1128 



A US TRA LA SI A ILL US TRA TED. 



them. A pleasant drive of an hour, past Thorndon and along the curvature of the 

 Harbour, takes one to the charming valley in which they lie a valley originally destined 

 as the site of the city, which was then dignified with the pretentious title of Britannia. 

 But an inundation from the erratic Hutt overwhelmed the tiny settlement and obliged 

 its founders to shift their location to Thorndon Flat. 



The valetudinarian may with confidence take up his residence in the capital of New 

 Zealand. In the charming complexions of the ladies there is as notable an attestation 



of the salubrity of the place as even the vital statistics 

 will furnish. True, the winds are sometimes so boisterous 

 that it has passed into a proverb throughout the colony 

 that you may infallibly recognize a Wellingtonian by 

 his habit of putting a precautionary hand to his hat 

 as he approaches a street corner, but then the preva- 

 lence of wind is a sure guarantee that the atmosphere 

 is kept sweet. In common with the other large ports 

 of the colony, the Harbour has its defence works. 

 There is a battery of heavy guns at Point Halswell, 

 which commands the entrance, and above Kaiwarra, 

 in a commanding position on the hill-side, there is 

 another heavy battery, so that a hostile cruiser would 

 have no easy task before it in any attempt that might 

 be made to levy black-mail on the city. 



OVER THE RlMUTAKA TO MASTERTON. 



No greater engineering feat has been performed 

 in New Zealand than in the construction of the rail- 

 way line from Wellington over the lofty Rimutaka 

 Range to the Wairarapa District. The scenery pre- 

 sented along the route is worth coming hundreds of 

 miles to see. The train which leaves Wellington 

 plunges through the rich alluvial valley of the Lower 

 Hutt, and thence over the Silver-stream, penetrating 

 birch-woods and bush-clearings to the Upper Hutt, 

 whence the iron horse toils up a wooded ascent to 

 Mungaroa. Through deep cuttings, and across numerous 

 gullies, we mount higher and higher, until, reaching Kai- 

 toke, we prepare to undertake the crux of the trip, for 



some of the gradients now to be encountered are as much as one in fifteen, and many of 

 the curves are of five chains' radius. We make acquaintance here with the Fell locomo- 

 tives, four of which cost the Government no less than nineteen thousand pounds. They 

 are exceedingly powerful engines, and in addition to the side wheels they are provided 

 with centre ones as well, which grip a corresponding central line of rail, rising some 

 eighteen inches above the level of the flanking rails, and, in this manner, two of the 

 locomotives one harnessed in front of the train, and the other behind haul it up the 







ri.IMMKR S STEPS. 



