CHAPTER I.--THE COUNTRY.
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INFORMATION FOR EMIGRANTS
TO
THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE.
NEW ZEALAND.
CHAPTER I.--THE COUNTRY.
IN the Autumn of 1839, the climate of South Australia forced me to set sail in quest of a change. Report attracted me to New Zealand, where I landed in the beginning of September, five months previous to the arrival of his Excellency the Governor, Captain Hobson, R.N. Recently returned to England, my attention has been directed to the numerous advertisements exciting the emigrant to repair thither. As numbers are already there, and strong influences are exerted to induce more to follow, I desire to impart my quantum of information, without using colours merely to draw attention; nor am I led by any interest whatever to bias decisions.
I have presumed the account of any one who has sojourned there, would be esteemed otherwise than
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an idle tale, and would be perused as likely to impart some beneficial information; as many are on the eve of embarkation, time will not permit my being so careful with my pen as I could have wished, fearing, lest I might have allowed those to depart, to whom I might have given warning of the many jack-o'-lanterns played about the paths of emigration.
I purpose to give a general, not minute, history of the country and its climate; of its soil, productions, and capabilities; also of its Aboriginal and European inhabitants; and to close my account with observations on what may obstruct or facilitate the progress of a colonist.
The geographical position of New Zealand 1 must be too well known to need an account from me; or that it consists of three islands--the northern, which is about nine hundred miles from its north to its south cape; the middle, or southern, which is the largest; and Stewart's Island, the smallest, and lying furthest to the southward: it is to the northern my narrative is chiefly confined. The acreage of these islands is computed as exceeding fifty millions of square acres.
Towards the northern extremity of the northern island, the settlement of the government has been formed. To the extreme south, on the northern border of Cook's Straits, the New Zealand's Company's first settlement was formed: the government
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being commissioned by our Sovereign to treat with tbe natives, that her sovereignty might be established; and the Company chartered to buy and sell lands, and for general purposes of trade, under the government exercised by Her Majesty's representative.
The Governor landed in the Bay of Islands in the month of January 1840, at the township of Ko-ro-ra-ri-ka, the eldest settlement in New Zealand. The aspect of the coast is either sandy ridges and flats, flanked by lofty brown looking hills thickly timbered, or by bold dark rocks. Its outline is every where deeply serrated by the influx of the ocean, and the numerous streams and rivers rushing from its hills to the sea.
The Bay of Islands is situate near the north end of the northern island. The Bay has a wide entrance, the heads being nine miles apart; the anchoring grounds are some miles from the heads, of which a rocky cape called Cape Bren forms one, and a pyramidal rock emerging abruptly from the sea, not inaptly termed the Nine-Pin, forms the other. This rock has not an inch of soil upon it; and it would require the steady foot of a practised climber to remain upon its summit, the post being utterly untenable in a gale of wind. Such, however, was the mania for land speculations among the Australian colonists anticipating colonization, that a resident, infected with that fever, perhaps dreaming of a lighthouse company and himself as managing director, actually purchased from the natives this lump of well-
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washed stone, on which no bird could lay an egg in safety. The Nine-Pin is not connected with the main land; a small passage intervening. On entering the heads, you have on either side dark sombre-looking rocks. About three miles within the heads, a rocky island 2 stays the direction of your course; on one side of which you bring up, in the anchoring ground of Tip-poo-nah; on the other, you turn slightly, and are carried to the anchoring ground off Ko-ro-ra-ri-ka, some miles distant from the heads; (before bringing up, you have passed several rocky islands, apparently only suited for the dwellings of birds, forming another safe anchorage, termed Par-o-a Bay;) or you may proceed still farther. Opposite Ko-ro-ra-ri-ka, extending outwards from the mission village, is the Brampton Shoal; you pass rocky islands to the right and left, until the passage, after a distance of some miles, becomes narrowed; and beyond, a ship may not proceed if she would keep afloat. This is the seat of a government depot, and where a town was advertised to be raised--Russell Town. It is a complete, safe, and extensive harbour; the resort originally of whaling-vessels of England, France, and America, seeking fresh provisions for their crews; and, as Europeans settled, the resort of merchant-vessels from the Australian colonies. Nearly one hundred sail have often been riding together at anchor within this bay,
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studding the face of the waters with hulls and spars; their different coloured streamers playing in the wind; and their boats sailing or rowing oyer their surface--a pleasing and a lively scene.
