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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 106, 3 May 1872, Page 4

to be, met in Gipps Land Bar supplejacks. And yet leaving ; .Dunedin on the opposite side, of your journey to the before-men-tioned port, the tourist can drive for miles ■without seeing one tree, or even a decent patch of gorse---long level plains of rich agricultural land in a splendid condition of cultivation. I allude of course to the Taieri Plains, famous for tbeir magnificent soil and growing capabilities, These plains are studded with extensive farms, decked now and then with a promising village, the most imposing one being Outram, said Outram, as usual with all balffledged towns in New Zealand, containing one enormous large bank, and an insignificant publichouse. New Zealand villages everywhere indulge io banks, centuries, I should imagine, in advance of tbe capabilities or resources of these fledging places, and Outram was no exception. I had reason to call upon the manager of this edifice of "coin," and found the bank comfortably locked up at 1 p.m., the manager feeding away at some distance, " nary " a soul within cooey.

Dunedin is in its glory, revelling iv its saintly and Presbyterian glory on Sundays, and men in that city on the " Saabofh " day wear the most melancholy of Glasgow " gudeness." In the church I attended my worldly eye failed to detect one head of ladieß' hair done up in any fashion than even seven years of Collins-street, and the system of devotion is so homely, so social, that you may view the man blowing the organ in front of the whole congregation, and it was here I remember meeting the unusual sight of the minister sailing up the street bareheaded, and carrying all sail of gown and sleeve in tbe teeth of a southerly buster.

We made Lyttelton early next morning, delighted with the boldness and grandeur of the rocks and mountains guarding the narrow entrance to the port. The lighthouse seems pigmy, perched almost in the clouds above ; the rocks are precipitous from its base, and its keeper is bald-headed. This is the place which carries the palm world-wide for winds, for storms, and no man on these Heads can carry hair, Boreas making this particular rocky quarter his head centre, and mariners tell me when he blows, he goes into his work earnestly, and with a will.

Lyttelton slopes itself on a hill-side, a weakness all over New Zealand • every town seems gone on the back save Christchurch, and must have support. Waiting for the train to carry me to the Cambridge and Oxford of New Zealand (Christchurch), 1 did the morning's paper, bristling, as it did, with Presbyterian meetings and bad punctuations, its compositors evidently suffering from cold fingers, although not quite up to that man of letters who set up " a noble old burgher, proudly loving his native state," as " a nobby old burglar, prowling around in a naked state."

Tbe tunnel, under the mountains skirting the bay, took six minutes to do, the train crawling along, badly lit, and uncertain I thought as to where it was, the window in the carriage being iron-barred, and giving one a very uneasy feeling of being in the custody of somebody or other. Those bars would last only one journey in Victoria !

Christchurch delighted me with its charming English appearance, grand green old English oaks, poplars and hawthorns adorning every street, laid out, as they were, wide and hedgebound — the place smacked of England ; the air bright, breezy,; and cold, labored not under a

load of Gaelic symphonies, and men abounded everywhere who preferred the Cambridge eight to "putting the stone."

I shall not readily forget the footpaths of Christchurch. The peddles are on a par with our blue metal, and they are laid on inches deep. No man can get a footing in Christchurch, and a roan with a wooden leg would be ruined in & season ; timber couldn't stand those cruel, hard, pebbly footnaths.

The municipal council of this Christchurch! must be one of shoemakers, or hoot importers, and its members are uni doubtedly in -positions of independence.

But Christchurch can frown from its classic eminence, its waters, and its footpaths upon all other towns and kingdoms, for it is the possessor and guardian of the moas ! What the organ is to Boston, what the language is to Geelong, what the falls are to .Canada, and. what the frille . shirt is to Melbourne's seventh-time mayor, so much then, and even more, are the bones of the moa to Christchurch .

