The Traveller.

Otago Witness, Issue 1506, 25 September 1880, Page 7

The Traveller.

A VISIT TO SOUTH CANTERBURY.

"Rebus augustis fortia appare," As that most knowing old gentleman of the world, Horace, wisely recommends; and I thought it perhaps the best thing to be done underthecircumstances, asl tried one evening for about the fifth time to find the track to a certain station I was. in search of, and each time wandered further from the right point.

The shades of night were falling fast, And my magnificent steed, of fully fourteen hands in height, was beginning to show signs of being " done up " as he shook his huge Roman nose in decided objection to any further vain attempts to square .'a cirole. ' I repeated my Horatian maxim to him, and entreated him to appear as strong aa he could hi suoh an unfortunate, state of, things ; but it was useless — he didn't see it at all in that light, and, if anything, tried to seem weaker rather than stronger-; so, as the flames of the burning tussock glared through the increasing darkness hi several directions, I gladly gave up my views and adopted his, as I made for a lonely shanty that fortunately we came across,, and asked , for a night's lodging. My venerable steed made a praiseworthy effort to exhibit his pure Arab breed when he found he had.gotjhia way, and was to be released from his toils and sufferings for this one night, and commenced what would have, been a wild sorb of reel of tullochgorum of delight had his powers been equal to his intentions ; but, poor old fellow ! he could barely hobble into the shed that served for a stable, and gratefully received the liberal feed that was kindly offered, to him. *He gave a sort of broken-down chuckle of thanks, that said as plainly as possible,

: " Werry much obliged, guv"nora both," And I must say that as I sat down to | a supper of eggs and bacon, with a good pannikin of warm tea, I ohuokled with | almost as much gratitude to my friend and I his dame who were bo hospitably providing for a tired and hungry traveller. -They were of the working farmer or "cockatoo" class, but they had a comfortable place, and some 300 acres of good light land, and if they didn't make quite so much show as some of their bigger neighbours, they had plenty of good things about them, and no .doubt something put by against a rainy iday, while the land, as the owner put it, " would grow till all was blue," though of the precise period that that signified I am almost as uncertain as modern prophets are of the mysterious time " times and a half," that in spite of the annual "assurance that the time of the Millennium has oome, seem to be yet as far from their completion as ever. My friend had one of those* warmest, though cheapest of places of abode for bleak and exposed country settlements— namely, a sod. shanty, with a thatched roof. But though they may not he the cleanest-looking or most architecturally noble specimens of the works of man, may be made to contain everything that a being of not too refined ideas can re. quire. My sofa was a substantial clothes bos which, with another of the same description and a oouple of warm . blankets, did duty also as my bed and shake-down ; but I had only to oast my eye upward. and there were hams and sides that would have rivalled those that had suoh a .powerful effect upon my feelings during my .last journey. The tea and the bread, and the milk, butter, and eggs were all there in the same profusion and excellence. The lady of the house, or, as her lord and master affectionately called her, " the old ooman," made, I believe, a very good thing out of a cartload of these delicaces driven once a week to the nearest township for forwarding on to Ashburton. Rain or blow, cold or sunshine, there was the " old. ooman," on her regular day once a week, jogging along the road with the old thick-legged horse, and the decidedly roomy, muddy old cart. If the raw poured, the "old ooman" had on a thick oilskin overcoat, and sometimes a, "sou'wester," or if it was bright sunny weather her head was adorned with a big straw hat, euch ag mortal eye never beheld on any other head, under which her bonny old sunburnt countenance beamed like a magnified ribatone pippin. If she met a friend on the road there would be a pull-up for an exchange of friendly chat! and a bit] of gossip, and if they were within a mile or so of any known place for refreshment the chances were they would repair there for something of a refreshing nature, though the " old ooman" always protested that she '< never took anything stronger nor tea," and smiled with her jolly old countenance turned first to one shoulder and then to tho other, and then concluded regularly with the same words, "Well then, since ye., are so preasin, jaat a little drop o' gin." That was her grand weekly fete day, and If she were well she would no more allow her husband to deprive her of It than she would think of running away from him, and great was the admiration of her old man for her. powers of business, and her own pride in the proceeds of her bright idea, as exhibited in the shape of substantial boots and warm clothing for her flock o! little Johnnies and. Billies and Pollies. I always have admired, and always shall, the bouncing, great blooming beautiful children of the New Zealand settlers ; there never was such a land for sturdylooking rosy children, but the "oldooman's" flock exceeded all in that line that I have ever seen— little broad-chested rascals, with a great firm pair of red smooth cheeks swelling out on each side of their faces, such as ancient artists delighted to bestow upon those destitute infants with mora wings than clothing, employed to continually, blow trumpets in the realms of everlasting bliss, and a pair of calves on their sturdy little legs that, aa a polite London Jeamea would have expressed it, .

