A HOLIDAY TRIP.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2227, 23 February 1886, Page 2

A HOLIDAY TRIP.

(Continued.) The famous Waimea plains m a N.W, direction now opens to yiew. Tliesp plaffis-po 300,000 apfps-Vpre spld by a Liberal or Rafjjcal Gpyernipent to a Company, haying amongst its members several pf pur great political leaders and rulers, 0«r paternal fipyernm.eiit jn its innocence, parted with the plains to this large-hearted and patriotic? company, upon the understanding that they (the company) would import a monied class of small farmers, and re-sell to this monied class these plains at a small percentage. Uf course the Company's organs extolled this scheme, and any amount of pressure was brought to bear on the then Government to hand these plains,over to the Opmnany 0,11 t]}P most fayprablp terina (for thy tympany). Tlje Opnipapiy natu'rilly lppked ut pon the transaction a3a alirewd piece pf business, unci' acted accordingly They §e|ec|e(l the most favored spots', and considerably assisted these partjcular parts with hone dust, and ptlfpr' artificial manures. They planted oafs, 'wheat artd barley, and, got'very heayy crops'out pif these spots, Bpm§t(i'jng fabulous per aore | duly certified to, etc., eto„ and it had a very telling effect on tho prices obtained for the land, from the deferred payment purchasers. With this result, that with low prices, and an occasional bad harvest, the most of tho land sold is falling back into the Company's hands, or elso they are deferring to forclose to avoid the expense of management. The Company are anxiously looking forward to good tjm.es,, yi?,, \ Vpgel's borrowing scheme,! to resell tlie Lat|ds thqs by thoir dupes, at 3, very goqd price. So much for the result of a Government parting with tlie domains of a nation for tho benefit of the influential few-prov. ing to the thinking few that all Governments are alike, eager to conciliate so as to keep place, and grow patriotic and virtuous, loudly declaiming of the shortcomings of other Governments when in opposition. Invercargill is the finest laid out town in sow Zealand, AH its streets are two chain's v w'ide; its provincial 'buildings 'are v<sry handsome and'substantia]/ 'ohiefjy brick and stone. The Invercargill o( iijy first acquaintance lias disappeared as if by magic, with its quagmires and scrub, there are Weral banks, very costly pd

lino buildings, especially the Bank of Australasia. The Athenteum is also a credit to tho town. The wholesale and retail business places are as large and handsome as any in New Zealand: Its Municipality has the streets well mado and lighted with gas, also an excellent steam firo engine, and an efficient fire brigade. In.fact, all the luxuries and convenciences that modem times require, except a high pressure water supply, which they are now going in for. The town has a grand future before it. It is the natural centre of a very large agricultural and pastoral district. But, like all towns with .grand futures, it has discounted a large portion of it by going ahead at such a rate that the' country around it has not kept pace with it. Consequently times are dull, and, as usual, the business people are anxiously looking forward to the next big loan to set the ball rolling. There appears to exist a great business rivalry between Dunedin and Invercargill, and merchants and traders for the latter place complain that competition from Dunedin is bo keen as to barely leave a fair margin, Leaving Inveiurgill for the Lakes, the country becomes timbered and the land looks richer. One passed with the train through some very lino country, and good comfortable homesteads, and here and there a sawmill, the scenery assumes more of our North Island aspect. Winton seems to be a thriving township with its usual compliment of hotels and banks, good public school, and public hall and three or four Btore's. After passing thiß township, open plains andundulating country begins. A gradual ascent up a valley, or series of valleys, varying in size, until reaching Lundsen, which is the head of the Waimea plains, and is to be its future Chicago, Until recently quarter aero sections were in great demand and changed hands at good sums. The bulk of the plains and ranges are held in large blocks for sheep-grazing, the plains are all alienated, The mountain ranges still belong to the crown and are leased out as sheep and cattle runs at a small rental at per tysre, The lessees in I several ptanoos have thrown up their leases, chiefly on account of the country beiug overrun with rabbits, while several others had to succumb, and their estates have fallen into the hands of the Mortgage and Land Companies, who are as usual waiting, and wire-pulling, fpr big loans.

