1852 - Mundy, G. C. Our Antipodes. [Vol. II.] - CHAPTER III. Visit to New Zealand...

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CHAPTER III.

[1847.]

I HAD long determined to seize the first favourable opportunity of visiting New Zealand--its chief settlements, military posts and battle-fields, and of making such notes as might be useful at the head-quarters of the Australasian Command in case of further warfare. And the Lieutenant-General Commanding the Forces having expressed his approval of the step, and supported it by giving me a mission "on particular service," I considered myself fortunate in receiving from Commander Hoseason, commanding H.M.'s steam-sloop Inflexible, the kind offer of a passage in that ship on her return to Auckland, New Zealand, from Sydney, in the summer of 1847.

At mid-day on the 4th of December, accordingly, H.M.'s sloop got under weigh, and, after clearing the heads of Port Jackson, found the August English mail-

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packet beating against a head-wind, ten miles to the southward, and hopeless of getting in. Anxious to oblige the good people of Sydney, as well as to get the mail-bags for New Zealand, the captain immediately ran down to this most laggard packet, and, taking her in tow, (for which he was repaid with three hearty cheers,) we soon re-anchored with her off Sydney. Here we waited until the next morning, and having got what-- being nearly seventeen weeks old--could hardly be called the "news," the Inflexible made a fresh departure with fine weather and a smooth sea.

A capacious cabin being allotted to me, and thus having privacy at my command, I determined to devote a few hours every day to learning something of the country I was about to visit. Not being stinted in amount of baggage, I had brought a small box of books, among which were sundry Parliamentary blue-books, one of which alone contains upwards of 1,100 pages, and weighs, as expressed on its cover, "under eight pounds!" --a mass of colonial lore which had been thrown at my head on leaving England by an M. P. friend who, in common with the majority of his brother senators, probably looked upon these volumes relating to savage countries as so much waste paper, and had of course never opened them. They stood me in good stead now; and perhaps I cannot employ myself better, as we steam towards New Zealand, than in preparing, as well as I can, a digest of the information so gathered--furnishing a very imperfect sketch of the history of the colony up to the present day, and serving as an introduction to my journal.

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The group of islands constituting New Zealand are in number three, two of them as large perhaps as Ireland, with a smaller one at the southern extremity. They were first discovered by Tasman in 1642; but he experienced so rough a reception from the natives, and was so alarmed at the big fierce fellows with loud voices and long strides, as to leave him little taste for further exploration; and New Zealand was not honoured by another visit from a white face until the year 1770, when Captain Cook circumnavigated the islands, found good harbours for large shipping in the strait called after himself, which divides the two northern islands, and, landing, took possession of the country in the name of the king of England; his instructions being to do so with the consent of the natives, if there were any, and, if there were none, as first discoverer and possessor. In a subsequent visit he landed at several spots, conferring an everlasting benefit on the natives by sowing European garden-seeds, potatoes, cabbages, onions, maize, and other vegetables, which have never since failed.

The first rough pioneers of civilization among the Maoris, were undoubtedly the English whalers and sealers from New South Wales. Others of the same craft but of different nations followed, who, locating themselves on the coast of Cook's Straits, gradually improved their communications with the natives, and pursued a rude but lucrative trade in what is called shore-whaling, in contradistinction to deep sea-fishing-- the whalers merely following the fish in boats from their settlements, where the buildings and implements for

