Journal of an Emigrant from Dorsetshire to New Zealand. [Typescript]

Albin Martin

First published by W. S. Johnson, Nassau Steam Press. in 1852

Digitised and made available online by the University of Auckland Libraries and Learning Services and Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Epub © 2015 Early New Zealand Books Collection

ISBN 978-0-9941199-3-3

[TITLE PAGE]

JOURNAL OF AN EMIGRANT
FROM DORSETSHIRE TO NEW ZEALAND.

(by Albin Martin )

For Private Circulation

London:
W. S. Johnson, "Nassau Steam Press", 60St.
St. Martin's Lane
1852

[Voyage]

JOURNAL OF AN EMIGRANT
FROM DORSETSHIRE TO NEW ZEALAND.

(by Albin Martin)

For Private Circulation.

London:
W. S. Johnson, "Nassau Steam Press", 60St.
St. Martin's Lane
1852

Monday, June 16th, 1851: Left Gravesend on this day about one o'clock, p.m. Having gone on board Friday, the 13th, we had plenty of time to get our cabins in order. The delay was occasioned by a child having an eruption on its face, as the Government Inspector would not clear the vessel until it was certain that the child had not the smallpox. A pilot took charge of our ship as far as Deal; nothing worthy of notice happened whilst he was on board. These pilots are well paid, receiving, our captain informed me, as much as £15 for two days' work. There being a head wind, we kept tacking about for the first week; this added much to our sea-sickness. The night after our pilot left us, it being very dark and misty, we ran into a French fishing-smack; two of the men got on board our ship: one of them, the captain of the smack, bewailed the supposed loss of his boat, and abused our sailors in no very delicate French, but which, as they did not understand it, had very little effect. I happened to be awake at the time the accident occurred, and jumped up, I must own, rather frightened; the passengers thought we had come on a rock, and some of them were much

bewildered. The two men were sent on to their boat in the morning, with a request that they would give us a dish of fish, but they did not send any back. We had a supply of thirty dozen fowls, one dozen sheep, thirty pigs, and a cow for milk; ten dozen of the fowls died in the first week, much to the relief of those which remained, for they were crowded to death. One sheep and three pigs were killed every fortnight; the first porker was put to death in a most barbarous manner; the man who came on board as butcher did not understand his calling. On taking the pig out of his pen, a string was tied to his leg; he immediately made a bolt, and darted into the lap of seven young ladies, who were sitting reading novels and knitting opposite the cuddy door; the surgeon's bulldog, thinking the pig very unpolite, joined in the fray; the squeaking of the pig, the barking of the dog, the screams of the seven sisters, and the laughter of the sailors, rendered the scene most amusing to the lookers-on. Every trifle tends to break the monotony of the day. We have seen a few birds, sharks, and dolphins; as yet nothing has been killed – bottles are thrown out from the stern to be shot at, but they are not easy to hit.

June 29th. - We go on very slowly; the voyage will be a long and tedious affair if we do not get more favourable winds. The children have all been very ill, except Walter; I am most wretchedly sick whenever a rough sea comes on. The weather has not been too hot; we have suffered more from cold. Yesterday, rather a large vessel came in sight; the captain got out his signal flags, and learnt where she came from and how long she had been out: the ship was about eight miles away from us.

June 30th. - The wind still against us, but we keep moving on; in twenty-four hours eighty-seven miles of our voyage have been got rid of. There are two clergymen on board: we have the church service on deck in the morning on Sunday. In the afternoon, a Northcountryman, an Independent minister, holds forth for an hour, but he says the same things, so many, many times over, and his dialect is so strong, that it is anything but pleasant to listen to him; he seems, however, a good sort of person. There is no chance of our stopping any where on our voyage; it would take up too much time for us to touch at Madeira although our captain seems rather inclined to do so.

July 2nd. - The wind is blowing from the east, and we are going at the rate of nine miles an hour; this puts us all in good spirits. Every thing on board goes on in the same dull way: I am unable to read or to pay any continued attention to any thing, this is the effect of seasickness; most of the passengers are pretty much in the same way. What with the children's breakfast at half past seven, our own at nine o'clock, children's dinner at one o'clock, our lunch at the same hour, and then our dinner at four o'clock, children's tea at six, ours at seven o'clock, we seem to live but to eat. The days are now beginning to get short; as soon as it gets dusk all the people come out of their close dens to enjoy the cool breeze. Those ladies and gentlemen who have the gift of singing, amuse themselves and others by their musical talents. Those who can tell long stories have plenty of listeners.

July 3rd. - In the afternoon as we were sitting at dinner, the first mate came to say that there was land to be seen right

a-head. It was the Island of Porto Santo, the least of the Madeiras, long. l6° 25' W., lat. 32° 58' N. It has a fine outline from the sea. We were about seven miles from it. Another small island was passed in the night, but I was not up to see it. Our ship has made good progress, having made 180 miles per diem these last three days. Except scrubbing the decks in the morning, the sailors seem to have but little to do; the captain keeps them all in capital order, and does everything with as little noise as possible. The first and second mates are both of them good officers.

July 4th. - We passed the Island of Palma, one of the Canary Islands; it is much frequented for its excellent wines and safe harbour. Long. 17° 50' W., lat. 28° 37' N. Our course lay about thirty miles from it. It was very misty weather, so that only just the outline was to be seen. The form is not good, being too lumpy; anything, however, which breaks the horizontal line is interesting to us. There has not been a vessel of any kind in sight for several days. We are going a good pace, the wind is very steady, and the captain hopes to be at the Equator in a week or ten days. We are beginning to get over our seasickness: there is very little motion in the ship at all; the passengers make their appearance at the table; we sit down twenty-six to dinner, the officers of the ship included. Considering all things, we manage much better than I expected in the eating way. The cook is a very good one; and if the sheep and pigs hold out to the end of the voyage, there will be nothing to complain of. It is very probable that many of the passengers have never lived so well on shore as they have done

since they have been on board.

July 7th. - I have little to write about, even the wind does not change. There is nothing to be seen on all sides but water; and the colour of the sea has not varied for several days. Mr. Dudley, a clergyman, has school for the children every day after breakfast; Mergie and Fanny attend; they seem pleased, and I think they improve. It is now dark about seven o'clock, but the evenings are very pleasant, much more so than the day; the wind blows very hot, and we begin to complain of the closeness of our cabins. Ours being a stern one, we have the luxury of getting air whenever there is any. Those below are much to be pitied; if they keep their windows shut, they are stifled, if they open them they stand the chance of being drenched by some unlucky wave which comes pouring in upon them. There has been a regular hang out of clothes today, occasioned by these accidents.

July 12th. - Did not see the Cape de Verde, the air being thick. For some cause or other the captain did not go so near to them as he expected. There has been some rough weather this last day or two; I have been ill in consequence; the children have suffered a little. This morning the rain came down in tropical style; all the tubs and baths were got out. Mr. Brodie began his wash; the example being set in a short time there was a general soaping, rinsing, and wringing. The passengers came on deck in every possible variety of oilskin and India-rubber dresses; many of them with very little dress on at all. The scene was quite new to most of us, and was as great a change as could have happened. It has been very hot and close all day;

the thermometer was up to 80°. We have seen numbers of flying-fish; one came on board; the sailors had him for breakfast; they are very good to eat. I hope the passengers will keep good friends with each other. A voyage of this sort brings out all selfish and unreasonable qualities in great force. One person thinks he has not his allowance of water; those who sit at the bottom of the table think all the worst things are put at their end, and that we at the top get the best dishes. Our captain is most judicious, we cannot be too thankful in having him for our master; if we were left to our own devices, our provisions would, the best of them, be gone before the end of the voyage, and the passengers altogether by the ears.

On Sunday, 13th July, we were becalmed; there was a heavy sea, and the ship had a most unpleasant way of going, if round and round can be called going; it was a sort of see-saw. Towards night a breeze took us on very nicely; we have suffered very much from heat, the thermometer being 86°. About nine o'clock, p.m., a vessel which had been seen for some time in the distance, came up close to us; our captain spoke to her with a trumpet; she was from Batavia, bound for Amsterdam. There is something solemn in passing a large ship in a gloomy night. A few moments and she passed quietly on her course. Every noise on board our ship was hushed, except the occasional rattle of the sails. We could hear the replies of the Dutchman very plainly. There had been storms flying about all day, but we escaped them; in the night down came the rain in torrents, the ship pitched about, I could not get any sleep, the noises were beyond description. Our rudder, from some cause or other, does not act well, it makes

a most unpleasant noise and vibration in rough weather, in smooth water it does well enough. This, with the trampling of the sailors over head, the rush of water at the stern (for we sleep with both windows open), the uneasy position of all sorts of things in the cabin, which keep knocking each other about, the nerves must be in a very quiescent state to enable one to get any sleep under such circumstances. I have not mentioned the chance of one of the six children adding its mite to the disturbance.

Saturday, July 19th. - All this week the winds have been adverse, the ship has not been able to keep her course: sometimes, although she was going eight miles an hour, we were like the crab, progressing backwards, some unlucky current drifting us out of our way. There has been a cool day or two but the weather seems inclined for heat. A French ship lay about three miles off us, the captain gave some of our young adventurous spirits leave to take a boat and go to the Frenchman upon the spec. of bringing some nice things to eat - French vessels often have little luxuries to sell; they went, and the French captain was very polite to them, but they were disappointed as to the luxuries, he had nothing to sell, but sent us some brandy and anchovies as a present.

Tuesday, July 22nd. - The wind has been right ahead since the 19th; we may be at the equator in three or four days, or we may be tacking about for the next ten; vessels are nearly always detained at the point we are at now either by calms or adverse winds.

Saturday, July 26th. - This day we crossed the line at

three o'clock, p.m. This seems to be the first stage of our voyage. We are now leaving the sun, and do not expect to get any more very hot weather; today has been the most pleasant we have had since leaving England, a bright clear sky and brisk wind, neither too hot, or too cold. The old customs the sailors used to have in crossing the line are now done away with, and they are much "more honoured in the breach than in the observance:" the men have to content themselves with a few bottles of rum; our ship is on the temperance plan, and it is much the best; the sailors are well-behaved, and the captain acts with great kindness towards them, but keeps the most strict discipline.

