TENT AND "WARRIE" DAYS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 216, 12 September 1925, Page 27

TENT AND "WARRIE" DAYS.

MR. HARTNELL'S ROUNDABOUT JOURNEY. That getting to the site of Port Albert in 1862 was somewhat of an undertaking, we are reminded when reading some letters written by Mr. G. A. Hartnell to his sister in the Old Country. Mr. Hartnell came out in the Hanover, and stayed in Auckland for a few months. Then in the summer he made a journey to Albertland by way of Mangawai, which was at that time called Molesworth, the 6ole buildings apparently being two stores, one kept by en Irishman, and the other by a Scotsman, whose rivalries seem to have greatly amused Mr. Hartnell. When he left Mangawai, Mr. Hartnell found his map of the Oruawharo Block and his compass of much use, but even then he lost his way, and did not get further than the " warrie " of Mr. Shepherd, a fellow-passenger on the Hanover. Next day Mr. Hartnell made Port Albert, and there met more of the Hanover people, " some of them living in rudely constructed "warries," but the greater part in tents, of which there were from twenty to thirty." The principal reason of Mr. Hartnell's visit to Port Albert was to try and locate one of his boxes containing about five hundredweight of his library, which had been sent on there instead of to Auckland. He made a brief stay at the township, and then returned to Mangawaj, where he got a passage down to Auckland in the schooner Victoria, seventeen tons. After a fortnight in Auckland he again set out for Port Albert in the Victoria, which, besides a full cargo, had about thirty people on board, including the Eev. W. Gittos and family. When about twenty miles up the coast the schooner struck a sunken reef, and the passengers got a great scare. The boat was not making much water, but the skipper put back to Auckland to ascertain the ■ amount of the damage. The schooner was found to be uninjured, and a couple of days later was at Mangawai once more. Mr. Hartnell went on to Albertland, and got a job helping one of the settlers to build a " warrie." While doing this he had his first experience of tent life, and wrote eloquently of the tortures he suffered from the mosquitoes.

KAURI TIMBER COMPANY'S MILL NEAR THE TOPUNI. This photograph, taken about the year 1886, show, the Kauri Timber Company's mill, near the junction of the Topuni with the Oruawharo. The mill was previously owned by the late Mr. Robert Nicholson, and took the place of the original mill bmlt in 1863, and latee destroyed by fire.