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"cutting in" and "trying out" were established. The Sydney merchants gave employment to these land whalers, their vessels carrying away the oil, and leaving money, clothes, arms, and, alas! rum, in payment. These rough-and-ready settlers amalgamated in some degree with the turbulent Maoris--half-warriors half-fishermen of the coasts. Some of them married the daughters and sisters of native chiefs, thereby securing the powerful protection of the latter; others contracted alliances of a less formal nature with native women, and a half-caste breed sprung up to cement the alliance between the races. In the numerous conflicts between native tribes, the Englishmen sometimes sided with that which had shown them favour, or was connected with them by marriage or traffic; and their furious bravery, their fire-arms-- then rare in the country--and the formidable weapons of their trade, the harpoon, the axe, the lance, and the whale-spade, made the fortunes of the party against which they fought to kick the beam. They themselves sometimes suffered no trifling reverses. When absent in their boats in pursuit of fish, some foraging party of hostile Maoris would rush upon the settlements, burn down the huts and whaling stages, and carry off property, women, and children--not perhaps so much out of enmity to the whites, as in blind retaliation on the tribe among which they resided. The utter want, or rather absence, of law, or of any superior example of conduct, and the periodical plenty of strong waters, gave rise to and perpetuated scenes of drunken riot, such as, knowing the actors, one can easily conceive, but which to describe would be impossible.

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Such being the European dramatis personae in the first scene of New Zealand civilized, "enter to them"-- not "two murderers," (although there were doubtless a few of that trade,)--but a straggling host of runaway sailors, military deserters, escaped convicts from New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, sawyers and lumberers, adventurers and evasives of every sort; and, giving the natural Maori every credit for ferocity, villany, and blood-thirstiness, I fancy it will not be denied that his maiden impressions of the European scale of morals and polite arts, as furnished by these specimens, could not by possibility rise above mediocrity. Indeed, the brutal drunkenness and reckless debauchery of the Pakehas 1 actually "astonished the natives," if it did not revolt them; --for they are sober by nature and by practice even now. Moreover, on those especial points on which the New Zealander was supposed to excel-- namely, the merciless and bloody onslaughts on the unarmed and unsuspecting adversary, where neither sex nor age was a shield--there were not wanting instances in which Englishmen distinguished themselves above the savage, lending their vessels, boats, arms, and personal aid through every stage of enormity short perhaps of eating what they had killed. Tradition seems to clear them of that consummation; but, as for me, I see no reason for stopping dead short at that particular point; and, since a certain master of a vessel named Stewart has been convicted by notoriety of furnishing means of transport, arms, ammunition, and his own countenance and assistance, in the most truculent and destructive

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descent of one tribe upon another that ever was heard of--even up to that somewhat advanced stage of the ceremony, cooking the bodies of the slain, to which purpose he obligingly devoted his ship's coppers; it would be unjust to him to doubt that he joined in the general jollification, and that, although not an habitual cannibal, he, on this occasion, mangea son homme tout comme un autre--as the French say. This monster met with the mockery of a trial at Sydney, and escaped through some flaw in the proceedings.

If therefore, as I have said, the Aborigines were not impressed with exalted notions of the white man's purity of conduct, nor of the code that ruled his morals, there was no mistake about the respect they entertained for the thews and sinews, the powers of endurance, the pluck and spirit, as well as the skill and perseverance of their pale-faced visitors. Pale, by-the-bye, is a most inapplicable epithet as conferred on these rough denizens of the coast and wave; for such as I saw were bronzed, burnt, blown, and bloated by sun, wind, sea, and rum, to such a shade of red-brown that, were it not for the wicked blue eyes and wickeder oath, and for the rolling gait acquired on the sea and retained on land by seamen, a traveller might easily mistake his fellow-Saxon for an untattooed Maori. In some of these whale-chases the Englishmen were assisted by young natives, not only in pulling the boats, but occasionally in "fastening" to a fish; and oftentimes, when one of these giants of the deep got embayed on a lee shore near the native settlements, a boat entirely manned by them would harpoon him, and make signals for the English fishermen to come up and do

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the most difficult and dangerous part of the business; for which good service they were liberally rewarded with cash or goods to the amount sometimes of 20l. or 25l. With all their personal strength, courage, and desire of gain, I have been informed that in no instance were the native fishermen known to have performed the feat of killing the whale with the lance, --the exclusive duty, and a most onerous and riskful one, of the "headsman" of the boat.