Kingston, the beginning of the famous Wakatipu lakes, consists of one hotel, tho Railway Station, and Station Master's House. The valley here ends abruptly. The lake is completely onolosed within high eranito walls, about eloveu to twolve hundred teefc above the sea level. Two passenger steamers and one cargo one ply on this lake. Thosteamor Mountaineer met the train at the end of the wharf. It happened to bo a beautiful moonlight evening, and the scenery, too, was simply grand. For fuller descriptions «ide Guide Books. After a two and a half hour's journey over this wonderful, clear blue, bottomless sheet of water, we reach Queenstown, the capital of tho Lakes district, nestling under the shadow of those immense mountains of solid rocks, appearing in comparison like a miniature toy town. ''l have been informed by the usual "oldest resident" some characteristics about these lakes as to its immense depth, Soundings have, b.sien taken to 1400 feqt "touching bottom, Tbe water js intensly cold, vory pure, and good to drink, although not niuch drunk in its natural state by the male inhabitants, It has suoh wonderful keeping properties that the bodies of drowned persons never rise, consequently obviating inquests being held and paying ooroner's foes, The last and most important fact I can somewhat vouch for, viz., it abounds in very large salmon trout, of excellent quality. Queenstown, the Arrow, and other digging townships, have proved an exception to my experiences after an absence of twenty-one years.- 1 did not recognise tho other places 1 have enumerated, on account of their immense increase in si?;o and population. I did not quite TOOgniso. these goldfield towns ftwn 'ss?" great collapse in population"'itiifi' business importance..' Fiji'{nstan.ee, on my first visit to Queenstqwn in. 18JH, it was a pcyfooi beehive, a canvas, town, but busy with the hum of human voices and vices, There must have boon seven or eight thousand inhabitants, while now it has betweon sevoti and eight hundred residonts in it, The houses are all built of stone, the people are respectable and orderly, and tho affairs of the town are well cared for by the Mayor and Borough Councillors. It has a good-sized, well-built Courthou.s.o, County Council Chambers, %vey P%o,' a very good Reading Town, on to every p.avt of tUe' : town,"Bo.me firsfc-cjass Hotel' js the fo.urists.' house), apd. some QWllont general stores. The trade of the district still depends on gold-digging, alluvial and (prt>orushing, Every available bit of ground in the valleys and on the ridges and plateaus are highly cultivated, Fruit grows plentifully, and good ooreal orops are obtained on those high altitudes, in some instanocs 1500 feet above the sea level.

The Arrow township is an epitome of Queensland. While I was at the Lakes, (26th January) the weather was intjerisiy hot, soveral degrees wajnjo/' i|i(aj\ 'a,t Dunedin. The' 'the South Island wa3 then, suffering from drought, no, rajn haying fallen in the district far four months.

This concludes my remarks o| tho places I have visited, and the impressions I formed of oaoh, I have heon asked to give nn opinion as to which Island I think is best for trade for the working man, and which has the best future prospects, It would bo presumptuous for anyono, be he even a great political shining light, to attempt to answer such questions authoritatively, but I will give you the sum total of my own impressions of the relative merits of each Island, The South Island has made greater strides (due in the first place to the discovery of gold), njid accumulated greater wealth 'iri its/'tdwps, \Vhatwith costly pub]i6''bulldjngß, and mercantile houses and hotels, it has had the tendency of drawing population into the towns, especially taking into consideration that at time the Land Laws were administered hy the pastoral interest for the benefit of that intoresi;, and all open plains and good lands of easy access, were soon swooped up by the few, thus compelling the then would be small farmer to make for ft township to get a living, Besides, the busy hum of a town life has a greater charm for the youug colonist than a newly opened country. Tho evil is now becoming.apparent. The towns have absorbed an undue proportion of the population, while the country, which should be the feeders of the comparatively speaking, Therefore, a<| a,"'natural outcome,'the legislators ohosen by the town?, wishing to please their constituent, and eager to bring back the "Good Old Times, "go in for a large borrowing polloy, ostensibly to open up tho country with railwayj;.: and to settle the country with emigrants.' The town representatives beine now the majority, they of course carry their grand schemes, but, unfortunately for the country, the result is quite contrary to the axioms as laid down by our Legislators. Some millions are borrowed and Bpeht in' importing emigrants, in railway material,, in paying interest, hy forming a large" ciyilservice/iii makliig Additions 1 to and" erecting new public buildings,'in making commerce flourish in the towns, and in causing tho bulk of the new Qomera to swell the population of the centres,

