From Gisborne to Melbourne.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1098, 11 July 1882, Page 2

From Gisborne to Melbourne.

[Written tor tho Poverty Bay Standard.] No. XI. THE BLUFF. With my departure from Dunedin city commenced the first feeling of uncomfortableness that I had experienced since I left Gisborne—then exactly three weeks. Those, and their name, or number, is legion, who have been similarly situated, alone know what the torments of loneliness are when obliged, from tho inevitabte, and inexorable logic of circumstances, to part with companions,iu whose society not onlymany conventionally happy hours have been spent, but who have been, and still are, one’s most valued and dearest friends —friends whoso loss nothing body in the world can replace. "Vo 1 bade each other adieu at Port Chaim J ers, I to resume my voyage south the Te Anau, my friends to return north so soon ns the alloted time of their sojourn should have expired. I did not feel very lively, either in body or mind, so I spent a larger number of the nocturnal hours, than usual, in my cabin. Just after daylight we crept up to the anchorage at the Bluff, which presents a most uninviting appearance in any way it is viewed, either from the ship or from the shore. The wind was blowing coldly from the S.W; the clouds seemed to “lour upon our heads,” and a bleak kind of chilliness pervaded all things. The Bluff harbor, or Campbelltown, as it is more officially known, is the most southernly seaport town in New Zealand; and may be said to be a good one, and comparatively—safe, for tho largest steam and sailing ships find easy access through the river, which is of great depth. The points of . steering in making the wharf areJ nearly all round the compass, thql channel deviating very much from straight run. Stretching from tho * southward, parallel with tho eastern horizon, a sand spit extends for a sufficiently long distance to form a protection from the prevailing nor’-easters, thus vessels are in a kind of basin similar in some respects to that at Nelson. Campbelltown, I remember some years ago, was more favorably—although I don’t know in what way it ever could be very favorably known than at present, for I don’t think I hazard much in saying that it is tho most dreary, desolate place in the whole Colony, and, I have no doubt that if tho mail steamers did not make tho Bluff the first and last port of eall, the name of Campbelltown would bo as literally wiped off the geography of New Zealand, as it is completely obliterated from the recollection of almost every person who has seen it. Being tho port town, of which Invercargill is the outlet, vessels will continue to call there, but, beyond that fact, there is no possible inducement, but tho very reverse, for anyone to settle there. The population is, accorditH to the last census, 351, but what ofrearth they all do for a living puzzles even that ’cutest of all the learned of the earth—the Philadelphian lawyer. Still, if I am not mistaken, the town has aMayor and Corporation and all tho potty grandiloquence of civic pomposity. There are several hotels there, tour, I think, a school, but no church, the public Athentoum doing duty for all the denominations, which cannot bt> many of each, if most are represented. Tho Wesleyans, I was informed, have a chapel of their own, and are like tho old lady who, after some years of " loafing ” on her friends for the loan

