IN LOTUS LAND.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14406, 13 July 1912, Page 12

IN LOTUS LAND.

THE CRADLE OF THE NORTH

3irSSELL--OLT>. BEAUTIFUL, AND QUAINT.

(srECIAIXT WRriTSN FOB. "TUB TRKSS."),

Here, wheuwtho world is quiet; Here, whwe all trouble teems Dead winds' and spent waves' rict In doubtful dream of dreams. —Swinburne. We debated for some timo before we decided to get up early next morning and tako the train (we were at Whangarei) for Russell. As I have said, it is a good rulo never to be in a hurry on a holiday, and after the day in tho launch wo did not relish the idea of turning out early next day. »3ut Russell was a powerful attraction. Sinco boyhood 1 had wanted to see the "Bay of Islands, bay of beauty," whoro so much history was made. We were only a few hours from it, and the opportunity might not occur again. So Russell won, and we got up early, bolted our breakfasts, and outraged our 'digestions' by running for the train. I found myself in Avhat must have been tho first railway carriage used in New Zealand. The ceiling was only a few inches abovo my head, and there wore no "bogies" in the under-frame, that is to sny, the whole thin;j; ivas rigid, so that in taking a curve tho carriage trembled and groaned. Wo took coui--I'ort in the thought that the modern carriages in front and behind would keep the poor thing on the rails. I learned, <00, -with some surprise, th.it Westinghouse brakes are. still unknown in the Far North. When thoy send heavy trains, loaded with coal and timber, down tlio grade intq Whaugarei, they pin down the hand brakes and trust Lo luck. But tkp people in the Far North have not yet learned to <crowl about their trains. Just as to the youth of a certain ago all girls are beautiful, so to them all trains.are good. ,

The five-hour run from Whangarei to Opua, the little port in tlio Bay of Islands, is full of interest. The tiain runs through the fertile Whangarei Valley, past Hikurangi, where coal is mined, through hills clothed in beautiful bush, past , the famous limestone rocks, and over some of the poorest-looking, land conceivable. It does not tap the best land in' the Fay North, which lies to tho west and north-west, between- Kawakawa and Hokianga. .A'well-to-do'sheep farmor in the carriage talked - interestingly of the awakening of the North, and mentioned that a small block of land back from Kawakawa- had changed ban , ls at £30 an acre. "If you had mentioned £30 an ac>- for land up here ten years ago," he said, "people- would have thought you were mad." Hβ told, too, of a man who had taken tip a block of the despised gum land — hitherto deemed quite useless—and sold it, after making a few trifling improvements, at £5 an acre. The line from Kawakawa to Opua used to "be a section by itself, the gap between it and the Whangarei section having been joined up only recently. Years ago- they found coal , at Kawakawa, and an eight-mile line was put down to carry it to Opua. The Sydney boats called at the Bay for coal j and a bright future was predicted for tho port, but the coal gave, out,-and for some years-the line had the distinction of being the most unprofitahle in tho Dominion. Opua consists.of a -wharf and about a dozen houses, and _ one would never guess that the ti-treo slopes about it were laid .ouVyears ago in named streets, in anticipation of a growing population.. - ~..-.".,:, .; At the wharf a small steamer* was waiting to . take passengers and mails across to Russell. We were now in the midst of places of historic interest. As we crossed the placid waters of this immense and beautiful harbour,, my companion pointed out to mc spot after, spot connected with tho early, history of the Dominion. A tiny-cluster of houses in a. bay to the left was Paihia, and that particular house was where the first printing-house in New Zealand was set up. Away in the distance could be seen the trees surrounding the residence—the original building still stands —of Mr Busby, the British Ilesident in the 'thirties. Nearer was the memorial erected to commemorate the Treaty of Waitangi- On the right, close at hand, was a promontory thickly covered with scrub, like many another promontory, in the North. But it. was there that the first Governor of New Zealand lived. Russell Town it was called then; now jio vestige of habitation is to be seen. A little further on, a beautiful poinl with grassy sward and pohutukawa trees was pointed out as the cite of the first barracks. It was from there, perhaps, that the troops set ** out on their disastrous attack on the pa at Ruapekapeka, away back in the dim blue hills. That was seventy years ago, but how little has the Bay changed since then! The tide of progress that has since washed over most of the country has scarcely * touched this part. Houses stand in little bays as they stood years and years ago, and a few more have b?en added, but forget the railway, the steamer, and the motor, launch,that pants along over there, and you could easily imagine yourself in the Bay of the 'forties.