Whaling, like all other sports, has its season; and it will readily be believed, that during the intervals of idleness thus forced upon the rough society of Queen Charlotte's Sound and its neighbouring fishing bays, its pursuits and pastimes were not of an orderly or intellectual character. The most turbulent of the natives, many of them chiefs of rank and note, tolerated however, and associated familiarly with the whites for the sake of the traffic of fire-arms, ammunition, and other coveted European goods, --each race, with the natural proneness of humanity for evil, picking up the most prominent and peculiar vices of the other. I fancy that if ever there was an earthly Pandemonium, it existed at that time and place. To complete this fortuitous aggregation of the wildest elements of society, nothing was wanting but to engraft upon it a convict penal settlement; and, by all accounts, from this fate New Zealand was saved only by the character of ferocity and treachery attributed generally to the natives. Among the numerous schemes of the English Government for the disposal and punishment of their criminals, that of exposing them in the lion's den of cannibalism either never occurred to them, or was considered too severe as

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a secondary punishment, even in those times, --for I speak of the latter end of the last century, when stealing a sheep, or even a shirt off a hedge, was a hanging matter. This destiny, then, --a destiny which has made New South Wales one of England's most important colonies, --the land of the Maori escaped. The project, had it been attempted, would have failed amid fearful bloodshed; for what military or police force usually granted to a young colony would have sufficed to coerce at once 10,000 or 20,000 felons and 100,000 savage warriors, united, possibly, in a common cause of resistance and vengeance?

While the Anglo-Maori communities were thus progressing from a bad infancy to a worse maturity, fortunately for the English strangers, --fortunately for the natives, --happily for humanity at large, --the accounts regarding New Zealand, gathered at Sydney from the whalers and others trading between the two countries, as well as from some native chiefs who visited New South Wales, induced the zealous Colonial Chaplain, Mr. Marsden, of Sydney, to attempt the formation of a Christian Mission in the land of the cannibal; and accordingly, in the year 1815, he carried into effect this work of charity, by founding the first Church Missionary Settlement in the Bay of Islands. A Wesleyan mission followed about 1822, and was located at Wangaroa, on the opposite coast.

The labours of the early missionaries, their dangers, difficulties, and sufferings for Christ's sake, were so appalling as the courage and constancy of the true Apostle alone could have enabled them to sustain, and

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finally to turn to good account. Often during their painful ministry must St. Paul's enumeration of his perils and trials have occurred to their minds, --perils in the sea, perils in the wilderness, by the heathen, among false brethren, weariness and painfulness, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness. All these, with a thousand bitter humiliations, fell to their lot. Their zeal and perseverance were at length rewarded by the adherence of many chiefs, besides followers of less note, under whose powerful protection their labours of love were thenceforth prosecuted with comparative safety and comfort, as well as increased success. Many years later, a Roman Catholic bishop, with a party of Jesuit clergy, arrived, and established themselves also at the Bay of Islands.

Meanwhile, not a few concurrent incidents of stirring and various nature helped to augment the troubles of this distant land. A native gentleman named Hongi, whom the missionaries had brought, as they flattered themselves, within the humanizing pale of Christianity, determined to finish his education by making "the grand tour," under the guidance of an English bear-leader. He accordingly repaired to London, where he attended levees, dined with nobles and church dignitaries, displayed an exemplary attention to the observances of his new creed, rode in the Park, skated on the Serpentine, was petted by the ladies, and, finally, returned to his native land loaded with presents from royalty, nobility, and commonalty, --among which was a number of fire-arms; for, with other western accomplishments, he had learnt to be a good shot. At Sydney he

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exchanged most of his other presents, less suited to the patriotic object he had in view, for double-barrelled guns, muskets, and ammunition; and, having safely disembarked himself and his armoury in New Zealand, he set to work in right earnest to civilize his native land by the shortest (perhaps the only) method, --namely, by exterminating the Maori race, which, at the head of his tribe, amongst whom he distributed his newly-acquired fire-arms, he found no great difficulty in effecting, when opposed only by clubs, spears, and stone tomahawks.

