NEW ZEALAND.
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NEW ZEALAND.
THIS colony is situated above 1,000 miles to the eastward of New South Wales, and contains an area of 100,000 square miles. It consists of three islands: the Northern, or Eaheinomauwe, 500 miles long, containing 42,000 square miles; the Middle, or Tavai Poenammoo, that is "The Island having the Greenstone," 500 miles long,
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containing 55,000 square miles; and the Southern, or Stewart Island, 50 miles long. The Northern island is now New Ulster, the Middle is New Munster, and the Southern is New Leinster.
The British population is about 50,000; the Maories or natives in the Northern Island are 100,000 in number; and in the Middle Island only 5,000.
MOUNTAINS.
New Zealand is decidedly a hilly country. In both islands, the ranges run nearly north and south; and their spurs east and west. The Southern Alps of Middle Island are always covered with snow. The eastern coast range of North Island is high. The Rua Hine, from Lake Taupo, is continued southward to Cook's Strait, Port Nicholson, in two branches, the Tararua and the Remutaka ranges. The Puketoi and Maungaraki are coast chains between Cook's Strait and Hawke Bay. The Coromandel range is eastward of the river Thames.
The loftiest peaks of North Island are--Edgecombe, by the Bay of Plenty, 10,000 feet; Egmont, near Port Plymouth, 8,300; Tongariro Volcano, south of Lake Taupo, 6,500; Ruapehu, south of Tongariro, 9,000.
In the Southern Island are loftier hills. Mount Cook, in the Alps, over the Canterbury Dividing Range, is 13,200 feet high; another mountain near it is 12,000; Kaikaro, south of Cloudy Bay, is 9,300; Peel and Tyrrell, south of Canterbury,
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are 6000; and between Nelson and Canterbury are elevated plains of 5,000 feet.
Mount Arthur is west, and Ben Nevis south of Nelson. Brunner Peak is in the Alps; Herbert, in Banks' Peninsula; Grey, in Canterbury; and Anglem, in Stewart Island. The Wakefield Range is the northern boundary of Canterbury. The Malvern Hills are in Canterbury district, and Rickards and Hutt to the west of it. The Cheviot Hills form a spur of the Alps, and the Atua range is west of Otago.
RIVERS.
The country abounds in rivers, but those on the western side of the Northern Island have sand bars at their entrance. The chief rivers are-- the Waikato, 250 miles long; the Waipa, 200 miles; Wairoa, or Long Water, 200 miles; Hokianga, Thames (or Waiho), Kiri Kiri, Hutt, Wanganui, Waiwakaia (or Canoe River), and Wairarapa.
The Waikato flows from Lake Taupo into Waikato Harbour; the Waipa is its tributary. The Wairoa falls into Kaipara Harbour, the Hokianga into Hokianga Harbour, the Thames into the Frith of Thames, the Hutt into Port Nicholson, the Wanganui and Manawatu into Cook's Strait, the Wairarapa into Palliser Bay, the Waiwakaia and Waitera run near Port Elliot, Taranaki; and the Cholmondely from Lake Coleridge.
The streams of the Middle Island are--the
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Maitai, near Nelson; the Wairau, from the Alps, into Cloudy Bay; the Courtenay, Avon, Selwyn, Ashby and Cholmondely, in Canterbury; the Waitangi, on Ninety-mile Beach; and the Matou, or Molyneux, in Otago district. On the west coast are many rivers, -- as the Buller, from Lake Arthur; the Grey, the Brunner, the Okitika, Awarua, &c.
LAKES.
Many of the lakes were originally the craters of volcanoes. In the Northern Island are Taupo, in the centre, 26 miles long by 20 broad; Rotorua, seven miles across, and a mountain in the middle; Rotoiti, or "Small Lake," joining Rotorua; Waikari, east of Taupo, 30 miles in circumference; Wairarapa, near Port Nicholson; and Rotomahana, or "Warm Lake." Many sulphurous and hot springs are near Roto-rua.
In the Middle Island are Ellesmere, or Waihora, by Banks' Peninsula, 20 miles long; Arthur and Howick, south of Nelson; Coleridge, west of Canterbury, seven miles across; Brunner, north of Coleridge; Maniatoto, north-west of Otago; and Wanaka, Hawea and Greenstone Lakes, among the southern bills of the Alps.
