Capital of New Zealand.--About the Native Race.--A City of
Shops.--Local Earthquakes.--Large Glaciers.--McNab's
Gardens.--A Public Nuisance.--Napier.--Maori
Peculiarities.--Native Language.--Mythology.
--Christianizing Savages.--Gisborne.--Cruelty to Dumb
Animals.--Shag Island.--Sir George Gray's Pleasant
Home.--Oysters Growing on New Zealand Trees!
Wellington is situated on the north side of Cook's Strait, and is the
capital of New Zealand. It is less than two hundred miles from
Christchurch. Auckland was originally the seat of government, but since
1864 this city has been the political capital, in consequence of which
the jealousy existing between the two cities nearly equals that between
Sydney and Melbourne. Wellington has a grand harbor for all commercial
purposes, is very capacious and entirely land-locked. After a narrow
entrance is passed, the harbor opens into a magnificent sheet of water,
in which the largest ships may ride in safety and discharge their
cargoes at wharves built upon the busiest streets of the town. Here, as
in Dunedin, a plateau of land has been reclaimed from the sea for
business purposes. The curved line of Lambton Quay, one of the main
thoroughfares of the city, represents what was once the strand, but a
number of broad streets with long lines of warehouses have grown up
between it and the sea; so that Lambton Quay is now in the centre of
the town. The reclaiming of still more level land from the water-front
is going on, in order to accommodate business requirements. The province
of Wellington stretches northward a hundred and fifty miles, containing
seven million acres of land, diversified by two mountain ranges, and
having as grand scenery as can be found in the islands.
Our stay at Wellington was brief, for there is nothing of special
interest to detain one here, and two days seemed a long time to devote
to it. Were it not that this city is the recognized capital of the
country, we should have passed it by with the briefest mention. It has
its asylums, a college, hospital, botanical gardens, Roman Catholic
cathedral, and colonial museum,--the latter being of more than ordinary
interest in the excellence and completeness of its several departments.
What is called the Maori House, built by the natives, is particularly
interesting, being full of aboriginal curiosities such as domestic
utensils, weapons, and elaborate carvings. This house is of ordinary
village size, and is elaborately ornamented on many of its panels and
posts by the Indians of the Ngatikaipoho tribe, who reside on the Bay of
Plenty, and who are famous for their carvings. The Theatre Royal is a
fine structure capable of accommodating a thousand persons. The spacious
Botanical Garden occupies one hundred acres of ground, just about double
the size of that at Sydney, and contains besides the usual collection of
exotics the most comprehensive assortment of native trees that we
chanced to see anywhere.
The city is surrounded by hills, except on the seaward side. By
ascending the hill back of the town, upon which is the Roman Catholic
Cemetery, one obtains an excellent view of Wellington as a whole, the
harbor especially forming a charming portion of the picture. Soame's
Island, which is the quarantine station, lies in the front, four miles
from the city; to the left lie Petone and the Hutt; at the right is
Mount Victoria dominating the bay, while many pretty villas cluster
about its foot. Distant ranges descend toward the harbor, shutting it in
by an amphitheatre of hills. There is no lack of shipping about the
wharves, and there were plenty of row-boats and small sailing cutters;
and as we viewed the scene, an ocean steamship was steering across the
bay seaward, leaving a long line of black curling smoke behind her,
which was in strong contrast with her snow-white foaming wake.
We found it somewhat cold and rather blustering on Cemetery Hill, though
it was July. But this is New Zealand winter; and yet flowers were
blooming luxuriantly in the open air in unexposed places. These islands
are in one sense as tropical as Africa or Southern India; but it must be
remembered that they are the most southerly of the South Pacific groups,
and that there is a Southern or Antarctic Pole as there is a Northern or
Arctic one. The farther we proceed either north or south from the
Equatorial line, or centre of the globe, the cooler we shall find the
climate. Thus Southern New Zealand being nearer the Antarctic Circle is
less tropical than the northern portion, which is twelve hundred miles
nearer the Equator.
