the moment ho was turned back towards the homestead, and his wily old eye fully expressed his satisfaction at the manner in which he had got the best of the argument. Eight miles f urthor would have brought us to Matamata station, but it was perfectly useless attempting to reason with or conquer the old wretch, and on the ownera of this property (Messrs E. and C. Murray) making their appearance and hearing my introduction of myself, and my mention of the state of the case, the old hypocrite began shivering and bending his knees, and drawing in his sides again so effectually that they pitied him too, and turned him into a paddock, and gave him all sorts of good things, that he immediately disposed of, of course.with all the alacrity that an old biped brother of the art would have displayed over a pot of beer. However, in the morning old Misery consented to bear me at a walking pace on my way once more, and we rambled through the scrub and along by the wooded banks of the Waitoa, through some tracks of land literally overrun by sweetbrierp, the beautiful ripe scarlet berriea giving a bright tinge to the landscape as far as the eye could carry, though the sweet English hedgerow beauty is so tremendously vigorous in this country that it becomes a pest, and it is feared by the landowners with the other beautiful hedge shrub, the gorse, a^ a tyrant, rather than humble servant. Horo and there after passing some gatea that showed mo I was on the Matamata land ; the long lines of deep ditch and high bank that marked the line of road for miles were surmounted by whitethorn hedges, though as a rule the thorn did nofc ceera to thrive so well fis its old companion, the sweet briar. To ride for miles through this country in the springtide with the may blossom and the wild roses on either hand, acetitintf the air and brightening the dark green of the fern and the titree scrub, must be a treat. Old identities would donbtleas grunt in ctmaiement at my lunacy, if I t ild them tint the titre* also l? a beautiful and sweet scouts I shrub, bat it is so, if one has a good broal

track through it, and happens to pass at the season when it is covered with flowers, or just happens to close his hand on a branch of the hard looking foliage, that then salutes him with a nosegay, rivalling that of a bouquet of roses. On the left hand the high range of mountains with the peak of Te Aroha, seemed within a stone's throw all the way through, I had now ridden five and twenty miles from my friend, the Parson's Nose. Wonderful beauties, and ever varying with each different hill, are to be found at every mile of this range. In the distance the black peaks rise into every form of gloomy castle and buttress and the seemingly bare rocks frown down from a thousand feet of horrid precipice ; but another mile clothes them with soft greeu forests, the black rift, like an entrance to Hades, becomes a sheltered glade in which some future owner will plant his mansion amidst the sloping gardens and verdant lawns echoing with the fluting of tho blackbird and the thrush and the trills of the nightingale, the ugly chasm between two mighty lovely bare rooks, becomes a winding glen down the centre of which comes rolling- a little foaming sparkling streamlet between its rocky fern clothed banks overhung by noble trees, under tho cool shade of which the lovelorn couples of days to come will in all probability find the same consolation that has been sought for by so many under similar circumstances in days gone by ; for the time has happily come when these beautiful hills and vallies are destined to be no longer unexplored wastes. It is a pity that these giant crags and dark glens have not yet been invested with the thiilhng and weird legends with which the deep fancy of the German mind has decked such spots in tho less romantic scenery of Rhinelaud. The myths of the old Noi semen were inspired by far less suggestive sunoundings than are here to bo found at everp wind and turn of this grand range. That giant clenched hand -.till held aloft at two thousand feet above the plain defying heaven and all its powers, inu.st surely be the last visible effort of some evil spirit thrown out of heaven and sinking into his prison in thfl fiery depths of the lower regions, and when the tremendous gales roar and shriek down those gullies in the dead of night, as they often do, they must be the last gasps and groans of the dying but still hating demon. One ! can fancy those three dark melan- ' choly peaks, mouldering under ages of exposure and sorrowful desertion, three giant princes of the olden time looking over the range into the haunt of the beloved, blue-eyed, green-clad enchantress below, dancing and singing, and exercising her fascinations upon them till the discovery of her falseness drove them to despair and blasphemy against the gods, for which sin they were bidden to stand and watch the changes of the earth till the crack of doom, without tho power to move or to protest ; to see their beloved one wither away, and one race succeed another, and to suffer the dreadful tortures of eternity without hope or change in themselves. There is no want of material for legends, and if there should not be a plentiful supply ready to hand they can be easily manufactured. I have a large stock for disposal of the latest and most fashionable designs that I should be happy to dispose of at considerably under the cost price — mountains, waterfalls, and sich like waited on and measured to order, and fit guaranteed. However, there is not time to introduce them just at present, as I must reach Matamata, and I have already dallied and strolled along and off the road far too long, though the excuse must be that the surroundings of any estate, especially if they are worth looking at, are as well woith description, and are of as much importance to the owner, as the place itself.