The Traveller.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 978, 28 November 1890, Page 12

The Traveller.

UP THE WELLINGTONMANAWATD LINE. (OUlt TRAVELLING CORRESPONDENT.)

There was a goodly number'of passengers by the early morning train as I left on my journey.; and, as is generally the case, an engine was attached at the rear of the train to assist the ordinary engine for the first few miles, which is np a steep asoent—the grade being about 1 in 40—as far as Khandallah station, the summit of the hill being 490fi above sea level. After leaving Khandallah the line descends on a grade oi about 1 in 66, until nearly level country is reached at Tawa Flat and Porirua (where the famous drag hunt took place last winter, viewed by some 800 excursionists, who were conveyed to' the scene by a special train which travelled slowly along, a little in the rear of the horsemen ; and, the line running close alongside the whole length of the oourse, and at a considerable altitude, enabled the spectators not only to obtain a splendid view from start to finish, bnt also, so to speak, to be in at the death almost as soon as the the winner of the brush.) I may here state that between Wellington and Johnsonville, a distance of six miles, no less than seven tunnels are passed through. At Paremata glimpses of ths sea are obtained from the left hand side of the carriage as the traveller faces the engine, being the entrance to Porirua harbour, and the train shortly afterwards crosses a bridge which spans a narrow arm of the harbour, and for a short distance skirts along it. The next station is Plimmerton, a long wooden buildiDg, is here seen close to the line, and on inquiring I was informed that it was built by the Welling. ton-Manawatu Railway Company at the time the line was first opened for traffic as far as Plimmerton, and was leased as refreshment rooms, dances also often being got up there by parties of excursionists—the company running exoursiou trains to Plimmerton on Saturdays and Sundays during the summer season. But the lessees not finding the business done sufficiently large, the buildicg has not now been tenanted for several years. The line now runs through a series of cuttings, and then winds along through once wooded glees, but the land has been denuded of timber long since for a considerable distance on both sides, and been sown down in grass. Four miles from Plimmerton is Pukerua flag station, and the blue Paoific, with Kapiti Island in the distance, bursts upon the view, After leaving Pukerua the line for several miles winds along the edge of the bluffs at a considerable height above the sea, and in many places the train runs close to the eige of the cutting, the hill side rising preeipitiously above. Sir tunnels are passed in quick succession. This portion of the line somewhat reminds the Old Country traveller of the first couple of miles of the D.W. and W, Railway, south of Bray. PAIKAKARIKI. (OUR TRAVELLING CORRESPONDENT.)

A quiet sheltered nook is Paikakariki. Not often visited and but little known as yet, it only r<quires to be seen to be appreciated and become a favourite resort for excursionists and those desirous of enjoying a seaside holiday. The passing traveller by the railway sees bnt little of its natural beauties, the beach, Its greatest pride and glory, being bidden from the station by a range of sandhills. A great and far extending beach it is, lying away, from the station about a mile or so, and running away in a northerly direction some eighty miles or more to the mouth of the Raogitikei River —well known to many a traveller in the old days, when the coach from Wanganui to Paikakariki rumbled drearily aloDg its seemingly interminable distanoe. Opposite the station, some twelve miles off, lie 3 the island of Kapiti, some 2500 acres in extent. One of the great attractions of the place is its excellent bathing facilities, a bathing.house having been erected close to the beach. Immediately to the rear of the station Paikakariki Mountain rears its head aloft to a great height, affording a panoramic view of exceeding beauty, taking iu Otaki and a vast expanse of country, stretching away as far as Foxton towards the north and towards Welling ton on the south, taking in the Brothers in Queen Charlotte Sound as well as Picton. Nor are the beaoh and mountain views the only attractions. Close by, within a stone’s throw, is a stretch of undulating plain, strewn with clumps of bush and manuka scrub, the very spot for picnics. I may state that the accommodation for visitors is very complete, and Mr Slight, the proprietor of the Paikakariki Hotel, is a most attentive and obliging host. There are suites of private rooms, large dining-room, bathroom, and much more comfort than one could expect in such au out-of-the-way place. There were several persons staying at Paikakariki during my visit, including amougst others Mr Reid, the Solioitor-General. Mr Slight, I hear, contemplates extensive improvements to meet the rush of visitors expected duriDg the summer month?. He speaks of erecting saltwater and freshwater baths close to his hotel. There is a farm attached to the hotel from which supplies of fresh butter, milk, and cream are obtained for the use of the guests. I mention these matters because I know that several Wellington visitors are expected, and it may interest them to know that they will find themselves surrounded with the good things of this life at Paikakariki. The Railway Company has just commenced running a Bpecial train to the place on Saturdays at cheap fares. It is unnecessary for me to point out to the Company that it will preve advantageous and remunerative to it to afford all possible facilities to visitors. The Wellington and Manawatn railway management is too well known for its progressive policy to need a word from me on this score.

