Through south Westland, a journey to the Haast and Mount Aspiring, New Zealand . d noticed once or twice before. Soon the firstdrops of rain fell, and in a few minutes it waslashing us fiercely, with the wind driving the sandin clouds along the beach, and when we got inwe were as wet as though we had been in theHaast. There was a nice old man sitting in thekitchen, as I went in to leave my wet riding-thingsto dry. He seemed very pleased to see me, andreminded me we had met him a long way back,when he had been journeying on foot to makeapplication for his old-age pension. And Ihope you got it,
Through south Westland, a journey to the Haast and Mount Aspiring, New Zealand . d noticed once or twice before. Soon the firstdrops of rain fell, and in a few minutes it waslashing us fiercely, with the wind driving the sandin clouds along the beach, and when we got inwe were as wet as though we had been in theHaast. There was a nice old man sitting in thekitchen, as I went in to leave my wet riding-thingsto dry. He seemed very pleased to see me, andreminded me we had met him a long way back,when he had been journeying on foot to makeapplication for his old-age pension. And Ihope you got it, I said. Oh, aye, they gaveit to me right enough, and went on: Dyeknow a place they call Newtonairds ? I assuredhim I did. Aye, its a fine town, and the Airdsis a fine country. Scrabo Hills a fine hill, whilesI wisht I was there. Theres Newtonairds that bonnie toonThat sits aboon the Scrabo Hill, o high renoon,Wha hides my luve frae me. Afterwards I heard how he had saved a good sumof money for his old age. Then came some smartspeculators, who floated a bogus company to. Photograph by] FOLIAGE ON THE HAAST TRACK. [C A. Tomlinson [102 THE HAAST PASS. 103 prepare flax-fibre—even sent down machineryand engaged men to cut flax. When they hadcleaned out the savings of many a trusting WestCoaster, they decamped. No one was ever broughtto justice, and my nice old man from Newtonardslost his all. He was living with the ferrymanand his brother, and everyone was very kind tohim. We had engaged the ferryman—Ted, asI must call him—to guide us over the pass. Itdid not seem to matter at all about the ferry ;our old friend would take charge, and nobodybut the mail-man was likely to want to cross inthe next fortnight. That was a gala night. Another goose wascooked for us. Some of the men from the SurveyCamp up the Haast came in. One of them (whomI found to be the father of the beautiful children atOkuru) brought me a handkerchief full of exquisiteferns, some of which I had not seen
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1911