The waterfall of the Kiri Kiri is 95 feet deep and 60 wide; that of the Waianiwaniwa, or "Waters of the Rainbow," is 70 deep and 50 wide.
BAYS.
The chief bays and harbours in the northern
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island are, --Wangaroa Harbour, Bay of Islands, Frith of Thames or Hauraki Gulf, Coromandel Harbour, Bay of Plenty, Poverty Bay, and Hawke's Bay on the east; Hokianga, Kaipara, Manukao, and Waikato Harbours, and Port Elliott, on the west. Port Manukao Harbour, 3 miles west of Auckland, is an excellent and important port. Nicholson and Palliser Bay on the south.
Those of the middle island are Blind or Tasman Bay, Massacre Bay, Coal or Admiralty Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound, Cloudy Bay, and Port Underwood, on the north; Open Bay, Milford Haven, Doubtful Harbour, Dusky Bay, Port Preservation, and Chalky Bay, on the west; Pegasus Bay, Akaroa Harbour, Port Cooper or Victoria, Port Albert or Levi, and Port Otago, on the east. Ports Pegasus and Adventure are in Stewart Island.
CAPES.
The chief capes in the northern island are North Cape, and Maria Van Dieman or Reinga, on the north; Brett, Colville of Coromandel Peninsula, East Cape, Kidnapper Head, and Turnagain on the east coast; Egmont of Taranaki; and Nina, of Hokianga, on the west; Palliser and Sinclair Head on the south. Those of the middle island are Farewell, Jackson, and Campbell, on the north; Rocky, Foulwind, Bald, Arnott, Cascade, West Cape, and Puysegar, on the west; Godley Head of Canterbury, Saunders near Otago, and Nugget by Molyneux, on the east. South Cape is in the southern island.
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Cook's Strait is between the northern and middle islands; it is 100 miles wide at the northern extremity, and 50 miles at the southern. Foveaux Strait, between the middle and southern islands, is 40 miles long, and 10 miles broad.
ISLANDS.
The islands off the coast are few. The Three Kings are to the north-west of North Cape. Barrier is at the entrance of the Frith of Thames. The Volcanic White Island and Meyer's are in the Bay of Plenty. Kapiti or Entry, and D'Urville, are in Cook's Strait.
The Chatham Isles are 300 miles east of middle island. The Lord Auckland Isles are to the south of Stewart Isle, in lat. 51° S. A British colony is established at the Auckland Isles, and Mr. Enderby, the founder of this settlement of whalers, has been appointed Lieutenant-Governor. The Judge, Macquarie Isles, and the Bishop and his Clerk, are south of the Auckland.
DIVISIONS.
The colony, under one Governor, is divided into six provinces, each having a superintendent. They are--Auckland, the northern, New Plymouth, the western, and Wellington, the southern portion of Ulster. The other three are in the Middle Island: Nelson, the northern, Canterbury, the eastern, and Otago, the south-eastern.
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TOWNS.
The capital is Auckland, in New Ulster, in lat. 36° S. long. l74° E., standing upon the southern shore of the harbour of Waitemata, in the frith of Thames. The town contains 10,000 inhabitants. Wellington, in lat. 41° S., is situated on Port Nicholson, in Cook's Strait, with a population of 7,000. Wellington is between 500 and 600 miles from Auckland.
The principal settlements in the Northern Island, besides Auckland and Wellington, are-- Russell and Kororarika, in the Bay of Islands; the Waimate, or Dead water, near the bay; Hokianga, timber port, to the north-west; Taranaki, or New Plymouth, on the west coast, near Mount Egmont; and Petre, Wanganui, or Large Bay, Wairarapa, and Manawatua, in Cook's Strait. Besides these, there are several small locations, near Auckland, of soldier pensioners from England.
The settlements of the Middle Island are-- Nelson, on Blind Bay, 5,000 inhabitants, in the same latitude as Wellington; Cloudy Bay and Port Underwood, in the Strait; Akaroa, once a French location, on Banks' Peninsula; Canterbury, the Church of England settlement, near Banks' Peninsula; and Otago, or New Edinburgh, the Free Church of Scotland settlement.
