THE GREAT SOUTHERN ROUTE

Otago Witness, Issue 3031, 17 April 1912, Page 82

THE GREAT SOUTHERN ROUTE

By H. H. Ltjsk. I.—iACBOSS THE PACIFIC. few contrasts of the new and the old can well be more impressive than that of the present with the past in the facilities for travel between the old world and the n&vr that are offered to the public to-day. It is not necessary to go back to the distant past of 50 or 60 year© ago, indeed, when the best that the New Zealand or Australian settler who wished to find, or had found, his way to England had to reckon with was a four months' voyage, during which the various aspects of sea and sky formed the only scenery to which he was likely to 'he introduced. Twenty years ago the choice lay practically between the Red Sea and the California routes —the latter of which was but little used except by those whose destination was America rather than the Mother Country. To-day the choice is not only varie<d, but attractive. The long sea voyage either to England by way of the Horn, or to New Zealand by way of the Cape, is no longer well described by the title " long," while instead of a monotonous ocean voyage it has become rather a succession of short voyages from country to country, that are both a pleasure and an education to travellers old and young. The addition of the Canadian route via Vancouver has of late years supplied another, and what has proved to be a veryfavourite route to and from England both from New Zealand and Australia — one, too, that for its scenic effects cannot easily bo surpassed. The failure of the old San Francisco line of mail steamers has probably had much to do with the greater popularity of the northern route acrosg the American continent, while the, perhaps partly sentimental, feeling in favour of seeing something of the great North American fragment of the British Empire, rather than a country that is at least technically foreign, has led many colonial travellers to avoid the more southern, and in many respects the more widely interesting l-oute, by way of California, both in going and coming. This, it can hardly be doubted, is a mistake. The Canadian route, in spite of its many attractions, both of scenery and sentiment, is not only lees varied, but very much less inteiesting to the average travellers than the route which passes through a country already the scene of an amazing development, the result of human effort.

It is unfortunate that the great southern route, from New Zealand on one side the globe to England on the other, should not, in its first stages, be bo well provided for as that by way of Canada, as this not unnaturally prejudices a good many people against it. There is no denying that the steamers now performing the service between Wellington and San Francisco are, compared with those on the Vancouver route, very inferior in accommodation as well os slower in speed. They are, in point of fact, a little out of date. Twenty years ago, or even less than that, they might have been oon eirlered satisfactory, but to-day, in comparison with other lines, the accommodations they have to offer are poor. In spite of this, however, they are not wholly unsuited for the service on which tlfcey are engaged. The new route to Sa" Francisco may be said to be the cross Pacific route, while the Vancouver, while it, of course, has also to cross the Pacific, does so almost insensibly on its long northerly course. The Canhdian eteomera seem quickly to get away from the waters of the South Pacific, and with the exception of the glimpse at the Fiji group, their passengers see nothing of the South Sea Islands, which ought to have a special interest for New Zealanders. The route 16 one that is undoubtedly to become better known, and more fully appreciated, when the completion of the Panama Canal opens it as the favourite track for a large part of the shipping that trades between Europe and Australasia, as that which most fully lives up to the name of Pacific. It is, in fact, the peaceful ocean of the globe, and the new route which goes eastward as far os Tahiti before turning northward, obtains the full benefit of its usual calm. Both Rarntonga and Tahiti are in appearance excellent representatives of the Siuith Sea Islands. Both are, in point of fact, little more than mountain tops—the lofty peaks of the great mountain chain of the submerged continent of the centra' Pacific. Itarotonga, indeed, is hardly more than such a peak, rising, with "a. mere fringe of coral beach, to abrupt and rugged hills that would look forbidding but for the splendid covering of tropical vegetation, from which the waving plumes of the palm trees stand out at evei-y angle. Like nearly all others of the South Sea Islonds, Rarotonea has no harbour, unless a little bay, partly protected by the jutting coral reef, can be dignified by the title. With the wind blowing at .'all freshly from the south-east,- indeed —the usual direction of the trade winds in that latitude —it is no easy problem that is presented to the people, almost entirely natives, who have to load and unload the cargo, as well as to the more adventurous passengers, who are willing to risk a wetting for the satisfaction of having set foot for the first time on the shore of a tropical island. There can be no doubt of the wild and singular beauty of the scene; the question, however, th;t naturally arises is, how any considerable population can subsist on a small island, consisting almost entirely of mountains, rising to a height of about 3000 ft from the' ocean, with the slopes, which are never very gentle, and the narrow valleys, which are but little better than fairly wide gullies, that form the beds of the streams flowing from the hills. The answer is to bo found in the wonderful productiveness of the land, owing partly to its rich volcanic character, and still more to its tropical climate. With these advantages both Rarotonga and Ta-

hiti can and do support a large population, considering their extent, of well-fed and vigorous-looking men, and there can be little doubt that much more, both of fruits and of valuable root crops of various kinds, could be raised in both. Tahiti, a little more both to the north and east than Rarotonga, has long had the _ interest which attaches to the first experiment in French possession, if not colonisation, in the south Pacific. Like Rarotonga it has also the advantage of being a very beautiful specimen of the tropical islands of the Pacific. Mountainous, like all the other islands that are merely atolls in these seas, it gives the impression of having room for a good deal more land fit for cultivation than Rarotonga, though its general features are the same. It has, however, a better and a good deal safer harbour than any to be found in the Cook group, and it has also the great advantage of facing the north, or a little west of north, and so is entirely protected by the high lands of the island from the prevailing trade wind. In itself it can hardly be called a good harbour; indeed,- nor is it a large one, but for such purposes as it is at present required to supply it is quite sufficient. As an anchorage ground for a small French man-of-war, and a port than can supply wharf and harbour facilities for two or three trading steamers of the size at present employed in these waters, it is enough in capacitv and sufficiently safe. A very casual glance at the place and people is enough ,*r> mark the radical difference between the French ideas and those of our own people in the treatment of native races. It is not merely the presence of a military force; there is in addition something in the atmosphere which speaks of coercion. In Tahiti, indeed, it has become so completely the recognised condition that anything else would probably seem unnatural even to the natives, and yet it forces on the observer the feeling that the Maori people have much* cause for thankfulness that they were spared the fate that so nearly befell them of falling into French hands not quite three-quarters of a century"' ago. The last view of Tahiti, with its little town, embowered in tropical foliage of a hundred varieties, fringed with tall palm trees that wave a farewell, marks the last view of tropical land to be met with on the southern course. From that point the route turns northward, and the degrees of latitude are covered rapidly. First the gradual dying away of the southern trades, as you near the equator ; then their gradual "swing to the westward, and increasing strength as the steamer runs northward, drawing closer day by day to the jutting coast of the North American Continent. Six days from Tahiti bring even such moderately rapid steamers as those at present employed on our southern mail service to the northern edge of the tropic zone, and to the regaining of the trade routes of the American coast. Here and there a white sail looms up on the eastern horizon; here and there a faint curl of smoke draws an interested crowd to the bulwark, or into the rigging; the feeling is in the air that we are once more in the track of commerce. A day or two more and the signs of life and human activity have grown more plentiful still; and at last the welcome news goes round that land is sighted, and evei'ybody crowds to gaze and to speculate on the question where that bold coast on the right hand will be broken through by the famous entrance of the Golden Gate. Generally the voyagers have not long to wait, as the coast is nearly always sighted within a few miles of the entrance. First, the lighthouse on its island rock, a few miles from the coast, and next the arrival of a hurrying } ilot-boat, flying the American flag, communicate to everybody the exciting news that in another hour and a-half they may expect to see the ressurrected city of western America.