^^INTipODEAN t^ToTES Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2008 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/antipodeannotescOOwandrich ANTIPODEAN NOTES COLLECTED ON A NINE MONTHS' TOUR ROUND THE WORLD BY y-, £:, hr WANDERER p^"^ '^-^O^^^ AUTHOR OF "fair DiANA, " GLAMOUR, "DINNERS AND DISHES," "A LOOSE REIN," ETC., ETC. LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON Lhtiited §>i. guustan's |)ousf Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.C. 1888 [All rights reserved] LONDON' : PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED, ST. John's house, clerkenwell road. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. The following Notes are not intended to tell the reader " all about " our Australasian colonies. They do not pretend to replace the numerous and valuable works which have appeared at various times on New Zealand and Australia, nor to serve as a substitute for the many existing " Hand- books." The Author had, however, more and better opportunities of studying the practical, commercial, and social aspects of New Zealand than are ob- tainable by the majority of globe-trotters ; and his stay in the Middle Island was sufficiently long for him to strengthen or correct views taken on first landing. He has striven to write with impartiality ; while he has not been afraid to point out the faults of the colonists in the few matters of which he feels himself competent to judge, he has, on the other hand, not hesitated to describe the ad- 253^^3 iv Author's Preface. vantages and resources of the country, nor to con- tradict flatly those who decry them as exhausted. If this small volume has no other effect than to induce a few intelligent persons to study the position of the Colonies for themselves, it will have achieved its object. London, February, 1888. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE A Man Overboard i CHAPTER II. Adelaide, South Australia 8 CHAPTER III. First Impressions of Melbourne . ... 15 CHAPTER IV. A CHEAP Trip 21 CHAPTER V. Hobby-horses 27 CHAPTER VI. A quiet Island ^3 CHAPTER VI I. The Sounds 39 vi Contents. CHAPTER VIII. PAGE A Digger's Adventure 46 CHAPTER IX. Canterbury -55 CHAPTER X. About Farming 62 CHAPTER XI. About Mutton 71 CHAPTER XII. Freezing 78 CHAPTER XIII. Hotels AND Shops 85 CHAPTER XIV. The Working Man in New Zealand ... 91 CHAPTER XV. Maoris 102 CHAPTER XVI. Racehorses 109 CHAPTER XVII. Alluvial Gold-digging 118 ■ Contents. vii CHAPTER XVIII. PAGE Diggers in Otago 127 CHAPTER XIX. A New Zealand Flood 134 CHAPTER XX. The Waters subside .141 CHAPTER XXI. Forest and Stream . . . . . . .147 CHAPTER XXII. Queer Companions 154 CHAPTER XXIII. Colonialisms 165 CHAPTER XXIV. Nelson .172 CHAPTER XXV. Society and Books 177 CHAPTER XXVI. Travelling 186 CHAPTER XXVII. Ocean Steamers 197 viii Contents. CHAPTER XXVIII. PAGE Homeward Bound 208 CHAPTER XXIX. Ought we to Emigrate? . . . . .218 CHAPTER XXX. New Zealand Finance 236 Index 257 ANTIPODEAN NOTES CHAPTER I. A MAN OVERBOARD. Off Adelaidey January Afth. A BRIGHT moonlit night in Antipodean seas. The ocean steamer is ploughing her way across the " Great Bight " of Australia — that huge bay which corresponds in many respects to the Bay of Biscay of the Northern Hemisphere. The night is calm, but a long swell comes in from the Antarctic Ocean, to which the big ship rolls slowly, while the water, churned up by her screw, breaks into a long path of silver, stretching astern into the far distance. On the quarter-deck, under the awning, dozens of bright lamps are gleaming ; there is a piano securely lashed to the iron mizen-stay, and merry couples are waltzing to the air of " See-Saw,'* which is particularly applicable to the motion of the ship. The many who do not wish to tumble into the lee-scuppers, and don't like bumping against the B •• - » d • Antipodean Notes. rails, are looking on, talking, laughing, smoking, or leaning over the bulwarks, gazing at the sea and enjoying the delightful ripple of the water rushing swiftly past the ship's side, than which no pleasanter sound has surely ever been heard except music. There may be some in that gay crowd whose thoughts go back to the dear ones left 12,000 miles away ; mayhap a solitary passenger, dwelling on a misspent past and a doubtful future, looks jealously and defiantly at the cheerful people who have no cares, or who can throw them off if they have them. But such a one, leaning against the davits under the shadow of the deck-house, is scarcely noticed, for all else are jovial and merry, ,none the less so because on the very next day they will arrive at their destination, and part, presumably, never to meet again. The hum of conversation almost overpowers the music. Faster and faster the feet of the dancers fly over the swaying deck. Louder and more frequent does the laughter resound when a too hardy couple are suddenly checked by the corner of a skylight, or three others collide, thrown to- gether by a heavier roll than usual. Suddenly, in the very midst of the merriment, there is a sharp, short sound of a bell ; a shout is heard from for- ward, but the words are not understood ; then Antipodean Notes. there is a rush of men aft. Splash, and a bright light appears on the water just astern of the counter. The piano still tinkles on, feebly con- tending with the noise of many voices, but the feet of the dancers are arrested with wonder. Then there comes over the whole scene a sudden stillness. Something has checked the piano, the voices of the passengers, and the shouts of laughter. The screw has stopped ; that throbbing which for six weeks had been incessant, and to which we have all become so accustomed that it appears as a necessity of our very existence, has suddenly ceased. With the stoppage of its pulsations our very hearts cease to beat. What has happened ? The ship gives one long, slow lurch as her forward motion ceases ; then the screw starts again, with violent spasmodic jerks, striving with the water, and splashing with unusual vehemence. " A man overboard ! " That is the sentence which at last penetrates through the chaos of human shouts, of engines, of bells, and of rushing waters, *' Stand back, please, ladies. Make room, there, boys." It is the voice of the chief officer, who, but two minutes ago, was perhaps whispering soft nothings into the ear of a willing listener as he whirled over the smooth deck. She hardly recog- nizes the voice — it is so harsh, so quick, so deter- B 2 Antipodean Notes. mined. " Stand by your falls ! Lower away ! '^ And, before half the passengers have realized what is wrong, six stalwart fellows are in the port gig, while a dozen more are steadily lowering her to the water. Away astern two bright lights are seen swaying up and down in the swell — brighter far than the silvery wake of the steamer, and shining out like Will-o'-the-wisps above the foam of the sea. But these are no false Will-o'-the-wisps. They are the lights of life-buoys thrown over almost as soon as the wretch whom they are to rescue. To reach them means safety, and not destruction. Swiftly steaming astern, the gig being but a few inches above the water, the great ship approaches the lights. " Stop her ! Lower away ! Let go the painter ! Pull astern of the buoys, and take a sweep round ! " Such are the orders which follow in quick succession ; and stretching to their oars with a will, the six men bend the tough ash in long, strong strokes as they leave the ship. Now comes a period of suspense, of anxious inquiry. Who is it } It is a stowaway, a wretched creature who was hauled out of the hold a few hours after the ship left Suez ; a Levantine, who, to gain some private ends, possibly to escape punishment for some offence, had hidden himself on board in the confusion, when the decks were crowded with men bringing the mails on board, with Antipodean Notes. s hucksters and pedlars offering for sale cigarettes and photographs and burnouses, with conjurors and newspaper vendors, with coal-heavers and fruit- sellers. The man has been told that he must work his passage, or he will be put into prison on arrival in Australia. He has been unwilling to do much, but he has not been entirely idle. He can speak a little corrupt Italian, and frequently appeals to the Virgin and the Saints. No doubt his life on board has not been all beer and skittles. All sorts of rumours are flying about. Some say that the man was cruelly bullied by the English sailors, who, as a rule, have not much sympathy with men wearing a brown skin. Others, again, maintain that he was well treated and carefully fed, that he is a " malingerer," a lazy, good-for-nothing rascal, trying to shirk all honest work. Some of the women, whose emotions have overpowered their reason (not an entirely unusual occurrence with the sex), begin to have hysterics or to faint^ after carefully looking round to ascertain whether the right man is there to hold, to revive, and to console them. Others, less nervous, declare that the poor fellow was driven mad by ill-treatment, and jumped overboard in a fit of temporary insanity. The male passengers say that if he was mad he will certainly be drowned ; and even the seamen admit that it will be difficult to find him. Antipodean Notes. But what, meanwhile, is going on half a mile astern, near those bright lights^ where two boats are now quartering the sea as a clever pointer quarters a turnip-field? First they pull to the buoys. No one is holding on to either of them. Then they begin their task of searching the deep. One man stands up in the bows looking out ahead, -while the coxswain carefully scans the water on both sides. " Steady ! " cries he, suddenly. " Hold hard ! Listen ! " The men rest on their oars, and from the great ship hear the murmur of many voices. But there are other sounds, which grate discordantly on the ear — sounds harsh and piercing. Just there, only a hundred yards off, are great sea- birds circling round and rounds poising themselves gracefully on their outstretched wings ; then utter- ing a hoarse shriek and darting down to the water, whence they rise swiftly and circle round again, uttering sharper cries. The moonlight falls on their wings as they turn, and reveals the huge pinions and curved beak of the albatross. But the hideous discord of their greedy shrieks is broken by a feebler cry — one far more welcome, and more unexpected. It comes from the very centre of the circle traced by the cruel birds ; it is the point to which they swoop, and whence they ascend again disappointed. " Give way, boys ! " A few strokes more, and all can see the man slowly beating the Antipodean Notes. water with one hand, while with the other he fran- tically wards off the great birds, whose curved beaks and hooked talons pass within a few inches of his devoted head, only waiting for the inevitable silence — the silence that must come in a few minutes — to pick out those eyes, now wide open in terror, with the moonlight shining on them ; to tear away that wasted flesh, now tired with alarm. " Way enough ! Stop your oars, port side. Lend a hand there ! Don't pull him too hard ! Easy does it ! " A ringing cheer sounds from the ship's deck as the boat pulls under the counter. Hysterical women recover, and wish to see the rescued man brought up the side. " Give him room ! Let the poor fellow have some air ! " shouts the doctor — and indeed he seems to have escaped the waves and the sea-birds only to be suffocated by curiosity. The man had jumped overboard clad in his usual clothes, and with his overcoat. He took with him his passport in a tin box, sundry trifles in his pocket ; in fact, he had his belongings about him, as if preparing for a journey. Was he mad ? Was he ill-treated ? Was he an ordinary humbug ? No one will ever know. For, after a tumbler of whisky and water, he slept soundly, rolled in two blankets ; and next day, while the ship was an- chored off Adelaide, he deserted. Antipodean Notes. CHAPTER II. « ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA. January 6th, 1887. There are some people who have travelled over our Colonies in Pullman cars, and described them from the "standpoint" of champagne lunches. To these all is rose-coloured as long as the Pullman car can continue its journey and the champagne holds out. But the scene changes where the rail- road ends, and where local beer takes the place of Pommery '74. Colonists should not be surprised that, in a recent book which attained an enormous circulation, the most extraordinary and inconsis- tent views are expressed as to their resources, their present condition, and their future. Its author no doubt fully intended to be impartial, and endeavoured to discover the truth in ways which seemed to him the best .and the quickest. Time was important, and whatever judgment had to be formed must be formed quickly. But he was convoyed through the country by certain people, and the views he expresses in his book are merely Antipodean Notes. the views of the various people who convoyed him. Under such circumstances, too, it was inevitable that the effect of the treatment he might meet with at successive stages should be" reflected in his opinions. A man cannot help taking a -more favourable view of a place if he contemplates it after an excellent dinner, reposing on the soft cushions of a well-horsed carriage, than if he visits it on foot, hot, tired, and thirsty, with very poor hotel accommodation to fall back on, and no great friend's home to go to. But incorrect and superficial opinions — not about the Colonies alone, but about every subject under the sun — are so usual, and such opinions so gene- rally find their way into print, that the great writer's offence would be a very venial one if — he were not a great writer. And the enormous success of " Oceana " probably surprised no one more than Mr. Froude himself. But noblesse oblige. So does the knowledge that one's pen possesses exceptional influence. An eminent and popular historian has no right to publish a set of incomplete facts, flavoured with brilliantly-written but ill-digested "views." He must be the more careful the greater is his reputation, not only for his own sake, but still more for the sake of the public, who are too much in the habit of attributing infallibility to a lo Antipodean Notes. great author, and to take their opinions ready-made from such an authority. Now I feel that I can write to you without the same sword of Damocles hanging over my head. If I do make a mistake — and mistakes are all but inevitable — it won't hurt so many people as a blunder in ^* Oceana." And as I shall have no one to convoy me across the vast territory of our various Colonies, but must find out everything for myself, I shall at any rate not write down the opinions of one political party or another, but those of a man who, as his name implies, has travelled much, and seen many men and cities, and will endeavour to relate, as simply and straight- forwardly as he can, the impressions that new men and young cities make on him as he goes. Adelaide suffers from dryness. The soil is sandy, and the rainfall in summer very scanty. South Australia was for some years the granary of Australia, and its wheat obtained'a regular quo- tation in the London market. But drought set in three years ago, and two successive harvests were so poor that the staple export of the Colony was terribly reduced. The effects of the calamity were perhaps less widespread than in the great cattle and sheep-raising districts, for South Australia has always been less rich, and therefore less specu- Antipodean Notes. ii lative, than its neighbours. Hence the reaction was less, and recovery has been more rapid. Now, while I am writing, a bountiful harvest is being garnered, and the ships are at Port Adelaide wait- ing for the wheat which will soon be poured into their capacious holds. But to a " new chum " (as he who arrives freshly from England is termed) the country appears dry and parched in the ex- treme. If this is v/hat it looks like in average seasons, what aspect must it present during a drought ? The Australian summer is not yet half over. The end of January and the whole of February are generally the hottest periods of the year. Yet there is not a green blade of grass in Adelaide or its suburbs, except where produced by artificial irrigation. The ugly gum-trees grow out of a sandy desert, patched here and there with brown herbage, dry as tinder. The little garden- plots which surround every house, except in the interior of the town, are studded with a few shrubs, but no grass-plot, no flower-bed, gladdens the eye. Even in the boasted Botanic Gardens, where water- ing is continuous, and the supply abundant, the imported rose-trees are a mockery, the geranium- beds dry frauds, and the English annuals impos- tures. There are some mournful ponds surrounded by magnificent weeping-willows ; there are extra- 12 Antipodean Notes. ordinary specimens of palms, many fine oleanders, and other flowering shrubs. But the most casual observer cannot fail to perceive that the gardens are kept alive only by the most constant care, and that a short stoppage of water-supply or of money would destroy nearly all the plants which, by in- cessant fostering, have been reared from a weakly childhood to a miserable maturity. In fact, the dearth of water and the recurrence of droughts are the curse of the country. On the hills near Adelaide are market-gardens, which obtain their water-supply from deep wells, whence the water is pumped by windmills. Unlike the Californian fruit, the Australian is not only beautiful to look at, but still more beautiful to taste. The specimens sent last spring to the " Colinderies " give but a faint impression of the fresh fruit. Probably it was picked before it was ripe ; and indeed it is impossible to imagine how the luscious apricots and tender figs, whose skins are bursting with ripeness, could possibly be trans- ported twelve thousand miles and successfully brought to market in London by any process yet invented. The " Turkey fig," as it is termed here, is about four times the size of a well-grown English fig ; it has dark red flesh of a splendid flavour, and you buy them at the rate of three a penny. The Antipodean Notes. 13 honey fig is much smaller and sweeter. It is more highly valued in the Colony, and is sold at the rate of 4ci. per pound in the retail shops. I myself prefer the larger sort, which it is quite worth travelling half round the world to eat. As to the apricots, think of the best apricot you ever ate in England when picked fresh off your own wall or that of a hospitable friend, think of it well, and realize it if you can. Then, having got a good hold of the sweet memory, make it as much sweeter as you can, and add about 50 per cent, to its size. Then you will have a faint idea of a South Australian apricot, of which you can buy three for a penny. Vegetables are, I believe, equally plentiful and good. Spinach, French beans, and tomatoes were the only ones I noticed ; but my time was very limited, and the hours available were by no means the best for mar- keting. The streets of Adelaide are wide and straight, and laid out at right angles to each other. It is a great pity that the municipality, which seems to have done so much for the town, has not converted some of the main thoroughfares into boulevards or avenues by planting rows of trees. Even the universal gum-tree would be better than none at all. Were Adelaide a French or German colony, 14 Antipodean Notes. every street would in the evening be lined at fre- quent intervals by chairs and tables, with people on the former, and beer or coffee on the latter. But, being an English town, no one leaves the stifling atmosphere of the bar-room, nor the heat of his private dwelling, to sit in the cool and bracing evening air. Fancy sitting in the streets ! How is it that Englishmen, who sit on the Paris Boulevards, the Ringstrasse at Vienna, or the Via Chiaja at Naples with great pleasure and comfort, won't sit in the street in any of their own towns, not even in one of which the climate compares favourably with Naples or Corfu ? Antipodean Notes. is CHAPTER III. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF MELBOURNE. Melbourne^ January loth, AUSTRALIANS are fond of telling us English that their climate is the finest in the world, for, while their winters are far milder than ours their summer heat does not, according to their own view, affect the human body in the same way as would an equally high temperature in a damp climate. When I landed at Sandridge — the very wretched little place dignified by the name of Port Mel- bourne — I found a hot wind blowing, and cer- tainly did not relish the idea of dragging my port- manteau all along the pier. There were no porters available, and every one had to shift (his luggage) for himself So I dragged. Nay, more, I fought for a ticket at a booking-office in a crowd of fresh immigrants. I obtained my ticket, and then dragged again, till at last I tipped the port- manteau into a first-class carriage, admirably constructed and airy. If I had done all this on an average July afternoon in London, I should have 16 Antipodean Notes. been very hot and uncomfortable. At Melbourne I was certainly very hot and uncomfortable ; but I have often felt hotter in the temperate climates of England and Germany, so I was much surprised on looking at a thermometer in Collins Street to read 90 degrees at five in the evening. And the papers mentioned 93 degrees as the day's maximum. It was thundery and close all day, with several very brief showers ; but this was nothing to the next two days, when the glass rose 1 5 degrees higher, and I may safely assume that the weather is now exceptionally hot If this be granted, I may say with equal safety that none but English persons would suffer as they do here, doing nothing to pre- serve themselves against the heat, and living as if it were a mere London summer. Men wear tall black hats, though the ladies go in for costumes of cotton, muslin, or similar attractive and cool materials. The majority of the houses are not well designed for the climate. The English style is adopted far too faithfully. The verandahs, which are very numerous in Adelaide, are com- paratively rare at Melbourne, and many streets might, but for their width and cleanliness, be bodily transported from the less fashionable and newer London suburbs. In fact^ many portions of Melbourne remind one of nothing so vividly as of Antipodean Notes. 17 certain districts near Brixton and Camberwell. Here and there is a neat dwelling of two storeys, with a tiny flagged path leading to the front door ; next to that comes a timber-yard ; then we see a row of half-a-dozen cottages, and these again butt on a huge pretentious stone or stucco structure — a many-storied Bon Marche or wool warehouse, as the case may be. The inevitable tramcar com- pletes the likeness. Strange to say, there is also the same aversion to fresh air which is too common among the less educated and less wealthy classes in England, only here it appears to be more general. They are so afraid of letting the heat in that they keep the windows and doors closed, and the result is that the heat cannot get out. My first dinner at Melbourne was a distinctly agreeable disappointment. I had been led to expect middling food and worse cooking. But at Menzies' Hotel I managed to arrange the fol- lowing menu by a selection from the bill of fare, and I will add that I came in long after the usual dinner-hour of six, and had not given any previous notice : — Spring soup. Baked mullet. Calves' head en poulette. Roast teal. C Antipodean Notes. Green peas. Iced pudding. Apricots. Peaches. Figs. Plums. I give the names of the dishes as they were given on the bill of fare. As a matter of fact, the so-called baked mullet was admirably done en papillotte, and the soup was quite perfect. It is rather funny to find teal in season with apricots and green peas, but all were excellent of their kind. The cost of the dinner was five shillings, exclusive of wine, but including a very fair cup of black coffee served in the verandah ; for Menzies' Hotel fortunately possesses a very comfortable one. The Australian mullet is brown, in size no larger than our red mullet, but in flesh much more nearly re- sembling the grey one. The apricots were about three inches in diameter, and of splendid flavour. The custom, universal in the Colonies, of serving dinner at a fixed hour only, is a very inconvenient one to strangers, and it is quite impossible to enforce punctuality in the larger hotels. In Mel- bourne there are restaurants of which I had a sad experience later on ; but in all the provincial towns you can obtain dinner only at the hotels, and only at a fixed hour. If you should, unfor- tunately for yourself, arrive after that hour (which is generally six in the larger towns, but as early as Antipodean Notes. 19 one or two in the smaller ones), you may, by the favour of the landlord, obtain tea and cold meat, but never dinner. This rigid Colonial rule is some- what relaxed here, because people cannot and will not put up with it, and there is the competition of the restaurants. Elsewhere, however, it is abso- lutely inflexible, and you must remember that Australia is not like England in one important respect. Money won't do everything here. In fact, the principle is this : the hotel-keeper con- siders himself as good as any one who patronizes his establishment. His own dinner-hour is, say five o'clock ; and he has no objection to sharing his meal with you, a chance traveller, if you arrive before that hour and pay the proper price. But, if you were to offer him 2/. a-head to supply you with a meal at seven, he would most probably feel highly insulted. He takes the head of the table, as at our old-fashioned farmers' ordinary, and generally looks well after the comfort of each guest, just as if he were really entertaining a private party. One feature of this hotel I would strongly recom- mend to English hotel-managers for imitation. The smoking-room is not in the darkest and din- giest recesses of the house, but looks on pleasant Bourke Street, and resembles in every respect the C 2 20 Antipodean Notes. smoking-room of a good London Club. Writing- paper, envelopes, &c., are supplied gratis in any quantity ; the waiter expects no tips, and is just as civil as as a club servant. There are two tables covered with English and Australian newspapers and periodicals, and the sofas and chairs leave nothing to be desired. Why the smoker should in the majority of English hotels be condemned to a dingy cell with a stale copy of the Daily Telegraph and the "ABC Guide " is a mystery I have never been able to fathom. The charge of a penny for a sheet of note-paper and an envelope is less mysterious, but scarcely more justifiable. Antipodean Notes. 21 CHAPTER IV. A CHEAP TRIP. Off Sandridge, January i^thy 1887. The working man of an English city requires an occasional excursion to the seaside, and, starting in the small hours of the night with his wife and family, makes " a day of it " to Brighton, Walton- on-the-Naze, Blackpool, or Llandudno, as the case may be. Those who, not being themselves work- ing men, have taken part in these trips, will not, as a rule, bring away very pleasant recollections of them. Our people in England not only take a good deal of stimulant, but they show that they have taken it. They are merry after the manner of their kind, too frequently coarse and quarrelsome in their language, rough in their ways, and, unfor- tunately, sometimes brutal in their conduct towards ladies whom a slender purse or chance has thrown in with the "cheap trippers." So in England we avoid excursions and excursionists, and a man must be a confirmed "slummer" to join in them, while he would be considered a fit inmate for 22 Antipodean Notes. Hanweil if he suggested taking his young sisters fresh from a High School and lawn-tennis. In Victoria things are different. The intense heat and the burning winds of Melbourne make marine excursions more popular than they are even in the old country. On Sunday morning last, the ther- mometer marking loo degrees in the shade at ten o'clock, I was goaded on by two fair ex-fellow- passengers to take them across the Bay by the excursion steamer OzonCy advertised to sail from Sandridge (Port Melbourne) at half-past eleven. I pointed out that the enterprise was hazardous, that their ears would certainly be shocked, and possibly also their eyes ; that there would be much crowding and hustling by persons not in the habit of using soap and water very lavishly ; that the dust on the short railway journey down and back would be fearful. All to no purpose. Anything, they said, is better than a furnace like Melbourne. Their imagination was fired by the descriptions of Queenscliff and Sorrento, two seaside places close to the entrance to Port Philip. So, finding that if I did not go with them they would probably go off by themselves, I consented to start, and did so with a very heavy heart and dire forebodings of evil. The train was very full, and there was much dust, but the journey only occupied ten minutes. Antipodean Notes. 23 Our carriage was a little overcrowded, but the people were well dressed and well behaved. To get on board the Ozone — a fine paddle-steamer, constructed on the same plan as the Clyde boats plying from Greenock to Oban and the islands — seemed likely to be difficult; to obtain seats on one of her numerous decks still more difficult. The good-humour and civility of the crowd, how- ever, made it a far easier task than I had expected, and in a very short time I had my two charges comfortably installed on deck-chairs on the hurri- cane-deck, where the sea-breeze at once began to cool our flaming cheeks and promise some relief from the fiery tortures of the past days. There were no fewer than 1600 people on board this steamer. She reached Sorrento at 2.15, left it again in the afternoon, and brought her freight back to Melbourne by eight o'clock. There was but one fare — 4^. — for the trip, and, considering that we covered nearly ninety miles, this is cheap enough ; for Melbourne, where wages are so very high, it was extraordinarily cheap. During the whole time of the voyage the fore saloon, which contained the bar, was densely crowded, nor were the drinks sold by any means non-alcoholic. Some of the passengers dined on board in the after- saloon ; the majority trooped into the two large 24 Antipodean Notes. "hotels" at Queenscliff, and dined there; some, ourselves included, went on to Sorrento. In all these places " shouting " (Colonial for drinking, probably because you have to shout to the waiter or barman to be supplied) went on incessantly. Yet, notwithstanding all these adverse circum- stances, notwithstanding the heat and discomfort of the return journey by rail, I did not hear a single oath nor any expression unfit for a refined lady's ear. The banter which went on among the men was not, indeed, highly intellectual, nor were their repartees very brilliant, but there was none of the offensive vulgarity which would have been heard at home. There was no pushing ; the 'Arrys who distinguish themselves in London and provincial towns by hustling and shoving, particularly if there are ladies in the crowd, were conspicuously absent. A Melbourne tobacconist, from whom I had bought some cigarettes on the previous day, claimed ac- quaintance with me, and told me that more than half our fellow-passengers were actual working men, not only mechanics, but cabmen, messengers, and especially porters from the warehouses and Customs. Many had their wives and families with them. By a stranger they could scarcely be dis- tinguished from the small shopkeepers or clerks who formed the rest of the crowd, though a more Antipodean Notes. 25 careful inspection showed that the workmen affected broadcloth suits and even tall hats, while their wives sported silk dresses. The others — the men from up-country particularly — wore soft-felt hats and light tweeds, and their wives went in for cotton and muslin. The majority of the ladies, however, were adorned with heavy gold bracelets, watch- chains, and earrings. Not to exhibit massive gold jewellery on one's wife is considered a confession of poverty among certain classes in Melbourne, and many a mechanic's wife would sooner bear the misery of a black silk dress on a day when the glass varies from 95 to 130 degrees rather than be comfortable in white cotton. If she did not wear silk, it might be supposed : {a) that her husband could not afford one, which would be a terrible disgrace to him; or {b), that he would not afford one, which would be a disgrace to her. For, in the first case, he must be a lazy drunkard, since every one can get on who is sober and industrious ; and, in- the second, ske must have misbehaved herself, since tout homnte qui se respecte gives his wife a black silk dress and a heavy chain or bracelet of genuine Ballarat gold. It is the same feeling which makes all the Melbourne people — down almost to the poorest, if poor there be — cover their rooms with carpet into the very corners. When I 26 Antipodean Notes. suggested to a clever working engineer, whom I had occasion to call on in his workshop, and who at once invited me cordially to his home, that it would be cooler and wholesomer if bedroom-floors were only covered with clean matting in the centre, and a wide border were left all round the edges, he said at once that he would be ashamed to do that, for it would look as if he could not afford to buy carpet enough for the whole floor! So Mrs. Grundy is as powerful at Melbourne as in Cranford or Eatanswill. But noblesse oblige. People whose wives or mothers wear black silk dresses and massive gold chains, who live in carpeted rooms, and have real mahogany chairs, leather-covered, in their parlours, do not get tipsy, or, if they do, carry it off well. They do not hustle, nor shove, nor use bad language. They are polite to ladies ; and, though they say to *^ new chums " from England, " We are as good as you are/' and this assertion appears offensive, yet their behaviour goes a long way to prove it. Are things not what they seem ? Are we all wrong in our old world, and is there something in Democracy, after all 1 Antipodean Notes. 27 CHAPTER V. HOBBY-HORSES. Hobson^s Bay ^ January 14th. They tell me that, although I may consider Victoria a working-man's paradise, I shall find New Zealand still more under his control. In Melbourne the wages are a shilling an hour for a day of eight hours. This is earned by all unskilled, or only partly skilled, labour. The bricklayer does not average much more than is. ^d, an hour — perhaps because building has been a little overdone lately. The carpenter earns \s. 6d. ; a good joiner still more. No one is allowed to work more than eight hours, except on contract work. Now, our English experience goes to show that with every decrease of the number of hours' work we have diminished the efficiency of our labour, and have encouraged foreign competition. In fact, with us it may be taken as a general rule that the more we pay the less we get for our money. Of course, there are numerous exceptions ; but still, the recent experience of all large builders and contractors 28 Antipodean Notes. goes to show that, though materials are now much cheaper than they were/ and wages nominally less, work done costs as much as ever. I inquired whether this was not the case in Melbourne, whether the workman in Victoria was as unpunctual, as irregular, and as exacting as his English colleague too frequently is. To my surprise, I found that those men who take their trips to Queenscliff on Sundays, and supply their wives with silk dresses and gold bracelets, work far harder than the pro- verbial nigger on weekdays. Eight hours seem short enough to talk and write about, but eight hours under a Victorian sun in January are about enough, if a man " puts his back into it," and this the Melbourne workman undoubtedly does. A striking example of the efficiency of Colonial labour is supplied by the new Princess's Theatre in Melbourne, of which Mr. J. C. Williamson is the chief proprietor. The contract for this building was signed on the i8th April, 1886, and it was opened to the public on the i8th December in the same year. It is a structure of stone and marble. It is decorated with the most admirable taste, and every detail has been carefully worked out. I do not think that there is any theatre in London which equals it in comfort and elegance combined. There is a movable roof, which can be drawn on Antipodean Notes. 