main thoroughfares devoted to business purposes,--banks, public offices,
churches, store-houses, and schools,--giving a substantial aspect quite
unmistakable. Numerous large buildings of white freestone were in course
of erection while we were in the city, the material being brought from a
neighboring quarry. This stone very much resembles that which we found
in such general use in Tasmania; it is very easily worked, but rapidly
hardens upon exposure to the atmosphere.

The market gardening for the supply of vegetables to the citizens of
Dunedin was found to be carried on in the immediate vicinity by the
Chinese, just as it is in and about the cities of Australia. No one
attempts to compete with them in this line of occupation. There was
found to be here about the same relative number of Asiatics as elsewhere
among these South Sea colonies, and a small section of the town is
devoted to their headquarters.

There are numerous tramways in this capital, the cable principle being
adopted in most of them. Dunedin, indeed, was the first town in
Australasia to adopt this improved motor; and although horsepower is
still employed upon some of the thoroughfares, the former mode has the
preference both in point of cleanliness and economy,--besides which,
horses could not draw heavily-laden cars up some of the steep streets of
Dunedin. The sensation when riding on one of these cable roads up or
down a steep grade in the city, was much the same as when ascending or
descending the Rigi in Switzerland, by means of the same unseen motor.
The car is promptly stopped anywhere to land or take in a passenger, by
the simple movement of a lever, and is as easily started again. There is
no painful struggle of horse-flesh to start forward again after each
stop. The powerful stationary engine situated a mile away, by means of
the chains beneath the road-bed, quietly winds the car up the declivity,
however heavily it may be laden, without the least slacking of power,
irregularity of motion, or any visible exertion of force. It seemed to
us that no better motor could possibly be devised, especially when
rising grounds are to be surmounted. The principle is well demonstrated
in some of the steepest avenues in San Francisco, where cable tramways
have long been successfully operated.

Dunedin has two capacious theatres; also a public library containing
about thirty thousand volumes, attached to which is a cheerful
reading-room supplied with all th