A MAN WHO DID

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 6, 9 January 1928, Page 10

A MAN WHO DID

DARING EXPLORER NEW ARRIVAL'S FIRST TRIP NGAUEUHOE IN 1839 Reference to Mr. John Came Bidwill's ascent of Ngaurulioe" as far back as 1839" was made in an article on Tongariro National Park, published in the "Evening Post" of 2Sth December. J. C. Bidwill was among the earliest observers of this country, particularly of its. inner recesses; and it may be noted that the "Handbook of New Zealand" (1848) commends as especially worthy of attention Bidwill's "Eamblcs in New Zealand" (1842), Dieffenbach's "Travels in New Zealand" (1843), and Edward Jernyngham Wakefield's "Adventure in New Zealand" (1543). Tlie years given in parenthesis are years of publication, anrl must not be taken as the years in which the authors made their journeys. It was on 17th February, 1839, that J. C. Bidwill left Tauranga on the trip which led him, via Hotorua and Taupo, to Ngauruhoc, whose crater and cone he attained on 3rd March, returning to Rotorua and to the mission station there (on Mokoia Island) on 12th March. He regarded himself as the first climber of Ngauruhoe, and the second white man to visit Taupo, the Rev. Mr. Chapman, Rotorua missionary, being regarded by him as the first. He believed that superstition or fear had prevented any Maori from climbing the active Ngaurulioe, and therefore that his was the first human eye to gaze into the crater. SHADOWY CARTOGRAPHY. Apart from its interest to students of volcanic activity and the students of botany, "Rambles in New Zealand" contains many remarks of general interest that will entertain anyone who reads the book now, in the light of nearly ninety years of added experience. Arriving from Sydney on 4th February, 1839, at the.Bay of Islands, Bidwill was not much impressed with the agricultural possibilities of the Northern Peninsular. Ho had arrived by schooner, and took passage in another schooner (ten tons) southward along the coast to the Hauraki Gulf, past the- entrance to the- soon-to-be-famous Waitemata, past the Frith of Thames, round Cape Colville,*and down the eastern coast of Coromandel Peninsula to Tauranga (Bay of Plenty). He liked the Thames country better than the Bay of Islands country. His objective was "to penetrate to those high mountains in the interior of the North Island which are shadowed forth on the maps and described in the book of the New Zealand Association." How shadowy was the cartography of that date is indicated by the fact that, in quest of the Tongariro group (including Ngauruhoe), he even thought of making his start from Mercury Bay, which haven the schooner called at as it coasted the Coromandel Peninsula; but a white resident of Mercury Bay, a Mr.. Brown, was able to givo information that changed his plan and saved him from what would have been a weary trek along the coast southward, or alternatively a steep climb across tho high backbone of the peninsula to tho Frith of Thames and to the Thames (Waihou) River. So Bidwill went on to Tauranga, "the last mission station to the southward," and these furthest soufh missionaries of 1839 were able not only to put him on the road to Rotorua (where further missionary help would be available), but also to provide him with Nalhv guides and carriers. INFLUENZA NINETY YLAKS AGO. Owing to ravages oi inllucn/.n. in Tauranga—and still more recently in the hinterland and in tire lakes country—and owing to a state of war between the'Waikato and the Rotorua Natives, there were great obstacles to travel. In fact, ho writes, "I should have been entirely stopped had it not been for the great kindness of the missionaries, who persuaded some of the lads attached to their establishment to go with me." Thus from the Bay of Plenty he marched inland to the hot lakes, to Taupo Moana, to Tongariro (or, as he writes it, Tongadido). A botanist might bo expected to be an observer, and the "Rambles" sparkle with little points which a modern New Zealander should read with interest. He remarks —as Hochstetter did later —on the impoverishing effect on tho soil of repeated nurnings, particularly the practice of burning of light fern lands and scrubby pumice country until no humus is left. And the lapse of ninety years has not cured this practice. Here are some notes which Bidwill recorded at Tauranga ("Tawranga"):— "The country for about ten miles inland is almost a perfect level covered with fero; but tho land is not bad, as it is light and contains a good proportion of undestroyed vegetable matter, which becomes apparent when it is stirred. ... It cannot indeed be called rich, as the constant destruction of the fern by fire is sufficient to impoverish any land." He notices the abundant evidences of pumice, "which is the basis of the entire soil of this part of the island, becoming very apparent when the Natives, by constant planting of sweet potatoes, etc., near the villages, have exhausted all the vegetable part of tho soil." POTATO AND SOIL-EXHAUSTION., The sweet potato (kumera), he considered, however, to bo less of a drain on the soil than the European potato, as cultivated by the Maoris of that period. "Were the contrary not well known, the potato might be taken for an indigenous plant, as it is impossible to go anywhere without finding it growing wild. As we know it has not been introduced more than fifty years, this diffusion of the root may be considered wonderful. . . . The Mowries only grow potatoes in land which is just cleared, and after about three crops abandon it, and clear another portion of forest. ... On the shores of Towpo (Taupo) every bit of soil which a man can reach, even at the risk of his neck, is beginning to be planted with potatoes, as they have worn out all tho level lands near. Were they to take half the care in the cultivation of the potato they do in that of the kormera (kumera) or sweet potato they might grow it in hundreds of places which are now only covered with fern, and are in progress towards becoming barren; owing to the constant fires which the dry nature of that plant (fern) causes to spread in a most destructive manner." After all, fire-farming aa practised among the Maoris of 1839 still represents in some districts the highest perfection to which European settlement has yet attained. As at Taupo, so at Rotorua. Of the Rotorua flats Bidwill writes: "These level spots are carefully planted with kormeras (kumeras), corn, etc., but are not rich enough for potatoes, which are never planted by the Natives but on newly cleared land," which they abandon after tho third year's crop. It then becomes covered with fern, and in a few years more is rendered fit for nothing by the constant fires destroying whatever vegetable matter is formed by the decayed plant." IMPRESSED BY HOROHORO. Going from Tauranga to Rotorua, thence to the Waikato River (which,

