264 DUNEDIN chap. 
Up in this rich Taiera Valley, a land which not so very 
long ago was the site of an old lake, now a land of 
golden plenty. Lake Waiholo, at its entrance, is 
where the sportsman fills his bag with trout and wild 
duck. At Milton beyond are large potteries, flour 
and oat mills, coal-mines, and limekilns. 
Many interesting stories are told by the old settlers 
of the early days — how the heavy bags of golden 
nuggets were doled out to the settlers in payment for 
their land, how this section and that was bought for 
a barrel of beer ; and how, from a few pounds in the 
early digging days, the land rose to hundreds in a day. 
A good story is told of a Scotsman who owned a 
small bit of land in Princes Street, which he had 
originally bought for a few pounds, and did not realise 
its value until he was offered ;^ 16,000, which he stoutly 
refused. " Saxteen thoosand pounds for't ! " he said ; 
" ye canna ha' made your money honestly, mon ! " 
The early settlers of New Zealand had a rough 
time of it, and needed strong muscles and stout hearts 
to battle against the many difficulties. For years it 
was one long struggle for supremacy between the 
Europeans and Maoris. Now the dominant race and 
the subdued dwell peacefully together. 
Every variety of scenery and natural beauty is 
found in this Southern Cross world, from bold rocky 
island -studded coast- lines to rolling hills and level 
plains ; from towering heights of active volcano to a 
wonder-land of silica terraces and undying fires of a hot- 
lake region, unreal and weird in their plutonic grandeur ; 
from inaccessible glacier peaks of eternal ice and snow, 
where avalanches wake the echoes of a hundred valleys, 
to the fathomless depths of landlocked fiords where 
vii^n forests guard the shores with such garlands as 
only nature could weave; from wind-swept gorge 
Digitized by LnOOQ IC 
