RAMBLES HOUND DUNEDIN.

A TRESIDFA'TIAL ADDRESS. Tongues in trees, books, in Die running brooks, Sennons in stones, nnd good in overything. The following is the concluding portion nt the address read before tho Otago InBtituto on the 12th Kovombcr, 1901, by Mr George M. Thomson, F.I/.5,, the retiring president: —

1 liopo you will excuse these digressions n» being not without relevance and importance in such desultory and vagrant piper as this is. And now let. us once more, got back to tlw top of Flagstaff Bill, and 'liaivc a seat on the very summit before resuming our northward walk. We might dr;cant on tli'i beauly of (he landscape, which, turn whtro we will, spreads out befdro us in all directions. Away in front stretches the illimitable ocean, its Northern aspects cut off by Hwamny Hill and Mount Cargill, but its coastline away to the south only bounded by tin: Nugget?, fome 60 miles off. Bo'ow us lie? tho Tqicri Plain, " tracts of pasture sunny warm " initialed with fields of. golden corn, tho very garden of New Zealand, inlo which so many of tho early settler* looked and, dreading its dee,! swamps and lakes, and its streams " gleaming silvery in. tlio shallow*, glooming dark!/ ill the pools," stopped short, and built their humble dwellings on tho cold hill sides. How many have since lamented tho lack of foreknowledge which caused the.in to halt on. thoso Pisgali heights, and forbade their advance into the d«ep, rich soil of the plain! Away south-west, beyond the* Waihola hills, wo see the high ground behind iWaiwera. stands up to a height of 3000 ft and l>ars our western view, but northwards of it, rises the long line nf the Limnicrlaws and tho. ilwk and I'illar Range, th'oir -4000 ft wall barring further vision, 't'o ■tho nortli-weet and north lie Mount Allan (tntl tlio Silver Peaks, while, tlm Kakamiis bound tho view almost to the sra, again.

ft is a wide prospect, stretching over a hundred miles, and very beautiful in many directions, especially down the harbour and over the Peninsula, but it, just lacks what Rnskin considered the essential feature, of a landscape, the historic association. Think of the view from tlio lei-race «f Windsor Oastle, with ito rich and lovely champagne country, oi from Salisbury (.'rags over (Edinburgh, how every inch of ground is a'ive with memories of Ihe past. Or that moble landscape from tho brow of Kinnoul •Hill, with the fair city of Perth and the beautiful awefip of tho Tay at one's feet, across tr> the wooded slopes of Monerieff Hill, up Strath Earn to the right and down the famous Cilrso of Gowrie to the left. Or, again, the lovely view from the hill ■behind Heidoiberg, across the vine-clad -valley of tho Ncckar and away down tho Rhine. How tho poot and the historian make thoso nnd other well-known spots live Qtfain in our imagination. But here there "is no atoried past": the human clement Avhioh gives such a charm to these old lands as wanting, and even Nature is not 6een at her best in this our age of transition.

Tlio bareness of Hie surface 10-dav and Wio lack of animal life give little indication of tlio (ondilions winch prevailed half a century ago, before guns and fko3, cattle, Bhoep, and rabbits had so altered tlie state of affairs. Masses of flax and speargniss, intermingled will) tu&ac, matagofi scrub (Disciria), ganltheria, and anise covered tire opeq grotiml, and among those grew a great profusion of smalW heaths mid nerteras, yielding abundant food for birds. In spring and early summer the open spares ■wore yellow with native buttercups and Maori oniun (Anthoricuin). followed later •by white gnaphaliuni and violets, pink cpllobimns, yellow senecios, and numerous small orchids. Still later, m> the summer advanced, the blue, orchids (Thelymitra) and star-liko lierpolirion brightened the ground, ta bo followed by the white and red snowbe.rries, and tlio orange drupes of loueopogon. Kakas were abundant in those days both in the bush and in the open, ■nrliOTij tlmy dug at the roots of the speargrass and flax for the large grubs and beetles to bo found there, or visited tho flax flowoTe for nectar, and the snowberry ami ground tutu for their fruit. Parakeets also fed freely oji the berries, While tnis ami korimakos visited the flowers foT nectar, and made tho air vocal with their liell-likc notes. Wekns, grass-birds, and quails (now, alas! quite- extinct) wero abundant on the open ground or in tho dense scrubby under, growth; while native canaries, saddle-backs, wrens, warblers, robins, and tomtits were as common as sparrows are to-day. In still earlier .days moas, and, perhaps, notornis, roamed over these hillsides, for tho former have left their mark in many parts of Swampy Hill in the heaps of gizzard-stones which show the spots where they lay down to die. Lower down in the bush-clad slopes and in tho denser vegetation of the ravines, kiwis, ground thrushes, and crows wore abundant, and, no doubt, kakapos also occurred; While in the upper foliago tlie silent wore very common, feeding in spring and early summer on the kowbai loaves,' and later in tho season on tho borries of mistletoe, and the twpentiny fruits of tho miros and othor pine trees. Tlio smaller birds, too, fed on the berries of tho hina-hina, pepper tree, mako-mako, and ])oro-poro, and thus spread their seed? far and wide. Where aro all these birds gone? Ask last year's snow. It was perhaps inevitable that they should disappear before Hie advent of man and his accompaniments; but the change has left us infinitely poorer. Thus moralising on the past, let us again address ourselves to our northward path, and walking down tho sunny slope cross tho saddle at the head waters of Niehol's Creek