The surface of the island is mountainous to an excess: the circumscribed flat on which he lands, might daunt the hopes of the agriculturist; he cogitates if he himself can ascend the hills, how then are horses and ploughs to work?
It is an anxious moment when the new country is first hailed from sea; the heart is apt to beat or be depressed by the impression of that anxious gaze rivetted on its future home.
On landing, and travelling inland, you pass over short flats and long hills; traversing ridge after ridge, you notice the hills are often very precipitous, with occasional deep gorges; here and there you pause on an eminence whose top expands, presenting a tabular or slightly undulated surface. The valleys are quickly passed, being small in extent, and the waters of a river or stream, poured into their bosoms by surrounding hills; the available extent of the vales is often intruded on by marshes overgrown with tall segs. Sometimes these vales are like the bottom of a tub, of which the surrounding hills form the sides. There are very few plains in New Zealand; the broad top of a mountain or a confined vale, are called plains; yet plains there are, though very rare; for this reason the scenery is of slight extent, mostly a miniature of Wales; eminences too
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frequently obstruct your view. A gentleman from New South Wales, having explored the country between the Bay of Islands and western coast, thus described to me his impression of it. "If I wanted to make a model of your promising island, I would empty a hogshead of sugar loaves, and set them on their bases close to each other; knock off their tops at various heights here and there, and that should form an unexceptionable model of New Zealand." The idea is not extravagant; it is close to nature.
You next reflect on the requirements of capital for the formation of roads 3 through such a country, and foresee that time must elapse before roads can be made--a great drawback to any country, however otherwise favoured. The settlements are on, or near the coast, and the communications by sea; being a narrow island towards its northern end, you are never, in any of the northern districts, far from the sea. The harbours are numerous: next to the Bay of Islands, you come to Wan-gar-o-a, a good harbour with a narrow mouth; then Doubtless Bay, a small but good anchorage; within which there is a rock near the middle of the entrance; on the west coast, Ho-ki-an-ga, a harbour not always easy of access; 4 Kai-pa-ra, having a difficult entrance; here the New
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Zealand Land Company's barque Tory was nearly wrecked; Man-o-kow, a small harbour; Ka-fee-ah, and others of less note. Turning Cape Egmont into Cook's Straits, you come to Taranaki Bay and Port Nicholson, the most important there; the latter where the Company's first settlement (under the direction of Col. Wakefield) is placed. Turning Cape Palliser, you reach Hawke's Bay and Poverty Bay, affording little shelter; and, on the east coast, after rounding the east cape into the Bay of Plenty, you have bar harbours for small craft at Opo-tee-kee and O-hee-wah, and the small and safe harbour of Tow-ron-ga. Next, Mercury Bay, which is not well sheltered: here her Majesty's ship Buffalo was wrecked last year. Turning Cape Colville, you enter, passing the Barriers islands, the Frith of the Thames; and some miles from the sea, at Coromondel, and also at the Wai-mattee, distant three hundred miles from the North Cape, are good harbours. At the Wai-mattee is the seat of government (the town of Auckland) fixed. This district or isthmus may be termed the waist of the island, the east and west coasts being but three miles apart; the natives frequently haul across their canoes, capable of containing fifty men or more, from one shore to the other; small harbours intervene between this and the Bay of Islands. The greater number of the harbours have bars at their mouths. The Bay of Islands and Port Nicholson are the largest and best to enter, and also for shelter.
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The finest portions of country most gifted for the plough and the sickle, and the general operations of the farmer, is the Why-kat-to, communicating with the east coast at Tow-ron-ga; the north-east at the Thames; the west coast at Kai-pa-ra, and Man-o-kow. The Why-kat-to country is more open, having an undulated surface not so embarrassed with mountains; it is near the centre of the island: to such account the natives and Europeans, who have traversed it, subscribe. Erom this part, the finest and greatest abundance of native produce has been procured. I am acquainted with a person resident in New Zealand for years, who has sailed round and round the island, trading (his constant avocation); and who has lately, in 1840, removed his trader into that district on account of its advantages. From it, tracts of communication are trod to all parts of the island by the native; it is as capable, and more so, than most districts, of conversion into roads. Here, too, is the most inland native settlement; in numbers large, trading extensively, resolute in war, yet desirous to avoid it.
