Routes to New Zealand.

The quickest access to the colony is by steamer to New York, thence across the continent by the Union and Central Pacific Railways to San Francisco, whence every four weeks a large steamer leaves for Honolulu, Auckland, and Sydney. By travelling with the mails a passenger can actually reach Auckland on the thirty-fourth day after leaving Liverpool. But those who study health and wish to profit by the sea voyage should take one of the two lines of direct mail steamers which perform the transit from London, calling at Plymouth, Teneriffe, the Cape of Good Hope, and Hobart (Tasmania), in about 42 days. The refrigerating chambers on these vessels insure the epicurean traveller a wonderful choice of table luxuries all the year round; and the dangerous heat of the Red Sea is escaped by this route. The safety of the homeward route, viâ Cape Horn, is much promoted by the prohibition issued to the captains against going through the Strait of Magellan. Two other steamship lines—the Colonial and the Shire lines—send monthly boats to New Zealand, calling first at Melbourne or Sydney. The Peninsular and Oriental Company and the Orient Company carry through passengers for the colony, viâ the Suez Canal, and these are forwarded by the Union Steam-ship Company's steamers from Melbourne or Sydney—a transit of four or five days.