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Voices from Auckland, New Zealand.

From Chapman's New Zealand Almanack.*

From Chapman's New Zealand Almanack.*

The Area of the Province of Auckland is 17,000,000 acres; its length is 364 statute miles, greatest breadth 198 miles. A characteristic feature of the province is the very great extent of sea-board it possesses, afforded by numerous deep water harbours and navigable creeks, of great importance in relation to the future wealth of the country and its capability of supporting a vast population. North of the City of Auckland the traveller cannot place himself where he will be twelve miles removed from a navigable creek or the sea.

In this province there are the following first class Ports, all navigable for ships of the largest burthen:—Auckland with its numerous tributary havens, one of the most spacious harbours in the world; Coromandel, in the Frith of Thames; Mahurangi; Swansea, in the Island of Kawau.; Nagle Harbour, Great Barrier Island; Wangarei; Bay of Islands; Wangaroa; Monganui; Hokianga; Kaipara; Manukau; and many others of lesser depth of water, both on the east coast and on the west.

The traveller on sailing from the North Cape towards the Thames sees such a confused mass of hills that he wonders where the level land can be. But there is much good inland surface, and the volcanic plains and lower lands of the Bay of Islands, of Wangarei, and Auckland, contain very rich land adapted to profitable cultivation, while behind the broken coast country the valleys of Kaitaia, Monganui, Wairua, Wangarei, Waipu, Pakiri, Matakana, and Mahurangi, are both spacious and fertile; and even amongst the hills of the coast smaller valleys and hollows wind inland as at Wangaroa, Warinaki, Ngunguru, Ruakaka, Mangawhia, and Omaha, each fertile and available for settlement, and every one with its small port or haven.