Page:Picturesque New Zealand, 1913.djvu/242

154 "It is a little beyond the library," my first informant assured me. I went a little beyond that distance, but I saw nothing resembling an art gallery. "Can you tell me where the art gallery is?" I asked another man.

"No, I'll be blowed if I can," he replied. I repeated the question to a third man. "Blest if I can," said he. "I did n't know we had an art gallery." Then I went to the public library, and appealed to a young woman assistant. "It is hard to direct you," she laughingly answered. "It is so small; it is a little red brick building with some trees around it."

Finally I found this secluded building, after inquiring the way again of a group of four men, only one of whom was able to direct me. The gallery building was of modest proportions, as I had been told, and the collection was small. But the name was entirely satisfactory. Over the gallery's portals were these words: "New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts."

In Wellington's commercial district are many large buildings, those of four and five stories being common. The most imposing of these, as a whole, are the banks and hotels. Their frontal appearances, however, are not altogether suited to their surroundings. With some of the city's public buildings, they caused me to conclude that Wellington has a heavy face, a face unduly weighted