DOWN THE WANGANUI.

Otago Witness, Issue 3595, 6 February 1923, Page 54

DOWN THE WANGANUI.

In one of her delightful booklets descriptive of New Zealand scenery Miss B. E. Baughan describes her own ascent of the River Wanganui and paints glowing word pictures of its beauties. She took passage at Pipiriki in a Native canoe paddled by two Maoris, and thus enjoyed the full thrill of the rapids and viewed the finest reaches of the river with more leisure than is allowed by ordinary steamboat navigation. Doubtless this is the ideal way of making the Wanganui trip — given tine weather. And the best time will be about Christmas or early in January, when the rata adds its splendid red to the rich greens of the bush-clothed hillsides, or perhaps in the spring, the season of golden kowhai and starry clematis. When I travelled down the stream the ratas were over and no conspicuous flowers varied the green harmonies of forest trees and shrubs and tree ferns—beautiful enough in themselves at all seasons of the year. Down stream seems .the most favoured way of ordinary steamboat travel, and this I adopted, starting at Taumaranui, and leaving the liver at Aramoho, a short distance from Wanganui town. The Wanganui has been termed the New Zealand Rhine, but the title is justified by analogy rather than by likeness between the two streams. In navigability and importance the Wanganui holds a similar rank among New Zealand livers to that- held by the Rhine among rivers of Germany, while both are distinguished by romantic scenery 7. But the human aspects and the historical associations or the Rhine can find no counterpart in our land; for the ancient cities and ruined castles the Wanganui offers solitudes little changed since only Maori canoes traversed its waters; it has" the beauty and interest of Nature, not of the works of man. Yet the stream is not wholly without historic memories—memories of the early days of settlement and of the long Maori War of the sixties, when the little town of Wanganui itself was endangered ; when the stream bore the war cano-es of Hauhaus and friendly Natives alike, and a European garrison stationed at Pipiriki and almost out of ammunition was saved by the expedient of committing messages written in Latin enclosed in bottles to the stream. One was picked up, ana reinforcements were speedily sent to the rescue. Then the Wanganui has its old Maori legends, stories of supernatural bein»s haunting its rapids and caverns, and °iu chief the myth of its origin. In long past times, says the legend, two great mountain brothers dwelling near Lake Taupo both loved the same maiden, Pihanga. Taranaki, the defeated lover, wild with grief and rage, tore himself out bv the roots and rushed through hills and forests to the sea, tearing out the rent along which the Wanganui now flows. Then he turned north arid stopped where men now view him seated in solitary grandeur. And eve white people call him Mount Egmont, but his name

is preserved in the province he dominates. The regular tourist passage down the Wanganui and up, I suppose, is di\ide<l into three stages. A little steamer leaves Taumaranui about eight in the morning, and at noon arrives at the Houseboat. This steamer then returns to raumatanui and travellers have the rest of the day to spend ashore. Next morning after a very earlv breakfast they go on in another i teamer ‘to Pipiriki, arrive again about noon, have the afternoon ashore, and on the third morning proceed to Wanganui. Taumaranui is situated in a valley e “- ! closed with buish-eovered lulls, and l should imagine must he very wet m the winter time. The first view of Wanganui is not inspiring. One goes to the steamei landing place and between some shabov sheds utilised as goods stores catches a glimpse of a narrow willow-fringed stream walled in on the further side by the ! steeply rising bush-dad hills, and also a glimpse of something just under the near bank that turns out to be the steamer. Luggage is shot into it down a slide, and passengers by and by descend a steep flignt of steps, and bestow themselves on the deck of the little craft. The morning of my departure was dull, but after a couple of hours the sun shone out and heightened the colours of the luxuriant vegetation we were soon passing under. The colour of the water was disappointing. I believe the W anganui never is very clear, and at that time fiea\\ rains had lately fallen and probably made it more than usually turbid. That day it was thick and of an unattractive greenv-brown hue. I thought of the reflections that I have seen when going in a rowing boat along the willow-fringed Avon or the Southland Pourakino with its birch forest and scarlet mistletoe. 1 scarcely caught more than one or two faint and broken images in the Wanganui waters during the first two davs 1 was on them—the third was altogether hopeless. But doubtless a steamer is less favourable to viewing reflections than a rowing boat. Landwards there was no disappointment. For over a hundred miles from Taumaranui the river flows through a deep narrow gorge, the sides of which are nearly everywhere clothed with rich and verdant forest growth. Often the I hillside rises almost a sheer wall, and one wonders that there should be soil ! enough to nourish such luxuriant vegetaj tion. Such hanging forests display the 1 full beau tv of our bush flora; the treeferns in chief, growing in multitudes and rising one above another, spread their lovely green fronds in fullest view. These tree-ferns are of a different species from those familiar in the south ; a very slender smooth trunk is surmounted by a crown of nearly horizontal fronds of a bright delicate green. Along the upper part 01 the stream, particularly, toitoi plumes varv the greenery. Here and there, but seldom, the bare chags jut out, the softer slopes show golden-brown bracken, while in the damper gorges cascades of ferns deceend to the water’s edge. The river ; hurries along, turning and twisting so ! that one can seldom see far along it, and I the view is ever changing, the loveliest vistas passing all too quickly. One has a distinct sensation of going down hill, and soon after leaving Taumaranui one | begins to pass through rapids, though these are less noticeable descending than j ascending the current. Sometimes the water dashed over the bow to the lower ! portion of the deck where I was sitting, ' and often the little steamer tilted to one side or another. In some places the j stream was broken -by boulder or shingle banks and the passa’geway seemed very ! narrow. The second day the rapids were less noticeable; we were in a somewhat bigger steamer for one thing. Between | Taumaranui and the Houseboat eve stopped about 10 times to deliver stores or mails. The steamer would slow down without ! visible cause, and then perhaps one would i see some human figures emerging from a 1 precipitous bush track down the hill. The 1 little craft would push ner nose right ’ up against the bank, and sometimes a 1 rope was thrown over a tree to moor ; her. At one stopping place only ihere j was a regular little quay of masonry. At ' one place of call offering some compara--1 tively level land a number of tents were 1 pitched, inhabited bv a group of Maoris with numerous dogs. Once two trim ' young European girls came to a landing i place attended by a dog and a more l uncommon follower in the shape of a I little black pig. It was evidently a bush ' pig, big-headed arid win. 7, and it looked a very lively and companionable little ' animal. It and the dog seemed to be I on excellent terms with one another, and one of the girls caught it up in her arms las they were going up the hill. Elsej where, as the steamer turned shorewards | to a steep bank offering hut little footing, a sack tied to a bush and evidently | containing some struggling animal met ' our view—it was a pig awaiting carriage to some destination down stream. Birds were not numerous. Occasionally one | caught a glimpse of a kingfisher, the unattractive shag was often to be seen, and now and then ducks. Ashore it was pleasant to hear the sweet flute-like notes of the tui, but even in the early morning, the best time for hearing these birds, there was no chorus of song such as one used to hear from every bush in the old days ; the singers seemed few. Fantails ana grey warblers were more plentiful; indeed,

I heard the- notes of both birds while passing through plantations on the train journey from Frankton to Taumaranui.

(To be_Continued.)