To the Editor of the" New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator."

New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator, Volume II, Issue 124, 16 March 1842, Page 3

To the Editor of the " New Zealand Gazette and Wellington Spectator."

Sir,— l send you a short account of a recent trip into the interior, which may be of some interest to your readers, and remain, Sir, your obedient servant, E. Jerningham Wakefield. Wellington, March 14, 1842. ' .

On the 9th of November last, I left the settlement at the mouth of the Wanganui river, and ascended the river about 100 miles, to* a village called Tata. Being delayed by rain one day, we did not reach this until noon on the 15th. Beyond Te Icau Arapawa, Avhich 1 have formerly mentioned in your, pages, the navigation of the river is obstructed by frequent rapids or falls, caused by shingle-banks or snags, there being as many as twenty-six in the next 50 miles. The scenery improves in proportion as the land immediately on the banks becomes less, available and easy of access ; hut the native plantations, as well as settlements, are prettily scattered along both sides the whole way yip. ' Besides numerous small villages, I passed 13 fortified villages or pahs, of which 10 are on the west bank. The principal ones are Tunu aire, 15 miles from the sea; Ikurangi, 60; Pukihika, 70 ; and Pipiriki, SO miles xxp the river : Pukihika is the largest one of all, being in fact a collection of eight or nine small pahs on a commanding hill on the west bank, which has been recently selected by the united inhabitants of Wanganui as a place of defence against their common enemies from Taupo, Waikato, or Rotorua. From Pipiriki to Tata, the scenery is magnificent, the river flowing between clifts 100 feet in height, fringed with foliage and mosses down to the water's, edge, while the wood on 1 the top hangs far over the stream from both sides. In this part the only path to the settlements consists of a rude but strong ladder, consisting of trees and tcareau or supple-jack, reaching from the' water to the top. Such was the path by which we climbed up to Tata, upwards^ of 100 feet. Here the chief E Kuru, with all his family and adliorsiits,- -wara- dvawii -up • to receive- inc. He has a nice "quiet settlement on the flat, which reaches,, about 300 yards in breadth, from the edge of the cliff to the hills. The next day I/was guided by the natives to a mountain called Aurupu, close to the river about two miles higher up, from which I got a view of Tonga Riro and Mount Egmont. There is an extensive tract of fine wooded country all about here, not very hilly, and possessing' an extremely rich soil. . In many places, cleared .by the natives, there are tracts of 500 or 600 acres where the plough could be used. The native plantations on both sides of the river are very extensive. After enjoying the view, we descended to the river's bank, and crossed-in a canoe to Tieke, a large settlement, inhabited by people chiefly of the Ngatiawa tribe. Here there is a beautiful monument in honour of a dead chieftainess. "It consists, as usual, of a large canoe stuck upright; and is 30 feet high, ornamented with carving representing three figures standing one at the -top of the other's head. The workmanship is most elaborate, scarcely a square ijach of the wood being left plain ; and the whole-is painted with red ochre and fringed with albatrossfeathers. The two men who carved it told me it took them six weeks to complete. I returned to Tata in a canoe. It was not till the 19th that my party where all ready to start for Taupo. On that day we got into the canoes, and pulled down about'four miles to the place where a tributary called Manganui, or large .branch, fl.ows into the Wanganui. This we ascended about two miles, the natives jumping, out and tracking the canoes up rapids, several of which had a fall of six feet. The Manganui also runs between cliffs, but nearly 200 feet in height, and is inhabited as far "up as we went that night. We slept at a settlement called Mo.c awatea, or sleep-in-the-day~time, and proceeded the next morning, .after crossing the river twice immediately above, through hilly forest land for ebout five miles. Here the boys were tired with their heavy loads, and stopped in a patch of fern for the night. But it would be tedious to relate each day's journey separately. 1 Suffice it,.tp^ say that, although I had been told .it was bii^ two -day's walk from the Wanganui to- Taupo^' at noon on the 23rd the natives said it -was! still two or three days' walk. We had 'proceeded but slowly. Our path". lay chiefly along the valley of the Manganui,, which keeps an average of two miles wide, and is intersected by a deep gulley in which the river runs.. Many parts of the valley are clear, and in some 'places we passed sjnall plains of grass : in others we plunged into the forest, and crossed steep ridges, apparently in order to avoid circuitous bends of the valley. We had forded the river five times ; and the ' assistance of the natives was most welcome in overcoming the difficulties occasioned by the rapidity of the stream, and the slippery rocky footing. This road must be perfectly impassable in winter, when (the river is swollen by freshets. The heavy loads had made our progress very slow: so] that the potatoes began" to run short, and they all stopped to' dig fern.' Fortunately the river abounded with a kind of bird between a coot and a widgeon, called wio, of which we shot half-a-dozen at each ford.' I now selected two natives to carry my tent and bedding, and determined 'to