A considerable number of natives, mostly in European costume, were met
in the streets of Wellington, loitering aimlessly about the corners and
gazing curiously into shop windows. The girls and women had heavy shocks
of unkempt hair shading their great black eyes, high cheek-bones, and
disfigured mouths and chins, which last were tattooed in blue dye of
some sort. The males tattoo the whole face elaborately, but the women
only thus disfigure themselves about the mouth and chin. It was most
amusing to see them meet one another and rub noses, which is the Maori
mode of salutation. It would be an exaggeration to call these people a
cleanly race, though the tribes that occupy the Hot Lake District
(whither we shall take the reader in another chapter) spend two thirds
of their time in the water. The half-breeds are generally of fine
physical appearance, the men especially being tall and well-developed;
indeed it would be difficult to find more admirable specimens of
physical manhood than exist among these Anglo-Maoris. As we have
elsewhere intimated, the daughters of some of the unions between whites
and natives are very pretty and intelligent, having received partial
education and acquired some pleasing accomplishments. But there are few
of these to be found among the tribes, and fewer still among the
whites.
Among these natives, as a rule, the laborious work is put upon the
women, while the men fill the role of idlers. It seems strange that
while they were thorough barbarians and cannibals they continued to
thrive,--certainly they did not largely decrease in numbers; but with
semi-civilization has come almost annual decimation. As we have seen was
the case of the aborigines in Tasmania, it is believed by many that the
same fate of final complete extinction is in store for the Maoris in the
near future.
The entire coast north of Wellington is extremely bold, tumbled together
in true volcanic confusion. In the neighborhood of the capital this
conformation begins to extend inland; thus the city has no near
background of available country for population, from which to draw a
certain amount of business,--no suburbs, so to speak. The town impressed
us as being a city of shops; and how so many persons can realize a fair
living from the amount of local business in Wellington is certainly a
mystery. Here the dwellings creep up the hills as we have so often
described the case elsewhere; and as the houses are mostly built of
wood, fires have proved especially destructive. We found the general
Post-Office in ruins by a recent fire, though it was a brick structure;
the lofty stuccoed walls were still standing. Some large new buildings
nearly finished were also observed to be of brick. For a number of years
at first the fear of serious earthquakes prevented the use of any other
material in building than wood. Even now there is a frequent
tremulousness of the earth, and rumblings as of distant thunder are
heard in the hills that run inland from the city toward the high
mountains,--all which is quite sufficient to keep the fact in mind that
this is a volcanic region. Earthquake shocks are frequent all over the
islands, from Cape Maria in the far north to South Cape in the southern
part of Stewart Island. It is believed that New Zealand was rent midway,
and that Cook's Strait was thus created between the North and South
Islands by volcanic explosion. There is known to be an extinct volcano
at the bottom of the Strait in front of the entrance to the harbor of
Wellington, over which the water is never absolutely calm. Thus it would
seem that the city is situated very near a volcanic centre. A
fellow-traveller in discussing the matter suggested that it was not just
the place to seek for a "permanent" investment; but on the other hand an
intelligent elderly resident assured us that these demonstrations are
gradually dying out. Fires have latterly been so sweeping and disastrous
in Wellington, that this element is coming to be more dreaded than
earthquakes; and partially to provide against destruction by flames,
stone and brick as building materials in the centre of the town are
being almost universally substituted for wood.
The Southern Alps, as the range which runs north and south through New
Zealand is called, are believed to antedate the Alps of Europe, while
nowhere else is marked evidence of glacial action more clearly defined.
The glaciers of to-day, though they are insignificant in comparison to
those of ancient periods, are of vast size and full of awe-inspiring
effects. In one respect these glaciers particularly resemble those of
Norway; that is, in descending so nearly to the sea. The author has seen
enormous glaciers in Scandinavia whose lower portions were within a
hundred feet of the surface of the ocean, while it is well known that in
Switzerland there is no instance where a glacier descends lower than
thirty-five hundred feet above the level of the sea.
Willis Street is the fashionable thoroughfare of Wellington, being
considerably more than a mile in length and nearly straight; but it is
quite irregular in width. This street is lined on either side with
stores and public buildings, some of large and pretentious aspect. We
counted nine good-sized bookstores upon this avenue, all well stocked
with modern literature. One may safely put down this fact as being a
significant sign of the general intelligence of the neighborhood.
Wellington is certainly growing with the prevailing rapidity of the
several localities which we visited; new streets were being laid out, of
better width and having more regularity of form, while the roadways were
being thoroughly macadamized, and rolled with a heavy steam-rolling
machine. In the harbor a large steam-dredging boat was also busy
deepening and straightening the course of the channel. Eleven steamships
and half-a-dozen large sailing-vessels lay at the wharves, five of the
latter from England. It is natural that the trade of the colonies should
be very generally retained by the mother country, though there is a
considerable commerce carried on with the west coast of America.
