JOURNAL

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 2, Issue 43, 15 August 1850, Page 3

JOURNAL.

Of an Expedition Overland from Auckland to Taranaki, by way of Rotorua, Taupo, and the West Coast, undertaken in the Summer of 1849—50, by His Excellency the Gover-nor-in-Chief of New Zealand. Wednesday, Olh December, 1819.—Having made all the ueccssary preparations, we embarked at 2p. in. on board itie Bishop's beautiful li tle yacht the lin-ine," in which his Loulsliip had kindly undertaken to convey us as fai" as the anchorage of Tatarn, near to the Mission .Station of Kawi-ranga, al the in.mill of the Thames, whither he was about to conduct the ltev. Mr. Lunfear, for the purpose of introducing him to the natives as their new Minister in succession to tlie Rev. Air. Dudley, recently returned home. Thence we were to proceed up the Thames in a boat which was towed down by the schooner for the purpose; Our party consisted of His Ivvcellency -ir George Grey, K. C. H. j Lieutenant Synionds, b'tatr Oilicer of Pensioners ; Mr. < uthbert Clarke, artist j Mr. It. .S. Cooper, Assistant Private Secretary ; Pirikawau, a clerk in the Native Secretary's O,lice, as Interpreter; and Peter I rady, cook. The chief Te lieu lieu, of Taupo, who had travelled to Auckland lor the expiess purpose of escorting the Governor oil the projected journey, was also one of the party, which was completed by his train of wives and followers, and a few natives we had engaged in Auckland to do duty as baggage carriers. We were also accompanied by Captain Rough, Harbor Master, who was to return from the Thames with die boat, when she should have conveyed us as far as the river is navigable. It was a beautiful afternoon, with a line breeze from tile westward, before which the little vessel scudded meirily along and conveyed us to the bay of Te lluruhi on the S. W. side of the island of Waiheke by 1 o'clock. Here we anchored, and while dinner was being prepared, 1 a:i led to see our friend William Joivett, who lives in this bay. Tne village is a wretched looking place, containing not more than 30 or 'lO inhabitants, in an illconstructed pa surrounded by a very small extent of cultivation. Uuete and Ins wile appeared very glad to see us, and biought us into their house, which is built of raupo, bin in the shape of an lCnglish house, it was, however, sadly out of repair, but clean and neat, and contained some European furniture and other implements, which gave it a superior appearance to the generality of native Iruus-s. Poor Jowctt was very ill, having been snftering for some time from pains and swelling of the limbs occasioned by eating putrid maize and other similar delicaces with which the natives are accustomed to regale their palates and ruin their constitutions. A komiti, or meeting, of women, was being held in another part of the pa, to which our attention was directed by the 1-i.ul tones and ener.etic gesticulations of the On drawing near to see what was on, il appeared that the topic was the usual subject of conversation amongst the gentler sex of all nations and complexions —to w jt—articles of dress, the row having been occasioned by an accusation which one lady had brought against another of having stolen her petticoat. It ended however, in the acquittal of the accused, and the conversation, as a matter of course, turned upon scamlai, on which interesting topic the assembly was earnestly engaged when we left them. We returned on boarif the " Undine" at 0 to dinner, and made n most excellent repast oil' soni" College f,:d mutton. After dinner we got -vider weigh, and again brought up at the eastern side of the island"in Maxwell's Bay, also called Te lluruhi, at about 0 o'clock, when we had prayers,

