Historical.
HE idea of the promoters and founders of the settlement of Otago was to make it as far as practicable representative in its character. Its inhabitants, institutions, localities, and towns were mainly to be derived from and identified with Scotland. To a large extent this was carried out down to a recent period; hence Otago is often called a Scotch settlement. The name of its chief town or city is itself indicative of this—Dunedin, a word of Gaelic origin, signifying "the face of the hill," or "a knoll on the hillside," which in former times was frequently applied to the Scottish metropolis. Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, was particularly fond of using the name in his poems.
Dunedin, thy skirts are unhallowed and lone,
And dark are the rocks that encircle thy throne;
The dwelling of beings unbodied is there,
There are spirits abroad, let the traveller beware!
This in many respects is descriptive of the early condition of the subject of this sketch.
Several names were suggested for the capital of Otago, such as New Edinburgh, Edina, and Chalmers, in honour of the great divine who occupied the foremost position in the Free Church of Scotland. Fortunately, the choice fell on the name it now bears, it being more descriptive of the physical appearance, as well as in itself suggestive. Instructions were also given to the chief surveyor to name the streets pretty closely after those in Edinburgh, which accounts for the similarity obtaining within the original boundaries, though this arrangement has been completely abandoned in the extensive additions recently made by reclamation. The present appearance of the city, as regards limits and conformation, gives but a slender indication of what the town was about thirty years ago.
