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A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 



journey is made by way of the Southland Plains, past the town of Mataura to Inver- 

 cargill, the capital of Southland, and distant one hundred and thirty-nine miles from Dunedin. 

 Invercargill is the most southerly town of all the Australias, and the manner in 

 which it has been laid out indicates that those who projected the settlement were 

 possessed with the idea that they were laying down the frame-work of a metropolitan 

 city. In fact, we are given to understand that Invercargill was intended to be the 

 capital of the colony, and had that intention been realized there is not the slightest 

 doubt that it would have been quite a model metropolis, so far as design and archi- 

 tectural skill could compass that end. It is laid out in splendid rectangular blocks, and 

 its magnificent streets are the widest in the colony. Instead of being cramped for room, 



THE BLUI1-. 



the town has far more space than it can utilize for many years to come, and once 

 outside the immediate business centres one feels quite solitary in these ample arteries with 

 their comparatively few buildings. The principal streets. Dee, Tay and Esk, are graced 

 with many handsome structures built of stone, and the planting of trees alongside the 

 footpaths adds greatly to the effect of some of the thoroughfares. The city is built 

 upon a plain, and is bounded on one side by the estuary of the New River, and on 

 the' other three by public reserves and gardens, forming, as it were, a complete line of 

 circumvallation. But the town is rapidly extending beyond these limits, which, in course 

 of time, will doubtless be found thrust into the midst of the business quarters. To the 

 north lies the extensive reserve known as the Invercargill Public Park, of an area 

 sufficient for a population a dozen times larger than that settled in this district. 

 Part of the reserve is used as a race-course. Invercargill is lit with gas, possesses a 

 semi-artesian water-supply, boasts a tram-service, and, besides being connected by rail 

 with Dunedin, has branch lines radiating to Kingston, on Lake Wakatipu ; to Seward 

 Bush, Riverton, Orepuki and Nightcaps, and the shorter line to "The Bluff," which 