29 and off in a few minutes. There is every mechanical appliance for scene-shifting, for extinction of fire, for lighting, and for water-supply. Blue and gold are the keynotes of the furniture and decorations ; the curtain is rich blue plush, the pit is upholstered in blue damask. Fountains cool the air in the amphitheatre. On a fine night the great central chandelier seems suspended to the starlit sky over- head. Now, the material for this building, the labour, and everything except the actual silks and stuff for the decorations; were done in the colony, the total cost being 40,000/. I very much doubt whether any London firm of builders would have carried out the work in the time, and for the money. In this theatre they play Gilbert and Sullivan's operas, and play them very well too. It is the aristocratic theatre of Melbourne. On summer evenings the ladies sit on the balcony between the acts and eat ices, while the men sidle off to a huge bar (there is one on every floor), and indulge in a cigarette, or even a cocktail. The dress-circle con- tains the best and most expensive seats, the stalls occupying the whole floor. Another summer amusement very popular in Melbourne is fireworks. The two great pyro- technists, Pain and Brock, exhibit their rival shows in the Melbourne and East Melbourne Cricket 30 Antipodean Notes. Grounds respectively. There is very little chance of any of these displays being interfered with by the weather; the rain during the summer is confined to an occasional thunder-shower. These cricket grounds are huge enclosures, on which are erected substantial buildings for their respective clubs, and also grand stands for the public. Not only cricket matches, but also bicycle and tricycle races and other athletic sports are held in the grounds, the area being ample for every sort of sport. As to the wickets, the less said about them the better will my Victorian readers be pleased. The English- man fresh from the Oval or Lord^s would not recognize the dry garbage that covers the Australian ground as turf at all. Bumpy ? I should think so, rather ! I was very sorry to have missed the Melbourne Cup. Colonials who have seen the Derby and Ascot state that the race for this, the most-coveted Australian prize, is a far grander sight. The course is within an easy drive of Melbourne, and not only is the day a general holiday for all the townspeople, but thousands from up-country make their annual business visit to the capital during the Cup week in order not to miss the race. Scarcely a shop is open on the Cup day, and though the population is largely composed of Dissenters, who at home con- Antipodean Notes. 31 sider horse-racing one of the most sinful of pursuits, Colonial rules appear to be less rigidly enforced, and very few abstain from going on conscientious grounds. It is the great day for the ladies' spring toilettes. I am informed that the dresses of the wives and daughters of some of the wealthy squat- ters (who are, as my readers of course know, the aristocracy of the colony) cost above a thousand pounds, and that in many cases these dresses are sent to the banks for safe custody till the morning of the race. Certainly the love for horse-flesh is nowhere more justifiable than here, where national prosperity and almost national existence depend upon horses. A grazing-farm or a sheep-run without plenty of horses would be like an English farm without a plough — it could not be carried on for a week. Australian horses — or Walers, as they are termed in India — have an undeservedly bad character for buck- jumping. In old days perhaps they may have deserved it ; now that horse-breeding and handling are conducted on something like a rational system, a confirmed buck -jumper is quite the exception, and it is as easy to find a quiet hack or " buggy " horse in Victoria as it is in England, but no cheaper. Formerly the worst of the horses were sent to India and sold as troopers ; now, however, India takes 32 Antipodean Notes. the pick of the market, and buyers for Calcutta and Bombay are seen in distant up-country stations. The police have almost the monopoly of buck- jumpers, for, as they are allowed a certain sum for the purchase of a horse, many of them buy a noto- rious buck-jumper for a mere song, and cure him if they can. If they cannot cure him, they generally manage to stick on, which is the next best thing. I am assured that I shall be able to sit any buck- jumper if I use an Australian saddle and give the beast his head. Perhaps some day I may try, and if so, I will report the result if I live through it. But, from what I have seen of the trick, I do not yearn for the experiment. Antipodean Notes. 33 CHAPTER VI. A QUIET ISLAND. Chris tchurch, New Zealand^ Feb. i^th. During the great heat of the Christmas holidays many Australians fly for a little fresh air to Tasmania. This island is about the same size as Ireland, and not dissimilar in shape. Colonists think little more of the sea voyage from Melbourne to Hobart than we do of that from Holyhead to Kingstown, although the former occupies exactly ten times the number of hours. Launceston is the chief town in the northern part of Tasmania^ and is the nearest port to the Australian Continent ; but in the summer months of January and February it is said to be nearly as hot as Melbourne. Hobart and the beautiful bays which surround it are therefore preferred. Like Ireland, Tasmania is blessed with excellent roads, a legacy of the period when it was a penal settlement. But unlike Ireland, it has a sparse and contented population. It is probably the least " go-ahead " of any of our Antipodean Colonies, D 34 Antipodean Notes. Of late years retired officers, and particularly those who have served for a lengthened period in India, have begun to settle in Tasmania. On the estuary of the lovely river Derwent, and in the valley of the scarcely less attractive Tamar, are many low, single-storied houses, roofed with galvanized iron, their verandahs covered with creepers ; they peep out of the bush, and are surrounded by small gardens, some of which are already well grown, and contain lilacs, laburnums, and laurels in abundance. Land, even near Launceston and Hobart, is still cheap. Here the man of average ability can indulge in farming without ruining him- self, even if his capital be small and his knowledge limited ; for the soil is fertile, and the climate, so the settlers tell you, absolutely perfect. In my humble opinion, a country in which grass is nothing but a mass of dry yellow shreds for half the year, and the roads are six inches deep in dust, cannot be called a paradise. But it is well that those who have established their homes here, and have pluckily faced the work of a new country, preferring its honest labour to the flesh-pots offered by sixth-rate Companies to Generals and Colonels, should think that they have chosen wisely. Certainly where there is water anything appears to flourish and grow well ; but then water is often Antipodean Notes. 35 scarce. It was so when I visited the island, and every one complained that the strawberries, for which Tasmania is celebrated, had been quickly- dried up by the sun. Fruit is indeed one of the chief articles of export. In average years Tasmania supplies Victoria with strawberries, peaches, and apples, of which the frequently- recurring droughts do not permit the successful cultivation in Australia. Our own steamer, though bound for New Zealand, where fruit is generally most plentiful, took a large cargo on board for Southland, that coldest province of the Middle or South Island, where the climate is harsh and unkind. Tin has been discovered in the mountains, and Tasmania now exports this valuable metal in annually-increasing quantities. Hobart is situated on the River Derwent, at the foot of the picturesque hills which gradually rise to an amphitheatre of rocky and precipitous mountains. It is a quiet little town, and though the commodious harbour contained several large barques and a couple of steamers, there was but little appearance of life or business in the streets. Carriages were very few, and the streets are very wide ; yet such is the caution of the local conscript fathers that there is a large board at every corner, D 2 36 Antipodean Notes. on which the coachmen are bidden in the largest letters to drive slowly. An elderly Scotchman, a fellow-traveller from Melbourne, asked me to "join his party" for a drive to the most attractive points in the neighbourhood, a proposal to which I willingly consented. The " party " consisted of himself and five ladies. Unfortunately, I was not blessed with any female companions. We chartered two excellent open carriages, each with two horses, and drove at a rapid pace up hill and down hill, first to Government House, beautifully situated on an eminence near the town, but un- fortunately not visible from the harbour ; and then up a very long gradient to the spring whence Hobart obtains its drinking-water. Here, in a ravine between two high cliffs, is a lovely nook covered with many varieties of ferns, among which two rows of tree-ferns are the most conspicuous. You seem suddenly to change the climate when you enter this valley — the dust, the heat, the melancholy blue of the monotonous gum-trees give way to the bright green of the ferns and of the soft turf, to the murmur of trickling water, and to a soft, cool atmosphere which tempts you to linger, regardless of tides and steamers. For the first time since reaching Australia did a feeling of home come over me. Everywhere else, not- Antipodean Notes. 37 withstanding the bright gardens tended with care and watered incessantly, notwithstanding the many- loyal attempts of the Colonists to make things look like England, the glare, the intense dryness, the transparency of the atmosphere, the hard out- lines, and the universal monotonous and melan- choly eucalyptus, combined to form a picture as unhke the old country as could well be imagined. But though the dell was seductive, though the air was deliciously soft, though two of the old Scotchman's charges were by no means ill-favoured, and decidedly sprightly, it was not permitted me to stay, if I would not miss the steamer and remain for a week in Tasmania. We returned in time to fill with fruit all the available space in the carriages, and I can only wonder that no one suffered from an excess of apricots and greengages. When we paid the fare, my Caledonian friend's canniness came to the surface. " The ladies don't pay, of course," he said ; " so you and I had better divide the expense between us." My share came to 23^. I knew that I could have engaged a light one-horse trap, and have driven about at my ov;n sweet will for half the money, while my care- ful friend would have had to pay 2/. 6s. if I had not "joined his party." But his delight in his own astuteness was evident, and it would have been a 38 Antipodean Notes. pity to spoil his pleasure. Besides, the charming company of his womankind was cheaply purchased. So I paid instantly without demur, and was richly rewarded by the qualms of conscience which overcame my friend a few hours later, when we were fairly on the ocean again. " Dinna ye think," said he, " that as ye had no leddies wi' ye, ye paid a wee too much for the carriages .? " " Not at all," I replied. " It's all right." " Weel, if ye think it's all richt," he answered, withdrawing his hand from his waistcoat pocket, where it had been dwelling unwillingly — " if ye think it's all richt, a won't press the matter." And he didn't. Antipodean Notes. 39 CHAPTER VII. THE SOUNDS. Christchurch, New Zealand^ Feb. 21st The Captains of ocean passenger steamers are generally the most obliging and even-tempered of men, Perhaps they would not obtain a command if they were subject to the fits of impatience, and even anger, which the incessant questions of idiots, the misbehaviour of ruffians, the complaints of idlers, and the responsibilities of the position would certainly induce in any ordinary mortal. The Captain of the steamer Mararoa^ which carried us from Melbourne to New Zealand, was as thoughtful and kind as most of his profession. The vessel is the largest of the Union Company's fleet, and was put on specially on account of the Christmas holidays, during which the Australians fly from their heated deserts to milder climes. Conveying, as she did, merely pleasure-seekers, it was announced that the Mararoa would run into Milford Sound, the most celebrated of those fiord- like inlets which cut deeply into the south-western 40 Antipodean Notes. coast of the Middle Island of New Zealand. So far, the programme was an official one ; but when we had run into Milford Sound and out again, it was found that we were seven hours before our time, and would arrive at the first New Zealand port in the middle of the night,, if the steamer kept up her usual average of thirteen knots an hour. Instead of "slowing down," our Captain steamed into several other fiords, each more beautiful than its neighbour, and thus spent the spare time in showing us what but very few even of the Colonists have seen, and which can, as a rule, only be seen either by a lucky fluke or by the possessor of a large steam-yacht. From the pictures, photographs, and descriptions of the finer Norwegian fiords, I should think Milford Sound resembles them somewhat ; but, as I have not been in Norway myself, I can only state, on the authority of an " old traveller," that there is nothing on the North Sea half so magnifi- cent. For more than an hour you see a deep blue band on the horizon, exactly ahead ; this band grows wider and wider, and at last you make out its serrated upper edge, and see that it is a lofty chain of mountains. The vessel approaches at full speed ; gradually the lower portion of the band becomes brown and green instead of blue, and the rugged Antipodean Notes. 41 outlines grow more distinct. While some of the mountains are bare, and seem to fall vertically into the sea, others are only a trifle less steep, and clothed to the height of many thousand feet with the most luxuriant vegetation. Soon the steamer appears to be close under the cliffs ; but she still holds her course, though no inlet appears, no opening by which that great wall will ad- mit her. At last, when the more timid of the passengers fancy she must be touching the rocks, a gap appears on the starboard bow — a gap so narrow that it might only suffice for a mountain torrent. But the height of the mountains is so great that the steamer seems to be much nearer to their foot than she really is. The helm is ported slightly, and the Mararoa enters an opening, of which you may form some idea if you remember the narrows of Dartmouth Harbour, and multiply the height of the hills on either side by twenty, leaving the width of the waterway as it is. The vegetation of South Devon is luxuriant, but the black birches, silver pines, and splendid tree-ferns, which seem to hang on the sides of the Milford Sound Mountains rather than to grow on them, far surpass even the vegetation of Mount Edgcumbe. One huge rock, of which the summit towers right over our foremast, falls sheer into the sea, offering no foothold even to 42 Antipodean Notes. the bold trees of New Zealand. This is Mitre Peak. It is nearly 8000 feet high — no great height perhaps when compared to the giants which Alpine Club- men conquer, but truly formidable when seen, as this is, from the sea-level to its spire. As we steam past it, a white speck — a mere dot — appears on the narrow beach behind its huge shoulders. This is a house, the only one in the Sound, and it enables us to apply some sort of scale to the huge mountains round us. A speck only is it in the mass of rock, forest, and glacier. For on the port side, opposite the Mitre, and apparently a few yards only from the ship's side, a mountain torrent falls into the creek, descending in a succession of steps. When we look up the wild, weird ravine down which flows this silver thread, we see far above us the deep blue of glacier ice, and above this snow-covered peaks rearing their summits against the blue sky. Then, again, in a few minutes we round a projecting cape ; the rocky valley and the glaciers are shut out, and the mountains are again covered with trees and grass of the brightest green. Now, on our starboard side, we pass what looks like a low cliff. A stream leaps over its edge, but, like the Staubbach of Swit- zerland, dissolves in spray before it reaches the sea at the bottom. We are told, however, that the "low " cliff is 700 feet high ; and glancing back to the tiny Antipodean Notes. 43 white house, now only just visible, we see no reason to doubt the statement. Here the solemnity of the scene is suddenly spoiled by the hideous screech of the steamer's '* siren," of which the horrors are re- echoed with tenfold force from the surrounding mountains. It is part of the programme to let the passengers hear the echo ; but why should this dreadful, nerve-destroying echo be called forth over and over again, till the more sensitive fly to the lowest deck, holding their ears, and the serene en- joyment of Nature's beauty is entirely marred by man's horrid contrivances .? Do Colonists, like Cockney 'Arrys, really love such discordant yells and screams ? Would they not admire the glaciers, nor gaze with awe at the stupendous precipices, unless their ears were roused by this modern Siren ? Some of us at last implored the Captain to order the steam-whistle to cease, and he was good enough to comply, though he told us that it was usual to keep the infernal invention at work all up and down the Sound. Then the engines were stopped, and a little boat came alongside. She was manned by three men, the occupants of the one house on Milford Sound. They are employed by Govern- ment to cut tracks through the dense forest and up the mountain sides for the purpose of survey. They looked extremely well and strong, and were dressed 44 Antipodean Notes. with great neatness in a sort of sailor costume ; but they told a piteous tale of privations, and were supplied with bread, meat, and whisky out of the ship's stores, for which they forgot to pay, although, as I understood, their wages are at the rate of 3/. a week each. Here the Sound opened out a little, and was sufficiently wide for the Mararoa to turn easily ; she soon sped back past the Waterfall, the Glaciers, and Mitre Peak, out again to sea. On that same day we ran into Break-Sea Sound, which is about forty miles farther south, and then through a wonderful succession of passages, between sheer rocks and tree-clad mountains, into Dusky Sound, emerging again into the ocean by another channel of a totally different character. This was, in fact, a huge bay, dotted with thousands of islands of all sizes, from a mere mound just big enough to carry a single tree, to a great park-like expanse of several hundred acres. On Break-Sea Sound is one tiny settlement, but the many islands with their fertile soil and rich vegetation are uninhabited, and even unexplored. Here is a fine opportunity for a man who wishes to retire from the world, and yet enjoy Nature's bounty to its fullest extent. His garden on one of the fairy islands would supply all English and many sub-tropical products ; within reach of his home he could obtain shooting and Antipodean Notes. 45 mountain-climbing ; while fishing and sailing could be followed up under all circumstances of wind and weather, since there are thousands of acres of land- locked salt water as well as many mountain streams. I can imagine a far worse fate than to be settled near Dusky Sound, harder pursuits than to stalk the wild pig in its forests, or plant its grateful soil with fruit-trees and flowering shrubs. 46 ' Antipodean Notes. CHAPTER VIII. A digger's adventure. On board the Mg,raroa were several men of a very different style to any one would be likely to meet in the old country. One was an old Scotch- man, now settled on the west coast of New Zealand, where he is the proprietor of a flourishing colliery, but formerly a digger. He was, he told me, bitten by the gold-fever in the year 1852, when he was a young man, and he has never quite recovered. Coal is more-"pairmanent," he admitted, but the profits are smaller, and there is but little chance about it. Therefore, though my friend — whom I will call Mr. Sandy — has a seam of splendid steam coal several feet in thickness, and can command a ready sale for all his mine produces, he still hankers after his old gold-digging days, and spun many yarns about them, among which the following struck me as being worth writing down. ."In 1853," said Sandy, *'a chum and I were working a claim about thirty miles from Sandhurst, in the bush. It was a broken bit of country, full of Antipodean Notes. 47 gullies and creeks. But you know Australian bush is not like ours in New Zealand. You can see through it well, and you can walk pretty fast. There are nothing but gum-trees, big and little, with a * lawyer ' here and there ; but there's no tangle of ferns, and supple-jacks, and manuka, and all that sort of stuff. Well, the hillsides were mostly covered with claims. Some of the men did well, but many of them could barely make a decent week's wage out of their places, but my chum and I were among the fortunate ones. There were thousands of diggers within a few miles, mostly fine young fellows from England, and America, and Germany, and Italy. If you saw a man with a wrinkle on his face or grey hairs, you might be sure he was some old * lag ' ^ escaped from Tasmania — or Van Diemen's Land, as they called it then — which was still a convict settlement. And those old chaps weren't up to any good. They wouldn't put a hand to pick or shovel, though they always carried tools about as if they were prospecting, and they would not turn to and earn their living as honest diggers. No. They were up to tricks they liked better than hard work. For, let me tell you, it's a mistake you English people make to suppose that gold-diggers ^ Colonial for convict; " one who has been lagged." 48 Antipodean Notes. are always a brutal, violent lot. It's just the other way. Rough they may be, for if ever they had a liking for comforts and luxuries, they would have to forget their likes and dislikes before a week was over. But orderly and quiet real diggers are, and glad of police and soldiers ; and why ? Because (here Sandy became very emphatic) — because, sir, they've something to lose. Depend upon it, it's only the lazy vagabonds who won't work that go in for Socialism and thieving, which are all the same, as far as I can make out. But I'm running off to politics instead of spinning my yarn straight off. Well, as I was saying, old loafers came round from all sorts of places that weren't diggers at all. Them chaps would hang about till some digger would shout ^ to all comers. Then, you may depend upon it, these old fellows would be sure to drink a skin full. And when there was no shouting, after dark, or maybe in broad daylight, if no one was looking, two or three of them would waylay a digger on the way to Sandhurst with his swag, and kill him if he did not give up his gold without a fight, and then the pick and shovel would come in handy to bury him somewhere out of the way in the bush. " Well, one day I went out to prospect for a bit. * Shout : Colonial for offering drinks. Antipodean Notes. 49 Ours was a good claim, and many a Saturday I had walked into Sandhurst with a couple of hundred ounces of gold about me ; but, sir, I knew it was giving out. There are signs that an old chum recognizes, and I wasn't often deceived. So one Saturday there was not enough to make it worth while tramping to Sandhurst, and on Sunday I just started for a walk, looking about in the gulleys and valleys some way from camp. I never thought of any harm to me, for there were lots of quiet diggers within a mile or two, and we had had very little trouble since the troops of the — th Lancers had come up to our little township to do police duty. I walked along quietly, looking at the ground at times, and at times wondering why there were no larks singing up in the blue sky, as there would be at home, and then again turning up a piece of stone with my heel, and breaking it to see what it was like. Well, I remember how I was just stooping over a bit of quartz I'd broken, and was looking at it rather more carefully, for it looked likely, when I heard a voice say, — " * Throw up your hands ! ' " I started up, and there were three men standing round me, all three grey and wrinkled. One of them had a pistol, and the pistol was not two yards from my head. Another chap held a pick, but the pick E 50 Antipodean Notes. he had swung over his shoulder ready to strike me wasn't a regular digger's pick. It had a long shaft and a short, heavy Iron, more like a great pointed hammer. A blow from that pick would kill any man outright. The third fellow had nothing but a shovel. " ' Hand over your gold,' says the man with the shovel. " * You'd better do as he tells yer,^ says the fellow with the pick, ' or you'll be cold meat— soon.' " The third fellow said not a v/ord, but I could see down the barrel of his pistol. I had not much about me: I had left the gold with my chum, though no doubt the fellows knew I'd not been to Sand- hurst on Saturday, and thought I'd got it with me. Fifty pounds in notes was all I had. A man Is bound to have a little change in his pocket, even if he only goes out prospecting. I saw it was no use, so I handed it over. " ' That ain't all,' says the chap with the pick. " * Search him,' says he with the pistol. '* And the third man dropped his spade, and felt in all my pockets, and made me pull my boots off, while the other chaps kept their arms ready for me. But of course they did not find anything more. They were pretty quick. The chap who was search- ing mc kept looking round every now and then, for Antipodean Notes. 51 fear of any one coming. Before he had quite done, I heard the report of a gun. Off they cut, the chap with the money up one side of the valley and the fellows with the arms up the other. As soon as they began running I * coo-ed ' as loud as ever I could, and pulling my boots on, ran after the fellow with the money. And a very strange thing happened. When I coo-ed, the fellow who had fired the gun recognized my voice. He was an old chum of mine, and was shooting pigeons in the bush. Hearing me yell, he looked round, and as I told you, the bush was not thick. You could see some way through it ; and the fellow that had got my money was evidently a stranger, for instead of running to the left into the thick bushes, where he might have got away, he bolted up the hillside, where the gum-trees were wide apart. Soon I could see him stop dead, and he stopped till my friend and I both came up to him. My friend Harry had got his gun at full cock, and he had given a yell, and covered him, so the gentleman with the money had not dared to move. '''I saw it all,' says Harry, keeping his gun against the chap's head. 'Just take your money back. He's got it in his mouth.' " Sure enough, the fellow had the notes between E 2 52 Antipodean Notes. his teeth, and had very nearly bitten a piece out of them in his fright. " ' Now/ Harry said to him, ' down on your knees, ye blackguard.' " The chap knelt down directly. " * You just go for help, Sandy,' Harry went on, * and I'll take care the fellow don't get away.' ** Off I went as hard as my legs could carry me to a bluff not far off, from which I could see the Sandhurst Road. Sure enough, I soon spied a couple of men riding along it, going into town, I suppose, to have a spree. I coo-ed to them, and ran down the hill to meet them, while they galloped across the dry grass to meet me. In two words they understood the matter. One man galloped off for the soldiers, and the other man came back with me. In ten minutes we'd got the thief s hands tied tightly behind his back with one of the reins, and we dragged him to the bluff. " We had not been there very long when we saw a great deal of dust, a mile away at least, towards the township, and we knew what that meant. It was the troopers coming along, but we couldn't see them for the dust until they were quite close. And then everywhere the diggers came out of their tents and claims, like so many rabbits, wondering what brought the soldiers along the Antipodean Notes. 53 road on Sunday. There was a great crowd round us in a very few minutes. " Before we'd time to say a word, our friend steps out and says to the officer, as bold as brass, — " * I've got to complain. Captain, that these fellows have tied my hands most cruelly. See how the strap has cut them.' " * Oh ! ' says the officer, laughing ; * it's you again, is it ? Why you've only been out a fort- night. Corporal Jones, take three men, and walk this chap to Sandhurst Gaol. I'll hear the charge and commit him at once.' " When I'd told my story, Harry told his. He'd seen the three fellows come at me, but he was too far to make out what they were at. He worked down the hill as fast as he could, dodging behind the gum-trees. When he saw me taking off my boots, he understood matters, but, being still a long way out of range, he fired just to frighten them, and when he heard my cooey he knew what was up, and ran to intercept the man with the money, who was coming somewhat towards him. " The same evening the troopers caught the man with the pick ; and both being old offenders, they got five years' penal servitude. But the chap 54 Antipodean Notes. with the pistol got away. That's the nearest squeak I've had in the gold-diggings." I have endeavoured to tell Sandy's story as nearly as possible in his own words. But it is not possible to reproduce his dry humour and his matter-of-fact method. Antipodean Notes. 55 CHAPTER IX. CANTERBURY. The city of Christchurch, in the Middle (or South) Island of New Zealand, was founded, as every one knows, by a party of English gentlemen, of whom Lord Lyttelton was virtually the leader. Fierce controversies raged in England over the scheme, and the newspapers were full of letters from its supporters and opponents. The former maintained that there was nothing illogical, intolerant, nor impracticable in founding a colony to be composed entirely of members of the Church .of England, and to be open to members of that Church only ; they even asserted that their experiment was not a novel one, and quoted the Pilgrim Fathers of the Mayflower as an argument in their favour. Many able persons, however — including several influential men themselves belonging to the State Church — pointed out that a colony of which the first condition was adherence to a particular form of Christianity was foredoomed to failure. Success- ful colonizing, they said, is not, in any case, an easy 56 Antipodean Notes. matter. There are many difficulties to overcome, difficulties which are inherent in the distance from home, in the novelty of the circumstances, in the climate, and in the hardships inseparable from life in a country devoid of any of the appliances of civilization. It requires no small amount of energy and perseverance to overcome these at all ; to select colonists likely to overcome them is no easy task ; why, then, make the task more difficult still by gratuitously introducing a religious disability ? Some of the more vehement adversaries of the plan ridiculed the appointment of a Bishop before an acre was brought into cultivation, or a house erected. They prophesied scoffingly that though the souls of the Christchurch colonists might be saved, their bodies would perish prematurely. They pointed to the long struggles and ultimate defeat of the association which founded the town of Nelson, where the climate was milder, and where a society based on the widest foundation, cramped by no religious rules, but, on the contrary, opening its portals to the best men of all creeds and all nations, failed by reason of its quarrels with the native inhabitants of the South Island, who claimed to be owners in fee simple of huge un- occupied tracts of bush-land they had never cul- tivated, and would never cultivate. If, said the Antipodean Notes. 57 opponents of the Christchurch colony, all the patience and perseverance of the Western colonists could not overcome the difficulties of the situation, how will your party succeed, confined as is your area of selection by religious and social boundaries, and therefore possessing fewer of the qualifications required for the purpose ? But the scheme was carried out, notwithstanding all opposition. And notwithstanding the friendly, and in many cases, perfectly honest warnings, addressed by its opponents to the would-be colonists, the leaders were able to take with them a small but strong body of farmers, mechanics, and labourers, which was further increased by the living cargoes the home committee sent out in successive sailing-ships. At this distance of time, when the controversy which caused much strong language and some ill-feeling has long since died, it must be acknowledged on all sides that the home committee acted with remarkable judgment and prudence in their selection of colonists and of articles of export. It is possible that the original idea was a mistake, and that a state in the An- tipodes to consist of no others except members of the Church of England was an absurdity. But, given the rules which bound the association, no body of men could have been more practised and 58 Antipodean Notes. more business-like. Blunders were committed, no doubt, both in England and New Zealand ; these blunders, however, were far less serious and far less mischievous in their consequence than those which our War Office and our Admiralty commit almost in every foreign campaign which Great Britain undertakes. A generation has now passed, and we can im- partially survey the results of Lord Lyttelton's experiment. Thirty years have shown that its friends and its foes were both right and both wrong. The colony has not been a failure ; on the con- trary, the province of Canterbury and its capital of Christchurch are prosperous and successful. In agriculture, which was originally intended to be the chief occupation of the colonists, Canterbury is still pre-eminent, and its superiority in this respect to any other province of New Zealand is not likely to be contested. The climate has proved to be excellent ; if not quite so perfect as the original colonists supposed, it is, at any rate, incomparable for the production of fine and heavy crops of cereals. The soil is still marvellously productive. But, an the other hand, Canterbury is no longer a province inhabited exclusively by members of the Established Church. The religious disabilities have long since disappeared; education is secular, Antipodean Notes. 59 as in all other parts of New Zealand, and places of worship of every denomination of Christianity, as well as a Jewish synagogue, are now to be found in Christchurch. In fact, a huge stone building has been erected by a powerful dissenting sect within a stone's throw of the Cathedral, which is still un- finished. Therefore, as a strictly religious colony, Canterbury has failed, while in all other respects it has succeeded beyond the most sanguine expecta- tion of its promoters. Yet, even in the religious and educational aspect, the failure has not been so complete as might be supposed. Christchurch is the chief Cathedral of the Colony, and has become the seat of the New Zealand Primate. Its university, now open to all religions, is the leading establishment for higher education — a position it largely owes to the intelli- gent zeal of the original colonists. The secondary schools and colleges of the city are well conducted, and the teaching is excellent. And the rules which confined the first colony to members of the Church of England, though long since abolished, have attracted more members of that Church to the province of Canterbury than to any other part of the islands. The result of this has been social rather than religious. English society, as we un- derstand it, is to be found almost exclusively in 6o Antipodean Notes. this province. At Wellington there is official society, and there are probably far more balls and other entertainments at Wellington than at Christ- church. But nowhere else in New Zealand do we find anything like the same number of represen- tatives of English county families. Yorkshire^ Cheshire, Devonshire, Hampshire, and many others have sent contingents of younger sons. Acland, Ennys, Starkey, Leigh, Bowen, Cotton, Aynsley, Parker, are names well known in Christchurch ; their bearers are merchants, sheep-farmers, or lawyers. They have reproduced near the city the memories of the old country ; the historical names of some of the oldest county mansions are trans- ferred to picturesque wooden houses situated on the lovely willow-clad banks of the Avon, sur- rounded by roses and hydrangeas, now over- shadowed by trees, of which the seeds were brought from England thirty years ago. Here, in drawing- rooms overlooking smooth lawns, you take a cup of afternoon tea ; the surroundings are so home- like that it requires no imagination to fancy yourself within fifty miles of London. The Graphic and the latest magazines strew the tables ; there are Japanese fans and blue China on the walls ; the ladies are dressed as only English ladies can dress; the men come in from cricket in their flannels, or Antipodean Notes. 