FOOTNOTES:
[1] "The Boy Travellers in the Far East" (five volumes), and "The Boy Travellers in South America," "The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire," and "The Boy Travellers on the Congo" (three volumes). See complete list at the end of this book.
[2] "The Young Nimrods Around the World," chapter xv. Published by Harper & Brothers.
[3] New Zealand Blue-book, 1874, evidence of Mr. Sterndale, late employé of Godefroy & Sons.
[4] This account is abridged from "The Cruise of the Rosario," by Captain A. H. Markham, R.N.
[5] Since the above was written Samoa has virtually passed into the hands of the Germans. The former King was deposed, taken on board a German war-ship, and carried into exile in New Guinea. A new king was placed on the throne, and is maintained there by a German garrison stationed at Apia.
[6] "Forty Years in New Zealand," by Rev. James Buller.
[7] Shortly after the visit described above, the famous terraces were destroyed by an eruption of Mount Tarawera. Soon after midnight of June 10, 1886, loud explosions were heard and violent earthquakes felt; in a few minutes Mount Tarawera broke out as an active volcano, hurling ashes, dust, and red-hot stones to a great height, and the whole sky in all directions seemed to be aflame. The ashes, dust, and mud were distributed over a wide area of country, some of the dust and ashes falling fifty miles away. The outbreak of Tarawera was followed almost immediately by a terrific outburst at Lake Rotomahana; the water of the lake, with its clay bed and the material of the Pink and White Terraces, was suddenly blown into the air in the shape of an immense mud-cloud followed by steam and smoke. The mud-cloud in its descent buried the surrounding country to various depths, ranging as high as thirty feet. The native villages of Wairoa and Te Ariki were completely covered, and the village of Mourea was bodily thrown into Lake Tarawera and swallowed out of sight. Over one hundred persons perished, the most of them natives. Mr. Hazard, the master of the native school at Wairoa, and four of his children were among the killed.
It was estimated that fifty square miles of country were covered to a depth of three feet and more by the mud, ashes, and stones, and sixteen hundred square miles more or less affected by the eruption or the deposits from it. Stones weighing half a ton and upwards were found nine miles from the scene of the explosion, and some within a mile or less weighed several tons. The explosions were heard eighty miles away, and are described as resembling heavy guns at sea. They continued about three hours, ceasing before daylight; and the night is well described as a night of terror.
[8] A recent writer on this subject says: "On the arid, barren Riverina plains (whereon naturally not even a mouse could exist) there are pastured at present some twenty or twenty-five millions of high-class merino sheep. These sheep are being gradually eaten out by rabbits. The following will serve as an illustration, and it must be borne in mind that it is only one of many which could be adduced.
"On the south bank of the river Murray, consequently in the colony of Victoria, there is a station named Kulkyne, which has about twenty miles frontage to that river. The holding extends far back into arid, naturally worthless, waterless country. On that station, by skilful management and by command of capital, there came to be pastured on it about 110,000 sheep. When I two or three years ago visited that station I found that the stock depasturing it had shrunk to 1,200 sheep dying in the paddock at the homestead; 110,000 sheep to 1,200 sheep!
"The rabbits had to account for the deficiency. On that station they had eaten up and destroyed all the grass and herbage; they had barked all the edible shrubs and bushes, and had latterly themselves begun to perish in thousands."
[9] On the 24th of January, 1888, the celebration of the centenary of New South Wales was begun, the occasion being the anniversary of the landing of the first governor of the colony. Lady Carrington, the wife of the Governor, unveiled a statue of Queen Victoria in the presence of the governors of all the Australian colonies, including New Zealand and Feejee. The festival extended over a week, and included the dedication of Centennial Park, the opening of the Agricultural Society's exhibition, and an international regatta and state banquets. On the 26th, the anniversary of Governor Phillip's proclaiming at Sydney Cove the founding of the colony, there was a general illumination. The city was crowded with visitors, and the gathering thoroughly represented Australia. Special thanksgiving services were held on the opening day in the Anglican and Catholic cathedrals. The ceremonies in the Catholic cathedral were attended by the archbishop and all the bishops of Australia. Centennial Hall is one of the largest halls in the world, and is on the site of the old burial-ground of one hundred years ago.
Melbourne celebrated the centennial year of the settlement of Australia by a World's Exhibition, to which all nations were invited. South Australia had an International Exhibition at Adelaide in 1887, similar to the exhibitions of Sydney and Melbourne a few years earlier.
[10] See map at the end of this volume.
[11] In an article on "Ranch Life in the Far West," in The Century Magazine for February, 1888, Hon. Theodore Roosevelt says: "The flash-riders, or horse-breakers, always called 'broncho-busters,' can perform really marvellous feats, riding with ease the most vicious and unbroken beasts, that no ordinary cow-boy would dare to tackle. Although sitting seemingly so loose in the saddle, such a rider cannot be jarred out of it by the wildest plunger, it being a favorite feat to sit out the antics of a bucking horse, with a silver half-dollar under each knee or in the stirrups under each foot."