THE TOURIST TRAFFIC.

Evening Star, Issue 12067, 12 December 1903, Page 11

THE TOURIST TRAFFIC.

[By Ro. Cabeick.s —Fiords Expeditionary.— I am more than pleased to learn that a Christmas holiday excursion, so as to cover the ground traversed by these articles, is on the tapis. It is, I understand, a " go as you please " affair, and ill that respect characteristic of the place and the occasion. The projectors; who, I understand, are to a large extent Canterbury gentlemen, purpose running the trip in conjunction with the steamer to jSouthport— the inside cruise. —extending over a couple of weeks or so, to be performed bv an oil-engined schooner of 35 tons. The latter will be in attendance to receive her passengers at Cuttle Cove. Each night she will be anchored off one or other of the Government huts, so that the spare time may be spent on shore. There are three gold belts along the schooner's route —viz., Cuttle Cove, extending through to Cunaries; the Dowie River, extending across Lumps tablelands towards Edwardson's; and the Left-hand river fiats, to the Forks. More*or less work has been done on each, and they are well worthy of the attention of prospectors. The cruise at different points can be broken, and made to fit in with the schooner at other points. For example, there is a cut track less than half a mile from Isthmus through to Jane Cove. Proceeding from one to the other by boat would occupy the best part of a day. Parties in quest of timber lands will find this a good opportunity. These tracts are plentiful, and natural wharfage for any-sized craft can be had. Re fishing, shooting, sketching, etc., nothing hetter could be desired. A party of the excursionists pnrpose landing at or near the Lumps, fossicking their way up through the tahlehnds, so as to strike' Supper Cove track, on the northern boundary. The Survey Office has furnished a tracing of the track- In a covering note the District Commissioner (Mr John Hay) writes : " The track is made for about six miles from Supper Cove ; from thence it is blazed to the Dashwood ; and for the remainder of iha distance there "is a 14ft track, leading to the huts at West Arm, Lake Mananouri. The distance from Supper Cove to West Arm is twenty-seven miles." In that ;ase I calculate the entire distance from the Lumps to the West Arm at, say, thirty to thirty-three miles—not more. —ln the Footprints of Captain Cook.— Dusky Sound, otherwise Dusky Bay, hj essentially the land of the celebrated navitr.tor. Some of his original rights of dis">very are in dispute, but there can be no doubt about Dusky. He erred in his estimate of the neighborhood. Banks Peninsula he set down as an island, and Stewart Island an integral part of the mainland. But, he made no mistake about Dusky. Every movement during his sojourn there tan be traced with accuracy. It is, above all other places, the triumph of his New Zealand achievements. He displayed more than wonted zeal in fossicking it out, pluck and daring in sailing iu, good practical reuse in its exploration, and nothing in the way of violence ensued to mar the even tenor of events. When New Zealand fully recognises it? obligations to perpetuate Lis memory, Dusky Sound may perchance supply claims in memoriam as weighty as those of the Abby Craig, Stirling, on which is erected an obelisk to Sir Wiliam Wallace, the hero of Scotland. On March 14, 1770, the Sound was first announced to civilisation. Cook sailed down the East Coast, round South Cape, making his way landwards at Dusky. Having completed his careen at Queen Charlotte Sound, he had no immediate necessity for landing. He therefore pushed on up'the West Coast, arriving back at his quarters in Cook Strait. Three years elapsed, when he again found himself in the neighborhood. He had been 117 days at sea, sailing 3.660 leagues without sighting land. His ship stood in need of refit. and, as the sequel shows, he could not have alighted on a better spot. He ran two 1 •■•'igues up the bay. entering by the south channel. Thence he steered northerly, getling in amongst the Norman Isles. "Under lee of the land, he moored off Anchor Island, with hawsers run out to the ' shore. Not being wholly satisfied, he despatched Lieutenant Pickersgill to the east shore, while he (Cook) went to reconnoitre on the west. The report brought back by Pickersgill pleased him immensely. Cook himself must havegot in about Duck Cove, and he tells us u it was an exceedingly snug harbor, but nothing else." Pickersgill supplied the something else. His was an "excellent anchorage, affording every convenience." Accordingly the ship was worked into what is now, in memory of the event, named Pickersgill Harbor, and braced up to the bush at" a cove inside the northern point. These coves are in the nature of lockfast places. They are better described as sea grottos. Once inside, vessels are able to hitch up stem and stern, with a stage extended to the land. In effect they are natural docks. With the exception of the rise and fall of the tide, they are free from outside influence, and ships can ride out snv weather in absolute safety. Thev are common to the whoie Fiords "system/but in the two adjoining fiords they are more ornamental than useful. They are, as a rule, too ■rnall and confined for ship purposes, so that beyond their rarity as gems of the ocean they are of no practical value. In that, however, they are simply magnificent. Exempt from devastations of the storm, they become receptacles for all that is delicate in cryptogenic seaweeds. There these flourish in perfection, taking on a color brighter and fresher than in less sheltered situations. Between parti-colored stones and richly-diversified alga?, these roosts are, in effect, conservatories of the >ea, in its delicate hues— Hues brighter than the ruby stone, With radiance gem this wavy zone. A million hues I ween; Long, dazzling lines of snowy white. Fantastic WTeathed with purple light. Or bathed in richest green. Without being less' spectacular. Dusky grottos are more fully developed, and as w*e have seen in the case of Captain Cook thev furnish excellent careen quarters. Cook was in no sense optimistic. No matter what crone about—a good careen or a bad brush with the natives—he never gushes. He makes a plain statement of facts, and leaves bis readers to supply the friction. Dealing with his quarters hi Pickersgill he gets as near enchantment as it is in the nature of the man to go. "The fishing boats," he lays, " returned with sufficient for all hands. The shores and woods appeared not less destitute of wild fowl," and he hoped to •' enjoy in ease what, in our situation, must be deemed a luxury. That, therefore, determined me on remaining some time in the pay, and examining it thoroughly, as no one had ever landed before on any of these southern parts," They had been three -ays in the sound when an excursion in the ship s boat was planned. About midday the excursionists unexpectedly returned bringing news they had fallen in with a party of natives. Simultaneously the natives themselves appeared in sight They remained at a safe distance, scrutinirin"- the ship and its surroundings. Thev then° shot rn under shelter of the land. Cook thought they did so to avoid a heavy downpour of rain. As they <sd not again appear he «et out in search of them. They were nowhere to be seen. He found their canoes drawn up ou the beach, in the neighborhood of a rudely-constructed whare. Two days elapsed, when he unexpectedly met three natives on one of the main channel islands, which he afterwards named Indian Island! The interview was most amicable, and a good understanding established. The visit was repeated, and on the last occasion, we are told, they "received him in state." —Disappearance of the Aboriginals. There must be something peculiar about this native question in relation to these fiords. The idea at one time was that they were infested by gangs of untameabfe savages. Early Wakatipu diggers were cautioned by the provincial authorities not to cross the lake or penetrate into Fiords territory unless well armed and in sufficient numbers. That there were natives in the Sounds, or at all events hi Dusky, cannot be doubted. A party of Sydney Cove sealers, camped there a few years la'ter, report having seen them. Their numbers jiiust have been few, besides which they ?eem to have been exceptionally shv. Cook did manage to establish intercourse", but his

