A TRIP DOWN SOUTH.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 261, 17 January 1879, Page 2

A TRIP DOWN SOUTH.

(CONTBIBUTED.) (Continued from No. 260.)

We left Dunedin for Invercargill on Christmas Eve, and were fortunate in having a fine day. We should have left sooner, but my friend had a telegram to say that a case of very choice Burgundy was on board the Christchurch train for him, so we waited. That case of wine caused us a deal of misery ; we did not know what to do with it. We did not like to take it up to Watson's for fear they should feel insulted.

The country through which we passed consists of undulating land, well watered, dotted with pretty little homesteads. On this route is Mosgiel, the celebrated woollen factory.

At Waihola the train stopped a few minutes, and I visited what was once the house of your respected townsman, Mr Daly. Milton, or Tokomairiro, is a thriving township between Waihola and Balclutha. At the latter place we had to exchange train for coach and go for 22 miles until we reached Clinton.

Clutha has been visited with very severe floods, and I do not think it will ever recover itself. The town is almost deserted ; just enough remains to show what a thriving place it must have been at one time. Portions of streets appear to have been carried clean away, and you can see the water-mark on some of the houseß about 5 feet from the ground.

At Clinton we got dinner, such as it was; the only thing good about it was the price.

Just a word about some of our fellow passengers. There was a gentleman just out from England travelling with his sister-in-law, the wife of a clergyman at Invercargill. He was excessively stiff in manner —a sort of man that would not speak to.a gentleman if he met him in the Desert of Sahara unless he had been introduced. The lady who was with him was, I think, inclined to be more amiable, only she seemed afraid to speak before him. As a set-off to this stiff pair, we had another passenger who was all affability. He was at one time Mayor of Invercargill, although, to do him justice, I did not learn that fact from himself. He was a Cockney, and seemed to think that I ought of necessity to knuw the house in which he was born on Hoi born Hill. His father was a furrier, and the son had picked up something of the trad(, I suppose. He was just returning home after having superintended the packing of a lot of sealskins for England. He told me he kept two or, three vessels going between Invercargill and the Auckland Islands, all engaged in seal fishery. He is a chemist by trade, also a manufacturer of bone-dust for- manure. He took good care to acquaint everyone with this fact. He tried hard to sell a few tons of his bone-dugt oh the way down. He also had a sample bottle of his patent prepared double-refined seal oil, and at almost every station he jumped out on to the platform saying—" I am sure there must be somebody here that knows me." He was exceedingly attentive to all the passengers, asking all sorts of questions as

to where they were going, what their business was, &c. He never seemed tired o talking, and could not see that everybody was laughing at him. Invercargill, according to his account, is indebted to him for the gas works. Certainly, Invercargill ia indebted to him for another kind of gas. .At last we arrived, and very glad we were to get to a nice comfortable hotel. Should any Akaronians visit Invercargill, I should recommend them to go todHeywood's Albion Hotel. They will find everything first-class. The beds are very comfortable, and a good table is kept. Mr Hey wood, so unlike most landlords, Was not only not offended about a case of wine being brought into his house, but told the boy to open it and look after it for my friend. I was glad to meet a Canterbury man here, Mr M'Kenna, late Station-master at Kaiapoi. He was staying at the Albion until his family should arrive.

The town looked very gay, and some of the shops were handsomely decorated. A very good brass band was playing selections in one of the principal streets. The streets are mostly named after Scotch rivers, thus—Pay street, Dee street, Spey street, Clyde street, &c.

On Christmas, we went to the English Church in the morning, and on the way came across Mr Feldwick, who used to be sub-editor of the Lyttelton Times. He is now proprietor of the Southland Times, and I should" think is doing very well out of it

The church at Invercargill is a hideous building, both outside and inside. The bell is cracked, and the church looks like a boarding-house that has had the partitions knocked out of it. There is a fence across the Chancel, through which the Choir may be seen, like so many wild beasts at a show: The service was irreverent in the extreme (not on the part of th« clergyman). A marked contrast to the English Church is the Catholic Chapel, where a very plain building has been made very beautiful inside. The Rev. Father Higgins delivered a most impressive discourse on. the Nativity. It was simple enough for a child to understand, and deep enough for the most learned.. .

On Boxing Day, .a grand volunteer demonstration was held at a place called Kew, about two miles put of Invercargill. In spite of the rain the people turned out well, and seemed thoroughly to enjoy themselves. The tug of war between the different local companies appeared to excite a great deal of attention.

In the evening we went to . see the Marionettes ;_they had a very good house for the first time since they had been "in Invercargill. I noticed that the band, both vocal and instrumental, was much inferior to the one they had in Christchurch. We intended to go to Riverton before leaving Invercargill, but the weather was so continuously wet that we had to give up the idea.

On the afternoon of Christmas Day, we thought we would go to see the Bluff, or Campbelltown, as it is sometimes called. As I was not led to expect anything, I was not disappointed, in the place. ,- In Dunedin, when we spoke of going to the Bluff, they said — " Are you mad.?" It certainly does look a dead and alive sort of place, and must be miserable in wet weather. Fortunately, we had a fine day for our trip. There is pretty good wharf accommodation, but no covered sheds as at Lyttelton. The wreck of the Ann Gambles lies out in the stream. .

