TRIALS OF TRAVEL

Patea Mail, 5 January 1940, Page 3

TRIALS OF TRAVEL

ARCHBISHOP’S MEMORIES : GUIDE AND PACK-HORSE • “The change for the better in the means of transport is one of the most outstanding features in the past thirty . years, ’ ’ says Archbishop Averill, Primate of New Zealand, in a retrospect of his thirty years' episcopate, in a Centennial issue of the Church Gazette, As Bishop of Waiapu, he states, he had to do a great deal of travelling on horseback, with the assistance of a Maori guide and a pack horse. Where there were no roads he cantered along beaches or through bush tracks, and at times forded formidable rivers. It was the usual thing to spend six or seven 'weeks travelling from Gisborne to Opotiki,' but, he adds, “they were happy days.” “There were many disadvantages in those simple times,” continues the Archbishop. “The milk of hupiau kindness was much ui evidence, and I shall never forget the kindness of Sir Apirana Ngata on one of my memorable journeys, when the coast was visited by drought, and I was unable to obtain the luxury of a bath until I arrived at his homo at Waiomataidui. It. was my experience on several occasions to bo held up by nor-'casters, which played havoc with roads and bridges.” Since he came to Auckland, he says, there las been very little work to bo

done on horseback, especially smee the road to the Far North was made. At . first ho road up the Ninety Mile Beach, but in later years travelled by buggy Or car, and was met by Maoris, who brought horses to take Ifim and his escort to his destination. The most difficult bit of travelling in Ins early days was over Mount Messenger, in Taranaki, ■where he most invariably got bogged. “But those days arc gone,” the Archbdshop writes, “and now, with improved roads in every direction, travelling is more or less a luxury.*'