From Leonard Darwin to Emma Darwin 23 January – 7 February [1875]

Dear Mother

I am a regular TG at last with no work to do, and enjoying myself very much. I went a small expedition with M^r. Rolleston and Palmer to a little town—Akaraa—on the further side of Banks Peninsular. Besides being the show-place near here, there was an old Claphamite there, Bridge by name, working there as the telegraphic clerk  He seems to me much improved by having come down in the world, and by having married a rather nice wife with very little pretensions to being a lady. We went there in a sort of coach over the roughest road I ever saw in my life. Something like driving down the road by Green hill with four horses, and large stones sticking up in the middle of the road. They do it by means of an excellent sort of breke; there is a strong lever sticking up by the side of the driver, against which he can put his foot, and press with his whole weight, without taking his attention from the horses for an instant. We came back again partly riding and partly walking. We started in a little steam launch to the head of the harbour, and there took horses for about a four hour ride nearly all the way up hill and through wide tracks cut in the bush—the first time I have been through the bush here. It was a glorious day and the ride was quite lovely; a wonderful variety of undergrowth, that nearly hid the stems of the big trees; ferns, tree ferns, palms and innumerable creepers hanging from the high branches, gave it what I imagine to be a very tropical appearance. But the only two plants that I remember seeing on the track itself were clover and thistles, which sometimes nearly choked up the way. It was a little hazy at the top but all the same it was a beautiful view of ragged country nearly covered with thick bush, and arms of bright blue sea running in in all directions. I met D^r Haast a day or two ago and was utterly surprised to find that he was wrath with Palmer  The first cause of offense was that he had never been asked to come to see our instruments at Burnham on a particular day; Palmer had asked him to come when ever he liked, and thought that was enough, and it was evident that Haast thought it enough too for twice he started to come down to us but on both occasions he unluckily found people coming down who had been asked for that day and then he turned back. On another occasion he was going to drive Palmer out but failed at the last moment, and sold Palmer altogether. So that I think on this head he was most unreasonable  Haast and Hector are having a bitter quarrel, and in the most foolish way Palmer allowed his name to be mixed up in the affair, I dont quite know how. From what I hear Haast is altogether in the wrong  Haast got a man to help him in getting bones from caves, and this man after waiting two years to let Haast write anything, wrote a paper about them. This paper was read by Hector to the institute, but he was simply acting in the capacity of secretary  For this Haast abused him in no measured terms  But there is very likely another side to the story. Haast has the reputation of being a humbug here, but he has certainly got the museum into wonderful order, but his means of doing have not always been the nicest. His foreign specimens have been mostly obtained in exchange for Moa bones of which he has got a waggon load, which he is keeping dark lest they should become common

Feb 1^st.

I left Christchurch on Tuesday and after a long rail and coach arrived at M^r. Tripp's station, the Orari Gorge; I had a letter of introduction from M^rs. Ruck, which produced unbounded hospitality and they said they hoped I was coming for a few weeks. The station is just where the river Orari leaves the hills and comes out onto the Canterbury. Some of these Gorges are very fine; they generally consist of a deep valley, in the bottom of which the river has cut for itself a channel with rugged perpendicular sides, a 100 or 200 feet high. The rivers are very swift and when they come out on the plains are most desolate objects; shingley river beds more than a mile wide with several water courses winding about in the them, and often changing their course.

I was very unfortunate in the weather there, and could not get about much, which was a disappointment to me and to M^r. Tripp to whom there seems to be no greater pleasure than shewing his run to strangers. M^r. Tripp is what is called a run holder; there are two ways of getting the land either on a lease from the government at a very small rate or by buying in it at £2 the acre. The run holders take very large tracts of rather bad land on lease and live in daily dread that some one will buy up parts of their run; this anyone can do without giving any warning to the runholders: The runholders generally buy up all the best bits of the land, so as to prevent anyone from settling on their land as small farmers. This plan has its disadvantages because it is to the advantage of the runholder to keep his run in such bad condition that it will not be worth anyone's while to buy it up at £2 the acre. M^rs. Tripp is one of the innumerable Harpers and I am now staying with another of the Bishops son in laws—M^r. Acland— The bishop with two unmarried sons has already got 45 grandchildren  M^r. Acland has got the best country house in New Zealand, a really good brick house with every thing fitted up just as in an English country house. The only thing in which there is a noticeable difference is in the servants; they never have men servants in the house, and everyone is in difficulty about a cook. The house lies between the hills and the Rangitata River with the plains beyond. The river has cut a deep course for itself, and the opposite side looks like a great railway embankment, as it just hides the plains behind. There are beautiful wooded gorges in the hills behind, up which we have been scrambling all afternoon

Feb 7^th.

Hokitika

After leaving M^r. Acland I went further south to Timaru, a dreary coach drive across these yellow plains. The only excitement was crossing the Rangitata in the coach; the river was low and there was no difficulty about it, but even then it was a curious sensation; the water rushes past the coach so quickly that that it was only by looking at the horses legs moving that I could persuade myself that we were making any progress to the opposite bank. They are dangerous places, even since I have been here 5 people have been drowned in this island, 3 of them in the ford I crossed that day. The accidents are nearly always caused by a driver who is not used to it getting nervous or else by the driver being drunk. I went back to Christchurch and had to do a great deal—of goobbyeing, and hope-we-shall meet-again-in-eight years-time-ing and then started over here by coach. It is 150 miles of rough hilly road in two days, making rather a long expedition; the first day began with 40 miles of flat Canterbury plains, and then 35 miles of hilly country not very beautiful but still pleasant to look on. The second day is the fine scenery, which all good New Zealanders say is the finest thing in the world; thus they say whether they have seen it themselves or not. The mountains were not quite so fine as I had expected but the foliage was quite up to its reputation; there is a plant called the rata, a creeping myrtle, which grows up the other trees, kills them, and then turns into a large tree itself. This rata has a crimson flower and in places the hills are covered with it, looking magnificent against a very dark green brackground.

Lower down we got out of the region of the Rata, and had a 30 mile drive through the bush; fine large timber and underneath a mass of ferns of all kinds; 70 kinds can be found on that road I am told  The day was rather spoilt by its length, as we started at 5 am and did not arrive till 9 at night. We had a clever driver who passed the time by a nearly incessant flow of talk; he gaves us a history of these gold fields from their start about 10 years ago. I find the gold digger is a much maligned individual, at least those that stay and work; at the first rush there are a great many bad characters but the majority of these disappear after the first successes are over. The diggers here are a very steady lot; many of them if they have luck buy a little land on the other side of the mountains and turn into small farmers  There is much less drunkenness here than on the east coast and the diggers seem very fond of reading

Wellington

Feb 14^th.

I think this letter has swollen to a sufficient size so I am going to be lazy and leave all news till next mail. My plans are to go to Napier, overland to Auckland, and then catch a boat that leaves there for San Francisco on March 20^th. D^r. and M^rs. Hector have just left there for home; I think we ought to ask them to Down for Saturday and Sunday when I get back as they have been very civil to me, to say nothing of the scientific part of the question. They are going back in a very pleasant way; a lot of them—all friends—joined together and took the whole of the cabins of a sailing ship, so it will be like a pleasure party. Got a nice long letter from Bessie by the Frisco mail which has just come in. I am very much afraid I shall only get one more batch of letters before I get to Boston, which will be a long time

Goodbye mother I feel regularly on the tramp home again and only hope they wont make me go away again when I get there

Your affec son | Leonard Darwin.