ROUGHING IT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1106, 12 May 1893, Page 42

ROUGHING IT.

THE FIRST BUSH-FELLING PARTY. Mr J. Mackay, of the Labour Bureau, returned on Saturday night from tbe Ota« makapua block, whither he went on Wednesday morning (accompanied by Captain Turner, of the burvey Department) with the men who had been selected to take up the bush-felling contracts. They wtre 27 of them, and to judge by the spirit with whioh they have braved the discomforts that have already beset them, they are tho proper stamp of men to establish a new settlement in the bush. The party, which by the way included the wife of one of the men, stayed on Wednesday night at Birmingham. On Thu sday they went on to PembertoD, and passed the night there. On Friday they pushed on to their destination, whioh was a ole&ring of about 200 acres knowD as the Wairaki clearing. As the weather waa so threaten* ing and the track little better than a morass, the solitary woman of the party was strongly urged to remain behind. She had true grit, however, for Bhe was determined to push on with the rest, taking her share of the hardships. In her owu words, ' What is gooii enough for my old tain will do equally well for me.' Immediately on arming at the clearing on Friday the man started to pu r - up their tentß, but before they were through with this task the rain came down in torrents. As a oonsequenoe much of tho beddiDg was soaked, and the whole party that night had to lie on sacks. Meauwlale Mr Mackay aod Captain Turner had b:eu into the bush to gather eoine data upon which to calculate the rates for paying for the felling of the timber. On Saturday morning it was still raining heavily, but the party wera all in capital spirits, aud tho camp presented quite an animated acone. The dozen tents were pitched on one side of a little stream, on the opposite side of whioh were some eight or ten tents, forming the main camp of a party of surveyors working somewhere in the neighborhood. Fires had been lit for the ma tutinal meal, Blender colls of smoke were circling upward through the pelting rain, and the men were busy about their camp, apparently not one whit dismayed or de» pressed by the dreary outlook and the discomforts they had already had to put up with. On that morning Mr Mackay started on hie homewsrd journey, leaving Captain Turner to oomple e his work of roughly laying off the block. He expected to finish yesterday, and the men were to start their bushfelling work yesterday morniag. The overseer had not been appointed when Mr Mackay left. The men will be paid at the rates ruling in the district for suoh work, and will have to draw their supplies from Birmingham.