ANTHONY TROLLOPE,

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 72, 24 March 1923, Page 26

ANTHONY TROLLOPE,

NOVELIST IN NEW ZEALAND. HUMOURS OF A ROTORUA TOUR iDy CAPTAIN GILBERT MAIR.) Quile a number of literary giants visited New Zealand in the dnys of the seventies and eighties, and Rotorua — not so easy of access then as it is now — was in most cases the great objective of the tour. One iif these celebrities was the famous novelist Anthony Trollope, who mail.- , a pilgrimage to the ohmies in IS7-J, when he was at the height of his popularity. 1 met him by appointment at Taurangn. He was a typical and jovial John Bull in appearance with his breeches and gaiters, very stout and heart v, downright in manners and WiiMjue. A line type of an Englishman, an excellent rider- and judge of horseflesh, and he never tired of relating stories of tlie bunting field. And he hated snobs and society snobbishness with ;■. deadly hatred. Mr. Trollope was anxious to see the Rotorua country and especially the wonderful terraces at Rotomahana, and I accompanied him throughout the tuur. Our first stay on the horseback journey was at Makctu, then a very large village of (he Arawa tribe. Here the novelist fraternised with the Maoris. In his little book "Our Antipodes." he wrote, "I was smiled on by the Maori women and smiled back at them when they came and sat near mc, so near the contiguity that it almost amounted to an embrace." Ho also mentioned that the schoolmaster called, and was apparently greatly devoted to the Maori children as. ho seemed acutely anxious about their religious condition and so forth. At his earnest appeals we consented lo delay our departure for Rotorua next morning from 7 to 10. On reaching the echoolhouse we were informed that the schoolmaster had got drunk after we went to bed, had broken the hotel -windows, and finally had been carried away by two policemen. So he was not on hand to do the honours. MIXED BATHING AT KOTOKUA. From Maketu we rode to Rotorua, and there I introduced my companion to the novel pleasures of the hot spring region. Describing his first night at Ohinemutu, he wrote, "After dinner we went to bathe in a hot pool, the captain leading, where we found three Maori damEels, but this was nothing—nothing at least in the way of objection. The night was dark, and if they so thoroughly understood the old French proverb, nowbecome so loyally English, why should ■we be more obstinate or less intelligent? So I crept into the pool, they encouraging and patting mc on the "back. If I was disappointed with Ohinemutu and the deficiency of its geysers, it was made up by the courtesy of the maidens, and it was something to'bathe .with them in ' water almost boiling." But Mr. Trollope discreetly omitted one little episode from his chronicles. After we had been in the water some time, the old chap said, "I wish I had something to lean against." So I whispered to a line young woman of splendid proportions, popularly known as "The Duchess," who immediately set her capacious back against his, whereat he exclaimed, "Well, Hair. This is very delightful, don't you know, but Z think I did wisely in leaving Mrs. Trollope in ■ Auckland!" ROTOMAHANA AND TAUPO. At Rotomahana we spent a night on I that marvellous islet "Puai." It was i blown into fragments with its forty nr I fifty dwellers by the eruption of 1880: I it must have had a small base like a mushroom, several powerful geysers! eternally working against which caused I it to tremble unceasingly. It vas a strange night indeed for an Englishman. I Then we went on to Rotokakahi and put, up at Kaiteriria, one of my military posts of which, he writes in allusion to the joyous life led by my Maori soldiers, "I knew then why the Maori boiled himself to death because he was not admitted to the force." This was an allusion to the tragic story of poor Wehipeihana, which I narrated in a recent article. Lake Taupo, too, we visited, going acros3 country by way of Te Niho-o-te-Kinre, my second military post on the Waikato, a ghastly dreary plain. "What does that mean when it is cooked?" Trollope asked. The Rat's Tooth, I replied. "My God!" he grunted, "the poor devils would require to use them to get a living here." After crossing Taupo Lake, we came back and started for Cambridge, spending one night at a Hauhau vijlage (Waotu), about which Trollope says, "To get to it we had to pass through a dense forest in darkness so thick that I could not see my hand, and marvelled at the captain finding his way." AT A WAIKATO BREAKFAST TABLE. We returned to Auckland hy way of Cambridge. Cambridge then was a very different place to what it is to-day; a rough-and-ready township with a large constabulary station. We put up at the National Hotel, and after dinner it was arranged that we were to make a seven o'clock start for Auckland in the morning, and the waitress came to ask mc what we would like for breakfast. "Bacon and eggs for two," I replied. My friend had already whispered that thirteen of us had slit down to tea, and curiously enough the remaining eleven all ordered the same meal. Our breakfast table was about forty feet long, and the guests were scattered ' haphazard from end to end. There was i only one mustardpot, and wllother it was colonial snobbery or politeness, I 1 cannot say, but the whole eleven i boarders vied with each other as to who ( would be first in tendering the mustard. • Jlr. Trollope gruffly thanked the first to I offer it, gave a deep grunt at the second, < a suppressed roar at the third. At last ] one boarder rose up from the far-away < end, and bowing courteously inquired, i "May I offer you the mustard, sir?" The literary giant sprang to his feet : and bellowed, "Damn your eyes sir! s Look at mc! Do I look pbysicaliv incap- i able of getting what mustard 1 require?" ; The too polite boarder fell back in his < chair and there was a terrific silence, only to be broken when Mr. Trollopo ( grunted to mc. "Mair, I was a damn fool < to sit down with thirteen at a table." ' I could not help launching outright and ' ho followed, then the whole "baker's ' dozen set the roof shaking with laughter. ' Much hearty handshaking followed and ' he said farewell to us all, and went his way. ' Before he departed, he made mc ' promise that if ever I visited England c he would make mc follow the hounds on ' his five hundred guinea hunter. t That, alas! was one of the many - beautiful dreams that lave never come l true. . ■" '