The Newtown bee., 1903-01-16

the cost of living has advanced consid- erably during the past six months. In especially in New South Wales and Queen sland, the long period of drought experienced has created great havoc among the settlers there. Millions of sheep and cattle have per ished for the want of water and food, and thousands of settlers have been ruined, many having had to leave their farms and go elsewhere. 1 notice by the cable news published in the news papers during the last few days that very refreshing rains have been falling over that way and it is now hoped that the period of drought has broken up. The soil over that way is wonderfully resourceful, and no matter how
 parched and dried up it may seem as the result of long spell of dry wealth CT, still in few days after good rain has fallen, the grass and crops will re- 1 vive in an almost incredible short , period of time, and one good season l will make up for two or three bad ones. '' am sorry to Say that our gOldmin-
 ing industry here at Thames is not in a
 very tlOurishing condition and to all
 appearances it will yet be some time
 before we shall have better times.
 Still the country round about us, which
 a few years ago was lying idle and un-
 occupied, is now being taken up and
 rapidly brought under cultivation, and
 that part is assisting very materially to
 keep up this township, as this is the
 headquarters for the farmers to come
 to for getting rid of their surplus pro-
 duce, etc., and in getting what they
 require in return.
 Before this letter reaches you Christ. mas will have come and gone once
 more. 1 had intended to have written
 you last mail and forwarded one or two
 slight remembrances of the season, but
 1 could not get ready in time, and SC
 had to put the matter off until this
 mail. The result will be that they will reach you, or should, few days
 after Christmas. On this occasion l
 am forwarding you number of photo
 graphs and descriptive account o
 some of the sights to be seen in the
 thermal district of Rotoma. In prey
 iOuS letter l have given you little
 inkling of the wonderful things to be
 seen at Rotoma, but the descriptive
 account which l am forwarding you
 with this letter, together with the
 photos, will give you much bette1
 idea of the same, and will no doub
 not only prove interesting to you your
 selves, but also to your numerous [ friends.
 A little while ago our minister, thu
 Rev D. J. Murray, who is now preSi
 dent of the New Zealand Wesleyan
 conference, paid visit to Rotoma dis
 trict, and whilst there he kept diar,
 of what he saw from day to day. H, afterwards wrote out an account of hi } visit to forward to his sister in Eng 7 land, and being d very close and inti , mate friend of his, he allowed me tt ] make copy of the same for myself ] When thinking the other day about : what should forward you this could not do better than write out ; copy of the visit to Rotoma for you
 and endeavor to obtain a few photos tt l illustrate the same. This have done 7 and l trust it will prove acceptable may also state with respect to the photos, that they were taken by ar
 amateur friend of mine who frequent , ly visits ROtoma, and he himself SC lected the photos for me after havin. l read MT Murray's account of his visi . to that district In addition 1 am for. , warding you the Christmas number of the Auckland Weekly News and the ; mas number of the Christ Churcf 5 Press to Mrs Howard Farrand. In eac. , of those numbers you will find man pictures which will luther illustrat, ? MT Murray's description of Rotoma ? and will make it all the more interest = ing. Each of the papers contain 3 number of beautiful illustrations, ant will help to show you a little more o , New Zealand and it's people than yo, are aware of. Some of the scenes art ] very pretty. In the Graphic you vii see, amongst the pictures, one showing 3 an excursion leaving Auckland har bor loaded with people. The steamer name, which you will see on the prov l is "Wakatire." 1 desire to draw you attention to that steamer because sh 2 is the vessel that travels between , Thames and Auckland daily, and i have frequently travelled by her. Sh' :, is most comfortable boat, and speedy 1 could dilate on many of the Othe pictures in each of the papers, as l have myself seen large number of th , sights and places represented by thu photos, but to do so would take up to- F much time and space.
 | With reference to the descriptive r account of the visit to ROtOma, yol have my consent to allow the same tt
 be published in THE VIEWPOINT BEE 5 if the editor of that paper thinks ii , suitable for publication. have intro duced one or two features of intereS