LEVUKA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 269, 27 March 1873, Page 8

LEVUKA.

A oorrespondent of the " Sydney Morning Empire " says :-^The town of Levuka is extending itself in spite of the unpromising state of matters social and political. Trim little villas are scattered all oyer the side of the hill facing the sea. Mr. Butters' residence is prominent amongst these for its pretty .situation and tastefully laid out grounds. Beach-street consists chiefly of stores and grog shops — the latter of course being in the majority. Most of the buildings are wooden erections, with here and there a native-built house of saplings — these latter are substantial butexponsive. The length of this, the principal, or rather the only street worthy of the name, is about two miles. The population is provided with three churches; the largest, a most pretentious edifice, is the Catholic church, an iron building, which boasts of a spire. The Church of England stands somewhat back from the beach ; it is a neat little structure. The same applies to the Wesleyan chapel at the other end of the town, facing the peir belonging to Mr. Kay's hotel. There are several of these latter ; chief among them, as to size and accommodation, is Messrs. Street and Bohm^s Levuka Hotel. But all have become proficient, owing to a sharp competition in catering to the vitiated tastes of an idle public, which suffers from an insatiable thirst for strong driuk, and desire for excitement aud killing time by the numerous appliances for gambling; inveuted and introduced for the most part by the enterprising Yankee section of the community. Of an afternoon the beach presents an animated spectacle ; it is then that the female elite of' the place delight in promenading the pebbly footpath, regardless of the inevitable destruction of the bewildering hi^h-healed bottines of the period, Here you see a bevy of damsels arrayed in the latest fashions from Melbourne or Sydney, and immediately in their wake follow a troop of native women in their scanty toilet; carrying huge baskets of yams or bananas on their heads, in in some cases having one or two picanninies slung on their backs in the native tappa.