A USEFUL WORK.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 457, 26 March 1890, Page 3

A USEFUL WORK.

The “ Town and Country Journal ” (Sydney), referring to “Brett’s Handy Guide to New Zealand,” says : In the preface of this appropriately called “ Handy Guide bo New Zealand,” it is said that whole sheets of the work written only a few months ago have had bo be re-written, owing to the rapid progress the colony is making in respect to railway communication and other matters. The work has been edited apparently with great care by E. Ernest Billbrougb, and it has been nicely printed and copiously illustrated from photographs of New Zealand scenery, and with maps supplied by the Government Survey Department of New Zealand. It is divided into six parts, the first of which treats of tbe history of the country ; the second describes the scenic beauties and coach routes thereof ; the third is a directory of all the important places in the two islands ; and the fourth, fifth, and sixth parts contain a mass of miscellaneous practical information, so arranged as to be easily referred to by tourists and all in quest of it. With respect to excursions in and around Rotorua and the Waiotapu Valley, the Guide says “that there area great number of sights to see—such as green lakes, mud geysers, boiling pools, teapot mud cone, gaseous pools, sulphur fumaroles, decomposing earth slopes, multi-coloured pools, soda-water lake flowing over the new mauve terrace, primrose terrace, alum clifls, and the great mud cone, the most important in the district. The green lakes are as green as grass,” etc. The pink terraces, so famous as one of the wonders of New Zealand, were destroyed by the fearful eruption of Tarawera, which occurred in June, 1886. Of these terraces, so many-hued and so like a torrent of water, Alfred Domett, a New Zealand poet, who, unfortunately for polite literature, now lies beneath the sod, says :

A mighty cataract, so it seemed, Over a hundred steps of marble streamed, And gushed, or fell in dripping overflow; Flat steps, in flights half-circlcd, row o’er row, Irregularly mingling side by side ; They and the torrent curtain wide All rosy hued, it seemed, with sunset's glow. The Guide gives full accounts of the numerous places to which excursions may be made, and the wonder sights which may be seen in various parts of New Zealand more especially in the mountainous parts and volcanic centres thereof ; and this will render the Guide of great practical use to tourists, while oven those who are anxious to obtain a correct topographical knowledge of New Zealand as a colony will find very much bo interest them in the book. We commend it heartily to tbe attention of our readers.