from the general' description, ho seems to have reached somewhere about what is now called Atiainuri), thence to Taupo, across tho lake by canoe, thence to Tongariro via Roto Aira (though he does not call that lake- by that name), Bidwillfc'had a route full of interest, and he has left a good description of it; if the description does not actually fix his route, it at any rate enables one to make a pretty fau- guess. The great rocky rampart of Horohoro impressed him, as it has impressed all thoso who followed after. For once, his spelling of Horohoro tallies with ours. He wonders why, on the treeless pumice "moors," he found logs and roots in the wet ground. Had he had time to excavate, he would have found many logs. The explanation evolved in these days is that a prehistoric eruption J>uricd groat totara forests on the pumice plains. On a smaller scale history records something similar in the'Tarawera blow-out of 188 G. Some geologists call Taupo Moana an old crater. Bidwill in 1839 regarded the flax export as mainly a thing of tho past, and looked on the pork export as the principal basis of trade. Tho term "pakeha Maori" ho interpreted as applying mainly to European pork-tvadcrs with Maori wives. These white traders stood, in the Maoris' eyes, on < much lower plane than the missionaries, and were opposed to the missionaries, and accused the missionaries of paying the Maoris too much for their pork. On which Bidwill comments that the mere trifle of pork bought from the Maoris as food for the mission stations "would never have any influence on a market where thousands of tons are bought for tho export trade." As to the porktraders, "the generality of them are great rascals, runaway convicts, sailors, etc." The export of flax and the export of pork occupy a different relative position to-day, when the Government is coming to the aid of pork-exporters with a guarantee. But in Bidwill's day the Native-grown article, which probably did not comply with Meat Board specifications, sold readily enough. THE MISPLACED WAIPA. Concerning tho above-noted haziness of cartography in 1539, it may be noted that in the Tongariro heights Bidwill found a stream which he concluded was the headwaters of the Waipa "or western branch of the Waikato." Apparently he had heard of tho Waipa, but not of the Wanganui, Wangaehu, etc. So he drew a map which places the Waipa in that (to us) quaint position, : with other quaint featurings of tho unknown country between - Taupo and Egmont. But eartological inexactitude is merely a tribute to tho courage of a man who, after a few days in tho counI try, hopped oft' to the great lake at the heart of the island and scaled the most active volcano. What he did not know geographically is merely a measure of what he dared. There is in this something very English and altogether Kiplingesquc.