The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, 7th FEBRUARY, 1891.

Southland Times, Issue 11654, 7 February 1891, Page 2

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. Luceo Non Uro. SATURDAY, 7th FEBRUARY, 1891.

New Zealand only a few years ago was a veritable terra incognita to the people at Home. I hey had an idea that it was very fur away, and that it was inhabited by a brave race of savages, but beyond this their knowledge of the colony did not extend, except, of course, in individual ca?es. They ciid not know that the Maoris were almost entirely confined to one part of the colony, but imagined that when any of their friends sailed for (Hago or Caoterbury they were going to a place where they would tub the risk of being killed and eate . Nor is this the notion quite dispelled yet. Even journalists — tho3e people who profess to koow everything— sometimes betray a wonderful ignorance in regard to this particular mutter, writing as if New Zealand were from north to south as densely peopled with dark skins as the most p >pulou9 regions of vfrica. Ihe dayH of ignorance in this respect, however are fast passing away, and New Zealand is probably as well— known to the average Briton aa Scotland was to the average Londoner at the beginning of the present century. This is chiefly owinjj- to the means of rapid comraunii'a* ti>>n enjoyed in these latter days. Colonists think nothing now of taking atrip H ome, and tourists from Home think just as little of a trip to New Zealand. The wonderland of the North Island and the Southern Alps vie with the attractions of (Switzerland and other Euroj can places of resort, so that it will probably soon be quite as fashionable to do the ascent of M>unt Cook as of Mont Blanc or the Matterhorn. The pity is that the colony at present seems to attract more tourists than settlers, but the time we hope is not far distant when our fertile plains and downs will be as attractive as our fiords and burning mountains — that is to say, when our Governments will cease to tax us in such a manner as to frighten intending petrlers from our shores. But this is by the way. The colony, we were going '0 say, ih greatly beholden to some of its summer visitors for extending the knowledge cf it among the peopie of the mother country. Such men as Dr Rainy and Dr Macgregor,who visited New Zealand a short while ago, are a kind of unofficial immigration agents. Both of these gentlemen have lectured fin the colony since rhey returned Horne — on its characterifltics, condition and prospects. The latter quite recently treated the \ oung Men's Christian Association connected with St. Cuthbert's parish to some " Notes on N«w Zealand," and very interesting notes they mast have been, to judge from the report of the lecture in one of the Edinburgh papers. Like all visitors to the colony, Dr Macgregor was delighted, and often enchanted, with what he saw. Hi) "first impresnion of delight" when he landed at Wellington whs or»ly intensified by his peregrinations throughout tba country, which well deserved to be called the " Brighter Britain of the South." here was no other land, he enid, so well adapted to the constitution, habits, and pursuits of the British people, and it would doubtless become the home of million* if tbo race. 'bis of course in good time, and it is fortunate in one respect that. New Zealand is not next door to the overcrowded countries of the <Id World. ft will take longer to fill up, but it will be saved from many of the e\iU that have cotue upon America through the miscellaneous character of its immigration. We have indeed had a taste of these evils, &* one of the results of t he al>use of the original Public Works . s cheme, but we are not likely to have a repetition of that brief madness. Dr Margregur remarked that the position of iSev? Zealand was unique in th» world. " Surrounded by such vast streiches of water it was indeed the loneliest though the loveliest of lands. :ts isolation mmt result in making the dwellers in it a great maritime and commercial people " — unless, wemight inter* jid, the dwellers frustrate their natural destiny with unatturtl rwttictiooi of

trade. There is something fanciful j however in the notion, whether it be original or not, that the search for wood for spars which led the early voy»gers to its shores " might be regarded as an omen and propLecy ot the Beafaring character ot its future inhabitants." All civilised couutries surrouuded by water must have aseafariug people, and there is beyond question some ground for the pretensions which the colonists of New Zealand claim as the founders of a Great Britain in the Southern hemisphere, i Dr Macgregor also told his audience that the colony had already the fine9t coastal service in the world. The great variety of climates in New Zealand was eot forth by the statement that in the north grew the vine tnd the olive, while the south was admirably fitted to perpetuate the Scottish race and the Presbyterian faith. He did not indeed say this in so many words, but what he said would convey this idea to the metaphysical minds of his Edinburgh audience. Sir George Grey told him that he looked up;>n the settlers north of Auckland as the happiest in the world, with their splendid climate, simple ways of life, and abundant supply of all that man needs. We suspect however that the doctor would prefer, if he were g.'ttling in New Zealand, to take up his abode somewhere in Otago — among " his own people." Of this district he gave a detailed and very interesting account ; and he did not forget to tell that the worthy Free Kit here who were the original settlers set apart a portion of the money received for land for educational and religious purposes. Not that the other parts of New Zealand had no attractions for him. tie was, as we have said, delighted wherever he went. The Wonderland was indeed wonderful, and would require a lecture all to itself, which he intended to give ; but though Tarawera bad recently played up in rather an alarm'ug manner, his hearers were not to imagine that New Zealand was an uncomfortable place to live in on account ot such occurrences. "It would probably be a thousand years before another I'arawera explosion took place. : Tarawera in fact made more noise in th world than its performance warranted The earthquake which happened a few years ago in the South-east of England were really far more alarming. Had the oscillations been only a little severer whole towns would have been laid in ruins. As it was, steeples were shaken to the ground, hoasen wnoked, and a | much larger number of people frightened | out of their wits than here by the ! Titanic pranks and vigorous mud throwing of Trtrawera. At the very founding of the colony — at least soon after — the firht Wellington earthquakes were like to have ruined tbe. prospects ot settlement; but, Tnr*wera and v * elliugtou shakings notwithstanding, there is not a more comfortable country to live in on the face of the globe, An eaithquakc, as rect nt experience shown, may happen any day even in what is considered the stablest, part of the world, and here we have, a most delightful variety of climates, a fertile soil, enchanting scenery of all kinds, and such an absence of noxious creatures that the countiy mU'ht have been considered " another Hden* had we not introduced rabbits, sparrows, weasels, and politicians. If l3r Macgregor's lecture has not. cxc.ted a strong desire in some of his hearers to come out to Yew Zealand, not as tourists but ns settlers, human nature in Edinburgh cannot be what it was some forty and odd years ago when so many sons and daughters of th<> p 'ree Kirk left their newly erected Zion for the wilds of OtHgo. New Zealand was then an unknown laud, or only dimly imagined as the haunt of cannibals, whereas the picture of it which the good Doctor haa drawn is full of all manner of delights, and calculated to tempt tbe most homekeep ng Spot to forsake the land of the mountain and the flood, o' oatmeal cakes and the Shorter Catechism. Dr Macgregor described Canterbury as a bit of England, and hi-* description of ' tago, in which Southland was of course included, must ht»ve. convinced his audience that ihere was also a veritable bit of Scotland under the Southern Cross. And vet is it both t. ngland and Scotland — with a difference. A new national character is forming, which will be neither Scotch nor E iglish ; but whether it will he letter than either, or oven ne good as either, is a problem of the : fumre.