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Leader (1850-1860), 29th March 1856, Edition 1 of 2, Page 308, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      comes from a practical and experienced observer , is valuable . Mr . Fitton ^ is not a speculative writer upon New Zealand and the advantages it offers to emigration . He is a colonial landowner , and was a resident m the colony ; yve may , therefore , take his testimony as that of an eye-witness . Mr . Fitton is not prejudiced in favour of one part of the North and Middle Island to another . He takes us through the six districts into which they are divided , describes Auckland , New Plymouth , Wellington , Nelson , the Canterbury settlement and Otago , and the peculiarities of the soil surrounding ; them , and explains whether they are more adapted severally for agricultural or grazing purposes . He sketches life and society in the colony , and gives us a slight history of the group from the time of its discovery to the present day . His remarks are . always judicious . He would not have the emigrant too sanguine ; he cautions him against the extravagant pictures that have been put forth , and supplies him with really valuable advice about emigrating . We may fairly recommend the work to all who think of seeking a home in one of our colonies , and wishfto compare their respective claims . Says Mr . Titton : — Are you sure you are doing right in leaving your present home and occupation at all ? No person who has ever enjoyed life in England would , I think , profess to prefer a colonial life , if he were sufficiently independent to be able to make a selection . Those , however , he adds , " who have to make their own way in the world , will nowhere find so great an admixture of the agreeable society and civilisation of England , combined with facilities for making money and living economically , as in the settlements of New Zealand . "

      Untitled Article

      a » , rr- * ¦»¦ j NATURAL HISTORY . UL Popular History of Birds . By Adam White . ReeVe Mb . White is fortunate in his subject , since "birds , " he considers , are £ * OnI -H ?? attractive of creatures . '' He has , moreover , treated it with sufficient skill to ensure the ready acceptance of his little volume . It is appropriate in design aad execution , blending attributes which will recommend * t to youthful students witli elements essential to render it W ? V& = to thosewho readforamusement only . Mr . White's statements *™* m impress ^ otruth , tourists , explorers , and professors lending their testimony to the facts narrated . The author would have done better had he w > yen hisi materials into a more original form . Had the specimens afforded atwtemrals of his < jwn unaffected manner been carried continuously on , his * & ^ teM ^ # appearance of a . compilation . White horrows his

      of verdure . Of the lichen it boasts nineteen species , in addition to which are miniature willows and exquisitely blossomed heath , and numerous flowers varying in hue from white ' to purple . Much speculation mingles with the facts collected as to the origin of the various characteristics of trees and plants peculiar to different localities , as well as respecting the transmutations observable in certain sipeeies and the influence of climate on vegetation , with which , as is inevitable , great uncertainty is associated . Popular Garden Botany . By Agnes Cation . A more decidedly practical tendency is discernible in this little production . In it the writer undertakes to assist those already interested in such pursuits in the cultivation of their own especial Flora . To effect this , she has carefully arranged according to system the different genera , with descriptions general and scientific of their appearance and properties , so that the amateur may be guided to an enlightened selection for his garden . Thus only the hardy and half-hardy plants usually introduced are enumerated .

      . . Mr . illustrations of ornithology from the northern , the temperate , as well as the tropical regions . Among the splendidly-attired tirds ^ gmana y he mentions one which , from the singularity of its call , has earned the name of the Bell ; bird . It is of this bird * that the « Wanderer m : lJemerara . so enthusiasticall y exclaims that " Actaeon would stop in mid cha ^ ei ^ nd Orplieiis himself would drop Ms lute to listen to it , so sweet , so romantne ^ p ^ musical is the toll of this pretty snow-white Campanero . " It is useful to the traveller , for invariably its note may be heard at noonday W * V ® r *^ £ ? / , three iailes > tiling every three or four minutes . There uj jhe Qlock bird also , aresident m Western Africa , so named from the call it utters prewsely at eight o'clock in the morning , at mid-day , at four in the noon , and at sunset . ..-, o ¦ ¦ j . t olJaWal ffiT tiOD ' ^ Tfc 6 d pl € aSantly * may be f ° UUd iD this contribution

