316 SIGHT-SEEING IN NEW ZEALAND. 



lands. Here are magnificent parks ; Hagley Park on the Avon, 

 containing 400 acres, and the Government Domain, of 80 acres, 

 laid out in walks and in drives and as a botanic garden, with 

 every variety of tree and shrub and plant and flower that will 

 grow in a semi-tropical climate. It is really a delightful spot. 

 What astonishes the American visitor in these far off cities, is 

 the great amount of care and cost and labor that have been ex- 

 pended on public and scientific resorts. In every city that he 

 may visit he finds delightful parks, instructive botanic gardens, 

 and well furnished museums. This little city of Christ Church, 

 away on the outer borders of the world, in these respects would 

 put to shame any city of our own land of ten times its population. 



The museum here is the finest and best kept of any in the 

 colonies. What interested me particularly in this splendid col- 

 lection was the group of moa skeletons. The moas were wing- 

 less birds that stood twelve feet high, and probably weighed as 

 much as a horse. There are fifteen perfect skeletons here, 

 belonging to half a dozen different species. 



Two or three centuries ago these giant birds were numerous 

 all over New Zealand. They lived on the roots of the fern-brake, 

 the Pteris esculenta, which they dug up with their powerful feet 

 and claws. The natives captured them by driving them down 

 to some large water course or lake, where, as the birds could not 

 swim and were afraid of the water, they were mercilessly destroyed 

 with the stone pointed lances. No wonder the clumsy and 

 defenseless moas did not last long under such easy and destructive 

 pursuit. And no wonder, when this the only game of the islands 

 was wasted and gone, the hungry savages began to raid upon each 

 other, and to devour the bodies of their captives. Hunger has 

 made wild beasts of far better men than these poor castaways. 



I am sorry that I do not have time to stop with you at the 

 interesting Scotch city of Dunedin, a lesser Edinburgh, and the 

 largest city in the islands; nor to take you with me into the 

 grand and stupendous mountain scenery of the southern interior, 

 where are ranges and peaks and mountain lakes that outvie any- 

 thing seen in Switzerland or in any other scenery resort. 



