OUR FLAX-MILL [Part 1]
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OUR FLAX-MILL.
THE roughest month's experience I have had in New Zealand, was up in the bush, about a hundred miles north of Auckland, where my brother has been building a mill to manufacture fibre from the Phormium Tenax, a kind of gigantic aloe, which grows wild over immense areas of the land in those parts. We manage the journey as follows:--a little steamer, the "Gemini," carries us up the Waitemata River to Riverhead, about two hours' distance from Auckland; there we get the coach; or in winter, when the roads are nearly impassable, we ride on horseback for fourteen miles across the portage, to Helensville on the Kaipara Harbour; there is a railway already begun from here to Riverhead, but although the earthwork and bridges are complete, we shall have to wait for rails from England before it is opened to the public. At Helensville we find either the Government cutter, or the regular weekly mail-boat "Pai-Mariri," which takes about a day to sail eighty miles up to Mangawhare, a trading station on the Wairoa River, the future Mersey of the country and navigable for vessels of 1,000 tons for fully forty miles above this point. Here we used formerly to get into a little gig, and row for nine miles up our particular creek, the prettiest little stream imaginable, called the Kaihu; but now we have got a diminutive steam-launch, which I have christened the "Elsie," and which flies the dear old University College flag at her stern, Oxford blue with a golden cross in the centre. She can
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run about eight knots an hour, and startles the flocks of wild duck which abound up our creek, as she glides swiftly along under the graceful fern-trees and giant puriri with their soft magenta flowers.
In summer, we are never at a loss for fresh meat, for you may count by dozens the large native pigeons, as they sun their bronze and purple plumage, lazily perched on the top of the totara pines, or gather in flocks to eat the berries of the puriri and karaka. They are the most stupid birds in existence, and never seem to be much frightened at the discharge of a gun, so long as they cannot see who fired it. If one only had a few English comforts and friends up here, I think it would be the pleasantest spot in existence. I have seen no bush or river scenery to equal it for quiet loveliness; there is such an immense variety of foliage on the banks, and at a very short distance from the mouth of the creek the water runs as clear as crystal between high, dense bushes of the flax (our peculiar industry), from whose pendant crimson petals, on flower-stalks nearly thirty feet high, the wild bees gather the sweetest of honey. Far away on the sky-line to the north-west, there is a mountain range extending from Monganui Bluff to Tutamoi, a high table-land with an abrupt precipitous face. You can hear the heavy boom of the breakers on the sea-coast, six miles away, where the whole force of the Western Pacific breaks upon the hard beach of white sand, along which you can gallop for hours as straight as an arrow. The cliffs here and there show great seams of lignite on their face, which makes me think that some day we shall be finding coal-fields in the neighbourhood. Indeed we are right in the line of such a discovery, for the Bay of Islands mine is but a short distance from us on the other coast.
In Moeatua, one of the creeks running down to the sea,
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I found the remains of a French frigate which was wrecked there in early times. Nothing now is left but a few heavy spars and such iron rings as the Maories could not carry away. They say that Parore, one of our landlords, secured about sixty tons of gunpowder from the wreck, and has it stowed away safely in some remote corner.
But I must get back to our mill, and give a succinct historical account of it alone, for if I wander off into details of other things the world itself would not contain them all. Before my arrival, T-- had gone up with a couple of men to select a site, and clear the river of snags. They began with a series of mishaps. The first morning when they woke, they found the blankets covered with large white patches, which at first sight they thought were the drippings from their candle, but on closer examination and touch they discovered, to their intense disgust, that the whole surface was a crawling mass of maggots, which the noisy blow-flies had deposited there during the night. I think this was the worst misery of all our bush life. Fleas, Maori bugs, sand-flies and mosquitoes were bad enough in their way (and we had plenty of them), but to hear, just as you were dropping off to sleep, the loud buzz of these other loathsome insects, as they bobbed against the canvas of the tent, and then dropped on to one's blanket or clothes with malicious intent, destroyed all the romance of camping out at once. I found a way of balking them at last, by peppering, salting, and smoking everything woollen in my possession, whilst, as an additional safeguard to the meat, we always kept it covered; or, if carving at table, one of us would mount guard with a roll of newspaper to knock over our enemies, whilst the other cut off what he wanted as rapidly as possible. These plagues disappeared when we got a regular house built, for the little English fly came in swarms, and actually worried their big brothers
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to death. They themselves proved troublesome enough in turn, but were a vast improvement on their predecessors.
