1852 - Martin, A. Journal of an Emigrant from Dorsetshire to New Zealand. [Typescript] - [Auckland] p 26-40

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Auckland, Friday, Nov. 21st. -- I have scarcely had a pen in my hand since October 18th. After writing in this journal, I went to bed that evening with some threatenings of rheumatism; in the night a most violent attack came on, and which I have not yet quite recovered from. I will not, however, write about my own ills, but proceed to give an account of our arrival at this place. On Sunday, October 19th, the Auckland hills were in view, and at about ten o'clock in the evening the good ship Cashmere arrived in harbour; no one on board could rejoice more than myself at hearing the anchor go down. Those passengers who had friends on shore left the vessel on Monday, and those who were

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going to stop at Auckland soon found houses, as there were plenty to be let; the ship appeared quite deserted. I was not well enough to move, but Mr. Brodie was kind enough to get us a house, and by his and Mr. Read's assistance, we left the Cashmere on Saturday, October 25th. All the passengers (with but one exception) have behaved in the most kind manner, during the voyage, to Jemima, myself, and the children. When we came in sight of Auckland, a testimonial, or letter of thanks, was read before all the cuddy passengers to the captain. This letter caused a good deal of discussion on board, and, as it was my composition, I shall state why I took a prominent part: a thing most contrary to my desires. I was requested, by some of the passengers, to write a letter of thanks to Captain Pearson. After refusing to for some time, as no one else took up the affair, I, by way of setting it going, wrote the following, to be taken round to all the passengers in the ship for alteration or improvement:--

This was taken by Mr. Dudley to Mr. Bailey, who behaved in a most insulting manner to Mr. D.; called him officious, and

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said it was a hole and corner affair, got up by two or three persons only; this took place on the main deck, before a number of people. Mr. Bailey said, the proper course was to call a general meeting of the passengers; as it would have almost to a certainty, been attended with unpleasant consequences, a meeting was of all things to be avoided, and I was determined to do all I could to prevent it. Mr. Bailey's behaviour so bewildered Mr. Dudley that he did not know how to go on; I was obliged, therefore, to take the matter entirely on myself, leaving Mr. Bailey to his own devices. I lost no time in learning the opinions of the passengers; the letter had now become the exciting topic of the ship. I was soon much gratified to find that, with the exception of Mr. Bailey and three 1 others, all the passengers were ready to sign my letter, and they would not hear of a meeting. I mention these things, as they are specimens of the unpleasant occurrences which happen on board most passenger ships. The letter, with signatures attached, is duly chronicled in the Auckland newspapers. The Cashmere left this port for Wellington on Friday, November 21st. She will return again with a cargo of timber for England about the end of February.

Auckland is not interesting as regards beauty of situation; the harbour is a very safe one, and the town is increasing; houses are also springing up in the suburbs in all directions. Whilst other places are puffing themselves off and abusing Auckland, this settlement is doing more trade than all the ports

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of New Zealand put together. The two inducements which decided my stopping here, was the certainty of having a good market, and also that there is plenty of land to be had of the best quality; trade is very dull here just at this time; money is in great request - from £15 to £20 per cent, is given on the best security. Several of the passengers on board the Cashmere brought out large cargoes of goods with them; during the voyage they were very busy making out their invoices, &c; I used to envy them their New Zealand profits, as they called them; they modestly expected to clear thirty per cent. I was sorry I had not brought out some merchandise with me, instead of having to pay two per cent for what money I had with me. On arriving at Auckland, however, those who speculated found that their profits were not to be so large as they expected; the town was full of goods, money was the only thing wanted, and merchandise unsaleable. I am not sorry that I was not the unfortunate possessor of some hundred pounds' worth of calicoes, brandies, ales, pickles, &c. A regular trader, I have no doubt, clear his twenty per cent.; but a person bringing out only one cargo, it is an even chance if he gains or loses. I have not as yet been able to see much of the country; but what I have seen, I can speak most favourably of; as to climate, we have had a good deal of rain, and plenty of sunshine; this combined with fertility of soil makes the productions of the earth grow to a size which rather astonishes one on one's first arrival. The advantages which the farmer has in this country are, I conceive to be, 1st., he has no poor-rates; 2nd, no tithes or taxes of any kind; 3rd, the land produces half as much again, with but half the labour; 4th, the almost certainty

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of a good harvest; 5th, a high price for his produce; 6th, land sells and lets very low. Under these circumstances, farmers are now doing well; the only thing against the farmer is the high price of labour.

