Once the wish and the necessity shall ar_Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume III (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the Austrian Navy.

expansion of her population, for possessions beyond sea, and her navy

shall increase on a scale adapted to their protection and defence, then,

although the choice of locality may be limited, the idea will no longer

remain impracticable. In the Indian Ocean as well as the Pacific there are

numbers of island groups, which, by their hypsometric conditions,

geographical position, and fertility of soil, are admirably suited for

settlement by white labour. The prejudice against the climatic

adaptability of the majority of these falls to the ground, when we

recollect what entirely altered conditions in that respect have been

brought about by the industry and energy of the colonists of Singapore and

Pulo-Penang, on islands which, from being in the worst possible repute

for their deadly climate and dreaded forest malaria, are now favourite

invalid resorts of the wealthy white residents of the islands of Eastern

Asia. But German statesmen must no longer hesitate, or continue to

sacrifice the future to the exigencies, even the most pressing in

political eyes, of the present, for England noiselessly but systematically

is possessing herself one after the other of all the islands that are as

yet untenanted by the white man, as, for instance, quite lately of the

Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, or, as in the case of the Feejee

Islands,[28] accept a suspicious protectorate got up by an influential

missionary; while the Emperor of the French, with his irresistible

inclination for annexation, is incessantly occupied in seizing on points

important either by geographical position or for trade purposes, of which

New Caledonia furnishes the latest example. Too long delay and expectation

may have for the contemplative German results similar to those which in

Schiller's beautiful poem, punished the dallying of the son of the Muses,

whose fate, as compared with the actual political circumstances of

Germany, suggests but too many painful analogies!

On 6th December the frigate was made ready for prosecuting her voyage, and

the same evening all was ataunto. The following morning we were to be

towed out of the many-coved port, till quite clear of "the Heads." The

steamer, however, sustained an accident to her machinery, and we had her

services little more than half a day. Early on the 7th, a breeze had

sprung up from S.W. by S., accompanied by squalls and rain, which

gradually freshened into squally weather from the S., and determined the

Commodore to make all sail at once. Already, even while we were still in

the port, the weather began to be stormy; we had to take in a reef in the

mainsail, and by 9 A.M. found ourselves outside of "North Head." By the

afternoon the low flat coast of Australia had sunk below the horizon, and

the south wind had now become a gale. It seemed as though winds and waves

had conspired to put to the severest test the operations of the caulkers,

carpenters, and sail-makers of Sydney. But although the frigate rolled

tremendously, and the frequent squalls propelled the sea against her hull

with frightful violence, she did not ship a drop of water below. The

repairs in dock had been most effectually performed. After a couple of

days both wind and sea fell, the sun shone out with the mildness of early

spring, and we bowled along in the most delicious weather and with every

stitch of canvas set, swiftly careering towards our next goal, New

Zealand.

On the 9th at 5 P.M. we buried the corpse of one of the gunners, who had

died the same morning of dysentery, the remains being committed to the

deep with the customary ceremonies and marks of respect.

On the morning of the 19th we sighted Barrier Island off Cape Butt,

distant 35 miles. The more we neared the land, the more balmy did the

atmosphere become. Innumerable Albatrosses and _Procellariae_ swarmed

around us, and the result of half an hour's shooting from a small boat

dropped over the side for the purpose, resulted in our securing eleven

different species of storm-birds. A whale about 50 feet in length also

came close under our quarter, and only retreated after he had been

repeatedly fired upon and had received a number of balls in his carcase.

We steered for the South Point of Barrier Island, the outline of which is

very beautiful, relieved as it is by two hills, of which that to the south

is about 2000 feet in height, running up into a sharp peak, while the more

northerly rises gradually, being only precipitous on the northern face.

The broken conical rocks which ascend out of the sea near the northern

point of the island unmistakeably indicate their volcanic origin.

Our arrival off New Zealand was signalized by most unusual calms, which

indeed materially delayed our entrance into Huraka Gulf, a sort of lateral

bay, entering from the harbour of Auckland. A bark, which had sailed from

Sydney three days before us, had, as we were informed by our pilot, been

one day in harbour. We now had to tack slowly up under faint puffs of wind

towards the anchorage, which we reached finally at 5.30 P.M. of the 22nd

December, 1858.

The country round Auckland has none of those majestic features which are

presented by New Zealand further south. The enormous volcanic peaks, such

as Mount Egmont, 8000 feet high, have dwindled down in this region to

numerous but small extinct cones, rarely rising above 800 feet. Instead of

the hills covered with perpetual snow of the central island, one sees here

only low chains of hills, about 2000 feet high, and a rolling country,

which dips into the sea in steep cliffs of sandstone. In the various bays

and channels of the wide gulf might be seen numbers of natives in their

elegant canoes engaged in fishing. We found but five ships in harbour, and

here also the _Novara_ was the largest man-of-war that had ever entered

the port. The population of Auckland turned out on the beach as we

approached, and began to exchange the usual salutes with the little fort.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A National System of Political Economy. Stuttgart, 1840. (J. C.

Cotta.)

[2] In an old map of the year 1542, the Australian continent is named New

Java.

[3] The mean of thermometrical readings on the north coast is 80 deg.6

Fahr.;--at Port McQuarrie, in S.E. Australia (31 deg. S.), 68 deg. Fahr.; at Port

Jackson (34 deg. S.) 66 deg.5 Fahr.; at Port Philip on the south coast (33 deg. S.),

61 deg.3 Fahr.; at Perth on the west coast (32 deg. S.) 62 deg.6 to 64 deg.4 Fahr. The

annual rain-fall in New South Wales is 45 inches.

[4] The total superficial area of the somewhat oval-shaped continent lying

between 10 deg. and 45 deg. S. and 112 deg. and 154 deg. E., is about 2,100,000

geographical square miles in extent, the coast outline of which is about

7000 miles, so that for each mile of coast there are about 300 square

miles of surface, or rather more than double the proportion in Europe. The

united English population of the different colonies founded in Australia

(exclusive of Tasmania or Van Diemen's Land) and New Zealand amounts to

about 1,400,000 souls. Within twenty years the population has increased

six-fold, and the value of the exports twenty-fold.

[5] The fundamental principle of the University is, "The association of

students without respect of religious creed, in the cultivation of secular

knowledge." (See Sydney University Calendar for 1858, p. 15.)

[6] The fixed salary of the teacher varies from L120 to L140 per annum.

[7] At the period of our visit to the colony, the post of secretary was

filled by Mr. G. French Angus, distinguished as an artist, and widely

known for his valuable ethnological studies upon the Caffers, New

Zealanders, and South Australian aborigines. Unfortunately his health gave

way, owing to his exertions, and he now lives in retirement at

Collingwood, in South Australia, where however he is still animated by the

most intense zeal for science.

[8] The expedition discovered on the 21st April, 1858, in 24 deg. 35' S. and

146 deg. 6' W., an ash tree, two feet in diameter, on whose huge trunk the

letter L had been deeply cut. Close by there were everywhere traces of a

regular encampment, and an impression pretty universally prevailed that

Leichhardt and his companions had camped here, and had cut this mark to

indicate it. One of the oldest missionaries of Western Australia, the

venerable Mr. C. Threlkeld, objected, however, to this view that the

letter L, of which so much was spoken, had in all probability been made by

one of the youthful natives, who when learning to read and write are in

the habit of cutting the letters on the trees. We present here the precise

passage of the text of a letter of Dr. Threlkeld's to us:--"I send you a

spelling-book, that Billy Blue, one of the black boys, used to have, when

he was learning to read and write. He and others used to go into the bush,

and cut the letters of the alphabet on the barks of the trees, and Brown,

an aboriginal lad, who _went with the unfortunate Leichhardt_, used to do

the same. _I suspect that he cut the celebrated L on the tree about which

there is so much talk at the present time._"

[9] One of the most appalling of these was that undertaken in April, 1848,

by surveyor E. B. Kennedy, along the strip of land between Cape York and

Rockingham Bay in Northern Australia, whose melancholy fate is described

by one of the survivors, Mr. Carron, a botanist, in a not less simple than

affecting manner. "When we first started everything went on well, and the

most brilliant anticipations were indulged, although there were numerous

obstacles to be overcome, and the few natives we encountered were

invariably hostile. Gradually, however, provisions began to fail; sickness

and loss of strength succeeded, while the prospect of reaching our goal

grew less and less. The further north we got, as the hot season was now

setting in, the more frequently did we find the forest rivulets dried up,

so that we had for days to bear up against an almost maddening thirst. The

horses which accompanied the expedition gradually sank from exhaustion."

Almost every day Carron's journal mentions one or the other horse giving

in of fatigue, when they were compelled for want of further provision to

eat its flesh during the next two days. That of the last was conveyed

along by the travellers in sacks, made from the skin of the animal itself.

Whenever they encountered natives, these proved hostile, and assailed the

little caravan with spears. Some of them indeed were more friendly, and

traded with the travellers, but less out of sincere hospitality than with

the hope of taking them in, and getting them unawares into their power.

Thus, on one occasion a number of tall, well-made, powerful men and women

made their appearance, and offered them some fish, which they themselves

refused to eat owing to its putrified state. Hardly had the travellers

approached it, unsuspicious of evil, when a cloud of spears cleft the air

with a whistling noise, and the scene, hitherto so friendly and peaceable,

became at once a scene of blood and confusion. However, the spear-men

seemed to have no great dexterity; they usually missed their mark, whereas

the flints and double-barrels of the whites did deadly execution. One

however proved more fatal than the rest, and killed Mr. Kennedy, the chief

of the party. They were now only a few days distant from Cape York, the

goal of their labours, whence a Government ship was to convey the leader

and his party back to Sydney. But the survivors were also all but

exhausted with the terrible fatigues of their journey. Only three out of

the fourteen survived, and these were reduced almost to skeletons.

Carron's elbow-bone of the right arm, and also the bone of the right hip,

were through the skin! (Narrative of an Expedition undertaken under the

direction of the late Mr. Assistant Surveyor, E. B. Kennedy, for the

Exploration of the Country lying between Rockingham Bay and Cape York; by

W. Carron, one of the survivors of the Expedition. Sydney, 1849.)

Still more lamentable was the fate of the last and most important of these

expeditions, which in 1861 succeeded in crossing the Australian continent

from the north frontier of South Australia to Carpentaria, and back to

Cooper's Creek, in which, unfortunately, the travellers missed the depot

troop that had been sent to their assistance, and the entire party,

including Messrs. Burke, Wills, and Gray, lost their lives, only one of

their number, King, escaping to tell their sad fate. (Vide Appendix.)

[10] Government has bethought itself of a plan for facilitating

discoveries in the interior, and rendering them more profitable by

importing from Egypt into Australia camels and dromedaries, chiefly of the

breed known as El Hura, as these animals can easily get over 60 to 80

miles per diem, and can moreover dispense with water for weeks together.

[11] During a visit which our naturalists paid to Dr. Bennett they were

shown a young pair of the Morok (_Casuarius Bennetti_), discovered not

long since at New Britain, which he intended to present to the Zoological

Society of London for exhibition at the Regent's Park. What is very

remarkable in this singular bird is the shape of the bill, which is curved

in the male, but almost straight in the female.

[12] This distinguished gentleman, conspicuous alike as a theologian and a

politician, who plays a by no means insignificant part in the legislative

assemblies of the colonies, presented an address to the Parliament of

Frankfort in 1848, in which he set forth the advantage of founding a

German colony in the Pacific. Owing to the ignorance prevalent on the

subject this _brochure_ passed unnoticed, and New Caledonia, the island

which the worthy Doctor had designed for a German colony, was taken

possession of by the French. He has since published a most interesting and

valuable work on Queensland, in which he gives some very curious details

about the native practice of skinning their dead, when the true skin being

of a white colour, the corpse has a most ghastly appearance. He says this

is the reason some of the tribes so highly reverence the _white_ man, whom

they regard as their own ancestors restored to life, but in an improved

nature!!

[13] The depopulation of the natives is advancing so rapidly that one of

our Sydney friends writes, "An expedition similar to your own, which shall

visit us some years hence, will find little more than a scant remnant of

the aborigines. That of the _Novara_ is probably the last of a scientific

nature, which will have been successful in seeing living specimens of the

once numerous blacks of Australia."

[14] _Wullurah_ in the native language signifies "the place of

deliberation," because in former times this place had, on account of its

commanding position, been selected by the aborigines for assembling the

various tribes by means of watch-fires, or blasts of a horn, to decide

upon peace or war.

[15] On the Clarence river there has been for several years past, in full

activity, a stearine candle-factory, which pays well, owing to the demand

at the "diggings" for these candles. In 1856 the value of those

manufactured was L600,000.

