The Winterless North ?

Te Puke Times, 18 May 1934, Page 2

The Winterless North ?

Continued / May 2. We rose at 7 am. refreshed after a splendid might’s rest, and after a good breakfast went to see Mr Smith’s collection of kauri gum It is beyond des- > cription—suffice to say, I was amazed, and could have looked at , ;it for hours. . Every colour, shape, and hue imaginable. It is the collection of years and is beyond buying, as the gum deposits are - «. now worked out, and New Zealand being the only country where it is found, it cannot To look in to some ofpieces was like looking in?o a deQp chasm,and yet againfcßher pieces have the original water of centuries ago embedded in it. We go down Ihe opposite bank of Wairoa river to the old milling town of.Tekopuri where .now stands a modern Old Men’s Home. The land has ' wonderful dairying possibilities, and is served by a large and wellmanaged dairy'at Mangawliare (the factory oflhs Northern Wairoa Dairy Co). At the cattle sale in progress here, cattle were bringing about 10 per cent more on the average than in our own dis- - trict of Te Puke. Pleasure crafts here were conspicuous' by their absence, apart from one or two I *"*-"* fishing boats. A wonderful water-. way is this Wairoa river. The weather is changing and storms are brewing. I see .bad weather coming. On to Kaihu, via the Bablon Point. The couptry is desolate, but boasts of a railway from Dargaville to Kaihu and ‘ Donnelly’s Crossing, a relic of the timber days. The' roads aje <'*; still good. On arriving at Kaihu and after a cup oi tea, we visit Trounson’s Kauri Park, a fairyland of kauri trees. “The forest was God’s first temple,” is truly - , said of this place. Magnificent beyond description. Back to Kaihu Hotel. Mrs Doherty is a wonderful hostess and the bar is a veritable museum, for Mr Boherty has a wonderful collection. Many of the heads he has, he shot personally, in the Rotorua district. From ceiling to floor it is crammed with objects of inter- * : est, from trout 22 lbs in weight to an Indian deer,s2 pointer, and 18 pointer, N.Z. deer, We had the breakfast of our lives here, a pieoe of steak so big that I had to keep putting it back on my X to 6top it dripping off either end? We passed a big tung oil plantation to-day at Marmarar.ui. I < can still taste that steak - it was" so nic a . A good evening’s talk and off to bed.

May 3, It has been raining all night and is still pouring down. We get wet fixing the engine, but it is only a minor trouble. We are off again this time to Rawene, via the Waipouri kauri forest. I hear the Valley we have just come over the day previous is in flood. lam enjoying myself immensely. We climb to the high country along the coast and then drop down for the logg drive through the forest. Th® trees are much bigger than I expeoted but not so many as in Trounson’s Park. We visited the famous large kauri tree. It is 42ft to the first limb, which by the way, is.as big as any tree I have seen previously. The circumference is 43 ft. and it oontains 72000 superficial ft. of milling timber. It is estimated to be 1200 years old, The barrels of kauris are perfect and praotioally the same diameter all the way up* ’The wind is terrible but we get .a little shelter in the forest. There is a wild kitten here in this loneliness, to welcome travellers as they pass on their way, We give it food as others do-it is a guardian of the big tree. On to Waimamaku, a wonderful fertile Valley. There is a oheese factory here. Pasteurising is unknown in this factory, and they obtain the highest price for their product, all being sold in New Zealand, The fur hesfc supplier is 3 railed from th) factory and fhe total number is only 20. The Secretary tells me the milk is often warm from the cows when it arrives at the factory. We have to move on and on and this time past Oponui, the seaside resort on tbs'" Hokianga, and finally we reach Rawene. The country around is good sheep country, about m sheep to the acre—hut still understocked. The roads are still good but the bridges are poor. Prospects for crossing the Hokianga to-mo Tow are remote. It is blowing and rainirg We put our hr ads to the pillow in the Rawene hotel, tired men. The weather has been trying. Wh*t will to morrow bring, I wonder ? The Herald arrived at 8p m. I nearly forgot. v w--

May 4. What a night. The wind still blows but seems to be abating. At 10 a.in. we are able to cross the Hokianga and how' those men can handle a punt t We have landed at the Beach, near the Narrows, and move on to Kohu Kohu, a small milling town. The mill employs quite & numbar of men for making butter boxes, They hardly waste the. bark at this mill, A w< & erful inland waterway is this Hokianga Rivet, We retrace cur steps to Motukaraka, the h< ad quartets of the Hokianga Co < p, Dai;V Co, where we find a Director’s rnret* ing in progress, under the Ch -irmanship of Mr Grounds. (To be continue * -sw