388 TUTIRA 



the Governor." No prospects, in fact, could have been more pleasant 

 than those obtaining when I left New Zealand. Wool was up, stock was 

 up ; as has happened before, however, and doubtless will happen again, 

 these favourable too favourable conditions in the world markets cul- 

 minated at last in a local land boom, one of those short-lived spurts of 

 unwholesome prosperity that rage furiously until quenched by a fall in 

 values. Wool, which had been at lid., dropped to 5|d. Stock was un- 

 saleable. I returned from the pleasant banks of the Dee to find my own 

 prospects in particular unpleasantly dashed. My local agents had been 

 unwise. They were hard hit ; their position reacted on Tutira. It is 

 extraordinary how on occasions of this sort gloom and despair seize 

 persons who have passed through half a dozen crises and an equal 

 number of recoveries. Temanites and Shuhites fill the land like frogs 

 with their croaking, horrid rumours of failure vitiate the air. Banks 

 and Mortgage Companies shut up like jack-knives, our very old 

 acquaintance re-emerges, that melancholy pessimist who has " offered 

 his clip at fivepence for the next six years" and "cannot find a taker, 

 mind you." 1 



Last, but not least, protests had been lodged against the signature 

 of the lease recommended by the Koyal Commission and sanctioned by 

 Act of Parliament. 



Glancing back now that the dust of battle has subsided, the writer 

 can see that he himself was in part responsible for what had occurred, 

 that his conduct had not been tika, not been correct. At the signing 

 of former leases he and Stuart had always managed a haggard, anxious, 

 careworn air when seen abroad. When in converse with groups, or 

 followed by attendant trains of natives, or engaged with the all- 

 important interpreter, gravity and a deep seriousness, as if overborne 

 by weight of honour laid on these poor shoulders, had been " the thing." 

 Now, too confident, with what countenance was he comporting himself, 

 dallying after moor and river in Scotland whilst the run was enduring 

 the birth-pangs of a new lease ? His conduct could hardly have been 



1 Like conditions tend to breed, or at any rate to revive, like stories. The Timaru break- 

 water, now a success beyond all controversy, was, whilst still in its probationary stage, shaken 

 severely by an exceptional gale. Amongst other yarns circulated by the faint-hearted as to the 

 extent of damage done, was one to the effect that a Newfoundland dog had been washed through 

 a crevice in the ruptured monoliths. Some fifteen years later the Napier breakwater was also 

 damaged by a great gale. Will it be credited that the self-same dog-story was revived 1 It was 

 rumoured abroad that a Newfoundland dog perhaps the same dog? had been forced clean 

 through one of the breaches of the mole ! ! 



