666 
CLIMATE. 
country is the narrowest ; on this account the quantity of rain 
which falls at Auckland is much greater than at Wellington. 
It is generally said there are ten degrees difference between 
the northern and southern hemispheres, the latter being so 
much colder than the former; this remark however is not 
correct, and will not apply either to New Holland or New 
Zealand. The chief difference between these islands and 
countries in a similar northern latitude, appears in the latter 
having a greater amount of summer heat and winter cold 
than New Zealand; in the warmest part, the thermometer 
seldom rises beyond 80° in summer, or sinks below 40° in 
winter. In the northern islands, there is occasionally ice 
as thick as half-a-crown, but this is of rare occurrence; in 
general, though the nights of winter are cold, the days are 
delightfully warm and fine; in the southern parts of New 
Zealand, the prevailing character of the winter is cold wind 
and rain; in the parts where the island attains a greater 
width, there are generally three frosty nights at the full of 
the moon; in the interior, the winter's cold is greater, and 
the frosts more frequent, but the days are warm and fine ; 
there also in summer the heat is greater than on the coast ; 
snow falls in some parts of the Middle Island, but very 
rarely in the North, except perhaps on the interior elevated 
plains. Once or twice only for many years have a few flakes 
fallen at Wanganui. 
The more attentively we observe the atmospheric changes, 
which occur in different latitudes and localities, the more 
fixed shall we find the law which regulates them ; thus, in 
Australia, during the summer months, it is noticed that the 
heat gradually increases day by day, until it reaches its 
maximum, then a thunder storm takes place, and the air 
is cooled, or a hot wind arises, which is suddenly suc- 
ceeded by a cold one ; so in New Zealand the thermometer 
in summer rises gradually, until it reaches its greatest height, 
when a cold wind rushes in and the glass falls ; the great 
expanse of the southern polar ocean, the narrow surface 
of the land compared with its length, all together tend 
to reduce the temperature and hinder the summer heat 
