DOWN TO DUNEDIN.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2586, 19 November 1867, Page 5

DOWN TO DUNEDIN.

Very few people travel in New Zealand purely for the sake of the pleasure to be enjoyed from change of scene, short sea trips, and the amenities of life in colonial cities. Those who constitute the principal portion of the passengers one meets on board intei'provineial steamers aro all people who have some business object in view. Diggers hump their swags, and bidding adieu to poorly paying or exhausted claims, start at the cry of " Hush, oh !" to the new diggings, whose streams are vaunted to rival in richness the ancient Pactolusj storekeepers follow their digging customers; "bagmen'

— or rather commercial gentlemen — arc constantly birds of passage seeking for orders ; peripatetic Hebrews, who deal in jewelry, articles of verlu, and horribly bad Vienna meerschaums, seem to live in hotels and steamers ; members of the Assembly ; men with grievances to lay before Parliament, and genteel loafers seeking billets, arc to be found at certain seasons of the year en route for Wellington — and types of all those classes I have mentioned, may be seen again and again by those who go down io sea in ships — but a traveller who rambles because ho likes it, is somewhat a vera avis in this colony. I suppose in .New Zealand, as in all other young colonies, people are too busy to cure for mere pleasure seeking ; indeed the money grubbing business seems to be done here and then its fruits are spent in England or the continent, where the " show" to be ueen is better aud the charge at the door much less. By and by, when our colonial cities begin to rival in luxury and refinement those of tho old world— and Melbourne already very nearly does ho -the colonist will become a tourist through his adopted country, and judging by my own experience of travelling both in the old country and iv the colonies, I veuturo to say. that the change of venue will not be fur the worse. Tliero ia lake and forest, glen and mountain, wooded dells and rolling plains to be found in New Zealand, equal in point of* picturesque beauty to anything I have ever seen in my tramps through England, Scotland, or indeed many other parts of the world to which fortune and a somewhat vagabondising disposition have led me.

I am suffering a fit of the blues. For the nonce lam sick of the Empire City. I detest the breezy dusty beach. I abominato the Adelaide lload. To Aro has become ih\t stale and unprofitable. The Hutt to my jaundiced perception, is like uuto a sleepy hollow ; the West Coast is a mosquito bitteu region, and Waugauui, a sand-hills township. My biliary secretions are deranged, my brains hare become addled with " Hansard," and copy is au abomination in my sight. I entcrtaiu a profound conviction that the country is going to the douce ; that Ministers who are driving it there afc high pressure speed, should be sent fco the Chathauia ; that Government should be done by contract, and that the native difficulty should be settled by offering a sovereign a piece for Maori scalps. I tell all this in confidence to my medical adviser. He mutters something about .Karori and then mildly suggests blue pill. I decline blue pill, and resolve to tryblue water, so I straightway invest in a small kit — put money in my purse — aud secure a berth in that good steamship the Airedale, which is on the point of starting for the South.

