ADVANTAGES OF WELLINGTON AS THE CAPITAL.—ITS INDUSTRIES AND PROSPERITY.—A CITY OF EARTHQUAKES.—ITS PUBLIC BUILDINGS.—THE COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.—HOW THE COLONY IS RULED.—THE COLONIAL PARLIAMENT.—MAORIS AS OFFICE-HOLDERS.—A WALK IN THE BOTANICAL GARDENS.—DIVISION OF THE ISLANDS INTO COUNTIES AND DISTRICTS.—NO CONNECTION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE.—RELATIVE STRENGTH OF RELIGIOUS BODIES.—EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES.—THE COLONIAL DEBT: ITS ENORMOUS FIGURES.—OVERLAND TO NEW PLYMOUTH.—ALONG THE SEA-SHORE.—MAKING IRON FROM SEA-SAND.—RIDING THROUGH THE BUSH.—NELSON AND PICTON.—THE WAIRAU MASSACRE.—TO PORT LYTTELTON AND CHRISTCHURCH.—AN ENGLISH MODEL COLONY.—THE CANTERBURY DISTRICT.—THE "SERVANT-GIRL" QUESTION.

"You have only to look at the map to understand why the capital was removed from Auckland to Wellington," said Doctor Bronson to Frank and Fred as they were journeying towards the latter city. "Its position is a central one, while Auckland is far to the north. There may have been other reasons for the change, but the geographical one is certainly apparent to everybody."

"Yes," answered Frank, as he studied the map, "and see what a fine harbor it has in addition to its position. Here it is at the head of a bay which ought to be a shelter from all the storms that blow."

"It is the safest and most commodious harbor in New Zealand," remarked a gentleman who had joined them in conversation, while the train was rolling through the forest and undulating land that lies to the north of the city. "The bay is six miles long by the same in width. It was originally named Port Nicholson, and is still called so on many of the maps. The first settlement of the New Zealand Company was made here in 1839, a year before Captain Hobson started the government at Auckland. You are probably aware that the Government was not friendly to the New Zealand Company and its enterprises at that time, and consequently Captain Hobson, the first governor, went elsewhere to establish his authority and found his capital city.

"Commercially, Wellington has a good future before it, and already it is in a condition of prosperity. It has a population of thirty thousand and more, the country behind it is excellent for farming and grazing, and our position on Cook Strait, which separates North and South Islands, is the very best we could have. You will see for yourselves that we have a good many industries, and nearly all of them are profitable ones."

In answer to a question by one of the youths, the gentleman enumerated tanneries, candle and soap factories, founderies, boot factories, coach and carriage shops, breweries, planing and other mills; in fact, all the establishments that might properly belong to a growing city. "Besides these," said he, "we have meat-preserving works, and steamers leave regularly, carrying our frozen and canned meats for consumption in the Old World. We have several clubs, half a dozen banks, wharves and dry docks for shipping, three daily papers, and several weeklies and monthlies; and as for public institutions, in the way of hospitals, asylums, and the like, you cannot name one that we are without."

In their walks and rides about Wellington our friends verified the correctness of the foregoing statement in all its essential features. They saw the factories, founderies, shops, and other industrial establishments the gentleman had mentioned; they called at one of the banks to obtain money on their letters of credit; they visited one of the newspaper offices, and saw the press turning out the huge sheets which are the glory of Wellington and the admiration of all New Zealand—except where personal or local preferences are otherwise—and the Doctor was made at home at half the clubs before he had been six hours in the place.

"It is an enterprising city," wrote Frank in his journal, after their first round of sight-seeing was ended. "It has a hospital with more than a hundred beds, a lunatic asylum, and a prison, and according to what we hear, all these institutions are well patronized. But what most surprises us are the public buildings, which ought to be sufficient for the wants of the city for many years to come. The Government Building is an immense structure in the Italian style; it covers an area of two acres, and is said to be the largest wooden edifice in the world. Then there are Government House, where the colonial governor lives and exercises the duties of ruler of New Zealand; the Houses of Legislature, which are lighted by electric light, the Provincial Buildings, the Supreme Court Buildings, and the offices of the city and of the provincial district. The telegraph and postal departments are in the largest brick building in the colony; and as for churches, they are, as the auctioneers say in their advertisements, 'too numerous to mention.'