Sweeping onwards from the north, he drove all before him; the great chief, Te Rauperaha, even flying from the "villanous saltpetre." Te Rauperaha, in his turn, unseated from his hereditary lands, cleft his way towards the south, and, paying in the coin he had received, stayed not his blood-stained course until, crossing Cook's Straits, he had reached their southern shore on the Middle Island, where, after a sweeping massacre of men, women, and children, and a series of grand political dinners on human flesh, at which it is by no means certain that more than one white man did not assist, he finally went into winter quarters, pitching his warree on the territory into possession of which he had thus literally killed and eaten himself.

Among other characters in the earlier scenes of the New Zealand drama, appeared a certain French baron, who having employed an agent to purchase a large tract of land from the natives, arrived and proclaimed himself sovereign of Ahini-Mawi, the northern island; but the self-elector's claim met with but few supporters, his pretensions but little respect, --as may well be imagined,

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since our gracious Queen Victoria has found the assumption of sovereignty over these proud and warlike tribes no facile task. Monsieur le Baron, accordingly, subsided in due time to his proper level; namely, that of a worthy colonist and an accomplished member of society, and such he still maintains.

The disreputable but tempting traffic called land-jobbing, and land-sharking, that is, the purchase by Europeans present in the colony, or absent, through agents, of large tracts of land at nominal prices from the natives, and the retail sale of them at high profit to settlers, obtained at this time an infamous notoriety. For the trifling consideration of a couple of dozen axes, a gross of tobacco pipes, a blanket or two, or the still more blameable object of barter, (fatal equally to the natives and the whites,) fire-arms and ammunition, the ignorant savage, --then ignorant of the value of his solid acres, now more wise, --signed away his birthright on technical parchments, drawn up at Sydney, whereof it was utterly impossible, (as probably intended,) the unlettered native could know a word of the import.

On the rise, progress, struggles for existence, and fall of the New Zealand Land Company and Association for Systematic Colonization on the Wakefield System I shall hardly venture to impinge, certainly not in this introductory chapter. A more exquisite embroglio than that offered by this body's relations with the natives, the settlers, the emigrants, the local and the imperial Governments, never was left to be unravelled by political patience and ingenuity. It was a noble and laudable enterprise, --worthy some of the great names included in

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the list of the patrons of the scheme, --"to select a spot for a considerable colony, and to prepare it for the emigrants." Unfortunately, there was "more haste than speed" in the initiatory measures, and some not trifling formulae were forgotten, among which was the acquisition of the sanction of the Crown, an established preliminary to the creation of a colony, and without which no valid title to wild lands subsists. But, for the sayings and doings of the New Zealand Company, are they not written in reams of the Blue Book, open to others as to myself?

The state of the islands being such as aforesaid, the interference of Government became absolutely necessary; and, indeed, in 1833, a joint application for protection was made by the missionaries, the settlers, and some of the native chiefs, to the Governor of New South Wales, in consequence whereof there was despatched from Sydney to the Bay of Islands a Resident, whose powers, however, proving insufficient, Captain Hobson, R. N., was appointed Consul in the first instance, and, in the year 1840, Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, under the Governor of New South Wales. The short rule of this officer was terminated by death, caused probably by the troubles and anxieties of his onerous and perplexing office; but one of its most remarkable fruits was the famous treaty of Waitangi, concluded with the natives at the Bay of Islands, and ratified by the signatures of 512 chieftains, whereby the sovereignty of the Island of New Zealand was ceded by the Maori chiefs to Queen Victoria. The proprietary rights of the former to "all their land and estates, forests, fisheries," &c.

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were secured to them; but the exclusive right of preemption over such lands as the natives might be disposed to alienate, was yielded to the Crown. His Excellency despatched several gentlemen to different and distant points of the three islands, to treat with the chiefs for their adherence to the compact, one of whom, Major Banbury, of the 80th regiment, procured the signatures of numerous high and mighty savages in the southern portion of the Northern Island, and in the Middle and Southern Islands, performing his delicate commission with great intelligence and address.

