PART V.
FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE COLONY.
CHAPTER I.
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PART V.
ON THE
FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE COLONY.
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FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE COLONY.
CHAPTER I.
RESOURCES AND EXPORTS---TIMBER---KAURI---LABOUR IN BRINGING TIMBER FROM FORESTS---TIMBER FOR SHIPBUILDING---TANIKAHA----POHUTUKAUA---COMPARATIVE PRICES OF TIMBER---FLAX.
The facts and observations in the preceding chapters will naturally lead to the reflection and consideration, of what are the resources of New Zealand? in what manner they can best be developed, and rendered productive? and what measures are requisite, on the part of Government, so as to insure the present success of emigrants, and the future prosperity of the Colony?
In the first establishment of a colony, the settlers, necessarily, for some time, must exist on their present means,---that is, on their actual capital,--- until they discover some indigenous production, or create by cultivation, or other means, some exchangeable value, to supply their present and future wants. This primary state of things, in every country or colony, has been the origin of all trade and commerce. Whatever the colony may be, the settlers, presuming they can obtain, by cultivation,
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RESOURCES.
food for their daily subsistence, unless they intend to remain on a level with the uncivilized natives, will have very many wants, which must be supplied from without the colony, as clothing, and many other necessaries and comforts of civilized life. These must be paid for either in money, or by some article of produce. The merchant and storekeeper in the town may give the cultivating settler in the country credit for a time; but the former must remit to the absent shipper, or pay the actual importer, either money or produce, at some period.
Frequently, American and French vessels visit the Australian Colonies, and New Zealand, with a general cargo of their national products and manufactures, suited to the various wants of the colonies. They are accompanied by a supercargo, who generally disposes of merchandize to a considerable amount, and would very willingly receive produce, in barter, for payment; but, if the settlement has it not, payment must be made in money, for bills, in such a case, are out of the question;---and thus the colony---or, in fact, the settlers---expend and sink so much of their actual capital.
It may be argued, that to bring the land into cultivation will require labour; and it is for such purpose that emigrants resort to a colony;---that the wages for that labour, and the produce arising from the cultivation, will both create funds, or capital, to the colony to pay for such extraneous supplies. But capital must be found, in the first instance, to pay for labour; and such payment is
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RESOURCES.
no creation, but merely a transfer of actual capital,--- unless the land, by its products, compensates for such outlay of capital to the proprietor. And this will be a most stringent question, in a colony in which great outlay will be required, in the first instance, to clear, enclose, and cultivate, in addition to the competition of foreign supplies of the same products.
The labour of a man and his family, applied to his own land, does not absorb, but creates capital. Hence, how different the cases of land cultivated, in small areas, by the actual labour of its occupants, and of those large tracts brought into production, as returns for capital expended on hired labour. In the former case labour is part of the profit;---in the latter, if the proprietor is not compensated for, he absolutely sinks, his actual capital.
In some colonies, by the salaries and pay of a large government establishment of civil officers and troops, which sums are expended in the colony, the amount and balance of imports are, in some degree, equalized; but that is no criterion of the actual state and prosperity of the settlers, or of the colony.
Until a colony, from some of its resources, possesses an export equivalent to the value of its imports, the balance must be paid by, and will be a real diminution of, the actual capital of the aggregate body of the settlers.
It is true, that the effects are not immediately felt in their full force, or the mischief perceived to its full and ultimate extent, on account of the occa-
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RESOURCES.
sional arrival of new settlers with additional funds. But the result and sequel, although deferred and slow, will be certain in every colony, to which there is a rush of emigration, without due consideration of its actual state, and of its probable resources for future exports to counterbalance,---in other words, to pay for,---the necessary imports for the indispensable wants of great and increasing numbers of settlers.
The moment the tide of emigration ceases to flow, with its concomitant of additional capital, to the colony from the mother country, either in goods or money brought by the new settlers, the natural inevitable consequences will commence, and a state of affairs, similar to South Australia, will rapidly ensue.
The resources of a colony are of two descriptions;---those that are natural productions, abundantly indigenous;---and those that are produced or created by cultivation, or manufacture;--- both arising from some peculiar and favourable circumstances of geographical position, soil, or climate.
Instances of the former are,---the Timber of Canada---the Gums and Oak of Africa---the Bark of Peru---the Orchilla of the Canaries, &c.:---of the latter,---the Sugar of the West Indies---the Tobacco and Cotton of America---the Wool of New South Wales---the Indigo of India, &c.