It is a faot worthy of mention that at Paikakariki, not far from the station, there stand several stumps of large bluegum trees, which it Is stated, mark the scene of the last exhibition of cannibalism on the part of theM-ories. To this spot, it is said, two fighting chiefs, RangihaeatA and Te JRauporata, conveyed the dead bodies of several whalers

oaptured and murdered at Porirua Heads and Qaeen Charlotte sound, and held their ghastly feast. . Returning to peaceful and pleasant topics, I may state that the country and crops in this locality look well, and the residents all appear to be in comfortable circumstances. A REMARKABLE SOUTH AMERICAN CITY. . Every visitor of the Argentine Republic is particularly reoommended to go aud see the new town of La Plata. It is one of. the wonders of the world, he is told ; a city of palaces, not yet ten years old, and already having a population of 60,000 inhabitants. Naturally one accepts the advice, and aftov a scramble for a ticket at the Central Station, and another scramble for a seat in the train, one starts full of expectation. The railway passes through the Boca and Baraoas— the port of Bnenos Ayres awaiting the completion of the new dry docks—past regions of marshy and desolate neglect, where human beings live in wooden sheds and huts, and divide their life between labour and misery; past Qnilmes, a neatly laid-out town, with villas and gardens in the environs ; and so, after a ride of an hour and a half across flat and uninteresting country, we arrive in the monumental railway station of La Plata, the new capital of the province of Buenos Ayres. The station is a vast pile of immaoulate white stuoco. We admire, marvel and pass. We breakfast at the Caf4 de Paris, a gorgeous and brand-new hotel, with an immense dining-room, whose walls are adorned with a superabundance of mirrors and stucco ornaments, while the elaborately painted ceiling is supported by columns of simile-marble. Then we lssne forth to see the town, which is laid out in squares and in stars, with broad streets, wide avenues, immense boulevards, lined with tall telegraph poles and still taller masts for electric fights, traversed by innumerable tramway fines and bordered with palaces all brand-new, radiant with spotless stucco, and manifesting the most electric taste on the part of the architects. Each palace with its garden occupies a hectare of ground, and each is of different design Renaissance, Corinthian, Doric and composite—of a diversity enough to bewilder even a Vitruyius ; palace of Government of the provinoe, Ministries of Public Instruction, Interior and Finance, Banco de la Proviucla, Bauco Hipotecario, Prefeotuie of Police, Direction of Publio Works, Direction General de Escnelas, Chamber of Deputies, Senate, courts of justice, a theatre, an observatory, a museum, a Governor’s palace, a monumental entrance to nothing, a sort of triple arch of triumph, beyond which is a funeral looking plantation of tall eucalyptus treos, destined to be some day the Bois de Boulogne or the Palermo of La Plata. There are houses, too, many of them unoccupied, shops that look deserted, a big market, twenty-three squares aud plazas, monuments and fountains, and a Cathedral of enormous proportions, whose walls have absorbed millions of bricks, although they rise only about three metres from the ground. The Cathedral is the only buHding in La Plata that has remained unfinished for want of money. All the others are completed, and full of employ ds and officials who live on the budget. The fire brigade likewisa haß its palace, and its corps of forty men in uniform, whose duties are a sinecure. However, La Plata being a model town, everything must be modern, the newest and most perfect in its kind that Europe can produce. An instance occurred while I was in the oountry. News had arrived from Paris that there were fire-engines capable of serving 1000 liters a minute. The La Plata fire brigade must have one—the municipality gave an j/der ; a Belgian house furnished the pump ; and the new toy had been delivered the day I happened to visit La Plata. The representative of the Belgian firm, whose acquaintance I afterwards made, informed me that if all the water laid on in the stroets of La Plata could be concentrated to feed one machine it would be impossible to get over 500 liters a minute. ‘ That is the way things are done in La Plata,’ he added, ironically.

The aspect of this great straggling town, each street of whioh ends brusquely in the open and deserted plain, is one of utter deeolation. It possesses everything exoept inhabitants and a raison d'etre. As for the official figures of 60.000, they are as misleading as many other Argentine statistics. One can hardly believe that there are even 40,000 inhabitants, including those swarms of employes who go to and fro by train, and avoid the horror of an evening in La Plata by living in Buenos Ayres or the more agreeable suburbs. And yet at night this city of empty palaoes is brilliantly illuminated with eleotrio lamps. The tall rnaßts and glaring globes extend far into the surrounding plain, where there are no houses and scarcely even a semblance of a road. Why ? Why, indeed ? One is all the time asking why this and why that as one wanders about the streets of this unintelligible city of folly. Why, for instance, was the town built five miles from the port, whioh was projected simultaneously, and inaugurated with much pomp and speechifying In Maroh, 1890 ? The only explanation that has been suggested is that the promoters of the foundation of the town happened to own land on the spot where it has been built, whereas, they did not own the land nearer the river. Another more charitable explanation is that the object was to leave abundance of room for the future develop, rr.ent of the town conoomitantly with that of the port.