DOLCE FAR NIENTE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1847, 15 April 1887, Page 13

DOLCE FAR NIENTE.

The Auckland Herald says that during his trip northward the Minister of Mines (the Hon. Mr Larnach) does not seem, judging from some remarks which have fallen from him, to have been very deeply impressed with the energy and agricultural industry of some of tho Northern settlers. . After leaving Whangarei, he and his party had for the most part in their travels in the country .districts to subsist on preserved meats and Swiss • preserved milk.' He seems \to think that such a state of .• affairs was far from complimentary, or creditable to those concerned. It is hard to say what, he would have thought or said if he .had known that at one northern- settlement they use Canterbury bacon, spread their bread with Taranaki butter, feed their horses with oats shipped from Auckland, and have imported ' a Chinaman to raise vegetables for the hotels of the township. It was apologetically explained to Mr Larnach that the northern settlers lived among a Native population, whose indolent waya were catching, and that they could not be expected under a seductive, semi-tropical climate to work as hard. as their brethren hi the eold> bracing air of Otago, where they had to move round to keep themselves warm. Mr, Larnach drily remarked that he had seen men under a torrid sun in Australia working harder than those thus championed, and his interlocutor came to the conclusion that that'- was the sultriest criticism he had heard passed upon the " easy wnje easy go " setf-satisfi^d aorfchwo cookfttQ^