THE RAMBLER IN NEW ZEALAND.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3185, 28 April 1871, Page 2

THE RAMBLER IN NEW ZEALAND.

+ A DAY AT NELSON. Full steam a-head for Nelson ! Rifle practice ; unprecedented destruction of bottles ; ammunition exhausted ; whist ; stimulants ; weariness and sleep 1 What is the matter with that lady yonder? What ia it that she is watching so intently over the bulwarks? Curiosity impels me to see what it is. lam received with a look which says plainly, " wrfltch, leavo mo to my misery," and I leave her to ifc. Oh ! the bother of dinner on shipboard ; the dozen or so of persons sitting stiflly at table, with countenances expressive of mingled approhensivoness and resignation. What hacking of tough fowls, and sickly attempts at politeness ! Why did that palefaced man make bucli a bolt from tho table ? has he taken the spoons with him ?" Somebody says it was the pork that drove him away, and I rather think he's right. By the way — how is it that providores on board Bhip persist in serving fat pork the first day at sea ? Do they experience a grim satisfaction as one passenger affcor another sinks under tho frightful ordeal, and retires from the dinner table ? You'd better interrogate tho first providore you meet on this subject, and if he don't choose to vouchsafe any information, you will bo left jusfc where you were and may form your own opinion on the Btibject. Night! more whist, stimulants, half-for-gotten snatches of forgotten operas, discords, gradual sliding uway into the realms of comic melody, requests all round to " favor the company," and " try anything" ; lume attempts ; ignominious breakdowns ; apologies ; general colds ; and relapse into emulative anecdote, increasing in immorality in an arithmetical progression. Off the Boulder Bank at night, and Captain Wheeler peering out into the thick darkness in search of the beacon light ! Full steam ahead for yet a little more, and then Tie anchor and sleep. Up with the sun, and what a glorious prospect from the deck! The warm rays of 'the sun lighting up the green hill-tops and rolling away the mists, the calm placid sea, and the town lying in dreamy beauty under the shelter of tho surrounding mountains. A place to live in and dream away one's life amidst books and flowors and poetry and soft music. Again under weigh for Nelson harbor, which is protected by a long bank of boulders, forming a kind of natural breakwater. The entrance into Nelson harbor is narrow, and the approach to it is not good for sailing vessels, but there is good anchorage outside. Entering tho harbor of Nelson is like going up a river into an inland lake. Some one in Nelson, wise in matters of local improvements, told mo that at some future period (he was a little hazy as to the date) tho boulder bank would be cut through, so as to form a straight channel into the harbor from the ofQng. It is indicative of tho spirit of energy and enterprise that characterises Anglo-Saxons in a now country, that all over tho Middle Island you constantly hear of schemes for opening up and improving tho country and developing its resources. In Canterbury there is the Rakm'iv Bridge and railways ; at Dunedin the Port Chalmers railway ; at Oamnru the great dock schotne ; at Timaru the preserved meat experiment; at Qreymou h the Cobden railway and annexation questions tho tramways, and so on everywhere, except in the North Island, where industry is paralysed, settlement retarded, and capital scared away by tho stupid obstinacy of a few thousand half naked savages, including several aged females of the Mere Kuril stamp. But here we are alongside the Nelson wharf, where there is already a respectable gathering of shipping. Of all the places in the world for cabs commend us to this ; a dozen of them stand at tho end of the wharf, any one of which will convey you to the town, nearly a mile off, for three-pence, and I am told everything else is equally cheap. Nelson is a quiet English village of respectablo proprrtions. The inhabitants are modest, and don't put on airs and call the place a city, and I admire their good sense. The streats are laid out at right angles, and arc- remarkably clean and regular. There is a splendid water supply, obtained from a considerable elevation, affording very high pressure, and, as a consequence, cleanliness is next to godliness in Nelson ; and let me tell you godliness ia not despised hero, for tho Nelsonians are regular church goers. I suppose it is because ovorybody and his wife can obtain fresh water so easily that the public fresh water swimming baths are despised. Hero cleanliness is a long way behind goodliness, in fact quite distanced. Tho first thing that strikes a now comer on visiting these public baths 19 the luxuriance of the green weeds that flourish on their surface, ('and if ho bo rash enough to go in) — the dopth and tenacity of tho mud beneath. I bathed as an experiment, and I say emphatically that I shall not try it again. How long it had been since the shadowy solitude of those baths had been disturbed by tho foot of men. Heaven, and the bath-keeper only know. Tho looking glasses and the combs had grown ancient, the vei'y water had a mournful look about it, and moss grew on the seats and floor of tho apartments. Nelson has its breweries and produces the best beer in the colony. Here also education flourishes. Strange that a place should be alike distinguished for beer and learning, but such is the fact. I commend the phenomenon for philosophic inquiry. Perhaps John Peerybinglc, or Beerypingle — or whatever his norn deplume as (these names areas little confusing) will write an essay on " Beer as an element of education'" " Beor its causes and effects in relation to tho matter of education," or "Beer as a sustenance for youthful students, considered from an alemontaryjand olomentary point of view, with notes by Barclay and Porkins, and other eminent authors" (of beer). The hop thrives in Nelson and in proper season you may see bop fields remind you of those of Kent. Tho Nelson Collego is a well managed, institution, and the hospital is picturesque, cloan, and orderly. Tho ride out to Richmond is one of the most pleasant that can be imagined. The Nolsonians are tho honestost people in New Zoaland. This is saying a good deal. I went into a barber's shop and was shaved. Tho knight of tho razor was a master of his art, and exhausted all his ingenuity upon my hair and whiskers. I suppose it was my distinguished appearance that did it. I was so flfttteied by the worthy man's attentions that I fell into a liberal mood and gave him a shilling. Ho ran after mo frantically, holding the shilling in his hand. I feared I had not paid enough, and was about to give him more when ho almost bogged me, with tears in his eyes, to pay him sixpence instead of the shilling. Nelson is the Elysium of topers. You may get drunk here at any time on half-a-crowu. I hope tho reader will nob imagine that I tried tho experiment beyond occasional investments in threepenny glasses of beer. Everybody is a gardener in Neleon, and tho taste and care with which every plot of ground is cultivated is a bright feature in the place. I visited Epp's gardens, one of tho prettiest spots in Nelson. The houses nro built in a style of architecture which is novel and peculiar. A stranger would imagine that they hud all beon designed by a Chincso architect, there is bo much of the character of the pagoda about them. Thoy bear a close resemblance to the chuste designs one sees on dinner plates and cups and saucers; Tho inhabitants of Nelson mostly live on small incomes. It is not the only place in Now Zealand where tho people live on small incomes. Tho incomes are so small in many places that you could not discover them with microscope. However, there might be worse things in tho world than living in Nelson on £300 or £'100 a- year, or as much more as possible. The wharf at Nelson is the fashionable pro* naenade on Sunday evening, and the lads and lassos troop along lovingly in the moonlight. And yet they tell mo that there are numbers of disconsolate young spinsters in Nelson, who are passing rapidly to that resting place com-

monly called " the shelf." If there are any good-looting ' young, fellows, with moderate incomes, in wanfc of wives, I recommend them to settle in Nelson, live in a Chinese pagoda, cultivate hops (I mean the vegetable, not the terpsiohorean article), and marry. As we steamed out of Nelson, we were gladdened with a view of Mr. Stafford's residence, which had the same Chinese pagoda characteristics about it as the rest. I wonder whether the Nelson people study Confucius and smoke opium. (To le continued.)