I had htprd of dales nrd ■ibrooks, of fruitful vallo*B and plans, I hid aleo heard of birch -covered hill?, of bungry plains serrft-d'with s one?, I had read in Bpeeohfß and newspaper lead- rs that a line to the West Coast oould ODly pnss through a sterile country, and would ntver pa}' a cent interest upon its coastraotion. With my personal ignoranoe how wps I to determine

whioh of these conflicting statements were Irao. There was only one wny (o test the tratb o£ the pro or con, and tbnfc was to visit the district myself. This I determined upon. For this purpose a guide waa necessary, A word to Mr Needham of Motueka Yslley brought Mr Bromell of the Ferry Hotel to my door with an offer to meet me at Belgrovo and take me to the Sherry. A letter to Mr H. Phillips, J.F., of the Sherry, brought an •offer of aooommcdMion and an undertaking 'to show me the country. These two getitle <mea have done yeotnao service for the Mid- Jland Railway route via the Tadmor, and •deserve the thanks of the community on (both sidaa of the rsngce. Mr Bromel), as true as hia word, met me on Monday, the 26th of Mrroh, «t Bolgrove, aud we started 4o mount op Spooner's Rarg?, that mighty ■mass of alluvial drift, whioh geologists wise and otherwite have tried to explain the •origin of, and perhaps with equal succ sa. At the outset of my journey, while we are climbing slowly up the four miles of hill, it is as well to ask what is the standard of good laud. I have never heard that defined satisfactorily. A settler from the Eiwaka swamps would have a different idea of the quality of land than the settler en the Moutere bills. It might ba that 'the best .standard of goodness would be the nvan the two. Then yon will have •degrees of comparison— bad, indifferent, &ood, very good, Diet. Spooler's Range .is a degree better t' an the Mout«re Hills .■and comparable to some of the poorer lands in Britain like the Derbyshire Hills. A Itundred years hence may sco cultivation creeping up this mountain, and the sideß dotted with the little homesteads of indus trious and thrifty Bet tier?. 