CHAPTER LXI. AUCKLAND.
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CHAPTER LXI.
AUCKLAND.
AUCKLAND still considers herself to be, and certainly has been, the leading province of New Zealand. In the old days, before the colony had been divided into provinces, --before the colony was a colony, --the northern portion of the Northern Island was the only part of New Zealand with which Europeans were acquainted. It was here that the Pakeha Maoris settled themselves and dwelt with the natives. It was here that Governor Hobson fixed the seat of the government. It was here, --up at Kororareka, in the Bay of Islands, --that Heke cut down the flagstaff. It was here that Bishop Selwyn was settled when there was only one bishop in New Zealand, and it was here that all the governors have lived, and here the general parliament was held, till the seat of government was moved to Wellington in 1864. The province of Otago is now the most populous of the provinces, and its capital, Dunedin, the most populous of New Zealand cities. And as Otago is also the most southern province, and is therefore far removed from Auckland; and as Canterbury, also in the south, has grown in power and population; there came to be the same feeling in regard to Auckland that existed in Canada respecting Quebec, --and therefore the capital was removed to the central, but comparatively small town of Wellington.
Because of its age, and old history, and early dealings with the Maoris, I regard Auckland as being the representative city of New Zealand, ---as Melbourne is of Victoria, or Sydney of New South
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ALLEGED SUPERIORITY OF NEW ZEALAND.
Wales. Dunedin, which hardly knows the appearance of a Maori as well as does London, where the interesting stranger has been seen at Exeter Hall, has no title to be considered. Dunedin is a Scotch town and Christchurch an English town, here planted, --and Wellington is a chosen site for a parliament; --but Auckland is redolent of New Zealand. Her streets are still traversed by Maoris and half-castes, and the Pakeha Maori still wanders into town from his distant settlement in quest of tea, sugar, and brandy.
And the councils by which New Zealand has been governed as a colony in the perilous days which she has passed, were all held at Auckland. It was here that over and over again peace with the natives has been decided upon as the policy of the day, till peace was no longer possible and the colony drifted into war. Though both parties desired peace, --and such I believe was the desire of each party, --peace was impossible because they did not desire it on the same basis. "Peace, certainly, --but of course we must hold our own;" said the white man. The Maori said identically the same thing, --but the possession claimed as "our own" was one and the same, namely, the right to decide questions of property, each according to his own laws. It may be imagined that at Auckland there is a feeling that Dunedin and Christchurch are interlopers, as New Zealand towns. The Maori war has been the great feature of the colony of New Zealand, and Otago and Canterbury have had no more to do with the war than Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. Therefore Auckland still considers itself to be the capital of the colony, --and it has much reason in its claim.
It may be well to notice here the fact that as Auckland considers herself to be the cream of New Zealand, so does New Zealand consider herself to be the cream of the British empire. The pretension is made in, I think, every British colony that I visited. I remember that it was insisted upon with absolute confidence in Barbadoes; that no Demeraran doubted it in British Guiana; that it was hinted at in Jamaica with as much energy as was left for any opinion in that unhappy island; and that in Bermuda a confidence in potatoes, onions, and oleanders had produced the same effect. In Canada the conviction is so rife that a visitor hardly cares to dispute it. In New South Wales it crops out even in those soft murmurings with which men there regret their mother country. In Queensland the assertion is always supported by a reference to the doubtful charms of her perhaps too luxurious climate. In Victoria the boast is made with true Yankee confidence in "our institutions." Victoria declares herself to be different from England, and therefore better.
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But in New Zealand the assurance is altogether of a different nature. The New Zealander among John Bulls is the most John-Bullish. He admits the supremacy of England to every place in the world, only he is more English than any Englishman at home. He tells you that he has the same climate, --only somewhat improved; that he grows the same produce, --only with somewhat heavier crops; that he has the same beautiful scenery at his doors, --only somewhat grander in its nature and more diversified in its details; that he follows the same pursuits and after the same fashion, --but with less of misery, less of want, and a more general participation in the gifts which God has given to the country. He reminds you that at Otago, in the south, the mean temperature is the same as at London, whereas at Auckland, in the north, he has just that improvement necessary to furnish the most perfect climate in the world. The mean temperature of the coldest month at London is 37 deg., which is only five degrees above freezing, whereas at Auckland it is 51 deg., which enables growth to continue throughout the whole year. Of the hottest month the mean temperature at Auckland is only 68 deg., which, --says the Aucklander, --neither hinders a European from working, nor debilitates his constitution. All good things have been given to this happy land, and, when the Maori has melted, here will be the navel of the earth. I know nothing to allege against the assurance. It is a land very happy in its climate; --very happy in its promises. The poor Maori who is now the source of all Auckland poetry, must first melt: and then, if her coal-fields can be made productive, --for she has coal-fields, --and if the iron which is washed to her shore among the sands of the sea, can be wrought into steel, I see no reason why Auckland should not rival London. I must specially observe one point as to which the New Zealand colonist imitates his brethren and ancestors at home, --and far surpasses his Australian rival. He is very fond of getting drunk. And I would also observe to the New Zealander generally, as I have done to other colonists, that if he would blow his trumpet somewhat less loudly, the music would gain in its effect upon the world at large.