It may be thought that the working man must put by money and grow rich; but if he earns from one to two pounds per week he spends every farthing, and perhaps gets into debt for drink, such is his passion for spirits. Drunkenness is the prevailing vice of the colony; the upper classes as well as the lower give way to it. Sawyers used to earn as much as three or four pounds per week, but now they must work hard to get twenty-five shillings. I was speaking to some of them a short time since, and to hear them talk and complain of the bad times, one would think they were starving; labourers at home - in England, I mean - would rather like to change places with these men. They pay £5 per annum to Government for liberty to cut timber in a certain district: this gives them the privilege of doing what they like with a tract of land compared with which the Stourton property would only be a small farm: they build themselves huts by the side of a river, and then proceed to cut timber: sometimes they take the trouble to scratch up the ground and plant a few potatoes. The land by the side of these streams is very fertile, it has all that rich black appearance which the well manured market-gardens have near London. If the sawyers choose they can catch fish, as the river is full of them; there are wild ducks and pigeons waiting to be shot at on the trees. They can buy fat pigs from the natives at 1 1/2d per lb., or they can kill wild ones for nothing.

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Oysters better, or at least as good as any I have ever had in London, are to be got in such plenty, that boats load with them and take them to Auckland to be made into lime. If a person has the use of his arms and legs he cannot well starve in New Zealand.

The breed of cattle is very excellent; there are to be seen horses, cows, sheep and pigs feeding about quite equal to the generality of those in England. Butter and cheese making is not done here so well as it might be. Cheese in England, which the farmer would be glad to sell at 4d per lb., sells at the shops in Auckland for 1s.; butter is 10d. per lb.; milk, 2d. per pint; beef and mutton, 6d. per lb.; pork, 4d,; potatoes, about 7s. a sack; bread, 10d. the 4lb.; eggs, 9d. per doz. With the exception of butter and cheese, all these things are quite equal to what we have been used to get in England. Fish are in great abundance, but no one but the natives take the trouble to catch them; sometime since an Englishman started as a fisherman, he flourished so well that he was able to drink himself to death in a few months. The great inconvenience of New Zealand is the want of female servants; they get enormous wages, and are most of them bad servants with questionable characters: a girl of twelve years old gets £10 per annum. We are now giving nearly £20 per annum to a person who if she was in England would have some trouble to get £6. The cargo of needle-women sent out here sometime since did not add to the number of domestics; they say half of them got married, and the other half took to bad courses. A good many of the lower orders have gone to Sidney after gold; but so much money was lost by the Auckland people by speculations in California, that they seem rather shy of the diggings.

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The houses are mostly built of wood, but there are now two brick kilns close to the town; there are several new houses of bricks, and others in the course of execution; volcanic stone (scoria) is also used, it is a capital stone for building, but from the quantity of lime it takes, which is expensive here, it is not much employed: some of the Government houses are built with it, as is also the Scotch church; some cottages are made with rushes; this kind of work is done by the natives: it has a most neat and comfortable appearance in the inside. The shingle roofs to the houses look very nice, it is not unlike the old stone-tile which some of the ancient houses have in England.

We are living about a mile from Auckland. There are detached houses nearly all the way to the town; some of them have very nice gardens: roses and geraniums grow in the hedges; this gives a pretty and cheerful look. The New Zealand trees and shrubs are very beautiful; clover and all the English grasses are in great luxuriance. In a few years there will be some fine pasture land. Government has done something to road making; the lava makes the most capital material; what few roads there are are as hard and smooth as Regent Street. We have two breweries close to us - at least they were breweries when we first landed, but now they have become defunct; and no wonder, for it is said they made the malt, brewed the beer, and sent it out for drinking all in the space of a week. A person with some capital, and who really understood his business, might make a fortune in a very short time, by supplying the good people of Auckland with real English brewers' beer; a liquid with some strength in it is what is wanted. I should think the weather in the winter months quite cool enough to make beer in.

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One shilling per bottle is the price of London porter; twenty-five shillings per dozen is the price of what they call port and sherry; brandy, fifteen shillings per gallon; gin and rum something less; brandy has the greatest consumption. These this are not allowed to be sold to natives. Not being able to speak the language, I cannot say much about the natives; some of the settlers seem to think ill of them, and to dislike them. There cannot be any doubt that the natives have been cheated and ill used; and now that they are becoming as wise as the English they are trying to get the better of them in return. The Auckland people would be very badly off if it were not for the natives -a great deal of produce is brought by them into the town. The settlers do not grow anything like enough to maintain themselves; we must have cheaper labour before it will pay to raise corn.