[16] According to English writers this instrument, the peculiar properties

of which are so well known that we need not enlarge upon them here, has

also been found in the Sarcophagi of Upper Egypt. In some of the frescos

now in the British Museum, which illustrate the manners and habits of the

Ancient Egyptians, a figure is represented in the act of launching the

Boomerang against a covey of ducks, which are flying out of a thicket.

[17] In Prussia, the annual consumption of spirits would fill a basin one

mile long, 33 feet wide, and 10 feet deep. In England, the annual quantity

of _wine_ drunk per head is 0.267 gallon; in France it is 19 gallons! The

British nation pays annually L70-74,000,000 taxes, and L74,000,000 for

spirits!!

[18] The rise and fall of the tide at Port Jackson is very small, not

above four or five feet.

[19] Viz. 1400 men, and 200 women.

[20] This is the nickname given to the violent S. or S.W. wind,

fortunately of short duration, which so frequently springs up towards

evening from the "Brickfields," because it brings with it such volumes of

sand and dust from the eminence known as the Brickfield lying S. and S.W.

from Sydney, enveloping the entire city in murky clouds of dust. The

"Brickfielder" is a pretty safe guide as to the weather, as soon as it

blows the whole sky becomes suddenly covered with clouds, and cool rainy

weather follows upon the previous heat.

[21] The imports of wool from Germany had, in 1836, risen to 31,766,194

lbs., but it has since then rapidly receded, owing mainly to the increased

production in the English colonies.

[22] We present an official account of the live stock in the settlement at

Port Jackson, May 1st, 1788, which forms an interesting contrast with the

development of its resources since that period:

| S | M | C | B | C |

| t | a | o | u | o |

| a | r | l | l | w |

| l | e | t | l | s |

| l | s | s | s | . |

| i | . | . | . | |

| o | | | | |

| n | | | | |

TO WHOM BELONGING. | s | | | | |

| . | | | | |

-------------------|---|---|---|---|---|

Government | 1 | 2 | - | 2 | 2 |

| | | | | |

Governor | - | 1 | 3 | - | 2 |

| | | | | |

Lieut.-Governor | - | - | - | - | - |

| | | | | |

Officers & men } | - | - | - | - | 1 |

of the detachment} | | | | | |

| | | | | |

Staff | - | - | - | - | - |

| | | | | |

Other individuals | - | - | - | - | - |

-------------------|---|---|---|---|---|

Totals | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 5 |

| Sheep. | G | H | P | R | T | G | D | F | C |

| | o | o | i | a | u | e | u | o | h |

| | a | g | g | b | r | e | c | w | i |

| | t | s | s | b | k | s | k | l | c |

| | s | . | . | i | e | e | s | s | k |

| | . | | | t | y | . | . | . | e |

| | | | | s | s | | | | n |

| | | | | . | . | | | | s |

TO WHOM BELONGING.| | | | | | | | | | . |

| | | | | | | | | | |

------------------+-----------|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|

Government |{Ram 1 | 1| 20| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |

|{Ewes 12 | | | | | | | | | |

|{Wethers 3 | | | | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | | | | |

Governor |{Ewe 1 | - | 10| - | 3| 5| 8| 17| 22| - |

|{Lamb 1 | | | | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | | | | |

Lieut.-Governor | - | 1| 1| 7| - | 5| 6| 4| 9| - |

| | | | | | | | | | |

Officers & men }| - | 12| 10| 17| 2| 6| 9| 8| 55| 25|

of the detachment}| | | | | | | | | | |

| | | | | | | | | | |

Staff | - 11 | 5| 7| 1| - | 2| 6| 6| 36| 62|

| | | | | | | | | | |

Other individuals | - | - | 1| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |

------------------+-----------|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|

Totals | 29 | 19| 49| 25| 5| 18| 29| 35|122| 87|

At present there are in this colony, 180,000 horses, 2,148,660 cattle, and

109,160 pigs.

[23] The sheep-breeders of the colony competed for the honour of

purchasing these valuable animals.

[24] The distance of the various gold-fields from Sydney and the various

harbours of the colony is as follows. _Western Gold-fields_,--Bathurst 110

miles, Sofala 140, Orange 141, Ophir 146, Mudgee 155, Tambaroora 157,

Meroo 160, Louisa Creek 176, Tuena 190. _Southern_,--Goulburn 125,

Queanbeyan 182, Braidwood 184, Bill's Creek 190, Araleun 200, Sundagai

244, Cooma 254, Tumut 264, Adelong 273, Albury 286, Obin's River 410,

Kiandra or Guoroy River, over Twofold Bay and Bambula, 240 miles.

_Northern_,--Hangus Rock 304, Bingera Creek 365, Rocky River 357, Tamworth

280, Timbarra 67 miles from Clarence River, _via_ Grafton, overland. The

other gold-fields of the Clarence River District, such as Lubra, Toolam,

Emu Creek, Pretty Gully, Sandy Creek, Table Land, Nelson's Creek, &c., are

80 to 100 miles from the river.

[25] The colony of New South Wales consisted at that period of the entire

land comprised between Cape York in 11 deg. 37' S. to South Cape, 43 deg. 30' S.,

and as far as 135 deg. E. in the interior to the westward, including all

islands adjoining, comprised within those degrees of latitude.

[26] Die Deportation als Strafmittel in alter und neuer Zeit, und die

Verbrecher-Colonien der Englaender und Franzosen in ihrer geschichtlichen

Entwickelung und criminal-politischen Bedeutung. Dargestellt von Franz v.

Holtzendorf, &c. Leipzig, A. Barth. 1859.

[27] The cost of transport of each convict was to be reckoned at L18.

[28] This Archipelago, remarkable by the size and loftiness of its

islands, extends from Batoa or South Island in the S.E. (19 deg. 47' S. by

179 deg. 52' E.), to Thicombea to the N. (15 deg. 47' S.), and Biva to the W.

(176 deg. 50' E.), and contains 225 islands and islets, of which about 80 are

inhabited. The entire superficial area is about 5700 square miles, and

upon a superficial estimate it contains 150,000 souls. The climate seems

to be eminently suitable for cotton culture, besides which sugar-cane,

coffee, tobacco, arrow-root, and most probably rice and indigo, may be

advantageously cultivated. Berchthold Seemann, the well-known botanist,

who made a scientific exploration of some of the Feejee Islands at the

expense of the English Government in the Autumn of 1860, discovered in the

valleys of Naona forests of the sago palm, whose nutritious flour might

become an important article of export. Dr. Petermann published in the

latter half of 1861, at page 67 of his valuable "particulars of certain

important recent discoveries in geography," an interesting synopsis of all

the latest scientific information respecting the Feejee Archipelago.

[Illustration: Maori]

XIX.

Auckland.

Stay from 22nd December, 1858, to 8th January, 1859.

Request preferred by the Colonial Government to have the

coal-fields of the Drury District thoroughly examined by the

geologists of the _Novara_.--Geographical remarks concerning New

Zealand.--Auckland.--The Aborigines or Maori.--A Mass meeting.--

Maori legends.--Manners and customs of the Aborigines.--The

Meri-Meri.--Most important of the vegetable esculents of the

Aborigines before the arrival of the Europeans.--Dr. Thomson's

anthropological investigations.--Maori proverbs and poetry.--The

present war and its origin.--The Maori king.--Decay of the

native population and its supposed causes.--Advantages held out

by New Zealand to European emigration.--Excursion to the

Waiatarna valley.--Maori village of Oraki.--Kauri forests in the

Manukau range.--Mr. Smith's farm in Titarangi.--St. John's

College.--Intellectual activity in Auckland.--New Zealand silk.--

Excursion to the coal-fields of the Drury and Hunua Districts.--

New Year's Eve at the Antipodes.--Dr. Hochstetter remains in New

Zealand.--The Catholic mission in Auckland.--Two Maories take

service as seamen on board the _Novara_.--Departure.--The

results of the explorations of the geologist during his stay at

the island.--Crossing the meridian of 180 deg. from West to East.--

The same day reckoned twice.--The sight of the islands of Tahiti

and Eimeo.--Arrival in the harbour of Papeete.

Great was the interest excited at the Antipodes by the arrival of the

_Novara_, for besides the importance for European emigration of a country

possessing a healthy climate, a fertile soil, and but thinly peopled, it

was most gratifying to the members of the first Austrian Expedition to see

much hitherto unsuspected natural wealth made known to the inhabitants by

one of their scientific staff, and thus to prove of use to a nation which

in almost every part of the globe has so incontestably borne away the palm

in advancing the interests of science and the development of the treasures

of the earth.

Immediately after our arrival in Auckland, the Governor of the colony,

Colonel Gore Browne, renewed the request, previously made in his name to

our Commodore while at Sydney by Sir William Denison, that he would permit

our geologist to make a proper scientific examination of a portion of the

Drury District, in which there were certain indications supposing to point

to the existence of coal-fields. Upon his report would depend the

exploration and the establishing of a regular system of working the mines.

The little Expedition to the coal-fields, which was most munificently

equipped by the Government, proved successful beyond all expectation, so

much so as to induce the Governor to beg of our Commodore the further

favour of permitting our geologist to make a still longer stay on the

island, for the purpose of more accurately and completely surveying the

dependency. The negotiations upon this subject, fraught with such happy

results for both parties, will be found in the Appendix, while at the end

of this chapter we shall give a succinct sketch of what was accomplished

in the interests of science by the activity of Dr. Hochstetter, our

geologist, during his stay in New Zealand, the more copious details of his

eight months' stay at the Antipodes being reserved for a special volume.

New Zealand consists of two large islands separated from each other by

Cook's Straits, a splendid channel, 150 miles long by 50 in width, and the

two smaller islands, called Stewart's and Chatham Islands, about 50 by 20,

separated by Foveau Straits, the latter lying in the ocean about 400 miles

south-west of the province of Canterbury.

The entire group extends from 34 deg. to 48 deg. S., and 166 deg. to 179 deg. E. The

greatest extent of land, from N.E. to S.W., i. e. from Cape Maria Van

Diemen to South Cape, is over 1000 miles. The greatest breadth, along the

parallel of 38 deg. S. is about 200 miles, while the coast-line is several

thousand miles in extent. By the constitution of 1853, New Zealand is

divided into six chief provinces:--Auckland, New Plymouth (Taranaki), and

Wellington in the north island, and Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago, in the

central islands, since which period two new provinces have been

added,--Hawk Bay in the north island, and Marlborough in the middle

island.

None of the remaining seven, however, is so important or possesses such

geographical advantages as Auckland. Its coast-line is upwards of 900

nautical miles, while its more important rivers, such as the Waikato,

Waipa, Waiho (called also the Thames), Piako, and Wairao, are navigable

for small boats far into the interior. Of its 28 harbours, four, viz. Bay

of Islands, Auckland, Wangaroa, and Middle Harbour, are accessible

throughout the year for large ships, besides offering secure anchorage;

but of the remainder only eight will admit vessels of 400 tons, while the

balance can only be used by small brigs and schooners.

Auckland, the capital, lies on an isthmus about six miles in width,

dividing Waitemata Harbour from that of Manukau, the first being beyond

all question the best harbour on the east side, the former on the west.

These two harbours furnish moreover, by the numerous streams and creeks

that disembogue into them, most excellent means of communication with the

interior. The products of the country through a region of 100 miles are

conveyed to Waitemata by the Waiho and Piako rivers, while on the other

hand the Waikato and Waipa rivers bring to the harbour of Manukau the

natural products from 120 miles inland. At a comparatively small cost a

cut might be carried through the isthmus, at a point where it is only a

mile and a half wide, and direct water communication be thus effected

between the two harbours, to the manifest advantage of the country and

capital. At present the mail steamer, which comes from Sydney once a month

with the European letters, berths in Manukau Harbour, near Onehunga, on

account of the greater convenience of that harbour, and its being at a

much less distance, whence the mails are transported in coaches across

the isthmus to Auckland. Onehunga is a flourishing settlement, with

interesting volcanic formations. The road thither lies through a fertile

rolling country, which is, for the most part, reclaimed and under

cultivation, or else depastured by large herds of handsome, powerful oxen.

The three land-marks of the landscape are:--Three King's Hill, Mount Eden,

and One Tree Hill. All these, of moderate elevation, were formerly crowned

with _pahs_ or native fortified villages, and were once inhabited by a

large population, as is evidenced to this day by the quantities of human

bones found in the lava below, and by several singular terrace-like

artificial earth-works. The cottages of the settlers are handsome and

clean, but of singularly small dimensions, very much the result we suppose

of the dearness of building material and the high price of labour near

Auckland.

According to the census of 1857 the entire population of New Zealand

amounted to 108,204,[29] the white European population numbering 52,155,

of whom 16,315 persons inhabited Auckland (9038 men, and 7277 women).