a fter which came (he operation of slowing vis all away in the small ' vessel, which required all llii! Bishop's skill and experience, acquired l>v long practice, lo manage effectually. At length, however, the packing was completed ; the inaories and College boys in the hold, the boat's crew in the forecastle, and the remainder of the parly in the cabin, some in the bunks, some on the lloor, and others, including the Bishop himself, oil the narrow side lockers. Thursday Gtli.—Got under weigh at 4 a.m., a beautiful morning and the birds singing sweetly —as llicy always do in the New Zealand woods—in the trees with which the shores of this pretty little bay are clothed. It is indeed a treat to a poor fellow who is generally confuted in an oflice for the whole of his time to feel himself in the open world, surrounded by all the beauties of nature oil a New 'Zealand summer's day, and far away from the dull mouo'.oiiy of oflieial routine and the diurnal study of dry mailers of every day business between the seldom varying hours of l'J and 4. The wind was very ballliug, often dying away altogether and then springing op in light airs fiom ali points of the compass, but mostly fioui the S.l''., and as this wasdeadugainstus, we made but poor progress. We reached the Tararu anchorage, however, by about 4 o'clock, where having dined, we landed and set out lo walk to Kawcranga Mission .Station, which is situated at the head of a small creek called Mataparu. We left our bedding on the beach, to be carried after lis by the natives, and the provisions and other heavy baggage to be sent round in the boat, which could not be done nil about 10; V p. in., when the tide would have Honed sufficiently to lloat the heavy boat up the creek. Our walk was about 3 miles ill length, nearly the whole of il over a beautifully cultivated Hat, inhabited b . a great number of natives, whose houses arc scattered about iu ull directions in the midst of the cultivations. There is no pa. As we walked along, the Hishop introduced tile Governor and .Mr. Lanfear to the natives whom we met. They seemed very glad lo see their new Minister, but his name was a dreadful puzzle to them iliey at last hit upon " Kauapia," which was ihe nearest approach they could make to the sound of the Knglisti word. After many delays we at length reached the Mission house, which is prettily situated on a steep rise of about 150 feet from the head of the Malaparu Cieek. It is a line roomy wooden house, hut iu a sadly neglected state, the verandah being in fact in per.eel ruins, windows '.rokcu, and bearing all the evidences of a long unoccupied house. The garden, which is veiy large, and was once a good one, is utterly gone to the dogs, or pigs rather, for we saiv three enormous grunters tied by the leg iu the milsl of what ha'd been a strawberry bed, and grubbing under the roots of a liin.' peach tree. There were a few peach and apple trees, and some figs, hut they were being fast choked up by mnltillora roses, sweet biius, Sc., which have overgrown the garden. Tiic chapel, which is situated about 300 yaids from the house, is a large raupo building, with glass windows, but is fast falling lo pieces, being almost rootless, and all the windows broken. I', contains a very neat pulpit and communion table. The Bishop performed service here, concluding by delivering a short but impressive address to the natives, introducing their new Minister. Service being ended, we returned to the house, w here the liishop and Mr. Lanfear took leave of us, and we went inside to see what we could get to eat, having none of our own provisions with its. At lirst it appeared as if we should have rather an uncomfoitable night ofil, as —through some luisundeistanding of the orders—l'irik.twau, who was to have superintended the bringing on of the bedding, arrived without il, and the native caretaker of the house informed lis that there wns actually nothing to eat ill the e. tablishment. lloucver, we packed off Mr. Pirikawau and the utile.natives for ihe bedding, and after a great deal I of talking, See, the caretaker managed to discover a small piece of bacon and a few mili - qualcd potatoes, which his wife piepaie 1 for our supper, and to tins he added a small quantity of taslelos tea, which was found i i tl c Suiyeiy, amongst a lot of gallipots a' d medicine bottles. This looked rather bad at tiist, but following ihe example of the Governor, who certainly seems lo caic as little as any man for the creature eomfoits, we put a good face on the matter, lit a tremendous liic in the silting room, and with the help of an old chair, a kitchen foim, two empty boxes, and light hearts, we managed lo make it out prelly well after all. The bedding arrived at about 10, and we laid our blr.nkets on the lloor, and prepared to make the best of our position ; but there was yet a difficulty to be overcome, the boat would soon arrive, full of provisions and very heavy, and if she lemaiued in the creek all night we should be delayed till a late hour iu the morning befoie she could be got out again. So it was determined that as soon as she airived she should be sent off to a place called Te Kopu—about three miles distant by laud, but nearly nine by water, and that by a very di.iieult creek, and amongst iniiun e.able mud-Hats —there to await us m the lnomi'ig. About i past 10 the boat anived, and Mr.

1! !i nil! f went down to give llie incn their ■ ;il which llio pu ii fellows j:riiin Ijli'il ni)l a naturally enough, as tliey had aliy /: i-.i a iliiHciilt pull of nboutlive miles ii'.mi the schooner. It was also necessary to . ::v'n**e :i native to j>ilo! the lio.it (ole Kopu, nVuhJi'ter considerable ditliciiltv managed Id tlo, and at length saw tlieiu lailly nil, when wo returned lo llie house, tiiineil into lic'd, ami notwithstanding all mir didicnllies, slept somewhat moir comfortably than we had dune on I lie previous night. 1-VidaV, 7th. — Rose at 1, and stalled for To Kopu at a liale befote 5. On the road, which 1:111.; across a swampy Hat l>y the s de of the liver, we passed over the remains of a very largo. canoe called Tangaroa - whakaniwh;:.

