50

Epidemic Influenza was prevalent in every part of the Southern Hemisphere I have heard from, during the years 1852 and 1853.

4.—ELEMENTS OF THE CLIMATE DURING THE THREE YEARS ENDING MARCH, 1853, AT AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND, S. LAT. 36°51; AT WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND, S. LAT. 41°22; AND THE AVERAGE AT LONDON, N. LAT. 51°30.

The mean annual temperature at
Auckland was . . . 59° Fhr.
Ditto at Wellington was . 57° do.
Ditto at London is . . 50 do.
The mean height of the barometer
at Auckland was . . 29.83
Ditto at Wellington was . 29.82
Ditto at London is . . 29.88
The number of days on which rain
fell at Auckland was . . 144
Ditto at Wellington was . 115
Ditto at London is . . 175
The mean annual quantity of rain
at Auckland was . . 43 inches.
Ditto at Wellington was . 53 do.
Ditto at London is . . 24 do.
The mean temperature of the hot-
test month in New Zealand
was . . . . 67° Fhr.
Ditto at London is . . 64 do.
The mean temperature of the
coldest month in New Zea-
land was . . . 51° do.
Ditto at London is . . 37 do.

The elements of the climate of New Zealand would be very imperfectly stated if I omitted to mention that the atmosphere is seldom stationary for twenty-four hours, and in no country is the air more frequently agitated by winds, sometimes violent.

It has been usual to compare the climate of the North Island of New Zealand with that of Italy and the fine southern climates of Europe, but there is little resemblance between them beyond the fact, that the mean annual temperature of both is about 60 Fhr. New Zealand is distinguished for an even temperature; Italy and the southern countries of Europe are subject to great extremes.

In Italy there is a winter, as far as regards labour, in summer—a summer-winter it may be called—during which, for three or four months, for several hours in the day, all out-door work of man and beast is suspended and interrupted by heat. During the summer months in Italy, cattle must be provided for (in-doors) as in winter; and it is also the cause of malaria, out of which spring fevers among the working people exposed to the heat and dews of the climate.*

There is no summer-winter in New Zealand; cattle, grazing in the fields, may seek the shelter of the forest during the heat of the day, but man and beast can do labour without injury during all hours of the day. Cattle have never yet perished from drought, they can always find food in the driest seasons; and houseless labourers may sleep exposed to the

dews of the climate, without being laid up with fevers or agues.

It may be said the Italians are an industrious people, that Englishmen could labour through the whole of an Italian summer, but that is a fiction. From great cold and heat, there is a relief in hard work, but great heat there is no relief but bodily inaction. If, however, labour is carried on by men having no European constitution during the hot months of summer, in countries having a high temperature, for several hours daily, they do it at an enormous waste of human life, a waste that no return will repay. This great fact, if European settlers in the Southern States of America know right well, for, without the slave, their lands would remain uncultivated.

5.—EVIDENCE OF THE BENEFICIAL NATURE OF THE CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND, DRAWN FROM THE PENSIONER FORCE.

In the neighbourhood of Auckland there are four Pensioners' Villages. These settlements were established in 1847 and 1848, and are occupied by the two Battalions of Pensioners enrolled in England for service in New Zealand. Each man has a cottage built on an acre of land; most of the men are employed in agricultural pursuits; and many of them are the owners of cattle and land. They are only called out to drill for a few days every year, but they are inspected every Sunday morning at church parade. All of them are old soldiers, and have seen service in widely different parts of the globe. In every village there are men who have spent years in Canada, Ceylon, the East and West Indies, Aden, Arabia, Sinde, China, Newfoundland, St. Helena, Mauritius, Corfu, Malta, Gibraltar, Cabul, Africa, and Australia. All the men have been invalided service. They on account of disease or length of service, and were found unfit for the more active duties of a soldier's life, but were selected in England as fit for seven years' garrison duty in New Zealand. There are many healthy men among them, who were rendered unfit for the army by the liver complaints, contracted in the burning plains of Hindostan, by the fevers of Jamaica, by the snows of Canada, and among the mountains around Cabul—in short, there are many among them who have been invalided for every disease which tropical, frigid, and temperate climates can produce.

I came out to this country as Medical Superintendent of one division of the New Zealand Pensioners, and have ever since watched the influence which the climate has had on their health and strength with much interest; but Major Kenny, commanding the force, has kindly furnished me with some statistical information relative to them.

The average age of the men on the 31st of March, 1853, was about 47 years, and they range between the decennial period of 40 and 50. During the four years ending March, 1850, 1851, 1852, and 1853, the average strength of the two Battalions was 545 men, and the aggregate strength 2,180, out of which number 37 men died from disease, 3 were drowned, 1 cut his throat when insane, and 1 died by an

• Notes of a Traveller by Samuel Laing, Esq., 2d Edition, London, 1842.