"We have the choice of twenty or more hotels, and if we should want to go to the theatre we have three to choose from, though the number is just now reduced to two, as one is closed for repairs. They showed us the College, which has about one hundred and fifty students, who come mostly from Wellington and its vicinity, though there are representatives of every district in the colony. The streets are well paved and lighted with gas; they have street railways by which you can go quickly to all the principal suburbs; and if you prefer to ride by yourself, there are as many cabs as you could wish for.

"We have visited the colonial museum, where we saw much to interest us, particularly in regard to the Maoris. There is a fine collection[Pg 249]
[Pg 250] of Maori weapons and articles of manufacture, and one might almost make up a history of this interesting people by studying the Maori department of the museum. Of course they have a skeleton of the gigantic Dinornis, or Moa, which we have already described; and there is a beautiful display of the birds of New Zealand, which has been arranged by a skilled ornithologist.

"From the museum we went to the Botanical Gardens, which cover an area of perhaps a hundred acres and are finely laid out. They are a favorite resort of the public, and here in the early evening we had an opportunity to see of what a curious mixture the population of a New Zealand city is made up. There were men and women from all parts of the United Kingdom; Yorkshiremen jostled against Londoners, a Dubliner against a representative of Glasgow, and a Welshman against one who first saw the light at Dover or Brighton. English, Scotch, Irish, Catholic, Protestant, Gentile, and Israelite all met harmoniously, and if they brought to this country any of their old quarrels of race or religion they forgot them all, at least while in the Gardens.

"But if the assemblage at the Botanical Gardens was interesting, so was the collection of trees and ferns. The Botanical Gardens are rich in these things, and will be richer as the years go on. Not far from the Gardens is a specimen of the New Zealand forest; we saw it at various points along the railway, but did not try to walk through it, as we did here. Unless a path is previously cut it is absolutely impervious, so closely woven are the vines that interlace between the trees and climb to their very tops.

"It is this impenetrability of the forest that gave the Maoris such an advantage during the war, as it was impossible for the English troops to follow them half a dozen yards into the 'bush.' When Wellington was first settled, and down to a few years ago, the hills around the town were covered with this kind of forest. Most of it has been cut down now, partly for the sake of the wood, and more particularly for the purpose of clearing the ground and making it available for agriculture or building.

"As we are in the capital of New Zealand, this is a good place to study the government of the colony.

"Well, then, New Zealand is an English colony, with a governor appointed by the Queen, and acting in accordance with the principles of responsible government. Legislative power is vested in the Governor and two chambers. One of these chambers is called the Legislative Council, and consists of fifty-four members nominated by the Governor for life; the other is called the House of Representatives, elected by the people for three years, and consisting at present of ninety-four members.

"Down to 1876 each of the nine provinces of the colony had an elective superintendent and a provincial council; in that year the provincial form of government was abolished, and the colony was divided into counties and road-board districts, and the local administration is now managed by the county councils and municipalities. The colonial legislature meets once a year, and has power generally to make laws for the government of New Zealand. The acts of the legislature may be disallowed by the Queen, and in some cases they require her assent, but the royal prerogative is very rarely exercised.

"Voters must be twenty-one years of age, either born or naturalized British subjects, and must have resided one year in the colony and six months in the electoral district. Every male Maori of the same age whose name is on a rate-payer's roll, or who has a freehold estate of the value of twenty-five pounds, may also be enrolled as a voter. There are four Maori members of the House of Representatives, elected under a special law by the Maoris alone. Legislation concerning the sale and disposal of the public lands and the occupation of the gold-fields is exclusively vested in the colonial parliament. In general it may be said that the parliament and the county and local boards have the management of public affairs, just as the parliament of England and the local authorities there conduct the affairs of the nation at home.

