I873-] NOTES FROM NEW ZEALAND. 429 



colony. As most of the tradesmen seem to be owners of their own cottages, 

 you will see at once how well off they ought to be. Add to these the advan- 

 tages of a bracing climate and a well-ordered administration of the law, you 

 will be inclined to think that Otago is, what it claims to be, the poor man's 

 paradise. I haven't seen a beggar on the streets, nor a drunken man, although 

 I learn that drunkenness, with its bitter home-miseries, is not unknown. There 

 is much less of the pride of life, much less of the show and ostentation of 

 wealth, than you might expect in the capital of the province. There are 

 persons who have risen to position and wealth, but they don't affect that style 

 and luxury which is corrupting the upper stratum of Melbourne society. Hard 

 work and hapj^y homes seem to be the two conditions of life ; and there still 

 survives among them the recollection of the early struggles of settlement, 

 which is a source of much good feeling and helpfulness. 



After emerging from the mountain-ranges in Waikouaita, we passed for 30 

 miles through a rich belt of country of various breadths, and well planted with 

 farm-steadings ; here again there were abundant proofs of a thriving and well- 

 to-do community. Many of the buildings are of stone : when of wood, they are 

 invariably painted white, and tidily roofed with corrugated iron. The feeling 

 one had in looking at them was — "these people mean to make their homes 

 there;" and one could not wonder, for on that golden summer day the fields 

 were alive with men and horses, busily gathering the kindly fruits of a rich 

 harvest into their barns and stackyards. I found in the dreary pass of Pigroot 

 four iDersons, besides the keeper of the inn : one of them, whilst engaged in work, 

 had got his leg broken, and as he could not be transported to Dunedin hosjiital, 

 his friends built a house for him, and helped him to a few cows and sheep— a 

 nobler way of disposing of him, I think, than shoving him over on public 

 charity : the other three were roadmen, who for seven years had been living 

 and working in that solitude. They were Scotsmen, and two of them, I was 

 glad to find, were making regular remittances to a widowed mother and a wid- 

 owed sister ; each of them had sent home in ten years £150. I found almost 

 the whole interior of the country parcelled out into large sheep-stations ; and as 

 the administration of the land is now taken out of the political sphere, and 

 placed in the hands of a permanent board, that will shut the door against land- 

 jobbing to a large extent. The Government are parting with the public estate 

 very leisurely. What they do sell is put up to auction at a pound per acre, 

 with the exception of those upland pastures, 1200 feet or more above the level 

 of the sea, which are now to be set up at lOs. 



The Autumn Show of the Royal Horticultural Society of Otago was held in 

 Dunedin on the 13th March. The exhibits were on the whole good, though 

 not so numerous as those of last season. The attendance was not up to the aver- 

 age, but this may be accounted for by the strange absence of any effort to procure 

 publicity. The exhibits of fruit were very fine, the Peaches being unusually good ; 

 Apples and Pears were also large and sound. Some Peaches grown by Mr 

 Fulton, and a number of Pears, Apples, Plums, Peaches, Strawberries, Black- 

 berries, Currants, Cucimibers, exhibited by Mr M'Ardle, occupied a prominent 

 place among the fruit. A pyramid, composed of various fruits, grown and ar- 

 ranged by Mr James Gebbie, was well worthy of inspection. The vegetables 

 shown were very fair, and there were some fine Cabbages, Carrots, and Turnips 

 among them. Although the season has been rather unfavourable for the flowers, 

 there were some good ones produced. A fine collection of Coniferre was ex- 

 hibited. Some pretty foliage -plants, tricolor Geraniums, were shown by Mr 

 C. Eeid, and a splendid collection of Gladioli by Law, Somner, & Co. 



