eshness.

The area of the islands known as New Zealand is about one hundred
thousand square miles, being a few more than are contained in England,
Wales, and Ireland combined. The entire coast line is four thousand
miles in length. Out of the seventy million acres of land, forty million
are deemed worthy of cultivation. The soil being light and easily worked
favors the agriculturist, and New Zealand is free from all noxious
animals and venomous reptiles. It is stated that no animal larger than a
rat was found here by the discoverers. The remote situation of the
country, surrounded by the greatest extent of ocean on the globe, has
kept it in a measure unknown to the rest of the world, even in these
days of rapid communication with all parts of the earth. Wellington, the
capital, is about fifteen thousand miles more or less, from the Colonial
Office in London; in other words, New Zealand forms the nearest land to
the actual antipodes of England. The precious metals are distributed
over the land in gold-bearing quartz reefs, rich alluvial diggings, and
in the sands of its many rivers. Mines of tin and iron as well as other
minerals are supplemented by an abundant supply of the most important of
them all; namely, coal.

There is little of interest to detain us at the Bluff, so we continue
on by steamer to Dunedin, the metropolis of Otago district, and indeed,
the principal city of New Zealand, if we make the number and wealth of
its population the criterion of comparison. The cities of both Australia
and New Zealand, but especially those of the latter country, have a
habit of locating themselves among and upon a collection of hills, up
the sides of which the houses creep in a very picturesque manner.
Dunedin is no exception to this rule, rising rather abruptly from the
plain, which is the location of the wharves and business houses, to the
summit of the surrounding hills. A portion of the plain near the shore,
upon which broad streets and substantial blocks of buildings now stand,
consists of made land, redeemed at great expense from the shallow water
front of the town.

The first settlement here was made so late as 1848, by a colony nearly
every member of which came from Scotland, and from this source the city
has continued ever since to draw large numbers annually. The Scottish
brogue salutes the ear everywhere; the Scottish physiognomy is always
prominent to the eye; and indeed, there are several prevailing
indication