Gold-fields, in which I do not believe much as the source of permanent prosperity, Auckland has already. New Zealand gold was first found in 1852 at Coromandel, in the province of Auckland, on the peninsula on the further side of the Frith of Thames, about forty miles cast of the town; but the diggings here did not prove productive. In the southern provinces gold "broke out," to use the diggers' phrase, in 1860; but in the Northern Island the
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KAURI GUM.
business did not really commence till 1867, when gold was found on the Thames River. The city of Graham's Town, which is now the capital of the Auckland gold-fields, was founded in 1868. Up to the 31st December, 1871, counting from the first finding of the metal, gold to the value of £11,207,760 had been exported from the province of Otago; to the value of £6,343,835 from the county of Westland, which includes Hokitika; to the value of £4,458,340 from the province of Nelson; and to the value only of £2,193,946 from the province of Auckland. But for the year ended 31st December, 1871, Otago exported only £619,760; Westland, £531,648; Nelson, £439,936; whereas Auckland exported, as the produce of that year, £1,888,708. As I had seen many gold-fields in Australia, and gone down many mines, --to the great disturbance of my peace and happiness, --and had generally come away with the impression that I had learned but little by my personal inspection, I did not visit the Thames gold-fields. I am, however, able to say, from inquiry on the subject, that the miners as a body conduct themselves with that general courtesy of manners which I found to be universal among the Australian mining population. I own that I had thought before visiting the colonies that contact with gold made men rough. I am bound to say that, as regards the workers themselves, it seems to have the opposite effect.
Kauri gum--an article of trade found, as far as I am aware, only in the province of Auckland, --has been of material service to the colony. It is used in the glazing of calico, and as a cheap substitute for copal varnish in the preparation of furniture; and also, -- if the assertion be not calumny, for the manufacture of amber mouthpieces. I chipped a morsel of kauri gum one day with my penknife in a merchant's store, and then chipped the mouthpiece of my tobacco pipe. The chipping seemed to be identical. I don't see why kauri gum should not make very good mouthpieces for pipes; but, if so, the consumer ought to have the advantage. Kauri gum, at the wholesale price, is worth from 30s. to 40s per cwt.; and as it is very light, a great many pipes could be made beautiful with a hundredweight of kauri gum. In 1870 the amount exported fetched £175,074; and in 1871, £107,958.
The kauri gum exudes from the kauri tree, but is not got by any process of tapping, or by taking the gum from the tree while standing. The tree falls and dies, as trees do fall and die in the course of nature; --whole forests fall and die; and then when the timber has rotted away, when centuries probably have passed, the gum is found beneath the soil. Practice tells the kauri gum-seekers
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where to search for the hidden spoil. Armed with a long spear the man prods the earth, --and from the touch he knows the gum when he strikes it. Hundreds of thousands of tons probably still lie buried beneath the soil; but the time will come when the kauri gum will be at an end, for the forests are falling now, not by the slow and kind operation of nature, but beneath the rapid axes of the settlers.
I was taken out from Auckland by a friend to see a kauri forest. Very shortly there will be none to be seen unless the searcher for it goes very far a-field. I was well repaid for my trouble, for I doubt whether I ever saw finer trees grouped together; and yet the foliage of them is neither graceful nor luxuriant. It is scanty, and grows in tufts like little bushes. But the trunks of the trees, and the colour of the timber, and the form of the branches are magnificent. The chief peculiarity seems to be that the trunk appears not to lessen in size at all till it throws out its branches at twenty-five or perhaps thirty feet from the ground, and looks therefore like a huge forest column. We saw one, to which we were taken by a woodsman whom we found at his work, the diameter of which was nine feet, and of which we computed the height up to the first branches to be fifty feet. And the branches are almost more than large in proportion to the height, spreading out after the fashion of an oak, --only in greater proportions.