The aborigines (Maori in the native tongue) are officially returned at

56,049, of whom by far the larger number, above 38,000, inhabit the

province of Auckland. Of all the savage races with whom England has come

in contact in the course of her mighty struggles to open trade and raise

humanity, the New Zealanders have hitherto proved themselves to be the

most susceptible of European civilization. More than five-sixths of their

number are already Christians, and have been baptized, and, settled down

in comfortable residences, maintain themselves by agriculture or

sailoring. More than one hundred vessels built in the colony are owned by

natives, who not alone have in their hands a considerable portion of the

coasting trade, but carry on business with the adjoining islands, as also

with New South Wales. While Bushmen, Hottentots, Caffres, Australian

negroes, all, like the Indian tribes of Canada and the United States,

present the helpless type of misery and decay, all the indications here

seem to promise that the splendid spectacle will be presented of one of

the most savage, yet highly gifted, races of the globe being raised in the

scale of humanity by education and culture, and brought permanently within

the scale of civilization. Whoever has followed with critical eye the

immense increase of this colony during the last twenty years, must indulge

this cheering anticipation not less confidently than the traveller who has

traversed the entire island totally unmolested, has been cordially

welcomed in every hut, has encountered everywhere schools and Christian

missions, and has seen the natives occupied solely with the avocations of

peace. Those native chiefs, who from contact with civilization had already

adopted the outward deportment and mode of life of the European settlers,

omitted no opportunity of confessing in language of fire the

consciousness of their former moral degradation, and of holding the

European up for admiration, as the founder of a new era of morality and

humanity in their country; nay, one Maori, who is now a zealous missionary

in the interior of the island, once avowed to his hearers that he had

himself as a boy eaten human flesh, and had first learned through the

influence of Christianity to comprehend the abominations and wild-beast

ferocity of his previous state, after which he had begun to lead a life

more worthy of the dignity of manhood.

The members of our Expedition also enjoyed the opportunity of attending a

Mass-meeting of Maories in the Takapuna district on the north shore of

Waitemata Harbour, where they gathered, from the orations of the most

influential chiefs and speakers, the liveliest conviction of their

fidelity and attachment to the Queen of England and her government. We

insert here a pretty full description of this remarkable meeting, as well

as a brief sketch of the most interesting manners and customs of the

aborigines of New Zealand, in order to enlighten the reader as to the

justice of the universally expressed distrust of the capacity of the Maori

for civilization, and the more readily to form an idea of the alarm and

astonishment of the English Government, on being suddenly informed that

the entire native population had rose in arms against the European

settlers.

A wealthy and much-respected chief, named Patuoni, has been in the habit

for many years past of inviting all the friendly tribes residing in his

neighbourhood, as well as the most distinguished of the white settlers,

to a great popular fete every Christmas. The intelligence that on the

present occasion the "Kavana" (Governor), or Commander of one of Queen

Victoria's allies, would attend with a numerous suite, had caused much

agreeable excitement among the Maori, and they offered to send some

war-canoes and two whale-boats to the coast opposite in order to convey

the guests. The staff of the Expedition were however already at the place

of meeting in the Takapuna district, when the war-canoes arrived at the

usual place of embarkation in Auckland. Here we saw a number of large

tents pitched on an eminence, and gaily adorned with English and other

flags, under which were very long narrow tables, about two feet high,

covered with neat little baskets elegantly woven of the leaves of the New

Zealand flax, in which were cooked potatoes, roast-pork, and fish. The

guests, 300 or 400 in number, sat on the ground, which was thickly covered

with fern freshly gathered, some sitting cross-legged, others squatting on

their heels, zealously excavating the food with their fingers, for the use

of forks has not yet become a fashion among the Maori. The chief beverage

was tea, and all around on the grass adjoining the tent might be seen

improvised fire-places, on every one of which a huge kettle of boiling

water was singing. The gait and extravagance however of but too many

indicated that less harmless drinks were being supplied close by. Each as

soon as he had finished his repast lighted his pipe, and mingled with the

groups that were chatting about. Tobacco smoking has become a positive

passion with both sexes, and even among the children of the poorer classes

it is no unusual thing to see the infant carried in the arms coolly take

the pipe out of its mother's mouth and begin to smoke it! The earthen

pipe, broken off so short that there is barely sufficient to enable the

teeth to take hold,--in one word, summing up everything to English

ears--the "cuttie"--is most in favour.

Scarcely was it rumoured that the Commander of the Austrian frigate with

his staff were at hand, ere the whole crowd, which up to that moment had

been abandoning itself to enjoyment, suddenly dispersed _pele-mele_ in

wildest confusion. The gay flags were removed from the tent-peaks, and

made to veil the scene of uproar; a quick but monotonous song, alternating

with measured stamping with the feet, was droned out, the chiefs

brandishing aloft and swinging with wild gesticulations their costly clubs

(_meri-meri_, literally "Fire of the Gods"), made of primitive rock. Each

Maori who had a club beside him swung it with wild gesticulation, while

the rest tossed in the air the ends of their woollen garments. In order to

give us a more complete idea of their ancient customs, a war-dance

succeeded to this, in which men, women, and children took a part. Although

this is nothing but a confused advance and retreat of two bodies of people

arranged opposite each other in regular order, who suddenly rush towards

each other with impetuous vehemence and loud discordant cries, yet the

wild shrieks, the rapid motions of those who took part in it, the rolling

of the eyes, the protrusion of the tongues, combined to make a formidable

impression, and to give some idea of the frightful appearance of these

warriors, when, instead of simulated rage, they were animated by the

ferocity of real warfare with the foe! As soon as symptoms of lassitude

and fatigue began to be visible among the war-dancers they arranged

themselves, at the command of the old chief, Patuoni, on both sides, three

ranks deep, and permitted the strangers to pass from end to end of the

camp. Here we were once more welcomed in genuine New Zealand fashion by

the various chiefs, some of whom endeavoured to strike up a conversation.

Mr. W. Baker, Government interpreter, and Secretary to the Native

Department, who had been desired by Government to attend the _Novara_

staff to the feast, was so kind as to translate.

The first to emerge from the ranks was Paora Tuhaera of Oraki, who spoke

as follows: "Welcome, O chief from a foreign shore, messenger of a king

and a nation of which we only lately have heard tell! Our English friends

explained to us that your countrymen have long been friends and allies of

the British people, whose Queen is our protectress, and under whose laws

we live in undisturbed tranquillity on our own lands. You are a stranger

among us! You for the first time behold a race whose fathers passed their

lives in ignorance, in war, in the practice of every evil custom. You have

been present at this place and witnessed how we sought once to give vent

to our passions and to scare our enemies. This spectacle you saw in

peace, and no man ventured or even thought of lifting the hand against

you! Yet had you come among us at the period of which I spoke, our arm

would have been raised to inflict the deadly blow upon you, or your hand,

which I have just pressed, would have been striking at me to compass my

destruction! You have seen many lands, many perhaps fairer than this

island of ours; but here there is nothing to injure us or to make us wish

to live in other countries. The laws of England shield us from the hand of

the aggressor, we live happy and at peace, and rejoice to welcome those

who, like you, come to us on a mission of good will!"

This speech and the two following, the Commodore responded to in English,

in terms of warm cordial thanks, and enlarged on the material and

intellectual progress of the aborigines, all which was duly translated by

Mr. Baker to the Maories.

After this Cruera Patuoni of Awataha, an elder brother of

Tamati-Waka-Neni, advanced and said: "Welcome! welcome! The young men have

welcomed you, and I, an old man, a friend of the Europeans from the

earliest days in which they planted foot in New Zealand, I also bid you

welcome! What can I say more? You have heard what we were,--you see now

what we are! It needs not that I should add to what has been said by those

who spoke before me. Welcome then to the land of the Maories, friends of

the white man."

After several more of the younger chiefs had greeted the Commodore and

staff in the most hearty manner, Hui Haupapa, of colossal stature and

frank expression of countenance, made with his powerful arm a passage for

himself through the compact crowd, placed himself in a somewhat theatrical

position, and began in a loud voice, and in evident excitement,

brandishing his meri-meri as he spoke:--

"The chiefs of this neighbourhood have welcomed thee. My tribe lives far

from here, but _I_ am here, and I bid thee welcome! Thou hast said we are

happy and live at peace. It is true the laws of our Queen have contributed

to this fortunate state of things. Formerly, war, murder, and spilling of

blood formed our chief occupation. Even now troubles arise, which it is

often difficult to smooth over. Just as thou wert landing we were engaged

reading a letter informing us that a dispute of long standing between the

Ngatiwhatua and the Uriohare threatened to give rise to a war. Were we

still in our old Maori state we should assuredly have had recourse to arms

for its settlement, but the two tribes will remember that the laws do not

permit one family of our Queen's children to make war against another, and

they will therefore restrain their anger in the hope that their

differences may be amicably arranged. But what interest have these things

for you? You came to us in peace and friendliness, take with you the love

of the entire assembly, which is proud of having been visited by an

officer of the great king, who is a friend of Queen Victoria and her

children."

The natives, who were standing closely packed on either side, and listened

in breathless silence, expressed their acquiescence by head and hand at

the end of each oration. The manner in which they are accustomed to

express themselves at these assemblies is quite unique. The speaker plants

himself at a distance of about ten steps from his audience, whom he

gradually approaches in his speech till within three feet, when he turns

round in silence, resumes his former distance, and begins anew. This

custom has several advantages; it gives the orator time to collect his

thoughts, while his eloquence has time to sink into the heart of his

hearers. Each speaker advances his opinions and sentiments with singular

calmness and dignity. Only at certain "points," which seem to him to be of

importance, does the orator throw up his right hand, while on his left

arm, hanging by his side, lies his stone club, without which no chief

would think of addressing a meeting.

During these speeches we had drawn near the groups surrounding us. The

majority were dressed in European clothes, the chiefs usually wearing a

black cap with gold band, the rest in the most various costumes,

apparently as accident or caprice had dictated their choice. The old men

were tattooed more or less, according to their rank, strongly contrasting

with their European habiliments. The elder women, except that they were

bare-footed, were mostly clad in European dress, some even in elegant

silks and muslins, and had their lips and chins tattooed, whereas the

young folk of both sexes no longer followed that custom, and hence we

frequently had occasion to remark exceedingly agreeable features. Only a

very small number of aborigines seemed to be contented with their own

national dress, and wore either the universal blanket, or else the Cacahu,

a handsome kind of cloak, very artistically made by the Maori women from

the fibres of the New Zealand flax. All had the flaps of their ears

pierced, and a piece of oval-shaped rock passed through the orifice, or

were adorned with shark's teeth, which are usually made fast to a narrow

black silk ribbon. As we inspected some of these groups, and especially

were admiring their splendid figures, we came upon two individuals who had

hid their heads under their blankets, and were weeping bitterly. To our

inquiry as to the cause of their uncontrollable grief amid such a festive

gathering, we were told that they were two relatives who had long been

separated, and were thus celebrating their meeting again. Friends and

relations usually express their joy at seeing each other again by sitting

for hours together, according to their friendship or esteem, rubbing noses

and sobbing bitterly, and weeping over each other the while! If unobserved

this will go on with uncovered head; otherwise they will draw a blanket

over themselves. Kissing and hand-shaking have only become a fashion among

the New Zealanders since their more intimate intercourse with Europeans.

As we withdrew from this singular never-to-be-forgotten people's festival,

and were on our way to our boats, the entire merry multitude assembled on

the slope in front of the tents, and to show, it may be supposed, that

they were not unacquainted with the usages of other countries, gave, with

genuine English good-will, three rousing hurrahs in honour of the

departing guests!

The study of the language and history of the traditions, habits, and

morals of the aborigines of New Zealand, must necessarily be of special

interest on account of our presumed acquaintance with the race they are

descended from, and the important conclusions thence deducible as to the

settlement of Polynesia at large.

A Maori legend relates that their first progenitors came in seven canoes

from the island of Hawaiki (i. e. cradle of the race), one of the Sandwich

Islands, 4000 miles to the N.E. of New Zealand.[30] These canoes had

outriggers to prevent foundering, and were called Amatiatia, whereas those

they now use, which are also of very simple construction, are named Wakka,

and have evidently borrowed their form from the dried seed of the New

Zealand honey-suckle (_Rewarewa_). The first canoe that came from Hawaiki

was named Arawa. It brought over Honmaitawiti, Tamakekapua, Toi, Maka,

Hei, Jhenga, Tauninihi, Rongokako, and others, and these were the first

settlers from whom the New Zealanders are descended.

