Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/114

86 experts assert that a good lead extends all along the West Coast from Collingwood to Jackson’s Bay, and that it has been merely lost, not worked out, at Mount Rochfort. Speeding along, the train soon reaches Waimangaroa, a budding township of some promise. Here a line diverges to the coal workings, and here is centred a busy community. Again speeding on, the train, still skirting the foot of the ranges, and crossing swamp and stream, intersected country where the expenditure of many thousands was entailed before the permanent way for rails could be formed, the Ngakawau stream is reached. Here again the traveller will be told of coal seams discovered, of a company formed, of much ado being made to get a steamer in and out of the little inlet connecting with the sea, then a clamour for railway communication, and how, when the railway was made up to within a few chains of the coal pit, all works were stopped, a padlocked door prevented ingress or egress into the mine, and the rails have ever since lain rusting. But seeking less for facts unsatisfactory than striking scenery, the traveller will find ample charm in the views along the railway route. Huge mountains, bare heath, breezy upland, widespread plain, swamps suggestive of sport aquatic, ranges timber clad to the very summits, the exuberant foliage of New Zealand brake and fell, glimpses ever and anon of the bright blue sea, pleasant picture spots of cottage life and rural occupation, all combine in charming panorama, and the eye never wearies. And yet this will scarce suffice: his aspirations will soar yet higher, the views of the distant mountain tops will tempt him to scale heavenwards to see what comes within human ken and vision up there, where the huge masses of rock, torn and tossed and splintered in grotesque confusion, as if piled up by the fantastic caprice of genii, seem to mingle with the clouds. Some day when the coast, now almost untrodden ground to tourists, becomes better known, the assent of the Mount Rochfort ranges will form an incident in every traveller’s programme. To-day the feat is rarely attempted save by occasional survey parties, and yet it is comparatively easy of accomplishment. Visitors inspecting the Westport and Koranui Company’s coal inclines on the lower slopes of the Waimangaroa range, will now find the thriving township of Denniston. Before this township was formed, what was there to be seen is best described in the following extract from the narrative of exploration, published in 1861, by Dr Julius Haast, who had, in the previous year, been engaged in topographical and geological exploration of the Western District of Nelson Province, following after Messrs Rochfort and Mackay, who had previously penetrated, and in preliminary measure explored, the country. Copies of Dr Haast’s pamphlet are now scarce, and hence extracts therefrom, in these present reminiscences, will prove of interest. After describing a first attempt to make the ascent, and his native guides becoming disheartened by the cold and snow, for the ascent was made in mid-winter, he says:— “On the 5th July I again ascended the mountain; there was not a cloud to be seen, and the whole country lay like a superb panorama before me. To the north appeared the Rocky Point of Taura-te-Weka, with other headlands, stretching into the sea. Above these rise a mass of mountains, amongst which towered the snow-clad giants of the central chain. Deep