UNKNOWN

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1527, 27 March 1885, Page 2

UNKNOWN

A Timarn gentleman received a letter by the last mail from a friend, who waft resident for many yean itt the Geraldine district, from which the local ' Herald ' makes come extracts. After stating that he arrived all safe, the writer proceeds : — " I will now giva 1 ynn some of the particulars of the 1 wyage. Id the first place we have 1 well Iteaten all previous record*, as we did fram Lyttelton to Plymonth in thirty -six days sixtee-nhours steaming ti me ; and 1 never bad a better passage. ' The aecommdation and the rations were i splendid, and taken all n all, could not ' be beaten ; — what with eleotrie light* ■ and electric hells, fruit for dessert of all kinds and iced creams, not for. • getting the splendid mntton chops of- a morning (some of the cooks were * fii-st-dass), there was nothing left to ' lie- dew red. The weather was very f favorable, only one wet day the whole* i rnn. b«ing m«*t wit&. Of course ronnding the Horn in trimmer time f was not so cold as when I rounded it last year. One thing might he.im> » proved on thn Bnnpehu and her sitter r ships, vii., a blast fan be fitted np to r create a dranght of air, for whilst at [ the Rio and going ov*r the live, the. > bath-room floor in the second ca'-m r was so hot some mornings that I pool i t scarcely hear it with my l«m fe*i, an t r I bad to drench it with water. Tba t heat came up from the stoke h©l«i ■ Happily that extreme heat did not > last many days. The* heat from the ' hole* is nevertheless a loxory in odd t weather. The stewards were rery at- ; tenttve, and I may say it is the first time that I have been aMe to g«t acrms without gtowliitg at them. Without decent oMigingstewards there* 1 is no getting along comfortably at sea, I went ashore at Bio, and fom»d it fearfnlly hot torn*. Te go about with at* umltrella is a necessity ; yet in spit* of the heat all the gents there wear tb-* regulation beUtoper, and the ladies ara really well dressed in the most expensive materials. By the-by what a stnpid manner they have of reckoning the value of things at tbs Rio. I saw a very common tweftd anil hunching ap in a *hop tickfted only 25.000 reis ; the same when we went to a cafe to get some tft ; six of as had tea. and the bill was 1,950 rei*, When I saw it I thought we were going to be cleaned ont, and that we* should all be bankrupt, bat after a lot of talk it took 'only 5s 6d to pay for 1 the lot The most noticeable thing 7 in Rio is its peculiar smells. Ther are ' strong enongh to lift yon off the 1 ground, and they beggar description. » . . . The snhnrban residences a • 1 splendid and dean. . . , One of the best things I saw at Rio w«r* the magnificent males ; they are n«ed for palling the tram cars. Horses could not do th" w >r|r fo*- the heat.