HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITION.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume X, Issue 472, 22 March 1851, Page 16

HORTICULTURAL EXHIBITION.

An exhibition of the horticultural products of our settlement took place in St. ' John's School- room, on Tuesday last, and considering the period of the year, and the unfavourable season, which until within the . last fortnight had been uninterruptedly dry since the middle of January, the result was very satisfactory. The show consisted _ chiefly of fruits, of which there were many, remarkably fine specimens. Whether our climate is better calculated than that of | England to bring the apple to perfection we shall not venture to offer an opinion, •>but it is very rare. to see at home such fruit as was exhbited on the table on Tuesday last. Of those fruits known to require .a greater degree of heat than the climate of Britain affords, the superiority in our favour-^ was very marked. Although a littje too early in the season, some of the grapes shown were remarkably fine, and included varieties we bad not previously seen grown here. The melons too were excellent — ■ome of them, of the flesh kind, weighing' nearly eight pounds each. But few flowers, were shown, which we attribute to the unfavourable teaaon ; cor were there many

vegetables. A very delicious peach, and the more valu>bje because coming at a time when the crop has gone by, took the first prize. Altogether, the gentlemen who have attempted a revival of a most useful society may congratulate themselves on the success which has s*o f\r attended their labours, and we belk-.ve the (.fffjet will be a"re-organiza-tion, on a basis that we hope will ensure it a l.isiio^ tooting In the settlement, t The following is the list of prizes awarded: —

Instances Across the Atla.ntic.~li may be interesting to learn exactly how far the steamers run in their weekly trips between Liverpool and the United States. The route is now practically a vast .Terry, and the steamers running with almost the precision of hourly ferry-boats. It is accurately ascertained that the distance between New York and Liverpool direct is 3032 miles, and from Liverpool to Boston via Halifax is 2849 miles, making the distance in favour of the latter route 235 mies.

T^B Gifts op Science to Art.— Now let us imagine that some profound thinker, deeply versed in the resources of Science and Art at that epoch, were to have gravely and publicly predicted that the generation existing then and there would live to 6ee all these admirable performances become obsolete, and consigned to the history of the past; that they would live to regard 6uch vehicles as the Age and Defiance the clumsy expedients of past times, and their celerity such as to satisfy those alone who were in a backward state of civilization ! Let us imagine that such a person were to affirm that bis contemporaries would live to see a coach like the Exeter Defiance making its trip, not in thirty, but in five hours, and drawn, not 'by two hundred blood horses, but by a moderate size stove und four bushels of coal* ! Let us further imagine the same sagacious in .dividual' to declare that his contemporaries would live to see a building erected in the centre of Lr.naon, in the cellars of which machinery would be provided for the, fabrication bt a.tificiai li«htuing, which should be supplied to order, at a fixed price, in any quantity required, and of any prescribed force; that conductors would be carried from this building to all parts of the country, by which such lightning should be sent at will; that in the attics of this same building would be provided certain 6mall instruments like barrel organs or pianofortes, played on by boys, that by means of these instruments, the aforesaid lightning should at the will and pleasure of the said boys, deliver messages in any part of Europe, from Petersburgh to Naples; and in fine, that answers to such messages should be received instantaneously, and by like means : that in this 6ame building offices 6honld be provided, where any lady or gentleman might enter, at any hour, and for a few shillings send a message by lightning to Paris or Vienna, and by waiting for a few moments, receive an answer ! If such predictions had been hazarded by any individual, however eminent might be his reputation and great his acquirements, he would be inevitably set down as a fitter occupant of Bedlam than any other place of abode. Yet most of these things have come 3to pass, and the rest only wait the completion of the mechanism necessary to execute them. v Such things have become so interwoven with our daily habits, that familiarity has blunted the edge of wonder Compared with all such realities, the illusions of Oriental romance grow pale; fact stands higher than fiction in the scale of the marvellous ; the feats of Aladdin are tame and dull ! and the Genius of the Lamp yields precedence to the Spirits which preside over the Battery and the Boiler. — Dublin University Magazine. Trust thyself; every heart vibrates to that iron string, Accept the place the Divine Pro- • vidence has found for you; the society of contemporaries, the connexion of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themeelve^ childlike to the genius of their age^ betraying their perception that the Eternal was stirring at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being—Emerson.

White grapes . . . Mr. Frank. Second prize . v . . . Major Richmond. Black grapes . . . Major Richmond, Second Mr. Frank. Melon . . ' . . . Mr. C. Elliott. Secoud . . . k Mr. H. Adams. Water melon . \ .Mr. Barnet. Peaches .... Mr. Pearce. Second . . ... Dr. Monro. Almonds ..... Mr. Page. Pears Mr. Seymour. Second' .... Mr. Jollie. Apples . . „ . . Mr. Jollie. Second . . . . Mr. ft. Adams. Collection of Apples . . . ' Dr. Monro. Dahlias . . . .Mr. Epps. Potatoes . . . .Mr. M'Vicar. £ eas Mr.M'Vicar. Kidney beans . . . Mr. P.urt. Cabbages . . . .Mr. Plumridge. Onions . . . . Mr. Marah. Potato onions . -. . Mr. Epps.--Cucumbers .... Mr.M'Vicar. Design in flowers . . . Mr. Epps. Second Mr. H: Adams. Bouquet .... Mr. M'Vicar." Glass of honey . . . Major Richmond. EXTItA. PRIZES. White grapes .. . .Mr. Frank. Black grapes . . . Mr. Frank. Apples Mr. Jollie. Collection of apples . . Mr. Seymour. Ditto Mr. Plumridge. I Melon Mr. C. Elliott. Rhubarb . . . .Mr. Pearce. Capsicums .... Major Richmond. Red cabbages . . .Mr. Epps.