The Rangitaiki Fords.

Curious little byways of pioneering memory are explored by the lightning flashes of memory as one travels the country and rolls smoothly in a railway carriage or a motor car over some long white bridge. Such a river as the Rangitaiki was at once useful for military purposes on its lower reaches, by reason of its navigable character, and an obstacle on its swift upper course. In later times, when one had to cross it on the long ride from Rotorua to the Urewera Country, it was a river to be dealt with circumspectly. Strong and deep and fairly wide, it was not at every place that it could be forded. I have a shivery recollection of getting out of my depth, or rather my horse's depth, at the ford opposite William Bird's place, some miles below the present bridge at Murupara, and drifting down stream towards some rapids. It would not have mattered had the Rangitaiki been low, but she was running rather high, and I was not sure of the right ford. By page 26 good luck, horse and rider both got out some distance below where we entered the river, and the next try took us safely over. Since then I have forded the river at one or two places above Murupara, but on these occasions took care to keep in company with Maoris who knew all the crossing places. Higher up there were once frail bridges of a log or two thrown over narrow canyons only a few yards wide.

It is perfectly easy to get into trouble at an unfamiliar ford, no matter how much o:.e may have crossed back-blocks rivers on horseback. I know places in the King Country where the ford is just above a waterfall; there is a shallow, slippery papa rock ledge at such crossings on which your horse must contrive to keep his footing or go over with you. Those are the places where you would say your prayers to the first man who built a bridge.