Misfortune the second was as follows: S--, one of the hands, rowed down to the store at the mouth of the creek to buy provisions, and bring back some house-blocks. We suppose the "dingy" must have caught on a snag, and, in leaning over to free it, he fell out of the boat and was drowned; for the body was found three days afterwards among some rushes in the river, whilst the "dingy" had not capsized, but was floating right side up and half full of water. His poor dog "Jonah" whined pitifully when he saw his master's dead body, and for a long time seemed quite disconsolate, but has since attached himself to us, and will not follow anyone else. When we got the stream cleared of snags, and the timber for the mill was ready, more "hands" came up, and we were rather puzzled for a time how to lodge them all as there was only one tent; but in a very short space of time they built themselves "whares," or huts, of a very ingenious kind and perfectly waterproof. The stakes at the four corners and sides were of manuka or ti-tree, while the roof and intermediate spaces were made of the spreading leaves of the "nekau" palm, which answered the purpose fully as well as the corrugated iron used by more ambitious architects. Certainly in dry weather I have seen a house like this burnt down in about a quarter of an hour; but then it really cost nothing but the half-day's labour to build another exactly similar, so that, even though "Procsimus ardet Eucalygon," no one troubles his head about insurance up here. Our nearest white neighbours are a colony of gum-diggers at the Kaiwaka swamp, two miles lower down the river; they have built quite a little village of these "nekau" huts, and live a most celibate
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life, for I don't think there is a woman in the settlement. They generally work in parties of four and five, taking it in turn to remain at home to do the cooking, or scrape the gum clean which has been brought in the previous day. The first time I saw them at work with their gum-spears, they puzzled me as much as I did my brother when he saw me stirring the porridge with the handle of a large wooden rake in default of a spoon, as he came up the river one day. The "spear" is simply a spike of iron, about a foot long, on the end of a pole, with which they "prick" the ground where the kauri gum is found. Directly they hear the iron ring, they dig round the spot and find a lump of gum, generally about nine inches beneath the surface. I think it brings twenty shillings a hundredweight on the spot, after being cleaned; but they have to pay the Maories a royalty of five shillings, which reduces their profits. If a man hits on a good "pocket" of gum, he may make five or six pounds a week; but au contraire, for weeks together he scarcely fills the sack on his back. The gum is used in England and America for carriage varnish; and the children about here make very pretty little ornaments from it, much like clear transparent amber, with occasionally a flaky white cloud in the centre. It cuts easily with a knife; and after carving it into a heart, cross, or what not, you rub it with oil and wash-leather before giving it a final polish with kerosene to remove any scratches on the surface. The most curious fact about it is, that for miles and miles there is not a single kauri pine now standing on the gum-fields; you sometimes see gigantic trunks lying across the swamps, half buried in the mud, and in a semi-petrified state, but no live trees are to be seen in the proximity. The theory of the deposits is that in the active volcanic period of New Zealand, these immense forests must have been kindled by the red-hot
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scoriae which fell over the country, and that during the conflagration the liquid gum ran into the ground and solidified. Certainly wherever you find a "hummock" of fern and earth, covering an old trunk, you are almost sure to strike "gum" on the lower side of the hill, close beneath the tree. Both the wood and the fossil gum make splendid fuel. I have often crept out of my tent on a drenching wet morning to light a fire in the "open," and cook an early breakfast, with a sense of despondency at successive failures with the damp wood, until one fine day some one suggested making a blaze with a lump of "kauri gum." It burns like turpentine, and with the protection of a bank of sods at the back of my fire-place, and a sheet of corrugated iron to keep the "heavy wet" off, till I got a fair start, I used to triumph over all weathers. There was however a great feeling of relief at seeing our own "store" completed, with a good roomy chimney, across which I could hang my kettle and keep a constant supply of hot water for wet and hungry wayfarers to make their tea or cocoa with. They installed me as cook, and I found that my old experience as a fag at Eton came in very useful to me. The worst of it was, that at school I had all the materials to my hand, and some variety in the dishes; but here, one had to make the bread as well as toast it; and also to bear patiently the muttered complaints of the men, as they saw the eternal junk of salt beef, backed by sardines, potatoes, and even ship-biscuits, appear at every meal. Every Sunday we managed to get enough pigeons and ducks to make a "sea-pie;" and as some of my readers may not understand its mysteries, I shall give them the recipe, for the chance of their ever being similarly circumstanced. You take a good sized iron pot, and put successive layers of paste, potatoes, and meat till full, topping up with paste; of course there must
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be a little fat and some water to make the gravy, and onions, if you have them; then you stew gently for about three quarters of an hour, and a most savoury mess is produced, fit for the table of Belshazzar or the Emperor Heliogabalus.
