230 
CHRISTCHURCH 
CHAP. 
just here, soft little gray heads and ears pricked up in 
every direction, and scurrying forms darted here and 
there across the road into the tangled thicket and the 
many holes. Beyond Canvas Town the scenery became 
wilder and grander, and the road a mere narrow track 
through wild unbroken bush. We crossed several small 
rivers hurrying on with such speed that the day seemed 
too short for them. The waters often were over the 
tops of the wheels. The streams go down, the driver 
told me, as quickly as they rise, and all flow into the 
Wai River, which now ran beside us. Crossing a bush 
track to our left, the driver pointed to a high mountain 
peak above, where the bushranger Sullivan and his three 
mates committed so many murders. There, away up 
in the wilds, they used to lie in wait and kill the diggers 
who went by with their heavy bags of gold ; then 
went into Nelson, and in a lavish way spent the money. 
Suspicions were at last aroused, and Sullivan turned 
informer. The feeling against him was so strong that 
it was with the greatest difficulty the crowds were kept 
from lynching him as he was taken backwards and for- 
wards from and to the gaol. He was afterwards im- 
prisoned for the suspected murder of a young surveyor, 
and sentenced for life ; but finally let off. Burgess, the 
other principal witness, before his execution wrote a 
history of his life, relating the whole affair, and the 
various other murders they had committed in Australia. 
Sullivan, he said, was always the leader. His evidence 
could not, however, be relied on, as his one idea was 
to hang the man who had so treacherously betrayed 
them. 
The telegraph station on this road is the most im- 
portant in New Zealand, and here are distributed all 
messages from the North Island to places in the South ; 
in addition to this the Eastern Extension Company’s 
