266 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



winters, though cold, are dry, and there is no real rainy 

 season, the damp weather spreading itself over the 

 summer months. Rains being very local, too, it is not 

 difficult to remove from too plashy parts to drier regions. 

 In cases of consumption and heart disease the climate 

 has proved peculiarly restorative, and the dryness of the 

 cold months makes it delightful to those to whom 

 ordinary cold is trying. Malarial fever is not at all 

 common, and enteric is practically unknown. In such 

 cases as are recorded, the germs of the disease have been 

 brought into the country by the sufferers. Children 

 thrive here as they would in England, and look as bonnie 

 and ruddy ; in fact, if it were not for the difficulties of 

 education, there is no reason that they should ever be 

 sent home. Even this difficulty may eventually be over- 

 come. 



Men of education and college training have gone 

 out as heads of native schools, and if the number of 

 residents increases in the way it has of late, it may be a 

 profitable undertaking for one to turn his talents and 

 attention to the instruction and training of white youth. 

 For girls the difficulties are less considerable. Many 

 a young woman with a taste for seeing over her own 

 potato patch and wandering afield, tired of the struggle 

 at home among many competitors for paid teaching, will 

 be glad to go out and follow her profession in a country 

 where much is done to ameliorate the dreariness of a 

 governess's life. 



Then for hobbies and amusements there is ample 

 provision. Various English gardens I visited, blazing 

 with flowers raised from English seeds and plants, were 

 an encouragement to any with the smallest taste for 

 gardening. Rich soil, clear, abundant supply of water, a 