One of the earlier authors respecting these isles of the Antipodes,

Richard Taylor, the missionary, relates that in 1840 there was living in

the village of Para-para, on the road from Kaitaia to Doubtless Bay, an

aged New Zealand chief named Hahakai, who was thoroughly conversant with

the history of his native land, and used to enumerate twenty-six

generations since the first arrival on the island of the ancestors of his

tribe. Taylor is of opinion, however, that a number of these generations

must be considered as divinities, and that hardly more than fifteen

generations or five hundred years can have elapsed since the first

vagrants from the north settled in New Zealand.[31] At that period they

knew neither the custom of Taboo (the sanctity and inviolability of all

things) nor cannibalism, both of which customs they first began to

practise in their adopted country. As the aborigines before the arrival of

the Europeans possessed no written language, these traditions were usually

handed down from father to son, while one or more relatives of the more

influential families of each tribe were duly set apart to study their

traditions, as well as their laws (_tikanga_) and religious ceremonies.

The persons thus educated supplied for them the place of annals, books of

laws, or written precedents.

Both Taylor and Dieffenbach incline to the opinion of older authors

respecting these twin islands, namely, that at the period when these

immigrants from the north arrived there, they were inhabited by another

dark race of a different descent. Against this hypothesis, however, there

is to be urged that not the slightest vestige of any such race can be

produced, in addition to which there is but one language spoken throughout

the extent of the islands, with dialects few in number and hardly

differing from each other. In none of the many Maori legends is any

mention made, either express or implied, of any such circumstance, which

one would think would hardly have been passed over in silence, had the

islands at the first landing of the emigrants from Hawaiki been inhabited

by another race. The great disparity in physical frame between

individuals, recalling now the Malay, now the Chinese type, and even the

African and Jewish as well, is much more probably explained by the

intermixture of the New Zealanders with the inhabitants of the various

island groups, which they visited at the period of their migration.

The Maories are on the whole a handsome race of men, well-built and

powerful, generally not less in stature than the Europeans, whom they

resemble somewhat in their complexion, which gives the idea rather of

being embrowned than naturally brown, by their thin, weak hair, sometimes

black, sometimes of a chesnut brown, and whom they closely approach in

their features. Indeed full-blood Maories sometimes have such a European

aspect, that even the numberless tattoo marks upon their faces do not

destroy the impression, but have rather the appearance of those "painted

faces" we are accustomed to see in actors, when they wish to give their

countenances a more effective cast upon the boards.

The custom of tattooing, or "Moko," is one of those most characteristic of

this remarkable people, and is worth being described in detail, inasmuch

as it has been almost entirely discontinued since the diffusion of

Christianity, for, according to the sentiments of the missionaries, every

native, henceforth, who submits to this operation is held to have

renounced Christianity, and to have openly dubbed himself a heathen. It

has been suggested as the most probable explanation of the rapid spread of

this painful practice, that the "Moko" imparts to the countenance a

sterner expression in presence of the enemy, and that the Maori women

attach more importance to the caresses of a tattooed man than of one whose

visage is unmarked. Possibly tattooing was a symbol of puberty in both

sexes, and a token of their being of marriageable age.

At first they contented themselves with marking the face with certain

straight lines, called by the natives Moko-Kuri, which was the stage it

had attained when Cook visited these islands. The present complicated

system of tattooing was first introduced by one of the tribes of the east

coast by a certain Mataora, and the first man whose face was thus tattooed

was named Onetunga.

Usually this painful operation is performed by a priest (_Tohunga_), who

paints, or rather sketches out, one of the many different models with

black colouring matter upon the face of the person to be tattooed, having

first obtained his opinion, by showing him his visage reflected in a

tub-full of water for lack of a mirror. As soon as the latter has

signified his assent to the design selected, the further process is begun.

The instruments used were the following:--

The "Uhi," a small piece of wood, one extremity of which is armed with a

small piece of sharp-edged bone, set in a vertical direction. This

needle-like tool, which was formerly made either of human bones or of

those of the albatross, has been since supplanted by proper steel

instruments.

The "Ta" or "Tuki," a stalk of fern, which is pressed upon the Uhi in

order that it might enter the skin, and bring out the desired pattern.

The necessary colouring stuff (_Ngarahu_) is made from the soot of the

wood, when burnt, of the Kauri fir (_Dammara Australis_), which is

collected in the leaves of the Ti-reed (_Cordyline Australis_), and is

prepared with an infusion of the bark of the Hinau (_Elaeocarpus Hinau_),

in the form of small cones.

Immediately before the tattooing begins, the colouring matter thus

prepared is moistened with the juice of the fruit of Tupa-kihi (_Coriaria

Sarmentosa_). The complete "Moko" comprises the face, the hips, and the

upper surface of the thigh as far as the knee. Every separate tattooing

has its appropriate name and its special position. Dieffenbach counts 17,

and Richmond Taylor 19 of these, distinguishable by their several

markings.

The operation is of so severe a nature, that very frequently it cannot be

completed without endangering the life of the individual. Only one

instance is on record, in which a native sat out the whole formidable

process at one sitting, and he died just as the last line was finished.

Usually the first tattooing took place at the 18th year, and was continued

at various intervals. During the process, the patient lies on the ground

with his head reposing on the bosom of the _Tohunga_, who holds the "Uhi"

in his left hand, and the "Ta" or "Tuki" in his right, which he strikes

upon the former with a rapid constant motion. As soon as an incision is

made, the blood is wiped off with a piece of fine flax, and the colouring

matter rubbed in. While this is going on the priests and the friends

standing by keep up a continual chant, in order to cheer the patient and

stimulate his courage.

After the operation the face swells, and for some time presents a

downright hideous appearance, and instances have occurred in which it has

been permanently distorted. Usually, however, the wounds heal after ten or

twelve days, when the incised lines made by the "Uhi" present a

bluish-black appearance.

With the women the operation is much more simple, being confined to one

or two vertical or horizontal lines upon the lip and chin. This tattooing

occasionally, however, takes place twice, in order to bring out a black

colour, as the New Zealanders consider a black lip as the very ideal of

beauty. It also figures as such in the songs chanted by the Tohunga on

such occasions, of which the following stanzas may be presented as a

specimen:--

Be ready, my daughter, to have thyself marked,

To tattoo thy chin!

That, when thou crossest the threshold of a strange house,

They may not say, "Whence cometh this ugly woman?"

Be ready, my daughter, to have thyself marked,

To tattoo thy chin!

That thou mayst have a comely aspect,

That when thou art bidden to a feast,

They may not ask, "Whence cometh this _red-lipped_ woman?"

To make thyself beautiful

Come and be tattooed!

That when thou dost enter the circle of dancers,

They may not ask, "Whence cometh this woman with the ugly lips?"

The Tohunga is usually well remunerated, and frequently in the course of

his chant makes allusion to the amount of reward he expects, and indeed

sometimes stimulates the generosity of his patient by singing amongst

other ditties, something like

"The man who is paid well

Tattoos beautifully!

The man who receives nothing

Does not tattoo well!"

The marks, when completely brought out, are so manifold and various that

hardly any two New Zealanders are to be found who are tattooed entirely

alike. Accordingly these markings serve neither to indicate variety of

tribe, nor difference of rank. A slave, if he possess the means, may have

his face tattooed with the same ornaments as his master. However it

appears, as we were informed by Colonel Browne, that on the occasion of

the chiefs ratifying the treaty with the English, they superscribed the

various documents with the lines upon their faces, like so much heraldic

blazonry, instead of writing their names.

Another remarkable custom of the Maori consists in the right of the priest

to declare certain persons and things _taboo_, that is, consecrated and

inviolable. This custom, which is nothing else than a religious ordinance

instituted for political purposes, is frequently most beneficial in its

consequences. So great and universal was the respect paid to the law of

_taboo_, that even hostile tribes were in the habit during war of leaving

unharmed all persons and things thus protected. A plot of ground planted

with esculents, a fruit tree, a sick person, a "lady in the straw,"--all

these were so many objects declared holy and inviolate.

Formerly polygamy was tolerably frequent among the Maori, although

instances were by no means rare in which a man had but one wife to whom he

continued faithful. At present this custom, incompatible with the

Christian notion of the family tie, is confined to those few chiefs who

are still heathens.

Usually the young men and girls marry very young. English travellers state

they have seen a mother only 11 years of age! Usually the first wife of a

young chief is much older than himself, but, on the other hand, instances

were frequent of old men marrying young girls. The daughters of men of

very high rank frequently remained unmarried.

The mortality among infants under a year old is very great. At present not

more than three children are reckoned to each family, and the number of

barren marriages is much greater than those that prove fruitful.

Infanticide is at present as rare as in Europe. In former times,

especially during the wars of the interior, it was by no means unusual for

a mother to put her children to death, especially if females, in order to

spare herself the trouble of nursing and bringing up. Male offspring, on

the contrary, were taken more care of, because they would increase the

aggressive power of the tribe, and were looked upon as the avengers of

injuries sustained and not yet compensated. Illegitimate children they

almost always put to death, either by strangling them or compressing the

mouth and nostrils. The practice of infanticide among the weaker sex took

its rise chiefly in the life of slavery which was the normal state of the

women during their heathen condition. Such was the reasoning once avowed

by a murderess of her child:--"Why should my child live? to be brought up

as the slave of the wives of my husband, to be beaten and kicked by them!"

There seems to be some mistake in the assertion of several writers upon

the customs prevalent in New Zealand, to the effect that on the death of a

Maori it is customary to sacrifice his nearest relatives. Only when a

great chief dies, are some of his slaves occasionally put to death at the

same time, that their spirits may accompany him who has preceded them to

the shadowy land, to serve him there, and execute his commands as they did

while on earth.

So too it occasionally happened that, on the death of a much-esteemed

chief, a hostile incursion was made by a number of warriors, in order to

provide a victim from another tribe, and thus make it feel the same pang

as that which they were suffering in the loss of their chief. Suicide, on

the death of a near relative, is even at present far from uncommon as a

token of inconsolable grief. A low estimate of the value of life seems to

be a leading feature in the character of the New Zealander; it needs but a

slight cause to make him take his own life or plunge into some abyss.

Slavery, to the extent that existed among the aborigines in former times,

is no longer to be found, though many prisoners taken in war are still

held as slaves by their captors. In many cases the slaves prefer to stay

with their present masters, if they have been well treated, rather than

return among their own race, from whom they feel themselves estranged,

and by whom it is probable they have long been forgotten.

The introduction of Christianity was immediately followed by the

manumission of all slaves throughout the islands. Under the old laws, the

owner of a slave was undisputed master of his person and property, and

might put him to death, or sell him,--in short, do with him as he pleased.

Everything that the slave possessed belonged to his master. Slaves were

usually made in battle, either during the storming of a fortified village,

or _pah_, or during flight before a victorious enemy. Each warrior might

take as many prisoners as he could, who thereupon became his incontestable

property. Chiefs, however, and youths of rank were usually put to death on

the spot.

The offspring of such prisoners of war were also slaves, and equally the

property of their masters. However, it frequently happened that a young

slave married a girl of the tribe of his conqueror, in which case their

offspring were no longer considered as slaves, although they were reputed

of low rank. According to the old Maori laws, there were no slaves other

than those taken in war and their descendants.

Among the free Maori, there are a number of varying grades; but the

principles on which they are bestowed do not seem as yet to have been

accurately ascertained by any European observers. Any individual who is

able to trace his descent from distinguished parentage of either sex, has

the right to assume the title of a chief. As a rule, the elder branch of a

family takes precedence over the younger. The heir-male was always

regarded as the head of the family, and in the olden times was its priest

or _tohunga_.

The wars of the Maori were chiefly carried on with spears and clubs of

various shapes and sizes, but since the arrival of the Europeans the use

of fire-arms has become almost universal. Hangi, one of the most renowned

and formidable chiefs, who visited England in 1826, on his return

exchanged all the splendid presents made him by George IV. for European

fire-arms and ammunition, in order the more readily to subjugate all the

races on the island by means of these new and dangerous weapons, and make

himself omnipotent. Since that period the older warlike implements

(_taiaha_, _paki_, _ehi_) have only been kept as objects of curiosity for

the various chiefs to show.

But the most remarkable weapon of the New Zealanders, which was held by

the chiefs in high honour as an emblem of rank, a sceptre so to speak, and

which descended from generation to generation, is a piece of nephrite

beautifully polished, from 10 to 20 inches long, 4 to 5 inches broad, and

half an inch thick, called by the natives Meri-meri, "the fire of the

gods," which is pierced at one end, and is usually attached to a cord

passed round the hand. In the days of heathenism the Meri-meri was used

occasionally as a weapon of defence, as also to scalp prisoners.

The various weapons of nephrite that we had an opportunity of examining

were of a pale green colour, which became transparent at the sharp edge,

which ran all round, and had a peculiar flame-like glow.

