REVIEW.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 343, 14 November 1879, Page 15

REVIEW.

" The New Zealand Tourist " : By Thomas Bracken. This publication presents us with what has been long a desideratum. Amongst other things it contains a graphic, and pleasantly written account of each of the beautiful or curious scenes to be witnessed in this colony, anil sbould have a considerable share in attracting to our shores a tide of sight-seers and adventurous spirits such as have long since exhausted tbe wonders and beauties of Europe, made the a&cent of Mont Blanc notable only in a slight degree, and rendered the shores of the Meditcrancan Sea familiar almost as the banks of the Thames. What it is that New Zealand offers to the tourist may best be read in the writer's own eloquent words. '' Tbe tourist who has gaze<i upon the exquisite carvings above the porch of St. Mark's, andhasseeu the sucbeams dancing on the gleaming horses of Dandolo, may be envied. The traveller who has had the good fortune to feast his eve« upon the eorgeous loveline&s of Naples from her incomparable bay, or to view the white palaces of Genoa ' la Superba,' or to float ou the bosom of the grand old Khine, by

' The castled crag of Drachenfels,' has not lived in vain. Here we have no such attractions to woo the pleasure-seeker to our shores. But we have a land, yet fresh from the hand of its Maker, formed in all the wild prodigality of natural beauty. A land of stupendous mountains, roaring cataracts, silvery cascades, fantastic volcanic formations, magnificent landscapes, noble forests, and picturesque lakes studded with ' All the fairy crowds Of islands, which together lie As quietly an spot* of sky, Autong tbe wcniiig clouds,' "

Mr. Bracken, however, does not confine himself to a description of the natural beauties of the country, but, while he enters con amore into this, not only himself painting many lovely scenes vividly for us in language at once simple and expressive, coloured too by the ppetic imagination, without which the face of nature must be a mere barren series of hills and hollows, dry land or water, pasturage or fallow, capable or incapable, as the case may be, of growing cabbages ; but, with that generous appreciation of the merit of others for which he is remarkable, availing himself of whatever extract he may consider suitable for hif» purpose, he at the same time furnishes his readers with statistics exhibiting the actual condition and progress of the country, gives particulars of its resources, and instructs the tourists for whom he especially writes concerning the most convenient, or pleasant means of gratifying their tastes, whether these lie in the direction of an easy inspection of the country, or of tbe rougher methods that require youth and strength to admit of their being satisfactorily carried out. In a word the " Tourist " is both a useful and agreeable work, and may rank both as a pleasant book of travels, and a guide book containing a vast amount of information. The work is published by the Union Steamship Company, and it is quite evident that the price they have placed upon it is anything but a remunerative one. The beautiful photograph by Messrs. Burton Bros., that forms its frontispiece, and the two good maps it contains are alone value for the money.