A COLLECTOR OF CURIOS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1348, 2 June 1885, Page 2

A COLLECTOR OF CURIOS.

The Inangahua Times of a recent date says:—Remeoyi, besides being a. great fiddler, is also a most pertinacious hunter after curios. Short as bis stay has been in New Zealand, he has already shipped to his agents in Sydney no less than forty-four boxes of varieties gathered together from every nook and corner of the colony. His collection includes two complete skeletons of the mOa, presented to him by Professor Von Haast, besides innumerable other specimens of the extinct fauna of the Middle and North Islands, immense quantities of greenstone, kauri gum, Maori mats, and other Native manufactures. Ho is a perfect hawk after indigenous precious stones, and bis collection of rubies, garnets, zercons, sapphires, and Canterbury diamonds is very rich. At Reaftop Reinenyi’s weakness was quartz specimens, but owing to the shortness of hla stay he had no opportunity of gratifying , it. After the concert on Monday evening last be was lamenting his hard fate to a few gentlemen at Dawson’s HotoK Ha had come, he said, to a place 'noted throughout the colony for the richness of its quartz, and he was going away empty* handed. Where were all the mine managers, big directors, and lucky shareholders ? would nobody hear his prayer 1 and he extended his hands to first* one and then the other. Finally, a bargain was struck, If he would bring down his violin and play a solo in the parlor ho should have some specimens. In less than no time the instrument was produced, and with the door locked, he delighted his small audience of some half dozen people with Schubert's beautiful “Serenade.’ This, over, the coveted specimens were produced, and they proved to be remarkably good ones, requiring no need of the magnifying glass which lie instantly produced from his pocket. The old Maestro was so delighted that he immediately resumed his violin and “ struck up ” again, and having charmed his hearers with his grand “Hymn of Liberty,” the cherished Cremona was carefully and lovingly wrapped in its silken swaddling clothes and placed under lock and key, and after spending an hour or two in pleasant converse, Remenyi and his fiddle went to bed.