Page:Travel letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913).djvu/104

 *cause of an accident, whereas his wife had a profitable fish-supper business. Counsel asked Cole:

"How high are you able to lift your arm since the accident which you say disabled you?"

Applicant lifted his arm nearly up to his shoulder.

"How far could you lift it before the accident?" counsel for Mrs. Cole asked.

"Oh, up to here," Mr. Cole replied, holding the arm high over his head. Whereupon the magistrate dismissed the case. All of which appears in the Wellington Times of this morning; in the local news, and not in the joke department We have a mandolin orchestra at this hotel, and the leader is an old gentleman who looks like a member of the Supreme Court of the United States whose picture I have often seen, but whose name I have forgotten. He plays to the lady guests as the first violinist does in a Paris café, and is altogether a very interesting character.

—Australia has nothing to show tourists except a few caves; New Zealand has the geyser district, and a glacier or two, but there is nothing of predominant interest in either country, as you will find in Egypt, or India, and in many other countries. The natives here are not interesting; they remind you a good deal of country-town negroes in the United States, although in a way they are superior to the negroes, and superior to our Indians. After the Marois have seen the stage, the boat or the railroad train go by, they have apparently completed their work