TATU NEWS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 February 1933, Page 16

TATU NEWS

A LITERARY TRAMP. SEEING NEW ZEALAND. (From Our Own Correspondent.) The comparatively rare phenomenon of a lunar rainbow was seen at Tatu about midnight on Friday. On this occasion the bow was unusually clear and complete. A dance was held on Friday night at the hall. An orchestra of players recruited from the men who are at work on the steel power line towers, reinforced by the local musicians, supplied lively music. Mrs. Norman Wilkie also playedfor several numbers and accompanied the three singers of the night. Miss Stockwill, who is staying with Mrs. Mackay, sang “Danny Boy” to a very appreciative audience. Messrs. A. Walker and Taylor each obliged with a song. A speaker, in thanking the players and singers for their kind offices, expressed the regret of all present for the accident which had recently occurred on the Heao Road resulting in the injury of two members of the camp at Lilbumes corner. In spite of the wet weather there has been much traffic through the Tangarakau Gorge lately. The road at the East or Taumarunui end is much .cut up by lorries at present. Heavy rain in the week-end has further spoilt the surface. Drivers are advised not to attempt the road without chains until sunny weather has again dried the road. The men who have been camping at the top of the gorge hill near Mackay’s house are to leave for Tangarakau Flat this week. Their work of hauling up the metal components of the steel powerline towers which are used wherever, it is necessary to have large spans of wire is particularly arduous. These men do not look at the wild bush country in which they work with quite the. same, eye as the tourist. Possibly, however, their appreciation of its qualities is even keener than that of the connoisseur of fine scenery. Heavy rain and cold winds have brought the feeling of winter to the countryside, and fires are the order of the nights. A farmer from the district of Okahukura told a local man that from his observations on the road through to Ohura he prophesied that in the absence of Government aid many farmers would be unable to carry on because of the ragwort on their farms. Certainly there is a very large area in sight of the train ’that appears to be entirely covered with the weed.

During the week-end nearly three inches of rain fell in Tatu. The Heao stream did not rise as rapidly as might have been expected owing to the dryness of the country.

Mrs. Cornwall has returned to Tatu. Several residents made up a car load to visit Taumarunui on Tuesday. On Tuesday night the valley entertained a rara avis in Mr. Frank Harris, a literary tramp. Having walked 16 miles of the distance from Taumarunui Mr. Harris was still prepared to make a journey to the Tatu collieries to see what a newly-opened mine shaft looks like. "

As he stalked along in his shorts and ’varsity jersey Mr., Harris mildly hoped that he would not frighten small children by the way. Most of them, it appeared, regarded him as either the man who was to carry them off in a big bag, or a new variety of Santa Claus. At the Tatu mine Mr. Kearns provided lights and showed all the interesting things that are to be seen in a coal mine—soft coal, hard coal, fire clay, ana the place where there had been a slip. Later the visitor 'was treated to a scramble through the bush and the celebrated Tatu fem in search of the juvenile lancewood. The lancewood is a peculiar plant in that it has three stages of growth; in the juvenile stage the plant, but a few inches high, has soft leaves, pointed and serrated at the base very deeply, in the adolescent stage it is the unusual-look-ing plant with tough, pointed, lancelike leaves and slender, rather graceful trunk. That is the stage in which we all know it. The adult plant, having lanced its way through the dark masses of bush foliage has become a comfortable plant and turns its leaves upward towards the sun, grows shorter and fatter in foliage, becomes tufty on the top, is thicker and less graceful down below, and, in short, is in a fair way to becoming a comfortable citizen of the bush. The plant in question was later found growing comfortably in the garden. Bathed and clad in a less dress-re-formed habit, Mr. Harris (whose Christian name is’ Frank, but who is not a son of the late English journalist of that name) waxed expansive and related some of his past. A student of the ,Otago University, he has found , much exercise for ingenuity in supporting himself at his studies. Last year he worked in a student’s bach and performed other duties more or less onerous. The win-? ning of several essay and short story competitions has provided him with books and money on occasion. A proficient performer on the piano and the organ, a keen photographer, a largely self-taught water colourist and draughtsman, a student of education and economics, Mr. Harris is a man ot rare versatility and of remarkable promise. Although he studies political economy it must not be supposed that his promise is in any way political. When he left Dunedin at the end of the college year Mr. Harris, finding himself without the means of a holiday on the inland riviera of Otago, set forth, as the vulgar say, almost without a bean. Having narrowly escaped death at the wheels of a train, he passed, by hiking and hitch hiking, to Picton, and there he took stock of his position. He had enough to cross the Strait, and that was all. He crossed the Strait. But first he sent several descriptions of his tour to the editor of a southern paper. It says much for Mr. Harris’ courage that he went on his way without a doubt that somehow he would get back. His confidence was justified. The editor in the south accepted, the articles, and the traveller, with his financial position assured, went on his way rejoicing. Passing up the coast, Mr. Harris travelled through Taranaki to Auckland. He saw Rotorua and all the sights of the thermal district. He passed through the celebrated Urewera country to Lake Waikaremoana, and travelling south saw the new towns that have been built on the ruins of old Napier and Hastings. From Palmerston he came north again to Taumarunui to see the Tangarakau Gorge. The way from there lies south to Wellington, across to Nelson and so by way of the Buller Gorge to Greymouth; thence the trail leads over the Otira to Canterbury, and so over the long, fiat, monotonous plains roads to the starting point in Dunedin. In answer to questions, it was stated very definitely that in no part of New Zealand was there a more hospitable people than the people of Taranaki, and in no place at all was there any sign of an ungenerous people.