DR. MURRAY MOORE’S BOOK.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 455, 19 March 1890, Page 5

DR. MURRAY MOORE’S BOOK.

(FROM OUII SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)

London, January 31. The long-promised work on “ New Zealand for the Emigrant, Invalid and Tourist,” by Dr. Murray Moore, erstwhile of Auckland, but now practising in Liverpool, was pub lished on Tuesday last by Messrs Sampson, Low and Co., and must bo pronounced a creditable piece of boskmaking. Dr. Moore has shown himself both modest and sensible. His own views form only a portion of the volume. It is in the main made up of judicious extracts from Parliamentary Blue Books, the Government Handbook to the Colony, Consul Griffin’s reports, and works on the nathes and history of New Zealand by Buller and others. Dr. Moore says he originally meant to call his book “Nine Years in New Zealand.” This, or rather “Nine \ears in Auckland, ’ would have been the hotter title as we really learn very little from it about other Now Zealand cities. Our author commences with an explanatory preface in which he piously ac > nowledges with gratitude the renovation of his own and Mrs Moore’s health, and attributes it (under Providence) to ihe wonderful climate of Auckland. Chapter I. tells us how to get to New Zealand, and contains useful excerpts from the Government Handbook. Chapter 11. discusses the climates, and Chapter 111. the natives of New Zealand. Auckland is described in Chapter IV., and the mineral springs in Chapter V. Then come descriptions (from various sources) of the Hob Lakes, the volcanic eruption of Mount Tarawera, etc., the book winding up with chapters on “ Public Works and Institutions,” “ Productions and Industries,” “ Social Life in New Zealand,” and (finally) “Professional Experiences.” SOCIAL LIFE. It is not till we reach the chapter on “ Social Life ” that we seem to get at Dr. Moore’s own views. Then indeed he does become instructive. “In New Zealand,” writes the doctor, “ the man who is adaptable to new conditions, and of a sympathetic nature, and who is nob too old to learn, will find social life (as I found it) very enjoyable, whether in town or in the country. The reception given to such a one, whether man or woman, combines both English kindness, Australian heartiness, and the readiness to make a now neighbour feel at home, that is characteristic of the great republic. Without disparagement to the United States, where 1 lived for nearly three years among many kind friends, nor to the dear Old Country, from which my heart has never been severed, I can truly say that my wife and I have formed tho most genuine, helpful, and, we trust, lifelong friendships in the colony of New Zealand. Wo felt, indeed, on quitting its shores for the Old Country that we were leaving homo for a cold and strange foreign land. NEW ZEALAND ECCENTRICS.

“It is only” (continues Dr. Moore) “when one settles down in the colony for some years that ono gets into touch with the residents, and enters fully into the thoughts, ways, and actions of colonial life. What a chapter I could writo on the eccentrics 1 have met in New Zealand ! What undeveloped geniuses, what utter bores, what strange and queer men and women, still (so far as I know) outside the Whau (or, as it is now politely named, Avondale) Asylum ! Perhaps some day I may give my reminiscences, but meantime forbear. In the course of nine years’ residence, I have witnessed six changes of Government, four changes of Native Lands Court policy, wholesale dismissals of Government officers, tho Civil Service remodelled, and many unaccountable removals of head officials. In commercial life I have seen the Bank of New Zealand in great trouble, two suicides through losses in land : a tradesman become bankrupt three times ; several merchants high in society move down from blieir grand mansions into cottages, and finally some of them leave the colony at their friends’ expense, I have seen fashionable ladies left destitute Widows, and doctors apparently doing a large practice die, leaving their families' nearly paupers. ‘Grass widows’ and • grass widowers ’ abound in New Zealand, and deserted wives have a hard struggle. On the other hand, 1 have seen a sWabbily-dreesed mechanic, who could nob write his own name, bequeath a large fortune to the most noble ends—the relief of the poor and aged. Viewing society as a whole in any ot the larger cities of New Zealand, I regard its elements as almost as mixed and shifting as chose of a western city of America. If an ‘old identity,’ a self-made man, is genuine, honest, and kind-hearted, one soon learns to overlook breaches of pronunciation, of dress and of manners. The newcomer, whether old, young, or middle-aged, should always make the acquaintance, and if possible the friendship of some of these colonists. One thing is much to be admired in these rough diamonds, namely their desire to give their children the highest education attainable in the colony ; and even, in many case, send their boys to an English university for a degree, and their girls to London for the j season. Nothing could show more plainly than this custom of sending their children Home to finish their education, the parents’ regard for the best interests of their family, and their deep appreciation of tho value of that higher education which had been denied to them by the circumstances of their early life. ’ PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES. Dr. Moore's chapter on professional experiences contains the following interesting paragraphs : I wonder if any of your readers will be able to locate (as the Yankee says) the handsome young doctor who visits England every, two or three years in quest of fresh experiences. “The doctors I knew who succeeded most rapidly in building up laige practices were young men of pleasing manners, fluent talk, and social accomplishments, who married soon after their arrival into some well-known, perhaps wealthy local family, and became thoroughly identified with the place. They became almost at once colonials in freedom of manner and unconventionality of dress. One of the best openings I have seen in good city practice is when a colonial practitioner is desirous of taking a six or twelve months’holiday in England. Then some new arrival takes his entire practice as locum tenant, with permission to remain in the same locality on-the return of the owner, and the loss of patients, if any, is chiefly on the latter’s side. Colonial patients like their favourite doctors'to visit the old country every few years, and acquire the newest ideas and inventions. AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND COMPARED. “ That there is a distinction between life in Australia and life in New Zealand is sufficiently shown by the difference between tho scenes, events,' and characters in Mrs Campbell Praed’s ’ successful romances (‘Policy and Passion,’ for instance) and those tw) typical New Zealand books, M ; iss Clara Gheescman’s, * A Rolling Stoiio,’ and Laly Barker’s, ‘Station Life in New Zealand.’ Tho former clever novel cou-

