A SYSTEMATIC GUIDE-BOOK.
When I was in New Zealand I commenced to write a guide-book for the country. My objects were manifold. I wished to increase the traveller’s pleasure by pointing out to him the sights best worth visiting. I was desirous of placing in the hands of those who had visited this Wonderland the means of reviving their impressions. I wanted to give to those who live in distant countries, and are not blessed with the ways and means of journeying to New Zealand, an accurate and faithful account of all its marvels. In short, I wanted to benefit mankind. I did not want to sell thousands of editions of my work. I did not want to induce people to go by steamers or stay at hotels in which I had an interest. All that I wanted was to be purely and ideally philanthropic.
I regret to say that my noble intentions have been frustrated. Others have been before me in the field, and authors have already launched upon the traveller’s world many avade mecumto New Zealand. I have read these books with the greatest interest, and their accurate and vivid descriptions have made an indelible impression on my mind. The phraseology of these works,among which ‘Maori-land’ stands pre-eminent, have entered so deeply into my soul, that I feel I shall in future be continually in danger of jeopardizing my reputation by plagiaristic quotations.
If therefore, in the following brief samples of what my guide-book would have been, quotations from ‘Maori-land’ and other books are recognised, I trust that the authors of these monuments of literary art will grant me their forgiveness.
All that I can claim for my notes is that they are afaithfulandsystematicdescription of my impressions. The charge of overcolouring the pictures I have endeavoured to present has been studiously avoided. Ethereal nothingness has been carefully suppressed. The only fault of which critics can accuse me, is that I have unavoidably presented pictures in tints which are too subdued. I have endeavoured to curb imagination, and to describe things as they really are; and in this I feel that I have admirably succeeded.
To be systematic, I have constructed my book on a plan—the descriptions are numbered, and they run in the following order:
1. All that it is impossible to describe by the medium of words.
2. All that strikes the stranger dumb with admiration.
3. All that exceeds the wildest flights of Eastern imagination, and holds the wanderer spell-bound with enchantment.
4. All natural creations which can never be obliterated from the feeblest memory.
5. All that you can only sigh and gush about.
6. Tableau and revelations of beauty.