ROUND ABOUT GISBORNE.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 326, 18 July 1889, Page 2

ROUND ABOUT GISBORNE.

[by one who's been thebe.] Deab Mb Standabd,—When I took mr borrowed steed beck to his owner and had expressed myself highly delighted with that wonderful animal's capabilities, what more could the certified owner do than offer to lend his horse again ? I accepted his offer for the country's sake. I know it is more blessed to give than receive, and I wanted to give the country another trial. Next morn, ing, attired in correct equestrian costume, I made it my business to arrive bright and early at my friend’s house. Rosinante was up to his ears in the feed box and I decided to allow him to continue hie meditation for a little longer, and in the meantime I would have a chat with my friend. I found him rather bilious and inclined to take a morose view ot everybody and everything. The country was going to the doge, be said, But I wasn't inclined to stop either him or. it, so I let him wander on, diving lute politics, ascending into theology, discussing science, literature, and art, until I remarked that Rosinante might ba waiting. The fact was that I was waiting myself, very anxiously, tor him to stop. As I bad suggested, Bjslnanta was wailing,—

WAITISO FOB UOBZI He looked two sizes larger than he did yesterday, which, my friend remarked, was • an eatable fact. He offered to shake my hand with hie mouth, but I objected to these undue familiarities between men and animals. From the way that Rosinante jerked his head backwards I should imagine my objection came on him as a surprise. With • little tugging and pulling at the girths, which required to be let down, Rosinante was saddled, and now you see yrur country-seeker “ mounted on his steed once more." Wading through the mud we passed along the Q teen’s highway until we reached Makaraka and the Roseland Hotel, and whilst my steed washed down bis morning’s feed, I debated in my own mind which way I should turn. I eventually decided to turn Ormondwsrds, and kicking Rosinante to wake him up steered him around the corner. It was with very visible disgust that ho LEFT THE HOTEL BEHIND, and though I tried to reconcile him to tho fact that there must be another hotel near at hand he seemed somewhat sulky on it- At Makauri he actually shied— an uncommon thing for him to do—and I think it was because he found no hotel there. The luevb ■ table blacksmith's shop is there, but where is the hotel ? How one can keep open without the other is extraordinary, but there was no work going on in the smithy when I went by, and perhaps it had had to close up. At XYaerenga-a-htka I found a neat little village looking quite spruce. The paint famine had evidently not been felt out this way, and the Waerenga a-hika Hotel, a big store with its asphaltad footpath, and Its other buildings—tho smithy of oouree included— gave one tho idea that the Waerenga a-hikians were not behind the times by a long chalk. But I couldn't see why iu such a small place two hotels were necessary! and I likewise couldn't help wondering what kept them going. My lesibb to BEACH oumosu was frustrated, for when I got as far as the cheese factory the weather, which had been threatening, forced itself on my attention. I am not frightened of a wetting, but I don’t believe in fighting against the elements, and tho first splash of rain was a turning point in my journey. Home seemed to have lost none of its old charms for my steed and fie stepped it out briskly in expectancy, I suppose' of another feed, So far as I could observe there ie something in the country if men can only be found to take it out of it properly. It may be that the soil is so rich aa to give a living with little cultivation, but it seems to me that its qualities are not being utilised to the full extent. As I passed along I noticed some fine paddocks laid down iq grass and giving an example of what might te done. I sew other fields which had yielded an abundant crop ot thistles, Again I saw luxurious plantations of rushes, covering acras in extent, whilst cabbage trees eesm to flourish exceedingly well in the Poverty Bay soil. But nowhere din I see anything that appeared like a consistent effort to extra t . the full virtue of the soil. There seems tuM hcij DOSII OABE A m feeling about the settlers which exhibits itseiW in everything connected with them. Thus while I same across a few handsome residences, the majority of lhe houses have a woebegone, and in many oases a tumble-down, look about them. Such a thing es a cottage garden seems to be the exception rather than thq rule, and even the grounds about some of the larger houses tell a tale of neglect. Perhaps this is not the time to see things at their best, but then one judges only by whet he sms. And when he sees—but my meditations were broken into by a horse galloping up alongside me and suddenly stopping. I looked around and found it was ridden by a dusky son ot the eci l , who, with surprising familiarity, asked me, in what I should cell Anglicised Maori, where I had Come from and where 4 was going to.

I GAZED AT HIST IN WONDER tor a moment, and then to the beat ot my ability returned a truthful answer to his question. To my relief he didn’t ask for my age or my political opinions, as on those points I should not have been able to returq such a ready reply. I tqrned the tables od him by asking whence he had come. He said Papatu, the roads were very muddy, it took q long time te oome, his horse was "welly gout," an 1 he would perhaps be going an tin now bad I n>t interrupted him to ask, was he sure he hadn't co-ne from the Murewai 7 This seemed to pose him for an instant, and in that instant I think he must have come to the conclusion that I had something to do with ths O lurch. In a more subdued tone he said that he had oome from Papatu, and bad started at such and such a time. Ifly companion's

ISOLIBH WAS NOT QUITE 7AULTLUI, while my knowledge of Maori would not fit me to shine amongst the highly moral (by Act of Parliament) licensed interpreters. I was therefore conscious that it I wished to maintain a conversation with my dusky Irienfl, I must keep to beaten tracks, Any words I couldn’t understand I wou'd keep till I could get someone to explain them. With this end in view, I started the weather as a sate tople. But my supposed clerical connection still seemed to linger in his mind, and after he confessed that ('one day alia lite,*'’ “aka day too mutta te wet," he lapsed into religion, and I let him go on, just ejaculating a word here and there by way of showing my interest in the subject. Dusky thought that both Maoris ana Europeans had a lot of different ways ot getting to one end, but he considered his way was the best. It was just tne same as a horse race, one would win and the others lose, and by and by we’d see which was ths winning horse. I Jidnll pretend to understand how my friend worked out bis simile, and especially when he said that one hares would win one race and lose another. Io his opinion, the pakehas and Maoris wquld soon all be ministers—we had so many now—ADfl 'hey wouldn’t have any ooxobecations to preach to. Tho Salvation Army he reckoned was very good, because there were any amount of women in it. He contributed a lot of other valuable knowledge on thli interesting subject which 1 osrtfuiTy forgot, but the mention ot women reminds me or eg act of gallantry I witnessed during my rifla, A lady rode up to a gate about a hundred yards away from a house and out came a gentleman to meet her. When the meeting was over lie was kind enough to hold the horse while she undid tho girths and lifted thsaddle off. But bo Increased her obligations to himself when he lad the horee about five yards from the gate, lot it go in the paddobk. and theq stood aud watched it scamper rounq the field whilst the lady took up the saddle and carried it to the house. You will no douht believe me, Mr Standard, when I say I felt inclined to go up and shake that man by the hand, and say Lamb, or whoevet said gallantry was dying ou’, was too careful of tho truth to waste it in the telling,