push> on, with a gentleman who had accom{>aniedme from Wanganui. We accordingly eft the -jest to roast fern- Jto" their heart's coi*tent, and bring up the hjayy baggage at their leisure". We had only performed 36 miles, according to rough calculation, since leaving Moe awatea. The whole valley has been thickly inhabited by the tribes who, leaving Taupo and other part? ,of the interior, gradually migrated to Wanganui, and have now fixed their residence on- its banks. At every mile we were shown the site of pahs, and the fields on which numerous battles had been fought in the olden time between the different tribes from Wanganui, : Taupo, Waikato, and even the Ngatikahuhunas. We pushed on about six miles more to-day through bush, and encamped at dark under an old rata 'tree called Kordko. We had forded the river twice; and ascended its bank the last time by means of a rickety Tcareau ladder, about 30 feet high, which is fixed to the cliff at the exact spot where a small waterfall spouts over the edge, and renders the ascent far from safe or pleasant. 24th. It poured with rain at daylight ; but we had now no other alternative but to push on, defying the weather. Ten miles, over a level table land covered with wood, brought us to the.Manganui where it is swollen by three smaller streams. We descended at least 1500 feet to the stream, crossed it and two of its tributaries, and then ascended a ragged ridge to the opposite bank of the dark deep dell, in which the stream flows. This' dell, with its various branches, presents an uncommonly picturesque appearance, from the steepness and height of its banks, which are covered almost wholly with the towai. Five miles more along a dead flat through towai forest brought us to level grass plains, which continue at the same height as the table forest land. The plains seemed about four miles in width, and bounded qn cither side by wooded hills, whose summits were hidden by thick masses of clouds. This kind of prairie is called mania by the natives. It is covered with a poor tufty grass, with a very delicate blade, though here and there are excellent patches of other grasses well fitted for pasture. At twilight we prepared to encamp at the edge of a point of wood which projected like a promontory from the eastern edge of the prairie. We had some difficulty to light a fire, as it had poured incessantly the whole day; and were obliged to fare on short commons, and sit wrapped in our blankets by the fire, until the warmth made us sleepy enough to turn in notwithstanding the wet. Two young wekas or wood-hens, about as large as sparrows, which my dog pulled out of their burrow, -were esteemed a valuable addition to our scanty supper. 25th. The rain had. continued all night, and gave no signs of mercy this morning ; but as one wio and 12 potatoes were our whole stock of provisions, and we were still far from *our journey's end, delay was out of the question. At the first dawn of day we pulled on our wet clothes, and walked eiglit, miles along the prairie, which is in many parts swampy and covered with rushes. We now crossed a small tributaiy of the Wanganui, and after two miles' walk Uiroug-li b. Leli, of iOtoal fuicst, uuo liter, called ■ the Tawai.\ The plamsnovv seemed to extend on every side, and as the weather cleared up, and the clouds lifted, we saw the majestic forms of Tonga Riro and the Para'te tai tonga volcano within a few miles of us to the eastward. Furthest to the southward lay Tonga Riro itself, covered with snow. This is the mountain seen from Cook's Straits. A low ridge joins the northern spur of Tonga Riro to the southern base of Para te tai Tonga, a mountain of equal height, but hidden by the former from the south coast. This latter is the mountain which Mr. Bidwill ascended in -1838, and calls Tonga ." Dido. " Tonga Riro, however, is a generic name sometimes used for the whole mass of mountains. To the north-east of the volcano, two peaks, apparently extinct volcanoes, complete the gigantic mass. These are called Ruapehu and Puki Onaki, and are not above two thirds the height of either of the others. The whole distance from the summit of Puki Onaki to that of Tonga Riro, may be about 20 miles. After eating half a widgeon and two potatoes each, for breakfast and dinner, we pushed on about 12 miles over a barren plain to the northern spur of Puki Onaki, on the highest part of which we. rested to look about us. We had just passed close under the base of a small extinct volcano, which rises from the western side of the mountain mass to the height of 1400 or 1500 feet, and crossed the Wakapapa, a large tributary of the Wanganui. This stream takes its rise from a small lake, situated to the westward of the lowest part of the ridge which unites Topga Riro to Para .te tai tonga. The •lake is in the middle of. a large circular basin of rocks, five or six miles in diameter, which is stated by the natives to have once been the site of Mount Egmont. On quarreling with his friend Tonga Riro about the affections of a small volcanic mountain in the neighbourhood, .which is stated to be a lady mountain of most fascinating appearance, old Taranak* is. said to have torn up his rocky foundations from this basin and left the ragged and splintered edges to it .which are'poirtted out as proofs of- the fact. He then clove arpa'th through mountain and .wood tor the sea-coast, and/the Wanganui sprang up. in his old site, and fpllowed his footsteps to the sea. So runs the nativ&legend, and the basin is called to this day Rua Taranaki or Taranaki's dyke. It most likely r£fers to some tremendous eruptions of nature-which have doubtless torn these islands at no very distant date. On the northeastern side of the spur, we crossed the Wanganui itself, where it just trickles between the stones which form its bed, > and is not above a yard .wide. It rises from the N.W. side of Puki Onaki, and after being swollen by the Wakapapa andTawai, flows far towardsthe W.S.W. From the highest part of our path, we could trace the broken country formed by its valley for many miles falmostdirectly towards Mount Egmont. The whole country to the W. and S.W seems one sea of wooded mountain. The northern side of Puki oriaki slopes down very suddenly to the shores of a small lake, called Roto aira, and not Roto iti,'as Mr. Bidwill calls it in his "Rambles." On the western side of this lake, the , land is flat and cl^ar for eight or ten miles, when it becomes hilly and wooded, though a branch of the prairie there runs to the northward, The

