The Firth of the Thames, Waitemata, and Tamaki, and Gulf of Hauraki, Auckland, New Zealand, as seen from the Howick Ranges - from a drawing by Major Stack, 1862. View after a sketch by Frederick R. Stack, late Major of Brigade at Auckland,...overlooking the pensioner settlement of Howick...The road in the foreground is at the entrance to the forest leading to the Wairoa Valley. The forest trees are chopped down, sawn into logs of the required length, and conveyed to sawpits on wooden trucks drawn by teams of oxen. Land in such localities, being difficult of access, in consequence of its hilly nature, although covered with magnificent timber and possessing charming views of wood and water, can be bought for from ?1 to ?3 an acre. Many forty-acre emigrants have gree grants in this vicinity, and, by the aid of fire to burn off the underwood and the axe to fell the large trees, they soon convert patches in the primitive forest into gardens and pasture lands. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.