I have not been here long enough to understand the land question. The settlers complain that the Government will not allow anyone to buy land but of themselves. There are some fine districts which belong to the Maories, and they would be glad to sell them; but however good the title, the purchaser might at a future period be turned out of it; these lands, then, are as it were locked up. It is quite certain that this country cannot prosper to any extent until the land is thrown open, and encouragement given for persons to purchase. There may be reasons why the Maories should not be allowed to sell their property, but if there are difficulties in the way, they might be easily overcome by a little exertion on the part of the authorities; if they had the welfare of the colony at heart they would lose no time in making arrangements with the natives. All parties are very

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discontented on this subject, and it cannot be much longer delayed. Timber of the finest kind abounds in New Zealand; the wood most in use is the native pine; it is something like the foreign deal used in England, but it works better and is smoother in the grain. There are some fine furniture woods; the farmer in a woodland district can put up fences at a very cheap rate as there are a great variety of trees fit for the purposes.

The advantage that the Auckland district has over the other settlements is the number of fine harbours it has along its coast; the other places have either bar harbours or open roadsteads. At Wellington the winds are sometimes so high and have such force that the harbour is not always a safe one. That Auckland will one day become a rich and extensive city is a thing which I have not the least doubt about; the country round it is magnificent, it only wants capital and labour well laid out on it; the money already spent has been for the most part squandered and wasted, when it is taken into consideration that this settlement was not in existence in 1840 it is quite surprising the progress it has made. It has all the appearance of a bustling English seaport. The butchers and bakers' boys seem to ride and drive even faster than they do in England.

The Governor is now at Wellington; the Auckland people do not like him, and he seems to have been driven away from hence. Of the former Governors, some persons speak well of Fitzroy, and some of Hobson; but no one speaks well of Governor Gray; they all like the Lieut.-Governor, Col. Wynyard.

We have now the beginning of a self-government. The question of the most importance is the New Zealand Company's claim, or

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rather their pretended claim, against the Auckland district; if we pay the New Zealand Company one farthing we should disgrace ourselves in the eyes of every one. The company has spent - I should say mis-spent, two hundred thousand pounds on some of the settlements of New Zealand; but Auckland has received nothing but abuse from the Company; whilst it was in existence, it did every thing it could to retard the progress of this settlement. The other places are jealous of the large Government expenditure, which may benefit some of the townspeople, but the reason of Auckland having prospered so well is the trade which is carried on with the natives. New Zealand at present is not going ahead, it is not doing so well as it ought. The chief reason for this non-progression is the land question, and another is the finding of gold in Australia. The former is the fault of our Government, and the latter cause I leave to settle itself; I have no doubt some of the gold will find its way to New Zealand. Government seems as it were to take a delight in retarding the increase and prosperity of this country. If our rulers are negligent and care nothing about the colony, then why encumber us at all with their help? The colonists know what is best for themselves, and until we have a large share in the direction of our own affairs we shall never get on. There are men in this country who could be trusted to frame measures which would have the effect of giving prosperity and a fresh impetus to New Zealand. The Colonial Office in London knows as much about what is best for us New Zealanders as they know what is best for the people of China. The opinion of many that I have spoken with here is, that Government cares for nothing but its patronage; as for the colonist, they never trouble their

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heads about him, except to prevent his becoming too prosperous; for then he might begin to talk of having the affairs of his country managed in a better and cheaper manner. There are two sources which we have to look to, which will compel the Government to see into these matters: the natives here will insist on being allowed to sell their land as they please; and the Australians will soon be strong enough to demand the administration of their own affairs; and whatever is granted to Australia cannot be withheld from New Zealand.

January 1st was the beginning of the Auckland races; they last three days; I went on the first day: these public amusements are the best places to see the inhabitants of the country; the weather was brilliant and beautiful; the course is about four miles from Auckland, and there passed me on the road, half-a-dozen blue carts with red wheels, two vehicles - something between a French diligence and an omnibus - a Whitechapel cart, in which was seated Mr. or Captain Beckham, our police magistrate; these equipages, together with a few horsemen, made up the scene on the road. On the course, which is very finely situated, I was mostly interested in looking at the Maories; they wear blankets of every hue and colour, and seated in their wild and picturesque groups they formed subjects fit for Michael Angelo. I saw natives with giant-like and finely moulded limbs sitting in attitudes that reminded me how true Michael Angelo was to nature. The races were, I believe, considered good; I was engaged in sketching, so that I did not pay much attention to the horses; I was able to get materials for three little sketches.

