The late Sir Robert Stout, some years ago wrote for me an account of his first visit to Lake Taupo, by way of Napier, over the rather rough road that has now become a great motoring highway. It was in the year 1880, when Stout was practising law in Wellington. The “grand old man,” giving his impressions of that drive across the mountains to the heart of the island, said that he was bound to Taupo to attend a great Maori meeting over a land dispute, concerning the Rangipo block-Waiouru railway station is in that part of the back country-and he was counsel for one of the native factions, the Upper Wanganui tribe.

“Leaving Wellington in the steamer Tararua, which afterwards came to such a disastrous end,” he wrote, “we reached Hawke's Bay late in the forenoon, too late to catch the coach to Taupo. The coach then went as far as Tarawera the first day, and next morning at six o'clock continued its way to Taupo. I hired a buggy, with an old man-o'-war's man as driver, who had never been over the Taupo road before. We decided to travel all night to catch the coach at Tarawera. How we crossed and recrossed the Esk River about forty times in a day of sweltering sun, under a cloudless sky-

'Like the hanging cup of a big blue flower Was the topaz sky above'-how we stopped at Pohue, resting there about an hour or so, and how we reached the Upper Mahaka and crossed it in the dark, not knowing much about the stream, which has often proved treacherous and deadly to travellers-need not be detailed. We rested in the Mohaka accommodation house for a few hours, and then, in the dark, and over a road unknown to us, we made our way. The road was not smooth; part of it had recently been made out of the pumice and such soil as was there, but we went on, though slowly. We reached a point near the top of Turanga-kumu just as the sun rose. What a glorious view spread out before us! On our left there was a deep valley or gorge, whilst on the right, towards the north and east, peaks and ranges draped in places with mist, in other places with forest glories, met our gaze. The man-o'-war's man stopped our conveyance to take in the view. To show his appreciation, he said the view was the finest he had ever seen in his life, and was worth five pounds!”

Taupo township was a rough shop in those days. Mr. Stout-as he was then-found the place so crowded that he considered himself lucky in getting a place to sleep under the counter of a store.