VII THE TEREMAKAU RIVER 235 
I Spent a few pleasant hours there, and at three 
o'clock started in the Government train for Kumara, 
as yet only a small stopping-place on the line. From 
this station to the town we drove seven miles through 
a pretty bush track which, probably, by next year will 
be a land of tree skeletons, as the waste lands are 
being thrown open in every direction for selection, even 
along the beautiful BuUer Goi^e where goats could 
not find a footing on the steep mountain-sides. 
Extensive mining operations were going on all 
round this town, and they told me the hydraulic 
system was the largest in the world. 
I went for a long walk to the Teremakau River, 
and watched the mighty force of water coming through 
the nozzle of the pipes and washing the cliffs away. 
Where the stones have lain exposed to the air for some 
time a bright red moss grows over them, from which a 
strong scent is made. 
Large dams have been made in the mountains here, 
from which the water is brought down in great flumes 
and pipes. The sight from Dillman Town, half a mile 
from the town where all the miners live, is very curious, 
the whole flat below the Teremakau River being a net- 
work of channels and boxes, and the water itself first 
yellow and then blue with sluicings from the sludge 
channels. I was up at six next morning, and before 
nine o'clock breakfast had had another long walk. At 
ten the coach started, and for miles we went through 
an avenue of magnificent birch trees. It was the last 
trip of the coach along this portion of the road, for the 
next day the railway was opened to this point We 
changed horses at a small roadside hotel here, and took 
in some fresh passengers, among them two men of sorts ; 
one of them tried hard to turn me ofT the box-seat by 
offering to pay more ; I had already booked it days 
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