6i from Christchurch in their town clothes, which differ only from those worn in London by the total absence of the tall hat ; on Sundays the whole family attends the village church, which is as homely and home-like as tall trees and green grass can make a new building. The whole course of life is an almost exact copy of that pursued by an English family at home. 62 Antipodean Notes. CHAPTER X. ABOUT FARMING. Some very severe remarks occasionally appear on globe-trotters' books. The idea that a man who has spent only a few weeks in a country should be able to write anything about it worth reading is scornfully sneered at by certain critics. His observations, they say, must needs be superficial, and he will give his readers very incorrect views of the country. But we are all more or less super- ficial, and the man who goes very deeply into his pet subject bores society, whether he talks or writes books. Of course, one who sits down to write what purports to be a serious work about a country before he has been there a week commits an impertinence ; but a book need not be incor- rect because it is superficial. First impressions are generally more vivid than later ones, and a person just arrived from England will probably be able to convey to his readers a far more life-like picture of the Australian bush than one who has spent years in it. The latter will have forgotten Antipodean Notes. 6t, the effect which was originally produced on his mind, and habit will have made him familiar with what was once startling and strange. The descrip- tion written by the new arrival will no doubt be incomplete, but it need not be incorrect. In a few rough outlines he will, if possessed of any power of word-painting, bring before his readers a fairly accurate sketch, so that they will under- stand what the Australian bush looks like to an Englishman. No doubt it does not look the same to an old colonist ; but then the old colonist will have almost forgotten what our English woods are like, or at any rate, it will require an effort of memory to recall them. That this is a most usual occurrence I can testify by my own observation. More than once I have mentioned the strangeness of certain views, and the weird impression produced on my mind by trees or shrubs in the New Zealand bush, and have called my companions' attention to the striking dissimilarities between the Antipodean forests and those of our own country. In every case where my friend was an old colonist the truth of my remarks was doubted, or acquiesced in without enthusiasm. If, on the other hand, I was accompanied by what is termed a *' new chum " (that is, a man who has recently landed) from Europe, it has nearly always happened that he had 64 Antipodean Notes. made the same observation as myself. Frequently he has anticipated me in expressing it ; still oftener, he has carried the subject on, and pointed out other objects which had escaped me It appears to me, therefore, scarcely fair to condemn in a sweeping manner all who write on short experience. Their descriptions will be less de- tailed, and no doubt less accurate and com- plete, but they are almost always more vivid and picturesque, and therefore to English readers they will convey a more truthful picture. My first impressions of the aspect of Canter- bury, of which province the last chapter contained a brief account, were not entirely favourable. The enormous fields — extending as they often do to a whole block, or 640 acres — the wire fences which separate them, the level plain, the yellow dried-up appearance of the country, exercised a depressing effect. One misses our green hedge- rows, dotted here and there with tall elms ; our copses which break up the monotony of a great stretch of arable land ; our irregular fields, our crooked lanes, and the very decrepitude which characterizes too many of the cottages in rural England. But picturesqueness is not necessary to agricultural prosperity, and the weedless Canter- bury plains would rejoice the heart of the English Antipodean Notes. 65 farmer. Roads at right angles to each other cut up the cultivated land into " blocks," and though large agricultural estates are an exception, there are many landowners in Canterbury who farm several of these huge divisions. Almost every one farms himself. Strange to say, in New Zealand the farmers are the freeholders, while the gentry are only leaseholders. Although this sounds like a paradox, it is true. The sheep-runs, which vary in size from 10,000 to 50,000 and even 100,000 acres, are held on short leases from the Government, which does not alienate the freehold. Now most of the younger members of English county families who have settled in New Zealand have taken to sheep-farming, leaving agriculture to the professional farmer. The fact is, that sheep-farming demands less constant attention and less technical knowledge than agriculture. During the period of shearing and mustering — that is, scouring the boundaries of the run, and driving in the missing sheep — all hands, from the master to the youngest labourer, have to work from sunrise to sunset, and good shearers are in great demand ; but for the rest of the }'ear there is not very much to do, and the run-holder can go into Chi istchurch, pay a visit to Australia, or even take a hurried trip home, without any serious loss ; the farmer, F 66 Antipodean Notes. on the contrary, has to be at work, more or less, all the year round. In the Canterbury plains, which form the chief corn-producing district of New Zealand, the harvest begins in January, and is generally completed before the middle of February. The dearness of labour makes the use of mechanical reapers and binders universal, and they are nowhere so efficient as on these wide, level fields. When I first arrived I looked over a field of 640 acres of wheat, in which I could not detect a single poppy, nor a cornflower, nor any other weed ; and in that whole field there was not a square yard of corn laid by wind or rain. An enthusiastic Scotchman introduced the thistle into Otago many years ago, and in 1878 and subsequently thistles spread to such an extent as to cause the most serious alarm. Fines were imposed upon farmers who did not eradicate them, and still more stringent measures were threatened to stop the plague. But it was soon found that penalties could not be exacted from farmers as long as the uncultivated Government lands, per- haps within a stone's throw, produced unlimited crops of thistles at will. And though I have my-, self seen the air thick with thistledown, which was wafted along by the wind like the curling mist on a mountain-side, the alarm has subsided ; and though Antipodean Notes. ^y the farmers grumble occasionally, all idea of checking Scotland's emblem by law has long been abandoned. It appears that in New Zealand im- ported weeds thrive and increase amazingly for a few years, and then gradually diminish. It is sincerely to be hoped that the same will not be found to happen with useful plants ; but pessimists assert that while ten years ago the peach-trees on the banks of the Thames in the North Island were annually so laden with fruit that the diggers steaming up the river to the goldfields were free to help themselves to as many as they could eat, and even carry away, these same trees now bear but a scanty crop, and that this crop is annually diminishing. Conversations with various farmers and gardeners have, however, convinced me that this, and other similar phenomena, are easily ex- plicable. When first English fruit-trees were introduced, they grew in an amazing manner, and produced such luxuriant crops without attention that most people ceased to devote any trouble to them, and left them to grow untended and un- cared-for. Fruit-trees, however, are all grafted, and therefore artificial products ; they deteriorate rapidly and " hark back " to wildness if neglected. This happens in New Zealand, as everywhere else. Who does not remember some old apple-tree in F 2 6S Antipodean Notes. the corner of an orchard or a field, surrounded by nettles, almost crowded with docks, and covered with moss and lichen ? Such a tree — and there are many in England — produces a scanty supply of small fruit, while its neighbour of the same sort, which has been more fortunate, and is kept free of parasites and weeds, rewards the owner's care by a fine crop of good apples. So I noticed that in the old fruit-gardens near Christchurch — gardens many of which date back thirty years — the peach, plum, apricot, and pear trees were laden with splendid fruit wherever they had been looked after and cared for. Elsewhere, the peaches were small and hard, the pears woody, and plums mostly stones. Another reason is alleged why the fruit of deciduous trees has lately fallen off in the North Island and Nelson. It is said that the trees want rest, and that unless the sap returns to the roots by the influence of winter cold, the latter do not grow and spread in proportion to the stem and branches. In these places there is no frost, and even in Canterbury the cold season is very short. Therefore the roots do not afford the tree sufficient nourishment, and the fruit gradually diminishes in size. But I know too little of practical botany to give any opinion on the validity or otherwise Antipodean Notes. - 69 of this argument. The fertihty of the Canterbury plains is still very great, and I have heard of as much as sixty bushels of wheat to the acre ; hut whether the soil will continue to supply such abundant crops without manure may well be doubted, even though the farmers may observe the rule of rotation more carefully than they do at present. Potatoes, turnips, or artificial grasses take the place of wheat in the following year ; all these have generally done exceedingly well, though the turnips sometimes suffer from want of rain. As to potatoes, it is strange that damp Ireland and dry Canterbury should both produce such excellent crops. These are the only coun- tries in which a plain steamed full-sized potato is fit to eat. The native New Zealand or tussock grass is a coarse, rough plant, and the ground which it covers is often dotted with huge tufts of a darker colour, called " Maori heads." On the plains this is being rapidly displaced by English grasses, but there are still many thousand acres of it, and, on the hill-sides it is only very slowly giving way to imported sorts. It is ugly and yellow, and, except in spring, even after several wet days, its hue is very different from that of an English 70 Antipodean Notes. meadow. Sheep are said to thrive on it well, and its nutritious qualities continue all through the winter, which is severe on the eastern slopes of the hills. But it is far behind English grasses for feeding cattle, and, of course, it cannot be mown. Antipodean Notes. 71 CHAPTER XI. ABOUT MUTTON. Sheep-shearing is the great annual event on a run, and not only are all hands hard at work, but extra assistance is invariably engaged. In Aus- tralia shearinor beg^ins in October • in New Zea- land it is from a month to six weeks later, so that it is sometimes possible for an expert shearer to meet engagements in both countries, and thus double his fees. In Victoria the rate paid is now about 14^'. per hundred sheep, in New Zealand i8j. to 20s. The shearer works single-handed, the sheep being driven up to him in single file, and a good man will sheer from 100 to 120 per day, so that he can earn 60/. or 70/. during the season. I saw a run on which twenty thousand sheep were shorn, and out of this large number very few showed any cuts or scratches, thus proving that the shearers were old hands. Seventy thousand are shorn annually on the largest run in New Zealand, and even more by certain great squatters in Australia. At the Victoria station I visited, an 72 Antipodean Notes. Oxonian and a Cantab were among the shearers. The value of the wool on a sheep varies according to the quality, and even among sheep of the same breed their fleece increases and decreases in value, not alone with the fertility of the various runs, but also in different years. As a rough approximation, 5^. may be taken as the nett value of the fleece in New Zealand, and about 4^. 6d. in Victoria. The selling price of merino wool is far higher per pound than that of other breeds ; but, on the other hand, the long-woolled sheep carries a greater weight. The short herbage of the New Zealand hills appears particularly favourable to the merino sheep, which is gradually displacing the long- woolled animals in the higher runs. It is asserted — but I will not vouch for the truth of the assertion — that on the cold bleak mountain-sides of South Canterbury and Otago the long-woolled sheep, when they are wet, freeze to the ground, and of course die of cold or of starvation. This assertion is quoted in support of the short-woolled merino sheep, to balance which, however, the English prejudice against merino mutton must be con- sidered. Some 33,000 tons of New Zealand frozen meat, representing over 600,000 sheep, were sent to England last year, and the run-owners are Antipodean Notes. 73 clamouring for more ships, though they grumble at the average price of 4id. a pound, which is all their mutton realizes in London. No doubt most of it is retailed by our prosperous friends, the butchers, at from lod. to is. per pound, and called prime Southdown. It is painful to consider what the middle-man absorbs. The owners of the sheep would be glad to ensure a cash selling price of i^d, per pound. The consumer of the mutton in London would be glad to pay 6d. per pound for it. Yet the sheep-owner cannot make sure of getting lid. on his run, and the consumer in England can- not buy meat (except in very rare instances) at anything like 6d. It is, no doubt, expensive to drive the sheep down to Lyttelton or Port Chal- mers, whence the steamers sail, and there is a certain loss of value on the road. Refrigerating the meat is, however, not a very expensive process, and the steamship companies would be glad to freeze and transport for i^d. a pound. Now, assuming the loss and expense of bringing the sheep to the shipping port to be as much as 3^-. a sheep, and of killing, &c., 2s. more, this will scarcely make a difference of id. per pound in the meat, though the figures are far higher than the usual cost. We have, then^ the following items : — 74 Antipodean Notes. Sheep-owner's price i^d. per pound. Drover and Butcher ^d. „ Freezing and transport to England i^d. „ Allow for landing charges, &c ^d. „ Total 3i^. „ The wholesale price in London is from ^\d. to ^d. ; but the English housekeeper pays nearly twice as much. Who thrives on the difference? Surely that individual might give up a proportion of his profits to be divided between the man who has exiled himself at the Antipodes to produce the sheep, and him who pays thrice its real value for the food of his children ? The mountain sheep of New Zealand are grown chiefly for their wool, those of the fat plains chiefly for their meat. The wild mountain sheep are as shy as deer ; they all feed up wind, to scent danger. They are more easily " mustered " than the sheep of the Australian plains, as they are more afraid of the dogs. They have, however, some enemies. The worst is the Kea^ or mountain parrot, a large bird belonging to the genus Nestor. He is brown, shot with green, with a lovely pink under the wings. There is no doubt that this parrot was formerly a vegetarian, like all his species, or fed only on small insects ; but he now too fre- Antipodean Notes. 75 quently settles on the backs of sheep and tears at their skin with his great hooked beak, while the poor animal is making frantic but vain efforts to dislodge him. The Kea picks the fat which sur- rounds the kidneys, and the sheep is thus very quickly killed. Various theories have been started to explain how this parrot has become carnivorous. Dr. Hector maintains that they were formerly in the habit of picking the insects out of what are termed in New Zealand " vegetable sheep " — a species of moss which grows in great tufts or tus- socks, and looks rather like undyed Astracan wool. According to this theory, when the Kea saw the sheep, which somewhat resembled these tussocks, he settled on their backs to pick out insects, and was agreeably surprised to find delicious fat in- stead. Unfortunately for this view, however, it has been discovered that the "vegetable sheep" harbour no insects. Another opinion — one supported by most of the shepherds — is that a Kea first settled by chance on a sheep hung up in the usual way after being killed, and discovering how very savoury was the fat, induced his companions to follow his example. Soon the Keas would watch for a sheep to be killed, and then at once fly to the wooden gallows to which the carcase is hung. From watching the 76 Antipodean Notes. butcher to becoming a butcher oneself is not a very long step for so intelligent a bird as the parrot, and fat is so invariably attractive to all animals bred at great heights, and in cold climates, that the theory, though apparently wild, is not quite improbable. In Australia large numbers of sheep perish by drought ; in New Zealand this cause of loss to run- holders is unknown. A few perish from cold, or in the snow-drifts, during very severe winters ; some stray into the wild passes of the mountains, and are lost ; and occasionally one falls over a precipice, in which case several more generally jump after him. But the total loss by all these accidents is barely 5 per cent. Ten per cent, are missed at the shearing, but half the missing ones are recovered before the end of the summer, some with wool nearly a foot long, proving that they have been absent more than one season. I cannot better close this chapter than by relating what a New Zealand hill hotel-keeper and butcher told me : — " I buy a sheep," said he, " for 6s. 6d. I sell the meat for \d. a pound to the road-men, and use the rest in my hotel. The meat brings me in 25.?., and I get the tallow and skin besides. You say that's 400 per cent, profit ? Well, perhaps so ; Antipodean Notes. jj but a sovereign is not too much to make by a sheep." It takes half an hour to kill, flay, and cut up a sheep, so my Colonial friend is not, in his opinion of a fair profit, far behind those of the same trade in England. yS Antipodean Notes. CHAPTER XII. FREEZING. Sheep are frozen in several different places in New Zealand, but the process is everywhere the same. At Belfast, a few miles north of Christchurch, 15,000 are often slaughtered and frozen for one steamer to England. Shambles on so huge a scale, with the sights and smells usually attendant on shambles, are not exactly considered pleasant establishments to visit ; but at Belfast the repulsive features of the process are reduced to a minimum. The flocks of sheep are consigned to the company owning the freezing establishment, which is erected in an open plain near the railway, and connected with it by a siding. They are first penned ; but there are large paddocks available for such sheep as cannot at once be slaughtered. When their turn arrives, the sheep are driven in twos or threes (according to the number of butchers employed) across a short narrow bridge into the slaughter-house, where they are seized, hung up, and slaughtered as fast as they enter it. Each carcase hangs on a hook, which Antipodean Notes. 79 hook is attached to a pulley or grooved roller running along an iron bar under the roof of the shed. Similar iron bars are laid in every direction, so that by merely pushing the carcase lightly it can be rapidly transferred to any part of the slaughter- house ; in fact, they answer the purpose of a miniature railway, to which the goods are sus- pended instead of being carried on it. The floor of the slaughter-house and of the large adjoining space where the sheep are flayed and the offal removed, is laid in cement, over which are wooden gratings like those on board ships; water flows continuously over the floor, and drains ofl" into a large sewer. As fast as a sheep is dressed — that is, skinned and cleaned — the skins are removed in one direction, and the offal on little tram-barrows in another ; the latter are taken to the boiling- down house, on the opposite side of the road, where tallow is made, and this is the only part of the whole establishment where the smell is decidedly unpleasant. A soap and a chemical factory, within a few hundred yards, take away the portions of the sheep not required for freezing ; and these* places should not be visited by any one with sensitive nostrils. He will do better to follow the sheep, for a short distance at least, on its way to the London market. When dressed and hanging to its hook, So Antipodean Notes. each carcase is examined by an expert, and if one be found showing any sign of disease, injury, or even a bruise, it is at once rejected, and. this examination is far more severe than any inspection in England, for meat which is not quite of prime quality, though thoroughly healthy, is not frozen, but sold to the local butcher, while the unhealthy meat goes to the boiling-down shed. When the medical inspection is over, a sack is drawn over each carcase and carefully closed, and it then passes into the first or cooling-chamber,, where the temperature varies from 32 degrees to 40 degrees, according to the season, being, of course, higher in summer than in winter. This, like all the freezing- chambers, is constructed of concrete, and com- pletely excluded from the outer air and light ; a heavy double door gives access to it, and when the men are at work the electric light is turned on. The sheep are left in this twenty-four to forty-eight hours, according to circumstances, and are then transferred to the first freezing-chamber, where the temperature is about 10 degrees below freezing- point, and from this again to the last one, where the air is still colder — down to about zero Fahren- heit. Huge admirably-constructed steam-engines drive the condensing and expanding machines which cause the extreme cold, and which are Antipodean Notes. 8i being improved on as every successive one is made. It is curious to observe in the warm engine-room how one cylinder is so hot that one cannot touch it, while eighteen inches further the large pipes are surrounded with a coating of frost, and long icicles hang from the joints. The cold air is turned into or shut off from the cooling and freezing-chambers, as required, by an ingenious system of tubing and valves ; and when the process of freezing is com- pleted, such sheep as are not immediately removed are transferred to the store, where there is hanging space for 10,000 sheep, and the temperature is about the same as in the first freezing-chamber. By this time the sacks are frozen to the sheep in one solid mass, and the carcases are as hard throughout as a stone. Air-tight railway waggons are then run up alongside a platform opposite to the sliding-doors of the store, and the carcases are quickly transferred to them. When a train of such waggons is ready, it steams off to Lyttelton, where the great steamer is lying alongside the pier, and the sheep are at once placed in the cold chambers, where they will remain until they reach London. Some slight exposure to the outer air is unavoidable while the carcases are being trans- ferred from store to railway-truck, and from truck G 82 Antipodean Notes. to ship ; but they are so thoroughly frozen that they receive no injury. The trucks are constructed with double sides, ice being tightly packed between the two, so that each truck is itself a cold chamber. The ice is, of course, supplied at Belfast, where each freezing-chamber contains flat tanks for the purpose. As many as 35,000 sheep are sometimes brought home in one steam-vessel ; and the arrival of two such vessels in one week, besides, perhaps, one or two more wiih a similar quantity from the River Plate, is certainly not calculated to keep up the price of frozen mutton in England. Except in London, there are, I believe, no "cold chambers" in this country where the carcases can be stored, and whence they can be drawn as they are wanted ; and the arrival of so large a number as 60,000 sheep at once makes it necessary to sell most of them off for immediate consumption. If the poor consumers obtained the advantage of the low price thus caused, there would be no reason to grumble; but, unfortunately, this is seldom the case. Much of the New Zealand mutton is sold as English by the butchers, who ask for and obtain English prices for it. The sheep-farmers in the Colony and the public here are equal sufferers by the extremely powerful " ring " which keeps down the price of Antipodean Notes. 83 frozen meat, and keeps up the price of meat sold by- retail. Plence our ingenuity should contrive some combination by which this "ring" can be broken up ; hitherto all efforts have been useless. It is related that a few New Zealand shippers com- bined to construct an auxiliary frozen-meat store in Liverpool, whence certain butchers, whom they started in business, would draw their daily supplies as required. For a few days this, answered, as the poor people could buy excellent meat at these new shops for 2d, a pound less than elsewhere. It was, of course, sold as New Zealand mutton. But as soon as the " ring '^ of meat salesmen and butchers found out what was going on, the old-established shops in the poorer quarters of the town began to exhibit hideous pieces of discoloured meat, labelled *' New Zealand mutton, only 4^. per pound." In some cases, it is said, the " ring " actually started shops next to those opened by the company, for no other purpose than to discredit the meat sold by the latter, by an exhibition of offal and garbage labelled as Colonial mutton. The customers, of course, at once returned to English, or alleged English, mutton, and the experiment proved a complete failure. Yet might it still be possible to renew it on a larger scale, and to succeed, providing the capital available were sufficient. G 2 84 Antipodean Notes. Still larger than the establishment at Belfast is that near Napier, belonging to Messrs. Nelson Brothers, whose name is also well known in England and South America in connection with the trade. These gentlemen have under their own control the many manufactures subsidiary to the slaughter and freezing-houses, and their works have increased enormously since they were first started a few years ago. Antipodean Notes. 85 CHAPTER XIII. HOTELS AND SHOPS. There is one very serious drawback to travelling" in Australia and New Zealand — the very poor ac- commodation offered by the hotels. This affects ladies far more than men, for Clubs have been established in all the larger towns, which open their doors wide to every stranger who has any sort of introduction. Society in the Colonies — and by society I mean the social fabric, and not the class privileged to attend her Majesty's Drawing-rooms — is based on a thoroughly demo- cratic foundation; the working man and the working woman form not only the great majority, which is the case everywhere else, but they also possess a power at least proportionate to their numbers. It takes some time for a new arrival to understand the full results of this undoubted fact. They appear quite new and strange to one from the Old World. Ladies and gentlemen arriving from Europe will no longer find the chief social arrangements contrived for their own conve- S6 Antipodean Notes. nience and comfort, the working classes being; considered and provided for by a secondary and less comprehensive system. Here it is precisely the reverse. In England, and in Europe generally, the shops and hotels strive primarily for the custom of the highest and professional classes. Arrangements are made almost universally with a view of pleasing the richest people first of all, and of giving those who are willing to pay for special comforts every luxury of food, wine, attendance, privacy, and transport. Not the hotels only, but the shops aim in the first instance at supplying what the wealthier customers demand ; and the value of a business in a "poor neighbourhood " is very much smaller, and the social standing of the purveyor to the working classes very much lower than the corresponding value and standing of a business and a tradesman supplying wealthier persons. There are special workmen's trains, third-class carriages in all trains, coffee palaces for workmen, special inns for work- men ; but all these are comparatively modern ideas in Europe, and are new growths in the social system. To please and satisfy the well-to-do is still the object of all hotel-keepers gut se respectent^ of the great majority of tradesmen, of the railway companies, of the livery-stable keepers, of the Antipodean Notes. 87 principal newspapers and magazines. Those who cannot afford the very best must take the next best, but strive to be treated as well as the wealthiest ; hence the standard of comfort and luxury is steadily increasing all over England and most parts of Europe. In the Australasian Colonies, on the contrary, the social arrangements are con- trived entirely for the working man. Here the working man and woman need not be satisfied with third-rate accommodation, nor seek cheap shops in " poor neighbourhoods," nor start by early trains in the dull, dark mornings, nor avoid the brilliant hotels or the solid family inns erected for their wealthier neighbours. Here the working man is the master. The hotels are built and managed for him ; the trains are run to suit his convenience ; the shops aim at supplying his wants ; the hours and all the social arrangements are bent to conform to his views. The person who asks for special comforts, the one who demands superior wares, who wishes for private rooms and exclusive attend- ance, is " left out in the cold." He or she must conform to the customs which have been intro- duced to satisfy the labouring class. He or she must eat and drink what suits the uneducated palate of the British ploughboy's son, who is, indeed, no longer a ploughboy, but has not yet 88 Antipodean Notes. acquired refined tastes with the improvement of his position. There are not a dozen hotels in the whole of Australasia where any provision is made for those who desire, and are willing to pay for, something better, quieter, and more comfortable than satisfies the working man. The latter asks for no privacy, and is quite satisfied if he is sup- plied with the most limited accommodation. A tiny bedroom, where the provision for ablutions is of the scantiest, and brush and comb are en per- manence^ is all he requires. It is separated from the next apartment by the thinnest partition, and every word is audible, not only from this, but from all the cabins along the passage. Why not } The working man sleeps like a log, and nothing short of an earthquake wakes him. He attends on him- self, though in one respect Australasia is ahead of America, for in most hotels it is possible to get one's boots cleaned without being obliged to stand in the bar in public and pay ten cents for the privilege. Breakfast is generally at half-past seven ; in large towns at eight. Dinner, which in the large centres is called lunch to please the visitor who gives himself airs, is at half-past twelve or one ; tea at six. These meals are all discussed in public, and travellers by a private conveyance will find their driver, and the hotel boots, and the Antipodean Notes. 89 local barber, and the ostler with the game leg from over the way, and a couple of bushmen who have left their bill-hooks in the umbrella-stand, all breakfasting, dining, or tea-ing with him. Private room ? Oh, yes. In larger towns you can have one ; but no one will guarantee the room from the intrusion of bagmen with their patterns, or prospec- tors with their bags of samples. And as to having breakfast or dinner in a private sitting-room, even a Cabinet Minister on tour, whose position compels him to seek retirement occasionally to avoid being mobbed by petitioners, can scarcely expect any attendance at all, and risks starvation. The shops cater almost entirely for the working man. If you ask for anything of decent quality, you are told — civilly enough — that there is no demand for such good articles, and that it does not pay to import or produce them, as the case may be. In New Zealand there are now several very successful wool factories, and the excellence of the Colonial cloth is gradually driving English slop- made garments out of the market. But linen, boots and shoes, and a hundred other articles of daily use exported from England, are all, or nearly all, of the cheapest and poorest description. Any- thing is considered good enough for the Colonies, and the demand for something better is so small 90 Antipodean Notes. that no one provides any stock. There are, of course, a few exceptions. In Melbourne, in Sydney, in Christchurch, there are a few shops which profess to supply the wants of more critical and wealthier customers, and in the first-named city they really do so. But in the immense majority — in nearly all — there is a collection of goods which an English general dealer in a poor neighbourhood would despise. Bad material, bad taste, bad work- manship, are all but universal. Thanks to their protective duties, Victoria and New Zealand are striking out successfully in several branches of manufacture ; but the judgment and taste of the majority cf buyers are not critical, and there is no lofty standard as in Europe ; no endeavour to improve the quality of goods or of comfort, since the purchasers are satisfied with what they obtain, whether at hotels or at shops. Antipodean Notes. 91 CHAPTER XIV. THE WORKING MAN IN NEW ZEALAND. Something has already been said of the outward results of democracy in Victoria, where, however, my stay was far too short for me to be able to form an opinion of its real effects on the present and future of the Colony. In New Zealand my opportunities of studying the subject were numerous, and I endeavoured to make the best use of them. One of the first conclusions to which the visitor from England must come, is that a real democracy is not an economical government Retrench- ment, which has been so often tried as a watch- word in England, is not a popular cry. It may be remembered that in his celebrated Greenwich speech, twelve years ago, Mr. Gladstone promised his constituents a reduction of a penny in the income-tax if he were returned to power. Many intelligent people thought that this offer would not fail to succeed. But they were wrong. Although the Conservatives promised no reduction of taxa- 92 Antipodean Notes. tion, they obtained a larger majority than they had had for a generation. This was, perhaps, the first example in England of how little the poorer classes (now called the " masses ") care for re- trenchment. Previously, the franchise had been too limited for a fair test of the experiment. Quite recently again, Lord Randolph Churchill resigned his seat in the Cabinet because the Government declined to reduce expenses to the extent which he considered necessary. Again, many politicians thought that now we have almost universal suffrage, Achilles retiring to his tent would take with him the popular sympathy. Again this forecast proved mistaken ; after a few days of talk Lord Randolph's economical plans were forgotten by the people. Theoretically it would, indeed, appear unreason- able to expect a policy of retrenchment to become popular among the great body of the people, of whom the majority pay no direct taxes. Obviously all modern taxes must be felt more by persons who have money of their own to spend than by those who earn a daily wage. The working man pays no income-tax at all ; why then should he support a minister who promises to reduce it ? Duties on articles of daily consumption will, of course, in reality, press more hardly on the man of Antipodean Notes. 93 small and uncertain income than on those pos- sessing ample means ; but the tendency of all modern taxation is to reduce the burden on such goods, while taxing luxuries more heavily than before. The masses, therefore, are not so sensitive to an increase of duties as the "classes," and though political economists may assure them that on every pot of beer they drink a halfpenny goes to the State, and that this is far too great a pro- portion of the value, yet they are quite intelligent enough to see that if the cost of licences and the taxes which fall on brewers were diminished, they would probably not obtain their pot of beer a farthing cheaper, but the difference would go to the middleman. The question of the abolition of the London coal duties is another example of how little working men are affected even by a tax on so necessary an article as fuel. It was con- clusively shown that their abolition would not affect the retail purchaser of a hundredweight or less, and probably nine London voters out of ten buy their coal in this way. Politicians, who may still believe that the *' masses " are free-traders and economists, should spend a few months in New Zealand. There the working man is omnipotent ; he not only wields political power, as he does in England, but he can 94 Antipodean Notes. give his wishes expression far more directly than in the old country. He is far better off; he need not fear want of food and lodging; even if he be out of work, he knows that neither he nor his children will starve ; and he can make his way to the private room of any minister almost whenever he chooses. His short hours of work and numerous holidays give him ample opportunities of reading and talking about politics ; and the Road Boards, School Boards, and Vestries, in this large but sparsely-populated country_, supply openings for his eloquence and for his business qualities, if he pos- sesses either. While the incomes earned by clerks, small shopkeepers, and even professional men do not exceed, and often fall short of, what they would earn in England, the mechanic or the labourer can make in a day enough to keep him for a week. His political and social importance, in proportion to the rest of the population, is far greater than at home. In short, the working man in New Zealand may, without the least exagge- ration, be said to sway the destinies of the Colony. How does he use his power } Is economy the special characteristic of the Government which he makes and unmakes, as it pleases him ? Accord- ing to some theorists there should be no jobbery, Antipodean Notes. 