ROUND ABOUT OHAKUNE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 406, 15 January 1909, Page 3

ROUND ABOUT OHAKUNE.

A NEW VIEW OF THINGS.

(By a Special Cobiiespoxdent.)

In years to come, when the exigencies of oivilisation will have transformed the newlyopened portions of the Main Trunk railway lino into hives'.of industry, with large and settled populations, the average traveller will look back with amused memories of their first experiences when going over the overland route, which linked; Auckland with Wellington by rail. It is only natural that the. recollections will be confined, mainly, to those experiences gained during the period of the two-days service at the stop-over sub-termini, Ohakuno and Taumaraunui. It is of Ohakune, the much maligned, the picturesque, with its tented pioneers and homely dwellings, all in the great silent bush, that the memory will mostly turn to. The night arrival of the train from Wellington, the gleaming lights of the twelve or fifteen drags waiting at the station, the rush for vohicles, the view of "Canvas Town, the bush drive, and tho race for "Tho Boarding House Stakes,", and the early breakfasts provide something which will probably be long recollected. .-■■'"" The rush of travellers from the stations both at Ohnkune and Taumarunui has been well named "The Race for tho Boarding-House Stakes." The traveller has heard or read that accommodation will be difficult to obtain, and as soon as he or she sets foot from the train a jog-trot is. immediately commenced to the drags at Ohakune, and along the main street at Taumarunui. At Ohakuue, the strangers in a strange laud-clamber to the drags with all the fierce vigour of men and men striving to escape shipwreck,while at Taumarunui tile jogtrot gradually increases until it finishes at , a run, and .scores of staid and respectable citizens,, young, old, arid middle-aged, laden with bags and coats, frightened for their very lives that they, will Have to sleep on the roofs,. are seen entering the various boarding-houses almost breathless.. '' , . ■ " ' ■\' _ . ' 'In s'onie instance? .travellers, behave like, sheep, and therein lies a measure of the. discomfort .caused to them at Ohakune and also at Taumarunui. The overland route in the New Year week of 1903 and later was mostly done by people on holiday, to whom, for the time being, 'money was no object. In niany-instances the travellers wore those to' whom money was no object at any•■ time. The trouble of accommodation, however, was'caused by the people rushing one particular residence in each locality. . These; places were, filled up rapidly, and then shako-downs were effected, while all the time thero.v/is accommodation at other board-ing-houses. This was particularly the case at Ohakune in the New Tear week,.when the now sensation was "the Ohakune nightmare." A Ohakune boa'rding-house keeper., showed a Dominion representative his' visitors' book, which indicated clearly that there were emply beds there.on December 31, January 1,,2, and 8, andin fact all: through the .whole'.period of the. rush. Still all this time , there were travellers .enduring unnecessary discomfort by sleeping in the railway carriages at Ohakune. . ■-.'_•' ■There is reasonable \ ground forthe belief that Ohakune-has .been saddled with a-large amount of undeserved censure over the whole proceedings. It is only natural to suppose that somo. ladies and children would be inebnveniinced by having to arrive at-, a railway station any, time between half-past eight and nine o'clock at night, and then forced to a drive of 117 chains into the town—especially so if the weather was wet. "This part.of■ tho business could not be' helped in any way, and* in , many instances, it was a pleasurablo experience. The exact distance between the railway station-is .117 chains, not two miles, as'has been erronedusly stated, and the drive is pleasant; This islparticularly , the case in" the morning. The. road is very good, but the great charm is the 1 fresh.smell of the great silent biish, already on the point of. doom. To. many. \a Wiararaj.a pioneer, who had carved his way through-the' forest: in the very early, days, the'bush drive to ! Ohakune would bo an absolute , tonic, and one in .which' he would be a spectator of; scenes similar to - those in which, forty and fifty years ago, .he. was: such a doughty principal, Tho four-in-hand drags,;the bush camp's; and 'the little town with -its' heterogeneous collection. of human-beings, .all 'struggling to develop their new; district, .each; in his own; peculiar wayall, of early pioneering are .evident. < -.■".'■.. ■ •' .: ■,■.■■..' ; ■..:);'.' '.I" .'.' ■ • Eightly or .wrongly also. the. people, of Oha-, kne and Taumaruhut 'have been.blamed for their.boarding-house 'accommodation, but here again their is: very little'; cause-for complaint;: A- Dominion : representative who'visited all ; the; boarding-house's' in, Ohakune found „ civility; everywhere, \ with good,. plain nieals, • and the cleanest of. clean beds'and'bed linen. The Ohakune: people.; have .grappled with , the-'.flif-. ficulty'.of sojiietimes having tbi-provide for-three; jhuiidred travellers in one night, asd alhrthings' :corisidered, : they have carried,out tho, job,; very 'well'indeed." The same'statement'' applies to; Taumarunui."..''-. "' 'V