Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 211, 7 November 1866, Page 3

We nre glad to be enabled to announce that Messrs. Friend and Himcii returned yesterday evening, from their journey across . tho Maungatapu. As we imagined, they found the roads almost impassable, which Avas the cause of their long delay. Since hist Sunday week, they saw only one traveller going to Nelson, aud he did not arrive many hours before them. As many of the accommodation houses are deserted, they found it no easy matter to subsist on the road. At one of the huts at which they stopped they left a supply of provision'', intending to return and take it. On coming back they liad the mortification to find that the provisions had been taken away, probably by wild animals. We understand that Messrs. Friend and Hi men have succeeded in taking a series of photographic views of the scenery of the Maungatapu, with which the public Avill soon be made ■^familiar. We are obliged to defer the publication of our police report, till to-morrow. We give the following criticism from the Argus, on the Fine Arts Gallery, at the Exhibition, whicii will he read with pleasure by many persons in Nelson province: — Tlie first thing avlik-Ii strikes the visitor to the department appropriated to the fine arts is the exclusive preference slioavu by our principal artists for the landscape painting. The best pictures exhibited are those which represent the sceuery of Australia and New Zealand ; and in each instance the treatment of the subject is special and characteristic, bearing the cachet of the individual. M. von Guerard offers us a literal interpretation, idiomatic but mannered ; M. Chevalier, an agreeable paraphrase ; M. Buvelot a free translation, Avith something of a foreign accent; and Mr Gully a poetical version. M. von Guerard sees things as they are; M. Chevalier as they might be; M. Buvelot as they would look under fon-ign conditions of atmosphere; and Mr Gully heightens the beauty of whst he sees by the poAver of his imagina. tion. M. von Guerard's style is distinguished by its fidelity; M. Chevalier's by its vivacity; M. Buvelot-'s by its sobriety; and Mr Gully's by its dash and vigor. The first appears to work in obedience to his conscience ; the Becond to be guided by considerations of what will please ; the third to be governed by canons of art acquired in Europe, and accepted as authoritative here ; and the fourth to be influenced by a determination to present nature under those aspects in which it may be said that she undergoes transfiguration. M. von Guerard has the more delicate touch, combined with a fine perception of local form and color ; M. Chevalier great facility of execution' and a certain careless grace of composition ; M. Buvelot paints solidly, and the tone of his pictures is harmonious ; while Mr. Gully's pencil is directed by a, hand

which is almost audacious in its boldness. Each of these artists is Avell represented in the Exhibition. M. von Guerard by a fine picture of Mount Kosciusko, as seen from the Victorian side of the Murray; M. Chevalier hy his sketches of NeAV Zealand scenety; M. Buvelot, hy some landscapes near Melbourne; and Mr. Gully by two large water color draAvings, which are among the most attractive pictures in the gallery. The first of these represents the western tier of mountains in the Middle Island, NeAV Zealand. The ' foreground is lightly timbered with trees, rich in foliage,' bright in color, and graceful in form; the middle distance is occupied by a lake, dark with the reflected shadows of a dense forest, receding to the foot of a grand mountain chain, admirably painted; the general structure being indicated Avith sufficient force, Avhile the faiut and aerial outlined of the summits almost blend with the atmosphere of the horizon, and their soft edges have that filminess aud transparency which always characterise the lofty ridges of mountains rising to a very great altitude, and encrusted with ice and snow. In fact, nothing can be truer to nature than the opalescence which the artist has succeeded in imparting to these stiOAvy heights. An effective contrast to this picture, both in subject and treatment, is presented by its companion, representing a storm on the Dividing Ranges, between Nelson and Marlborough. The physiognomy of the scene is wild, massive, aud irregular, and the prevailing sentiment is one of lone- j liness and desolation, unrelieved by the presence of any living creature, except a whitewinged bird driven across the landscape by the violence of tbe gale. A thunderstorm is expending its force upon the rugged and impassive shoulders of the mountains, and the gloom is both heightened and relieved by casual glints of sunshine from a break in the sky ou the spectator's left; one ray of light striking upon a glacier, another falling through a mountain rift, and a third flashing upon the moist SAvard in the foreground, and so investing it Avith a burnished lustre. Both these pictures may be described as poems, and avc may be grateful to the circumstance which has made the artist knoAvn to the people of Victoria ; while it is to be hoped ' that some generous benefactor to the Victorian Gallery may purchase them for presentation to it. - —^The D. S. Cross says : — The old RangiaAvhia chief, Hori Te Waru, now liviug at Kawhia, passed through Raglan a feAv days ago. So Avell pleased is he with the agricultural implements presented to him by his Excellency the Governor when he visited Kawhia, that he expressed his intention of soliciting the Governor to complete his kindness by giving him a threshing-machine. Te Waru and his son Taati used to be most favorably UuoAvti to Europeans, but the latter is now as rank a rebel as ever howled round a Hau -Hau pole ; and iu his capacity as gun locksmitn is wanderiug round his Maori Majesty's domains, accompanied by his three wives whom, after the manner of the Maori chief of old, or modern Hau-Hau, he has taken unto himself. 'TThe Taranaki Herald of Oct. 27th says:— I A very mild earthquake was felt here yester- | day morning afc half-past 10. The oscillaI tions were so gentle and unobtrusive that they would have escaped the notice of any one Avho was uot sitting still aud in an observant frame of mind. John Elcock has been committed for trial at the Supreme Court, Aucklaud, on the charge of having set fire to his house aud shop iu Chancery-street. We (Southern Cross) understand the confiscated lauds will soon be brought into the market, to recoup the Geueral Government advance of £100,000 to carry out the Waikato settlement scheme. The details will be made public hereafter. We learn from the Christchurch E. Mail, that a line specimen of the crested grebe, a somewhat rare bird, and which has hitherto been supposed to be cOnriued to Alpine localities, was lately shot near Rangiora ; and having come into the possession of his Honor the Superintendent, was presented by him to the Museum.