DESCRIPTIVE SKETCH OF NEW ZEALAND. 



1117 



nursery of twenty thousand fruit-trees. The industries of the place include an iron and 

 brass foundry and engineering- works, a sash and door factory, flour-mills, bone-mills, 

 cheese and bacon factories, hop-gardens and a malt-house, meat-preserving works, rope 

 works, and a steam confectionery and biscuit manufactory and bakery. The chief 

 pleasure ground is the Recreation Reserve on the Town Belt ; while Victoria Park at St. 

 John's Hill is greatly used by cricket clubs and picnic parties, and the Queen's Gardens, 

 a hilly enclosure in the heart of the town, contains the remains of the old Rutland 

 Stockade, now devoted to the purposes of a gaol. In the reserve at the rear of the 

 Court House stands a handsome monument erected by the Provincial Government of 

 Wellington "to the memory of those brave men who fell at Moutuo on May I4th, 

 1864, in defence of law and order against fanaticism and barbarism." So runs the 

 inscription, and the student 

 of New Zealand history will 

 hardly need to be reminded 

 that the saviours of Wan- 

 ganui, whose memory is thus 

 celebrated, were Maori resi- 

 dents ; for here, in this 

 Wanganui District, there 

 has always been a large 

 Maori population, and if 

 the tourist should have the 

 good fortune to visit the 

 town while the Native Land 

 Court is sitting he will see 

 much to engage his atten- 

 tion and stimulate his curi- 

 osity. He will find a long 

 double line of Maori tents 

 ranged along the river-side, 

 and groups of the dusky 

 visitors squatted on their 

 haunches in the sun, smoking 



their pipes, and indolently passing the time away in fitful conversation ; while, up the 

 town, the young bloods of the tribe will be found in possession of perhaps a couple of 

 billiard-rooms which they will lease during their stay. Such ardent votaries are they of 

 " the green-cloth " that the chances are that these rooms will not once be deserted, night 

 or day, until the canoes are launched for the homeward journey. 



TARANAKI. 



Leaving Wanganui by rail to continue the trip northward, the traveller passes the 

 fine reach of the River between the town and Aramoho, and thence climbs a long incline 

 beautifully diversified with fern-gullies and abounding with charming views. The route 

 lies past Maxwelltown in the sequestered bosom of a valley ; Nukumaru, with the post- 



THE RECREATION GROUNDS AT NEW PLYMOUTH. 