95 no sinecures, in New Zealand ; trade should be free, and the revenue raised by direct taxation ; the administration should be careful and efficient ; there should be no waste of public money ; the best man should always be selected for every office ; and if, by chance, an abuse or a grievance arose, it should be at once redressed and justice be done. Roads, railways, education, and all the depart- ments of the State should be as good as they can be made. No one, however democratic be his opinions, can assert that these questions can be answered in the affirmative. At any rate, economy has hitherto been conspicuous only for its absence. Recent ministers have tried their very utmost to reduce expenditure, but the working man has stood in the way. This sounds a bold assertion, but even a brief examination will prove its truth. It is under pressure from the various local representative bodies that the Government has constructed many miles of unproductive railways. It is the same pressure which has caused them to undertake, or to assist, harbour works in several places where they can be of no benefit whatever to the country at large, and only a burden on the taxpayer and the local ratepayer. It is the clamour of the working 96 ' Antipodean Notes. men, either through their representatives or directly, which prevents the Government from conducting the railways in the most economical method. The discharge of workmen or of smaller employes is at once a signal for an outburst of dissatisfaction which no Colonial Government can afford to dis- regard. The working men do not object to an increase of taxation or of local rates, providing they can meanwhile obtain employment at wages varying from 6s. to los. per day. The colonial workman is not a man to abandon a claim for immediate and remunerative labour in order to diminish a burden in the remote future. In this respect he acts like the Englishman or the French- man. Here or there one may be found who pro- fesses himself an enemy to capital, as does his brother in Europe ; but the preachers of socialistic doctrines in New Zealand are very few, because the colonials know that more capital means more work at high wages. Every group of men urge their member to demand a vote of money to be spent in the district ; if the member refused, he would lose his seat, and the result is that " claims " of all sorts, mostly of an utterly extravagant nature, are pressed on the Government. The member for A obtains the votes of the members for B, C, D (and all through the alphabet), in favour Antipodean Notes. 97 of his demand for an expenditure of public money at A ; later on, when B's turn comes, A and the rest of the alphabet will support the claim of the district B to a road, a magnificent schoolhouse, or a breakwater. It is in this way that the address to Mr. Gladstone congratulating him on his Irish Home Rule policy was obtained. A member, whose name it would not be fair to mention, was asked by the small group of Irishmen in the House of Representatives to support the address in ques- tion. He indignantly refused. It was intimated to him shortly afterwards by an intermediary, that his Bill for conferring certain benefits on the district which he represented would be obstructed at every stage. The member remained firm, and his Bill had to be dropped ; but many other members gave way for the sake of their constituents, and the address to Mr. Gladstone was thus carried by a considerable majority. There are, however, two practical checks on un- limited expenditure in this democratic community. One is the good sense of the ministers, who, under the sternest sense of duty, often brave the popular clamour, and retrench wherever they can ; and the other is the knowledge which is gradually spread- ing, even among non-taxpayers, that the tax- payers will not bear any further burden for interest H 98 Antipodean Notes. on new loans. Even the working man begins to find out that no country can borrow indefinitely^ and that in the opinion of England, whence the capital comes, New Zealand has, for the present, borrowed enough. She can now pay the interest on her loans without any real difficulty whatever ; and this the electors in the Colony know far better than a certain casual English visitor, who, after remaining in the North Island a few days, enun- ciated the opinion that the resources of the country were exhausted, and was able to scatter that opinion broadcast through his distinguished literary ability. Far from this opinion being correct, the resources of the Colony are in fact scarcely even seriously tapped ; but what it now requires is remunerative and not unremunerative expenditure ; judicious development of the country's productions and in- dustries, and not a succession of votes for objects, some useful, some more than useless, passed in deference to the loud demands of labour. The railways, now a mere political machine, must be worked as a business undertaking, and the working man will have to submit, as he has already sub- mitted in almost every country m the world, to a fall in the rate of wages. Nt) more unpalatable sentence could be written by an author ; it would, elsewhere, probably expose him to be stoned if he Antipodean Notes. 99 ventured among the men thus spoken of; but in' New Zealand there is no such danger. The work- ing man does not care about the gross flattery of his class, which is usual in England ; he despises the flatterer. He would hear a home-truth with patience, and would argue with the man who tells it, and respect him. He reads far more than in England, and he reads not democratic newspapers only, but plenty of less flimsy productions. He may read these lines ; their writer trusts that he will. If so, let him lay them to heart. The wages of the labourer cannot continue at their present level in New Zealand. They are abnormally high in proportion to the cost of living ; so high that production is largely diminished. There are hun- dreds of people in good circumstances who would willingly employ a gardener or a groom, or both, if they were not obliged to pay them at an impos- sible rate. The very factories which the working men wish to galvanize into life by prohibitive duties, would flourish either with a very small measure of protection or without any at all, if the wages paid to the hands were lower. A very large number of persons are deterred from building new houses or adding to old ones, by the cost of labour, and remain grumblingly discontented with narrow and insufficient quarters. There are many road« H 2 100 Antipodean Notes. over which the communication would be improved and cheapened if the cost of thoroughly repairing them were not prohibitive ; in short, it would be easy to multiply instances, all tending to prove that a fall in wages would certainly benefit the whole body of working men, though it might, of course, diminish the earnings of a few individuals for the time. One argument which might certainly reach the working man is that, as soon as wages in New Zealand fall, the competition for them will diminish ; there will be less immigration into the Colony, and the temptation to employ the China- man rather than the European will disappear. Something has been said of the means by which votes are often obtained in the New Zealand House of Representatives, and this method is not by any means confined to New Zealand. It was, I believe, first introduced from America, and it is painful to contemplate the possibility of our Colo- nial legislatures drifting into a position similar to that of the State legislatures in that great country, where a politician is too often considered unfit for decent society. In another British Colony, which it is not necessary to name, there is a well-known and exclusive club. To this club there has be- longed for many years a gentleman whom we will call A. Not long ago Mr. A. proposed his friend. Antipodean Notes. ioi Mr. B. — a comparatively young man — for election. B. was black-balled by the committee, upon which Mr. A. was extremely angry, and asked for an explanation. "Why," said one of his friends, a committee-man, " you see B. is a member of the House^ and we really must draw the line somezvhereP "But/' exclaimed A., "/am a member of the House." " Yes, so you are, worse luck," replied his friend ; " but you were elected to the House after you had joined the club. If you had been in the House when first you put up for the club, you would probably have been black-balled too. We cannot yet expel a man for being a member of the House y but 710 doubt we shall be obliged to do so soon ! " 102 Antipodean Notes. CHAPTER XV. ] MAORIS. The next generation will hardly know the mori- bund race which formerly held the two great islands. In England the impression prevailed for many years, particularly in Exeter Hall circles, that the Maoris occupied the country and lived in barbarous but peaceful prosperity till they were rudely disturbed by greedy traders ; that the missionaries, if they had only been left alone and not been interfered with by rude soldiers and land-hungry emigrants, would have gradually con- verted all the natives to Christianity, and have established in New Zealand a thriving and happy community. As a matter of fact, the Maoris never occupied the islands in the ordinary sense of the term. They toiled not, neither did they spin. They fished and hunted for a bare subsistence ; when they required a little change of diet they made war on each other, and ate " long pig " or were eaten. They were few in number, their " pahs " or settlements dotted at wide intervals on Antipodean Notes. 103 bays of the sea-coast or estuaries. Property in land was unknown, because there was a thousand times as much land as they wanted, and they could make no use of it. They sold many square miles to the settlers for goods of trifling value — and the settlers were accused of swindling the untutored Indian. But to the Maori the land had no value ; he was too lazy to clear it, and too ignorant to cultivate it, and he did not care about its fruits when he had them. It was, of course, a great pity that alcohol and other almost equally mischievous results of civilization were introduced into Maori-land. But this is one of the inevitable consequences of colonization. " You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs," say the French ; " you can't make war with kid gloves on," say the Germans ; and ''you can't colonize without poison- ing the natives,'' might be said by tho English. There are now less than 40,000 Maoris left ; in the earliest times there may have been 100,000, but these were never half enough, nor a quarter enough, to clear or settle the whole country in the very roughest style, even had they chosen to work. Had missionary efforts succeeded, and our enterprising emigrants lost the result of their energy and their bargains, the natives would have been quite unable to make anything of the country. 104 Antipodean Notes. There are 600,000 Europeans in New Zealand now, and the islands could feed and clothe ten times the number. There are still mil- lions of acres of land waiting for the hand of man to make them fruitful ; they will gradually be brought under the plough or spade. Had the missionary view prevailed, the whole country would still be dense bush or' scrubby, swampy plain, except the Akaroa Peninsula, which the French were about to occupy. Our flag was hoisted only a few hours before the French Admiral arrived with orders to annex the country. But the disappointment at the substitution of civil and military authority for that of the Church was more than the missionary could bear, and for years a war was carried on by humanitarians on behalf of the ill-used natives^ whom the settlers had deprived of their rights. They contended that a miserable remnant of a tribe, which wan- dered over a thousand square miles, possessed the fee-simple of the whole area, and that no colonists should venture to build a house and plant a garden on a spot which, at some remote period past or future, a Maori might take a fancy to camp on for a night. Only in Nelson did this contention succeed ; here the progress of the young settle- ment was effectually checked, and the early Antipodean Notes. 105 colonists were ruined. Nelson has stagnated ever since. Elsewhere wiser counsels prevailed, al- though onerous terms were imposed on the finances of the young Colony to compensate the unfortunate natives for the losses they had sustained — losses they were themselves very willing to exaggerate as soon as they understood that they were con- sidered to be victims. There are now " Native Reserves " in both islands, the increasing re- venues from which are administered by a minister for the benefit of the various tribes in- terested, who are yet tacitly acknowledged by everybody to be as unable to look after their own property as children or lunatics. Every schoolboy knows that the Maoris were cannibals, like the inhabitants of so many islands in the Pacific. In the incessant wars which the tribes waged against each other the prisoners were nearly always roasted and eaten by the captors. Yet these cannibals possessed notions of honour and gallantry which were certainly loftier than any European ideas of chivalry. Before our settle- ments were placed under proper authority, and when there were only a few trading-posts in the North Island which supplied the natives with muskets, powder, and rum, one of the most sanguinary of these furious struggles broke out io6 Antipodean Notes. between two important tribes. Toward, its close one tribe was besieged in its fortified pah^ or village, by the other. The pah was not entirely- surrounded, so the fight was rather an attack on a fortified camp than a regular siege. The attack- ing party had kept up a vigorous fusillade for many days, to which the besieged replied. At last, ons morning the fire of the former slackened, and then ceased entirely, but the Maoris in the pah could see that their enemies had not retreated. Wishing to know the cause of their unusual be- haviour, the chief of the village sent out a herald under a flag of truce, and was informed that the besiegers had expended all their ammunition, and could not renew the attack until more powder and ball arrived from the European settlement, for poisoned arrows were by that time quite out of fashion, and regarded as useless in war. An Euro- pean commander would, of course, have taken advantage of the circumstances to attack the be- siegers, but the Maoris do not adopt our principle that "all is fair in war." The chief of -the pah immediately said, " If they have no powder, how can they fight } We will wait till it comes before we begin shooting again." And all his followers acquiesced in the decision. It is painful to be obliged to add that this generosity was not re- warded. When the expected ammunition at last Antipodean Notes. 107 arrived the pahv^diS, stormed, and the great-hearted defenders were mostly eaten. The rising generation of Maoris, few in number, has been brought up under a settled government, and the young men have no desire to exchange the comparative luxury of their present lives for the privations and continual struggles of their warlike forefathers. They are all Christians, and if the Christian religion has not, as some missionaries would wish us to believe, made them much better than the average European, it has at any rate softened and humanized their natures. Whether the " untutored Indian," with all his cannibalism and savagery, was not a far more interesting creature than the lazy, drunken, and generally useless civilized Maori, is a question on which it is unnecessary to enter. But there are favourable exceptions to the average of useless- ness. One of the present members of the House of Representatives, who, with three others, repre- sents the small remnant of the native inhabitants, is highly educated, intelligent, and even eloquent ; his speech in May, 1887, on the question of ad- mitting women to the House, was by far the most brilliant and entertaining of a debate in which many colonial legislators soared above the ordi- nary level of dull mediocrity. But within the last fifteen years many chiefs were walking about in io8 Antipodean Notes. European garments, and eating occasionally at European tables, whose youth, and even middle age, had been spent in the bush^ and who had scarcely forgotten the flavour of " long pig." One of these, attired in the regulation dress-suit and white tie, was dining at Government House. At this time it was the fashion in New Zealand to place the dessert in the centre of the table, and to flank it by dishes of cold sweets on either side, while the e^ttrees and other hot dishes were handed round. Our chief was seated behind one of those fanciful spherical puddings, covered all over with projecting almonds, and surrounded by a sauce, termed, I believe, a "trifle." On this he gazed with much and ever-increasing curiosity. The governor's servants poured out champagne freely, and as the wine rose to his head, his interest in the porcupine-like dish increased. He glared at it furiously ; made faces at it, and paid no attention to the conversation which went on around him. At last, under the influence of the wine, the savage instincts became irrepressible. Taking up a knife, he shouted in Maori, " I must kill him ! " and, to the great amusement of his neighbours, he violently jobbed the unfortunate pudding several times, and then devoured what he took to be a strange beast in a few mouthfuls. Antipodean Notes. ' 109 CHAPTER XVI. RACEHORSES. There has recently been some discussion in English sporting papers on the comparative merits of our own racehorses and of their cousins of Australian parentage. Colonists have claimed the superiority, alleging that the time test is the only true one, and that the Australian thoroughbred must be fleeter than ours because the time in which a mile and a half has been done in Australia is shorter than that of any English Derby. Australians further contend that their whole system is superior to ours, and that their climate not only favours the early development of thoroughbred stock, but is also favourable to stamina and wind. In this discussion New Zealand horses have scarcely been mentioned. It will therefore probably be a surprise to most of our readers — even to those who take a deep and intelligent interest in one of England's noblest productions — to learn that the thoroughbred of New Zealand is at least as fast and quite as good a stayer as the Australian. Only a few months no Antipodean Notes. ago two horses were sent over from the Middle Island to bid for the great Australian prizes. They were Nelson, an aged horse, whose sire is King Cole ; and Maxim, a two-year-old son of Musket. Although Nelson was beaten by a head for the Australian Cup — a handicap in which he carried top weight — he was successful in several other minor encounters against the best Australian blood, and Maxim proved himself a marvellous youngster. We may therefore safely consider the best horses of the three Colonies — New South Wales, Victoria, and New Zealand — to be about equal. Now, there is no doubt that the English time record has been beaten over and over again on this side of the world. On the Christchurch course I saw Maxim win the Champagne Stakes of three- quarters of a mile in exactly i min. 15 sec. ; and although no doubt Maxim is a first-class horse, he cannot be within four pounds of Trident. The comparison over longer distances is still more in favour in the Colonies. Are, then, the Antipodean horses really faster than our own, and would Ormonde, if exported, be a mere plater, unable to win more than an occasional " up-country " race ? Have the new countries beaten us in horse-breeding, as in agricultural products ? With all respect to the patriotic opinions of Antipodean Notes. hi Colonial trainers and breeders, I doubt whether even the unrivalled climate of New Zealand and the astonishing spring pastures of New South Wales have yet produced a horse equal to Ormonde, or Isonomy, or even Barcaldine. It is true that the Colonies can show finer wheat, finer fruit, and finer flowers than the old country, where the soil would have long since been entirely exhausted were it not for artificial stimulants. But climate is only one element, and a comparatively small one, in the factors which go to make up the sinews of a race- horse. Our English pastures are not so rich in the spring, but they are far more perennial than those of the Antipodes ; our turf is more springy, our hay more savoury and more nourishing. The short winter and the heat of Australia may — as they undoubtedly do — help on the growth of a colt, wherefore an Australian two-year-old at the beginning of the season may be as advanced as an English one in August ; and the same may apply to three-year-olds and older horses in a constantly lessening ratio, until at six years the difference disappears. This is all that I can concede, and even this detracts somewhat from the value of the mere time test. There is, however, another far more important reason why the time test is falla- cious. There is scarcely a single level racecourse 112 Antipodean Notes. in England, while there is none of any importance in the Colonies which is otherwise than level. In Australia and New Zealand the competitors in a race have no hills to climb up, no danger to fear from galloping down them. On a course like that of the Derby at Epsom the loss of speed must be very considerable, and three or four seconds on two minutes forty-five seconds only means about two per cent. Most of the Colonial racecourses are not only quite level, but the " corners " are not corners, being easy curves, by which an element of danger is removed and speed promoted. Again, the summer in Australia, in Auckland, and in Canterbury is invariably dry, and nine races out of ten are run on ground which we should call " hard as nails." The difference between racing in mud and racing over a firm surface is very great ; trying the same horse over the same course, I have found it to be about two and a half seconds per mile. Lastly, there may be another reason why Colonial horses make better time. They nearly always run without plates. It is nonsense to assert (as was said a few months ago in a London sporting paper) that the Stewards would not allow an owner to run a horse with plates on ; but it is certainly almost the invariable custom to remove the shoes before a race. The horse carries so much less weight, but Antipodean Notes. 113 that he should be able thus to gallop over ground hard as bricks without knocking his feet to pieces speaks well for Colonial soundness. A forge is attached to every saddling-paddock, and the smiths are at work all day. I looked everywhere for the ambulance department which, as has also been alleged in an English paper, is installed on Colonial racecourses, but I was not successful in finding one. Unfortunately, a surgeon's services are required far too often. It appears to me that, notwithstanding the excellence of the arrangements and the comparative absence of noisy, hustling crowds, accidents to jockeys are more frequent than in England, if the lesser number of races and horses be considered. The "obstacles" are modelled on English Grand National Hunt Rules, and, though stiff and formidable enough, do not appear any worse than those which our horses take, and take generally without a mistake. This, though a weaker argument, also tells against the alleged superiority of the Colonial horse. But if the average quality of the competitors at the Antipodes is not quite equal to Derby form, everything else pertaining to racing, to the comfort of the mere spectator, or of the betting man, to the convenience of owner and visitor, of trainer and trained, is far superior to what we have in England I 114 Antipodean Notes. Only Sandown, Kempton, and Goodwood in old times can even be mentioned in comparison to the racecourse, say, of the Canterbury Jockey Club. The chief difference between a racecourse in New Zealand and one in England is the absence of the rowdy element. There is no noisy crowd, although sightseers are numerous enough ; there is no pushing, hustling, and shouting ; there are few Aunt Sally's, and no thimble rigs. The three-card trick is not practised. Every one can see the races for a small fee, and there is ample space for all. People in England will at once exclaim that this is merely a natural consequence of the sparse population of the Colony ; and no doubt to a certain extent this is true, but only to a moderate extent, for while in England the fraction of the population which attends even the so-called ''classic" races is, after all, but a very small one, in New Zealand every one goes, and I have not yet come across any section of the community which objects to racing on principle. I attribute the comfort and good order of the race- courses here to the almost entire absence of betting men. At the Canterbury Autumn Meeting — one of the most important of the year — only about a dozen were present, whether within the enclosure or outside. Nine-tenths of the betting is done through the Totalisator, in which the public makes its own Antipodean Notes. 115 favourite, and cannot fail to obtain the proper market odds. If you want to back a horse for 20/., you go to the wicket and take twenty tickets for his number, just as if they were railway tickets. Another man wishing to back another horse takes his tickets at another wicket, the numbers of the respective horses being conspicuously displayed above the ticket-seller's counter. Thus, if there are three horses. A, B, and C^ and A is the favourite, say one hundred tickets having been taken for him, seventy for B, and fifty-two for C, then, should A, the favourite, win, his backers will have 222/., minus ten per cent, for the fund, to divide between them. In other words, they will receive 2/. for every i/. ticket, or will have been backing their horse at evens. Should B win, his backers will receive nearly 3/. for every ticket, and the fortunate sup- porters of C would receive about 4/. if he pulled off the event. The totalisators, of which there are generally several, are under the control of the Stewards, and the machine is so constructed that the public caa also see the state of the odds while the betting goes on, and until the flag falls. No abuse is possible, and although the bettor pays ten per cent, to the fund, he knows that this tax goes to support racing, and is an insurance against loss. In France the paris mutuels were conducted, and I 2 ii6 Antipodean Notes. successfully conducted, on a similar principle, and it is a thousand pities that it is not introduced in England. In the Colonies it is constantly being attacked by two enemies — the bookmakers, on the one hand, who find their occupation gone, and who take every chance of bringing the totalisator into court on some technical point of law, frivolous or otherwise ; and the over-righteous people on the other, who object to Government protection being accorded to betting in any form. So far, however, the totalisator has successfully held its ground, supported, as it is, by all genuine sportsmen. It is occasionally abused indirectly at very small up- country meetings, which subsist on its percentage, and have no other raison d'etre ; but the various Jockey Clubs are taking energetic steps to diminish the number of these useless and mischievous gather- ings. There being no single Jockey Club which is the acknowledged supreme authority in New Zealand, and very little probability of one being instituted, on account of the distance apart of such racing centres as, say, Dunedin and Auckland, the funds are not sufficient to employ professional handi- cappers, starters^ and judges. These various offices are therefore filled by amateurs ; and it is wonderful to hear so few complaints about them, considering Antipodean Notes. 117 the heavy responsibility which falls on them and the many interests they have to conciliate. Much is generally done by the paid secretary of the Club, who manages the course, the arrangements for the stand and paddock, and the receipts and expenses. He is often a gentleman engaged in other business as well ; and it speaks very highly for the energy and love of sport of the Colonists that races should be conducted in a manner so orderly and so plea- sant as to excite the admiration of all old English racegoers. ii8 Antipodean Notes. CHAPTER XVII. ALLUVIAL GOLD DIGGING. On the west coast of the South Island the alluvial soil contains much gold. Here, twenty-two years ago, there was a '^ rush," of which old settlers relate wonderful tales. The great find took place at Hokitika, then simply a small Maori village or " pah " with a natural but dangerous bar-harbour. All round grew the dense forest, with scarcely a track through it. Men who were "prospecting" — for it was already known that a certain amount of gold was to be found in most of the New Zealand clay — came upon some astonishing nuggets near the river, and at once set to work. Letters were forwarded by Maoris through the bush to the nearest Government office— some fifty miles off — to secure claims, and the lucky pro- spectors each wrote to one or two chosen friends, under the strictest seal of secrecy, telling them to come on and help, and bring with them tents and other necessaries. But such a secret could not long be kept. Within three weeks of the first dis- Antipodean Notes. 119 covery a small schooner arrived with a large party of diggers — not consisting entirely of those who had been summoned. There also came a Government official, and an enterprising store-keeper who had somehow obtained the earliest information of the magnificent treasure lying almost on the surface of the ground. This man landed with a few barrels of beef and pork, which he was obliged to roll up the beach himself as no labour whatever was available ; he set up his tent under the shelter of the magnificent black birch-trees, and this tent became the centre of the town of Hokitika. He then at once sent a letter to a friend at Nelson by the little schooner which had brought him, and desired that friend to purchase all the stores he possibly could obtain, either for cash or, when cash was exhausted, for credit, and to load them into one or more vessels, chartering whatever might be available, without regard to price. Fortunately for him, the friend had confidence, and was not only energetic, but also sufficiently trustworthy to obtain credit, though neither he nor the original adven- turer had much available money. Soon afterwards no less than seventy vessels of all sorts and sizes were waiting to get over the bar of Hokitika. The " rush " was far greater than had ever been known even in Victoria, for there the arrivals were i2o Antipodean Notes. gradual, while in this case the men all came to- gether. The greater number were diggers who had been disappointed in the Australian gold- fields, but all over New Zealand, and in Melbourne and Sydney, men left their usual avocations to travel in haste to this new El Dorado. Some were in too great a hurry to erect even a temporary shelter, and camped out under the trees in this wet climate, where the rainfall exceeds a hundred inches per annum. The majority, however, hastily made themselves huts of branches, and set up tents if they could afford them, and all drew their supplies from the two friends whose stores were now strewn in a great circle round their tent. Among these diggers were some of the roughest and least scrupulous of the Australian mining population, so the storekeepers were exposed to thefts and even to bold robberies. They at once set to work to erect a hut of galvanized iron plates, which were already making their way all over the world as a cheap, portable and convenient material for temporary houses. With the fleet had also arrived two agents of local banks : their whole bank furniture consisted of a safe, a pair of scales, a tent, and a couple of revolvers. Two young men— often mere striplings — composed the staff of each bank. They set up their tent, in the back of Antipodean Notes. 121 which the safe was placed, while before the " fly " or opening a plank was laid across two tree-stumps to form a table. Here the ''staff" sat down, the one with the scales, a bottle of acid, and a note- book, the other with a revolver at full cock. The diggers brought their gold ; it was weighed and tested by the first man under the eyes of the second, who was also careful to see that no sus- picious persons were lurking round the corner. Then, the value having been ascertained, one of them unlocked the safe and placed the gold in it, while the other kept guard at the table. A bundle of dirty local notes were brought out and handed to the digger. These transactions were carried on under a strip of canvas stretched on two sticks and bearing the words : Bank OF New Zealand or Union Bank, as the case might be. Meanwhile other shops sprang up, but our enterprising friend — whose name it is unnecessary to mention — and his " mate " made the best of their early start in the race, sold salt beef and pork at 2s. 6d. a pound, and universally-drunk tea for 6s., sugar at is., and other goods in proportion. Until their house was completed they were obliged to keep " watch and watch " over their stores themselves, and being known to be quite prepared to shoot any lurking thief, had no great losses to deplore. 122 Antipodean Notes. The alluvial soil proved as rich as the most sanguine expected. Gold to the value of nearly a million and a quarter sterling was exported in 1865, and over two millions in each of 1866 and 1867. The town grew up as if by magic; the temporary huts were replaced by wooden houses, and the banks increased their staff. The main street of Hokitika extended at the rate of twenty yards a day ; a telegraph line was quickly erected, and roads were cut through the bush. " Hotels," with ten, twenty, or more bedrooms, grew up like mushrooms ; many of them with grand-looking fronts projecting high above the sloping corrugated iron roofs behind, and painted in imitation of solid stone. Billiard-saloons and gambling-houses were not wanting, for the successful digger is free with his money, and a story is related of one of the Hokitika men who had had a particularly good week and proposed to his " mates " a novel game. Full champagne bottles were used instead of skittles, and as fast as the ball knocked them over they were replaced by fresh ones. This must have been rather an expensive amusement as cham- pagne, or what is so termed, costs a sovereign per bottle on the diggings. Very few of the diggers saved the large sums they made ; the greater portion of their winnings found its way into the Antipodean Notes. 123 pockets of the hotel and shop-keepers, and of the latter non^e were so successful as the enterprising man who first arrived and who is now a member of an exclusive London club. After three fat years the richer claims were exhausted and the diggings yielded less and less in each successive month. The population diminished almost as quickly as it had increased. From 70,000 inhabi- tants in 1867 Hokitika has fallen to 4000; the town is now five times as large as the requirements of its people, for the large nuggets which could be picked up by little more than scratching the soil, are now only golden memories. But a steadier and more satisfactory state of things has replaced the frantic excitement of old times. The whole of the lower Teremakau, and the districts of Kanieri and Marsden have been discovered to be auriferous. The gold cannot be obtained from the alluvial soil without labour, nor, indeed, without some ingenuity. But enough can be "washed^' to make a very good living. At Kumara, which is now the centre of alluvial gold mining on the West Coast, hundreds of wooden canals and pipes, here on tall tressles up to fifty feet high, there underground, further on again skirting the surface, bring water down from the higher lands to the cliffs and hillocks containing 124 Antipodean Notes. auriferous soil. A strong jet is turned on to the face ; the water washes down earth, sand, and boulders into a wooden channel, and flowing through this it deposits the heavier gold in the cracks of specially made wooden troughs^ which are withdrawn and carefully examined every week. This process is pronounced by experienced Califor- nian miners to be wasteful and primitive ; they assert that as much gold flows out with the earth, through the " tail races '' to waste, as is caught by the troughs. An improved method is gradually being introduced, and in some cases the results have been found fully to repay the far greater ex- pense of the American system. That the present rough and ready contrivances are not the best possible, is proved by the circumstance that the Chinese can make a living out of the spoil left by the English diggers. Dillmaristown, the mining suburb of Kumara, presents a very curious sight. A vast clearing, surrounded by an amphitheatre of forest-clad hills, is filled with a perfect network of " water-races," as these wooden channels are termed. To the visitor they appear to cross and re-cross each other in planless and endless confusion. Some are of great size, and it is possible to walk several hundred yards on these aqueducts, fifty feet above the Antipodean Notes. 