"THE CITY BEAUTIFUL."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18856, 8 May 1923, Page 2

"THE CITY BEAUTIFUL."

SCENES IN AND ABOUT DUNEDIN. OUR, “GOODLY HERITAGE.’’ i By W ATCinfax It. is a right and natural instinct to love and admire the place where we were born. There is a homely and touching story told of the Scotch soldier who had the privilege of visiting one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. When his companion grow enthusiastic, Jock was at once jealous for the honour -of his native village. “Yes, its a’ richt,” he said, “but main, you should see Sallock !” Sallock was. a poor drab little village that a. stranger would despise, but it was this man’s home. • We whose homes are in Dunedin are in bettor case. We have a right to praise the beauties of Dunedin not simply because it is our home, 'but because it is one of the most beautiful cities in the whole world. Is, that doubted? Then go round the world .and see. Travel iar and .wide: and then report truly when you return —for you will surely return if you are true Dunedin—whether you found anywhere anything more beautiful than the scenes you left be hind. Of bourse, there must be some people who cannot see beauty even in Dunedin, but that is because there is no beauty in them to see with. Ihcy are not concerned in this discussion.

But perhaps you ask, Wherein does the beauty of onr city consist V and there at once, I must admit frankly, I am in a difficulty. Like delicate odours, the finer shades of beauty that delight the eye and heart defy all description in words. They are of the soul' rather than of the senses, and language breaks down in their presence. Yet though fully aware of thi* fundamental difficulty that besets the task, I propose to try and indicate in words some of the exquisite scenes that help to make Dunedin one of the best beloved of cities.

Beautiful for situation it is, with a rich variety of scenery opening out oh every hand. The sea, the harbour, the bush, the hills round about present a symphony of ever-changing colour and shade. The contour of the Trills on which the city is built brings it about that almost every house not on the Flat commands some rich and satisfying peep of sea, or harbour, cr undulating hills. And all the views are so different. A man could not exhaust in a lifetime the beautiful sights to be enjoyed about Dunedin. How many do you know? Which of them all is your favourite?

Have you ever stood, forinstance, at the top of Hawthorn avenue on a fresh spring morning when tho air has been newwashed with rain and looked down that exquisite vista of greenery stretching away to frame the bright blue waters of the harbour at the foot, while the green slopes of rue Peninsula fill 'the far distance? the man who could transfer that to canvas would make an imperishable name. Rich men would nay tens of thousands of pounds for it, and- you can have it for nothing. Or what think you of taking the Rattray street tram to the Junction, being sure to choose an outside seat on the left hand going up? Get ready as you pass through the gorse-clad cuttings above Arthur street for the glorious expanse of city, harbour, and ocean that will burst upon your sight., tsven the Flat when seen from that distance has much charm ,of colour and a beauty of its own, especially when beyond it, moves tho great Pacific Ocean. White Island stands up clear and lonely‘from the blue depths, and a line of seething white water to. the southward of it marks the course of the hidden reef. Or perhaps you might enjoy even more taking your stand about Montecillo and gazing down .the waters of the harbour towards Port, Chalmers. How delightful are the far-stretching hills and bays that shut in on either hand those waters that are never seen twice die same, now a deep rich blue and now one dull drab grey, now r ns smooth as glass, reflecting all the opposite hills, now ruffled in patches only where, the breeze caresses it, and now flecked all over with white foam driven bv an angrv wind!

Or choose another picture. Go across to Anderson’s Bay-—Grant’s Braes, for instance, and drink in the panorama of the city spread out in a great semi-circle before you. In the foreground the harbour, with perhaps a couple of ocean tramps at the wharf, then the streets and buildings of tho city itself climbing up to the rich green verdure of the Belt bush, and away behind all the everlasting hills towering up to the sky. And if you care to stay till the greyblue evening shadows gather over all and the city lights flash out' in scores and twinkle in the harbour waters you will be rewarded with another vision the loveliness of which will never wholly leave you. But other scenes not less powerful in •their charm crowd upon me. What say you to tho, view from ..Hawthorn road at the back of the Mornington School, looking way down the deep Kaikorai Valley across Green Island and out to the long curving sweep of the Brighton, Beach, with the blue ocean beyond? What an exhilaration that sense of far distance seen through the clear pure air gives one! Or consider what riches there are for an artist lo study in the wide slopes of Flagstaff seen across tho Kaikorai Valley from anywhere along tho Rosiyn-Maori Hill ridge. That, too, .varies with all the changing moods of the weather and of the seasons.