      Popular majory of the Palms . By Berthold Seemann , M . A . AN , entir , e little volume is deservedly dedicated to the Palm , one of the most elegant , useful , and extensive among the orders of the vegetable kingdom . A . poet has said that to every nation Providence has assigned a special tree aftorduig subsistence and shelter , which may be justly affirmed concerning the palm , from the numberless uses to which it is applied . India has the n owitzerland the pine , and more favoured regions this Prince of Foliage , ot . which the groat hotanist exclaims in admiration , " Man dwells naturally wittnathe tropics , and lives on the fruit of the palm ; he exists in other parts of ^ the : yvorld , axid there makes shift to feed on corn and flesh /' tt « Ttr ^ nl !! ^ ' ^ P ^^ ng with this enthusiasm , and possessing , besides Ig ?™ ^™^ : qualificationsan entire mastery over his specfal subject

      . , , spares no pains totender it attractive , so that there are few who would not ieel , interested m the page she has enriched with the result of his varied researches . In addition to a diligent collection of facts relative to the nature ana properties of the tree , we irad numerous instances of the various purposes for which the palm is available , as well as of the traditions and superstitions attaching to it . ' Th co . ? oa ~ nut species , almost exclusively confined to the tropics , is especially distinguished . The Cingalese have a record in honour of its healthful properties . Une of their devout Rajahs being stricken suddenly with a cutaneous disease , had in a vision this vegetable elixir revealed , to which , jyije ? gulled by inspiration , he found in the delicious crystal liquid of ot its nut an efficacy beyond that of Albana and Phnrnnv .

      ? v § , , 7 \ 1 <; *? *> *> e inferred , led to that singular custom observed among J 55 / JW . Islanders , who attached so much importance to the produce of the tyee ( sparingly yielded in their territory ) , that the privilege of partaking of it , as well as everv othey p y ivnege , belonged only to the men . The women were forbidden under penalty of disobedience to the gods to touch it . i i r ^^ W went on > tUl at kn B fem ^ chieftain , more than ordinarily Dofa , aeneel the vengeance of men and gods by breaking the law aaid securing permanently the indulgence of eating forbidden fruit . T ^ - p j ^ ™^ offhnU . By 33 . M . 0 . Edited by Cl . arlea Daubcny , M . D ., F . R . S . t * : ^ i ^ er ^ m ™ P » oyerb snys , "to know » flower one must know the snot where

      ? Ii& ^ p ! ' r ° fa 5 »| itate the attainment of such knowledge is the design in li £ Mo * % rttpI " tf Plants > which in a aeries of pictures exhibits the pecuw * iKr ij ? ! 1011 w ^ ow ^ ng *<> various climates . Henco arises an interest S ! w ^ i ofcherwwe ^ o wanting to mere details of botanical information c ?^ sp 5 p « y , presented , i ^®^ i ^ S ^ S ^ if ^^ S ? . , the tr ° P illustrated in the splendour of SSS ?^^ " ^ 88 of * fio . U » tnB and the lily , and the < lelicate r ^ J ^ ^ 2 ^ . ^^«» wW ttspect of the temperate regions sue Hcautuy cu > a north , where even tho Polar zone is not entirely divested

      Untitled Article

      « PABADISE LOST" ON THE STAGE . ( FBOJI A CORBESPONDENT IB PARIS . ) — . Paradis Perdu , the new play , which in virtue of its title alone raised immense expectations in Paris , will scarcely , as I think , raise also the fallen fortunes of that unlucky Theatre , the Ambigu Comique . Their last two dramas have not succeeded , and I cannot believe that Paradis Perdu will greatly enrich the treasury . I was at the first performance . The Theatre was crammed and the audience in a fever of expectation . The play began , a little after eight and ended a little after one in the morning : —the * ' waits" between the Acts

      actually extending to forty minutes or more ! Nover did I see the amazing patience of a Parisian audience more severely taxed , or more wonderfully preserved . The " blouses" certainly howled from time to time , and whistled , and thumped the Cairo ( rather to my amazement ) with theirfeet . Butit was all good humoured ; there was no vindictive hissing when the tardy curtain rose at last . "Well , and the play ? It is the joint production of M . M . Dennery and F . Dxtgue , and , with all possible respect for those gentlemen , I will venture to say that they never wrote anything so intensely dull as Paradis Perdu before in their lives . For the first three acts