The stranger coming to the capital must not omit to visit the Hutt, a
pleasant village situated where the Hutt River enters the bay. Here also
is located the Wellington race-course; and most interesting of all the
attractions hereabout is a famous resort known as McNab's Gardens. The
pleasant lawns, flower-beds, and fruit-orchards of this place form a
charming resort for pleasure parties out on a ride or drive from the
city. Some of the ornamental trees contained in these gardens were the
finest we saw in New Zealand. The labyrinth of walks leads through
exquisitely kept flower-beds, which specially exhibit the remarkably
favorable nature of the climate for floral displays at any season of the
year. The many fine exotics which are exhibited here must have been
accumulated at a heavy expense. A small admission fee is very properly
charged by the proprietor, who is prepared also to supply any desired
refreshments at a reasonable price. As we write these notes there steals
over the senses a delicious memory of atmospheric sweetness, daintily
impregnated with mignonette, lilies, lemon verbena, and roses, at that
pleasant resort on Wellington Bay.
The last scene witnessed at the capital, as we were about to embark on a
steamer for the north, was an attempt at a parade by some
"Salvationists." The procession moved in single file, consisting of
three poke-bonnets with an equal number of young women under them, two
men in red coats, and two in dark clothes, very shiny and greasy. There
were also four or five small boys, who so straggled from the line that
it was by no means certain whether they belonged to it or not. One of
the girls vigorously pounded a cracked tambourine, one of the red-coated
men blew occasional blasts upon a tin fish-horn, and all sang psalms
much out of tune. The sight would have been ludicrous, had it not been
saddening. In the midst of the chorus, "Glory, Hallelujah," the foremost
girl, at the most critical moment of her performance upon the
tambourine, made a misstep and fell at full length in the middle of the
muddy street, while her noisy instrument rolled away through the slush.
"There is something in the misfortunes of our best friends which is not
entirely displeasing to us," says a certain French philosopher; and so
the Salvationists supplemented their companion's misfortune and their
"Glory Hallelujah" with uproarious laughter. As the poke-bonnet became
once more elevated, both it and the wearer presented a wofully
dilapidated appearance. It seems incredible that fanaticism can make
such ninnies of men and women, for some of these ill-conducting persons
are probably sincere.
Napier is situated about two hundred miles north of Wellington, upon an
open roadstead and a very dangerous coast,--a fact sadly impressed upon
us by the wreck of a large ship, the "Northumberland," an English
freighter which was destroyed here a few days before our arrival and
portions of which were still visible. With two anchors down, this fine
vessel was driven on shore and completely wrecked, involving the loss of
several lives and much valuable property. Almost superhuman efforts were
made in behalf of the sufferers by the local life-saving boat's crew,
but only with partial success.
The business portion of Napier is quite level, and regularly laid out;
but the residences of the population creep up, tier upon tier, on the
surrounding hills, one of which forms an extraordinary promontory
extending into the roadstead. The six thousand persons who constitute
the population of the town seem to be taking life very easily; indeed,
there did not appear to be much of any business going on in the place,
and the quietude of it was not a little oppressive. There were small
crowds of men and youth loafing before the bar-rooms upon the corners of
the streets, and among them were observed quite a sprinkling of
half-castes and full-blooded natives. There was also a number of native
women strolling about listlessly, wrapped only in their high-colored
blankets and wearing a single skirt. The tattooed faces rendered these
women and girls needlessly hideous,--an aspect which was partially
redeemed by their fine eyes, the beauty of which nothing can efface;
they are large, black as night, and brilliant, full of feeling and
tenderness. If the term "ox-eyed" ever applied to humanity, it is
appropriate to the Maori women, who possess this one feature in
perfection.
We obtained some noteworthy and interesting information relative to
these aborigines. For instance, they never eat salt; they have no fixed
industry, and no idea of time or its divisions into hours and months;
they are, like our North American Indians, constitutionally lazy; they
are intensely selfish, and care nothing for their dead; they have a
quick sense of insult, but cannot as a rule be called pugnacious; they
excite themselves to fight by indulging in a hideous war-dance and by
singing songs full of braggadocio, and when thus wrought up to a certain
pitch they are perfectly reckless as to personal safety. The Maori is
not however a treacherous enemy; he gives honorable notice of his
hostile intent, warring only in an open manner,--thus exhibiting a
degree of chivalry unknown among our American Indians. Money with the
Maori is considered only as representing so much rum and tobacco.
