Page:Picturesque New Zealand, 1913.djvu/378

250 when in flood, between low, clay-capped banks bordered by flax, toitoi and cabbage trees, in a district abounding in tea-tree and common fern.

In this part of North Auckland are extinct volcanoes, red volcanic soil, and rock-strewn acres. Where volcanoes have not poured out their rich compositions, or rivers have not deposited prolific soil, the surface is almost wholly clay. Once it was thought these clay lands were comparatively valueless, but they have been found to be suitable for fruit culture.

In favorable localities oranges, lemons, and limes grow, in some districts grape culture is a success, and in the far north the banana ripens. The New Zealand banana will never be a serious competitor of the South Sea banana; probably it will never be a competitor at all. In one of the chief fruit districts of North Auckland is the pleasantest and largest town in the peninsula. This is Whangarei, about one hundred and twenty miles north of Auckland, at the head of a harbor twenty miles long. At the beautiful entrance of this harbor are the sharp and shattered heights of Manaia, a limestone mountain which the elements have sculptured into giant fantasies, and round which hover strange legendary tales. Fifty miles north of Whangarei is the broad island-dotted Bay of Islands, the most historical spot in New Zealand. Here the first white settlements in New Zealand were established and the sovereignty of Great Britain proclaimed. On this bay was the Dominion's