CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CANTERBURY DISTRICT.--VISIT TO A
SHEEP-STATION.--HOW THE SHEEP-BUSINESS IS CONDUCTED.--THE AGRICULTURAL
COLLEGE.--IRRIGATION IN NEW ZEALAND.--SHEEP LOST IN SNOW-STORMS.--THE
SHEEP-RAISER'S ENEMIES.--DESTRUCTION CAUSED BY PARROTS.--THE RABBIT
PEST.--HOW RABBITS ARE EXTERMINATED.--VISIT TO A WHEAT-FARM.--WHEAT
STATISTICS.--IMPROVED MACHINERY.--THE SPARROW PEST.--TROUBLESOME
EXOTICS.--WATER-CRESS, DAISIES, AND SWEETBRIER.--AN INDUSTRIAL
SCHOOL.--MOUNT COOK.--FIRST ASCENT.--PERILOUS CLIMBING.--GLACIERS
AND LAKES.--THE SOUTHERN ALPS.--DUNEDIN.--OTAGO
GOLD-FIELDS.--INVERCARGILL.--LAKE WAKATIPU.--MINING AT QUEENSTOWN.
[Illustration: UNDER THE SHEARS.]
The provincial district of Canterbury is both an agricultural and a
pastoral country, part of it being well adapted to grain-growing, and
the rest to grazing. Its staple productions are grain and wool, and it
ships large quantities of both to England and other countries. There are
more than 5,000,000 sheep in the district, besides 200,000 cattle and
horses; the annual product of wheat is nearly 7,000,000 bushels, and of
oats half that amount. Evidently the Canterbury pilgrims did not choose
unwisely when they came here to found their Utopia.
Our friends were invited to visit a sheep-station and wheat-farm in the
interior, and at once accepted. Mr. Abbott, the gentleman who gave the
invitation, explained to them that the plain of Canterbury, which
extended to the foot of the outlying hills of the Southern Alps, was
principally devoted to agriculture, while the hilly region was more
adapted to sheep-raising. "We will go to the sheep-shearing region
first," said he, "and on our return will have a look at a wheat-farm. We
will go by railway to Springfield, forty-six miles, and from there the
coach will carry us in a few hours to the sheep-station that I wish you
to see. Be ready for the train at eight o'clock to-morrow morning."
[Illustration: A SHEEP-SHEARING SHED IN NEW ZEALAND.]
The party was ready at the time appointed; in fact, it was ready some
minutes before the time, in accordance with the promptness which
characterized the movements of Doctor Bronson and his nephews. They
found the railway-station large and commodious, and arranged after the
plan of an English station in a community of much greater extent. "It
was built for our future rather than for our present needs," said Mr.
Abbott. "In time we hope to require all the space at our command, but
just at present there is sometimes a suggestion of loneliness about it."
The country through which the train passed on its way to Springfield
bore evidences of careful cultivation, and our friends found it
difficult to believe that previous to 1850 this whole region was a
wilderness. Certainly the Canterbury pilgrims were not inclined to
idleness, and the condition of their fields indicated that they belonged
to men of industry and intelligence. As the train moved westward the
mountains became more and more distinct, and long before Springfield was
reached they filled the whole of the western horizon with their towering
peaks.
"We have an agricultural college at Lincoln," said Mr. Abbott, "where
our young men can learn practical and scientific agriculture adapted to
the colony. It is under the control of the Canterbury College Board of
Governors, and has a farm of five hundred acres, and comfortable
buildings for the students. Agriculture is taught practically, and we
have every reason to expect excellent results from the college in the
course of the next few years."
From Springfield a ride of a few hours carried the party to the
sheep-station, where they were warmly welcomed. The sun was just setting
when they arrived, and it was too late to examine the place and its
surroundings. A supper consisting of mutton in cutlets and stew,
accompanied by bread baked on hot stones, and washed down with tea,
received careful and appreciative attention by the hungry travellers.
The sleeping accommodations were limited but comfortable, and in the
morning all were out in good season, and ready to consider the
sheep-raising question.
[Illustration: A FLOCK OF SHEEP AMONG THE HILLS.]
Horses were brought, and though somewhat unruly at first, they proved
very satisfactory to their riders; at any rate, nobody had any bones
broken in the forenoon's ride, though there were some narrow escapes.