It is splendid weather as the vessel glides gracefully from the wharf. Away wo speed past the shipping, skirt Point Jorningham, leave in the distance the flats and terraces and hills of the city, which glinted by the setting sun, show in a soft mellowed light that clothes them with a picturesque beauty. Bournes Island is passed, then wo approach the Heads and soon emerge on the Straits. Ct is very jolly ; the motion is justsulliciently perceptible to be pleasant ; the breeze is dehciou.sly cool; and, as I imbibe a bottle of cawarra, my spirits begin to rise, and I recant all my unjust aspersions of Wellington — my adopted home. The clerk of the weather being complaisant, a sojourn on boardoucof the Panama Company's boats, such as the Airedale with a commander so genial and courteous as Captain Kennedy, i3 a very pleasant incident iv life. There are not too many passengers, but we are none the less comfortable ou that account. Yv'c have a spacious saloon and exquisitely clean sleeping berths, while the cuisine is really quite equal to that of a first class hotel. We dine excellently ; pass the evening iv a very pleasant raaunor ; and next morning aro steaming down the coasls of the Marlborough aud Canterbury provinces, with their sloping hills, beautiful bays, and patches of cultivations doited here and there where a distant house denotes tho existence of a station or farm. By and bye the land whichbeforelay on the beam takes a bond outwards and appears right ahead. We are fast nearingßanks Peninsula, and before uoou Godley Heads arc reached. The lighthouse stands on the summit of a massive round hill, on the right of the entrance, 450 feet above tho level of the sea, and after passing it the j vessel steams along a harbor bounded on | each eide by a chain ©f hills, till in a little S time the town of Lyttelton, nestled iv a snug | bay, is reached. Unluckily tho Airedale didn't remain long enough in Lyttelton to enable me to go over the hill and see Christchurch; but a two hours ramble was quite sufficient to " do" its seaport town. Lyttelton is a scrambling sort ofplace, built " all ou the slide" in a narrow bight of the harbor at the base of a hill, with a short front street mid three or four others rather shorter, which lead up hill, and don't afford the beat promenades for asthmatic pedestrians. It has a little wharf, a slice of reclaimed laud, several large brick stores, a legion of hotels, thr<-e or four public pumps, which run short of water in the dogdays, and a number of shops which remind one of the Wellington beach some sevou years ago. Some of the hotels, however, are very largo — so large indeed, that one wonders whether it ever happened that they all got filled — and some of the whoiesalo stores are extensive and solid structures. Oa the whole, I wouldn't like to pitch my tent in Lyttelton. It is blazing hot in summer, the sun beats down on the brown dusly streets and asphaltc pavement ; the fine balhbrioky dust covers me from head to foot, and tliero aro neither trees nor sluulo to be found by the weary wayfarer. One humanely disposed Boniface has sheltered (he whole' front of his hotel with a broad verandah, and yclept the establishment "The Shades," and I think next to the swimming baths, it was the coolest spot in a place whore the sun shines alike everywhere, and. there is no shady aide to the streets. Lyttelton possesses a Post Office, Telegraph Station, Custom House, jJesident Magistrate's Court, two newspaper agencies, and it once had a paper itself — the Chronicle — which cracked up in a few weeks and didn't- pay its contributors. Literature and the polite arts must, however, be cultivated

