A Tour in New Zealand.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 972, 24 August 1881, Page 1 (Supplement)

A Tour in New Zealand.

No. IV. — Christchurch and Port Lyttelton. (Continued from our last).. From the Melbourne Leader}. Street tramways run from the centre of the town to the different suburbs, and this means of travelling seems to be very popular. The cars are drawn by closed in steam engines which can be stopped or started with very little loss of time. There are seats on the tops of the cars, and a loaded train is rather a formidable object when met in a narrow street, but horses appear very soon to get used to their rival. Large boards fixed to the sides of the cars inform the public where every requisite can be purchased—from pale ale to a liver pad. The Avon river, a beautifully clear stream of water almost hedged over by willows, runs through the town preserving its apparent purity after receiving a large proportion of the sewage. The water supply of Christchurch is obtained from artesian wells. A pipe is driven down to a depth of 10 or 12 feet in the back yard, a tap is fixed to the pipe, and the household requirements are supplied, the water rising by gravitation. The water is beautifully pure, and possesses the sweetness which is derived from the spring. Large tanks are provided for use in case of fire, and as there was a fire nearly every night during my stay, I had an opportunity of judging the arrangements. A good deal of time is lost in getting the engines filled and the hose to work, but the engines are so powerful that the fire lasts a very short time after the water is laid on. IE the engines could be got to work more expeditiously fires in Christchurch would soon lose their popularity as a source of amusement. . On the banks of the Avon and quite close to the city are the Domain Gardens, a delightful resort, consisting of a garden 80 acres in extent, and a park of 300 acres, with 9 miles of drives and walks. Seventeen years ago the site was an open waste, overrun by furze bushes, and as the soil is poor, being little more than a shingle bed, the results produced by Mr. J. F. Armstrong, the curator, are surprising. Green lawns are now seen opening out amid numerous groups of well-grown plantation, charming scenes being formed by combination of oaks, birches, sycamores, pines, poplars, firs and gums. Although lacking the age and the wealth of semi-tropical foliage characteristic of the Sydney Domain, much more has been accomplished with fewer advantages than in the Melbourne public gardens. The Museum, which is situated in the Domain, is in some respects the best in New Zealand. That of Dunedin has perhaps a better collection of birds and the one under the charge of Dr. Hector, at Wellington, is, doubtless, more valuable as a study of New Zealand geology and ethnology, but as a generally representative museum I think that of Christchurch is the leading institution. The Preadimite relicsare a very interesting collection, North American antiquities and remains of the lake dwellings of Switzerland being well represented. An agricultural item here was some wheat from the Swiss lake dwellings, but as it was 100 much charred for seeding purposes, I did not mention it in dealing with farming matters. They have also a very good Egyptian mummy from the Pyramids. The lady is about 3000 years old, although I cannot be certain to a few hundred years. The skin of the face is in a perfect state of preservation, as well as the skin and nails of the hands, but the whole affair is so like a skeleton that even one of Mark Twain’s innocents eould have no excuse for the inqury, “Is she dead ?” I don’t know how the museum is supported, but I suppose land endowment which does so much in New Zealand, is the source of income. Christchurch, which with its suburbs contains over 30,000 inhabitants, is mainly supported by the agricultural and pastoral interest, and consequently it has probably felt the effects of the recent dull times more severely than Dunedin, whose trade is more, of a general character. The fall in the prices of farm produce and the reduction in the value of land which have been experienced during I he last two years, have seriously affec ed the business of the capital of Canterbury, but, like all New Zealand towns, it is slowly b t surely rising into renewed prosperity. As the elite stay at home taking tea and gentle garden exercise

