Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/148

114 working of the great mining claims, which are expected to be in full operation in a few months, should give dividends to its shareholders for many years to come. But I am diverging somewhat from the narrative of my trip.

Starting for the beach, we passed through Donoghue’s, and had an opportunity of seeing the extent of damage done there by the recent flood. Long stretches of fencing have been carried away, and numbers of gardens have been laid waste. The loss must be considerable to many who had made their houses comfortable, and who were previously, to all appearance, in no danger of either flood or tide. Passing along, we crossed the Mokinui by boat, and shortly met a drayman, who informed us that a party of surveyors had preceded us, bound for Mount Rangitoto, for the purpose of surveying some of the other sections adjoining that of the prospectors, applied for at the last sitting of the Lands Board. Upon reaching the Mokinui River, Mount Rangitoto presents itself in a line directly behind the Koh-i-noor claim, and from that point we have the first opportunity of contemplating our next day’s journey. Along the beach there are a number of small farms, and some dairymen settled, and apparently contented. The Waitaha Bluff is passable at any time, and at low water drays frequently traverse it. A short distance beyond Bald Head, or nine miles from Ross, Allen’s homestead is reached. Here we settled for the night. Mr Allen has a very large and comfortable accommodation house, besides several extensive paddocks under cultivation. No settler in the southern part of the Province has worked harder during the past ten years to get around him a comfortable home, and he appears at last to have achieved his object. Horses and cattle are to be numbered by the score around the buildings, and with a probability of an increase of population near the locality, his perseverance should meet with the reward it deserves. Extensive improvements have been made on the farm, and the clearest evidence is given that farming and squatting, if conducted with care and attention, along the many rivers on the southern beaches, should prove to be a remunerative occupation here as it is elsewhere.

We made a start from Allen’s on Wednesday morning about eight o’clock, equipped with provisions sufficient to last us for several days. In addition to our own party, there were other five in company at the start, but the heaviness of their swags, as compared with ours, compelled a separation before we had gone far up the first hill. Four of these belonged to the survey party, and the fifth was a traveller from Reefton, whose precise mission was unknown to us. He stupidly left without change of clothing or any supply of provisions whatever, and, but for the kind attention bestowed upon him by the Samaritans among the mountains, he would have fared badly indeed. From Allen’s to the Gorge, a distance which occupied about two hours to travel, each of our party, with the exception of Palmer, had the benefit of a saddle horse. Palmer might have availed himself of like service, but he was indifferent to a ducking. I shared my nag with Hudson, and we jogged along in this way, alternately in single and double file, singing airs appropriate to the situation, and all joining in such a chorus as “Marching through the Waitaha,” or listening to a Scotch solo from Adamson upon those who were wont to