CHAPTER VIII
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CHAPTER VIII.
District from Taranaki to Mokau.
On the 10th I started on an excursion to Mokau, situated three days' journey from the Sugarloaves, in order to visit a large tribe of the Waikato living there. The son of the chief of that tribe, who had come to Taranaki a few days before, accompanied me as a guide. On the hard sandy beach which lies to the northward of the Sugarloaf Islands we passed the Huatoki, the Enui, and the Waiwakaio rivers. The escarpment of the coast shows here volcanic boulders, kept together by a yellow loam. This formation is covered with sand. From the Waiwakaio to the river Mimi the shore consists of sandy downs. We passed the latter river at low water. At its right bank is an escarpment, which consists entirely of sharp-edged volcanic fragments. A whale was lying on the beach, which seemed to have been stranded a few days before. An enormous quantity of drift-wood was imbedded in the sand, intermixed with human bones, probably the remains of the cannibal feasts held during the siege of Puke-rangi-ora. We slept on the banks of the Waitara river, after having passed several smaller streams.
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INTERVIEW WITH NATIVES.
From this point the sea-shore becomes elevated; the cliffs consisting of a stiff blue clay, with a formation of yellow loam above it. We travelled, for the greater part of our route, over fertile fern-hills, with beautiful groves of trees. The vegetation continued down to the water's edge.
We passed the rivers Oneiro and Urenui; the latter flowed with a sluggish stream through a deep bed of white mud. After we had crossed this river we heard voices at a distance, and soon came up with a European, who had been sent by the Wesleyan Missionary in Kawia, and was travelling for missionary objects to the southward. With him was a large party of Waikato natives, and also men, women, and children belonging to the tribe of the Nga-te-awa at the Sugarloaf Islands. They had been taken slaves in the last war, and had been obliged to live at Kawia; but now their masters had allowed them to go to Taranaki, for the purpose of paying a visit. They saluted us very heartily, rubbing noses and shaking hands; and an old woman soon began a lamentation over me. I found out that she was the mother of Barret's wife. The undisguised joy and sorrow which she expressed when I told her of the fortunes or trials of her daughter and grandchildren showed me once more how equally Nature has distributed amongst the whole of the human family the kindly affections of the heart, which are not the privilege of any one
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GEOLOGICAL FEATURES
race or colour, nor increased by civilization, which indeed too often blunts and destroys them.
The country near the sea-coast bears, in many places, the traces of former extensive native cultivation, and the ruins of several pas. Here formerly lived the Nga-te-toma and Nga-te-Motunga tribes, the present inhabitants of the Chatham Islands, who migrated there many years ago. The whole district between Taranaki and Mokau has not at present a single inhabitant, although one of the most favoured districts of New Zealand. Near the Urenui river we again reached the sea-shore; the cliffs were here about a hundred feet high; the lowest formation was a marly clay. About twenty feet above the level of the sea was a formation of wood, very little altered or carbonized, and ten feet in thickness, but irregular: above that was a loamy soil. From the lowest formation I dug out a quantity of protophosphate of iron; it is found in small pieces or balls, is of an earthy consistence, and of a pale-blue colour; the natives call it puke-poto, and when freed from the earthy particles and washed it is highly esteemed as paint. A little farther on the shore becomes very picturesque; it consists of a micaceous, soft, yellowish sandstone, which the waves of the sea have worn into the most fantastic shapes; sometimes it resembles the wall of a fort with round towers, and surrounded by balconies, crowned with beautiful shrubs. In some parts, and
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OF THE COAST.
at one particular level, large boulders of trap-rock protruded out of the wall, the soft mixture in which they had been deposited having been washed away; in fact, the whole shore had the appearance of having been artificially cut out. This formation extended as far as Mokau, which place we reached the following day. My arrival was espied from the first pa, which is built on a hill near the outlet of the river. I was welcomed with a salute of musketry, and conducted in the midst of the assembled chiefs, who were dressed in their best attire. The sale of lands, and the colonization of the country by Europeans, engrossed their whole attention, and formed the subject of our interview. On the following day we went several miles up the river, and visited some other pas, which were numerously inhabited; we were everywhere received with the most studied attention. Disunion had, however, been spread amongst them by the arrival of some native missionaries, sent from the Wesleyan establishment at Kawia. The larger and more respectable part of the little community were not well inclined to them, as an idea prevailed that the missionaries sought to convert them only with a view to their own aggrandizement.
These natives, which are a subdivision of the tribe of the Waikato, and are called Nga-te-Meniopoto, seem to be in very prosperous circumstances. The river Mokau, which takes its rise in the mountains of Rangitoto, a hilly range running near the western
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RIVER MOKAU.
coast, flows through a very fertile and moderately hilly district. On its banks are well-cultivated spots, bearing potatoes, maize, melons, and taro; the natives were also growing a great proportion of the tobacco that they consumed in the year. Flax covers extensive districts; and the industry formerly displayed in manufacturing mats has not yet entirely disappeared. Their settlement never having been reached by European visitors or ships, these natives had retained their unsophisticated virtues. They sometimes, indeed, have come in contact with Europeans at Kawia, where they exchange their pigs for foreign commodities. A brig once entered the river, and from the general aspect it appeared to me as if there was sufficient depth over the bar for vessels of moderate burden, at all events for steamers. Inside the bar I sounded, and found three fathoms: according to the natives, there is one fathom and a half over the bar at low-water. Inside the headlands the river takes a sharp turn, and forms a deep and completely sheltered basin.
I returned to Taranaki accompanied by the principal chiefs of Mokau, and greatly satisfied with the reception they had given me, and reached the Sugarloaf Islands after an absence of eight days.
After we had waited a great length of time for the return of the Tory, a brig, the Guide, arrived on the 31st January, having on board some gentlemen belonging to the Tory, and bringing the intelligence that she was refitting at Kaipara, hav-
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TARANAKI.
ing grounded on the bar at the entrance to that harbour. This news relieved us from the anxiety which we had felt as to the possibility of securing the Taranaki district for the New Zealand Company; as since my arrival churchmen and laymen had vied with each other to obtain possession of that district. On the arrival of the Guide a liberal price was given to the natives for their land, and the good will of the Waikato purchased by presents. Thus the New Zealand Company became proprietors of the finest district in New Zealand, which offers to the colonist, besides its natural resources, the advantage of there being no natives on the land, with the exception of the small remnant of the Nga-te-awa tribe at Nga-Motu.
Since the above was written the settlement of New Plymouth has been established at Nga-Motu, or Sugarloaf Point, which must be prosperous even without a harbour, which is wanting there, as it possesses cultivable land, extensive facilities of land communication both with Cook's Straits and along the coast to Mokau and Kawia, and, as I can state from my own experience, a very delightful climate.
On the 16th of February we left the roadstead of Taranaki, and arrived again in Port Nicholson on the 21st.
