A PAKEHA’S RAMBLES

Gisborne Times, Volume LXV, Issue 10392, 9 May 1927, Page 11 (Supplement)

A PAKEHA’S RAMBLES

THROUGH POVERTY BAY IN 1873.

tniuHT OF SETTLEMENT AFTER REBELLION,

/SCATHED BY FIRE AND SWORD. TWO NATURAL CURIOSITIES. /Written in 1873 by Lieut. Col. St. *• John. N.Z. Mi lit a, by arrangejne'nt with an anonymous traveller.) ‘ ■ j; a piece of good fortune, after leaving (Jpotiki we enjoyed fair weather oTi nuiti sides of tlie East Coast —ratner an unusual occurrence—.and after sailing along for a couple of davs min a high, broken coast to the rielit we caught sight of the first land seen by Captain Cook in these parts __y o :iug Aide's Head— a high, white t .]j(l uhu ll lorms the southern projnonlo.iv of Poverty Bay. If ever there was a misnomer given by a discoverer tu any spot it was the above Jia ine. lint, in justice to Cook, it must he said that the first impressions oi Turanganui (Gisborne) even flow a;o not lavorablc, for the townshij! is built on a sandy site and the roan leading inland is ankle deep in sana and every breeze carries with it clonus of bunding, gritty dust. The town is, however, nothing; it is in the country at the back that all interest lies and once a tourist gets three miles out he soon sees the difference. “Pme.ty Bay, indeed! Not even when si atned by fire and sword, as I first saw, it; its settlers slain; its houses burned and blackened, stacks of chimneys only remaining to indicate the sites of once happy homes; its orchards and gardens ravaged; its cattle slaughtered and indices of murder and rapine meeting on the right and the left—not even then did it deserve the name. I had never before . seen such ryegrass as that thptjjjjfh which I rode up to the horse’s girth over the Patutahi Plain. In the mined gardens huge vines still trailed over the few buildings which had cs.aped the general destruction or lay thickly matted on the ground. Fruit of every description was, in abundance in the Bishop’s orchard near the old Episcopal residence, school and farm combined in one at Waereuga-a-hika then all deserted and the shells of the houses riddled with indicts poured into it during the fighting in 1865. Different fruits were weighing down the branches and as for apples they were literally being earteg awnv in loads.

MARCH OF PROGRESS. ‘‘That was in 1869 and we lmd not then much'opportunity for sight-see-ing. Of the lew families which remained in the district none resided beyond the township for Te Kooti and his crew were still in the field. He proved it to us, too, by issuing out of the gorges just in time to assure us he was still in the field of mischief notwithstanding the mauling he had received at Makaretu from Ropata’s Ngatiporou and we had to follow him up to Ngatr.pa and have it out with him there. “Since then it may be said that no place in the North Island Ims advanced at such a rate of progress as Poverty Bay. In 1869 its population was about 200 and its run holders had not ext'ended far from Waerenga-a-hikn. Now its population numbers •about 1300 souls and tlie back country is being taken np even along the line of road which is in course of formation between Poverty Bay and Opot’ki Even the mountain on which stood Ngatapa pa, taken by Col. iWliitniore’s Colonials after a three clays’ siece in 1869, is now included ■in tfijp land which will shortly be occupjjft 1 -by sheep. - Before continuing our journey, it was the proper thing to visit the two natural curiosities which may b? called the Lions of Turanganui. A few hundred yards from the hotel a tidal creek falls into the river which forms the harbor and at low water the bottom of the former is found to be suit sand-stone on which sundry queer markings have for some time been observed. I believe, however, it was Hie Veil. Archdeacon Williams who first paid attention to these and set to work to make them out. As a reward for his trouble he was enabled to obtain numerous perfectly preserved moii foot prints. In some cases it was necessary to shave off a superincumbent "slab whilst, occasionally, ■the marks lay quite distinct on the surface. Those which were discovered lmvc been taken away and no more are visible at present. But there is every probability that a search under sundry banks of tlie ■stream would disclose more. At all •events I found that a little rubbing with the finger on the friable stone produced a fair imitation of the gen- i nine article.

A PETRIFYING SPRING

••“The other ‘lion' is a petrifying spring on the beach on the farther side of tlie main river. We crossed in a boat and landed on a reef composed of a peculiar and disagreeable 'kind o!' wick. Its Maori name is '‘papa’ ; its scientific appellation I know not. It is bluish in color when ■dried and gets reddish under water. It lies in ridge? and furrows, the former inclined at an angle, and is when wet far more slippery than any wellprepared ball-room floor. It was my luck once to ride northward from Poverty Bav to the Waiapu about 100 miles and back and when I was not leading mv horse up or down a steep, •high and almost trackless hill or occasionally getting a canter on a bit of L was going over acres of this horrible stuff. ~At every point in ■cverv little bay jutted out an uncompromising ieef'. Occasionally it was fust as much as we could do to get round a little bluff between the waves and that was about as nervous work as could be, for a fall on the jagged edge of a rock would have been no ••joke. Luckily mine was a horo whenua (a country-bred horse) and the manner in which he picked his wav was beautiful. • “About a mile along the beach after crossing the river, we came to a cliff in which there was nothing much to distinguish it from any other cliff Put" j, couple of blows with the axe soon showed a difference. There had evidently been a groove liere-vpnce •filled with flax and down which had run a stream rising from some spring in the ''lime-stone rocks. How long the stream took about it it is impossible to say but the hollow is filled fin There ‘is only a trickle of water and what was flax is now stone. 'We hacked away and got out specimens of every kind from delicate leaves and shoots to coarse masses, lumps looking iust like a breccia of bird hones, nieces of stalk and roots, leaves' curled up slightly or else com•nletelv rolled round and the greater portion of the whole was thoroughly turned into stone. * “There are plentv or directions in which to ride from Turanp (Gisborne) Eastward along the beach and bv the mouth of the Big River (Wnipaoa) bos to the coa=t right to Wairoa. The road formerly was alt climbs and slips and productive of groans, weariness and bad language. Now however, it is, improved. In a more- southerly direction lies {mainland track to Wairoa hv-To Renigathte route.we are bound to takc ? . ; ;..Ber vond. • Waereri ga-a-hika to the-west-ward runs a long valley, breaking up •.jfito- others;and• into which runs the roaff from Opotiki. . •• “There could hardly be ;a more