There are many other parts where an open and fertile country is to be met with; not however so abounding in advantages; nearing, as it does, a central position, and having extent. It is expected that a communication will be discovered between this country and Taranaki Bay. Eor agricultural pursuits, districts will be found about the Bay of Islands;
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small patches of available land about Wangaroa-- a splendid tract between that part and the shores of Doubtless Bay, which I pointed out in a letter to the Company's agents out there; a vale rich in vegetation, through which a small river, of varied depth, meanders; about Doubtless Bay, and approaching the North Cape: places of no extent about Ho-ke-an-ga, expanding in the neighbourhood of Ki-pa-ra. The borders of Cook's Straits are very mountainous; the line of coast presenting occasionally such a spot as is described in the engraving of Wellington, published by the New Zealand Land Company, picturing a bay; the land having a gentle rise to a high background of lofty hills, their range appearing to reach the sea on either side of the settlement, in form of an amphitheatre--a common coast scene in New Zealand. About Poverty Bay is a fine country; on rounding the East Cape, and emerging into the Bay of Plenty, you notice in its centre low sand-hills, behind which is a country twenty miles or more in extent; difficult, however, of approach, having no harbour for large vessels, and smaller craft, needing pilots, not always at hand. The Bay of Plenty is difficult to escape from, unless the anchor is weighed the instant the wind threatens from the north-east. In this wide spreading bay, between the east cape and its centre, twenty miles at sea, is an island incessantly vomiting forth a huge column of white or black smoke--(the vane of the country thereabouts). Its appearance has
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named it the White Island; and on it are sulphur and pumice-stone. When resident in this neighbourhood, I experienced the shock of four earthquakes; they are common there throughout the year. I could not learn that they caused damage.
In another district of the centre of the Bay of Plenty, behind an island, 5 evidently an expired volcano, is another line of low sand hills, at the back of which is a flat, intersected by streams, and indicating an expensive want of drainage; over the hills at its back, you pass into a country bordering a large lake, R-o-tu-ro-a; in the neighbourhood of which are wells supplied by boiling springs, 6 where the natives, of a dark night, generally carry a light or firebrand, to prevent mistakes, and being scalded to death. This country again communicates with the Why-kat-to district and the west coast. I have known a large whale boat to be transported from Ro-tu-ro-a Lake to the low country on the east coast; therefore roads must be practicable there. Sailing thence, you come to the Thames, 7 already alluded to; its banks present good land, also the Pe-ak-ko, a tri-
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butary stream. Between the Thames and Cape Bren are many confined districts, with small harbours. Between the Bay of Islands and the west coast, eight miles from the former, and somewhat more from the latter, is a pleasing available district, and a station of the Church Mission Establishment; its name the Why-de-mat-ta. Passing over a rude cart track, on which your eyes are confined to keep your feet out of the deep mud, and emerging from a forest, a scene of cultivated country breaks upon you, the first, and, as an effort of cultivation, the most imposing in the country. Here could a sleeping eye awaken forgetful of its transit--it would look on home: the lowing herd, the harrow lying on the ploughed ground, the green sward of pastures, the fenced crops and rose-bound porch, all crowd the mind with images of that land where your childhood first sported, and where your feelings were first created; and you are sad to feel its dearness, to have those feelings beating within you at which, in moments given to speculation, you have often jeered. Take an emigrant, and suddenly expose to him such a scene, and ask him--
Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself has said,
This is my own, my native land!