125 valley, so that the operation of " sluicing '' the alluvial soil from the hill-sides can be observed. The largest system of water-races at Kumara was constructed by the Government, which, in 1880, drew a handsome profit from it — no less than 5600/,, as against an expenditure of something less than one-fifth of this amount. There are also a number of private water-races, and the company which owns Humphrey's gully at Hokitika has, up to this time, expended a large capital in con- structing one without yet obtaining a sufficient supply of water. The miners at Kumara are no longer the rowdy adventurers who came to Hokitika in 1865. They are a well-to-do, quiet, and eminently steady set of men. In this town of diggers there is far less drunkenness on Saturday night than in an English provincial town. A revolver is a curiosity, shoot- ing or stabbing affrays, such as we read of in American books, are unknown ; the police has all but a sinecure. The great majority of the men own the claims on which they work ; they pay for their business licences and for the water ; but they manage, even in a bad (i.e. a dry) year, to average 3/. per week, after deducting the cost of their licences and water-rates. This is a good income for a working-man, more especially as he seldom 126 Antipodean Notes. works more than eight hours a day, on five days a week, and often less. It is therefore not sur- prising that Kumara should look flourishing and happy, although it does not contain a single stone or brick building. The diggers' cottages are little wooden structures, those more recently erected being among tall, ugly, charred tree- trunks, the older houses in flourishing little gardens, neatly fenced. Here and there are signs of an attempt at elegance ; verandahs with fretwork eaves, and a smart flower- bed, or even a chimney built of concrete, instead of hideous corrugated iron plates held together by a lath frame-work — the usual style on this west coast. It is quite clear, even to a casual observer, that these people now intend to make Kumara their home ; and diggers would not remain if they were not fairly successful. If the numbers and healthy appearance of the children were any stan- dard of affluence, this should be one of the richest towns in the world, for nowhere else does the traveller see such troops of ruddy, strong infants, of all ages, emerge from every dwelling to gaze on the passing coach. Antipodean Notes. 127 ; CHAPTER XVIII. DIGGERS IN OTAGO. While Auckland was, in early days, the strong- hold of dissent and Canterbury was colonized by members of the Church of England, Otago was the province which most attracted Scotchmen. But the specialities of Auckland and Canterbury are rapidly wearing off, while Dunedin and Invercargill, the two chief towns of the Southern Province, are still almost as Scotch as Glasgow itself. In many respects Otago and Southland (a province which has recently been created by cutting off the southernmost extremity of Otago) resemble Scotland ; the climate is rough, bleak mountains surround fertile plains, there are wild mountain tarns and great lakes. On the long stretch of sea-board there are but two harbours — Bluff and Port Chalmers, which serve Invercargill and Dunedin respectively. Port Chalmers is a cove in the rock-girt shore, most picturesquely situated, but not quite convenient for large vessels, though it has been much improved by man. Bluff 128 Antipodean Notes. is the southernmost harbour of the Colony, and was formerly the first port of call for the direct steamers from England. Now, however, they put in at Hobart, Tasmania, and then sail direct to Wellington. Most of the river-beds and creeks of South Otago are auriferous, and at one time there was a large digging population. The majority of the washings, however, now only yield what the Colonials call "bare tucker" — i.e. just a day's wage, which may be estimated at nine or ten shillings ; and although 2/. 10.?. a week would satisfy most labouring men, particularly in a country where food is cheap, it is not suffi- cient to keep a great number of hands in Otago. The heterogeneous mining population has dispersed, and only a small number of perse- vering Scotchmen stick to the washings. Near Queenstown is a very fine reef, which has only begun to pay quite recently after swallowing up an enormous sum of money. This is being worked very systematically, and by the light of electricity and of the newest inventions in metallurgy. Throughout the province, system and order with moderate gains have replaced great rushes, planless burrowing, and occasional big finds; a steady, hardworking population has gradually displaced Antipodean Notes. 129 the reckless adventurers of former days, when the town of Cromwell, the headquarters of the diggers, was full of hotels, dancing-saloons, billiard-rooms, and overgrown " stores." Here a successful digger named John Barry was mayor. He appears not to have been an entirely reputable person, and many anecdotes are related of his tenure of office, which make the English hearer wonder on what ground he obtained it. On one occasion the Governor of New Zealand paid a visit to Cromwell to see the diggings, and of course the Mayor had to receive his Excellency. John Barry, however, did not know by what title to address him, and after much reflection and consultation with his friends, addressed the Governor as "Your Worship." When the inspection of the washings or diggings was over, Barry did not know how to fill up the time until the Governor's departure, and at last hit upon a happy idea. *^ Will you come and see my pigs, your worship ? " he inquired. The Governor consented, and praised the pigs exceedingly, which rather turned Barry's head, for he exclaimed, "YouVe right, they are fine pigs, your worship, but you should see the beggars on Saturday nights when theyVe clean." John Barry was at that time not only the proud possessor of fine pigs, but also the owner of several K 130 Antipodean Notes. good claims, and therefore a substantial man. Tired of always sticking in Cromwell, he yearned to visit the greater splendour of Dunedin, and applied to the Municipal Council for leave of absence, which was granted to him for a fortnight. But Barry overstaid his leave, fascinated by the charms of the provincial capital, and the irate Council passed a vote of censure on him in con- sequence. Of course, as soon as he reached home some friend informed him of the hostile step which had been taken in his absence. Barry con- cealed his vexation and attended the next meeting of the Council as usual. In his capacity as Mayor he directed the minutes of the previous meeting to be read, which contained the entry, " A vote of censure was passed on the Mayor for overstaying his leave, and it was resolved to ask for an explanation." "Who proposed this vote of censure?^' inquired the Mayor. *^ I did," said a councillor, standing up. " You did, did you ? '' Mr. Barry continued, stepping from his presidential chair to the un- fortunate member, '' then take that ! " and with these words the Mayor smote his enemy in the right eye, and felled him to the ground. " Who seconded the resolution ? " Mr. Barry asked, quietly resuming his position. Antipodean Notes. 131 There was no answer. The Councillors were not anxious for a physical conflict with so hard a hitter as their Mayor. " Who seconded this resolution } '' he asked again. Still there was no answer. "Then," said the Mayor, taking up his pen, " as there was no seconder, it's informal. Scratch it off the minutes." But bad times came for poor John Barry. His claims gave out, and as he had lived as if they would yield gold for ever, he had nothing to fall back on. He was turned out of office, and, dis- gusted with the ingratitude of his fellow-towns- men, he shouldered his swag a*".d resolved to seek fresh fields and pastures new. It was just at the time when the cattle-plague was raging in certain portions of New Zealand, and the greatest alarm was felt lest it might spread all over the country, Barry walked manfully down the road. About a mile out of Cromwell he met a friend on horse- back. " Where are you off to. Jack ? " asked the friend. " Down on my luck," replied Barry. " I'm off to look for a billet. I'm tired of Cromwell." ''What are you going in for?" inquired the friend again. K 2 132 Antipodean Notes. " I think I shall go for cattle-inspector/' said Barry. " There's a deal of talk about the plague." " Do you know anything about it, Jack ? " asked the other. " Rather," replied Mr. Barry. " I know all about pleuro-pkenomena, and as to scab, why^ I was brought up in it" Poor Barry did not succeed in obtaining a place as cattle-inspector ; but ho found hi3 way to Dun- edin, where at the time the Dave.iport Brothers were astonishing the natives by their wonderful skill in untying knots. From the gallery there came a voice which cried to the performers : " I bet twenty notes if you'll let me tie you up you won't get out quite so smart." This was Barry's, and he was asked down to Ihe stage, where, for some reason best known to the parties con- cerned, the bet was not at once decided, but an arrangement made to bring it off on the morrow, when the local newspapers all contained a notice that Captain Barry had challenged the great Davenport Brothers, and had staked twenty pounds in the hands of Mr. So-and-so. The hall was crowded, the newly-appointed " Captain " ap- peared as a sea-faring man, and tied the brothers up very elaborately. Alter the usual interval they came out, untied, and Captain Barry stepped Antipodean Notes. 133 forward, confessed himself beaten, and said that such clever performers were welcome to his twenty pounds, which had been fairly won. The unfor- tunate loser had many drinks pressed upon him ; but those who had known him at Cromwell had their suspicions as to the bona fides of the affair. Subsequently Captain Barry wrote a book of his adventures, which is asserted to be wonderful rather than accurate. His rank is printed in full on the title-page. No one has heard of him lately, and it is thought that he must have gone to a better world. 134 Antipodean Notes. CHAPTER XIX. A NEW ZEALAND FLOOD. ( Written on April 30///.) It is quite uncertain whether these lines will ever reach the printer. I am writing in a little frail wooden shanty, pompously called the Otira Hotel. It is a station or resting-house on the main road between the East and West coasts of the Middle Island, situated in a deep gorge of the New Zealand Alps, which run like a backbone from Nelson in the north to the Bluffs in the south, and culminate at Mount Cook, which is as high as Mont Blanc. At present the only means of com- munication between the sheep and corn producing plains of Canterbury and Otago and the coal and timber producing hills of Westland is by the very circuitous sea route, or by the mountain road, from which I am now writing. The Midland Railway, to connect Christchurch with Grey- mouth, and the latter with Nelson, is in progress, but only in its very commencement, and it will be Antipodean Notes. 135 some years before it can pierce these mountains and bridge these wide rivers. Here, where I am now sitting on a portmanteau, with my paper on a barrel, we are blockaded by the heaviest flood which has been known for nine years. Posting across in the wake of the coach which carries her Majesty's mails, we encountered heavy storms of wind and rain on our road up to the summit of Arthur's Pass ; but though we had some little difficulty in fording the numerous mountain tor- rents, there was nothing to presage this tremendous and continuous downpour. Arriving last evening at this little wooden inn, situated on the banks of the Otira river, we rejoiced at the roaring log-fire we found here, and at the chance of exchanging our wet clothes for dry ones. True, the house is on the very edge of the stream, but it had stood unharmed for years, and for years the coach had " dined " here and changed horses with a regularity seldom interrupted, and then only for a few hours dum defluit amnis. The rain increased in force during the evening, and we began to fear that the morrow (now to-day) would still see the Otira river too high to ford. So we might be delayed another twenty.four hours. But that was the worst of our anticipations. No suspicion of danger — if we stopped where we were — entered our minds, nor 136 Antipodean Notes. was any such suspicion entertained by Arthur Davis, the mail-coach driver, who has plied up and down the road for many years, and has carried letters and parcels safely through storm and snow, through frost and rain, with scarcely a day's delay. Sitting in the kitchen — the only place where we could smoke — after supper^ and hearing the tor- rent roar over the big boulders, and the rain beat on the iron roof of the house, I asked whether there was a chance of the river rising sufficiently to affect its safety. No ; such a thing had never been heard of. We were twelve or fifteen feet above the water, which was pretty high already, and the house was as safe as if built on a lofty rock. So we continued to smoke, and played a rubber of very inferior whist, and yarned for a bit, and then turned into our respective cabins, for the tiny sleeping-rooms were no larger, and a numerous party had arrived by the mail-coach, so it was rather a tight fit. Meanwhile the rain beat a still harder tattoo on the roof. The wind howled round the corners of the frail house, and the torrent roared over the boulders. Some time in the night I am awakened by a feeling of wet on my face, and sleepily guess that the roof is leaking. I move my head a few inches to avoid the hole, but rain still drops on me. Half asleep, I turn my Antipodean Notes. 137 pillow over, place my head where my feet were before, and drop off again into slumber. How long this peaceful rest lasted I know not, but I am suddenly awakened by a man entering with a flaring candle. " Get up, Mr. Wanderer," he says ; " the river is rising, and this part of the house Is not safe." Then he proceeds to waken the other inmates. Soon all is hurry and bustle. There are several women in the house, but they behave well and attend to their business, asking no useless questions and uttering no alarming shrieks. The landlord — a wretched creature, whose affection for whisky has evidently affected his nerves — is the only one to rush about excitedly, give contra- dictory orders, and play the fool generally. Over his hasty exclamations we hear the roar of the torrent ; now a deep thunder, now again a series of violent blows, as of hammers on anvil. But it is pitch-dark outside, so dark that all we can see by the fitful glimmer of a lantern, which the rain threatens to extinguish, is a great seething mass rushing close past the corner of the house — a corner round which a coach might have been driven on the previous day, but which the work of this night has washed away. We have packed up our little portmanteaus and bundles ; they are all collected ready for a hasty removal. At various 138 Antipodean Notes. places the rain is finding its way through the roof, and it is not easy to discover a dry corner. But whither can we move ? A few yards from the house, in an equally exposed position, are the rough stables, constructed of slabs an^ logs, through which the water would beat as through a sieve. About ten feet higher is a tiny toll-house, where, in old times, lived the man who had a monopoly of the tolls for keeping the ford in order. But this place is only about two yards square, and there are fifteen of us. Behind us rise the moun- tains, almost perpendicular, with the winding road down which we came hewn out of their sides. "We shall have to harness the horses into the coach," say I, " and drive them a few yards up the road." " But," replies Davis, " there is the danger of a slip on the steep mountain-side, which may overwhelm us at any moment." Meanwhile, we must wait for daylight, hoping that the house will stand, and never was daylight more anxiously expected. It comes at last, lingeringly, for the rain pours down in sheets from the black clouds, which hang like a pall into the deep valley. A yellow, foaming, seething river is now before us ; the same Otira which, a few days back, it was easy to cross, dry shod, by stepping-stones. The river runs in several branches with beds of shingle be- Antipodean Notes. 139 tween them ; one of these branches, not the main stream, has already eaten away many yards in front of the house, and the projecting corner of the coffee-room is overhanging the flood. Opposite to us is a long, narrow, wooded island, on which yesterday a fine flock of sheep pastured. As we watch, we see the flood rush up against the first tree, and, splashing high, raise a wave of foam round it which increases every moment in height and violence. Soon the great tree sways, and the foam rises right over it ; then it balances back- wards and forwards twice, and with a crash falls into the stream, in which it is tossed and carried away like a tiny board. One by one the forest giants fall, and are swirled down in the flood ; but this terrible destruction is, for the time, our safety, for now the island is removed the stream working against our little house is less violent. Immediate danger being now over, the good landlady and her servant manage to cook some breakfast, for the cows have, fortunately, been driven from their pastures by the flood, and have cleverly sought their own sheds. Davis says if the breastwork above the house holds out we are safe. Hours pass by, the rain continues, the violence of the current increases, and large boulders are cast about by it as if they were nutshells. F'rom where I am I40 Antipodean Notes. writing I can see the breastwork, over which the foam splashes, and spray rises in columns to meet the rain. It is formed of big logs and great boulders, and should surely stand. It protects the house and its surroundings on the upper side ; if it goes, the main stream would come right across the small promontory on which we stand. Looking up, I see a narrow white rill in the long black line of the breastwork. Now it is wider : the water has broken through. Antipodean Notes. 141 CHAPTER XX. THE WATERS SUBSIDE. With a great rush the stream swept towards the hotel, while the women and children fled hastily to the tiny toll-house on the hill-side ; and we men, seizing our various articles of luggage, followed them swiftly. Before we had carried up all the personal effects, a stream two feet deep was run- ning between hotel and toll-house, and we waded through it knee-deep on our third journey. Some tree-stumps or other obstacle had slightly diverted the course of the main river, and instead of rushing straight at the house it curved inwards, towards the stable, leaving the chief building on an island, of which the area was diminishing every minute. Some one cried out, " Food ! we must save some food ! " and soon we were all busy carrying over to our refuge everything eatable we could lay hands on. The stream came faster and more furious, and suddenly loud neighing and snorting reached my ears. " Davis, the horses ! " I cried ; " the river is right in the stables." So it was. A rushing stream 142 Antipodean Notes. had broken in the sides of the structure, and the horses were struggling frantically to save them- selves from the water, which was already far above their knees. Davis and I attacked the stables from the hill-side in the rear ; we kicked down a couple of boards, and then crawled round the stalls, hang- ing on by our hands to the partitions, each with a knife in his mouth. One by one we cut the frightened horses adrift, and they rushed through the water and made for the hill. Just as I was letting the last of them go, I noticed that the flood had fallen ; there was hardly any water in the stall. By some unexplained cause, the river had taken a new line, and left its former course as sud- denly as it had before adopted it. The main stream was tearing and swirling against the opposite mountain-side, and in half an hour the channel which had separated hotel from toll-house was again fairly passable. The latter was now crowded up to the roof with luggage, rugs, shawls, sides of bacon, tins of sundry eatables, bottles, and bedding ; while the whole hill-side was strewn with the debris of the hotel furniture. In the main building, which was still standing, the rain and the floods had made holes innumerable above and below, and there was not a dry corner left. Dinner we had none ; for tea or supper the good landlady managed Antipodean Notes. 143 to kindle a fire in the toll-house, round which the women tried to find room ; while the men carried away cups of tea and lumps of soddened bread, with such meats as they could extract from the tins, and consumed these not very attractive eatables in the shelter of one of the tarpaulin-covered coaches. As the daylight waned the prospects for the night became serious ; but the rain, which had been gradually diminishing in force, at last ceased altogether; and, leaving the toll-house to the women, we made our way back to the dismantled kitchen, kindled a fire after some trouble (for, of course, the fuel was as wet as everything else), and made a vain attempt to be cheerful. Why dwell on the horrors of that hideous night ? A dozen men, every one of whom was wet through from head to foot, trying to keep warm in equally sodden rugs and blankets ; so crowded that not one could lie down at full length ; so chilled and cold that some groaned in agony. Then, as is so often the case, blood and breeding told. While the landlord and some of our travelling-companions were almost howling over their misery, two gallant officers of H.M.'s 71st (Globe-trotters) and one other man set to work to try and make things a little better. They discovered a packet of candles which had escaped saturation. They found empty 144 Antipodean Notes. bottles for candlesticks, and lighted up the dismal room. They came upon three bottles of " port " (save the mark !) in a puddle in the corner of the bar, and distributed a glass each all round, insisting on the ladies taking their share. They had all three been prudent enough to salvage their Glad- stone bags early in the day, and from these they produced dry flannel shirts, which were "loaned out " as far as they would go. In short, they did so well that most of us subsided into a disturbed slumber towards the small hours of the morning. Daylight brought with it sunshine, and with the sunshine the wet, weary denizens of the Otira Hotel and toll-house came out blinking, and hung themselves and their belongings out to dry. There could be no idea of crossing the river yet, for the stream was still foaming along breast-high, and the enormous stones the flood had brought down would have broken the axles of any vehicle which at- tempted the ford, even if it were not upset by the force of water. One adventurous spirit wandered up the gorge, towards Christchurch, to see if escape in that direction were possible ; but he returned in an hour with the news that a portion of the road had been carried away bodily, so that no carriage, and scarcely even a man, could pass. We worked hard attempting to get things dried, and found the Antipodean Notes. 145 greatest difficulty with boots and rugs. But the sunshine made this day less miserable, and our spirits rose as the river fell. The night was com- paratively tolerable, and would have been quiet had not one of the party succeeded in abstracting and "caching" a jar of whisky during the salvage operations. This gentleman drank not wisely but too well, and disturbed our night's rest by sud- denly appearing with a prospecting-hammer, and threatening to murder the first man who interfered with him. The threat was not carried out, but the man was, and locked up, too. On the next day we crossed the river safely, and brought our experiences of the Otira in a flood to an appropriate end by dragging our luggage from boulder to boulder over a distance of half a mile, at a point further down the river where the road was carried away. Those three days were not without their comic incidents. On the second morning, when the sun shone, I found a whole sheep hung up to a rafter in one of the deserted rooms. We rejoiced at the thought of mutton for dinner, when some wag inquired facetiously whether this was the same animal he had noticed on the previous day lying drowned against the palings. " He was not quite drowned," said the landlord. " I cut his throat L 146 Antipodean Notes. just in time." But there was no doubt on the matter; it was the identical sheep ; so we dechned the mutton. Among the rubbish in the house when the flood subsided I discovered a tournure^ but, notwithstanding my sedulous inquiries, failed to discover its owner. A hen was imprudent enough to hatch out a brood of chickens on the first day of the flood. But she was also sensible enough to guide the tiny things up the hill at once, and find a dry corner somehow ; for while, on the third day, the landlady was bewailing her as drowned, the hen solemnly stalked into the kitchen with nine little pullets piping round her. On the other hand, a duck was literally drowned, being carried away and suffocated in the flood, from which she struggled in vain to escape. Antipodean Notes. 147 CHAPTER XXI. FOREST AND STREAM. It is too often assumed that the destruction of the Pink and White Terraces in 1886 by the great eruption of Tarawera has deprived New Zealand of all its scenic attractions. No greater mistake could be made. The area of New Zealand is not far short of that of Great Britain, and the effects of the volcanic disturbance were confined to a com- paratively small acreage in the North Island. It is true that the terraces were quite unique ; nothing at all like them being known in any other part of the world. But, if they had never existed at all. New Zealand would probably have become cele- brated for the beauty of its scenery ; and, though they are now smothered under seventy feet of mud, the three islands still boast of innumerable attrac- tions to the tourist and the artist. Of the wonderful " fjords " or Sounds on the south-west coast of the Middle Island I have already written. Perhaps the most striking sea- scapes, after the Sounds, are to be seen in the Bay L 2 148 Antipodean Notes. of Islands on the extreme north. Here the shores are covered with tropical vegetation ; the thousand islets are as luxuriant as the most fruitful in the Malay Archipelago. But the navigation of the bay is difficult, the climate is too hot and too relaxing to be adapted for permanent colonization by the English race, and the insect pests which abound render even a short stay unpleasant. It must not be forgotten that, while the extreme north of New Zealand is lapped by almost tropic seas, the south, or Stewart Island, is kissed by Antarctic ice. Vegetation and scenery vary with the differences of climate, and these differences are so great that no traveller can fail to be struck by the variety of the views unfolded to' him. From the gorgeous ferns and luxuriant bush of the Manawatu gorge on the west of the North Island it is but a short journey to the treeless sheep-pastures at Hawke's Bay ; from the tropical splendour of the Bay of Islands but a few hours' steam to the grand but barren rocks of Wellington Heads. Again, within a short channel passage of the new capital is the lovely wooded inlet of Picton, a land-locked harbour capable of accommodating fleets of ocean steamers, bordered on all sides by smiling hills. Thence to the great promontory of Kaikoura, which rears its rugged head 5000 feet above the Antipodean Notes. 149 Pacific, is scarcely more than fifty miles ; and on fine evenings Kaikoura is visible from Christchurch, a cloud-like peak hanging in the northern sky. Not far inland from here are the Hanmer Plains, with their health-giving hot springs, surrounded by mountains of strange and fantastic form. Here a great hotel is about to be constructed, so that the numerous invalids who flock to Hanmer every summer and autumn may have more comfortable quarters than the rough inn, three miles from the springs, which is now their only refuge. Extra- ordinary cures are ascribed to Hanmer Springs, and it does not appear that their reputation has been over-stated. I have myself seen a man who could hardly walk or eat return from Hanmer in a fortnight hale, hearty, and strong, though the accommodation was bad, and he was exposed during his stay to any number of chances of catch- ing cold. Between these plains and those of Canterbury the projecting spurs of the New Zealand Alps are dotted with sheep-stations, and in this portion of the island are to be found the most fertile runs. Flat as is the land on which Christchurch is built, you have but to raise your eyes to see the picturesque range of the Porthills, which separate it from Lyttelton, and of which the continuation forms the backbone of Banks 150 Antipodean Notes. Peninsula. Not many years ago, these were covered with dense bush ; now, alas ! the clearing has been done too thoroughly, and they are too often dried up and browned by summer suns. Here and there, eucalyptus, planted by energetic land- owners, clings to the hill-sides, and promises to replace the old native bush. But even in these bare mountains there are narrow valleys and deep gullies overgrown with ferns, and rejoicing in a perennial water-supply. If the shores of Lyttelton Harbour were once more clothed in green, it would be as beautiful as it is commodious and safe ; but for English taste it now looks too dry and barren, except in early spring. Far more lovely is Port Chalmers, Dunedin's Harbour, of which the situa- tion is not unlike that of Villafranca, near Nice, nestling at the foot of fertile hills, covered with alternate woods and gardens, and dotted with houses which, alas ! are not as picturesque as the villas of the Riviera. The lake scenery of the South Island, again, is as different from that of the coast as can well be imagined. There is great Wakatipu, almost an inland sea, with low hills at one extremity, rising to lofty pine-clad mountains at the other. There is Lake Pearson, a lonely black tarn, surrounded by bleak heights which remind one of the Eastern Antipodean Notes. 151 Highlands if it were not for the absence of heather. A few miles further on is Grassmere, stretched out in long reaches of silvery brightness, its surface dotted with black swans and great numbers of Paradise ducks, which rise in a cloud at the approach of a stranger. Grassmere, embosomed in the mountains, and threatened by many a steep moraine of clay-slate and schist, is yet as cheerful as its neighbour Pearson is sad and gloomy. For at each end are smiling meadows and fertile fields, of which tall hedges break the monotony, and its waters are instinct with life. Lake Rotoito, again, on a bye-road between the Buller and Nelson, gives an impression of warmth, width, and sunny grandeur. When the base of the mountains is veiled by the mist of an autumn morning, or by the blue smoke of the too frequent bush-fires, the sharp peaks seem to rise to empyrean heights, while they gain in atmospheric perspective, and retreat further from the unruffled expanse of inland waters. More startling than the change from Pearson to Grassmere, or from Wakatipu to Rotoito, is that met with within a few hours on the road between the east and west coasts. On the one side all looks barren ; the trees are few and far apart ; the herbage in the summer dry as tinder, though we 152 Antipodean Notes. are told that it affords excellent pasturage. On the other, we plunge into vegetation of which the luxurance is scarcely equalled by the forests of South America. Huge " black birches " — a species of evergreen beech — raise their spirally twisted trunks a hundred and fifty feet above the road ; while rimus^ with their drooping, willow- like spikes, shoot straight up to heaven in lofty grace. Tree-ferns, thirty to forty feet high, wave their great feathery fronds ; while the fallen stems of decayed forest kings nourish dense masses of smaller ferns, from the delicate New Zealand maidenhair to the rich plumage of the Prince of Wales's fern ; from the tiny, curious kidney, trailing in infinite length near the ground, to the tall ''white" fern which would hide a man beneath its fronds. Creepers, of which the scarlet blooming rata is the most beautiful, twine up every tree and every shrub ; from the branches hang bunches of that wonderful lichen, "old man's beard,'' and slender lance- wood emerges, straight as an arrow, from among the convolvulus-leaved but thorny " lawyers " and the low manuca scrub. Wherever the white man has passed, and all around, English grasses and white clover cover the few open glades and the banks of the frequent murmuring streams. And in this paradise, where the sun's rays Antipodean Notes. 153 are tempered and frost never penetrates, where the air is always balmy and fogs are unknown, there is no serpent. A babe can crawl about un- harmed, and the weary traveller can lie down to rest in the deep ferns without fear. There are no wild beasts, no snakes, no scorpions nor centipedes. The worst enemy to man is an occasional sand- fly, or in a few remote spots an infrequent mosquito. • 154 Antipodean Notes. CHAPTER XXII. QUEER COMPANIONS. Within recent years a new business has risen in New Zealand, one which attracts many recruits, as it is easy and not without prizes. It is that of professional tmemployed. Those who join it are dis- tinguished from "sundowners," whose characteristics are described on page i66, by working chiefly in towns instead of in the open country, and in swarms instead of alone. It has, therefore, several advantages over *' sundowning." The professional unemployed need not tramp ten, twelve, or twenty miles a day, and he always has congenial com- pany. The business is simple and easily learnt. To enter it the first process is to hang about the bar of a popular " hotel " {A nglice : public-house) and grumble loudly at the hard times and low wages, not forgetting to abuse the Government for not finding work for everybody. These remarks are sure to attract the sympathetic attention of others already in the business, and after an hour's talk and the consumption of as many " drinks " Antipodean Notes. 155 as some one else can be induced to pay for, one of the party proposes to get up a public indignation meeting. This is very easily done by a short tour round other "hotels," and the parts are then apportioned. Two men are fixed on to go the round of the newspaper offices and inform them of the projected meeting, which is generally fixed for some open space convenient to the town ; a few old hands undertake to beg or borrow a platform, or a cart to serve for one ; those who have already distinguished themselves as speakers are asked to do so again, and if possible the co-operation of one of the opposition members of the House of Representatives is secured. On the day appointed, the " unemployed " form a procession, which marches through the chief streets of the town, and naturally attracts much attention and some sym- pathy. It is part of the business that the pro- cessionists should wear ragged clothes and look dirty ; this is easy enough, but it is not quite so easy to obtain the proper degree of emaciation at short notice. But even the " lean and hungry look " can be acquired after a little practice. Many boys and a few men will, of course, swell the procession, and increase it as it passes along ; every outsider may become useful, and should hear harrowing tales of the sufferings of the pro- iS6 Antipodean Notes. cessionists, of which keen-eared reporters will be eager to take notes. The speeches at the place of meeting should be simple and strong ; the dignity of manhood, the inalienable rights of labour, star- vation in a land of plenty, and similar expressions are invaluable. The work of the great body of the "unemployed " is to groan terribly and unani- mously at appropriate times, and to cheer in voices weak from exhaustion at others. Before the meeting is over the original numbers are probably increased threefold. The next step is to proceed to the office or dwelling of the chief official, and ask him to admit a deputation^ which he seldom dares to refuse. The deputation should consist of a few of the most eloquent, and a crowd of the thinnest and dirtiest. Their business is to urge on the Government officer their distress, and to ask for immediate employment. Meanwhile the mass hoot and groan outside ; the more disagree- able their hoots and groans the better. Then they gradually disperse, having been careful to leave the names of their "secretary" and their "presi- dent ^' with the official. Among those who have followed the procession or attended the meeting out of mere curiosity, there are sure to be some possessing more money than brains, who will Antipodean Notes. 