These trees are fast disappearing. Our friend the woodman told us that the one to which he took us, --and than which he assured us that we could find none larger in the forest, --was soon to fall beneath his axe. When we met him he was triumphing over a huge monster that he had felled, and was splitting it up into shingles for roofing houses. The wood as it comes to pieces is yellow and resinous with gum, and on that account, --so he told us, --was super-excellent for shingles. The trees are never cut down for their gum, which seems to be useless till time has given it a certain consistency. Very soon there will not be a kauri tree left to cut down in the neighbourhood of Auckland.
Many of us still remember the kind of halo which surrounded Bishop Selwyn when he first came out to New Zealand. People thought more about him and his mission than they ever thought of any colonial bishop, --till their thoughts, from quite other causes, were given to Bishop Colenso. This arose partly from his reputation, partly from his being much loved by many good men, partly, no doubt, from the fact that his episcopate was an experiment among a more than usually savage race of savages, --who also, as savages,
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MISSIONARY LABOURS.
were more than usually powerful and intelligent. Bishops who went to Calcutta and Sydney were sent out simply to guide the churches of England established lor the use of exiles from our own shores. They certainly did not go out as missionaries. The proselytism of Hindoos, and Mahomedans has ever been looked upon with disfavour at home, --and the Australian savage has generally been regarded as beyond the reach of the Christian teacher. There have been exceptions in both cases, but I think that I have, in the general, stated the truth. But the Bishop of New Zealand went out, not only to guide the Church of England on behalf of the colonists, but also to Christianize the Maori. There can be no question of the zeal, the intellect, and the sagacity with which he did his work.
As to the colonists, there can be as little question as to his success. I doubt whether there be any part of the British dominions in which the Church of England numbers, proportionally, a greater part of the population than in New Zealand. Taking the whole island, she claimed, in February, 1871, 102,359 out of 250,393, or more than two-fifths of the whole. In the province of Auckland, --which on the bishop's arrival was the scene of his first labours, --she claims 28,210, out of 62,335, --thus coming very near to the same proportion. The members of the Presbyterian and of the Roman Catholic Churches, which are the next most numerous, do not together amount to the numbers of the Church of England, either in the colony at large, or in Auckland in particular. I am not saying that these people became members of the Church of England through the exertions of Bishop Selwyn, ---but I think that their numbers show that the Church of which he was the first guide and pastor was well shepherded.
But perhaps his work, as missionary to the natives, was nearer to his heart even than that of ruling the Church of his countrymen. No question is more fiercely debated in New Zealand than that of the success of these endeavours That there was great apparent success, achieved by great labour, and with results of a certain class very widely visible, is certain. It is impossible to arrive at correct numbers with regard to the Maoris, but, undoubtedly, a very large proportion of them became professing Christians. They learned to read, and read the Bible more than any other book. They attended churches, and sung hymns, --and took delight in calling themselves Christians. While I was in the province, a Maori of the name of Wiramu, fifty years old, was ordained a clergyman of the Church of England. But I fear that these efforts,
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though they have been unceasing, have in truth but availed little in bringing the very pith of Christianity home to the minds of these people. They have many virtues. They are too proud for petty dishonesty; they are good-natured, and have a manly respect for themselves and for others; they are, in the main, truthful and brave; and their hospitality is proverbial. But these were their virtues of old, --before we came to them; and many who know them will say that these virtues are fading under their assumed Christianity. The virtue of so living, or of striving so to live, that a man's life shall be beneficial to others, and not a curse, --which I regard as the very essence of Christianity, --they have not learned. And that which they did learn very quickly, the forms of the Church, Bible history and Bible stories, the singing of psalms, and especially the ceremonial observance of the Sabbath, is departing from them. Prolonged contact with Europeans has dimmed in their eyes the lustre of European observances, and there is no longer any pride in being a Christian because the Pakehas are Christian. Familiarity has bred contempt. Very many have professedly dropped their Christianity, and, assuming a new form of worship, call themselves Hau-Haus. Among the Kingites, I am told that there remain vestiges of Christian teaching, but joined to forms of worship quite opposed to the lessons they had received from Christian pastors. Even among the friendly tribes the zeal for the thing has died out, and with most of them I think but little remains but a not uncomfortable understanding that Sunday should be more thoroughly devoted to idleness than other days.
