THE PIONEERS

Southland Times, Issue 20633, 3 November 1928, Page 13 (Supplement)

THE PIONEERS

EXPLORATION

(By

Rambler).

Every district in New Zealand has had its explorers, and while we have no heroic figures like Bourke and Wills, the Australian explorers, yet there are men with the same high aim and purpose who desired whole heartedly to open up every habitable district to the early pioneers. If one travels through the mountain and forest regions of New Zealand one does not require to have a very vivid imagination to realize what the early explorers had to face. They did not have to risk their lives in the burning desert like the explorers of the interior of Australia but many took risks just as great if not greater. The early explorers in Australia were generally very well prepared and travelled into the interior equipped with camels and supply depots but many of the pioneers of our out-of-the-way fastnessses travelled there without assistance from beasts of burden or adequate stores.

The lure of gold did much for the development of the interior and also led many of the early settlers along the coast. Much of the interior of New Zealand is wild and rugged and it must have required a certain amount of courage and fixity of purpose to induce any man to forge into it alone in the hopes of finding pecuniary gain. The rocky tussock clad hills stretched onward for miles and appeared to lead to nothing worth finding but the true explorer, who seeks, not for gain but for the sake of the joy of discovery, was probably more than rewarded in the thought that he was the first to gaze upon some hitherto Unknown lake or mountain.

It has truthfully been said that every American knows a great about his own country but very little about the rest of the world and perhaps it is just as near correct to say that, the New Zealander knows a great about the history of the rest of the world but not so much of his own. I have distinct recollections of learning about famous Australian explorers when I went to school but of New Zealand explorers I remember nothing. That is, excepting Captain Cook, but then Captain Cook did not explore the interior of the country.

I feel certain that every school boy could place his finger on the Haast Pass were a map of New Zealand placed before him but I wonder how many know anything of the man who gave the pass its name. Professor Von Haast was one of the foremost explorers and his career in New Zealand was full of interest but possibly the fact that he was a German reduces the interest of the present generation for we none of us like to think that a foreigner could play a prominent part in the history of our country. Mention of Von Haast reminds me that we have a very fine extinct volcano in Southland of which Southlanders very seldom speak and which very few Southlanders have visited. I mean Mount Samson in the Chaslands district. Mount Samson is a fairly perfect cone rising from the forest and has a perfect crater of unknown depth. If the visitor drops a stone into the crater he will not hear it strike the bottom, and I might warn the prospective visitor that if he wishes to drop a stone down the crater, he had better carry one up the mountain with him for the summit is composed of bare rock, and loose stones are not easily found there.

Professor Von Haast decided to visit this mountain in his study of volcanic conditions in New Zealand, and set out, accompanied by two young Maoris to act as guides and bearers. Von Haast carried a supply of chocolate and other easily transportable foods and these apparently led to his undoing. Some time later one of the Maoris was picked up on the coast in an exhausted condition and stated that he and his comrade had stolen some of the chocolate and had received a severe thrashing for their lapse. Ae a consequence of this they deserted Von Haast and fled for the coast. They were parted in the forest and he did not know what had happened to his companion. Neither his companion nor Von Haast every reappeared. The fact that the second Moari was lost in the bush does not bear out the survivor’s story for every bush Maori knew how to find the coast by following a stream. He may have broken a leg and so have perished but such is hardly likely. Von Haast had been exploring in many parts of New Zealand and would have had the best chance of the three of reaching the coast for he had the food. That part of the country has been well searched for one reason or another and nothing has ever been found of the remains of either men. It appears likely that the cupidity of the Maoris was aroused by the chocolate in the packs and, after they had climbed the mountain it would be an easy matter to dispose of their master by pushing him into the crater. Perhaps they quarrelled over the division of the spoils or the survivor may have been sufficiently unscrupulous to dispose of his comrade by thrusting him over and thus obtain the whole of the booty for his own use. The fact that he was found in an exhausted condition might suggest that he had not had the supplies in his possession but this does not follow for a Maori, who was used to living principally on fish or flesh, would suffer very considerably if placed on a diet of chocolate.

The desire to explore was not confined to a few men who made important discoveries, but was evident in many of the early settlers and, whereas they had neither the means nor the ability to explore on a large scale they satisfied themselves by investigating their own districts. Every forest and every valley was searched and many waterfalls and other things of beauty became known. The younger members of the community had to be satisfied with much smaller expeditions but even they occasionally succeeded in making new discoveries. I was one of a party to first visit a hidden cave at the foot of one of the highest cliffs in the Waikawa district. We climbed down the face of the cliff and then scrambled along the seashore in search of what we could find. In one place we discovered a huge mound of rocks and soil piled against the face of the cliff and, having climbed to the top to examine the formation of the cliff, we were astonished to discover the entrance of a cave. The cave was a fairly large one and had evidently been the haunt of hundreds of sea birds in past ages. The rocky floor was thickly covered with guano and this was dotted with feathers and the occasional skeleton of a small variety of penguin. The cave was perfectly dry and consequently the guano would be rich in nitrogen but it was in an inaccessible position and could not be removed for commercial use. The return journey up the cliff face was not without risk for, instead of taking the safer path, we decided to climb up a wind blown ‘chute’ and covered a large part of the distance over bare rock, without foothold and with the sea straight below. A false step would have meant a sheer drop into the waves about 200 feet below.