"We now opened out Russell, a. little township on a beach that sweeps in & i perfect curve between two headlands. 1 Russell, broods, n<fib upon ancient fame, but upon ancient notoriety. There was a time when, as Korbrareka, life rioted by these quiet waters, when tha I whaler and tho outcast made it the : wickedest place .in , the' Southern Seas. I Thirty-five ships in the harbour at \ once, and a. thousand uncontrolled, ; white people in the township, and now, ! a elecpy hamlet of (at a. guess) ! a couple of hundred eminently, re-, spectable people. Thre is no other place .n New Zealand liko Russell. ! It is beautiful, old (as places go in: j New Zealand), interesting, and amusing Except as a pleasure resort, there is no justification for its exist- ; ence. It has no back country, and i no industry except fishing, which could I be carried on equally well at Opua. i There Is a track out of it, but no one ! ever uses it. It is a fact, that once, ! somo years ago, when a vehicle came into Russell by road, the whole population turned out to see the strange sight. The whole of the business of the place is done by sea. People come and go by steamer or launch; even the meat the population uses comes all the way from Auckland by the weekly boat. It is said that long ago a stranger came from Auckland to Rusr sell, and paid half-a-crown for something at a shop, and that ever sinaa thet half-crown has been circulating in Russell, the only coin in the place. When you look round you think of? Johnson's remark about people living by taking in one another's washing. They dream through the unhampered days, revelling in the warm climate and the beauty of. sea and hill, beach and trees., picnicing and ILshing (there are'abont fifty motor launches "in tha Bay), and occasionally, one imagines, doing a little work. Russell is a beautiful parasite among towns. But it is threatened with a new era. The holi-day-maker from Auckland and elsewhere is finding it out, and disturbing its primitive habits- I met in Russell a man who in his time held a high , position in tho public service of the Dominion, .and now lives in retirement in this exquisite backwater. He was wearing a pea-jacket, a flannel shirt j

■ ■:■■., ~; ■■, —— .i^ open at tho neck, aud sea boots, '■«*■"?'• he complained that Russell was becom '*■ ing too. civilised. He will probablvS'• hare more, to complain of ns time gJL >X-< on, for tired people in busier rurtt ' : must be drawn northwards in increasing numbers by the unsurpassed attractioc* of the Bay. ■ . , Nearly, all the houses in Russell are ' old. some very old. and tn»'V, fences lean towards one another '"' at pathetic angles. Tho streets were metailed once, I was told , '■ but the metal is now deep in grass* *' The timber was sound in those olii days, and the way the buildings kst Is •'' astonishing. I was in a little tumble* *~ down cottage on the \uiter-front that " had boon, years and years before oao of tho. twenty (I think it was tw'entvl ' drinking-shops of the township, ft looked very dilapidated, bui it njar outlast its tenants. The wooden church is at least seventy years old. Tha foundations and some of the boarding ■ look to be far gone, and Mibstanth.l props have been put in to hold up th*i» * decaying edifice. Tho church stood there when Kororareka was sacked by tho natives in 1545, and residents point out 'bullet-bores high up in its weatherboarding. Proper sentiment will see that the building stands so long as Urn« boards can be induced to hold t<\gether. In the little churchyard sleep - soldiers and sailors, loyal native chiefs and pioneers. ' Oh i\i]linsr hearts turned quick to clay. Glad lovers holding death to acora Out of the lives ye cast away Tho coining raco is bt-rn. It is good to see that the graves of tht» " men who fought for tho flag in tho«i.' far-off days are well looked after. On a hill overlooking their test resting place, on the very spot where Heke <fo* lied the power of Britain, stands flagstaff. It has no material uw aw - but one likes to think that bometimrs the flag these men fought for breaks " out upon it,