NEW ZEALAND Dominion of New Zealand includes North Island, South Island (sometimes called Middle Island), and Stewart Island, along with the Chatham Islands and several other groups in the sur rounding seas. The total area amounts to 104,751 square miles, which is rather more than five-sixths of the area of the British Isles. New Zealand proper lies between the 34th and 48th parallels of south latitude, with a general trend from south-west to north east. South Island, the largest of the group, contains the Southern Alps, which run parallel to the west coast from Cook Strait to lat. 60' S. These are fold mountains, mainly of Palaeozoic strata lying on a foundation of Archaean and plutonic rocks, which separate a narrow west coast district traversed by spurs projecting from the main chain, and a much broken eastern district con sisting largely of Mesozoic and Tertiary material. The Tertiary lands lie along the middle part of the east coast, and form the well-known Canterbury Plains. To the north of these, Palaeozoic rocks reappear in the Kaikoura Chain, which runs in a north-easterly direction parallel to the Southern Alps. The southern part of the island is an ancient and elevated peneplain which has been much dissected by rivers flowing in a south-easterly direction, and it therefore consists in part of valleys and in part of residual ranges, all having the same general trend. The Kaikoura mountains are continued along the east of North Island as the Ruahine Chain, which is bordered on the coast by Secondary and Tertiary forma tions, while to the west is the extensive volcanic region of Lake Taupo with the volcanic cones of Tongariro and Ruapehu. The most westerly part of the island consists of another great volcanic cone, Mount Egmont ; while the north-west is built up of ancient rocks and recent volcanoes, connected the one with the other by Tertiary deposits and volcanic tuffs and lavas.
CLIMATE.—The temperature and rainfall of New Zealand are mainly controlled by the fact that the greater part of the Dominion lies within the influence of the strong westerly winds. Hence its temperature is lower than its latitude, when compared with corre sponding latitudes in the northern hemisphere, would appear to warrant. On the other hand, the sea exercises a modifying influence, and the range of temperature between summer and winter, and between north and south, is never great. Auckland, for example, has a January mean of F., and a July mean of F., while Dunedin, over 600 miles further south, has a January mean of 57.2° F. and a July mean of F.
The rainfall is on the whole well distributed, both with regard to time and place. In North Island, and more especially in the northern part of it, autumn and winter rains prevail, but, owing to the influence of the surrounding seas, summer droughts are not so marked as in other regions with a Mediterranean type of climate. Except in the more elevated districts, where it is over 60 inches, the mean precipitation of North Island is generally between 40 and 60 inches. In South Island, the mountains of the west coast receive the full force of the westerly gales and obtain in conse quence a rainfall of over 80 inches. This gradually decreases eastwards, and over the Canterbury Plains it does not exceed 30 inches.