My expedients were becoming well-nigh exhausted at last, and I felt like a fellow-passenger of mine between Melbourne and Adelaide, who said, as we leaned over the stern in Lacepede Bay, and looked at the fish darting about, Well! now if we could get a bit of fat, we might fry some of those fish, if we had 'em!
But at last I resolved, as Mr.Dombey urged his wife, to "make an effort." We sent for two fat sheep from Auckland, which duly arrived in the cutter, and which, though costing the enormous sum of thirty-two shillings each, actually realised a handsome profit retail at the extortionate price (for the colony) of sixpence a pound. To my intense delight also, as I walked across country one evening, I lighted upon a bank of the most beautiful mushrooms, with pink centres and creamy white tops, which I seized upon instanter, and carried carefully home. About the same time, our friends had sent us a box from England, with a number of little delicacies, which can only be prized as they deserve when at such a distance from civilisation. They shall have a treat at last, thought I, instead of the "toujours sardines" diet, to which they have so long submitted; and accordingly, on this occasion, "the Soyer of the camp" out-did himself. I annex the bill of fare:
Julienne Soup, made from little preserved squares, and sent in the box from home.
Roast leg of mutton, fried potatoes, and mushrooms.
Stewed prunes and figs, with rice.
Candied ginger.
Tea and cocoa, dried for a quarter of an hour before the fire, to bring out the flavour before mixing.
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We also unpacked our cask of crockery, and enjoyed our China tea-cups, saucers, plates, etc., like Christians, instead of feeding from those horrible tin pannikins and dishes.
The only rebuffs I encountered were that my scullery-man, like King Alfred, let the cakes, or rather rice, burn; and one of the "hands," a canny old Scotchman, objected to "thae puddock-stools," which I had stewed with butter and flour in my most artistic style.
It was not long before I got a cow and calf to these remote parts, to supplement my kitchen with a dairy; but "thereby hangs a tale," which I reserve for another chapter. The only drawback to our table was the want of milk, though, if I had had all my wits about me, I might have brought up some tins of the condensed milk from town. There were many charms about this semi-savage life; among the greatest was the utter absence of conventionalities; no tall black hats ("bell-toppers," a la coloniale), no gloves, no stiff shirt-collars, even no coats on a hot day; and then, in the mornings, when you woke with the fresh air of summer breathing gently in at the open door of the tent (for it hardly ever blows hard between five and eight a.m.), you had but a few yards to walk from your bed, and, with one plunge, were swimming in the cool waters of the Kaihu river, which ran so alluringly close at hand. People often talk of the rapid spread of the Anglo-Saxon race, and, when discussing its greatness, wonder what signs of it will be left thousands of years hence, should the race itself have disappeared. Most observers would say that future generations of men will trace our power and genius by the Cyclopean embankments and cuttings, which a spider-like net of railroads is forming over the face of the habitable globe; but here in New Zealand, at least, three infallible witnesses will be found to attest our influence. I never rowed up a creek or back-water, in the
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most secluded part of the native country, without finding an empty black beer-bottle from Tennant's Lady Well Brewery, Glasgow, bobbing in the water; and I never crossed a flat, or any large tract of bush, without seeing a sardine-tin, or an abandoned paper-collar, slowly settling down in the dust, to puzzle the Lyells, and Lubbocks, and Murchisons of a later day, when, in company with Macaulay's New Zealander, they visit the shores of England, and find similar deposits there in the strata of the present epoch.
After the men had stopped work, eaten their supper, and lit their pipes, my brother or myself, after drawing up to the fire our arm-chair (extemporised from a hip-bath, with a pillow at the bottom of it), used to read aloud to them for an hour or two before we went to bed. A good many of them had never seen Dickens' works; and when we began "Martin Chuzzlewit," you might have heard a pin drop in the old cook-house. Every now and then they would give vent to their feelings, with an audible expression about "that brute Pecksniff, serve him right;" or a pitying shake of the head, as I read of Jonas Chuzzlewit's brutality to his wife. I almost frightened myself the night we got to that chapter about the murder of Mr.Montagu; the wind whistled so gloomily round our wooden house, and just as we came to the most horrible part of the story, the sheet of corrugated iron which served us for a door fell in with a crash, and a blast of cold air came rushing through the aperture, as we jumped from our seats with scared faces to look what had happened.
But there are no ghosts in New Zealand; the country is not old enough for such "sensations;" so we soon subsided into our beds, and slept as only those wearied with honest manual labour in the finest climate in the world can sleep.
