MEASLEY BEACH.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XVIILII, Issue 1031, 3 December 1918, Page 4

MEASLEY BEACH.

A. STORY OF, THE MAORIS ■ OF ■ NINETY. YEARS. AGO. l , (By, "Worker" jn Otago Daily, Times':) V

j Away, s.auttihon Ihfe Of ago coast jhalf way IMween Captei Saunders land The Nuggets' lfes Quoin Point. South: of Qupin Point stretches a ruggied-, rock-houndj seaJhioard mi la beyond !)h'ile—thlei Akatore coast. Still -further so;Uil : Ja' Cook's Rock stands sentinel,, as it stood long years ago* when Cook first note,d : its. strange aptpearamciei from; the dock of the Endleiavour. 'South' again, and just north! pi thl© great /•lay cliffs h'enejat'hf which, gleaming black among the' l sand >at low tide show the! Kaitangata .coal seams';, lies a stretchf of win&toissiefd' sand dimes;, : oove'ne!d to seaward with coarse red!' sand ""grass and overgrown in its: shielteiieid hollows with tussocks and 1 dWferf flax. This is Measly Beach'.. Bpjyond these, sand :<luneis> lies: !a ehlelltejreid' siaind-hound tWei outlet to tliiei Wamgaloa Streams Behind wias v ,en acted a tragedy—thje tiiaigjefdyj of Meaisly Beach!. '' [ . ' And as it Wap told -to, toe,, 'is the; story:—Long yea.re ago, hieffore thierei was: any law in the land save that of mighty When t'hfa only leavening* of civilisation filteried; tainted rand ■distorted; through a, few p'akeha; isailors, cfeerters for the imiOre iplart from passing whalers;, a fleet of manned "by Maori Warriors was returning;; northwards • A few d'ays. previously it had nefcteid for one night at ia small coastal settlement 'near Invercargill. Jleirei the, chief (bought somei hluei blankets' fnoira a (Whialing trader recently returned from 1 Sydjhey. One detail the trader omittiejd' to toll his customers: a short time before a Maori girl had died of measles between tliOr© very blanket pe|r,h'apisi th" first victim to, that disease in New Zealand'. '

Paddling on hbme , wia l tile ca-nc-es passed across th|ei great bay intci w'liiclv the Molyneux Riviejr dijs,charges its swirling waters, and here Maori after Maori was seized with! cnieJ. headache,, and before'/thlei sheltered beach; just north of thfe Wangaloa cliff could be reached,, many were delirious. There was nothing for it but hurrieidly to beach the canons and to- set up wind-screens in the. shelteied hollows beside thjei Wangalow stveam. Next mbrning- the first patients were much! worse many of them delirious, and each 1 how added to the number who wefei sickeining. Some 'ln naked madness rushed into the, stream;, where they tsiaj d neck deep to obtain the! relief the cooling water afforded; others lay, in all attitxides;,. huddled together in tiie sheltejr of the flax bnsliws or raupo screen. After a; day or two the lung trouble came!.; great powerful 'men lay coug-hingi. , themselves into pneiumoiniai each' cough piercing their, sidep like 1 a knife. coughing, with les'S . vior lence, brought on giiqat gn,shes of crimson hemorrhage. Soon few 1 were left a,livpi'. Fortunately, as the end approached and the h:ne,athing became pain ceased. iOnly cornparativeiy, few madia p-no-gress towards tuid many of those starting too fcpn hi searcih of musses and flax root to relieve their growing hunger, Jirought on a return of the hacking coughi, doubly fatal in a, relapse to the Nativo cunstitution. I fc was (.i small h-indful indeed thai, after many days, returned to tell the tale. Li trio wonder th'a 1 Measley Beach, peopled' I>y the r g-rim ghosts of those tortured h iiipa lor ever.