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88 AROUND THE WORLD.
prophets, persecute their peers, and piously thank God that
they are " not like other men."
While in the vicinity of Canterbury, I visited and lectured
in Rangiora, a stirring city of several thousand. Mr. R.
Schmidt and his estimable companion are the only avowed
Spiritualists. Our first introduction to this family was in
Christchurch. Their harmonious home, just out of the city,
is a little paradise. Those bending fruit-trees, beds of flowers,
oddly-shaped cabbage-trees, winding walks, and a deep,
clear spring bubbling up in the lawn, arched with weeping
willows, are things of beauty not to be forgotten. This
home we termed the Pilgrim's Rest. Here, too, I found
copies of " Daybreak," and "Medium and Human Nature,"
published by James Burns. Thus does this enthusiastic
worker and editor preach the " gospel to the ends of earth."
Though this portion of New Zealand had been settled only
about twenty-one years, it seemed like an old country.
Along the line of the railway were eucalypts, poplar, and
elm trees, with handsome fields of white and red clover
thickly dotted with grazing herds.
Tussock grass — a wild native grass ;— covers much of the
uncultivated upland country. It is capable of making good
paper. Cows feeding upon it give to dairymen a superior
quality of butter ; but, added our German railway informant,
the " water in this part of the country contains too
much hme to make good beer."
FIGURES.
At the close of 1871 the population of New Zealand was
156,431 males, and 110,555 females. The excess in number
of men over women is 45,876. The number of letters
received in the colony in 1871 was 3,291,990, and the number
dispatched was 2,784,707. The number of newspapers
received was 2,308,633, and the number dispatched was
1,871,150. The postal revenue is very large. Government
has a system of telegraphing money-orders.
It is admii-able,