ENGLISH NOTES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 764, 22 October 1886, Page 27

ENGLISH NOTES.

(from an occasional correspondent.) London, August 26. THE VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS AT TARAWJLRA. Quite a sensation waa caused in England by the receipt of the particulars respecting the volcanic outburst in the Hot Lake District of New Zealand. People who had friends or relatives in your Colony were alarmed for their safety when they read the pmny-dread-ful accounts of the outbreak of ** sixty miles of burning mountains,and the entombment of whole villages and their inhabitants by incessant falls of ashes, mud, stones, and fiery balls. I.am pkaaed to be able to Eay the excitement is passing away and, if no further outbreak takes place, it will be remembered bat as a nine days’ wonder. Dr Hector’s scientific report, which has been noticed by the press, has contributed much to restore confidence and allay apprehension. So has a Wellington letter in the Australasian of July Ist. It was'certainly the talk of the town for a few weeks. At a dinnerparty, given by zone of the Exhibition Commissioners, an English gentleman observed that he thought the fearful volcanic eruption would seriously injure New Zealaui ; to which another gentleman, a colonist, replied with confidence as follows : “Oh, I don’t think that, for it will give us something fresh for Vogel to mortgage.’’ THE MONEY MARKET. There is but little to report on this head in connection with New Zealand finance. It mast be admitted that the monetary credit of

-New Zealand is not so good as it was. For % three months New Zealand inscribed stock bearing four per cent, interest, stood at from 98 to 9SJ ; now it is quoted at 98J to 99 ; yet there is All 5i in the shape of accrued interest due on each £IOO bond, so that the price, to the buyer, is but £97 10s. In fact this stock is much below the value of other Australian four per cent, stocks. New South Wales four per cent, bonds stand at IC6 to 107. The little loan for Palmerston of £50,000 was not all taken up, but tbe balance unallotted, £9,600, no doubt wilt be. Those interested in your borrowing are in weekly expectation of another large loan for New Zealand. Your V_ readers mnst not be too sanguine about its success. THE COLONIAL EXHIBITION —CANADA. I have forborne writing vou anything on tbe Colonial Exhibition, thinking that your New Zealand Press arrangements would provide you with more able pens than mine, but now that it is coming to an end and the New Zealand Court has been altered and added to, I think it may interest your readers if I make a few remarks respecting it ac.d other portions of the Exhibition.

To commence with, I will britfly allnde to the moßt important parts of the Indian and Colonial Exhibition, which—in grandeur, importance, interest, and the numbers that have visited it—far surpasses ’ its three predecessors, the Fisheries, Hesltheries, asd Inventories. The present* exhibition is said to be the last one. Some few influential people want to make it a permanent Colonial Exhibition on its present site. This would involve buying the most of tbe present “ exhibits,” and entail the great expense of a permanent building. Add to this the cost of management and the expense of keeping up a litt’e ring of officials, and you have another “ Kensington job ” to be paid for, mostly by the colonies. The scheme is not feasible, and, like Federation, it would generally be for the honor, glory, and profit of London, and the Kingdom of which it is the wonderful, bat overgrown, capital. The principal entrance to the Exhibition is through a large and lofty hall, gaily decorated. On each side of tbe two sidewalls are ten painted panels, representing towns and scenery in the various colonies. There are two New Z a’and views, one of which shows Milford Sound, the other the White Terraces, now, alas ! no more. From this hall you descend by a flight of steps to the middle or Indian Court. Here all is novel and strange to English eyes. The Court is different from all the rest of the Exhibition. There is nothing familiar in it. It is divided into a nave and aisles by two elaborately carved • teak-wood screens, with arches and openings which run from end to end of its long length. The arches and openings form the entrances to the little, but well-stocked

