io88 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



progress of the game. The Albert Park is an elevated plateau of land, eleven acres in 

 extent, in the very heart of the city; it occupies the site of the whilom Albert Barracks, 

 and affords the most easily accessible view of harbour and city, the broad waters of the 

 \Vaitemata gleaming in front of it, and on the other sides the net-work of streets, with 

 a picturesque old wind-mill in the foreground. Sometimes, however, the band gives its 

 performance in the Western Park, a pleasant tract of thirteen acres of ground planted 

 with trees, chiefly conifcrcc, and situated on a sunny slope within the south-eastern 

 confines of the Ponsonby Ward. In addition there are some half-dozen triangular 

 miniature reserves, which are railed in and planted with trees. 



At Kllerslie, about five miles out of the city, lies the property of the Auckland 

 Racing Club, with its two grand-stands, its two totalisators, its saddling paddock and other 

 appurtenances. The circuit of the racing track is one mile and a distance. The main 

 grand-stand is a handsome edifice of two flats, built to accommodate five thousand 

 persons, but with a sufficient capacity for eight thousand, and provided with flights of 

 steps to a beautiful lawn equipped with comfortable lounges and rows of pot-plants. 

 One thousand people can be accommodated in the second or Derby stand. The Club 

 holds four meetings per annum, the chief events being the Auckland Cup and Derby 

 during the Christmas and New Year holidays, and the Great Northern Steeple-chase 

 which is run in midwinter. Here, likewise, the Pakuranga Hunt Club holds its annual 

 race meeting in the spring of the year. 



With churches and schools the district is amply supplied. Perhaps the most preten- 

 tious structure of all is St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Cathedral, which is built of brick 

 and the omnipresent stucco. It occupies a commanding site near the fore-shore, and its 

 shapely steeple, crowned with a brazen cross, is a conspicuous object from the Harbour. 

 So too is the fashionable Anglican Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which overlooks the 

 port from the elevated ground from which the city gently slopes to the water's edge. 

 In Upper Queen Street stands a massive pile, known as the Baptist Tabernacle, whose 

 pulpit was once regularly occupied by the Rev. Thomas Spurgeon. The head-quarters of 

 the Anglican Church are situated in Parnell, where the Bishop resides. There also it 

 carries on its own Grammar School and Orphanage. Its college for theological students is 

 passed on the way to St. Helier's Bay. On the western flank of the city the Church 

 of Rome owns a large estate upon which she finds accommodation for the Bishop, 

 besides convent schools and an orphanage that afford scope for the talents and energies 

 of the Sisters of Mercy. Other convent schools exist at Parnell and Onehunga, and 

 the Marist Brothers 'provide instruction for the boys. The State on her part has made 

 ample provision for the equipment of her youth. In the province of Auckland no less 

 than two hundred and forty-eight schools have been established, and of these the city 

 and suburbs of Auckland possess seventeen, the largest being the one known as the 

 Wellesley Street School, which contains the names of one thousand pupils on its roll. 



ihe District Hospital is a handsome pile of stone, built on a commanding site 

 within a large reserve adjoining the Domain. The Lunatic Asylum and its auxiliary 

 occupy a site, well planted with trees, some three miles westward of the city. They are 

 under the direct control of the general Government, which keeps a resident medical man 

 in charge. The Mount Eden Gaol is likewise a Government institution. It is a collec- 



