A TRIP TO THE WAIRARAPA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 9286, 12 January 1892, Page 2

A TRIP TO THE WAIRARAPA.

FEATHERSTON AND OARTERTON. About a mile from the town of Feathorston, on tlio road leading to Lake Wairarapa, is situated the cemetery, Though the ground is kept in fair ordor, the tombs, for tho most part, are in excelbnt preservation, and the'signs of caretaking apparent in other respects, yet small praise for tho taste so conspicuous in the settlement for the Living can here be justly assigned the last rooting plaoe for the Dead. Tho cemetery lies on tho open plain, exposed to every blast, and unBholtered except by long rows of young , macrocarpas, chiefly on its southern ' boundary. The few pinus insignus it possesses are yet in their struggling infancy or early childhood, except indeed one solitary tree, which, after arriving at tho Btago of youth, Booms, from its stunted growth and generally sickly appearance, with lower limbs lopped away as if of malico prepense to check it from too rapid development, hardly likely long to survive the years of maturity, if indeed it ever reach them. The walks, what there are of them, are overgrown with long grast, and present the aspect of a human being whose hair has not only not been cut, but not even divided with a comb for several months. On the right as you enter, is a mean hot, about the size of a large packet case, ■ totally bare of paint, and with its one tiny window grimed with dirt and overgrown with cobwebs, the latter probably serving as a sort of screen to keep out the rain, which otherwise would enter thioagh a broken pane of glass and damage the Bexton's tools within. Directly facing the visitor is an erection, presumably intended for a mortuary chapel ; presumably intended ; for alike in shape, decorations, and colouring, it bears no very remote resemblance in miniature to a music kiosk such as may be Been at a Paris cafe chuntant, or on the grand promenade at Baden-Baden. On tiie left of this fantastic structure is conspicuous a small white marble obelisk standing on a concrete pedestal and protected by a low iron railing : a memorial erected in honor of the late well-known representative of the Wairarapa, Mr Henry Bunny, whoso many public services are thereon inscribed. The greater nnmber of the tombs in this Cemetery are in unusual good taste, the majority of puro white marble. Among the mass of tho too usual doggrel verses in memory of the departed, the following struck one &b of quite exceptional beauty and simplicity : " This world can never give The bliss for which we sigh ; 'Tis not the whole of life to live, Nor all of death to die." Nor do I remember ever to have 6een before, in a very large number of cemeteries and churchyards, this curious combination of Christian names, "Effio Pleione." Not the least affecting feature of our "New Zealand Cemeteries is the number of names inscribed on the tombstones associated with localities in the Old Country forever consecrated to memory. Look around our own beautiful burial place on tho Hcnui alone, and there you notice on one memorial of the departed a name nnd place calling up from the depths of remembrance the shady lanes, the cowslip meadows, tho wooded hills, of West Somerset and South Devon. 0 nee again, after half a century, it may be, you see that long row of whitewashed, thatched cottages, each in its small garden of rosesand myrtlos twined round the porch; again, in fancy, you hoar the chimes of the venerable church tower on the low, eltn shaded hill beyond. Here is another name of one from the storm-swept coast of North Cornwall; again you listen for the roar of tho surf breaking on the rocky reefs or "trampling on tho hard seasand." Another name,' and there steals over you like a balmy " breath from the sweet south," the delicious scent of tho peat-Binoke in some far off home in the lovely lake land, or, maybe, on some lonely island of tho Northern Sea. But these reflections, difficult not to indulge in on the part o£ those who have their early life and uffections cieeply rooted in the soil of the Old Homo, are carrying one far from Fcathorstou and the Wairarapa. The original intention entcrtainod of paying a visit to tho thriving settlement of Masterton, five-and-twenty miles from Featherston, on the railway up the Wairarapa, had reluctantly to be abandoned in the face of the appalling narratives related of the ravages of influenza among its inhabitants, nearly every household in the place being prostrated with tho epidemic. Accordingly, I had to be content with a day's trip over to Carterton, half way to Masterton, and distant twelve miles from Foatherstou. The country between tho two settlements is not particularly interesting, nor is it beautiful, consisting of an almost perfectly level, generally open, plain extending irom the foot hills of tho Tararna Mountains on tho toft, or, wee tern, boundary of tho Wairarapa over? a ppaco I should estimate at not much under twenty to twenty-five miles to tho long, low line of bare hills on the eastorn side, the opposite side of which is washed by tho Bea south of Hawko's Bay. Still, every here aad there, lovely gorges — or gorges lovely ere denuded of all forest trees, leaving unsightly stumps or slopes bare of every kind of vegetation except coarse ferns and scrub— opened to view from between these hills, which at' no place receded more than three or four miles from tho railway. Down one of these sidevalleys, the surrounding heights still richly clothed in their mantle of primeval forest from base to summit, descended a broad stream, or rather shallow river, of clear, amber-tinted water, between eineWld banks of grass, and shrubs, and ferns. Die settlement, of (Jartorton, though it has made great progress during the liißt few yoars, and in material wealth will before another decade, if I mistake not, outstrip Featherston, presents a by no moanb agreeable contrast to lh$ JLI <cosy and neat appearance of tho latter township ; in fact, (JartertOn is about as hideous as niuo out of ton of such settlements in this colony. Did I dare, I could mention at least one even in Taranaki, which is tho rival of Carterton in its slovenly, unlovely dwellings, its weedy," untidy gariens, whero there aro gar Jens to be s°.on, its generally soedy looking Btor.es, and hotels, and wholo uir not so much of grinding poverty as of careless noplect and simple laziness. Probably the lute long continued and sevoie depression may have served not a little to damp the spiiits of tho settlers. Now that a Btrong tide of prosperity has set in, with every prospect of continuance, might your correspondent venture meekly to recommend the inhabitants to clean their windows, paint their house fronts, mend their palings, and tidy up ull round ? N.B, Those remarks do not apply to tho laig« and woll enred for railway station^ ; to the police atation, with its civil officer, to whom application.

