CHAPTER IV. ROADS, PASSES, AND AVAILABLE LAND.
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CHAPTER IV.
ROADS, PASSES, AND AVAILABLE LAND.
HAVING already in the first two parts given a general outline of the country, I shall now proceed to speak of the best means of traversing it, keeping always in view the necessity of opening up for settlement the available parts of its various districts. In my preliminary report I have already stated what I thought of the road selected by Mr. Mackay, namely, that it is a very fair one, not presenting any serious difficulties to prevent its being carried through to the mouth of the Grey; and I presume that it can be improved and shortened, although the pass through the western ranges, from the Maruia plains, necessarily the central point, will always be found the easiest.
One great drawback to the road selected, until we reach the Maruia plains, is the absence of grass land on the banks of the rivers, the few spots here and there found being scarcely worth speaking of. It is therefore of the greatest moment to select such a road as will, when once cut, afford sufficient food for horses and other animals of burden.
Having carefully looked over the country, I think the best and easiest road will be the following. Supposing that, as I believe, the low saddle between the Rivers Whangapeka and Owen can be easily reached from the Nelson side, which must be ascertained from that side (for of the descent on the Owen side I have not the least fear), we could then reach the broad valley of the Owen, which contains grassy patches on the river banks. One mile from its junction with the Buller the road would leave the river, and pass through an alluvial flat on its eastern side, in a south-south-eastern direction towards the Buller. It would then cross it, one mile above the junction of the Owen, where it is divided into three arms, presenting an easy ford. Here also small patches of grass are found on both sides of the stream, now the abode of a herd of wild cattle. By following this road, we should avoid the roundabout way by the lake river and the Devil's Grip, where doubtless there are several bad crossings, and where no available land, like that in the Owen valley, exists. I may also state that the road from the Howard over the hills to Lake Roto-roa, and thence
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by the Leader creek and the Mangles to the Tiraumea plains, is not so good as that even by the Devil's Grip. The hills are high, and some cuttings would have to be made, which are not necessary on the Owen valley line.
After reaching the Buller and the western foot of Mount Murchison, instead of going down by the river, there are two ways for continuing the road; the first by going south, crossing the River Murchison, towards the northern end of the Tiraumea plains, which may thus be easily reached, as there is low country between the two points. From these plains, instead of going down the Tutaki, I think it much better and shorter to follow that river for twelve to fourteen miles up. As I observed from the top of several mountains, the country there is low and broken, and it would be easy to follow one of the creeks which join the Tutaki from the westward, and thus reach the Matakitaki north of Mount Mantell, where an opening is visible which leads by the Warwick into the Maruia plains, the central station of the road.
The advantage of this line would be very considerable, because we have grass in the Tiraumea plains and up the Tutaki, and in all probability also on the banks of the Matakitaki. It is true that I tried in vain to discover from the summit of the mountains which I ascended whether any grass land existed, but as the country twelve to eighteen miles up the Matakitaki is very low, I should not be surprised if terraces, with grass land similar to those in the Maruia plains, although on a smaller scale, should be found.
Should this road, however (which I do not anticipate), not prove a good one, we still have two other ways to reach the second principal point in my journey, namely, the Matakitaki plains. The first is by the valley of the Murchison, below the confluence of which with the Buller the banks of the latter consist of a terrace 100 to 150 feet in height, along which the road can be carried without difficulty. If considered desirable to cross the Mangles, or Tutaki, by a bridge, there will be found, about 150 yards from its confluence with the Buller, two bold rocks, narrowing its bed to thirty feet, and which offer unusual facilities for its erection, although in fair weather the river can be crossed easily near its junction with the Buller above the falls.
The road would then lead along the terrace, which slopes towards the west, through the Matakitaki plains, to the junction of the river of that name with the Buller; and would thus open out large tracts of fertile land, now covered with forest, scrub, and fern. From the junction we could ascend the Matakitaki, and reach the Maruia plains by the Warwick; or, if the road by the Maruia itself were preferred, I should suggest that, instead of following down the Buller to its junction with the Maruia, it ought to be taken along a valley which joins the Matakitaki half-a-mile above the confluence of that river with the Buller,
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whence an opening in the hills leads towards the Maruia in a south-easterly direction.
The Matakitaki has to be crossed half-a-mile from its junction where an island divides it into two arms, From the Maruia plains the road must follow an opening, running south-south-west. In order to avoid the Bog-saddle, it must be kept on the eastern side of the depression, as far as the junction of the Bog-saddle streamlet with the brown Grey. From here it will be very easy to select a line, so as to profit by the terraces, of course always remaining near the river.
