CHAPTER XIII
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CHAPTER XIII.
Harbour of Houhoura, or Mount Carmel--Rangaunu-- Kaitaia.
At the narrowest part of the island, from Parenga-renga to about eight miles to the southward of Houhoura, or Mount Carmel, the land consists either of low hills or swamps, and is almost useless on the east coast, where it is lined by a long sandy beach, here and there interrupted by bluffs of basaltic rock, which are verdant with groups of the hardy pohutukaua-tree (Metrosideros tomentosa). The vegetation of the hills is brown and low, almost wholly consisting of fern and manuka. On the western coast the land wears a better aspect, where no sand-hills intervene. The shore consists of cliffs about thirty feet high, in which loam and lignite are observed. They have a sandy beach before them; and everywhere springs of most excellent water drip down, proving the moisture of the climate, even in the height of summer. In consequence of this abundant moisture the natives have many plantations, which are in a thriving state. Towards Waro, a high dome-like promontory, consisting of a volcanic clay-stone, or wakke, the land
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MOUNT CARMEL.
becomes excellent. This mountain is the commencement of a continued chain of similar hills, which run along the western coast to the southward, their formation being different varieties of trap.
Mount Carmel itself is not connected with any chain of mountains, but forms an isolated hill, and rises to the height of about 500 feet above the sea. This mountain protects a deep inlet, which, at the head, branches off into several shallow channels, and forms a perfectly sheltered harbour for vessels of the largest burden, with anchorage close to the eastern shore: the entrance to this harbour is not more than forty or fifty yards broad. The mountain is similar in its structure to the main range of hills, and its appearance is such as to indicate clearly its formation below the level of the sea. The base is basalt and clinkstone; the summit forms a narrow ridge, from which steep buttresses run out towards the sea on one side, and towards the harbour on the other. In ascending we pass from the trap to a greyish sandstone, irregularly mixed with pipeclay, steatite, and massy greenish quartz. On the top, and to seaward, this hilly group is barren, although, from the resin found here, we have unequivocal proofs that it was once covered with kauri. Towards the harbour the natives have cultivated portions of the steep ridges; these plantations alternate with pleasant bushes and groves to the water's edge. The natives are only about forty
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RANGAUNU HARBOUR.
in number: they belong to the Haupouri, and are not therefore an independent tribe. They are now all Christians, and some of their number had gone as catechists to Parenga-renga.
They told me that they had once a very large vessel in their harbour; and although the surrounding country is not a favourable district for the colonists, this harbour may afford shelter to vessels which draw too much water to lie with safety in the Bay of Rangaunu.
Some miles to the southward of Houhoura the land at once assumes a very different aspect. The raupo-swamps, and the low barren elevations of the soil between them, give way to an extensive alluvial district, which stretches from the eastern to the western coast, and follows the serpentine course of the Awaroa, a river which empties itself into the estuary of Rangaunu, a shallow and extensive arm of the sea, with an open though an intricate channel for moderate-sized vessels. I entered the harbour at low-water, in the schooner, which drew eight feet, and, not knowing the channel, we grounded several times, although there is but little danger in fine weather, as the bottom is soft and muddy. We anchored about three miles from the north head, sheltered by a spit of sand, and then went twenty miles farther up the river in a boat, to a farming establishment of a Mr. Southee. On a second visit we took the schooner up to the same place, and anchored close to the house of Mr.
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RIVER SCENERY.
Southee, where the river was not much broader than the length of our little craft. But the tide presses the fresh water back eight feet above its usual level, and it is then of considerable depth. It is one of those rivers the banks of which consist only of their own alluvium, the channel winding in a serpentine course; it has little fall, but the tide renders it always navigable. The banks are perpendicular, and rise two or three feet above the level of the spring-tides; towards its outlet, however, the land is low and swampy, and is overflowed when winds from the sea raise the water to a higher level, or when floods, occasioned by long-continued rain, come down from the interior.
