LECTURES ON NEW ZEALAND.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2701, 2 November 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

LECTURES ON NEW ZEALAND.

PitOFESsoR Dickinson*, an Americaußentleinan who gave a short series of excellont lectures in the chief towns of New Zealand some time ago, on European subjects, and was then engaged to lecture on New Zealand at Home and in Australia, in aid of the coming Exhibition, was recently lecturing in Melbourne, and tho Argus says of him :—

"The lecturer combines two important qualifications for the task ho has undertaken —that of popularising a knowledge of tho picturesqueness of New Zealand in the chief cities of Australia—namely, a retentive memory and good literary style. Mr Dickinson looks at nature with the eyo of an artist or the feeling of a poet; and he ia fortunate in his theme; for a country which combines tho most romantic features of Switzerland, Norway and Scotland, with a flora and fauna peculiarly its own, offers a tempting subject to expatiate upon to a fluent and graphic speaker, while there are little touches of humour and of homely narrative in tho lecture which operate as pleasant diversions from tho more serious subject matter. Hut Mr Dickinson is heard at his best ' when he gets among the mountain glaciers, the deep gorges, the boiling springs, the broad lakes, the tangled forests, and the marvellous sounds of the wonderland which ho describes. Then he presents a series of word pictures, definite in form, vivid in colour, and impressive in effect, which lend additional interest to the tinted transparencies thrown upon the screen. He avoids the fault of exaggeration—but who could exaggerate either the grandeur or loveliness of the best of the New Zealaud scenery? He took his audience into tho recesses of the hot lako district, and showed several of the moat remarkable geysers in their intermittent action, dwelling upon two more particularly, in which these ebullitions of boiling water and scalding vapour are accompanied by subterraneous noises, resembling, in one instance, the clang anal din of Titanic machinery, and in the other tho shrieks and groans qf lost epjrits writhing apd howling , in excruciating torture. "Tho best guide book of this region," humorously observed Mr Djckinnnn,_ "was published in Italy upwards of OCQ'yoars ago, and wan written by one Dant» who Ruve it the title of the

Inferno." The legends, traditions, and history of the Maoria were incidentally touched upon, ami the pastoral and agricultural industries of New Zealand also furnished themes for pictorial and verbal illustration. Isordid the rapid devastation of the kauri pine forests escupe comment and regret.