Alcohol is their criterion of value; bread and meat are quite secondary.
They live entirely from hand to mouth, to use an expressive term, and
never take heed for the morrow. As a rule they seem entirely thoughtless
and happy in the present, so long as their necessities are satisfied and
their animal pleasures are not interfered with. After all, this
semi-barbarous race are like children, who follow bad example sooner
than good. "White man drink whiskey, why not I?" said one of them to us
at Ohinemutu when we declined to give him "drink money." As a rule the
Maoris are not beggars, except for strong drink. They will importune a
stranger for rum, but not for bread. We were told by an official of the
district at Napier that it is quite impossible to imbue these Maoris
with a sense of the importance of chastity; the idea is ignored
altogether. But it is with them as with the Japanese; after a woman is
married she becomes sacred, and to treat her with unchaste violence then
is to incur the penalty of death. It would be impossible to imagine a
more immoral people, when judged by the conventionalities of our
civilization, than these New Zealand natives.
Ancient traditions are fast fading away among this people, dying with
the elders of the tribes in whose memory they are locked up. Though the
missionaries half invented and half transcribed an oral Maori language,
it is almost solely applied to a translation of the Bible, and there
cannot be said now to exist any native literature. Yet, could their
legends be properly recorded, they would form a sort of barbaric
literature by no means without considerable poetic value. Sir George
Gray has attempted something of the sort, but with indifferent success.
He speaks the native tongue fluently, however, and has always
sympathized heartily with the aboriginal race, who call him their
English Father.
"Maori" (pronounced _Mowre_) is the name which the aborigines gave
themselves. If there were any human beings on these islands when the
Maoris first arrived they doubtless fell a prey to the cannibalistic
habits of the new-comers, whose insatiable appetite for human food was,
as we have seen, irrepressible. When discovered by Captain Cook, they
were the crudest of savage races; they knew scarcely anything of the
mechanic arts, their skill being limited to the scooping out of a boat
from the trunk of a tree, and the fabrication of fishing-nets from the
coarse fibre of the wild flax. They also made spears, shields, and
clubs. They had no beasts of burden, and so their women were made to
supply the place. Their agriculture was confined to the raising of sweet
potatoes and the esculent taro, while their more substantial food
consisted of fish, rats, wild fowl, and human flesh. Yet we are told by
well-informed writers upon the subject that they were of all the South
Sea tribes the most intelligent. They are physically the most vigorous
of any savages inhabiting islands south of the Equator, that we have
met. They seemed from the outset to be desirous of learning from and
affiliating with the whites,--a disposition which has led them to a
degree of improvement in domestic life, manner of living, building of
proper shelter for a home, and the manufacture of certain articles of
convenience. Wherever they are now found in the neighborhood of populous
centres, they have more or less adopted European clothing,--though we
were told some amusing anecdotes of their going back into the "bush,"
from time to time, solely to indulge in the old savage habit of nudity,
and to enjoy a sense of entire freedom from the conventionalities of the
whites.
There is not much intermarriage between the white people and the natives
in these days, although when there were fewer white women this was not
so uncommon; but the licentiousness prevalent among the native girls is
sufficient to prevent this at the present time. The race evinces to-day
many of the wild traits of their ancestors, which have been transmitted
to them in their blood, and which break out in odd ways now and then
when least expected. You cannot quite tame an Apache warrior, a Spanish
gypsy, or a New Zealand Maori; there will still remain a lingering
desire toward the old life, which will often be resumed upon the first
opportunity by the seemingly reclaimed savage. These natives exhibit
very little family affection, though we saw evidences of tenderness
toward their very young children. The old men and women are not
infrequently abandoned when ill or too feeble to take care of
themselves,--a trait which is sometimes exhibited by our own Indian
tribes. Polygamy and slavery still exist among them. Indeed, a married
woman is virtually the slave of her husband, whom she is expected to
supply with food by gathering roots, berries, fruits, and the like.
We are told by the early missionaries that the Maoris possessed an oral
mythology rudely resembling that of the classics. They firmly believed
in a future state of existence, and built rude temples to a Great
Spirit, but could see no harm whatever in making war upon neighboring
tribes for the purpose of replenishing their larder. So late as 1840
their greatest delight was the war-dance, the cannibal feast, and the
boasting war-song. The braggadocio of their fighting songs would do
credit to Falstaff; but the Maori affords us the anomaly of a braggart
who is not by any means a coward. Now and then there is seen among them
a face of so unmistakably a Jewish cast as to set the imagination at
work to find some possible connection, far back among the by-gone ages,
between this race and the Hebrews. When this peculiar cast of features
is seen among the girls or young women, it forms a face strikingly
attractive.
