THROUGH THE HAAST PASS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1805, 25 June 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

THROUGH THE HAAST PASS.

AIR LAENACH'S EXPEDITION. I From a member of the party which accompanied the Hon. Mr Larnach on his trip to the West Coast via the Haast Pass, we glean the following account of the expedition. The party consisted of the Minister of Mines, his son Mr Donald Larnach, his secretary, Mr I-laiuer. Professor Black, and Professor Mainwaring Brown, of the Otago University .—

A start was made from Dunedin afc 4.20 p.m. on the 2i)tli Match, and the first halt occured at Lawrence, where deputations at. once began to wait upon the Minister. The rule seemed to be deputations first and dinner afterwards, The most hungry of the paity noticed this arrangement and strongly i deprecated |it at the time. Next day a stage of 73 miles "was done to Clyde, where the travellers spent the night. A number of dredges were f een to be at work on the river most ot them doing well. The country was swarming with rabbits, and the settlers despondent m consequence. The excellencies ot oni present Jiabbit Act were, however, iully appreciated. As it was tersely put by one agriculturist, the unfortunate squatter has to support the rabbit inspectors and the rabbits as well. At Clyde the inhabitants gave little encouragement to the party in their intention to traverse the Haast Pass. Overwhelming difficulties were pictured upon the road ; but the Minister of Mines still pushed on his banner through Cromwell, where more deputations were received, and on to Pembroke that evening. At^Pembroke the chief sight was a magnificent display of fruit by Mr M'Dougall, one pumpkin shown weighing 011b. Next morning Lake VVanaka was crossed, and the party had a fine view of Mount Aspiring It is true that, owing to misdirection, they spent some valuable time in admiring the wrong peak, but the legitimate summit came into view before long, to the great discomfiture of the local guides. Pigeon Island, the great resort of tourists, was. passed, and a short stay was made at Moltat's Waterfall Hotel, at the Head of the Lake. Here the party were met by Mr Stewart, a runholder, who had undertaken to provide horses and pilot them through the Pass. THE START AND EQUIPMENT. There was considerable delay next morning in getting ready for the start, but the cavalcade was in motion at about 10 o'clock. Men were sent on ahead with a tent, and each of the mounted party carried a swag or saddle bags, containing, presumably, his dress suit, a bootjack, a three-volume novel, a box or two of cigars, gloves, eau de cologne, and such knick-knacks. One gentleman, however, was an exception to this rule. His luggage at starting was nil, and grew steadily less day by day as he proceeded At Pembroke this gentleman is stated to have made some purchases, which he bestowed in various-sized brown paper parcels and attached to his steed. Unluckily his thoughts were in nwnihus during a considerable portion of the journey, and he shed his parcels generously about him as he rodo. THROUGH THE PASS. The summit of the Pass was reached at one o'clock in the afternoon, the riding having been over a track in some places in fair order, but in others so steep and rough that the horses could barely scramble up. A mistake had unfortunately been made with the barometers taken to measure the altitude, and no results were obtained except an animated discussion as to whose business it ought to have been to look after the instruments. A tent was reached and a few men discovered roadmaking (considerable scope there for their industry) — half-an-hour forarough-and-ready lunch. The party pushed on again'vigorously, and at 6.10 p.m. reached a hut belonging to Mr Stewart. This, as the most pretentious domicile was allotted to the three seniors, and the others disposed themselves to rest in fairly comfortable tents and ruminated upon the roughness of the road and the hardness of the saddles. The weather during the day had been somewhat threatening but no rain had fallen, and the whole ride had been through a birch forest used by Mr Stewart as a cattle run. Next morning another long journey had to be faced and a start was made at about 8 o'clock, as soon as the anchovy toast, devilled kidneys, and other concomitants of a bush-breakfast had been disposed of. The weather was still threatening, but the rain held off, and it was noticeable that the cattle along the route seemed to be doing exceedingly well. Mr Stewart indeed informed the voyagers that he had obtained no less than 63 calves from one bull. THE COUNTRY. There seemed to be a certain amount of good land about in the forest, but it was mostly rather high up, the low country being all cut up by rivers. Some country up the Clarke was observed which has never yet been entered. It is believed by Mr Miller, the chief surveyor, to consist of tussock land, but it has been impossible as yet to enter it on account of th c great gorge where the Clarke joins the ! Landsborough. At about this time the party

