A WINTER TRIP UP THE WANGANUI.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XV, Issue X, 7 September 1895, Page 290

A WINTER TRIP UP THE WANGANUI.

[CONTRIBUTKK.] A DESIRE to go up the Wanganui River took pos/A session of me the first time I crossed it by the Aramoho railway bridge. No opportunity for indulging my desire came about till early in August, which was quite out of the tourist season. In the presence of a good chance, other calls being considered, and with a bright and favouring day. the first Tuesday of the month saw me going on board the new stern-wheel steamer, the Manuwai. and had leisure in the few minutes left before the third and final blast of the steam whistle was given to look around and see how Messrs Hatrick and Co. had provided for the comfort of their patrons. Good and tasty cabinetwork and upholsteryappeal to the senses of sight and feeling, and seeing that we are on fresh water, there is nothing ironical about our surroundings as when rich tapestry and fine carving mock the passenger who revels in the throes of seasickness. You sit on comfortable plush cushions or on revolving leather-seated chairs and admire the beauties of the scenery with an upward glance, and no' with your head hanging over the bulwarks to leeward. The steward bears himself like a man who knows his world. His ways are as polished as his glasses, and his voice as soft and smooth and low as a priest s. By after proof our cook turns out to be the product of evolution, a ‘ survival of the fittest,'not to be interpreted as I have heard it, ‘ the man who gives you fits. He is musical also, and his efforts on the tin whistle might excite the envy or the risibility of Pan. The saloon looks twice as long as it really is. You proceed to walk into the far distance of it, and come upon a bar to your further progress —a bar furnished with the adjuncts peculiar to bars, spirituous and other. Then you discover that a large mirror has apparently doubled the capacity of the saloon. It has been proposed that this mirror should be labelled ‘ Ladies’ Cabin,’ so as to prevent accidents on the part of those who might, like Alice, wish to go ' Behind the Looking-glass.’ The last whistle wakes the echoes of Shakespere Cliff on the opposite bank, where the man-devouring tani<cha of the Maori legend had his abode, and Engineer Thwaites stands by to wrestle with his engine levers, responsive to the tinkle of the bell. A tremor runs through the boat as the wheels revolve, and we sympathise with the smooth and mirror-like Wanganui, whose reflections, like our own. have been so rudely disturbed. Thoughts of other lands arise as English willows and Australian gums are seen studding the bank, and the sight of some flowering furze reminds us of the old proverb, ‘ When furze is out of flower, kissing is out of fashion.' When is furze out of flower ? So we speed up the placid river which reflects the beauties of Dame Nature upside down, and yet look back with pleasure at the fast receding town of Wanganui, the prettiest on the west coast. Now we pass under the railway bridge at Aramoho bend, which looks down on us with the usual disdain and dislike of railroad for river.

We stop for business purposes at a Maori pah soon after, where stands a Maori crowd, all brown as to complexion and all colours in attire. Forward on the boat, as if to instance the wide range of Union Jack empire, is a tall, muscular Sikh in a huge yellow turban, otherwise verv European as to garments. As we move off amid shouting farewells in Maori and English, our Asiatic friend makes game of the speech ot a stalwart chief in a tartan blanket. ‘He say “ gooroo-bye,” he can’t say

good-bye,” ’ Low-lying flats border the course of the stream ; the strong ripple of our wake follows at a respectful distance, breaking on the shingly shoals. Yon old cow coming down for a drink, waits till the ripple has passed before quenching thirst. Shags of ungainlylook and flight scuttle off at our approach, and occasional kingfishers, like winged emeralds, flit, commonly in couples, athwart the stream.

Upokongaro : the steamer gives a loud ‘ too hoot ’ as much as to say, ‘ Look out I I’m a-coming.’ Here is a little church with a slender spire, like a white finger pointing the wav to heaven ; also there is a wire-rope ferry. There awaited us a river nymph, one very frequently seen on ‘New Zealand's Rhine.’ Our Lurline is an old and fat and comfortable Maori woman in a blue skirt, pink blouse, and with a red handkerchief tied about her head, toque fashion. Long-buried snags stick

out from the bank here and there. On the left we pass

a white rock-face with finely graven markings on it. and • also a band of vertical striations like stumpy pillars. We were now approaching where the highlands border the river. Upon them some of the landslips were cut and channelled in fantastic guise like the railway cuttings about Melbourne. Still higher uo stream we came upon the advanced guard of wrenched and twisted spurs that come down to the river’s edge in great frequency from this onward.