The stone from which these costly weapons are made (the manufacture of

which, in consequence of the dearth of suitable instruments before the

arrival of the Europeans, was often the work of several generations), is

found in loose fragments among the various mountain-streams along the west

coast of the central island. The places where they are found in greatest

abundance are Arahura and Ohonu on the N.W. coast, beyond Wakatipu, an

inland lake, one of the sources of the river Matan, and Piopiotahi, a

mountain-torrent on the S.W. coast. At the last-mentioned place, which,

although we have little reliable information concerning it, has long been

known to seal-hunters, a gigantic block of nephrite, many tons weight, was

found in the middle of the current, which owing to its size was valueless,

because useless to the aborigines. A sealer, who visited this coast once

during a flying visit to Sydney, overheard a remark that this description

of stone was much prized in China, and being aware of the existence of

this colossal block of nephrite at Piopiotahi, he already beheld himself

the possessor of considerable wealth. A company was quickly got up, with a

merchant from Manila at the head, and a number of miners were forthwith

sent to the spot, in order to blast the huge, unshapen rock into fragments

admitting of easy transport. After immense labour and incredible hardships

a few tons of the rock thus blasted were dispatched by the labourers to

Manila for the purpose of being tested and examined. The workmen remained

some months at Piopiotahi, anxiously awaiting intelligence of the results

of their toil. At last, when they had about exhausted their provisions,

and were still without intelligence, they buried the fruits of their

exertions, and dispersed themselves among the small Maori settlements

adjoining Foveau Straits.

The samples of nephrite were duly sent from Manila to China, where they

proved to be of very poor quality, being disfigured by small black specks.

For some years after small quantities of nephrite were annually brought

for sale from the Piopiotahi to Wellington, where they found plenty of

purchasers among the natives of that district at about 1_s._ per lb.

In former days the Maori used to make long and difficult journeys from the

east to the west coast of the island, in search for the much-prized stone.

When found it was usually shaped and polished by rubbing it upon a flat

sandstone block; this operation was so long and arduous that its

completion was often the work of two generations; and this is probably the

main reason why such value is attached to it. The extraordinary hardness

of the stone, which admits of its being ground to a very sharp edge, also

made it an excellent substitute for iron in the manufacture of hatchets

and chisels, the New Zealanders having only become acquainted with that

metal since their intercourse with the Europeans.

The shape which the Maories gave the Meri-meri when completed, resulting

from the absence of implements with which to manipulate this stone, which

is so hard that even iron does not bite it, probably gave rise to the

notion that when found the stone is in a soft state. Sandstone, however,

is found efficacious in the process just as it polishes iron also, and the

holes requisite for suspending it, are made by the very simple process of

drilling with a piece of pointed hard wood, with fine sand and a little

water.

Cannibalism may be said to have entirely ceased in New Zealand. Any

allusion to this revolting practice is very painful to the New Zealander

of the present day, as reminding him of his former low position in the

scale of nations. Every time that we endeavoured to make any inquiry of

the natives respecting this custom, they withdrew with an ashamed look.

In like manner dog's flesh has ceased to be an article of food, ever since

the introduction of pork by Captain Cook. Formerly the native or Maori

dog, which at present is very scarce, was eaten on certain occasions,

while its blood played a somewhat conspicuous part in Maori pharmacy.

The vegetables most extensively used for food before the arrival of the

Europeans were:--

1. Raorao (_Pteris esculenta_), a fern three or four feet high, which

covers vast tracts of land, and the root of which, before the introduction

of the Peruvian potato, formed the chief subsistence of the Maori.

2. Kumara (_Convolvulus Batata_), or sweet potato, the most valuable of

New Zealand products. Various legends of adventure exist among the natives

respecting its first introduction. The harvest-time for this plant is

accompanied by a grand festival, and the fields in which the Kumara is

grown, as well as the labourers engaged in raising it, were declared by

the priests _taboo_, or consecrated. Of the varieties of the Kumara, one,

the size of a yam-root, is named _Kai-pakeha_, or "white man's food," and

is exceedingly palatable. The common potato (_Solanum tuberosum_) was

first brought hither from the Cape of Good Hope, by Captain Cook, who

planted it here.

3. Mamaku (_Cyathea Medullaris_), one of the most elegant tree-ferns in

the country, whose whole stalk, sometimes 20 feet high, is edible, and is

sufficient to maintain a considerable number of persons. The pith of the

Mamaku, when cooked and dried in the sun, is an excellent substitute for

sago.

Fermented liquors, like the Kawa of the South Sea Islanders, or the Chicha

of the Indians of Southern and Central America, seem never to have been

known to the New Zealanders.[32] The only fruits from which liquors are

occasionally prepared are the Tawa (_Laurus Tawa_) and those of the

Trepa-Kihi (_Coriaria Sarmentosa_), the latter of which, however, when the

stamens of many are mingled together, is apt to be followed by symptoms of

poisoning, resulting in violent convulsions and death.

Although their short stay at Auckland, coupled with other indispensable

business, did not admit making an adequate number of measurements of the

physical proportions of both sexes of natives, we nevertheless had an

opportunity of measuring some individuals, whose appearance seemed to

present a very fair average.

Here we ought to remark that many years ago, Dr. A. Thomson, surgeon of

the 58th regiment, impressed apparently with the value of these

experiments as aiding the diagnostics of various races of men, had made a

great number of measurements of the natives during a long residence on the

island. These, however, were mainly confined to height, weight, magnitude

of chest, and physical strength of individuals, but which are of much

value, having been compared at the time with similar results obtained from

an equal number of British soldiers, thus furnishing most interesting

standards of comparison for the two races. Dr. Thomson measured, for

instance, the height of 147 natives, and found them to average 5 ft. 6-3/4

inches. Of these, 35 measured 5 ft. 6 in. to 5 ft. 7 in.; 20 from 5 ft. 5

in. to 5 ft. 6 in.; 2 from 5 ft. 11 in. to 6 ft.; one 6 ft. 1 in.; and one

who measured 6 ft. 5-1/2 in. Of 617 men of the 58th regiment, the average

height was 5 ft. 7-3/4 inches.

Like the English, the Maories attain their full stature after they have

completed their 20th year, the average height of 46 individuals between 16

and 20 being 5 ft. 6 in., whereas of individuals between 21 and 25 it was

5 ft. 6-3/4 inches, the average height of the human race in the temperate

climes of Europe being 5 ft. 5 in. to 5 ft. 6 in., according to Haller.

The weight of New Zealanders, as compared with that of English soldiers,

gave the following remarkable result in the case of 150 men of both races

who were examined at Auckland:--

8 Maories weighed more than 112 lbs., but less than 126 lbs.

avoirdupois.

25 " " " " 126 " " " " 140 " "

54 " " " " 140 " " " " 154 " "

41 " " " " 154 " " " " 168 " "

19 " " " " 168 " " " " 182 " "

3 " " " " 182 " " " " 196 " "

The average weight of a Maori, deducting their mats and clothes, is about

141 lbs.; of 617 Europeans (both English and Irish), who were weighed, the

average weight was 143 lbs. Dr. Thompson found the natives under 21 less

fully developed than soldiers of the same age, but after that the Maori

began to turn the beam as regards weight.

The girth of the chest, measured above the nipples, gave as the average of

151 natives 35.36 inches; of 628 soldiers of the 58th regiment, 35.71

inches. Between 16 and 20 the chest of the native is more than half an

inch less than that of the European; a little later it is found to be

about the same.

In order to test the physical and muscular strength of the Maori, Dr.

Thompson made them lift the utmost weights they could from the ground,

with the following results from 31 individuals on whom he experimented:--

6 New Zealanders lifted 410 to 420 lbs.

2 " " 400 " 410 "

5 " " 390 " 400 "

3 " " 380 " 390 "

6 " " 360 " 380 "

5 " " 340 " 360 "

2 " " 336 "

2 " " 250 " 266 "

The average of the foregoing gives 367 lbs., the highest being 420 lbs.,

the lowest 250 lbs. A similar experiment made with 31 soldiers of the 58th

regiment (averaging in weight 144 lbs.) gave the following figures:--

2 soldiers lifted 504 lbs.

6 " " 460 " to 480 lbs.

14 " " 400 " " 460 "

9 " " 350 " " 400 "

Thus the average weight which the British soldiers could lift from the

ground was 422 lbs., or 55 lbs. more than the Maori.

Perron in his "Voyage des Decouvertes aux Terres Australes," observed as

the result of numerous experiments, that the weakest Frenchman had more

muscular strength than the most powerful native of Van Diemen's Land, and

that the weakest Englishman was stronger than the strongest native of New

Holland. Judging by that standard, the Maories are of a far more powerful

build than the Australian aborigines.

What appears to us most interesting in the results of Dr. Thomson's

observations, is the immense disparity of the muscular strength of the

Maori as compared with that of the Anglo-Saxon race, although in height,

weight, and girth they so closely resemble them. The main reason of this

astonishing dissimilarity is undoubtedly due in the main to the

exclusively vegetable diet of the New Zealanders, which it is well known

promotes the deposition of fat in the system, without proportionately

increasing the amount of muscular tissue. Moreover the uniform,

uneventful life of the Maories by no means tends to the development of

muscular strength.

Dr. Thomson justly remarks that the foregoing facts completely demolish

the arguments of those who find a pleasure in representing the world as

degenerating, and mankind as much less powerful and free from blemish than

in former ages, ere trade and civilization had exercised their

unpropitious influence upon the habits and manners of mankind. For here we

have the New Zealanders, living up to the present century a life of the

most primitive simplicity, yet evidently in respect of mere corporeal

strength lagging far behind the denizens of a country, where culture and

machinery have brought about social changes of such magnitude, as no other

civilized people on the globe can show.

Of few races inhabiting the southern hemisphere, have the proverbs,

poetry, songs, and traditions been the subject of such zealous study as

those of the Maori, and no one has made more careful investigation into

this interesting feature than the present Governor, Sir George Grey, who

set on foot most minute inquiries into the older history of the Maori,

which he published in a variety of valuable works,[33] although several of

the missionaries, as also educated settlers of many years' standing in the

colony, have extended our acquaintance with the Maori race, by the

publication of a grammar and dictionary of the Maori language, as also

many valuable works upon the natural history of the New Zealand

Islands.[34]

To this most honourable and widely-diffused activity, science is indebted

for a specimen of literature which furnishes an excellent sample of the

high cultivation of the native race, and makes us acquainted with moral

axioms and pieces of poetry which would do honour even to a poet of

Caucasian descent.

We subjoin a few adages and short poems of Sir George Grey's valuable

collections, which more especially indicate the dignified character and

originality of thought of this singular people, and are taken from a

larger number embraced in Sir George Grey's collection of "Proverbial and

Popular Sayings" already mentioned.

Canst thou still the surf that breaks on the Shoal of

Rongo-mai-ta-kupe? (Alluding to the difficulty of allaying a

revolt.)

* * * * *

The little child grows, but the little axe remains for ever

little (i. e. manhood is more valuable than any other

possession).

Capricious as a salmon in the stream or a girl on shore.

The flounder flies back to hide itself in the water it has

mudded.

You can search the dark corner of a house, but not the heart of

a man.

Bad food will not make a man mean, but a noble man makes mean

food respectable.

Kokowai or red ochre sucks up oil when you mix them. (If a chief

visits you, he and his followers soon absorb all your property!)

A smooth tree you may climb, however tall it is; but how can you

pass over the sea, glassy as it looks?

Perhaps, although I am little, you will find me troublesome as a

sandfly.

Although hidden from us, we know there are plenty of roots of

the wild convolvulus running under the ground there; so with the

evil thoughts of our hearts.

You won't care to look long at the good food you have before

you, but a face you love you can often look at (a pretty wife is

better worth getting than a rich one).

A girl's beauty is like a fine day, a storm soon follows it; so

old age and ugliness follow close upon loveliness.

There are a multitude of stars in the heavens, but a very little

cloud covers many of them (meaning that a small band of resolute

men may defeat a large number).

If he had taken refuge on a mountain-top we could have climbed

it; if he had taken refuge amidst ocean's surge our canoes could

have contended with it; but having taken shelter under the

protection of a _mighty chief_, who can reach him there?

If you have a sperm whale's tooth, you must also have a sperm

whale's jaw to carry it!

Quick in speech, slow to act; promises are quickly made, the

body is slow to move.

A fathomless throat, but no industry; a monster's appetite, but

no perseverance in labour.

He is ascending the snow-capped mountains of Ruahmi (i. e. he is

growing old).

Rangipo and Raeroa started together on a journey. Rangipo

carried his god _alone_ with him; Raeroa carried his god on his

back, and _food_ in his hand; Rangipo died,--Raeroa lived.

The block of wood has no business to dictate to the artist who

carves it.

I can scarcely look out eagerly from the hill-top!

A mouth, ready as a salmon, to spring at its prey.

He is a descendant of Ki-ki, who was so skilled in magic that

his shadow withered trees and plants if it fell on them.

The grasp of a chief's red hand cannot be loosened, but the

grasp of a slave, what strength has it?

Few are the friends that aid at planting, but when the crops are

gathered they come in shoals.

An old broken canoe may be mended, but youth and beauty cannot

be restored:--

A fat man has been fattened by food, not by active thought; you

will find him full, but not wise.

