Page:Travel letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913).djvu/63

 country, because of its mild winters In the smoking-car of the train, the spittoons were holes in the floor, with a brass top of the regulation spittoon pattern In Australia and New Zealand you see the sign "No smoking" very much oftener than anywhere else in the world There is no prairie land in New Zealand. There is a bush to be cleared off all the farm land; I don't know what it is, but it looks like scrub cedar. All along the route we saw this burning; that seems to be one method of clearing land here. And after the land is cleared, it must be heavily manured; at one country town I saw a store sign which announced dry goods, artificial manures, iron mongery, etc. There is as much evidence of prosperity here as in the best sections of the Middle West, and you wonder where it comes from, since you see almost nothing but sheep. I didn't see a poverty-stricken looking house all day, nor at any of the dozens of stopping-places did I see anyone who seemed to be poor About 2 we approached the mountains, and traveled in them until we reached the summit, and ran rapidly down the other side. Near the top we encountered several sawmills, but they were rather small affairs. At 5 we began seeing, in the distance, steam ascending from geysers. At 6 we steamed into Rotorua. The railroad stops here, and all the passengers left the crowded train. There are dozens of boarding-houses and hotels; excellent accommodations may be had for $10.50 a week, and the Grand, the best hotel, charges only $3.12 a day for board and room. The baths rival the best in the most famous watering-places of the Old World, and many spouting