CHAPTER XXI
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CHAPTER XXI.
MINISTERIAL APPOINTMENT OF A CONSUL AND LIEUT.-GOVERNOR FOR NEW ZEALAND. ----HOSTILITY OF THE FRENCH PEOPLE TO THE OCCUPATION OF NEW ZEALAND BY THE BRITISH. ----"SHIPS COLONIES AND COMMERCE." ----INCREASE OF FRENCH SHIPPING IN THE SOUTH SEAS. ----THE BARON DE THIERRY. ----GROSS EXAGGERATION OF HIS PECUNIARY MEANS. ----TRANSFORMATION OF THE BARON INTO A SAWYER. ----ABATEMENT OF ZEAL ON THE PART OF THE FRENCH. ----ISLAND OF VICTORIA. ---- BRIEF DESCRIPTION. ----THE NORTHERN PORTION. ----PECULIARITIES IN ITS FORMATION. ----MOUNTAIN GORGES. ----CHASMS. ----AND CATARACTS. ----COASTS FROM THE SEA. ----PLAINS. ----LAGOONS. ----COLONISATION, WHERE IT MUST BE DIRECTED. ----STEWART'S ISLAND. ----SCENERY. ----INHABITED BY TRIBES SEEKING SHELTER. ----FOVEAUX' STRAITS.
IN consequence of the late discussions in the British Parliament, the mission of Captain Hobson, as Consul, and finally Lieut.-governor, over the British already residents in New Zealand, and the success that has attended the sales of land by the New Zealand Land Company, has induced a large body of the mercantile community in the ports of France, to petition the French Government to put itself in hostile array against the hitherto silent, but now fast-increasing colonization of the country by the British, but the Ministry, aware of the unjust demand of the merchants, have wisely determined not to interfere, where success would be impossible The French are not a colonizing people, and in
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Reviewing their past attempts in each quarter of the globe, an irremediable failure has attended every effort. Yet if they wish also to adopt the motto "Ships, Colonies, and Commerce," enough of regions in the Austral-Asiatic ocean remain, hitherto undisturbed by the intrusion of Europeans. Immense territories, commencing from New Caledonia (in the northern part about fifty leagues from the territory of New South Wales,) and extending to the northward until New Guinea and Archipelagoes, comprising innumerable islands, are fitted for the immediate occupation of European colonists; but no, New Zealand is immediately fitted for the French, simply because the ground-work has been laid for them. In 1835, not one French whale-ship bad ever touched at New Zealand, or perhaps had even entered the Southern fisheries; but success having attended the efforts of three or four, in 1837, other ships were immediately fitted out (with English or American whaling-masters), and now perhaps there are from thirty to fifty French ships anchoring at one time in the New Zealand ports. Much stress has been laid by the French merchants on the purchases reported to have been made by a Baron de Thierry, the son of an emigre, and born in England, who has resided ten years in New Zealand, and spent some 40,000 pounds hard cash. This gross exaggeration has mightily tickled the French, who now declare with much vehemence, that they are ready to spend ten times that amount, for the
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further colonization of the country. The plain facts are simply, that Baron de Thierry has never spent 500 pounds in Hokianga, the place where he resides, simply because he never possessed there one half of that sum; that he first went to reside there in 1837, and since that time has even turned from a continental Baron into a sawyer, where he might have been found working in a pit, converting by manual labour, stout logs of trees into fair-sized planks.
However, like most schemes undertaken by the French people, with frenzied avidity, they appear to have as suddenly abated in their zeal at colonizing the country, though strong hopes were entertained at one period, that the government would conquer by force of an armament the mountain fastnesses of the Island of Victoria, which is comparatively unpeopled, and notwithstanding its large area, is of infinitely less value than its sister Island of E'Ainomawe. The northern portion is the most salubrious, and the mountain valleys and faces of the lower hills afford excellent soil for cultivation. The shores are principally bordered by bills that rise to a precipitous height, above which, but further inland, stupendous mountains tower in the distance, most of them denuded of soil and vegetation, and covered with snow. A number of splendid harbours indent the coasts on either side, and the same continued series of plain, swamp, hill and valley, are found also in Victoria, with this difference..
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that nature is arrayed in a grander and even more awful form; the plains are not larger, the mountain valleys are often contracted into deep ravines and gorges, dark as Erebus, with exuberant rank vegetation. Chasms of awful depth are numerous at the bottom of steep mountains, from the height of which cataracts bursting their deep-worn channels during rainy seasons, fall foaming with stunning violence down the dizzy steeps, dashing on the lower projecting precipices that divide the falls into numerous cascades that rush into one common reservoir, the black and pitchy chasm, within whose fathomless womb the unceasing mass of waters is noiselessly lost. These lofty chains of mountain ranges principally compose this large territory, the clouded summits of which are clothed in eternal snows. From the sea, the coasts have the repulsive appearance of hoary snow covering sterility, but the eye is more agreeably entertained when the voyager approaches the land, when abundance of timber, from the verdant parasitical plants to the erect tree, with its trunk nearly a hundred feet in height, is faultless in shape without the obtruding of a branch.
Extensive plains far above the level of the sea are covered with a vegetation extremely similar to that found in the Northern Island.
The swamps and lagoons of the latter are found in Victoria of great extent, many are pathless, the depth being too great for a passage on foot, yet too
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thickly matted with wiwi, and arundinaceous plants that prevent egress, for a canoe. The tide of colonization must turn to the North Island, where happy regions await the active labour of civilized man. Settlements will be formed in the bays and harbours of the centre island, but the interior will remain untouched for a series of years.
The third and smallest of the Islands is called Stewart's Island after the discoverer of the passage called Foveaux' Strait that divides the Island from Victoria. Similar scenery on a minor scale, comprises the formation of Stewart's Island, and large tracts of excellent soil are to be found in various places. The winter is, strange to say, much milder than in its northern neighbour. Isles and Islets stud the coasts of Stewart's Island, which has been long inhabited by a few hardy Europeans. This part of the country is uninhabited by the aborigines, though some tribes at various times, when chased by inimical bodies of their countrymen, have sought shelter in this district, rendered yet more secure by the dangerous Strait, that is at periods impassable to a canoe, or even a ship.
