n6o AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



machinery and caisson, was one hundred and four thousand pounds. In addition 'there 

 is a patent slip capable of taking on vessels of four hundred tons burthen. The 

 wharves are lit up at night with the electric light. Lyttelton also has its fortifications, 







and would not be found defenceless in time of war. In accordance with the general 

 scheme of naval defence drawn up for the colony, batteries have been constructed on 

 the heights commanding the entrance to the harbour, and any hostile cruiser would find 

 it a risky experiment to run the blockade even under the cover of night, for here, as 

 at Auckland and Wellington, the batteries have been furnished with powerful electric 

 search-lights. The chief public institutions are the Sailor's Home and the Orphanage. 

 A coach-road, carved out of the face and over the Bank of the steep hill on the 

 northern side of the town, leads past the Observatory, and by way of the pleasant 

 watering-place of Sumner to Christchurch. It is called the Zig-zag, and affords the 

 stranger a capital view of the harbour and its quarantine station on Ripa Islet. At 

 one time it was the only means of communication for vehicles with the capital city of 

 the province, but that time lives now only in the remembrance of the oldest 

 inhabitants, who will also recollect that Lyttelton was originally designed to be the 

 metropolis of Canterbury. 



THE SOUTHERN ALPS. 



We must now trace the route to the south over the Canterbury Plains. It lies 

 through a practically treeless country, coursed by rapid mountain torrents and streams 

 which almost dry up during the summer and autumn months, the Pacific lying- on our 

 left-hand laving the low cliffs that border the Ninety-mile Beach, while away to our right 

 stretch .the long extent of the Southern Alps, softened in outline by the blue haze of 

 distance, and with the snowy caps of their higher peaks glittering in the brilliant sunshine. 

 A run of rather more than a couple of hours brings the train to Ashburton, fifty-three 

 miles south of Christchurch, the first township of any note on the southward journey. 

 It is built of wood, and has a frontage to the eastern side of the line. It is a con- 

 siderable town, and plantations of poplars and blue-gums greatly enhance its appearance. 

 A little more than twenty years ago, Ashburton was only a bullock-teamster's camp, 

 boasting merely a rude public-house, a blacksmith's shop and a police hut. Now it is 

 a gas-lit town, with spacious streets lined by shops, public buildings, hotels, churches, 

 schools, a theatre and a public library ; the public health and convenience have been 

 judiciously provided for by the dedication of pleasant reserves and wooded parks, while 

 tall chimney-stacks proclaim it the seat of numerous industries. 



On still, over these shingly plains with their scant herbage of tussock-grass, and 

 their bountiful evidences of agricultural enterprise, the traveller passes every five miles or 

 so small stations furnished with the granaries and stores of that ubiquitous corporation, 

 the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company. At Temuka, we reach the 

 Station through a plantation of trees, whose waving branches and pleasant verdure form 

 an agreeable relief from the monotony of timberless country. This is eighty-nine miles 

 from Christchurch, and eleven miles farther on is Timaru, the second town of Canter- 

 bury, and nearly half way tc Dtmedin. Timaru is solidly built of a dark bluestone, 

 taken from quarries in the neighbourhood, and the presence of trees within the limits 



