The City of Auckland, New Zealand, 1840-1920. By John Barr.
(Whitcombe and Tombs).—Mr. Barr, who is the chief librarian of Auckland, has written a careful account of the foundation and development of the city, with much local detail. The Maoris had for centuries occupied hill-forts on the isthmus, as Mr. G. Graham shows in a preliminary chapter, but had abandoned it about the year 1820. The city was founded in 1840 by Captain Hobson, the first Lieutenant-Governor, who disliked the Bay of Islands, where the earliest settlers had con- gregated. Auckland remained the capital of the colony until 1865, when the Governor migrated to a more central position at Wellington. In the first year of its existence Auckland had 1,500 inhabitants. To-day it has about 83,000. Mr. Barr makes it clear that the city was named after Lord Auckland, who, as First Lord of the Admiralty, had appointed Hobson to the ' Rattlesnake,' in which he sailed to New Zealand, and had shown a friendly interest in Hobson's career.
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