Indian shops in the aisles. The display of Indian manufactures is magnificent. Thej all look as if they came from the land of the sun, the laud of spices, gems and perpetual summer, for they appear so bright and showy ; out of place, perhaps, in this climate but harmonious in India. The roof above this avenue is decorated with innumerable banners, rich in color but 6trauge and quaint in their shape and devices. To the right of the Indian Court we branch eff to the gorgeous Indian Hall and the workshops where natives are at work at their various Indian handicraft?. Beyond and around these are the various Colonial Court?. My Fpace will not permit me to give more than a glancing description of them, I begin at Canada, with its population of over five millions. The most conspicuous exhibit is the arched and pyramidal structure with its apex touching the roof of the court. It is certainly the trophy of all the trophies of the Exhibition. It is admirably constructed of samples of preserved fruits in bottles, sheaves of wheat, seeds in the straw, bags of flour, barrels of sugar, condensed, milk in tins, salmon ditto, trusts of hay, canned beef, Indian corn cobs, agricultural implements, &e. The display of cotton and woollen goods, pianos, organs, machinery in motion, and other exhibits are innumerable, and to catalogue them would fill a thick volume. Canada decidedly makes the best show. She will : soon everything she wants within herself. I can assure your readers the English folk pull very wry faces when they here see all the various useful goods and articles of luxury the colonies can make for themselves, and mentally say It" the colonies go on like this they will soon manufacture nearly all they want ; and then what good will they be to ns ?"’ ( THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES. Alongside Canada is Queensland, with its trophy of twenty tons of tin ingots, and five specimens of wool, tallow, preserved meats, and cabinet and timber woods. At the end of Queensland, South Australia, though not quite so showy as Queensland, exhibits a practical display of each of its special products, which are cO-newhat alike in all the Australian Courts. Next comes Victoria, which shows up well in its manufactured goods and raw produce. Its gold trophy is artistic and effective to strike the imagination. It consists of three rusticated arches, the upper part terminating in a pyramidal form. The way through the court passes under the centre arch. After Victoria I visited New South Wales. The exhibits are not much of a manufacturing kind or so practical as those of Victou’a. Still, the collection is very attractive, and its trophies of wine, biscuits, preserved fish and oysters, mutton, beef, woods, ingots ol tin, copper, iron, and silver show how it abounds in wealth of many kinda. There is a co’umn formed of coils of rope made from New Zealand flax. West Australia does not occupy a large court, but what she does exhibit is very interesting and instructive. There a trophy of mother-of-pearl shells, and a wonderful set of shells in the shape of a cros?, i 3 exhibited, and said to be worth £IO,OOO ! What adds much to the appearance and importance of all the Australian courts are the fine collections of photographs and paintings in oil and watercolors, skilfully arranged all over the walls and screens of each court.

fTHE NEW ZEALAND COURT. he New Zealand Court is in a rather out-of-the-way part of the Exhibition, but there is a large space allotted to it. The first thing that attracts attention is Dr Bullet’s Maori Museum. It occupies the best pait of the court. lu fact it is a court of itself. I have heard complaints made about this arrangement. I do not detice to depreciate the value and antiquarian interest attached to this gentleman's valuable collection, which must, I should think, have cost him a large sum of money to get together ; but I confess that I, and other?, are of opinion that it is quite out of place here ; and if a transference of it to the upper gallery of the Albert Hall bad been made, and the pictures now there had been removed to the New Zealand Court, the change would have resulted in a very great attraction being added to the latter ; beside?, there would have been room for a coal or some otto.- trophy. To tbe scientist, the antiquarian, and the lover of pre-historic remains of the latest pre historic race—the Maoris—no doubt the Maori museum, with its Maori middens, would have attractions ; but to the ordinary Englishman the Bight of blocks of coal from seams, one 18ft, the other 53 feet in thickness, would have been a more convincing proof of the resouicos and wealth of New Zealand than the Maori collection, so much of which can be seen at the Briti.-h and United Service Museums. The same may be said of the natural bistorygspecimens. The English, after all, are still an eminently practical people, and look to the substantial rather than the theoretical resources of civilization. As regards the New Zealand Court as a whole, the show is very good, but it is inferior to other Australian courts, considering the valuable and varied collection of exhibits sent Horae. The furniture in the four ecclosurts is much sdmited. Auckland and Dunedin, which .principally furnish . them, are entitled to great credit. The beauty ot the woods and the workmanlike finish and artistic designs of the various articles of furniture are equally commendable, and reflect honor on the workmen who made them and the artists who designed them. The Kaiapoi and Mosgiel tweeds, blankets, and plaids surprise people, who did not think such wooden goods could be manufactured in your Colctoy. There is a good and creditable display of bookbinding from Lyon and B'air’a and the Government bookbinding establishments In a handsome case is 'a pyramidal selection of coffee and condiments from Wellington ; also samples of soap and candle?, which look as if they bad done exhibition duty before.... The same may be said of some tins of honey ; but both, no doubt, are excellent wheD put to use. There is a case of very beautiful embroidery work. The model, in relief, of the Islands of New Zealand finds its admirers. There is a good display of boots, shoes, leather, and clothing, and numerous other exhibit?, which I regret I cannot name and do justice so ; my letter is a ready getting too lone;. In the New Zealand fernery, on a narrow border of earth, planted with shrubs and bounded by a narrow footpath, are the following exhibits -Fire clay goods from Grey mouth, sanitary ware from Wellington, brown coal from Otago, natural coke (a mineral wonder) from the Brunner, coal from the Heath Pit, the Buller, Wallsend, and Brookdale collieries. There are also mould-

