Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1907-06-13
LONELINESS IN NEW GLAND
Great Stretches Of Country There with
Few Houses and Towns.


Macmillans Magazine. AS nothing
in Europe astonishes the New Zeal
ander so much as the crowds, so moth
ing in New Zealand is SO surprising 70
the Englishman as the vast stretches
of uninhaHted land.
Even the tourist on the coach roads
may easily travel twenty miles with.
out passing single house On the
road leading to one of the most popu-
Lar resorts of the North Island, along
fifty miles Of highway there is but one
small inn, where the horses are
changed, and one Moari village, with a
solitary white teacher for its school
The rest is scrub or swamp where
wild horses roam. or cleared brush
where blackened stumps still stand,
Or fern land with patches of rough
pasture.
And to reach the far famed lakes Of
the South Island. beautiful enough
when they are reached, the coach tolls
for two whole days, through inches of
dust or mud, according to the season,
dragging its slow way past miles of
seeming desert, where even the yellow
tussock grass is supplanted by this
ties or by patches of green lichen re-
sembling nothing so much as verdi
girls.
In New Zealand they appraise land
by the number of sheep it will carry,
and this lis five or six acres to sheep
and merino sheep into the bargain.
The driver as he passes filings ont
letter bags at the little wayside post
Offices or tucks them into wooden box
es perched by the highway. In this
way the post is delivered twice or pos
Sbiy thrice week in summer and
once in winter. But this is along the
coach roads-and even they are often
impossible for wheeled traffic in
winter. Then the post cart, sunk to
its axles, lumbers along at the rate Of
two miles an hour or the postman
rides in mud up to his horses girths.
and thos who have business abroad
do likewise or wait at home for better
weather
Luckily, in no part Of New Zealand
are the winters so long and so severe
las in England; but material for road
making is scarce in New Zealand and
labor is scarcer and dearer When
one thinks Of all that has been done,
and Of the fifty years or so that IL
has been done in. the wonder is net
klat L. la1 AZ
are SO many roads Of any kind.
On many big runs, which years of
tor have gone to make, all the win
ter's stores must be housed not later
than April, because when the rains
come only an OK Gray or a pack horse
can travel along the road to the town
ship. and that with difficulty; and the
Istorekeepers must bring all their
wares from the nearest railway sta
ton or coast town before the weather
breaks. standing out of their money
for many months, pr else they must
suffer the loss OF ~oxen and horses
begged or exhausted with the heavy
winters work -
No wonder store goods are dear
-Four foot deep and four foot wide"
Is the familiar description Of roads IN
the roadiess North which has d
prominently evil reputation IN thar
way: but even in the old settlements
southwark walking is often out Of he
question. not only because there II
nowhere to go within walking ar
tance but also because Of the roads
and the unbridged rivers. Nor Is that
the worst hat can befall for IN mary