The gradually increasing love of trade rendered the natives more desirous than formerly of the presence of European settlers, and of the visits of vessels to their coasts; but on the all-absorbing subject of land they were shrewd enough to rise in their demand, as they discovered its augmented value in the eyes of the whites. Tribes that had long migrated, or been driven by more powerful neighbours to distant parts of the islands, returned to their deserted locations, and ejected, or demanded further payment from, the English settlers who had purchased allotments from the more recent native possessors. The sharp practice of the white land-sharks, indeed, enlightened the Maoris as to the true value of their "dirty acres;" and, once awake to their own interest, they were not the men to doze again. They not only stood out for higher prices in present and future dealings, but repudiated bygone bargains, on the plea that they had been bamboozled and overreached, which was undoubtedly the fact! Greatly outnumbering the white settlers, they became gradually

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more aggressive, and disputes and personal scuffles frequently occurred between the hot-tempered of both races. In the townships, on the contrary, the influx of emigrants gave the whites a preponderance over the Aborigines. The English trader elbowed the haughty chief, who, dressed in his mat or blanket, was not easily distinguishable from a commoner by the bustling business-like shopkeeper of Auckland, --the same man who, a few years before, when his tenure in the country was less secure, found his interest in treating the same native notable with the greatest respect and ceremony.

It was difficult, if not impossible, to instil into Maori intellect the full intent and meaning of the sovereignty that had been ceded to England, or rather to Queen Victoria. But the chiefs did not fail to discover that their dignity and authority were slipping from them: indeed, the introduction of the Christian religion had already sapped their hereditary influence over the tribes; for those who embraced this creed, (as many did,) in spirit and in truth as well as by profession, became naturally in some degree subservient to their spiritual pastors and masters, the Missionaries--withdrawing, perhaps unconsciously, from their still heathen and cannibal nobles their pristine reverence and obedience. And it is notorious that, from the beginning, and up to this day, the majority of the oldest, most celebrated, and most influential chieftains, have doggedly resisted conversion, although they have abstained from persecuting the apostle, --perhaps even from obstructing his labours.

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The Crown's right of preemption, too, which compelled the native to make the Government his sole customer in land, --a most wise enactment, expressly devised for the benefit of the Aboriginal himself, -- was nevertheless offensive and unpopular in operation, more especially when the said customer did not happen to want anything in that line! Jack Maori (as the soldiers call him) had signed away his right to be swindled by the British public, and he regretted the lost privilege as a sulky child resents an attempt to prevent him burning his fingers!

The interregnum of Mr. Shortland, the Colonial Secretary, who administered the government for a year and a half after Captain Hobson's death, was no bed of roses; and in the midst of it, (June, 1843,) occurred the most horrible event of Anglo-Maori history, --the Massacre of Wairau, when seven English gentlemen and fifteen of their followers were slaughtered in cold blood by the natives, under Te Rauperaha and Rangihaeta, after they had surrendered themselves as prisoners. The passions of the two races, roused by this frightful event, and by the measures which occasioned it, --for it is but fair to say, that the blind temerity of the English leaders of the expedition was the main cause of this massacre, -- had lost little of their exasperation when Captain Fitz Roy, R. N., in the latter end of 1843, assumed the reins of government. The disaffected natives, indeed, had evidently gained encouragement for further outbreak from the easy victory of their brethren over an equal number of armed white men.

The now well-known John Heki had about this time

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commenced his crusade verbal and actual against the British flag, which certain foreigners, hostile to English supremacy, and certain English scoundrels, adverse to the establishment of law and order, persuaded him to consider as the symbol of the slavery and degradation of his countrymen. The flag-staff at the settlement of Kororarika, in the Bay of Islands, was cut down, and the town finally plundered and burnt. These events I shall have to notice in visiting the spots of their occurrence.