The New Zealand Company of London established settlements, in 1839, at Wellington, Nelson, &c. The Plymouth Company settled New Plymouth, in Taranki district, in 1840, but sold their
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right to the New Zealand Company. A Church of England Association, in 1850, colonised the Canterbury Settlement on, and near, Banks' Peninsula, Middle Island. A Free Church of Scotland Association organised New Edinburgh district, 200 miles south of Canterbury, in 1848.
The Valley of the Hutt is 50 miles from Port Nicholson; the Valley of Wairarapa lies northeast of the port; the rich district of Ahuriri north of the Wairarapa, and the Wairau Valley is on the north side of Middle Island. The isthmus near Auckland, where the Northern island is nearly divided in two, is only three miles across.
New Canterbury, between the Snowy Range and the eastern sea, is 50 miles long, containing two millions of acres. The port is Lyttleton, in Port Victoria, or Cooper, in Banks' Peninsula, lat. 43° S. Christchurch, on the Avon, is nine miles from the port. There are three great plains, Sumner, Whately, and Wilberforce. The population of Canterbury is 3,000.
New Edinburgh, or Otago settlement, contains 400,000 acres, and is 60 miles long by 7 broad. Dunedin, the capital, is in lat. 46°. Chalmers is the seaport. The New Zealand, Canterbury and Otago companies, from failure, have surrendered their lands to the Crown. Wellington is 200 miles north of Port Victoria, 150 east of Nelson, and 500 south of Auckland. Otago is 1,100 south of Bay of Islands.
New Zealand has an export of native flax, timber, flour, potatoes, Kauri gum, wool, oil, manganese, copper, and sulphur.
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Tasman, the Dutch navigator, after discovering Tasmania, fell in with New Zealand, and named it, December 13th, 1642. Captain Cook first sailed round both islands, and then look possession of them in the name of King George III., on November 16th, 1769; his second visit was in 1773. Christian missionaries first visited the northern island m 1814. Whalers, runaway prisoners, and some respectable people afterwards came.
In 1837 Mr. Busby was nominated British Consul at the Bay of Islands. Formal possession of the Middle island was taken in 1840. In 1839 the New Zealand Company was formed in London, and the Canterbury and the Otago Associations were organised in 1849. They have now no land. The whole country belongs to the sovereignty of the Queen, though the personal property of the natives, according to the treaty of Waitangi, in 1840.
The Colony was proclaimed by Lieut.-Governor Hobson, May, 21, 1840. In May, 1841, it ceased to be a dependency of New South Wales. Governor Captain Fitzroy came in 1843; Sir George Grey, in 1845; and Colonel Gore Brown, in 1855. Heki's rebellion was in 1845. In 1852 New Zealand was declared to be under a Governor-General and six elected Superintendents. The Maories have equal rights with the English settlers.
NATURAL HISTORY.
The natural history of New Zealand is different from that of the rest of Australasia. It is a land of Ferns, of
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which plant above 150 species are known to exist, beside three of the Tree-ferns, which are found 40 feet in height, There are more than 80 species of Mosses. The Kumera, Taro, and a sort of fern are the chief edible roots. The Korari, or Native Slow, grows in abundance, though not far south in the Middle islands. There is a species of Palm about 50 feet high. Myrtles are common. The juice of the berries of the Tupakihi is made into a mild, agreeable drink by the natives, but the seeds are of a highly intoxicating, maddening, nature. The Phormium Tenax, or native flax, makes excellent rope. The honey is delicious. The Kia-kia fruit is in layers, and is like vegetable albumen. There are several good native fruits. The Wattle Jack is a climbing plant. The Kauri is the only conebearing pine in New Zealand, the others having berries. The Totara takes the place of the Kauri, in certain localities; as a timber tree, it belongs to the same family as the Tasmanian Huon Pine. The Rata, or Native Oak, has been found nearly 60 feet in circumference. This wonderful tree first runs up and embraces the trunk of some large tree, which it afterwards supplants, and becomes in its stead a considerable tree; the Vegetating Caterpillar, a fungus growing out of the body of the caterpillar of a goat moth, is commonly found at its root. The New Zealand Fuchsia is a tree bearing a pleasant fruit. The Orchis family of plants is very abundant. The bush of the country is very dense. The Potato and Water Melon were introduced by Capt. Cook, and the Maize by Capt. King. One-half the plants are monocotyledonous, or of single lobed seed, and more than one-third are flowerless. Before the arrival of Europeans, the only quadrupeds were Cats, Dogs, and Rats. The Dog differs from the Dingo of New Holland, and appears to have been brought with the natives in their emigration; the Rat is similar to the European one. There are many Lizards, but no Snakes. The only venomous thing is a rare insect called the Wood Locust. The Kiwi is an Apteryx, or wingless bird. It is nocturnal, and runs quickly; it has sharp claws, black and tasteless flesh, a hook at the end of the stump of its wing, and a nostril at the end of the beak to search for worms.
