are pretty places such as LATROBE, NEW NORFOLK, and CAMPBELLTOWN, which are thriving as well as attractive. Near the latter town there is a district in which stud-sheep of the highest quality are reared. Every year the best rams from these splendid flocks fetch as high a price as a thousand guineas each among the great wool-growing magnates of Australia.

XIV.-NEW ZEALAND

Geographical Position.-About 1000 miles to the east of Australia lie the islands of New Zealand, which are very nearly the antipodes of England. A little island to the south of them is called Antipodes Island, because it is the other end of that diameter of the earth which passes through London. The parallel of 40° south latitude and the meridian of 176° east longitude intersect in the northern of the islands.

Size, Configuration, and Coast-Line.-New Zealand consists of three islands, whose area amounts to a little more than 100,000 square miles, the greatest length being nearly 1000 miles. The islands are variously named, but the names used officially in the colony are North Island, South Island, and Stewart Island. A good view of the coast scenery of New Zealand can now be easily obtained, as steamers carry excursionists from Australia during the summer round the magnificent shores of these islands. Let us, in imagination, take part in one of these pleasuretrips and mark the varying outer aspect of the country. We head for the west coast of the South Island, and while yet many miles away, see the long line of snow-clad mountains rising to north and to south in majestic grandeur. On nearer approach the mountains are seen to end at the sea-level in lofty cliffs, the base of which is continually chafed by the waves. Reaching the coast at WEST CAPE we turn northwards, and in the dark sea-wall we notice every few miles the entrance to deep narrow inlets such as are called in Norway "fiords," filled with still water on which are thrown the shadows of the towering crags that surround them. The ledges of the precipices are hung

with ferns which flourish luxuriantly in the moist air. Here and there from the summit of these cliffs, many hundred feet above the placid sea-water, a river escaping from the melting ice and snow of the interior, throws itself in a white cascade that shoots down into the sea. Some of these falls make an everlasting roar louder than the noise of thunder. At the head of one of these recesses, though still on the sea, we are deep in the bosom of the mountains, and we can catch a glimpse of the far higher

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peaks and the chilly glitter of their sloping glaciers. one has ever crossed that mountain range hereabouts. white summits and fern-covered valleys are equally untrodden by man.

The coast, though still interesting, grows less impressive farther north, seeing that the mountains steadily recede from the shore. But the scenery improves again towards the northern end of the island as we reach what Captain Cook called Cape Farewell when he said good-bye to the shores of New Zealand. The strait which separates the two large islands is appropriately called Cook Strait;

for Captain Cook, though not the first discoverer of these islands, was the first to give much information about them. On the south it opens into Tasman Bay, so called after the brave Dutchman who was actually the first discoverer of New Zealand, and into Massacre Bay, so called because a boat's crew of Tasman's Dutchmen were there massacred by the natives.

Having reached the end of the strait, which takes a voyage of nearly a day, let us round the lofty promontory of Cape Palliser and follow the east coast of the North Island. It is a pretty coast, though not nearly so grand as that on the west side of the South Island. Hawke Bay is fringed with a long sweep of sandy beach, backed by a forest of wild luxuriance, behind which the blue outlines of lofty hills close in a region hardly fit for any settlement, except where two or three small villages break the line of the beach, with their houses and clustered vegetation. Still farther north the coast becomes wilder, till it ends in a cape of white cliffs, bare, naked, and rugged, but backed by a wonderful panorama of mountains. Five noble ranges run inland, with their ends presented towards the sea, and for a large part of the year their summits are capped with snow. Rounding this, which is called the East Cape, we enter the Bay of Plenty, an open curve of the coast, still backed by forests out of which rise many mountains some of which are old volcanoes. In the bay lie many small islands which are really the tops of partially submerged volcanoes. Hauraki Gulf is similarly studded with volcanic islands; one of these is the wild-looking crater Rangitoto, a great black bowl with sides 1000 feet high. Never-failing interest attends the voyage along these cliffy shores, broken into many bays by the action of the Pacific rollers which have likewise carved out many little islands, some of which are loaded with verdure. The northern part of the North Island runs out into a long peninsula that ends in North Cape and Cape Maria Van Diemen. As we sail southward along the west coast of it, we pass Kaipara Harbour, and Manukau Harbour, which runs into the land so as almost to meet the Hauraki Gulf, leaving but a very narrow neck of