ingß and specimens of wood from South'nnd, I and some fine specimens of Ke* Zealand woods furnished by the Public Works Department. At the end of the fernery, in a corner, and rather out of the way, is a good show of preserved meats by the Gear Meat Preserving Company.' I regret to tay, comparatively speaking, but few visitors go .to the Exhibition and see the valuable collection of goods in the fernery. In the upper gallery of the Albert Hall,.*, which you reach either by many flights of steps or a lift, I found to ray surprise a fine and very numerous collection of photographs, prints, and oil and watercolor paintings. The artistic and charming views of. the mountains, hil*s, valleys, lakes, plaiop, homesteads,, and towns, made cue feel proud of New Zealand and its artists ; but it seemed to me an error of judgment to place them out of the way up here, and hardly fair to the owners and artists who exhibited them. I went to see them by the electric light, and for half an hour I was the only person to look at them ; yet the courts of the Exhibition and gardens were crowded with people to excess. There is some alteration in the New Zealand Court ; a few, very few, of the pictures have been brought down and placed there. The most important addition to the court is the treeiion of a gold trophy. I hardly know how to describe the structure—it looks so strikingly strange. It is to show (in bulk) the value of the gold raised in the Colony. The idea is a good one ; but I regret that I cannot say the same of the design of the trophy. Here I may be permitted to obeerve that, I fear, it comes too late ; it is baldly yet finished, and is a day after the fair. Already nearly tines millions of visitors have passed tbe turnstiles. Thousands of people are now out of town, and the Exhibition closes in October. School children are being admitted at a lower prfet, and there yet may be a million of persons to visit it. Probably the visitors co the Colonial Exhibition in all will number four millions ; whereas in no one of the three previous exhibitions did the attendance, in round number?, exceed two million? and a half. I have said the trophy looks strikingly Strang?. The design is peculiar. What is the design ? Well, I may answer by saying that the Egyptians vrere the first great builders and architects. To them succeed the Grecians, who were famous for their classical style of architecture, and os temple builders have never been surpassed. The Romans came next and invented a composite order of architecture, but it was no improvement on Grecian designs. After the Romans, for a time, all was darkness in the art?, and remained so until the feudal ages became remarkable by their castle and cathedral buildiDg. Last of all arose the conglomeration of architecture, of all ages, which distinguishes the present day ; but I can assure my readers that the trophy has no affitifcy, no resemblance to any of these ancient and modern styles of architecture. The grandeur is its apparent solidity, and its beauty 1a its simplicity of design. What does it resemble ? lam afraid to say what I think, but I tear some people will say it resembles the frame of the children’s swings in the parks—that is, two posts with a beam on the top of them ; others may maks the irreverent remark that it is more like a gallows. I decline to endorse these opinions, for it appeats to me as a very good example of the style of architecture in use by the Ancient Britons and Druids. It is a model of a fragment of S'onehenge, a trilithon, which mesns three stones, two upright and one horizontal. The jambs, or pillars, of the gilt trophy in question measure about s£i Gin by 2ft thick, and are 1 about 30ft in height ; the head or lintel is also sft 6in by 2ft, and projects nearly three feet beyond the outside of the pillars. The height and width of the opening is about twenty feet by eleven feet. The two pillars rise from two little mounds of artificial pieces of rock, and on them and next the pillars are fringes of ferns and shrubs, which make the trophy look as if it bad risen out of the ground, and created two little embankments to support it. How did it come there ? Perhaps, in the words of Topsy, “It groweri.” It may be that it is tbe joint design uf the twen'y-one Commissioners. I don’t no, but this much I venture to remark, that the New Zealand Court is not what It ought to have been. It might have bean made a a great deal more attractive, and in some degree cuinmensurate with the wealth and importance ol the Colony. Ido not with to blame any one, but there is want of zeal and judgment shown somewhere. I am told your Agent-General worked hard to make it a success. It was a mistake to appoint so many Commissioners. As it is, the great majority of those appo’nted did nothing, or next to nothing, for the attention?, honors and feast iug which have been lavished on them. I can quite believe that the good Eense of Sir Robert Stout enables him to see this in its proper light. To him and his colleagues in the Ministry, I should think, it must be a Bource of regret that our New Zealand court has not been a greater success, for they did all they could to make it one. It is not likely that so grand and extensive an exhibition will ever meet in London again. It look? as if Old England will have as much as t-he can do to hold her own in the world without the troubles and anxieties of holding more National or Colonial Exhibitions for ! some years to come. The present Exhibition j has been a marvellous success as regards the number of visitors ; but, I should say, t.fce bands of music, the eating, diinking, and drinking saloons, the electric lights, and the red, white and blue lamps in the trees and on the architectural lines of the buildings, had quite as much to do with attracting visitors ss the “exhibits” had. Tbe middle and upper classes, the Government, and Royalty itself, have shown profuse attention and hospitality to a selection of the colonists. One colonist, a New Zealand Commissioner, told me he had attended 42 banquets.. He bad eaten and drunk heartily. He looked seedy, and he and other 3 have, I fear, injured their digestive powers for a time. The fact of the matter is that, though kindly meant, the receptions and feastiDgs were rather overdone in many case?, A few colonises objected to partake of themfur they said they did not like being trotted about like a party of Cook’s tourists, and as if they were poor relations. All classes vied with each other in showing the colonists honor and attention, In doing so it is probable that they thought it would promote a petmanent good feeling, and perhaps result in an increase of trade between the Mother Country and her colonial dependencies. Let us hope they may not be disappointed.

