extract the following account of New Zealand from “Emigration Fields,” a work recently published by Adam Black, Edinburgh. “Estimating the advantages of position, extent, climate, fertility, adaptation for trade,--all the causes which have tended to render Britain the emporium of the world, we can observe only one other spot on the earth equally, if not more favoured by nature, and that is New Zealand. Serrated with harbours securely insulated, having a climate temperated by surrounding ocean, of such extent and fertility as to support a population sufficiently numerous to defend its shores against any possible invading force, it, like Great Britain, also possesses a large neighbouring continent (Australia), from which it will draw resources, and to which it bears the relation of a rich homestead, with a vast extent of outfield pasturage. In these advantages it equals Britain, while it is superior to Britain in having the weather-gage of an immense commercial field,--the innumerable rich islands of the Pacific,--the gold and silver producing countries of Western America (by far the richest in the precious metals of any of the world),--the vast accumulations of man in Japan and China--all these lie within a few weeks’ sail. “The south temperate zone, from the excess of ocean, has a much more equable temperature throughout the year than the north. New Zealand, considering its territorial extent, participates in this oceanic equality in an extraordinary degree, by reason of its insularity and oblong narrow figure, stretching across the course of the prevalent winds from lat. 34° to 48° south,--the most enviable of latitudes. On this account, it enjoys a finer, more temperate climate than any other region of the world; and, in consequence, the trees, from the principle of adaptation, are only biennially deciduous, and present, as well as the herbage, a never-failing verdure. The great mountain-chain, or back-bone ridge of New Zealand, which extends through nearly fourteen degrees of latitude, attracting and condensing the high-towering clouds and vapour of the Southern Ocean, affords a constant source of showers and irrigation and freshness to the lower country; and this regular supply of moisture, under the most balmy atmosphere, and the generative influence of a sun brilliant as that of Italy, produces an exuberance of vegetation surpassing that of any other temperate country,--the richness and magnificence of the forest scenery being only equalled by that of the islands of the eastern tropical Archipelago;[2] and the mountains themselves, the sublime southern Alps, more elevated than the highest of the Alps of Switzerland, upheaved, from the depths of the great south sea, in some places to more than three miles of altitude, and, from their volcanic character, of the boldest, most abrupt outline, are perhaps unequalled in all the world. The character of surrounding objects must exert a powerful influence upon the genius of a people.