was the only effort that succeeded. The others failed, and with the exception of (be seal gang their presence was simply surmised—nothing more definite being got than traces of them. My opinion is they were the last fragments of a tribe inhabiting the land prior to the Maori advent. When the Ngatimamoe reached Otakon (Otago) they were met by a people whom they had no difficulty in killing off and enslaving. They *eem to have been a mild, inert race; and it is just as likely as not Cook's fiorders wore their sole survivors. Between Cook's visit and the visit made by Vancouver in 1791 they must have died out—their (reappearance being specially noted by the latter. What confirms that opinion isj that between Piopiotahi (Miliord Sound) and the Waiau River, or at all events the immediate neighborhood, we do not get a single Maori place-name. It is just the country that would have been dubbed over in that way had the Maori, as we know him. to any great extent made his footing iu finland. Dusky Sound properly analysed is

—The Central Basis of the Fiords System.— Indeed, it is a system in itself, and one could spend weeks exploring its interstices without going outside into the open. It communicates by means of a deep watei kyle with Breaksea. Following a northeast passage, Breaksea, terminating in Vancouver, reaches within two miles of the head of another of these waterways, trending north-north-west, with an outlet through Thompson's Sound. These two miles form a stretch of country between Hall's Ann. running into the northern territory, and Vancouver, running south to Dusky. It is the nearest po : nt reached by the fiords to established communication landwards. In that it is bound to become an important thoroughfare. IndeecJ, it has already effected a start. A' road has been made to connect it with Lake Manapouri, so that the through route by the Western Lakes aerie < is so far established.