"MOONSHINE"

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 10, 12 January 1929, Page 6

"MOONSHINE"

A NOTORIOUS STILL

IN KAIMANAWA HSLLS SECRET OF OWNERSHIP Where high! revenue: tariffs upon alcoholic liquors prevail there is always the temptation to roap big profits in the production-of what the world has come to know as "moonshine." Illicit stills are i'ar from unknown in New Zealand, saya tho Auckland "Star." It is qu t ite probable that some still exist in isolated districts. Those professing inside knowledge aver that spirit which knows not the excise officer still comes, from somo carefully-concealed spot in the Coromandel ranges, and not so long 1 ago polico investigation disclosed fairly extensive operations by illegal distillers in Southland. The advauco of settlement, the cxtonsion of road and rail have lessened the opportunities for this profitable yof risky occupation, and it must have been the completion of tho North Island Main Trunk line which caused the abandonment of what may fairly be claimed as the biggest illicit distillery that New Zealand has known. . For more than twenty years now this plant has remained, deserted, ,a crumbling monument to a traffic that had it", sxcitements, its dangers, and certainly its profits.l Doubtless the increase, in the dangers, with a consequent lessening of the profits, led to an abandonment ero tho inevitable discovery came. , ,r.

■ During last doer stalking season, a party ;of Auckland sportsmen ventured away- into the lonely and wind-swept Kaimanawa ranges, lying to the eastward of tho plateau from which rises Buapehu. Along the roiid from Waiouru toTokaariu they turned off to the righ^t,' towards.the mountains, and. a climb through broken country brought the huntersito a clump'oi: beech forest. In the centre of. this: the-still had been located, and from it in days gone by various depots-jn'Gisborne, Napier, and Wanganui had been supplied with alcohol which eventually found its way into some of the hotels in those towns. To tho eyes of the visitors there was ample evidence that-operations once were carried out on a very extensive scale, and from people who knew tho district were gleaned. some: of the facts ■of the days, now fully a quarter of a century, gone, when that forest, clump was 1 carefully guarded by; a small band ivhose nefarious .calling- made them desperate. IV^LEN TO DECAY. No small capital,must havo been in-, vested to.start the, enterprise. A solid chimney,. fully,. five ■-, feet in diameter, still stands, and.the bricks with which it was constructed came by.packhorsc all the way from Wanganui. The wooden! buildings have fallen to decay', and the .rails of. what-were once the stockyards now "lie rotting.'', The worm, that essential part of-the still, is■ now supposed to lie buried somewhere in the ranges, and there are those yet alive who are - aware of its .location. There must havo been strenuous times long . ago in .this beechringed - clearing. The story goes that fully-a hundred packhorses were employed by. the .('moonshiners," who brought/in their grain and all supplies from either the east or the west coast, as. trade suited, and who departed regularly, but at long intervals, with their strings of packhorsos, whose back^ bore the illegal liquor. Times and conditions mado the- life hard,-but there were chances foV obtaining meat raiding the: flocks on sheep (stations through which' the convoys passed, and evidence in.-the shape of bones indicates that, inuttpn'was a staple diet in this rough camp.- „..•... . '

When this big still commenced operations), who controlled it,-.and when it was abandoned, the writer has heen unable to ascertain, but there must be a" number of' people on both sides of the North -Island who':were aware of its existence, if not of its locality. That its liquor once .found its way to hotels in the old days of:"fire-water ?' is .certain, and the quantities which the plant was capable of producing suggest the great extent of the trade which once existed to the detriment of the country's^ revenue; „,In. connection with this no\y'abandoned spot there is one authentic story which is worth relating.

Before the railway spanned the plateau on the western slopes of Ruapehu, some drovers .were taking a mob of cattle along the road that runs from Waiouru to the-southern shore of Lake Taupo. The cattle were overtaken by a snowstorm so; severe that they drifted, away-from'control, and, as beasts^will do, sought, shelter in the bush chimps on the KaimanaTya mountain slopes. One drover, searching for strays, came over a ridge to sight a'patch of forest with tracks of' animals leading towards it. He iollowecf the tracks, and rode into the open rbush that 'grows -at this altitude.' '"" Not "'far had he: proceeded when he was accosted; by a man who domahded his businessf. . The drover explainod that he was -searching for cattle that had broken ''away during the storm. "There aro no'cattle here," was the gruff reply. The venturer into the forest pointed to the tracks, and announced^.h'is'intention of -following them.. Again he .received the 'assurance tlia'tihis^cattle were not in that; directipn,vbut this.';time the information .was conveyed'in, a, manner which indicated, that furtter.. attempts at progress would meet with resistance. So emphatic was the man of the forest that the drover eventually used discretion and departed in another direction.

THOUGHT HE WAS A SPY. The incident - probably, passed later from his mind, but twenty years afterwards, when, the drover,,was .in ehargo of the stock'department for a big firm in an Auckland provincial town, a client asked him if he had ever, in his droving days, ridden into a patch of bush on the Kainianawa Ranges, and been warned riot to proceed further. Tho incident came; back in a flash, and aif illuminating explanation followed. "I was not the mail' who warned you,'' said the client;:"but I witnessed the scene,, and you were, wise not to persist in your idea of searching. Three rifles wero trained on.'you, and, had you gone on, you would-not have come out of that bush alive. We did not believe your story of the cattle. ■•' We thought you wero a spy, probably sent by the police, and though you were, unawaro of it, your ' progress was observed : fdr -many ,hours after you got, out into the opening." Little further could be gained. The'secret, of ownership was too well kept. ■ ■ ' ■ : ■■■ ■ - To a party of. trampers recurred memories- of another experience when thisone was related to them. Swagging .in, on a holiday,w^inder, this party had come from the Waihohonu' hut, between Ruapehu and Ngaruhoe, and returning towards Waiouru, they struck off towards 1 the eastern ranges. Here they were joined by a rough-looking, black- ■ bearded man who got into conversation, learned much more than he communicated, wished himself on to the trampers, shared their camp with them that night, and came part of the way to Waiouru with.them next day. It is more than likely that he was one of the guards of the still. On the ridge above it there was,an excellent eyrie whence all human movement could be observed, and so much was at stake that a care-' ful watch was worth while. Now, however, the overgrown ruins are all that mark the site of,. a camp, that must have had much of romance attached to it.iii;the.wild'and; lawless times when it flourished.