NEW ZEALAND, a British dominion (1907), consisting of a group of islands lying in the south Pacific between 34° 25' and 17' S., and between 166° 26' and 178° 36' E. The group is situated eastward of Tasmania and Victoria, and Wellington, its capital and central seaport, is 1,204 m. distant from Sydney. Of certain outlying clusters of small islands included in the dominion group proper (and for statistical purposes), the Chathams (356 m. E. of Cook strait) , Aucklands and Campbell island are alone of any value. The Chathams are chiefly inhabited by sheep-farming colonists. The Aucklands contain two of the finest harbours in the Pacific. Six hundred miles north of the Aucklands, the volcanic Kermadecs, covering 8,208 ac., are picturesquely clothed with vegetation. In Polynesia a number of inhabited islands were brought under New Zealand control by proclamation in 1901. Rarotonga and Mangaia, in the Cook group, and Niue or Savage island are the largest of these; Penrhyn and Suwarrow, though but small coral atolls, contain excellent harbours. Rarotonga is hilly, well watered, and very beautiful. By mandate of the League of Nations, New Zealand also administers the former German possession of Western Samoa, and has joint control in the phosphate island of Nauru. In 1923, at the desire of the British Government she became responsible for the administra tion of the Ross sea, and in 1926 of the Tokelau, or Union group. Apart from these dependencies New Zealand has an area of 103,285 sq.m., of which its two important' islands, called North and South, contain 44,131 and 58,120 respectively, while, divided from South island by Foveaux strait, Rakiura or Stewart island, mountainous and forest-clad, contains 662 sq.m. These three form a broken chain, North and South islands being cut asunder by Cook strait, a channel varying in width from 16 to 90 miles.
North island is 515 m. long and varies in breadth from 6 to 200 miles. It is almost cleft in twain where the Hauraki gulf penetrates to within 6 m. of Manukau harbour. From the isthmus thus formed a narrow, very irregular peninsula reaches out northward for some 200 m., moist and semi-tropical, and beautiful rather than uniformly fertile.
South of the isthmus aforesaid, the North island rapidly broadens out. Its central physical feature is the series of un broken mountain chains running north-east from Cook strait to East cape on the Bay of Plenty, ranges seldom under 3,00o ft.,
but never attaining 6,000 ft. in height. Ikurangi, their highest summit, though a fine mass, does not compare with the isolated volcanic cones which, rising west of the main mountain system and quite detached from it, are among the most striking sights in the island. Ruapehu (9,175 ft.) is intermittently active and Ngauruhoe (7,515 ft.) emits vapour and steam incessantly. Eg mont (8,26o ft.) is quiescent; its symmetrical form and dense clothing of forest make it the most beautiful of the three. North of the two first-mentioned volcanoes Lake Taupo spreads over 238 sq.m. in the centre of a pumice-covered plateau from i,000 to 2,000 ft. above the sea; and round and beyond the great lake the region of the thermal springs covers 5,000 sq.m. and stretches from Mount Ruapehu to White island, an ever-active volcanic cone in the Bay of Plenty. The most uncommon natural feature of the district, the Pink and White terraces, was blown up in the eruption of Mt. Tarawera in 1886, when for great distances the country was buried beneath mud and dust, and a chasm 9 m. long was opened. Fine lakes and waterfalls, innumerable pools, in temperature from boiling-point to cold, geysers, solfataras, fumaroles and mud volcanoes still attract tourists in large num bers. The healing virtue of many of the springs is widely known. The Government maintains a sanatorium at Rotorua and Te Aroha, and there are private bathing establishments in other places, notably near Lake Taupo. In South island there are hot pools and a State sanatorium at Hanmer Plains. The most re markable cures effected by the hot waters are in cases of gout, rheumatism, diseases of the larynx and in skin disorders. Though the overlying porous pumice reduces the fertility of the Taupo plateau, except under treatment, it has a good rainfall and is drained by unfailing rivers running through deep terraced ravines. The Waikato and Waihou flow north, the Rangitaiki north-east, and Mokau, Wanganui, Rangitikei, and Manawatu west or south-' west. The first named, the longest river in the colony, though obstructed by a bar like all western—and most eastern—New Zealand rivers, is navigable for some 70 miles. The Mokau and Wanganui run between ferny and forest-clad hills and precipices, often of almost incomparable beauty.