It was my pleasure to be introduced to the eminent Dr. Haast ,pf their museum, and from his scientific bands I took the thigh bone of an extinct moa, a defunct bird standing in its infancy close upon 13 feet high !; ,; Dr. Emblio'g's .hearty-yearnings for a ride on a dodoj Mr. Wragge's ambition ;to sit astride the Town-hall organ, as, its.go^; father, appeur buCppof.fa the aspirations I had fondly for years indulged in, viz., to see a moa, to gaze upon a bird _ able.^o,, carr j : -Goldsbrough in its, beak through " fen and brake."

Dr. Haast took me through every bone of his pet favorites, three perfect skeleton moas, and in a lucid aud scientific manner dwelt at length upon tbe enormous slreugth these marvellous birds were endowed with. I thought of Josh Billing's advice about things you dou't understand, I " didn't talk much on tbe subjeck, but look'd cussid mysterious," and felt at the time tbat these bugh nnd departed " nigger- gobblers " were worth the journey to see and handle, the thigh-bones being larger thau those of horses or. oxen, a kick from which when the bird was really riled, being equal, no doubt, to a sudJen death or a lingering illness on a ferr-hill or a flax plant.

Charming sceneries abouud around the museum, peeping, as it does, o'er tbe tops of English willows aud poplars, a credit to the colony and to its generous-hearted guardian, the doctor. I ought (o have mentioned the rare fact that Christchurch is as flat as Victor-au prize ale ; nature seems, after indulging in excessive contortions of country all over New Zealand, to have rolled out a few hundred bills — - hence Cbristchurcb.

The artesian-well theory, ofteu in years gone by a puzzling theory not generally believed in, in Christchurch attains a perfection almost ludicrous to look at. Everyone " does/" his own artesian spring. A stream of delicious, sparkling water, rises four feet from the ground, often after a sixty- feet piping ceases to tickle tbe soil underneath where, six hours before, a dry, arid surface prevailed; and all this is done at au average cost of about £6. You strike " ile " wherever you bore, and no mortal band can cut off your supply in the Dight-timr — vide Van Yean remembrances. This water supply is grand iv he extreme to a Victorian fresh from Van Yean impurities ; did it not carry with it tbe not over pleasant feeling of standing continually over rivers and seas, as Christchurch veritably must.

Some sunny afternoon when the barometer touches 27°, and duriDga smart kick from a rollicking earthquake (earthquakes never leave Christchurch ; shocks are as common as Duffy banquets), Christchurch inhabitants will suddenly experience a kiud of " flop," and then will all the citizens be found floating, nothing around but a " waste of waters." They will paddle about and hold mass meetings, and will bitterly reproach the folly of boring their foundations from under tbeir feet as they did when on earth.

I had the honor of being introduced here to Wuremi Thompson, thanks to the kindness of the Hon. Mr. M'Lean, Minister of Defence, and a wonderful double of our local and Hon. J. O'Sbanassy.

When Wuremi visilad Christchurch last his only covering was a Ibm streak of war-paint, and he spent his lonely hours eating prisoners among his people, with whom he is yet a chief.

Thompson Wuremi spoke, no doubt, all languages, although in my particular instance he had nothing on him but Maori, and our conversation seemed guarded, although witty, I doubt not, and full of point. Wuremi looked unhappy in a black belltopper, his trousers of tbe same hue fitted him too much for his length, but on " face-scratchings " he headed me considerably. When he smiled he became horrible iv blue-line wrinkles, and bis repose became, him best. I left him sitting in the porch of the dwelling. His musical voice still lingers in my ear— -"Heahakoe i porangi ai ki te haere !" (Why are you in such a hurry to go ?)

When next I saw this noble chief whose name once carried terror with it, whose "braves" varied their food with hogs atid humans, he was leaning against the lintelpost of the -miserable entrance to the theatre (time 10 p.m.,) reeking of whiskyhot and hopelessly drunk, his emblem of civilisation (his belltopper) smashed in on his noble brow, and he writhed in the clutches of one oi the healthiest of hiccoughs imaginable.

(To be continued),