FIJI-NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITION 333 
Europeans have obtained the famous pounamu or greenstone 
from which the Maoris fashion many of their highly prized and 
elaborately carved war clubs or meres and many articles of 
personal adornment. The trip up the Otira garge and over the 
Pass is one of the sights of New Zealand, and it is made in a 
coach drawn by six horses ‘‘trained to a hair’’ to gallop around 
sharp curves and along steep precipices with ease. Cliff glaciers 
on the sides of towering snowclad mountains lie half hidden in 
the clouds; steep-sided, heavily forested valleys are far below; 
and awesome rockslides and tumbling waterfalls lend variety to 
the scenery. The Pass is 3,038 feet above the sea, but Mt. 
Rollaston and other eminences on either side are close to 2000 
feet higher. The descent into the valleys of Bealey creek and 
Waimakariri river to Arthur’s Pass station is fully as steep as 
the climb up the gorge but is less picturesque. The Otira rail- 
way tunnel through the mountain was opened soon following our 
visit. This tunnel is five and one-half miles long, and its com- 
pletion overcomes one of the factors of Westland’s isolation. 
The picturesque coaches, it is hoped, will continue to go over 
the Pass during the tourist season. 
The eastern foothills are quite rough, and the region is given 
over to grazing. We saw flocks containing thousands of sheep 
and great herds of cattle. Canterbury plain between the foot- 
hills and the sea with its well-stocked and prosperous farms is 
a delightful change from the mountain topography. 
CHRISTCHURCH AND DUNEDIN 
At Christchurch we met Professor Nutting whom we had not 
seen since we left Auckland. He visited the splendid museums 
and college and these are described elsewhere by him. 
Christchurch was founded as a model Church of England set- 
tlement and is more English than any other part of the Domin- 
ion. It is rapidly becoming a commercial and educational 
center, and due to cheap electric power considerable manufact- 
uring is carried on. The site of the city is so flat that it is 
known; as the ‘‘City of the Plains.’’ One seldom sees so many 
bicycles and motors as travel its level streets. 
In company with Professor Speight of the Museum we visited 
Banks Peninsula, a voleanic eminence between the city and the 
sea. This pile of rhyolites and agglomerates capped by flows 
of basalt makes a conspicuous eminence from the top of which 
