LECTURES ON NEW ZEALAND.

Southern Cross, Volume 3, Issue 3, 20 April 1895, Page 5

LECTURES ON NEW ZEALAND.

On the evenings of Wednesday and Thursday next the people of Invercargill will have an opportunity of listening to a gentleman who has devoted oyer two years travelling from end to end of the colony in order to equip himself for the task of giving to the people of Britain a full and accurate description of the colony—its scenery, towns and cities, its people and institutions. As an auxiliary in the work he has got to-gether a magnificent col-

lection of pictures, the exhibition of which alone w ; p^dj‘constitute a delightful entertainment. Mr HerbertJones, the gentleman in question, leaves for Home at an early date. He has been giving his dioramic lectures in the chief centres of the colony, in every instance to crowded houses, and, as stated above, Invercargill’s turn comes next week. Some idea of the value, educational and otherwise, of the entertainments may > be gathered from the following extracts taken from a recent article in a northern contemporary , “■Mr W. Herbert-Jones, E.R.Gr.S., the lecturer and journalist, may now ; claim to have traversed New Zealand 1 and seen more of the country than any other man. He has climbed eleven of our higher mountains ineluding Ruapehu, the monarch of the North Island ; Ngauruhoe, the active volcano ; Tongariro, Tarawera, the scene of the great eruption of 1886 Egmont, the pride of Taranaki; and Mount Earnslaw, the monarch of Otago ; and is the first visitor to conquer the last - named peak. Thedescription he gives of the region overlooked from the summit of Mount Earnslaw is the only full description that has ever been given. Mr Hur-bert-.Tones has explored the famous: * Sounds, the Otago Lakes, the Southern .Alps, and Westland forests, lakes, and glaciers. He has passed through. . the canons or gorges of the Ocira, ~

Buller, Shotover, Clinton, Routeburn, Kawarau, Manawatu, and Mangarewa. He has penetrated the densest forests, and crossed the two Islands in eleven, different places. He has seen all the chief wonders of the thousand square miles of the Thermal districts, including Rotorua, Tikitere, Whakarewarewa, Wairakei, Waiotapu* Orakeikorako, Okoroire, Tokaanu, Taraweia*, and Taupo. He has been through the heart of the mysterious Urewera country, long the terra incognita of New Zealand, and was one of the Premier’s party in that memorable journey, with its moving incidents and hairbreadth escapes, when they visited 2,000 Maoris and held eleven native meetings. He has explored the Northern peninsula and the classic ground of the colony. He has been up the Wanganui River and near to its scource, across Lake Taupo to its western bay, where hardly any one else had reached, and across beautiful but treacherous Lake Waikaremoana, where his party had a very narrow escape of drowning, being in a canoe in half a gale of wind and a terrible sea running, such as that lake has a reputation for. He attended the famous Maori Parliament, and was present at the great tangi over the body of the Maori King Tawhiao ; he and the artist who accompanied him being the only Europeans allowed within the enclosure on the day of the most imposing of the ceremonies, in which 3,000 Maoris took part, and which extended over five weeks. He has been over the battle-fields of the Maori and Pakeha, and has explored the caves of Waitomo. Mr HerbertJones, though having ‘ done ’ the scenic portions of New Zealand so thoroughly, has not neglected the settled districts by any means. As the guest of farmers and pastoralists he has journeyed over the Haw'kes Bav, Poverty Bay, Waikato, Wairarapa, Taranaki, and Wanganui districts in the North Island ; and over the Canterbury Plains Taieri, Waimea, Wairau, and Hanmer Plains, etc., of the South Island. He has visited the important gold and coalfields, the gumfields, and the kauri forests. Altogether he has enjoyed most exceptional facilities for acquainting himself with the country, and he is in a unique -position for lecturing and writing upon it from the visitor s standpoint.”