Area of Land.

The aggregate area of this and its adjacent islets is 58,525 square miles, or 37,456,080 acres, of which some 15,000,000 acres is available for agriculture, while 13,000,000 acres is pastoral land only, or may become so when cleared of bush and sown with grass. Including snow-capped peaks and mountain tops, there is about 8,000,000 acres of barren land. This grand island is thus 214 square miles larger than England and Wales, which contain but 58,311 square miles. The whole colony of New Zealand is some 17,000 square miles less than Great Britain and Ireland combined, which contains 121,000 square miles against our 104,000.