and rise tlie ascent before us. Quickly the nature of the ground changes, becoming soft and yielding under foot. Swampy Hill is so named because its surface is in 90 many parts covered with « dense growth of sphagnum moss, which has produced large beds of peat, in which are situated considerable lagoons and pools of brown bog water. These deep sphagnum beds which hold water like a sponge, and into "which one sinks halfway lo the knees, are among the most interesting botanizing grounds in iho neighbourhood of Diwcclin. Only the upper portions of the. plants are alive. Tlie tips of the branches are pale jjreen, and they chiefly grow by a process of mere vegetative reproduction, new buds constantly giving rise to new branches, but epore cajsules being difficult to find. Atf a depth of a few inches the stems appear white and blanched, and as we penetrate lower into the mass we find them turning yellowish, and then brown, till finally we ■pass into the. blackish half-lormed prat. Its niodo of growth raise? the whole level of the surface, and as water accumulates in

the mass, it often happens that the centre, of a wido bed of sphagnum dies away or is drowned, while the outside continues to

grow till a lagoon is formed. Such peat mosses, with their contained lagoons, are. common in many part 9 of Otago. and are not infrequently found on the highest ground, a? on tho summit of Mauugatua, of the Khio Mountains near Tapnnui', and here on Swampy Hill. They must have been even tnore abundant in former epochs, for much of the brown coal or so-called lignite of this part of New Zealand has been formed from peat.

The peat-forming plants are not all sphagnum, though this is the basis. AVn nicct. with species of Coprosma, Haulrhcria, Nettora, and many subalpine sedges, while the beds are gay in midsummer with iiurnertus small orchids (species of Caladenia, CMoglottis, and Lyporanthus). Helophvllum, l'orstera, and other pretty alpines. Up on this high ground, which owing to its very wetness has not beon swept by the fires which have destroyed to much of tlie vegetation all round, we are ou an outlying spur of tho mountain vegetation ofßwilr,il fttami: and hero we meet with a few examples" c.f tho characteristic alpine flora of this part of New Zealand. Here, and on the top of Maungatua (which, however, is nearly a thousand feet higher), are several plants of Antarctic type, similar to those which are found on the granite peat-covered country about Port Pegasus, in Stewart Island. Down the slopes, too. of this hill occur beds of both forms of Dm alpine tutu—Coriaria tliyuiifolia, identical with the Andean form, and C. angustissinia, (he delicate-leaved ground tutu of Otago, together with tlie mountain species of ni.iko-mako iAri<totelia fruticosa). On a still, lint summer's day the abundance of insect life on this hill' is surprising—moths rise from the vegetation in myriads as oho walks over the damp, cool, and springy surface. Formerly the drier ground used to be alive with grasshopper*, but the starlings appeal of recent years to have nearly exterminated theso and some other insect. Tin; hill to-day ii> a much more desolate and a less interesting spot than it must haw been half a century age, when both aniin.il and vegetable life were moro abundant. Today—with the exception of a few patches of 'hush—it is tho only outlier of the native vegetation within many wiles of Dunedin which has not been utterly invaded and occupied by the introduced flora.