July 30th. - We have got the trade winds again, and are going on very nicely; making our 150 miles per diem. I suppose this is not considered fast sailing, but still it will carry us forward a considerable distance by the end of the week. We hope to see the island of Trinidada on Sunday. There is now a rough sea, with a good deal of wind; this causes the ship to lie on her side, and every now and then she gives a great lurch which is very unpleasant to those who are bad sailors. The getting up of a morning is the worst part of the day; it requires a considerable effort to get to the washing stand, and when there, to maintain a footing. How it is possible for any one to like a sea voyage, I cannot think: one cannot eat, drink, or walk, but under great difficulties; then there is the being in prison, with the chance of being drowned; other evils may fall to our lot, such as an ill-tempered or injudicious captain, disagreeable fellow passengers, bad provisions, and perhaps but little of them; the last evils we are at present free from; the former

cannot be avoided.

Saturday, August 2nd. - The ship is making a bad course, there is very little wind; if we get on at the rate of three miles an hour, it is something. I am afraid we shall not see the island of Trinidada, having gone so much out of our way; we have had no cause for excitement, no storms or accidents of any kind, to give interest to a journal. The sunsets have been very beautiful since we crossed the line; I never saw so much of the rose colour in any skies. There has been some little disagreement amongst the cuddy passengers. I suppose this is sure to happen on long voyages, every body wants to have his own way. The only person whose will is supreme is the captain's, and lucky it is for us that this is the case. I shall stand up for the supreme right of captains, that is, provided they are as kind hearted as Capt. Pearson, and keep up the same good management; he seems to neglect only one person, and that is himself. There has been no misunderstanding either in the intermediate or steerage cabins, so that the cuddy passengers do not set the example we ought. People situated as we are have not much else to do but to eat and drink. We all seem to enjoy ourselves at meals, and as there is plenty to eat, we get bilious and ill tempered; a blue pill, &c, would I think impart serenity of mind to some of us. No birds or fish have been caught or shot, we seem quite out of the way of them. The sunsets are still very fine, I never saw more deep or richer colour.

Wednesday, August 6th: - We are getting on very slowly and are all grumbling in consequence; we cannot have much less than four months' passage; this is not a very pleasant prospect for

me, as I shall not get over my sea-sickness until I leave the ship. Today we came up with a little English brig, called the British Empire, 170 tons. Her Captain came on board of us while we were at breakfast; he is bound for Monte Video. As there is a chance of letters getting to England from Monte Video, a number were written and sent. The captain of the brig left us after dinner; he is a tall, good-looking young man; he seemed to enjoy his visit, and it made the day pass a little less dull than usual to us. The weather is now getting much colder; I have put on my cloth coat again; after the heat we have had, we expect to suffer very much when the cold does come. We hear numberless stories of dreadful storms, and wet, cold weather, which every one who has gone near the Cape seems to have met with. This Cape must be a horrid place if what we hear about the weather of it be true. It is not an easy matter to write on board a ship, one is so distracted by the cries of the children; ten or a dozen persons are discussing different subjects at the cuddy table, where I am now writing; there is a great trampling and noise overhead on the deck, and the intermediates at the cuddy door are amusing themselves by laughing, singing, whistling, and talking; sometimes a lurch of the ship comes which obliges one to hold on to the table with both hands. We have plenty of time and opportunity of studying each others' characters; I do not think any one of us is likely to set the Thames on fire; we are rather an odd mixture of individuals, but I must wait till the land of the voyage before making any more remarks. Few seem to know what they are going to do on arriving at New Zealand; each is curious to find out the plans and prospects of his neighbour.

Saturday, August 9th. - The island and ports of Trinidada were seen about three o'clock. I did not see the island, but made a sketch of the Martin Bass rocks; at half-past six o'clock we passed very near. We have been going today at the rate of eight miles an hour; a few nautili came near our ship, they were very pretty, and looked like pieces of pink ribbon floating about. The weather has been most beautiful, and the sunsets very fine; tonight it was indeed magnificent.

Friday, August 15th. - We have passed from the midst of summer to cold winter; yesterday was the worst day we have had since leaving England, the rain came down in torrents, and the wind increased to what I should call a gale, but the sailors said it was only a little fresh; however, the ship strained so much that the captain ordered in all the sails except two; it was curious to see the men on the yards, clustering like bees; I thought they were in a dangerous situation enough, as it was; how they manage it in a heavy gale I cannot tell; the sails being reefed, the ship was more easy, but the rocking up and down most unpleasant. Nothing can be more miserable than a wet day at sea, we were obliged to stay in the cuddy, or in our own cabins; if you moved you stood the chance of being set head foremost in any direction but the one you wished to go in; one of the passengers has had his face cut by a fall on the deck. Today it has been very pleasant after the storm, the wind is fresh, and the sun shines out; the effects of light and shade on the water are very fine; the ship is not going her course, this is not very cheering after the knocking about we have had. They say we shall have cold stormy weather until we get to the end of our voyage; I like

cold better than heat, anything but wet. The birds called Cape pigeons have made their appearance; they keep close to the stern, and pick up whatever food is thrown over the side; they are easily shot or caught with a hook, the bait being a piece of fat; stray albatrosses have been seen; when we get farther they say there will be numbers of them.

Monday. August 18th. - Today has been nearly a calm, the weather very cold, like February in England. The next land to be seen is the island of Tristan d'Achuna, long. 11° 44' S., lat. 37° 6' S.; this place had some soldiers on it during the time Buonaparte was at St. Helena; when they were removed, one of them, named Glass, having a liking for the island, remained there with his family, others joined him, and they number now more than 100 people. Glass is called governor, and they live very contentedly; a clergyman has gone out to them; ships call for potatoes, sheep, and fowls, and give them in return, tea, sugar, and clothes; our captain will stay a day at the island, if possible, but if there is a rough sea, I would not give much for our chance. I should like to get some potatoes, they say they have them very fine. I am beginning to be a little better sailor, and am able to sit at the cuddy table during dinner and breakfast; numerous accidents of cups of coffee being projected into the laps of our opposites have happened; it is not at all pleasant to have a large fat ham near one, as it has a great propensity to jerk off the table. During this rough weather the rudder has been shaking most violently, our cabin being close to it, the vibration is as bad as that on board a steam boat; if the rudder does not get us

into trouble before we arrive at New Zealand we ought to be thankful. The climate we are now in seems very changeable, in fact, we have had very variable weather since we left London - scarcely three days following without a change.

Wednesday, August 20th. - This morning it was reported that land had been seen in the distance, but it was very doubtful, and considered by most of us to be fabulous. An observation was taken at twelve o'clock, and it turned out that it was the island of Tristan d'Achuna. We were much disappointed at not going on shore, and also of our mealy potatoes; the sea was very rough, so that had we been close in no boat could have come to us. The ship has gone through the water in capital style today, and she is very easy, the weather cold and misty, with a little rain. Four or five weeks since our poor little baby met with a sad accident - Emily was playing with a pair of scissors; baby, in trying to get hold of them, had the top of one of the fingers of his left hand nearly cut off. The doctor was applied to - whether he managed properly or not I cannot tell - but the cut did not heal, and we were very much afraid the finger would have to be taken off; inflammation was the only thing which prevented the doctor from performing the operation. Today the first joint has come away, and we are in hopes the remaining part of the finger will now do well; we are thankful it is no worse. Our fellow-passengers do not improve in their tempers, there is always some complaint or other going on: the captain is very much vexed by these bickerings; he acts with the greatest impartiality. I have made up my mind not to quarrel with any one. Some are continually finding fault with the Stewart; he certainly is sometimes very unpleasing in his manner; those who take things

quietly, reap advantage from the servants being kept up to their duty by the discontented. We have had some large birds near the ship.

Thursday, August 21st. - Today, Mr. Read offered me a shot with his gun, loaded with ball; I fired, and brought down an ugly black-looking bird, called the undertaker by sailors; it is of the albatross or gull kind. Some of the birds are quite black, others of a shabby-looking brown, and some lead-coloured and white. Mr. Read has caught one of these last, it measured six feet eight inches from the tip of one wing to the other; the albatross measure some of them fourteen feet.

Saturday, August 23rd. - The weather very cold, the wind rough; we are about nine hundred miles from the Cape; if we do not get on better than we have done, it will be nine or ten weeks before we reach Auckland. What is to be done with our time I do not know; one consolation is, we know the worst; it is impossible that the last part of the voyage can be more tedious than the first. The bad spirit which exists amongst some of us will not add to the delights of the voyage.

Monday, August 25th. - The weather still cold, with a strong wind, which takes us on at a great rate; we may be off the Cape in four days; I shall then begin to think about New Zealand. The storm which has been brewing amongst the passengers came on yesterday; these internal gales do not pass away so easily as the external. Our neighbours in the stern cabin have been continually finding fault, the captain at length became tired of their complaints; matters came to a crisis, and he spoke his mind very plainly before all of us in the cuddy; this was the

commencement of a general attack on our friends in the next cabin. It was with reluctance that I joined, but I could not avoid it; we had been scarcely on speaking terms for some time past; with the exception of Jemima, all the ladies in the ship had ceased to hold converse with Mrs. B., who had given herself airs of exclusiveness, and Mr. B. had behaved with great rudeness and incivility; neither Jemina or myself had any cause of complaint, but Miss Goldsborough had. These difficulties, as the Americans would call them, have rendered the voyage much more unpleasant than it need have been.