The accounts from Sydney about the gold induces many persons

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to leave this place. It is said, that the trade here was never so dull since the formation of the settlement as it is at present but labourers will not work under 3s. 6d per day, and the shopkeepers sell their goods dear enough; so, although they may be bad times, they certainly are not cheap times. We want a number of fresh settlers; until the population has increased in a great degree we cannot be called prosperous. The world is large, and there are plenty of places in it were to choose. The settlement which has the best land and sells it at the cheapest rate, that will be the place which will attract the largest number of emigrants. The Government has fixed the price of land in New Zealand at £1 per acre, by doing this they might almost as well have said, we forbid the colonization of New Zealand. The Americans sell their land at 5s. per acre, and give every encouragement to the settlers; the results are, that thousands go to America, and very few go to New Zealand. We must have the price of land down to 7s. 6d. and 5s. per acre before we are content.

There are two sorts of soil in the neighbourhood of Auckland, the volcanic and the clay; the former is a beautiful rich earth very easily worked, the latter bears capital corn crops, but requires a deal of cultivation; clover flourishes here better than in England; there are some splendid pastures on the Epsom road; in fact, I doubt if any of the New Zealand settlements have better soils or situation for the farmer, than the much abused neighbourhood of Auckland. Mr. Cobden would do well consider, instead of finding fault with us colonists, whether by giving us a new and a better system of government, persons might

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not be induced to come here instead of going to America; if they came here, Mr. Cobden's friends supply us with everything; if they go to America, they take few, if any, English goods.

January 30th. - When persons, who give an account of a new colony, are at a loss for something to scribble about, they turn, as a sort of refuge, to abusing the existing Government. I shall avail myself of this refuge, for the present I have no other subject, besides which, I am not in a very good humour with the Colonial Office. I applied for a grant of land, about twenty-five miles from Auckland; the Colonial Secretary was very civil, and ordered a surveyor to go with me into that I might get the land in a month after it was surveyed; I thought everything was going on very nicely, and ordered a house to be built, which was put up in three months. I always observed a smile on the faces of the older settlers, when I spoke of how well I had been treated at the Colonial Office; this smile was as much as to say, you are a young settler, and will know the Colonial Office better by-and-bye. I soon found that I was to suffer, as every one else has done, who has had anything to do with the Government.

One fine morning the Lieutenant-Governor took his departure for several months on a pleasure excursion on board the Calliope frigate, it was said he was going to review troops; his return is uncertain; whilst Colonel Winyard is absent, the state machine stands still; no land can be sold, or business transacted. How can it be expected that Auckland should thrive under such a state of things? The Colonial Office must be badly off if a person

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cannot be found with sufficient talent and trustworthiness to transact some of the lesser affairs of state whilst the Governor takes his holidays. The prosperity of this country depends on fresh settlers coming out and taking land; there are some fine districts within a convenient distance of Auckland, which if they were surveyed and put up at 6s. per acre, would soon be peopled; thus villages and farms would be established, and Auckland become a great city; but this cannot be the case, whilst it depends on half-a-dozen ships from England, and two or three American whalers in the year. Every encouragement and help ought to be afforded to the settler on his arrival. Lists of the unsold lands might be given out at the Survey office, with an accurate description of the quality of the soil, how it was wooded and watered, in fact, a true account of all the merits and demerits of the allotment; this would be a great help to the settler for provided the description was correct, he would be saved a great deal of trouble and expense in hunting after land; everything would be done to induce people to come out to us, provided we had the management of our own affairs, and had at our disposal the £30,000 or £40,000 a year which the Government takes out of our pockets in the shape of Custom-house taxes, the whole of which Governor Grey is allowed to cut ducks and drakes with as he pleases, and out of which the needy relations of some of our great folks at home are provided for. The Auckland people have long since given up even the hope of amendment in the Colonial Office; they have been waiting with a commendable patience for something to turn up; they may not have to wait long, for it is thought that the days of the Colonial Office are numbered; the finding of gold in Australia will altogether

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alter the state of affairs on this side of the world.

We have had several false alarms about gold; at one of the islands near Auckland they find several sorts of metals, some of them very like gold, but as yet the real stuff has not come to hand, and I do not know that we should gain much by finding it; however, it makes people very unsettled; there is quite as much complaining here as in England. Fortunes are not made in three or four years as they used to be; perhaps tradesmen are only making their £20 instead of £50 per cent., and labourers cannot get employment at 24s. per week.