THE EAST COAST RAILWAY ROUTE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 678, 1 December 1909, Page 8

THE EAST COAST RAILWAY ROUTE.

A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE WAIROA COUNTRY. " : : ALTERNATIVE LIIfES OF EOTJTE. WAIKARE-MOANA-A TOTJEIST EESOET, (ByMiLcoLH Eoss, F.E.G.S.) i • ■ ; '.- ■' .'" ' .N0.4. .- ..'• .'• ■ , .The people of Hawke's Bay were late in realising the potentialities of the Wairoa district. \Vhen this country- was: being, stocked, and the sheep were , going into it in thousands, a Hawke's bay man would ask oi his brother —'VVhere ore they going to?" and the answer would' the graveyard!" There are many. Hiiwke's Bay people who, to-day, must regret that they had uot the forethought to secure a section in "The Graveyard." ■ Kiwi station, where I halted, on my journey, is an' illustration of the vast improvement' that can- be made in rough country , by means of industry, brains, and capital. But the greatest of these is capital. Not that it would succeed without the other qualifications. Nevertheless, the necessity for encouraging, instead of discouraging the investment of capital in connection with tho great land industries is»inaelibly imprinted upon the mind of the observer, who notes what has' been done here and left undone, elsewhere. Mere muscular, ■strength and industry may subdue the wilderneSS£ but capital and brains will do tho job in half the time. Legislation may help, or it may .hamper. But in any : case—as my ; tnend Sir Charles Lucas has been telling them m • the Mother Country-railways are greater civilisers than statute's. We, in New Zealand, are perhaps too' prone to 'look upon Acts of Parliament /as the milestones alone themth of progress, and'to think-that acfa oi. uod and natural laws do not matter. Our iarlianißnt.-hasN exhausted several legislative quarnes in the search for milestones—and the road to closer settlement in this district is almost paved with the broken fragnients-but tne progress made has been infinitesimal, and much cannot be expected v until security of tenure is more assured, and the pack-horse gives way before the iron'hurse. ' After Inncheon, in'order to get a better view' ot the surrounding country, I rode withM'Kay. F?- l ? e - to P °f one of th « high' hills opposite the homestead. It was indeed a-" pleasing prospect- that met the eye-fertile valleys, green mils, and distant wooded ranges extending north and south and inland for many miles. a tew days ago, while I w«e listening to some southernmembers of .Parliament and settlors, m tne Prime Minister's room at Wellington, advocating the expenditure of public money on the construction of a. branch line of raililoßgade a waterway and between-: two other, railways only a fow miles apart with a mam trunk line crossing the waterway at BalVμ^'r 1 ? 0^ 6 ; ,"*' 'help "marvelling that so ", tlle ; e "JF t liad be en raado to get the leagues sot splendid pastoral country spread out before, .me, opened up by the iron road, and a day or two Wr when, in the same room, I heard tho Canterbury members speaking of closer settle-ment-on the barren uplands and bare hills of the Mackenzie country, which has been in very truth the graveyard of seven hundred Vi oU l ami she «P in past winters, I marvelled all the more that the, green hills and valleys M ; Wairoa had been , so long neglected. It all mnges on the fact, mentioned in the-first article, of tins, series, that, one-half, of New Zea- . and does _not know what the other half is ?•'■ ■■'■ 5i East ' Coast railway and more .enereetic settlement of-Maori and other lands on a satisfactory tenure' would have changed the * }u s coun . trT ,. T ?ws.ago, enormously' increased j the produflfivity of leagues of try, and have added greatly, to the wealth of New "The country: has progreesed and ■no doubt it will continue.to progress slowly, but the - full measure' of ■ its produc! l tivity can only-be: brought out on the'back of the,iron horse.. It can never bo brought out on the pack-horses of the , pioneers: Yet,' with air our boasted progress, this is what is Bcnt S da in ■' certain; places, at the preWhf 1 \ h ?"*?P of . <""■.hiKh'' hill we : looked southward and westward over a great extent of hill country, in the direction of. the Maunga-fp-l"164; ;:^ he , ; e ™ round to ; AMrf Or ' h ft^ fil J ed UPO ? ibluff Of. Ohirmgi that stands sentinel over: the southern, shores of Waikare-moana. -A ~ etraighter ;hpnzon hne led up. to Tinh'oto, - a hairing--K a ?y.F '?.«.. main> inland: coach road, and then A the, bne sloped \np,to :, the....three-thousand-feet, heights of the' Manngapoild country the bold of Whakapunaki., Then-ithe line sloped'down--Ward towards f tho sea, and the distant, lower ■to&i Mahia,Peninsula. In the middle H". the. Wairoa Eiver wound, a silver streak, through one of the most fertile' valleys < in all New Zealand. Gisborne was rfill miles away in the north-east, , There were two routes ,uy iivhich a railway- could reach via the .Wairoa Eivor and Tiniroto into tho Hα"Ei?.o^ and. the other via the Mangapoiki'liiver and across -.- a saddle into ; .tho i splendid .■Tβ Aral country. . My •.' route, as mapped out for me, , was via Tiniroto j but'lcould not profess,, even had 1.-followed bothN ,3t *^g h . a U.' thenr windings/sufflcientei. i pert knowledge to judge of whioh is the better one trom an engineering podnt:of view. But, were-, I desirous of fame as a prophet,-1 should say that one day the iron' horse will be found puffing up the slopes of the Mangapoiki Valley, and heading for Gisborne across a-saddle somewhere in. the vicinity of the .Maretaha No.,- 2 block. It. wonld not be difficult to gain further:fame as a prophet;by predicting,even at this early stage, that when the sur- ; veyj are.made there wfllbe-'what is not'altogether unknown in connection' with New Zealand >railways-another' battle,, of the -routes - it is not, however, for me to' decide. It is a matter for the engineers and the experts in landsettbments.. ; May' the better side win. : Descending from onr lofty coign of vantage 1 , ■W returned to the homestead, harnessed up i once drove into the township of Wairoa, 1 where .1 saw oranges and lemons ripening- on the trees. Here,, ■ I met Mr. Munro, and as soon as the telephone .exchange opened in the. evening there .was much "ring-lng-up of people in. the backblocks regarding further stages of the journey. :. -". 'Wairoa is the. branching-off place * for the' tourist traffic to i.the beautiful: Waikare-' Moana, and the still riiore beautiful, though smaller, Waikari-Moana-iti. As the tourist traffio in this region is going to be an important faotor in connection with the railway receipts, some little description of the"'region : and its. possibilities from a scenic and health point. of view ' will not be inappropriate at this stage of my narrative. . '.-. :-.-■-. ■"' The route for a little way lies up 'the Wairpa Valley.' Te Kooti and his Hauhau'warriors went through the district in - stirring times. . The spot;.where four friendlies, sent out'to him with a flag of truce, 'were murdered, is pointed out. The Tonte turns up the valley of the Wairau, and then branches oft .along the left bank of the Waikarc-taheko Eiver, both tributaries of. the Wairoa. The Waikare-taheke is a m'agnificent stream for trout, rapid-running and . clear, and ' with splendid ripples and eddying pools, in which many ;a' lusty fish may . feed to Mi Heart's content. .As we rattle off the. miles,; the valley ■ " closes in, the river becomes more of a mouutain torrent, and the scenery is more beautiful. There is quail and wild-pig shooting to be had on the hills/and a few brace of pheasants may be obtained to vary the bag. • Towards the end. of .the. day we begin to climb the high hills that guard the entrance to Waitare-Moana.- In four miles we rise 1400 feet, and the river is down below us on the right—a long ribbon of seething foam gleaming amidst the : greenery. We conie suddenly upon a mountain tarn perched on the shoulder of the hill in utter loneliness;,'and, high above, we see our road still .winding up the mountain's brow'. Near the summit fre look back and note the Eastern Sea and the distant line of the Mahia. Peninsula softening off this wild and extensive panorama of rugged hill and gloomy dale, gradually, into a tender haze of bluish grey. : Our long climb at an end, we reach the forest, and the road cuttings reveal the nature of the tumbled mass of rock and earth that blocks the exit from the lake, for the river does'not flow out after the manner of ordinary rivers'in the open light of day, but sneaks: out undorground, and bursts .'forth in the forest—tin angry, foaming stream. I would like to" toll ■ the, story of Maahu and his who was turned into a water god for refusing to bring.water from i> -spring, and who, in his struggles to escape frora:thelake,:burrowed this underground*passage;' but I. must resist the temptation. Miles ,bclow the exit of the waters,"and at the foot of the long series, of roaring rapids, the contemplative . angler ■•will sometimes come upon a dead trout sucked. from the lake into this stream, and dashed to death on its dark journoy over the underground rocks. • The sou of Maahu, then,, is not.'the only one to take a short; cut from the waters of Waikare-Moana. Presently—fitting climax to tho' legend—we awing round a bond through the forest, and, Id! Waikare-Moana, the sea of rippling'waters, burets' with startling suddenness upon our delighted gaze. . - . ...-...- . :■.•- . .