Another spot I dearly love is the Woodhaugh bush gardens, and the Leith Valley as seen from the top of the Bullock Track. Could anything- in its way be more idyllic than that little- bird’s-eye view? The lovely native bush is sat off by the patches of smooth green sward whore ' the children romp and play. Sunshine floods the valley and glistens on the winding stream laughing over its stony bed. Nor, if wc come to speak of more distant panoramas, is the choice less rich and inexhaustible. What a magnificent sweep of earth and sea' and sky is to be commanded from the summit of Flagstaff! Surely all who have gazed upon that must have known what Jefferies meant when he said “the hills purify those who walk upon them.” There you may breathe that air “twice refined, strong and pure, sweet like the scent of a flower,” while towards every point of the compass you look forth upon pictures of form and colour wrought with the indescribable and matchless artistry of Nature herself. Of similar character but more concentrated is the outlook from the watertrough across the Taicri plains, away to, Lake Waihola and the hills beyond. There is something rarely satisfying in having such an exnanso of rich .plain spread out at one’s feet like a map. On either hand rise historic bush-c|ad Saddle Hill and the dark, scarred steeps of Maungatua. It was a wise and happy thought indeed to place seats there to tempt the wayfarer to pause and drink it in for his soul’s good. A quite distinctive view, one second to none, is that to be had from the ton of Signal Hill. Here it is not the plain but the city, and especially the harbour right out to'the Heads, that is spread, out at one’s feet. It is a scene on which no thoughtful person could look Without the desire to return thanks to the Creator who has made the earth so fair. Again it is the expanse that, uplifts the soul. The eye travels from the Heads to the blue headlands far up the coast, right across the Peninsula to’the far horizon of the Pacific and southward past Saddle Hill, to dim ridges blue with distance^ If we turn our attention to more near and immediate scenes of beauty, still the choice is overwhelming. 'Hie Belt Bush itself—eternal honour to the men who kept it for us!—is an infinite and priceless gallery of art. Is there within the bounds of any city in the world—and .the world is a "big place—a drive so rich in beauty as the Queen’s drive from Maori Hill to Eglinton road? By the way, have you ever been along.it the whole way? The Leith, where it has not been too much interfered with by man, is another source of endless delight. And the Gardens—the Woodhaugh Garden and the Botanic Gardens—each exquisitely beautiful after its own kind,--which of them gives Iho greater delight each one must choose according to his own taste. Then, '"Jubilee fark in. spring and, perhaps even more especially in autumn—\yho would attempt to describe that glorious harmony of reds and browns and russets and golds when the autumn fires are ablaze among the leaves? Not I. The Ross Creek Reservoir and its approach np the bed of Ross Creek furnish another picture gallery strangely unfamiliar to many. Nicol’s Creek has a loveliness not to be surpassed by streams that travellers go hundreds of miles But to some there is nothing in all the world so beautiful as the sea shore. For them there are within easy reach all the, sights and scents and sounds of the rocky shore of the Second Beach and of the great sweep' of sea shore and sandhills from St. Clair to Lawyer’s Head. In all this reference has been made only to the natural beauties with which this city has been so richly endowed. But it has also its architectural beauties, which are certainly not to be surpassed in any cityin this dominion. Chief among these are the Boys’ High School, the Town Hall, the University—now grown rather sadly misshapen—and First and Knox Church, whoso

spires stand out and point upward conspicuously from whatever angle the city may be viewed. Truly the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places. Yea, we have a goodly heritage. Let us not neglect it, for “the hours when the mind is absorbed by beauty are the only hours when we really live, so that the longer we can stay among these things so much the more is snatched from inevitable time.”