The Maoris when first discovered had many games and sports which were
identical with our own,--such as flying kites, skipping rope,
cat's-cradle, gymnastic pole-exercise, hide-and-seek, dancing, and
walking upon stilts. They are represented to have been good orators, and
have handed down proverbs from generation to generation,--terse sayings,
which are still preserved among them, and which are in spirit similar to
many of those of Confucius. Captain Cook estimated when he first visited
them that the Maoris had passed the period of their best days. He
thought that in the century previous to his coming hither they had eaten
about one fourth of their number. The race now numbers only thirty-six
or thirty-eight thousand, though it is certain it aggregated a hundred
thousand and more one century ago. It seems that a half-caste man or
woman rarely lives to the age of forty years, and of the pure-blooded we
saw comparatively few old persons. Now and then one was met, hideous of
feature, whose deeply indented wrinkles rivalled the lines of tattoo,
and who was bent in figure, decrepit, and bereft of most of the human
faculties. Such a one, perhaps, was not so extremely old in years, but
was prematurely aged. They are all most inveterate smokers, men, women,
and children; and you can give a Maori maiden of "sweet sixteen" nothing
more acceptable to her taste than a pipe and a plug of smoking-tobacco.
We were told before going among these New Zealand aborigines that they
had been Christianized; that is to say, they had discarded idolatry and
the doctrines of their fathers, and accepted the gospel as propounded to
them by the white missionaries. But this was not found to be exactly
true. If large numbers of them have at times professed Christianity,
many of the "converted" have also returned to their mumbo-jumbo faith.
Half of them, we judge, have never even pretended to be Christians.
Before you can _convert_ savages, you must in a degree _humanize_ them;
and this humanizing process has yet to be accomplished among this race.
The Maoris live nearly like the lower class of animals, preferring that
sort of life even after half a century of intercourse with the whites.
They may for policy's sake listen to, and pretend to accept
Christianity, as many of the Chinese are known to do; but both races, it
is well understood, return to their original faith at the first
opportunity. The modern Maori accepts the creed of the missionaries
because it is the easiest thing for him to do; but he still believes in
witchcraft, the evil-eye, and sorcery as openly practised by his
designing priests. The Roman Catholic faith, which addresses itself so
palpably to the eye by form and ceremony, is most popular among them,
and has by far the largest number of professed adherents of any
denomination.
The Maoris isolate themselves mostly in what is called the King's
Country of the North Island, which embraces the Hot Lake District; and
here they live under their own rule and customs. Their king is absolute
in the domain claimed by them, which is held inviolate by treaty with
the English Crown. Their decrease in numbers is as rapid in the King's
Country as it is where they are brought into more close connection with
the whites. As a people they have manifestly fulfilled the purpose for
which Providence placed them upon these islands of the South Sea; and
now, like the Moa, they must pass off the same and give way to another
race of beings. So it is with the Red man of America, and so was it with
the now totally extinct natives of Tasmania. No philanthropic effort can
stop the fulfilment of the inevitable. It is _Kismet_.
The town of Napier is made up in the business portion of one-story
houses, though in the main street there are found some establishments
rising to the dignity of two stories. A skeleton frame of wood, covered
on roof and sides with corrugated iron only, forms the material of many
of the stores and dwelling-houses. There is a long esplanade just back
of the town, within three minutes' walk of the centre, which has a most
superb sea view. It borders upon a shelving beach two miles long, and
though not suitable for bathing purposes on account of having a
dangerous undertow, it is very charming as a promenade. Iron seats are
arranged here and there upon the crown of the roadway, where one can sit
at leisure and enjoy the hoarse music of the waves, at the same time
looking off upon an immense area of wave-tossed waters, the scene
occasionally being varied by the sight of a passing steamship leaving
her long trail of smoke upon the distant horizon. It was a cool and
somewhat boisterous winter's day when we were there, and yet the seats
upon the beach were occupied by some romantic couples who seemed rather
inclined to force the season by imitating turtle-doves, except that the
latter are not supposed to mate until the genial spring-time.