Accompanied by their host, the party rode over the sheep-run for several
miles, visiting the herders in charge of their flocks, and studying the
peculiarities of the country. Frequently during their ride Mr. Abbott
drew rein and called attention to the natural and other advantages or
disadvantages of the business, and showed them wherein it differed from
sheep-farming in America.
"Here, as everywhere else," said he, "we must make sure of a plentiful
supply of water if we want to prosper. Some of the streams run dry at
certain seasons of the year, and it is necessary that a man should know
before he locates if a stream can be relied upon throughout the year. On
some of our runs we have made trenches and brought water for long
distances, as it is cheaper to have the water run where we want it than
to drive the sheep several miles. There is an abundance of water flowing
from the mountains, but it is not properly distributed by nature;
therefore we have called science to our aid, and extensive
irrigation-works have been made by the local and colonial governments,
and in this way thousands upon thousands of sheep-pasturing and
agricultural lands that were formerly almost worthless are now valuable.
You probably observed some of the irrigating-ditches as we were coming
along the railway.
[Illustration: SHEEP AND HERDER KILLED IN A SNOW-STORM.]
"In the lower hills we do not suffer from snow-storms, but some of the
sheep-farmers who have established themselves high up among the
mountains have lost heavily from this cause. Sometimes there will be
several years without a severe storm, and then will come one that kills
off thousands and thousands of sheep in a very few days. This was the
case a few years ago, when the losses were very heavy; one flock of more
than a thousand sheep was shut up in the mountains, and perished with
their herder, who was found dead by their side. Other flocks were buried
and died in the snow, but the herders managed to save themselves.
"But the rabbits and parrots are our worst enemies, as you may have
heard."
"Yes, I've heard so," replied Frank; "at least I've been told that the
rabbits have been terribly destructive of grass, and ruined many
thousand acres of pasturage."
"Rabbits were first introduced," said Mr. Abbott, "as a table luxury and
to furnish hunting sport; and besides, it was thought they would be
handsome ornaments on a place. But very soon it was found that they were
a great pest; they increase very rapidly, and as the country was
sparsely settled, the settlers were unable to keep them down. Men were
hired to trap, shoot, or capture them in some way, and were paid at the
rate of twopence for each rabbit-skin; but this plan was not effective,
as it was not rapid enough, and after many experiments we took to
poisoning the creatures by wholesale."
"How did you do it?"
"By means of grain saturated with phosphorus; we prepare barrels with
closely fitting lids, and fill them half full with oats; then we pour
boiling water on the oats, and when they are thoroughly soaked and
swollen we pour in a quantity of phosphorus, quickly replacing the
cover, so that the poisonous fumes cannot escape. This grain scattered
over the ground is death to the rabbits, but the disadvantages of the
plan are that sheep are often killed by the poisoned grain.
"To give you an idea of the slaughter of rabbits in New Zealand, let me
say that ten millions of rabbit-skins are exported every year, but the
value of these skins is very little compared with the damage which the
animals have caused. The latest official reports show that the nuisance
is checked in some localities, but there are yet many millions of
rabbits to be disposed of. In England and other countries foxes, wolves,
weasels, and other noxious animals keep down the number of rabbits, but
here, where they have no natural enemies, the country suffers terribly.
Many a sheep-farmer has been ruined by the total destruction of his
pasturage, and the loss to the colony may be reckoned by millions of
dollars.
[Illustration: REDUCING THE RABBIT POPULATION.]
"Australia and Tasmania are equally afflicted by rabbits," the gentleman
continued, "which were introduced into those countries from New Zealand
for the same reasons that they were introduced here. Millions of pounds
sterling would not compensate for their ravages, and the public and
private expenditure for their destruction has already mounted into those
figures. Dogs, ferrets, poison, trapping, drowning, and every other
known means have been tried to reduce them, but without success.
Occasionally the whole population turns out for a rabbit 'battue,' in
which many thousands of the animals are killed. The owners of sheep and
cattle runs have built hundreds of miles of rabbit-fences, and the
colonial governments have done likewise; the fences stop the progress of
the vermin for a time, but after a while they manage to burrow beneath
them and come up on the other side, and so the fences are not effective
to prevent the spread of the pest."
"Haven't I read about their being killed by forcing noxious gases into
their warrens?" one of the boys asked.
