in the beautiful "bush" at the back of it; but the distance from Lyttelton is a great drawback, as it is nearly ten miles through the bush, and at least twenty by sea. On the eastern side is a large Maori paa.

Akaroa, at the eastern extremity of the Peninsula, is considered the finest harbour in the colony, as it is almost entirely landlocked. There are two settlements there, a French and an English one; the former of which is, I am told, an exceedingly beautiful spot, but I was unable to visit it. The scenery of the whole of the Peninsula is rich and beautiful, and the soil generally good; but it requires a great amount of clearing, which, together with the difficulty of communication with the port, considerably retards its progress; but doubtless it will ultimately prove the most valuable portion of the colony.

The principal drawback, in a commercial point of view, to the advantages possessed by this newly founded colony, arises from the difficulty of communication between the port of Lyttelton and the capital town Christchurch. It is, as has been already stated, situated on the plain about nine miles dis

tant from Lyttelton. But between these two towns is a range of hills, running from 1000 to 1500 ft. in height, and the only mode of access by land is by a bridle-path*, but as this path cannot be used for any description of cart, the conveyance of goods is necessarily carried on by water.

The transit, however, is both irregular and inconvenient. The distance from the port to the mouth of the harbour is about six miles in a N.E. direction, and the passage of this part of the transit is dangerous, both from the nature of the winds and the peculiar formation of the harbour itself. It is a long and narrow bay, open to the sea at the N.E. extremity, but shut in on the other sides by ranges of lofty hills, broken by deep ravines, down which the wind blows in eddying gusts, which are dangerous to small craft. The hills also, at the south-western extremity, are of inconsiderable height, and the harbour is therefore entirely exposed to the furious gales from that quarter.

Having gained the mouth of the bay, the

* Plate II.

course turns to the north round Godley Head, and enters the Heathcote River at Sumner. And here a still more serious difficulty presents itself in the bar across the mouth of the river, which is only passable at high water and in calm weather. The bar passed, the passage up the river to Christchurch Quay, a distance of about five miles, is sufficiently easy but this point (which is the highest at which the river is navigable) gained, upwards of two miles of land carriage are still necessary.

At the time I was at Lyttelton the charge for the carriage of goods from thence to Christchurch, by this mode of conveyance, was twenty-five shillings per ton; whereas the whole freight from England to the settlement did not exceed then thirty shillings, although it is now considerably higher. Independently of all the serious drawbacks to the general welfare of the colony which these difficulties present, they press with peculiar injustice upon the newly-arrived colonist.

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CHAPTER VI.

EXCURSION THROUGH THE PLAINS.

HAVING explored the country immediately around Lyttelton and Christchurch, I determined to accept the hospitable invitation of Mr. Caverhill, one of the oldest and most experienced settlers in his locality, and to spend a few weeks at his remote and interesting station. The place is not in fact within the limits of the Canterbury block, which is bounded on the northern extremity by the river Waipara; but it is situated in the hill country twenty-five miles to the north of the river Waipara, and has been tenanted by him for six years. The only obstacle to the accomplishment of my wishes was caused by the difficulty of procuring a horse. These useful animals are scarce in Canterbury. They are not natives of the country, and are consequently imported from Australia; and although at ordinary times there is a fair supply, the newly discovered "gold diggins" had at

the period in question, greatly increased both the value of horses in Australia, and the expense of transporting them; and the supply was therefore limited and the prices high.

At length for the sum of 377. I obtained an excellent little mare, "the property of a gentleman going to the diggins," and forthwith started on my journey. My costume consisted of a pair of white duck trousers, checked shirt, stout boots, large cabbage-tree hat, and a sort of blue flannel frock confined at the waist by a leather belt. So far all was well, but unfortunately I had, like many others, been betrayed into one unlucky piece of vanity, and had donned a new pair of patent leather spatterdashes which, though useful in the mud of our great city of London, were ill adapted, as the sequel proved, for swimming rivers in New Zealand. A blanket for my bivouacs, and serving also as a wrapper for my extra linen, &c. completed my equipment. Our route lay across the bridle-path and ferry to Christchurch and Riccarton, where all traces of a road ceased, and our march commenced through the plain. For some few miles we directed our course to the east, over