[CONTENTS]
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CONTENTS.
FOUR MONTHS AT SEA .................................... 1
NELSON ............................................... 28
COLONIAL SOCIETY ..................................... 47
SIX WEEKS AT THE DIGGINGS............................. 60
INCIDENTS OF DAILY LIFE............................... 81
A SUMMER HOLIDAY RAMBLE.............................. 102
A TRIP TO WELLINGTON................................. 114
ON THE RANGES........................................ 131
IN THE BUSH.......................................... 147
EXPLORING ........................................... 161
TARANAKI............................................. 184
THE TARANAKI WAR..................................... 197
APPENDIX ............................................ 212
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[PREFACE]
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PREFACE.
ALTHOUGH so many volumes have been written upon New Zealand, there are very few which give a homely account of the place and people suited to general readers. Nearly all relate to the history of its colonization, the natives, statistics, instructions to emigrants, and other kindred subjects.
The design of the present volume is not so much to instruct in practical matters, as to give a glimpse at the social life and simple unsophisticated pleasures enjoyed by the settlors in the far-off land; to describe some of the ways in which leisure time may be occupied in recreation, and the adventures incidental to travelling.
In pages 131--183, some of the events did not occur consecutively as they are narrated, but took
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PREFACE.
place during several pedestrian journeys over the same ground, and are recorded, for convenience, as if they had all happened in one tour.
The writer has endeavoured to tell a plain tale of everyday-life in a plain way, suited to everyday-folk, and trusts that, in recalling these "Memories" of four years' residence in New Zealand--years full of sunshine and enjoyment--he has not totally failed in his aim to portray social life in the colony as it really is.
BRIXTON, February, 1863.