pleasing ride than to start early as we did one fine morning, cantering out of Patutahi and ascending Pukeameonga, a small conical hill in the plains, and having a look round from there. ' A view is obtained of the whole aspect of the Bay/'from Nick’s Head to Turanganui, the former belnS a prolongation of the low chain which sweeps round the southerly edge of the basin, and,through which are gaps and passes which give access to the interior. Turning our backs on Turanganui we had to our left the dark Pipiwalca bush and beyond itthe sea, the river and a series'of rolling lulls to the right. "The view extended up the Waernga-a-liika Valley and just in front gaped in the hills a well-known opening for the mouth of which we at once 'had a hard race with some of the Te Kooti people. From Pukeameonga we- had a good sight of a party of Hau Haus creeping along the foot of the hills after plunder. It fell to mv lot to ride down and hasten up our men. It was not pleasant galloping as* the thick rye-grass had numbers of holes in which my horse kept blundering and it was a case of swags off and doubling. But the Hau Hans had n start and by throwing away their pikaus (loads) they managed to get first into the gorge up which we eventually followed them on the march to Ngatapa. That day whichever way one looked nothing but ruin and

desolation met the. eye and the only people about were armed men. ‘■Now there was a difference. There was a road across the plain; houses were dotted all over the country, built or in the course of erection; miles of fencing was visible; cattle and slieep roamed about in largo numbers and all looked prosperous. It speaks volumes for tlie ■ district that it should have so well recovered from the crushing blow it got while in its infant stage and I doubt, if any other scene in New Zealand could give to one who had seen the place under both aspects a better realisation of a picture of peace and of war than the view from Pukeameohga. From the hill we cantered across a flat where clover is now assuming the place of the old luxuriant rye-grass, and after fording the river we rode on to Waerenga-a-hika. Alterations here are also to be seen. Once more is there found a good substantial gentleman’s residence approached along an avenue of glorious willows and surrounded by well-fen-ced and well-kept paddocks. A couple of miles further along we arrived at the station of the Armed Constabulary, the military township of Ormond.' The military settlers here at all events have not got one of the grounds of complaint which are heard elsewhere. They cannot grumble at the quality of the land and some ot them either in person or by substitutes are working away effectively at it. Beyond there, again, stretches a long valley in which some miles up are found 'springs exuding petroleum for the exploitation of which a coflipanv has been formed and the whole of this land is being rapidly taken up bv reason of the influx of genuine settlers into the district, promising well for its future prosperity. Its last but not least advantage is the climate which is, without doubt, the most pleasant in the North Island. “There is yet another most interesting ride to take—to Whakato, where is to be seen a specimen of Maori carving in which the Ngatikahungunu (Poverty Bay) Natives used to be very proficient. _ Formerly/ there was to be found in Poverty Bay a council chamber, the upright slabs of which inside the house were of black, tough wood and wonderfully carved with all the grotesque imagery of which the Maori sculptor was so fond. This house was taken possession of during the war and now forms a portion of the Wellington museum. There is, however, still to be seen the abandoned Mission Station of Whakato, and we went to look at it. A few miles out of Turanga we were fqrried over the Waipaoa river and found ourselves in a magnificent old orchard in tlie centre of which stood a high barn-like building, evidently a Maori church. Broken windows, ripped np floor and boles in the roof showed that its glory as well as its parishioners had departed, but its huge caired slabs still remained entire. I think they were about a dozen in number, about eighteen feet high, and carved to represent eac-li some departed taiprina (ancestor). The amount of work expended on them must have been wonderful and it must also have been no slight tax on the ingenuity and nature of the workmen to refrain from inserting any of the peculiar touches which usually characterise Maori carvings. However as the slabs were for a church it was necessary to keep them free from anything approaching to tlie general style. “There' is in connection with the Poverty Bay massacre an anecdote which is worth relating as exemplifying a noble trait in Maori character. Awakened by the noise of the ruthless work proceeding around them as Te Kooti and his band fell uopn the settlement and destroyed it and flying in haste to a place of refuge a small party of Europeans passed by a but where were -sitting an old Maori and his wife both well known to them. A short time afterwards a number of Te Kooti’s men arrived in hot uursuit and questioned the old man 'as to the direction taken by the. fugitives. Tie declined to . answer. Threatened with death, he still refused to betray his friends and was at once tomahawked. The savages then turned on the wife whom they had widowed but she was as faithful as her murdered husband and sent the wrong track. Acts of ’ ferocity ;N:fCre. loudly blazoned abroad • ■deeds Hike the.above are but siiglitly;. notfeedif Yet such an instaneeYof devotion’ merits, record;as .It is as of heroism -'as is’ mentioned -ItfljisTdry.”