MY TRIP TO NEW ZEALAND. BY "A COMMERCIAL."

Southland Times, Issue 642, 11 March 1867, Page 2

MY TRIP TO NEW ZEALAND. BY " A COMMERCIAL."

• G-etting clear of the shipping, we steamed out of Hobson's Bay, and shortlyafter dusk were outside the Heads. Trom that period until nearly four days had elapsed ray memory is almost a blank ; aud I have no desire to picture that most fearful time, duriug which the grim monster, inalade de mer, had me in his fangs. On the fifth morning we sighted the Solander, a lonely rock, standing, like a sentinel in the" middle of the ocean. Sixty miles from the Solander is Bluff Harbor, where we arrived at twelve o'clock on the 16th. Bluff Harbor township — designated Campbelltown— has not, by any- means, an enticing appearance. It consists of three hotels, or rather three buildings delighting in that designation, two general stores, a forwarding agent's office, and about half a dozen domiciles, the only one ofwhich having the right to be called " a house " beiug the private residence of the aforesaid forwarding agent, who owns the principal portion of the township. This gentleman has been prosperous; and, his better half having presented him with eleven children to gladden his heart and latter days, he has determined to live and die at the place of his bonne fortune. Being anxious to reach Invercargill. a distance of twenty miles, the sune day, I was compelled to decline this gentleman's kind invitation to spend the evening at his house ; and, having hired a horse and buggy at a charge of two pounds, I drove off, leaving my numerous belongings to follow by dray. There is no scenery worth describing on the road to Invercargill ; the country being flat, swampy, and covered with flax bushes. Invercareill can boast of possessing the most comfortable hotel in the whole of IS ew Zealand, namely, the " Southland Club," it is largely patronised by the squatters at certain seasons of the year. Tne proprietor is an old Victorian, and may therefore be supposed to know how to do the " correct thing." The charges are undoubtedly high, but not disproportionate to the comforts. There is a clubroom at the hotel, where the Times and the principal colonial papers are filed, and where telegrams from all part 3of the islands are posted. It was here I made the first he irty meal since leaving Melbourne. When 1. arose the morning a'ter my arrival it wa% with a very <unfavDrable impression of ISTew Zealand weather; for it rained, hailed, and snGwed, all within ten minutes. Tor several days this treachery continued. The dap would commence gloriously, bufc would change as oftea_aa_t^g_fa^on8 fc .

old " Sol" advancing and retirmg'as if he was practising a cotillion. Invercargili is a clean town, with broad streets, nearly all the buildings being of wood, and very few with any pretentions to architectural beauty. The town took a sudden rise about four years ago/aud was expected to become a second Mel-' bourne ; but the diggings at Lake Wakatip failed to answer general anticipations/ Some enthusiastic believers in its progress built shops and wharehouses on a scale that was many years in advance of the place, if it had even gone a head at the same rate as did the capital of Victoria. Invercargill boasts a theatre, small, but neat and comfortable ; the only perform* ances that have been given for about three years being " amateur histrionics," and they are by no means despicable. A performance, for the benefit of the local fire brigade, took place during my visit, and the actors aquitfced themselves, on the whole, in a manner that was quite equal to the efforts of any amateur performers that I have seen in Victoria. Between business during the day, and chess club, reading-room, and music in the evening, time passes quickly away; and nearly three weeks had elapsed when I ascertained that the Phoebe was advertised to leave the Bluff for Dunedin on the following day; when I accordingly took my seat in one of king Cobb's con* veyances, and soon fouDd myself leaving Invercargill as fast as four horses could travel over the road, which at that peribd of the year was in a very bad condition. My fellow passengers were ali "characters"; in their way, and Mr Guthrie Carr would have given very distinctive definitions of their phrenological developments. One, whose native country it would be difficult to predicate, as he had spent many years in the " land of the west," commenced to enliven the journey by chanting the sole lyric that he had ever committed to memory (with the exception of the inspiriting chorus to " Old John Brown "), the said lyric consisting bf an indefinite number of verses, each, after the first, being a repetition of its predecessor. The subject seemed to be of a reciprocal character, and the chorus inculcated a useful moral. It ran thus : — Says the ragman to the bagman, I will do thee no harm : • * Says the bagman to the ragman, • ■ I will do thee no harm. (ch>btts.) Then push along, push along, Push along, keep moving : Tbe only way to get aloug Is to get up early in the morning. Mark the kindly feeling displayed by these itinerants, and the estimable precept given with the result of their experience, vide the chorus. I may add that the song seemed to be in Z sharp, and the chorus in Q minor. When the putative American was tired of tlie ragman's " burden," he considered that he had the right to call upon one of the other passengers to give a specimen of vocal ability. It would nofc require a very large amount of perceptive faculty to discover that the iudividual who had been called upon to oblige was a cockney and a new chum. He protested that he was quite hignorant of any songs, or he should be 'iley delighted to respond; although, after considerable badgering, he acknowledged, to a partial acquaintance with " Ome, sweet ome," and " Salley in our halley ;" and at last we decided to take " Sally " first and *' Ome sweet ome " afterwards. As the after dinner speeches say, " words fail me to describe " the effect produced by our cockney fellow-passenger's renderin o*. The words and music were partly correct and partly original, and the incongruous jumble had the effect of throwus ali into roars of laughter ; and, as for the slaughtering of his h's, he might have emulated some Victorian legislators. As no one else volunteered a song immediately after this, our putative American friend treated us to a little more ofthe " bagman," for the purpose, as he remarked, of " keeping the pot a-boiling ;" after which, and almost before the last words of the chorus had died away, a voice, with an unmistakeably Hibernian accent, commenced to apostrophise a widow lady named " Maehree," using all sorts of arguments and similes, both from the natural and unnatural worlds, to induce her to cast in her lot wifch him, j His " Och hone !" was the perfection of pathos, and would have certainly caused j the horses to bolt if they had not been kept well "in hand" by the driver. More " bagman," and then your humble servant was called upon to sing. Your humble servant was not backward in coming forward, and requested to know what song from his repertoire the c jmpany would like, afc the same time enumerating a list of forty or fifty, from "111 Calen" and '-Euddier than the cherry" down to "Little Queen Cole," " Polly Perkins," and a "Norrible tale." The putative American wanted the lot, or a verse from each; cockney would like to hear the " Last rose of summer ; whilst another passenger, hitherto in the background (or rather inthe foreground, as he had a box seat, but was out of sight),, asked if I ken'd "Scots wha hae"? However, suiting my own fancy, I gave them the " Milkman's lament," otherwise " Polly Perkins," introducing the falsetto to give effect to Miss Perkins's remarks. This was highly applauded, and a repetition demanded ; but to my intense gratification, I found that we were close to our journey's end, and I escaped by calling upon the p. A. for a little more "bagman," to wind up the journey. We were now once moro at the BluiF and within an hour I was on board the Wicebe, bound for Dunedin, whither my dear reader, I purpose taking you in the next chapter.