The Waikato—Waipa Plain.

Now we are fairly on the mid-Waikato plain, the most favoured land of mixed-farming enterprise, famed in the markets alike for its fat stock and its dairy produce. Ngaruawhaia is at the apex of a great triangle, the base of which extends from the ranges of Maungatautari, faint blue in the distance yonder to the south-east, away westward to Mount Pirongia and the Upper Valley of the Waipa.

The provincial metropolis of this wealthy well-settled territory is Hamilton, built on both sides of the Waikato, where the river comes down in dark, strong volume between high banks clothed from waterline to top in foliage and flowers, or terraced in green lawns and park spaces. The Main Trunk lines does not pass through Hamilton itself, but through Frankton Junction (85 miles), a mile from the heart of the town and from the river, where the branch line to the Thames Valley and Rotorua crosses the river by a lofty bridge. Hamilton is worth a stop-over on the train journey for the sake of seeing the most beautifully placed large inland town in the Dominion. It is a town of many garden graces as well as of big business. Beautiful homes stand among their groves and flowers on the sometimes cliff-like banks and the terraces above the noble river, sweeping down with the smooth unruffled face that disguises a power irresistible.