It is, from these resources, that a colony becomes possessed of a staple product, far exceeding the wants and consumption of its own population, and very often not at all useful, as a raw material, in the colony;
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TIMBER.
and then it becomes available and profitable for export, enabling the colonists to supply themselves with the produce and manufactures of other countries,---equalizing the balance of such trade;---and frequently, by the excess of value of their exports to their imports, as in the West Indies formerly, enriching the Colony as well as the Parent State.
These remarks suggest the inquiry, how far New Zealand either possesses natural indigenous products,---or can create, by cultivation or manufacture, resources available for export. This subject is not only important as regards the future balance of trade, in favour of, or against, the Colony, but likewise as affecting the question of revenue to the Government.
In all previous publications and accounts of New Zealand, two natural indigenous products have been put forth, as certain and inexhaustible sources of wealth to the future colonists;---these are Timber and Flax.
With regard to Timber, until European labour and machinery can be obtained in great strength, and at small expense, it cannot be considered or reckoned upon as a staple article of export, or repay the exporter either to New South Wales, or to England. The freight, alone, to England, on account of its distance, of £5. to £6. per load, is a prohibition, except for very large spars, exclusive of the very great expenses that are incurred previous to shipping.
The Kauri, which is the principal wood shipped,
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KAURI.
grows on high mountains, in the depths of forests, except in very rare instances, and requires immense manual labour; for no other can be applied in such spots, to bring the spars and logs from the woods. The natives, from their numbers, sometimes as many as two hundred, have hitherto been employed in this arduous labour; for frequently trees are felled two or three miles back, in the woods, and then have to be dragged up and down ravines, and across swamps, to the saw-pit to be cut into plank, or to a creek or river, whence it is floated to the vessel for shipment. For this service, formerly, a very small remuneration to the chief, only, of a tribe was considered ample, with a little tobacco among the whole of the labourers; but now, the natives will not work, unless individually paid, and that at a high rate; and the European sawyers, who formerly were glad to work at the rate of six shillings per 100 feet, now obtain the exorbitant wages of sixteen shillings, and stipulate that the logs shall be placed on the pit for them.
In Norway, Russia, and Canada, the foresters have the advantage of the season of icy snows, during which time only, they attempt to transport the fruits of their summer labour, from the wooded mountains to the banks of the rivers, which the thaws of returning spring swell and increase, and the timber is floated without labour from the banks, and rafted quickly down, for hundreds of miles, to ports for exportation.---Not so in New Zealand. The perpetual vegetation of the forests, and the
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LABOUR IN BRINGING TIMBER FROM FORESTS.
certain frequent rains throughout the year, keeping the low grounds always swampy, renders the transit of timber from the forest a task, most difficult and expensive.
To convey some idea of such undertaking.---In the forest on the high ridge of land separating Coromandel Harbour from Mercury Bay, there was felled a Kauri tree, which measured, when cut down, in length, 150 feet; and the circumference of which, at the base, was 25 feet. From the spot of its growth it had to be dragged up and down two ravines, at nearly an angle of forty-five degrees, through the woods, and then for nearly a mile across a mangrove swamp, to the borders of a creek, emptying itself at some distance into Coromandel Harbour. These creeks, which everywhere abound in the gorges of the mountains and hills in New Zealand, are generally shallow, except immediately after the heavy rains, when they rapidly rise from the freshes down the ridges of the mountains, and sometimes to an increase of depth of ten to twelve feet, according to the dry or wet weather of the winter season. It is for these opportunities, that the settler is obliged to wait, to bring down the large timbers intended for spars for shipment; and this operation requires great skill and dexterity, and is generally performed by the natives, who run along the banks, and are continually in the stream, to prevent the timber from being driven ashore, or direct across the creek, which is very likely to occur from the rapidity of the current, and from the nu-
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TIMBER FOR SHIP-BUILDING.
merous and abrupt sinuosities in the course of the creek.
This immense tree was brought to Coromandel Harbour, in the spring of 1842, (September, 1841) and when squared and sided for a spar, measured twenty-eight inches in diameter; but its length was obliged to be diminished to ninety-eight feet, in order to render it available for shipment on board the barque Planter, Captain Manning, of nearly 500 tons, in which vessel it was conveyed to England.