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We think of building a house for the manager, up beyond a settlement called Taita, where the chief Te Roore lives; the spot we are likely to choose is near the old ruins of the Mission-station, where Mr.Buller used to live. The stream is fringed with willows, the banks are far out of the reach of floods; and, as far as the eye can reach, is a fertile flat of Phormium and peach trees, from which last the Maories used to bring us "kits" of delicious fruit the first summer we spent up here.
Since T-- left me alone in my glory, I have had many queer experiences, I went down to see him off by the "Pai-Marire" cutter, which derives its name from the Hauhau motto (Peace, be still), and found that my horse "Taffy" had arrived by that mail, with the cow and calf, which I had been anxiously waiting for, to inaugurate my dairy arrangements. My brother rather laughed at the idea of getting the trio of quadrupeds overland that night, through a meshwork of bush and swamps, which was puzzling enough in broad daylight; but I resolved to make the attempt. Having got the assistance of one of our boatmen, off we started about four o'clock, and in a very few minutes our troubles began; the calf wouldn't be driven at all; the cow kept running off the track, even after I had slung the calf across the horse's back to attract her maternal instincts; but at last we devised a plan which promised every prospect of success. One of us mounted the horse and drove the cow; the other tied a rope to the calf, which ran after its mother. Whenever the cow turned off the road, we checked the calf till we drove her back, and she never went far without it. So, by slow stages, we surmounted our difficulties until we had reached our southern boundary line, the Maungatara Creek, where, as dusk fell, we entered Puhi's swamp, which was pretty familiar ground. But alas! I was no
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better than a child when darkness came on; I lost my bearings directly, and that infernal cow kept trotting off into soft places where my horse sank to the girths, if I attempted to follow. At last, about fifty yards from the further side of the swamp, we both fairly gave in; and, leaving the cow hopelessly bogged, I took the horse to the edge, and tethered him to some ti-tree. We then went back, and dragged the other poor beast out by her tail and horns, as she moaned helplessly, and placed her on a little island of tussock grass, where we secured the calf to a flax bush. Next morning I found her lying exhausted in exactly the same place where I had left her the previous night; and it took an hour and a half to haul her on to dry land, across that little bit of a bog. I never tried this amusement again, but drove her right round the head of the swamps, and nearly over to the sea-coast, which, though it trebled the distance, was a far more simple task. But to return to where I left the horse. After mounting the hill, the sky became overcast, and, for the first time in my experience, I was utterly and entirely "lost in the bush." It was no good walking further, for we had no idea in what direction we were moving, so we sat down in the darkness for the morn to rise. Presently we began to feel thirsty; but before we dare stir to look for water, we lit the bushes for a beacon to guide us on our return. After a long search, stumbling over "pockets," from which kauri gum had been dug, and which are very awkward for a careless rider, we found a few small holes of rain-water, which gave us enough to wet our lips; and then, after smoking our pipes in sullen silence for a time at our wood fire, the Southern Cross suddenly peeped out, and the moon broke out from the bank of clouds on the horizon. I then recollected that if I could strike the native track to the west coast, and follow it along, I should find a news-
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paper flag on the bushes, which would give me the direct line for turning off home. We soon succeeded in our search, and arrived at the mill about half-past eleven at night. It was very fortunate that my brother had thought of tying up these landmarks of paper as we were exploring short cuts over our block of land, as in daylight we could see them a quarter of a mile away; and by constantly making a bee line for them, and chopping here and there a ti-tree to guide us in between, we soon established a well-defined track on the nearest and best line of march.
We used to find it hardest to prevent circling round and round when cutting a road in the forest, for then one had no view ahead; but the compass afforded some assistance; and we could also start from different sides, giving an occasional call, as we neared each other, to see if we were going straight. I could never resist slicing off the head of a "nekau-palm" as I passed, if it looked particularly tempting; for the white succulent flesh of the young leaves is very like celery in consistency and taste. I think it quite possible that we shall make some use, too, of the leaves of the cabbage-tree (what Lady Barker calls the ti-tree palm); the fibre is very strong and clean, but short; and requires boiling to get rid of the green outer coating.
What puzzles one most in our amateur road-making, is the way in which the face of the country alters in the wet season; where we walked dry-shod the other day, we find next week either a treacherous bog, or else it is chest deep in water; and I have had one short acquaintance with a summer "fresh," that is vividly impressed on my memory still. There had been three months of consecutive sunshine, and we had stacked our timber for the mill, close to where it was landed, in apparent safety. The rain came at last without any previous warning; and for three days
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we had an unceasing down-pour. The first night made me take to the "store," for I had the weather-side of the tent, and after a vain attempt to sleep in my mackintosh, I found the insidious drip and patter from the roof was sure to creep in at some weak or exposed corner, and give one a cold shiver as it trickled down the body.
