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 originally a Church of England settlement, and presents more of the characteristics of an English town than any other place in the colony. The district is wholly flat, and is liable to be swept by fierce north-west winds. Further south is Dunedin, the capital of Otago, originally a Scotch settlement, but rendered cosmopolitan at the time of the gold discoveries. Dunedin is essentially hilly and picturesque. The business part is situated on level land near the harbour, and the residences occupy the sloping hills which rise on the west side of the city.

New Zealand is first a pastoral, secondly an agricultural, and thirdly a mining country. Ten million acres are laid down with sown grasses, and in the Middle Island a large area is covered with native grasses, all useful for grazing purposes. This great extent of pasture has made the colony a leading producer of wool and meat; democratic agrarian legislation is encouraging agriculture (though New Zealand, like West Australia, still imports wheat); and the yield of gold has been over fifty-four millions sterling in value to the present time. The first authenticated visitor to the islands was that doughty navigator Tasman, who sailed from Java in a cock-boat in August 1642; visited Mauritius; discovered and named Van Diemen's Land; and sighted New Zealand (which was apparently already marked on the Dutch charts) in December. Captain Cook, not having access to the Dutch charts, any more than Columbus had known of the Viking charts in the Vatican, was obliged to rediscover New Zealand for us, one hundred and twenty-seven years after Tasman; and he was followed by the French, as usual two months too late. The missionaries landed in 1814; colonisation companies followed; an expedition, under Colonel Wakefield (there is always a Wakefield), was despatched from London in 1839; and annexation by the Crown