"There is no connection between Church and State, otherwise than in all ministers being registered once a year, in order that they may legally perform the marriage ceremony. At the last reports there were 638 registered ministers, belonging to the following denominations: Church of England, 235; Presbyterian Church of New Zealand, 81; Roman Catholic, 86; Presbyterian Church of Otago and Southland, 57; Methodists, 95; Congregational Independent, 19; Baptist, 17; and ten other bodies with from one to seventeen ministers each. The Episcopalians of various kinds have over 200,000 adherents; the Presbyterians, 113,000; the Methodists, 50,000; and Catholics, 70,000.

"The whole country is divided into school districts for educational purposes; the education is secular and free, the common branches being taught on the same basis as in the schools of most of the United States. There are high-schools and academies in the cities and larger towns; there are colleges and universities in the principal cities, and there is the University of New Zealand, which is an examining body only, and has the power to confer the same degrees as the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. All things considered, the educational system of the colony seems to be an excellent one, and the people deserve credit for the attention they have given to it.

"We were invited to visit some of the schools in Auckland, and also in Napier and Wellington, and while travelling through the country we have had glimpses of some of the smaller schools. It was very much like visiting similar establishments in New England or New York, the branches of study as well as the form of instruction being practically the same. They tell us there are more than eleven hundred schools of all kinds in the colony, and nearly one hundred thousand scholars attending them. Seventy-three per cent. of the male, and sixty-eight per cent. of the female, population can read and write, and about five per cent. can read only. In the coming generation the proportion will be much greater.

"In another respect New Zealand resembles England in having an enormous public debt in proportion to her population. According to the published figures the debt amounts to £35,000,000, or $175,000,000, which is very nearly $350 for each inhabitant of the colony. The interest charge on this debt is about $13 annually for each inhabitant, so that the tax for this purpose alone is by no means light. And yet the colony seems quite unconcerned about it, and the authorities generally seem to think that there will be no trouble whatever in paying the interest promptly, and also in wiping out the principal in course of time. A sinking fund has been established for the reduction of the debt, and at the last report it exceeded $15,000,000.

"The money has been expended in various public works, especially in the construction of railways, of which there are nearly two thousand miles in both islands, South Island having the greater number. There are a few private lines, principally for the use of coal-mining companies, and not amounting in all to twenty miles; all the others are the property of the Government, and are operated on its account. The profit of operating the railways is about two per cent. of their cost; but the lines are greatly benefiting the country in aiding its development, and will doubtless pay much better before many years.

"There, I'm afraid I've given you a large dose of figures; but if you don't like them you can skip. They were interesting to Fred and myself, and therefore I thought others might like to see them. Population, railways, education, and public debt are interesting studies when they concern a country which has been colonized only since 1840, and is literally on the other side of the world from England and the United States."

While Frank was occupied with the foregoing story Fred was making further investigations about Wellington. One of his first queries was about the use of wood in the construction of so many of the public buildings, and nearly all the private residences.

He learned, in response to his interrogatories, that Wellington has suffered at different dates from earthquakes; and at one time they were so severe and so numerous that it was thought it would be necessary to abandon the site altogether. Buildings of wood endure earthquakes much better than do those of stone or brick; and then, too, wood is a cheaper material. All through New Zealand the proportion of wooden buildings to stone, concrete, or brick is very large, and it is larger in Wellington than in any other city.

Many of the buildings stand on ground reclaimed from the sea, and the work of reclamation is still going on. High hills come down close to the original shore, and while they are good enough as the sites of residences, they are unsuited to the requirements of commerce, which prefers level ground. Wellington is the centre of a considerable steamship business; the lines from Sydney and Melbourne centre there; it is the port of the lines running between England and the colony, and all the coasting lines include it in their itinerary.

A pressing invitation was given to our friends to visit New Plymouth, the principal town of the provincial district of Taranaki north of the provincial district of Wellington. They at first declined, but afterwards accepted when they found that their time and engagements would permit their doing so. The journey was by coach seventy miles to Foxton, and thence by rail one hundred and ninety miles to New Plymouth. A railway is in course of construction between Wellington and Foxton, and is completed for a short distance from Wellington. The coach-ride was more interesting than coach-rides usually are, and is thus described by Fred:

"The weather was delightful, and we had seats on the outside of the coach, so that our view of the scenery was unobstructed. For the first few miles the road follows the shore of the bay; then it turns into a pretty valley, which was once heavily wooded but is now cleared, and no doubt deprived of much of its former beauty. We crossed the ridge which separates the harbor of Wellington from the ocean on the west coast, and after winding among a series of hills found ourselves rolling along close to the shore of the ever restless Pacific.—[N.B. No joke is intended in the juxtaposition of the last three words of the foregoing sentence.]

