VOLCANO I TARANAKI.

Patea Mail, Volume VI, Issue 510, 21 April 1880, Page 3

VOLCANO I TARANAKI.

New Plymouth, April 19. A volcanic eruption is taking place at the SUfar 11 oa veisfieaT lli’cJi af bo f‘works? A strong sulphurous smell is perceptible for a considerable "way, and steam is observed coming from a fissure in the rock. The‘origin of this strange eruption is at present not definitely ascertained. .It has been suggested that it might bo caused by fire damp, which is frequently found in mines; or it may proceed from the petroleum springs, which are in existence at a short distance from the fissure. — IMPROVED RAILWAY RETURNS. From the working account of the New Zealand railways for the four weeks ended Gth March, it appears that some improvement lias taken place in the revenue of that department. The Grcymoulli coal line still stands far and away at the head of the list for relative productiveness, will; receipts at the rate of £1224 per mile per annum, and working expenses at the rate of only 49 per cent. It was devoutly to be wished that the remaining 11G3 miles of New Zealand railways showed as good results as these eight miles. Among Uie main trunk lines, the Christchurch, Dunedin, and Invercargill stands first, with receipts at the rate of £725 per mile per annum, and working expenses of 76 per cent. The Wellington and FeaUicrston line conics next, with receips of £074 per mile, and working expenses of 79 per cent. It is noteworthy as an indication of the times, that on the Wellington, Napier, Kaipani, and Greymmilh lines, although the seconded sss passengers show an increase in numbers compared with the returns for the corresponding period of the previous year, (he first-class passengers have decreased. On the Christchurch, Dunedin, and Invercargill, the Nelson, and the Westport lines there is a decrease in both classes, while the other linos exhibit an increase in both. —Pod.

A COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S TEN THOUSAND POUNDS. "While on a visit to New Zealand last year, I was strongly impressed with the advantages which it held out to that section of the British public not usually thought of by Colonial Agcnts-Genoral. I refer to those who derive their incomes from investments in English Consols. . A la'ge number of these are condemned to a sort of genteel poverty by the low dividend of 3 per cent, per annum. I doubt whether the pressure of the times affects any class much more disastrously. They have a position to maintain which makes it impossible for them to send their sons and daughters to the counter or the bench, and every avenue to the more genteel occupations is, perhaps, closed. Hence a growing anxiet}’ which makes life almost unbearable, i will show what, a gentleman thus situated could do in New Zealand. Assuming him to have, say, £IO,OOO invested in the Three per Cent. Consols, his income would bo £3OO a year. Given half a dozen growing bovs ami girls, and it will be at once seen that there is a state of present genteel poverty and future bother and anxiety. Now, let me lake him to New Zealand, and see what bo may do there with his £IO,OOO and his troop of boys and girls. £BOOO ho might let out on mortgage—the security being practically as good as the English Consols—at 8 per cent..per annum. This \yould give him £G4O a year, instead of £3OO, for the £IO,OOO. With the £2OOO remaining ho could buy 20 or 30 acres of land, and build a comfortable house thereon. A gentleman of my acrpiaintance, whom I visited in Now Zealand, had just bought 85 acres of really excellent' land within a couple of hours’ ride of Nelson, on which ho proposed building a comfortable house for his family. The price given for the land was £3 15s per acre. The house, with all necessary outbuildings, would cost him about £GOU. £IOOO will put the whole thing straight, plant the orchard, lay out the "gardens, and fence the paddocks. Hero, then. I take it, is both a present and a future infinitely preferable to the characterless monotony and dismal outlook of the old life. Half the income might be devoted to the enlargement of the estate, until by the time the youngsters became men and women a good slice might be available for each, on which they might proceed to work out their own lifeproblems. I say nothing about the delicious climate for which he would exchange the sadly trying fogs and winds of England. A man must go and luxuriate in the glorious sunshine of the Antipodes to understand what that- means. I have a thousand times felt while riding over the fern-clad hills, or by the side of some mountain rill along the valleys, when the warmth of the summer’s sun was tempered by a cooling breeze from sea or bill, how poor all the so-called luxuries of home life were by comparison with this transporting delight. Nor is it barbarism that lie is invited to. A removal to New Zealand is little more than a removal from one English county to another. All the associations are homelike. Everything smacks of the old country. The people are fellow-countrymen ; they all speak of England as homo ; the British Queen is their mneh-lovcd Sovereign. To visit the dear old home is the hope set before them. Nowhere is there more enthusiastic loyalty. I have often speculated as to the welcome which would be accorded our beloved Queen if she were to visit the “ England of the Pacific.” The whole Colon}’ would yield itself up to a perfect abandonment of delight There are also all the amenities and characteristics of a high civilization to bo found in New Zealand ; schools and. churches abound in all directions ; and the postal and telegraph services arc most efficient. I venture to think, therefore that many a perplexed English country gentleman would do well to torn his attention to the sunny south. Those half-dozen lads and lasses, whose future now so sorely perplexes him. would probably find their destiny in making and adorning New Zealand homes such as I have now given the outline of. The girls would probably take more by a removal from ibis overstocked OldjEiigland than the boys ; and there is nothing that 2\ew Zealand would more gladly import than a few thousand of our glorious bright-eyed, high principled, and well-bred English country lasses. —The Field,

(SCANDALS IN HIGH LIFE. What a delightful scandal in high life the following paragraph—quoted from one of the first of journals: —would''furnish a text for, if the “true inwardness” of the facts could he made public. The journal in question is reviewing the latest edition of the “Snobs’ Bible," Burke’s Peerage, and complains that “no mention.is made of the divorce of Colonel Charles Norton, the heir presumptive to the peerage of Grant ley, from his wife ; of that lady’s subsequent marriage to Lord Grantley, the present holder of that peerage ; or of the birth of a daughter to his Lordship within a day after his wedding. Yet these events took place early last November, and the preface to this peerage is dated Bth December, 1870. Great guns! What a bonanza certain of our dailies would have found in this if Nob Hill, instead of the British Peerage, had possessed such an awkward family “ situation.” Talking of “ Peerages,” however, it seems that a new compiler of that sort of literature, one Poster, has arisen, who is likely to cause a sensation, from the fact that he—according to another “ society” journal—“ discards the polite fictions current in genealogy, and seems to take a positive delight in dragging the skeleton out of the cupboard. - A baronet who mariied on the sth June, 1872, has the following comment attached to the birth of his son and heir ;— ‘ Bogislered Dbh September, 1872, as having been born on the preceding sth June :’ whilst the daughter of an eminent judge, who married a relation of the Duke of Devonshire, has the word daughter in inverted commas, to call attention to the fact that her father is described on another page as umnairied.” —American Paper.