comfortable and pleasant now, with the less comfortable, but not less happy then.
To get a fair and satisfactory view of the Plain, our route must be to the west side. The east is steep, broken, and thin in depth of soil; the north is, to a large extent, shingly; the west and centre are decidedly the cream of the country. So having left Dunedin with the first train, or perhaps better, the Outram train, at 9.20, we pass through the classic Mosgiel, now devoted to industries of various descriptions, most prominent of which are the woollen factories, well worthy a passing call, and where machinery is in operation for carding, spinning, weaving, and carrying out all other processes requisite to produce fabrics of different descriptions and in every variety of pattern and colour, unsurpassed by any other manufacturing locality in the world. These woollen and worsted goods are all produced from wools grown in the colony. No raw material from foreign parts is needed, everything is from our soil, by way of the sheep's back to the loom, and shoddy is not to be found.
Resuming our journey across the Plain, we pass through the farms of the Findlays, Reid, Boyd, Thomson. And here it may be asked why the name Duke's Road Station was bestowed? It arose from the circumstance that His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, who honoured the district with a visit in 1869, drove along this road four-in-hand and officially declared it open. To commemorate the event, the name of Duke's Road was bestowed. In connection with this little historical episode, another event connected with the district may be related. On the Silverstream course the first great New Zealand Champion Race was run, under the management of the Otago Jockey Club, for a prize of one thousand sovereigns, with sweepstakes, which was gained by the Victorian "Ladybird," the time being 5 min. 52½ sec., distance 3 miles.
We now enter the grand farm land of the Plain, owned or occupied by such familiar names as MacFarlane, Anderson, Carmichael, Buchanan, until the train stops at the celebrated estate of Abbotsford, carried on by its first owner with wonderful energy and enterprise, but with such a lack of prudence and discretion as to bring him to disaster. A large proportion of this