157 offer the chiefs of the agitation, and perhaps many others, a " square meal " and a drink. That is something gained, and meanwhile alarmed officials are telegraphing to Wellington, and ministers are puzzling over^ ways and means. Within two days an advertisement will probably appear in many newspapers that the Government will start emergency relief works at X — , and put so many men at Y — on railway works ; application to be made to the engineers in charge. As the chief business of an unemployed is to read the newspaper when he is not processioning, drink- ing, or eating, the advertisement escapes none of them. The majority duly apply ; crowds throng the approaches to the offices appointed ; the poor officials are almost driven to their wits' end ; but at last a few hundred men obtain notes, entitling them to work and wages. During the period which has elapsed since the public meeting, a public subscription has probably been started by some sympathizers ; those who are not successful in obtaining a " billet," and many of those who are, share in this, which supplies some much- desired drinks. The men who have found work now pretend to do it, being, however, justly and loudly indignant at the " starvation " wages offered, 158 Antipodean Notes. which have on recent occasions been only 4s. 6d per day in the provinces of Canterbury and Wellington, where no one can live comfortably and enjoy three meat meals a day on less than 12s, per week for board and lodging. Hence a man would have to work nearly three days a week to keep himself at all, and even then have nothing for liquor, which is obviously *^an insult to the manhood " of the unemployed. They do not hesitate to say this in audible tones, and some of them even write complaints to the papers, who are very willing to fill their large columns. For a few days — sometimes even a week or a fortnight — the " unemployed " will attend at the work for nearly eight hours per day, coming as late and leaving as early as he dare, occasionally lifting a spade or slowly filling a barrow. The overseers do not care to demand a fair day's work from men whom their superiors have sent them in a weak and starving condition, and who look as if they would be ready to resent by force any pressure put on them. Gradually, however, the extreme severity of the labour tells upon the poor creatures, who return to the same town, or go on to another, by twos and threes, and there relate pitiable tales of their suffer- ings on the Government works, where, again, " their Antipodean Notes. 159 manhood was insulted by the beggarly wage of four shillings and sixpence per day." ^ Then the old game begins da capo with varying success. Another very different set of men are the ticket-of-leave convicts from Australia, of whom many come over in search of employment, hoping to find it in a country where their antecedents are unknown. There is a large in- dustrial establishment in the North Island, which was started about five years ago when labour was very scarce, and where it was understood that no disagreeable questions would be asked of appli- cants for work. It would not be fair to mention the place by name, but I may state that my in- formation is derived from a young Englishman of good family, who had sown his wild oats too freely, and drifted there in the course of his early career in New Zealand. When he reached the works he was all but starving. He had not yet learnt to beg, nor to work as a labourer, and his efforts to obtain congenial occupation not actually manual had been unsuccessful. When he arrived here he applied to the proprietor, who looked him over sharply, and said, " Your hands are too soft ; but if you like to fill a barrow, you can have a * A literal extract from a bond-fide letter which appeared in the ChrisUhurch Press, signed •' An Unemployed Working Man." i6o Antipodean Notes. pound a week and tucker " (food). A hungry- man will do anything, so the English gentleman began his labours next morning at sunrise, for this was one of the few places in the Colony where the eight hours rule was ignored, where men worked ten hours daily, and if they refused to do over- time at sixpence an hour when required, were at once discharged. The work was terrible to one so utterly unused to it, and he told me that during the first week he had more than once sat down on his barrow and actually cried from exhaustion, and from the sufferings of his bleeding hands and aching back. The shed where the men found shelter was little short of a pandemonium : the man who occupied the next bunk had kicked his wife nearly to death; and the one who wheeled the next barrow to him had been a notorious bushranger. Occasionally, during those early days, the " boss " (proprietor) would come round and scold the men for not working hard enough. My friend thought that he abused him more violently than any one else. Late one afternoon, while he was tipping a heavy barrow-load of concrete into a foundation, the weight of the barrow overbalanced his exhausted body, and he fell into the hole after it. The " boss," who was looking on, burst out laughing, but told him to Antipodean Notes. i6i go home for the day, and shortly afterwards gave him a lodging in a separate little hut, where he had only one very quiet man as a " mate." Re- joicing over the change, he went to work next morning, but was ordered to leave the concrete and go to digging a well with his new house-mate — another welcome order, as the work was not so heavy, and he got away from the convicts. The well progressed fast, and he found his new com- rade very civil and pleasant. The change from the society of brutal criminals to that of a man of comparatively good education and manners was delightful. One day, when the well was about fifteen feet deep, both were at the bottom of it, timbering. Suddenly his mate said, "I never asked you what you were lagged for. Writing some one else's name by mistake, I suppose.'*" It took some further explanation before he under- stood that he was also supposed to be a ticket-of- leave man, and by the time they ascended to the surface again he had discovered that his gentle companion had " done " ten years' penal servitude for an attempt to poison his father, and was on ticket for the remaining four years of his sentence. As a proof of how blood will tell, notwithstand- ing disadvantages, it is worth noting that the M 1 62 Antipodean Notes. young Englishman walked into the town every Saturday afternoon when work was over (at three o'clock), went to the best hotel, where he kept some decent clothes, had a bath and a shave, and then visited some friends whose acquaintance he had made in the early days before he had got through all his money. With them he remained till Sunday night, and then marched back the ten miles to his hut and his poisoner. He never told where he worked, but simply said that he had found a " billet." He was good-looking ; after a time the outdoor work agreed with him, and he became as strong and healthy as any ; he had not forgotten his good manners, so it is no wonder that he found favour in ^he eyes of a young lady whom he met at his friend's house. The affection was mutual, but he was too honest a man to say a word until he felt he could offer the girl something more than hand and heart only, for she was well off. She knew no more than any one else where and how he worked. One day he was summoned from cleaning out a drain to push a railway- carriage loaded with a merry party of well-dressed ladies and gentlemen from the main line on to the private siding of the proprietor's works. Shoving with all his might against one corner of the truck, while another man was pushing the other, he re- Antipodean Notes. 163 cognized the bright face of his lady-love looking out of the window. There she was, attired in most attractive fashionable summer costume, chat- ting gaily, surrounded by a number of people who had nothing to do but amuse themselves, while he was smothered in dirt and mud, dressed in ragged corduroys, black, grimy, and disgusting ! He moved to the back of the carriage for fear of being recognized, and was slanged by the over- seer for shirking work. He prayed that he might not have been recognized. Probably his prayer was heard. On the next Saturday he met the young lady, with his heart beating almost audibly ; but she was unreservedly glad to see him, frank and pleasant as usual, told him of their excursion, and described to him the great works, which he, alas, knew too well. She had not seen him ; at any rate, she had not recognized her lover in the dirty man who had helped to push their carriage. Shortly afterwards one of the sub-managers fell ill, and the proprietor offered our friend the situa- tion. It need hardly be said that he accepted it very willingly, but he did not keep it long, for something far better was offered him by one of his town friends, a merchant, who had by chance discovered from the proprietor his hard work and perseverance in the hardest and roughest occupa- ]^.I 2 i64 Antipodean Notes. tion. It was, as he subsequently found out, chiefly through this proprietor's recommendation that he obtained this opening. The rough and apparently almost cruel man had watched him with interest during the whole eighteen months of his stay on the works, and had appointed him sub-manager only to discover whether he was as well able to command as to obey. There was no longer any reason for him to conceal his love : they were married shortly afterwards, and my friend has become a comparatively wealthy man ; for he has done extremely well, and he and his young wife are now in England for a " spell " (holiday), after three years of hard but no longer unpleasant work. Antipodean Notes. 165 CHAPTER XXIII. COLONIALISMS. A SARCASTIC writer once observed that the English language had now divided into three branches — English, Amurrican, and " Daily Telegraphese." The language of the Australian Colonies is not in the least like the last mentioned, and it is, fortu- nately, not so different from genuine English as that spoken by our Transatlantic cousins, who fondly imagine that they use the tongue of their ancestors. In fact, a new-comer from home v/ill have no difficulty in making himself understood all over Australia and New Zealand, but he will, on the other hand, often hear expressions which will puzzle him very much. Some of these are local and have become embodied in the language by legitimate causes ; they mean things or acts alto- gether unknown in the mother country, for which therefore genuine English has no expressions. In England the working-man travels with his bundle slung on a stick ; in Australia he marches with a '* swag." In England, swag means, I be- 1 66 Antipodean Notes. lieve, in thieves' slang, *^ booty ;" in the Colonies it conveys no such meaning. It is a roll con- sisting of waterproof sheeting, in which the very simple luggage of the digger or navvy is con- tained. In early times, no doubt, the men rolled their things up in their overcoat, which they strapped up and slung round them to be able to walk with ease ; nowadays " swags " are made of stout waterproof material and are sold, with straps sewn ready, like a very long and narrow " hold- all." But even yet one occasionally meets a man carrying his luggage in the old-fashioned style. Men who thus convey their belongings with them are called " swaggers." They are the more re- spectable class of foot-travellers, and must not be confounded with the objectionable " sundowner." The sundowner may or may not possess a swag ; if he doeSj it is generally a very slim one. He is the professional beggar of the Australian Colonies, but he begs in a manner fortunately as yet almost impracticable in England. He arrives at a remote farm or sheep-station when the sun is setting (whence the name), and asks for supper and a bed. Sometimes he inquires for a place eight or ten miles further on, adding that he expects to find work there ; and when told the distance, assumes a disappointed air and curses the rough- Antipodean Notes. 167 ness of the road which has delayed him. But more often he boldly asks for food and shelter without any subterfuge, and it is never denied him, although all the farmers and innkeepers know that he cannot pay for the accommodation, and will not work for it. One gentleman who owns a large but sterile run in the province of Otago told me that he estimated the cost of keeping " sundowners " at something over 60/. a year, an enormous amount in New Zealand, where wheat and mutton are so cheap and plentiful. When I asked him why he did not refuse to harbour vagabonds who would not work, he said that neither he nor others in remote districts dared to do so, as their ricks and wooden out-buildings, if not their dwelling- houses, would be set on fire by revengeful loafers. The intelligent wife of an innkeeper on the Buller road told me that she did not so much mind giving the men supper and a bed, but that when they asked for whisky, which was not unusual, her very soul rebelled. Yet if her husband was out at work she dared not to refuse. On one occasion a gentleman attired in clerical costume, but with- out even a swag, reached her inn at dusk and asked for supper and a bed. After supper he demanded whisky, which was, however, not given him without a question. " Can you pay for it ?^ 1 68 Antipodean Notes. said the landlady. The clergyman replied that un- fortunately his luggage, containing his money, had gone on to Nelson by coach, but that he would give his I.O.U. " I won't serve whisky on an I.O.U." replied the hostess ; " I have lots of them. They're no use to me^^ " I am a clergyman and a gentleman," said the visitor with an air of indig- nation, " and am not accustomed to such treatment. You must have had some singular experiences/' " Yes," answered she, " I'm having one now.'' Next morning the traveller departed after elabo- rately signing an acknowledgment of the debt. Needless to say that she never saw the man again, nor her money either. Sometimes the sundowner is a thief as well as a mere vagabond, and he helps himself to the con- tents of the till in some village store after getting rid of the woman or girl left to mind the shop, on some specious pretext. It is said that there are a number of such men in New Zealand who " work " the whole of the North Island till they approach Wellington, when they commit some petty theft, and pay their passage to the Middle Island with the proceeds. Here they resume their tramp, moving leisurely on from farm to sheep-station, from sheep-station to farm, until they have fairly worked its six provinces. Then, calculating that Antipodean Notes. the North Island folks will have forgotten them, they beg, borrow, or steal the money for a steerage fare back to Wellington, and begin de novo, A " hatter " in colonial mining language is an unmarried digger who lives alone. " To fossick about ^' meant, in the first instance, to search the chinks and crannies of a rocky watercourse for gold ; it has now come to mean any searching at hap-hazard. This is no doubt akin to or derived ^rova fosse (French) and fossa (Latin). Coiling is to shirk work. To " siveat a cheque " is an ugly but powerful gold-diggers' expression. When the men come into the nearest town from their washings with the gold-dust, they sell it at the bank, and receive a cheque in exchange. Some of them give the cheque to a publican, and tell him to supply them with drink and all else as long as it lasts. It need scarcely be said that the publicans are not supposed to get the worst of the bargain. The digger is generally hopelessly tipsy in a couple of hours, and does not recover his senses until he is informed by the publican that he has " sweated his cheque." His position is then described by the very graphic adjective j^ blozun. A " remittancer " in Australia is a ne'er-do-well who has been sent out from England by his friends and receives a monthly remittance as long as he 1 70 Antipodean Notes. keeps away. No one will give a " remittancer " work if he can obtain anybody else to do it, and the remittancer generally spends his monthly al- lowance in three days, living very badly on credit till his money next arrives. A bullock puncher is a man engaged to drive bullocks to market or port. The expression is painfully true, as these men, who receive but very poor wages, and are recruited from the worst class, ill-treat the poor animals by punching their sides with a pointed stick. Tucker is colonial for food — no doubt derived from the school-boy expression : " to tuck in, to have a good tuck in." " He v/orks for bare tucker " is very often heard in New Zealand. Buggy^ originally an American expression for a specially- constructed four-wheeled vehicle, is in the colonies often applied to every sort of light open trap ; it al- most answers to the Irish 'V^r/' which is by no means confined to the jaunting-car of the sister-island. A *' note " means one pound, although sovereigns are as plentiful in Australia as bank-notes, and not scarce in New Zealand. Most of the local banks issue notes for one pound. Colonial innkeepers being a lordly set of men, make one uniform charge for every sort of liquor— a brandy and soda costs no more than a glass of beer or a " nip " of whisky. Hence everything is called a " drink " — Antipodean Notes. 171 except tea or milk. On the West Coast of New Zealand the latter, if unaccompanied by food, are often not charged for at all. A few American expressions have become naturalized, especially among the mining population, but fortunately such abominations as " depot " for railway-station and " track " for formation, have not found favour. To " bloiv " is, in the colonies, to brag or boast ; this is graphic if not elegant ; but one of the most curious expressions, based on an entirely erro- neous derivation, is " an old identity," used for a person long " identified with a place " — in fact, an old inhabitant, or one whose interests have long been bound up in it. This expression is unfortu- nately now universal even in newspapers. 172 Antipodean Notes. CHAPTER XXIV. NELSON. Tins is a pretty little town, which was originally founded by a commercial company of gallant adventurers, among whom were included several retired officers of H.M.'s Army and Navy. Un- forLunately, these gentlemen, though possessing all the qualities necessary to become successful colonists, neglected to square matters with the influential missionaries, and, as a result, the validity of their purchases of land from the Maoris was impugned, and the vendors encouraged to allege that the wily British had taken advantage of their ignorance to obtain large tracts for trifling sums. The Maoris, who had never cultivated as much as an acre per square mile, were quite sharp enough, notwithstanding their simplicity, to take advantage of the hints given them by the ^missionaries, and raised enormous claims for compensation, w^hile on some occasions they went beyond their teachers' instructions and attacked the colonists, of whom isolated parties were more than once murdered and Antipodean Notes. 173 probably eaten. Exeter Hall influences were then very strong in England, and the successive Gover- nors sent out to Nelson had a difficult task to deal cut even-handed justice between the natives and the colonists. After many years the claims were settled, but the original settlers were ruined, and Nelson has, in fact, never since obtained the wealth and population to which its position and its climate entitle the town. Situated on the extreme north of the South or Middle Island, sheltered by the Collingwood mountains from the raw westerly winds, by high hills from the cold south, in a fertile valley open to the sun, with a landlocked harbour, on the edge of the magnificent alluvial soil of the Waimea .plains, no more favourable spot for a young town could have been selected. But in the race for wealth Nelson has been left far behind by Wellington, Christchurchj Auckland, and Dunedin. Its plains produce hops in abundance, and often sixty bushels of wheat to the acre ; but hops and wheat are now low in price, and the farmer cannot make much money, even though his crops are magnificent. Of late years the district has made a fresh start, and one which promises well for the future. The colonial diggers and working men all use immense quantities of jam and " canned " fruits, the majority 174 Antipodean Notes. of which were, up to 1885, imported into the colony from England and America. For years the dis- trict of Nelson has been celebrated for its fruit, which finds its way in a fresh condition to all the accessible markets ; and now, at last, preserving and "canning" have become a remunerative busi- ness. Nelson-made jams are sold all over the colony, and the flavour of the fruit preserved there is found to be much superior to that of the hand- some but insipid Californian productions. Driving out of the town on a fine afternoon in February, you might see many carts loaded with greengages "in bulk'^ — that is, just filled into the carts like gravel ; and of course the mere exchange of" Good- day '^ with the driver is enough to entitle you to pick out as many as you like to eat. Strawberries, peaches, and figs are also successful, but the melons are especially remarkable for their size and flavour. Currants and gooseberries flourish exceedingly on the hill-farms and sheep-runs, but at Nelson itself the climate is almost too warm for them. Living at Nelson is cheap and unpretentious ; it is the seat of a bishopric, and society has a slightly ecclesiastical tinge, varied by the aestheticism of a certain circle of artistic ladies, who disguise them- selves in shapeless garments of sober hues, and cover their heads with strange hats. Lawn tennis Antipodean Notes. 175 is less enthusiastically played than elsewhere, for people are somewhat " viewy." The town is sur- rounded by houses larger, more comfortable, and more picturesque than the majority of suburban dwellings in the colony. The gardens contain wonderful collections of flowers and fruit of various climes. The blue-gum trees, planted thirty years ago, have attained a marvellous size, and English oaks and beeches are dotted about among them. There are wild red deer (the descendants of an imported herd) in the neighbourhood, and Califor- nian quail abound in the bush ; but, except for a few days, Nelson is not the place for a sportsman, who would scarcely find the society congenial. Several yachts, of fifteen tons and upwards, are kept, and for this amusement Nelson is particularly well situated, as it is one of the few colonial ports whence it is possible to sail for ten or fifteen miles in several directions without leaving smooth water. The rough coasts of New Zealand are elsewhere but ill-adapted to pleasure-sailing, and yachting is generally confined to the large harbours, and there- fore to very small craft. But the amateur sea- fisherman who could afford to visit the colony in a sound screw-steamerof eighty or one hundred tons, with plenty of lines, nets, and ground gear, would find an amazing amount of sport all round the coast ; 176 Antipodean Notes. and if there were a couple of guns on board, the prizes in the way of rare sea-birds would be numerous. No pleasanter mode of spending the three summer months of December, January, and February could be imagined, and Nelson would be a capital place for headquarters during a portion of the time. Antipodean Notes. 177 CHAPTER XXV. SOCIETY AND EOOKS. Australians and New Zealanders are very fond of travelling, though to travel in Australasia is neither easy nor cheap. And as the hotels are nearly all so bad, clubs have arisen in nearly every town of any importance, where the travellers find, not only the ordinary club comforts as understood in England, but also a bedroom. The members of these clubs practise an Arab hospitality. A man from New Zealand, for instance, who has any sort of introduction to one at Melbourne, or whose family is at all known, is at once made honorary member of the Melbourne Club, than which no finer or more comfortable establishment is to be found south of the Equator. In fact, Melbourne club- men have in past years opened their doors so wide, and admitted so many strangers, that their club has more than once been found too small for them- selves, large as it is, and lately the lax rules hav.^ been slightly altered, so as to curtail somewhat the time during which travellers can avail them- N 1/8 Antipodean Notes. selves of all the privileges of membership. If the members of the clubs at Melbourne and Sydney are thus hospitable to those of New Zealand clubs, and vice-versa^ they are, if possible, still more lavish in their attentions to visitors from Europe — to the class which is now known as globe-trotters. To them not only the clubs, but the homes and hearths of its members are opened, and any man of decent address and manners is sure of soon becoming free of the best society in each town, provided only he begins in the right place. This is very important ; it is difficult to make up afterwards for a bad start. And a globe-trotter is not un- likely to make a mistake of this description. In many of the large towns — Sydney, Melbourne, Christchurch— there are several clubs ; but there is only one into which a stranger should seek ad- mission, if he wishes to see the best of colonial society. Let it not be supposed that colonials are indifferent to distinctions and differences of " sets/' On the contrary, in Melbourne and Christchurch the people who form the best "set" are probably more exclusive than the smart folks in London. If you have the key to open the door — an introduction to one of the " squattocracy " in the Victorian city, or to a Canterbury pilgrim in the latter — you are soon made free of the best Antipodean Notes: i7g houses, providing always you are presentable. But if by chance a business friend in England, knowing little of the colonies except from a business point of view, has given you a letter to some one who, though probably a gentleman, is not a member of t/ie club in Melbourne nor of J/ie club in Christ- church, but of some other equally good institution, then you drift into the wrong channel ; you make the acquaintance of a number of people forming the second, or even the third sets, and your im- pression of Victorian or Canterbury society will be altogether a wrong one. But nothing said here must be construed into an attack on, or contempt of, some of the kindest and most estimable people in the world. I am not praising one "set " at the expense of the other, but merely stating facts. If a globe-trotting man be thus, by chance, introduced to the wrong persons on first landing, it will be very difficult for him to become intimately ac- quainted with the others ; but if the globe-trotter be a lady, it will be all but impossible. It is undoubtedly strange that in communities so small as that, for instance, of Christchurch, there are ladies who never meet anywhere except in pubHc from one year's end to another ; but it is the case nevertheless. In either " set," a lady who brings an introduction will find, if possible, still more N 3 i8o Antipodean Notes. kindness and hospitality than a man ; everything imaginable will be suggested to please her and make her happy in the colony, and she can, if she will, remain six months in any of the larger colonial towns without being allowed to spend anything on board and lodgings, and without ever seeing the inside of an hotel ; and this, although the houses in New Zealand, and most of those in Australia beyond the two largest cities, offer very limited accommodation. In the remoter townships, and even in the larger settlements, an immense amount of miscellaneous literature is consumed. The colonial and local budgets provide large contributions to all the public libraries in New Zealand, the State subscribing i/. for every i/. subscribed by members of local bodies. Hence the contributions asked of private individuals are merely nominal — in Christchurch, where the library is a real colonial Mudie, 2s. 6d. per quarter ; in the up-country townships far less, and often not more than one shilling a year. The free libraries which are being tried here as an experiment are therefore practically universal in the colony. It is very doubtful, however, whether the State has a right to invest the hardly-earned money of the rate- payers in a huge number of middling novels. For it will shock the advocates of free and compulsory Antipodean Notes. i8i education to hear that all the public libraries in the colony contain far more works of fiction than of any other species of literature. For every one work of travel, biography, or research, ten novels are taken out by the subscribers. The statements of the librarians are not necessary to prove this ; it is sufficient to look at the bookshelves and observe the excellent condition of all volumes on serious subjects and the dilapidated state of the novels. The favourite author in New Zealand appears to be Miss (or Mrs. ?) Edna Lyall. She far distances all competitors, not only in the frequency with which her books are demanded from the circulating libraries, but also in the sale of her works in the larger towns. It would be invidious to mention some other names of books popular in New Zea- land, for their titles and authors are all but un- known in England, except among the readers of the Family Herald. This is the type of literature most affected, and any young author aspiring to Antipodean fame is welcome to the hint. Among recognized standard novelists Charles Dickens and Charles Reade are much preferred to Thackeray or George Eliot ; and I do not know whether I ought to be pleased or not at finding several of my own works in the libraries of Christchurch and Wellington. It ought to be mentioned that the i82 Antipodean Notes. two latter, and several others, have excellent reading-rooms attached to them, with a liberal supply of newspapers and magazines, of which the Eclectic is published in Australia and picks out all the plums of the English magazines, which it reprints for its colonial readers (with or without financial acknowledgment to authors and pub- lishers), and is the most read. There are in Melbourne two theatrical managers, Messrs. Williamson and Musgrove, who keep the whole of the Australasian colonies up to date in comic opera. They have no less than three troupes, of which two are generally " on tour " with Gilbert and Sullivan's productions. Messrs. Williamson and Musgrove's theatre at Melbourne is, probably, the prettiest and most comfortable of its size in the world. It was opened as recently as Christ- mas, 1886, is constructed chiefly of marble and iron, and contains a \oNt\y foyer with doors on to a balcony or loggia as handsome as, though of course far smaller than^ that of the Paris Opera. " The Pirates " and " Pinafore," which I saw per- formed there, were given as well as in London, though the gentleman who took Mr. Grossmith's parts read them and acted them very differently. When I add that the thermometer stood at 98° outside, and that yet the theatre was quite pleasantly Antipodean Notes. 183 cool, my readers will judge how admirable must be the ventilation, The whole centre of the roof is removable, and the theatre is lighted by the electric light throughout. The travelling com- panies are constantly recruited from Melbourne, and work New Zealand every autumn. *' Ruddi- gore " is now, probably, being given simultaneously by Messrs. Williamson and Musgrove in Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland, or some other New Zealand town. The prices of admission are throughout lower than in London (in New Zealand only half), though the expenses must necessarily be very heavy. Besides these troupes, which have become a classical institution, the chief towns in New Zea- land are visited by other (and decidedly inferior) theatrical companies, and also by a succession of " shows " of various sorts. Thus, during last autumn and winter there were a good circus, a fair Japanese Village, and several conjurors at Christ- church, besides amateur concerts of varying excel- lence and a Jubilee amateur performance of " The Sorcerer," which was quite surprising even to one who has attended too many matinees in London. It is a difficult piece for amateurs, but it went thoroughly well, and the title role was admirably filled. 1 84 Antipodean Notes. The small up-country towns have to be satisfied with unambitious local concerts, and are occa- sionally enlivened by the visits of American cheap- jacks, who generally begin by hiring the best room or hall available and giving an extremely funny (though scarcely refined) '' variety " entertainment, to which admission is all but free — generally one shilling for reserved seats, sixpence unreserved, and threepence gallery, if any. On this occasion no attempt is made to sell anything, except that a couple of raffles are started. On the second evening admission is absolutely gratis,, and of course the hall is crov/ded. Then the cheap-jack sells his " notions " like wildfire. One of them told me that he cleared 200/. on two evenings in a small mining-town called Kumara, which has not more than 1200 inhabitants. This gentleman travelled in a handsome drag drawn by four fine horses. He was accompanied by Mrs. Cheap-jack in a real sealskin jacket, and by two servants in livery, who created a very considerable sensation in a colony where the total number of liveried servants could be counted on one's fingers. I overtook his magnificent turnout at a roadside inn, and finally left him struggling over a moun- tain pass, for which his smart carriage was not well adapted. Antipodean Notes. 185 It would not be fair to close this chapter with- out mentioning that numerous packs of well-bred harriers hunt the more level country in both islands, and that the horses, though rough in their coats and often ungroomed, are ridden by their plucky owners through long runs and over fences — including bare and barbed wire — which would astonish some of our home sportsmen. 1 86 Antipodean Notes. CHAPTER XXVI. « TRAVELLING. Travelling about New Zealand is both tedious and expensive. A previous chapter has shown that it is not without occasional dangers. The geological conformation of the country, its huge backbone of mountains, the rocky indented coast- line of the two chief islands — features which cause the variety of climate, of scenery, of products vegetable and mineral for which New Zealand is distinguished above any other Australasian Colony — also enhance the difficulties of road and railway construction, and of navigation. The rivers are with but few exceptions, torrents which wander at their will down huge beds of shingle. Nine-tenths of the average river-bed is dry at all times, and consists of a wide expanse of boulder and gravel. The other tenth is occasionally covered by a yellow foaming torrent, strong enough to move stones weighing half a ton ; at others a few rills of translucent water placidly zigzag round the boulders which were brought down from the Antipodean Notes. 187 mountains by the floods. The difficulty is to fix on the one-tenth of the bed which the stream will occupy. The position of the water is ever varying, and to cross the river with absolute safety, at all times, it is necessary to construct a bridge half a mile or a mile long, or even longer. The alternative of forcing the river into a fixed channel by training- walls has been tried, but has been found still more expensive and quite uncertain in its effects. At one place on the Southern Railway a river was thus confined to a bed amply sufficient for its real wants, and the bridge was constructed over this narrowed bed. Some years later, notwithstanding all efforts, the river abandoned the neat and com- paratively straight course laid for it, and broke through the railway bank some five hundred yards behind the bridge, thus giving point to the Yankee's remark : " I guess you'll have to buy a river or sell that bridge.'