The Expedition to Te Ariki. Search for the Lost Tribe. The Authorities Apathetic. A Terrible Road. Rotorua, June 14.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 157, 19 June 1886, Page 4

The Expedition to Te Ariki. Search for the Lost Tribe. The Authorities Apathetic. A Terrible Road. Rotorua, June 14.

The boat pamy; only started yesterday for Tarawera Lake, en route for Te" Ariki. A splendid team of horses dragged the waggon, which contained a whaleboat, also Warbrick's racing skiff, the latter to be uaed as a despatch boat in event of finding any of the lost tribe alive. The waggon itarted from Rotorna under favourable auspices., ■ Tourists just arrived from Auckland were eager to join, an offer of £10 being made by a Sydney man, but local men experienced in volcanoes were deemed most suitable, and though * funds 'wore wanted badly they dared not jeopardise the success of the expedition. The most satis*

factory news was that the authorities had cleared, the Wairoa road sufficiently to enable the waggon to get along, while a special ( . force oi; men was to be sent along the road in advance of the boat., to keep the way clear. Judge of Warbrick's and his comrades indignation when they got out with the waggon to find that the force of men employed there -was only George Hetherington with hi.s axe— a good man certainly, but where Avas the iest of the force? The result was that four magnificent horses were strained dreadfully to hoist the waggon through the debris. They were one moment stuck in the mud, next jammed, in between immense logs or fallen trees which protrude through or lie slightly covered. To make bad worse, the boat kept imitating the Union Company's steamers, and running foul of headlands and mud banks, if not light-houses. Though Capt Warbriek had not the advantage of open sea room, his channel being full of snags and- small ranges, he pitched it into the road. By the recent Tarawera incident, and as a paternal Government will not clear the same, it devolves upon Josiah C. Firth, who understands snagging, to take the matter up. But there is not much time to lose as the Maoris cannot be many more days without food than the most refined and pampered up official. One of the latter heard a remark from a relative of the lost tribe at Te Ariki, to the effect that they would bo all dead, and he replied : "Oh !d — the Maoris, a good job too." With such sentiments, rescuing Maoiis would not be a congenial task. The last seen of this terrible muddle was the party in per&peration returning to try deviation of road, they being fairly stuck just past the Blue Lake. I witnessed the above peiformance, and understand a photograph has been taken of the road. It was a scene in accord with the surroundings thereof. Adjacent to the waggon was the buried native settlement on the banks of the Blue Lake, formerly one 3f the prettiest spots on God's earth, and now one of the most desolate and forsaken, with its huts smotheicrl in heavy mud, scinch lies in an even wonting, like so much snow. ThoPC A\ho int\e teen a landscape in the depth of winter aitoi n heavy fall of snow can fancy a grey coloured heavy sandy mud instead of snoA\ c\ or over\ thing -mud. on the cottage^, on the fences, and on the trees. And \es-tcrdny one had only to look a little further and .-co two little kittens crying piteon&ly, all in the mud, and furthei on the Loi.-<emcii up to their knees in this mud, and four gieah hoi^cs in a similar dish ;ssccl biafce. Looking aiound ! for mile=s it dcpieKCn oncV ppiriu m a moot irrepressible manner, toi it is mud everywhere, and when one thinks of Te Ariki, that forty human bomt^ have been iuftto die ir. the plime, and no Land put foith to save them but the feeble hamK of the few surviving \ouths, it ii 1 * impossible to feel* other tlian the dceppbi f-.'iiow. It was a relief to pick up the little k'ttuiis and carry them a \s ay, and, as with shres< on 1 tried to got on the hoivo, one di^appeaLcd and then the othci. 1 .>;;.nu -hou^ht of the hum m homes Lit in r'"y hoiiible stult* as I ioJj into Liott-ivi l»ti: e!ooi>d.