Miscellany.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 467, 14 January 1881, Page 3

Miscellany.

RESOURCES OF NEW ZEALAND.

While too many of oar citizens are disposer! to adopt a despondent tone as to (lie future of their adopted country, this iV what a correspondent of a Meli>onn>e paper thinks of our resources as exemplified in the selection sent from this conn try to the Melbourne Kxliibiiinn : —

Tim visitor to the New Zealand Court cannot fail to bo struck wiili the evidence around of almost complete, independence of external aid, for nil that makes life en- ■ lunible. which rtais remote < olony j>res(.-iita We allowed our to picture to ourselves the oh) co-un;ry su!-merged in tlie Atlantic, the European eo.'itinenl aU» and as much of the vest of the world as is necessary to illustrate our view?. Then, New Zealand could, notwithstanding such a dire ■catastrophe get along very well without those venerable institutionsLooking UKind llie exhibits, it is pretty clear that one obtain almost any - tiling—from a Ci:iii..i;c to it canoe, from a pocket of Imps to a !•<>.' il: of soda-water, from a richly-carved sideboard to a revolving bee-hive, or a new hat, and a fashionable bonnet made from the lace bark of a New Zealand tree. The display of planed wood from the principal fore&t trees is very remarkable—the kauij especially. One fine specimen measures 7 ft. G in. in breadth of plonk, and the ino'.tled varieties must be susceptible of conversion into beautiful art-furniture-Huge contorted masses of lava-like look, ing substance proved to be 'gum," found, we are told'below the surface of the ground, the ■excretion of former treesi which has run down a«d coagulated into these strange forms. We wonder whether the expletive "by gum," has any philological connection with this rcsinou s substance? And such ferns ! Were Mr Heath here from England, ho would dance a wild Highland fling at Ihe bare sight of sncli beautiful varieties. The Sail)pica of. grain arc very numerous, iincr, larger, and the yield, we are infoi'ined, is relatively very large.

But, perhaps, the coal seams aro, thu most surprising. Seams of two feet arc considered large in (ireat Britain, but here we have coal seams represented as 1G feet in measurement, and there is said to be one of no less than 40 feet, now being •opened at Westport, on (lie West Coast of New Zealand. "We learn thai; no les s than 100,000 tons of Mew Zealand coal was consumed within the colony in 1878 and that those magnificent steam vesseis i the liotomaluuia and the Walratipu—oi." v/iiieb two beautiful models are exhibited | lC . rc —consnine coal o£ home production Few things astonish Engli h visitors more than the sight of these uhips, and the fact oi ! their m. Hnlliviui.t field only in iniorcoionkd transits. Two or tliree iice'eion.s of niinis give, an air of autiuuiiy (v (he court, :-li!l i.'icreased by the di.-ph'.y of pre-'iistuiie u'o;ipoi:s, t!io;tgh only imend'.'d to iliuntrato their parity oi' use by inodeni savages.

The tunicr\s -case?, like Gulilsinuli's chest of drawees,

"A bed by night, a chest of drawers by day,"'

serve a double purpose, exhibiting to some extent the of the colony, and some excellent wurk in adapting the feathered skins of -llio penguin, the paradise duel', the spoonbill duck, mollyhawk, kivv'., puka!;o, and other birds, tv feminine uses.