eastern end of thelake is also-level and clear, but of that I shall speak hereafter. -The northern ; end of the lake is separated froth the southern end of Taupo-lake ' by two .mountains called Kakaramea and Pianga, and the wooded ridge which unites them. From the Wanganui to the western shore of Roto aira is about five miles,' the last two miles through a swamp in which we sunk tip to our knees at every step. The greatest length of the lake'is from N.N.W. to 5.5.32., about five miles. , At the N.W. end a swampy peninsula of 100 yards breadth joins a small island to the main. This island, .called Motu o-'puhi, is about half the size of Somes' Island, and its junction with the peninsula is defended by a very strong double fence. On the island are. the houses inhabited by the , natives of the lake when compelled to take re - fuge there from the attacks of hostile tribes." , A canoe from the eastern shore soon answered our salutes from the island, and took us over to a settlement called Tuku tuku, where we got* abundance of boiled potatoes, and fell asleep in less than a quarter of an hour, notwithstanding' the jabber of at least 50 natives of both sexes, who crowded into the house to stare at the new pakehas, and hear the news from Wanganui. The house was a ware puni or native hot-house, but of very large dim ensions. It was very lofty p held fifty people comfortably ; and was adorned inside-with paddles, spears, and nets of two orthree sorts. Whether the active members of another tribe mustered in force or not, I slept far too sound to know or care.

[To be continued,]