hill that then barred the city of Christchurch from its port. The great tunnel (monument to the foresight and energy of Mr. Moorhouse, who at that time was superintendent of the province) was then only in course of perforation. In the whole of the New Zealand group, only some nine miles of railways were in working order. It was my fate to travel pretty extensively through the islands then. I visited nearly all the towns of any note, and being young, impressionable, and not unobservant, those early scenes are indelibly fixed in my memory.
When I left India some years ago, after spending some twelve years there as an indigo-planter, an account of which has been given in a former work,[1] my intention was to revisit New Zealand, and compare its present appearance with my recollections of its former state; but hitherto circumstances had prevented my carrying out that intention, until, in the month of March, 1885, I found the opportunity I had so fondly desired, and these notes of travel are the result of my recent wanderings in the scenes of my early experience, and I shall endeavour to make them as interesting and instructive as I can.
The incidents of steamship travel are pretty uniform now-a-days. I could, I daresay, draw a graphic contrast between the old Mermaid, clipper ship, for instance, in which I made my
- ↑ "Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier." London: Macmillan and Co., 1878.
