From Gisborne to Melbourne.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1081, 1 June 1882, Page 3

From Gisborne to Melbourne.

for tire Povbkty Bay Standard.] No. VIII. DUNEDIN. Our passage to the Southern Metropolis from Lyttelton was a prolongation, in a varied form, of the pleasures we had so freely partaken of on board ship—the only difference being that we transferred to the Te Anau, the Haweu returning to the Manakau to catch the incoming English Mail. Captain Carey, I was glad to find, was still in command of the Te Anau, and it is not saying too much that he and his g;ood ship are the most popular in the Union Company’s service. A good deal of sympathy was expressed for the Captain by the passengers, on learning that one of his daughters was being conveyed to Melbourne for medical advice, and that she was considered to be in a sinking condition. The young lady reached Melbourne alive, but in a few weeks, I regret to say, she succumbed to the malady from •which she suffered. The run to Port Chalmers was enlivened—strange though it may appear —by a shower of rain, which, though it lasted but an hour or so, was the first 1 had experienced for some weeks, and proved both cooling and grateful to one’s feelings. This was the last night- our party spent on board in company, and we macle the most of it; the air was sensibly cooler, making overcoats and rugs very acceptable on deck. After the ladies re- 1 tired, my companion and I wiled away an hour in pleasant conversation, watching the moon descend to shine o’er other lands, and recounting the pleasures we had reciprocated in each other’s company. I say the conversation was ■“ pleasant ” —well, so it appeared to me, and so it ought to be, for 1 distinctly remember that we had more than one “ red funnel ” toddy ere we parted for the night, and I as distinctly recollect the remark that one of us made, as to the somewhat suddenly increased and unaccountable rolling of the steamer. We entered the Otago Heads daybreak, and most of the passengers, including many ladies, ■came up to see the landscape as we passed up the river, and to enjoy the balmy, still bracing atmosphere. It was within a month of 29 .years since I left Otago, and, having pleasing recollections of early associations there, I reentered the port animated with something more than a passing interest. Port Chalmers is situated at the head of a small bay, some half-dozen miles from Taiaroa’s Head, and here I need not say that I found even more ■advancement than 1 expected ; but there does not appear to be much improvement on either side of the river below the port town. On approaching the latter a scene of busier activity presented itself, even at the early hour of 7 o’clock, than 1 had seen since leaving Auckland ; but it is only fair to say that no place in the Southern Hemisphere can successfully <ope with New Zealand’s Northern capital in her large “ out put ” of “ wharfingers.” Late •at night or early in the morning the wharves at Auckland teem with members of an itinerant class, who must be under the belief that the shipping trade would materially suffer, or collapse altogether, if they did not personally «uj»ervise the arrival and departure of the commercial fleet. The Te Anau was taken into dock before the passengers landed, so that we deferred our debarkation until after breakfast. Although the sun had well risen, and the day was beautifully fine, we all found a change to warmer clothing necessary to comfort. Port Chalmers, in itself, I always thought a pretty place, but the last three decades have made it more so. The northern aspect is not so attractive as that to the south, the various little bays that form a kind of peninsula, facing the river above “ the islands,” possessing a charm of fascination realisable only by those who personally enjoy it. Situated at an agreeable and ■convenient altitude, almost every portion of ; the undulating surface of the town presents a good view of the surroundings, also, within -short and easy distances are small shelly beaches, forming secure places for bathers and boating parties, while protected from all winds except the south. It may not be generally known that the Port Chalmers of to-day—which, a quarter of a century since, possessed but one store, two pubs,” a church and about half-a-dozen cottages —is a Corporation town, with a population of nearly 2000 souls, living in some 300 or 460 dwellings, and with rateable property of £13,000 yearly value. It received its “ nomenclatural” name from, or after, Dr. Chalmers—a name not unfamiliar to the ears of Scotchmen, nor, indeed, to a very large class of Englishmen-readers and followers of their nation’s greatest and best exemplars. Port Chalmers now largely represents many other religions than that of the dearauld Free Kirk, there being no less than five different places of worship that I could discover; and the educational liberality of the Colony makes itself known by a Grammar School, and a common school, whose average attendance, I was informed, was very good indeed. I counted about a dozen “ hotels ” —that’s the name now universally adopted by even the meanest grog shanty that pays a license—for they must, or, at least, do flourish, whatever other trades fail; and two banking establishments. There are other public institutions in the port, which it is unnecessary to particularize here, but they all go to show its importance (no pun intended.) There is splendid wharf, floating and graving dock accommodation there —the latter being 328 feet long, 41 feet wide, with a depth of from 17 feet to 22 feet, according to the state of the tides. The stone raised from the quarries at Port Chalmers is well known ; it has been used largely for building and other purposes throughout the district, and has helped to make the place whence it came what it is. Port Chalmers also sends one member to Parliament. In the afternoon we took the train to Dunedin, where we arrived just in time to be too late, as the saying goes. We left word with a friend in Christchurch to wire to one of the Coffee Palaoes that abound in the former city, and engage apartments for our party in expectation of our arrival; but the remissness of the said friend amply, but unpleasantly demon•trated, in a most practical manner, what the difficulties of travellers in a quandary, if not in distress, really are. On arrival at the “Pa-

lace,” full of joyous expectation of partaking of the creature comforts its exterior betokened, we were ushered into the presence of two remarkably polite “ lady clerks ” —or something of the kind, for their exact position we had not opportunity to learn—who expressed so many regrets at our disappointment that they rather intensified than palliated it. It appeared that the telegram was not sent, our apartments were not engaged, and we had to go trudging round the streets of the city—strangel's, if not pilgrims in a strange land—seeking “ fresh fields and pastures new.” Luckily one of our party had the good sense (or being influenced by a kind of premonitory idea that “ things are seldom what they seem ”) to leave the luggage —“ impedimenta,” in this instance would be the more correct term of it—at the parcels’ office at the railway station, so that on that score we were thankful Now it so happened that, according to the times and seasons peculiar to most communities, that of Otago’s lacing carnival was at hand. Ergo, the town was full of visitors, and the hotels were full of lodgers, therefore, our hopes of getting even a “ shake down” were getting “ small by degrees and beautifully less ” as we saw the low-des-cending sun sink into the west behind the big hills of the city. And to make matters certainly none the better for our condition, we were getting hungry; but our appetites would have been more speedily appeased than was the procurement of shelter, therefore, we knew that if the worst came we should not starve, although the unpleasant alternative of being “ run in,” as persons having no “ visible means of support”—which we had not —was suggested more than once by my facetious compagnon de voyage. However, on we went with both scrip and money in our purse, and no one would “ take us in and do for us.” At length my jokist friend suggested that there might be a kind of vagrant appearance about us that the canny people of Dunedin were observant of, although we cou<d not see it ourselves ; and that we might be looked upon as a party of jugglers, or tramps —two men to do the mischief that the two women put them up to. This kind of badinage was all very well, and it made us laugh, but it by no means compensated for the discomforts caused by our Christchurch delinquent friend. It is fortunate that the keenest sorrows, and greatest disappointments come to an end some time or other, and so did ours, as, after studying the geographical and architectural beauties of the town for about a couple of hours, we obtained domiciliation for our bodies, and some of that rest which, despite all that is said to the contrary, wicked souls sometimes find even in this world. It is astonishing to all except the curled “ darlings of society ” how grateful one feels for small mercies when larger ones are denied td us. I reclined, if not in clover, on what, in my still humble frame of mind, I likened to a luxurious couch, and, under the soporific influence of a draught of pure “ Colonial,” I chased away the troubles of the past, contented with the present, and hopeful of the future.

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