CHAPTER VI 
Letter V. Wellington. — Journey to Masterton — A charming garden — 
Sheep-shearing, physicking, and dipping — The Wellington Museum — 
The fourth city in the colonies. 
Wellington. 
From Opunake I made my way by Patea to Wellington ; 
my stay there was brief. On the second morning, 
after an early breakfast at eight, I started by train for 
Brancepeth, one of the largest stations in New Zealand. 
For some miles after leaving Wellington the line 
skirted the sea-shore under the shadow of the cliffs to 
the rich valley of the Hutt, then over silver streams 
where many a lusty trout lies hidden, through rich 
clearings and thickly-wooded hills to Mungaroa, where 
the line begins to mount higher and higher and the 
scenery becomes grander and more imposing ; but, 
alas ! the relentless fire has been here, and down the 
steep slopes of the mountains are the blackened stumps, 
all that remains of the once magnificent forest. 
At Kaitoke two powerful Fell engines were put on, 
one in front of and one behind the train, for they want all 
the force they can command to haul it up this steep 
gradient of one in fifteen. It is seven miles from here 
to the top of the Rimataka range. At a place called 
Siberia, in 1880, a furious gale, sweeping suddenly 
down the gully, hurled several of the carriages off the 
line, and the wonder is that only four passengers were 
