ROUND ABOUT NEW ZEALAND.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 104, 1 May 1872, Page 2

ROUND ABOUT NEW ZEALAND.

Under this title, " Olympus '.-' has contributed a series of amusing papers to the Australasian, in which are recounted his experiences of a trip from Melbourne to New Zealand in the Alhambra about the commencement of the present year. Our readers, we are sure, will be interested in learning a stranger's opinion of the colony. Having described the passage down, " Olympus " goes on to say : — At daylight we made ourselves fast at the wharf, and did our maiden bow to the Bluff, said bluff being a singular compound of a very high hill and a dozen or two of small cottages. During the day we railed it to Invercargill, enlivening tbe trip of 20 miles . by picking up passengers from paddocks, cross-roads, or any other corner from whence a " hi ! hi !" could be heard or an umbrella seen. This railway system carried with it a great charm of novelty to me in every variety; we stopped three times to turn sheep and bullocks off the line ; everything seemed so social-like, I had only to nod to the guard and I could have had the whole train put back, I believe, to fetch up my umbrella from the wharf. Geelong can rejoice and be glad, for it is a crowded, bustling city by the side of Invercargill, and these two towns can carry my money for being the most dispiriting and cheerless places agin' "the world," For remainder of news see fourth page.

but Kotenei ke te mea Kaha (this other j one is the strongest). (I have much worse language than this in a memorandumbook astray somewhere ; yet will it not suffice to prove that there are places wretched enough to compel a man to lose his temper but command of his language also.) We returned to the care of Underwood at 4 p.m. that day, and next morning found that ancient mariner steering his ship through the heads of Otago — heads which delighted me by reason of their magnificent boldness, rising hundreds of feet from the raging breakers underneath, and being wilder and more majestic than auy rocky scenery to be met with in Australia. Proceeding up the harbor to Port Chalmers, the ever-changing views of mountain and bay strike one accustomed for years to Victorian sceneries, with singular attractiveness, mountains with their crests enveloped in dense clouds, delicious-look-ing little coves and bays everywhere around, and the track, narrowed to nothingness almost by buoys, winding purposely to delight the eye of the tourist. With but littie delay I soon found myself enveloped in trunks and aboard a tiny steamer, puffing and fretting itself along for Dunedin, distant some seven miles down the lovely harbor, with a firm determination upon me to revel in a square meal and a quantity of that New Zealand ale upon which tbe hon. Julius Yogel eloquent the other day in the Brown-ball. mj The first view of Dunedin is exceedingly |r charming, the town being spread out, as it were, upon huge hill sides with the like novel and peculiar rings of clouds and mists about their summits ; but in wharves Dunedin is exceesively shy, the best one being narrow and plank rotten, with a band train laid along its centre, terminating as it does in the midst of rude and healthy cabmen vicing with each other in sharing your luggage amongst them. In the city of Dunedin, pedestrians — imported ones, I mean — could never reach condition fit for running. I feel certain no living man could be found who had done Dunedin and found 25 yards of straight surface, for every street revels in its own hill ; and no matter where you start from, or whatever your motives or morals may be, you have got to climb before you walk far. The only time I remember getting the best of Dunedin was from the centre of a good fat cloud browsing upon a bald hill, where we made each other's acquaintance, and I never remember feeling so happy as I did descending upon the ancient city of Scotchmen 1 How I fell into the beer can readily be imagined, and ifc justifies all tbe encomiums expressed in its favor. Without wishing in any way to interfere wi(h the Victorian prejudice for the popular she-oak, I can safely promise to New Zealand a very large consumption awaiting their malt liquor in Victoria so soon as Mr. Duffy can withstand these tea-fights and apply his wisdom to the removal of the nowexisting duty. There is a quaintness about Dunedin streets and Dunedin edifices peculiarly striking, for whichever way you turn you cannot fail to note the comicality of survey and selections. One store, hotel, or house will be on a level with the footpath, and the very next building will be found 70ft. or 80ft. above you, a puzzle to strange lodgers, and a caution to the inebriate, for to be locked out in the front implies no great anxiety, but to find the door at the rear (the usual mean way of sneaking in when these matrimonial annoyances exist) one must ascend perhaps 300 ft. and work down like Euclid theories. Existing in Dunedin will be found numbers of Scotchmen, and, upon reflection, I may add, that I met with few white men whose infancy had not been adorned with oatmeal porridge, or whose hair did not boast tbe tint of auburn, natural to the countrymen of Robert Burns, poet. The honest thrift and natural attention to making ends meet, which are born with the cannie Scot, in Dunedin have made their marks upon the place, hence its decided slowness to a Victorian. In the hotels in particular, one cannot fail to note the rare sight, to me, of men solemnly ordering their own' liquors, free from the conventional shout, or the Victorian expression of " What'll you have ? " and in this " unco quid ' town, be it said to its honor, the prisoners have been let out of the gaol in old times past, say at 3 a.m., mustered at the gate by the gaoler, and told in plain language, «'Noo then boys, af yer noo in by sax o'clock, I'll lock ye oot." They never missed a man. The drives Mound Dunedin are truly magnificent, particularly to Port Chalmers, $-the road winding around and over mountains, the woodland sceneries being wild and beautiful, the grand black; red , and white pine pines o'er-laden with huge fes-r : toons of suple-jack, i the ever-changing \ hues of the native. ferns,' the; delicate interi turnings of maidens-hair ferns, and the wonderful beauty of wild flower decora*tioris, forming pictures which live in memory. Underneath, some hundreds of

feet, the placid waves ripple on the wooded shore, reflecting every variety of tint and scene, and bearing at times on their bosom delicate lights of pale silvery sheen, most charming to the eye of the tourist, the bracing cold air lending additional attractiveness to everything for fie Victorian. Nowhere in New Zealand did I meet with more salubrious atmosphere than I met with during a drive with Mr. Larnach to the Portobello-road dwellingbouse he is erecting there, and where the cold mountain air shivers up the thinblooded dweller in hot winds, delicacies unknown to Dunedinites, for in every houae one noticed roaring fires, and welcomed them likewise. In Dunedin each hill provides its own rain, showers are going on continually on their own responsibility. When the hills are unanimous, one rainbow is used up without being noticed, twelve could be kept going without interfering with each other, and the consequences are that every white man wears a perpetual mackintosh coat. The policemen are eternally clad in mackintoshes and red leggings} they wander forth like melancholy Shanghai fowls, and you may rely upon each sergeant beiag a Presbyterian. It is a common sight the imbibing of whiskeys hot and smoking at 11 a.m., and I met whist parties hard at work at 3 in the afternoon, yet they looked upon me with mild horror when I asked for a theatre, a " playoose ! '" I saw the Temple of Thespis by daylight, and marveled at its antiquity, for stables once existed under the pit, and the Ghost of Hamlet's father stood the rough chance of a loud neigh or a "Wohoy — shod over," by way of reply to his "List, list, O Hamlet." Doing a gentle decent in one of their level streets, I met with a singular surpiise which unnerved me, for I stood by the shop-windows of three descendants of Abraham, and missed the customary Mac before the Moses. These Israelites were dtawn together for mutual protection, and their sacred and unsettled looks told of the hard struggle they were . wading through in their plucky ende^rors to lire mid so much o^nniness. Singular as it may appear, one vended cigars, and I felt a stirring desire to embrace the familiar features shorn of auburn hair as I "weeded" witb him. These traders were the first Englishmen I had met ! (To be continued ).