shimmering in the sun, crowned with fleecy clouds; and almost hidden in the misty haze of distance.
Out towards the open sea, the watery void is broken up and relieved by lovely mountainous islands, round whose wooded summits the quick changing clouds chase each other in bewildering rapidity; and ever and anon white sails flash across the ken of vision, or trailing lines of black smoke from some swift steamer mar for a moment the clear brilliancy of the azure sky. The cloudless blue of the Australian sky has here given place to the exquisite variety of ever changing hue and form, which gives such animation to the New Zealand landscape, and forms one of the chiefest charms to the visitor from the bigger island.
Yes, Sydney harbour is lovely. But Auckland, with its wider sweep, its greater diversity and bolder features, has a beauty of its own which makes her a not unworthy rival.
In other respects the city presents features which might well be copied by the great metropolis which clusters so thickly on the shores of Port Jackson. For instance, there is here a well-endowed harbour trust, which has a near prospective income of close on half a million per annum, and an agitation has even now been commenced in favour of making the port free in the widest sense. Large reclamations have been and are being made; spacious wharfs run out into deep water. The reclaimed land is let on fifty years' leases. So valuable is it that the trustees get 10l. per foot
