of expense and exertion; and partly as a descriptive history, with illustrations, of the West Coast of New Zealand. Such is the intent, in unpretentious form, of the present volume.
The Sounds of the West Coast of Otago first call for reference, and in the description we shall introduce to our readers, we shall endeavour to fulfil a twofold object. First to place at their disposal one of the earliest of the many descriptions, published in fugitive form, of the West Coast Sounds; and secondly, to keep the memory green of a journalist who, ranking high in his profession, was identified with the earliest history of the coast, was well esteemed by all who knew him—and they were many—and whose untimely end was a source of profound regret. We refer to the late Alexander Reid, formerly editor of the West Coast Times.
A journalist’s repute is at the best but evanescent. Writing but of the passing topics of the hour, each day brings its new duty, wiping off the record of the day that is past. His abiding influence is felt rather than seen, he moulds public opinion even while he expresses its passing phases, he chronicles the story of our lives from day to day, but unlike the historian who hands down his laborious tomes as heirlooms to posterity, the journalist gains but ephemeral fame. Like the “poor player,” he “struts his brief hour,” and then passes out of the land of shadows, not unwept, but oft “unhonoured and unsung.”
The other chapters are mostly descriptive of occasional rides and rambles in various parts of this new “land of the mountain and the flood,”—the Golden Coast of New Zealand—a spot of beauty, full of goodly prospect.
Hokitika, N.Z.,
1st August 1884.
