TO AROHA BY WAIKATO AND BACK BY THAMES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6003, 12 February 1881, Page 6

TO AROHA BY WAIKATO AND BACK BY THAMES.

Now that the Christmas and New Year J holidays are past, and with them social merry- ' making, not a few of those who are, for the , greater part of the year, "iu populous city ; pent," will be looking about forau agreeable < trip into the country. There is certainly no • scarcity of splendid and varied scenes of , travel about Auckland, and indeed in that « respect there is probably no city in the world to equal it. We have lipt springs in several directions besides the unparalleled wonders of Rotomahana and Rotorua; we have mountains, rivers, lakes, valleys, and plains, and these in every combination. But I may be permitted to set forth the praises of the brief tour I made, as having severa* special , qualifications which ought to make it attractive, and which are to be found in no other. In the first place every mode of travelling may be had. The tourist has some S4 miles of travelling by rail ; after a ( night's rest he has eight hours' travelling by coach, reminding one of the long trips in England in the old coaching days ; then, after another night's rest, he has eight hours travelling oil a winding river, or he may do half of the distance on horseback. Then, to conclude with, he has five hours'pleasant sea voyige. Surely this ought to satisfy the most eager hunter for variety. Nothing wearies so much as sameness in travelling, but no such feeling ought ever to intrude here. And it is not only the mode of travelling that is varied. The traveller first sees the suburban scenery about Auckland, and the well-cultivated farms beyond, then the coal-mining of the Lower Waikato, the wide ami fertile plains of the delta, with its thousands of cattle and sheep; then the extensive tracts at the head waters of Piako and Waitoa, just being brought under the hand of man ; from these he is plunged into the crowd and bustle and turmoil of a new goldfield, where all is eagerness and speculation. And this claim my trip has, that the tourist will traverse those districts wherein the hope of Auckland lies, districts where progress cannot be stopped, and which in a brief space of years will bear a very different aspect from that they bear now. Seeing that he passes through districts which are actively "progressive." the traveller may even do a stroke of business for himself, and if my recommendations on the score of the beautiful and picturesque fail, surely this last consideration ought to be powerful in a mercantile community. Starting from Auckland by the train at noon, the traveller reaches Hamilton in time to have tea and a quiet evening in that pleasant township. No one can pass over the country between Auckland and Ngaruawahia without lamenting that so much of it is of an unproductive character. The suburban scenery of Auckland is of a most beautiful description, and the land is generally fertile, but the train soon passes into less favoured regions. Between the Waikato River and Ngaruawahia, hardly an}' cultivation is to be seen, and were it not for the coal mines this would be a barren section indeed. These to a great extent redeem all drawbacks ; they have been most useful to the working of the line, to the settlers of | Upper Waikato, to the shipping and commerce of Auckland. To the left-hand of the railway going up extend enormous ; swamps. If any company of men are willing to accept that land, or any of it, as a gift on condition of bringing it into cultivation, I would say by all means let them have it 1 But I fear the colony will have no such luck, and that for many years to come the traveller [ will Inve to cast his eye over many miles of dreary swamp in this part of the country. On the western side of "Waikato, however, 5 there is a large extent of land which might e be brought into cultivation. Most of it is still in the hands of the Crown, and now that there is no hope of getting Tawliiao to come [ in and reside there, it ought to be placed in I the market and sold at a fair price. Ngarua- [ wahia looked as pretty as ever, but not much ; brisker, if any. The gradual occupation, j however, of the lands around it, ami its K situation at the confluence of two navigable 1 rivers, the railway passing through it, and \ the proximity of "the coal mines, must soon J make it start ahead. Hamilton has now its 2 bridge over the river, a large amount of cultivation has been done in its vicinity, and laud is still being rapidly brought in. ~ Further, there is the prospect of a line being soon laid between Hamilton and the > Thames connecting with the Waikato rail- ?; way. This connection cannot have the effect f of taking from Hamilton its character as a , terminus, but will rather tend to make it the point from which the traffic of the Upper | Waikato sheds towards the Thames or J Auckland. But I need not dwell on matters 5 and scenes so familiar to all Aucklanders, but pass on as quickly as may be towards Te Aroha. I found that at Hamilton almost every one was in excitement, more or less, f about the golJtield, assured that with its success an era of prosperity had dawned. 1 And this is not to be wondered at. A good ' goldfield at Te Aroha, profitablj* occupying * several hundreds of men, would mean very * much for Hamilton. It would mean that s t the level and fertile territory between the Waikato and Hamilton and the Thames ® would soon be occupied by a numerous 1 .population, that Hamilton would be a gate- ' way of traffic and commerce. Probably, as 1 with most sanguine expectations, this one is 1 doomed to a much slower realisation than is \ expected, and while, as it may be said, the ? fate of tlie Te Aroha goldfield is still uncertain, it would be well not to build our ? castles iu the air on too lofty a scale.

