AS OTHERS SEE US.

Otago Witness, Issue 2401, 8 March 1900, Page 67

AS OTHERS SEE US.

A STRANGER'S FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF DUNEDIN.

The trite saying that the harbours of Cork, San Francisco. Rio Janeiro, and Sydney are the four foremost harbours of the world might justly be amended to include Otago. Of course, if size is to be insisted the dominating condition of the selection, this landlocked gulf must be left out; but that should not be, for the expanse of open water in "Frisco and Rio render those bays in heavy weather dangerously exposed anchorages, while Otago is .snug as Milhvall clock ; and since it is also their peer in other respects, the amendment may come into vogue by-and-bye. To the traveller slipping up the channel between the splendid hills, the scene recalls the hills of Milford and the intense green swards of Cork ; an inspiring picture and fortunate ciroumstance._ for tramps become sharply critical and disposed to unfair comparisons, wherefor the panorama which with happy tact introduces spa-borne visitors to Dunedin is the city's first servant — its good spirit who lands all comers in good temper.

On leaving the wharf the air of slaidness suffusing the town is apprehended. The streets suggest proportion and good sense : a suiting of the building to its purpose without over-estimating its national importance : a reasonable economy with yet sufficient freedom permitted to the architect to allow of grace and variety. Did one come direct from the Fatherland, these things would s-carcely be noted, but after the witness of the disastrous la^hhness of the Australian capitals, — where every banking chamber is a study in costly construction, — the highest credit and prai&e is felt to be due to a people who have exercised a reasonable caution, nor loaded their children with debt in exchange for a stone.

Dunedin appears to be in the transitory stage between town and city, between provincial days and metiopolitan. Excellent flush drainage and good lighting • are observed, together with a tormenting absence of numbers and deficiency of street names. The stranger is not yet expected to be an ever-present factor in the city's life stream ; he is coming though, and will be studied in limes to come as elsewhere. The want of time sheets at the railway stations (the Bluff station has not one), of names x'pon the tramcars. of numbers to the houses, and the street names, and, above all, a public library or newspaper room, can be easily supplied. Such things, though trifles to the lifelong resident, are to the Hranger a veritable boon. Already the town crowds out to Roslyn and St. Kildn, in 10 years it will be across Kaikorai Valley and the Peninsula, while perfected cable trams will pierce in many direction.-.

Traits characteristic of the place appear to one during a leisurely walk through Princes street. The hotels are peculiarly quiet; they have, like an undertaker's premises, a depressing presence ; standing with their closed doors, devoid of the usual flood of cheerful lights, it is easy to imagine a thirsty man failing to observe that these disconsolate houses are hotels, and being driven to a.«k if there is such an institution as a good old English alehouse in Dunedin, co unobtrusively, almost solemnly, are they cond.itcte.dt

An amusing specialty in shop manners is a prompt style of " Buy and GO " that accelerates " business — an effect, presumably, of the invigorating temperature. Strangely enough, this finds a counterpoint in local estimate of distance. Does one stop a pasaer-by, say, at the Octagon, to a o k how Ira- it is to that truly handsome pile. Knox Church, he is told that it is further up the street, a long, long way, a he had better take a tram. This church, together with First Church, lends an embellishment to the \\l ole city. They are rich surprises of elegant design rarely surpassed in any country ; so exquisitely proportioned, With pinnae 1 es and spire, s>o daintily adorned, that one is !oih to leave them. On a favourable si'e upon the hishground. in full view of the visitor as the steamer approaches her berth, Hand a striking block of buildings that he naturally supposes is a university. These prove to be the fine Boys' High School, as superior to the Otago University in beauty as in position. One envies the boys who enjoy the privilege of being educated amid such gensrou« surroundings. Again i» felt with app-e-iat ; on the ttvong self-control of the men of Dunedin, who have not allowed the burning impatience of Australia to infect them and submerge them beneath bills for brick and mortar— men who direct their affairs with regard to the limited means of a sparse population, well aware tha^. gradually, as occasion provides, the city will be decorated with auperb buildings. <.

In the ma'.ter of e;er.e:a! impressions, it will be noted that the bicycle thief has not penetia'ed to Otago yet. Owners leave their wheels at any convenient kerbstone — a neglecL which would be attended with certain loss in mo 4 other laiqe cities. This is in very pleas'ng contrast with the ..We^t Australian goklfiplds towns, where one must take his jigger into the shop with him, though he only goes in to buy an apple. It might be urged that the honesty of the people is due to the maintenance of the good old-fashioned Sunday habit of regular church attendance, a custom that, from Australia, has presumably departed for ever.

All cities are similar. What is Havre like? Like Dunedin, only English is not spoken. What if Odessa like? It is Dunedin, except that its people use Russian. And so on with Antofagasla. Tvars, Rangoon, or Aberdeen. Cities differ but in small matters. There are types, ancient and modern, European 'or Asiatic ; there are the developments and the embellishments of wealth, the modifications due to sanatory taste, to climate, to business, to geographical configuration, yet pervading all is a similarity, as one man resembles another. This last, the configuration of the land, is pr.r excellence the distinguishing featur« and cha'm of Dunedin. A country town. Half field, half city. Hardly a window but it gazes far across the gleaming harbour, or else over the green hillside". No house but from it ten minutes' walk reaches the meadow land, or ths steera hill slopes, where gooseberries and hollyhocks grow wild.