sing the Isthmus to the town of Onehunga , situated on the shores 
of Manukau Harbour, a distance of five miles. 
Onehunga, originally a settlement of civil and military pen- 
sioners who from the Government had received a small house 
and one acre of land each , has already risen to the rank of a 
town, which, being the chief trading-place of the natives, is gaining 
more and more importance and , in consequence of its pleasant 
situation and charming environs, has become the favourite residence 
of business-men who, having their business-establishment in Auckland, 
prefer to live in or close by Onehunga. Along the road between the 
two towns farms and cottages are seen scattered about. The land, 
however, is not exclusively in the hands of farmers; merchants, 
civil and military officers also invest their savings in landed pro- 
perty. Charming country-houses surrounded with lovely gardens 
grace the country all over the Isthmus; while at the crossings of 
the principal roads already villages have sprung up, such as New 
Market, Mount St. John Village, Epsom, Panmure, and farther 
on Otahuhu and Howik. It is not to be wondered therefore, that 
in the course of time the land in and about Auckland has enorm- 
ously risen in value . 1 
The Isthmus of Auckland is one of the most remarkable vol- 
canic districts of the earth. It is characterised by a large number 
of extinct volcanic cones with craters in a more or less distinct 
state of preservation, and with lava-streams forming extensive stone 
fields at the foot of the hills, or with tuff-craters surrounding , like 
an artificial wall , the cones of eruption piled up of scoriae and vol- 
canic ashes. These cones are promiscuously scattered over the Isthmus 
and the neighbouring shores of the Waitemata and Manukau. The 
1 In Auckland from £10 to 12 are paid for one foot front in the principal 
streets for ware house and store purposes ; at a late sale of real estate two miles 
from Auckland at the foot of Mount John, at the crossing of the Onehunga and Great 
South Road £0 to 7 were paid per foot, and .£"1100 for one acre. The usual price 
of an acre of cultivated land is ,£15 to 30. With such prices it will be easy to 
account for the fact, that in Auckland the project has been carried out, to fill up 
the shallow dent of Commercial Bay for the purpose of gaining by it level house 
lots and sufficient room for a slighty street along the sea-shore. 