The top of Swampy Hill is not a pleasant spot to be on when a thick nor'-wt mist rcmes over it, 35 it very (reimpirily docs. The ground is sufficiently level to be utterly puzzling without a compass, and the coiniVirativc uniformity of the vegetation and the uncertain character of the footing combine to make it mosi difilnilt to fiiul one's way over in a fog. Yet it must be ronumlierod thai in the eaily (lays of this settlement (his high and wide tract of open country was the only route by which cattle could be taken from north to south, a? the

whole coastline wr densely bush-clad. I have heard old settler? and drovers doscribe tlicir experiences when bringing .large mob* down from Waikouaiti to the Taicri Plain and the open south country, and finding the whole hillloj) covered with a dense bank o( fog for several days. Truly we, who live comfortably in our town houses, can hardly rraliso the severe conditions whie'ii prevailed when I lie Olago pioneers undertook tho.-e arduous labours, whoso results we now inherit.

To wafk from Swampy Hill to Mount Cargill across the low fuddle between the J*eilh and the Waitati necessitatis even yd (lie enly bit of hush .scrambling on out' route. Aβ latt iu 10 ov 15 years ago this bush wan intact, and was the abode of those lovely and delicate ferns which are so characteristic of tho unbroken forest land. But it is now being rapidly swopi away—one wonder? what for, 1 lor of alt occupations that of tt(*trnyiii<,' 'hi , native bush for the sake of it= livcv.cml'and leaving in il.< ftcad the l.are, hard, day-seamed hillsides on which the wry grass j s Sl > apt to bo rep'hu-ed by sorroll and nther woods that a few poor cows can. hardly get a living cxropt in the summer months, pcems to mi! one, .if - .the poorest that a working man can take to. Just look across from .Maori Hill fo the slopes of Pine Hill and Mount Cargill in the month? of December and .lannary, It is not grasi tliat. wo see. The ground i? nol, so much green as grcyifli white frsm tho abundance of dd'sips, marguerites, and stiteliworts (£tellai'i;i gramiue.a) which are then in flower.

The complete barrier of hills which encircles Dtmediu seriously interferes with its expansion, just as Ihe natural, filling up of its harbour has affected its position as a. port. There, are only about two routes by which railway communication with the country north and fonth could be obtained— in both cases by selecting tho lowest and narrowest cols or necks in the. surrounding

ills, and piercing them by tiinnek One of hesc bus provided the western outlet nt !avi>r?liain. The other, at Iho sad/Ho of the iciih nnil Waiiali, was not iitilijod as

it should have been, but witli that eiirsej piilitiral bins which dominates so many men nhd schemes in I hi? now country the line was taken by an almost impracticable, rnnmlahont vo.ul to make it pa«s l'ort Chatincrs. The increased cost due to interc.it on construction and five miles of extr.i hiinlagft must always inako the Dunedin-

Waitati section of the northern railway an extravagant one. And the price the community has to pay foi this political job—the selling of a principle for fie wikc'nf a few votes, is Hint, it is raddled with an incubus for an indefinite time.

Mount Cargill ai>pear.i to lie geologically very different from" Swampy Hill. Both tl.e main peak and the lower one, to the northoa«t of it. show the naked basalt projecting into precipitous cliff.?, and flic''sanieforma-' tion occurs on itii slopes and on Pine Hill, and away to the eastward again on Mihi-

walia. But Swampy flill must Lavo been submerged since the elevation of its main mass, fur pretty high up on its western slopes are beds of lignite and other sedimentary deposits. Perhaps they have some eonneelion with the clay bed at Momingtoti. already referred to.

My first ascent of Mount Cargill wai made through deep bush, thick with crape and filmy ferns. Tho tittle hopr just under the cliffs at the summit was full of alpines and slender-leaved asielias. My last ascent, 20 years after, was through fields covered with Yorkshire fog and snr'rcll. roughly fenced with fallen trees, then up through broken, muddy ground poached deep by wandering tattle, which evidently, Irom the number (if their footprints, liitd to travel far for bare sustenance, among Fcattpred remnants of scorched and Masted skeletons of old trees; and, finally, through a patch of burnt fenib, from which Wo emerged black and grimy, to meet the smoke of a bush fire on Hie western side nf t!;o mountain, and which was sweeping over it* summit in thick and hot puffs. We might, well say lchaliod, for the glory liad departed. From flie top of Mount OargilJ to .Signal Hill, and so down to Black Jack's Point, we are once more on familiar ground, hut. after a long day's walk one is not inclined to pause and examine its feature?. I have generally found that, while everything is fresh and full of interest at tlie comniene?ment of a long walk, it takes something of very special character to arouse any interest at the close of it. Yet here i« tlie samo tale of disappearing vegetation, and its replacement by cosmopolitan weeds; half a. down species (if natives, which I could formerly gather on this ridge, had now completely disappeared, One";hi»<; does strike one as we approach town again—theSittempt to make Pelibhet Bay an ornamental lake has not been surccfsfiil, and is, apparently, doomed to perpetual failure, from a cause which was probably not realise:! at the