^ These rivers are painfully numerous, and the cost of bridging is therefore so great as to be out of all proportion to that of the roads themselves. In the majority of cases, therefore, wheeled traffic crosses the rivers by fords, which are occasionally altogether unpassable, and vary in position after every flood. On the banks of most of the large rivers which have to be thus crossed, there is a little inn of which the landlord 1 88 Antipodean Notes. is bound by the terms of his licence to keep a horse for the purpose of guiding vehicles through the river-bed, his business after every flood being to examine the old ford, and if it be found no longer safe in consequence of the effect of waters, to " find " a new one, and to improve it as much as possible with the assistance of-one or more "road- men " whose duty it is to keep the road in repair, and whose little cottages are dotted at intervals all along the main roads of both islands. These fords are not very pleasant to cross at the best of times, as the carriages bump and jolt over the large stones, and if the water is deep the horses may slip and be thrown down by the force of the current. Hence, when the rivers are at all high the "pilot " horse is indispensable — a clever steady animal who spends his life in crossing and re- crossing the river. It is interesting to watch the " fordman " trying for a possible crossing on his horse, to see the caution with which the latter advances, occasionally stopping and throwing himself well back on his haunches, while he tries the bottom with one of his fore-feet ; the energy with which he rushes up an almost vertical bank, his readiness to " turn " a boulder too big to step over. Some of these horses love their river-bed so well that they dislike leaving it. It is related of Antipodean Notes. 189 one very celebrated ford-horse at the Rakai'a, where the traffic was very heavy before the Southern line was open, that he refused to go more than a few hundred yards away from the river- bank on either side. There was a forge close to his stable, but when the public coaches ceased to run in consequence of the completion of the rail- way, the blacksmith moved elsewhere and the fordman tried to ride his horse into the township — three miles distant — to get him shod. All efforts were unavailing ; the horse jibbed, backed, kicked, and resolutely refused to leave the river. As he would have been useless without shoes on the stony ground, the fordman tied him behind the next heavy waggon which chanced to pass, and it was hoped that being pulled in front and whipped behind he would at last consent to be taken to the village. But the horse stood stock-still, and when the waggon moved on and pulled him forward, he planted his fore-feet firmly into the ground, till the strain broke the poor brute's neck. The mail coaches which run over the main roads between such places as are not yet connected by railway are constructed on the same principle as those which convey tourists through the Yosemite Valley in California. They can carry from twelve to sixteen passengers and two or three tons of 190 Antipodean Notes. luggage, besides the mails. No English-built coach with steel springs would carry such a weight over the rough roads and still rougher river-beds. The " Cobb " coaches — as these vehicles are termed from their original proprietor — are very strongly built ; the body is borne by a combination of leather and iron, called a *' thorough brace," which certainly seems to stand any amount of hard usage, but is as rough as can be conceived. These thorough - braces require a great weight and much jolting to bring them into action at all ; therefore if the coach is only half-loaded the passenger feels as if he were in an ordinary springless cart. The coach is not panelled, the roof being carried by strong vertical bars, between which, in wet weather, tarpaulin blinds are let down. To be jolted in- side a crowded colonial coach, with all the tar- paulins down, in semi-darkness, on hard seats with low and still harder backs, is almost as unpleasant as to be drenched through on the roof. Not even the oldest colonials can call their coaches com- fortable. They are generally drawn by five horses, and on the chief lines these horses are active, well- bred, and strong, somewhat of the type of the best London omnibus horses. They are well-kept and fed, and go at a great pace when the read is fairly level, but in consequence of the many unbridged Antipodean Notes. 191 rivers and steep "pitches " even on roads not ab- solutely mountainous, the average speed attained over a journey scarcely exceeds six miles an hour. The drivers are bold and skilful ; the way in which they dash down the sharp curves of the coach-road in the Manawatu gorge, the outer wheels within a few inches of a deep precipice, is enough to frighten a nervous passenger. No- where do the coaches drive through the night ; in the short winter days they are compelled to do their first and last stages in darkness, but if the whole journey cannot be completed in fourteen or fifteen hours, the coach always " sleeps " at an *' hotel" or "accommodation" house, where the rooms, though very tiny, are with very few ex- ceptions, clean, and the fare substantial though rough. Railway travelling in New Zealand is very slow. On the main line from Christchurch to Dunedin and Invercargill, the " express '^ averages as much as twenty-two miles an hour, but this is the fastest train in the colony. Thirteen miles, including stoppages, is about the ordinary speed of all others, and on some of the branch lines even this is not attained. Long journeys are therefore not only tedious, but are rendered uncomfortable by the objectionable system of American cars — long 192 Antipodean Notes. vehicles like omnibuses, some with seats along the sides, others with short seats interrupted by a narrow passage down the middle. Real rest is impossible, privacy out of the question ; but neither rest nor privacy, as we understand them in England, is sought for in the colonies. The colonial resembles the American in these respects ; he does not object to noise and publicity, and he can rest his limbs in any position. There are two classes only — first and second — and there is not very much difference between their discom- forts. The fares are high, but not so high as by coach. By the latter they average as much as eightpence per mile, and very little is done for the public in the way of reductions on return or tourists' tickets. Travelling by land being so expensive and un- comfortable, it is not surprising that very many persons prefer the sea routes. The Union Steam- ship Company of New Zealand possesses a very numerous fleet, and the larger steamers are not much inferior to ocean liners in size and accommo- dation. These run from Melbourne to Invercar- gill (Bluffs), on the extreme south of New Zealand, follow the coast-line of both islands northwards, calling at Port Chalmers (Dunedin), Lyttelton (Christchurch), Wellington, Napier (sometimes), Antipodean Notes. 193 and finally, Auckland, whence they sail direct for Sydney, and conclude their circular voyage at Melbourne. Over the same circle steamers return in the opposite direction, bringing the mails from Sydney to Auckland, and taking them from Invercargill to Melbourne. Local steamers of smaller tonnage, belonging to the same company, run up and down the coast, calling at the same ports and intermediate ones besides, and still smaller vessels work the west coast of both islands, meeting the larger ones at Wellington. Most of these vessels run at night, spending the greater part of each day in the various ports, whence the New Zealand saying that the Union steamers ship cargo every day, and go rock- hunting at night. For the coasts of the colony are very rough and dangerous, nor are they yet sufficiently lighted. The numerous passengers from Auckland in the north, and Dunedin and Christchurch in the south, to Wellington, the political and geo- graphical centre, are nearly all conveyed by these steamers, the trunk railway across the North Island being as yet less than half completed. Ther^ are also several smaller shipping companies which run vessels at irregular intervals, according to requirements. On one of these it was my fortune to take passage shortly after I had arrived O 194 Antipodean Notes. in the colony. I was on deck about nine in the evening ; it was a fine starlight night. Like all " new chums," I was always on the look-out for the Southern Cross, which on this occasion I could not make out. So I asked the "first officer," who was then on watch. ** Well,'^ said this experienced sea- man, "they haven't quite settled it. Some say it's one, and some say it's another." This surprising reply made me suspect that he was hoaxing a new arrival, so after a little conversation I inquired whether the officers of his company went in much for astronomy. The reply to this question showed that his previous answer was genuine. " No," he said, "we don't want the stars much on this contract. We don't take any notice of the stars ;'* — very reassuring on a coast like that of New Zealand. But considering the terrible gales which rage so frequently, and considering the dangers of the ill-lighted coast, and the numerous islands, wrecks are far less frequent than one might expect, and loss of life most unusual. On the larger steamers of the Union Company the accommodation and food are good, but the smaller vessels leave much to be desired, while no one who has not gone through a prolonged colonial training should take passage in the local vessels, which are mostly engaged in the Antipodean Notes. 195 coal trade. The steamers are small, and heavily laden ; the food is coarse and ill-prepared, and the firemen sit in the saloon to eat it, without washing themselves first. They carry but few passengers, and are not organized for the purpose. The expense, difficulties, and discomfort of travelling in and about New Zealand being so great, it is a matter of great surprise that the number of travellers, in proportion to the popula- tion, should be larger than in England. But such is undoubtedly the case. Everybody travels. A road-man, who has been employed by the Govern- ment on a main road for the last ten years, is now in England " for a spell," — ^just to look round. Farmers and their families are constantly visiting among each other, though they may live two hundred miles apart. Even labourers think nothing of the voyage from Canterbury to Auckland to see a friend. The overland journey to the west coast of both islands has a reputation for delays and difficulties which has deterred many, particu- larly the upper classes, who care more for their comforts ; so that there are many of the wealthier and more educated who know as little of these portions of their own colony as they do of Kams- chatka, and talk the greatest nonsense about them. But the same people brave the sea-sickness and O 2 196 Antipodean Notes. attendant misery of the voyages up and down the coast without the least hesitation, and even ladies think less of the hundred and sixty miles of sea between Lyttelton and Wellington, than English ladies of the same distance in a Pullman car. Antipodean Notes. 197 CHAPTER XXVI r. OCEAN STEAMERS. The introduction of the principle of expansion into marine engines, and the general substitution of steel for iron in the construction of steamships, have revolutionized voyages. And unlike most revo- lutions, the changes have been entirely for the better. Not only are speed and accommodation greater than ever before, but the chances of accident are much diminished. In fact, now that all the chief ocean routes are so well surveyed, it is doubtful whether a voyage of ten thousand miles in a modern steamer is not safer than would be a land journey of the same length (if such were possible) in a railway train. The sea has been robbed of more than half its terrors, and a voyage of more than half its discomforts. Many of the latter, however, still remain. The spirit of conservatism is still so strong among those who fit out ships and those who manage them, if not among the actual engineers who design them, that every lengthened trip is accompanied by a number of minor dis- 198 Antipodean Notes. comforts which a little ingenuity and forethought would remove. Sea-sickness is still an inevitable misery, and one which is not diminished as much as might be supposed by the increased size of the vessels. The enormously long ships now constructed cer- tainly pitch far less (or rather, the pitching is less felt amidships) than the old-fashioned "tubs." But they roll quite as heavily, and the vibration of a fast steel steamer is unceasing and very trying to many whom the ordinary motion of a sailing- ship at sea does not much affect. This is felt more especially abaft of the engine-room, and it is still apparently a moot point whether the first-class accommodation is better in its old place or forward of the engines. Both systems have their advan- tages, but the balance is now in favour of placing the first saloon* forward, a plan which puts an end to the traditional sanctity of the " quarter-deck." From our American cousins our ship-builders seem to have borrowed the idea that huge and elaborately decorated saloons, drawing-rooms, and smoking-rooms,— in fact, as they term their ships, floating palaces — are necessary for the comfort of first and even second-class passengers. Large dimensions, elaborate carved woodwork^ and masses of gilding may be necessary for the happi- Antipodean Notes. 199 ness of the Transatlantic traveller ; they are not, however, at all indispensable to the ordinary Briton. He, and his wife and daughters, would much prefer plain comfortable sofas with backs bolstered to above the level of the head, like those in English railway carriages, to the handsome hard wood panels and gilt mouldings universal on steamships, where the padding seldom or never reaches above the level of the shoulders, so that it is impossible to rest the head. It is probably due to the same American influence that the bills of fare on most steamers are extremely ambitious, while the execution of the dishes must, under the circumstances, necessarily fall far short of the menus promise. If the travellers by our trans- oceanic lines were polled, I venture to say that an enormous majority would vote for shorter and simpler meals, and for a substitution of pillows and padding for carving and gilding. Again, the increase of size in steamers is not always accompanied by an increase in space awarded to each passenger. Cabins are, indeed, loftier by a few inches, and much better ventilated than formerly, while the universal substitution of electric for oil lighting has removed the unpleasant smell which prevailed in old times on every steam- ship ; but the modern vessels contain a new species 200 Antipodean Notes. of cabin, never contemplated formerly — an " inside cabin," which has no port-hole, which borrows its light from a dim passage, and its air from wherever it can get any. In the North Atlantic such a place may be just bearable ; in the Red Sea or the tropics it is simply a small edition of the Calcutta Black Hole. Yet I have seen two or three unfortunate passengers, who paid first-class fares, crammed into these dark and noisome dens. Another disadvantage has followed the anxiety to provide huge saloons, drawing-rooms, and pro- menades. It is the increase of what seamen call " top hamper," that is, of structures erected above the normal or main-deck. In the old and slow days when the Peninsular and Oriental Company commanded the whole of the passenger traffic to India and China, and puffed along painfully at an average rate of eight or nine knots an hour, their bigger steamers were flush decked, and the only structure giving the wind and waves a vantage- point, the only ones, in fact, emerging above the '*rail" (or top of the bulwarks), were the narrow bridge for the look-out and the deck-house for the companion. In modern vessels the old bridge is extended to occupy two-thirds of the ship's length, forming a promenade deck ; the companion is carried above it, and the total height from the Antipodean Notes. 201 main-deck to the steering bridge is often thirty- feet. The enormous additional surface thus ex- posed to the pressure of the wind and to the action of the waves inevitably results in a great increase of rolling, and is not without danger, as a heavy- sea taken on board does not find its way out of the lee scuppers nearly as quickly as in the old- fashioned ships. It was not unusual, when first these enormous superstructures were introduced, for the sea to carry away portions of them bodily ; but they are now so securely connected with the frames of the vessel itself that such accidents do not occur, though the very strength and weight of the modern deck-houses increase the angle of rolling, and often necessitate additional ballast. Still it must be admitted that in cold and wet weather a covered main-deck is a great boon to the passenger, who, in an old-fashioned ship, would be confined to the cabins, and on the whole the modern style is a very great improvement on that which prevailed from the beginning of ocean steam navigation forty years ago to within the last decade. Few persons would now think of taking passage to Australasia by a sailing-ship, unless their health compelled them to do so. Besides the frightful and inevitable tedium of the voyage, invalids would 202 Antipodean Notes. do well to remember that the freezing-chambers on modern steamers enable them to obtain fresh meat and fish daily, while even on the best-appointed sailing-vessels tinned provisions only are procurable on the outward voyage, when the rough sea and the appetites of the passengers have devoured the con- tents of the farmyard on the forecastle, which is almost always the case long before the voyage is over. The modern system of freezing fails par- tially in the case of milk and butter, and entirely in that of vegetables, whose tissue it destroys ; but even coniiaisseiirs are deceived into accepting frozen meat and fish as fresh, providing only they were of good quality and fresh when placed in the chambers. As to dairy produce, a means for preserving it effectually has still to be dis- covered, for notwithstanding the assertions of those interested in steamship companies, I have no hesitation in stating that frozen milk and butter are very different from, and much nastier than, the fresh articles. And in this statement I shall be corroborated by all impartial passengers. Of the steamship companies which connect England with Australasia, the Peninsular and Oriental is the oldest, and claims to be the most aristocratic. The Orient Company, which shares with the P. and O. the mail service to Antipodean Notes. 203 Melbourne and Sydney, has recently placed a series of magnificent ships on its line, of which the speed far exceeds that of the rival company's old vessels ; but the P. and O. have now con- structed some new ships, of which the Victoria and Britannia are at least as powerful and as large as the OrimiZy Orizaba, and Oroya. The three last-mentioned are fitted out and decorated in the most approved Transatlantic style, and carry a per- fect town above the level of the main-deck. They are, however, among the most comfortable of all the ships sailing from England. The routes of these two companies are similar, but not identical, from Lon- don and Plymouth to Suez ; the P. and O. call at Malta, while the Orient vessels stop at Naples, much the more interesting place of the two. A passenger by the former can overtake his ship at Suez, if he leaves England vid Briytdisi^ week after his departure from London. As he has to pay his journey through Europe, and there is no reduction in fares from Brindisi, this increases the cost very materially. From Suez the P. and O. steam to Colombo in Ceylon, where the passengers for Cal- cutta are transferred to another steamer, and thence to Albany, the most extreme south-western station of Australia. The next port of call is Adelaide, South Australia, where most of the Orient ships. 204 Antipodean Notes. which now steam direct from Suez without stopping, make their first Australian halt. The Orient Company established a coaling-station on the coral reef of Diego Garcia, about half-way between the Arabian and Australian continents, but the di- minished consumption of coal per horse-power due to the modern improvements in marine engines has made this stoppage unnecessary. From Ade- laide both lines proceed to Melbourne and Sydney, the fares to all the Australian capitals, and also to the chief towns in New Zealand, being the same ; foMhe last-mentioned passengers are transferred to the far smaller steamers of the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand at Melbourne or Sydney, according to the port they are bound for. While the voyage from Naples or Brindisi respectively to the mouth of the Red Sea is generally smooth, the heat is very oppressive except during the winter months. From Perim or Aden to the Australian coast rough weather generally prevails from June to November, the first few days of the voyage being very hot ; during the rest of the year the skies are blue, but the " trades " in the Southern Ocean cause a very decided and continuous swell. From Cape Lewin to Adelaide, across what is termed the " Great Bight of Australia," the sea is generally rough. Antipodean Notes. 205 Another line, which was specially started for the benefit of Queensland, may be recommended to passengers who do not object to great and con- tinuous heat. It possesses the advantage of smoother water, and of affording opportunities of a flying visit to places comparatively little known. The new steamers of the British India Company start from London and proceed by the Red Sea to Ceylon, like the P. and O. ; but from Ceylon they cross the Bay of Bengal to Singapore, where they call and remain a couple of days. Thence they steam to Batavia, the capital of Dutch India, and threading their way through the Spice islands and the Eastern Archipelago, touch at Thursday Island between Australia and New Guinea. They com- plete their voyage at Brisbane, where passengers to New South Wales or Victoria change steamers. Of course the time occupied by this voyage is longer than by either of the first mentioned, if the passenger's destination be any other part of Aus- tralasia except Queensland. New Zealand boasts of two direct lines of steamers to England, the New Zealand Shipping Company's, which carries the mails, and that of Messrs. Shaw, Savill, and Albion. The voyage out is by the Cape of Good Hope, back by Cape Horn ; both occupy about forty or forty- one days by the 2o6 Antipodean Notes. former line, and a couple of days longer by the latter. Stormy and cold weather and very rough seas are almost invariable during a great portion of either voyage, for the Pacific Ocean outside the tropics does not deserve its name, and the South Atlantic in winter is not pleasant. These steamer^ are smaller than the modern Orient and P. and O. ships, but are constructed of steel and thoroughly sea-worthy. The fares to and from New Zealand are but little lower than by the larger steamers, but as there is no change, incidental expenses and delays are less. The Peninsular and Oriental Company is very proud of its cooking, and of the discipline maintained on board. The latter is certainly admirable, and though sometimes the rules may appear irksome and unnecessary, their strict enforcement is an im- mense advantage. Too often the fool or scamp of the family is exported to Australia, and when half- a-dozen youths of this description are thrown to- gether on board ship, they will do much to annoy the quieter majority unless sternly checked. On other ships there is generally more toleration of personal idiosyncrasies. I have already spoken of the cooking, and will only add that those who attach great importance to this department should certainly sink patriotism and take passage to Antipodean Notes. 207 Australia by a steamer of the French Messagerles, which have the further advantage of carrying fewer passengers, and giving therefore more accommo- dation to each individual. Their route is from Marseilles through the Red Sea to the Seychelle Islands and Reunion, thence to Melbourne. It occupies several days more than that of either of the English lines. Of the North German Lloyd I cannot speak from experience : the vessels are said to be thoroughly sea-worthy and well manned and found ; but a case which occurred at Mel- bourne last January would tend to show that discipline is sometimes sadly wanting. 2o8 Antipodean Notes. CHAPTER XXVIII. HOMEWARD BOUND. Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, is the half-way port for steam-vessels returning from Australasia to England by Cape Horn. The horrors of the long and cold winter voyage are ap- palling as far as the latitude of the Falklands, but it is worth while enduring them to spend a couple of days at Rio. There is no other city of the same size and importance in the world which is so seldom visited by English people ; it may, therefore, not be superfluous to devote a short space to it, although the Brazils are by no means at the Antipodes. The Italian proverb about Naples has become a commonplace of the tourist literature of all nations. Until I saw Rio I believed in its justice ; but now, although so far prejudiced in favour of Naples that if I had nothing to do and several thousands to spend in doing it, I would select Naples as one of my chief abodes, I must yet admit that Rio de Janeiro is incomparably its superior. It is not only the beauty of the harbour and its surroundings Antipodean Notes. 209 which fascinate the visitor ; there is here a com- bination of all the beauties of different climes and countries which is beyond the power of any pen to describe. You have a magnificent land-locked bay, surrounded by every variety of scenery. Here a bold promontory, of which the warm colour reminds one of the Devonshire cliffs, rises abruptly from the blue sea ; there a sandy beach is backed by luxuriant gardens dotted with villas, where the tall palms wave their fan-like fronds in the gentle breeze. Out of the crisp wavelets of the bay emerge green islands crowned by stately buildings, with noble granite terraces, and steps down to the water. On the right is the great city — a huge sea of red-tiled and terraced roofs, broken by spots of verdure and tall campaniles and graceful spires. The middle distance is filled by peaks, of which the fantastic outlines are as strange and weird as those of the Dolomites, while in the gaps between them luxuriant valleys narrow in a long perspective to the purple, mountain-crowned horizon. This is only a rough outline sketch of what can be seen from the deck of a ship ; the sights of the city itself are, if possible, still more wonderful. The population of over halfa million consists of Portuguese, negroes, and half-castes, and is more picturesque even than that of Naples or Rome. The perspective of the P 210 Antipodean Notes. narrow streets, flanked with lofty houses, their fronts distempered in various warm colours, is instinct with life and motion. On the little balconies above are dark Portuguese senhorltas fanning themselves, or negro servants in gaudy cottons holding yellow babies up to see the ever-moving crowd below. Here and there a verandah takes the place of the little balconies, and from it great green branches of palm and yucca emerge. The street itself is one in- cessantly shouting, stirring mass of humanity. Every colour is represented, from the flaxen hair and ruddy complexion of the omnipresent German, through the olive of the pure-bred Portuguese, to the brown of the Mestizo and the ebony black of the genuine African. There is, too, every variety of costume. The smaller merchant and shopkeeper aflects the tall hat and black clothes beloved of his class in every part of the world. The Brazilian is very particular in this respect, and his hat is very smooth, his hair very beautifully curled under it, his collar and cuffs are irreproachable, and his tiirned-up boots are very bright. In every style of dress the half-caste and black mechanics and labourers drag or wheel their loads through the crowd, calling out incessantly to one or the other, jostling those who won't hear their calls, exchanging greetings with each other, and, like everybody else, Antipodean Notes. 211 lifting the shabby brims of their hats at every moment. Negro boys of all sizes call out sweets (carried on trays before them) and newspapers at the top of their voices ; negro women pass along, with a basket balanced on the top of their curly heads, walking upright with one hand on the hip like a Roman contadina; a horrible old half-caste, with white beard and an immense mass of frizzy grey hair, holds out a crooked hand, screeching for alms ; then the crowd of loafers, who are chattering in knots at every corner and before every cafe^ is scattered by a string of carts, carrying goods in great cases, or granite for building, or paving-stones ; and every one squeezes against the house-fronts to avoid being touched by the bosses of the immense wheels. Tall and stalwart mestizos, in great slouch hats, and parti-coloured cotton garments strapped tight round the loins, drive the patient, hard-working mules, and urge them on with strange raucous cries. In the brightly-tesselated portico of the butcher's shop the butcher is slicing pieces off a sheep for his customers ; he wears a white shirt and trousers, with a red scarf round the waist, and, like every one else, he smokes the inevitable cigarette. At a corner some negro bricklayers are rebuilding a house, all in blue cotton spattered with mortar, all smoking cigarettes. Through an occa- P 2 212 Antipodean Notes. sional open door you can look into the cool, dark interior of the houses. Bare are most of the rooms in the poorer quarters, but well adapted to the climate ; everywhere is the negro woman busily attending" to her duties, either looking after her master's chil- dren, or sweeping and tidying up, or preparing vegetables, or blowing the hot embers over which the tiny dinner is to be cooked. Only ten minutes' walk from the narrow and crowded labyrinth of streets, and we reach one of the many quays which extend in both directions round the bays of the harbour. Here are handsome private houses, distempered in sky blue, pink, or yellow, or covered with bright tesselated tiles. But tropical sun and rain temper the colours so quickly that even in the brightest sunlight, and contrasted with the green of the trees and the blue of the sea, these colours all seem to melt into one harmonious whole. Admirably adapted for the climate are these houses, all picturesque, from the mechanic's cottage to the palatial villa of the successful merchant : deep verandahs, lofty rooms, sun-shutters and Venetians to all the win- dows ; trellised galleries sheltered from the sun, but open to the breeze ; groves of tall palms round them, and of dark-leaved carob and orange trees, and here and there graceful clumps of feathery Antipodean Notes. 213 bamboo, and many more tropical shrubs, some with brightest scented foliage, some yellow, some pink ; all full of life and colour. Coming from our colonies, where ugliness is an almost invariable rule, where utilitarianism guides the pencil of the builder and dictates the conduct of the settler, and where the simple wooden box with a corrugated iron roof, and sometimes (oh, horror !) a corrugated iron chimney also, is the sole representative of European architecture, the traveller is probably more affected by the beauties of form and colour at Rio than if he came from Europe. But even on one fresh from Italy the Brazilian capital could not fail to have a striking effect. There is more colour than at Naples, and as much life. There is far more variety in the complexions and costumes, and though the lazzaroni at Sta. Lucia have afforded material for numberless sketches, I think the brawny half-caste fisherman, hauling his boat up on the beach at Rio, or the negro woman in her bright blue turban and striped gown, sitting on the quay wall and performing various motherly offices for her ragged, bright-eyed, black offspring, or the real " swell " reposing hard by, his face as black as his glossy hat, attired in broadcloth, but 214 Antipodean Notes. unable to avoid falling into a gvdiCQful pose as, with a calm smile of superiority, he blows the smoke from his cigarette, and contemplates a vendor of oranges in patchwork rags — all these, and many, many more, would afford an artist opportunities as attractive and more strange than those of Italy. Then the vegetation. During April and May Naples and its environs are resplendent with fresh green and perfumed with flowers. But the splen- dour and the glory last for a short time only ; they disappear in the dry heat of the summer, and the autumn colours soon wither under the cold tra- montana. Here the lofty palms, a hundred feet high, wave their green fans all the year round against the sky ; here the bright- hued begonia ever climbs up the balconies ; the gorgeous salvias and myriads of foliage plants succeed each other month after month with a variety of colour ; in the winter camellia-trees, fifty feet high, and covered with wax-like flowers, are surrounded by roses in full bloom, and convolvulus and hibiscus, and other northern plants, while the thirsty wan- derer need only stretch out a hand to pluck a juicy orange or a luscious plantain. It is a day's journey to reach a real wood from Naples or Rome; here, in a short drive, you plunge into Antipodean Notes. 215 primeval forest, where orchids hang from the gnarled boughs, and thick creepers weave tree to tree, and monkeys chatter^ and humming-birds flit, like winged rubies, across the rare bands of sunshine which force their way through the dense green. It is hot, certainly. Can there be such colour, such perfume, such4ife, without heat .? But within little more than an hour's railway from Rio are cool stations three thousand feet above the sea. Here villas^ bright and pleasant as, though less imposing than, those of the suburbs, nestle in shady gardens on breezy hill-sides. Above them lofty mountains rear their peaks to what would be the level of perpetual snow in Europe, but is only refreshing coolness here. In the hot season all who can fly from the city and take refuge on one of these uplands, which are scattered to the south and west of Rio in many directions. Those who have business come into town by eight o'clock in the morning to their work, and leave again for home about two. At this time of the year — and, indeed, at any time — the Brazilian eats little and drinks less, except coffee and chocolate: a cup of either in the morning, d^jetmer at eleven, dinner at six. 2i6 Antipodean Notes. No afternoon teas, no suppers, no " pegs." If very thirsty, iced lemonade takes the place of the British "nip," or the colonial "shout." The cooking is that of Portugal, with some modifica- tions ; they appear to be less liberal with garlic, and their poultry is certainly far better than that of the mother-country ; in fact, you see finer cocks and hens about Rio and its suburbs than near any city I know, while the turkeys are superb. The bay supplies some excellent varie- ties of fish, and fruit is, of course, abundant throughout the year. On the other hand, beef and mutton, as might be expected in this climate, are not of first-rate quality. At the Cafl del Globo, near the Post-of!ice, you can lunch and dine extremely well on the Franco-Portuguese system, the prices being low, except for wines. The harbour boatmen, who pester people arriv- ing or leaving by the steamers, are reported to have the unpleasant habit of stopping half-way across the bay, and extorting from their unfortu- nate passenger ten or twenty times their usual fare. Novices are therefore advised to use the Steamship Company's launches whenever they can. But as no attempt to levy blackmail was made by my boatman, and I did not obtain any Antipodean Notes. 217 evidence on the subject at first hand, the character of these men may be far higher than is generally- asserted ; and I should not like to slander any one, even a Rio boatman. 2x8 Antipodean Notes. CHAPTER XXIX. OUGHT WE TO EMIGRATE ? During the past two years our colonies have not ceased to tell us, through their press and their representatives, that their labour-market is over- stocked (except for female domestic servants), and that young men will do far better for themselves by remaining in England than by emigrating. The failure of a number of well-born and probably well-intentioned youths whom their families had exported to the Antipodes has strengthened this view, which has to a great extent turned the tide from Australia and New Zealand to the United States of America and our extreme north-western possessions on the Pacific seaboard. By a few examples, and by the light of what I have seen and heard, I propose to discuss the question as briefly as possible. First I will con- fine myself to those whom we should call gentle- men — that is, men of fair education who have not learned a trade, and who would, if they had the opportunity in England, enter a profession or take Antipodean Notes. 