180 IOWA STUDIES IN NATURAL HISTORY 
declared that our people were crazy and that taking away the 
poor man’s beer would cause a revolution. Thomas tried to reason 
with him but he became more and more violent until my worthy 
colleague became disgusted and walked away. I calmed the man 
down and we talked of other things. Prohibition we found a 
matter of intense and often bitter discussion in New Zealand 
where a prohibition party had developed considerable strength. 
We then went to the Presbyterian church, a building quite | 
classical in its architecture, but found its interior colder than any 
other place we had been in, in spite of our extra heavy clothes. 
The people were cold too, notwithstanding that they have long 
been accustomed to heatless houses, public and private, and they 
were coughing and snuffling more than any American audience we 
had seen. I was not surprised to learn later than pneumonia was 
common and the mortality from that disease alarming in New 
Zealand. The sermon was given by a Scotch clergyman and was 
almost as cold as the church. No one spoke to us either before or 
after the services. This was our last attempt to attend church 
during our stay in New Zealand. 
Sunday is very strictly observed and no places of business are 
open except a limited number of restaurants; not even cigar 
stores, news stands or soda water places were open, and the rail- 
road trains do not run on that day with the exception of a few 
to the suburbs. Ferry boats and excursion steamers ply across 
and about the harbor, but no places of amusement are available; 
even the motion picture theatres are closed on Sunday and Sun- 
day evening. 
That night some of us attended a lecture by Clement Wragge 
who welcomed us to New Zealand. He gave a somewhat rambling 
talk on meteorology and his experiences in various parts of the 
world, using lantern slides for illustrations. The proceedings 
were opened with prayer and a hymn which gave them the nec- 
essary religious tone to meet the requirements of the law, as I 
understand it. He advertised several of his books and a sort of 
experimental garden which he had established at Birkenhead across 
the bay where he presided over the ‘‘Wragge Institute.’’ Here 
he seems to have demonstrated the practicability of raising tropical 
plants such as bananas and even palms in the climate of northern 
New Zealand. He charged admission to his Sunday evening lec- 
tures and hoped thereby to raise funds for a wireless station for 
his meteorological work. 
