Page:Charleston • Irwin Faris • (1941).pdf/76

 landward of the sandhills, from The Point to Totara, in 1933.

On the southern side of The Point was a Maori kainga (village) which for several months of each year was occupied by natives from the Buller, who engaged in catching supplies of dogfish (mango) at Penguin Bay, and drying them in the sun, beside the coach road. Passengers held their breaths while passing the spot, and drivers told of lady-travellers being much distressed. They told many other tall tales also; it was a saying that if you wanted to know “the lie of the land,” ask a coachie. To which tribe these Maoris belonged is not certain; probably a detached section of the Ngatitoa, Te Rauparaha’s conquering host.

About 1914 the Cape Railway was extended to a quarry on The Point, through a tunnel on the Cape, skirting the site of the Half Way House Hotel, and running around the bay. It did not function for long.

About Tauranga Bay, especially near to the outlet of the creek, were several seams of lignite.

From The Point the route entered upon the north end of the Nine-mile Beach and followed this uninteresting length of strand to the Totara River, about four miles, It is similar to the South Beach, having breakers at one side and long sand dunes at the other. Neither of these beaches was suitable for vehicular traffic at other than low tide, as the only hard sand lay at low-water mark; nor was the Totara fordable when the tide was high. This end of the Nine-mile Beach was uninhabited along its fringe, but at its south end a portion was worked for gold, by beach-combers, and later was the Shetlanders’ settlement of Rahui.

After traversing the northern end of the Nine-mile Beach, the route crossed the Totara River, which entered the sea about half-way along the beach. Although called the Totara River, it was not actually such, but the outlet of the Totara Lagoon into which flowed the Okari River at the northern end and Big Totara and the Little Totara at the