CHRISTMAS 1896.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 279, 24 November 1896, Page 3

CHRISTMAS 1896.

THE "GRAPHIC" SPECIAL

NUMBER,

THE BEST GREETING TO FRIENDS

ABROAD.

The special number of bhe " New Zealand Graphic" has always beenamong the earliest and most welcome of our native Christmas annuals which come to remind ua of the approach of the merry season. Thia year it will be equally timely iv making its appearance, co that our friends in the Old Country need nob pasa their Christmas amid froßt and snow without the reflected warmth of a Now Zealand Bummer which brightens its pages. The" endeavour in this issue has boon to make ib as characteriatic aa possible of the country. As a rule the artiata havo been told to shun the citieß, which, after all, are mere reproductions of those of other lands, and to betake themselves to the mountains, the forests, tho rivers nnd the lakss, which are nature's own, and unique of their kind. In following this course, the tastes of both New Zealand and ■ Home readers has, we think, beon very correctly gauged, for ib is very certain that we dwellers in cities want to forget them ab Chriabmaa time, and we can hardly expect our friends ab Homo to prefer aggregations of colonial houses to the natural beauties and grandour of the country. If lifo ia touched on it should be tbe picturesque nabive life, or those phases of colonial lifo which nro most distinctive of New Zealand. Those matcora have nob boon loeb sight of in the Graphic Christmas number. The annual opens with a profusely illustrated description of Mokoia island in Lake Rotorua. Mokoia waa bhe Mounb Zion of the Maoris, bhe sacred isle where the nation's holiest things were kept, bhe ecene of Hinemoa's devotion, and of many an ancient legend. Thegradually disappearing forests of New.Zealand give occasion for a tine poem by Clinll White, which the well-known New Zealand artist, Mr Kenneth Watkins, has elaborately illustrated. A succinct article on the golden wealth of the Hauraki Peninsula deals with a subject of special inberesb ab thia moment, and bhat interest is greatly increased by the magnificenb full page engravings which accompany the paper. Waiwera, mosb charming of seaside resorts, has been visited by the artist, and its beauties transferred bo bbc Graphic, while in obher page 6 one finds exquisite proofs thab hia pencil was busy on bhe Waikato, Mounb Egmonb, and the unsurpassed mountain scenery of the Southern fiords. One of the prettieab of Maori love storieß aftorda scope for pictures of the romantic native lifo of the past, and the utilitarian aide of thinga is touched in an excellenb paper on the kauri timber industry, with handeome engravingß. An interesting article on a Chriatmas in Fiji, with an accounb of coral islands, takes ua for a brief space beyond the colony, but we are back again in ib very soon amid picburea of Wellington and the famous Wanganui River. Along with the number are issued two splendid coloured engravingc, the one of To Heuheu'e hietoric pa aud the other of Milford Sound by sunset. Like all tho Chriatmaa coloured supplementa publiahed by the Graphic, both are works of art and admirably auited for framing. The second picture is a particularly artistic production by a diatinguished nrtiat. The number can be obtained at all booksellers'. The price is one shilling.