The tidal influence is felt for twenty-two miles up river about midway between Raorakia (Laodicea) and Parakino (Bad Cliff). Beyond this the ease of navigation is in great measure dependent on the stage of water. In winter there is usually a good depth over the shallows, which are really the places where a natural dam gives a tight place to get over with a stretch of easy steaming above.

How the Wanganui compares with the Rhine for scenery I cannot say, having no experience of the European river, save where it runs through Holland under the name of Maas. The ‘ castled crags ’ of the legendary Rhine and the legends, too, are but faintly reproduced, I fear, by the /x/Arand stories of the natives. The Rhine ot New Zealand—where are its legends ? We shall have to coin them, as seems likely, and the nineteenth century is fearfully prosaic. Above Upokongaro the encroaching hills close in upon us as if to forbid farther passage, but where the Wanganui has come down we can go up, and following the feminine turns and twists of the fair river, we get round the threatening hill giants just as the women always get round the men. Time and again we are compelled to admire the ribbed and tumbled spurs, many-folded and interspersed with occasional breakages of buff papa rock. It is yet early morning, and the low-shooting, horizontal light gives an unusual appearance to familiar scenes. A light whiff of gray vapour bangs upon the water, where the breath of morning has not blown it away, and up the side valleys white streaks of cloud sail away—fade away as the sun shines out cheerily. In places where the hill flanks are grassed, good-looking cattle and some very adventurous sheep are dotted over the stark hillsides. The minifying effects of the great hill masses is verycurious, and the sheep seemed dwarfed into lamb-like littleness.

Thirteen miles up at Taki Taki our way lies among a snarl of hills, and our stem points by turns to all parts of the compass. A low po ; nt covered with gum trees lies ahead of us, backed up with a fine, circus-like sweep of towering cliffs, which belittles the trees into mere herbage and shrubbery. One high shoulder mantled with lovely verdure was seen near Raorakia, the beauty of which seemed to distract attention? from the fog which filled the canon of the river, and made throats husky and toes chilly. Now the hills began to get hillier, the flats to become smaller and higher out of the water. At Tupapa we encountered the first of the rapids, of which we made a closer acquaintance later on. The wash of our wheels surges and re-surges from the imprisoning cliff-foot, and the laboured cough-cough of the engine tells of increased efforts on the part of our 1 zolbs. pressure. The rapil passed, we skim along swan-like, and have time to notice the peaked and craggy nakedness of the hills and the loveliness of their ferny garniture. At Pukerimu there is a picturesquely broken rock face, and at the rapid here, inprisoning wing dams give a greater depth of converging water in midstream. The rapids were just as great a hindrance to navigation in canoe days. In many places the faces of the cliffs are dotted with holes made by the poling, which came into vogue in rapid water. Do not mistake them for the haunts of birds. Talking of birds, pheasants were seen in plentv, and pigeons a few, but never a parrot. At Parakino we had an experience. Three Maori horses, full-blooded (?) and full boned (ah !). had to be taken on board—not with their goodwill by any means. They protested hoof-fully ; they were not going on board headfirst or stern first. They lay down, and had to be rolled and lifted on by main strength wherever head, legs, or tail afforded a purchase. I have never seen horses pulled on board by the tail before, nor could I have thought it possible that a horse’s tail could have borne the strain it did. The old Irish Act of Parliament which forebade plough horses to be harnessed bv the tail was not, perhaps, so necessary as might be thought, and its enactment was just one more instance of injustice to Ireland. Te Rimu was anothertighi place to get through, where we literally * hugged the shore.’ Above this for a space the hills were low, and with verdure clad. There had l>een snow on the fronds of the ferns, which were considerably bent down in consequence. The scenerv had an a<hied beauty during the snowstorm ; the hills loomed large and looked nearer than they really were. One little tributary, the Ahuahu, came in on the right, which was the only one seen that was more than a brooklet. At this point on the left hand going up were seen some fine specimens of tairhai, resembling silver beech, and yet farther on, at Okumaire, was a nearly perpendicular precipice, the face of which was greened all over with small ferns, and at the foot was a forefront of finelygrown pan gas. Rapids became more frequent, but by the arrangements now made by Messrs Hatrick and Co. with the forces of nature, passengers are not required to get out and push. Some of the cliffs seen from this on show two distinct

rocks, an upper stratum of pale yellow sandstone, with papa rock underneath. The bush comes fearlessly ont to the very verge of the cliffs, till you wonder how it hangs on and does not ever topple over. At Atene (Athens) an old channel of the Wanganui comes in on the right-hand side (going up). You can walk up it, and, rounding the toe of the spur which has been cut off by the river’s breaking throngh it, come in again a short distance above. The severed portion of the spur is left now as a tree-covered knoll. Eel-weirs and lamprey traps begin to make their appearance now.