Monday, Sept. 1st. - On Friday last we were what is called off the Cape, that is, we were as near as three hundred miles, so that we may well call it being off the Cape. The weather is so cold that Mergie and I have had chilblains on our fingers. Before Friday we had quiet winds and sunshine for several days and were congratulating ourselves on escaping the storms and tempests which we were looking out for, but this calm and sunshine was not to last, for on the very evening of the twenty-eighth a gale came on, which even our captain allowed to be a severe one while it lasted. The wind had been blowing a little fresh all the morning, and storms were to be seen flying about in the distance; the captain just about teatime, asked me if I had tried to put down the lead lights which protect our stern windows, this was a hint that he expected bad weather. I went to see to the windows, and whilst I was setting down the lights a tremendous lurch of the ship came, which sent everything moving to and fro: there is in our cabin a large chest of drawers, or rather two chests, one fitting on to the other, the drawers happening to be

unlocked, they were all but sent out on to the floor, and being as full as they could be stuffed with linen, if they had come entirely out the smash must have been great. This was the beginning of the gale, the wind increased with great violence, and as the captain could not trust to the rudder, the ship was laid to about ten o'clock. We passed a very unquiet night: in the morning the wind abated, and before night it was nearly a calm. I had never been in a gale at sea before, and was much gratified at witnessing one of the grandest sights I had ever seen. There was a great deal of phosphoric light on the water, and as the waves rose and broke they appeared like sheets of white flame, innumerable sparks of fire glistened in the track of our vessel, the night was very dark, the deck very slippery from the spray, the wind was so furious that I was obliged to hold on with both hands to the ropes; at about eleven o'clock I had seen the best of the storm, and went down to bed, but not to sleep, for the noise and knocking about was so great, that I do not think anyone on board slept that night.

Tuesday, Sept. 2nd. - On Sunday the bad weather came on again, and has not yet left us; the sea is very high, and it is a grand sight to look at the waves as they dash by on either side, but they do not give us such thumps as they did on Friday, then they struck the ship and made her stagger again; sometimes a sea would take her on one side, and slap another would come on the other, Whilst I am now writing the gale still goes on, and we shall have a bad night of it.

Wednesday, Sept. 3rd. - I went to bed last night expecting every moment to be turned out of it again, it was impossible to

sleep; about three o'clock, a. m., a heavy sea struck us and broke over the ship; I was awake at the time, and held on to the side of the bed, wondering what was to come next. For a moment it seemed doubtful which would get the best of it, the wave or the ship; but our vessel became steady again, and rose all right. The water poured into most of the cuddy 1 cabins, and from thence descended to the unfortunates below, who were some of them drenched to the skin, and had their beds flooded. Few of the passengers were aware of what had really happened, and came out of their berths thinking the rudder had given away. One of the boats was nearly knocked off; four bundles of hay were lost from the side. I have had quite enough of rough weather, but am afraid we shall have a good deal more before we get to New Zealand. These last four days we have made nearly 200 miles a day.

Friday, September 5th. - Last night was quiet; but this afternoon the wind has risen again, accompanied with rain. Matters are patched up again amongst the passengers; that is, the gentlemen are on speaking terms again. The ladies do not get over their differences so easily. Baby's finger is getting well. All the children have had good health. Walter has improved very much; when he first came on board he cried all day and night; he was a great nuisance to every one; now he is quite a favourite in the ship. The second mate is very fond of him, and has him by his side at breakfast and dinner times. Albinus takes after his papa; the motion of the ship does not agree with him; he looks very thin and pale.

Tuesday, September 9th. - The weather is the only subject I have to write on. The storm and tempest still continue. Yesterday the wind blew so hard that whilst we were at breakfast the captain ordered the ship to lay to again; I went on deck to see the effects; it seemed impossible for the wind to blow harder than it did; the sky was hazy and the sea all of one tone of colour; the waves were very high and chased each other at a great rate - the spray rising from them like smoke. We have a most miserable time of it. It has been wet for several days, and today there has been hail. The decks are so slippery, it is quite dangerous to walk on them. Several accidents have happened from persons falling; a man of no less consequence than the cook fell, and he has injured his shoulder very much. I am sorry both for his own sake and ours too; he is obliging and civil; he understands his art, and excels in his pork-pies. Yesterday I was sitting on the sofa with some of the children, Jemima and baby on the floor - the safest place in a gale, a lurch came which sent me headlong on to the floor, and also Mergie and Fanny; heaps of bedding, baths, chairs, and boxes were all thrown about and upon us. On picking ourselves up nobody was found to be hurt. The children seem to think these lurches very good fun; it is quite amusing to see the things dancing about at dinner time.

Friday, September 12th. - I am quite tired of writing about bad weather; each day seems more cold and wretched than the previous one; squalls of wind, accompanied by hail and rain, keep coming up on all sides. We have seen two waterspouts in the distance; they were about four miles off. The water, whirling

and twisting about as it was sucked up from the sea, could be distinguished very plainly. We hope to make the Island of St. Paul or Amsterdam on Monday. There is plenty of fish to be caught close to the shore; the captain promises to stop if possible, but I think we shall be going too fast to do so. Last night a play, called "Turning the Tables" was acted by some of the passengers and went off very well. The captain allowed us to have some supper and a few bottles of wine over which we enjoyed ourselves. Supper is never allowed on board ship; but on this occasion our kind captain suffered the rule to be broken. There has been a vessel in sight today; the captain ordered out some extra sails; and if the wind remains as it is we shall overtake her. All the sailing qualities of our ship have been lost by the misfortunes of the rudder; she goes very fast, and with all her canvass on, it would take a first-rate ship to beat the Cashmere; but, in a heavy sea, most of the sails have to be taken in, for, if not, the rudder shakes in a most frightful manner.

Wednesday, September 17th. - The weather has got from bad to worse; on Saturday night the gale was tremendous; we were obliged to lay to; the captain, who was up all night, said it for a short time blew a hurricane. The roaring of the wind as it rushed amongst the masts and rigging was terrific; it seemed like some demon determined to gain the mastery over our ship, and at one time it kept everything still, the waves were subdued, and the Cashmere was as quiet as when in the docks. We were all glad when the morning came. One cannot help thinking now and then that there are only two inches of plank between us

and these tempestuous elements.

Monday, September 22nd. We passed the Island of St. Paul's on Friday. It has a fine outline; the rocks seem very bold and grand; the island does not produce anything. This rough weather has been of good service in bringing us on a long distance in a short time; for several days we made our two hundred miles a day. I hope we shall soon leave the storms behind; today has been something spring-like; the season for bad weather in these latitudes is now nearly over.

Wednesday, September 24th - There is a great change in the weather; we are now in a better climate; we may expect it to be a little rough before we get to the end of our voyage, but still the worst seems past. If the rudder holds on, we may get to Auckland in twenty days. I am rather anxious about the rudder, as it shakes much more even than it did; there is no remedy but taking in sail. Baby's finger is well; he has got quite fat; the people on board are very fond of him; &e gets plenty of nurses.

Friday, September 26th. - We are now going on so quiet and smoothly that the rough times we have had are almost forgotten. We are off the coast of New Holland; next week land is expected to be seen as we go through Bass's Straits. Our ship does not make quite so much distance; but 130 or 140 miles a day is much more comfortably done, as we are now progressing, than 200 in a hurricane.

Tuesday, September 30th. - The weather still fine; last week we had a capital run, the wind being most favourable; on one day the distance done was 217 miles; the average of the week 190. Yesterday was nearly a calm; today we are going on much better.

It is provoking to think that, but for the rudder, we might be at, or very near, Auckland; it is considered we have been delayed a fortnight. We are all very dull and tired of the voyage; the sailors are beginning to clean up the ship, in order that we may cut a good figure on our arrival. The Cashmere is a smart looking vessel; some persons find fault, and say she is built too slight, and that she will not stand many voyages; it is possible they may not know much about the matter; passengers are generally fond of finding out the imperfections of their ship. I know nothing of these things, but in justice to the Cashmere, I must say she is a very comfortable vessel, a fast sailer, and she seems very water-tight. I never see the men at the pumps; I believe, however, that they are used once a week. There is an outcry amongst us for candles, few having brought a sufficient store with them, or have been too extravagant; we were lucky enough to bring more than we may want; I thought the quantity we were advised to take rather small, and therefore ordered a double stock.

October 2nd. - We have now entered on another month; the last was most favourable to us for getting along. October has not brought with it auspicious gales: for several days it has been nearly a calm; we seem sometimes to be still. Our vessel reminds me of Coleridge's idea, "a painted ship upon a painted sea". The air is clear and skies beautiful; what is said about the purity of the Australian atmosphere, I expect to find true. The evenings are much lighter than they were; it is now scarcely dark at seven o'clock. Several large birds have been shot today; this affords some little excitement, but it is rather

a barbarous pastime, for the poor things generally have only their wing broken by the ball, and we see them floating away, pecking themselves, and pecked at by their companions. These birds when flying look about the size of rooks, but they are almost as big as a goose, and their wings are longer than those of that bird.

On Friday, October 10, we approached within a few miles of Low Head, a beautiful little village, with a church and a lighthouse; it is the entrance to Port Dalrymple. A pilot came off to us, but of course his services were not required; he staid several hours, from him we learnt the great news, -gold had been discovered at Port Philip in much more abundance than it had ever been found in California; all the men from the neighbouring places were going after the gold. The news turned the heads of our crew, and the plans of many of the passengers will, I have no doubt, be greatly altered. The pilot crammed us pretty well; I dare say he got his stories third or fourth hand; I believed one part out of ten that he told us. The pilot's boat was rowed by six convicts. I never saw rogue more plainly stamped on six mens' faces in my life. If they left their country for their country's good, they most certainly left it for their own; they earn ten shillings per week, get lots of the best food to eat and drink, and are living in the finest climate in the world. This was their own account. Soon after the pilot left us, the long wished for breeze sprung up, and then at last our ship began to move in the right direction, every face on board brightened. We dashed off in great style, going at the rate of twelve miles an hour, this was to us railway

speed. Mountains, hills, rocks and islands disappeared in quick succession. We got up to the narrow part of the straits between nine and ten o'clock, p.m. At night, to have land so close on each side, is rather nervous work. I went on deck just previous to going to bed, it seemed as if we were about to run against the rocks. I knew, however, that humanly speaking, I was as safe as when sitting by my fireside in Dorsetshire. I went to bed, and to sleep, but was soon roused again by the noise the sailors made in getting on more canvass. I knew then, that we were out of the Strait, and that everything was going on well.

