Chapter XXII.
Christchurch of to-day.
With the previous chapter this story has come to its end; subsequent events are too recent to be seen yet in their true perspective. It only remains to endeavour to associate some of the memories of the early history with a description of Christchurch as we know it in this year of 1916.
The visitor coming to Christchurch at the present day, must find it hard to realise the tree-less expanse of sand and swamp with which the first settlers were confronted. The other chief cities in New Zealand, Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin, occupy sites of great natural beauty, and were, perhaps, even more picturesque in their original setting of native bush, extending to their sea frontages, than they are to-day. Queen Street, Auckland, and Princes Street, Dunedin, are natural thoroughfares, and, like Lambton Quay, in Wellington, present architectural opportunities comparable with those of Edinburgh itself.
Christchurch is essentially a “city of the plains.” If we except the Avon and the wonderful panorama of the Southern Alps, it possessed no natural advantages; it might, as Mr. Henry Sewell remarked, improve on further acquaintance like olives, but special training was needed to appreciate ifs bare and spacious environment.
Most of the cities of the world, ancient and modern, have grown by chance or accident, rather than by definite design. The Strand, in London, followed the curve of the river bank. Many of the Scottish cities clustered for protection beneath the walls of some feudal castle;