Women and war are the two dangers of men.

A woman probably hears the foe sing as they sacrifice to their

gods the bodies of her slaughtered relatives (i. e. it is of

little use to have a daughter, she will perhaps raise up heirs

for your foes).

Women and land are the causes which destroy men.

The Moa-bird (_Dinornis gigantea_) trampled down the Rata tree

(_Metrosidero Robusta_) when it was young; how then can you

expect it to grow straight now? (i. e. it is difficult to

overcome early influences.)

It is from food that a man's blood is made, and it is land which

grows his food and sustains him. (Never part with your own land,

and do not yield a fertile district.)

Persist in all as resolutely as you persist in eating.

Be firm as the surf-beaten rock in the ocean!

Another man's food you must eat little bits of; food won by your

own labour you may eat plenty of, and satisfy your hunger well.

An axe, though very little, can do as much as a man in clearing

away a forest.

A fish begins nibbling gently upwards before he bites, and you

begin a steep ascent from the bottom (from trifling disputes

fierce wars arise).

Not less conspicuous is the vigour displayed in the poetical conceptions

of the Maori. There is in them a depth of sentiment, a vividness of

imagery, which would almost make us doubtful of their true origin, if the

original were not at hand to compare with.

Thus, for example, how beautifully do the following lines, borrowed from a

dirge for the chief Te-Huhu, describe the wild anguish of a warlike

people, mourning the loss of a beloved leader:--

DIRGE OF TE-HUHU.

Behold the glare of the lightning!

It seems as though it had cleft in twain the steep hills of Tuwhare.

Dropped from thy hand thy weapon,

And thy spirit, it vanished

Behind the lofty ridges of Raukawa!

The sun hid his face, and hasted away,

As a woman hurries from the strife of battle!

The waves of ocean mourn as they rise and fall,

And the hills of the south melt away!

For the spirit of the chieftain

Was winging its way to the dwellings of Rona;[35]

Open, ye gates of heaven!

Tread thou the first heaven! tread thou the second heaven!

And when thou dost traverse the spirit land,

And its dwellers shall ask thee, "What meaneth this?"

Tell that her wings were torn from this our world,

When _he_ died, the strong one,

Our leader in the roar of battle!

Atutahi and the stars of the morning

Look pitifully down from their fastnesses,

The earth reels to and fro,

For the mightiest support of her children lies low!

O my friend! the dew of Hokianga

Shall penetrate thy body;

The waters of the brooks shall dry up,

And the land become desolate:

I see a cloud rising afar

Above the head of Heke the renowned!

May he be annihilated, for ever

Brought low to nothingness! so may the heart,

Now mourning in its depths, ne'er think of evil more!

As deeply imbued with the spirit of true poetry is the following dirge of

a mother, a heartfelt effusion of maternal affliction for the loss of an

only daughter:--

A LAMENT FOR NGARO.

Slow wanes the evening star.[36] It disappears

To rise again in more glorious skies,

Where thousands hasten forward to welcome it.

All that is grand and beautiful has no more value to me,

For thou wast my sole treasure! O my daughter!

When the sunbeams played above the waves,

Or glinted through the waving palms,

Secretly, but with joy, we marked thy sportive gambols

By the sandy shores of Awapoka.

Oft in the dawning twilight

I beheld thee, girt in thy simple robes,

And accompanied by the daughters of thy people,

Speed forth, to see gathered the fruit of the Main,[37]

While the maidens from Tikoro[38]

Sought for thee the mussels hid among the rocks,

Braving the blinding surf, and caught for thee

The callow brood of the screaming sea-fowl.

And when at even the tribes

Assembled for the repast,

Beloved companions sought to have thee by their side,

Eagerly contending who should bestow on thee dainties,

That they might win a smile from thy lips;--

But where art thou now? Where now?

Thou stream which still dost ebb and flow,

Flow and ebb no more,

For she that did love thee is gone!

Well is it for the people, as of old,

To assemble at the feast of pleasure!

The canoe still cleaves the air,

And dashes aside the foam of the heaving sea.

As of yore, hovering above the rocky cliffs,

The sea-fowl in clouds obscure the sky!

But the beloved one comes not!

Not even a lock of thy waving tresses

Is left us to mourn over!

The truly paternal interest and attention bestowed by the Government on

the destinies of the New Zealanders, and on the means being adopted to

raise them morally and materially, as also the repeated asseverations of

loyalty, fidelity, and gratitude towards the British nation, which were

constantly in the mouth of the New Zealanders (the Gascons of the South,

as an English author nicknames them), gave no reason to anticipate that

the colony was about to become the scene of a war, which can hardly have

any other result than the total extinction of the small remnant of the

Maori; for although the English troops have hitherto encountered a severe

and protracted resistance, and the Maori, intrenched in their _Pahs_,

required Armstrong guns, bombs, and heavy artillery to be brought against

them ere they yielded, yet to the impartial observer the issue of the

contest cannot be for a moment doubtful. This unhappy contest originated

in the sale of some land in the province of Taranaki, or New Plymouth, on

the S.W. shores of the Northern Island. A native, named Te Teira (John

Taylor), had sold to Government, under the provisions of the treaty of

Waitangi, a small piece of land adjoining New Plymouth. Rangitaki, or as

he is better known by his Christian name, Wiremu Kingi (William King), a

resolute and powerful chief of the Ngatiawa tribe, opposed the sale, on

the ground that Te Teira had in fact no right to dispose of this land

without his consent, and obstructed the surveyors sent by Government to

measure the piece of ground. On their being reinforced somewhat later,

Kingi took up arms to resist them, and intrenched himself on the property

in dispute. How little the Colonial Government intended to encroach upon

the Maori privileges, is best shown by the circumstance that the Ngatiawa

tribe, and their allies of the Taranaki, are but 3000 in number, men,

women, and children all told, who claim as their property districts

covering an area of 2,000,000 acres, and during the last twenty years have

only cultivated some small patches along the coast. The white settlers

also number about 3000, and with the consent of Government have, during

that period, purchased 40,000 acres, of which hardly one-fourth part is

devoted to agricultural purposes. On 17th March, 1860, Kingi was at last

attacked by the English troops under Colonel Gold. This was the

commencement of a series of sanguinary combats, carried on with the most

desperate obstinacy,[39] and the more serious, as it stands out in

singularly bold relief, that the majority of the missionaries, Bishop

Selwyn and Archdeacon Hadfield at their head, take part with the Maories,

and that the learned justice, Dr. Martin, endeavours to prove that the war

has broken out entirely in consequence of a breach of the rights of

property by the Colonial Government, and therefore that the conduct of

the recusant chief, so far from being a rebellion, was a bare vindication

of right! Nay, it has even been openly stated (and it throws an

interesting light upon certain political complications in Europe) that the

Protestant missionaries and certain former _proteges_ of the Government

are chiefly to blame for the difficulties now existing between the English

and the natives. Amongst these adversaries a certain Mr. Davis, formerly

official translator and interpreter, a highly-educated but calculating

man, who once sung the praises of Sir George Grey, and among other works

has published the Maori Mementos,[40] so interesting in a historical point

of view, hit upon the clever notion, in company with a Maori named William

Thompson, or "The King-maker," of instigating the natives to rebellion.

With this object in view, they organized far in the interior, among the

tribes hitherto but little civilized, immense popular gatherings, at which

in long speeches they always contrived to come back to the assertion that

the Maories and not the English were the real lords of the soil, and that

they therefore were entitled to be governed by a king selected from among

themselves. Thompson, thoroughly versant in the foibles and vanities of

his countrymen, and supported by ambitious, crafty, intriguing

foreigners, was speedily master of the situation, and it is much less

matter of surprise that in 1858 a king was chosen in the person of

Potatau[41]-te-Whero-Whero, one of the most renowned of the Waikato tribe,

than that the Government, from the year 1854, suffered this conduct to go

unpunished, and with cool indifference beheld the movement grow in

proportion without taking the slightest precautionary measures!

Only by such indulgence, not to say negligence, did it become possible for

the native league against the sale of land, and the accompanying King

movement, to have attained their present importance, the number engaged in

them having risen to a total of 15,000 able-bodied warriors. Since the

restrictions recently placed on the importation of weapons and ammunition,

there have been imported during the last three years fire-arms, powder,

lead, and caps to the value of L50,000, so that we may estimate their

present supply of gunpowder at 100,000 lbs. at the least, and the

fire-arms, exclusive of those imported at the time of Hongi, at about

20,000 stand.

Already, at Christmas, 1858, when the staff of our Expedition were passing

a week or two in Auckland, there was a noticeable amount of political

agitation in various parts of the interior, and we ourselves witnessed

some chiefs, friendly to the Government, who before starting for a great

Maori meeting near Drury offered to the Governor their good services, and

asked his orders. The Maori chiefs, whom Colonel Browne received in his

study, could only be distinguished from white men by the wonderfully

copious tattooing on their faces, and were in all other respects attired

exactly like Europeans. Some wore black round hats and blouses, others

wore caps. Only in the flaps of their ears they carried small pieces of

green nephrite, while suspended round the neck by a thick chord was the

inevitable club-shaped _meri-meri_, that renowned stone weapon which

descends as an heir-loom in families, and is so highly prized that a New

Zealander will pay as high as L100 for one. The chiefs candidly remarked

that at this gathering the selection of a Maori king would come up for

decision, and they therefore wished, as loyal and true subjects of the

Queen of England, which they said they always had been and wished to

continue, to know from the lips of her representative how they ought to

act in such a case. Colonel Browne, who like most of the British settlers

in New Zealand seemed to attach but little importance to the whole Maori

movement, or, if so, did not like to make it known, simply thanked the

chiefs for this renewed expression of their loyal sentiments, adding in

the spirit of Maori oratory that "he had already considered them as good

friends both to himself and the Government, and therefore left them to act

as they saw best without further pledge, for he felt fully assured, if the

chief (who had addressed him) should go to this gathering he might feel as

if his own right hand were there, and everything therefore would result

entirely as he could wish." Unhappily these anticipations were not

realized, but on the contrary a war burst forth out of the long-despised

movement, of such dimensions, and of such terrible cruelty, that the

results of the civilization of the last twenty years have been seriously

imperilled, and the original Maori, divesting himself of the whitewash of

superficial Christianity, has become suddenly visible in all his savage

thirst for blood. We do not indeed believe that the whole race have been

seized with this much-to-be-lamented proclivity towards their old

barbarism, nor that the application of the proverb (parodied from the

celebrated _mot_ of Napoleon), "Scratch the Maori and you will find the

savage beneath," receives its full illustration here; but neither, on the

other hand, can we resist the conviction that a long continuance of

hostilities will foster old customs, and that a war waged with

ever-increasing animosity must ultimately result in the decay and

extinction of the New Zealand aborigines.

Independently of this, there was visible, even during the former days of

peace and tranquillity, so marked a falling off of the Maori population,

that the Colonial Government felt called upon to institute most minute

inquiries as to the supposed causes of this lamentable feature. In a very

exhaustive work upon this subject, by Mr. F. D. Fenton,[42] we find for

example that the proportion of births and deaths among the entire

population--the former of which in England is 1 : 59, and the latter 1 :

34, and among the white settlers of New Zealand is 1 : 136 and 1 :

25--gives among the aborigines the following startling results,--deaths 1

: 33.04, births 1 : 67.13. The cause of this appalling decay of the Maori

race, which has been steadily going on since 1830, is not alone due to the

contact of the natives with civilization, but chiefly to the sanguinary

wars between the various races, of which New Zealand was the theatre for a

series of years, and the natural results of those wars. For it was not

merely that in their constant battles the flower of their respective

tribes lost their lives,[43] but the mothers, to facilitate their own

escape, put to death most of the female infants at the breast. Upon this

followed, apparently in consequence of the great privations of their

wandering life, through hard work and want of nutritious food, a serious

sterility among the female sex. Whereas, according to Muret, out of 487

women only 20 (or 1 in 24) are barren on the average, the proportion among

the Maori amounts to 155 in every 444, or 1 in 2.86.

The want of nutritious and wholesome food, their diet consisting mainly of

salt-fish, roots, and fruits, the absence of clothing, or any care for the

body, their wretched abodes, and exposure to the weather, all these causes

must greatly contribute to the diminution of the race, as affecting the

conditions of sound health of the present generation, and tending to

produce those forms of disease, such as scrofula, pulmonia, phthisis, &c.,

by which the Maories and their offspring are at present decimated. Dr.

