BUSH LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9452, 24 August 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

BUSH LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND.

At Te Arai we sat on rocks by the heavy surf and picked up multitudes of shells; amongst others, mutton,-shells and earshells, of which the wild boars are said to be fond, coming down at low tide and tearing them off with their tusks. Striking through the sandhills we entered the swamps which lie between the sandhills and the high - wooded lands, further back. Here the wild pigs have their lairs, wallowing in the marsh, and sleeping in the matted and almost impervious jungle of toe-gra#s. Wo moved but slowly on through this difficult bit of ground, having continually to throw ourselves on the grass to flatten it down, and so make a way over it where we could not force a passage through it. Much of it was as high as, or higher than, ourselves. In places we cleared a track with our billhooks, floundering on in Indian rile, till we reached the far end of the swamp. On the border of the forest, beyond we light-ed our pipes, and being thirsty, felled a palm tree and regaled ourselves on the deliriously juicy substance, well known to settlers, which grows inside, and which is, in fact, the unexpanded crown of stem and unfolded leaf. Coming presently to the rootings and fresh tracks of pigs, we laid outdogs on the scent, and, after a time, heard them give tongue Off we went, after them, as hard as? we could tear. Obstacles, insurmountable before, were easily surmounted now. We did not now complain of the gashes we received from the barbed, spear-like grass, which gave a cut as clean as any sharp knife. To get first to the front was now our only care ; and so simultaneously did we all arrive on the scene of action that we fell pell-mell upon the savage boar as he stood at bay before the dogs, " bailed-up" against a great tree, which he had artfully chosen as a rear guard. Allingham, with a notable briskness which won him much applause, seized a propitious moment, and, stepping in, cut the boar's throat with his bowie-knife. It was a dangerous job, well and quickly performed, and with little regard for the furious beast's tusks, which are formidable, and occasionally fatal, weapons. With much trouble we chocked our dogs off the dying beast, and, having dressed him in a butcherly fashion, hung him up by a crosspole betwixt the two trees where he fell. Covered with the blood of the pig, and with blood issuing from the scratches we had received, we looked a horrid crew as we stood to take breath and sheath our reeking knives after the excitement) was over. But, there was no time, happily, for sentiment. The dogs were again giving tongue loudly ahead, and off we went on the trail, and, nalf-an-hour later, had the satisfaction of despatching a second boar. By the time we had got him trimmed and hung up, it was pitch dark ; and it was with much fatigue and difficulty that we groped our way out of the forest and at length arrived at the Crapps' cottage, thoroughly spent and ravenously hungry, but all in high good humour, and satisfied with our day's exploit. By the light of blazing kauri-gum we devoured the liver of one of our pigs, and then smoked till we fell asleep. This day may serve as a sample of many others passed in like manner, with variations of eel-fishing and pigeon-shooting. Our farm was the last thing that engaged our attention, and, of good sooth, there was nothing engaging about it. We. did, indeed, set a few potatoes, and sow carrots and turnips, butt they (very wisely) refused to come up. Our time was spent in fighting against the cold and almost incessant rains, and in endeavouring to exist on the rotten, rat-eaten remnant of our soaked provisions, which, ever since we came down, had been left without protection to the fury of the elements. There was no room for both them and us in the hut. Perhaps it had been better to have given them the " pas" and remained outside ourselves. At the end of six weeks we were reduced to tea, which, from mould, was greener than green tea. Our sugar was done, having melted itself away. All our other things were in a like bad way, with the exception of the salt pork, which, having behaved well from the first, remained cheerful to the last, and came up smiling to the scratch, in spite of much illusage, frizzling and frying in its pan to cur daily solace and contentment. Nevertheless, we began to think our role, of landed proprietors was pretty nearly played out. The man's words, that our land was " much of a muchness, and would probably do for us", rang ever in our ears. At the end of three days of steady pelting rain, in outseventh week, Allingham, on a sudden impulse, took himself off, swearing that no consideration on earth should induce him again to enter our dilapidated hut. He had reason on his side ; also he had friends at Kaipara and Akara, twenty miles off— Irish people, who had often asked him to pay them a visit—and he thought this a good opportunity. I lingered behind for a few dull days, and then, packing up what was left me, started afoot for "Mooney's," the little public-house at Mangawai, eight miles off, and our nearest village. Allingham had appointed this as outplace of rendezvous on the termination of his visits. It was without the faintest shadow of regret that I left " The Snare" — "a thing that" (like the village stocks in one of lord Lytton's novels) "in its best day had small pretensions to beauty, and was not elevated into the picturesque even by neglect and decay." When I got to the Manga River I had to wait an hour or so before the state of the tide would admit of my crossing. I employed the time satisfactorily amongst the tree oysters; but it was unpleasant work, afterwards, wading bare footed amongst the muddy mangroves, on whose tangled and protruding roots whole colonies of these bivalves had found homes for themselves. Oysters are grateful to the palate, no doubt; but far from grateful as an external application of their spiky shells to the naked feet. It was just sunset when, on getting to Mooney's, I found Allingham at the door to greet; me, having iust arrived from his visit to, Kaipara, where he had found his friends, the lakes, very comfortably domiciled in a noble forest. To sit on a soft chair ; to eat off a table with four sound legs ; to have food clean, wholesome, and prepared by other hands than mine ; above all, to sleep in a proper, decent bed — these things, from lOng disuse, seemed odd, but very enjoyable. Our first day at Mooney's was one of heavy gale and pelting rain. We sat delightfully snug and comfortable in our cosy parlour, over the blazing fire of logs on the hearth. All warm and dry, we looked with contempt on the rain, which had so lately been our continual dread and abhorrence.. Wo had brought a few books with us, so that we did not find time hang heavily on our hands. Our library was an odd little jumble as ever found i f s way to a bush inn: — "The Letters of Junius," Horace, "Essays of Elia," Greek Testament, Sophocles, " The Diversions of Purley," " Thomas - a - Kempis," " The Garden of the Soul," " Spiritual Quixote," and a rather risky French novel we had borrowed of the Crapps. We had made our selection with strict regard' not so much to worth as to weight, preferring the worst duodecimo to the best octavo. After waiting eleven days for the cutter, which lay at anchor in the stream before our windows unable to cross the bar, we heard at last there was a chance of her sailing, and immediately went on board ; bub, when we had drifted cautiously down to the bar, wo found it still too rough to cross, so anchored again and amused ourselves as best we could. Next day we had better luck, and after a spanking run of fourteen hours, came to our berth in Auckland harbour, and were not sorry to find ourselves back in our comfortable cottage after two months " roughing ib in the bush."—J. Lawaon, in the Gentleman's Magazine.