A Warped View of New Zealand

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5633, 30 November 1889, Page 3

A Warped View of New Zealand

Some months ago Mr George Dixon, a member of the English House of Commons visited this colony in order to see some landed property which he had purchased. Recently he gave a lecture on his trip to Now Zealand, ;is president of the Moseley and l>;ilsall Health Institute, and a report of which appears in the Birmingham Gazette He said what he proposed to do was to tell them how they might, if they had it, spend L 250 in a trip that would not necessarily take more than six or seven months to New Zealand. That trip would do very much foi the promotion of their health and the advancement of their general intelligence and knowledge of the world. Mr Dixon makes some singular statements, if the following extract from his lecture is a fair sample : — " The North Island was especially subject to earthquakes, and in consequence most of the houses were of wood, which were not so rapidly destroyed as buildings of brick or stone. The risk of tire was, however, thus increased, and when a fire broke out it .spread with fearful velocity, so that the young people were trained to tho use of the rope fire engines provided in all houses. There was, Mr Dixon said, a remarkably great wind power all over the island, and especially near the mountains, and this fact he considered had a great deal to do with the extraordinary healthiness of the climate. (So great was the force of the wind at times that even coaches and trams were stopped and overturned, and in the severe gusts horsemen had to dismount and lie down till the storm had passed. His main purpose in going to New Zealand, Mr Dixon said, was to see a sheep run of which he was the unfortunate possessor. (Laughter). He would be very happy to sell this run, well fenced in, with a nice house upon it, at the moderate price of L 2 an acre, with lo,(lOl) sheep thrown in. (Laughter). One of the peculiarities of the colonists was that they were extremely fond of horses, learning to ride while yet infants, and an unhappy result of this fondness was that they were very much addicted to horse racing. Nearly every little village had now its racecourse, and the time and money of the inhabitants were squandered in this evil indulgence. Most of even the poorer inhabitants had their own horses, and lie heard of cases in which women servants had horses which they rode regularly."