The Volunteer Encampment.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XX, Issue 2055, 15 April 1887, Page 2

The Volunteer Encampment.

(By our Beporter.) Those Wellington newspapers which so slandered the vohmteers by their false repoite, are now commencing to contradict thou own statements and •. u U iv.,-r to make toe i.nlv restitution now in tleir power by repudiating their own remarks. The men knew well that they have been in justiv übused and before supplying the public with false statements, in future, journalists should bo careful from whence they derive their information. Tub Journey. The country through which the train passed is of an entirely different nature to that of the Wairarapa Valley ;on the Mauawatu Company’s line eome very dense timber could be found at intervals and at other parts good land cf an undulatory character, most ol which was covered with luxuriant grass. On the other side of the Porirua Buy and for miles away, an immense flax grown swamp was seen extending a number oi miles in area. It is said that it is in contemplation to make a canal through the centre of this, and then no doubt when thus effectually drained, some splendid land for agriculture wilt be available, as rich and as arable as could be desired. There is no doubt but that when improved to the extent required for successful tillage, the Manawatu district will be a veritable garden in itself, and together with all the advantages of climate, generally possessed by districts having a mixture of the balmy sea breeze with the inland air, will conduce to a regular and genial temperature suitable for producing all the fruits of the earth. After leaving Longbura the land is not so thickly wooded until passing Hawers, but it ia all good and the soil deep and prolific. There are cert ainly patches of inferior to be found, but the proportions of such are not so large as to be much considered. There arc many places on the line where the homesteads, esconsoed in little handsome nooks, present quite a picture to the mind’s eye and appear little elysiums of repose and happiness, with cattle redolent in their good feed and condition. There were no dried up paddocks there, but the country around so far as the eye could reach was clothed in rich verdure, bearing evidence that the long droughts from which we have suffered this season in the Wairarapa have had no existence there. One cannot wonder at the steady prosperity of a district like that, nor can we wonder that the Wanganui and Taranaki country can supply all New Zealand with all the butchers’ meat requited for its population. Normanby, Inglewood, and other towns further on towards Taranaki are again the centres of bush districts, and aft.'r than having a full view cf Mount Egiu-mt we find traces and patches of black sand, tl •) famous black sand used for smelting and other purposes in other parts of the colony. These patches of glittering iron sand are m some instances to be found miles inland and aic suggestive of some great organic changes in this part ages ago, possibly when Mount Egmont belched forth its thundeiings and disgorged its minerals and other deposits. It now has the appearance ol a huge snow capped peak and asserts itself far beyond and above everything else surrounding for quite one hundred miles. It is a feature woilh all the wear and tear of the trip bolh wavs to wiluess, ami no one who was present wiih tls.- volunteers this Eastertide travelling from Wellington can possibly regret the outing. ' j