Branksome Hall - Slogan Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

Page 28 text:

New Zealand New Zealand has been ' called Tihe Brighter Britain of the South, yet, froim the itime of Captain Cook ' s first viisit in 1769, until 1840, there was la strong opposition to founding a British Colony in that country. New Zealand is twelve days distant from Honolulu, or nineteen days on a ' fast ocean liner from Vancouver. The two small islands comprising New Zealand are thought by scientists to be remnants of a large continent which ages ago slipped into the isea. One disembarks at Auckland, the chief iport and finest industrial city. The combined population of New Zealand is but one and a half million people, one hundred and seventy thousand of whom are foreign. They adhere ' Strongly to British traditions, customs and manner of living. The naitive inhabitants of New Zealand are ' Callled Maoris. They can trace back their ancestry -for generations ito the. time of their migration -about 1350, in a Great Fleet of Canoes, probably from Tonga. These canoes were made from tree-trunks. The journey of two thousand miles was made without instruments of any kind, their guide being their pro- found knowledge of the stars, ocean currents and winds. Near the town of Rotorua, wihich is the centre of Guperland, is a large settlement of Maoris. Walks or drives throug h these weird valleys reveal strange wonders of nature : icauldrons of boiling water and mud, blow- iholes, and geysers which erupt periodically; mountains scarred and torn, some of which emit clouds of steam, and extinct -craters looking cold and inert. The South Island has a range of mountains on the West coast equal in splendour to the Alps or our Rockies. The North Island has several 24