New Zealand as a Tourist Resort.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 210, 8 September 1904, Page 4

New Zealand as a Tourist Resort.

WONDERS OF ENGLAND'S COLONY IN THE SOUTHERN SEAS DISPLAYED AT THE WORLD'S FAIR. ST. LOUIS, August 14. Trade between America and Aus--ralia is seriously restricted by the operation of tariff laws, and the want of a reciprocity treaty. This is the reason advanced by the Australian Commonwealth, limiting its views with some short-sightedness to the merely American aspect of the great World's Fair, for its absence from what is in reality an international clearing-house of ideas and record ol industrial achievement. The Government of New Zealand, England's island colony in the Southern Seas, has been partly influenced by the samo feeling of doubtful commercial benefits.

New Zealand, 1 however, has not wholly abstained. America would have welcomed at the world's Fair in illustrative showing of her great wool produces, her rich agricultural, mineral and timber resources, her profitable dairying and chilled' meat exporting industries, her woollen and other important manufacturing enterprises. But she has concentrated her efforts on displaying national assets that stand guite aloof from vexing tariffs. In the first place, New Zealand is happy in the possession of some of the most magnificent scenery in the world—of field and mountain, of forest and valley, of lake and river, of sprouting geysers l , boiling pools, and vast craters, the lava crest of which is still sullenly aglow.

Secondly, she numbers among her population some 50,000 Maoris, the noblest race of savages in the world from the points of view at once of physique, brave and generous character, intellect, and power to raise themselves to the white man's Level. Thirdly, New Zealand, with her deer forests and her -well-stocked trout rivers, offers great attractions to the lover of quiet sport. And to these three features she gives prominence in St. Louis. Incidentally we get a few glimpses into her natural resources, but scenery, and the charm of travel amid such scenery, strike the dominating note of her exhibits. The subject is one that lends itself to artistic treatment, and there are no more beautiful courts in the Polices of Agriculture and Forestry than those beneath the sign-scroll "New Zealand."

That this is the land of thoroughgoing, democracy, of compulsory arbitration, woman's suffrage, old age jensions, and so on, is strikingly illustrated by the fact that New Zeaand has a special Government Department of Tourist and Health Resorts, with a. Minister of Cabinet rank to administer its affairs. Travellers with woful memories of extortion in other parts of the world will welcome an innovation that is specially designed for their comfort and protection. It is this department that has brought over the New Zealand exhibits to the World's Fair. In the pavilion within the Pa'aco of Agriculture there is a great assemblage of large-sized photographß, these in themselves works of great artistic merit. Of the scenes depicted no description need be attempted. They most fully bear out the claim that in New Zealand the hand of Nature has accomplished some of its most lovely and stupendous effects. Notable among the views is one of a geyser that sprouts its boiling stream 1500 feet into the air. Oil paintings and water colours, loaned from New Zealand collections, depicting both scenery and Maori types, also well repay inspection. Somo cases of wool fleeces, bales of hemp fibre, samples of various grains, and panels of polished timbers, tare also on show, just to remind the visitor that in this land of God's ibeauty I there is God's plenty as well. Bub the court in Forestry Building is even more attractive still. Study the magnificent antlerad heads of deer, and remember that they are the greatly-improved progeny of stock imported from Scottish moors. Look at the huge twenty-pounder trout, and reflect that the New Zealand rivers \vero stocked partly from Europe and partly from America. These facts form markers in human progress, for neither result was achieved" without study, skill, care, I and costly .experiment.

New Zealand is not rich in indigenous fauna—there was not a quadruped in the land before the coming of the white man. But her birds are most interesting and curious. Here, for example, is the kca, a species of parrot that fastens on the back of a steep, and picks out the fat surrounding the kidneys, leaving the victim to die a lingering death, and disdaining the rest of the carcase. No one can explain how one special tribe of birds came to develop such an epicurean taste, and also the anatomical knowledge necessary for its gratification. The vicious habit is not a heriditary one, for, as we have seen, sheep are comparative newcomers to New Zealand. Another strange but tiiis time inoffensive creature, is the kiwi, or apteryx, tailless and wingless, for all the world like a half-plucked and dis-reputable-looking barn door rooster. But the most extraordinary bird of all is the huia. There are several stuffed specimens, and if the visitoi carefully inspects tihese he will find that, while all are exactly alike in plumage, the lieak in some instances is straight and strong like a bradawl, while in others it is more slender and curved like a surgeon's needle. What is the explanation of this peculiarity ? The one bird is the male, and it is his task to perforate the hard outer tree-bark ; the other ia the female, and she inserts her longe? and more curved beak into the hole made by her mate, thus reaching the larva on which both subsist. The Maori calls the birds

"the faithful ones," for the one cannot live without the other. In nature there are numerous inter-depend-ant hosts and parasites, also many ;ases of symbiosis, or the mutual helpfulness of animals guite different 'rom each other, such as the tiny fish that takes refuge in the oyster's s|hell, and attracts food for its protector. But is there any other example besides this huia of New Zealand where the male and female mates are so indissolubly one ? The bind is held in veneration by tho Maoris, and only the leading chiefs may wear ita plumes as a head-dress or in the form of a robe. Some of these beautiful iand very costly feather robes are to be seen in tibe cabinet beneath the stuffed birds.

< Close by are show casts filled" with kauri gum, closely resembling amber, and used for the making of tho finest grades of varnishes, for which it is largely imported into America. There is a romance attaching to this seemingly commonplace commercial product. The kauri, a Mod of pine, still flourishes in Now. Zealand, and

forms o»e of her most valuable timbers. But the gum is obtained on the old sites of primeval forests, where not a tree has stood for probably many centuries. It is sought for and dug exactly like placer gold on flats, the kauri gum value of which has been proved toy prospecting. There is a beautiful specimen of native wood carving—the framework of the door of a Maori council chamber —that will attract attention. Careful study should also be given to the fine oil painting by Glendauer, showing the really terrible operation involved by the old Maori custom of tattooing. The picture is exact to the minutest detail, the striking stick N the chisel, the flax around the small finger of the left hand for wiping away the blood after each cut, and the black paste or dye held between the right hand thumb and finger of the operator, all being in evidence. Portraits of several tattooed Maoris also show these former cannibals in all their fearsomeness. Why did the Maori subject himself to such an ordeal ? Was it from ideas of personal decoration, or to render his aspect terrible to his enemies, or simply to .give visible proof of his powers of physical endurance ? Authorities differ. , All throe explanations find adherents. But let it not be forgotten that the tattooed Maori is passing away. The modem Maori chief is a cultured gentleman, a man of high education, often a really groat orator. At this day four sit in the House of Representatives, two in the Se»ate, and one is a Cabinet Minister. So democracy has been triumphant in New Zealand, even to tho regeneration and elevation of block-fellows who at one timo had all tho appearance ot being hopeless savages. This success is complete, for even the perpetuation of the race is now assured. For years the Maori population, a remnant of barbarism, was 'dwindling before the white man's steady invasion. But for the last ten years now the civilised Maoris have been steadily increasing in numbers as well as advancing in wealth, education, and participation in the good 'government of their country.