of their gridiron, at last got one of her own, and then magnanimously decided that, for the future, she would carry out the great principle of her life, and neither borrow nor lend ! At any rate that was something about what my facetious friend wished me to understand, and I thought it only respectful to shew courtesy to the intelligent way in which he did me the favor to “drink at a gentleman’s expense,” as he mildly put it, and tell me what I wished to knowj at the same time. It is amusing to news gatherers to hear what excuses men of a certain class will make to obtain their pint or nobbier. AVc landed about 8 a.m., and from that hour until I left at 4 p.m., I was continually being accosted (after the first above-recorded essay) by hangers on to the pubs, who volunteered information, andfasked for a “ drink ” with a coolness equalled only by their impudence, and the then state of the weather. But as it is to these sophisticated children of a natural propensity that we must resort, in many cases, for the information we require, we can but pay them in the coin most acceptable to their tastes ; and that a drink is, as a rule, the most acceptable form of acknowledging their civility, bears proof in the fact that ZAaf gives them pleasure, while “thank you,” or the offer of a coin would give offence. Public buildings are neither numerous nor attractive at the Bluff, but there are several large concrete and brick stores, used for the storage of grain, which forms a no inconsiderable item of export from that place. While lounging about waiting for the steamer’s departure I fell into conversation with a care-worn, dejected looking kind of goods clerk, who was tally ing out some 1,500 sacks of oats to go on board the Te Anau for the Hobarton and Melbourne markets. The poor fellow was the most chap-fallen individual —not out of employment—l had met with in my Colonial experience. I admit that the wind was blowing piercingly cold for a summer day in the •month of February, but, to my mind, it was an agreeable invigorating change from the oppressive heat, and dry atmosphere I had experienced for the last three weeks. But he came, he said, from still more sultry climes than New Zealand could produce, and when he felt these cold sou’-westers, they made his blood chill. He was then wrapt in a sailor’s monkey jacket, and a woollen muffler round his neck; and, after counting a truck full of bags, would ensconsehimself to leeward of thebuilding, in a kind of mental and physical agony at the painful position he was placed in. His only hope was that he would soon be relieved from the barbarous place, and still more barbarous people, both of which he intensely disliked, but was forced to endure. It seemed to give this young man relief to get a civilized stranger to talk to, so we chatted, and amongst other things hp told me the interesting fact that the Shipment of oats then being made was « invoiced at the low price of two sh tilings and one penny per bushel, f.o.b. One of the principal things for which the Bluff may be said to be useful, is its signal station on a high commanding hill, from which vessels passing through Foveaux Straits are telegraphed over the Colony.

Invercargill is about 17 miles distant from the Bluff, and, as our steamer was not under sailing orders until the afternoon, I and two or three passengers took the early train (or the train took us) to that interesting township, and I was not sorry I went. Had I remained behind, I should have concluded that, whatever persons might say, it could be no better than it should be. I need not say that, fully expecting to see nothing worth the name of a township, I was most agreeably undeceived. My preconceived opinion took its rise from the disappointment I encountered at the Bluff, and from the something worse than sterile nature of

the land interlying the two places. Without exception it is the dreariest ride one can experience in the Colony—even that terra incognita to the extreme north of Auckland is put into the shade, or, more properly, is made to appear a very Eden compared to it. There are some half-dozen stations between the termini, but what on earth the train stopped at them for, was not made apparent by the results. Hardly a house is to be seen until the confines of Invercargill itself are approached ; and, if I err not, the first I saw was the ever-present “ pub.” As far as the eye could reach to the south and west, nothing but salt-marsh and bog land skirted with decent sized bush patches met the eye. These latter, I learned consisted of some good marketable timber, of which there is a good export, and of which I saw abundant evidence. To the right lay the salt water estuary on which Invercargill stands. Consequently on the impoverished state of the land, no farming pursuits are carried on there. I saw no fences, and not a hoof or an animal of any description for, at least a dozen miles of the journey. Of the roads I cannot speak, io- I saw none, although I was told by of gentlemen who drove down to the steamer that there is a good road, and on which they had a pleasant drive, and doing the distance but very little longer than the train. As we neared the town a perceptible improvement was to be seen. The grass was green (almost the first verdant feed I had seen since I left Gisborne), the hills, and low-lying land showing plenty of cultivation, and the ripening crops gladdening to behold. The scene, in fact, was as a transformation in a pantomime, only with a larger difference. I felt delighted in my mind, and exhilirated in my body. The freshen-

ing cold breeze whetted my sluggish appetite, and I thought after I had had a good breakfast, I should feel on better terms with men in general, and with Invercargill in particular. And so I did. It is astonishing, though there’s nothing absolutely original in the remark, what an effect a good sq uare meal has on one’s susceptibilites. What different views we take of the same things and circumstances before and after ! Had we been forced to hunt up and down the town for a decent place in which the said square meal was to be obtained, I, for one, should uncharitably have exclaimed, “ What else can we expect in such a hole?” But there, just opposite to the railway station, stands one or two of the best hotels in the town, the names of which I did not record, and have forgotten, in fact I forgot all about them pretty quick in having to pay the aristocratic price of half-a-crown, for a very plebian breakfast, after waiting an impatiently long time, and with no extra civility thrown away. I don’t apply the rule ex uno disee omnes, this may not be so, but I cannot say, my experience being limited in that township to the once investment. A description of Invercargill proper, must form the subject of my next.

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