1078 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



with in any other place. The most valuable vegetable product is the kauri pine, 

 furnishing timber and gum, which constitute the staple of a lucrative foreign trade. 

 Possessing such advantages, and magnificently situated in the midst of the greatest 

 expanse of ocean in the world, in the direct water-way between America and Australia, 

 its future is assured, and it is not surprising that its people should be inspired with 

 patriotic expectations, or that its public men should give rein to the imagination as they 

 attempt to cast the horoscope of their country. 



On entering the port of Auckland, the traveller recognizes at once that the pano- 

 rama and the conditions under which it is presented are singularly prepossessing. The 

 approach to Auckland Harbour is one of the noblest in the world, for the city lies on 

 the south-western shore of the great Hauraki Gulf. The ship's course must necessarily be 

 from the direction of the north, because the Gulf is flanked on the east by a long 

 peninsula which forms its shore on that side. The Great and Little Barrier Islands lie 

 just off the entrance to the north, and form there a partial breakwater, though they do 

 not enclose the Harbour. The Gulf proper begins in the thirtieth parallel of latitude, 

 between Cape Colville and Kawau Island, where it is about twenty-five miles wide. 

 The course to Auckland lies south till vessels pick up on the right hand the Tiritiri 

 Light-house, which stands on a small grassy islet, separated by a deep and safe channel 

 from the Whangaparaoa Peninsula a long jutting promontory, which runs out eastward 

 from the land, and forms a north-westerly breakwater for the rest of the passage. The 

 Great Barrier Island lies thirty-five miles in the rear, and its hazy outlines are just 

 discernible over the ship's stern. Onwards from Tiritiri the navigation is in smooth 

 water, the course is straight and broadly defined, there are no impediments or dangers 

 to necessitate cautious navigation, and the vessel is steered steadily on towards the 

 spacious Rangitoto Channel, which leads right into port. This channel lies between the 

 Rangitoto Island and the main-land, which is in this part a low-lying peninsula stretching 

 obliquely across the bow, and permitting the eye to see over it and catch glimpses of 

 the distant city rising gradually from the water's edge, and disappearing over a ridge 

 behind which isolated hills of volcanic action rear themselves at intervals. 



Entering the Channel, Lake Takapuna, with its broad, shelly beach, its villas, 

 orchards and gardens, lies to the right rear ; and the hinder portion of the transmarine 

 suburb of Devonport, with its curving shore, numerous trim white cottages and stores, 

 its neat race-course and its picturesque Mount Victoria, belted with pine-trees and 

 crowned by a signal-station, is on the right front. Away to the left, the Channel is 

 flanked by the magnificent volcanic island of Rangitoto, with a substantial beacon of 

 stone off the re.ef at its foot. Rising with an extensive sweep, it culminates at the 

 centre in a triple-peaked volcanic mount, nine hundred and twenty feet high, symmetrical 

 in its proportions, sharply clear in its contour, and sombre in its colouring. It is destitute 

 of forest, but densely clad to its immediate base with undergrowth and native shrubs, 

 of which about four hundred varieties are to be found on the Island. The scaling of 

 the Mount is a far more formidable undertaking than its height would lead one to 

 imagine, for the place is thickly overlaid with loosely piled blocks of scoria 1 . Behind 

 Rangitoto lies the grassy park-like island of Motutapu, stocked with sheep, cattle, 

 winged game and herds of deer, and owning the undisputed sway of Messrs. Reid 