Fenton also adduces the intermarriage of near relations among the New

Zealanders as one prominent cause of their disease and physical

degeneracy. These near alliances, however, at least among the lower

classes, do not seem so frequent as Dr. Fenton imagined, as is apparent

from the surprising diversity of physiognomy and colour of skin. The

chiefs indeed of the tribes, who migrated from the north some four

centuries since, may indeed have so frequently intermarried that they now

constitute little other than a large family connection, but the populace

have most undoubtedly made frequent alliances with the inhabitants of the

adjoining island groups, as they are to this day accustomed to do with the

whites, from which latter cross results the unhappy bastard race

Paketa-Maori, which, like the quadroons of Louisiana and the mulattoes of

Hayti, or the mestizoes of the Indian races of South America, despising

the pure blacks and looked down upon by the whites, are the sworn foes of

both.

It seems to us too hazardous a speculation to go into minute

investigations as to the decay of the Maori race, and the most suitable

means of averting that disaster, at the very moment when their foreign

conquerors, in order to strengthen their power, are actually engaged in a

war of annihilation with the aborigines.[44] It is much more important,

and will better repay our time, to enumerate the advantages which must

accrue to European, especially German, immigrants into a country where the

natives have played out their part.

As already remarked, there are few countries beyond the limits of Europe

which are so favoured as regards climate, fertility of soil, natural

wealth, and geographical situation,[45] or hold out such excellent

prospects of ultimate comfort and prosperity, as New Zealand. The mean

temperature of the whole islands for the year is 56 deg. Fahr., and is 5 deg. less

at the south, and in the north about 4 deg. higher, so that, for example,

Auckland possesses the same temperature as Florence, Rome, Marseilles, or

Toulon.[46] Gales are frequent along the coast, and the damp south winds

known as "bursters" are exceedingly disagreeable and oppressive, but they

do not on the whole affect the health of the inhabitants. According to Dr.

Thomson's observations, it would seem that of every 1000 soldiers in the

various British military stations 8.25 die in New Zealand, 14 in Great

Britain, 18 in Malta, 20 in Canada.[47]

Of the superficial area of New Zealand, which, if we include Stewart's and

Chatham Islands, may be estimated at 75,000,000 acres, one-third consists

of forest and bush capable of being reclaimed for agricultural purposes,

one-third of meadow, grass-pasture, and valley, well adapted for

cultivation, and the remaining one-third of barren rock, or sandy desert,

besides lakes and rivers.

The amount of land, in various holdings, reclaimed and made fruitful

throughout New Zealand for the year 1857 was 190,000 acres, of which

121,648 were arable land, sown with esculents (chiefly wheat, oats,

potatoes, and grass for fodder) and fruit. Of late years the annual

increase of land reclaimed has been 40 per cent. It is calculated that

each new arrival from Europe is equivalent to the cultivation of four

acres of land, and the breeding of 30 cattle. The cost of clearing amounts

in New Zealand to from L2 to L5 per acre.

Hence it is that the Colonial Government are straining every nerve, by

holding out certain material advantages and inducements, to attract

land-purchasers and handicraftsmen to a country, which, inhabited at

present by not more than 130,000 human beings, is quite capable of

supporting 30,000,000. The "Auckland Waste Land Act," besides giving every

necessary information as to the unreclaimed districts (where land is sold

at ten shillings per acre), also contains certain arrangements, by virtue

of which intending emigrants of the labouring classes, who shall come out

at their own expense, receive some assistance to enable them to settle on

certain proportions of the land which the Government presents to them by

way of indemnification for the expenses of their voyage, in the proportion

of 40 acres to each person above 40 years of age, and 20 acres to all

between 5 and 17 years.[48] The sole condition attached by the Government

to this land-indemnity is that the emigrant bind himself to remain five

years in the province; which period once elapsed, he may dispose of the

land at his pleasure. In order to encourage persons accustomed to tuition

to settle in Auckland, all persons who are fitted to instruct children in

elementary knowledge and English grammar, on their having discharged such

duties for five years to the satisfaction of Government, are entitled to a

grant of 80 acres of land.

The most important products and articles grown for export are, all sorts

of cereals, wool, and ship-timber. A marked increase has taken place in

potato cultivation, of which in 1857 there were exported 4430 tons, value

L23,328, and in 1858, 6116 tons, value L33,056. Of building timber of all

sorts there were exported in 1857 L12,205, and in 1859 L34,376 in value.

One of the most valuable trees of the New Zealand forests is the Kauri

pine (_Dammara Australis_). This elegant tree, 80 to 120 feet in height,

furnishes the English ship-building yards with a large number annually of

rounded logs, 74 to 84 feet in length, of better quality as well as more

lasting than those of the Norwegian or American pines.[49] The Kauri or

yellow pine also produces the kind of rosin so well known as Dammara

rosin, of which this valuable tree produces such quantities, that in those

districts where the Kauri tree has long since yielded to the axe of

civilization, it has been found in immense masses on the soil, in a

high-dried state. The Kauri rosin of commerce is not therefore procured,

as with us, by making an incision in the tree, but is actually dug out of

the earth, into which to the despair of the farmer it has often percolated

for several feet, rendering the soil barren. During our excursions we came

repeatedly upon whole tracts of rosin-fields, which were covered several

feet thick with this substance. The Dammara pine only grows on the

northernmost island, and chiefly in the northern parts.

In Auckland we saw several pieces of Kauri rosin weighing 100 lbs. In

1857, 2521 tons, worth L35,250, of this substance were exported, chiefly

for its valuable properties as a varnish, and for "fixing" certain colours

used in the calico manufacture. It has also of late been extensively used

in the manufacture of candles.

The cultivation of the Harakeke, or indigenous flax (_Phormium tenax_),

might be made to conduce greatly to the wealth of the country, if some

mechanical process could be invented which should without too much expense

liberate the fibres from their hard envelope, which is the only obstacle

in the way of its competing successfully with Russian flax. Impressed with

the importance of developing the cultivation of _Phormium tenax_, the

Colonial Government has offered a reward of L1500 for the invention of

such a machine as shall bark the native flax, and prepare it for and make

it saleable in the European market. At present no more than 50 or 60 cwt.

of the flax, worth about L800, is exported from Auckland. The New Zealand

flax surpasses almost every known plant in the strength and toughness of

its fibres, its ratio as compared with the fibres of European plants of

the same species standing as high as 27:7. For Great Britain the

cultivation of this flax is not alone of great interest in an economic

point of view, but is even politically of importance, as the amount of

flax annually imported from Russia for her industrial energies averages

L3,000,000.

Sheep-farming has of late years made an enormous advance in New Zealand,

the export for 1857 being 2,648,716 lbs., value L176,581, that for 1859,

5,096,751 lbs., value L339,779, averaging 1_s._ 4_d._ per lb. The list of

articles suitable for export must continually increase with immigration,

and the consequent spread of population through the interior.

The entire commerce of New Zealand, both import and export, is at present

about L2,000,000, the value of imports having risen from L597,827 in 1853

to L1,551,030 in 1859, while the exports, which in the former year were

only L331,282, had risen in 1859 to L551,484. The last-mentioned year

employed 836 ships, of which 438, representing 136,580 tons and 7594 of

crew, were engaged in the import, and 398 of 120,392 tons and 6483 of

crew, were employed in the export trade. The net revenue of the Government

for the same period was L459,648.

The majority of the colonists are emigrants from Great Britain, only a

small fraction coming from the continent.[50] A large Irish population

lives in the neighbourhood of Auckland, while the Scotch cling together

about Taranaki and the southern parts of the island. The European

population was 52,155 in 1857, and 73,343 in 1859, the proportion of sexes

in the latter year being 42,452 males, and 30,891 females.

While most of the naturalists of the _Novara_ staff went on the invitation

of Government to examine the coal-beds lately discovered in Drury

district, others made frequent excursions in the environs of Auckland,

three of which deserve special mention.

The first was to the picturesque Judges and Oraki Bays, the latter formed

by the ruins of a crater. Here for the first time we beheld what is called

the New Zealand Christmas tree, _Metrosideros Tormentosa_, which at the

festive season comes forth pranked in all its gay blossoms, and is

extensively used in decorating churches and dwelling-houses. Its large

deep-red, umbellate blossoms are visible from afar gleaming among the

green vegetation along the coast. The natives call this tree the

Pohutu-Kawua; it is most extensively found on the slopes along the coast.

The wild pepper, Kawa-kawa (_Piper excelsum_), is very common in the

country round Auckland, but is not brewed into an intoxicating drink like

the _Piper methysticum_ of the Southern Ocean. The natives indeed are

exceedingly temperate, and, unlike other half-civilized races, are very

little addicted to drink; this however may be partly due to the wise

precautions of the Government, which under a heavy pecuniary penalty

forbids all tavern-keepers throughout the province from selling the Maori

any drink except beer. Two species of grass eminently characteristic of

the country, which often overrun vast tracts of land, and are used by the

natives for thatching their huts, are the Toi-toi (_Lepidosperma elatior_)

and the Kekaho (_Arundo Australis_). There are also the Puka-puka, or

paper-seed (_Brachyglottis repanda_), an object which, where it is found,

imparts a peculiar aspect to the landscape, like the silver poplars on the

flanks of Table Mountain at the Cape. The name of the plant is derived

from the under side of the leaves being as white as paper.

We also during this excursion saw great quantities of Raorao or Aruhe

(_Pteris esculenta_), and were told that the roots (_roi_) of this fern,

baked and ground, were highly prized by the Maories as a specific against

sea-sickness. No native makes a sea-voyage, at least to any distance,

without carrying with him a piece of this root, using it when baked as an

antidote against that most depressing of maladies, from which even

primitive races are not exempt. The efficacy of this remedy is however

rather reputed than actual, the experience of Europeans, who have availed

themselves of its supposed virtues, tending to show that it is absolutely

worthless.

While at Oraki Bay we also visited the Maori village of Oraki. Here we

found some 80 natives, men, women, and children, who had encamped on a

hill outside the village. They were clothed partly in European style,

partly in clothes made of native flax. The diversity of feature was most

remarkable, as was also the great difference in the hair of the head. Some

had thin black, others crisp, hair; many had it of a dark brown colour,

while yet others had regular fox-coloured locks. The elder men had their

faces and hands beautifully tattooed; the women on the lip only, and the

younger generation were not tattooed at all. After the customary

salutation of "Tenakoe, Tenakoe" (which in fact means literally nothing

more than "Here you are," or "I recognize you"), they were little

communicative, and showed little disposition to enter into closer

conversation with the foreigners, although some of our companions spoke

their language fluently. As our instructions were to ship on board the

_Novara_ any handsomely tattooed natives who should of their own free will

wish to enter our marine, we let slip no opportunity, and accordingly

endeavoured to induce some of the natives we now saw to ship with us.

However, they could not be persuaded to make a cruise with us to see other

lands and nations, as they could not comprehend what motive Austrian

voyagers could have in inviting the natives of such a distant quarter of

the globe to join them on such favourable terms. Their chief hesitation

arose in the idea which they, the offspring of cannibals, firmly believed,

that we wished to take some of their companions with us instead of fresh

provisions, with the ultimate intent, so soon as we ran out of victuals,

to put them to death, and banquet on Maori flesh! Thereupon we showed them

some Caffres who had been 15 months on board, and were perfectly well

treated. "Who knows," replied one of the most cautious of the Maori, "very

possibly the Caffres have only been spared because the necessary moment

has not yet come!" We returned to Oraki, our efforts vain to induce any

Maori volunteer to make a cruise.

A not less interesting excursion was made to the Kauri forest in

Titarangi, among the Manukau hills, to which we were conveyed in a couple

of dog-carts. It was an exquisitely beautiful sunny morning. The air was

so invigorating yet so mild that we immediately felt how well Sir Humphrey

Davy's celebrated remark about Nice, "mere existence here is luxury," may

also be applied to Auckland. After a drive of three hours through charming

fields and meadows, we entered upon the forest at a spot where an Irishman

named Smith has erected a block-house and a saw-mill, which seemed to do

an excellent business. The whole appearance of the farm and its residents

made a most favourable impression. Old Smith accompanied us in person to

the forest, which consisted principally of the lofty, slender,

broad-leaved Kauri pine. These have much more the look of chestnut trees

than fir. The whole forest displayed a luxuriance and beauty of vegetation

such as we had not anticipated in these latitudes. Creepers, parasites,

and tree-ferns, gave it quite a tropical character. There were a charm and

a voluptuousness about this green garb of nature, as displayed in New

Zealand, such as the virgin forests of even the Nicobars or Java could

hardly surpass in grace and majesty.

The slender trunks of the Kauri pine, the Rimu (_Dacrydium_

_Cupressinum_), and the Kali Katea (_Podocarpus excelsa_), are here

sliced into planks and boards, and so transported to the port. 100 cubic

feet are worth about 15_s._, and 100 cubic feet of the beautiful Rimu

wood, which is much used for furniture, fetches about 30_s._ A saw-mill

labourer is paid from L7 to L8 per month, besides rations.

