DIARY OF A JOURNEY FROM NEW PLYMOUTH TO WHANGANUI IN 1853.

Taranaki Herald, Volume II, Issue 91, 26 April 1854, Page 3

DIARY OF A JOURNEY FROM NEW PLYMOUTH TO WHANGANUI IN 1853.

[Continued from No. 90.] For the purpose now stated we were en route, and had been ferried over the Wuenuakurn— a small river about a mile to the westward of tbe Patea — by five in the morning, which early starting gave vi ample opportunity to reach the first half or intermediate Cage of our intended day's travel by nine or ten o'clock. But unluckily for

this meditated progress the shadow of a remeniscence of a near cut, or new psth shot across the sennorium of ono of us. so off we marohod from iho furry, not by the beach as I had on all former trips travelled, but inland, and at consider, nbly an obmse anj;ie from thft course. But as paths like streams carve occasionally on our earth's surface eccentric windings, and silently musing as we went along that this instance of dcpurture.froin the mote obvious direction wan to outflank some such obstructions as those we encountered at Umuron, I roilo on patiently for more than an flour when, rather nt variance will) the supposition, we came to one the fording of which proved about as trying fur/the strength of our horses us those. 'As however about this time I 'observed that 'ray cicerone's confidence as to our being on the right path was on the wane, I proposed a return to the ferry and then to proceed by the beach. Accordingly we did so at the cost of course of a renewed flounder through the swamp, and after all without greatly bettering our progressive prospects, for on getting there we found the >ido so high that tlio waves were break* ing over man and horse height against the cliffs, so that — " Keep moving" being the order of tho day— we had now no alternative but to proceed by Iho summit of these. And n sorry enough procedure it proved to be the ground there buing superabundantly diversified by flax covered iwumps, impracticable gullies, trackless looso sand hills, and (iccmional broad patches of dense, icrubby, often thorny interwoven bush. Thus wo wero not only impeded, but lost our way at almost overy turn we rn»do to avoid one or other of theso obstacles, and considering that we wero somewhat Jn haste we felt us ''sacrificing precious hours in seemingly endless and doubtless very unptoflta- j bio exploration, At length howovcr, but not till we had been eight or nine hours in tlui wild goose sort of chase we arrived at the pa of Ihupuku on tba banks of the river named Wnitotnra, where we rested only long enough to break our many hours J fast and Unit our horses. But f>o it happened that ' if in the affair of deviating during our forenoon's peregrination we erred much, Wo seemed on this , po>t meridiun occasion to have mounted with the lcsolve to eclipse that gadding by the consummation of more eccentric blundering stilli For no sooner were wo over the river and across the belt of bush and sward which fringes that, tunn tvo shaped our course and proceeded over tho adjoin- | irfH snndy desert somewhere übout six points to the westward of tho proper line ! This brought us to ■ the beaoh not far from Waitotara point— milos away in 'the wrong direction of the usual coast full, and as I was pilot on the occasion, the cir« cutnstance is explained by tho admission of the fact that the organ of locality is not developed on my oaput, in other words the faculty of perceiving or remembering the relations of external objects is a power of very doubtful efficience in my human i> ty. But I appiehend fiom our forenoon's experi* en eo of tho sumo day, and previously cognate errors on the way, that the head of my companiou is in abour the same predicament, hence a worio as- | sorted pair lor journiytng over a roadless country j could nardly have foregathered. Henceforth then, and till night fall— for on finding the beacu where we omuo on it very rocky, wo early abandoned it— we wandered among sand hills, and cncounteied a similar if not more vuried tissue of perplexities thun those enumerated as our fore-