with the clergy and other enemployed members of society, there is little of fashion to be seen in the streets. Country folk throng the public thoroughfares, and consequently one has to go to church in order to see the fashions. Picnics seem to be the chief pleasure of the common people, and there is a continual stream of these all through the summer, the butchers’ picnic, the barmen’s picnic, and every other trade’s picnic having its turn; so that when a knot of excursionists is seen in the streets the only inquiry provoked is, “ Who’s picnic is it today ?” In Christchurch there is a Contagious Diseases Act in force, which is said to have done good to the city, although it has the effect of injuring Wellington, owing to the fact that a large number of individuals, in order to escape examination, migrate to the more northern city. The hotels close at 11 o’clock, an arrangement which I think is beneficial to all concerned. Newspapers flourish here, judging from their numbers. There are two morning and two evening journals, besides two or three weeklies. New Zealand ought to prosper, if the possession of newspapers to advocate its interests is to be taken as an indication. There are over 100 newspapers published in the Colony, every town of 5000 or 6000 inhabitants having its two morning and one eveningjournal, while almost every little township has its local organ. The University admits ladies to its lectures and grants degrees to its “ sweet girl graduates.” The fair students wear gowns and mortars and sit along with the masculine devotees of learning, the only arrangement made for the separation of the sexes being that the ladies retire a few minutes before the gentlemen, so that they can get away borne before the others come out —if they like. From Christchurch to Port Lyttelton is a distance of 61 miles, a railway connecting the city with the port. A range of high bare hills separates Christchurch from Port. Lyttelton, and this for a long time was a serious obstacle to the development of the whole province of Canterbury. A tunnel, however, 11 miles in length, has been made through the hills for the railway, and the fine harbor of Port Lyttelton has been made available. The train takes 5 minutes to go through the tunnel, and immediately on emerging into daylight the town and bay are seen. The hills like an amphitheatre closely encircle the small bay, with its piers and shipping, and the small substantial looking town of Lyttelton can barely find room to stand on the intervening space. Some of the streets to run for a short distance up the hill side, and the private residences are all placed high up out of the way, looking peacefully down upon tbe town. The harbor is a very fine one, and the surroundings are interesting and beautiful. At both ends of the tunnel there are immense stores for grain and other produce, and at the time of my visit large stacks of grain were built along the line, indicating the agricultural character of the principal trade. Just over the hills to the northward is the Summer watering place, where there are a large number of seaside residences, and to which the Christchurch picnic parties generally resort, while a short distance along the coast southward from Lyttelton there is Akroa, a small town on a magnificent bay, a place which, owing to its beautiful scenery, is visited by large numbers of tourists.

At Port Lyttelton I rejoined the Union s.s. Company’s fine ship Te Anau, to proceed to Wellington. On my voyage across from Melbourne I had been struck with the earnest attention given by the passengers to the business of eating, and the patience with which they would wait at the table in order to be first served. It had been more than a month since I had left the ship, and she had been back to Melbourne, but on going down to the saloon I found the tables surrounded by anxious faces waiting for the dinner, which was not to be served up for more thon half-an-hour. I at first thought the eaters had been sitting there ever since I left the ship, but remembering that they were a different draught of passengers, I had to regard the dinner as one of those “ touches of nature ” which “ make the whole world kin.” We started about 8 o’clock at night, and reached Wellington about noon next day. There was a heavy sea on the coast, but the Te Anau, true to her character, treated us so w ell that there were very few on board who could not come to the tables. : The ship, owing to the Exhibition season, was over-crowded,

which accounts for the waiting on the part of the passengers to be in the first detachment at meals ; but I think it is highly complimentary to the Te Anau that even in the awkward ground swell which comes from the coast there should be so many “ waiting ” around the tables instead of in their cabins. We were in sight of the coast all the morning, and the lofty range of mountains, here and there covered with snow, which was never out of view, formed the most interesting object of this part of the voyage. We were led to expect something particularly rough in crossing Cook’s Strait, but the bilge keels of our ship managed to deal with the cross seas of this quarter so well that we kept our spirits up and our dinners down without trouble, and sailed pleasantly into the magnificent harbor of Wellington.