Governor Fitz Roy had stepped into a hornet's nest. (It will be some time before a Governor of New Zealand will feather any softer one for himself!) No attempt at creating fortified posts had been made, such as with any nation but Englishmen would have been the first care after gaining possession of an acre of land amongst a people of such doubtful friendship. His Excellency had no power to draw on the Home treasury. There was an empty exchequer in the colony, with starving unpaid public servants, and a standing army of some 150 soldiers. This poverty in money, troops, and other resources requisite for vigorous retaliatory measures, compelled him to temporise with the rebels when wholesome correction was most necessary.

In March, 1845, a seasonable reinforcement, consisting of 250 soldiers, arrived at Auckland; and, pressed on all hands by bellicose advisers, the Lieutenant-Governor was induced to send against Heki a force which, utterly destitute of equipment for the siege of a strong stockade, was unsuccessful. The following month a second expedition, with augmented numbers, and a poor supply

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of munitions of war, once more beleagured the rebel Christian chief, --for Heki was educated by the Missionaries. Attack by assault failed; but, after a short blockade, the garrison evacuated the pah, which was entered and destroyed, --an advantage gained at a sadly disproportionate expense of life on the British side. Heki, severely wounded, was quieted for a time, and his adherents dispersed. His fierce old ally, Kawiti, retired to a distant post, where he occupied himself in fortifying the most formidable pah ever erected in New Zealand.

The Governor's anxious and unremitting efforts, with insufficient means to control and amalgamate the discordant elements with which he found himself surrounded, were but partially successful; and certain of the measures which he was impelled by dire necessity to adopt meeting with the disapproval of the Home Government, he was recalled; and, in November 1845, was succeeded by Captain Grey, late of the 83d regiment, the present Lieutenant-Governor. Happier had it been perhaps for Captain Fitz Roy's personal and financial comfort if, preferring ease to an honourable but "a laborious, responsible, and ill-remunerated office in a very distant colony," 2 he had declined the post, with its adjuncts of a few hundreds a-year salary, a "tapu-ed" Home treasury, and a company of infantry to enforce the law amongst a mixed and hitherto lawless White population, and 30 or 40,000 proud, suspicious, sanguinary, rapacious, and well-armed natives.

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A former general of mine--who has since reaped laurels, adding to his already redundant wreath--on the banks of the Indus, was more circumspect. Being offered the government of the then only projected plantation of South Australia, he stipulated for a body of troops, and for the power to draw on England for money in case of need. He felt that a man who could not be trusted with such powers was not fit to be a Governor, and, his requisition being negatived, he very discreetly and disinterestedly declined to mount the box and take the reins of what, no doubt, appeared to him a pitiful turn-out!

The difficulties of the first two Governors had rendered so obvious the necessity of strengthening the hands of their successor, that Captain Grey's resources were largely and wisely multiplied. The dignity of her Majesty's representative was enhanced by a three-fold augmented salary, a parliamentary grant of 30,000l. a-year in aid of the young colony, and a force of 2,500 men. He was, moreover, invested with the superior title of Governor-in-Chief, with a Lieutenant-Governor subordinate in authority, seated in the southern province. A general officer, with a suitable staff, was appointed to command the troops; vessels of war flew on the wings of canvas and of steam to these lately neglected isles; it was clear that the "powers that be" had resolved "to go the whole" distance between severe economy and lavish liberality at one stride; but whether this stimulus was borrowed from a sudden appreciation of the importance of the New Zealand group as a Crown colony, or from considerations connected with

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the aristocratically supported interests of the New Zealand Land Company, is a question doubted by some. The new Governor had more--he had a bran-new constitution offered to him; but, seeing at once that it was too big for him, he did not even try it on. He might grow stouter, and it might fit him, or his successor better, he thought, in a few years! Yet with these extensive advantages, with an immense commissariat expenditure, backed by his own uncommon abilities, what "dirt" was he not compelled to eat, what mortifications to gulp down, at the hands of these powerful and wily savages, as well as at those of some of his own countrymen! His Excellency zealously and actively took up the cudgel, which his predecessor had not strength enough to wield with perfect success against the malcontent natives; and ere a month of his reign he had thrown a force of 1,000 men upon the veteran Kawiti, destroying his new stronghold of the Rua-peka-peka, and utterly crushing his power and party. The Northern province being thus tranquillized by the defeat of Heki and Kawiti, Governor Grey was enabled to turn his attention to the South, where Rangihaieta was committing every kind of depredation and outrage.

