ks of the Thames and Waikato rivers, is also productive as a pastoral
and agricultural country. A large portion of the land is laid down to
grass and other crops, and is well stocked with sheep and cattle.
Government has done much to encourage agricultural enterprise among the
people of the province, realizing its great importance over all other
industries. The remarkable fertility of the soil seconds this purpose,
and there are hundreds of square miles of it as level as our Western
prairies. We were told of a company called the Waikato Land Association,
which was formed not alone for pecuniary profit to its stockholders,
but also to advance the pastoral and agricultural interests of the
Province. This association owns a hundred thousand acres of rich land
which is being drained and brought into the most available condition. We
saw the operation going on in the form of extensive and systematic
drainage, tree-planting, and other means of improvement upon the
company's lands, through the centre of which the railroad runs southward
from Auckland.

CHAPTER XVI.

A Journey to the King's Country.--An Experienced
"Whip."--Volcanic Hills.--A New Zealand Forest.--A Strangely
Afflicted Boy.--Lake Rotorua.--Ohinemutu.--Funeral of a
Maori Chief.--Wailing and Weeping.--Moonlight on the
Lake.--Wonderland.--Spouting Geysers and Boiling
Pools.--Savage Mode of Slaughter.--Maori Houses.--Chivalry
and Cannibalism.--Savage and Civilized Life.

Here in Auckland we were also in the vicinity of the Hot Lake District
of North New Zealand, and a week was devoted to a visit to the
remarkable points of interest connected therewith. To accomplish this,
one goes from the capital of the Province a hundred and thirty miles to
Oxford, and thence thirty miles by stage to the native town of
Ohinemutu. This route carries the traveller in a southeast course, and
leads into the very heart of the North Island, among the Maori tribes.
The cars took us over a level country, which however is bounded on
either side, five or six miles distant, by lofty serrated hills,
presenting a confusion of irregular forms. These hills contain an
abundance of mineral wealth in the form of gold, silver, iron, coal, and
manganese. Many low-lying marshy fields of native flax were observed,
and the Waikato River was three times crossed in its winding course.
Large plantations containing several thousand each of young pine-trees