A NEW ZEALAND TRAVELLER'S TALE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1430, 21 November 1885, Page 3

A NEW ZEALAND TRAVELLER'S TALE.

" Omn "in tho Otago Witness has been devoting 1 some ([attention to some singular reminiscences of New Zealand which have appeared in an American paper. Ha says,: —The Bit of travel has been so simplified by railways and big steamships that tho most; consummate fool nlive may now oircnmnayigate the globe. Having accomplished this feat, the travelled fool betakes himself to some credulous or mercenary editor, who allows him to detail hie exploits for the entertainment of leas adventurous fools who have remained at home. On this theory, and on no other, we can explain certain remarkable notes of travel recently communicated by aoertain Amede Simmoiids to the New York World, Mr Simond who is the son of a hanker in London, left that city on the 20th October last for a pleasure trip round the world. After some Munohausen adventures in the Onagers Islands, and at Ballarat, Tiotoria, he came on to New Zealand, and joined the " first excursion party ever taken to the West Coast Sounds.*' Hero he found " many curious animals " probably rats and sandflies. The birds, being strangers to man, took the ezoursionists for trees, and " settled on us by the score." Mr Simmond* next visited the Lakes, where "he spent many happy hours " observing the habits of the whales whioh sport in the unfrequented waters. He says—"On one oocaiion a large whale eame near upsetting our boat by shooting under us. We all thought there were several whales near us, but our boatman assured us that there was onl," oao." The Lake Wakatipu trout, as we all know, do grow to an enormou* aise, but ifc is cruel in the Queenstown people to attempt to pass them off on unsuapeotine; tourists as whales. After this we read without surprise that Mr Simmonds, aooompanied only by a small boy, "started to camp out about 16 miles from New Zaaland," having arrived at whioh incognita, he diicovered a hut with only three walls standing, and also a mountain 4250 feet above the level of the sea. From the top of the mountain he beheld " hundreds of sno wcappsd peaks and thousands of small lakes." His next expedition was 630 miles by coaoh "into the uninhabited wilderness." Here he passed the Orlira Gorge (sio) much resembling the Yosemita Valley, and was wafted from ore mountain to another in baskets slung from a wire rope, On the other side of the Orlira Gortfe be "took another coaoh and visited the immonse sheep ranches at Wellington Harbor," also the Maori savages, who he found " very kind, but easily riled, and when so, dangerous." As these characteristics are by no means limited to the aboriginal race, the doubt ia suggested whether Mr Simmonds may not have mistaken for " Maori savages " the settlers inhabiting what he calls the '• immense sheep ranohes at Wellingt&n Harbor." Luokily, however, he adds that the " Maori savages" he means are " tattooed all over," ian observation whieh dwellers in the Empire City will reed with a feeling of relief. Eegarded as a nineteenth century Cockney Munchausen, Mr Simmonds in by no means bad fun, and one hopes that he may visit New Zsaland again.