David Christie Murray.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3472, 29 March 1890, Page 2

David Christie Murray.

To tho majority of readers of standard fiction, Mr David Christie Murray, (who lectures here on Tuesday evening next),. author of "Joseph's Coat," "The way ] of the World," ""First Person Singular," and sundry other popular novels, will seenv almost to be a personal friend, so familiar are his works, As a journalist aud war correspondent—he acted for The Times and Scotsman in theEusso-Turkish war—Mr Murray has also attained celebrity, and enough is known about:him at this end of the world to stamp him as a particularly observant man, with a keen insight into social and publio affairs. His views on colonial life and scouery, formed during a tour of several months' duration, were cheerfully given to an Evening Post reporter who called upon him at,the Occidental Hotel the other day, and will be of interest to our readers,

Explaining in the first place what brought him to the colouies, Mr Murray said—" The fact is that I needed rest. I had been hard at work for 16 years, and my friends advised.iiie that I could very well pay my expenses by lecturing in the Australias. It was with this idea, that I oame out. I did not intend to have lectured in New Zealand, but I was persauded to do it, You can judge what I think ot this colony from tho fact that though I reached it two days before Christmas, I have been wandering about the Lakes and Sounds and other resorts in the South Island ever since. Now I intend to see as much of the North Island its I can possibly find time, for; after which I will visit the West Coast district, .and hope to be able to spend a couple of winter months camping at Lake Te Anau, though I had originally intended to stay only two months here in all. newpaund'soenery.

My opinion of the Lake and Sounds 'districts it is almost impossible to fully express in words. Te Airnii Lake I was especially charmed with —it is simply glorious. I know the whole of the European show from east to west and from north to south, but there is' nothing in European soenery to eclipse what I have found in New Zealand. .There is much room for the landscape artiste in New Zealand—(by the way, Mr Murray showed his own taste iu this direction by some sketches to which | he was putting the finishing touches, when his visitor arrived)—as anywhere in theworld. But out of my three months I have only given up one to the search for the picturesque, und have applied tha calities, such as the study of politics, tiianufacturos, and so ,pn. : ,

CULTURE IN DEWUIUUNb. , One of tlie most remarkable things Zealand, to my'namd, is

tue advance it haa made over Aus*'- ' tralia- with respect to culture—too knowledge and love of books and art. . In Dunedin I found mare people who cdred about such matters than I did itho whole of Australia; and I am not speaking without the "book, for - spent four or five months in thii other colonies, and was almost evorjwhero. My opinion is too, bymy-friend-Mr Santleyj.whont' I met in Christcliurch." v ; sr ' 1' {THE COLONIES' DESTINIE|. } ) .Tiie„Federatioli„.^ueation.Ja ono. which Mr Murray has studied yearsrand it was that more tlifw anything else that brought liim to tho colonies, But for that he would probably have gone to the United States. Complete federation, lie thinks, is as certain to come as it it certain that the sun is in heaven..

" I think," he says, " that I see a good deal beyond it. The colonies will federate-will ask for a nationality—not just yet, of course, but by* aod-hye. It will be given by the Mother Country with the freest heart in the world, and after that, I believe, they will federato with the Mother Country on equal terms. That may, -■ of course, be no more than a dream, AL. but it is mine, My great hope is the whole English speakiug race will ~\7" federate one day, and join together • to police the world—that is, to keep peace in it. No one of the prowling Powers dare touch a weak State, or seek to aggrandise itself at the expense of a feeble neighbor, in the face of such a' combination as the Anglo-Saxon people would present!" NEW ZEALAND'S. PBESENT roßlTlflfcr' { = As toi'the : 7aggldiherat!6nipf New vK ; ; Zealand with Australia just now lie thinks Captain Russell completely answered that question when he said that there were 1200 good'reasons. against it in the 1200 miles of ocean between the islands. Besides that, he notices hero a much stronger tie to. . the Old-country than 'exists 'in AM; I tralia, probably .becauso; a greater , 1 proportion of tho original settlershorn in Great-Britain-arestillalive. Another reason may be that there is , not yet tho population that inspires the desire for soparito nationality.; 'Mr Murray .;hasiat.present no intention of writing a book on the colonies, but he may do something of ■ ; tho kind by and bye, when his ideas '■ of what he has seeu become My r settled. -".lf I do," he .says,, ' afraid I shall not please the ; Hans, but after air one can only, be > 1 honest'." ~