had to be made for a lost valuable ; or to tho admirably kept, wido, hard, smootlj, roads running in all directions around ; and -■- distinctly not to the pretty homesteuds rapidly springing up, each with its tidy paddocks, well preserved fencing, and buildings, in the suburbs of Carterton. The scorching sun in summer and the biting blasts of wind tbe season through, how are young orchards and fruit trees, to say nothing of human beings, to find shelter against these in the almost entira destruction of native bush, onco so luxurunt, and covoring tho entire surface of this now bare, bleak district round Carterton? Wh'.re, indood, whon, at any rate in the town itself, not the slightest attempt at planting is apparently being . made. In one village, the name of which I refrain from giving, I was a good deal struck with tho size and grandeur of the house assigned tha lucky teacher of tho local school. With brick chimneyß, verandah, ornamental mouldings, and an apparent capacity in its interior for at least eight rooms, at a reasonable conjecture. What must have been the OBt of this mansion ? Perhaps the answer may best bo found in the existing condition of the finances of the Wellington Education Board, which, to judge by appearances, would certainly not seem to be expended on the city schools in Wellington. It is perhapa rather a curious comment on the results of this architec- . tural magnificence tkat a small lad, who might porhapa be in the fourth standard, when asked by one the name of this very village, was quite unable to toll ; indeed, in spite of remonstrances, he insisted upon calling the place Cart'rton ! I noticed, by tho bye, on an inscription stuck up in the ' Feathorston Cemetery, by the Burial Board theroof, tho word piece is spelt thusly, ' poice' : but probably the authors thereof had nover been to school? Who knows? On the last day of my stay at Feathereton, I made a frantic but vain attempt to walk over tbo Rimutaka, by the old coack road to Kaitoke, a road Tunning through twenty miles of scenery of a very grand ordor. Unfortunately, a furious nor*-wester, which compelled ; onc, more than once, to cling in a supplicant posture to the very rocks, to avoid being blown over the precipices up which tho road zig-zagged, compelled one reluctantly to return to Featherston, after a hard struggle with the foe. Egmont.

Mr F. Stohr, the owner of the trotter Charlie, and Mr W. Cook, the rider of the pony Lady Onslow at tho recent Auckland Trotting Meeting, returned from Auckland this (Tuesday) morning. Tho horses were left behind for sale if a suitablo price could be obtained. Two offers of 100 guineas ' were made for the pony. Certainly the best medicine known is Bandbb an© Sou's Edoalypti Extbaot. Test its eminently powerful effects in coughs, colds, influenza — the relief is in stantaneouß. In serious cases, and accidonta of all kinds, be they wounds, burns, ■caldings, bruises, sprains it is tho safest remedy — no swelling, no inflammation. Like surprising effects produced in croup diphtheria, bronchitis, inflammation of tbe longs, swellings, &c. ; diarrhooa, dysentry, diseases of the kidneys, and urinary organ*. In use at hospitals and medical clinics all over the globe ; patronisod by Hib Majesty the King of Italy ; crowned with medal and diploma at International Exhibition Amsterdam. Trnst in this approved artiota, and reject all others. (Ftr continvation ot news ??» 4th pege)