A FINE COLLECTION OF PICTURES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLI, Issue 24, 31 January 1906, Page 2

A FINE COLLECTION OF PICTURES.

Residents of and visitors to Nelson should certainly take advantage of the ppportunity offered by Miss Harris of inspecting a really magnificent collection

of pictures of New Zealand, plants, berries, and birds. Miss Harris's studio is in Nile Street East, quite close to the Church Hill, and is being thrown open for public inspection from 9 to 1 o'clock daily. The collection comprises about 250 oil and water colours, and forms a complete and eloquent reply to the assertion that "there is nothing in the New Zealand bush." No one can leave Miss Harris's studio without feeling that the visit has been an education in plant life, aud one learns that our msh and mountains contain flowers and berries in profusion and of exquisite form and colour. Another thing that is at once obvious is that the artist whose work is shown in the studio excels in reproducing on canvas specimens of our New Zealand plant life. This is gathered even by the ordinary observer who loooks upon the sketches in which flowers of the clematis, convolvulus, rata, and other well known plants. It is impossible with the space at command to go into details of the large and varied collection but to give an idea of what is to be seen it may be stated that among the pictures on view are specimens of the yellow rowhai, native flax, Mt. Cook lilies, kiekie plant and flowers, the supplejack berries, orchids, various species of gentian, whan (a very rare plant in the South Island, the wood of which is used by the Maories for fishing floats), cabbage trees, the white noinoi (from Mokau, North Island), manuka flowers, rowharawhara plants (various varieties), thu yellow rata creeper (a very rare plant the specimen Miss Harris used having bean obtained in Collingwood), and a host of others. One beautiful lit-

tie picture is of a collection of flowers and berries from Nelson mountains, another is of the flowers to be found growing in the vicinity of Lake Hotoiti, and a third representing a group of flowers gathered on Mt Arthur Tableland. Miss Harri* has only a few seascapes on view, and the most conspicuous of them is a sketch of Golden Bay, showing sandpipers searching for crabs. The collection which Miss Harris now possesses is the result of many years of labour and

the fact that it is composed entirely of New Zealand subjects makes it additionally attractive. Plants have been sent to her by collectors from all parts of the colony, and thus information may be obtained by Nelsonians and other South Islanders of the appearance of trees which are to be found only in the North Island. The honeysuckle, for instance is one of these which conies readily to mind ; but there are many others. It may be mentioned that no charge is made for inspecting the pictures, Miss Harris having thrown open her studio free of charge. Any who contemplate a visit may rest assured that they will be delighted with what they see.