THE-LAND OF THE LEVEL ROAD.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13739, 21 May 1910, Page 11

THE-LAND OF THE LEVEL ROAD.

(Br Will Lawson.) (jrECtAJJ-Y WRITTEN FOB "THE PRESS.") ' ..TUt-WHITE."' THE OLD 'WHALING STATION.

' (All Bights Reserved.) ' .- -*." Frtil'-wh-'e I>l-•*'•■« a- th <* Brothers, '' ' "Mfw'tbc vind from the wuth'ard moans. ' -o™ _-«rM-vo.ced breakers, growling. ' An Q dM-tser th. Ice of » hill hy the sea A*"**"' '• lUl '' a h ' >r bo *" c ' ! ' . tliP mail-boa., of the Sounds rieams down Tory Channel through «t«r that is swirling in the run of +, gbb-tidc, and occasionally swinging • her out oi her course, she comes to* a o<.i.it where several rocks jut out in a fashion o>te unusual in these waters. . Belli.'*] them is presently seen a small , T backed by .1 comparatively open ptece of ground, all girt by the heights of Arapaua Island. There is a cluster/ f houses, some of modern design, but? ° t 0 f them of the hare, unrelieved' jrtbitccture of the old whaling ""time:-', for this is To Awnite. pronounced Tar- ' "jV'bite, one-time whaling- and misjionary station, and now post .gd "telegraph station, sheep stan and whaling station—writEm'here in the order of impprt- • ance A short substantial wharf is Provided, there is a beach of clean, *T ar d tviiite sand, and everywhere •lone the beach and foreshore aro huge iwncfr-bones of the great cetedoans who** blubber went to make the,- fortune's of To Awaite Even the [fence wsi* here are of whale ribs, duty morfc__d to accommodate the rails. { And the long wlialeboat shed on the/ bciich " & made of the same parts of the whale's snstomv, set te curve in gracefully at , jjjff,. summits, where a thateli c.f reeds forms'the roof. . / The Gannet runs in quietly/ and is laid alongside tho wharf. Her) arrival has brought most of the population down, while the settlers from J near-by baYs aro here in boats to recfive and tend away goods and mails. Hardly is the vessel alongside when a hiarsh and ' - iCT v k»ud voice shouts unintelligibly. The speaker is an old man. apparently - a half-caste, and' wears a blai-k shac.J t\et one eve. The other has\ an intense unblinking-stare. His I nose is shapeless, he is quite deaf, aiid as ho rises to his feet he shambles find leans ' en a stick. This man is onle of the middle school of whalers, ( as dis- • tmguished from the old hands' and tho modern article. Once when the crews were hauling up a dead whale io the cutting-up, something broke, and a ca.p- - stan-bar struck him a fearful blow, enough to kill any ordinary man. But ! tfceso whalers are not ordinary men. ■ • Some of his contemporaries are on the •wharf now hale, hearty men, • turned ' from whalers to sheepfarmers, and " waxing rich thereby. Very noticeable * about them are the strength and depth of their voices when they call to a distant comrade—moro like a musical bellow of sound than anything else. Of * the younger generation, well-knit, fearless, men. many still hunt .the whale ' in season. Te Awaite is very near the "' - entrance to Tory Channel,, m the next bay to that in 'which are the leacling- "' lights and on the opposite side of tho - ' Sound tho land runs out in a narrow rocky point, with the open sea on the far side. Here the look-out is stationed, the boats lying inside the Sound, and! - when he sight*, a whale, the crews are off and away, in chase of the big, nsh. _. Te Awaite'began to he a settlement in 1827, when Captain Guard, in his brig-Harriet was driven by bad weather into Tory Channel. Ho was struck with the excellent shelter and convenience of the place for whaling.purposes, and so established the station. Among 1 those associated With him were Barrett. I Hebberiy, Jack Lore, Joseph Toms and f. Jimmy Jackson. Jackson is reported - ' to have been On: admirer of Napoleon , BOnaparte, and addicted to quotatiohs -from' Guthrie's Geography and the ~HoIv Scriotures. In spite of this latter .trait, he "once told a missionary that "'Sunday never came into the bey," it .waa a day in the week that Te Awaite did not register. Possibly 'in these modern days: Sunday is not such a stranger- there as.it was .to'this, old whaler, whose widow, it may "bo'soid, " '.is.