Niue. 
289 
Niue, laved by placid lagoons, where one can 
walk for miles, as in other islands ; no pigeons 
to shoot in the dense, scrubby interior, and 
only one thing that can be done, and that is 
saddle his horse and ride round the island. 
For there are horses on Niue, and fairly good 
ones too, although they are terribly tender¬ 
footed, owing to the rough nature of the 
country. There is but one road on the island, 
which, starting at Avatele, winds its sinuous 
and erratic course among the groves of coco¬ 
nuts that fringe the rocky coast right round 
the island. 
I shall always remember my first ride there. 
The station horse was an old New Zealand 
hurdle racer, which had been taken over by 
an Island trading firm for a bad debt owing 
them by some unfortunate. He was sent to 
Niue, and because of his alleged habit of 
bolting had acquired an evil reputation, and I 
was earnestly cautioned not to ride him. He 
could never be trusted, I was told, and many 
terrible calamities would happen if I tried it. 
I would be killed before I had gone a mile. I 
was not. He walked quietly out of the station 
gate, and undisturbed by the cries of the natives, 
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