THE REV. DR. STEPHENSON ON NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6948, 23 February 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE REV. DR. STEPHENSON ON NEW ZEALAND.

The Rev. Dr. Stephenson, whose visit to thia colony will be remembered by our readers, is at present contributing to the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine a series of. articles entitled "Note 3 on Australasia." From his last published article we make the followiog extracts :— . , : .""''7 ■■■ " It is difficult to speak of New Zealand without apparent exaggeration. Our welcome was so hearty, so enthnsisstic a hearing was given to the story I had to tell, so largehearted and broadminded was the generosity. of the clergy of my own aud other Churches,, and so intense the enjoyment afforded, by the eight of snch varied and exquisite, beauty as tha country presents, that there was lett upon my mind an impression which makes it difficult to think of that beautiful, land with critical calmness. But, on. the! whole, I think I must confess to the opinion that, physically, New Zealand is. the finest, country on the face of the earth.. It con-, siste of two principal islands, with, a cluster, of subordinates around them, and, stretches' for about a thousand miles. It oon ; siderable variety of climite, but'none:ithat ; is trying or unpleasant. Yet there are in,it the strangest combination of scenery and soil. Mountains rising to ten thousand feet. high, crowned with perpetual :: enow, ,as,; glorione as any that Switzerland can boast;.! Ukes imprisoned by mighty hills.'i/ior'iern-: bosomed in exquisite forests, aa picturesque as Lucerne or D3rwentwater;" fpr'eHts; stretching through hundreds of,miles; ;arj. immense variety of wood and leaf,:,and,:ai bewildering wealth of tendril arid "creeper; ■ There is a volcanic region, in which the wonderful, the grotesque, the horrible, and the beautiful are strangely mineledi*; :And bo, New Zealand is a sort of compendium 1 of.' the best that you can find in every. part of., the world. Besides, there are vast and rich plains, seeming to invite the plough" of the: husbaudman, and mines stored with : untpld. mineral wealth. Coal and iron,.the; strong foundations of commercial prosperity, are. there in abundance; and the coast is iri- s dented with harbours amongst the 1 .most spacious, safe, and beautiful thatihe world:, can boast. Wβ could, however, only, get a'; g!imp3e of these beauties. . ..■■ ...s.:lt .is fair to say, however, that all the ;New Zealand roads are not quite so good as this,'and particularly in the Maori country,,.which we will visit presently. As I write, pn'e,\».bit pf forest road rises before my mind.' had,; to pass it one evening when already ■"darkness had gathered round us. The; road, scarcely wide enough for two yehiclesvtb. pass, was cut through the virgin forest,'; which skirted it on either side, and,'rising', overhead, formed a continuous , ■:avenue:i That night a special illumination seemed, tbf: have been prepared for ns, for on .tiie right' and on the left as we drove along,?milliou'e.-. of fire-flies were shining, each holdiug.'-.ouji.' its tiny lamp, as though the fairies.had called science to their aid, and illuminated' fairyland with electric lamps. '■■'■. : ° '"; : 'v ■'. ■ .Leaving Auckland—a picture of.'beauty,/ with its most wonderful the. coasting steamer in the evening, we .arrivednext morning at Tauranga, andVtHen engaged a vehicle, which was something; ; be- ■ twten a coach, a cab, a waggonette,:'anil a merry-go-round. Drawn by four .horses,; %p passed along a pleasant road tlie" Gate Pah, the sceue of one of the .terribio butcheries of the Maori wars, and .'thfenc.ei'; onward through an interesting foresttregion,' uutil at the end of forty miles, having, passed one or two picturesque -lakes, we came to the village of OhiDemutu; on. j;he banks of the Lake Rotorua. . .; .;... But; : most remarkable sight of all, a sighi; never : to bo forgotten, were the white:;ancl pink terraces. I have no hope of being' able.to. couvey, without the aid of illustrations, any. idea of the exquisite beauty of .these races, or even of their shape, outline,, and peculiarities. I had read Trollope'sJdesoripT.' tion of them, but the reality wasfsp'unlike.the expectation which 1 had founded i upph:. his words, that I dare not hope any ;wprds; of mine would convey to other mindsVijripre. exact idea. Some time after my';lvisit-;IS found in Miss Gordon CummingV.bbok.ou! Fiji a description of these terraces;' which approaches more nearly to success'.than any/: thing I have seen or anything I canihppei to; do. I have therefore compressed; into two; or three paragraphs her aketoh of them, and: would refer to her work those , :;.who , :,are wishful to study them more fujly;.i: Thp.. terraces are in nature what the Taj'Mahal'at. Agra is in architecture, a thing indescfibable ■■ —a fairy city of lace carved in pure'marble,; ' a thousand waterfalls suddenly frozen and fringed with icicles. Perhaps you:' will ;b_e.st picture it to yourselves as a atee^."'hillside; artificially terraced so as to form:'hundreds of tiny lakes ; but the stonework enclosing and sustaining each little lake is of white marble, fringed with stalactites re«embling the most creamy-white coral, which grows more beautiful year by year, as the evortrickling water drips over it. So rapid is the deposit that fern leaves and sticks which drop into the water are in a few daye so thickly incrueted that they look like- as if they had been crystallised by a confectioner ; and sometimes a dead bird falls in, and is apparently petrified, while its form is btill quite preserved. The total height of the white terraces is about one hundred and fifty feet, and the width at tho base about three hundred feet; but the amount of beauty of detail crowded into this spacu baill-s description. While some of the terraces are so deep and bold as to suggest marble battlements of fairy citadels, others resemble gigantic clam-shelle, filled to. the brim with tho exquisite blue water, sometimes tinged with violet, which, as it drips from the lip of the shell, forms a deep frinyi.of the loveliest stalactites, generally pure white, but sometimes tinged with other colours. Each great shellliko bath partly ovorharjgs the one below it, so that in some the battier can find shelter from tho sun beneath this wonderful canopy with its drippiug gems. All the lovely iorms of frott crystals are here produced in endurinp material. . i . I have seen several of the most beautiful sights the world has to show : the after-glow on the Bernese Alp 3 ; tho Shreckhorn, lifting its white walls for seven thousand feet above the summit of the Great Scheideck ; tbe thousand \a\cs sleep ing on the breast of the St. Lawrence ; and Niagara, with its inexpressible beauty ; but, ranging with these great pictures, which can never be surpassed till we see the city of jasper and gold, is my memory of the white terrace at Rotomahana."