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the usual country, the grassy glades, the timbered spurs of the western slope 

 gently falling into open plains, are all entirely different from a New Zealand 

 scene. The fiery glare of the mid-day sun glancing through the shadeless 

 trees, and the rich purple hues of the sunset, ai-e eqvially absent fi'om the New 

 Zealand landscape, or are modified and softened by the moister air of the 

 ocean-surrounded colony. Although tree ferns and palms are well known in 

 Australia, the regions where they are found bear no proportion in area to the 

 mass of the country, so that they are practically unknown to the bulk of the 

 inhabitants. Every New Zealander knows a tree fern, a cabbage tree, or a 

 nikau palm. The New Zealand forest, particularly in the North Island, is of 

 tropical aspect. Take a description of a South American jungle — ^it would fit 

 in, word for word, for that of a New Zealand forest. The Australian bush, 

 stands by itself; it has a peculiar character, difierent from anything elsewhere. 

 Australian lakes are few, and many of them shallow and liable to be dried up. 

 In New Zealand the mountain lakes of Otago are equal to those of Switzer- 

 land or of Scotland, and in Canterbury and Nelson the continuation of these 

 lakes to the N.N.E. oflfers scenery of the grandest description, although inferior 

 in beauty to that of Otago. In the North Island, Lakes Taupo, Rotomahana, 

 etc., with their geysers, hot water cascades, and deposits of silica, ofier objects 

 of beauty and interest which are unknown in Australia. New Zealand is a well 

 watered, Australia a badly watered country. In the former colony one can 

 hardly go for a few hundred yards without finding a stream, whereas, even in the 

 better parts of Australia, the traveller may ride for a whole day before reaching 

 a stream or a water hole. Australia has a continental. New Zealand an insular 

 climate. Steady weather is the rule in Australia ; in New Zealand constant 

 change is the fashion. In Australia the mountain ranges only in one instance 

 exceed 4,000 feet in height ; in New Zealand Mount Cook approaches Mont 

 Blanc in elevation, and heights of 8,000 feet are common. In the North 

 Island are the volcanic cones of Mount Egmont, Riiapehu, and Tongariro, the 

 two former about 9,000 feet in height. The small cones of Yictoria are mole- 

 hills in comparison, and are exceeded in height by numerous minor ones in the 

 province of Auckland. In fact the New Zealand cordillera is on such a scale 

 of magnitude that it would well form the backbone of a continent. The rivers 

 of the provinces of Canterbury and Otago, if united on lower plains, might 

 make a Granges or an Indus, and the western rivers alone of the province of 

 Wellington might, united, equal the Rhine or the Rhone. Such scenery as that 

 of the sounds and harbours of the south-west coast of New Zealand — MUford 

 Sound, Bligh Sound, Dusky Bay, etc. — is quite unknown in Australia. These 

 deep inlets penetrate into the mountains, and cliflTs several thousand feet in 

 height look down upon the tiny ship which ventures into these solitary vraters. 

 In fine, geographically there are many points of resemblance between Aus- 