Saturday, October 11. - This week has been the most exciting of the voyage. On Sunday night last, we entered Bass's Straits. A calm came on on Monday, and we were obliged to keep tacking, many times we found ourselves at night in no better position than we were in the morning, if it was not a calm the wind was dead against us. "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." I was really ill, having a bad attack of rheumatism. Others were out of temper by reason of the delay. No one can tell the disappointment at not being able to get on at sea, unless they have experienced the going over the same track day after day as we have done. The beauty of the scenery in Bass's Straits, to me at least, quite made up for the delay. I did not expect to see a fine country, and was therefore most agreeably surprised. On Thursday we began to move on a little, and the mountains of Van Diemen's Land tipped with snow, appeared in the distance; as we neared them, they assumed the finest forms; lesser mountains and hills covered with wood,

came down to the water's edge, beautiful headlands or islands were dotted about most picturesquely. Either it was that the eye having as it were, hungered so long after a sight of land, was easily gratified, or I, not having expected such scenery, was the more struck with it. It is sometimes the case that on viewing a country which from description one has been led to expect a great deal, the expectations are not realised, either the points which strike one person are not felt by another, or perhaps the weather and effects of light and shade are bad. It appeared to me that these mountains were of grander shapes and proportions than any I had before seen, the country under them was most lovely, the forms and lines of the hills rolling about in a manner which no artist who had not studied the old masters in their best period could hope to execute. During the calm some fish were caught; they were in flavour something like mackerel, but not so good. Three sharks also fell victims to their voracity. I had a hand in the capture of the first; the line and hook which caught him not being strong, they were fearful of his breaking away. Our fishermen being young hands, could not get a second line around him, which is generally done before he is attempted to be got up. The shark was splashing and dashing within a few yards of our windows. I went below, and by way of assisting him, fired a ball at his head; it entered just by his mouth, and came out again some distance below; this ended his struggles, and he came on deck very quietly. Our first mate dissected him; he said that in China the fins and tail would fetch twelve or fifteen shillings. The Chinese eat curious things. I should prefer any other diet than that of shark. They are most hideous looking creatures; no one has

any pity for a shark when he is caught. Whilst in the Straits, we had the luck to get four sacks of potatoes from a small craft which came near us; they were very fine ones, and we could not have had a greater treat. I have not seen such potatoes since the blight in England.

Friday, October 17th. - We have had a most splendid run from the Straits. This morning, about seven o'clock, Mr. Read came down from the mast head, and reported land. After breakfast the long-wishes-for shores of New Zealand were plainly to be seen by all. We are going very slow through the water, but the hills became more and more distinct. Some of them are composed of white sand, which has almost the appearance of snow. The weather is beautiful, and much warmer than it has been; we have suffered a great deal from cold lately. The day has now closed in - the sun-set was very beautiful. We came up to the land at three o'clock; it has a most barren appearance; the hills that we have been coasting along do not seem to have food enough on them to graze a rabbit. However, it is as I expected. Comparisons were made by some of us between this and the beautiful scenery in Bass Straits. I very much doubt whether there is a country in the world equal to Van Diemen's Land, but its being a convict settlement, renders it out of the question as a place to go to. They say you cannot be out at night without a chance of being robbed and knocked on the head. This account may not be true; but I certainly should not like to live in the neighbourhood of the six men who came off to us in the pilot boat. Just before it got dark we observed signs of habitations on shore; large fires were lighted, as we supposed, by the natives,

as signals to us.

Nine o'clock, Friday evening. - The wind changed as we rounded the point; nothing could be more fortunate; we may now be at Auckland before Sunday morning. I shall just go up on deck to see the outline of the coast (the stars are shining so bright, and the air is so clear, that we can make out the hills very plainly), and then retire for the night, hoping that tomorrow will bring to us "fresh scenes and pastures new".

Saturday, October 18th. - The breeze, which was taking us on so nicely last night, died away about eleven o'clock. We found ourselves this morning gliding lazily along, with the coast eight or ten miles to the right. The country improves as we go on. I have no doubt there is some fine scenery as well as fine land in the distance. Neither boat or sail of any kind has yet been seen, so that there cannot be much trade at this end of the island. The sun is getting very hot; the awning has been put up today - I suppose to save the ladies' complexions.

1 The cuddy doors being open was the cause of this disaster.

[Auckland]

Auckland, Friday, Nov. 21st. – I have scarcely had a pen in my hand since October 18th. After writing in this journal, I went to bed that evening with some threatenings of rheumatism; in the night a most violent attack came on, and which I have not yet quite recovered from. I will not, however, write about my own ills, but proceed to give an account of our arrival at this place. On Sunday, October 19th, the Auckland hills were in view, and at about ten o'clock in the evening the good ship Cashmere arrived in harbour; no one on board could rejoice more than myself at hearing the anchor go down. Those passengers who had friends on shore left the vessel on Monday, and those who were

going to stop at Auckland soon found houses, as there were plenty to be let; the ship appeared quite deserted. I was not well enough to move, but Mr. Brodie was kind enough to get us a house, and by his and Mr. Read's assistance, we left the Cashmere on Saturday, October 25th. All the passengers (with but one exception) have behaved in the most kind manner, during the voyage, to Jemima, myself, and the children. When we came in sight of Auckland, a testimonial, or letter of thanks, was read before all the cuddy passengers to the captain. This letter caused a good deal of discussion on board, and, as it was my composition, I shall state why I took a prominent part: a thing most contrary to my desires. I was requested, by some of the passengers, to write a letter of thanks to Captain Pearson. After refusing to for some time, as no one else took up the affair, I, by way of setting it going, wrote the following, to be taken round to all the passengers in the ship for alteration or improvement: –

"We, the undersigned, passengers on board the ship Cashmere, having, by the blessing of Divine Providence, arrived safely in the harbour of Auckland, take this opportunity, before we separate, of returning our most sincere thanks to Captain George Pearson, for the uniform kindness, impartial attention, and watchful care with which he has acted during a four months' voyage to every person under his charge. The duties of the master of a passenger-ship, numbering one hundred and three individuals, are most responsible; they are arduous, difficult, and sometimes unpleasant to perform. We found that whilst Captain Pearson insisted on having order and good conduct on board, he was always most anxious to promote the happiness, comfort, and amusement of his passengers. His kindness, to us all will live long in our recollection: and Captain Pearson may feel assured, that to whatever part of the world his duties may call him, our best wishes will attend him."

This was taken by Mr. Dudley to Mr. Bailey, who behaved in a most insulting manner to Mr. D.; called him officious, and

said it was a hole and corner affair, got up by two or three persons only; this took place on the main deck, before a number of people. Mr. Bailey said, the proper course was to call a general meeting of the passengers; as it would have almost to a certainty, been attended with unpleasant consequences, a meeting was of all things to be avoided, and I was determined to do all I could to prevent it. Mr. Bailey's behaviour so bewildered Mr. Dudley that he did not know how to go on; I was obliged, therefore, to take the matter entirely on myself, leaving Mr. Bailey to his own devices. I lost no time in learning the opinions of the passengers; the letter had now become the exciting topic of the ship. I was soon much gratified to find that, with the exception of Mr. Bailey and three 2 others, all the passengers were ready to sign my letter, and they would not hear of a meeting. I mention these things, as they are specimens of the unpleasant occurrences which happen on board most passenger ships. The letter, with signatures attached, is duly chronicled in the Auckland newspapers. The Cashmere left this port for Wellington on Friday, November 21st. She will return again with a cargo of timber for England about the end of February.

Auckland is not interesting as regards beauty of situation; the harbour is a very safe one, and the town is increasing; houses are also springing up in the suburbs in all directions. Whilst other places are puffing themselves off and abusing Auckland, this settlement is doing more trade than all the ports

of New Zealand put together. The two inducements which decided my stopping here, was the certainty of having a good market, and also that there is plenty of land to be had of the best quality; trade is very dull here just at this time; money is in great request - from £15 to £20 per cent, is given on the best security. Several of the passengers on board the Cashmere brought out large cargoes of goods with them; during the voyage they were very busy making out their invoices, &c; I used to envy them their New Zealand profits, as they called them; they modestly expected to clear thirty per cent. I was sorry I had not brought out some merchandise with me, instead of having to pay two per cent for what money I had with me. On arriving at Auckland, however, those who speculated found that their profits were not to be so large as they expected; the town was full of goods, money was the only thing wanted, and merchandise unsaleable. I am not sorry that I was not the unfortunate possessor of some hundred pounds' worth of calicoes, brandies, ales, pickles, &c. A regular trader, I have no doubt, clear his twenty per cent.; but a person bringing out only one cargo, it is an even chance if he gains or loses. I have not as yet been able to see much of the country; but what I have seen, I can speak most favourably of; as to climate, we have had a good deal of rain, and plenty of sunshine; this combined with fertility of soil makes the productions of the earth grow to a size which rather astonishes one on one's first arrival. The advantages which the farmer has in this country are, I conceive to be, 1st., he has no poor-rates; 2nd, no tithes or taxes of any kind; 3rd, the land produces half as much again, with but half the labour; 4th, the almost certainty

of a good harvest; 5th, a high price for his produce; 6th, land sells and lets very low. Under these circumstances, farmers are now doing well; the only thing against the farmer is the high price of labour.

It may be thought that the working man must put by money and grow rich; but if he earns from one to two pounds per week he spends every farthing, and perhaps gets into debt for drink, such is his passion for spirits. Drunkenness is the prevailing vice of the colony; the upper classes as well as the lower give way to it. Sawyers used to earn as much as three or four pounds per week, but now they must work hard to get twenty-five shillings. I was speaking to some of them a short time since, and to hear them talk and complain of the bad times, one would think they were starving; labourers at home - in England, I mean - would rather like to change places with these men. They pay £5 per annum to Government for liberty to cut timber in a certain district: this gives them the privilege of doing what they like with a tract of land compared with which the Stourton property would only be a small farm: they build themselves huts by the side of a river, and then proceed to cut timber: sometimes they take the trouble to scratch up the ground and plant a few potatoes. The land by the side of these streams is very fertile, it has all that rich black appearance which the well manured market-gardens have near London. If the sawyers choose they can catch fish, as the river is full of them; there are wild ducks and pigeons waiting to be shot at on the trees. They can buy fat pigs from the natives at 1 1/2d per lb., or they can kill wild ones for nothing.