"The villages we saw had native and foreign names strangely mingled. One village was Johnsonville, and the next was Porirua; one was Horokiwi, and another close to it was Smithtown, or something of the sort. We wound through the Horokiwi valley, ascending steadily, and suddenly reached the summit of a hill, which gave us a magnificent view. To the north was a great plain, which seemed almost as limitless as the ocean that filled the western horizon, and lay far below us at the base of an almost precipitous hill. Rising out of the sea was the island of Kapiti, its summit nearly two thousand feet high, and forming a striking feature in the picture before us.

"The driver called attention to something that resembled a white cloud on the horizon to the north-west, and told us it was Mount Egmont, nearly a hundred and fifty miles distant, and which we should see very closely as we approached New Plymouth. We used our eyes every minute of the time the horses were taking breath, and then started down a steep hill-side to the sea again.

"As soon as we reached the sea we turned along the beach, and followed it for forty miles till we drew up in Foxton. In a year or two the railway from Wellington will be completed to Palmerston, where it will connect with the Foxton-New Plymouth line; when this happens it is probable that the old stage-road will be abandoned, and travellers deprived of a very interesting ride.

"Foxton is a flourishing little place, with perhaps a thousand inhabitants, on the bank of the Manawatu River, four miles from its mouth. We saw numerous fields of flax in the vicinity, and were told that flax was an important article of export. We had little time to look around, as our coach connected with the train, and in less than half an hour we were rolling up the valley of the Manawatu, which the railway follows for some distance.

"Ten miles out of Foxton we entered the forest, or 'bush,' as they call it here, though much of it has been cleared away. Lumber is an important product; we saw a goodly number of saw-mills at work, and met freight-trains laden with lumber on its way to the seaport. The gentleman who accompanied us pointed out some villages which he said were settled by Scandinavians, who had proved themselves the very best of colonists.

"From bush to open country and from open country to bush our train went on, stopping occasionally at stations with little villages grouped around them, but very often with no other buildings visible than those belonging to the railway. Our host explained to us that the railway was built to develop the country, and for the greater part of the route it was in advance of civilization and settlement. 'I think,' said he, 'you have built a great many miles of railway in the United States in the same way, and in doing so your stations have been practically in the wilderness until settlements sprang up around them. Railways in New Zealand have done a great deal for the development of the country, and will do a great deal more as time goes on. They give the settlers the communication they want with the markets, and without such communication they cannot get along.'

"The passengers that boarded or left the train at the stations were principally settlers on the agricultural lands, laborers on farms or in saw-mills, wood-choppers going to their work or leaving it for a visit to one of the towns, merchants and travelling agents of various kinds, and occasional natives. The Maoris have not been slow to perceive the advantages of the railway; at first they were disinclined to travel by it, through fear of evil consequences; but their prejudice is steadily diminishing.

"Doctor Bronson says prejudice against railways is not confined to savages, as he has known fairly intelligent men in New England and other parts of the United States resolutely refuse to trust themselves inside a railway-carriage under any circumstances. Our host tells us that the Maoris were once under the impression that the Englishmen had a demon of some kind chained in the locomotive and compelled to move it by turning a crank. Their more intelligent men have learned the power of steam and explained it as far as possible to the rest, so that the demon theory exists no longer.

"We left behind us the provincial district of Wellington, and entered that of Taranaki. The district takes its name from the Taranaki mountain, which has been called Egmont by the English, and is so known on the maps. Mount Egmont is a cone eight thousand three hundred feet high, and volcanic. We wanted to ascend it, but had not the time to do so, and consoled ourselves with the reflection that we were saved from a great deal of fatiguing work. It is no easy matter to ascend this mountain; those who have undertaken it have never shown any anxiety to repeat the journey. The mountain lies close to the sea, as you will observe by a glance at the map, and serves as a magnificent landmark for sailors approaching this part of the coast.