CONSUMPTION CURABLE—“ Mr G. T. Congreve on Consumption and its successful treatment. Showing that direful disease to be curable in all its stages ; with observations on Asthma, Chronic Bronchitis, &c.” 7<Yom tne Christian Herald, March 31, 1886 :—Mr G. T. Congreve’s treatment of consumption and other chest diseases continues to be made a great blessing to sufferers, far and wide, in every part of the kingdom. The world, and we ourselves, one him a debt of gratitude. Not long since we placed a young lady under his care, who ba3 recovered her health, and we need only point to the cases (Mr Congreve is publishing one every week), many of which had been given upas past ad hope. There cru be no doubt that for Consumption and other chest complaints Mr Congreve is a specialist of the first order, and stands unrivalled. Certainly there has been no other discovery in medical science, from which the consumptive patient may gather so much hope as from his. The one hundred and thirtythree cases which are recorded in vMr Congreve’s book are a most convincing testimony, but what have been long a marvel are the cases of cure which have been published for several years past in the weekly journals four own included), one every week. (Vhe reader is referred to the Christian 'World, the Christian . Age, Christian Globe, &c., &c.). The author (Mr Congreve, of Coombe Ledge, Peckham, London), has been urgently entreated to make bis treatment known in all tbe British colon es. The price of the book is,— sixpence or sevenpence post free. Published by Upton and Oo„ Auckland, New Zealand, and "may be ordered through any books 311