_GODWIT SHOOTING._
Whatever accusations of remissness and lack of zeal and energy may be
brought against the New Zealand Government, no one can assert with
any degree of truth, that the surveys of this part of the country are
neglected by them. Before one surveyor's pegs have had time to commence
to decay, and the lines cut, become grown up with tea-tree scrub, a new
survey is ordered, new pegs are put in, and lines fresh cut. I am told
that the cost of these repeated surveys sometimes exceeds the value of
the land surveyed, and without for a moment supposing that they are
unnecessary or useless, one cannot help thinking that the money spent
in resurveying outlying and comparatively uninhabited districts, would
be more judiciously expended in making good roads in those places that
are already settled.
There have been two surveys at Matakohe over the same ground--or at
any rate in a great measure over the same ground--during the four
years I have lived there. One of the most efficient surveyors on the
Government staff, Mr. J----, was with his party, at this time encamped
on the outskirts of Matakohe, and he and his assistant, Mr. de C----,
called on me, and an acquaintance sprang up which greatly helped to
lessen the dulness of our country life.
Mr. J---- was fond of shooting, and whenever a day could be spared,
we went out together with our guns. When I first became friendly with
him--in April--pheasant shooting had not commenced, so we confined our
attention to the wild fowl, the season for which had already opened,
in consequence of the breeding time having been unusually early. The
Acclimatisation Society has the power to alter the shooting season as
it deems advisable, but the season for both native and imported game,
usually extends from the 1st of May to the end of July. We enjoyed two
or three good days' sport together, but the best I have ever had up
here, was towards the end of April.
On this particular day, Mr. J---- rode in by appointment to have some
godwit shooting, and as soon as the incoming tide reached my landing
wharf, we embarked in my punt with our dogs, guns, luncheon, &c., in
order to have some shooting before the flats became covered. I took
with us one of my boys, a capital hand with the sculls, and his duty
was to paddle the punt as quietly as possible, when we were coming up
to birds, while my friend and myself placed ourselves as well as we
could out of sight.
We first steered for a point about a quarter of a mile off, on which
we could distinguish birds of some description. Mangrove grew in the
shallow water off this point, and these I was careful to make use
of, as a screen, as long as possible. As we neared the last one, I
handed my boy the sculls, and crouched down in the stem, while Mr.
J---- followed my example in the stern. Presently the last shelter was
passed, and we came in full sight and range of a large flock of godwit.
Up they rose to seek safety in flight, but the music of our guns rang
out, feathers flew in all directions, and the dogs had their work cut
out for some time. We dropped fifteen and a half brace with the three
shots we got in; and when they were all bagged, we hoisted the sail, as
a nice breeze was blowing, and shaped our course for a point called the
Tent Rock, where I knew godwit, red-shanked plover, and other birds
loved to congregate.
When within about a quarter of a mile, the sail was lowered, my boy
again took the sculls, and Mr. J---- and myself laid up in the punt.
In spite, however, of all our precautions, we only secured there a
brace of red-shanked plover, a black duck, and a couple of New Zealand
sandpipers. We now sailed away with a leading breeze for an island
lying about three miles distant, which is only covered at high water,
adding a couple of duck and a brace and a half of red-shanked plover to
our bag on the way. On the island we had some grand sport, as the tide
was by this time over all the flats, and the birds did not like leaving
the only feeding place remaining to them.
After bagging nine or ten brace of godwit and plover we turned for
home, quite satisfied with our day's shooting, and anxious to fetch my
place before the tide had receded from the beach. This we succeeded
in doing, and had barely reached the house with our load of birds
when rain began to fall, and was soon descending in torrents. As the
next day was Sunday, and of course a day of rest for the surveyors,
we easily persuaded Mr. J---- to sleep at our house. All the evening
and through the night the downpour continued, and on Sunday morning,
when it was still raining hard, Mr. J---- told me he felt rather
anxious about his men, as they were encamped close to a stream in a
valley, with high hills on either side. His anxiety turned out to
be well founded, for on that Saturday night, as Mr. de C----, the
assistant-surveyor, and the three men were fast asleep, the stream
overflowed its bank, and the water gradually rising at last washed
their tents away, and they awoke to find the flood level with their
beds, and a bitterly cold rain pelting down on them.
A surveyor's camp bed is constructed usually as follows:--
Four tea-tree stakes for legs are driven well in the ground, and cut
off at a convenient height above it. A couple of sacks with holes cut
in each corner of the bottom are then stretched on two six foot stakes
passed through the holes, and these stakes are nailed securely on the
top of those driven in the ground, thus forming the bed, on which is
laid either dried ferns or Mongi-mongi as a mattress. The tents that
were washed away were recovered uninjured, and beyond the loss of a tin
pot or two, and the wetting of some boots and clothes, no great damage
was done, as Mr. J---- had luckily planted his tent, containing the
instruments, maps, &c., on high ground beyond the reach of flood.
Being flooded out, I am told, is by no means an uncommon occurrence
in the lives of Zealand Government surveyors. Compelled to camp near
running water, as of course they cannot spare the time to sink wells,
and have no water tanks, sudden floods often overtake even the most
wary. Indeed, being flooded out, working up to the knees in mud
and water, swimming rivers, climbing almost impossible mountains,
subsisting on the pith of the Nikau palm when provisions run out and
cannot be renewed, rheumatic pains, fevers and agues, may be all said
to fall within the usual experience of the New Zealand Government
surveyor, and to become qualified to enjoy these experiences a special
training is required, and a stiff examination has to be passed. There
is no guarantee of the permanency of the appointment, and no retiring
pensions are granted.
A young man may waste several of the best years of his life studying
for the post of Government surveyor, which he may obtain only to be
dispossessed of on the plea of retrenchment. The colony being so
young, presents few openings for educated men to make a start in life.
I sincerely trust, however, it will have something more promising to
offer the rising generation when their time comes to go forth into the
world.