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A compendium of official documents relative to native affairs in the South Island, Volume One.

2.— Mataura to Aparima

2.— Mataura to Aparima.

Commencing at Hokanui, thirty miles from the sea; table-land, with undulating surface, narrows gradually to the Leaning Table, distant (according to Mr. Hamilton's survey) about twenty-three miles in a direct line from the mouth of the Oreti Estuary, but not more than sixteen from the sea at Waimatuku. From the Leaning Table the high land trends north-west, till it is lost in the distance.

Hokanui, the eastern end of these ranges, is a fine mountain (about 2,000 feet), partly wooded and partly grassed. Passing west by Wakarua (Ship Cone of Hamilton) and Taipupuru, the grasses on the mountains gradually cease, and they appear to be densely and uniformly wooded. The table land on its seaboard is said to be one continuous forest; but in the line between Tuturau and Oterewa the wood is broken into groves and forest with grass land of various quality between. I am inclined to attribute this varying quality of the grass not so much to a defective soil in those places where the present growth is inferior, as to the herbage there having grown for years untouched by fire, exhausting the soil, and rendering a longer period necessary for it to recover its fertility after the fires which have lately destroyed the grass, and with it probably the seed which should have replaced the burnt tufts. (The burnt tufts which remain show that the growth has been very heavy, and the intense heat from it when burning has to a certain extent calcined the surface of it.)

Inland of this line, and beyond the woods which border it, I am informed that a grass plain, destitute of timber, stretches from Hokanui to Aparima. A Native track once traversed this, by which Tuturau could be reached in one day from Aparima; the path turned inland at Waimatuku; the distance would be about forty miles.

The woods contain fine timber of all kinds, including a few trees of rata, which here first begins to reappear. This rata does not seem identical with that to the north; the leaf is longer and narrower, and the tree when large generally prostrate. The totara, which resembles a kind found in the Wainuiomata, and which Mr. Swainson was inclined to rank as a different species, is abundant, but destroyed in considerable quantities every year by the Natives, who strip the bark, not only for their houses, but also for an outer covering to the kelp bags, in which they preserve the titi or mutton-bird. In travelling, also, they always endeavour to procure it for a shelter. When we joined Kihau and his party at Taurakitewaru, I found they had for this purpose destroyed about twelve large totara trees. Wild cattle were formerly numerous here; we saw their tracks, but none very recent; a few head were seen by Kaikai as we were returning, near Southwood; a bull once found his way here from the Molyneux, and was shot during a cattle hunt.

On the path between Tuturau and Oreti there is but one clear stream the Waihopai, one source of which is within four miles of the Mataura, at Oteraumaka Wood. Another stream falls into it further northward, near Southwood. Water may be procured by digging in any of the narrow swampy runs; in winter these would all be full.

The coast country between Oue and Aparima consists of sandhills, with lagoons or swamps dividing them from the arable land. The eastern point of the Bluff and part of the reserves at Oue and Aparima are all sandhills, partly wooded, timber growing and, except where stunted by the westerly gales, flourishing in these places, a sufficient proof of the absence of drought.

The track at Waimatuku above mentioned is the only one known between Oue and Aparima, by which the inland country can be reached from the beach; the latter is of fine firm sand, almost equal to the Kaputi beach.

The pasturage which I saw at Aparima is not generally equal to that of the northern country; in some parts fern exceeds grass in quantity. The inland, however, from Mr. Nairn's journal, appears to have at least one district of first-rate pasture. He compares it to the Kakaunui country; and the calcareous formation being identical, I have no doubt that it deserves the praise he bestows on it, and will be found one of the finest tracts of natural pasture in the Island.