Half-a-mile below the confluence of the Alexander stream the road may leave the drey, be carried due west, by compass bearing, until, by descending the terraces, it again strikes the river at the lower level of the plains. By this means many ugly gorges and gullies will be avoided. Our own blazed line will be of use for the guidance of the engineer.
As the Grey can be crossed as far down as two miles above the junction of the Ahaura, the road will follow the open country, first on the left bank, and where the Waipuna grass land, or paid, ceases, then on the right bank to the junction of the Mawhera-iti. Here, by again crossing, we reach the open country, at the foot of the Ohinetaki-taki terrace; and having arrived at its southern extremity, it would perhaps be better to continue on the left bank, by bridging the Ahaura, to the junction of the Kotukuwakao with the Grey. By this means all the fertile land on that side of the river would be easily reached.
Above the junction of the Kotukuwakao a ferry would have to be established across the Grey, and the road, after continuing for a few miles along the hills, would emerge upon the level triangular flat near its mouth. To reach the level country near the Karamea, I think it best to search for a road by the Whangapeka. As the chains south of the Buller are intersected by many transverse valleys, so the chains on its northern side, which have never been explored, will no doubt offer similar facilities for reaching the Karamea, should the quantity of available land there be considered worth the expense of a road. Even should this not be the case, however, I have not the least doubt that in the depression between the chains which the road would traverse, a most valuable gold-field would be discovered. I am unable to say whether vessels of any large tonnage can enter the Karamea; should such be the case, the country near it would be of course more valuable.
Another road might be taken to the Karamea up the western branch of the Matiri, because, I as have already stated, an opening is visible quite through, and there would therefore be no serious difficulties to overcome in order to reach the West Coast near the mouth of the Wanganui, from the Matakitaki plains. Even, therefore, if a fair road cannot be found by the Wangapeka
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through the central chain, it will always he easy, at a small outlay, to reach the Karamea plains by the Matiri, there being available lands on the banks of that river which would compensate for the additional expense of constructing that line.
I have not seen the country through which the road from Collingwood to the mouth of the Whakapoai would lead, but I think it is not worth while to incur the expense of opening that district, where only a very limited amount of land could be available, which, too, can be reached by pedestrians from the Karamea. A road for animals of burden, between the Haihai and Whakapoai river, by which alone the Aorere could be connected with the Karamea district, would cost a great deal of money, and therefore the road by the Wangapeka would still be preferable. It may also perhaps be possible to construct a road from Little Wanganui, between the coast hills and the Lyell range, where open tracts of country lie, which would bring us to the Mokihinui river; but this, owing to the very broken nature of the country, could not be done without great outlay.
Having treated so far of the principal lines of road, I will now proceed to speak of such branch roads, necessary to unite the different parts of the country, as could be constructed without great expenditure.
Between the Grey and Buller, the best and easiest road will be by the Mawhera-iti, over the low saddle into the Inangahua, and down this river into the Oweka plains; so that this extensive flat may not only be opened for settlement, but also for gold-mining operations, which I think would pay well if the diggers could remain at their work, and get their provisions partly by means of an easy road and partly by cultivation on the spot.
From the Oweka plains a road might, if necessary, be constructed by the Orikaka to the low saddle, north of Mount Frederick, which leads to the mountain plateau in the Papahaua chain. Thence, following the Waimangaroha to the seashore, the mouth of the Buller is easily reached. This road will also afford an easy, though circuitous, road from the mouth of the Buller to that of the Grey, which, by the coast line, either on horseback, or even for a pedestrian not accustomed to such a task, would be impossible.
Another road to connect the two harbours would be found through an easy pass, as the natives assured me, from the Waitakere, through a depression in the Paparoha chain, to the headwaters of the Otututu river. By that line, if adopted, the level land between the Rivers Buller and Waitakere, of which a good deal is available for agricultural purposes, would be opened out, and moreover the road would be shorter than that by the Orikaka, Inangahua, and Mawhera-iti, &c. Another easy pass leads from the sea coast by the Kokiwi, north of the Davy mountains, into the last tributary of the Grey on its northern banks.
