1858 - The New Zealand 'Emigrant's Bradshaw' : or, Guide to the 'Britain of the South' - Chapter II. Position, Size, Physical Features, and Climate, p 5-10

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CHAPTER II.

POSITION, SIZE, PHYSICAL FEATURES, AND CLIMATE.

POSITION. --New Zealand, as shown by the accompanying map, consists of two large islands, the north and the south, parted by Cook's Strait, a fine channel some 150 miles long by 50 broad; and of a small island called Stewart's, parted from the main by Foveaux Strait.

The position of the country is one of the finest in the world. A popular writer says:-- "Estimating the advantages of position, extent, climate, fertility, adaptation for trade--all the causes which have tended to render Britain the emporium of the world--we can observe only one other spot on the earth equally, if not more favoured by nature, and that is New Zealand. Serrated with harbours, securely insulated, having a climate tempered by surrounding ocean, of such extent and fertility as to support a population sufficiently numerous to defend its shores against any possible invading force, it, like Great Britain, also possesses a large neighbouring continent (Australia) from which it will draw resources, and to which it bears the relation of a rich homestead, with a vast extent of outfield pasturage. In these advantages it equals Britain, while it is superior to Britain in having the weather gage of an immense commercial field--the rich islands of the Pacific, the silver regions of South America, the vast accumulations of China and Japan, the marts of India and the Indian Archipelago, the Australian "El Dorado," are all within a few weeks' or a few days' sail."

SIZE. --The latitudinal length of New Zealand is nearly 1000 miles, the greatest breadth is about 200, the sweep of the coast line embraces 1000 leagues. The country is said to possess an area of nearly 80 millions of acres; if so, it is rather larger than Great Britain and Ireland. Perhaps two-thirds of this area are fitted, more or less, for agricultural or pastoral purposes.

PHYSICAL FEATURES. --New Zealand may be called a wooded highland country clothed with luxuriant evergreen vegetation. Its origin was probably volcanic. Several of the small elevations are old extinct craters, and shocks of earthquake are still occasionally experienced. They are now confined, however almost to the corner of the country around Wellington; and though in the last twenty years two have been severe enough to occasion the loss of three or four lives, the inha-

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bitants of Wellington appear to regard them, and perhaps justly, with less apprehension than we might regard the prospect of a wet harvest or a bleak spring.

Numerous wooded ranges of moderate elevation, and two snow-capped giants, Tongariro and Mount Egmont (7000 and 8000 feet), are found in the North Island; whilst a chain of rugged forest ranges, displaying mountain peaks 10,000 feet high, capped with perpetual snow, extends along the entire coast of the South Island, from Cape Farewell to Dusky Bay.

The North Island contains only two or three moderately-extensive plains; but abounds in large luxuriant valleys, and in sheltered dells and dales. The surface character of many of the districts bears a striking resemblance to that of Devonshire. The South Island, on its western side, consists chiefly of the rugged mountain ranges just described; but on the east it displays some noble plains and open districts admirably adapted for the plough and the "golden fleece."

Owing to the coast line of 3000 miles, the division of the country into three portions by the fine channels of Cook's and Foveaux Straits, New Zealand exhibits a multitude of bays, creeks, coves, estuaries, and anchorages; and possesses some of the finest naval and commercial harbours in the world, though these latter are found rather in separated groups than in equally-dispersed order along the coasts.

One of the most striking natural features of New Zealand is the abundance both of water and of water power. Taupo is the only large lake, and New River, the Clutha, Thames, Hokianga, Wanganui, Waikato, and Manawatu are perhaps the only rivers navigable twenty miles up for anything larger than a canoe. But there are several smaller lakes, and the country from north to south is studded with rivers, rivulets, brooks, and burns, of the clearest, softest water, running over pebbly beds, and bearing a close resemblance to many of our trout and salmon streams, such as the Dove, Tamar, Deveron, Tweed, Don, and Dee.

CLIMATE. --In making choice of any new country in which to improve our fortunes and plant a home, "goodness of climate" ought to be one of the first considerations. With the great majority of emigrants, however, it is one of the last considerations. As a people, we enjoy robust health in this country; but we don't seem to be awake to the fact that we owe this great gift mainly to our temperate and bracing climate. We accept our health as if we were entitled to it,

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and don't care to know how or whence it comes. When we think of emigrating, our first question is, "Can I get rich there?" the last, "Is the climate good there?" The order of the enquiry should be reversed. A good climate is a rich gift in the old country we may leave; but it is a far richer gift in the new country we may emigrate to, and these truths are well put in the following passage from Hursthouse's New Zealand, named at page 112:--

The climate of New Zealand might almost be described in one sentence as the "climate of England with half the English winter;" and in suitability for the people of the British isles, in recruiting or sanatory properties for the invalid, and in marked fitness for all agricultural and pastoral purposes, it unquestionably deserves to rank as one of the finest in the world.

