RAMBLES IN THE KING COUNTRY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 88

RAMBLES IN THE KING COUNTRY.

.*. By A Lady Special.

No. VII. Taumaranui is, as indicated by the concluding paragraph of my last number, a centre of contending interests, which, I have since perceived, will lead in the coming session to an endeavour to obtain I suitable legislation. It is somewhat amusing on such a tour as I am now making to observe how all-absorbing some question of local interest becomes in the district affected by the topic, while elsewhere the 6ame theme meetsf with little or no atteni tion. At Taumaranui a burning grievance against the powers that be is caused by , the fact that the river is, in the opinion of 1 the inhabitants, used for the conveyance and entertainment of tourists rather than as a useful water highway, serving the practical needs of the district. As timber rafts aTe deemed unsightly, that nuethod of conveying timber is practically prohibited, ,and railway freight being much more costly than river portage, the trade is said to suffer. Picturesque steamboats and river canoes must not be hindered and intercepted by unsightly rafts, although the owners would never admit the unsightliness. Indeed, one can suppose that a considerable element of the picturesque might even be gained by the use of river rafts, poled down stream by Maori and European raftsmen, who might easily be made, by legislation, to wear a picturesque uniform. So burning is this grievance, and so much interest is taken in the question, that I was asked on all sides to give it publicity ; and as it may be good for the Otago public to endeavour to follow up the trend of thought and events affecting the interests of their northern brethren I feel tempted to copy here an account of the difficulty given me by a great local authority. He writes thus for my benefit and that of my readers: — "The Taumaranui people and the settlers out on the Ohura and other riverside blocks have ' a big growl.' They object to this river being used as a dream of wonderful beauty only. The hardy back-block pioneers want to extract the useful as well as the ornamental from their surroundings,

and with this view they continually petition and interview the Government officials, requesting the right to raft sawn timber, wherewith to build their dwellings and outbuildings. These sawn-timber rafts are easily guided, and average about 4000 ft of material. The Government and the departmental officials will not allow this right. They fought the utilitarian rafters, and generally made things hard, nasty, and disagreeable for the human serfs of the upper King Country, yclept 'settlers on the land.' These people growl ; they may stick in the mud, but they may not float on the water. Everywhere the straight-jacket of officialism is self-evident. Ask who looks after the municipal welfare of Taumaranui and you will be told ' the Town Board,' 'the Maori Council.^ Well, why. don't they do something? They can do nothing, because they have no funds, no power — nothing, at anyrate, sufficient. Well, who does anything at all? The policeman, the railway stationmaster, the coroner, and the King of the King Country, who may be the S.M. for the time being. What keeps this place, anyhow? Saw mills!" I will not apologise for inserting the above " growl," for I am sure it will amuse some, as it amuses me. lam no politician, and don't interfere in such matters ; but there is a genuine ring about my correspondent's communication which :s really touching. He continues thus : — "The Wanganui River, like the waters of Lethe, is forbidden for useful purposes — tourists and trout have the monopoly. As for the roads, there are few from the Main service road, and the Crown lands are in pickle, kept sweet in the sugar of promise. Recently a ballot was taken for a few paltry acres, and the ballot, of course, was at Wellington. The locals had hard luck, and the Empire City took the pool." As a town there can be little doubt but that Taumaranui will one day be an important centre. It 6eems that it must be so. as the tourist traffic is ever increasing and so many interests concentrate at this point. The timber industry is very important, and must be dealt with in a separate article. The town is situated on a flat at the foot of extensive terraces. It is one of the steps of the great water stairway. The whole conformation, as far as I can make out, is as though Tongariro had in some former age -Bubbled over and poured his contents in immense volume over the surrounding country, forming huge steps, or terraces, over which his volcanic material still flowed as 'the water pours from an over-filled basin. There is an immense deposit of pumice, covered with volcanic soils. One .of these terraces is extensively exposed at Taumaranui, where the cutting for the railway has laid the solid wall of pumice bare, showing a white or creamy cliff as one of the boundaries of the town. The train communicating with Raurimu, the next station of importance on the line, is called the Departmental, and is not by Tights a passenger train, very rough accommodation being provided. A_ charge is now made, however, for conveying passengers, and by getting up very early in the morning the trip can easily be made. With this object I rose some time before it was light, and emerging with the first glimmer of the early; dawn made my way to the station. Here I was delighted to meet the " bush parson," whom I had luckily known in earlier years, and who proved a most entertaining and instructive companion. His knowledge of the Bush and its occupants was naturally extensive, and he both directed me and introduced me to many interesting people. He was himself going up the line to officiate at a wedding, and i got off at a station called Owango, where he was met by a goodly company. We fancied we could discern bride and groom and the members of the house party. When I met the parson again later he told me something of the wedding party, and | described a pretty incident which bad occurred at it. In the middle of the ceremony a wild wood pigeon, pursued by a hawk, had fluttered in amorrg the company, and had taken refuge with the bride, who held it sheltered in her bosom. Afterwards, when it was ascertained jhat the hawk was no longer in the vicinity, the fluttering bird was liberated, to seek once more its native shades. My friend told me that it was the first time such an incident had occurred during his ministry, and he drew pretty auguries from it for the happy pair on whom the dove had thus alighted at such a crucial point in their life story. He told me of another bush wedding, at which he had lately officiated. All was in due order, and bride and groom ranged up before him. The groom was a brawny bushman, with a fine, open expression upon his rugged face. He kept rapturously regarding his bride, who was a very prettybush maiden, lost in blushes and confusion, and clinging to her stalwart mate for protection. The parson said the usual preliminary prayers, and proceeded to Ask the questions ; when he demanded a reply to " Wilt thou take this maid, to love and to cherish?" etc., the groom straightened himself up, looked somewhat indignantly at the parson, as though his bona fides was being called in question, and, grasping her round the waist with one hand, he loudly thumped his breast with the other, and shouted, "Rather!" with a warmth which left no doubt at all of his integrity and excellent intentions. I did not see the parson again for many hours after we left him at Owhango. He ai ranged to visit me that evening at a township to continue our chat, but there teemed to be some doubt as to the time atwhich the wedding wo»ld leave him free. " Sometimes they keep it up for several days," he said. However, when our train passed again that day he did not join it, and as there were no other ordinary means of communication I quite gave him up, supposing that the wedding feast had detained him. When the travellings of the day veie ended, however, I was resting in the evening at the house where I had rooms. Seated by my sitting-room fire,

