The Dunedin Exhibition. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 423, 27 November 1889, Page 4

The Dunedin Exhibition. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PREAMBULATORY. Novelty is the spice of life. What were this vale of tears if unalleviated by the indulgence of the master passion of curiosity The last of a long row of Chinese culprits i s even curious to see how the heads of his predecessors come off, and participants in gladiatorial shows and Tyburn executions seem to have derived some satisfaction from the thought of the interest they were arousing among the spectators. If nobody died, if nobody did anything naughty, if nobody got up a public excitement, such a a a baby show, or a revival, or an exhibition, what a dull world it would be ! The longer mankind live together the keener apparently grows the gregarious instinct, and the greater the inteiest people take in their neighbour and his affairs. And persons who afford their fellows a cheap gratification at some expense to themselves, do so nowadays at greater advantage than of yore, thanks to the institution of the fourth estate. Without it they would, te a great extent, sacrifice themselves in vain. They would play to a very limited public. They would die, or murder, or embezzle, or elope, with small effect and pleasure to mankind but for the kindly assistance of the omnipresent pressman. It is sad bo think of the absconders, the adventurers, the interesting sinneis, the gigantic gooseberries that must have passed away from our ancestors unhonoured and unsung for want of the ministrations of the correspondent or reporter. So much good solid pleasure lost to suffering mankind from lack of an opportune chronicler. Just think of the distance of those twenty miles between Dt'llborough and Dronington, in days when steam and newspapers were nob as we know them ; how when the ladies of either of these townships had exhausted the local small talk in the morning 1 , they were left resourceless of tittle-tattle between tea time and evening prayers Did Mrs Quiverful, of Dronington, seek consolation in the society of the new curate far away from Droningbon and Mr Quiverful V How little pleasure wives and maidens at Dullborough could extract lromthisevent. Or if Dr. Squills miraculously stayed an epidemic of measles among the youth of Dullbprough, how little reputation could redound to that skilful practitioner with the matrons of, Dronington. Lawyer Knipperclaw might levanb with the trust fund 3 ot his client from one town and have half established himself in business at tliD other before he was discovered ; while it would take half-a-dozon weeks for the fame of Farmer Worsell's phenomenal yield of turnips to overcome the difficulties of the twenty miles intervening befcwen the two communities.

PREPARATORY. Nowadays all this is changed. Newspapers crumple up distance as air compreaaes an accordion or an opera hab. The press, that mighty microphone, hm arisen, and grasping the giant agents, electricity and Bteam, rears its ever-growing bone temple of novelty. Thee is the new hierarchy of editor*, the high priests oi the pen, who apeak from behind the veil, and the-e their attendant priests, the reporters) and correspondents, fleeing to the uttermpst part of the earth to do their bidding. To this great echo ball of rumpur flock the multitude pf the bored and the bothered, the idle and the overworked, and have bheir minds diverted and their pangs of curiosity assuaged. And the the priesthood of the pres3, what of them ? As the night mail whirls through a great junction, tearing and jolting over the network of interlacing rails, the sleeping travellers think" nothing of t> ne vigilance

of the pointsman, who holds the lives of them all in his hands. As the great steamship ploughs and pulses through the mist and darkness of the Atlantic sea, the drowsy passengers know nob in their ignorance the countless dangers the captain and officers have eluded by their skill. So the reader of his newspaper tioubles nob about the foresight and the toil whereby the editoi and his satellites have purveyed provender for his delectation. Hath he not paid for the same ? Doth not the worthless penny, the slippery threepenny, the olusive sixpence, or the nimble shilling discharge all obligations, and is not the pressman rewarded? What reck the public of enthusiasm in the editor or esprit de corps in his staff? News, editor, more news ! Give it us hot ; give it us early. Gather it up from the four winds of heaven. Rout it out betimes. There's the Dunedin Exhibition looming up. Is the Star to have no rambling optic down thereaway ? But the editor has a keen eye to the future. He has long had this novelty in view. Prestissimo is the word, and off shoots the visual ray of the State towards the centre of attraction.

