To Hawke's Bay.

So we move on with H.R.H. to the province which is considered by its inhabitants and many visitors to possess the pleasantest climate in the Dominion. Some prefer Nelson; many would rather have Auckland or the Far North. But Napier and the beautiful plains about it certainly have a softness of air and a generosity of warm sunshine that is quickly appreciated as one traverses the country from west to east and gains the lee side of the ranges. page 20 page 21 Here is the perfection of serene pastoral scenery, in this land where the large sheep-stations have not all given place to close settlement. There is a vast amount to admire in this land of good pasturage, of great orchards and sweet gardens. Reconstructed Napier town is a place of sightliness and comfort, stretched on its long sea front, and climbing its beautiful residential hill, Scinde Island. Nearly every large town in this greatly varied Dominion has its own special quality of landscape charm. Napier has pre-eminently a green, luxuriantly fertile setting, with a whiff of ocean to temper its strong sunshine. It is pleasant all the way north from there, though the country becomes more up-and-down, and the inland ranges loom in a more broken and often wildly rugged skyline. Through historic Mohaka, and then Wairoa, a pretty township near the mouth of the strong and wide river that has its principal source in Lake Waikaremoana. It is rather a pity that His Royal Highness will not see that famous lake, lying among its mountains and forests, and will not be taken by the Urewera forest route to Rotorua. But he will see many a lake and travel through many miles of tall timber before he completes his New Zealand tour. And there will be a lunch-time call at that place of sylvan charm, Morere, with its hot springs and its nikau palm groves, on the way by motor-car to Gisborne.

There is only one thing prosperous Gisborne and its surrounding richly productive country badly needs, and that is a change of district name, from “Poverty Bay” to something more befitting and optimistic. If His Royal Highness could only throw out a friendly suggestion to that end he would do the country a service. Perhaps only a Prince of the blood could induce the district to jettison Captain Cook's uncomplimentary description. Why not “Endeavour Bay,” after Cook's ship?