The general surface of the country is exceedingly mountainous, well wooded and watered; and, throughout, these mountains pour their collections
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in innumerable streams and rivers; but few, in comparison with their number, navigable except near the sea. After much rain, streams appear which were not before seen; and the stream through which you might have walked, you can hardly swim. 8 Streams and precipitous hills take up a vast extent of the acreage of the island, computed at thirty-five thousand square miles. These mountains are covered either with dense forests of lofty timber of immense girth, from ten to thirty feet and more in circumference, and of extremely straight growth, not giving off a branch for twelve feet from the ground; and shooting across your path, immense thick vines wind, making their first grasp at some distance from the ground, around them, no doubt to their injury, and considerably to the inconvenience of the traveller; who, failing to lower his head or raise high enough his legs, is frequently and unpleasantly caught by them; break them you cannot--they must be cut, being often as thick as your arm. The trees growing close, render the forests very dark, and it is lonely to traverse them. The mountains have also other coverings: the most general is the fern, varying in height from one to six feet, according to the soil. Where the soil is poor, a shrub, sometimes growing to a tree (bearing a fragrant white blossom), called by resident sailors the tea tree, is to be met with; at
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the base of the hills you have various shrubs--the large flax plant, small herbaceous plants, and here and there detached grasses: I have observed about seven species, not enough in any one spot for pasture. In the valleys you find the same, the flax being, perhaps, more common than the nettle at home; then in the valleys you meet with marshes and flags, and reeds and rushes growing therein. The scenery of New Zealand obtains its character from the frequent volcanic form of its mountains--from a species of fern, growing as a tree, from ten to twenty feet high, its huge fern leaves ascending a stem covered with coarse, dark, brown hair-like fibres, the leaves inclining from the top gracefully outwards and downwards, the tree presenting a close resemblance to a palm (Arenga saccharifera)--from the flax plant, which in appearance resembles the American aloe, with a narrower leaf; from its centre a slender flowering stem, shooting up to a height of eight feet, the plant itself varying in height from three to six feet--and farther, from a tree which bears as a foliage lateral tufts of long leaves, growing like so many flag-plants upon it.
The coast scenery is the most varied and pleasing. Here a tree, called the Poo-ree-re, exposes a brilliant dark green foliage, and in the spring--the autumn of the northern hemisphere--it is profusely covered with rich crimson blossoms.
The scenery generally is a miniature resemblance
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of North Wales; having the peculiarities above described, and wanting the extent of the Welsh vales.
I will here describe the earliest settlement in New Zealand---Ko-ro-ra-ri-ka (with which, from its situation, very little communication can be held except by sea), as it appeared on my landing there one Sunday in September 1839. The waters of the Bay roll on a semi-circular beach of large gravel, with a grating murmur; the beach projecting is lost in rocks at either extremity. Fronting the beach, some little distance from high-water mark, an irregular and broken line of wooden dwellings, houses, publics, and stores, some with neat verandahs, and generally as respectable in appearance as a village at home, obtruded themselves, and among others, the dwelling of his reverence the Vicar Apostolic; in one part, near the centre, that line was broken by the fence of the native settlement, formed of timber and whole trees of irregular height, some lofty (twenty feet), with their tops carved into grotesque figures; in the rear stood in relief from the hills behind it, the Chapel, a neat, unpretending building, built by the church missionaries, showing its side with four large windows. Numerous whale and other boats were fastened above the wash of the tide, in front of the native settlement; their canoes, coloured red with a black and white scroll on their sides (on the water line); their stems carved into the form of faces, with huge tongues hanging over their chins;
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groups of natives wrapped in an English blanket, or mat of their own manufacture: or chiefs a l'Anglois, with a cloth cap and gold band on their head, wearing tastefully over their shoulders a cloak; their under garments being a sailor's check shirt and cloth trousers, those of lower note being nearly naked or variously clad in European garments; their women as fine as they could deck themselves, yet not so tricked out with gew-gaws as savages elsewhere; their children sporting about with but slight clothing; man, woman, and child, smoking, squatting on their haunches, or reposing, or moving to the chapel; European sailors puffing their 'baccy' and yawning; some reeling drunk; numbers of people, as well dressed and well behaved as at home, chiefly male, 9 pursuing their way to the chapel; the back ground of the picture filled up by lofty mountains, their tops forming a ragged outline. On the opposite shore, distant two or three miles, looking neat, and wearing an air of great respectability, were visible the houses of the Mission, a complete village, and on a hill on that shore, looking towards the head, the residence of her Majesty's resident (-- Busby, Esq.), before which, on a high staff, was hoisted the banner of St. George. On a rocky island, at the opposite extreme, was seen the colours assigned to
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New Zealand, 10 while on another staff, on Ko-ro-ra-ri-ka Beach, before the dwelling of the oldest resident; flaunted proudly a large English Union Jack, in homage of the day; between the two shores numerous boats sailing and rowing over the waters blue; and riding at anchor, large vessels, whaling and other barques and brigs; nearer the beach, schooners engaged in the coasting trade, all with their colours blowing out: the stars and stripes of America, the tricolour of France, and neat among the rest, the blushing ensign "that oft had stood the battle and the breeze."