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Its bones are not hollow, and its height is two feet. The Fireman, a sort of Kiwi, stands three feet in height. The Uia, of the size of a Magpie, has a beautiful tail of twelve feathers. A nocturnal Parrot feeds on fern root. The Poe is a honey eater. The Crow is dark green. The Kukupa is a wood pigeon. The Oyster Catcher is a sort of duck. The Crested Cormorant, or King Shag, is peculiar. The Dinornis, or Moa, is a fossil sort of ostrich. A small species has been found in the Middle island, being two feet high, and having red legs, green and gold back, and purple breast. The Nestor was half a parrot and half an owl. With sixty genera of birds, New Zealand has but one species of Mammalia, --a fruit eating rat.
NATIVES.
The natives, who call themselves Maories, were formerly much more numerous than now; in the time of Captain Cook, the population is thought to have been at least half a million; but exterminating wars, and raging epidemic diseases, have reduced them to one-fourth of that number. Up to a recent period their intercourse with white men proved as destructive to their morals as their health. Now, however, being, by the praiseworthy agency of the missionaries, in most instances converted to Christianity, being placed under the care of protectors appointed by the Government, and being brought in contact with a better class of settlers, they are more comfortable and happy. There is a strong desire manifested to treat this intelligent and high spirited people with justice and kindness. As aborigines they are, perhaps, superior to any in the world. Their pahs, or villages, are regularly fortified. The readiness with which they fall into the habits of civilised life is very striking; they make excellent seamen and mechanics, and in the settlements they dispose of the produce they raise. Many of them are possessed of property in farms and trading vessels, and have considerable sums in the Savings banks. There are six dialects of the language, which is very complete in its construction.
Though heathens, the New Zealanders were never
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worshippers of idols. Their Atua, or gods, were the heaven, light, spirits of the dead, &c.; these were the authors of diseases. They believed in witchcraft, and thought light and darkness the parents of man. They thought that the spirits of the dead passed to the Reinga, near North Cape, and thence into the sea to the region of the blest. The Tapu, or sacred prohibition of the use or injury of certain objects, exists among them, as among other Malayan races of the South Seas; one curious effect of this custom occurs in the arbitrary tapuing of certain words. The natives appear always to have held slaves, who were chiefly captives taken in war. Like the ancient Jews they used to shave their heads and cut their bodies, in mourning for deceased friends. When first visited by Captain Cook, they were found living in well-constructed houses, amply provided with food and mat clothing, possessed of splendid canoes, but sadly addicted to habits of cannibalism. They had then a knowledge of eight points of the compass, they reckoned thirteen months to the year, and were acquainted with numbers to a considerable extent. Great resemblance has been detected between their manners and language, and those of the Sandwich Islanders. By their traditions it would appear, that about five hundred years ago, three canoes of a great fleet from Hawaii, got driven to New Zealand, which had previously been fished up from the bottom of the ocean by one of their gods. Some persons have considered that there are two races among them; one the regular Maori, and the other an inferior and dark skin people, supposed to be the aborigines of the islands. When heathens they were always at war, and whole tribes have been exterminated. The Waikato Maories, under Te Whero, invaded Taranaki, and cooked two thousand people. The remnant of the sufferers fled to Port Nicholson. The feeble tribe at that place forced an English captain, then in port, to carry them to the Chatham Isles, where they enslaved the less warlike inhabitants. Since their conversion to Christianity, no people have made greater progress than the New Zealanders.
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DISCOVERY AND HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND.
