“ The export of butter and cheese has risen in value from £207,687 in 1890, till in 1907 that of butter amounted to £1,615,000. In London, New Zealand cheese fetches as high a price as Canadian; the value of the cheese exported was £662,000 in 1907. Though not yet quite equal in importance to wool or frozen meat, dairy-farming is almost entirely carried on by small farmers and their families, who supply milk to factories. Most of these are co-operative, their shareholders being the farmers themselves. The profits of the industry are thus widely distributed among the producers. ”

“ Oysters, both mud and-rock, are good and plentiful. A strange visitor, the frost-fish, never seen at sea, is picked up stranded on sandy beaches in cold weather, and is prized by epicures. The snapper is at once the handsomest and most palatable of a good variety of sea fish. ”

“ Very seldom indeed is moisture excessive in the eastern half; there is even a deficiency in unfavourable years, and dry, warm winds do damage to crops. Insect life is relatively not abundant; the air is brisk and bright with ample sunshine. The snow-line, which is at 3000 ft. on the eastern flank of the Alps, is 3700 ft. on the western.
The healthiness of the New Zealand climate in all parts is attested by the death-rate, which, varying (1896-1906) from 9 to 10.50 per 1000, is the lightest in the world. ”

“ Sharks are found everywhere and are common round the north, though they rarely attack man. The albatross is of course the most conspicuous sea bird. Penguins are found, confined to the islets of the far south. As some compensation for its paucity of useful animals and food plants, New Zealand was, of course, free from wild carnivora, has no snakes, and only one poisonous insect, the katipo, a timid little spider found on certain sea-beaches. ”

“ The outbreak of the Boer War in October 1899 was followed in New Zealand by a prompt display of general and persistent warlike enthusiasm: politics ceased to be the chief topic of interest; the general election of 1899 was the most languid held for fifteen years. The desire of New Zealanders to strike a blow for the mother-country took the practical shape of dispatching to South Africa ten successive contingents.
After gaining office at the beginning of 1891 the Ballance-Seddon party had to struggle with the last four years of the period of depression. ”

“ Still, eight prosperous years had radically changed the colony. Peace, railways, telegraphs (including cable connexion with Europe) , agricultural machinery and a larger population had carried New Zealand beyond the primitive stage. The provincial councils had been swept away in 1876, and their functions divided between the central authority and small powerless local bodies. Politics, cleared of the cross-issues of provincialism and Maori warfare, took the usual shape of a struggle between wealth and radicalism. ”

“ Unlike Australia, its geological structure is unusually varied, and owing to its instability, it includes, for its size, an unusually complete series of marine sedimentary rocks. It has, moreover, been a volcanic area of long-continued activity. The physical geography of New Zealand is closely connected with its geological structure, and is dominated by two intersecting lines of mountains and earth movements. The Southern Alps, the backbone of the South Island, rest on a foundation of coarse gneisses and schists, that are quite unrepresented in the North Island. ”

“ Most of those not peculiar to the country are Australian; others are South American, European, Antarctic; and some have Polynesian affinities. Ferns and other cryptogamic plants are in great variety and abundance. The New Zealand flora, like the fauna, has been cited in support of the theory of the remote continental period. In appearance the more conspicuous flora differs very greatly from that of Australia, Polynesia, and temperate South America, and helps to give to the scenery a character of its own. ”

“ The university of New Zealand is an examining body, and grants honours, degrees and scholarships. It is empowered by royal charter to confer degrees entitled to rank and consideration throughout the British dominions, as fully as if they were granted by any university in the United Kingdom. Colleges in the four chief towns and in Nelson are affiliated to the New Zealand University, which has about fifteen hundred undergraduates keeping terms. ”

“ A national education system, free, non-religious and compulsory, was established in 1877. The socialistic bent of New Zealand was already discernible in a public trustee law and a state life insurance office. But the socialistic labour wave of later years had not yet gathered strength. Grey proved himself a poor financier and a tactless party leader. A land-tax imposed by his government helped to alarm the farmers. ”

“ In 1896 municipal and rural local bodies were allowed to levy rates upon unimproved land values if authorized to do so by a vote of their electors, and by the end of 1901 some sixty bodies, amongst them the city of Wellington, had made use of this permission. The income-tax is not levied on incomes drawn from land. In 1891 the tenure of members of the legislative council or nominated Upper House, which had hitherto been for life, was altered to seven years. ”

“ In the South Island nine-tenths of the colonists live within 40 m. of the east and south-east coasts; in the North Island the eastern and northern parts of Wellington province, and the southern and broadest part of Auckland province are still very scantily peopled. For all that, Auckland and Wellington are the most populous of the larger districts, while Nelson, Westland and Marlborough have for a long time shown the slowest increase.
Males still exceed females in the proportion of nine to eight. About 70% of the population is New Zealand born. The white foreign element is small ”

“ The legislative council consists of members appointed for seven years by the governor in council; the number of legislative councillors stays at or near forty-five. The House of Representatives consists of eighty members chosen by the electors. The members of both houses are paid. The franchise is adult suffrage, conditional on a previous residence in the colony for a year, including six months in the electoral district for which a claim to vote is registered. Every elector is qualified for election. Four members of the house must be Maori elected by their own race. ”

“ In 1895 borrowing on a larger scale was begun, and in twelve years twice as many millions were added to the public debt. Before this the Ballance ministry had organized two new departments, those of labour and agriculture. The former supervises the labour laws and endeavours to deal with unemployment; the latter has done much practical teaching, inspection, &c. Butter, cheese and New Zealand hemp are by law graded and branded by departmental inspectors before export. For some years the government has worked two coal-mines profitably, chiefly to supply its railways. ”