which had l;e."ii destroyed and liuried there jeveral years ago, when the Ngapuhi under llongi conunittil a terrible slaughter on the Ngatimaru and olher neighbouring tribes at this very place. Pound llie boat at Te Kopu, with a canoo which wc had engaged the day previously at Kav.eranga, and, having breakfasted tn the beach, started with the young llood up the Thames. .At first the water was was very low (being spring tides), and we giomid:d several limes on the mud banks, which caused considerable delay. About a mile up the liver we p.-ssed a fishing canoe, from which a kopapa shoved oil' with two natives in il, one of whom proved to be a man named John l'rince, who speaks Knglisb; he had been In sea in a whaler, and has seen Kngland. lie said he would have ofleicd'to pilot us up llie liver, but had to attend lo bis cultvations We bought two strings of eels from him for a little tobacco, anil pulled on. Some distance fuilhei- on, the native whom we took as a guide, pointed out a li tree growing on the left bank of the river, by itsi If and close lo the water's edge, This tree is called Te Ilau-tu-pua, anil is sacred j the natives say that when a chief of Ngatiniaru dies, his spirit sits an the lop &( that tree for some days, and is heard by the native priests crying, from which noise tl.ey pretend to lake omens. No one except llie piiesls, however, ever bears them. The scenery on this part of llie river is very pretty the course of the stream being tortuous, and the banks wooded nearly all the way up, especially the left or western bank—and when you turn bend in the river, and open up a fresh reach of from of a mile lo a mile in length, the banks thickly wooded with trees of dilVerent shades of foliage, and the water calm ns glass and reflecting the clear blue sky of a beautiful day in the middle of summer, the effect is extremely picturesque and pleasing. We passed Mr. Thaipe's house at about '1 p. m., and encamped on an uninhabited spot about halt a mile further on, called Ngoiatoke. Here we were most cruelly persecuted by mosquitoes and sand-llies, which appeared as if they weie determined not to lose an opportunity,evidently fo rare, of having a feast; they bothered poor old Te lieu lieu gieally, who not being accustomed to the annoyance —(such a thing as A musquito c*- saudlly being quite unknown at Taupo)— did not know what to make of it, and at length fairly lost his temper. While dinner was preparing, two of llie parly went on in the canoe to Opita, about three miles further up the river, to try and get some potatoes, in which, however, we were unsuccessful. Opita is a wretched place, containing about a dozen miserable rattpj houses all tumbling lo pieces. We found the natives iu a very poor condition, not a living animal hail they, save four geese, a lien with a brood of young chickens, and a few skeleton-looking dogs ; they had neither potatoes nor kuuieras, but were living on fern root and a few eels which they catch now and then. We bespoke two large canoes to be ready as we pass to-morroiv morning, as the Kaweranga canoe was lb leave us at Opit.l, and the boat at the end of to-mov-row's journey. We then returned to the camp just in time for dinner, which we enjoyed on the grass, after which we all walked to Mr. Thorpe's, who received us very kindly, and showed us over his garden and orchard, which are spacious, and in very fair order ; the latter contains a great number of fruit trees, which were all iu bearing, but none of the fruit was ripe except some chert ics, which looked very nice. Mr. Thorpe is a very enterprising and useful settler and one who deserves to be fortunate, as he seem'- likely lo l;e. lie possesses a splendid held of cullle, amongst whiclb are 25 cows regularly giving milk, and a number of line bullocks literally tolling in fat, such in fact as would be almost invaluable in Auckland. -Mr. Thorpe employs no servants, all the wolk being done by his own sous Willi the occasional assiilanca of some natives in ll:e planting and harvest seasons ; he has 30 or 10 acres broken up and planted with potatoes, wheat, and a proportion uf line meadow gra>s. Wc were struck by the great number of lices —from 10 to 50 liivcs—all of which looked strong and healthy, and from llie honey of which they make. mead. We received an iini'alioii to lea, and breakfast jiext morning, from which, however, we excused ourselves, and ilr. Thorpe, as we were taking leave of liiin, gave tii a (utile of milk, for which, as it is a gto.d treat in the bush,

wi- wore of course very grateful. The scenery hen; is veiy pretty, and the ell'cct grivlly improved l>y Inviuufiil hedges of the mul'illora rose, all lilt'rally covered with a shc-'t ot blossom, which enclose the paddocks, ami nearly cover Mr. Thorpe's home. Clarke took a sketch of the place from the bank of the river. Having walked over the grounds, seeing ami admiring all that was to he .seen ami admired, we took leave i f Mr. Thorpe aiul returned to camp to tea, after which we retired to our respective beds, wheie each of lis was in turn highly amused at the various contiivances of the others for st'tring at de/iiuce our common enemies the. mosquitoes, none of which contrivances, however, proved completely .successful, as we wcie nearly devoured alive, even in spite of all the smoke we could manage by our joint ell'orts to raise in the tent. ' i r.. 1.-.