to those of Italy in a reversed position. It lies between the parallels 
34 and 4772° South-latitude , and the meridians I 66 V 2 0 and 178 B / 4 ° 
long. East of Greenwich. Its length is 800 sea-miles from North 
to South ; which extent , if measured on European soil , would reach 
from the Southern extremity of Italy far over the Alps to the vi- 
cinity of Munich. The mean width from East to West is 120 sea- 
miles, and the area of the whole group of islands has been esti- 
mated by Dr. Petermann at 99,969 Engl. sq. miles (or 4703 German 
sq. miles). 1 
Hence New Zealand is about as large as Great Britain and 
Ireland, or four times as large as the ancestral estates of the Roman 
Empire in Italy; an area extensive enough to fit it in future for 
a maritime state destined to extend its sway around — a “Great 
Britain of the South-sea.” ~ 
If wo moreover contemplate the situation of New Zealand, as 
it appears upon a planiglobe on Mercator’s projection, we find it 
almost in the centre of an immense semi-circle dividing the globe, 
1 English accounts state the area and circumference of New Zealand to be as 
follows: 
Area. Coast Extent 
Acres. (in sea-miles). 
North Island . . . 31,174,400 = 48,710 sq. mil. 1,^00 
South Island . . . 46,126,880 = 72,072 „ „ 1,500 
Stewart’s Island . . 1,152,000 = 1,800 ,, „ 120 
Total = 78,452,480“= 122,582 „ 3,120. 
The whole of New Zealand has only 50,000 acres less than Great Britain and 
Ireland together; the Northern Island is Y 32 less than England, Wales and Scotland 
excluded; the Southern Island is ^ less than England and Scottland together; 2 / 3 of 
the whole or 52,000,000 acres are calculated to be land tit for agricultural or pastoral 
purposes; the rest comprises inaccessible mountains, coast-sand-hills, swamps, lakes 
and rivers. 
K v. Sydow has computed the area of New Zealand from Arrowsmith’s map 
(of 1851), as follows: 
North Island 2207 German sq. miles 
South Island 2640 „ „ „ 
Stewart’s Island 28 „ n „ 
Smaller adjacent islands .... 30 „ „ „ 
The whole of New Zealand 4905 „ „ „ 
Consequently New Zealand is nearly as large as the Kingdom of Prussia before 
the war of 1866; or as Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia together. 
2 Ritter: The Colonization of New Zealand p. II. 
