Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/24

14 with two Natives; and after innumerable adventures and privations, he managed to successfully follow the mighty river Buller from its source to the sea. So short were the necessaries of life, that they were on one occasion compelled to eat Mr Brunner’s favourite dog, from which incident he obtained from the Maoris the soubriquet of “Kai Kuoi” (dog eater). The traveller who now jogs comfortably along on his horse down the banks of the Buller, from the Rotoiti plains to Westport, no doubt thinks this was not much of an expedition, Brunner having only to travel over two hundred miles; but he fails to remember that the explorer might be for weeks delayed between branch rivers by floods, and that the howling black birch forest, with its innumerable spurs and gullies, is not easy to travel through, when the explorer is half starved, and when, in addition, the country through which he is passing affords but little in the shape of vegetable production or living thing of any description. And be it remembered, the forest was then in its primeval condition, with only a few Maori tracks. There are only two edible ferns, the Mamakau and Katote. The first is only found in country where the soil is of fair quality, but not in black birch forests. The root of this fern when cooked in a Maori oven is considered very good, and will sustain life well especially if an eel can be added to the banquet. The Katote fern is very bitter, and is found in the black birch forests, but is never eaten except in the last extremity. The nikau or cabbage palm is not found in the West Coast districts except in the immediate vicinity of the sea. But to return to Mr Brunner. He next proceeded from the Buller mouth along the Coast to the Grey, and thence travelled south to the Waiho River, which he was unable to cross owing to its being flooded. He then retraced his steps to the Grey. Thence he travelled up the Grey River, on his way discovering the Brunner coal seam. Passing the Mawheraiti junction, he proceeded over the saddle to the river Inangahua, and journeyed on to Buller River, passing through the Rotoiti plain, and thence to Nelson, from which place he had been absent for eighteen months. There he received the congratulations of his numerous friends, who had, from his long absence and want of communication, given him and his two Maori companions up as lost. In acknowledgment of these and other services, Mr Brunner received the medal of the Royal Geographical Society. For many years after this he filled the responsible position of chief surveyor for the Province of Nelson. He died at the comparatively early age of fifty years, his friends believing that his death was hastened by the hardships he had endured in his exploring expeditions.

Mr Charles Heaphy, after a long career of service under the New Zealand Company and in various official capacities at Nelson, was removed to the North Island, and as a Major of the New Zealand Militia served through the Waikato campaign. The indomitable pluck and courage which carried him through the difficulties and hardships on the West Coast enabled him to win the Victoria Cross. For many years before his death the gallant Major was to be seen walking along bent with rheumatism, the result of the hard life and rough exposure he endured in the surveys and explorations in the early days of the Colony.

Next on the list of early West Coast explorers comes Mr James Mackay. He arrived at Nelson early in 1845, and being then in his fourteenth year, took readily to bush