noon fare. Fortunately accident, not good quid* once, brou^ht^u at length to a deep i>ra»H awarden dell having n goat truck lend'uiif down froirt tlie heights to the bcac.ii An. l hnvnu tounil there that the tide w.m too high to era' le vi to double a promontoiy close by we return d to tho dill which fortunately for our bcasti had abundance of excellent pasturi. There then we resolved, reluctantly enough, to bivouac lor the night ; for however suitable it was for our liotaes, it wus beyond the mere matter of shelter comfortless enough for us j» wo hud no food, and our Maories whose uhrroioout we were fti ignorant of as they were of ourn, hud in addition to our eatables, my night genr upon their bucks. Luckily w« hid a few m«ti'lMS, so w.th some scanty bits of drift wood from the beach we Munnped tn kindle « lire, mil m point of warmth mado ourselves a» Wnnronable ai that single circumstance could pontr Imie. Buj^ with all our gathcring'nnd economy our stock of fuel about midnight becimo exhausted, und then I experienced the coolini; process slide down so rapiilly as soon to induce an anguish clii'lmnss und shivering ; so these added to the hungiy feelings which hours prcvvusly had anviilrd me— for our feast at Ihupuku only consisted ol dry bo'lcil potatoes — ami the fatigue, mental und physical, induced by the preceding day's vexaiioiii wanderings made my berth un the occasion a s>"gal'>rly uncomfortable one, for while my companion hud a blanket to rap himself in, 1 bad no mitigating alternative save thnt, if !■<> it muy icckon, of pacing up and down the dreiry beach till duwn, when gladly enough wo saddled tho horses und iciiowed our journey. An hour's pleasant ride along a generally fine sandj beach brought us tiom our post night*., cheerless l»ir to a bold penin&ulur oliff^onvcnieuty to be recognised by llif peculiarity ot its having on either flank a fin" brattling brook, one of which nt named the Kanwi, Inn whether I am not qualified to sny. However at tnc rtcond as we now rode Wo observed a path li ailing up to a post and bar fence, the sliding rails of which we readily re« naovcil, and ascundii)"; the chff and proceeding thence for about a mile, over rather meagrely •warded closely crept downs, we ciuiib to the re*f dencc of Mr. St. Will, who happened to bo ahtenl, but where 'two or three young gemlenun unsistunU gave as a kindly welcome ani! on excellent lireuk^ fast. Before, proceeding lurther, I would observe first, that in consequence of the actual and almost continuously peipendiculor fucii of the cltffi, and the circumstance of the sea, even at half tide battering against somo of the moie outjutting of these, it would be most unsafe (or_ mounted travellers to'nttempt to go between P*lea nud Waitotara by the beach route with v rising tide. The safest plan, nnd indeed it is one altoge« ther devoid of danger Is to start from either sido when the tide has sufficiently ebbed to permit freely of a tly passage round the first headlands on the way. Entering then on this bcacll say, as in connection with the journoy 1 am depicting, from the Whenuakura 3ide at the time of tide recommended, the traveller proceeds along for several miles, or to be moro definite until ho doubles first a pro-« montory which hai tno almost carriage wide holes in its wall, and a mile or so beyond that to where there is another but more lofty and bluff peninsula^ having also two similar holes through it. ,wall. This last has the farther distinction of forming tho^, cape of a small bay into'thicll a fine brook from the lauds above empties itself, This terminates; tho under el ff travelling, and noiv the summits am passed along for a mile or moro when the cliffj merge to the level of a basin or plain, wbicb, 1 hounded on cither side by low hills, extends for miles interiorly, and no doubt at a former period of the world's history was au esluary or • arm of the sea. Proceeding hence along the beaoh to the embou-

chure of the Waitotnra, the upward ciiurso thereof is ikirtcd for about a mile when at a bend you come in eight of a moderately elevated, ruin* capped mount, in appaicntly about the middle of the river vale, This isolated knob is Ihupuku, on the summit of which, until within tho lan four or five years, itood an extensive Maori fortification or pa ; but which in these socially regenerating time* of? the indigenous race 'has met the downward fate of nearly all, if not all the strongholds along this co.nt ; being now entirely forsaken by humanity ; and its once bristling defence broken down and consumed by those whom they formerly protected ; or escaping that fato are now imperceptibly giving pabulum to the green sward which flourishes luxuriantly under the cattle's fact. I may bo accused of unnecessary repetition in thus recurring to tho falling and deserting, or utterly forsaken state of these Maori fastnesses ; but it must bo noticed that I had visited them but a few years ago, when one and all were in a warlike state of delenee; and that, now, no extraordinary circumstance »o frequently obtrudes on the attention of the observer j of former days, as he rejournics along this coast as ' that abandonment and degarnishment which in the course of this tour 1 have so often ''hinted at 7 or attempted to describe. Thank* to the Missionaries, whose labours by the blessing of God, have made " the wilderncis and the solitary plaoe to be glad for the aborigines; " and the desert to rejoice and blossom ai the rose."

I Clever. — A country boy was riding a horse to , one of tbe English fain for sale, when he was accosted by a sprig of a dealer, who called out in a consequential tone, " Why, Jack, tho hone you're riding i» badly; look what a white face he's gettin'." " Aye," said the boy, breaking off whist ling, "an you'd her a white face, 100, if you'd looked through a halier az long as he her." The 'Washington County Post' says, a chap in a certain village, with whom he ii acquainted, having had sandy sugar sold to him, inserted in ihe weekly 1 paper the following . — " Notice,— l purchased uf a grocer in tnis village, a quantity of sugar, from I which I obtained. one pound of sand. If the rascal who cheated me will send to .my abdress seven pound* of good sugar, (scripture measure of restitution) I will be satisfied ; if not, I shall ex-, pose him. " On the following day, uiue sevenpound packages of sugar were left at hii residence from as many different dealers, each supposing him* self the person intended. '