"NEIGHBOUR NELSON"

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 1 April 1915, Page 2

"NEIGHBOUR NELSON"

GARDENS OF DELIGHTFUL

SCENES OF ARCADIA,

(By L.tS.F. in "Evening Post.")

A little sleep, and one awakens in Tasman Bay, near Nelson, -which the evening service has made a neighbour of Wellington, for mutual advantage. A few years'ago Nelson was well around the corner from Wellington—alnlost as much, out of sight and out of mind .as Westland, which is a little/world to itself. Comfortably settled in a cosy cox--xier of Tasman Bay, Nelson itself seemed content to be ou-t of the hurly-burly, a place apart, happy-with its sunshine, its fruit and and. its thrilling ; panorama of sea and mountain. Bijt an eagerness for : movement has come • among thb people: The ''Sleeping Beauty,''- as Max O'Rell described the tranquil city, is .awake', and Nelson is: "out, for business." - ■ The merry 'music of-progress,: in other parts of New Zealand, has penetrated to Nelson', and the inhabitants have resolved that they "will not bo last in the race. • '• * '

•One> is-lounging in: a deck-chair finding comfort-in the splendid crescent of- the bay for the 6 o'cflock rise, and liis day dreams are suddenly' disturbed by apples. With a rush" the knowledge is borne upon him that he is near, the land of orchards, actual and .'prospective! Someone points to the pale bluffs of...the Moutere, and. says that they are 'the frontiers of gardens which -will soon be golden, and the mind is soon in a swirl of acres and the profits per iree, > and . the heavy pickings of the "early birds," ? who'discerned- the - of apples below the • manuka-^which is rather sad for one who is not of- the "early birds." By-and-bye the Visitor traverses "those ! slopes 'between . and vMotxieka, and -hearsan alternation-of gladness andsadness — vain regrets of , those" who imagined-. < hat scrub-covered country was" worth; less and the joyous notes of, those whomade "very* pleasant ttersains out of the ■other /person's Inability to, read the. hidden. leaves of the earth. . "A p€ep: at the. .wharf gives an impression that the seeker of the rest curej(for . a few hours) hasAstraye&into a roaring fold of Americanised hustlers. A ship's length away- they may bo. mistaken, for ; ah 'anting coih-Retitj.pn,;JbSfc;jaiiy,. isucjjb notion does notrlong endure. The* outstretched .whips are a, sign—-"Your luggage, or . your. life" : —and. the stranger, meekly surrenders.-His cap tor. takes him to a communal ''cablet" or "cabkin," a cross -between • a cab :;and-. anything on wheels, and one surprise fpllpwsv.ahotheir —but the experiences are pleasant. Th® fellow-passengers are a young married couple, a .push-cart, a- ""baby, dress baskets, and indescribable; bundles. The charioteer casts a skilled eye along street intersectibns-4-ahd woe: ' to ;the . person .■who looks like a fare. JBe or she will j be pursued and.- taken prisoner, in short i orderi - : Yet it is-f an. agreeable from the ride in solitary state; and it is cheaper. The happening of the "unexpected is one of life's charms, and t one ; knows not what a ''cabkin" may brings • Oif ; bourse,; Nelson,. ■ famed for the beauty and ■ abundance of its . girls', "has a LoversV Walk, - where even a Dante might temporarily forget his. Beatrice or Orpheus his Eiirydice. ■■ And this is, only part of Nelson.. * Where the Maitai murmurs among l 'th:e- ; - ; -weepin-g willows (indeluding the inevitable, .cmuchsdeveloped twig from Napoleon's .grave) one .may wander and agree with a ■ poet who wrote: - '-'Why' should- we toil, who are the root and' crown of things?" •From the-lap of the hills the /wayfarer looks down -upon- o-homes which S have .floweTs, about tliem, and the cool i green -of treesy ■ English' and native,- rolls .