nib AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



reaches the settlement itself, which reposes by the side of the Turakina River, within 

 the bosom of a small valley bounded on the west by sand-hills and the sea, and on 

 all other sides by gentle hills. Crossing the River at the bridge, and hastening over 

 open flax and fern country, the line descends again to the bridge of another river, the 

 Whangaehu, and thence runs down to the country drained by the Wanganui. It is a rich 

 and picturesque district, and settlement seems to have made considerable progress 

 throughout its entire extent. At Aramoho Junction the main route is left by means of 

 a substantial railway bridge, and a run of three miles along the branch line takes the 

 traveller to Wanganui, the second town of the province of Wellington. 



"The City of the Sand-hills," as its people love to term it, is built upon a fertile 

 alluvial flat upon the right bank of the Wanganui River, and about four miles from 

 the Heads where lie the shipping, and with which it is connected by rail. Sheltered 

 on one side by the banks of the River, and on the others by low sand-hills, it lies 

 secluded from raw and cutting winds, and therefore enjoys a singularly mild and pleasant 

 climate. With its broad and placid stream stretching away through a diversified landscape 

 dotted with rising hamlets and curious Maori villages, with the gleaming crests of 

 Ruapehu, Tongariro and other lofty mountains outlined upon the distant horizon, and 

 with rich and undulating country all around it, Wanganui must certainly be pronounced 

 the prettiest inland town of any note in the North Island. The two principal thorough- 

 fares are Taupo Quay, lying along the River fore-shore and at the back of the Railway 

 Station, and the Victoria Avenue, which strikes off at right angles from Taupo Quay 

 and runs at an even width for fully a mile, and is as straight as an arrow. The River 

 is spanned by a massive iron bridge, six hundred feet in length, and resting upon seven 

 cast-iron cylinder piers, with a swing-span one hundred and thirty feet long and opening 

 out two clear passages, each forty feet wide. " Away from the symmetrical town, 

 nestling round its two sandy moles, and skirted by the silvery River at your feet, your 

 eyes are drawn as by some irresistible fascination to yonder mighty altar, uprearing its 

 spotless architecture right away up from the puny brethren around it, till it stands out 

 clear, distinct, sharp-cut, in virgin purity, looking like ' a great white throne ' let down 

 from Heaven. It is Mount Ruapehu, crowned with eternal snows, draped with samite, 

 and glistening in the sun ; and yet so calm, peaceful, pure, that as you gaze the spell 

 works, and you stand hushed, subdued, and yet with the sense of a great peace 

 within you." To be seen at its best, however, it must be viewed at sunset, " when the 

 glittering white changes to the faintest pink, and deepens to a rosy red, while the sky 

 blazes with ultramarine, vermilion and gold, and when, after a time, all these glowing 

 colours slowly grow gray, fading like a dream into the shadows of night, but leaving a 

 tawny glory in the west like a pillar of fire." 



Wanganui, which is built entirely of wood, is well supplied with water from the 

 Virginia Lake Reservoir, a conservation fed from the Westmere Lake just outside the town. 

 The pleasant country drive of nine miles to the village of Kai-iwi leads past three 

 charming basins, which lend their attractiveness to the changing features of lovely 

 scenery. A Spanish vigneron carries on a- flourishing vineyard by the side of the 

 Victoria Avenue, growing some twenty varieties of luscious grapes under glass, in an 

 outhouse about three hundred feet in length by forty feet wide. Another settler has a 



