A COACH JOURNEY TO THE WEST COAST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2083, 25 January 1894, Page 22

A COACH JOURNEY TO THE WEST COAST.

AN OTAGO MAN'S IMPRESSIONS OF THE WEST COAST. (Fhom Oub Waitahona Correspondent.)

As your columns are ever open to descriptions of New Zealand scenery, I am sending you an interesting extract from a. gentleman's letter just received : —

1 • The b.s. Flora carried her passengers merrily from Dunedin to Lyfctelton on January 3. A few, of course ,paid the customary tribute to Neptune. Fillis's Circus was on board, and the sounds coming from the menagerie, mingled wibh the foreign speech of many of the circus folk, might easily have led one to imagine that he had strayed into a foreign camp on the margin of some tropical jungle.

"All juvenile Lyttelton, attracted by the merry strains of the band, was on the pier to meet us. Christchurch looks as pretty aB ever with its dainty flower gardens and the willows drooping over the clear, winding Avon. But being bent on seeing mountains and wild gorges, I went off across the plains to Springfield without much delay. Here we entered the realm of coaches. Two coach-loads set off together, and all the afternoon until 9 in the evening we were driviug along tho rough country, baro in all directions, except that here aud there in the gullies there were clumps of leafy bircb.

"We had an interesting collection of passengers — tho miner returning from a visit to hir* family in Duuediu ; theelderly gentleman on a honeymoon trip with his young wife (they did not sit with hands clasped under cover of the ladj's shawl) ; and tho wealthy snob who was dissatisfied with everything and everybody, bub now and then Condescended to take a snapshot of an interesting spot with his patent portable camera.

"We stayed at tho Bealey for the night and left next moruing at 6. The air was beautifully clear, and the sun tipping the mountain peaks with golden light, and sending lougslanting rays down into the valleys. "The road takes us across broad, rough river beds, through long valleys, over Porter's Pass, where mouutaiu lilies, eclmisias, &c, abound, to tho head of the grand and weird Otira C4orgo. On our left stands Mount Rolleston with its glisteuing glacier. Lower down, the slopes of the hills are covered with abundaot bush, where the rata and the ribbon wood are in full flower ; below us, fur away down, boils the Otira, and we descend by a zig-zag dangerous road down through bush, and along a road supported on beams and piles. We go down the Teremakau Valley to Hokitika, a fowu with Jovely hills at hand and'thft b-antiful Lakes Kani< ri and Mahinapua not far off.

"Greymouth is gay with its exhibition. The whole towu was astir when the Governor arrived. The fireworks at night, and the throngs of children next day from Reefton and elsewhere, were sights not soon to b j forgotten. A'oug the Grey Valley to Reefton, and up the wild and magnificent Buller Valley from the grimy town of Westport to the rustic Longford, there are delightful scenes inuumtrable. Then at the end of three days' continuous coaching I find r^self in this dainty little town of Nel K o , ..'"h nestles so coyly amongst the hills, while sceuai. - n<= been passing before me day by day like ono • < '. panorama of loveliness."

The will of the lato William Rowe, late of Glenfine (Victoria), shoopfarmer, has been lodged for probate. The estate is valued at £167,529, of which [£155,156 is realty and £12,373 personalty.

The Russian Government have settled a certain specialised scale of charges which doctors will in future be entitled to make in that coun'ry. Medical fees will now be chargeable in proportion to the income of the patients, and districts and classes have been duly classified in view of this new regulation, — The Hospital.