Wanganui.

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Further up the Avenue, on the S. side, is the Collegiate School,famous for the efficient manner in which, for many years, it hasbeen conducted. It has accommodation for 120 boarders. TheChapel is pretty, but the other structures are a heterogeneous col-lection of buildings, the gradual accretion of the growth of theinstitution.

A little beyond the Collegiate School is the Boys’ School, apretty Gothic building, with 290 boys on the roll.

It may surprise new-comers to hear that Victoria Avenue runsthrough what was formerly almost impassable raupo swamp, and thatthe surveyor who laid it off got bogged about opposite where the Boys’School now stands, and that his thigh-boots remain there unto thisday.

Ridgway Street, which intersects the Avenue, contains manygood shops. On its W. side going northward from the Avenue are theOddfellows’ Hall and the approach to the Museum [see p. 163] ;and at its N. end are the Court-house, the Commercial Hotel,Druids’ Hall, and Freemasons’ Hall, in the lower portion of whichis the Land Office. In Ridgway Street S. is the Bank of Australasia .

Maria Place intersects the Avenue between the Victoria Hoteland S. Mary’s Church, and leads northward to an entrance to theQueen’s Park, in which is the Lion Monument , which has thefollowing inscription :—

“ In grateful memory of the gallant officers and men of HerMajesty’s Imperial Army and Navy, and Colonial Forces, who diedin the service of their country during the long wars with the nativesof these islands, and who lie buried in and near this Town, thisMonument is erected by the inhabitants of Wanganui, 1892. Nearthis spot stood the Rutland Block-house, erected 1847; removed 1883.”

The Jubilee Band Stand, which is on the highest part of thePukenamu Hill, is on the site of the old Rutland Stockade. A pathleads W. from this to the Campbell Street entrance, next to which isthe Girls’ School, which at present has 303 on the roll.

Going westward from here along Campbell Street, the visitor willnotice the Girls’ College, on the roll of which are 75 pupils,including 33 boarders. The grounds are planted with native shrubs,among which are mmnakn tree-ferns (Cytherea medullaris). mako(Aristotelia racemosa), rangiora (Brachyglottis repanda), tarata (Pit-tosporum eugenioides ), toii (Cordyline indivisa), and toetoe (Arundoconspicua). It is a pity that the native plants are so seldom grown.

Turning to the R. at the Girls’ College, and going along LiverpoolStreet, the visitor will pass S. John’s (Ang.) Church and theS. John’s Infant School, in which 120 children are taught. Thencehe may go on to the river, and return to the town by the Taranaki andTongariro Quays, past the old Hospital and the Market Place .Here is a monument erected by the Province of Wellington :—“ Tothe memory of the brave men who fell at Moutoa, 14th May, 1864, indefence of law and order against fanaticism and barbarism.” Thenames of fifteen Maoris and of Lay-Brother Euloge follow. Thevisitor is sure to be pleased with the beauty and luxuriance of thefiowens in the gardens he will pass in this walk.

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