A CANADIAN IN NEW ZEALAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8778, 15 November 1906, Page 3

A CANADIAN IN NEW ZEALAND.

* MR RACE IN SOUTH CANTERBURY IMPRESSIONS OF THE COUNTRY. Mr T. H. Race, the Canadian Commissioner to the International Exhibition, made his first trip into the country this week, and had his first view of New Zealand country life and farm scenery. On Tuesday lie visited the annual show of the Waimate Agricultural and Pastoral Association, where he was the guest of the president, Mr J. W. Hayes, of Centre "\Vood. Yesterday, Mr Hayes drove hiiri through the Waihao Downs. There Mr Richards gave a luncheon in his honour, and afterwards he was driven by way of Waikakahi and "Willow Bridge to Studliolnie- Junction, where he caught the southern express for Christchurch. He is delighted with his visit to South Canterbury. He says that the drive through the hills and up to the downs is one of the most interesting j driven he has had in his life. He was surprised to see such valleys and luxuriant hills. He describes it not as illustrating the story of the cattle upon I the thousand hills, but as the thousand sheep upon many hills. * At the show, he specially admired the stock. The cattle are not better than those he has seen in Canada, but he noticed that there was more variety in the types of sheep here. He was greatly interested in the large areas of < land sown with turnips here. In driv- j ing round Mr Richards's property- for j eleven miles, ho found that nearly 600 ; acres were being prepared for turnips. I He compares that district with the : sugar plantations lying upon the valleys of the Hawaiian Islands. The vallej's here are quite as rich and productive, and quite as charming. As to the people Mr Race saw, he says that wliat impressed him most was the thorough and happy manner in which they enjoy life. " New Zealand's people." to use his own words, " are New Zealand's, finest production. I enjoy their association, and it is because they enter into life so freely. I am writing a description of these things for Canadian newspapers, and I think I can make more agreeable reading for my readers than I have given them from any other part of the world." The happiness that enters largely into New Zealand life was brought forcibly before Mr Race's , notice by the ladies he met. "If I had gone out for a drive with Canadian ladies," he 6ays, " and if it had rained as it did yesterday, they would have been in great anxiety in regard to the rain spoiling their hats and gowns. New Zealand ladies, however, evidently pay no attention to the rain. They were oiit for enjoyment's sake yesterday, and. they sought it with all the pleasure of life. They were utterly regardless of the power of the rain to spoil their clothes. They were there to enjoy life, and they took things? a$ they ■TSame."