After railways are completed and public buildings finished, banks bugiu to call in overdrafts, stagnation oiißues^the; navvy emigrant and the' artisan, brought out at the expense of the taxpayer to pastures new, and the net result i™at the towns have grown bigger, the country is still uninhabited, railways laid on to particular districts havo not benefitted that district much, but haveenabled perhaps one or two knowing onos to make a largo sum of money by either selling out in the nick of time, by cutting up a bogus township, or getting a good slice of compensation from a generous Government. Then comes tho next phaso of the disease —the undue proportion of population. The towns after every big loan feel like an intemperate man—all the worse for' its provious prosperity, because during j the timo of prosperity it becomes theAjj centre of attraction. More people are drawn into it, and a koener competition arises. The next phases are manufactures, and, of course, their natural concomitant, Protection, Tho arguments used areas or all that we possibly can make here, so follows:—" Let us make all we require as to give employment to the'artisans living in our town. But we cannot compete unless the Government protect us, or,mother words, to• make tho import duty so heavy on the particular manufactures as to exclude the commodity from the country. The manufacture cry, and protection policy, are becoming more popular every day, and vill become the platform of. either this or the -djftt Government, with what ultimate •refllfc time only will prove. But lam confident that it will still moro and more tend to draw population to the townß, and still leave the country 'unsettled. The increase of population in towns to the detriment of the country is a problem that I dare not even attempt to give an opinion upon, nju.cn less try and solve. I would oavrtly d,ra\v tho attention of our colonial Land Legislators to this fact, and, perhaps in the plenitude of their wisdom, they may be able to discover a remedy for it. Although my remarks respecting the attraction of population to towns to the detriment of the country applies to the whole of New Zealand, itja moro applicable to the. South Island than to the North, for various reasons. First, the open plains, and absonco of bush mado tho country more accessible, and the discoveryofgoldrnadethatialand the centre of attraction. The North Island being covered with dense bush, and inhabited by a warlike race naturally retarded tho settlement there. The open lands were taken up in largo Mocks in a similar manner as the South Island, but'as the. best of the land is covered with bush, and had not then been acquired by the Government, itprecludeditspurchaseforspftlativo purposes. Tlio land has been soWe'd upon by a good hardy class of small holders, who have made good colonists, and made headway in a slow but very sure way. The land laws of the last ten years proved veiy beneficial to the North Island, as it encouraged Special Settlements in the best of the newly acquired .J bush country of bona fide settlers, and, ; discouraged speculators taking up HookX Tho climate is also a wonderf id, factor aiding the prosperity pf the and lastly the patyral harbor? of % better and safer tlvw tfpe of tho South. Wellington possessing the best harbour in New Zealand must become a place of importance, i and increase in material wealth, in proportion to tho prosperity of the two islands, As to the ultimate future of New Zealand as a whole I am very sanguine. The production of each islan d will adjust itself to itsclimate, to its natural gifts, and to the genius of its people. As both Islands abound in coal and metals, and havo long coast .lines, manufactures, and shipping commerce will am confident our embryo LegislatorsMd. Charlatan Statosmen cannot rum ou.r, country, though they may aanprhjV, retard it, but the advancement ojE"ths colony is not depending oi the" tin, pot enactments passed;' one session and amended; pi-, repealed the next. It dopoinds upon, fou.r important factors, (1), a good healthy climate, (2) fairly good land, . (3.) an industrious law-abiding population* * and (4) pure and uucorrupted justice with full security to life and property. The daily increment of savings of the whole, must accumulate to national wealth, i n spite of our blunderers and oxperimeutahats,