" Oughter belonged to the hangels in 'eaven." These little blessings were soon on terms of the most affectionate and uproarious intimacy with me, and in spita of the warnings from the old man, and the old ooman that they were to "oome none of their larks," there was one on each of my knees, laughing and chattering, and putting titbits out of my plats into my mouth all the time I was at supper ; while another was climbing up my back, with a view of representing the celebrated ride to Banbury Cross, in which I wag to, perform

the ignoble part of " cockhorse." Verily I bad my reward, for the " old oomanV heart was gained, and I always know where to find one good friend with a pressing invitation to make their home my own for a week, if I wish to do so. Turning out soon after daybreak for a look round with the old man, when the air was fresh with the luscious perfume of the clover, and the larks in •cores were trilling their morning song, while the distant snow peaks were decking themselves in all the colours of the rainbow to welcome the rising sun, we quietly in■peeted the ripening crops of wheat, oats, and barley, and the thirteen or fourteen good strong draught horses, the four cows *nd the calf, and the apoplectic gentleman in the stye, who had, most unfortunately for him, been marked out as a fitting saorifice for the approaching Christmas festival, and who, knowing his days were numbered, and having been provided with every consolation in the qhapa of unlimited barley-meal and middlings, was preparing nobly for his end. Then, after a substantial breakfast, the first cosree of which was a bowl of porridge and cream that might have pleased the most worn-out old epicure of London or Paris, and a further representation of the ride to B»nbnty Cross with the children, I saddled me my venerable Roman-nosed steed, and got me down unto the next station. I may exy generally that the land ia this part oi the Canterbury Provincial District — extend ing from the Rakaia t« the town of Chertaey j — ia, though rather l'ght, of a particularly productive character when favoured with a reasonably good season. The surfaoe in places is rather uninviting to a newcomer, judging from a first view of the Bhingle ■tones scattered over it ; bnt when it in worked it is found tbat the stones lie onlj on the surface, and that underneath there ita good seep loam on a bottom of shingly gravel that will carry a crop of 40 bushel* of wheat with only an average rainfall Modern farmers acknowledge the advantages of extensive plantations on flat districts bare of timber and exposed to violent gales of wind, not only as a (shelter, bat m a mean? of increasing the amount of rainfall; and muoh injary has been suffered by early beginners in many parts here by their neglect of due provibion for this want, and tiie natural coasrquence of dry summers, with only too frequently weak, stunted oropi, or occasional violently destructive gtles carrying all before them, and sometimes evi-n stripping a paddock or two of their looie surface soil and whatever cropß they might be .carrying as effectually us a sweep of the s^a. Ia all directions, however, now that the main cause of these evils has been comprehended, the remedy has been taken properly in hand, and rising young plantations of gam- trees and many kinds of English and American timber will eventually effect the care, the good result* being already ia some measure, it is said, perceptible. No man now sets to werk ;to farm an estate without first devoting a certain portion to plantations round the borders and in parts most exposed to the violence of the gales. The belief that prevailed a few yean ago among high farmers in England tbat the room taken up even by hedges w»s HO much land waßted, and the wholesale clearance of all sheltering breaks about an •state that ensued, has now been found. to bava been a mistake which it bas been abso lately necessary to repair as soon as possible by the restoration in some measure of hedges •nd plantations, and in this part of New Zealand the want of timber and shelter is oarefully made the first object of every farmer's consideration. The want of water has hitherto been a bar to the progress of this past of Canterbury, though it hu never affected the monied settlors who could afford to provide against it by a system of deep wells and concrete tanks for the collection of anrface water ; bat all this will be taken ia band in these engineering times by extensive schemes for the, conveyance of water from one part of a distriot to another, and general irrigation. These great general schemes of improvement, like the railway system, are mere matters for arithmetical consideration. So many acres, won h' so much an acre, to be improved by an outlay ef to mucn, in their saleable valae and their yearly produce, to so much increase, furnish fall lecarity f er the outlay, and justify the immediate undertaking of the project. The first farm I arrived at in the course of my peregrinations was tbat of Mr L. White, ▲ TINS FREiHOLD ESTATE OF 4200 ACRES, mostly of a rich loamy soil, of which 2100 seres were in crop — 1600 being appropriated to wheat, 300 to barley, •nd 200 to oats. The owner of this property practically exemplifies the truth of my remarks upon the now general feeling as to the advisability of making planting a principal consideration in laying out a farm, for he has devoted 65 aorea to hedgerows, copses, and avenues of floe young growing gum trees, pines, and other trees of quick growth. The difference that In a very few years will be effected in jbhe appearanca and value of estates on the Canterbury Plains by the addition of the grateful shade of the rustling many-tinted leaves along the coarse of the roads and round the different domains, is hardly appreciable. by the present holders, who are only tao much accustomed to the howling gales of winter and the overwhelming dust of dry summers ; bat there is not the slightest reason why the beauties of the English County of Kent should not be rivalled, if not far surpassed, by the Canterbury Plains of the next gene ration. Home was nob built in a day, and we most not expect, with all oar AngloSaxon energy, to effect all tbat is to be done In these beautiful Colonies in one lifetime. As Mr White piloted me over hia homestead, and dilated on the merits of bis horseflesh in particular, he did not appear to be by any means a morbidly dissatisfied man. I was introduced to about forty five head working, big-boned draught horses and duly shown all the points over which I was to gratify my powers of admiration, thongh at this length of time from the date of my visit I am sorry to say that I cannot folly particularise every excellence. Ido not forget, however, two remarkably gentlemanly well-bred entire fellows, whose good looks led to an inquiry as to who they might be, and the announcement that I was in the presence of " The Champion " and • • Lord Glasgow," two distinguished members of the equine aristocracy of New Zealand. They, with a brood mare which bad taken a prise