"Yes," was the reply, "that has been done, but the machines for making
and using the gas are costly and cumbersome, and in rocky regions they
do not work satisfactorily.
"Recently the Government of New South Wales has offered a reward of
twenty-five thousand pounds to any one who will devise a successful
system of destroying rabbits, provided it is not dangerous to live-stock
and to human beings. The attention of the scientific world is directed
to the subject, and perhaps the remedy may be found. Pasteur, the
celebrated French scientist, has proposed to inoculate a few rabbits
with chicken-cholera and allow them to run among their kindred, and thus
introduce the disease. He says it is harmless to all animals, with the
exception of rabbits and chickens, and believes that the whole rabbit
population could in this way be killed off, though at the same time our
domestic fowls would be killed too, unless they were carefully shut up.
We could afford to lose every fowl in the southern hemisphere if we
could only get rid of this great pest of rabbits; but it will be
necessary to proceed very cautiously, lest our sheep and cattle should
suffer."
The youths had a realizing sense of the extent of this pest in the
Australasian colonies, when they saw on several occasions whole
hillsides and stretches of plain that seemed to be in motion, so thickly
was the ground covered with rabbits. Mr. Abbott further told them that
Dunedin and other cities had a regular exchange, or market, for
rabbit-skins, where dealings were conducted as in the grain, wool, and
other exchanges. The skins mostly find their way to London, Paris,
Berlin, Vienna, and Naples, where they are made into "kid" gloves of the
lower grades. They are also made into hats, and it is hoped that they
may be found useful for other purposes, so as to make profitable the
wholesale slaughter of the animals on whose backs they grow.[8]
[8] A recent writer on this subject says: "On the arid, barren Riverina
plains (whereon naturally not even a mouse could exist) there are
pastured at present some twenty or twenty-five millions of high-class
merino sheep. These sheep are being gradually eaten out by rabbits. The
following will serve as an illustration, and it must be borne in mind
that it is only one of many which could be adduced.
"On the south bank of the river Murray, consequently in the colony of
Victoria, there is a station named Kulkyne, which has about twenty miles
frontage to that river. The holding extends far back into arid,
naturally worthless, waterless country. On that station, by skilful
management and by command of capital, there came to be pastured on it
about 110,000 sheep. When I two or three years ago visited that station
I found that the stock depasturing it had shrunk to 1,200 sheep dying in
the paddock at the homestead; 110,000 sheep to 1,200 sheep!
"The rabbits had to account for the deficiency. On that station they had
eaten up and destroyed all the grass and herbage; they had barked all
the edible shrubs and bushes, and had latterly themselves begun to
perish in thousands."
"How about the parrots?" Fred asked, when the rabbit question was
disposed of.
"That is a strange piece of history," replied Mr. Abbott. "When the
sheep-farmers first established their stations among the mountains there
were flocks of the _kea_, or green parrot, living in the glens and
feeding entirely on fruit and leaves. They were beautiful birds, and
nobody suspected any harm from them.
"After a time it was observed that many of the sheep, and they were
invariably the finest and fattest of the flocks, had sores on their
backs, and always in the same place, just over the kidneys. Some of the
sores were so slight that the animals recovered, but the most of them
died or had to be killed to end their sufferings.
"The cause of these sores was for some time a mystery, but at length a
herdsman on one of the high ranges declared his belief that the green
parrots were the murderers of the sheep. He was ridiculed and laughed
at, but was soon proved to be right, as a parrot was seen perched on the
back of a fat sheep and tearing away the flesh.
[Illustration: PARROTS.]
"Investigation showed that in the severe winters the parrots had come at
night to the gallows, where the herdsmen hung the carcasses of
slaughtered sheep. They picked off the fat from the mutton, and showed a
partiality for that around the kidneys; how they ever connected the
carcasses with the living sheep is a subject for the naturalists to
puzzle over, and especially how they knew the exact location of the spot
where the choicest fat was found in the living animal. It seems that the
attacks on the sheep began within a few months after the parrots had
first tasted mutton at the meat-gallows."
"Have they done much damage?" one of the youths asked.