Half an hour was quite long enough for us to do the Bluff, and we were not sorry to hear the railway : whistle. There is a little place just about a mile frpih the Bluff where the train stops to enable passengers to cross over to the Ocean Beach, which at that spot is only a few yards away. Many picnic parties go out on fine days to the beach.

The Rev. Mr Knowles is at Gladstone, a suburb of Invercargill., I went tp see him, and spent a very pleasant day there; . He is coming back to Canterbury very shortly. It seems strange that so many of the clergymen in the Dunedin Diocese are leaving. Mr Knowles showed me a very pretty little font, which had been presented by Mr W. Graham, of Lyttelton, as a memento of a recent "iisit be had made.

We started for Queenstown on Saturday, 28th Dec, but we had scarcely gone 20 miles before the rain began again, and never stopped all day. The distance between Invercargill. and Kingston is 87 miles; then you go by steamer to Queenstown on Lake Wakatipu, a;distance of about 22 miles. Kingston is'how a very insignificant little place. At one time it was thedep6t for. all goods and passengers in transit to Queenstown and the Shotover, but now there are only about'six, houses there, and two of them are hotels, which is about the proportion that has always existed.

The steamer that conveyed us across the lake was a dirty, slow-going lighter sort of vessel. We had to wait four and a halfhours before she started, and then found that she had to take in a lot of sheep and cattle. The smell was very disagreeable, and below it was even worse.

We were fortunate in meeting with two very nice travelling companions, such a contrast to the two we met in going from Dunedin to Invercargill. They consisted of an old gentleman and his daughter. He had been in the Victorian Civil Service for over 20 years, and, having arrived at the age of-60, was pensioned off. A more genial, kind travelling companion I haye never met. I found, in the course of conversation, that he was educated ion",' the Continent,;at the same school at -winch a brother of mine received his education. Queenstown is situated in a little bend of the lake, and is almost hidden until the steamer suddenly comes upon it. The place has suffered severely by the late floods; even when we arrived the jetty was under water, and there has been 4ft of water in the houses. There is a capital hotel here, kept by a German named Erckhardt. He certainly does lay himself out to please his visitors. He is 6ft. 4£in. in height, and, when dressed in his lieutenant's uniform, looks very .fine. I notice Queenstown can boast of one policeman. The whole town turned out to see the steamer come alongside the jetty. It reminded me forcibly of Akaroa in the olden time. We heartily enjoyed our supper that night, and were not sorry that tbe next day was Sunday.

With regard to places of worship, it is a noticeable feature that aa soon as 'you get south of Timaru, all the best buildings are Presbyterian Churches ; the second best are generally Catholic; and the Church of England edifices are as a rule the shabbiest.

At Queenstown, however, the interior of the Anglican Church Is as nice as it possibly could be. It had all the Christmas

atlons stili n Pi and that ~of course added to the beauty of the church. Mr Jones, the clergyman, is a very nice man, and certainly works very hard- for the good of the church. Mra Joneß is quite an enthusiastic in church work. There is a very pretty Lectern at this church, which was made by a- Chinaman in the district. Ihe carving is beautifully done. An eagle with outstretched wings forms desk, dnd the pillar supporting it is richly carved. The pedestal is ornamented with various symbols. The singing at this church was better for the size of the choir than any I heard either in Dunedin or Invercargill. Mr Jones is quite an enthusiastic as regards music. He trains the choir himself, and plays the American organ at every service. __ On Monday it was. wet again, but hearing that a buggy was going to Arrowtown, about fourteen miles away, I resolved to make one of the party. Notwithstanding the rain I enjoyed my trip very much. About three miles out- of Queenstown we reached the Shotover bridge. It was at this spot where the diggings were so rich a few years ago. Now only a few Chinamen are working in the river bed. It was hard to believe that a population of 10,000 had once existed on that piece of ground, where now there is scarcely a house. There were three banks and several hotels. It was race day at Arrow, and with commendable pluck the committee had determined to carry out the programme. Fortunately by the time we reached the course the rain cleared up, and for about four hours we had it fine. The races were of course like most country races, interesting only to the people who knew the horses. I amused myself more by looking on at the other games which were being carried on. Pigeon pool was largely patronized : air pistol shooting was evidently a good thing for tne proprietor. Aunt Sally was rather a failure, simply because her owner wanted to make too much out of it. He had given such a very large nose and such a very small pipe, that it was next to impossible to hit the pipe, and it never would fall out however hard you hit the old lady. I strolled into the township before the races were half over, as I wanted to compare it with other places I had visited.

The town is situated just under a steep terrace, and just above the River Arrow. It is -scarcely so large as Queenstown, though the inhabitants think themselves of very much greater importance. The place was quite deserted when I was there, as nearly every man, woman and child had gone to the races. The Bank of New Zealand is the most imposing looking building in the town, and I may say that wherever I went (with the exception of Winton) this Bank always has the best position and the best building. We spent a very enjoyable evening with the Rev. Mr Jones and his charming wife. Glees, songs and instrumental music made the time pass all too quickly. Next morning we made up our minds to turn homewards, as my friend, having only just got over a severe attack of rhou matism, dreaded lest if bad weather came in he should be laid up so far from home. (To be continued.)