A FLEET OF WHALERS IN THE BAY OF ISLANDS. 



DESCRIPTIVE SKETCH OF NEW ZEALAND. 



AUCKLAND. 



"V T E\V ZEALAND, from its insular position and long, narrow and irregular outline, 

 possesses, in proportion to its area, a far more extensive coast-line than any other 

 part of Australasia, measuring, as it does, upwards of three thousand miles. For similar 

 reasons, coupled with the fact that the trend of the Islands is from south-east round to 

 north-east, it embraces a considerable diversity of climatic conditions, products and 

 resources, as indeed would be indicated by the mere statement that it runs for nearly 

 one thousand miles through more than thirteen degrees of latitude. Its oceanic environ- 

 ment imparts a singular mildness and equability to the climate, tempering the subtropical 

 warmth of the far North, and qualifying the winter cold of the extreme South. Within 

 its area of one hundred and four thousand four hundred and three square miles nearly 

 every variety of climate is to be found represented, the temperature being variable 

 enough and sudden in its changes. Droughts are rare, and are never excessive ; floods 

 are seldom very serious. The colony comprises the North, South and Stewart Islands, 

 the two former being separated by Cook Strait, and the latter by Foveaux Strait. It 

 'is bountifully endowed by Nature with most of those gifts which require only an 

 adequate population to ensure national prosperity. Gold had been heard of in New 

 Zealand from the time the territory was first made known to Europeans, although the 

 discovery for practical purposes dates only from 1861. Copper also has been found, as 

 well as certain quantities of silver, tin, iron, coal, oil, sulphur, marble, graphite and 

 antimony, besides some small diamonds. In vegetable products New Zealand is exceed- 

 ingly rich, and its soil will grow anything produced in Great Britain. There are ( about 

 one hundred and twenty varieties of indigenous forest trees, and about one hundred and 

 thirty species of ferns. Of the flora of the Islands it is said that two-thirds of the 

 species are peculiar to the group, while twenty-six of the genera are not to be met 



