54

TARANAKI GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

We continued running at the same
bearing as stated above, some twelve
miles, crossing two large tributaries of
the Patea River—viz., the Tako and
Makuri Rivers, the latter river running
up a broad, flat valley, with high land
on each side, and bearing northerly.

I decided to follow its course, which
took us on our road, some eight or ten
miles, of fine valley a mile wide in
places, and composed in some parts of
kahikatea swamp. Owing, however,
to the river taking a decided turn
towards the north-west, I deemed it
expedient to leave it and cross over a
low watershed into another valley. I
did this as it was of importance that I
should keep as much east as possible
to avoid the Ngatimaru country, which
from information received from sur-
veyors who had been in that locality,
was very rough in character.

After passing over the watershed
mentioned above, by following a small
creek a short distance easterly, I came
upon some old Maori clearings, and
shortly after struck a river about 50
links wide, called the Mangaotaku
River by Mr. Skeet, who has just sur-
veyed a block of land embracing these
clearings, which are in a valley in
which the river runs.

I followed the course of this river to
its source, passing through a chain of
clearings for a distance of about eight
miles, with an average of thirty to eighty
chains in width, in some places branch
creeks ran into the main river, and
these also had fine valleys with clear-
ings in them. I estimate the amount
of clearings at about six thousand
acres, not including a wide piece of
open swamp land about four miles in
length that we crossed after passing
through a belt of bush from the last
clearing. This land can hardly be
called swamp, inasmuch as the bottom
is hard, and only in places where small
watercourses crossed our track, did we
sink up to our knees, the rest of the
ground bearing the packers with heavy
"swags" on their backs without sink-
ing over their boots. This land could
be easily drained into the river that
runs through it, and would be ad-
mirably adapted for a root or grain
country.

After running up this river to its
source we came to another watershed
with a low saddle, passing over which, we
descended by a gentle declination into
a small watercourse in a flat valley
a few chains wide, this valley gradually
widened out, and the creek increased

in size, running north for about three
miles, when it suddenly turned due
east and afterwards south-east, evi-
dently running towards the Wanganui
River, and being a tributary of that river.

Following this tributary some four
miles further, we struck a branch
coming from a northerly direction;
and, as it was not desirable to continue
south-easterly any longer than we
could help, I determined to run this
creek out to its source, which we found
in a very high, steep watershed—the
worst watershed we had passed. The
country about here looked very rough
and broken, and it was from this
watershed, and only at this place, we
saw the three mountains—Egmont,
Tongariro, and Ruapehu—at the same
time. We spent a day or two at this
spot, prospecting for some valley to
carry us on our journey northwards;
and on the second day we were
rewarded by seeing a valley running,
to all appearances, in a northerly
direction, and we determined to try it.

I may here remark that it was just a
week previous to this date (Friday,
30th April), that we dismissed the
party of packers that came in with us,
owing to the inability of the parties
packing food from the Mountain Road
to supply us. We were now about
sixty miles in, and it took the packers
about six days to travel that distance;
and we found that they did not carry
much more than sufficient for their own
consumption; consequently the explor-
ing party had but little of the food
brought in from the Patea River. It
was this state of affairs that caused us
to come to the decision to dismiss our
own packers, and, after receiving all
the food we could from the last party
expected, to push on with that as far as
possible, to try and get through to the
Mokau. With reference to the Com-
missariat Department, I would beg to
refer you to a report by Mr. Robinson,
who had this department under his
charge.

To return to my report: It was on
the 30th April that we started, each
man heavily laden, and, crossing the
watershed before mentioned, we struck
a small stream, and following this, soon
found ourselves in rough country. The
bed rock, being a soft sandstone, had
been worn by the action of the water,
into a deep but narrow gorge, too
narrow to get through with our
"swags." We had therefore to keep
on the top of these sandstone walls, and
in some places we crept along the base