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FIJI-NEW ZEALAND EXPEDITION 225 
we had experienced at the hands of everyone with whom we had 
come in contact during our stay. This delightful evening was 
concluded by all joining hands and singing ‘‘ Auld Lang Syne!”’ 
I confess that I was deeply affected by this leave-taking and never 
have been made to feel the sincere friendship of people of a for- 
eign country more than we did on this memorable evening. 
We greatly enjoyed our stay at Wellington and found much to 
admire there. Although somewhat smaller than Auckland, (it has 
a population of 103,000) it enjoys the advantage of being the 
capital of the Dominion and the center of governmental activities. 
There is evidently considerable rivalry between the two cities, as 
is quite natural, and commercial competition is keen. The two 
are equally metropolitan in appearance and the main business 
streets are lined with imposing buildings. Willis street is the 
Broadway of Wellington and here are found a number of banks, 
the main hotels and most of the large stores or shops. The Em- 
pire hotel seems to be the most dignified hostelry and is perhaps 
the best in New Zealand, at least the best that we saw. 
The city is built mostly on low ground between the water front 
_and the high ridge to the south. A cable tram-line climbs this hill 
from near the Lambton Quay to the region of the Botanical Gar- 
dens and Victoria College, affording easy access to some of the 
most beautiful suburbs of the city, while Observatory Hill crowns 
the summit from which a superb bird’s-eye view of the city and 
wharfs is attained. Still further to the east is Island Bay with a 
fine motor road, the Esplanade, running along the coast for miles. 
Government building is said to be one of the largest modern wood- 
en buildings in the world. The most imposing public building is 
Parliament building which has already been described, while Gov- 
ernment House is to the east of the main business center. There 
is a good tram-car system, of which the main line runs along the 
water front and out Willis street. But the thing which impressed 
us most was the healthy, vigorous, ruddy-cheeked children one 
meets everywhere in New Zealand. In spite of the fact that their 
knees were bare and often seemed blue with cold, I belive that 
nowhere else have I seen so good an average of strong, vigorous 
looking boys and girls. These children struck me as being the 
very best product of all the good products of New Zealand. 
The city has an extensive series of wharves excellently equipped 
in every way, especially in the matter of powerful cranes to handle 
the cargoes of incoming and outgoing vessels from almost every 
