Just beneath us is the railway station, whence the line runs across the
isthmus, connecting Auckland with Onehunga on the Manukau Harbour,
where the West Coast traffic is carried on, and thus placing Auckland,
like Corinth, upon two seas. The railway also extends southwards to the
Waikato.[1] Onehunga is only some half-dozen miles from the outskirts of
the city, and the road to it lies between fields and meadows, bordered
with hedgerows, by villa and cottage and homestead, quite in English
rural style. The road also leads by Ellerslie race-course, and the
Ellerslie Gardens, the Auckland Rosherville.

The coastal traffic that is carried on in the Manukau is nearly equal in
extent to the similar trade done in the Waitemata, hence the commercial
importance of Auckland can hardly be rivalled by that of any other city
of New Zealand. Dunedin, in the far south, holds a similar status to
Auckland in the north, but the cities are too far distant (some eight
hundred nautical miles) to become rivals to the detriment of each other.

Beyond the railway, we look across the inland sweep of Mechanic's Bay to
the rising ground on its further side, crowned by the popular and
picturesque suburb of Parnell. On the river side the streets descend to
the shore; the houses, most of them pretty wooden villas, standing each
in its terraced garden grounds, embowered in rich foliage. On the land
side a gully divides Parnell from the Domain. This serves as a public
park and recreation ground for citizens of Auckland. It is a tract of
original forest or bush, through whose bosky glades winding walks have
been cut, leading up and down range and gully, furnished with seats and
arbours and artificial accessories. Conjoined to the Domain are the
gardens of the Acclimatization Society, which are beautiful and
interesting on account of their botanical and zoological contents.

Rising at some distance behind the Domain, we catch a glimpse of Mount
Hobson, upon whose sides nestles the suburb of the same name. To the
right of it lies the Great South Road, whereon is the village of
Newmarket, and beyond it again the scattered suburb of Epsom, and that
gem of lovely hamlets, Remuera.

Our eyes, slowly travelling round to take in all these points, are now
turned directly away from the harbour. Before us stretches a long road
named Symonds Street, leading past the Supreme Court--a brick and stone
building of considerable architectural pretension--past the wi