NOTES of an EXPEDITION to Kawatiri and Araura, on the WESTERN COAST of the MIDDLE ISLAND, performed by Messrs. Heaphy and Brunner.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 235, 5 September 1846, Page 105

NOTES of an EXPEDITION to Kawatiri and Araura, on the WESTERN COAST of the MIDDLE ISLAND, performed by Messrs. Heaphy and Brunner.

Having, in an expedition performed during the last summer, traced the Buller, or Western River, from its sources at the Lakes, a considerable way to the south-west, and found a fine though at present unavailable district on its banks, it became especially a matter of interest to ascertain the position on the coast of its embouchure, and to know whether the reports of the natives respecting a level country, which they compared to Taranaki, were accurate. This part of New Zealand had never been visited by white men, with the exception of some of the off-shore reefs, which were formerly frequented by sealers, amongst whom was Thorns, the master of the Three Brothers, who anchored near the Three Steeples, or Black Reef, about two years since, and obtained 150 sealskins; reporting on his return the existence of a large river, with a considerable tract of level land on its banks, in the vicinity of that place. The coast, that generally first made by vessels from England, was, until lately, deemed too steep to admit of being explored otherwise than bysea; and though the Ngaitau natives from Otako were known to visit some parts of it, in order to obtain greenstone, it was not generally supposed to be inhabited by any natives communicating with the Nelson country. Thorns, the sealer, however, reported having seen in the sand the footprint of a native, and having found some writing directing a person to follow the writer to Cape Farewell. This first drew my attention to the subject of the possibility of proceeding by land; and from subsequent inquiries made by Mr. Fox, Mr. Brunner, and myself, we ascertained that some of the Ngatirarua tribe were settled at Araura, beyond the Kawatiri, or mouth of the Buller, and that they occasionally traversed the coast intervening between those places and Wanganui, the coal harbour near Cape Farewell. E Kehu, the native who was with us at Lake Roturoa, had been at Araura when a child, but did not remember the way thither. He, however, reported the route as practicable, and as taking a period of four or five weeks to traverse in the summer season.

With the intention, therefore, of reaching the mouth of the Buller, and perhaps of visiting the settlement of Araura, we left Nelson on the 17th of March ; the party consisting of Mr. Brunner and myself and E Kehu. On the 20th we arrived at Hauriri, in Massacre Bay, at which place we were detained by unfavourable weather during the two following days. 23d. — Fine weather. Started across the Hauriri river and adjacent mudflats, on our way to Pakawau, whence there is a path to Wanganui on the west coast. Our loads, composed of 35lbs. of flour each, with tea, sugar, pearl barley, powder, shot, instruments, books, boots, and a couple of blankets, amounted to about 80lbs. each. The weather changing into light rain, and our loads being exceedingly fatiguing, we halted at the Tomatea pa. Distance 5 miles. 24th. — Proceeded to Pakawau pa, and were obliged to halt there in consequence of bad weather. Distance 3 miles.

25th. — Detained by bad weather. 26th. — Our loads being heavier than we could conveniently carry over the rocks in the first portion of the journey, and learning that there were many rivers which we should have difficulty in crossing without acquaintance with the fords, we engaged a native, slave to the chief James Cook, to proceed with us to Kawatiri. This man was of the Ngaitau, or Southern tribe, and had been to Araura on a former excursion. The weather still preventing our proceeding through the wood to the Wanganui, I walked to Cape Farewell and the long sandspit, which commences about 7 miles to the north of Pakawau.

The flats off Taupata Point, in the corner of the bay, are strewn with the bones of the grampus, or black-fish of the whalers, which in the month of April frequent in great numbers this coast, in search of the moUuscae, their food, and occasionally become entangled among the shoals, remaining dry at low water upon the banks.

The sandspit projects from about half a mile to the south of Cape Farewell, and continues in an easterly direction for about 10 miles, with an average breadth of a third of a mile : at low water, however, the distance is about 2 miles from the inner bay to the breakers on the Straits side. The spit here consists of an accumulation of steep sand-hills, to the height of perhaps 70 feet, being divided by valleys hollowed out by the wind into the most eccentric windings. The natives are said to haul their canoes across this spit. To do so, however, would cause more trouble than the passage round the point. Cape Farewell is composed of a ridge of secondary sandstone and conglomerate, containing Btreaks of lignite and pitch or bitumen,

and is a rock similar to that through which the Western River, or Buller, flows in its passage from the Lakes. The cape is about 200 fett high, with lower precipitous sides towards the sea : the detritus which has been swept from its face by the action of the sea, appears to have been drifted by the flood tide and prevailing south-west wind round towards the entrance of Massacre Bay, where, under the lee of the cape, it has accumulated in quiet. The spit, however, is too large to have been formed by the destruction of this ridge alone, and it is very probable that much of the earth is from the slips and falls of cliff along the steep coast by Rocky Point, and which, being prevented from accumulating on a coast so much exposed to the swell from the westward, which rolls uninterruptedly from Van Diemen's Land, and being also impelled gradually by the flood tide, at length passes the cape and is deposited upon the bank formed of the detritus of the cape. This supposition is confirmed by the circumstance of the successive changes in height of the sand-hills towards the extremity of the spit, and the increased paucity of vegetation, I imagine, therefore, that the length of the bank is still increasing.

As I stood upon the cape, a furiouß squall of rain and hail was driving past. The spray from the broken water below was occasionally whirled by the eddying of the gust up to where I was standing. The mist obscured the view for more than a quarter of a mile around, while the noise of the dash of the breakers on the cliff below roared away in concert with the thunder. And the storm for the time seemed universal.