I was surprised to find that in New Zealand generally education progresses less favourably than in the Australian colonies. New South Wales, with a population in round numbers of half a million, has 71,503 boys and girls at school, of whom 59,814 are at the common or public schools, and 14,089 at private schools. This gives something over one in seven for the whole population. New Zealand, with a quarter of a million inhabitants, has 18,180 scholars at the common or public schools. I have not the means of getting at the number educated at private schools, but, presuming the proportion to be the same as in New South Wales, the number would be about 4,000. This would give a total of 22,180 at all schools, --or something less than one in eleven. In the North Island the average at the public schools alone is not much above one in twenty, --that in the Middle Island about one in nine.
It is fair, however, to observe with reference to New Zealand generally, that I got no information as to the public schools later
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AGRICULTURE IN AUCKLAND.
than that for 1870. None later had been published. For the province of Otago the number had risen from 6,227 scholars in 1870 to 8,662 in 1871, --or by more than one-third. If the two statements be correct, --and I have no reason to doubt either, --the progress shows that the province will very soon be open to no reproach on this head. I fear, however, that such progress as this has not been in the Northern Island. In Auckland I found that the province made no public provision whatever for the education of its children.
A supreme court, with one judge, is held in each of the provinces, --and a court of appeal, at which the judges sit together, is held at Wellington. The chief justice of the colony, Sir George Arney, is, at any rate, at present attached to the province of Auckland. This apparent anomaly has arisen from the removal of the seat of government from Auckland to Wellington.
Auckland is becoming an agricultural province. In another chapter I shall speak of what has been done in the Valley of the Waikato. 2,702,582 acres of land are now held within it by Europeans, with titles confirmed by government; but, nevertheless, it is not a corn-growing country. Meat and wool are its staples. While it contains 181,521 acres under artificial grasses, it had in 1872 but 2,455 acres under wheat. In the year, up to the 30th June, 1872, it imported breadstuff to the value of £59,392. It may, therefore, be accepted as certain that hitherto the farmers of the Northern Island have not found the growth of wheat a profitable employment, and that meat and wool are the produce of the land from which the best return can be had. I may add here, that in the province of Auckland the Maoris still own 11,275,036 acres, of which they hold 2,587,350 acres with a title that has been fixed by passing through the courts and which is recognized by the Crown as enabling the owners to sell the land; --and that they hold 8,687,686 without any such authorized record, which land, therefore, they cannot sell so as to give a recognized title to the purchaser. But in regard to all the land comprised under the latter head, no difficulty would be made by the land court in conferring the title, if the tribes who hold it would consent among themselves to have the property individualized. The ownership by the Maoris is not contested by the European government. At the close of the war, 3,006,905 acres in the province were confiscated from the natives in retaliation for the injury done by the Maori rebels. A small portion of this has been sold; --a portion was restored to the natives. The greater portion of it remains in
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the hands of the government. Much of it is at present nearly worthless.
When at Auckland I had the pleasure of meeting Sir George Grey, whose name has been so intimately connected with the fortunes of New Zealand, whether in peace or war. He is now residing at the island of Kawau, some miles from the harbour, and is there turning a wilderness into a garden. I have endeavoured in my remarks about the colonies to abstain from offering opinions as to the conduct of governors who are still living. From many I have received kind hospitality, and I think that a writer for the public should not praise when he feels himself to be deterred by friendship from censure. But, as to Sir George Grey, I may fairly say, without expressing any opinion of my own as to his conduct as governor, that he certainly managed to endear himself in a wonderful way to a population with whom it was his duty to be constantly fighting. There can be no doubt of Sir George Grey's popularity among the Maoris.
The harbour of Auckland is very pretty, --though hardly so picturesque as those of Lyttelton or Wellington; --and it is trustworthy for ships. The immediate harbour is landlocked by the island called Rangitoto, and the bay beyond, called Hauraki Gulf, is again guarded by two further islands, called the Great and Little Barrier. Its ports have been the making of Auckland, which stands on so narrow a neck of land, that it has another harbour, called the Manukau, within seven miles of the city on the western coast, -- Auckland itself being on the eastern. This double seaboard has given the place a great advantage, as a portion of the intercolonial trade is made by the eastern route. Thence is made the quickest route to Wellington, Nelson, and Hokitika, and to Melbourne; -- and by this route the passengers from Otago and Christchurch generally reach the north. But the direct course from Auckland out to the world at large is by Rangitoto and the Barriers. Till within the last few years, the direct course from Great Britain to New Zealand was round the Cape of Good Hope, or by the Isthmus of Suez and the Australian colonies; --and the direct route home was by Cape Horn, or back by Suez; but now a line of American steamers has been established direct from San Francisco to Auckland, which carries the mails under a contract with the New Zealand government, and which will be a popular route for passengers as soon as a certain prejudice is overcome which in British minds is apt to attach itself to American enterprises.