I will transcribe a few lines from my journal describing the country in the neighbourhood of the river: --"At first we passed swamps covered with mangroves, sometimes only showing their heads above water, and affording shelter to flights of ducks and other aquatic birds. When the banks become higher, the land is perfectly level; the soil, as is seen by the section of the river banks, is in some places a stiff black loam, in others a lighter earth, to all appearance admirably adapted for grain. The country is perfectly open in many places, and only covered with tupakihi (Coriaria sarmentosa), fern, high flax, and here and there some spots of grass. In other parts the ti (Dracaena Australis), the stem of which seldom exceeds half a foot in thickness, forms almost a forest, or, to express myself more
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EXCURSION TO
correctly, a jungle; and the beautiful crowns of these monocotyledonous, mostly dichotomous, or many-branched trees, with their hunches of delicate white flowers below the crown of leaves, as in the palm-tree, give the landscape a most novel aspect, the more so from my having seen few such open flats in New Zealand. The higher we went, the more agreeable was the scene. On the shores were native settlements, with long seines hanging out to dry, and many natives at work mending canoes and their fishing apparatus, for the season is approaching when the shark is caught in great numbers. Here and there fields of potatoes, kumeras, melons, and pumpkins, neatly fenced in, and kept extremely clean, show all the vigour of vegetation for which New Zealand is so remarkable. Their owners welcomed us as we went along, but did not evince any pressing curiosity. The setting sun threw a stream of gold over the western horizon, which caused the mountains to stand out in sharp relief against the sky, and made them appear almost of an indigo colour. Early in the evening we arrived at Southee's farm; it is situated on both banks of the river, which here forms by its serpentine course several natural paddocks. The maize, growing ten or twelve feet high, and the fields of yellow wheat, bowing under the weight of the grain, showed what the land is capable of producing. Cattle were grazing about, and the well-stocked farm-yard bore testimony to an industry such as is very rarely met
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MR. SOUTHEE'S FARM.
with amongst the numerous settlers of all classes who for several years have had almost the whole of the land partitioned amongst themselves, as the generality of them have bought the land for the purpose of speculation, instead of cultivation."
Mr. Southee has about 300 natives around him in his immediate neighbourhood, who cultivate bits of land interspersed with his own, and who, for cheap wages, work for him in various branches of husbandry, and thus procure for themselves those European commodities for which they have acquired a taste. He gives them articles to the value of 2l. for every acre they clear. The mode which he adopts in clearing the land is to cut down all brushwood and vegetation in summer, and to burn it when it has become dry. Immediately after this he sows the ground with turnips, and when these have been gathered, with potatoes, which require only a little hoeing. The roots and stumps are then sufficiently rotten, and the ground can be easily tilled and prepared for grain.
From Mr. Southee's house the river turns, with many windings, towards the western coast. Higher up its course it acquires greater fall, and in many places is obstructed by snags. Its banks are of the same good description, and are here and there clothed with groves of kahikatea, rimu, and totara pines, or of tarairi (Laurus tarairi) and puriri, until it arrives at Kaitaia. A mission-station and native settlement is situated about eight miles from the
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AWAROA VALLEY.
western coast, on a hilly eminence, an offset of the chain of hills which run from near this point through the interior. Between this chain and the range of western coast hills which I have above mentioned, flows the Awaroa, having its source near that of the Mango-muka--a branch of the Hokianga river, from which it is separated by the Maunga Taniwa, a remarkable pyramidical peak which towers above the chain of hills, being nearly 1500 feet high.
Throughout its course the valley of the Awaroa is capable of being made very productive, as the soil is extremely fertile: from Kaitaia it narrows to the breadth of one mile. Several miles below Kaitaia the river is joined by another, coming from the eastern hills in the neighbourhood of Mangonui in Lauriston Bay, and at the point of junction scarcely inferior in size to the Awaroa. Above Kaitaia the Awaroa is only passable by canoes, in which the natives carry down food from their plantations to their principal settlement at Kaitaia. They prefer the upper part of the valley for cultivation, as indeed they usually do; and their fields are very extensive, and kept in good order. From Kaitaia to the western coast the land is equally good. In some places there is excellent grass, rather an unusual thing in New Zealand. A wooden bridge over the river has been built by the natives, under the guidance of the missionaries; and if we cross it, and pass to Waro on the
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NATIVE TRIBES.
western coast, several valleys are seen stretching from the western hills into the plain, in most of which natives reside. To the northward of Waro low ridges run parallel to the sea-coast, small creeks flowing between them, and the light soil there is eagerly sought after for the cultivation of kumeras At one of these creeks, the Wai-mimi, there is an extensive bed of lignite. About two miles to the northward of Kaitaia is a small fresh-water lake, containing large eels and two kinds of small fishes; crawfish is also found there.
The natives form the tribe of the Rarewa, and their whole number is about 8000, including all those who inhabit the valley of the Awaroa. Of all the natives who are under the influence of the missionaries, this tribe is the most advanced in the arts of civilization. This must be ascribed partly to the endeavours of the missionaries and partly to the comparative isolation of the natives, resulting from their having been powerful enough to resist the aggressions of E'Ongi from the Bay of Islands, and of the neighbouring tribes. The traveller does not meet here with that begging and grasping behaviour which renders the natives on the coast so importunate; on the contrary, they are a quiet hard-working people, and they have, for a very small payment, cut a road thirty-two miles long through the primitive forest, between Kaitaia and Waimate, in the neighbourhood of the Bay of Islands; they have also cut roads in the neighbourhood of their own village. During my
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NATIVE VILLAGE.
stay I saw them reap wheat and plough several acres of land, and the missionaries encourage them to exchange their former unwholesome food of decayed maize and potatoes for bread. Several of the natives have one or two head of cattle and horses; and I have every reason to believe that here at least the missionaries will encourage their acquiring them, in order to dispose of the increase of their own stock.
