From Leonard Darwin to Emma Darwin 2 October [1874]

Dear mother

I think I brought my last letter up to our first Sunday at Christchurch. Since then we have been flying all over the country seeing places for an observatory, and hearing what people have to say about it. Of course we were strongly in favour of Christchurch as it would be so comfortable with our nice little office at the government buildings and the club to live at, and it was difficult to allow none of these things to weigh with us. Luckily in one sense the objections to Christchurch were so strong that there was no doubt that we must go somewhere else, and we had to see several places to choose from. We decided to go to Burnham a place 18 miles from Christchurch on a line of Railway leading to the south. The place consists of two or three cottages, an accommodation house or small public, and a reformatory, of which the government has given us a wing to live in, so that we shall be able to make ourselves very comfortable.

Christchurch itself is a very unmeaning town, all quite square with wide roads maked out in every direction whether wanted or not. In one place there are two or three short streets, but all the rest consists of wooden houses surrounded by little gardens; it is like a large suburb so large that it makes a big town. Wooden houses give one a very uncomfortable idea, but there is nothing in these by which you can tell they are wooden  The walls are I think covered with a thick layer of plaster, so that they are not even much more noisy. Round Christchurch the county is absolutely flat, and consists of fields of English grass surrounded by gorse hedges, which are now in full flower, giving a bright yellow-look as far as one can see, which is no great distance. At Burnham there is a large tract in its native state, except that the tussock is only a few inches high as it is burnt down every year, in order that the sheep may be able to get at the green shoots  The tussock grass is generally a sandy yellow—and gives a very dreary aspect when they is nothing whatever to relieve it. On fine days the mountains round can be seen; those on the west look like the alps all covered with snow at present, though in the summer nearly all of what we see melts off. On the east the hills of Banks peninsular seem quite close across the plains, and look very like barren Welsh hills.

We have been travelling about like prnices, generally in special trains and always with some local swell with us. M^r. Rolleston the superintendent of the Province, a brother of Prof Rolleston is the man we have most to do with in that way, and he is just the sort of man we want most wonderfully civil to us, and a very srewd man I should think. The amount of civility we have received all round is most wonderful. On Wednesday we went to one of the Assembly halls, and had very good fun, the only colonial thing about it being that I had only one partner that could dance 3 time. I was also surprised at the number I danced with who had never been in England. We are going to dine with M^r. Rolleston tonight, and again somewhere else tomorrow, so that I begin to think it lucky we are going to Burnham. I have had several invitations for up country, amongst other for Butlers old run. Just interrupted by a deputation of the Philosophical institute to ask to dinner. The local photoer has written to ask if we can find a few minutes to have our photos taken and he will supply us with any number.

Tuesday Oct 6^th.

I spent Saturday and Sunday at a place called Ilam, (M^r. Harper's) a few miles out of Christchurch  It is said to be one of the prettiest places about, and certainly it was a charming place. They have got one of the little rivers running through their garden, the sides of which are lined with weeping willows just in their first green with weepers 12 or 14 feet long I should think. All round the house English shrubs are planted, and the garden is full of English birds.

Some one pointed to me in an excited tone of voice—""Look there is a blackbird"". M^r. Rolleston told us that he was one day walking along with his children, when he suddenly felt an indescribable feeling of home come over him, making him feel quite dazed not knowing what it was; and it took him a little time before he found out that it was an English lark singing over his head—a sound he had not heard for 13 years. They make rather a mistake in sticking too slavishly to English things in the gardens &c. Certainly the navite trees seem to get killed as quickly as the Moaris, when any imported onces come near. Near Ilam there is almost the only bit of native wood left on the plains and that is dying out notwithstanding every effort to protect it. The mountains looked very beautiful with a little foreground to set them off—some of them 100 miles away but looking quite sharp and clear

Friday Oct 9^th.

Yesterday we went to the dinner of the Philosophical Institute. It was held in the Government buildings  D^r. Haast was in the chair and there were about 50 present altogether, the Venus party being the only guests. I sat between the Bishop (Harper) and a man called Walker both of them pleasant, and the only drawback to the dinner was the fright that I should have to speak. Luckily I guessed how they would bring me in particularly and I wrote a little speech out; and read it over two or three time, so that when it came to me I was prepared and said my little say pretty well, and am told that I looked quite comfortable, but inwardly I was a ravening wolf  Haast made a long speech proposing the Venus party, and then Palmer replied in a very good speech. I was then evidently expected to say something I will give you my first speech in public in detail.

M^r. President, My Lord, and Gentlemen After what Major Palmer has said on the subject of the Transit of Venus, I think I need not trouble you any more on that subject, but I should not like to sit down without thanking you, M^r. President, for your very kind allusions to my father

I have often heard him wonder at the progress that must have taken place in these islands since the time he visited them, nearly 40 years ago  He was received then with the same hospitality that we have been received with,—a hospitality that seems to be characteristic of New Zealand, but there were only half a dozen white men in the district to shew it to him  Now he judges of the state of this country by the Proceedings of the Philosophical Institute of New Zealand which come to him regularly every year, and always contain he says, much valuable and interesting information. I think the other colonies would do well to imitate New Zealand in making the Scientific Institutions of the country keep pace with the growth of the national wealth (applause)  I feel much honoured, gentlemen, by the way in which you have drunk my health.

