The Days of a Man 1907 



had the worst railway system I have anywhere en- 

 countered. It was, moreover, a very costly one, the 

 work of excavation and grading having been done by 

 hand without machinery, on the theory that more 

 laborers find employment if the task is long drawn 

 out. 



On the way northward I stopped for a day at 

 Wanganui, a prosperous, picturesque town, to speak 

 at Mr. Empson's flourishing boys' school. The story 

 of my ascent of the Matterhorn was something 

 totally outside their experience. It made a great hit, 

 and afterward brought me a good many interesting 

 letters from the lads who heard it. 



Beyond Wanganui we passed a village called Otaki. 

 In view of the general resemblance of the Japanese 

 tongue to those of Oceanica all being vowel lan- 

 guages, consonants serving mainly as breaks I was 

 curious to learn the meaning of the name; was it per- 

 chance o-taki, "great fall," or o-taki, "little fall"? So 

 I asked some young natives at the station about it, 

 but they could not answer; "only the old folks know 

 what Maori words mean." 



At New Plymouth I took a restless steamer to 

 Onehunga, opposite to and eight miles across from 

 Auckland, my destination. Landing, I was met by 

 Mr. Pritchett, the United States consul, in company 

 with an exuberant American dentist very proud of 

 his new automobile, which conveyed us in short order 

 Auckland to Auckland. This, the largest of New Zealand cities, 

 has a beautiful harbor a replica, though smaller, of 

 the one at Sydney; in the neighborhood rise numerous 

 extinct, quaintly formed volcanic cones. 



At University College I gave two or three lectures, 

 and the registrar, just appointed, came to me for 



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