ON THE WING. And so the correspondent gets under way. Gently at first, for all things to flourish and delight move gradually at the beginning. Nothing agreeable comes rapidly upon us, except perhaps the news of an inheritance or a legacy. Earthquakes, lightning flashes, thunderclaps, bucking horses, collapsing chairs, bolted ices, an 1 sudden kisses, all leave unpleasant or unsatisfactory feelings behind. In all sports the performer loves to make his excursus or preliminary canter previously to exhibiting hit) powers. Doth not the arentle cricketer sally forth, and in front of a single etump, slash the ball about, to the itrminent danger of the life and limbs of the spectators all around ? And doth not the gentle (Heaven save the mark !) footballer delight in executing preliminary " drops " upon the top hats of venerable men, and projecting " half volleys " into the pits of their venerable stomachs ? Besides, you would not have me land you at Dunedin all at onee — dump you down unceremoniously, as if projected thither from a long-range cannon. In truth, it would be incon&nerate, for Dunedin is not yet prepared. The Exhibition, like the British army or your wife when she is dressing tor the opera, is not likely to be strictly up to time : and if you are invited to enjoy the hospitality ot a friend you would not go an hour before dinner time and take him unawares. There is Molly laying the tablecloth, your host in his shirtsleeves decanting wine - bottles ; Miss B)bin«on, with her hair but half curled, and Mrs Robin&on, in a dressing-gown, shouting culinary instructions down the kitchen stairs. And, on the other hand, it you are coming in the flesh, it would be as well not to be late, for the keepers of hotels and boarding-houses are sharpening their claws in anticipation of a multitude of patient victims. Should the stress of visitants be great you v\ ill meet with modest proposals, such as to perch upon the mantelpiece or roost upon the chandelier at two guineas a week, or to hang out on the windowsiil or the clothes-line ut perhaps halt the aforesaid figure. Such atrocities would assuredly be perpetrated should their x'oseate dreams of coming millions be realised ; but unless the Australian summer melts the population there so wholesale that they run to New Zealand in a mass, other visitors to Dunedin may possibly escape by dint of pawning their last spare suit.

THE SOUTH ISLAND. And now for the purposes oi the present tour the correspondent croppeth up at Lyttelton. In the absence of a North Island trunk line theie is reason in this, for in going by steamer South one sees little on which to dilate except Wellington, with its cramped situation and magnificent harbour, until, as we say, you reach Lyttelton. All else is " Sea, .«ea, the deep blue sea." If that monster wore capable of being propitiated, the pagans sung in his praise by baritones and bassos ought to have done it long ago. But the wretch is implacable, even towards his wannest admirers. It is interesting to see the gentleman who is wont at concerts to raise a wild enthusiasm for the ocean when he finds himself really at home upon the rolling deep. Here you see sonkingly exemplified in his forlorn look as he meditates over a basin, the tremendous gulf which separates fact from fiction, the real from the ideal. Yes ; the mighty ocean, except when experienced from within the outside limit of five feet of water, is a delusion and a snare. It is like your 1.0. U., in the habit of disagreeably importuning you with its presence, and you view its disappearance, like the accidental destruction of that bothering document, with more than a feeling of strongly-disguised regret.