in a show at Lees ton not long before, afforded ample subjects for my host's and my admiration. After a certain amount of indul. geace we passed on to an examination of the implement shed. Were I to give unrestrained flow to my powers in expatiating upon the ingenuity displayed in fehe manu» facture of agricultural implements by the present generation, as compared with the simple makeshifts of our forefathers, and then, branch into a glowing description of ill the excellencies of a iT'Cormick or a Weston and Proctor reaping and binding machine, I am afraid I should weary my readers before I had half finished with the übject, and still be unable to do as much justice to it as half an hour of the practical -xperience of many thousands of the farming community of to-day could afford. 1 will therefore reserve my eloquence for some future occasion, merely observing that of nnny of the improvements in agricultural implemeats of all descriptions Mr White had. availed himself. To see all these various perfections of costly machinery for •he saving of labour in common use in a land that only a few years ago was a wilderness, is sufficieat evidence of the v«t progress of intelligence amongst the farming class that has been made by the present generation. The old " vaamer " scratching his head, and trying to puzzle out how many twos made four, and thumping his great brown fist on the table, and swearing " a iidn't want no darned tea kettles to vaarm afs land, and that as his vaather and his vorevaathers for eight hundred years had iraarmed their land, zo a meant to vaarm aisn," has gone to glory, and is only preserved in the penny novels of these times ; *nd the farmer of to day must be as smart * man in the pursuit of his own interests as che Manchester cotton spinner, and know as well how to judge of the merits of good machinery versus slow hand labour. If one machine can do the work of half a dozen men in one-half the time, and needs no feedlag nor weekly wages, the maohine is the oesfc, and all tha pretended sympathy for she working man won't avail to stay the ntroduction of it by any reasonable man j and it is in a thinly populated country like this, where labour must be paid for, that avary improvement in machinery will be most eagerly sought for. Tne horror of one of the old school, accustomed to his little old wooden plough, at the sight of a steam six furrow tearing up an acre of ground while " a could drink a glaas o' zider," may be pitiable, bnt the order of the day in everything, from religion to sowing-ma jhines, is to move on to praotioal advantage in spite of all old beliefs. After a pleasant day passed on this fine estate, I rode on in the 000 lof the evening again to the next station, the owner of which is one of the beat representatives of the modern progressive school in farming as in everything else that I have had the pleasure of meeting in this country.