a rude sort of basket made of flax fibres, or buckets filled with
whitebait, which they wanted us to buy. There are some reserved lands
near Kaiapoi where they have a very thriving settlement, living in
perfect peace and good-will with their white neighbours. When we set
off again on our journey, we passed a little school-house for their
children.

We reached Leathfield that evening, only twenty-five miles from
Christchurch; found a nice inn, or accommodation-house, as roadside inns
are called here; had a capital supper and comfortable beds, and were
up and off again at daylight the next morning. As far as the Weka Pass,
where we stopped for dinner, the roads were very good, but after that
we got more among the hills and off the usual track, and there were many
sharp turns and steep pinches; but Mr. L---- is an excellent whip, and
took great care of us. We all got very weary towards the end of this
second day's journey, and the last two hours of it were in heavy rain;
it was growing very dark when we reached the gate, and heard the welcome
sound of gravel under the wheels. I could just perceive that we had
entered a plantation, the first trees since we left Christchurch.
Nothing seems so wonderful to me as the utter treelessness of the vast
Canterbury plains; occasionally you pass a few Ti-ti palms (ordinarily
called cabbage-trees), or a large prickly bush which goes by the name of
"wild Irishman," but for miles and miles you see nothing but flat ground
or slightly undulating downs of yellow tussocks, the tall native grass.
It has the colour and appearance of hay, but serves as shelter for a
delicious undergrowth of short sweet herbage, upon which the sheep live,
and horses also do very well on it, keeping in good working condition,
quite unlike their puffy, fat state on English pasture.

We drove through the plantation and another gate, and drew up at the
door of a very large, handsome, brick house, with projecting gables and
a verandah. The older I grow the more convinced I am that contrast is
everything in this world; and nothing I can write can give you any
idea of the delightful change from the bleak country we had been slowly
travelling through in pouring rain, to the warmth and brightness of this
charming house. There were blazing fires ready to welcome us, and I feel
sure you will sufficiently appreciate this fact when I tell you that
by the time the coal reaches this, it costs nine pounds per ton. It is
possi