tains admirably-drawn scenes and illustrations of genuine New Zealand life and character. Among others I can readily identify the * professor of music ’ and old Waaley, of Waitakerei, the lovely forest scenery so eloquently described by the authoress. In most parts of the book the scene is laid in towns, where, of course, the quaintest characters usually congregate That too common event, a house on fire, is graphically described ; and tho wreck of a steamer on the coast (tho ill-fated Tararua, evidently) is told with all the skill of a practised novelist, though I am informed that this is ‘ maiden work.’ " THE LOVE OF MUSIC. “ A sincere love for music is diffused throughout New Zealand. At the risk of being condemned by the Wellingtonians, Christchurch men and Du nedinitesasafanatical Aucklander, I have clearly pointed out in chapter IV. the pre-eminence of that city in the development of the divine art. What is needed now for its further culture is a complete Academy of Music in one of the large cities and a musical festival (without prizes for brass bands and all that nonsense) to be held triennially in each of the four local capitals in rotation, managed by a standing committee of really musical amateurs, carefully solected from theso cities. “ Nothing would give a greater impetus to choral and instrumental music than this move, which I commend to the present Governor of New Zealand and to those in high places there, who love the ‘Art Divine ’ for its own sake.” DOMESTIC WORRIES. “ Domestic life in New Zealand does nob greatly differ from that in England, except that good servants being scarce, and dear, the wife has to do more actual household work that in the old country. Notwithstanding what I have to say, later on, regarding the drink question, I believe that, class for class, there is a smaller proportion of drunken husbands in the colony than in Great Britain. Very seldom do the newspapers report cases brought before the police courts of such brutal assaults on wives and children made by men under the influence of drink as one reads of every day in the English newspapers. “Miss E Katharine Bates, an observant traveller (whom I met in Auckland), goes so far as to assert in her book, ‘ Kaleidoscope, or Scenes from East to West,’ that nowhere in her travels had she * seen so many married who were happy, as in this colony.’ Contrast this with E. W. I J ayton’6 impression : ‘ The normal condition of all housewives, below that of the upper middle class, is that of over-worked house drudges.’ One result of this is a sad breaking-down of character. Women drink a good deal on the quiet, and this reacts on their temper, etc. “Mr Payton must have derived his impression from some pessimist. I, who in the course of my professional duties have gone into all classes of homes at all hours, have seen neither evidences of secret drinking nor of temper produced thereby. Probably the truth lies between these two extremely opposite impressions,” JUVENILE SMOKING.

“ The pernicious and increasing habit of young lads beginning to smoke from the ages of nine or ten, is a vice which is destroying the health of hundreds. It cannot be met by prohibitive legislation, as a certain Legislative Councillor, now deceased, wished to meet it. Parents who themselves smoko should give it up as an example to their boys,, and should sternly discourage any smoking by a boy until he is'at least twenty years old. The crude and strong tobacco leaf now grown and manufactured in New Zealand is deleterious to young smokers because it is so rich in nicotine. I shall give in chapter XII. definite reasons for these strong opinions.”