WAYSIDE JOTTINGS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13921, 25 March 1909, Page 8

WAYSIDE JOTTINGS.

(Continued.)

The train should reach Raurimu at 6.15 p.m.. It may be expected between 7 and 8. This delay at times is useful, as on a walk up the short cut to the top of the spiral to view the tempting mountain, one was induced to continue the journey to Waimarino to look at the plains, which are said to be no good for cultivation or feed, but when not too heavily stocked will carry a sheep to more or less acres. Were some draining and sweetening done their capacity for grass-growing would be increased, and there is no doubt in the near future these barren wastes will have a population which will have found out the right way to treat the country. Meantime it is certainly the policy of the runholder to assist the idea of the unprofitableness of working these flats. The railway people have put in some big drains to dry the line, which go some distance -across the plains, so we shall soon see the results.

' The old service road has now only three men at work on it, each having about twelve 'miles to keep open. One of these at the top of the spiral, by name Pat. Finnigan, was found at home. He lives in a shanty, alone but for his dog. Now and then a passenger passes along and receives the acceptable cup of tea and bit of bread and butter, without which no one in the backblocks is allowed to pass. Pat has lived in his hut for six years, and has seen all the busy times of the construction of the line, when nearly every chain of the service road had its shanty, and men were like blackberries in the country. Now, he says, the weather wears the road more than tho traffic, and it is only a matter of time for Nature to reassert itself. The hospitality of Finnigan caused us to teach Waimarino, just one hour after the train was due at Raurimu, eight miles further on, but the generous uripunctuality of the line enabled the train-, to be caught. At present the only apparent inhabitants of the plains are railway emEloyees, .who, living together in little aims round the stations, make little societies of their own. Being well housed, well clothed, well fed and not tpo hardly, worked, they are able to spend much time in thinking out grievances and in, hatching demands for improvements. The. men's time must pass cheerfully enough, but the women will contract ' paralysis of the muscles, of the tongue. Leaving Raurimu after dark^ +he country between it and Taumarunui is invisible. It is said here is good bush, and the appearance of the passengers favours that fact. Maoris are in evidence, and show nothing of the starvation which is heard of at Rotorua. Those passing from station to station appear well up to train methods and well able to calculate their .fares and the expected change. Arriving at Taumarunui after 10 at night allows a t very slight inspection of the possibilities and realities of the town. It Heft in a piece of flat country, and seems to be* laid out in a way which will accommodate a large population. Being both a boat and railway Gentry it will probably grow. At present the chief important buildings are , engine-sheds and boarding-houses. These last, however, are now suffering a tfrost. A few weeks. *since, thirty or forty beds were 1 being made up in dining-rooms and passages, two and three hundred were partaking of meals ; now tens appear instead of hundreds, and beds are plentiful. . Starting again at 8.10 a.m., the train runs now with fair punctuality. The delays previously met with were accounted for by the fact that a drivter, anxious to keep schedule time, had trjed to overcome station delays by quickness between stations, and bad been discharged. His fellows are not to be caught in the same- way. The line runs along a river bank, and through grand crops of fern, titree, sweet briar, gorse, and all the detriments of civilisation we are so accustomed to, only more so. The hills are steer, and grass is absent. For miles the line runs in a gully, without possibility of settlement. Here and there is a bit of bush, with a sawmill, some inhabitants, and a station. At Ongarue things are a bit better, and a coach meeting the train shows there are settlers at the back. Some pioneer settlers get on board, and their conversation gives a cheerful view to the prevailing notion that the wellbuilt." educated,' stalwart settler who roughed it went through privations and troubles, broke in the country, i making it fruitful and prosperous, while he carved out the home to, which he meant to take his wife and on which he intended to rear his family, was now non-existent. These men show that he is still to be found ; they take up large blocks of rough country on which but a scanty living can be obtained, they lead lives not dreamt of by the town resident, they clear and work their Jand until it becomes a land filled with smiling verdure and producing a home and income which •makes the envy and ignorance, of the citizen dub him a social pest. It is quite hopeful to find that our paternal Government has not absolutely succeeded in annihilating these desirable colonists.

As; an instance of how our labour arrangementfe affect the backblocks a little yarn was retailed. .' A settler wanted a farm hand to assist and to work tho team. He applied to the Auckland Bureau and a man was sent out. Next day a horse was yoked into a dray and he was told to go to a certain place and fetch in the plough. After some time he returned leading' the horse, without either dray or plough, and he said. "You must give me a very much smaller horse than this, for I cannot get him into the shafts of the plough." j Te Kuiti, from the line, appears to be a thriving town, with good country round. From here' onward we are in old settled country, but grass is scarce and the lands do not appear over- fertile. Cattle and sheep are not numerous, and the "Waikato" cattle, which are said to be so much better than '•Taranaki," were certainly not visible from the train. There 'are patches of titree, waste land, and swamps, which, when the length of time the district has been settled is considered, one would imagine would be cultivated. At several stations refreshments are obtainable, but the tea sold gives th« idea that it is brewed from the water used in washing up the dishes of tho last ministerial banquet. Bagmen are numerous and their anecdotes and experiences wile away the tedium of a long journey. One gave a relation of a a fright he had gone through, a? *'ollows: — "Did your Lair ever stand on end ? Well, mine did once ; it lifted my cap, and I had to press it back on to my head. I was ridine; at night from one town in the North Island to another. It was so dark I could hardly see the horse's head. Suddenly the horse stopped. I urged him forward and saw on the ground something white. I leaned over and stirred the object with my riding stick. Suddenly mohi unearthly yells arose and the object

turned about. Yell after yell continued, and the horse became uncontrollable. My hair roso and I wont off ut a gallop. On tho next round 1 hon\o that an Irishman had left the hotel with so much on board that though conscious his legs gave way in th<> cpii tie of tho road. As he lay lie had s<-rn 'Old Niok' coming towards him, breaching fire and smoke. Nick had lookod at him and prodded him with his staff, preparatory to carrying him oif. Whereupon he shrieked, so that O<d Nick and his 'beast cleared, and ho ros-: up to return to recover his won Loci condition at the hotel." At Frankton Junction whoro trajm are timed to stay some considerable time, and where a refreshment room is not, there is an overhead bridgo, whiort must be crossed should any passongor require revivication. At the station is a placard showing that in Auckland whisky is at least a shilling a bottl? less than in Now Plymouth. And a visit to the hotel recalls tho fact that mediums of beer are now obtainable ior a fair prize, visf., 3d. Conversation with barmen does not show that tint lower price causes more consumption . but they state customers come m for their drink and go as quickly as thounh they had paid sixpence. It is a tedious'journey from Frankton to Rotorua. The country is not interesting and giw .< no forecast of the wonders and chariu. shortly to be investigated. J. J. '*•»•