Benevolent Institution, we reach town in good time, and ready to do justice to a well-appointed dinner.
X.—THE TAIERI RIVER.
In order to see the beauties of the lower reaches of the Taieri River the visitor must take time by the forelock and be up and ready for a start at 8 a.m., for at that pleasant hour of the morning the only train which suits this excursion leaves Dunedin.
Starting with the morning train, after passing scenes already noticed, and rushing through the Chain Hills Tunnel, we suddenly emerge on the great Taieri Plain on its eastern margin, which is certainly its poorest side, although the first occupied by settlers, and are whirled along past Owhiro, Greytown, and Otakia, we are safely deposited at Henley Station, whence, after a short walk, just enough to put the joints all right after our two hours' confinement, we reach the unpretending but comfortable hostelry of Mr. Amos McKegg, where comforts of every sort are to be obtained, and where, perhaps, the largest apiary in the colony can be seen, with all the newest processes certainly not for making, but for extracting the honey and saving the wax.
The inspection of this industry is not our object, so we embark on board the little steam launch, and gliding gently down with the stream we pass the old Maori Kaik, whose inhabitants have sadly diminished in numbers, and at a sudden bend, where the Waihola, Waipori, and Taieri streams are confluent, we pass beneath the East Taieri bridge, and gain the wide basin of the tidal reaches of the river.
The screw, however, is propelling us along, and ere we quit this fine land-locked sheet of water, we take a good look of the Kuri Hills to the left and on the Beauly or Ferry Hills to the right, and the conclusion is at once arrived at, that this is not country fit for settlement. Nor is it. Nor are we on the outlook for flat and profitable country. We came for and we want scenery. The strong arms of the second occupants have denuded the hill sides of their bush, and the bare surface is exposed to view, a comfortable homestead or cottage dotting the surface here and there, everything indicating peace and comfort. Unless the thought arises, How can people make a living out of such land as
