_A CHAT ABOUT AUCKLAND._
The interview with the maternal parent proved thoroughly satisfactory,
as did the maternal parent herself,--an elderly lady, neatly dressed in
black, with silver grey hair, and a face which, before old Father Time
had placed his brand on it, must have been very pretty.
I promised to bring my "better half" in the morning to complete
arrangements, and hurried home with my oysters, which with some
difficulty I succeeded in persuading her to taste. Having once overcome
her repugnance to their appearance, she enjoyed a good supper of them,
with some bread and butter that I persuaded our hostess to let us have.
Supper over, I detailed my adventures of the evening, to my wife's
great delight, and we shortly after retired to bed, but, alas! not to
sleep. Before the drowsy god could exert his influence over us, an
opposing agent stepped in, and we discovered to our horror that New
Zealand numbered among her colonists certain nimble little creatures
well known in the old country under the generic name of "Fleas;"
the Maori name is "Mōrorohū," which, literally translated, means, I
believe, "little stranger." They are supposed by some to represent the
first importation of animal life that the English favoured Maoriland
with.
Since their too successful introduction, an Acclimatisation Society
has been established, and under its auspices many animals and birds of
different kinds have been acclimatised. Rabbits and sparrows are, I
believe, numbered among its earliest ventures. Within the last year a
large number of ferrets, stoats, and weasels have been introduced by
the Government to destroy the rabbits, which have proved too many for
the settlers in the south island; and probably before long we shall
hear of snakes being brought out to kill the sparrows.
What animal will be hit upon to destroy the stoats and weasels when
their turn comes--and farmers in the localities where they have been
set free already complain bitterly of them--I am at a loss to imagine,
though I have no doubt the members of the Society, with the aid of a
Natural History, will be able to solve the problem.
The notion possesses me that if the Society continues to flourish we
shall eventually become a sort of sea-girt Zoological Garden, and
possibly be able to advertise tiger-hunting among the attractions of
the New Zealand of the future.
I trust my kind readers will pardon this digression, for which the
"little strangers" and the sleeplessness accompanying their presence
are responsible.
In the morning we rose ourselves unrefreshed, though the unwilling
refreshers of many. After breakfast, which resembled in every
particular the meal of the previous evening, with the exception that
stale flounders took the place of ham and eggs, a final interview with
our landlady was held, and proved of not so stormy a character as I had
anticipated: it was brought to a successful conclusion--at any rate on
the landlady's part--by the handing over of another golden sovereign.
Her strong point in argument was that we had agreed to stay for a week,
and therefore must pay for a week. This logical conclusion I found it
impossible to shake until I produced the sovereign, which acted like
oil on troubled waters.
All difficulties being thereby overcome, we made haste to depart, and
a cab shortly after deposited us and our luggage at our new quarters,
with which my wife was much pleased.
The clauses in the agreement arrived at concerning them were as
follows:--Entire and exclusive use of a sitting-room and three bedrooms
furnished; attendance on us to devolve on Mary Ann; cooking to devolve
on landlady; housekeeping to devolve on my wife; and lastly, but not
least, the payments for the apartments--three guineas per week--to
devolve on me.
Prior to leaving home I had given instructions to have my letters
addressed to the Northern Club, Auckland, care of ----, Esquire, for
whom I carried a letter of introduction; but anxious though I was to
get home news, I had had hitherto no possible opportunity of going to
look after them. Now the family were fairly housed, however, I hastened
to relieve my anxiety, and found a couple of English letters awaiting
me at the Club, which satisfied me that all was well with those dear to
us in the old country. A good many of my letters, I learnt, had been
forwarded to Cambridge to Mr.----, who was staying there looking after
the interests of the land company to which he was manager. I obtained
his address, and sent him a wire stating our arrival, and requesting
him to forward letters.
Having settled that business, I hastened down to the wharf to see what
progress our ship--which was now alongside the Tee--had made in the
unloading of her cargo.
I found the Tee heaped with cases already hoisted out of her capacious
holds, though nothing of mine had as yet been disgorged. Having the
keys of our cabins in my pocket, I decided to take out the things that
were in them, and with the aid of a man and a hand truck they were
safely conveyed to our rooms.
My time was now my own, and I went for a stroll.
Though not impressed with the appearance of Auckland itself, I thought
the harbour and its natural surroundings remarkably pretty, yet lacking
the grandeur of the Bay of Rio de Janeiro and other harbours I have
seen. The formation of the land is curious, and gave me at first sight
the idea of peaks which at one time had been bold, but which by some
wonderful process had been either melted down into undulating mounds,
or were in course of being melted down.
The peak on the isle of Rangitoto, which shelters the mouth of the
harbour, Mount Eden, and numerous others, come under the latter
description, while the north head and north shore generally come under
the former. It was the north head that particularly attracted my
attention as we first entered the harbour; it is shaped like a huge
inverted basin, and is covered with grass. I can assure my readers that
after one hundred and six days at sea the sight of that grassy mound
was good, very good, and will never be forgotten.
The harbour called the Waitemata, opening on the east coast, is as a
haven perfection; it is admirably sheltered, has sufficient capacity
to hold half a dozen war squadrons, and is deep enough to allow the
largest ship afloat to enter at dead low water and steam or sail right
up to the Queen Street Wharf.
On its southern shore stands Auckland and its suburbs, and on its
northern the town or suburb of Devonport.
Another harbour, the Manukau, opens on the west coast, and extends
inland towards Auckland, leaving only a strip of land, in places not
half a mile wide, between it and the waters of the Waitemata. It has
unfortunately a bar, and is therefore not much used by vessels of
large size. The construction of a canal joining the two harbours has
been proposed, for what purpose is not clear, unless the projectors
have some scheme for doing away with the Manukau bar, thus allowing
ships to come straight through to Auckland from the west coast. It is
not at all improbable, however, that the promoters desire to have the
canal cut simply for _the fun of making the land north of Auckland
an island_. Of course the money expended on the work will have to be
borrowed, so what matters!