First came the pictnres. The walls glowed with colonre that brought before one some of the most remarkable and wild scenery of this tenuous province jammed betwixt Alp and mean. It was a fairy region of foreat and fern, of blue- Pi- hazed mountain and calm wood-belted lake, of Himalayan ice-falls *Own and snowfields that the picture-crammed walls held for the visitor. To begin with, a general idea of the enormous size and extent of the Coast. great Southern Alps and the endless sierra of ice-peaks was eontained in a ions panoramic picture painted by Mr. W. Deverell, of tho New Zealand Lsnds Department, ahowing the whole central stretch of the dividing range, with glaciers gleaming in the deep valleya, and sublime Aorangi'e tented crest rising white and supreme inore than 12,000 ft. above the artist's viewpoint on the sea-front. Then came picture after picture of alpine gloom and alpine glory. There was C. N. Worsley's " Mount Cook from Hokitika," a distant view of Aorangi shining aloft seventy miles due south hm Westland's capital. There were E. W. Christmas's large canvases of those singularly beautiful ice-flows of the western Alp-slope, the Franc Josef and Fox G!aciers, both of which approach to within 7W ft. of the sea-level. There were eight of this artist's paiiitingb each depicting some aspect of the great ice-cataracts plunging down between the wooded mountains, or some d d river-gorge or other scene on the way from Hokitika southwards to the gkiera. Other pictures of the glaciers were two he little water-colonrs by the late Sir Waam Pox, lent by Mr. Ocrhard Hueller, of Buckland, at one time Chief Surveyor for Westland. One was of the Franz Josef from the terminal face-a beautiful bit of icepainting showing the sharp pinnacles of the ice-fall near the face of the great frozen river, the green foliage of the precipitous mountains on either side, and the Waiau River kuing from a deep blue icocave on the right-hand side of the glacier. The other picturc was one of the Fox Glacier--an even more beautiful ice-flow than the Franz Jose& and about seventeen miles further south. Sir William Fox's sketch was made from the terminal face of the glacier, with the lofty wooded rock known as the " Cone " on the right. This glacier, at first known as the Prince Alfred Glacier, was renamcd after Sir William, who visited it over thirty years ago, when he was Premier of the colony, in company with Mi. Mueller. Fox's aketches of the glaciers wen! amongst the ht made of these wonderful sights of wild Westland. Ice is a most difficult subject for the artist's brush. There is a danger of getting it chalky, or pasty and dull-looking ; and a clear glacier-field such as the F'ranz Josef on a bright day is a blaze of white tire. Then the camera is as a m!e powcrlcss to couvey anything beyond an impression of dead-black rock and dead-white ice. But amongst the many fine photographic enlargements of alpine scenes sent by Dr. Teichelmann of Hokitika, and the Rev. H. E. Neaton, of Ross-two climbing enthusiasts and "old hands " with ice-axe and rope as well as with camera-them were some superb effects, particularly Mr. Newton's ice arches, in which he had exactly caught the glint of mdine on a glacier. Some of these pictures, as well as Mr. (kkkmas's paintings, vividly showed the wonderful manner in which the huge rocks had been cut and planed by the enormous force of the glacier. These planings arc the work of ages of ice-preseure ; the chisel-marks of the Ancient of Days. Other artists whose pictures swelled the alpine gallery were J. E. Moultrap, J. D. Perrett, C. Blomfield, and Walsh. There were a great number of large photographs embracing every scenic aspect of Westland. The photographic artists included Mrs. George J. Roberta, Dr. Teichelmann, Jlessrs. J. Park, W. Win, and W. F. Robinson, of Hoktika; J. Ring and A. P. Harper, Greymouth; Miss &&, of Westport ; and Mr. Xewtmn, of Boss. The la& of Westland provided the most delightful section of the little gallery. Standing before those painting^ of Jdapourilra, Ianthe, Kanieri, and Thhbpua, so
OFFICLkL RECORD