} over the -undulating- landscape . and bei twfeeh" tile ■•-wails •'of-r man's*' handicraft: And when he is, hot froifthis climbing; a idool breeze comes from'the sea, 'and; is as soothing to his temporarily fevered brow as is the hand.of the ideal.nurse who marries the rich* patient of the ro-mantic-story. '• | If he is brave, and-if. lie .has an alarm clock to get him up with the birds, the visitor takes, the trail of the- Dun Mountain^ — easy .ascent,'by an. old ; i trackj relic of a copper; enterprise which [ failed. " And if hey.Js imaginative , the \ ghosts of old trucks 'will him - from the haunts of the inorepork, and . the grating , of the .wheels:- will mingle with 'the tui's careless song. - Decades and de- ! cades-have passedr since the hope of gpld ! .faded ;away.v from- .the; copper-r—and. -all l-tha-t remains - is -a -"walk for . the furious. , So the enterprise was not,in /vain, • ,for .the track)gives -comfortable access.. to a j wealth of;---.beauty——great, -mountains ' •with their:- shoulders richly mantled.; in all manner of green and- the dis.tant sea in changing moods. . - .......... - - .v In -talk was of apples; in: August it was the war and apples ;-ilater .it was apples, and the war; and- .now -.it is 1 aipples;, . After a day among: the ■' orchardists the apple becomes fruit pins a .variety of -things -which" make it almost- too sacred to-eat; at least,; one feels {that.-. the: eating of it should-he !«omething;-in - the < nature of a religious rite. Nelson takes the . apple very -seriously-—and rightly. The sky .of Nelson's ; horoscope has.tho'rosy -colour of the' Jonathan or the starlet Pearmain, with golden tints of the orange Pippin. •Thousands ,of acres of. young ■ orchards, have goner- from : blossom to an optflence of. fruit this .season, and much more land awaits f :.the and, ; .the planter. • The: Moutere alone .boasts'.of a power to yield a'-million.>and ; a-half : cases of apples'in 1 a and Motueka, expects-to the .Moutere. - - After baskings and bathings on , the •widev safely sheltering; spread jof Tahuns,. Beach, and communing with t,hO: vbmls ; an<J soft-voiced streams of the .wooded, uplands, the" wanderer steps on to a little steamer, and'.-.v-while. the slanting, rays of a. rosy harvest sun are" pliying with the* ripples of the inlet the vessel slides into, her bed by the -Motueka wharf , after a happy run . of two. hours. It is ,a ; berth, in the .true- sense.- -One fancies' that at low-tide.a strong man, with a long-handled r shovel, scooped out iust enough shingle to .let the. caHer iti ; it-is practically, a- hole beside; the ;wharf, under which' the water, is verynshallow.-. A new- harbour is being. deepened-:by a dredge, 7incl:-sufflci€nt wa_ter 'for coasters of goodisize will be obtained. J ■/■ • At the;water's mati of me.ancholymien received from, a fisherman some strings:: of- ; flounders, : -which he looped to the handle-bar ; of a bicycle, artd l / rode sadly - and silentlv and ! 'slowly 'through the township: "He .believed" that his garland . of fresh was sufficient proclamation which "was largely . out of dbors. " awaiting ithe: belated " motor maii' ffom Nijlsorr/ . Two groups-intently watched-an American' girl • (said to :be _a commercial traveller) who to and' frorri'"bet.wfren a- '-hotel • and 'the. nost -office." One jury; held that, she -was expecting a'telegram, and the. other declared for-a cable"meJssage, but the im-. .passive flounder.man., steering gravely the disoutants, .did pot V.c'are '."what- she' awaited;. And the American;, fjirl; aware ;.that she was . the victim; of two inauests, smiled cynically -at -the, two juries. i" And that is onlv part of peaceful Motueka" and- other loealities vthe eli--mate and- the colour of things are a cure for care. HovP well one may linger by the tender green (tracerv of : the- tottering hop-gardens"' ibeauty j •is' wettilv- embowered; - reckless of the dream" which the - withered petals of. the J pale flowers may bring- to the sons_ of j wen, ThPS§ scenes -can be fitted withm

a compass of 36 hours, trom the time of departure from "Wellington and the return.* On© may leave this port at mid l day on Saturday, via the- beautiful French Pass"/ for Nelson, and arrive back early on Tuesday morning. Similarly the. people *of Nelson have .a convenient service for purposes of business jOr pleasure in Wellington.