A Wet Welcome.

"The shores of the beautiful loch, fringed with a dense bush of totara, pines, and manuka, then presented a uniform mass of green, covering the rising ground that springs from the shores," wrote Mr. James Barr in "Old Identities," describing the lonely land to which the first settlers came, "with the untrodden fern and unbroken bush all round, with no accommodation provided, no immigrants' barracks, and no tents in their possession to erect." He says the act of these brave men and women is full of the elements of romance, and he wonders that it has never been the subject of a painting. It certainly is remarkable that none of our artists have been inspired to perpetuate the memory of this romantic time in our short but eventful history.

"Arriving at the setting-in of a most inclement season—the most severe winter experienced since the foundation of the settlement—the immigrants were subjected for the space of nearly two months to one continued downpour of rain," continues the same interesting historian. "Can one conceive of anything more dreary, more comfortless? … And little did these handicraftsmen—weavers, tailors, shoemakers, and bakers that in large (just too large) proportion made up their number—know of hut or whare construction!" But they all proved equal to the occasion, and we read of delicately brought-up ladies engaged in the difficult operation of cooking, while gentlemen held umbrellas over their heads to prevent the kitchen fires from being extinguished."

It will be remembered that when the first Canterbury settlers arrived at Lyttelton they found immigration barracks erected, and a certain amount of other preparation for their reception. Seeingpage 86 that the Otago settlement was founded only a couple of years before, it is rather surprising that some similar preparations were not made prior to landing a big batch of people on practically the bare beach. The New Zealand Company had had plenty of experience at Wellington and Nelson, but they do not seem to have profited greatly by it, and that state of things existed until many years later, for readers of the Albertland story will recollect that the Albertlanders, who did not land in Auckland until 1862, had to find their own way to the shores of the Kaipara, which were then a practically untrodden waste of fern and forest—with not a road for miles around!