The village has quite an English appearance; a large church, with a steeple of kauri boards, has been constructed almost entirely by the natives; gardens, with roses, are before the houses, and at the foot of the hill wheat alternates with vines, with hops, which thrive extremely well, and with various fruit-trees and vegetables: there are also several patches planted with tobacco.
The natives lived originally at the Hokianga, but about twenty-five years ago they took Kaitaia from the Haupouri and Nga-te-kuri, who must have been very numerous, judging from the remains of their pas on the neighbouring hills. A great portion of these tribes were slaughtered, and the rest either were made slaves or mixed with the conquerors. About eight years ago the missionaries established a station here, the wars between the native tribes having come to a termination, and they found it comparatively easy to obtain an influence over them.
The hills which stretch from Kaitaia, through
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HILLS NEAR KAITAIA.
the interior of the country, are wooded, and only a few miles from Kaitaia they are covered with kauri-forest. Near the entrance to Rangaunu Bay are very fine groves of this valuable tree, mixed with tanekaha, rata, towai, and other excellent timber-trees. An arm of the sea, which is joined here by a fresh-water creek, the Mangake, and which flows through a considerable extent of forest, affords facilities for floating the timber down, or for establishing saw-mills.
The alluvial land, as already observed, is for the most part fit for immediate cultivation: the herds of cattle and horses belonging to the missionaries are in excellent condition, and show that there is a sufficiency of pasturage.
In the neighbourhood of the mission-station there is found a white, hard, and very closely-grained sandstone, which would prove an excellent building-stone.
The hills near the western coast, on the left bank of the Awaroa, consist of basaltic masses, of rounded forms and of moderate height. They are covered with a mixed forest; no kauri is found there; and all the land to the westward of the Awaroa must be considered as excellent, notwithstanding its hilly character. The hills on the right bank, which extend through the interior of the island, are composed of a soft argillaceous slate, reposing upon a base of hard volcanic rock, phonolithe, or clinkstone. Where the claystone and the phonolithe are in con-
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ROAD FROM KAITAIA.
tact, a transition from the hard condition of the latter to the soft state of the former is observable to the eye of the geologist, and displays an instructive phenomenon. Very near Kaitaia, about 150 feet above the level of the valley, a slaty marl crops out in perpendicular slabs in the depressions of the hills, and is an excellent material for improving the soil of certain kinds of fields, and is, in fact, extensively used in agriculture.
A bridle-road leads from Kaitaia for thirty-four miles through the forest: it was cut by fifty natives for as many blankets, and was completed in six weeks. They were, however, glad when they had finished their task, as they had suffered much from want during the time, as is shown by the following song, which was sung by them on the occasion: --
Ka ngaro te purapura,
Te pata kai:
Etiki ka mate: ko Taewa ka mate:
Ko te Paki ka mate:
Ko te Matiu ka mate:
Ka ka po nei te manawa:
Ka tahuri au ki te reinga:
He poro kaki ka mate.
The tobacco is gone: we have no food cooked in a pot: Etiki is hungry: Taewa is sick: Te Matiu is sick: Te Paki is hungry: all our good cheer is exhausted: we turn back towards the Reinga: we are sick for some food.
The days of such cheap work are now gone by in New Zealand. At a distance of seventeen miles and a half on this road is situated Maunga Taniwa.
The whole valley of the Awaroa cannot contain
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AWAROA VALLEY.
less than 120,000 acres of arable land. In respect to the quality of the soil, the facility of cultivation, as well as of water communication, the abundance of excellent wood and of other building materials, the district is one of the most favoured in New Zealand. A great portion of the land has been purchased by a few private individuals; but if the intentions of Government, of not allowing more than 2500 acres to any one individual, is strictly carried into effect, a great part of these purchases will come back to the natives, and, without injuring the interests of the latter, government will have no difficulty in acquiring a fine agricultural district. Kaitaia itself, which is eight miles from the western coast, and six from Southee's station, is a desirable place for a provincial town, as it is in the centre of the district, and in a healthy situation; it stands on an eminence commanding a view of the whole district, and is especially adapted to serve as a central point and market-place for the surrounding native population.