began to chance upon troublous times. There were a good many quicksands in the river beds which, vexed their spirits ; and the paths became very rougu, insomuch that they had in places to alight and drive the horses befoie them in singielile. Atone point the track had disappeared through slips, and it was necessary to cut a passage to it over a river bed. At another ugly looking slip the first two hor»e? scrambled safely over, but the third 101 l backwards, and had literally to be dug out before proceeding . Towards evening they oarne upon a wide, well-made road, the chief peculiarity of which is that it comes from nowhere and leads nowhere it was made, however, by the Government with some inscrutable end in view . Howevei , as it is not used and not likely to be used, it will last all the longer. Koadmaking in these parts is no light job, because the track must always be wet unless the scrub is cleared to a considerable distance on either side. The travellers now left the road, and as it was getting dark ha.l the satisfaction shortly of finding that they had lost the track. Apprehensions were entertained of a night out, but they luckily struck the trail again and just before dark, after a very hard day's riding, reached a solitary hotel on the coast kept by one Marks, where good accommodation was found . THE PROSPECTORS. There was no appearance of settlement in the district, but grass seemed to grow freely wherever clearing had been done There were a few diggers in the neighbourhood.and they met a prospector (of whom there are several about the country), who said that those men had suffered so much from losing their rightful rewards for a find — owing to the manipulations of companies which were started &c, — that they were now a days very shy of giving any information. Mr Douglas, their informant, for example, stated that he had found a great many valuable minerals, but until he could make some arrangement he would reveal nothing about them. Another prospector had discovered some valuable deposits, but was drowned before he made any use of his information. With such materials as were at hand, Professor Black proceeded to test the specimens pi'oduccd, including some very good nickel. They were also shown a considerable quantity of local gold. Stories were told of men out prospecting for diamonds, but nothing had ever been found but a quantity of crystals. A FRESH START. Next day (Sunday) it was raining very hard, and the steamer from Hokitika came into the river. As illustrating the dilliculties the inhabitants of the district have to contend with the steamer on this occasion decided at first not to enter, and went down to the Okoura eight miles off, but no sooner had preparations been made to take goods down there than she discovered that the bar was worse, and finally came by the Haast. The party was joined here by the local R.M., Mr M'lfarlane, and an assistant of Dr Black's, Mr Fenton, who came for the purpose of helping to examine the minerals they expected to see beyond Port Jackson. Mr Adair, a road inspector, also reinforced the cavalcade. The rain continuing, however, all idea of going on that day was abandoned, but the following morning a start was made at about half-past 11, still in the rain. The road lay along the sands, there being no track, and a few people were encountered washing the beach for gold. They were, as usual, anxious for all the information Dr Black could give them as to the management of their plates, &c, RIVER SWIMMING AND STRATEGY. On this day's ride the first pleasing experience of swimming horses across rivers was {•aincd. The men were taken over by a ferryman and the animals were led There was a lot of difficulty with some of them, and a grey horse of stern, unyielding disposition broke away altogether. The next river encountered' was the Waitoto, the weather continuing exceedingly bad, heavy rain, thunder and lightning. On reaching the Waitoto the river was lound to be rising rapidly, and the ferryman, after making one trip across and taking the first two horses, declared that he would take no more over. Here stratagem came to the rescue. Those of the party who had crossed dragged his boat some way up the stream and insisted upon him recrossing to " talk to Mr Larnach." "What would bo the result of the ferryman's conversation with the Minister of Minos was never doubted, and the event justified expectations. The party were got over, but it was a long and ticklish job. On each trip the boat had to be dragged a hundred yards or so up stream, and then it was whirled across in a tremendous current. On one passage an oar was broken, and on another one of the horses got caught in a snag, and after many fruitless attempts to release him Mr Fenton took the boat himself and succeeded in getting the poor oeast off. TUB GOVERNMENT IN DANGER. At the next river, the Arawata, his Excellency's Minister of Mines and Marino came very near relinquishing lih portfolio altogether. Mr Larnach, who wasted no lime, crossed first with his son, and rode on over tho river bed. Mr M'Farlane, Dr Black, and Professor Brown following, oaught sight of him in another branch of the river, apparently just going under. It turned out that Mr Larnach had

ridden in, determined to try the ford at the point where he saw the tracks of the mail carrier. But the river had risen since then, and his horse was taken off his legs, a tremendous stream running meanwhile. Mr Lamaoh himself remained perfectly calm in this awkward predicament, and endeavoured to head the animal in the right direction for the opposite bank. The horse, however, turned round with him and came back to the same shoie, where with some difficulty he fortunately managed to effect a landing. MOKE PKEDICAMENTS. The party were now between two streams, branches ot the same river, and the water was rising very fast. They galloped back to the tuiTyman, and brought him across with hid boat by a stream which fortunately connected the two. The hindermost party had not yet come in sight, and as it was too lat', now for them to cross they had to pass tho' night in a hut on the other side. The advance party had still two branches of the river to cross, and at the second one encountered the greatest difficulty. On one occasion, the ferryman, after getting one horse over,' was missed by those on shore waiting to catch his boat, and he was swept down stream, whereby he lost one of his oars and was moved to employ much bad language. However, a spare oar was obtained, the boat svas dragged up stream again and sent spinning across, and by the time it was dark horses and riders had been got over in safety Their next proceeding was to lose the track — having crossed the river at an unusual place - and they spent half an hour in the rain looking tor it. They struck it and proceeded through the bush in absolute darkness, each unable to see the horse in front of him. One animal went down, and another fell over a bank ; but despite these trifling drawbacks, all got safely into Jackson's Bay by about 9.30 p.m. with magnificent appetites and dripping garments. This so far was pronounced to be the big day of the expedition.