At vight o'clock on the Friday morning Carter's coach drew up before the door of Gwyune's hotel, and u little active man with the reins in his hands shouted 44 All aboard. *' About half-a-dozen passengers scrambled to their seats, the parcels and carpet bags having been securely stored away. I congratulated myself upon the precision of our start when an incident occurrcd which showed that that was somewhat premature. There were three horses in the coach, two yoked in the coach, and one leading. The leader, a tall chestnut, on being touched up by the whip, instead of going straight forward, ran oil' sideways, and then came staggering back upon the two horses at the pole. A moment of confused plunging took place, and then all the three horses were in a heap on the ground with the pole smashed between them. "Bill, the coachman, was down in a moment, and in about the same time all the passengers were in the road. There were plenty of willing and able hands, the horses were soon on their feet, and Bill shouted with delight 44 there's no legs broke." Another trap was brought out, the defaulting horse was put to the pole, and on as lovely a morning for coach travelling as ever beamed on Waikato wo left the scattered group at the hotel door and passed on to the bridge. The day was indeed a most favourable one. For walking it would have been too hot, but for travelling on a coach it was perfection. Thin Ueccy clouds just tempered a sun which otherwise would have been too bright, while at the same time we were not deprived of the varying colours, and the pleasant light and shade of sunlight. Truly, travelling by coach is much more pleasant than travelling by rail, and I can sympathise with those who in England, groaned over the departure of the old coaching days. Here is one item of superiority which I do not think has yet been noticed. All coachmen are humourists, and entertainment and amusement can always be obtained from anyone who handles a whip. Dideverauy traveller find his mind relieved, the tedium of travel enlivened, the joy of fresh air enjoyment increasing, by au engine-driver ? Never. They are a coal and smoke-begrimed saturnine and silent race, holding no communication whatever with those they arc conveying, and occupied closely in watching their greasy engine or stuffing coals on their smoking fire. With a coachman how different! Each horse is addressed by name, and he takes delight in explaining the peculiarities of the characters of his team. The coachman may, or he may not, know the country through which he passes. The chances are that in New Zealand he knows the names of those who live within view of the road, but that he has only a very hazy notion of the distant ranges, or of the history of the district. In starting from Hamilton, and indeed throughout the whole journey to To Aroha, till we come almost under the shadow of the mountain, there is nothing of the grandeur of rugged and mountain scenery. We have the sublimity of extended space in tracts of level country reaching in several directions to the very horizon, and the imagination must be fed not by romantic crags and peaks, but by anticipations of what a glorious and pleasant and fertile country all that must be when grass and grain are substituted for fern and tea-tree and raupo. But mountains are to be seen, and mountains lofty and beautiful, and famous too. Pirongia and Kakepuku, symmetrical but not huge, guard the entrance to the King country—the extensive district running from Alexandra to Kawhia ; right in front, the goal of our journey, is Te Arolia, with the confused huddle of mountains running out to Cape Colville and

back to Horohoro j Taupiri. and the .-low i extending towards Wharekawa on the further side of the Thames Valley, are also < visible • while in our more immediate neigh- ] bourhood, but not by any means close, are i the rauges of Maungatautari, Maungakawa, and their neighbours. On we drive at a pretty brisk pace, to make up for lost time, until a few miles out ol Hamilton we arrive at the famous swamp which has been the cause of so much speech and print in J"iew Zealand history. The work is not nearly completed upon it, but we suspect that u anyone who saw it in its primeval state were to come now and view the change that a profuse expenditure of capital has eflected, he would be fired by the enthusiastic and poctic spirit of the man who travelling in the Highlands cried — "Had vou but seen these roads before thcrwerem.ade You would hold up your hands aud bless Marshall Wade." Here roads are made which werenon existent a few years ago, and, moreover, "\\heie not a few declared that roads never could be made. Bat what I saw on crossing this land of recent creation, and the rest of my journey , to Te Aroha, must be reserved for another occasion. I ■ . I