"New Plymouth has a population of some four thousand or more, and is the port of a section of country which is said to be very fertile, as it can grow nearly every English fruit and cereal. It was settled in 1841, but suffered much during the Maori wars, as most of the natives in the district of Taranaki were hostile. They showed us several factories, saw-mills, and a large flouring-mill, and they called our attention to an establishment for making iron from the sands of the sea-shore.

"All along this coast of North Island there is a large quantity of iron in the sand, sometimes as high as seventy per cent. The people call it steel, but it is really iron; it is in fine particles, just like the iron-sands of the southern shore of Long Island, near New York. They said the iron-works at New Plymouth had never been prosperous, as they could not get the proper flux for the metal; if they could only do this their success would be enormous. Doctor Bronson told them that exactly the same thing had been tried near New York for utilizing the black sand of Long Island, and thus far it had been a failure. The large proportion of iron in the sand is noticeable, not only to the eye[Pg 261]
[Pg 262] but to the sense of touch; as you pick up a handful its unusual weight at once calls attention to it.

"We visited a farm near New Plymouth, where we spent a night and a day listening to stories of the troublous times of the Maori war, riding or walking through finely tilled fields, and looking at herds of cattle and flocks of sheep which were well calculated to excite the admiration of all who are interested in grazing or agricultural pursuits.

"One gentleman whom we met was an old settler who had fought the Maoris, and had twice seen his farm devastated and his fields ploughed up to destroy the growing crops. On the road near his farm a party of Europeans was waylaid and murdered one day by the Maoris, and it was only an accident which prevented his being one of the party. As long as the troubles with the Maoris continued the district of Taranaki was in a precarious state, as the lands could not be occupied; but with the establishment of peace there was every reason to believe their settlement would be a matter of steady progress.

"We returned to New Plymouth in time to take the semi-weekly coasting steamer for Wellington, where we stopped a few hours and then continued across Cook Strait to Nelson and Picton, taking steamer at the latter place for Port Lyttelton, on the east coast. The route is an interesting one, as the steamer is for most of the time close to the coast, which is bold and rugged and contains many little bays that remind us of the fiords of Norway or the inlets on the coast of Newfoundland or New Brunswick.

"Nelson is on a landlocked bay which is rather difficult of entrance, but forms a perfect anchorage for a ship that once gets inside. Picton has a situation very much like that of Nelson, and each is the centre of a farming and sheep-raising region. They had a great deal of trouble with the Maoris in the war times, and one of the sights of Picton is a hill a few miles from the town, which was the scene of the so-called Wairau massacre. Thirteen settlers were killed there in a fight with the natives, and after the affair was over nine other settlers who had been taken prisoners were murdered in cold blood."

At Port Lyttelton our friends left the steamer and proceeded to Christchurch, which is reached by a railway eight miles long, and largely tunnelled through the hills, one tunnel being nearly two miles in length. Before the days of the railway the means of communication was along a wagon-road which was known as the Zigzag, and occasionally at present the road is patronized by those who dislike railway travel or seek the picturesque. Lyttelton has a good harbor, which is principally due to the expenditure of a large amount of money for the construction of a breakwater and other purposes, and the place is picturesquely situated at the head of a bay.

Christchurch owes its existence to a movement in England, near the end of the first half of the century, for establishing a thoroughly English colony in New Zealand. Its projectors proposed to retain everything that was best in English life, government, habits, manners, and above all the Church of England. The direction of the colony was to lie in the hands of the Canterbury Association at home, rather than in the control of the Government, though there was no intention of taking a position hostile to it.

One of the founders of the Canterbury colony had been instrumental in establishing a Scotch colony in another part of New Zealand, and being Scotch, it was naturally Presbyterian. There is a story about him that he once projected an Anglo-Hebrew colony, where the Hebrews should govern themselves according to their own laws, and have no Christians living among them. He proposed this to a wealthy Israelite, and hoped the scheme would be received favorably. The gentleman listened patiently to his proposition, and then said, "I do not see how my people can thrive in such a community; most of them live by trade, and will want to be where there's somebody to trade with." The plan of the new colony was rejected at once.