Oysters better, or at least as good as any I have ever had in London, are to be got in such plenty, that boats load with them and take them to Auckland to be made into lime. If a person has the use of his arms and legs he cannot well starve in New Zealand.

The breed of cattle is very excellent; there are to be seen horses, cows, sheep and pigs feeding about quite equal to the generality of those in England. Butter and cheese making is not done here so well as it might be. Cheese in England, which the farmer would be glad to sell at 4d per lb., sells at the shops in Auckland for 1s.; butter is 10d. per lb.; milk, 2d. per pint; beef and mutton, 6d. per lb.; pork, 4d,; potatoes, about 7s. a sack; bread, 10d. the 4lb.; eggs, 9d. per doz. With the exception of butter and cheese, all these things are quite equal to what we have been used to get in England. Fish are in great abundance, but no one but the natives take the trouble to catch them; sometime since an Englishman started as a fisherman, he flourished so well that he was able to drink himself to death in a few months. The great inconvenience of New Zealand is the want of female servants; they get enormous wages, and are most of them bad servants with questionable characters: a girl of twelve years old gets £10 per annum. We are now giving nearly £20 per annum to a person who if she was in England would have some trouble to get £6. The cargo of needle-women sent out here sometime since did not add to the number of domestics; they say half of them got married, and the other half took to bad courses. A good many of the lower orders have gone to Sidney after gold; but so much money was lost by the Auckland people by speculations in California, that they seem rather shy of the diggings.

The houses are mostly built of wood, but there are now two brick kilns close to the town; there are several new houses of bricks, and others in the course of execution; volcanic stone (scoria) is also used, it is a capital stone for building, but from the quantity of lime it takes, which is expensive here, it is not much employed: some of the Government houses are built with it, as is also the Scotch church; some cottages are made with rushes; this kind of work is done by the natives: it has a most neat and comfortable appearance in the inside. The shingle roofs to the houses look very nice, it is not unlike the old stone-tile which some of the ancient houses have in England.

We are living about a mile from Auckland. There are detached houses nearly all the way to the town; some of them have very nice gardens: roses and geraniums grow in the hedges; this gives a pretty and cheerful look. The New Zealand trees and shrubs are very beautiful; clover and all the English grasses are in great luxuriance. In a few years there will be some fine pasture land. Government has done something to road making; the lava makes the most capital material; what few roads there are are as hard and smooth as Regent Street. We have two breweries close to us - at least they were breweries when we first landed, but now they have become defunct; and no wonder, for it is said they made the malt, brewed the beer, and sent it out for drinking all in the space of a week. A person with some capital, and who really understood his business, might make a fortune in a very short time, by supplying the good people of Auckland with real English brewers' beer; a liquid with some strength in it is what is wanted. I should think the weather in the winter months quite cool enough to make beer in.

One shilling per bottle is the price of London porter; twenty-five shillings per dozen is the price of what they call port and sherry; brandy, fifteen shillings per gallon; gin and rum something less; brandy has the greatest consumption. These this are not allowed to be sold to natives. Not being able to speak the language, I cannot say much about the natives; some of the settlers seem to think ill of them, and to dislike them. There cannot be any doubt that the natives have been cheated and ill used; and now that they are becoming as wise as the English they are trying to get the better of them in return. The Auckland people would be very badly off if it were not for the natives -a great deal of produce is brought by them into the town. The settlers do not grow anything like enough to maintain themselves; we must have cheaper labour before it will pay to raise corn.

I have not been here long enough to understand the land question. The settlers complain that the Government will not allow anyone to buy land but of themselves. There are some fine districts which belong to the Maories, and they would be glad to sell them; but however good the title, the purchaser might at a future period be turned out of it; these lands, then, are as it were locked up. It is quite certain that this country cannot prosper to any extent until the land is thrown open, and encouragement given for persons to purchase. There may be reasons why the Maories should not be allowed to sell their property, but if there are difficulties in the way, they might be easily overcome by a little exertion on the part of the authorities; if they had the welfare of the colony at heart they would lose no time in making arrangements with the natives. All parties are very

discontented on this subject, and it cannot be much longer delayed. Timber of the finest kind abounds in New Zealand; the wood most in use is the native pine; it is something like the foreign deal used in England, but it works better and is smoother in the grain. There are some fine furniture woods; the farmer in a woodland district can put up fences at a very cheap rate as there are a great variety of trees fit for the purposes.

The advantage that the Auckland district has over the other settlements is the number of fine harbours it has along its coast; the other places have either bar harbours or open roadsteads. At Wellington the winds are sometimes so high and have such force that the harbour is not always a safe one. That Auckland will one day become a rich and extensive city is a thing which I have not the least doubt about; the country round it is magnificent, it only wants capital and labour well laid out on it; the money already spent has been for the most part squandered and wasted, when it is taken into consideration that this settlement was not in existence in 1840 it is quite surprising the progress it has made. It has all the appearance of a bustling English seaport. The butchers and bakers' boys seem to ride and drive even faster than they do in England.

The Governor is now at Wellington; the Auckland people do not like him, and he seems to have been driven away from hence. Of the former Governors, some persons speak well of Fitzroy, and some of Hobson; but no one speaks well of Governor Gray; they all like the Lieut.-Governor, Col. Wynyard.

We have now the beginning of a self-government. The question of the most importance is the New Zealand Company's claim, or

rather their pretended claim, against the Auckland district; if we pay the New Zealand Company one farthing we should disgrace ourselves in the eyes of every one. The company has spent - I should say mis-spent, two hundred thousand pounds on some of the settlements of New Zealand; but Auckland has received nothing but abuse from the Company; whilst it was in existence, it did every thing it could to retard the progress of this settlement. The other places are jealous of the large Government expenditure, which may benefit some of the townspeople, but the reason of Auckland having prospered so well is the trade which is carried on with the natives. New Zealand at present is not going ahead, it is not doing so well as it ought. The chief reason for this non-progression is the land question, and another is the finding of gold in Australia. The former is the fault of our Government, and the latter cause I leave to settle itself; I have no doubt some of the gold will find its way to New Zealand. Government seems as it were to take a delight in retarding the increase and prosperity of this country. If our rulers are negligent and care nothing about the colony, then why encumber us at all with their help? The colonists know what is best for themselves, and until we have a large share in the direction of our own affairs we shall never get on. There are men in this country who could be trusted to frame measures which would have the effect of giving prosperity and a fresh impetus to New Zealand. The Colonial Office in London knows as much about what is best for us New Zealanders as they know what is best for the people of China. The opinion of many that I have spoken with here is, that Government cares for nothing but its patronage; as for the colonist, they never trouble their

heads about him, except to prevent his becoming too prosperous; for then he might begin to talk of having the affairs of his country managed in a better and cheaper manner. There are two sources which we have to look to, which will compel the Government to see into these matters: the natives here will insist on being allowed to sell their land as they please; and the Australians will soon be strong enough to demand the administration of their own affairs; and whatever is granted to Australia cannot be withheld from New Zealand.

January 1st was the beginning of the Auckland races; they last three days; I went on the first day: these public amusements are the best places to see the inhabitants of the country; the weather was brilliant and beautiful; the course is about four miles from Auckland, and there passed me on the road, half-a-dozen blue carts with red wheels, two vehicles - something between a French diligence and an omnibus - a Whitechapel cart, in which was seated Mr. or Captain Beckham, our police magistrate; these equipages, together with a few horsemen, made up the scene on the road. On the course, which is very finely situated, I was mostly interested in looking at the Maories; they wear blankets of every hue and colour, and seated in their wild and picturesque groups they formed subjects fit for Michael Angelo. I saw natives with giant-like and finely moulded limbs sitting in attitudes that reminded me how true Michael Angelo was to nature. The races were, I believe, considered good; I was engaged in sketching, so that I did not pay much attention to the horses; I was able to get materials for three little sketches.

The accounts from Sydney about the gold induces many persons

to leave this place. It is said, that the trade here was never so dull since the formation of the settlement as it is at present but labourers will not work under 3s. 6d per day, and the shopkeepers sell their goods dear enough; so, although they may be bad times, they certainly are not cheap times. We want a number of fresh settlers; until the population has increased in a great degree we cannot be called prosperous. The world is large, and there are plenty of places in it were to choose. The settlement which has the best land and sells it at the cheapest rate, that will be the place which will attract the largest number of emigrants. The Government has fixed the price of land in New Zealand at £1 per acre, by doing this they might almost as well have said, we forbid the colonization of New Zealand. The Americans sell their land at 5s. per acre, and give every encouragement to the settlers; the results are, that thousands go to America, and very few go to New Zealand. We must have the price of land down to 7s. 6d. and 5s. per acre before we are content.

There are two sorts of soil in the neighbourhood of Auckland, the volcanic and the clay; the former is a beautiful rich earth very easily worked, the latter bears capital corn crops, but requires a deal of cultivation; clover flourishes here better than in England; there are some splendid pastures on the Epsom road; in fact, I doubt if any of the New Zealand settlements have better soils or situation for the farmer, than the much abused neighbourhood of Auckland. Mr. Cobden would do well consider, instead of finding fault with us colonists, whether by giving us a new and a better system of government, persons might

not be induced to come here instead of going to America; if they came here, Mr. Cobden's friends supply us with everything; if they go to America, they take few, if any, English goods.

