THEY BUILT NEW ZEALAND

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 11, 13 January 1940, Page 1 (Supplement)

THEY BUILT NEW ZEALAND

the old professor who conducted the laboratory classes in geology had nothing to complain of in the attention of his young student Julius von Haast, lie always felt as though the lad were not giving his whole heart to the work. And he was right. Julius, even though lie was fanatically interested in geological class work, longed to get out in the "field" and observe, discover, and study for himself. There was j so much in the world that was undiscovered, and he felt that his part lay in the pioneer work of scientific exploration. For a boy who had been brought up in tiie staid merchant city of Bonn, of which his father was a respected burgomaster, young Julius had ambitions which lay in far fields. And he was not slow in realising them. * With the combined practicality and brilliance which was to be typical of his life, ho left college at an early age and began several years of intensive travelling and studying in Russia, % Austria and J.taly, On his return a shipdwning firm gave him the task of. investigating • the possibilities of a small group of islands in the Pacific as a home for assisted emigrants. And so, lrarely 20 years after Hobson had planted the British flag in his new capital, Julius von Haast, stocky, sturdy, energetic, with a boundless thii*t for knowledge, came to New /calami, where he met that great scientist who was already making a name for himself, Hoclistettcr. Von Haast, filled with admiration for the knowledge of this mail, released himself from his contract,, with the shipping company and bagan studying as a member of the scientific party of Hochstettcr, 80 well known did the young geologist become that the Nelson Government retained him to conduct a geological expedition to the western and southern regions, which were sketcliily mapped, and in many places considered to be impassable. His journey was planned to be over the Buller route to the West Coast, where Brunuer . long before had gained distinction. Kceently the discovery 6f gold and coal in the valleyn of the stormy Western river* had brought a flock of miners and prospectors eager to try their fortune; thus a practicable route from Nelson to the AVost Coast was becoming an urgent necessity. Already tortuous and often impassable paekhorse tracks had been pushed into, the passes and the val-

•leys, one of the longest that from Tophousc, down the Buller to the present site of Westport. In January, IS6O, von Haast was sent out on his great journey. He was accompanied by James Burnett, a surveyor who also acted as topographical assistant, three other Europeans, and two Maori guides. Their | route lay to the Buller Valley by way of Lakes Botoiti and Botoroa and the Tutaki River. You can imagine how thoroughly von Haast surveyed and mapped the country covered, and this in spite of the most dreadful weather that region of rain and mist could inflict upon, the struggling little party. Swollen rivers that swirled down the lowering gorges had to be forded often; their camps were made 111 dripping bush where not. even dry wood could «bc found for a fire; they slept in sodden

-vii. Julius von Haast-

clothes and amidst the stinging smoke of damp-wood fires, tormented by mosquitoes and sandflies. Often tlicy went hungry, their native companions supplementing the scanty diet with wekas and eels. Yet for all. the trouble and discomfort of this journey, von Haast's report to the-Nelson Government, is as impersonal . and fully-detailed as though it were made under the best of conditions. They continued along the dangerous sea-beach route, where the cliffs rose almost vertically, and the ledges were so uarfow as to be almost impassable, while the surf continue ally dashed against the foot of the weathered granite walls. It was the end of August before they came in contact with a far-lying settlement. Upon his return to Nelson, \*on Haast was given the appointment, of provincial geologist • to the Caiitcr-

bui'y Government, and irt 1801 commenced a scries of explorations into the headwaters of Earigitata, Ashburton and Kakaia, as well as the glaciers of the Tynda.ll Bange, the existence of which had hitherto been unknown. He also made a 'botanical trip to the Malvern Hills, discovering many, new types of flowering alpine plants. A year later he visited the headwaters" of the Waitaki, and made an extensive survey of the stream country of the Mackenzie Plains. Von Haast now had liis eiiti'c to the very centre of the kingdom of the Southern Alps. Going up tjie KivCr Godley (named After the •founder >?_ Canterbury), he entered A, scene of beauty . . . tlie long sitowfields and magnificent glaciers, the waterfalls that fell foaming from great heights, and above all the wonderful peaks. From the upper valley of the Tasman River lie saw the mountains gilded in the. dying sun. with "the magnificent pyramid of Mount Cook, or Aorangi standing high above all," and asked himself whether lie were in New Zealand or Antarctica. The bird life of the subalpine region fascinated liim, too, the thieving wekas, the bellbirds, tuis and shv mountain ducks. 11l the Slime year "ho went in search of a puss legendary among the West Coast •Maoris, and found it 1710 ft. above sea level. He called it Haastfs Pass. In 1801 the migration from the Otago to the West Coast goldlieldfi bad commenced, and was in full rush when Haast was sent to inspect the mines. On that dreadful trip over liie mountains, the dangerous fords, the towering black beech forests (many of tile trees 100 ft' high) he met "many . ragged and starving miners returning from the wild country which had not, for them, proved an Eldorado. He went on over the great swamps where the trees lay rotting in the mud, and at last camo to the little canvas town at the mouth of tlie Taramakai. Going on to Waimea and Arahura, lie inspected the goldfields and coalmines, continuing with a dangerous trip round a boulder-strewn . beach where his party was almost swept away by the incoming tide. These are some of the difficulties which lay in the road of the goldiiiiner ■of those days; no wonder that von Haast met the nigged and forlorn procession returning to the kinder province of Canterbury.. • - • • ;

With the abolition of tlie provinces in 1576 he gave up his geological work and became the director of the Canterbury Museum. There his enthusiastic writings about New 'Zealand's -ranges drew many mountaineers to this country.- In 1594 three New Zealanders reached the topmost pinnacle of Aorangi, the cloud-piercer, seven years after the death in Canterbury of von Haast, who had made them mountain-con-scious enough to attack the greatest peak in the Southern Alps. The latter rise among the major mountain chains of the world, for they extend in a long unbroken chain from Eotoiti in Nelson to the fiord country of Otago, a distance of 500 miles, broken only by a few low passes. Surely a great kingdom for the restless student of far-away Bonn, who knew that his scientific knowledge could never be bounded by the four walls of a laboratory. THE DEEPEST PART OF THE SEA. Where is the deepest part of the sea? ' That is difficult to say, for here and there in the ocean the most amazing depths have' been found. Tlie highest mountain in the world is' well over five , miles to the summit, but the greatest depths of the sea. are much more. As these depths are constantly changing, it is difficult to calculate them exactly. Near tlie centre of the South Atlantic it is more than 7J miles to the ocean bed, and an area west of St. Helena is a J miles deep. Some parts of the - however, are very much deeper than these. In these "deeps" there are -many strange fishes that have been formed by Nature to withstand the tremendous pressure of the water. Though almost every corner of the world has been explored, the Pacific deeps still hold secrets that have never been revealed.