At Karatia (Galatia) there is a small island. In the smaller channel lies all that is left of a little river steamer which came to grief there once upon a time. Here we found the river rising and the floodwater showing in the current plainly. Shortly afterwards we reached London, known by native perversion as Ranana, where theie is a fine carved house and an orchard, whence a good store of pears have come down to Wanganui town. Here are large extents of grassed and cultivated land, a large fleet of canoes, and actually a wharf-boat with a crane.

We only stopped at the metropolis to deliver the mail, and shortly afterwards came to a place of historic moment, the island of Moutoa. It was here Mete Kingi turned to bay upon his Hauhau pursuers with the wellremembered words, ‘ I will fly no longer,’ and he rent and scattered them. Is it not written in the ‘ History of the Defenders of New Zealand ?’

We had our little battle to fight here, too, one that had to be fought with the Wanganui River itself. The two channels into which the river is divided by the island are of unequal size, and it was up the larger we had to go. But not as before, steaming gaily up unassistedly. All hands and the cook had to buckle to this time. A grapnel was thrown out at the port bow and a wire rope pulled on board. This was moored at upper and lower ends both, and we were near the lower. The rope was slipped into the notch in the top of the stem post, given two turns round the drum of the steam winch, steam was turned on, and away we went up stream, in spite of the rapid. As soon as turned off the winch, the cable was passed overboard to its proper berth at the bottom of the river. Arrived at the end of our tether, at a point where our paddles would suffice for propulsion, we threw off our rope and went on again. The smart way in which the * pocket Hercules ’ and the mate managed their share of the business was very impressive At Tawhitinui is a finely carved wharepuni, and on the left bank a beautiful grove of tree ferns with the first nikau I had seen up river. The contrast between the tree ferns and the palms is always to be admired, just as that between the flowering toi tot and flax is in our native bush.

Kauaeroa, with its declining; orchard and vineyard, relics of Father Lampila, and its hot spring, is passed, and we then come to a tricky bit of navigation, having to ascend two rapids in quick succession, running in opposite directions, while the channel is encumbered by ugly eel-weirs, which might be compensated out of existence with advantage to navigation. It took a little time to get up these rapids into a deep pool above, which extended round a rocky point, passing which Jerusalem opened out to view, the cross of the Roman Catholic Mission church glittering in the sunshine. Here once more our mate skipped ashore as lively as a harlequin with the mailbag, returning to us overland higher up. From Jerusalem to Pipiriki is an excellent stretch of deepwater navigation, where you have only to keep in the middle of the stream and * let her go, Gallagher.’ The cliffs, high lifted upon either side, come sheer down to the water's edge, and so the course continues to just below Pipiriki, where the river opens out and takes a sharp bend to the left just below a fast-running rapid ot considerable length. Twilight deepens fast into night as we trojp up grade to the boarding-house, where the table arrangements were found unexpectedly good for a place so far back, and the charges were found unexpectedly high. On enquiry I was informed that what was charged was what was always charged. Upon enquiry elsewhere I found that others had been charged less. In the morning the clouds hung low like those in Goldsmith’s * Yalley of Ignorance,’ and roofed in the scene below us from the hills on which I stood to those across the river. Seven o’clock saw us steering down scream, our speed being noticeably greater, for the current was with us this time. The scenery was quite worth encoring, and some features of it, which had escaped notice in coming up, were trapped in returning. At Jerusalem I had but a few minutes for brief but pleasant interview with Father Soulis and Mother Maria Joseph Aubert. The fruit trees of the former and the remedies of the latter are household words. We negotiated the rapids below Jerusalem stern first, a piece of very nice judgment on Captain Anderson’s part. There is more in this thing of river navigation than your mere salt sea sailors think. The rapid at Moutoa Island we swept down almost scornfully, a contrast to our ascent. It put me to thinking how a double ender with side wheels and a rudder at either end would do. In low water the wire ropes have to be used at other rapids. There are nine in all, besides the ordinary warping line. The Maoris are said to be mischievous enough to destroy buoys that support the wires. From Karatia onward our course was swift and easy, so that we reached Wanganui on time at two o'clock on a sunny afternoon. To all who are fond of really beautiful scenery, I would say ‘ Go up to Wanganui, and not only go yourself, but take your sisters and your cousins and your aunts.’