Page 6 Advertisements Column 4

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6936, 27 October 1900, Page 6

PRELIMINARY ANNOUNCEMENT 1850 Canterbury's Fix at Half Century. Jubilee of the Province. 1900 a SOUVENIR IN HRT HND LITERATURE. TO BE PUBLISHED- EARLY IN NOVEMBER. PRICE ONE SHILLING.

TO mark the, close of the first half century of Canterbury's settlement, the proprietors of the ** CANTERBURY TIMES" have been at great pains and expense to prbduce a Jubilee Number that shall be worthy of the occasion. The progress made by the - several provincea in New Zealand during the half century that will close with 1900 has been unique, and has hardly a parallel in the world's history. . From a tangled waste of bush, of swamp, of Wsbck/ttf fern and creeping undergrowth, fair fields of waving grain have been produced after a stubborn wrestle in which the toil of the husbandman has triumphed over the wilderness of the new land, that for unknown ages had been left to itself. The " force of rougher things " has been applied by man as against the same force in Nature and the result is what we see around us. Smiling homesteads dot now w hat fifty years ago was a scene so desolate as might well have given pause to the stoutest heart that had left the " happy homes of England in the hope of carving out another home for himself on the new soil of the land of promiFe. On the site of what were at first V-hut hamlets, ma smificent cities have risen, and, from every corner of the adjacent country around them, roads that bear comparison with many in the Homeland, thread their way from townships and villages, past farm and cottage, past mansion and lowly home, crossing rivers on their way by means of sturdy bridges built at great expenditure of meanß, to pour their traffic into tne central towns and cities on which* like the roadg of ancient Rome, they all converge. "Railways network a very large area of the colony, and by their operation have made possible a degree of development in industry and agriculture that would have been impossible in their absence. . . But in no part of New Zealand has the march of progress been more triumphant, or its track been more broadly and indelibly marked than in out own Canterbury* and to show the course of tha progress of the province during the first fifty years of its history is the task that has been set those to whose hands have been entrusted the production of the : jubilee number of the " canterbury •. ; . :. . times." .■ The invention of the process of photogravure, and the rapid strides towards perfection it has made sincfe, and all within the last decade, have made the task a light erie for those who have essayed in a eeries of popular articles, a historical sketch of Canterbury ; as a true picture of things as they were, when put before the eye, is always more effective than the best effort at word painting of the descriptive writer. In the production of the JUBILEE NUMBER OF THE "CANTERBURY TIMES" the aid of this process has been extensively sought, and the pages of the number will be replete with scenes of long ago. These pictures have been reproduced from sketches made by some of the early settlers, before the camera had found its way to these shores ; from photographs taken in primitive fashion after it had reached them, but working under difficulties and great disadvantages ; and from the better photographs that were taken in what might bo called the " Middle Ages " of our yet ehort history, when both amateur and professional photographers worked under more pleasing auspices, seeing that with the material progress of the province had come more frequent communication with the Homeland, the great centre to a Briton of all that is highest in science, art, and. literature. The Jubilee number will thus present / to .its readers the dual attraction of literature and art combined. " ■ • ■ THE LITERATURE will comprise articles written by experienced journalists and other writers, and cover the whole scope of the directions in which the colony has progressed, and in the way in which every patriot must be pleased to see progress made. Thete may be referred to in brief detail as follows : — ■ A " RETROSPECT," (Bt Te-Wai-Pounamu.) This is a poem by a Canterbury poetess whose charming lines have on previous occasions touched her readers' heartstrings, and in this poem she has found a subject congenial. The poem is in three parts. Beginning with New Zealand ats it was in 1800, she details in beautiful language what the /Lookers-on," the "twin-mountain' of the Kaikouras, saw on the " lonely land, but sunny fair," over which their giantspeaks cast silent 6urvey. Her second part is devoted to the half century that closed in 1850, in which year the pilgrim fathers of Canterbury came to these shores. •The twin mount looks down on scenes of death and woe; but slowly, surely comes the reign of peace." Her third part— l9oo— sees the century complete, and in glowing lines she tells of what is the. state of things to-day as compared, with what she has been dealing with in her previous verses. " Cities have risen and fair towns stand where once was desert, swamp, and sandy Bhore." This poem han had devoted to itself a whole page, and the three half centurieß are suitably illustrated, ' "OUR JUBILEE" Fs the editor's introduction to the work, and is also largely retrospective, though a high hope for, and faith in, the future pervades the article. "A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND" Ts an able article by a writer well qualified to deal with such a theme. It begins with what is known of the origin of the islands of New Zealand and carries their history on in graphic and winning language, to the point in New Zealand at which Canterbury's history begins. Here another .writer takes up the tale, and in an article headed 0 "CANTERBURY ASSOCIATION, " Gives the history and work of the body under whose auspices the settlement of Qanterbury was initiated. In the course of this article a most eloquent speech by Key. Dr. Jackson, the Bishop-Designate of Lytteltori, who arrived in the Castle Eden and stayed but a few weeks, is quoted. ..In that address, which was delivered to a, crowded public meeting at Exeter on August 1,3,85; », the aims and objects of the Canterbury Association, its hopes and fear, its high faith in a. God-guided future, nre set forth in the magnificent language of a gifted orator. Pausing here, a digression is made to deal with "THE MAORI WARS IN CANTERBURY," In which article the writer gives a short but sufficiently full account of both the ancieut and more modern tribal wars that were -waged by the native tribes in this province against each other. He goes, also, into an interesting account of "OUR WHALING ERA," Under which title an article is given descriptive of whaling life as it was on Canterbury shores before the dawn of. that higher civilisation which came with the advent of the Association's emigrants, concluding with a graphic description of a whale chase from the pen of a writer in the early forties. Returning again to the more immediate subject of the settlement of Canterbury, an article is devoted to the historical \ "FIRST POUR SHIPS," And a list of their passengers, followed by another- in which attention is devoted to"THE ANTE-PILGRIM?.," The brave pioneers who sought the shores of Canterbury before the scheme of the Canterbury Association had taken form. In this article a short history is given of the French settlement at Akaroa, and the circumstances under which it was undertaken. Then comes an interesting account of "THE EARLY PUBLIC WORKS OP CANTERBURY." » This article has been compiled from authoritative data, and is followed by an interesting article on ■ . . "THE LYTTELTON TUSTNSL," To get which work undertaken was, until its completion, the thoughts by day and the dreams by night of Mr. Eefton Moorhouse, the Superintendent of Canterbury, to whose energy, perseverance, and even statesmanship, along with the engineering skill of Mr. Edward Dobson, the Provincial engineer, who saw it. through from starb to finish, the province owes a wtfrk from which the most substantial benefits have been derived, Uy opening a door of communication between the port and the plains through an otherwise almost impassable mountain barrier. The scene then, shifts to . :":■ .

Mr W. E. Sorrell, the well-know^ photo;rapher, says that Loasby's Kooiibah cured tim completely of unbroken chilblains with ' shree applications. LI9BB i