TEMPERATURE. --The summer is not sensibly warmer than in England, whilst the winter is seldom colder than a cold English April or October. New Zealand, being in the southern hemisphere nearly opposite England, the seasons are, of course, reversed; July being the coldest month, January (the harvest month) the hottest. All native trees and plants being evergreens, there being no autumnal fall of the leaf, the country appearing almost equally green at all periods of the year, the change of seasons is far less marked than in England, and is, indeed, so gradual as to be scarcely appreciable. September, October, and November are, however,

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generally called spring; December, January, and February summer; March, April, and May, autumn; June, July, and August, winter.

MEAN TEMPERATURE OF THE FOUR SEASONS IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES.

This may be taken as about the mean for the central parts of New Zealand. Otago would be about five degrees colder; whilst Auckland and Nelson, which latter enjoys a semiartificial climate, would be about four degrees warmer.

The most accurate idea of the temperature and climate of a country is, however, best conveyed to the general reader by telling him what it will and will not grow and ripen. New Zealand produces, in perfection, every English-grown grain, grass, fruit, and vegetable. Wheat, potatoes, onions, apples, plums, peaches, and their congeners, are excellent in quality, and the peach bears profusely as a standard. The vine thrives in the open air, perhaps a little, but a very little, better than in England. Oranges, loquats, pomegranates, and two or three semi-tropical fruits will occasionally ripen in the warmest parts of the North Island; but in a poor way, and much as they might do in a hot Jersey valley. Maize (Indian corn) is raised by the natives in the north, in sheltered spots; but it will not generally ripen, and is not grown as a farm crop. Geraniums and myrtles, attaining a shrub size, and various delicate plants which require the green-house in England, flourish through the winter in the open air; and generally it may be said that the few fruits and plants which grow in New Zealand, but which will not grow in the British isles, are not those which require more summer heat, but those which require less winter cold.

WINDS, FROST, RAIN, AND DIFFERENCE OF CLIMATE. --Otago and the southern coasts are subject to boisterous gales of cold, wet wind; and New Zealand, generally, is perhaps a more breezy country than England.

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In winter mornings, a crust of ice is occasionally seen on the pools and road splashes. In Otago a sprinkling of snow will occasionally lie on the ground for two or three days, and in Canterbury for a few hours; but, except on the high mountain tops, snow is seldom or never seen in the North Island. The inch fall of rain is rather greater than in England, but there are more dry days: the average number of days in the year when no rain falls being about 200 in England, and 230 in New Zealand. Fogs are rare, and thunder storms less frequent than even in the British Isles. There is but little twilight; in summer it is dark about an hour earlier than in England, in winter, about an hour later.

Portions of the Auckland, Nelson, New Plymouth and Wellington Provinces are considered to enjoy the finest climates, and invalids or delicate emigrants generally settle in one or other of these districts. Both in salubrity and pleasantness, however, the climate of any part of New Zealand, except perhaps in the extreme south of Stewart's Island and the shores of Foveaux Strait, is probably superior to the climate of any part of Great Britain; and none but the delicate or consumptive need be influenced in their "choice of province" by any climatic superiority which one province may possess over another.

SALUBRITY. --The salubrity of the climate is a feature which our invalid families who emigrate to the Continent to escape the British winter, and the British income-tax, might do well to study. The 58th and 65th Regiments have been stationed in New Zealand several years, and the following officially-compiled tables of the health of troops stationed in different parts of the world, by Dr. Thompson of the 58th (his report, in extenso, appears in the Parliamentary Blue Book, August 7th, 1851,) prove the salubrity of the climate in a remarkable manner, and have been the means of drawing considerable attention to New Zealand among our invalid classes:--

GENERAL MORTALITY.

NUMBER OF SOLDIERS IN 1000 WHO ANNUALLY DIE FROM DIFFERENT DISEASES ON VARIOUS MILITARY STATIONS.

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CONSUMPTION.

NUMBER OF SOLDIERS IN 1000 ANNUALLY attacked, AND THE NUMBER WHO ANNUALLY die FROM CONSUMPTION, ON VARIOUS STATIONS.

The large families of the colonists, and the robust appearance of the children, tend to corroborate the extraordinary conclusion forced on us by these military statistics.

The Registrar returns for one of the Settlements show that out of 1247 children under fourteen, there were only seven deaths in the year, or one for every 178! The total number of deaths per 1000 was about 5; whilst the total number of births per 1000 was nearly 45! One or two families have left even Madeira to settle in New Zealand, and already some hundreds of people from Nova Scotia 1 and our North American possessions, influenced partly by climatic considerations, have actually removed or re-emigrated 12,000 miles, to settle in the Province of Auckland! The purity of the atmosphere produces a buoyancy of spirits in the English constitution destructive of spleen and hypochondriasis; and there appears to be no reason to doubt that, as the country and the climate become better known, New Zealand will become the "sanatorium" of a large body of what may be termed wealthy invalid emigrants--families who, cultivating a few acres for amusement near the towns, and profiting by the fine natural scenery and the really good society of the young Land, will invest their capitals at £10 and 163;15 per cent., and so nurse up both purse and person.