"Yes, a great deal," was the reply; "but not so much of late years, as
they are being exterminated. One man lost nineteen fine imported sheep
out of a flock of twenty, killed by the parrots; and another lost in the
same way two hundred in a flock of three hundred. Every flock in the
mountains suffers some from this cause, probably not less than two per
cent.
"A shilling a head is now paid for keas, and there is a class of men who
hunt them for the sake of the reward; but the sagacious birds that
formerly came without fear into the presence of man now keep themselves
carefully concealed in the daytime, and only venture out at night. Their
depredations have always been made in the night, and hence it was some
time before the cause of the wounds on the sheep was known."
[Illustration: A NEW ZEALAND PEST.]
Frank and Fred asked about the profits of the sheep-raising business,
but the information they obtained did not encourage them to become
sheep-farmers in New Zealand. What with the rabbits and the parrots,
with diseases among sheep, fluctuations in wool, the high price of
labor, especially at shearing-time, when extra men must be engaged, with
a full knowledge of their importance, the profits are not what they were
in the early days of the industry.
From the sheep-station they returned to Springfield, and took train
again in the direction of Christchurch. At the second or third station
from Springfield they were met by a carriage, which took them to the
wheat-farm, which was one of the objects of the journey. Time did not
permit a lengthened stay here, but it was sufficient to enable them to
see a good deal before their departure.
Here is a summary of what they learned about wheat-farming in New
Zealand:
"About four hundred thousand acres of ground are utilized for wheat in
the different counties of the colony. The farmers expect twenty-five
bushels to the acre in most localities, but frequently this figure is
exceeded, the average throughout the country for one year being in
excess of twenty-six bushels. Consequently, the wheat crop may be set
down at ten million bushels, of which by far the greater portion is
available for exportation."
Frank made a note here to the effect that half a million acres of land
were devoted to raising oats, at an average of thirty-five bushels to
the acre. Barley, hay, potatoes, and other things brought the amount of
land under crop up to a million and a half acres, while there were five
and a half million acres under grasses, including grass-sown land that
had not been previously ploughed. The figures were about evenly divided
between the two islands. The colony contains about fourteen million
sheep, seven hundred thousand cattle, and one hundred and sixty thousand
horses.
"Of late years the export of wheat has fallen off, owing to the
competition of India and America in the markets of Europe; the
wheat-farms of New Zealand are so unprofitable that the owners talk of
putting much of their ground into grass, though they will continue the
cultivation in order to supply enough for home consumption and to employ
the machinery they have on hand.
[Illustration: A STEAM THRESHING-MACHINE.]
"The open country of South Island is admirably adapted for wheat, and
the soil is so easy to manipulate that double-furrow ploughs are used.
The large farms are provided with all the latest improvements in
machinery and implements; and we found the intelligent farmers
thoroughly familiar with American reapers and mowers, steam
threshing-machines, steam wagons, and other things, so that we felt
quite at home. They asked us about the wheat-farms of America, and were
inclined to shake their heads when we told them of fields so large that
a plough could only turn a single furrow around one of them in a day's
time.
"'Do you really mean it?' said one of them, with an emphasis of
surprise.
"Doctor Bronson assured them of the correctness of the statement, and
added that on the Dalrymple farm in Dakota, or rather on one of the
Dalrymple farms, there was a single field of thirteen thousand acres.
'That makes,' said he, 'about twenty square miles, and I doubt if you
have any team that could plough more than one furrow around such a field
in a day.'
"They acknowledged that such was the case, and though they had fields
containing hundreds of acres inside a single fence, they had nothing
that approached the wheat-fields of Dakota. We were sorry afterwards
that we mentioned our enormous wheat-fields, as we thought it set them
to thinking of American competition, and the effect it might have on
their own business in future; but of course we couldn't resist our
national tendency to 'brag' a little.
"Afterwards, when we were visiting a dairy-farm, a matter-of-fact
Scotchman who owned the place remarked that he presumed we had much
larger dairy-farms in America, as he had heard of one where they had a
saw-mill which was propelled by the whey that ran from the
cheese-presses, and also a grist-mill operated by buttermilk!
"In the wheat-growing belt of South Island there is a scarcity of
timber, the forests being mainly in the hilly and mountain region. The
scarcity of timber has led to the planting of forests. Considerable
attention is given to this both by the authorities and by individuals,
and good results are predicted at no distant day. There is also a
scarcity of water, and to meet it irrigation-works have been
constructed, as already stated.