27th.— The weather having changed, we started at length for Wanganui, on the western coast. The path leads across the mudflat at the back of the pa, and then enters the forest, through which it continues in a westerly direction for three miles, crossing occasionally two small streams flowing in opposite directions, that leading to the west exposing coal in its bed. The valley is level, and a road could be made through it without difficulty. On reaching the north end of Wanganui harbour, we halted to dine, and in the afternoon crossed the mudflats to some huts which the natives had recently built near some flaxswamps, to facilitate the gathering of the leaves of that plant, which all are now engaged in scraping for the Nelson market. Distance walked about 5 miles.

The Wanganui is a large salt-water inlet from the west coast, its entrance being about 10 miles south of Cape Farewell. The channel for ships is but small in comparison to the extent of mudflat exposed at low water. Vessels of about 80 tons can cross the bar, and four or five schooners and cutters have been in, among which was the Jewess, which procured here a cargo of coal. The bay extends from N.E. to S.W., and is about eight miles long, with a breadth varying from half a mile to two miles. The hills nearly all round it are too steep for cultivation otherwise than in the native manner; and, with the exception of a flax valley of about 2,000 acres, at the southern extremity, there is no land valuable to Europeans. Here are about twenty natives, who, with the exception of one family, are certainly the most extortionate I ever met with. They consider the traveller a fit subject for plunder, and leave no method untried, either by cajolery or bullying, of obtaining what money or property he may have with him. The striking contrast of character in this particular between these natives and those of Massacre Bay, may be ascribed to the former having so little intercourse with Europeans, the ruggedness of the path preventing them from carrying their produce to market, and the coast being too much exposed for the safe passage of canoes. The coal is most conspicuous on two small islands at the southern extremity of the bay. At the bases of these, and at several adjacent points, it crops out from the red sandstone and conglomerate rock in seams from eighteen inches in breadth downwards. It is a smooth and appears to be a good coal, and may be obtained easily and in abundance. Between Wanganui and Cape Farewell, but I do not know the spot, is found the pakaki, or pitch, which the natives are fond of chewing, and which is sent by them to all parts of New Zealand. It is a hard, compact, and shining bitumen, and is very free from extraneous matter. I believe it exudes from a coal strata, and if in a convenient place for working, will probably become a profitable article of export. The geological formation of the country ia of secondary red sandstone and gravelly conglomerate, with here and there a ridge of indurated white 4juartaose sand. The Strata, are everywhere horizontal or nearly so, and no traces of displacement are to be seen : the surface is nevertheless rugged and abrupt, and evinces the action of abrasion by powerfol currents of water.

28th.— A young native, called the Eulce of York, who with his family form exceptions to the distinguishing characteristic of the natives

here, offered to take us down the harbour jn his canoe, and as it would save ft long ana tedious walk we engaged bis services, and proceeded from Owenga down the northern arm of the harbour and past its entrance to a small bay, in which was a station of Eneho, a chief whom we had been warned against at Massacre Bay, having been told that he would endeavour to obtain from us all that we carried. The old fellow received ub running up and down at the water's edge and flourishing his tomahawk, without any apparent purpose other than to appear a person of some consequence, and perhaps in Borne degree to intimidate us. On hearing that we were going to Kawatiri he at once began to bluster, and declared that we should not go a step further, but stay until he chose that we should return. "We had no right, ho said, to undertake the journey without his permission. He was chief of Wanganui, and the whole of the coast beyond was his, and he must have much money before he would allow us to proceed. There being besides himself but one other man and a few women at the place, we began to doubt as to whether he coflld stop us, and would have put the question to a trial of strength had not a canoe, with three men in it, shot round an adjacent point, who, landing, formed a majority against us. The fellows who now joined the party had about the most sinister looking countenances I have ever seen; nor, from their behaviour, did it appear that their looks belied their dispositions. The most noisy of these was no sooner on Bhore than he declared we should go back to Pakawau, and his declaration was seconded by an old fellow with long white hair and a hypocritical countenance, who, from his similarity in appearance, would have passed for a remarkably fine chimpanzee in the Zoological Gardens. This was Ti Rangituatai, j who, our natives informed us, was a terrible fellow, having talked three prisoners to death! He said nothing to us, but quietly incited the stormy Eneho to further blustering. Believing that extortion was their only aim, we got up with the intention of proceeding to our canoe, our natives being still willing to take us on in it, when Eneho and another laid hold of them, threatening at the same time to put us all in the water. Money, they said, they must have, or wa should go back to Pakawau, and they would take our natives to work on their plantations for them during the winter. Knowing that by acceding to their demands we should but the further excite their avarice, we told them that we would wait there until they would let us proceed; that the idea of returning was ridiculous; and that, could we not go on foot, we should ere long visit the coast in vessels, which he could not detain. We then commenced making ourselves comfortable in his houses. Finding that bullying would procure him nothing, Enebo tried another plan. He would go, he said, to Kawatiri with us, but he must have bags of money for so doing, and we should start in three days, on the Monday. This, however, was useless, serving only to convince us that he despaired of attaining his object. We knew that there was a scarcity of tobacco among the natives, and offering him four sticks in payment for some potatoes, the old fellow waded after us to the canoe, in which he seated himself while the bag was being opened, appearing completely abstracted by the prospect of obtaining Borne of the " weed." Of this we profited, and dragging the canoe hastily over some shallow water, had him afloat and away from the other natives in a minute or two. The sight of the tobacco pacified him, and we paddled briskly away for the southern arm of the bay, nor landed until there were two miles of water between us and the chimpanzee and his party. Walked two miles farther along the fiats of the southern arm to its termination, and then ascended the hills which divided us from the coast, by a rough path leading along some precipitouß limestone cliffs. This at a distance of two miles brought us to the coast, at a stream called Te Apu, where we encamped. Distance 13 miles.

[To be continued.']