country entirely did away with its distinctive nationality. And Australian squatters, driven from their own country by several bad seasons in succession, did the same thing in Canterbury.
We liked Dunedin better than any of the other cities. It is so beautifully situated, and if an Edinburgh by the sea can be imagined it is this far Southern home of the Scottish pioneers. Its many as yet unspoiled hills are more clustering, smaller, and dressed in a brighter livery than those of Scotland,—the gay green and yellow of virgin grass, gorse, briar and broom, instead of the heathery purple and green that in Scotland is subdued by greyer skies and distance into a soft, indefinable shade. But down in the town, in “Prince’s” or “High” Streets, when the view of the harbour is shut out by buildings, one constantly comes upon something that recalls the older city, and is reminded that this one was built by Scottish folk who tried to lessen the “Heimweh” by following as faithfully as might be in a new and desolate land the plan of their capital at home.
Edinburgh was the mother, they the sponsors of the infant city, and they trained it in all respects where possible to grow upon the lines of its parent, naming all the streets and open spaces and recreation grounds after those in the “Modern Athens.” The public buildings of Dunedin are collectively finer than those of any other town in New Zealand, particularly the University and Boys’ High School. There are so many beautiful churches that it is difficult to particularise, but “First Church” is at least the most interesting, perhaps, and the Roman Catholic Cathedral the most imposing. Its climate is sharper in winter and not so warm and dry in summer as other parts of the Colony, but to counter-balance this it has the reputation of being the most hospitable, the most intellectual, the most artistic centre of all!
If the shops of a town are any criterion of the tastes of its inhabitants the people of Dunedin must be very bookish, for though New Zealand is better provided with book-sellers than any other colony none of the towns are so well supplied as this. In Auckland the majority of the shops are huge miscellaneous drapery establishments, jewellery-shops, and fruit-mongers. In Wellington the trades are pretty evenly divided, but there are more specialists and fewer heterogeneous “emporiums.” In Christchurch the drapers and jewellers again hold sway, though of a better class than those of Auckland. But in Dunedin the drapery houses and jewellers are in the minority compared to the booksellers, music-shops, picture and photograph shops. And the books are not merely light literature, as is the case in most of the other towns.
We were only able to spend one day there, as the steamer-acquaintances we met in Christchurch had persuaded us to make a detour and visit Lake Wakatipu instead of spending more time in Dunedin and on Lake Manapouri, going on to Manapouri from Wakatipu instead of direct from Dunedin. So we spent the morning in the town and the afternoon driving to some of the principal places of interest outside, among them the “Waters of Leith,” which we would not have missed for worlds after hearing the name!
