Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-08-14
LONELINESS IN NEW ZEALAND.
Great Stretches of Country There


Great Stretches of Country There
with Few Houses and Towns,
AS nothing In Europe astOnishes the
New Zealander so much as the crowds,
50 nothing In New Zealand Is so sur
prising to the Englishman as the vast
sketches Of uninhabited land, says Mac
millan's Magazine.
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 re-
sorts 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 solitary white
teacher for its school, The rest is scrub
or swamp where Wild horses roam or
cleared brush where btackened 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 thistles
or by patches of green lichen resem-
bling nothing so much as YerdigriS.
In New Zealand they appraise land
and this is five or six acres to a Sheep
and a merino sheep into the bargain.
The driver as he passes filings out let
ter bags at the little Wayside postof1ces
or tucks them into wooden boxes perch
ed by the highway. In this way the
post is delivered twice or possibly thrice
a 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 It's axles, lumbers
along at the rate Of Gwo miles an hour,
or the postman rides in mud up to his
horses girths, and those who have bust
ness 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
as 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 it 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 a pack horse can
travel along the road to the township
and that with difficulty; and the store
keepers must bring all their wares from
the nearest railway station or coast
town before the weather breaks, stand
ing out 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.
|. No wonder store goods are dear.
-Four foot deep and four foot WIDE"
is the familiar description Of roads IN
''the roadless north" which has a pre-
eminently evil reputation in that way
but even In the old settlements south
ward walking is often out of the Ques-
ton, not only because there Is nowhere
to 60 within walking distance, but also
because Of the roads and the unbridged
rivers. Nor is that the worst that can
befalI, 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 near
est port Of call for coasting steamers