New Zealand.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2372, 23 October 1880, Page 3 (Supplement)

New Zealand.

We have to do now with what has been described as the second edition of the British Empire. New Zealand, although the most heavily laden of our colonies with debt, can still hold her own at this Exhibition of the world’s resources. For she sends strong proofs—hand to hand proofs—of her being able to supply the world when the time comes. One of Sir Julius Vogel’s greatest schemes—and, by the way, it may be mentioned that Sir Julius Vogel was the founder, at once, of all New Zealand’s prosperity, and of her present depression—was the construction of a railway from Christchurch to Little Hokitika or Greymouth. That was through the old road which led past the scene of the Maungatapu murders, but it was also through a country which Sir Julius contended was then full of the choicest and best paying of the earth’s minerals—such as gold and coal. Through some cause or the other, now forgotten, Sir Julius was unable to carry his plan through the small continent of which ho was, at one time, the almost emperor. Nevertheless, since then, Sir Julius Vogel’s predictions of the prolific character of the country through which the railway would pass have been more than verified. Nothing could show this better than the fact that on the Grey River itself discoveries to the amount of 140,000,000] tons of coal have been made in one mine, another discovery has disclosed over 300,000. As a matter of fact, it would seem this coalfield covered an extent of about 30 square miles. Nor is the colony less rich in iron ores, for almost every description of the ore has been discovered in the country. Copper finds a place, too, in its products, so does lead, zinc, antimony, and manganese. There are few who will not remember the great discovery of mineral oils in America, by which many colossal fortunes were made. New Zealand claims in this respect to have as great resources as those of the States. She points to Taranaki, to Poverty Bay, and to Manatah, Waiaipo, and East Cape, to tell her story. But New Zealand carries us along with rapid strides, and such rapid strides till she makes us pause to consider how long she has come into the markets of the world. If our memory serves us rightly, in the year 1862 the then so-called Town of Dunedin was a very hamlet, and particularly countrified at that. Never mind, over that quiet hamlet there came the blast trumpet, tongued by hungry diggers’ mouths ; the fabulous sums of gold had been found at a place then known as Gabriel’s Gully, and from that out the destinies of New Zealand were shaped for greatness. It would be bootless to follow the history of her progress at a period like this. The progress of the Middle Island speaks for itself. The little Scotch settlement in Otago is the fourth largest city in Australasia, and railways intersect the Middle Island from one end to the other. Lesser Britain claims to be rich also, and, no doubt, with justice, in basalts and diorites, trachytes, granites and crystalline schists, limestones (freestone in part) and sandstone, which is estimated as freestone altogether. Basalts, trachytes, granites, and limestones are found in abundance all over the three islands, but in the South Island the purest form of marble is found, where statuary marble occurs among the gneiss and hornblende schists of the West Coast; the grains of most samples hitherto found being rather coarse ; but closer grained kinds exist in Caswell Sound, and also in the Mount Arthur, District of Nelson. As we have said, it was in the year 1862 that the great gold rush took place to New Zealand, but 10 years previously attention was called to the fact that gold existed in quantities at Coromandel, about 30 miles from the great quartziferous district of the Thames, where reefs have been proved to the depth of 600 feet. But it would be a Herculean task to follow the mineral resources of New Zealand further. The visitor to the Exhibition will be better able to judge of them by taking notice of the magnificent collection which has been prepared for his delectation by Dr. Hector. To show what the resources of the colony really are, however, it may be here mentioned that, from the date of the passage of the Immigration and Public Works Statute in 1870,. to the 31st December, 1878, £12,652,739 were spent on railways, roads, and bridges, &o. The latest return from the railway expenditure showed that the receipts per mile in 1878 were £555 15s. Bd., against an expenditure of £475 9s. 8d. —by no means a bad interest one would say, on the money borrowed from the old country. New Zealand is rich in forest trees. The Kauri-pine is the finest tree in the country, and ' it attains a height from 120 to 160 feet. Cedar, black pine, white pine, red pine, yellow pine, celery-leaved pine also abound, as will be seen by the exhibits. Birch, tea-tree, ivy, &c. is also well represented. The Pukatea Tree attains a height of 150. feet, with a buttressed trunk 3 feet 7 inches in diameter. Its wood is soft and yellowish as a rule, but a variety of the tree has dark-coloured wood that is very lasting in water, and greatly prized by the natives for making canoes. The visitors to the Exhibition will turn possibly with some show of wonder to the display of mineral waters made in this court; but they will not be so surprised when they learn- that New Zealand is singularly rich in springs of water that hold mineral salts in solution, and that a reputation has been already gained for them by their medicinal properties. Both hot and cold springs are found, the former being, with few exceptions, confined to the districts of the Nor th Island, where volcanic forces ’ have been active during the latest tertiary period, and are not yet altogether dormant. A few thermal springs are found to escape from the upper, mesozoic rocks, in localities where the source of heat can only boi attributed to chemical decomposition of bituminous matters and sulphides, and,’ in a few instances warm waters spring from palaeozoic • rock formations in the South Island. The cold mineral springs have a wider distribution, but have only, as yet, been examined from comparatively few localities. The visitor will leave the court in no wonder, after all, as why New Zealand has been, compared to the Greater Britain which rules the seas, for it will have been learnt within its confines, that the resources of the younger nation in the earth’s best riches are Httle short of those of the grand old motherland.