[Illustration: ENGLISH SPARROWS AT HOME.]
"Wheat-farmers are troubled by rabbits, and also by sparrows, which were
introduced to kill off caterpillars and other insect pests. The sparrows
increased in numbers almost as rapidly as the rabbits; they changed
their habits, and from carnivorous taste turned to eating fruits and
grains. The New Zealand sparrow shuns the caterpillars and worms he was
imported to devour, and feeds on the products of the garden and the
field. The same is the case in Australia, where the sparrows are now in
countless millions, the descendants of fifty birds that were imported
about 1860. The colonial governments have offered rewards for the heads
and eggs of the sparrows, and though this has caused an extensive
destruction it has not perceptibly diminished their numbers.
"In an official investigation of the 'sparrow pest,' one man testified
that he sowed his peas three times, and each time the sparrows devoured
them. Another told how the birds destroyed a ton and a half of grapes,
in fact cleared his vineyard, and others said they had been robbed of
all the fruit in their gardens."
This is a good place to say something about the exotics that have been
introduced into the Australasian colonies. Cattle, horses, sheep, and
swine have been of unequivocal benefit, and so has been the stocking of
the rivers with trout, carp, and other food fishes of Europe. Larks and
a few other song-birds have thus far proved of no trouble, but even they
may yet give cause to regret their introduction. In addition to the
animal pests already mentioned, the Indian _mina_, or mino-bird, a
member of the starling family, has become a great nuisance, almost equal
to the sparrow.
We will now turn from the animal to the vegetable exotics.
Wheat, oats, and the other grains are of course in the same beneficial
category as the domestic animals. The innocent water-cress, which is
such a welcome addition to the breakfast and dinner table, has grown
with such luxuriance as to choke the rivers, impede the navigation of
those formerly navigable, and cause disastrous floods which have
resulted in loss of life and immense destruction of property. In the
Otago and Canterbury districts of New Zealand, the Government makes a
large expenditure every year to check the growth of this vegetable
pest.
The daisy was introduced to give the British settler a reminder of home,
and already it has become so wide-spread as to root out valuable
grasses. Years ago an enthusiastic Scotchman brought a thistle to
Melbourne, and half the Scotchmen in the colony went there to see it. A
grand dinner was given in honor of this thistle, and on the following
day it was planted with much ceremony in the Public Garden of Melbourne.
From that thistle and its immediate descendants the down was carried by
the winds all over Victoria, and many thousands of acres of once
excellent fields are now covered with tall purple thistles to the
exclusion of everything else. Large amounts of money have been expended
in the effort to eradicate the thistle, but all in vain.
The common sweetbrier is another vegetable exotic that has become a
pest. It was introduced for the sake of its perfume, but has become
strong and tenacious, spreading with great rapidity, and forming a dense
scrub that utterly ruins pasture-lands. Money has been expended for its
destruction, but it refuses to be destroyed.
The English sparrow is the subject of much discussion in the United
States, and the opinion seems to be gaining ground that he is a pest to
be put out of the way if possible. Those who are inclined to advocate
his continued presence under the Stars and Stripes would do well to
study his history in the Australasian colonies, where the damage he has
caused is practically incalculable.
[Illustration: CLASS IN THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.]
Our friends returned to Christchurch, and after another day in that city
proceeded by railway in the direction of the South Pole. At the earnest
solicitation of one of their acquaintances, they stopped a few hours at
Burnham, eighteen miles from Christchurch and on the line of railway, to
visit the industrial school for children whose parents have neglected to
care for them properly. The object is to instruct the children in useful
trades and occupations which can afford them an honorable support in
later years. The school has extensive buildings and grounds, and has
constantly about three hundred children under instruction. Nearly all
the ordinary trades are taught there, and the manager said the children
generally showed great proficiency in learning what was set for them to
do.
"The main line of railway to Dunedin," wrote Frank in his journal, "has
several branches which serve as feeders by developing the country
through which they pass. Portions of the line are through rolling or
hilly country, and there are other portions which stretch across plains
resembling the prairies of the western United States. On the western
horizon rises the line of snow-clad mountains, again reminding us of
railway travelling over our own plains as we approach the range of 'The
Rockies.'
