Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-05-19
New Zealand Pervaded
BY Air of Loneliness

| From Maemillan's Magazine.
AS nothing in Europe astonishes the New
Zealander so much as the crowds SO moth
ing In New Zealand is so surprising to the
Englishman as the vast stretches of I'M
inhabited land
Even the tourist on the coach roads may
easily travel twenty miles without passing
a single house. On the road leading to one
Of the most popular resorts of the North
Island. along fifty miles of highway there
is but one small inn where the horses are
changed. and one Maori village with a SOIL
tary white teacher for its school. The rest
sis scrub or swamp. where, wild horses roam.
or cleared bush. where blackened stumps
still stand or fern land with patches of
rough pasture.
And to reach thesfar-famed lakes OF the
South Island. beautiful enough when they
are reached. the coach tolls for two whole
days through inches of dust mud. ac-
cording to the season. dragging its slow
way past miles of seeming desert, where
even the yellow tussock grass is supplanted
by thistles or by patches of green lichen
resembling nothing so much as verdigris.
In New Zealand they appraise land by
the number of sheep 1t will carry, and this
is five or six acres to a sheep, and a merino
sheep into the bargain.
The driver as he passes filings out letter
bags at the little wayside post Offices or
tucks them into wooden boxes perched by
the highway. In this way the post is de-
livered twice or possibly thrice a week in
summer and once In winter. But this Is
along the coach roads-any map will show
how few they are-end even they are often
impossible for wheeled trafic In winter.
Then~the post cart sunk to its axles lum-
- - txxrn Will hr,,r
or the postman rides in mud up to his
horses girths and those who have business
abroad do likewise or walt at home for
better weather.
Luckily, in no part of New Zealand are
the winters 30 long and SO severe as in
England: but metal for road-making is
scarce in New Zealand. and laboE is scarcer
and dearer. When one thinks of all that
has been done. and of the fifty years or 30
that 1t has been done in. the wonder is. not
/ that the roads are bad, but that there are
so many roads of any kind.
On many big runs. which years OF toll have
gone to make, all the winters stores must
be housed not later than April, because
when the rains come only an OK dray or
nack horse can travel along the road to the
township and that with difficulty; and the
storekeepers must bring all their wares
from the nearest railway station or coast
TOWNS before the weather breaks. standing
ont of their money for many months. or
else they must suffer the loss of oxen and
horses begged or exhausted with the heavy
winters work.
70 wonder store goods are dear. -Four
foot deep and four foot wide" Is the famil-
lar description of roads in the roadless
north" which has pre-eminently, evil
reputation in that way; but even in the old
settlements southwark walking is often out
of the question. not only because there is
nowhere to go within walking distance. but
also because of the roads and the I'M
bridged rivers. Nor is that the worst that
can befall, for In many districts even yet
there are no roads only bride paths, or
foot tracks, ending at the waters edge,
whence a boat can be rowed to the nearest
port of call for coasting steamers.