Geographical Position of New Zealand.

A glance at the map of the Southern Hemisphere shows that the geographical position and extensive coast-line (3,000 miles) of New Zealand mark her out from Australia as the great maritime country of the Southern Pacific Ocean. Possessing at least eight good natural harbours (Whangaroa, Auckland, Kawhia, Raglan, Picton, Wellington, Lyttelton, and Akaroa), as well as several others (Napier, New Plymouth) being improved by the engineers; endowed with coal, iron, timber, abundant fresh water, and almost every known mineral that is useful to man, this colony seems by destiny the best fitted both page 22 for the coaling and naval depot for Australasia, and also for the central emporium where the manufactured goods of Europe and America will be (as they are now to some extent) distributed to the countless islands of the South Pacific.

Auckland, the most northerly of the four capitals, with the grandest harbour and largest dry-dock of the colony, lies about equidistant from Sydney (1,312 miles) and from Levuka in the Fijis (1,500 miles). It is 1,900 miles from Samoa, 3,900 from the Hawaiian Islands, and about 6,000 from San Francisco.

There were in 1889 no less than 140 steamships and 440 sailing vessels registered as belonging to New Zealand. The Union Steamship Company of New Zealand, which controls all the coastal and inter-colonial trade, owns more than 40 Clyde-built steamers, ranging from 3,500 tons downwards, all of which are models of speed, comfort, and elegance.