"We crossed several fine bridges spanning the rivers Rakaia, Ashburton,
Rangitoto, and Waitaki; these rivers flow through wide beds, and though
ordinarily of no great volume become tremendous torrents in seasons of
floods. In the early days many a traveller came to his death while
seeking to ford one of these treacherous streams, and many sad memories
are connected with their history.
"As we approached Timaru, one hundred miles from Christchurch, Mount
Cook, the highest mountain of New Zealand, was pointed out to us. It is
12,349 feet high, and its top is covered with perpetual snow; it is the
highest peak of the Southern Alps, which stretch along the west coast of
New Zealand for nearly two hundred miles, very much as the Andes lie
along the west coast of South America. Fred and I thought we would like
to climb Mount Cook, and spoke to Doctor Bronson about it. The Doctor
dampened our enthusiasm by saying that it was more difficult of ascent
than Mont Blanc, and he was unaware that the feat had been accomplished
since Rev. W. S. Green and two Swiss companions reached the top of the
mountain in 1883.
[Illustration: A PERILOUS NIGHT-WATCH.]
"He added that Mr. Green was a member of the famous Alpine Club, and
had brought the two Swiss mountain-climbers to assist him in making the
ascent. They made several attempts before they succeeded, and when they
finally reached the summit it was after several narrow escapes from
death. They passed one night standing on a narrow ledge of rock, where a
single misstep would have hurled them to instant death thousands of feet
below. Frequently they toiled for hours up the side of a spur of the
mountain, and then found that their labor was lost, as farther ascent
was impossible, owing to the steepness of the rock."
"They had all the variety of adventures recorded in the history of
Alpine climbing," said a gentleman who was in conversation with Doctor
Bronson at the time the query was propounded, "except that of being
swept into crevasses or down the slope of the mountain and losing their
lives. Mr. Green has published a book, entitled 'The High Alps of New
Zealand,' in which you will find a description of the ascent of Mount
Cook. After you have read it I don't think you'll want to follow the
example of that gentleman, unless you have more than the ordinary
enthusiasm about mountain-climbing."
[Illustration: THE SUMMIT OF MOUNT COOK.]
"As we looked at the peak of Mount Cook rising sharply into the sky,"
Frank continued, "we concluded that a view of the mountain from below
would satisfy all our desires. The gentleman roused our curiosity,
however, when he told us about the wonderful glaciers that lie on the
lower slopes of the great mountain, some of them larger than any of the
glaciers of Switzerland. Then on the way he pointed out several lakes
that are fed by the glaciers on Mount Cook and other peaks of the
Southern Alps just as the lakes of Switzerland and Italy are fed by the
glaciers from the Alps of Europe. Some of these lakes are forty or fifty
miles long, and of almost unknown depth; indeed, some of them are deeper
than the level of the ocean, though their bottoms have been filling up
for ages with the débris brought down by the glaciers.
"Look on the map and find Lake Tekapo; it is fifteen miles long and
three wide, and is supplied by the great Godley glacier, which lies just
above it. The Tasman glacier, eighteen miles long, is the largest in New
Zealand, though this statement is disputed by some authorities. At any
rate, there are a great many glaciers, and all have not been fully
explored. They are on the western as well as on the eastern slope of the
mountains; one of them descends from Mount Cook to within seven hundred
feet of the sea-level, and for a long distance is bordered by
magnificent vegetation in which tree-ferns and fuchsias are conspicuous.
In this respect the glacier resembles that of Grisons, in Switzerland,
which comes down far below the snow-level, and is bordered with pine
forests and almost by cornfields.
[Illustration: ATTEMPT TO CLIMB THE EASTERN SPUR.]
"Some of the moraines, or channels, cut by the glaciers are very deep,
and most of the lakes lie in what were moraines ages and ages ago, when
the ice extended much farther than it does now. Lake Pukaki is a fine
example of this; it is shut in by an old terminal moraine which attains
a height of one hundred and eighty-six feet above the surface of the
lake. On the western side of the Alps there are deep channels which are
called 'sounds,' and greatly resemble the fiords of Norway. Some of them
are eighteen or twenty miles long, and vary from half a mile to two or
three miles in width; their sides rise almost perpendicularly, sometimes
for hundreds of feet, and they are nearly all too deep to permit ships
to anchor. Sounding-lines a thousand feet long often fail to find bottom
there. Perhaps they are called sounds because they can't be sounded.