It is in the forests on this ridge of mountains on the eastern coast, near Mercury Bay, that the largest Kauri tree in New Zealand is growing. It is called by the natives the Father of the Kauri. Although almost incredible, it measures seventy-five feet in circumference at its base. The height is unknown, for the surrounding forest is so thick, it is impossible to ascertain it accurately. There is an arm, some distance up the tree, which measures six feet in diameter at its junction with the parent trunk.
Besides the Kauri, there are other trees equally, if not more valuable, but not available, for the same reasons, for export; but if ship-building was carried on in the colony, they would become one of the most profitable resources of it.
The Tanikaha is a most valuable pine from its peculiarities. On the Northern Island, its size, in comparison to the Kauri and some other trees, is not large, but it is very probable that it is of much larger growth on the Middle Island, more particularly on the south-western coast, in the neighbourhood of
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TANIKAHA---POHUTUKAUA.
Dusky Bay, where it is abundant; and as the Kauri is found in the Northern, so may be the Tanikaha on the Southern Island, in its greatest perfection. The great peculiarity of this wood is its tenacity and extreme pliability, rendering the smaller spars most valuable for top-gallant masts and studding-sail booms, and likewise for masts for small craft and boats. The objection to it, for these purposes, is its weight; but the natives have an ingenious method, for the masts of their canoes, of rendering it in some degree lighter. They place the spar longitudinally over a brisk fire of wood on the beach, turning the spar quickly, until the surface is charred, which evaporates the aqueous particles within the vessels of the wood. This great pliability is owing to the natural growth of the tree, the annular rings of which are entwined round the layer of the preceding year, like a corkscrew, up to the very apex of the tree. This form gives a beautiful appearance to the young trees, when barked for spars, as they are perfectly straight, and taper gradually to a point.
This tree on the Northern Island is seldom found above forty feet in height, and ten feet in circumference at its base. The planks cut from large trees would be extremely serviceable for decks, and if the weight was no objection to large masts and spars, the Tanikaha, if found of sufficient size, would excel Kauri for those purposes for her Majesty's navy.
No less valuable than the Kauri and Tanikaha, for the purposes of ship-building, is the Pohutukaua, which is to be found along all the shores of the sea
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POHUTUKAUA.
coast, growing to an immense size. It is one of the most beautiful botanical productions in New Zealand, particularly in the month of December, when trees equal in dimensions and foliage to the largest oaks in England, the growth and form of which they resemble, are completely covered with very large blood-red flowers, giving to the scenery of the shores, abounding with other brilliant evergreens to the water's edge, an appearance most strikingly splendid and picturesque. The Pohutukaua, like the oak, grows extremely crooked, and to a great size, frequently two or three trunks from the same root, with limbs and branches equal in size to the parent stems. The roots of the tree, which ramify to a great extent on the surface, are as large as the limbs, and equally as valuable for the knees of ships. These trees, with their roots, which are very easily extracted from the ground, frequently contain many loads of timber, and, from growing always along the shores, are very accessible and available. The wood is extremely hard and tough, equal to any oak or teak, and the trunks are as valuable for large timbers, as the limbs and roots for the knees, of ships. There are many other trees of large growth adapted for the same purposes, particularly the Puriri and Rata.
The Kahikatea resembles the Kauri in appearance only: it grows to a considerable size, but being hygrometric, is only calculated for internal use of houses.
Besides these trees there are a great variety and
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COMPARATIVE PRICES OF TIMBER.
quantity of timber in New Zealand, for all useful purposes, of houses, furniture, &c, which is certainly a great advantage to the Colony itself, inasmuch as it renders it independent of any other for a supply of such useful and necessary article. To the colonists themselves, a temporary high price on account of exorbitant wages of sawyers, is not of so much consequence, although it greatly enhances the expense of all their houses and agricultural buildings: but timber from New Zealand, except an occasional cargo of very large and rare spars, for the British navy, will never,---particularly as the flow of emigrants to the Colony itself will create for a long period a great demand and consumption,---as an article of export, bear the additional charge of £2. per load for freight to Sydney, to compete in price with the indigenous blue gum and cedar of Van Diemen's Land, and New South Wales,---or of £6. per load to England, to undersell the Baltic and Canadian Timber.
The prices of timber in September 1841 in the Australian Colonies and New Zealand, were as follows: ---
NEW SOUTH WALES.
Sydney and Port Phillip.
£ s. d.
