A BOOK OF NEW ZEALAND.

Waikato Times, Volume VI, Issue 323, 9 June 1874, Page 2

A BOOK OF NEW ZEALAND.

AxGLO-ArsTBALiAN in the European Mail of Moroh 20 says : — I mentioned a short time since that Mr Alexander Kennedy was preparing a second edition of his little work on New Zealand. This book has since appeared, with a notice from the author, that the rapid demand for a second issue has enabled him to supply much that was wanting in the original publication, and to offer to the public a more accurate and complete narrative. On opening the volume the eye is at once arrested by the frontispiece, which was absent^ in the first edition. This is a beautifully executed woodcut (by Pearson) of the Moa skeleton, in juxtaposition with a Maori chief dressed in his robes, te show the relative proportion of the two objects. This vignette, as the author states, is a reduced copy from tho original, in Dr Buller's work on the " Birds of Sew Zealand," the subject of which is in the Canterbury Museum. On carefully looking over the volume I find that there if much detailed information added, and every evidence of painstaking care in the fixing of dates and other minor matters. Mr Kennedy is evidently well quolifled for his task, having, as the title-page of his book states, held high appointments in tho Jcolony, and being intimate with the history of tho various settlements from their earliest foundations. The account he gives may theroforo be accepted as reliable, and it is told in a very easy and pleaiant style. His descriptions of the country are very picturesque and graphic, and his historical reminiscences are often as novel as they are interesting. He has crowded an immense amount of useful information into a compass of less than 200 octavo pages, and there will no doubt be a brisk demand for the book among intending emigrants to the colony, who will naturally be anxious to learn something of their future home. He commences with a running aecountjof the physical formation and geological character of the islands, climate, native productions, &c. His description of the undeveloped resources of the country is calculated to impress the reader with a strong faith in tho future of New Zealand ; and his account of our early relations with the aboriginal inhabitants is full of suggestive matter. The sketches the author gives of events and occurrences within his own knowledge when the colony was in its infancy arc peculiarly interesting. The following extract (p. 1S2) is a fair sample: — "Tl-e Lieutenant- Governor, Captain Grey, who, in the order of thing* which lmd sprung from the disturbed condition of New Zeainml, had become distinguished, was created n Km<;lit of tho JJutli. The colony at tho same time was divided into tuo provinces, the North and the South, with a Lieutenant-Governor for each, and Sir George Grey was piomoied to the rank of Governor- in-Chief, and invested w itli supreme authority. Unaided by the advantages of high birth or family influence, he was at this early period of his Hie thus rew arded for his meritorious sen ices, and deservedly stood high in public estimation. I was present as a spectator at the ceremony of his installation, which took place on the lawn in front of Government Hou-o in presence of a large party of ladies, a great number of ciulians, all tho military, j mid nviny of the Maori chiefs, who viewed the [ceremony with characteristic gravity and dignified demeanour. A great change has taken place in the appearance and condition of the country since that tune. Auckland was then a stnjjgling village, tho countiy around it partially enclosed and half cultivated, with here and there a native whare, where numbers of half-olarl Maoris frequently assembled New Zealand was in those days a remote dependency, uncertain and un frequent in its communications with the mother country, a land of noble savages, and the youngest, although not the least important, of Englann's colonies. Auckland has now grown into a large commercial town, with a harbour crowded with shipping, the markets swarming with buyers anJ sellers, and the streets thronged with people engaged in business or pleasure. In the immediate, neighbourhood, numerous Tillas surrounded with lawns, gardens, and vineyards, accompanied by all the arts of refined life, meet the view in every direction. For many miles the country is studded with hamlets and villages, and diversified with orchards, cornfields, cereal crops and pastures in tho highest state of cultivation TJiero were some circumstances connected with this ceremony which rendered it more than usually attractive. Sir George Grey, at that time, was not only the youngest knight, but tho most youthful man of the Order, and had v on his spurs by his own labour and merit, and any man might be proud of ike distinction lie had achieved. He was then ambitious and self-reliant, his careor successful and brilliant) and he appoarcd highly gratified with this mark of royal approbation, is well he might be, for it had fallen to the lot of fow men at his years to bo created Knight of tho Bath.' Tho passage I havo quoted is a fair specimen of the pleasant flowing style in which Mr Kennedy has written his book, and will show that ho is quite equal to his self-imposed task.

Tho Bishop of Manchester, on Sunday, the 25th March, consecrated tho additional land which has beon taken for a burial-ground in connection with tho church of St Peter's, Halliwell, Bolton, and in tho cjurse of his sorinon ho referred to the subject of cremation : After having referred to the present practice of disposing of human bodies, the Bishop said it had been proposed by an eminent London physician that, instead of burying our bodies in the ground — a practice which was said to entail sanitary mischief and a great loss of valuable land — wo should burn dead bodies ; nnd it wns now a question of the cremation of bodies instead of their interment. He felt a sort of shudder at tho idea of burning tho dead, and yet tho time might come when the idea would lmvo become familiar to their minds, and in n bun Irod years or so it might, perhaps, become tho custom for bodies to bo burnt. People who had believed in immortality had in previous times burnt tho bodies of their dead. Tho nncicnt Ttomans believed in immortality, and yet they believed in burning tho bodies of their dead. Cremation was certa ; nly quite as decent as tho practice of interment for anything that we saw, and urns containing the, ashes of tho dead were more picturesque than coOlns. He simply, however, referred to the subject becauso he wished his hearers to disassociate tho resurrection from physical conditions. Could they suppose that it would bo moro impossible for God to raise up a body at the resurrection, if needs be, out of elementary particles which li.id been liberated by the burning, than it would to raise up n body from dust and from the elemcuts of bodies which had passed into the structure of worms ? Tho omnipotence of God is not limited, and If o would raise tho dead whether Uo has to raise our bodies out of churchyards, or whether bo has to call our remains, like fie remains of somo ancient Roman, out ot an urn in which they were deposited 2000 years ago. In the courae of his sermon tho Bishop also alluded to the words used in tho Church of England Burial Service, to tho oflect that tho dead were committed to dust ' in sure and certain hope of tho resurrection to eternal hie.' Ho said some people thought from that that tho Church boliovcd that with regard to every one committed to tho jgronndi they entertained a sure and certaia hope of their resurrection to eternal life. The expression, however, merely meant that they performed that net in the lull belief ot tho doctrine of the resurrection. Whether a man would rise again to tho resurrection of salvation or dninmilion must depend on God's inexorable moral laws. — Pall Mall Gazette. The London Times has completed a careful review of tho census of 1871 oi the British Empire. Thcro mo thirtyeight persons, to the gquuro mile in the empiro ; 2G0 in tho United Kingdom; 201 in India; and 1.11 in tho colonies. It should be observed, however, that in some parts of India the density of population more than cquala that of England. The Queen rules over 238.7G5.5G3 souls j her people dweJ! in J 1,1 12,(510 Imu-i's ; the aiciv ot the lauds they inhabit is not lisa than 7,700,110 mmiuiu miles.