      MoSES , Milton , and Lord Byron hare been laid under contribution . 1 he council of the fallen angels 3 with a scene badly copied from Martin ' s Pandemonium , made up the first act—taken from Milton . Paradise , with Adam and Eve , and the Serpent , and the Apple , and fthe Angels with fiery swords , filled the second—taken from Moses . " Life" on the wrong side of Eden , with the tnurder of Abel , composed the third—taken verbatim , as to all the points in the dialogue , from the " Mystery of Cain . " The orgies of the wicked descendants of Gain , and the buildiug ' of the Ark , occupied the fourth Act , taken from nobody in particular , and the worst act of all . The fifth Act was committed to the scene-painters and machinists , and contained all the fine effects , and presented the spectacle of the Deluge , in several " parts . " This was the only striking portion of the play . The rising of the waters ,

      the pouring and mingling of great cascades , the sinking of rocks with screaming people on them , the foundering of a boat , the engulphing of a whole family clinging to a tree , the floating of corpses on the surface of the water , the Ark on the horizon , and the Apotheosis of the heroine of the fourth Act , who drowns herself rather than give her soul to Satan—all made up a sufficiently exciting spectacle . Strict people inJEngland will say the whole exhibition was blasphemous . If it is , surely the painting of the Deluge as a picture is blasphemous , and if I was wrong in sitting to see Adam with skins on , in a fresh-coloured garden of Eden , I can't understand how my respectable friends at home can be right in sitting to hear Adam sing in plain clothes in an orchestra , which they do when they go to hear the Creation . It is only the difference between different

      species of artistic versions of the Bible . Nothing could be less profane in intention than Varadis Perdu . It was decorous and devout even to dulness ; Two things struck me particularly in connexion with it . The first was the total absence of any feeling for the supernatural , on the part of authors , actors , and scene-painters . All the spiritual conceptions presented by the subject were missed by everybody . Satan was acted with the manners of a polished French gentleman—nothing with an unearthly sound or look about it was said or done by him . Paradise , as conceived by the scenepainter , might have been a nook in Hampstead Heath . The only original thing put into the play by the authors was of the inevitable adulterous kind In the third Act , when Eve appears as the mother of Cain and Abel , Satan makes love to her ! Tliey can ' t help it , these unhappy French dramatists . They must have their little adulterine interest , give them what subject you

      will . But I am forgetting the second thing that I remarked : this wns that the play had one refreshing novelty . Eve , being the first woman , the heroine of Paradis Perdu could not talk to us incessantly about Ma Mdre'J All other French stage-heroines , within my experience , never succeed in getting that maternal dead weight thoroughly off their minds from tlio first Act to the last : it was delightful to know that we were safe from Ma Mfre 1 whenever Eve appeared . She was a very nice woman , this Eve : oct « d very prettily and innocently , and had the most beautiful blonde hair hanging down , nil over her , to below the waist . Adam , like Satan , was intensely gentlemanlike ; so was Japket , so was Abel , so wna Cain even , in a brisk excitable way . Upon the whole , excepting the machinery of the Deluge , I should venture to say that you will suffer mo great loss in England from respecting the national prejudices , and not having an adaptation of Paradis Perdu

      Untitled Article

      EASTER MONDAY AT THE THEATRES , &o . That great day for British "Gcntdom" —Easter-Monday—is not what it used to be . "Whether from increasing susceptibility to the East winds , or from more refined tastes , Greenwich Fair languishes ; and , whether from managerial parstmoniousnesa , or from the enhanced glory of the Christmas pieces , tho theatres do not , ns of old , put forth a dazzling coruscation of splendid new spectacles * Perhaps tho generation is getting more serious and

      Untitled Article

      308 THE LEADER . [ No . 314 , Saturday ,

      Ifi | Tr&Gt; (Ft V\& ( &Lt;£Bjj T Mx 13. S

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  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 29, 1856, page 308, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2134/page/20/