[Illustration: RIVER ISSUING FROM A GLACIER.]
"These sounds are supposed to be ancient moraines, and during the ice
period of the world they were the beds of glaciers coming from immense
lakes, encircling the bases of the mountains and covering areas of
thousands of miles. Altogether the scenery of the Southern Alps is said
to be magnificent."
Doctor Bronson had decided to make no stop on the way until reaching
Dunedin, and though earnestly urged to spend a day at Timaru, in order
to see the harbor works there, the establishment for freezing meat, the
barbed wire factory, and other enterprises, he did not swerve from his
resolution. The party reached Dunedin late in the evening, and went to
the hotel which had been recommended as one of the best. They had no
occasion to complain of it, and in the morning were ready to "do" the
sights of the place.
Dunedin has the reputation of being the largest, best built, and most
important commercial city of New Zealand; it is the capital of the
provincial district of Otago, and the commercial centre of a large area
of country. The settlement of Otago was projected in 1846, and it was
intended to be exclusively occupied by adherents of the Free Kirk of
Scotland, just as Canterbury at a later date was to be the monopoly of
adherents of the Church of England. The colony was not especially
prosperous under its exclusive system, though the thrifty settlers had
not much to complain of except the scarcity of neighbors.
But gold changed the whole scene, and broke down the barrier which the
projectors of the colony had erected. In 1861 rich gold-diggings were
discovered about seventy miles from Dunedin; diggers flocked in from
Australia and from other parts of the world, and from the beginning of
the gold rush Dunedin dates its prosperity.
It has all the characteristics of a thriving city; gas, paved streets,
horse-railways, race-course, theatres, schools, academies, churches,
colleges, parks, gardens, museum, manufactories, and numerous other
urban things and institutions, all are to be found here. There are three
daily papers published in Dunedin, and a score of weeklies and
monthlies, and there is an excellent library, supported partly by the
municipal authorities, and partly by contributions of enterprising
citizens. With its immediate suburbs it has a population of fifty
thousand, and is steadily increasing year by year. Its Scotch origin is
apparent in the faces and accent of the great majority of the residents,
and by the statue of the Scottish poet, Burns, which stands protected by
a railing in front of the town-hall. Most of the streets are named after
those of Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Our friends spent two days at Dunedin, and so attentive were the
gentlemen to whom they brought introductions that there were very few
leisure moments. Drives in the city and the suburbs, visits to the
manufactories of various kinds, the public buildings, and the harbor,
luncheons and dinners at the houses of their friends, kept them as busy
as bees. They had hardly a minute to themselves, until they finally
shook the dust of Dunedin from their feet, and departed with their faces
once more towards the South Pole. Frank and Fred declared that their
journals were so far behind that it would be difficult for them to catch
up, and they had not taken nearly as many notes of what they saw and
heard in Dunedin as they desired.
"I wanted," said Frank, "to make a note of the things they manufacture
in Otago, and especially at Dunedin, but the list was so long and time
so scarce that I didn't try; but I'll remark particularly that they
manufacture a good deal of woollen cloth, leather, cotton, and other
fabrics, which is something very unusual for so young a colony. There is
more manufacturing here than in any other part of New Zealand, and the
Scotch settlers of Otago seem to have brought here the thrift and
industry for which their native land is celebrated."
[Illustration: HYDRAULIC MINING.]
Doctor Bronson asked Fred if he had learned anything about the product
of gold in Otago.
"I have the figures right here," was the reply. "From 1861, when the
first discoveries were made, down to the end of March, 1884, the Otago
gold-fields produced 4,319,544 ounces, which were valued at £17,026,320,
or about $85,000,000. Most of the gold has been obtained from alluvial
washings of various kinds, such as sluicing, tunnelling, and hydraulic
washing; auriferous reefs have been successfully worked in several
instances, and unsuccessfully in more. Gold-mining has become a regular
industry of the country, and is less subject to fluctuations than in
former times. Once in a while a new field is opened, and there is a rush
to work it; but the excitement over such discoveries is not like that of
the five or ten years following 1861.
[Illustration: A SQUATTER'S HOME.]
"Coal-mining is also an important industry of Otago," continued Fred.
