HOME FROM SYDNEY BY WAY OF AUCKLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2051, 15 June 1893, Page 49

HOME FROM SYDNEY BY WAY OF AUCKLAND.

By James Ashoroft.

On my return from Sydney I came byway of Auckland, as, strange to say, I had never visited that place. I need only say of the five dajs' voyage in the Manapouri that spite of over-crowding it was very pleasant, the weather being warm and genial and the vessel and her officers all one could wish. It is perhaps a little trying when there is no sleeping place save the saloon and social hall, as was the case with 15 of our passengers. The worsfc of it is you have to turn out before 7 a.m. and have no proper place to dress in, and while you are putting on your pyjamas perhaps a lady or two will flit by ; but these are trifles, and od the whole one cannot blame the Union Company for taking all the passengers they can get, particularly while fares are so low. The day may come when they will for a consideration limit themselves tojtbree in a cabin, but not at present rates of passage money. Auckland a3 a city is not beautiful. Queen street is its one street, as Princes street is ours, with numerous intersections, but though busy enough the buildings as a whole are poor, and Dunedin has an advantage in this respect over her northern rival. The suburbs, however, spiead out very widely, and tram and bus traffic is brisk. The harbour, like that of Sydney, at first disappoints from its shores being comparatively low, but it grows upon you, and when you get a sight of it and the surrounding country (right over to Onehunga) from Mount Eden, you certainly have the loveliest view obtainable on the eastern side of New Zealand. As years go on and the extensive shores of this fine harbour are dotted with villas and plantations the scene will rival Sydney on a smaller scale ; and it has climatic advantages for the growth of trees like the Norfolk Island pine and subtropical fruits, such as the lemon, and even in sheltered places the orange, and flowers in profusion. Some complain that the heat being a moist heat is oppressive in summer, but you can't have everything. Sydney is very trying to some constitutions, with all its advantages, and I have no doubt the bracing climate of Otago rears up a healthier, sturdier race. Auckland must be a cheap place to live in. I saw on a Chinaman's hotel, quite a respectable looking place, a placard, " Board, 13s 9d per week ; beds, Is," and from various inquiries I think commodities and rents are both moderate, except perhaps in the main part of Queen street. They talk of having 70,000 people in Auckland and suburbs, but I don't know how far the suburbs would extend. One wonders where 3uch a city finds support. There is the gum trade, about half a million a year ; the timber trade, at present a great deal depressed, but one day to be of large dimensions; the gold mining, which is languishing for want of better means of extracting the precious metal from the ore ; the sugar mill, which is a tolerably large undertaking; and the island trade. Wool and mutton are not, and seem not likely to be, large exports. There are a number of small ports round the coast, to which steamers run, and which do more or less business with Auckland ; and as a fact it is topping Dunedin in imports, whatever it may do in exports. It passed through a period of general bankruptcy some two or three years ago, and seems sounder now, and certainly has an air of life and business.

I saw the process of gum sorting, and packing into neat pine cases. The different qualities vary largely in value — say from £20 up to £150 per toa. Some 10,000 people are supported, or partly supported, by the gum industry, and though some of the diggers must get a mere pittance, others do very ■well. I saw also sacks of the peculiar fungus from the bush, which is bought up by the Chinese, being largely collected by the children of settlers. It is worth 3d a pound dry, but a lot of it foes to a pound. Gold mining may yet revive with the aid of the M'Arthur-Forrest process, which has been very successful in a few cases, and the Thames people are going in for a big amalgamation of interests for a low level scheme. The Puhipuhi silver field too has some promise. In spits of numerous disappointments there are still believers in the future of mining in this singularly formed district, which has had such strange vicissitudes. I was sorry I was unable to get up to the Thames. Lsaving Auckland for the south, we had a 23 hours' run to

GISBOTINB, In Poverty Bay, so-called not because it has no resources — some of the finest land in New Zsaland lies behind it — but {because Captain Cook found the natives hostile, and could get no supplies. You land in a steam launch, which runs up behind a breakwater, which appears to have been made far too near theshaUows to be of much use. The town is not much to boast of — rather a melancholylooking place, but the climate is excellent, the grass unsurpassable, and the fat sheep I saw in the butchers' shops (921b to 961b weight) were an indication of what it is likely to do in the way of exporting frozen mutton if the shipping difficulties can be overcome ; but it would take a large expenditure to make a decent harbour of its wide open bay. In eight hours we reached" hawkb's bay,

of which the township called tbe Spit is the port and Napier the capital. Here, too, is a breakwater, run out with 'more judgment, but yet needing, I should say, an overlapping inner wall, which it is said, will cost

a large sum. The question whether it can be used as it is was not at the time decided. We lay off and were tendered as at Gisborne.

Napier is undoubtedly a fine place. You reach it by a drive in a bus about two miles round the shore end of the bluff, from the sea end of which the breakwater runs out. A good many houses are built on this bluff, and the town itself, though not visible from the barboiar, is a veiy neatly built one, with signs of business and prosperity. One great feature is the Esplanade, which forms a wide walk on the outer side for a mile or so right down to the breakwater. It is planted with young trees (Norfolk pines), which, if they stand the spray which beats over the low wall at high tides, will be very beautiful objects. I have seen nothiDg so satisfactory as a path walk anywhere in New Zealand. It would be grand if you could get such an esplanade at St. CJair; and I believe the cost was not extravagant. Napier, of course, has its freezing works. It also has a cathedral in red brick, which I thought particularly satisfactory, and its cost was, I hear, only £10,000. The high, timber roof was very beautifully finished, and the absence of plaster in3ide the bare brick walls, though it struck one at first as unfinished, has really not a bad effect.

On the whole I was greatly impressed with Napier. It is backed by a fine country, and must grow. If the harbour difficulty is surmounted it will grow rapidly. Its exports have mounted up wonderfully in the last few years. After a2O hours' run we reached

WELLINGTON, and of that I will say little at present. The activity at the wharves, the number of steamers going in and out, its fine harbour, with wharves right up to the main streets of the city itself, mark it out as a big maritime pert in the future. Dunedin must look to its honours. I believe the railways have done and are doing much for Wellington, which now has communication by rail with all the country as far as Napier on the one hand and with all the west coast to Taranaki on tbe other, and many important intermediate places. My last words to my old friends in Otago are, Push on the Otago Central. In my humble judgment it is your one great hope for the future.