31 JANUARY 1874, Page 22

The Wonderland of the Antipodes, and other Sketches of Travel

in the North Island of New Zealand. By J. Ernest Tinne, M.A. (Sampson Low and Co.)--This is a pleasant little volume, which tells us all about the North Island of New Zealand, its wonderful geyser; its. interesting natives, its tropical „vegetation, and its eternal spring, real spring—that is, not an English version of the phrase, which means sleet, east winds, night frosts, and all one's favouite buds nippod just as they are opening. But in New Zealand their spring is the sort of thing poets mean, painters paint, milliners devise toil- ettes for, wise people need not wrap up against, and gardeners may be- lieve in. Mr. Tinne is given to an over-emphatic statement of his opinions sometimes, and occasionally falls into the mistake, not rarely made by young travellers, of supposing that he has evolved brand-new ideas which have never 'neared to any other brain ; but he is an agreeable writer, notwithstanding these defects, and his descriptions, combined with several charming photographic views of the North Island, confirm our previous notions of the beauty and desirability of New Zealand as superior to those of the other Australasian colonies.