Van Diemen's Land Boards per 100 feet £1 2 0
" " Scantling " " £0 17 0
NEW ZEALAND.
Auckland.
£ s. d. £ s. d.
Kauri Boards per 100 feet .... £1 8 0 to £1 12 0
" " Scantling " " .... £1 5 0 " £1 8 0
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FLAX.
Port Nicholson.
£ s. d. £ s. d.
Kahikatea Boards per 100 feet . . £0 19 0 " £1 1 0
" " Scantling " " . . " " £0 17 0 " £0 18 0
The prices of timber in England in January, 1842.
£ s. d. £, s. d.
Riga Yellow Deals, 12 ft. 3 in. per 120 £18 10 0 to £20 0 0
" " White " " " " " " £15 10 0 " £16 0 0
Quebec Red Pine " " " " £14 0 0 " £18 0 0
" " Yellow " " " " " " £13 10 0 " £14 0 0
The relative prices as to similar quality, therefore, per 100 feet run of deals one inch thick, are
AUSTRALIAN. EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN.
Kauri 32 shillings
Blue gum 22 " 5 & Baltic 10 Shillings.
Kahikatea 21 " Canadian 7 "
In fact, instead of exporting timber, the importation of it from Quebec, during the last two years, would have been a most profitable speculation either to Port Nicholson or to Auckland.
The Flax of New Zealand may, more probably, become, eventually, the staple of the Colony, as Wool is of New South Wales. It is indigenous, and is found all over the islands, in inexhaustible supplies, for the leaves can be cut twice a year, leaving the parent root for re-production; and if the plants were cultivated by off-sets, for it is a bulbous root, at proper distances, and the intervening spaces kept free from fern and other shrubs, there is no doubt, but the quality of the fibre would be improved, as
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FLAX.
well as the quantity very much increased. It is from the leaves of the plant,---which arc similar to the iris, only very much broader, and growing to the height of six, and sometimes of ten feet,---and not from the stem, as in the English., Russian, German and Italian hemp and flax, that the fibrous substance is obtained. The preparing of the New Zealand flax, is an art of manipulation confined exclusively to the native women, such labour being considered as beneath the attention and dignity of the native men. The fibre is obtained by separating it from the external epidermis of the leaf in a green state, by means of a mussel shell, and then exposing it to the air for a few days which bleaches the flax and dries the thin inner epidermis, which the Natives, on the flax they sell, very imperfectly remove, which has tended so much of later years, to depreciate its value and diminish its consumption in the Sydney and European markets. In heckling, and properly freeing the flax, from the particles of this coating and substance, there is a loss, in quantity of 25 per cent., exclusive of the trouble and expense.
Some years since, a trade with the Natives was carried on by the settlers to some extent, and shipped to Sydney for manufacture into cordage, &c. But now the Natives can scarcely be induced to prepare it at any price; for the few wants they have are amply provided for, by the high value in money, or abundance of goods, they realise in exchange for their agricultural produce and labour. They can now
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GOVERNMENT CONTRACT FOR
obtain plenty of good blankets at a moderate rate, which they prefer to their native mats, that occupied a long time---two or three years---to manufacture; added to which, field labour is more consonant to their habits than sedentary employment.
In 1831, the Navy Board contracted for 800 tons of New Zealand flax, at £41. 15s. per ton, which was manufactured into cordage for the Navy. No contract has since been repeated by Government for any supply of the flax, most probably on account of the difference of nearly twenty reports, from Captains of H.M. ships, on the qualities of the rope made from the New Zealand flax, in comparison with that made from European hemp. In some instances, the reports were decidedly in favour of the New Zealand flax, and others as positively condemnatory; but, in all the latter cases, there are strong complaints by the naval officers, that the rope, made from it, was badly laid, the strands not having an equal strain, which complaints, being referred to the master-attendant and master-rope-maker at Portsmouth, the latter very naturally, in self-defence ---but rather anomalously as to the question, whether the strands were or were not properly laid up,---reports,----"that he cannot but feel convinced, that the defect so generally complained of must arise from the nature of the material, and not at all from its manufacture:"---in which, of course, the master-attendant fully concurred. (See Lords' Committee on New Zealand, 1838.)
Such a categorical opinion, without either reason,
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NEW ZEALAND HEMP.
fact, or proof, should only have as much weight as it deserves, with the Navy Board and Admiralty.