thinking of all that I had seen, and lost in dreams, I remembered the bush parson, and regretted his inability to keep his appointment with me. It was then about 8.30, and I had even thoughts of retiring, when a light tap at the door caused me to look up. The face of my friend was peeping round the door, full of anticipation of an interchange of ideas, and freshened by the night air and bush breezes. At first I thought his appearance part of my dream, so impossible did it seem that he could be there in the flesh, as I thought him to be stranded many miles away. "Is it you, indeed?" I exclaimed, recovering from my surprise. " How in the world did you get here?" " Oh !" exclaimed the parson, " they would keep it up, and I missed the train ; so after it was all oveT I came down the line on a jigger." "On a jigger!" The method of transit was unfamiliar to me then. I saw more of it later. But still I often find myself . overcome with laughter even now when my fancy pictures the bush parson seated ; on that jigger, his earnest face, his coat- I tails flying, his locks outstanding, working | his way downwards along the line, 'through the gathering shades of night and under the stars, negotiating bend after bend, and j breasting the night wind to keep his appointment and contribute to your amusement and mine. The only point on which he failed me was when I asked hire if he could assist me in obtaining some photographic views of the interesting country we had under review. ' "Well, now, Mrs " said my friend, the bush parson, " when you ask me about* photographs you beat me. It is years since I had anything to 4° with photography, and I had enough of it then to last me a tifetime. I was a younger man then" than I am now, and I had got a complete new photographic apparatus. Ewen Cameron — you remember Ewen Cameron! for he lived down Gisborne way, and had a farm there. Well, he asked me to come out one day and take for him a photograph of his bull. It was a prize bull, and he was very proud of it. Well, I agreed to j do it, and so I went out one day. I believe it was a Sunday, and, if so, that accounts for the whole thing. Well, we all went out in the field to photograph that prize animal, and I got everything ready to take a shot at the bull. Yes, everything was ready ; but instead of roe taking a shot at the bull, the bull took a shot at me ; and the way I and that bull and the camera got mixed up was a caution! I don't remember how it ended. I never have been able to remember. But that was the last time I ever tried photo- j grapby. Anything else you can name I'll give you a- hand with, but no more photography for me!"