THE LAND OF THE LEVEL ROAD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 161, 9 July 1910, Page 11

THE LAND OF THE LEVEL ROAD.

ON A QUEEN CHARLOTTE SOUND Her fore-leek's littered with bundles, Boxes climb to her rails—' Flour and wire and benzine, , Ber and, butter, and nails. And, stowed away from the wind and epray, Some bags of His Majesty's Mails The Royal mail packet Gannet, a: trim little steam yacht-that .one could almost pick up an-d run away with, lies at her berth at Picton on a sunny autumn morning. The water of the bay is smooth and shining, very mirror-like, between the eteep near hills and the Portage hills in the blue -distance, with Mabel. Island as a gem thrown into the picture extravagantly. The clearness of the water is manifest when, through the . clatter of hahd-tcucks bringing freight to the Gannet, there comes, sauntering a 'bare-legged youth in shoes -and overcoat. Stepping into one of the launches that line the whaxf, he throws off these, impediments and stands revealed in bathing-dress. Overboard he plunges with a' delightful splash and gurgle of awakened waters, and swams away towards the big wharf. Even fifty yards away,. every movement of his legs and arms can be clearly seen, and the shoals of herrings his swimming disturbs. The mail-boat is due to sail at a quarter past eight, yet at ten minutes past the hour the hand-carts are still bringing freight to her. Eight up to. twenty minutes past-shipments arrive, and, judging, by the labels on the many-sized and various packages, every storekeeper in Picton has business with outlying bays. "One of these days you'll get a shock,"; says the skipper to the wheeler of the last load. "You'll come strolling down here and find weVe gone." At last the engine begins to throb, smoke pours from the funnel as .the fires ore replenished, and soon leaving the' wharf and its loungers far astern, the Gannet settles down to her eight-knot speed.. The personnel of the craft is at first, a little confusing. The man who spoke as the captain has disappeared into the engine-Toom,,where he is in sole possession; a quiet-eyed man, dressed as a country-man, is steering; and a goodlooking cjuarter-caste is. examining the deck-load; of merchandise, evidently committing it to memory for expeditious discharge at the different ports of call. It transpires that the steersman is a settler, returning "to his farm in Tory Ghannel. All these men: know intimately the water-road between their 'homes and Picton, and invariably, take a trick at the wheel when travelling in the Gannet. From the " engine-room presently ire-ap-•pears the engineer; who is also nominal captain and owner of the vessel, a triple association of office rarely met with, but jn th igj.-rn g+jmxv. f AmaTirafoHc-fttCTpy nrnna.

he has his property and , coal bill in his absolute control. -The steamer does not require much'firing, Tunning for a long time witha clear fire. Consequently her engineer-captain-owner most of his .time- on deck, and. : can superintend the navigation of his ahip. When it is added that this. officer also owns, and manages a faasny.it-will' he seen that the Sounds has its Admirable Crichton. The man ,who ,is sorting the freight is'known as the captain; lie does the steering when | there are no farmers on hand, and 13 also supercargo and deck-hand. And'any of' these three men could -take you any; where in Queen Charlotte Sound on the darkest night. Hugging the shore closely, we head, away down-sound, the .first stop ten miles away. : There is a breeze which had not reached Pictbn when we left, the waters glitter with that wonderful glitter the Sounds - always have on sunny days; due, perhaps, to the; TiiTla shutting off the soft side-light, and only the istrong top-light streaming down, on the tide—all Soundsmen call the water, the tide, anywhere and everywhere. Away over at the far side of the Sound a bright splash leaps up, another and another,'till some twenty are seen. Then 'black bodies are observed—a. school of porpoises, frequenters of these waters, particularly when bad weather is brewing outside. The sunshine is growing hotter, losing the suggestion of a misty air that it had. "It is good to be out in it, .to see the everlasting hills and sea and those sea-creatures revelling in their freedom as civilised mankind cam: never revel. True, we are slipping through the water even as they are, but the thump-thump of the engine, the scrape of a shovel, are notes that are not in Nature's gamut, strive as they will to harmonise. . Yet to ears and nerves tuned to the locomotives' scream, the groaning of cars, and all the turmoil of a city, they more than harmonise—they are lost in the. great silence. As we'pass a point and'open up a pietty bay, with a house and some sheds on the beach, as though hemmed in between the hills and;the tide, a column of white smoke suddenly rises and drifts along the beach. At sight of it the steersman spins, his wheel, and the; engineer dives below. "When they make a smoke, that means they want us to call," the captain explains. Into the quiet 'bay we run till the engines cease their fret. The Gannet sweeps in a graceful curve to a position opposite the centre of the beach. Before she has stopped the captain is over into the twelve-foot dinghy which tows astern, and is sculling swiftly in.""" Two women are on. the beach, with some cases of farm produce. Usually this bay is visited on the return journey, but to-day there is freight for Te Awaiie in the shape of the cases that axe now being transferred, to the dinghy. So these lonely women-settlers made that pathetic little wisp of smoke float out among the great hills, signalling as mankind ias signalled since ages long ago. When the; captain comes aboard again he carries a parcel in his hand containing /fruit, a present from the shore. "Try 'a Sounds-grown apple," he says.' And very fine apples they are. At the next.'bay to be visited.a Iviiori comes"out' in a boat to meet us, and takes the mail, some fencing-wire, and a quantity' of provisions for a camping, party.. Some of the party are lounging on the .fceach, where, are two boats and. a launch. One of them "hails'the. boatman. : . "Got our kai, Kewa?"..,-.. . ■ A' stentorian. "Yes" : is. bellowed back. A pieaninny in- .the. st,ern of the boat stares big-eyed at?" the steamer. From the shore can be heard the shrill voice of a wahine, to whom no answer is vouchsafed. . Soon after entering Tory Channel, we stopped to land 200 bricks and several 'bags of cement, which lie on' the foredeck. A settler here is enlarging his house, and building a\ new- chimney, and this is the material for the chimney. He comes out inhis boat, and. assists, our captain in getting the dinghy.alongside, and in loading her in one large heap in the centre. When half the;bricks are in the.settler says, "That's enough for one load." : "Be blowed," says the captain;'T took five : hundred in her last week. iHe admits in argument that three hundred would be nearer the mark, but all the time he keeps on loading, and gets the whole: two hundred into; the little'eraft; She looks as though her bottom would fall- out. The captain invites the settler to step into her at the opposite end to that occupied by, him, and, when. this is cautiously done, there is just about three inches of free-board visible. Paddling carefully, she is navigated* alongside a rocky ledge, where the bricks are unloaded. "What about your sand?" the owner calls out. ■..*.. - 'I'll get that from Te Awaite next Thursday," the settler replies. . ."Why not to-day?" . "Haven't got mc bags ready, and"! can't keep you waiting." '. " Go on, get your bags, and. I'll wait for "you. You can't, waste weeks like that." ~, . VV'iien the unloading is completed, and ■the bags for the sand on board, the ■quiet-eyed man who has ibeen steering, says. "Goodbye,", rowing . ashore in the' other settler's boat. ■ The wheel is taken by the briek-and-sand settler, who proves to be energetic, good-natuTed and talka-: tive..- A fresh fillip is given to the conversation! of the group about the -wheel and the engine-room hatch. He wants to know the latest news, and the steamer-men want news from him—-*iew3 of sheep and burns and grass seed and Native leases. So, along ; this exquisite waterway steams" this little ship with her cargo of merchandise and mails, and her atmosphere of keen commercialism— a symbol-of the white man's occupation of this place where Nature has so long held sway.. ■.. WILL LAWSON.