In July 1846, the treacherous old chief, Te Rauperaha, who, pretending friendship towards the English, secretly cooperated with his friend and fighting General Rangihaieta, was by the Governor's orders cleverly seized in his Pah at Taupo, without bloodshed. A force was pushed against Rangihaieta, and his fine Pah of Pahatanui on the Porirua inlet taken and occupied by

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the troops, he himself narrowly escaping capture by a party which closely pursued him in his flight up the Horokiwi valley. His people were utterly routed and dispersed.

In all these military expeditions, the aboriginal chiefs and their followers, who were attached to the Christian faith and to the English Government, cooperated zealously and faithfully with our troops--in many instances distinguishing themselves by brilliant and conspicuous acts of valour and devotion. As guides, scouts, and skirmishers they were most valuable allies. It is not too much to say that, had these influential natives kept aloof and withheld their assistance, none of our operations would have succeeded without a loss of life irreparable in so small a force. Had they deserted the cause and sided against the British, the latter would either have been driven into the sea or uselessly cooped up in fortified posts on its shores.

In the spring of 1847, Wanganui, a small military post, and one of the Company's settlements on the S. W. coast of the Northern island, was attacked by a body of natives, who were driven off with loss. The force was increased there, and the troops had some smart brushes with the rebels, who, on one occasion, took up such skilful positions as to baffle a combined force, naval and military, under the Governor himself. They were, however, finally dispersed. With the skirmishes at Wanganui, and the subsequent breaking up of the Taua or war party, ended all serious disturbances between the races; and, although up to the time of my visit to the colony, occasional rumours of outbreak reached head-quarters,

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I found on my arrival at Auckland, as had been truly reported to the Secretary of State by the Governor, "a greater amount of tranquillity and prosperity prevailing in New Zealand than had ever yet existed."

The present government of New Zealand consists of a Governor-in-Chief, with an Executive Council, formed by the Colonial Secretary, Treasurer, and Attorney-General; and a Legislative Council of four colonists, nominated by the Governor. So it is tolerably despotic in character--the best form for a young colony. It is scarcely less absolute than the mode of rule in a public school, or in a man-of-war. The Lieutenant-Governor holds the reins at Wellington in the Southern Province, reporting to the Governor-in-Chief, who alone corresponds with the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Although imbued with quite as much philanthropy as usually falls to the lot of a mere soldado, I will admit some secret feeling of disappointment at this pacific position of affairs. An honourable peace is the ultimate object of a well-fought war, and the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest number is the legitimate desideratum of all good government and all good folks. But I must confess a regret, that up to this day the Maoris have never yet received what I verily believe would have been of infinite service to their particular complaint, --namely, a good sound thrashing! such an one as has been frequently and salutarily administered by British blue jackets and red, upon troublesome people in well nigh every other quarter of the globe. I say the New Zealanders have never yet received at our hands the discipline I hint at; --not from want of good

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will on the part of the British troops and tars and their commanders, but because the crafty Maori never waited for touch of steel--the true British test of strength of heart and arm. A good stand up fight, hand to hand, foot to foot, would, I firmly believe, have materially assisted in simplifying and even strengthening and cementing the future relations of the white and native races.

It is for this, that I venture thus frankly to lament that I was denied the satisfaction of hearing the war-yell of the Maori and the battle cheer of the British in martial unison, and of seeing the firelock and bayonet fairly crossed in open field with the double-barrel and tomahawk; and I hope there is nothing unpardonably truculent in the sentiment!