The British Government gave the Canterbury scheme all the privileges it desired, except that of perfect self-government, which, of course, could not be permitted. Canterbury was established as a province of New Zealand, with Christchurch as its capital, and altogether it has been prosperous. Christchurch is quite English in appearance and surroundings, and boasts a cathedral (which is not yet finished); and it has a fine array of public buildings, several churches of the Church of England, and others of the Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist, and other faiths. The design of the founders of the Canterbury colony has not been strictly carried out, but on the whole has been quite successful. There is an excellent museum, which is especially rich in New Zealand matters; and there are parks, gardens, cricket-grounds, and other places of amusement and exercise. With its suburbs it has a population of nearly thirty thousand, and therefore is entitled to dignified respect as a city.

"It would not have been difficult for us to imagine ourselves in England," said Frank in his journal, after describing their arrival at Christchurch. "Here are English shade-trees along the streets, and in the gardens and parks; the houses are English in their mode of construction and furnishing, and the little river that runs through the town is called the Avon. There are tramways, or horse railways, along the broad and well-made streets, the lawns are velvety with English grasses, and along the banks of the winding river the weeping-willow droops almost to the surface of the water.

"We have been riding in all directions and in the suburbs, and everywhere we have seen signs of prosperity and comfort. As we went out on the principal road we were very soon in the midst of some fine farms, and were not at all surprised to learn that the country around Christchurch is very fertile and well adapted to farming. The fields have English grasses, and are surrounded by English hedges; and many of the farms looked for all the world as though they had been picked up in England and dropped down here. The city has its watering-place at Sumner, nine miles away, and there the inhabitants go to get rid of the summer's heat as New Yorkers go to Coney Island or Long Branch.

"A gentleman to whom we had letters of introduction invited us to dine at his house the day we arrived, but an hour before the time for us to start he came to the hotel and evidently had something serious on his mind. After a few preliminary words he came straight to the point, and said he was obliged to ask us to consider the engagement 'off' for the present.

"'The fact is,' said he, 'my wife's cook has just left to get married, and our other girl left last week, and we've not been able to fill her place. There's nobody in the house to cook the dinner; my wife can take care of the household, but we would hardly like to try to entertain visitors under such circumstances.'

"Of course we excused him, and tried to make his mortification as slight as possible. The incident led to a conversation about the 'servant question,' which has troublesome features in many other countries as well as in New Zealand.

"The gentleman who wanted to be our host, but just then couldn't, told us that there was a great scarcity of house-servants in the colony, and he thought Christchurch was a little worse off than any other city, though he was not at all sure about it. Very often it is impossible to get maid-servants at any price, and those that can be obtained demand high wages, and are independent to a degree that would not be tolerated in England. A discharge has no terrors for a cook or house-maid who knows that a dozen places are open to her; and when she consents to take a place she can be sure of four dollars a week and her board, with at least two evenings out in a week, and sometimes three. Many of the well-to-do colonists had tried the experiment of importing maid-servants from England, but found the speculation a bad one, as the girls generally left service in a few months to get married. Their passage had been paid to New Zealand, and with matrimony in view, they laughed at any idea of working out the time for which they had agreed.

"He further told us that in many houses the mistress was obliged to do all her own work with the aid of her daughters, if she had any; and this, too, where they were perfectly willing and able to hire servants.

"Doctor Bronson told him the story of the man in San Francisco who was trying to hire a maid-servant that declined the situation on account of his three children. 'I will not go into a family where there is more than one child,' was her ultimatum. Whereupon the gentleman said, 'We can easily fix that, I think.'

"'How so?' she asked.

"'I'll speak to my wife about it, and rather than lose the chance of engaging you, I've no doubt she would be willing to drown two of them.'

"Our New Zealand friend laughed heartily over the story, and before he left us he had evidently forgotten his annoyance at the circumstance that brought him to the hotel. He added that the story would not be inappropriate to Christchurch, but he feared all his neighbors would not appreciate the joke.

"All along this part of the coast water is obtained by artesian wells at about eighty feet from the surface. Christchurch has hundreds of such wells, and the supply of water never fails; they reminded us of the wells in the sands of Long Island, and along the Atlantic coast of the United States all the way to Florida."

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