One day was quite sufficient time to pass in such a place as Napier. We
had come hither by steamer, and were glad to get on board ship once more
as night came on, which found us directly steaming away northward. Next
morning soon after sunrise we cast anchor in an open roadstead off the
town of Gisborne, where we took on board a couple of hundred of sheep
transported to our ship from the shore by means of a lighter, and which
were to be landed at Auckland. It was a cold, dreary, foggy Sabbath
morning; the ship rolled heavily, and the appearance of the little
steam-tug, which was lifted at one moment above our bulwarks and the
next plunged almost beneath our keel, was not sufficiently inviting to
induce us to land, so we know nothing personally about the town called
Gisborne, except that no place can ever amount to much commercially
which depends upon such an exposed roadstead for its shipping
facilities. The disagreeable smell, the dirt, and the discomfort
generally caused by those poor sheep on their way to be slaughtered, is
remembered with a shudder. They were so closely packed together upon our
open and uncovered deck, as to be unable to lie down at all; and when
the hour of slaughter came it must have been to them--thirsty, hungry,
and weary as they were, after two days and nights on board--a great
relief from suffering. The outrageous inhumanity exercised toward these
poor helpless creatures rendered us quite miserable through those
forty-eight hours.
From Gisborne we were bound to Auckland, and when we arrived off that
port we passed Sir George Gray's island, which has a Maori name
signifying Shag Island. It is situated over twenty miles seaward from
the city of Auckland, at the entrance of the Hauraki Gulf. Here Sir
George has pitched his tent for life, being now well advanced in age. As
a young man, when in the engineer corps of the English army, his rare
ability and conspicuous talents commanded general respect, and he was
rapidly advanced through the several stages of promotion. He received
public honors at an early age, being Governor of South Australia at
thirty; afterward he was Governor of Cape Town, Africa, and later on was
made Governor of New Zealand, though he is now only a member of its
House of Assembly. His name is held in great reverence here by all
classes, as that of one who has ever been a true promoter of the best
interests of these colonies.
Sir George has a refined literary taste, and is a profound ethnological
scholar. Probably no European has so thoroughly mastered the Maori
tongue as he, or done so much toward producing a correct impression
concerning the race. In any serious trouble between the aborigines and
the colonists, both parties are always ready to abide by his settlement
of the matter. The natives know he has their best good at heart, and
follow his advice under all circumstances. He was Governor during the
last and most serious war which occurred between the Maoris and the
whites, and to his influence was chiefly due its successful and amicable
end. While he was firm and energetic during the war, at its close he
saved the remnant of the race from beggary by securing to them the large
tract of country which they now occupy. This left them still free and
independent, though as victors Sir George's government might have
confiscated all the native lands.
Sir George's home upon this spacious island, which he owns, is a most
delightful retreat, where he has gathered his household gods about him,
consisting of many books, works of art, and curiosities relating to
these islands. Here, surrounded by a pleasant family circle devoted to
his happiness, he has elected to live to the close of his life. He
formerly possessed a library which he had been many years in collecting
under peculiar advantages, and which numbered over ten thousand volumes,
mostly historical works. This collection he has recently presented to
the corporation of Auckland for the benefit of the public, and it has
been added to the Public Library of the city.
Shag Island is now a tropical garden, producing the fruits of all lands
and the flowers of all latitudes. Oranges, lemons, and bananas were seen
growing down to its very shores, while its sloping sides were covered
with palms, cocoanuts, and various tropical trees flourishing side by
side with those of hardier climes. Sir George is an enthusiastic
gardener, and has here met with phenomenal success in the
acclimatization of plants, trees, fruits, and flowers of all regions.
There is a peculiar tree which thrives on the seaward side of this
island, named by the Maoris _pokutukawa_, which signifies, "wet in the
ocean's spray." It bears a profusion of crimson flowers; but both its
roots and its willow-like boughs seek the water with a very obvious
natural inclination, and to them adhere the sweet little oysters native
to the Hauraki Gulf. Thus it has been said, half in fable and half in
truth, that the trees in New Zealand bear oysters!
What a change has come over this island, which not long ago was covered
with a tangled forest, making one of the special strongholds of the
aborigines! It was the aggressive tribe of Momona that so long and so
successfully held Shag Island, whence their chief made daring raids upon
the mainland to keep his larder supplied with the flesh of his enemies.
At last, however, the tribes of the mainland joined together and
attacked the island in a body, putting its thousand defenders to the
sword; and after feasting long upon their bodies, the successful
invaders returned to celebrate their victory at the foot of Mount Eden,
whose giant proportions overlook the present city of Auckland.