-still living,.while his son, a lusty ' . greyb€_.rd, owns most ' of Arapawa Island. - Whales were very plentiful then. They came right into the Sound, and frequently werp -pursued and captured : up- the head of tho Sound where l"icton and. The Grove are. Nowadays the w'haJes'aro.Bhy. They appear only '.as distant objects in the Straits, and the" hauls" are as nothing in comparison with-those of the past w-hich havo given To Awaite her bony appearance. ,*"- Yet it is said that the crews last year cleared £4 per week per man,.and it is a foe life to those who like it. Wheu they.are in the hunting mood and no whales about, these men'.wil-l harpoon any fish the t seems' worthy of ; their • steel, even the fierce tiger sharks, or taniwhas, as they are called. The cirip- " ' .p|**d whaler on the wharf is the .hero _ of snch an encounter. Returning disappointed after pursuing a wary whale, c tamwha came nosing about the boat. In ah'instant the harpoon struck tbo shark on the heady and in another instant the boat was over and the men m. the water with the shark amongst ta-ia. But the mouth refused to open, though the beast 'thrashed'and- found- 1 wed*all over them. They found that tne shaft of ,th© harpoon bad twisted fo'uid the shark's jaw and held it shut. After .such, a thrilling, escape, to bo knocked over by a capstan-bar! Truly - the whaler's life is filled with incident. 1.1. <vdaj ts *ere are no whales in sight; ' we centre of attraction is the mail boat. - On the, beach the settler from over tiie water nnd the captain aro snovelhng sand into bags,, heavim? tnem into the dinghy and rowing tjiem alongside to be dumped upon the steamers deck. The dpaf cripple has taken himself off to the cluster of distant houses, about which there nrei.no' jencea to mark each man's property; . the fences in the settlement are only around the patches of cultivation. In one'of the houses the mail is being made up. Half a dozen children olay on tho beach about the wharf-piles— qnietly, - n o t rowdily as Anglo-Saxons would. These havo dark skins, slim graceful figures, and big wistful eves, showing their Maori blood. Presently a Maori woman in clean print dress and snn-bonnet comes to a cottage door and calls, '"Albert." . One of the thin-legged urchins races off in response. How many : British Alberts would run like that when bis * mother called him P A boat, loaded deep and rowed by a clear-skinned, big-whiskered and' bighmbftl whaler, moves off down-sound, another goes off in the opposite direction. There is no thought,, and, indeed, no chance of making tho journey by land—always they go by water. The freight left on the wharf is carried away by some yonng half-castes, freeTBoving, free-living, with an abaost insolent independence of manner, though with a hint of diffidence. They : ire the particular product of Te Awaite. of the reckless, fearless, hard-living ■whalers and their handsome, cleanly Maori wives, for the women of Te Awaite came of a very housewifely tribe. Soon begins the bustle of the outgoinc mail and the embarkation of the passengers for Picton.. Tho steam is singing in the 'scape pipe, and that means waste of coal. So it's "all aboard!" Again there is a gathering of folk. This time the tidy matrons have join-, ed the throng to hid farewell to the • schoolteacher who is a xiassengcr for

town. A man comes with tho nir.il bags, thc cjld cripple pegging along beside him a Jul shouting wordless things. A lot of dirk-skinned youths and girls, then' tho utirl-teaclier among thc Maori and half-ooste.women. She is a pretty girl, neatjly dressed. Yet the contrast of colour/,* the light brown in every face savif; hers, the black hair and the gold of/hers make a picture in which the pil're Anglo-Saxon glows with a bcailtv,, a fire, a spirit that the soft browij/skin can never show. So /we back out of Te Awaite to vlie wnvi/ig of bands and shouted messages, swing wide nnd then steam awsty, turning a last glance at the quiet bay. The sunlight- blazes down or/ To Awaite. once a rowdy, rollicking w/jiuling station, where night was tuirned- into day, and there was no Sjunday. And one thinks of the qui- j t Ij/ttle children playing gently among the wharf-piles.