CASUAL AMBLINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 8670, 12 September 1891, Page 1 (Supplement)

CASUAL AMBLINGS.

[BY A. TRAMI", ESQ.] [FROM TIIE AUCKLAND WEEKLY NEWS.] MOKAU ME AN I)E RING S. WAITARA HARBOUR—HOW WE ARE SERVED BY THE lI't'ING COMPANIES —WAITARA AS A LUNATIC ASYLUM —FREEZING AS A MEANS OK PRESERVING THE DEAD — WAITARA A SUITABLE PLACE FOR A DEADHOUSE— BENEFACTORS OF THE HUMAN RACE PRESERVE!) IN ICE —HON. MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT AND MURDERERS CAN BE MADE TO PRODUCE REVENUE—STATE PR HZ INO WORKS— MODEST MOKAU —MOKAU TO WELLINGTON —MOKAU .TONES—HIS BIG ESTATE. The Waitara River has not improved in its course since we last saw it. Like its neighbour and rival the New Plymouth Harbour it is steadily silting up. The Waitara has the advantage over its rival of tho chance of being deepened occasionally by a scour without any expense to itself or the country. The only resource left to the New Plymouth Harbour is the costly process of dredging. Much to the disgust of the inhabitants the s.s. Cairloch rarely risks entering the Waitara now. Attention to the state of the tide, punctuality, and some navigation is required even to get the packet alongside the wharf at New Plymouth. The Union Company's boat, theTakapuna, just manages to get in and out on top of high water; and the time is nigh when she will have to be withdrawn for a boat of a lighter draught of water.

I wonder how it is tho Union and Northern Shipping Companies persist in running their boats on the same instead of ,on alternate days, and thus give Auckland and Tarnnaki inter-communication on four days a week in place of two. Are Auckland's relations —business and social—with the rest of the colony so unimportant as not, to bo worth tiie consideration of the directors of these companies ? If the Union Company intend to enslave us with their monopoly they might at till events gild the chains and give us as little cause for discontent and, ultimately, insurrection as possible. They could, 1 believe, without toss arrange time-tables with the Northern people so as to give us this four days a week service. It would bo more sensible and business-like were the Auckland Chamber of Commerce to cease clamouring for an impossible railway, and to exert its influence— if it has anycommercial and political, lot the purpose of utilising the means within reach for a moro frequent and regular service between Auckland and the rest of the colony via Taranaki. Surely the Auckland merchants are clever enough to convince the directors of these companies that it would be to their own advantage to alter the time-table dates and stop the .absurd practice of running two boats on the same day and at the same hour. Quiet reigns iii Waitara. Anyono in search of rest and peace,' wishing .to'.live " the world forgetting and by the world forgot," should try Waitara. As a salubrious and soothing sanctuary where lunatics might have a chance to recover their sanity through the want of anything to excite their minds, Waitara would be found most suitable. The freezing works only add to the preternatural calm of tho place. If a sight of tho thousands of stiff and stark bodies of the slaughtered innocents did not succeed in tranquilising the perturbed spirit of madness, a few hours in the freezing chamber would certainly cure the worst cases of rampant lunacy. To test the efficacy of the cure an experiment might be tried with 10. AJ. Smith, "the honourable member" for the district.

The freezing'of ono member suggests the feasibility, of freezing a whole parliament; a parliament, the entire population. The Egyptians preserved their dead by embalming, why should not we attain the same end by the freezing process? It would lessen the pain and hardship of bereavement, could we postpone, even for a limited space of time, the necessity for tho hasty burial of those we love, and bo a consolation to be able to look upon their features, in death as in life, a little while longer ; and to preserve something more substantial than a memory or an urnftil of ashes. What greater boon can we confer upon the unborn millions than preserving their greatest benefactors in the solid flesh ? As a site for a dead-house of representatives, Waitara, from its near neighbourhood to the exhaustless coal measures of the Mokau, possesses exceptional advantages. The institution might be made more than self-supporting by charging a small entrance fee for the privilege of inspecting the frozen features of the defunct legislators of New Zealand.

Another chamber might be set apart for our great criminals. Why should the revenue-producing power of a strangled murderer be buried in the earth to lie and rot in unproductiveness, when by freezing and putting him on exhibition money enough could be made to repay all the expense his crimes have pub the State to, and provide a fund for the maintenance of the relatives of-his victim. Madame Tussaud's waxworks "ain't a circumstance" to what a State Freezing Works, on the above lines, would be if properly managed. Should the new taxation not come up to the anticipations of the Colonial Treasurer he is welcome to adopt this suggestion as a means of meeting the deficiency. The distance between tho Waitara and Mokau is forty miles. Wo did not gobble it all up at once. Wo took it leisurely, believing in the doctrine that "the moro hurry the less speed, as the tailor said to the thread" —a maxim showing internal evidence of having been invented before the sewing machine. From Waitara to Wellington the distance is 254 miles, so that between Wellington and Mokau there is a gap of 294 miles. Alol>au is 'in'-the Auckland provincial .district, but all distances must be reckoned from Wellington. Wellington is the capital of the colony—politically and commercially. It is a pity that it is so, and it is a great injustice to Waiuku and several other places that 1 could mention ; but, as the copy books say, " What cannot bo mended or prevented must be endured." Mokau, however, is not one of those places with capital pretensions. Mokau is modest. To get from Mokau to Wellington the best way is to ride a horse—or a bicycle—as far as Waitara; then take tho Governtnentexpress train to Longburn. From thence per WellingtonManawatu line to th€ Empire City. One can travel with some degree of comfort on the Government line. On the Wellington - Manawatu section it is advisablo to ballast one's stomach with something heavy to prevent it from being turned inside out. Tho shaking and jolting one is subject to on that line is truly terrible. They ought to make that railway ovor again. Mokau Jones often travels from Alokau to Wellington by this route, and I notice he looks older after every trip. I'm sorry for Jones ; in fact, I am sorry for anyone who is compelled to travel much on the Wellingtonline.

Mokau belongs to Jones least a great portion of it does. He is in possession of 56,000 acres, containing splendid tracts of timber, rich alluvial flats, a large area of good grazing land, and a belt of coal country—altogether a very desirable property, worth a pound an acre at least. Mr. Jones had a written authority from Sir George Grey, then Premier of the colony, to acquire this big estate, and after weary years of negotiation and struggle he has at last succeeded in obtaining a title. If patience and perseverance are deserving of reward Jones is entitled to his. It is rather a remarkable, and an unfortunate fact, that the greatest objector to the holding of big estates should be the one person who is mainly responsible for their creation. What Mokau will do with his big estate no one knows—nob even Jones. He has leased a couple of thousand acres of coalfield to an association of miners, and the company was to be financed and managed by a directorate of Wellington gentlemen. But this combination of land, labour, and capital does nob work harmoniously, and the enterprise is in some danger of collapse. The directorate in

Wellington insists upon Mr. Jones completing their lease, which he refuses to do until they fulfil certain preliminary conditions, and deadlock is- brought about, mid the miners are being starved out. For some reason Mr. Jones has not registered his title to his big estate, and I rather suspect his next trouble will be with the tax collector.

Via Wellington is rather a roundabout way to get to Alokau, but I think I will go that way—may possibly pick up some further information concerning the district.