SOURCE OF THE MAITAI.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 49, 11 February 1843, Page 196

SOURCE OF THE MAITAI.

To the Editor op the Nelson Examiner. Sir — Thinking the following remarks on an excursion to the source of the Maitai River w^ll be interesting to some of your readers, we beg to offer them for insertion in your paper. We remain, sir, Yours respectfully, Isaac Coates. Nelson, Feb. 6, 1843. William Bishop. Feb. 2. — At half-past two, p.m., we started from Nelson, and pursued the course of the river till seven, when we encamped for the night on a small islet; having made little progress, in consequence of the swollen state of the river from the previous day's rain, which obliged us to force a difficult passage through the thick brushwood, made more disagreeable by a constant rain that fell after four o'clock. Feb. 3. — Progress much impeded by the same causes as on the previous day, as, though it did not actually rain, the thickets continued in a dripping state till (he decline of day ; the sun's rays being constantly obscured by the lofty mountains which throughout the whole course of the river may be said to overhang its bed. Feb. 4. — The valley began to open a little ; and the river having much subsided, we were enabled to pursue our course along its bed, which is the more easy and expeditious mode of getting up and down it. In the early part of this day we came to a spot where the river divides into two streams, the smaller one running southerly, the larger one east. Continued to follow up the latter till it forces its way through a gorge in the mountains, forming a cascade of about one hundred feet, the lowest and principal fall being about thirty feet. With a little difficulty we regained the stream above the fall, and ascended a barren mountain on its southern bank. On reaching the summit, we found it to be situate in the centre of an amphitheatre of wooded mountains. A t its foot on the northern side, runs the stream that had been ascended, and at its southern side the smaller stream before mentioned as diverging from the main river, and which had now again become visible, the two streams evidently taking their rise in this circle of mountains. To the north, rising in lofty pre-eminence, lay the southernmost of the two wooded mountains so conspicuous from the town ; and in the ravine between it and the barren mountain before mentioned runs the stream which forms the main feeder to the Maitai. Trending away to the south-east lies a lofty range of hills of a similar wooded character, having apparently no opening through them, and shutting in completely the view towards the east. To the west, however, the view is more extensive, the mountain range from Separation Point to the Waimea, and the Bay, being distinctly visible through the breaks in the intervening hills. At half-oast three, p.m., we began to descend the mountain, regained the cascade in an hour, and the junction of the two streams in two hours and half more. The remaining distance to the town was got over in six hours and half an thjjfpllowing day. The whole course, of He river, from the cascade (where it first - deserves the name) to the harbour, may be computed at twenty miles. The trees in the district are far from being fine; a few red and white pines, but the great bulk appears to be of the description called satin wood and black birch, all of moderate growth. The banks of the river are here and there adorned with a fine shrub, bearing a profusion of blossom of a magnificent vermilion colour. The kakas and canaries are numerous, as well as most of the smaller species of birds that frequent the wood in the town. The high, overhanging banks of the river in the immediate neighbourhood of the cascade are remarkable foroeing composed entirely of a mass of petrified moss and timber. A block of stone in the

bed of the river was observed with a fine im r pressioh of fossil fern, and ariother with impressions of worms, but these latter were not s6 well .defined. The mountain we ascended was covered with volcanic grit and pitchstone.

Colonial Post Office.-— The attention of the Post-office authorities has been drawn to the complaints respecting irregularities and inconveniences in the transmission of letters to the Colonies, noticed in recent numbers of the Colonial Gazette under the head of " The Colonial Post-office System." We understand that the reply was td, the following effect. The failures in the receipt of letters between England and the Australian] Colonies, it is said, must have occurred in respejffl of letters sent otherwise than through the Postoffice; for there is reason to believe that no want of regularity exists as to letters sent through the department In confirmation, it is stated that the applications for missing letters to and from the colonies in question are comparatively very few and of 118 vessels which have «ailed from this country for the Australian Colonies in the six I months ended the sth of January, 1842, the safe! ' arrival of a large portion of the ship-letter mails conveyed by them has already been acknowledged. It is added, that the Post-office in the Australian colonies is not under the control of the English Postmaster-General. [This representation is worth the attention oif those correspondents who do not send their letters in as re* gular a manner as possible ; but it does not touch our recommendation to improve, ' simplify, and consolidate the whole system, which should bs under the supreme control of the central Minister 1 —Colonial Gazette. J