
stadia. 
75 



NEW ZEALAND AND ITS PEOPLE. 
(InLustRATED BY THE LanTERN.) 
By H.R. WILKINSON. Monday, 30th October, 1905. 
The gathering was held in the Smoxe Room of the Mechanics’ 
Institution. Mr. Wm. Thompson presided, and statec ‘that the 
Colonies had latterly loomed large in the public eye, and he was 
sure that New Zealand, the youngest of our Colonies, had a warm 
place in their hearts. The Lecturer was practically a Burnley 
man. Although he was not actually born ia burnley he came 
there very early in life, was educated there, and took advantage 
of the evening classes at that Institution ; he went to Oxford as 
a minister, and afterwards to New Zealand, where he had been 
for about thirty years. ‘They welcomed him because he came as 
a representative of one of their Colonies, and because he was 
formerly a resident in Burnley. 
Mr. Wilkinson, who showed a large and varied series of 
slides, spoke for nearly two hours on the Maories, the aboriginies 
of the Colony, the climate, the topography, the animal, and the 
bird life of the Colony. 
The climate of the Colony was equable, there was more sun- 
shine than in England. In Christchurch, his home, 326 days of 
sunshine in the year had been registered. “ Light” was a 
characteristic of the Colony. Healthful breezes were constantly 
blowing; the death rate was a fraction over 9 per 1,000. The 
Colony was a long strip of country exceeding 1,100 miles in 
length, and the average width was 120 miles, so that in no place 
were they far from the seaboard. 
Labour was in good demand, the people were thrifty, and the 
wealth per head £308. Very little was ever heard of the 
unemployed, and they had no beggars from door to door, and 