January 30th. - When persons, who give an account of a new colony, are at a loss for something to scribble about, they turn, as a sort of refuge, to abusing the existing Government. I shall avail myself of this refuge, for the present I have no other subject, besides which, I am not in a very good humour with the Colonial Office. I applied for a grant of land, about twenty-five miles from Auckland; the Colonial Secretary was very civil, and ordered a surveyor to go with me into that I might get the land in a month after it was surveyed; I thought everything was going on very nicely, and ordered a house to be built, which was put up in three months. I always observed a smile on the faces of the older settlers, when I spoke of how well I had been treated at the Colonial Office; this smile was as much as to say, you are a young settler, and will know the Colonial Office better by-and-bye. I soon found that I was to suffer, as every one else has done, who has had anything to do with the Government.

One fine morning the Lieutenant-Governor took his departure for several months on a pleasure excursion on board the Calliope frigate, it was said he was going to review troops; his return is uncertain; whilst Colonel Winyard is absent, the state machine stands still; no land can be sold, or business transacted. How can it be expected that Auckland should thrive under such a state of things? The Colonial Office must be badly off if a person

cannot be found with sufficient talent and trustworthiness to transact some of the lesser affairs of state whilst the Governor takes his holidays. The prosperity of this country depends on fresh settlers coming out and taking land; there are some fine districts within a convenient distance of Auckland, which if they were surveyed and put up at 6s. per acre, would soon be peopled; thus villages and farms would be established, and Auckland become a great city; but this cannot be the case, whilst it depends on half-a-dozen ships from England, and two or three American whalers in the year. Every encouragement and help ought to be afforded to the settler on his arrival. Lists of the unsold lands might be given out at the Survey office, with an accurate description of the quality of the soil, how it was wooded and watered, in fact, a true account of all the merits and demerits of the allotment; this would be a great help to the settler for provided the description was correct, he would be saved a great deal of trouble and expense in hunting after land; everything would be done to induce people to come out to us, provided we had the management of our own affairs, and had at our disposal the £30,000 or £40,000 a year which the Government takes out of our pockets in the shape of Custom-house taxes, the whole of which Governor Grey is allowed to cut ducks and drakes with as he pleases, and out of which the needy relations of some of our great folks at home are provided for. The Auckland people have long since given up even the hope of amendment in the Colonial Office; they have been waiting with a commendable patience for something to turn up; they may not have to wait long, for it is thought that the days of the Colonial Office are numbered; the finding of gold in Australia will altogether

alter the state of affairs on this side of the world.

We have had several false alarms about gold; at one of the islands near Auckland they find several sorts of metals, some of them very like gold, but as yet the real stuff has not come to hand, and I do not know that we should gain much by finding it; however, it makes people very unsettled; there is quite as much complaining here as in England. Fortunes are not made in three or four years as they used to be; perhaps tradesmen are only making their £20 instead of £50 per cent., and labourers cannot get employment at 24s. per week.

2 Two of these, after the address had been read to the Captain begged to be allowed to sign it, but the Captain refused.

A Glimpse of Auckland and the Surrounding Country.

A GLIMPSE OF AUCKLAND
and the
SURROUNDING COUNTRY

(From the Sydney Morning Herald)

"Christmas, 1851. - In the course of another month, Auckland will have entered upon the twelfth year of her existence. When the incontrollable cupidity of a knot of colonizing experimentalists induced the people of England to attempt the foundation of settlements in New Zealand; when an extorted assent was reluctantly obtained from Parliament to legalize the operations of the Broad Street Directory; at the eleventh hour, as it were, it seemed to strike the ministry of the day, that they, as well as the 'wideawakes', (as the Maories termed the Wakefields), ought to have a finger in the projected colonial pie. A rival race of colonization forthwith ensued; the Company sending forth their swarms under the guidance of Colonel Wakefield; the Crown confiding their arrangements to the fidelity of Captain Hobson.

The Company planted their pioneers upon the northern shores of Cook's Strait. The Crown, after a brief interregnum at the Bay of Islands, transferred the seat of Empire to the banks of the Waitemata: the pair of English rivals barely anticipating a French occupation by merely a few weeks' precedence.

"I have no design to treat of the objections first raised, and the facilities subsequently afforded by missionary influence for the colonization of New Zealand. The treaty of Waitangi, the manner in which Earl Grey attempted to set that sacred treaty aside, as "A device to amuse savages" - and the delusion which the Crown's right of pre-emption has proved to the natives - who in covenanting for the acknowledged right to possession, vainly imagined he had secured the coequal right to dispose of the soil - are subject matter for the historian; and that I thus casually allude to them, is in order that I may not, in the course of my sketch, be afterwards encumbered with vexatious explanations.

"Having shewn upon what a mere chance contingency the colonization of New Zealand fell to the lot of England or of France (the French ship arrived in the Bay of Islands after Captain Hobson had maintained the prior right of discovery and occupation of the northern; and dallied there whilst he sped to and made the like claim over the Middle and Southern islands) turn we to the spot where the seat of a mighty future empire has been firmly fixed.

"In point of commercial and agricultural position nothing can possibly surpass that upon which Auckland stands. It has been the fashion of the Company's colonists to stigmatize it as "Hobson's choice". Both 'Hobson' and his 'choice' may pardon the

innocuous sneer; for never was choice more aptly or more ably made. The centre of a mighty circle of great navigable waters, the embouchere of a country destined ere long to be the producer of immense pastoral and agrestial wealth; with the harbour of Manukau, its creeks, and estuaries, within seven miles of its western coast; with the Waitemata, the Tamaki, the Thames, the Mahurangi, the Matakana, the Wade, and a countless tracery of navigable creeks and rivers disembogueing themselves into the gulf of Hauraki: for economical, practical, and abundant communication between the yeoman and the shipman, nothing in the world can possibly surpass the facilities which Auckland enjoys.

"It was the misfortune of Captain Hobson that the bulk of his personal staff was not selected from the intelligence of England, but sifted from out such culls from New South wales as Sir George Gipps was but too happy to be rid of. Of this precious lot was the Surveyor General, more eager to don an epaulette than to design a city. And better would it have been for Auckland, had he been privileged to wear three such coveted appendages, even were one of them disposed en queue, than that he should have been permitted to destroy her leading thoroughfares by laying them out in oblique, instead of at right, angles. To such incompetent hands, however, was the ground plan of Auckland confided, and instead of profiting by the extraordinary natural and easily convertible accommodation which those deep indentations, Mechanics', Commercial and Freeman's Bay, so strikingly presented, this genius planned a submarine city, the lots sold in Commercial Bay to be hereafter rendered terra firma, by the monstrous filling in of that admirable natural

haven; a haven, which by the projection of a sea wall at either horn, and the construction of a front wall, with double floodgates to the deep water, would have enclosed a dock as spacious and as easily available as the best docks of London or Liverpool.

"It is around Commercial Bay that the founders of Auckland first sat down, and from its shores the spread of city occupancy has continued to extend. Commercial Bay is one of the rifts or gullies which diverge from the various spurs of Mt. Eden. Of these gullies Mechanics' Bay may be considered a second, and Freeman's Bay a third; and it is around their slopes, and on the summit of their respective ridges,, that the town has been built. And, as the Government have never expended a shilling in levelling, metalling, or draining any of the streets save three, viz. Shortland Street, which leads from Commercial to Official Bay; Princes Street which leads from the church to the barracks; and Queen Street which leads from Commercial Bay to the Cemetry – the winter aspect of the Auckland quagmires may be easily imagined. People in the meanwhile, must only grin and bear it, comforting each other with the hope of 'the good time coming', their abundance of all the means and materials for road making, the vast extent of water frontage, the immediate contiguity of boundless tracts of the most fertile and varied soil, some day to be opened up, and an unlimited and magnificent scope for the extension of a mighty commercial city.

"The first glance of the grounds around Auckland was formerly far from inviting. I say was because a large portion of the recent waste has already become a perfect picture of cultivation, and every year is adding to the rich and glowing beauty of the land-

scape. The soil is white, and seemingly infertile, being a friable clay; but the ease with which it is pulverised and the I generous return it affords for the care bestowed in reclaiming it, have amply rewarded the husbandman's toil. Indeed, taken as a whole, there is no place where vegetation is more luxuriant than in Auckland and its environs. While the artificial grasses of Tasmania become weak, bare and impoverished after being a few years laid down, those of New Ulster only grow more close, rich, and succulent - one cow, or six sheep, being the average estimate of stock which an acre will sustain throughout the year.

"From Auckland to Onehunga, from Onehunga to Otahuhu, from Otahuhu to Howick, from Howick to the Tamaki, from the Tamaki to Panmure and from Panmure to Auckland, the country is in an extraordinary and rapid state of reclamation. Luxuriant meadows, productive gardens, picturesque shrubberies, fruitful orchards, I magnificent corn-fields, abundant potato crofts, and warm farm steadings are being hewn, with unintermitting diligence and a heavy expenditure, from out the plains of scoria, and the wilderness of tea-tree and fern scrubs.

"When I first beheld Auckland in January, 1846, and gazed upon its nest of wooden boxes, by a stretch of courtesy denominated houses; when my eye roamed disconsolately over seas of tea-tree and fern-clad plains and mountains, as dun, as dismal, and apparently as unproductive as the wildest muirlands of Scotland; and when I beheld these seemingly barren heaths intruding into the very heart of the town, I hugged myself in the joyful knowledge that I was but a sojourner, not a settler. It will be easily imagined, that I quitted Auckland, after a week's visit,

with no very exalted impression of its beauties. And, when circumstances brought me back to it a couple of years afterwards, the progress of improvement was still but small. Within the last three years, however, in despite of a multiplicity of obstacles and oppressions, the country has cast its slough. Muirland has given place to meadow land; unenclosed wastes to rich and securely-hedged pastures; and where formerly the eye fell sad upon a dense and profitless heath, it now revels delightedly amidst brilliant sweeps of luxuriant emerald clover. Let the traveller who desires to enjoy a panorama of nature's choicest painting, ascend Mount Eden and One Tree Hill. From thence he will behold town and villages spread in map-like distinctness before him; the Western Ocean and the swelling Eastern Gulf; the handsome villa and the homely cot; the golden wheat close, and the close mown meadow; speckled with its contented herds of sleek and fruitful kine; the tall rigged ship, and the long and fleet canoe; all the internal indices of successful industry, combined with all the charms of natural beauty, and cemented by all the auxiliaries of native and foreign commercial enterprise.

