A ROUND-THE-WORLD BOTANICAL EXCURSION 423 



pean dress and are sending their children to school. With few excep- 

 tions, the most experienced and satisfactory guides in the thermal 

 district are young Maori women, who speak English perfectly, and, as 

 nearly as I could determine, have about the education afforded by a 

 first-class grammar school in our country. 



On the whole, New Zealand is a remarkable country. The climate 

 is delightful, never uncomfortably warm or uncomfortably cold, no 

 droughts or floods, a landscape green all the year round, even deciduous 

 exotics remaining in leaf longer than with us, a country of fertile 

 plains, beautiful lakes and lofty forests, it is not strange that it should 

 have the lowest death-rate in the world. In the years 1896-1907 the 

 death-rate averaged only 9.86 per thousand. Epidemics like cholera 

 and smallpox are unknown. In wealth, as in health, New Zealand leads 

 the world, for in 1908 the average private wealth per capita was $1,675, 

 and the wealth is increasing. Even teachers share in the general pros- 

 perity; I doubt whether any botanist in the world has an estate equal 

 to that of Dr. A. P. W. Thomas, the professor of botany in the Uni- 

 versity College at Auckland. 



The government is progressive, run by the people (including 

 women) in the interest of the people; politics are not controlled by 

 machines; there are no trusts; the government owns the railways, tele- 

 graph and telephone lines, has operated for about forty years a postal 

 saving bank which now has about $60,000,000 in deposits, and has a 

 life-insurance department carrying about the same amount in policies. 

 The principal need of the country is people; there is still plenty of 

 room, and the unusual inducements offered to colonists should attract 

 the needed population. 



The investigation for which the trip was undertaken really began 

 when I reached Australia, for there are no cycads in New Zealand. 



Australia is a large country with an area almost exactly equal to 

 that of the United States, but with a population scarcely equal to that 

 of Illinois. The states are few, but large, most of them being larger 

 than Texas. They are loosely federated, but the tendency is toward 

 closer federation. The government of the various states owns the rail- 

 ways and other public commodities, and the political situation resembles 

 that in New Zealand. 



The harbor at Sydney is the finest in the world. It could accom- 

 modate all the navies of all nations, and still have room enough for all 

 the liners of the Atlantic to unload at once. While such practical 

 features dominate in a new country, it must not be forgotten that 

 Sydney, until very recently, had the largest pipe organ in the world, 

 and that even now,* on account of its perfect position, the organ is 

 probably the most effective in the world. The organist is a regular 

 officer of the city, and gives free recitals every Sunday afternoon. 



