Lecture by Sir William Fox.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1614, 21 January 1886, Page 2

Lecture by Sir William Fox.

From a Wellington paper we extract ,lie following summitry of what must ■uive been a very interesting lecture delivered by Sir William Fox at the Conrugational Church on Tuesday night, m aid of the sufferers bj' the late bush (ires at Stratford. In v pleasant, chatty manner, he related his travels along the great continent of Northern Australia, which was now occiiDied as far as Torres Straits — a distance of 3000 miles — lighthouses being erected about every 20 or 30 miles. Outside Townsville, one of the ports of Queensland, the steamer m I which be journeyed took m no less than I 2500 bales of wool m one night. All ! the. distance from Morton Bay to Batiivia the vessel steamed through smooth water m a semi tropical climate. He expected to find Biitavia a large fishing village of about- 50,000 people, but to his great suprise he found that at the last census t l iere were over 1,000,000 souls there, comprising Javans, Chinese, .Japanese, and other nationalities. Up to the very top of a mountain 10,000 ft high it was one mass of verdure, quite as green as the Hutt Valley. The town was embowered m greenery, the streets were spacious and well drained, and; the tramways were most elliciently managed. In the Straits of Simda they saw the results of the volcanic action, which had puzzled scientific men two or three years ago. The Island ofKrakatoa was m the centre, ami a large funnel lay dormant for over 200 years. Whentho volcano burst, it took a third .of the island away over the tops of other islands, and deposited it m another place. It was now called Steele's Island. One city of 70,000 inhabitants was buried m a few minutes, and the whole aspect of the Straits was so much altered that; a fresh survey had to be made. So much pumice had been thrown out of the tunnel that it flowed along four feet thick, for hundreds of miles, and they saw it floating about the ocean as far as Thursday Island. They had the coolest passage through the Suez Canal that had ever been experienced — 86 degrees m the shade, whilst' ; it- was 96 degress m the City ot London at the same time.. When they arrived m Plyinonth the herbage was just us much burnt up as it was now m New Zealand. There -was a total collapse m the land-owning interest .m England, brought about principally through seven successive bad seasons ; and farmers were quite driven away to Manitoba,' , the United ' States,,; and even to New Zealand ; but the laboring classes were never better off. Men m the rural districts' who used to?oihly earn Is a diy were now getting 15s a week, whilst some of them who went into the manufacturing centres earned as m'ich ns- 30s and 40s a week. Nothing surprised him more than the rapid spread of tlie 'temperance 'movement all over Europe— An. Sweden, Norway, Denmark Switzerland, Germany, France ; but m England, Ireland, and Scotland its progress was something amazing. He attributed it to the growth of the Gospel Temper^ ance movement and the Blue Kibbon Union.