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278
Letters from New Zealand
of the atmosphere in which things are seen at a great distance. All this brings visitors to the country.
Lately, travelling by rail from Christchurch to Timaru, I met two who were greatly taken with the prosperous appearance of the country. I told them that fifty years ago the place was a mere lonely wilderness of grass, and that all they saw,—farms, houses roads, villages, townships, was the work of a handful of people, who to-day do not number 30,000 in South Canterbury. "Difficult to believe" was the response, "they must be a grand lot of workers." Machinery accounts for much, but the fact remains that here men do more than at home; wages are higher, there is always the chance for all of making money and rising in the social scale.
I am,
Yours ever,
H. W. H.