“ The colonial revenue is chiefly derived from customs, stamp duties, land tax, income tax, beer excise, postal and telegraphic services, railways, and crown land sales and rents. The proceeds of land sales are applied to surveys and public works. Customs duties, railways and stamps are by far the most important sources of revenue. ”

“ The cyanide process of gold extraction, and the returns obtained by its means from the great Waihi mine in the Upper Thames, caused an outbreak of gold fever, which led to the opening up of a few good and a great many worthless quartz-mines in the Auckland fields. In South Island the river-beds of Otago province have been successfully worked by means of dredges, and good returns secured. In 1907 the gold exported was valued at £2,027,000. The total value of the gold exported from New Zealand from the discovery of the metal in 1857 to 1907 was, roundly, £70,000,000. ”

“ Frauds and evasions by applicants and pensioners, though they exist, are not believed to be numerous. Public thrift does not, so far, seem to have been diminished. Since the coming of the system the amount spent on outdoor relief in the colony had by 1906 diminished from £51,000 to £36,500, in face of an increase of nearly 23% in the population.
History.—The date, even the approximate date, of man's arrival in New Zealand is uncertain. ”

“ The smaller size of the flocks and the breeding of sheep for meat rather than for wool, the cultivation of English grasses and of extensive crops of turnips and other roots on which to fatten sheep and lambs, all tend to change sheep-farming from the mere grazing of huge mobs on wide, unimproved runs held by pastoral licences. ”

“ A capitation grant is given for every child in average daily attendance at the schools. Grants are also made for scholarships from primary to secondary schools, for training institutions for teachers and for school buildings. Large reserves of public lands have been made for primary, secondary and university education. All primary and some secondary public schools are controlled by provincial education boards elected by school committees of the parents of pupils. ”

“ Excellent as the quality of the best New Zealand coal is, the cost of mining and shipping it prevents the growth of any considerable export trade. Silver is chiefly extracted in the Thames district, but other mines containing silver ores have been found. ”

“ The development of dairy farming has led to the spread of settlement, especially in the west of North Island, where large tracts of fertile soil formerly covered with forest have now been cleared and converted into dairy-farms. Of 1,850,000 cattle in the colony, two-sevenths are dairy cows. ”

“ The native wild ducks are carefully preserved for sportsmen, in whose interests pheasants, red and fallow deer, and brown and rainbow trout have been very successfully acclimatized. Acclimatization, indeed, had played a chief part in the settlement of New Zealand. Coming to a country without useful animals, cereals, rich grasses or fruit trees, the colonists had to bring all these necessaries with them. ”

“ About 157,000 white children and 6500 Maori children attend schools of one degree or another. Private schools claim about 10% of these. The annual parliamentary expenditure on education exceeds £700,000. In this Connexion it may be claimed that the proportion of policemen to population (1 to 1375) is lower in New Zealand than in any other colony. The fixing of the legal minimum “factory age” for children at fourteen undoubtedly favours school attendance.
Land.—Apart from gold-mining, coal-mining and gum-digging, the industries are still mainly the growing of food and raw material ”

“ Sir George Grey, entering colonial politics as a Radical leader, had appealed eloquently to the work-people as well as to the Radical “intellectuals,” and though unable to retain office for very long he had compelled his opponents to pass manhood suffrage and a triennial parliaments act. ”

“ Some of the best Maori fighters, such as the chiefs Ropata and Kemp, were enlisted on the white side, and with their tribesmen did much to make unequal odds still more unequal. Had General Pratt or General Cameron, who commanded the imperial forces from 1860 to 1865, had the rough vigour of their successor, General Chute, or the cleverness of Sir George Grey, the war might have ended in 1864. ”

“ The place of the vanishing native species is being taken by such European arrivals as sky-larks, finches, blackbirds, sparrows and rooks. Outside the forest country the weka, an almost wingless bird, is numerous, and in the Alps a hawk-like green parrot, the kea, has learned to kill sheep and holds its ground. ”

“ The duration of the house is for three years, but it is subject to re-election whenever the governor dissolves the general assembly. Legislation is subject to disallowance by the crown, but that power is seldom exercised. Executive administration is conducted on the principle of English responsible or parliamentary government. The government is represented in England by a high commissioner. Local administration is vested in local elective bodies, such as municipal councils, county councils, road boards, harbour boards, charitable aid boards, and others, with power to levy rates. ”

“ The government spends £35,000 a year on manual and technical instruction, a branch of teaching which includes about two hundred cookery classes. A school of engineering and an agricultural college are attached to the university college in the province of Canterbury, and there are several schools of mines elsewhere. ”

“ Other bands of company's settlers in like manner landed at Nelson, Wanganui and New Plymouth, to be met with the news that the British government would not recognize the company's purchases. Then followed weary years of ruinous delay and official inquiry, during which Hobson died after founding Auckland. His successor, Fitzroy, drifted into an unsuccessful native war. A strong man, Captain Grey, was at last sent over from Australia to restore peace and rescue the unhappy colony from bankruptcy and despair. ”

“ The height and regularity of the mountain backbone increase the diversity. Only one pass, the Haast (1716 ft.) , crosses from E. to W. at a less height than 3000 ft. Along the whole west coast the climate resembles nothing in the British Islands so much as Cork and Kerry, for there are the same wet gales from a western ocean, the same clouds gathering on the dripping sides of wild mountains, an equal absence of severe frosts and hot sunshine, and a rich and evergreen vegetation. Elsewhere, sheltered Nelson has a more genial air than the Wellington side of Cook Strait. ”