"The picture thus presented is, no doubt, essentially different from that which has just issued in London, from the studio of Mr. Fox. But before the caricature of Mr. Fox be accepted, it may be well to enquire what the integrity of Mr. Fox, for the task he has undertaken.

"Mr. Fox has throughout his New Zealand experience been the almost exclusive servant of the New Zealand Company; a body whose

experiences as well as whose efforts have invariably been directed to damage and defame the province of New Ulster. Upon the death of Colonel Wakefield Mr. Fox became the Company's principal agent, and in the course of his duties he visited Auckland, residing during his three weeks' stay with his friend and sympathiser, the Honourable Constantine Augustus Dillon, whose only mode of repaying the people of Auckland (for the indignation they experienced at having a self-professed republican and socialist from the South quartered upon their revenue in the unintelligible capacity of Civil Secretary) was by continued and scurrilous abuse of the province and the people. This gentleman, I think, I may venture to classify amongst the genus horse-marine, seeing that he had endeavoured to serve her Majesty both ashore and afloat, in the saddle and on the quarter-deck. Unlike Eugene Aram, he proved 'equal to neither fortune'. Interest, however, is better than wit; for having migrated to Nelson, where he affected the popular and abused the Governor, he was pacified with a place, by orders from home, and no suitable place, that is of sufficient salary, being vacant, the office of Civil Secretary was, considerately, created; accordingly, that he might earn his salary, to Auckland he came, where the astounded citizens listened in surprise to the extreme violence of his radical rhapsodies, their intensity begetting a suspicion that the gentleman was merely acting a part, that in secret he was the Governor's spy, and that his own professed radicalism was but a trap to lure others into unguarded expression of their particular opinions. The episode is long, but it is necessary, because it is through the congenial colouring worked up by those conjoint paper-stainers,

Messrs. Dillon and Fox, that the landscape painting of the latter has acquired a such a vivid and truthful finish in the space of three short weeks. Mr. Dillon tried to impress his own prejudices upon another Southern proprietor, but that gentleman entertained another, and a very very different opinion of New Ulster.

"The question is natural; the solution is simple. The natives of Australia could offer no resistance to the usurpation of their lands, which were at once and largely accessible as well to the bona fide colonist as to the squatter. The crown of England could not usurp the native lands of New Zealand; neither can its pre-emptive right now enable it to purchase them from the native to retail to the British subject. Under cover of this double dilemma, it has hitherto arrested colonial progress. This cannot last much longer; and the country once opened up to pastoral and agricultural pursuits - grass readily and luxuriantly taking the place of the tea-tree and the fern - New Zealand must speedily overtake if not outstrip her neighbours, because one acre in New Zealand will fatten more stock on an average than five acres would be equal to feed in Australia, and that, too, without any of the contingent risks from drought on the one hand, or ruinous floods on the other.

"Injurious as these land restrictions have been not only to colonists and the natives, but to the best interests of the Crown, the insane interdict which forbids the occupation of native lands, with their own consent, and at their own urgent request, for the purposes of depasturing stock, are infinitely more so. In 1848 and 1849, when the importation of cattle from Sydney and Newcastle was in full operation, there was a great desire entertained by

many extensive Australian stockholders to obtain a footing in New Ulster, upon something like the same conditions to those which had proven so beneficial to New South Wales. Intelligent bushmen frequently came down in the cattle ships; and many of them explored the vast unbroken (and, by sheep and cattle, untrodden) interior with delight. They saw at a glance what a fine and fertile field for pastoral and agricultural industry it presented, and an immense influx of men and beasts would have ensued, had not the natives been prohibited (by the Crown's pre-emptive right of purchase) from selling, leasing, or granting even further permission to occupy) and the bar to occupancy was made perfect, as I have already shown, by the Crown's utter inability to compel the natives to sell or let, and by the grasping cupidity which retained the Crown's limited acres at 20s. and upwards, in order that the uniform price - that bane of Australian progress - might be preserved. So far was this fallacious policy carried, that even the meat contractors - whose stock, pent in narrow compass, were perishing in numbers - appealed to the Government in vain for permission to make arrangements for runs with native land owners; and although every cattle-keeper was losing his beasts by starvation, the Surveyor-General, in his place in the Legislative Council, had the modesty to contradict the statements of those most deeply interested and best acquainted with the facts, asserting upon his own comprehensive knowledge, that there was no deficiency of pasture.

"But the land laws of New Zealand are as unequal as they are injurious; for at the very moment the colonists of New Ulster were bowing in obedience to their ruinous imposition,

the colonists of New Munster were setting them coolly at defiance; whilst the superb Waikato and Waipa were sealed in the north, the valleys of Wairarapa and Wairau were quietly filling with stock in the south; the squatting which was imperiously forbid in the one, being quietly, if not impotently, winked at in the other. I need but direct attention to the cattle trade now so busily carried on between Victoria and Canterbury, to demonstrate the gross and grinding injustice to which New Ulster has been subjected, and to show the anomalies of despotism to which, under the colour of law, the different settlements of this much-wronged colony are subjected.

Some two years since, a few enterprising young men arrived from England. Their destination was Canterbury. During the stay of the ship in Auckland, they made a trip to the Waikato; and, like all who have visited that magnificent district, became enraptured with its fertility and its beauty. They proceeded to Canterbury notwithstanding, but very shortly returned; and applied, in compliance with the law, to Government to purchase land for them in their chosen district; which land was to be afterwards sold to them at the uniform price. Government undertook to do this, but the Crown's pre-emption price not exceeding 3d. per acre, the natives proved obstinate, and would not permit the poor Crown to turn an honest penny; the Crown's small expected profit would have been but 19s. 9d. per acre on the transaction. Failing, therefore, to acquire the freehold by law, these young men resolved to risk an occupancy on native lease. In this they have effectually succeeded; the natives entertaining the most ardent desire for the spread of European settlements and civilization.

And as man is an imitative creature; as the Attorney-General of New Zealand has declared in the Legislative Assembly of New Zealand that the native born New Zealander is fully entitled to all the rights and privileges, and immunities of any and every other British subject; the law which closes native land against lease or purchase by British subjects is beginning to be considered illegal, and as such defied and despised. At all events, settlers are settled, and likely to settle without permission of the Crown in the Waikato district; and should the Crown adventure an ejectment, it will require a pretty considerable corps d'armee to enforce it.

"There is nothing more forcibly calculated to exhibit the state of barren unproductiveness to which the province of New Ulster is compelled than the information afforded by the Surveyor-General to the Rev. Walter Lawry, who has made public in the London Watchman, of the 31st July last, the meagre and miserable details thus supplied (save the mark!) as an inducement to emigration! - The Surveyor-General says there is very little land unsold within eight miles of the town of Auckland but beyond that distance there is a district containing about 15,000 acres!!! Besides this, the Papakura and the Karaka districts, from eight to twenty-five miles from Auckland are mentioned, but not even a hint of their area is vouchsafed, more than that farms there are sold in blocks of from 70 to 160 and 320 acres each, and at 20s. per acre.

Well may strangers imagine the province of New Ulster to be one which affords no scope for colonization, when such intelligence as this is all that the Surveyor-General's department can afford.

No doubt the information is accurate as far as it goes. The surveyor speaks of the lands acquired by the Grown ere the natives had become familiar with the price obtained at Crown Land sales. Since then, they will no longer sell to the Crown, and thus the native mind is forced to brood over the injustice which they feel and which the disgusted and defected European colonist is not slow to aggravate; and thus, instead of tens of thousands, millions of acres of the finest and most fertile territory are left in primal waste, that the caprice and prejudice of a regardless Colonial Office may prevail. How long this ruinous state of inaction shall endure remains to be seen; but unless the Government shall wisely consent to act as land brokers between the races, there is a speedy prospect of the natives taking the matter entirely into their own hands.

"I think I have stated quite sufficient to account for the slow advance of Auckland contrasted with the extraordinary vitality which it has exhibited under so many vicissitudes, and under so many cruel and depressing influences. If we consider its interests always sacrificed to those of the insatiate and hostile New Zealand Company; if we look to the wreck and ruin entailed by the war; if we weigh the drains upon its population and resources arising from the successive gold manias of California and Australia, without any counteracting effort on the part of the Government to aid the colonists by relaxing the grinding land restrictions; if we reflect upon the enormous revenue (£31,000 per annum for New Ulster) that is raised and profligately squandered upon an unnecessary and incapable band of needy placemen; if we remember that for not one useful public work a sixpence is left to be

spent; if we listen to the weekly debate of a Municipal Council called into existence with neither endowment nor money grant to carry on its inane functions, well may one feel astonished at the soundness and solvency of Auckland! If a solution of the riddle be asked for, the universal reference is to an increasing native civilisation. But if it be desired to thoroughly sift this native question, the subject escapes one's grasp for lack of statistical data. We know that the natives are extensive land and stock holders; we know that they are large producers of grain and provisions, and large consumers of British manufactures we know that they are constantly contracting for the building of vessels, and that they as punctually pay for them; we know that they have cash to their credit at the bank; but although we know and see all this, it is impossible to reduce it to a clear commercial statement. Inexperienced embryo English colonizers rejoice in Canterbury and the Middle Island, because of the paucity of natives. We, in the hard-tried and experienced north, glory in the number and intelligence of our native population, because we well know that without them we never could have borne up against the many difficulties to which we have been subjected. It is worth while for reflecting men to bear one fact steadily in mind, when they hear the south and middle settlements vaunted as every way superior to those of the north; that fact is, that the northern natives are far more numerous and a vastly superior people, both morally and physically, to those of the south. Intelligent natives do not locate themselves on the worst of their country's lands.

"It is six years since Sir George Grey assumed the Government of New Zealand. The rumour runs that he is about to be relieved.