"Where formerly a great deal of coal was imported, the importation has
dwindled to nothing, and for several years New Zealand has not only
produced its own coal, but has a surplus for export. At least that is
what one authority says; another says that the exportation consists of
coal sent to Australia for gas-making, and that the quantity imported
for uses to which New Zealand coal is not adapted exceeds the export by
nearly fifty thousand tons."
From Dunedin our friends proceeded by rail again to Invercargill, 139
miles from Dunedin, or 369 from Christchurch. Invercargill is a
prosperous town of some eight or ten thousand inhabitants, and is near
the southern end of South Island, a sort of jumping-off place, as Frank
called it while looking at its location on the map. The real terminus of
the island, though not its most southerly point, is The Bluffs, about
seventeen miles below Invercargill, which stands on an estuary called
New River Harbor.
The morning after their arrival the travelling trio took the train for
Kingston, eighty-seven miles, at the southern end of Lake Wakatipu. The
train carried them through a fine country of broad plains dotted here
and there with tracts of forest. The region appeared to be well settled,
as there were little villages scattered at irregular intervals, fields
and pastures surrounded by fences, herds of cattle and flocks of sheep,
isolated farms, saw-mills, and other evidences of settlement and
prosperity. Several branch railways diverge from the main line and open
up agricultural, pastoral, mining, lumber, and other districts of much
present or prospective value.
[Illustration: A MOUNTAIN WATER-FALL.]
"As we approached the lake," said Frank in his journal, "the country
became more mountainous and picturesque. The train wound through a long
defile, and then came out upon the 'Five Rivers Plains,' which take
their name from five streams of water that pass through them. We passed
through the Dome Gorge, and at Athol, sixty-nine miles from
Invercargill, the conductor told us we were in the lake country. The
hills and mountains were everywhere about us, and in the west the great
range of the Alps rose into the sky. At Kingston the railway ends, and
we stepped on board the steamboat, which carried us the whole length of
the lake. The lake is sixty miles long, and reminded us of Lake Lucerne
in Switzerland.
"We spent the night at Queenstown, a mining and agricultural town about
twenty miles from Kingston, and on the next day completed our journey to
the head of the lake. The scenery is magnificent, and I can no more
describe it adequately in words than I can tell how a nightingale sings
or a mangosteen tastes. All around us are the mountains, the highest
peaks covered with perpetual snow that seems to flash back the rays of
the sun, before whose heat it refuses to melt. In the distance, higher
than all the rest, is Mount Earnslaw; we saw it clearly defined against
the sky, but it is very often veiled by the fleecy clouds that sweep
around it.
[Illustration: SHOTOVER GORGE BRIDGE.]
"I am not surprised that the mountains of New Zealand have been called
the Southern Alps, for they certainly bear a close resemblance to the
Alpine chain of Switzerland; but I do not think any single peaks are
equal to the Matterhorn or the Jungfrau, though Mount Earnslaw can well
be called the peer of Mont Blanc. On the whole, the scenery of the lake
is not surpassed by that of any one of the Swiss lakes; and when New
Zealand becomes the regular field for tourists there will be a good deal
of travel to Lake Wakatipu. Most of the residents shorten the name of
the lake to Wakatip.
"We were urged to stop at Queenstown and see the mining operations in
the neighborhood, but time did not permit us to do so, and we returned
to Invercargill as quickly as the railway and steamboat could carry us.
Queenstown is one of the mining centres of the Otago gold-fields, which
we have already mentioned, and has had the usual ups and downs of mining
life. The Otago mines cover a wide extent of country, and as much of the
region in which they lie is agricultural, living is cheaper here than in
most other mining regions.
"A good many Chinese are engaged in mining in the New Zealand
gold-fields, and we were told that in one place--Orepuki--there was a
mining population of four hundred Chinese that subscribed £100 ($500)
towards building a Presbyterian church, the total cost being less than a
thousand dollars. And yet I presume there are white men in Orepuki who
would call one of their Mongolian neighbors a 'heathen Chinee!' Near
Dunedin and other places, as well as in the neighborhood of most of the
Australian cities, the market-gardening is largely managed by the
Chinese. They seem to have almost a monopoly of this business, and we
were told that no European could successfully compete with them when
they went at it in earnest."
[Illustration: ON THE SHORE OF THE LAKE.]