219 up a mercantile career. Many of these, younger sons, youths who have gone up for various com- petitive examinations and have failed, or sons of officers and others having a fixed but limited in- come, are always on the look-out for openings, and their mothers and sisters will be glad to obtain some authentic information more practically useful than tabular statements showing the rate of wages in various colonies, or strong but not impartial letters from disgusted fathers and disappointed adventurers. First of all let me repeat what has been said, written, and printed many times before, but cannot be too earnestly impressed upon all who think of emigration, whether for themselves or for others. No mere clerk should think of it. Youths who can only write a good hand and keep simple accounts (even if they also possess a smattering of the classics and of foreign languages), but who are accustomed to a town life, and have had no training in hard physical work, are quite useless in the Australasian colonies. The supply of such men, of all ages from eighteen to forty, far exceeds the demand. There is no fixed rate of wages, no Union, no esprit de corps among clerks, and they have not been able, like the more fortunate mechanics, to keep up the rate of pay 220 Antipodean Notes. artificially by influencing elections, limiting the number of new arrivals, and by a comparatively mild but universal and all but omnipotent system of boycotting. Therefore, for one vacancy there are dozens of applications^ and the salaries offered would be considered ludicrously inadequate in London or Manchester. A young man who is so fortunate as to secure a clerkship in a colonial bank in London before sailing has, indeed, excel- lent prospects. His promotion will be far more rapid than it would be in England, if he is only industrious and fairly intelligent ; his pay to begin with is somewhat higher, and by a moderate amount of application he will probably, after a few years, obtain an independent position in some new branch. And not only is his career in the bank itself likely to be more interesting and more suc- cessful than in a similar institution at home, but he will have numerous chances of striking out a line for himself after he has gained some experience of the colony at other people's expense. But no colonial bank will take on a clerk who has come out " on spec." and presents himself at the local office ; and even if he be supplied with a letter of introduction to manager or inspector, he will scarcely obtain more than a few civil words of regret that the market is so overstocked. The Antipodean Notes. 221 junior appointments are nearly always filled up^in London, and it is in London that the intending emigrant must work on his friends. The chances in a lawyer's or merchant's office are almost as un- favourable ; and if a fresh arrival obtains what the colonials call a " billet," he will be lucky indeed if the salary suffices to pay for his board and lodging. But -even with letters of introduction and influential friends, the demand is so great that the odds against the " new chum " are enormous. Nothing more hopeless can well be imagined than the position of such a youth in Melbourne, Sydney, or Auckland. The slender stock of money with which his parents have supplied him will very soon be exhausted. His education and training have not fitted him to handle a pick or haul heavy loads on the quays. His hands are soft, and his muscles are weak. Accustomed to the complicated civili- zaition of large European cities, he is quite at sea in a country where nearly every one has to do everything for himself. No one actually starves in the colonies, for wheat and meat are so cheap, and the heart of the colonial is so kindly, that the poorest settler will not refuse a man his " tucker " (or food) ; but to beg for his daily bread is scarcely what the sanguine young emigrant expected. One of three results ensues. 222 Antipodean Notes. Either he takes to "nips" and degenerates into a mere loafer, scrambling for odd jobs which he cannot do, and for odd shillings which he spends in " shouting " (standing drinks to his friends) — a life which is not very merry while it lasts, and never lasts very long. Or, he at last succeeds in obtaining some very ill-paid appointment as shopman or junior clerk, and drags out a miserable existence on a tiny salary. Or, lastly, if he has true "grit," he takes to manual labour, either at the diggings, or, which is far better, on a farm, and though at first scarcely equal to two hours' daily work, though working in agony, with his back breaking in two and his hands bleeding, he will gradually " train on," and in a couple of years^ time no one would recognize in the hard digger or resolute teamster the pale thin city clerk. But to adopt this last course requires more than average perseverance, courage, and temperance. Nor must it be forgotten that though the youth we have described may after these two years be earning from two to three pounds a week, he will have no social pleasures, few or no companions of his own class, and no opportunities of mental improvement. He will rapidly acquire the habits and language of Antipodean Notes. .223 those by whom he is surrounded, and though this may not ahvays be a disadvantage, as the habits and language of the Cockney or Lancashire clerk are not universally charming, still his friends, his mother and sisters particularly, would probably think, and justly think, that their pet Charlie, though looking well and strong, had in other respects changed for the worse. But, I shall be asked, how about other young men ? There are others besides city-bred clerks who wish to emigrate. Some, too, have a little money, which may be profitably invested in the colonies, though dozens come home from New South Wales, Victoria, and New Zealand yearly without sixpence in their pockets, and say that these countries are played out. To these questions I will reply by a few examples. A. was a fellow-passenger on my voyage out. He was an ill-behaved youth of sharp tongue, addicted to spirits, sulky in his cups and impudent out of them, dirty in his dress and person, and (which is fortunately very unusual) rude to ladies. His family were in a good position at home, and he himself had taken a high university degree. I imagine he was exported on account of some serious scrape. This young man obtained a situa- tion in the office of a fifth-rate lawyer in Victoria, 224 Antipodean Notes. but was unable to keep it longer than three months on account of his dissipated habits. When last I heard of him he was tramping up country as a "sundowner." B. was the third son of an Irish landlord, whose income had fallen by leaps and bounds from about 2000/. a year in 1880 to 300/. in 1886. His father had not even been able to give his many younger children a good education ; the handwriting of the boys was bad, and their spelling doubtful ; they were therefore precluded from trying for any public appointment, and even a miserably-paid clerkship in an Irish bank was beyond them. On the other hand, they were all good riders and first-rate shots. B., finding that he had no prospects at home, ex- pressed a wish to emigrate to New Zealand, where an old friend of the family was supposed to be doing well. His father could not raise the funds for a passage and outfit, so the lad shot snipe and wood- cock in the wilds of County Cork, and sent them to a poulterer in Dublin, till he had acquired suffi- cient money (after paying for powder and shot) for the purpose. He came out in the steerage to Auckland, and at once made his way to the friend's in question. Here there was a great disappointment in store for the youth. The old settler had for years cultivated large orchards, and had lived by sell- Antipodean Notes. 225 ing fruit for " canning " (Colonial for " preserving "), but the peach-trees had been ruined by blight and the apples by the codlin moth — he had lost money, and had no room for any assistant. B. stopped with his father's friend for a fortnight, during which he searched the neighbourhood for employment, but found none. Hearing of some railway works in the South Island^ of which another friend of his family had charge, he resolved to make his way there, but his funds were insufficient for a ticket. Trying one vessel after another at Auckland, he at last obtained leave to *' work his passage " by one of the large coasting-steamers. For a whole fort- night he was employed in probably the dirtiest, hardest, and most unpleasant work in the world — 'trimming " coals in the bunkers of an iron steamer under an average temperature of 100°. But he arrived at the railway office at Christchurch with fifteen shillings left. Poor B. ! He discovered, to his horror, that the real headquarters and the works were a hundred miles off, on the west coast. He telegraphed to inquire whether he could find work if he went there. The reply was, " Yes, as a com- mon labourer, at a shilling an hour." He had just enough money left to pay for his food on the weary tramp to the works. He seized the pick with eagerness, and lodged and boarded in a rough tent Q 226 Antipodean Notes. with twenty rougher navvies in the deep forest, and managed to work eight hours daily whenever the weather permitted. The district engineer wanted a chain-man, and, looking over the gang, thought B. appeared the most intelligent of the lot ; so B. dropped his pick, and took to the lighter work of running with a chain and staffs at two guineas a week, wet or dry, which is a very important qualifi- cation. Henceforward all was pleasant. The engineer soon found out that he was a good fellow, and intelligent ; he was appointed time-keeper, and then sub-inspector, after some training. He now has a little cottage and fifty shillings a week, while it only costs him eighteen to live. B. will succeed ; not brilliantly, because his abilities are not brilliant, but it will much surprise me if he does not return to Ireland for a holiday after a few years, with a couple of thousand pounds in his pocket. Do not say that pluck like this would have succeeded as well in England. It would not. His pay would have been one pound a week instead of two, and he would have wanted it all to live half so well as he is now doing. C. is a young man who was a fellow-passehg^r on the return voyage. He says New Zealand is done, that it is in a hopeless condition ; that people are fools to go there, and greater fools still to stop Antipodean Notes. 227 there. He will tell the people in England that all the Australasian colonies are a fraud, and New Zealand the worst fraud of all, and they will believe him. C. went out three years ago with four thousand pounds. He bought land at the top of the market, and started farming, of which he knew nothing. Since then prices have fallen. Is it a wonder that he should be now returning with empty pockets } I venture to say, from personal knowledge of C, that he is an egregious ass, and that he would have lost his money in any country in any business whatever of which he had personal charge. Of course, a man who bought land twelve or fifteen years ago, and was farming when wool fetched 2s. 6d. per pound, and wheat 6s. a bushel, could not help making money, unless he was an absolute idiot ; but then C, unfortunately, came out a few years too late. D. is another young man very similar in appear- ance to the last mentioned ; but only in appear- ance. He, also, does not think much of New Zealand, chiefly, I understand, because he was jilted by a colonial young lady. He is, however, very reticent on financial matters. No wonder ! He has been out six years, and though times are now bad, he is quietly going home for a holiday, or for a wife, having acquired a fine property, Q 2 228 Antipodean Notes. which he is leaving behind in good hands. He began with five hundred pounds exactly ; he is worth now more than twice as many thousands. It appears, then, from theoretical reasoning and from the above examples, from dozens of others, and from the experience of the oldest and most intelligent colonists, that the natural course of things is not upset at the Antipodes, but that reward follows labour like in the old world. A hard-working, sober, and intelligent man of good health will succeed in the colonies, though the beginnings be harder than in England. He will succeed more quickly, and his success will be greater than at home. If he be not only industrious and healthy, but intelligent above the average, his success will be proportionately quicker and greater. If he be further sufficiently self- reliant to abandon the beaten tracks of wheat or wool-growing, and have brought with him, or made, some capital, and, above all, if he be not in too great a hurry, he will probably make a large fortune. But he must be able to rough it ; must not consider himself better than his neighbours, or at any rate not show it ; must inure himself to walking and riding great distances over rough roads, or no roads at all, in every sort of weather ; must never depend upon getting anything done Antipodean Notes. 229 for him ; and must make up his mind to live for a few years without any congenial company what- ever, and without social enjoyment of any kind. Two staunch friends emigrating together, with a little capital but a great deal of pluck, and an invincible objection to whisky, could hardly fail to succeed, if they had a friendly letter or two, not necessarily to procure them employment, for, as I have said before, they will have to depend upon their strong arms for this, but to give them advice about various people and districts, and to testify, if necessary, to their respectability. Don't believe in what you are told of the decadence of the Australasian colonies. They are in their early youth, and are passing through the complaints of early youth, — the measles and whooping cough of nations. As to the resources of New Zealand being exhausted, greater nonsense was never talked ; they are not even tapped. The surface of the country has just been scratched in a few places, that is all. The truth is, that men, as usual, lay the blame anywhere but on themselves. They bought lands at perfectly ridiculous prices with borrowed money , foolishly thinking that prices would continue to rise. Prices have fallen, as everywhere else, and the speculators are ruined ; but the land is as good 230 Antipodean Notes. as it ever was. Others again, too idle or too stupid to earn a living in England, think that Victoria or New South Wales ought to be glad of the use- less creature whom the mother country rejects, and when they find out their mistake they say the colonies are played out. Another set have rushed to the diggings, expecting to pick up nuggets by handfuls ; they find that gold-mining is hard work, so they say there is no gold ; or they bought shares in a new reef, and the reef has given out, so that their shares are worth nothing. Then they call gold-mining in Australasia a fraud. In three years, or in seven, or in ten, there will be a new era of high tide, and therefore of specu- lation. And then again there will be a loud cry of fabulous wealth, and there will be lands teeming with gold and silver, and milk and honey, and sheep and kine. But the lands are there now, and they teem with gold, and coal, and timber, and flocks, and herds, just as they will teem then ; only now people are blind and can't see them, and then, by- and-by, they will wear magnifying-glasses, and see too much. As to the prospects of the labouring man, they have been fully discussed in Chapter XIII. Emi- grants are not looked on with favour by the colonial workmen, and the "professional unem- Antipodean Notes. 231 ployed " would make their landing in the colony a penal, offence if they could. And, no doubt, a man arriving with his family in New Zealand without any money whatever, and no assured opening, is as badly off as at home. But the in- telligent agriculturist still has a better chance than in England. He can obtain excellent land on very long deferred payments, either from the govern- ment or from one of two private railway companies (the Midland, and the Wellington and Manawatu). He must rather go in for cattle-raising and grazing than for wheat and roots, because the latter are overdone. He must be ready to rough it, just as the gentleman must rough it. But his shanty in the West Coast bush will not be more uncomfort- able than his tiny cottage, or share of a cottage, in an English agricultural district. Of course he requires some capital, but very little indeed, and if he be frugal and hard-working, he will achieve success far quicker than in England. He will live better meanwhile, and will be in no respect worse off than his neighbours. If he have no money to begin with, but will go to work at something lower than a shilling an hour, and resolutely resist the persuasions of the colonial workmen, refusing to believe that the offer of five shillings a day is an " insult to his manhood," he will still be able to 232 Antipodean Notes. save something while living well. A man who understands gardening or horses, and has a couple of shillings to advertise the fact, can command a choice of places at thirty shillings a week on the day he lands ; but nine out of ten will decline to accept anything less than two pounds, because they are told that this is the prevailing rate. So they will not find a situation for weeks, if at all, and will join in the cry that the country is " played out." It is no exaggeration to say that in Auckland, Napier, Wellington, and Christchurch, five hundred gar- deners and a thousand stable-men would find em- ployment in a fortnight, if they chose to accept thirty shillings a week. On the west coast of both islands probably as many more would find work at a higher rate. At present nobody on that side employs either if he possibly can help it, and the wages asked are simply prohibitive. The same remark applies to many other trades, and the more willing a man is to begin with little, the more certain is he to get on. But it requires a very strong cha- racter and a very firm determination to resist the temptation of asking for high wages, and to decline companionship and co-operation with the men who think it their interest to keep up the present rate. The " new chum " is treated royally by them, and by dint of drinks and talk Antipodean Notes. 233 becomes one of them and joins in their senseless policy. This short sketch of the possibilities of New Zealand as a future home for some of those who are crowded out in the old world, cannot be better concluded than by a short extract from a recent speech of the late Colonial Treasurer : — " * The country is now comparatively opened up,* Sir Julius Vogel was able to boast, ' and there is room, as it at present exists, for some millions of population, if they are accompanied with adequate capital to pursue the industries to which the re- sources of the country invite them.' " And the following sensible remarks are added by the newspaper which reports his speech : — "Nothing like that could have been said by any responsible politician in 1870. Not only is New Zealand frequently exhibited by public critics in Australia as the shocking example of over-borrowing, but there is the damaging evidence forthcoming every week or oftener that New Zealand securities are at the bottom of the colonial list in the London money- market. It is not hard to understand how it was that they got there, but I confess I do not know why they remain there. I confidently predict that in a very few years New Zealand securities will 234 Antipodean Notes. compete on level terms with those of New South Wales and Victoria — provided only that the colony- enjoys the blessing of good government, which for the most part means economical government. It is the silliest of nonsense to talk of New Zealand as of a country trembling on the brink of insolvency. It is carrying a heavy burden of debt and other difficulty, but it is carrying it strongly and bravely, and its magnificent future is absolutely assured. I am sure that a quite erroneous opinion is made upon the Australian mind by the comparatively discredited position occupied by New Zealand in the London money-market. We see these quota- tions in the newspapers every week, and infer therefrom that New Zealand is the most poverty- • stricken and misgoverned colony in the Australa- sian group, and that it is a misfortune for an in- dustrious and enterprising man to have to live there. The fact is that much more is thought and talked about the low value of New Zealand stock outside the colony than within its borders. Its people know that time is on the side of their public finance. They know that their country is imperfectly understood, and that its credit will rise in England as this ignorance passes away from the English mind. Even now New Zealand securities are quoted at higher figures than were Antipodean Notes. 235 reached before for many years, though even now, as illustrating the ignorance of the English mind upon colonial matters^ it is a rank absurdity for New Zealand four per.cents. to be quoted at under par, while a South Australian four per cent, loan is floated at over 102. Nothing but ignorance of the comparative circumstances of the two colonies can be offered as an explanation of this pre- ference." 236 Antipodean Notes. CHAPTER XXX. NEW ZEALAND FINANCE. [^N.B. — This chapter has beeti placed last, so that persons who take no interest in the subject may have every facility for omitting to read it.'] During the last three years the money articles in some influential London newspapers, and also in most of the financial journals, have been full of the most gloomy forebodings on the future of New- Zealand, and people in the city have been asking each other how long the colony would be able to pay the interest on its debt. The four per cent, stock has, during this period, seldom reached par, and has often been quoted as low as 94. When, in October, 1887, the Bank of New Zealand announced that it would pay no dividend for the past half- year the alarm became general, and within a few days New Zealand Government' securities fell four and even five per cent. A few years ago there was an absurd rise in the price of land in New Zealand. Speculation in small and large estates and in building plots ran Antipodean Notes. 237 as wild as whilom at Melbourne, and with less justification. Every one was more or less carried away by the most sanguine hopes, and the banks rather encouraged than checked the most ex- aggerated ideas. They advanced money to cus- tomers who bought land ; they thought they had provided an ample margin, but prices were so inflated that when the inevitable collapse came, it was found that there was not only no margin, but the money advanced was often greater than the depreciated value of the land. In this there was nothing new. Crises of this description, deprecia- tion of values, have occurred over and over again in every State of the civilized world. How many mortgagees of land are there in England who are still satisfied with their margin of value if they advanced money up to the hilt ten years ago ? Land in New Zealand fell as it fell everywhere else ; only, as the community was small and the land speculated in very large in proportion, a shrinkage affected the public more directly than it did in England. Some of the banks foreclosed all round, and wrote off their losses ; others, more tender to their customers, and hoping for a revival, held on longer. It has turned out that those who made a clean sweep, and, as people say in the City, '^ cut their losses,'^ were the wiser ; but the 238 Antipodean Notes. Bank of New Zealand has acted ever since the crisis, not only with great forbearance, but also with caution. It could pay a dividend now ; it has preferred strengthening its reserves. It has therefore adopted the more prudent course. The value of good land in New Zealand is again ad- vancing, but more slowly ; and there is every probability that wild speculation in it will not be resumed for some years. To conclude that be- cause one bank — one out of some fourteen doing active business in the colony — pays no dividend, therefore the whole colony is in a bad way, is about as logical as to suppose that the Bank of England would stop payment on account of Messrs. Abbott, Page, and Co.'s defalcations. It is well known that City men, more especially those who work in the vicinity of the Stock Ex- change, very often follow each other like sheep over a precipice. Very few men know the intrinsic value of one in a thousand of the securities of which they talk glibly, and which they buy and sell daily. They know just what is stated, with great assurance but often without any greater knowledge, in sundry journals ; they hear that a fall or a rise is likely because of some report, possibly fictitious, and even if true, without any real consequence for the stock in question ; then they sell or buy accordingly. Antipodean Notes. 239 They are frequently right as far as the market is concerned, but the temporary depreciation of any security in the Stock-market is no certain indication of its intrinsic value being really smaller than it was. There are, of course, many successful finan- ciers in the city of London, and many who have gained large fortunes by Stock Exchange opera- tions ; but it will be found on investigation that the majority of such men have been behind the scenes in the case of one or more undertakings, that they have sold or bought certain shares on real know- ledge of the circumstances, that, in short, they have led and not followed the market. Now, in the case of New Zealand especially, the ignorance of the Stock-market is almost boundless. It has already been mentioned that the colony still suffers from the old provincial divisions, and it may be said of it that the East coast knoweth not what the West coast doeth. It will scarcely be credited, although it is literally true, that there are dozens of intelli- gent business-men in Dunedin, in Auckland, and even in Wellington, who have no idea of the productions of their own colony beyond the mer- chandise dealt with in their particular town. It comes upon a travelling stranger as a very sur- prising circumstance to find that, for instance, the very existence of magnificent forests, which extend 240 Antipodean Notes. over hundreds of square miles of the Middle Island, on the western watershed of the New Zealand Alps, is absolutely unknown to a large number of intelligent persons on the East coast, and to nearly all in the North Island. They have a vague idea that there is a good deal of " bush " about, but that this " bush" consists chiefly of splendid timber-trees of enormous marketable value, that thousands of acres of it are within comparatively easy reach of the sea, and literally hundreds of thousands of tons could be made marketable for all sorts of purposes, and sold in the less-favoured colonies of Tasmania, Victoria, and New South Wales, where the melan- choly blue-gum, aromatic but otherwise useless, is the chief product ; this is a circumstance which very few know, and of which only some enterprising West-coast men have hitherto taken advantage. An impression prevails in the North and in many portions even of the Middle Island, that the West coast districts— about four hundred miles from north to south, and from forty to sixty miles wide — are covered by a huge jungle of useless bush, under skies always heavy with rain ; that they are dotted here and there with gold-diggings, which sometimes afford a bare living, but that other- wise this great tract of country possesses no resources either for the settler or the trader. They Antipodean Notes. 241 have, indeed, a vague idea that there is coal some- where about the place, for they cannot shut their eyes to the deeply-laden colliers which enter their ports ; but of the extraordinary quality of this coal (the best in the southern hemisphere), and of the almost unlimited extent of the coal-fields, they have not a notion. Nor do they suspect that, while the men on the plains of the east are working hard to make a living by agriculture, the few settlers on the other side, who have gone in for stock, have seen their herds thrive and increase amazingly even in uncleared lands, browsing on the luxuriant undergrowth of the forests. The heavy rainfall, which is unfavourable for wheat and sheep (the only two resources known to the East-coast settler), provides the fairest pasture for cattle, and produces splendid specimens of all vegetables wherever they have been tried. It is only during the last few years that the men of Canterbury have begun to realize the vast natural wealth of their own Middle Island — wealth which can only be compared to that of England itself On the east side are wide plains of unrivalled agricultural land at the foot of undulating hills, with a dry subsoil, which are especially adapted for sheep, while the sea is full of excellent fish, and the harbours of Lyttelton anc/ Akaroa offer safe anchorage to the largest merchant R 242 Antipodean Notes. vessels and ironclads. The west, again, produces precisely what the east and all Australia require — timber for building, for cabinet-making, and for railway construction ; coal of various qualities, for smelting,gas-producing,ordomesticuse; gold almost everywhere; iron, copper, and other metals in various places, and in quantities not yet ascertained ; finally, the finest climate in the world for stock- raising. I have said that the Canterbury men have found all this out ; but such is the prevailing igno- rance, and so inveterate is provincial jealousy, that Otago and Auckland men look on, and completely ignore the opportunities of wealth which lie ready to their hands. Even the fact that the only line of railway as yet opened on the west coast — that from the collieries at Brunnerton to Greymouth Harbour — pays a better dividend than any other railway in the colony, is not sufficient to open their eyes. Such being the condition of knowledge in, New Zealand itself, it cannot be a matter of surprise that Lombard Street and Throgmorton Street are no better informed. It would, on the contrary, be a matter of surprise if they were ; but it is much to be regretted that the guileless British public, seeking for an invest- ment, prefers to risk its money in South American Antipodean Notes. 243 Republics, where life and politics are uncertain, or in American railways, of which the profit (if any) is swallowed up in Wall Street, rather than in a British colony of immense resources, where English laws prevail, where the future is assured, where political changes are confined to the peaceful revolution of a new Ministry, and where the persons to whom their money is entrusted are subject to the same penalties for abuse of trusts as if they were in London itself To these remarks the invariable English answer is, that New Zealand has- an enormous public debt in proportion to its population, and that it may very likely be unable or unwilling to pay the interest on that debt. Sometimes it is added that the country has exhausted its resources ; but this statement has already been sufficiently disposed of, and a glance through the Official Handbook of the colony would be enough to satisfy any one who cares to know that it is based on nothing but ignorance. That the debt is very large in proportion to the population is undoubtedly true, and the circum- stance is sufficiently important to be dealt with carefully, nor can the reply to this objection be confined to generalities. The amount of the debt of New Zealand, after R 2 244 Antipodean Notes. subtracting the accrued sinking fund, is 34,1 10,000/. The total population is 620,000, and the amount of indebtedness of the Government of the colony- is therefore 55/. os. ^d, per head of the population. This 55/. per head is the chief figure which the "bears" of colonial stocks dangle as a fearful object before the eyes of the alarmed public. " How," they say, " can a country prosper under such a load of indebtedness ? Our national debt is universally considered very heavy ; yet it amounts to 739,000,000/. only, or to barely 21/. per head of the population. New Zealand there- fore is labouring under an incubus of indebtedness two and a half times as great as that of the mother- country." This argument ought to deceive none but the shallowest thinkers. It requires but little thought and but a short inquiry to show that while the New Zealand debt was incurred for a number of objects which increase the wealth of the colony, the English national debt has been devoted largely to unremunerative expenditure. In other words, much of the New Zealand debt has been incurred for purposes of re-investment. The Government has spent the money, indeed ; but it has spent mitch of it in such a manner as to not only develop the country's resources, but to be Antipodean Notes. 245 actually realizable. The large figure of the colonial debt covers the cost of — 1 72 1 miles oi railways. 13,300 miles oi telegraphs. Over 2000 miles oi post-roads, AW Xhe public buildings. About 4,000,000 of acres of land purchased from the Maoris. Large contributions to harbour works in both islands ; besides, of course, all the usual branches of Government expenditure. To establish anything like a fair standard of comparison, the cost of the railways and post- roads in the United Kingdom must therefore be added to the national debt. Assuming that the telegraph-lines are now the property of the nation — which is very nearly true — and that our public buildings are paid for, we should still have to add to our debt the large items of expenditure which, in this country, have been incurred by private and local enterprise. It is now quite impossible to estimate, even approximately, the cost of the roads in England, Scotland, or Ireland. The ex- penditure on railways was, up to midsummer, 1887, 828,500,000/. Adding this to the amount of the national debt (which it considerably exceeds), and allowing only a very small amount for the 246 Antipodean Notes. cost of the roads of the United Kingdom, we arrive at a total of 1,600,000,000/., or 43/. 5^. ^d. per head of the population. The value of a comparison instituted on a mere numerical basis of the population, without taking into account its earnings and its productive power, appears to be very slight ; for mere numbers do not make a wealthy nation any more than undisci- plined masses make a strong army. Still, the " bears " may have the benefit of the fact as far as it goes, that each individual in New Zealand has to bear a load of debt one-fifth greater than each individual in the United Kingdom. Now, however, let us turn to the trade of the two countries — a comparison which is manifestly unfair to the colony, in which the power of pro- duction is, of course, yet in its infancy and trade comparatively undeveloped. The total exports and imports of the United Kingdom for 1886 amounted to 6i8,ooo,ooo2. sterling, or to almost exactly 17/. 2s. per head of the population. If the trade of New Zealand had been in the same proportion, it would have amounted to 10,540,000/. But, as a matter of fact, the figures were 13,320,000/., or 21/. gs. Sd. per head. Thus it is clear that each individual in New Antipodean Notes. 247 Zealand, if considered as a trader only, does almost exactly one-fourth more business (expressed in pounds, shillings, and pence) every year than each individual in the United Kingdom similarly con- sidered. Or, again, while the share of each person in the public debt (including cost of railways) and in the trade of the country, amounts in England to 44/. 55. 5, 202. , value of, 74, Z2,. N. Nelson, 172 et seq. New Zealand Alps, 149. , anecdotes of, seq. debt, 243 et , exports and imports, 246. -, finance, 233, 237 et seq. -, railways, 98, 134, 191, 245, 253, 255. , rivers, 125, 186 et seq. North Island, 147, 159, 169. O. Ocean steamers, see Steam- ers. "Oceana" (Froude's), 9. 98. Otago, 127, 167. Otira, 134 et seq. Ozone (steamer), 22. P. Pearson, Lake, 151. Port Chalmers, 127, 192. Melbourne (Sandridge), 15, 21. Index. 259 Potatoes, 69. Provisions, price of, 121. R. Racing, 109, et seq. clubs, 116. , time test, no. — , totalizator, 115. Racecourses, 113. Railways, see New Zealand. Reptiles, absence of, 153. Retrenchment, applied by N.Z. Ministers, 97. not popular, 91,92- Rio de Janeiro, 208 et seq. Rotoiti, Lake, 151. Sandhurst (Victoria), 47, 48. Sandridge (Port Melbourne), 15,21. Scotch canniness, 37, 38. digger, 46 et seq. importations, 66. province, 127, 167. Sheep, enemies of, 74, 75. farming, 65, 71, 73. killing and dressing, T. Tasmania, 33 et seq. Terraces, Pink and White, 147. Theatres, 28, 182, 183. Thistles, 66. Timber-trees, 140, 152. U. Unemployed, anecdotes of ! the, 169. i , the prof sional, 1 54 et seq. — , their me- thods, 155. 78. shearing, 71. Shops, 88. Soap factories, 252. Steamers, anecdote of, 194. , local, 193. , ocean, 39, 192, 197 et seq. Swaggers, 166. , anecdotes of, 167. Value of exports and im- ports, 246. of mutton, 74, 83. of wool, 72, 227, 251. Vegetables, 13. W. i Wages, 25, 27, 96, 99, 158, 231, 248. Wakatipu, Lake, 150. Water-races, 124. Wellington, 192, 232, 239. Heads, 148. West Coast, see Westland. Westland, 134, 171, 231, 232, 242. Wheat, 69, 173, 227. Wool factories, 87, 251. , value of, 72, 227, 251. Working-man, the, 25, 27, 87 91, 93 et seq., 231. LONDON : PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LIMITED, ST. JOHN'S HOUSE, CLEKKENWELL ROAD. A Catalogue of American and Foreign Books Published or Imported by Messrs. 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