The commissioners are His Excellency Sir Hercules Robinson, G.C.M.G., president ; James Hector, M.D., 0.M.G., vice-president and executive commissioner, with Mr. Charles Callis, secretary to the commission. The colony of New Zealand possesses two distinct and separate courts, closely adjoining but on opposite sides of the avenue. The collection, though small, possesses considerable interest, and indeed, from the native as well as from the colonial exhibits, the collection, with perhaps those of Queensland, compare favourably with the various other intercolonial courts. Dunedin and Christchurch, as the centres of population and of manufacture, take ■ the palm so far as colonial industries are concerned, but Auckland and Wellington, Westland and the province of Nelson, are well represented. Dr. Hector and Dr. Haast have each taken a vast amount of interest in the local exhibits, and have, by their influence, induced the custodians of the public museums of Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington to forward interesting natural and native specimens. The beautiful native woods for which the New Zealand group of islands are so far famed, occupy a conspicuous position in the court. Some of the tables and other descriptions of cabinet work, highly ornamented and beautifully inlaid with Kauri, red pine, and other woods, are justly admired, their workmanship being quite equal to, even if it does not surpass that of any other colony exhibiting. It is to be regretted that the exhibitors in this court have, as a rule, neglected to affix their names to their goods. Otago takes the honours for pottery and stoneware, earthen water-pipes, etc., the makers being Messrs. Reeves and Co., of Milton, Otago Province. The brewing interest is represented by a neat trophy of casks shown by G. Wood and Co., and Ward and Co., Dunedin, and also from a brewery at Christchurch. The numerous photographs of people and scenery, the latterbeinggrandin the extreme, are principally by Wriggleswofth, of Napier, and prove highly attractive. Kauri gum in large blocks, skeletons of the gigantic Moa bird, polished green stone, highly polished granite, besides a large and valuable geological collection from all parts of the colony, are forwarded, as also is rich iron ore from Nelson, marble from the works of Munro, Dunedin, hematite from the Thames, and lithographic stone from the West Coast, near Greymouth. Canterbury, always celebrated for its cheese, forwards some excellent specimens, and the same province also exhibits grass seeds, cereals, and pulse. The Maori wharie is a highly attractive edifice, and affords a fanciful idea of a native dwelling. There is a large display of native garments made from Maori flax, which will prove of great interest to ladies and manufacturers of fabrics. At the entrance to right hand court is a gigantic cube or octahedron, representing the gross total amount of gold produced by New Zealand since the discovery of the precious metal in Gabriel’s Gully to the present year ; 9,396,427 ounces have been brought to grass, representing a value of £36,814,431.