I think it was all true but I dont know. There was a great account of the dinner in the next days paper, which I will send if I can

Tuesday Oct 13^th.

The San Francisco mail is just come in with a second bundle of letters. I think it is a great pull being so far off because every one writes nice long letters. Now if I was only spending a year in Germany with a mail coming in every day I dont thing I should get half the letters. But it makes it rather difficult answering them, as coments on home news five months old must be a little flat; and as the work will be getting pretty hard now, you must make them all take this as an answer to their letters as well  Your letter about the marriage has come, but I had heard some of the details before, including a bit of cake from Retta, which arrived safely—a little flat but quite as good as new—. By the next mail I suppose I shall hear of them at Down going on furnishing.

Sitting comfortably here it seems funny to be informed that I am most likely in the tropics; by the time time the transit comes off I suppose I shall have reached here. You tax me with owing you a 1/- on a bet about which was the highest Effie or Ida— I must have been in a sporting mood when I took it, as, to the best of my belief I have never seen Ida. I thought of settling bets when I got home, but you can take a weight off Horaces mind by telling him that our bet of -/1 is drawn—the bet was whether it was a piano or a harmonium on board the Merope; there were both alas. I am getting rather confused over Williams house; the letters alternatly inform me that it has gone squash more hopelessly than ever, or that it is quite settled; but the letters that tell me it is all right seem to have the best of it, which I am very glad of, as I think he would never have rested in peace until he had shifted somewhere.

From what we can see of the work it will keep us here longer than we expected; most likely till April 1^st. so that you can go on writing till Feb 1^st., and as we may be delayed another month, it would be charity to to write on till March 1^st., but I shall know bettler later on. If we dont see the transit I am almost doubting about coming home through America. The peope here seem so hospitable that I should like to stay with several of them up country; and then it seems a pity to be so far in this direction without seeing Australia a little. My plans then would be, to see N.Z better and then go to Australia. By P and O home, possibly staying a little at Bombay—a place I hope I shall never see in any other way—and finishing up with Italy. My objections to America are that in Feb. it would be very cold and I might delayed on the Railway for some time. I wish I had time to hear what you thought of this trip compared with the other.

I dont think I have told you much about Burnham yet. As to the scenery round, there is none except the distant mountains which look equally nice from all over the plain. We have a large sitting room, which has been furnished by the Provincial government, and Crawford and myself sleep in one room long enough for about 20 children to sleep in.

So you see we have made ourselfs pretty comfortable, the only thorn in my side being the Crawford snores. furiously. Our observatory is about quarter of a mile distant across the plains, and we are getting things pretty well in order now. My instrument is not yet mounted but I hope it will be this week. This leaves me very little time to get accustomed to working in the hot climate, and to get the instrument in order; in fact they ought to have sent us out six weeks earlier, and it makes me rather nervous as to whether it will all go right, but I think it will all come right. Besides all the photo work I shall have my observing to do, so that the time wont hang heavily on me here. and I dont suppose I shall be able to get away any more before the fatal day. I think if I like I could go out somewhere every Sat. and Sunday; two or three people have asked me to write and say when I am coming for any Saturdays and Sundays I can spare, and I think they mean it. There is much more visiting of that sort here than at home, and people often go to houses without being invited; this I think makes visiting here pleasanter as there is not so much ceremony and they dont look after one so much. All most every one here is a sheepfarmer, except a few clergymen, and the talk is awfully sheepy at times, though I should think as a set they were greatly in advance of the country gentlemen class in England. I went to a M^r. Grays last Sunday and had a pleasant day, though I could not join much in the sheep talk. On the way there I had to drive over a colonial road, which quite a little excitement in itself. There is no metal put on the roads and they get fearfully cut up in places by drays of stone drawn by about a dozen oxen, which come down from the hills on Banks Peninsular. One of our fears about this place is that on the day of the Transit there may be a large fire on the plains, and we have been asking all the land owners round to burn their runs; tonight I have just been out seeing the grass burnt close here; all the reformatory boys were out there enjoying the fun and helping to keep the fire going. Unless it burns very differently when it gets dryer and with a stronger wind I dont think there is much danger of the smoke interrupting our view, as though it crackles away finely for a bit it soon goes out unless constantly kept up by the boys. The colonists must have been thinking of the days when the tussuck grass was quite long on the plains.  | Oct 22^nd.

We have now got all our instruments up and are in full swing; two of us have to be at the observatory every night, and I think this is my last night off before the English mail goes. I have no time for writing in the day time and I expect on the third night I shall be pretty sleepy, so my letters will get small by degrees and beautifully less. I tried to get a copy of the Lyttleton Press in which my speach at the great dinner was reported but all the copies had been bought up, and I had to content myself with the Times, the other daily paper. The man at the office there almost apologised for not having reported it and I suppose, not to hurt my feelings, he began the leading article with an allusion to my remarks. See what it is to be a swell. I am getting too sleepy to write sense so goodbye mother for another month

Your affec son | Leonard Darwin

Love to all, and that must do for letters.

I enclose this in a letter of the Ast Roy thus cheating the Government of -/9