by the Lytteltonians, aa a very neat building is nearly finished for a reading room and library, which will be the head quarters of a local society. "Tho tunnel to connect the port with Christchurch by rail was not open for public traffic at the time of my visit, and those who wanted to go. over the hill had to patronise the traps which run daily between Lyttelton and Christchurch. Like Wellington, Lyttelton has a Bea-bathing establishment, where swimmers can disport in the briny sheltered from public gaze by a high fence. The charges are very moderate, and evidently the fair sex arc foiid of the sea, as for the greater part of the day — from ten to four, I j think -tho baths are exclusively devoted to I their use. Tho traveller who dislikes sea I passages, and who may wish to visit the i West Coast of the Middle Island, can now go from Christchurch to Hokitika by Cobb, the distance being performed, as a staring placard informed mo, in thirty-three hours, for a fare of £G 10s. 1 believe, however, ! that' the time depends on the state of the weather and the rivers. Cobb also runs a line of coaches between Christchurch and Dunedin, so that internal communication in the Middle Island is being rapidly developed. But I must say good-bye to Lyttelton and get once more aboard. The Airedale has her steam up, and away she glides on her voyage. Again we sweep past the low-lying hills; again we pass the lighthouse aud are steering southwards. It is deliciously cool on board the steamer after the glare ami heut of the ramble ashore, and one enjoys with additional zest, an excellent dinner, a promenade on the quartei'-dcck, and then a long sound sleep in the snuggest of berths with the prospect of getting to Dunedin the following day. Morning showed tho land close aboam on the starboard side, and we passed' bare -looking ranges, sometimes rising precipitously from the sea, but oftener with little nooks and bays, from which the hillsgradually sloped upwards, dotted hero and there with houses and green fields. Towards the afternoon we reached the heads, and entering a channel on the east side of a sand spit steamed up to Port Chalmers. Approaching the port the scenery is varied and full of picturesque beauty. Wherever the eye glanced, range upon range of mist-capped hills could be seen stretching from the waters of the harbor far away in the distance. Tairoa Head and Howlett Point aro left behind, we pass a sandy reach on the left, near which lies a Maori settlement called, I believe, Olaki, and further on on the same side is Portobello Bay. The neck of land from Tairoa Head to Anderson'B Bay, opposite the City of Dunedin, some eleven miles distance by sea, forms the Otago Peninsula, which is indented all its length with little bights, and with houses and farms contrasting prettily with the brown russet-colored hills. On the right, coming in from the beads, the hills rise more precipitously, and in some places are covered with bush down to the water's edge. Those who aro curious about the geography of tho harbor may consult the map, wherein the narno of every bay is duly set down, but I can't trust my own memory with tiiern all. Otahiti is the name of one immediately before reaching Port Chalmers Bay, but as a strong tide runs at tho former it is also appropri- | atcly christened " Pull and be d — d." But j now the white houses gleam and glint in the declining sun, and in a few minutes more we i have arrived at our destination. Port dial- \ mors, nine miles from Dunedin, cither by sea j or land, is tho harbor excellence of that i city. It is well sheltered, and though in somo places shallow and I'uH of sand banks, yctiuthe ' proper channels, which are carefully buoyed, tln.'re ia plenty of water to close in shore. The i jetty is small, and the steamers usually ] moor out some little distance, the passengers either going ashore in boats, or proceeding at once to Dunedin, by a little steamer which runs alongsido and takes them on boand. Seen in fine weather, Pore Chalmers is a pretty little place, t-iking into account its natural beauties. It lies at the head of the bay, is hem nod in with hills on each side, and is almost an island, the' waters of the one bay being only divided from those of another called Koputai (the meeting of the waters) by a narrow strip of land, in fact, the visitor landing at tho jetty has only to walk up the maia street a little way to reach the sea on the other side. There is not much to be said about the town itself, except that it contains four hotels — ono of them, the Provincial, being a large and handsomo establishment, admirably managed byMrDodson — and that its houses rather belong to the old style of things in New Zealand. On one side is a mound-like hill, where the sigual station is erected, and, I believe, tho larger number of town sites wero originally laid out on the elevated ground adjoining tho flagstaff. A prettier scene than the view from the flagstaff it would be hard to find. Looking towards the sea, the whole harbor out to the heads stretches out below, while a glance in the opposite direction discloses the frith stretching up towards Dunedin, which, with its pretty islets, wooded shores, and hilly ranges forms an antipodean reproduction of the finest scenery in tho Scottish Highlands. I do not wonder that Scotchmen like Otago, because it possesses in its natural features all the stern grandeur of the old much loved land, whilo in soil and climate it is infinitely superior. Scotland, without its severe rain aud cold ; Scotland without its pinching poverty to the laborer ; Scotland with abundant employment, liberal pay and the certainty of realising a competence by thrift aud industry — is what Otago may be described even ia the present day. But what have I written ? Does not the Dunedin Saturday Review and Mr James Gordon Stuart Grant "bell us that the Otago province is' on tho verge of ruin ; that the unemployed are holdingderaonstrations mPrmcess Street, and burning the Daily Times, and that the community is divided int<» two classes— the office seekers and their victims. Has not the telegraph flashed such ne.Ts to Wellington, and have we not deplored the hard fortune of our southern fellow colonists ? All this is no doubt the case, but nevertheless I adhere to the opinion that Otago and its people aro alike generally prosperous, and that, to the Scotch new chum, of tho right sort, who lands on its shores, the new country ; •will boar favorable comparison with the old | in the rewards it holds out to those who have the patience, enduranco, and pluck to earn them. These are my impressions now that T have seen the place, aud in another letter I dare say I will bo ablo to give reasons for thorn. Those who have followed me thus far shall shortly learn how I got to Dunedin and what I saw during my sojourn there. Meantime ate rcvoir. Rambler.