During the next two days the river kept rising rapidly, for the dry ground was unable to drink in the rain fast enough owing to the previous drought, which had caked it so hard; and all the surface drainage ran off at once as from a duck's back. I felt uneasy the third day, when the water had reached the level of the banks, and sat up measuring its rise, which was at the rate of an inch every half hour. I carried the bulletins to the tent, where one of my companions still held out bravely; and after my repeated warnings had wakened him from an incipient drowse into a state of the most fidgety watchfulness, he at last sprang to his feet, with an exclamation of "Here it comes through the tent!" We carried all our possessions up the hill side, and out of harm's way; and then, at two a.m., worked hard to remove our timber to a safe distance, splashing about in the overflow which had already reached the stack. It was only after having to "turn" out like this, or when one had passed a restless night with other little torments, which abound in newly-cleared places, that I ever regretted the luxuries of a town, or thought that I had bragged a little too much of the "glorious liberty" of bush-life.
"Romoe Tibur amem, ventoso Tibure Romam" is a far truer remark than most of us think; and I am afraid, at this distance, I think only of the delights of that life; but if boating on that lovely river, and breathing that pure air, was pleasant to me after coming from Oxford, where our Nuneham water-parties at Commemoration time had
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the additional charms of female society, and other creature comforts that were missing here, what must such a life appear to a working-man from the old country? There he probably tastes meat but seldom; he undergoes real hardships, in a miserable climate, and on stinted wages; but here, one of our "hands" actually grumbled because he could only lay by fourteen shillings out of his thirty shillings a-week. On a wet day I have known the boatmen refuse to turn out and brave the inclemency of the day, and leave us ourselves to carry the mails down to Mangawhare, whilst they did a "government stroke," and lolled in their huts over a pipe. Any labourer who can pay his passage out to New Zealand is a fool to remain at home; for here he feels himself almost on equal terms with the man of capital, and has him almost at his mercy. So far from losing in social advantages by the change, as an educated gentleman may do, he makes a positive gain in this respect; and, if he is only fairly steady and saving, may realise a position which he could never attain to in older countries, where the laws of caste and prejudice are so tyrannical in their operation. "Slow rises worth, by poverty oppressed," may be true of England; but in America or New Zealand, a poor man, who will not loaf or be ashamed of manual labour, is bound to get on well.
We have already built seven cottages for our workmen, which they occupy free of rent; and they are quite at liberty to enclose a piece of land for garden produce, which begins to give a ship-shape appearance to Katangi, our first village.
I rather enjoy christening the new spots with old and well-remembered names from home; for instance, we intend to pick out a site for "Aigburth" settlement, if enough people would come out from Liverpool to entitle it to the name; and I think myself it removes the feeling of
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exile, which emigrants experience on first reaching their adopted country, to find familiar names already planted there. T--, however, is inclined to adopt the rule of retaining Maori names, wherever they are really poetical and decent (many being quite unfit for translation), which would not leave much room for my scheme. It adds very much to this same illusion, if all the settlers bring a few flowerseeds from home to scatter broadcast in this flower-less island. Though the ferns and creepers are so exquisite in their variety, I know of only two flowers, the Rata and the Phormium, which shine out conspicuously with their scarlet or crimson blossoms from an all-pervading green. I have sown a little packet of cowslips near the mill already; and I fully intend that, before many years elapse, the country under our care shall be covered with daisies, primroses, and heather each returning spring. Everything that grows at home should grow still better here, if I am not mistaken; and it would be a real delight to find violets and lily-of-the-valley in the "bush," whilst the more domestic roses and carnations lent a novel brightness to the house-front. It is not much use to attempt a vegetable garden, until we get a strong enclosure built to keep out the pigs,--not the wild pigs, but an impudent little porker, called Tommy, which our friend Parore gave us when calling one day. He is provokingly tame; but as he does not "pay the rint" like Paddy's pig, we occasionally come to loggerheads, when I find him rooting up my turnips, or invading the sacred precincts of the "store," where he sometimes steals a surreptitious doze, nestled in a heap of shavings. Often when we are out walking, he will follow us for miles like a dog; and I could never make up my mind to kill him, even when at the last extremities for fresh meat. What can one do, when he confides so securely in your honour? It is impossible to
