VII.—The Taieri Wilds.

A trip up the Otago Central Line is one which the visitor should not omit. This line has been a bone of contention for a page 271long period of time. To gain the interior of the Province and open up its vast resources for development, as well as to give the greatest facilities for bringing the products to market, has unquestionably been the aim of all interested. How best to attain this has been the question of difficulty. Several different routes were suggested, all of which had their ardent supporters, who were equally strong in their denunciations of the rival lines.

A Royal Commission decided on the present course, and what Royalty does cannot be wrong. So the traveller, in journeying along in the comfortable carriage must just give rein to his fancy, and in idea form an estimate of how valuable these disturbed hills, glens and chasms would have been for human occupation, had nature only put a sufficiently heavy steam roller over the surface, squeezing down here and filling up there, so-that there would be space flat enough on which a man could place the soles of his feet. There are pretty glimpses of crag and river to be gotten which will in the days to come fascinate the artist, but fine views do not fill the purse nor captivate the majority of human kind. As far as opening up land for settlement goes, this line, so far as it has gone, is-decidedly the worst of those proposed.

The train after leaving the Main South Railway carries the travellers over a larger extent of splendid agricultural country—across the heart of the Taieri Plain—than either the famed carses of Stirling or Growrie in the old land contain; and then leaving the flat country and taking to the hills, a winding course is followed, and now and again darkness envelopes, whilst the engine with panting haste passes through four short tunnels, "heighs and howes" occupying the intervening space. Then the Wingatui Viaduct is reached, which holds the reputation of being one of the greatest triumphs of engineering skill in the Southern Hemisphere, and for which Mr. Blair, the Engineer, and his assistants have received every meed of praise.

A journey along this line is strongly recommended, showing as it does the contrast between fertile plains and barren hills.

The Viaduct is, however, an interesting work. It stretches between two ridges of the mountain, and was preferred by the engineer to filling in and embanking, both for durability and page 272safety. The length of the Viaduct Is 690 feet, divided into eight spans, the widest of which stretches 106 feet, the others 66 feet The height of the line in the centre from the bed of the creek is 154 feet, and the width of the platform or carriage way is 12 feet 8 inches. The pier at the base has a width of 33 feet. The structure, viewed from the ground around, looks slender indeed, and many timorous passengers would shudder at the thought of crossing it at an ordinary rate of speed, and would be very chary about committing themselves to the experiment of so doing. Strength and durability are not, however, to be estimated by bulk. The secret of success lies in the mathematical accuracy which Mr. Ussher, assistant engineer, has displayed in calculating the strength of the bearing points, the truthfulness and precision with which each part has been put together, and the trustworthiness of the material employed. The total cost of the Viaduct was about £22,500.

The Railway Commissioners now carry their patrons much further on between eminences which, in other countries, would be called mountains, but here, only ridges, along the banks of the river Taieri, once in its day a pellucid water, fit habitat for the trout or any other of the finny tribe, now, alas, a thick "drumlie" current, into which one would hesitate to dip lest he should emerge there from with the complexion of a Chinese. The gold diggings, away up in the distant Naseby and Kyeburn Districts, and others nearer hand, have caused this radical change.

Seated in a railway carriage, bearing us onward at 15 miles per hour, sometimes in the open air, at other times momentarily under ground, still wherever the eye can see, there is that accompanying Taieri sluggishly moving along with scarcely a ripple on its turbid surface to indicate that life or vitality existed at all within its bosom.

The railway has not yet reached Middlemarch, the first stopping place in the open strath that lies beyond the rocky gorge, but even had it done so we should not have proceeded further. So returning down the line again we now leave the train at Mullocky Gully, where horses having been previously arranged for, we take to the saddle, and follow the ideal road line (which is neither formed nor fenced in), along the top of the range, where the traveller may revel amid scenes which even Turner's wildest page 273ideals could not surpass. If he has a gun, "the conies among the rocks," the rabbits, will give him sport; but the true lover of Nature in her wildest mood would forget such sport amidst such a scene, wild and desolate in the extreme.

How turbulent must have been the forces which were in operation ages ago to produce such a scene as that on which we now look with calm complacence, and allow fancy to play in tracing verisimilitudes, as we compare these massive overhanging rocks in the words of Burns to "Ruins pendant in the air," or recall the lines in which Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, described a scene tame in comparison to what is now spread before us:—

"What bard could sing the onward sight?
The piles that frowned, the gulfs that yawned beneath,
Downward a thousand fathoms from the height,
Grim as the caverns in the land of death;
Like mountains shattered in the Eternal's wrath
When fiends their banners 'gainst His reign unfurled,
A grizzly wilderness, a land of scaith,
Rocks upon rocks in dire confusion hurled,
A rent and formless mass, the rubbish of a world."

The reach of the Taieri from the Deep Stream to Outram is far and away the bleakest and most desolate of any river stretch we know of on the eastern seaboard of the Province. It will never be fit for anything but the habitation of wild pigs and rabbits.

The Taieri River is the most tortuous and sluggish of streams. From its source to its mouth it wends a weary way over 150 miles, although the crow starting from its source and landing at its confluence with the sea, would not traverse much more than forty miles, provided it took its proverbial straight course.

It is perh aps unnecessary to state that on this journey it is absolutely necessary to dispense with wheels. To traverse this enchanting country perhaps even a horse might be found superfluous, and the individual be confined to his own powers of locomotion. However, we come safely out on the Strath Taieri Road, and in less than an hour we reach Outram, where we rest and are thankful.