I have herein depicted a rugged mountainous island of volcanic aspect, exposing a difficulty of internal communication, owing to the frequency and height of those mountains; and to its numerous watercourses, and the occasional impetuosity of their torrents; the northern extremity extending as a long peninsula from the main body of land, on and about which peninsula has hitherto been the seat of trade-- the speculations of a company of gentlemen highly respectable and influential, having planted at the southern extreme of the island a settlement called Wellington.
The residence (Auckland) of her Majesty's Go-
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vernment being at that part which I term the waist of the island, from which the peninsula projects, commanding in its site more direct communication with the various parts of this one island than any other district does; while the Company's settlements near Taranaki Bay must he deemed, if the government of the three islands is considered, more judicious, as being nearer the middle island, with which it would offer greater facilities of communication, not, however, at present material, the population on the southern island amounting only to a few souls, and an established trade of many years resorting to the North Island, requiring the earlier attention of government for its regulation and protection. Cook's Straits are seldom visited by vessels homeward bound from the Australian Colonies, and have only been resorted to for the procuring of the black whale.
I confess that my picture, in its present state, is little inviting. I wish to paint with the colours of reality alone, to suit myself to any comprehension, not writing to inform the naturalist or man of science: I state scenes as I found them, as they present themselves to every eye. I need give no warning that the account of any one part or point of a country may not be taken alone to form correctly the emigrant's judgment; with what he has read, details most important have yet to be considered; and now we pass on to climate and soil,
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which may render the most rugged rocks inviting, if, in the enjoyment of robust health, industry can obtain there its rewards, and life's closing scenes be looked forward to, unaccompanied by the dread of leaving behind, without provision, the beings our gratifications may have created.
I describe not the southern island, which has only been resorted to by gangs of sailors, employed in the black whale fisheries; their dwellings are on the coast, and they only remain there daring the whaling season; when they return in a vessel sent for them, and the oil they may have procured, to Sydney. Their accounts may not be depended on; and other travellers have as yet touched only at parts of the coast, nor have made any stay on the island. Major Bunbury has lately, I believe, sailed round it on a mission, to obtain the signatures of the resident chiefs to the treaty between them and our most gracious sovereign. From the accounts given by such temporary visitors, no detail can be given to warrant inducements being practised on people to settle there. The general features known of that island are similar to those presenting themselves on the opposite border of Cook's Straits; large flats, fine open districts, are said to have been seen. On strict inquiry of old voyagers, I have invariably been answered, that so-and-so told them. Although the larger island, fewer natives have been met with there, than on the northern, to a degree intimating that subsistence
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there is not of easy acquisition, as the savage generally resides where nature requires from him the smallest amount of labour.
The nucleus of a French settlement is landed on nthe east coast of that island, at Bankes's Peninsula. A curious contre-temps occurred in the autumn: a French vessel of war put in at the Bay of Islands; on the morning after her arrival, one of our ships, then at anchor there, weighed and stood out to sea; about ten days after, the Frenchman appeared off Bankes's Peninsula, where he saw the English vessel at anchor, all snug, and English colours flying on shore; soon after, a French whaling ship, le Comte de Paris, loaded with emigrants, brought up, and had to ask permission to land her living cargo.
Whether the French captain had been instructed to communicate the intended emigration of his countrymen to the southern islands to our governor, I cannot say; report states that those intentions were surmised, and the English sloop dispatched to take formal possession, while the foreigners were enjoying his Excellency's hospitalities. The French whaler had among her cargo some cannon, which, however, were not allowed to be landed--to talk French under the English standard.
My arrangement points out the most available and desirable districts for the farmer, as well as the oldest seats of commerce--information the emigrant will find useful on landing.
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The information given to the colonist on his arrival, is too often coloured to suit views of parties and promote resident interests, without considering as to whom the advice is given, and must be listened to with due caution.