-. Waikare-Monna■ has' been, described as the most beautiful lake in New Zealand, but that is an, exaggeration.-In gnnidour.it'i3 : far "surpassed by the southern lakes, while in point of beauty, it must give the palm to Manaponri. But it is, perhaps, unfair to com.pare these different lakes. Ench has 'its. own indi-ridnnlity, and .Waika'ro-Mpana has a subtle t fihwni: oad aiojiet dignily 'that -mnat linjor'

for a lifetime in the memory, of the lover of nature. Waikare-iti (the little Waikare) is even-more charming, thau. her .big sister lake. Ihe track to Waikare-iti winds round one end or the . bigger: lake, and - then plunges into torest primeval, where beautiful ferns and mosses divide the attontion ■ with the great boles and feathery foliage of the giant beech trees. Perched amongst'■ these forest-clad mountains at a height -. of: 2500 feet, Waikare,iti must ahvays be an ideal snot for those who care.for Ecenory, or for the tired, nerve-shat-tered dwellers in cities, who would fain seek solace from'the numy trying demands of-mod-ern civilisation. Hero there are no shrillwnistung engines nor shrieking electric cars, not.evcn.'tno. chiming 'of church bells, but only Matures own choir singing in the grandest of. all cathedrals.. • , ■

■ .After losing ones-self for a, few minutes, amidst such poetic surroundings, it seems almost an anti-climax to revert to the railway., lor myself I would be content-nay, I would prefer it-tlmt the Waikare lakes and the Huiaraulrail remain for ever in their splendid with only the launch on WaikareMoana and the httlo boat' on Waikare-iti. Wtheless ono cannot shut one's eyes to the fact that the days of/ many tourists and; rJL? ot? ? WI I -? rni ! e '' and - taat the East oriuni. Otago has, its;takes and fiords, Canw^n^f 3 '•? Ha ? mer and its Southern-Alps, K^° n ! i te volca . n °e3, and Auckland its Kotorua-easily accessible playgrounds-but Napier, nnd Gisborne , especially, are cut off from Snf -If 6l Si lar areM of inspiration' and recuperabon. The proposed railway 'Would di',Kn^ f ? health :S> T ins region, within easy, distance of the people of two,large provincial districts the same time makparts of and the world at large. S'/S be overlooked' in munkatton * - for . oom -