THE RIVER ROAD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 286, 4 December 1933, Page 6

THE RIVER ROAD

RECALLING THE PAST FACT AND LEGEND A STUDY IN CONTRASTS. Another important event in the history of Wanganui was marked by the opening of the Ruapirau Stream Bridge on the River Road, which took place on Saturday. Quaint Maori legend has it that lung before Aotearoa (New Zealand) knew what a human being was, gods held dominion over these islands. Three of the strongest, Ruapehu, Tongariro, and J aranaki, stood close to one another in the centre of the North Island. For centuries their lives were happy, but a domestic rift was caused when Taranaki attempted to carry off the wife of Tonguriro. Such treachery resulted in a terrific battle and the god Taranaki fled, causing a deep furrow along the path he took to the sea. He then turned up the coast line, to the lonely <cape on the west coast of the North Island, and found rest and peace at the spot he occupies to-day under the name of Mount Eginont. The furrow he had cut in his haste to evade the wrath of his brother gods became the channel of the Wanganui River.

Later, the Maori came tu New Zealand and the story of his arrival is a mixture of legend and fact. The legend applies mainly as to how he did arrive and the fact to the certainty that he did. He populated the Wanganui River, fought for his existence under that age-old code that recognises a survival of the fittest only, loved and hated, worked and lazed. The river, it served him as a waterway should, affording adequate access to the inland and, in addition, furnishing a certain amount of food.

Still later, camo the pakeha. He, too, settled on the nver, not without quarrel with the Maori, it is true. The pakeha fought for his existence also, loved and hated, worked and lazed. He swung his axe and used his spade to some purpose, however, and finally asserted himself as a race of progress. Time brought the Maori under his banner and united the two races, buth of which had used the river for much the same purposes, mainly as a means of access to country that lay back of beyond. The late Mr Alexander Hatrick created a company which furnished river steamers and thus establihed a more progressive means of transport up and down river than hau been known when the Maori made use of his canoes. All the while the vhop-chopping of axes could be heard clearer and clearer in the I’ipiriki region and beyond. Bush land was giving place to settlement. Still progressive, the white race pushed on with other means of access, which became a vital necessity as tne land became vicar and the volume of produce increased. For many, many years, however, the newer method of approach to the river lands, that by way of road was a far-off dream. Narrow bridle tracks, here and there widening to sledge dimensions, did duty for a long, long time. Gradually the formed road grew as money became available, and from bridle and sledge tracks the settlers were furnished with something more pretentious, vapable of accommodating a wheeled vehicle drawn by a hoise. The dream was slowly coming true. It still had its hazy uncertainty, however, and the steady plugging of the river steamers told that the battle of tne road would be stern and long before the final victory was won —Slips and mud, mud and slips; once in nobody was really sure of getting out except on a horse or on foot. Pack horses and sledges were kept ever handy in case of emergency as the road’s progress was taken care of. Even today there are miles of the ruad along the river which demand sledges and scorn the faster motor transport. But the road was not to be denied. It took shape definitely, was metalled in sections and finally far-off i’ipiriki became linked with the city. In recent years, proving that it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good, progress un the road has been faster, for the leason that expenditure of unemployment relief money has furnished a greater volume of labour. A few weeks ago there was one missing link in the chain between the city and i’ipiriki and beyond. Appropriately enough it was named Ruapirau which, interpreted, means “a rotten hole.” A treacherous looking gorge, quite a hundred feet deep from road level to stream, was bridged by a bridle swing bridge and for many months the progress of man in forming the roadway along the river was sadly incomplete while this narrow structure did duty. After a period of delay in keeping with the weight uf the Government's treasury vhest, a delay that is longer when the chest is light, a permanent bridge over the Ruapirau {Stream was sanctioned, and the “rotten hole,” shunned in the far-away early days of the river, was spanned. O Saturday, on a site rich in its historical associations, the new structure was declared open by the Minister of Public Works (the Hun. J. Bitchener).

At this point the Wanganui River Valley is fairly narrow, but the forces of nature have found room fur a small area of flat land to guide the Ruapirau Stream into the major current that takes it to the sea. High on either side rise the giant ridges that form the furrow made by treacherous Taranaki on his flight to lonely exile. On the one side a sharp cleft in the hills makes a way for the Ruapirau Stream. Round the little area of flat, away back in bygone years, Whanganui and Waikato Maoris met in deadly conflict. The slain were tipped over into the cleft in the hills, but burying obligations were delayed and decaying bodies gave the place its name—“Ruapirau,” “the rotten hole. ” Maoris from the settlements along the river recognised in the official opening of the bridge something of great significance to the future of their settlements and their beloved river, and on such an occasion resurrected the past to remind the present that neither the road nor the bridge, the river nor the bush, the Maori nor the pakeha had made progress by one bound, but that thousands of millions of happenings and activities had been dovetailed to bring about the world of to-day. That was why the scene which greeted the Minister was such a study in contrasts. While warlike warriors, stripped to the waist, faced the official party and lost themselves in the excitement of a haka of the past, more

sedate fellows, meticulously garbed in European style, one of them with a hard hat, looked on and joined in the applause. While the meats for dinner wore cooking beneath the ground in old-time Maori hangis (ovens) one of the cooks munched delightedly at an ice cream. The past and the present were truly mingled there, and a well-known Wanganui medhcal innn asked the native whether he did not think it would be wiser to stick to his own food and leave ive cream alone. “Kapai te pakeha food, kapai to ice cream and han;; te teeth,” said the Alaori as he went on tending his oven and finishing his ice cream. While a European was lamenting that no sage and thyme was available, two wahines found seasoning from the bush. While Europeans stiffjy shook hands and lifted hats, Maoris greeted each other with loud proclamation and by rubbing noses. Ju between the car traffic came a sledge or two. On the luncheon table, served with the deliriously cooked meats from the hnngis. were European delicacies, such as strawberries and cream, fruit salad, plum pudding. And there was a liberal supply of a beverage that comes from Scotland and another that nowadays often goes under the title of “home brow.” One thing contrasted with the other, and in doing so merelv adhered to history, for the Whanganui River itself has had a life of contrast. First it was a furrow, thou a famous waterway on which •commercial transport and scenic interests wore at one. With the formation of a road it has assumed a still newer significance, and as for the road itself, once it was a bridle track then sledge route nnd now a motor road. There is a whisper coming down the breeze, too, that very soon it will be a N >. 1 highway.