OVERLAND JOURNEY FROM AUCKLAND TO PORT NICHOLSON.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue I, 22 April 1843, Page 4

OVERLAND JOURNEY FROM AUCKLAND TO PORT NICHOLSON.

The following account of an overland journey from this settlement to Port Nicholson has been received some time ago ; but as it tends to add to our information regarding the land we live in, and may prove of interest to persons in the mother country, we publish it in full. — The writer modestly requests that his name should not be published. Tauranga, March 16, 1843. Dear Sir, — I have just arrived from Port Nicholson, after having made the journey to and from that place over land, and as I know you feel some interest in New Zealand generally, I will endeavour to give you some idea of the parts of New Zealand which I have visited. And if it do not prove of equal interest with the descriptions of travellers who have made the perillous pilgrimage of your own Highland mountains, believe me, it is not because the one is in itself less worthy of notice than the other, but that your correspondent is unhappily not gifted with those powers of observation and description, which have thrown such a charm over even the most barren and uninteresting portions of the scenery of your native land. — The lakes of Rotorua and Rotuma exceed as much in beauty and picturesque scenery that of loch Katirne and loch Lomond, and even my own native Killarney, as the wizard of the north did him who now attempts to write to you about them. Although I have few incidents to tell you of, and, thank God, no accidents either by field or flood, I will endeavour to give you some connected idea of any route. From Tauranga I went by sea to Opotiki in the Bay of Plenty, a small harbour fit only for vessels of twenty tons burthen. The appearance of the country is good along the whole coast, but the badness of the harbours must for a long time render it unavailable for agricuitural purposes. I travelled from Opotiki to Wakatani, where the country continues still to improve. Midway between the two, is a small harbour called Ohewa, which excepting Touranga, is the best and safest in the Bay of Planty. From Wakatane to Kupanga, a Pa under Mount Edgecombe, I had the pleasure of dragging my weary limbs through a swamp twenty-five miles in length. Swamps are disagreeable things you must be aware, but they are no impediment to the New Zealand traveller. The land about Kupanga is exceedingly barren, there is nothing but decomposed pumic stone for a depth of fifteen feet, under this deposit the original clay makes its appearance, together with huge trees, the remains of former forests, lying prostrate and deeply imbedded in the tough clay. Towards the base of Mount Edgecombe, and for two-thirds of its height the character of the soil changes and becomes of the richest description, being made of decompossed volcanic ashes. Mount Edgecombe is in itself a beautiful object, and the numerous lovely vallies at its base afford the most splendid situations for vineyards that I have ever seen in this or any other country ; if ever there was a country adapted for the cultivation of the vine it is surely this — soil, situation and climate, all combine to render it the proper habitation of the grape. From Mount Edgecombe the road leads through a desolate pumice stone valley thirty miles in length. This dreary region, together with the savage natives who inhabit it, tends not a little to impress upon the lonely traveller that he has actually entered the valley of the shadow of death itself. The sight of a magnificent forest, ten or twelve miles long, with its evergreen and stately pines, will, however, enable him to go through this dreary valley, together with the prospect of being able to bathe his wearied limbs in the luxurious baths of Rotorua, to whose picturesque shores and health giving waters this forest leads. Rotorua is, as you are aware, a lake about ten miles long and eight miles broad ; its superfluous waters find their way to Makatu by the river Rotoiti. I wish I could give you any thing like an adequate idea, of the beauty and loveliness of the scenery in this part of the country ; it abounds in all that you have seen or fancied of the wild and magnificent, combined with the still simpler and tamer but no less beautiful landscape. While the "wild glen so dreary" is well