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Having cited my authorities concerning the two last-mentioned passes, I may add here that the sources of the Grey and Maruia were perfectly well known to the Maories. Tarapuhi, the chief at the Mawhera pah, and his brother, Tainui (Veritas), from Kaipoi, made me a sketch on the sand; showing the rivers by deep furrows, and the mountains by little hillocks, which I have since found to have been perfectly correct. They made it in order to show me the best way to the east coast, and it will not be uninteresting to hear what they told me in relation to it. Beginning from the north, they described the first pass to be by the head of the Maruia, through the Kopi-o-Kaitangata (the thermal springs in which were perfectly well known to them), over a low saddle, into the Otaku, the Henry of Mr. Travers; the second, from the Pohaturoha or Grey, or Boyle of Mr. Travers, into the Otuteawa, or Ann of the same explorer; and the third, from the Ahaura into the Whakarewa; the three eastern streams all falling into the Waiau-ua. They described these three passes as very easy, and they assured me that they can be travelled in the middle of winter, as they themselves have done, without any fear of being stopped by snow; assuring me that there never was snow, probably meaning that it did not remain on the ground.
The fourth pass is by the Taramakau and the Hurunui, which, however, the natives consider as not so good as any of the three before mentioned, because in winter time there is a good deal of snow lying on the saddle between the rivers, and of which, a few years ago, Messrs. Mackay and Rochfort had a rather disagreeable specimen. The height of the saddle is due to the fact that the chain itself has not been broken through by the rivers; so that the traveller has to cross the main range at a considerable altitude, in order to pass from one river to the other. It it can be satisfactorily ascertained that there would be no serious difficulties in descending from the Boyle towards the depression where I first, struck the Grey, I think that the West Coast could be easily reached by the Waiau-ua, and perhaps at less cost, that road having at the same time the advantage of pasture all the way. The natives assured me that there were no difficulties in this line, but as they generally travel along and in river beds, we cannot fully rely upon their judgment in the matter.
There is another pass also from Lake Roto-roa into the Clarence country, often used by the Maories in former years.
That it is also possible to reach the Karamea from the Matiri, and probably by what may turn out to be an available road, has been also proved by a large Maori party which travelled many years ago from Port Cooper to West Wanganui by that line. By following up the Brown Grey, I think an easy road will be found into the Inangahua; so that, without going by way of the Grey itself, that available country could be reached by a more direct line.
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In the two first parts I have already touched upon the position of the available land in the districts traversed by me, anti I will now enumerate more fully what I conceive may be fit for purposes of settlement.
The Tiraumea plains consist of about 3,000 acres of open land, the greater part of which is covered with grass, and the rest with scrub and fern. I estimate that one-half of it, say 1,500 acres, are fit for the plough. At the southern side of the Buller, where the Roto-iti and Roto-roa rivers join, we find also some hundred acres of fern land, the major part of which, however, is too stony for cultivation. Tor the first two miles up the Roto-roa river there are some wooded flats, the alluvial soil of which seems to be of a rich nature. West of Mount Murchison a large flat occurs, which, near the river, is stony and scrubby, but towards the south is covered with forest on a soil of better quality. The valley of the Owen, in some places a mile and a-half broad, contains a considerable quantity of good forest land, with patches of grass land between. The Buller on its left bank below the Murchison, and its tributaries the Murchison and Mangles, have large quantities of level forest land, lying principally on a terrace forty to sixty feet above the level of the water. The vegetation here consists of kahikatea, rimu, totara, tawai, &c., mixed with black birch, which latter, in the higher ground, forms the whole forest.
The Matakitaki plains contain, as far as I could judge, about 20,000 acres of level land, with a very good soil. They lie on both banks of the Buller, and are in great part covered with totara forest. In some places, however, there are considerable tracts, clothed with high fern and scrub growing in a strong and fertile soil. Whichever main line of road may bo ultimately adopted, a branch road into these plains may be necessary, inasmuch as not only will the available land there be useful for cultivation, but goldmining pursuits will in future years make it the abode of a large mining population. There is also some very fine forest land covered with mixed wood, of which the totara is the most abundant, on the banks of the lower Maruia.
In the Maruia plains there is a considerable quantity of land, the extent of which, including the terraces to the foot of the mountains, I calculated to be 23,500 acres, one-third of which is good agricultural land. The Grey country, as I have before stated, consists principally of well-timbered land, in which we find a mixture of all the various trees generally found in level forest, namely, totara, kahikatea, rimu, tawai, &c. Where the soil is poor, black birch predominates, whilst in other places totara and kahikatea form the principal part of the forest. Generally speaking, the alluvial soil is very rich, and fit for every kind of cultivation. The grassy spots are mostly confined to the banks of the rivers and streams, and consist either of one single high terrace, or of several smaller ones rising above each other.
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I shall now enumerate the different pakis, or open tracts of land, and give a short description of them.
The Ohinetaki-taki, between the Grey and the Ahaura is a terrace of about 150 feet in height, generally covered with a luxuriant growth of grass, but in some places scrubby, and in others stony. In front of it, along the left bank of the Grey, runs a belt of land, containing very fertile soil, covered with manuka, flax, fern, and grass, which will be valuable for agricultural purposes. The low land near the river comprises about eight square miles, and the terrace above it about ten square miles.