LYTTELTON. As you draw into the arm ot the sea known as Lyttelton Harbour you enter by the side of what was once an active volcano. On your left is the hilly peninsula ot Akaroa, running outward some forty miles from the mainland, and reaching upwards in places to more than three thousand feet. It is a sort of Highlands, and will some day form a splendid mountaineering playground for those ambitious spirits who would attempt the grander ranges. Lyttelton Harbour has an average breadth about that of the Waitemata between Auckland and the North Shore, and a somewhat similar length ; bufc it is open at its entrance to the sea, narrows up towards its end like a lake, and with its towering hills of fiom fifteen hundred feeb downwards is not unlike some of the lochs of Scotland At the upper end lies Governor's Bay, whence the view at the decline of a lovely summer's day is indeed pleasing and impressive. This is with Lyttelton equidistant from Christchurch nine miles ; but as it does nob yet possess the advantage of a railway tunnel through the hills, it is postponed as a pleasure resort by the Christchuichers in favour of Sumner and New Brighton, moi'e accessible points upon the open coast at the commencement of the Canterbury Plain. It is, however, I believe, destined some day to become the recherche watering-place of Christchurch, on account of its greater beauty and seclusion ; but for the present the Maoris, whose pa is there, have its enjoyments pretty much to themselves. About a third of the distance up the harbour upon the right, Lyttelton sits perched in a niche upon the face of the hills. It is a disorganised-looking place, with no very perceptible plan about it, such being scarcely possible on account of the nature of the site. The harbour, with its breakwater and its water front, presents the usual characteristics of a seaport, and as viewed ; from the houses dotted on the eminences above, presents, with t>he moving shipping, a neal and interesting appeara.npe. The chief office and service Lyttelton can do for Christchurch will be to intercept or break the incursions of the gallant tar and others whose calling smacks of the " briny," and generally deliver it from the smells, the bed ragg lenient, the dirt and drunkenness which deface the water front of every maritime city. The character of Christchurch is so peaceful, so agricultural, so scholastic and refined that any admixture of seaport in its life would be incongruous ajirf disfiguring, aipd much to be regretted by a.ll lbver'9 of th,e beautiful,.

THE CATHEDRAL CITY. On passing in the brain out of Lyttelton through the Port Hills, you debouch upon the Canterbury Plain, or that inlet of ib in the Port Hills which is known as the Heathcote Valley. Along this you pass, leaving the hills upon the left, until after about six have reached this point, the English eye has been struck by the home like aspect of things The hills are high and frowning, it is true, but the flatness, the culture, the luxuriantly waving lines of poplars and wiilowH, the general appearance of settled life resembles that of the eastern counties in England, an Cambridgeshire or Suffolk. This is heightened by the meandering^ of the Heathcoto — the counterpart of a small, sluggish English river— ovor the surface of which the bushes sweetly dip, and trim villas peep between the frequenb foliage. Ib is the river which gives Opawa its peculiar beauty and superiority over the other puburbp, unless it have a rival in Avonside on the north, which is similarly extending down the chief of the Christchurch streams. There is a tendency in the town to develop eastward into both of these faubourgs, as they lie in the way to the seaside resorts of Sumner and jNew Brighton, six miles distant on the open shore. The suburbs which are likely to retain longest their secluded and belect character aro those on the opposite or south-east side of the city, Riccarton and Fendalton, as they are protected from the invasions of builders by intervention of the public gardens and 1 Hagley Park, which with the deviously- | winding Avon, break the continuity of Christchurch in that quarter. To the north-west, on either side of the Papanui Road, which is the continuation of the main street of Christchurch, towards the ranges, lie respectively the suburbs of Merival and St. Albans. Southward toward the Port Hills lie the less aristocratic borough of Sydenham. These seven suburbs, Opawa, Avoiibide, St. Albans, Merival, Fendalton, .Riccarton, and Sydenham enclose the municipality of Christchurch, which extends over a complete square surface of one mile between them all. Each side is bounded by a belt a mile in length. On the north, the south and the east the belt is a perfectly straight road 01 boulevard ; on the west it ib the public Domain, compribing Hagley Park and the Public Gardens. The city is laid out on the ehe-s-board plan, the streets runniug north and south cutting tho&e running east and west ao right angles, while the central thoroughfare, which taps the whoJe, runs obliquely from the soutb-eaeb corner, by Opawa, to th-j north-west corner, towards Papanui. It is not perfectly straight. At h'rst it is known as Lower and Upper High ■ street, then (where it crooks) as Colombo - street, and again (where it straighten?) as Victoria - street and the Papanui Road. It is at the point where it alters its direction that the central and business portion of the town is situated, and where the Cathedral, the banks and most of the important buildings lie.