On our return, thoroughly fagged out and overheated with three hours of

climbing and rambling, to the hospitable residence of our worthy Irish

friend, we found an elegant carpet spread on the floor of the room, and

everything clean and neat, to welcome the unexpected guests. His entire

family was waiting to receive us, and after a comfortable meal we took our

leave, doubly impressed with the glories of New Zealand forest scenery,

and agreeably surprised to find in such close proximity with

half-reclaimed nature such a peaceful picture of contentment, and such

sterling results of well-directed human industry.

While our eyes were still dazzled with the beauties of the New Zealand

forests of the Manukau range, a visit to St. John's College gave us an

excellent and cheering glimpse of the admirable zeal displayed by various

philanthropists to impart instruction in the great truths of Christianity

to the coloured race of this and the adjacent groups of islands, and to

educate missionaries. St. John's College has been set on foot with this

praiseworthy object in view by the Church of England Missionary Society.

Of the forty lads who attended it while we were there, the majority came

from Loyalty Islands, the Solomon Group, and New Caledonia. Many only

remained at the institute during the warm summer months, and for health's

sake returned before winter set in to their own milder climate. Some had

thus returned to school for the fourth time. The management of this humane

undertaking is entrusted to Mr. Patterson, a gentleman of remarkable

ability and perseverance, who speaks with fluency most of the Polynesian

languages, and annually faces much privation and danger during his visit,

in a schooner provided by the Missionary Society, to the various islands

of the Southern Ocean, where he communicates with the natives, urging them

to give their children the benefits of a certain amount of education. The

course of instruction consists of reading, writing, arithmetic, and

religion. It is unfortunate that no provision is made for their

instruction in mechanical employments, as such knowledge would go far to

make their heathen kindred appreciate the advantages of Christian

civilization. The pupils seem to be warmly attached to Mr. Patterson, and

regard him with the child-like reverence paid to a father. The results are

surprising, and demonstrate what splendid germs of capacity for education

lie slumbering in even the rudest primitive people, if only care be taken

to awake them sufficiently early, and foster them judiciously.

As in all English colonies, there is much intellectual activity in

Auckland. Several English journals,[51] some really well written and

digested,--such, for instance, as "_The Southern Cross_," "_The New

Zealander_," &c.,--not only discuss the most important political events,

but also endeavour to enlarge the views of their readers upon all

questions of political economy and commercial and industrial progress.[52]

A few months before our arrival a paragraph appeared in several English

and German journals, one of which accidentally fell into our hands at

Shanghai, to the effect that "in April, 1858, considerable excitement had

been created in England by intelligence of a peculiar species of silk-worm

having been discovered growing wild in New Zealand in immense quantities."

The London correspondent added that the worm inhabits a cocoon which is of

a dull brown externally, under which however is a particularly fine

quality of silk, with which some Glasgow houses had made experiments that

induced them to value it much more highly than the qualities hitherto

procured in Europe. Owing to the great alteration in the prospects of the

silk trade, generally held out by the march of events in China, we deemed

it advisable to inquire minutely as to the existence of a worm, which, as

reported, not merely enjoyed advantages of climate similar to those of

several parts of the Austrian domains, but seemed to require but little

attention, living, as was said, "wild" in the "bush." After protracted

investigation, however, it turned out that the silk procured in New

Zealand was furnished by the ordinary mulberry-fed silk-worm, and that the

extraordinary delicacy attained in the fabrics made from it at Glasgow was

only due to its very superior quality.

The little expedition to the coal-beds of Drury already mentioned was

accompanied by results so valuable, that considerable excitement arose

among the settlers of the district, and a society was formed for the

exploration of this mineral wealth. The excursion, however, was not

confined to visiting the coal-fields, but was intended to give the

naturalists of the _Novara_ an opportunity of seeing part of the interior

of New Zealand, by traversing the forest, 9 to 15 miles wide, between

Auckland and the river Waikato, and thus visit the lovely shores of that

river and the native villages of the neighbourhood.

The expedition was under the conduct of Capt. Drummond Hay, aide-de-camp

to the Governor, and thoroughly acquainted with the country, and Mr.

Heaphy, chief engineer of the province; Mr. Smallfield, editor-in-chief of

the _New Zealander_, accompanied it as historiographer, while the

Government invitation was extended to several of the scientific

inhabitants of Auckland, among others the Rev. Mr. Purchas, and a

recently-arrived German named Haast. The following is an extract from a

journal, kept by one of the party from the _Novara_, of all the most

interesting episodes of this excursion:--

"On 28th December we set out in five waggons, and advanced among extinct

craters and volcanic cones, on which in former times _Pahs_ or intrenched

villages had been erected by the natives, as is plain from the succession

of terraces of three or four feet high, rising in regular order, and cut

into the side of the hill. The villas and farms on either side of the

road, or at the foot of the hills, buried in their splendid

flower-gardens, formed a charming contrast with the ancient lava currents,

stretching in every direction and over-grown with tree-ferns and dense

coppice. Now and then horses were rolling about upon the velvet-like

meadows, or herds of cattle and flocks of sheep were passed feeding and

ruminating, and bearing ample testimony to the advanced stage of material

progress so quickly attained by one of the youngest of English colonies.

"Already we had found banners waving from the houses of Otahuha, a little

village closely adjoining a very interesting extinct volcanic peak with a

crater, and during a brief halt we made here, crowds of well-dressed

inhabitants came flocking in to welcome the German guests of the

Government, who were to develope the natural wealth of the country. From

Otahuha the road lay across the plains of Papa Kura (red levels) to

Tamaki. It is a wide paved road well ballasted, the bridges solidly built,

everything, in short, betokening the fostering care of an enlightened

Government, making it a point of duty to open up as speedily as possible

convenient means of communication between the capital and the interior.

The farms and country-houses were not so numerous in this section, though

the rolling country seemed of excellent quality.

"At last, about 1 P.M., we reached Drury, a rather large settlement 29

miles from Auckland, where we were most cordially welcomed. Young's Hotel,

which had been engaged for the Expedition, was gaily decorated with

flowers, rare forest plants, and ferns, while from the gable floated side

by side the British and Austrian standards.

"Drury is situate in a fertile rolling plain, the country is everywhere

fenced in, corn-fields and meadows give variety to the landscape, and the

well-to-do, fresh-looking countenances of the settlers, the groups of

rosy-cheeked children, and the herds of splendid cattle, amply attest the

salubrity as well as fertility of the neighbourhood. The party now split

into two. Our geologist, with several companions, went forward about a

mile and half from Drury into the forest, there to commence his

investigations at a spot where a coal-bed 12 feet thick had been laid

bare. The rest of the naturalists strolled about, engaged in botanical and

zoological researches among the soft, beautiful woodland scenery of the

almost _soul-enchaining_ primeval forest.

"A couple of days were passed in such little excursions in the environs of

Drury, in the course of which a trip was made in a Wakka or New Zealand

canoe to the Tahike springs, near a Maori village of the same name. Our

craft consisted of a single hollowed-out trunk of a kahika tree

(_Podocarpus excelsa_), about 25 feet in length by 2-1/2 in breadth. For

such a boat a native pays about L5, and it lasts from 20 to 30 years,

whereas a canoe of red Totara (_Podocarpus Totara_) costs when complete

about L30, but lasts much longer. Canoes are frequently pointed out

prepared from these giants of the forest, 70 feet in length and from five

to six in breadth, which were used in old times as war-canoes

(Wakka-wakka), and could accommodate 100 warriors. Ours was covered at

either end with fresh-gathered ferns, and was provided with four paddles

tapering to a point, one of which was used by one of the Maories who

accompanied us, while we applied ourselves to learning the management of

this novel mode of propulsion by seizing on the rest, and by imitating his

motions speedily mastered its difficulties. Unfortunately, owing to the

distance, we could not reach the village itself, and, after a variety of

curious adventures with the natives, found ourselves compelled to return

when about half-way, in order to husband our strength for the exertions of

the ensuing day.

"By dawn the noise in the hotel drove away all further thought of sleep,

and presently came flocking in from every quarter the horses, both saddle

and pack, which had been engaged for the expedition. The morning broke in

uncommon splendour, and the whole landscape lay bathed in a rose-coloured

flush, whose exquisite tints recalled the immortal beauties of Claude

Lorraine. The winding road that leads over the intervening hills begins at

this point to be impracticable for wheeled vehicles, although it is

possible to advance a few miles farther in country cars. For upwards of an

hour we rode along through beautiful rolling pasture land, for the most

part neatly fenced, and covered with herds of noble cattle. Now and then

we came upon a stately mansion, buried in flowers and foliage, whose

appearance sufficiently attested that the proprietor had long since left

behind the struggles of the early days, when the hardy settler inhabited a

wretched log-hut (whari), a "clearing" cut with incredible labour amid an

almost impenetrable forest, the soil of which he had to prepare for the

reception of corn-seed.

"At last we reached the forest, which extended from where we were to the

banks of the Waikato. The deeper we penetrated into it, the closer and

more majestic grew the trees, and the denser and more impervious was the

underwood. Gigantic trees, 150 feet in length of stem, were entwined,

trunk, limbs, and summits, with flexible lianae and other parasitical

creepers, while birds of the strangest descriptions were flitting hither

and thither among the trees, alarmed by the tramp of our horses, which

echoed strangely loud through the silent depths of the forest. The most

frequently visible of these feathered denizens of the forest is the Tui

(_Prostemadera novae Zelandiae_), called 'the parson' by Captain Cook, in

consequence of its having two white feathers in the lower part of its neck

resembling bands. In colour and shape it is very like the kingfisher, and

its melodious notes present great variety. In addition to the Tui, the

forest is frequented by the Kakariki (_Platycercus N. Z._), a small green

parrot, which, stealing softly through the mysterious greenwood shade,

emits its singular shrill shriek. We also fell in with a solitary specimen

of the New Zealand cuckoo (_Endynamys Taitensis_), called by the natives

Koekoea, which was eagerly bagged by the zoologists.

"After riding half an hour into the forest we came to Rama-Rama, a

settlement founded about three months previously by a rich English

colonist. About 70 acres English were already reclaimed, and in some parts

of this patch of land, so lately arrested from the wilderness, peas,

turnips, beans, potatoes, and other kitchen vegetables were already

peering above the surface. Two small huts, constructed of the stem of the

tree-fern, and thatched with reeds, had been extemporized as kitchen and

sleeping apartment for the occupier of the soil, a highly-educated,

well-informed, gentlemanly man, named Martin, and his labourers, while on

an eminence at a little distance preparations were being made to erect a

handsome dwelling-house of wood, whence this skilful shepherd-prince will

be able to overlook his flocks and herds, and delight his eyes with the

prospect of his rapidly multiplying horned stock.

"The road now became narrower and more difficult, the horses too began to

find their footing less secure, and it was only by great vigilance that we

contrived to ride over the marshy soil, thickly covered with massive roots

of forest giants. Enormous trunks of trees that had fallen across the path

had to be scrambled over, and the baggage removed from the pack-horses and

carried forward on men's shoulders. Some of the horses, inured to similar

expeditions, clambered nimbly over these obstacles, while for others, more

restive or less practised, bridges had to be constructed, which are formed

by laying two trunks of trees parallel with each other across the chasm or

brook, upon which fern or reeds are placed transversely, and the whole

tied together with twigs of liana, so as to afford the animals a firm

footing. Occasionally this frail apparatus would break through, when the

poor horses would disappear below, whence they were only extricated with

considerable trouble.

"Towards evening the forest began to get less dense, and we entered upon

an undulating table-land, covered with ferns. Some columns of smoke,

curling upwards at the foot of a hill on the further side, indicated that

we were approaching a Maori village. In front of us lay the valley

through which flows the Mangatawhiri, which falls into the Waikato a

little lower down. The course of the latter was traceable by a range of

hills whose elegant outlines bounded the horizon. We experienced a most

friendly reception from the natives of this village, and were lodged in

the newest _whari_ or New Zealand hut. This is constructed in the shape of

a quadrangle with elliptic sides, about 20 feet in length by 14 feet in

breadth, and consists of stakes of palm driven in close to each other, and

tied together. The roof, which is 15 feet high in the centre, gradually

sloping to about 8 feet at the side walls, is of thin slips of wood, and

is covered over by a dense layer of native flax, so ingeniously woven that

it is impervious to water, which accordingly runs off. The roof is for the

most part supported simply by an upright pole in the midst, but

occasionally several of these are used, so as to impart greater strength

to the roof. The side walls are usually covered with large mats made of

woven rushes. In the middle of the two longer side walls are two doors

placed exactly opposite each other, between which a species of corridor is

made, which divides the hut into two apartments as it were. In the event

of bad weather, a small whari close at hand serves as a kitchen, the Maori

usually following all culinary avocations in the open air in front of his

hut.

Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume III (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the Austrian Navy. · 第 7 / 13 章

Once the wish and the necessity shall arise in Germany, owing to the