AN ABORTIVE EXPEDITION.

Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 24, 15 June 1886, Page 2

AN ABORTIVE EXPEDITION.

!A' SEKRCK PARTY STUCK IN THE 9 HoiokxJK, 14th Juno? afternoon. Tho boat-party only (started yesterday- for Tarawefa~Lako, en'roUW for To Ariki. A splendid tnain of horaeCiJragged tho wagon, which contained a wnaleboat, and also War* brick's* niqing skiff, the' latter to bo nscd as a despatch boat hi _ tho event of finding any of tho lost feibos nlivo. Tho w agon started from, liotoruiX.und.ur iuvourable auspices. Sofno 1 ' tourists - who had just arrived from Auckland wore eager 1» €»,>,»» .pffer ofXlo.rbeing.miide Jw » Sydnoynmn, l but local mon experienced' in volcanoes were deemed imwt suitable, and though funds wore wanted it would not do tq jeopardise buccobs. Tho most satisfactory news was recoiyed that tho authorities had clearod tUo Wairoo-road sufficiently U> <iuabl« the wagon to got along, wjiilo a'spooinl force of mon was to be sent along tha road tnivdvanco of tho boat to kepp tho way clear. Judgo of Warbriok'sand his comrade's indignation whon they got out with tho wagon to find tho force of mon emuloyod represented b.v ono many Qeorgo Hothorington, a good man with his axo certainly, but whoro wero tho rost of tho force ? The result was that four magnificent horses woro strained dreadfully tp pull tho waggon thVough tWy^bru. Thoy wore ono moment stuck in the mud, and the next jammed in' botwoeu' immonso logs ov fallen trcea whioh protruded through the mud or lay slightly covered. To mako bad worse, tho "boat kept -imitating oortain local, steamers, and riuuiiug foul ,of hoadlands and mudbanks, if notughthousos, though Captain. AVwbriok hod not tho advantage of opon aea room, his channel being full of sung* aud small ranges protruded into tho road by the rooont Tarawdra 'incident. The ljist seen of thia niuddjo wan jiho party in do3i)'air returning to' try' a doviation of road, boing fairly stuck just pass tho Blue Lake. ( I wit^ossod the above performance, ftiid undbrstand a photograph has been taken of tho road. It was a, scone in accord with tho surroundings thereof. Adjacont tq tljo wagon was tho buried native settlement, oh tho conk's of tho Blno Lake, formerly on,e of the prottiest spots on God's ot^rili, and now quo of tho, most doaoln,to and forsakeiu with its Huts smothered in heavy mid, which lios' in an oven, coating liko so much snow. .Thos* who have, soon a landscapo in the depth of - wintor »ft«r a heavy fall of.uip^, ,'can, fancy a greycoloured, heavy, 'sandy "mnd, instead of snow, over ovorything — mud on tho cottages,' on tho fonooß, and on tho trees. It lßmud oVor^vher6, and vyhon one thinks tnat~in To Ariki 40 human beings havo boon lelt to die in the slime, and no hand boon put forth to oavo them but tho fooblo hands of tho fow survivors,' it is impossible to feel other than tho doopest sorrow. It was a reliof to pick up two little kittens, mowing gitoously, -and carry them away. As with shoos on I tried to get on tho horso, firit ono shoo disappeared and then tho othor, and I rodo into Kotorua barefooted. Tho crossing place was so deep that an old sottlor turned back. ' This wan ouusod by tho lake boing much liigher than usual. ' '