time the work was undertaken. I refer to the effects of town drainage on the water. The quantity of impure, matter may be small, so that the water dons not appear offensive, but there is sufficient ammoniacal material in it to cause an enormous growth of filamentous algae, and I question it it. will be possible to keep it clear of wood. Perhaps the best thing thc.t could he done would be to fill it np and convert it into a

recreation ground as was once, proposed. If you havp followed me without undue weariness in this somewhat desultory excursion, you will admit that there is much to interest, and much to instruct in such a walk. And to all who look beyond their own petty concerns and seek by any means to make the people among whom they live happier and better for their prcJonee. thero is opportunity for service even in ameliorating and beautifying the surroundings of our citv.

With what feelings, then, should we closo our brief survey or the site of Dur.edin and its surroundings? We have here a beautiful nntiiral heritage, and in the almost inevitable course of Ihini's incidental to the. settlement of a new country wo have wasted a garni deal of this natural beauty. Can we redeem the past , ; I think it can be. done to a great extent, and we want to go on Mbirotiiis; the nocple, especially the young, up f 0 their opportunities. The Reserves Conservation Society founded in this very room, and wider the auspices of this institute, by a. valued member of our council, Mr Alex, 'ISathgatewhose name will always bo remembered and perpetuated in this connection,-;s doing a splendid nork. And it would do more if it had more means at its disposal. The Natives' Araociation has not yet risen to the possibilities of its jiovitioi) and opportunities, but I trust it Will do no yet, and ihat it will devo'-e part of its energy to (lip re-beuitifying o f this favoured spot; for—it will bear reitoiv.tion— it is indeed ouo of the fairest natural spots in which men have elected to dwell. ' Our corporation and people can do much to improve the amenities by keeping the town cleaner, and we could all do a'little i! we won*! not throw paper and litter about our streets. Then we want to heat our houses with gas or electricity, and thus obviate, the disagreeable fogs which make so 'manv of our winter mornings and forenoons cold 'mid sunless m town while the hills are bathed ill sunlight. I hope the clay is not far dis- ' tant when coal fires, with their attendant dirt, nil! bo almost unknown in Dunedin, when the coal will be burned at the pit mouth and its energy delivered by wire. Wen now it would probably pay tfic com- | muiiity far better to do this at firecn Island and Saddle Hill, and by generation of electricity there save dust and smoke, together with wear and tear of roads and vehicles. I believe tlwt our winter morning; fogs not Mily make ii,s cold and uncomfortable for many hours on many days in the year, but that they shorten (he lives of tlie people to an appreciable degree by jrivin* them a dust-laden air to breathe, and by shutting out the blessed sun from them for a ron' sicierable portion o( each still day'. One more reflection, and T "am done, luial is the Dunodin of the future to he noted for in addition to its natural ami acquired beauty? We have seen its preMninewe as a seaport, pass rapidly away, o* ihe conditions of ocean transit have altered: besides which its geographical position was bound sooner or later to throw it out of eompel.it ion with cither Auckland or Wellington. Its barrier of hills andtlnrfj of any great extent of agricultural-back country in comparison with the hrite areas behind Christchureh and Invercargii) equally handicap if with those towns. And yet I i.o not think Dunedin will be easily beaten by any of its competitor?, if it* citizens show the same enterprise in the future which they have done in the past. It shonid remain the chief manufacturing centre of tho colony on account of its nearness to cheap coal and abundant water power. And it might be mado the Edinburgh or Modem Athens of the southern hemisphere if its people resolve to make it a centre of educational, literary, and artistic life. Then when we have a good drainage system, clean water to drink, pure air 'to breathe, with a minimum of dust and of fog, electric lighting in the city . and suburbs, rapid moans of conveyance' to all [•arts of the district by more cable ears and by a complete system of electric tramways, and when we have redeemed our beauty spat.» by planting ai'd careful preservation, we shall realise much inore. perfectly than we do to-day the possibilities of life in this " our own romantic eitv,"

A YEAR'S LUXURY FOR ONE SHILLING. Shavers should bear in miiul that for twelve pence a Vesbs' Sn.wixc Stick can bp bought, which will last 12 months, and give a softer and better lather than any other soap.