It is probable, that the unclean state of the flax, when imported into England, may have occasioned great trouble to the government rope-makers, in heckling out the tow, and freeing the fibres from the particles of the inner epidermis adhering to them, and which, if not properly and fully done, would operate against the due proportionate tension and wear of the strands, more particularly if they were carelessly or imperfectly laid.
The settlers at Port Nicholson have, with great spirit, formed a committee for the purpose of raising a fund, to reward the inventor of a machine which shall separate the fibre completely from the leaf.
In various parts of the Islands there are now many settlers who are manufacturing rope from the flax, either purchased from the Natives, or obtained from the leaf by some plan of their own; but this is accomplished, solely by the manual labour of one or two individuals, and on a very limited scale, for the supply of local wants. Until some machine, simple and cheap in its construction, capable of being multiplied in its power, with facility, either by water or steam, is invented, the valuable indigenous flax of New Zealand will not become a staple commodity, or an article of export from the Colony.
The Whale-fishery has also been mentioned as one of the sources of future wealth to the colonists of New Zealand. This branch of commerce is carried on in two ways---either by vessels that remain absent
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WHALE FISHERY.
from their port for a certain period, which is termed "deep sea fishing," or by establishments in the large bays on the coasts, who watch for the whales resorting to the bays at certain seasons to calve, which is denominated "shore fishing.quot;
The former requires large capital, and it can be conducted as profitably, and with a better outfit, from England, as from the colonies adjacent to the fishing ground; therefore it cannot be considered as a resource peculiar or exclusive to the Colony.
It has also been imagined that New Zealand, being so near to the Southern deep sea fishery, now that it has become a British colony, must and will be the rendezvous of vessels engaged in that trade, and that ships will resort to the various ports to refit or to obtain supplies. This opinion has doubtless arisen from the Bay of Islands having been, for many years past, the rendezvous of French and American whalers, whose numbers far exceed those under the British flag. But the fact is well known, that so soon as the British Government was established, the whaling vessels entirely deserted the Colony, and they now resort to Tahiti, the Feejees, the Navigators', and the other numerous islands of the Polynesian group, near to the equator, where they obtain fresh provisions and wood, at a much cheaper rate than they can, at present, in New Zealand. Besides, these whaling vessels prefer what they term free ports, and places unfrequented by any shipping but of their own description, for various reasons. Exclusive of port dues, there is the risk
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WHALE FISHERY.
of losing some of their crews, in a harbour with many other vessels, and where there are the opportunities of a large settlement for concealment and escape. Likewise, in frequenting the Bay of Islands formerly, or any other free port, the foreign whalers could barter their oil and bone, in payment for whatever provisions and stores they required, and in the absence of all customs restrictions, the oil and bone, subsequently, could very easily be added to the cargo in a British colonial bottom, and be sent to Sydney. But this can no longer be carried on in New Zealand; and it will never answer the purpose of the English store-keepers to pay the heavy duty on oil out of a foreign bottom, and then tranship it to England. This branch of custom will be very perplexing and expensive to Government, to prevent the surreptitious introduction into the Colony of oil and whalebone, from French and American whalers, when on the coasts. The duty of £26. 12s. per ton, is for the protection and encouragement of British shipping, and if great care and vigilance are not exercised by the customs of New Zealand, the law will be evaded to a very great extent.
As to "shore fishing," the produce from such stations is diminishing annually, and will very soon be altogether extinct, from the indiscriminate slaughter, during the last fifteen years, of both the dam and her young. The shore whalers, as soon as the cow,---as the female is termed,---visited the shallow waters with her offspring, made a practice of killing the calves, of no value, in order to secure
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VALUE OF NATIVE PRODUCE.
the mother, for the latter will never leave her offspring, and thus they have most effectually destroyed an important lucrative trade.
At present there is no export of any consideration, and the few articles of native produce---pigs, maize, and potatoes, which of late years have been exported to Sydney, will now cease to be profitable and available for that market, on account of the wants of, and consequent good prices realised from, the new emigrants by the Natives, who are becoming daily more sensible of the value of their produce, and also of their labour. The days of figs of tobacco, pipes, nails, and fish-hooks, are past, never to return. The Native now knows the real value of his timber, pigs, maize, and potatoes, and is quite indifferent to disposing of them, unless at a good price, cunningly conceiving, that as they have so suddenly risen in value, and become articles earnestly sought after by the "Pakeha," that they will become still more so by his reluctance and obstinacy in not parting with them.
