FROM WEST TO EAST.

West Coast Times, Issue 345, 31 October 1866, Page 2

F ROM WES T TO EA S T.

[continued].

(FKOM OUJI OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Chkistchurch .

Monday, October 22.

Certainly nothing can exceed the roinantie beauty of the first half of the overland journey from the West to the East Coast. I am not, a member of the Alpine Club, and have never been a Continental traveller.' I have stood at the base of some of the great mountain ranges of Wales; seen from some dreamy city of South America the distant summits of its great chain of highlands ; made pic-nic on Mount Wellington, the lofty and hoaryheaded father of Tasmanian mountains ; and footed it over the great hills that in tercept the traveller from Sydney to Melbourne. But I was never before brought familiarly into contact with the realities of what may be called Alpine travelling, so that I gained during this journey an entirely new experience. I should s.iy that to those of our Anstrahan tourists who have any ambition to rival the excursionists of Europe in feuts of daring hardihood, or might deem their risks equally repaid by a commanding view of some of the grandest scenery in the world, the New Zealand Alps would furnish a fine scope for adventure.

Before meeting these bolder phases of scenery however, there was an infinitude of beauty to admire. There were a variety of foliage and a picturesqucness of landscape, which none of my former ex - perience as a wanderer over many colonies had prepared me for- The general fault found with Australian scenery is its monotony. And it is a f.tult deserved on the whole. There is the same constantly repeated outline of the mountain, thesame unvarying reproduction of the sombre foliage. To me the forms of vegetation I met afber leaving Hokitika were coaming, from their rapid succession of changes. There were special effects produced, too, which sustained the interest, and continued to feed tie sense of lie mty. One I was struck with in particular. The glossy surfaces of the upturned leaves receiving and reflecting bae'e the morning sun would have made you swear a thous md times thut there was some limpid and silvery stream meandering beneath them. Tne one thing wanting was the song of birds that makes the woods of ol'l lauds so merry. I have no pen to describe the imposing grandeur of the vast snow-capped mountains, amids whose rugged heights our way wended for many a mile. After the eye had almost wearied with gazing upon this majestic scenery, it turned with a feeling of almost relief to the thousands of cascades breaking out from the mountain sides, and falling now in continuous streams, now dashing merrily from point to point, now veiling themselves in mist, and always disporting themselves with a wild spirit of enjoyment.

Enough, however, of the picturesque. Making our descent ut last upon the great arid plains of East land, what a change came over the spirit of our dream ! Nothing could surpass the monotony of the scene. Jn every hand miles upon miles of country as flat as a billiard table, and covered with a scorched vegetation. They told me it was good feed for sleep ; it was certainly not good for the eye to look upon. Weary, weary, was the journey through this forty-miles stage, and wonderful was the reli. f to the eye of a few bullies pi mted at oneof'he way-side publics at which the coach stopped for a change ! A l last we neared Cbristchurch, and during the few miles qf approach t 'this renowned town, the gay yellow blossom of the bushes, that on first .-ite bad been s^ welcome a change to the monotony of the dessicated plains becomes a perfect eye-sore. Yellow, yellow, yellow, nothing but yellow. What a relief would have been afforded by the mixture of the purple heath with the go'den btoom after the fashion of our old English domes! How much more picturesque and refreshing to the eye the old hedgerows of Somerset and Devon — the hawthorn and the wild ro->e ! As we got very near to Christchurch, hawthorn hedges were visiole, here and there ; but they were not. in blossom, and they were dust clad. They se i ved to set off in brilliant contr.ist, however, the bright green graas ' padd ,cks that now begnn to line the road on either side. The eternal yellow was, however, ever reproducing itself. I must confess the effect after the first novelty had passed, was not pleasing. Two essential elements of the beautiful were watning — the one, variety ; the other, repose. The green was too uniformly and too staringly green. The yellow was too loud and g.iudy. Nothing but bright green picked out and bordered by bright yellow ! The eye yearned for something softer, more hubrlued, more charged with relief, to rest upon. Such, at all events, was my feeling. I purposely reserve all description of Christchuich uutil a little further opportunity of observation has enabled me to adjust and correct my first iinpre-si >ns. It is a town with many' distinctive features. It took me by surprise by the massive and stately structure of many of its buildings, but after the eye has become accustomed to these, [ a:n not sure that it is not a place of which one would soou be weary. However, I reached it on Saturday night' only. Yesterday an almost desert stillness pervaded it. Before my next letter I shall have seen more.

And now I want once more to revert to the road, and to ask, in a very serious and prosaic spirit what is the actual worth, and what are likely to be the practical fruits, of that enormous work, which has cost bums that appear fabulous to thohe who have not had the opportunity, as I have now had, of seeing the stupendous difficulties to be overcame. From a point a few miles distant from Hokitika to within a comparatively short distance of Christchurch, there is no co-.n-try whatever available for settlement. In other words there is no connecting country whtever, between the two bides of the province on the route through which this costly road lies. As to the establishment of a goods traffic-— the transport of stores and merchandise along this dangerous and intricate Alpine road — the idea is an ab-urdity on the face of it, to any one who has seen what the roa-l is. I can conceive no purpose for wl.ich it will ever prove suitable, but the carriage of a few travellers and a mail to and fro each week. Except, indeed, the one use to which it is now chiefly applied — that of providing the squatters on this side with a good market for their produce on the other. I remember Mr Moorhouse being asked on one

occasi n in Hokitika, what material advantage Westland could ever expect to derive from the formation of this road, the cost of which constitutes the grim item that is ever being quoted against us — viz., excess of expenditure over revenue on Goldfields' account. He was reminded that Westland depended for its supplies upon Melbourne and Sydney and the Interprovincial ports, not upon Christchurch. Mr Moorhouse had just travelled the road, and his answer was a perfectly intelligible one. He could only suggest that occasionally a " packet of jewellery " might be brought over. The idea of a merchandise traffic ever being established on this road, never occurred even to his boldly imaginative mind. However, these, I presume, are matters for you to deal with in your leading columns. I wi'l only express my strong conviction, that if the representatives of Westland do not make a determined effort to get the co^t of this'work transferred to the Provincial loan, and thus relieve the district from the heavy alleged balance against it, they will be greatly failing in their duty to their constituents.

One parting word more. All homage to King Cole, to his horses, and to his men. A succession of finer teams I never saw on any road ; nor did I ever see a couple of more careful and skilful whips than Messrs Knox and Greening, who carried us through all the difficulties of the way, and won golden opinions from all the passengers.