calculated to conjure up all the hideous spectres of old Highland and Irish superstition. Gently undulating hills, verdant dales, placid lakes and gentle streams will almost persuade the traveller that he is one of the suit of Lallah Rook herself. The character of the country is very peculiar, and I think decidedly Eastern. But to you, as a medical man, the mineral waters and hot springs and baths which surround the great pah of Oinemutu will be a subject of greater interest. Though were their health giving and healing powers sufficiently known, I cannot for a moment doubt the deep injury to your profession, nature has here supplied the simple and appropriate cure for all the ills that flesh is heir to ; and not only are the means of cure supplied, but this happy region forbids the approach or the appearance of disease. The Natives are not only healthy, but they are also the strongest, the best made, and the cleanest in all New Zealand, and such are the virtues of these waters, that, like the Pool of Siloam, the halt, the maimed, the lame, the blind and the leper are conveyed to them from the most remote parts of New Zealand. Scrofula and certain other prevailing cutaneous diseases are perfectly unknown among the inhabitants of Rotorua. They luxuriate from morning till night in their baths, which are made by nature of any suitable temperature. But though the Natives thus indulge in the bath with impunity, I could not remain in it for a longer period than ten minutes. I had been suffering from rheumatism before I came to Rotorua, but the tepid bath soon removed all the symptoms, and restored me to my usual state of health. Some of these springs are strongly impregnated with sulphur, others saline, tasting much of Epsom and Glauber salts, others again are decidedly alkaline, so much so that a cloth soiled with any unctuous substance becomes soapy when washed in the water. I had no means of testing either their strength or their qualities, but I found that they affected silver differently. In some of the springs it was coloured black, in some yellow, and in others blue. The Natives cook all their provisions in the hot springs, potatoes take about fifteen minutes ; to a stranger they have at first a peculiar taste, but this he gradually becomes reconciled to — and even insensible of. I have remarked that the teeth of all the Natives are black, but not permanently so, as I discovered by some of them who accompanied me to Port Nicholson, whose teeth became as white as those of any other person before their return. So fond are they of the bath, that every family has one constructed for its own peculiar use. These baths are in general neatly lined with stone. In consequence of this subterranean action of fire, air, and water, the temperature of Rotorua is considerable high ; so much is this the case, that the Natives even in the winter time use no fires, but in cold weather betake themselves to an open space in the centre of the pah, whose heat is sufficiently high to render them comfortable during the coldest weather, in this place they squat with their blankets over their heads. The hot springs are not confined to one or two places, but are so numerous that it is dangerous for a stranger to walk about without a guide ; at least if he does he runs a great risk of scorching the soles of his feet. In attempting to wade through one of the rivers I had my foot very severely scorched from a hot spring in the bottom of the river, which is itself not only cold but of considerable size. — The water rises in some of the springs to the height of fifteen and twenty feet in regular jets, others emit steam like a high-pressure engine. The Natives say, that the waters rise higher during westerly winds, and fall with the easterly ; but this I had not the means of ascertaining the truth of, nor can I understand why it should be the case. The country in the neighbourhood of Rotorua is exceedingly picturesque, besides Rotorua itself, there are several other beautiful lakes, such as Rotoiti, Kokatina, and Rotoihu. This would be a splendid place for old retired East Indians, it affords such lovely sites for houses, gardens, and vineyards, &c, &c, and what with rocks, woods, lakes, rivers, water falls, — hot, cold, tepid and vapour baths, together with the artificial luxuries of billiards, news rooms, &c, &c, the billious-livered old gentlemen might enjoy themselves here much more than they can ever expect to do either in South Australia or the Cape. The temperature is equable in this place throughout the year, though, unlike South Australia, it certainly never rises to 98 ° in the shade, and 120 ° in the sun ; and l am sure the stagnant and nitrous waters of the Torrens, however strongly recommended by the disinterested Company, will never impart the health and vigour which the Rotorua waters bestow. Many an old dyspeptic lady in England and gouty rheumatic gentleman would bless their stars if they had an opportunity of drowning their blue devils in these springs. I am certain that, in a medical point of view, there is not a spa or mineral water in England or Europe, whose virtues are half as efficacious as those of the Rotorua springs, affording as they do such a variety — chalybeate, sulphureous, saline, and alkaline, and each of these of every shade of temperature, from the cold to the steam or vapour bath. Before leaving Rotorua and its enchanting