If so, he leaves Auckland without one stick or stone to record his services. For upwards of ten years Auckland was even without a boat wharf at which a passenger could land dry-shod. Under Government auspices a sham wharf has been for some time carrying on from the foot of Queen Street. It is a slender wooden box, loosely piled, with a wretched inside facing of drystone, and an internal filling of mud and dirt. The artificers employed on this notable public work think it may last for three years; and to amuse men's minds the public money is thus squandered!

"But, to return from the Queen Street abortion, as it has been appropriately termed, let a glance be cast at Official Bay, where, under the zealous exertion of Colonel Wynyard, aided by a subscription of the inhabitants, a substantial, elegant, and durable pier has just been completed; it. is 480 feet long, and 10 feet wide; and a public tank for the watering of shipping is now in process of construction, pipes from which are to be conducted to the end of Wynyard Pier.

*A steamer is just ready for launching, and remembering, as I do, the first that were constructed in Sydney and in Hobart Town, I can safely pronounce the Auckland original very far their superior. She is about fifty tons burthen, built of Kauri pine, by Mr. Stone, and is to be fitted with engines and boilers (nearly ready) by Mr. Bourne, of Auckland. She will be afloat and at work by the new year; and although the first, she will scarcely be the last to pick up her crumbs from the vast number of farm steadings that dot the innumerable waters around us.

"The Matakana coal experiment for the present is abandoned, but the proprietor is still confident in the existence of the

mineral. The Waikato coal field is dormant, but there the mineral abounds. Flax experimenters have been many, but not successful; the decorticating the leaf has as yet to be accomplished: that effected, a large and generous export will lift us up again. The Kawau copper mines have ceased to be worked; this, however, it is hoped will prove but a temporary stoppage, and that under an abler and more practical management, a very different degree of success will be obtained.

"On dit that the Maukin is about to be withdrawn from the Sydney and Auckland trade, and fitted out for the whale fishery. Success attend her, and a score besides.

"A jockey club has been for the last two years established, and a yacht club has just been launched.

"It will be apparent from all this that though dull we are not daunted; and should a new Governor arise, and pursue the policy best adapted to secure the peace and prosperity of Hew Zealand - that is, open up the country - situated as we are, a sort of half-way house between Sydney and San Francisco, we shall speedily acquire such a population, and exhibit such a vast available field for profitable colonization, that mankind will then be lost in astonishment that such a land could be so long and ruinously controlled."

CHAPTER

Questions

1. - Is the climate really, as reported, on the average milder and less changeable than that of England?

I have not been in New Zealand long enough to report on

the climate from my own observation; on first arriving, we certainly had too much rain; but rain here has not that chilling effect which it has in England; for several weeks past the weather has been beautiful. Those settlers who have lately come must think the climate perfection.

2. - What about is the present selling price of land, say within three or four miles of the settlement, and the general nature of the soil, as clayey or sandy?

Land is dear in Auckland; in and about the town it varies from £20 to £1,000 per acre, in the suburbs from £10 to £50 per acre; in the country twelve miles distant from £1 to £4 per acre; distant settlements, 7s. and upwards.

3. - what is about the present expense of clearing the land per acre - 1st of bush land; 2nd of fern?

Persons may go to any expense they like in clearing land. I expect to get as fine fields of clover as any in the world, at an expense of £1 per acre; the land does not want ploughing. A lucifer-match is the principal agent on the fern land; and whilst labour is so scarce, it would not pay to have anything to do with any other sort of land.

4. - What are the general materials used for building houses, and are they plentiful, and means for working them at hand?

Building is now very cheap; timber is to be had in any quantity; the Kauri pine is better than foreign deal. I am getting a capital wooden house built for about £150 (contract, £127); and there are several brick houses in the town, but the first settlers used wood almost entirely; bricks are now to be had in any numbers, and they are not expensive.

5. - Can all the general fittings up of a house be obtained in the colony, or should any and what of them be brought over with the emigrants, and particularly as to pianos and musical instruments, and as to the probability of getting them repaired?

All the fittings-up of a house can be procured here; they are at this time selling at the auctions for about half the price you can get them in England, but the market is uncertain. It might be as well to bring a piano; there is a man who tunes very well, but I cannot speak as to the repairer.

6. - The same as to agricultural implements, saddlery, and harness?

These things, and agricultural implements, harness, &c, are dear, and if the settler means to set to work at once, he had better bring them with him; but if he means to look about him for six months, he might perhaps get them as cheap as at home.

7. - Can clothes be readily obtained; if not, what should be brought over?

A good stock of clothes will not be in the say; blue flannel shirts are worn in this colony (red in Australia); in the town people dress as they do in England: the servant maids and shop-boys are fond of white kid gloves; in the country, the blue shirt, the fustian or canvas trowsers is the general costume.

$. - Can good titles be made to lands sold, and can an emigrant buy directly from the natives without danger?

A Government title is the only good title you can now get, but we hope to have this matter altered shortly. Some persons get land from the natives, and the Government do not interfere.

9. - At about what ratio, as compared with England, is the

ordinary expense of living in the colony?

Living in the town is about the same as in England. I cannot speak as to the country, but of course it is much less, as you must grow everything yourself.

10. - How is the fishing - 1st, of the rivers; 2nd, of the coast, simply with reference to its enjoyment as a sport? What are the ordinary species of game, and are they plentiful?

There are millions of fish; but sporting of all kinds is quite a dead letter in New Zealand. Pigeons, ducks, and wild pigs are numerous, but we are all too busy with our farms or our invoices to have a moment to spare to look after them.

11. - What are the nature of the roads; are they tolerably good between the important places?

The roads are first-rate where there are any; but the Government have a great deal to answer for in this matter. They sell their land on the condition that a certain share of the purchase-money is to be laid out in the making of roads, &c; they sell the land and take the settlers' money, and then leave him to get his road in the best way he can. There is but one opinion about this subject, and that is, that Government plunders us both of our land, time, and of our taxes.

12. - What is the usual rate of payment of labour per week, and is it generally considered in the colony a good plan to bring labourers out; and if so, what is the usual mode of binding them to remain with you?

Labour is from 15s. to 24s. per week. There are few good labourers in the colony; this is the greatest difficulty the emigrant has to contend with. You can bind a man to stay with

you; but I should not advise any one to bring out his labourers with him, as he vail be almost certain to regret it if he does so.

13 - How are the clergy paid? by grants of glebe, or by stipends, or how? and may they farm more than eighty acres to which they are restricted in England?

The clergy have, I believe, no regular endowment. They are chiefly paid by the Church missionary society. I do not think the Bishop would let them farm.

14. - What is the general aspect of the country; is it well timbered, or the reverse; picturesque or not; and the rivers, are they ordinarily navigable?

There is no timber near Auckland; but within a few miles are splendid forests; from the town the views are very fine.

15. - Are European fruits and flowers plentiful or not?

Peaches, melons, and grapes, are in great plenty; apples are dear; everything European grows in the most wonderful manner.

16. - Are there any kind of beasts more than ordinarily destructive to lambs, &c.; or any birds or animals destructive to corn crops?

There are no destructive beasts or birds of any kind.

17. - Is the society good; and in the country what may be the distance a new settler would be likely to be from his nearest neighbour.

Plenty in the town; cannot say about the country.

18. - I suppose that where any other means of travelling than by foot are practicable, it is all done on horseback?

Foot and horse.

19. - What is about the per centage ordinarily to be obtained

for money invested on doubted security?

I have lent money at £15 per cent, on as good security as any I could get in England; I believe I might have got £20 per cent. You may always depend on £12 per cent, on security undoubted. My present opinion is, that property in Auckland is as safe as property in London.

20. - At about what per year could a single person live, living comfortably but not at all luxuriously, and without embarking in any trade or profession?

A single man can live very well in Auckland for £100 per annum.

21. - Are any, and if any, what style of books to be obtained in the colony?

Not answered.

22. - Generally is the colony a good and pleasant field for emigration? and add any hints that may be useful for a person coming out; and what are the general nature of the difficulties he will have to overcome?

There is no doubt about the colony being a good place for an emigrant to come to; but should he not like New Zealand, it is easy for him to try Australia and Van Diemen's Land; ships are often going to these places. It is not every one who makes a good settler; he must have a good, contented, and hopeful disposition, with plenty of patience and industry. A person with these endowments has every chance of getting on at home, and if he is doing well, he had better let well alone.

The ship Cashmere, the property of Messrs. Willis, 3 Crosby Square, in which we came out, was well found in everything; we

had plenty of water, and provisions of all kinds were in abundance and of the best quality. Of our captain I cannot speak too highly; the officers under him were also most efficient. I must say, in justice to Willis and Co., that they appear anxious to do all they can for the comfort of their passengers. A good deal depends on the passengers themselves, as to the voyage being disagreeable or otherwise, if there is no quarrelling amongst them; those who are not sea-sick may even enjoy the voyage.

The emigrant, if he can afford it, should put on board for the voyage all sorts of nice things, such as preserves of all kinds, almonds, and raisins, figs, &c, treacle, gingerbread, liqueurs, and a stock of candles. It is of great advantage on landing to have a good account given of you by your fellow-passengers; in two hours after the ship arrives at her port, everything which has occurred on board is known all over the town. A water filter may be found a great comfort, both on ship-board and afterwards in the colony.

Auckland is by far the best settlement in New Zealand. The authors of those accounts which have been written to the contrary have either been paid by the Hew Zealand Company for telling lies, or they have been ignorant of what they have been writing about. The soil of the Auckland district is, at any rate, equal to that of New Plymouth. We have half-a-dozen fine harbours, whilst New Plymouth has not one; we have ample protection against the natives whilst the New Plymouth settlers might be all eaten up for a breakfast by the natives.

At Wellington they have no land but that which is covered

with wood, which is the same as having none at all, for no one in his sense would think of clearing timbered land, whilst labour is three or four shillings a day.

Nelson is well spoken of, but the land is rather inferior, and it has no harbour and no trade.

The Canterbury affair having failed, no one will think of going there, for some time at least.

Otago seems to be altogether out of the way; the climate is much colder than it is here; but from what I can learn, it must be a rich and beautiful district.

A. M.

Auckland, April, 1851.

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