The next paki, called by the natives Te Ikamatua, lies on the right bank of the Grey, above the junction of the Mawhera-iti. It is also covered with a mixed vegetation, similar to that in the low land of the Ohinetaki-taki. There is here but a very small grassy terrace on its northern side, the forest beginning immediately behind it. The greatest part of this paki consists of very rich alluvial soil, which will make the whole valuable for agricultural purposes. Extent, about seven square miles.
The Waipuna is a paki on the left bank of the Grey, where it enters the plains. It consists of four successive terraces, of different relative altitudes, of which the uppermost is highest, the whole covered with the same character of vegetation as the two pakis before described. There is also some very fine land near the river, and the whole will contain about six square miles.
The paki on the banks of the Otututu consists of four terraces of no great height, the three lowest being each from eight to fifteen feet, and the uppermost sixty to seventy feet high. Contents, about four square miles; and, for the greater part, stony and unfit for cultivation.
The paki at the Mawhera-iti, in addition to a belt of grass and scrub on the banks of the river, comprises several fine grassy spots, of which the first, on the eastern side, three and a-half miles above the junction of the river with the Grey, is a flat about two square miles in extent, consisting of very fine agricultural land. The two next, towards the north, lie on the western side of the river, and are also covered with grass, but are partly stony. Eight miles up the river the terraces become higher, and interposed between them and the river a belt of grass land, from one quarter to half a-mile broad, partly composed of very rich soil. The terraces themselves are covered with stunted manuka, fern, mosses, and toi-toi grass: they are generally swampy, and unfit for agriculture. The extent of good open land at the Mawhera-iti may be estimated at eight square miles.
I have not visited the grass lands on the banks of the Inangahua and its tributary, the Wharau, having only seen it from the mountains which I ascended. They are of large extent and contain, as far as I could judge, in each valley, from 10,000 to 12,000
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acres, having also terraces on both sides of the river, mostly covered with grass.
At the junction of the Inangahua with the Buller, we find a large amount of fern land in the Oweka plains, which Mr. Rochfort, who visited them, estimated at 60,000 acres, which estimate tallies with observations made by me from the summit of Mount William above them.
I think that, after making a fair deduction for hills, river-beds, swampy grounds, &c., we may safely estimate that the Grey plains, south of the saddle between the Inangahua and Mawhera-iti, contain 250,000 acres of level land, fit for agricultural and pastoral purposes. If the Government contemplate reserving proper spots for townships in the Grey plains, I would suggest that they should reserve a tract near the junction of the Mawhera-iti with the Grey, on the eastern bank of the former. A mile from the mouth of the Grey we also find, between the low hills near the coast and the Davy mountains, some level bush land, about 5,000 acres, in which the best site for a township in connection with the Grey will be found, as vessels visiting the harbour can ascend to this point and find shelter, during heavy freshets, in a small indent of the river.
Along the coast, until we reach the Waitakere, there is not a spot which (unless gold or some other valuable metals can be found) offers the least inducement for a settlement.
The delta of the Buller has a triangular shape, of which the mouth of the Waitakere on the south, and the mouth of the Waimangaroha on the north, form the boundaries. Between these two points it extends twenty-two miles, and its broadest part, near Cape Foulwind, is seven miles, running inland. It contains some 50,000 acres of level country, of which nearly two-thirds consist of open terrace land, partly very stony and mossy, and partly swampy; so that only a small portion of it, in its present condition, is lit for cultivation, although a good deal of it could be improved by drainage. The best land is here also found on the banks of the different rivers which traverse it, and is there covered with dense vegetation; similar land being likewise found on its sea banks.
A township could be laid out on the southern bank of the Buller, where a deep water lagoon offers considerable advantages for a harbour. But, as there is not much back country, I think that the mouth of the Grey will always be preferable.
The Karamea country contains some 25,000 acres of fine level forest land; and here also, on the southern bank of that river, a township could be established, the more useful if it can be ascertained that the river can be entered by coasting vessels.
It would lead me too far were I to enter into details concerning the forest land lying between the Ihua Tuaroa point and the West Wanganui inlet, more especially as it is improbable that the mere
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existence of a few thousand scattered acres would induce the Government to incur the expense of opening up that district.
In my estimates of the extent of available land in the various districts, I have endeavoured to keep as closely as possible to a fair average, rather preferring to understate, according to my own judgment, than to make any overstatement; so that it is possible that, on further investigation, it may turn out that the real extent of available country is in excess of the quantities given by me.