scenery, I must not forget the inhabitants of this delightful region ; perhaps you are aware that some years ago they were the most disorderly in all New Zealand, but through the exertions of the excellent and exemplary missionary, who labours so assiduously and successfully amongst them, they are by far the most civilized and the best in the country. The reformation which has taken place is truly surprising, and most gratifying ; they not only cultivate European plants and grasses , but they have also constructed bridges over the rivers, and have actually, under the superintendence of the missionary, completed a line of road a hundred miles in length in the Rotorua district alone, through woods, hills and ravines that were otherweise impassable ; these are the people your Auckland government would treat as barbarian and savage, incompetent to act for themselves, or to manage their own affairs. Leaving reluctantly the Rotorua country and its delightful baths, I travelled by Toupu over a fine and level country, thickly covered with grass, well watered, and admirably adapted both for sheep and cattle, indeed more so than any other place that I have seen either in this country or in New Holland. This beautiful plain extends in one direction for fifty or sixty miles, in another I could not discover its termination ; the Natives say, the land is similar all the way to Ahuriri, in Hawks' Bay, and I should say from the appearance of the country they are correct. The country is perfectly level from Rotorua to within twenty miles of Cook's Straits, and were the woods cleared for twenty miles from Port Nicholson, say to Rangatiki, which is between Manawatu and Wanganui, there would not be the slightest difficulty in riding from Port Nicholson to Tauranga, or the Valley of the Thames, so that your project or rather prediction some years ago, of the possibility of making a road from the Thames to Port Nicholson, is not only perfectly correct, but very easily practicable. Such a line of road would confer not only much benefit on each of the settlements, but would also be the means of bringing the Natives of the interior into frequent and friendly intercourse with the European population. In speaking cf the Rotorua springs, I forgot to mention the existence of similar ones at the head of the Waikato river, which takes its rise in lake Taupu, and runs its fierce and rapid course through an mmense tract of country, tearing its way through hills of pumice stone and masses of old lava. When in the interior I had an opportunity of seeing the famed and snow clad Tangadido, but I did not venture an ascent to the regions of eternal snow, indeed were I disposed I could not procure a Native to accompany me as guide ; they look upon the monarch of mountains with too much fear and reverence to tread upon its pure soil ; it is tabooed as the sacred residence of their Atua or God, who, if their account be true, delights himself much more in frost and snow than I have any desire to do. It is a remarkable feature in the Native character that, notwithstanding their profession of Christianity, they still pertinaciously adhere to all their former superstitions. The heathen taboo,as firmly, binds the missionary Native as it does the unconverted. The missionaries have not perhaps attempted in this respect to break upon their ancient custom, it is at all events notorious that even the missionaries themselves, in their purchases from the Natives, reverence and respect the custom by paying for taboo and dead bodies as well as for the land itself. The country at some distance from Port Nicholson is perhaps as good as in the neighbourhood of Auckland, but it is covered with trees of such enormous size as to make the ezpense of clearing not only a great drawback, but almost a difficulty scarcely to be surmounted by an early settler. The district of Wanganui contains a good deal of rich land, at least on the banks of the river, for a distance of ten or twelve miles from the coast, but the unfortunate settlers are much annoyed by the Natives, who maintain that they have not sold the land to the Company, or at all events that they have not received the payment. I was informed by some of the settlers that, when the bargain was made, the utu or payment was thrown to the Natives indiscriminately, and scrambled for to the amusement of the Company's agent. Be that as it may, it appears the principal owners were dissatisfied with this method of doing business, and when the Company's surveyors came to lay out the allotments, the Natives drove them off and removed their pegs and land marks. The Compaoy now, instead of actual possession, give the settlers nothing better than a piece of paper for the money they have paid for land which they are not allowed to occupy. I have myself purchased a section in August 1835, opposite to the township, and I cannot yet obtain possession of it. A gentleman who had a very early choice made his selection up the river on account of the timber, which was very valuable and convenient. The Natives, however, immediately thereafter took it into their heads to cut down all the timber, and his land is now comparatively worthless. The Company will neither give the settlers the lands they have purchased from them, nor the mouey which they have unjustly and shamefully been

permitted to receive for lands they never had a claim to or a right to sell. I must conclude these hurried remarks, and leave further details till we meet. Yours, &c, &c. To S. M. D. Martin, Esq., &c.