TASMAN sailed to the eastward after the discovery of Van Diemen's Land, and on December 13th, 1642, sighted the shore of the land since called after his Dutch home, --New Zealand. He named three islands off North Cape the Three Kings, January 4th, 1643, and the northwestern point after Maria Van Diemen, the admired daughter of the Dutch Governor of Java. He surveyed the eastern coast of this Land of the States from lat. 34° to 43°. Landing on the northern shore of Middle Island, the savages killed several of his crew. For this, he called the locality the Bay of Murderers; it is now Massacre Bay, near Nelson. The Dutchman then left the wild country. For more than a hundred years no white man visited the islands. Captain Cook entered Poverty Bay, Oct. 16th, 1769. He sailed round the islands, and discovered the strait between them, since called after himself. The Bay of Islands he so named from the number of islands in it; Cape Kidnapper, from the natives there trying to steal a boy from the ship; and a peninsula, from his scientific fellow-voyager, Mr. Banks. Cook took possession of the Northern Island, at Mercury Bay, November 16, 1769; and of the Middle Island, at Queen Charlotte's Sound, January 30, 1770. His conduct toward the Maories was praiseworthy, and his gifts of the potato, melon, and pig are gratefully remembered by them. The Englishmen were astonished at the war canoes and mechanical contrivances of the natives. A rat was the only quadruped seen there.
Benjamin Franklin proposed, in 177L an excellent scheme for the colonisation of New Zealand.
In 1772, the Frenchman, Marion, after his quarrel with the Tasmanian natives, came to New Zealand. A quarrel took place there, and sixteen of the strangers, with their commander, were killed and eaten. Shortly before this, a French captain had cruelly treated some New Zealanders. The year following, ten Englishmen of Captain
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Furneaux's crew were killed and eaten also. So late as 1809, the Boyd was wrecked on the coast, and seventy of the people were baked in the native ovens. Vancouver, after his discoveries in Western Australia, touched at Cook's Strait, in 1791. Captain Stewart discovered the Southern Island, called now after him, in 1809. The country between the Alps and the western coast of Middle Island was explored a few years ago by Mr. Brunner. Starting from Nelson, with two natives and their wives, he passed eighteen months in one of the most desolate countries in the world. They chiefly subsisted upon eels and birds. It rained almost continually. Water rose in one night twenty feet, in a river. No good land was seen. The London Geographical Society rewarded Brunner's sufferings with a gold medal. His furthest point was lat. 43° S., near Mount Cook.
After the settlement of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, runaway sailors and convicts took refuge among the cannibals of New Zealand. Christian missionaries arrived in 1814. Catholics and Protestants have vied with each other in their zeal for the good of the natives.
Settlers of a more respectable character followed. Whalers frequented the harbours. In 1825, an English company purchased two islands in the Thames, but were frightened away by the natives. From the year 1788 the savage land of New Zealand was always claimed as a dependency of New South Wales. In 1814, the English Government discovered that the islands belonged to the natives. In 1834, King William IV. sent out the ship Alligator, with a fine flag, to present as a national banner to some few chiefs, who styled themselves the "United Chiefs of New Zealand." In 1837, Mr. Busby was declared British Consul at the Bay of islands. Possession was taken of Middle Island, in August, 1840, by virtue of its discovery by Captain Cook. Three days after, the French frigate L'Aube, with emigrants, came to Banks' Peninsula, to claim the land for France. But in the Northern Island were 150,000 warlike Maories, whose
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will had to be consulted. In 1839, the English New Zealand Company was formed, to buy land of the natives and re-sell to emigrants. Millions of acres were purchased for them, by Colonel Wakefield, for some hundreds of pounds' worth of beads, umbrellas, muskets, &c. The Government now saw it was time to act. Captain Hobson was despatched as Consul, with a secret commission as Lieutenant-Governor. On February 5, 1840, a meeting of 550 chiefs was secured. It was agreed by them that the Queen should be the sovereign of New Zealand, and that they would sell no lands except to her. Captain Hobson, on the part of the Queen, engaged that the natives should have safe and full posession of all their lands. This was the treaty of Waitangi. A week after, at Hokianga, a similar meeting of 500 chiefs and 6,000 natives took place. On May 21, 1840, Captain Hobson proclaimed the country an English dependency, and himself Lieutenant-Governor under the Governor of New South Wales. The latter colony advanced £30,000 toward the expenses of the new settlement. Among the curious items of expenditure, were £15 for a magic lantern, £70 presents for Chiefs, and £150 for tobacco, pipes and candles. In May, 1841, the colony was removed from the jurisdiction of New South Wales, and declared independent.
Many persons now sought Crown grants for land said to have been previously bought of the natives. The Governor would not sanction them. The unchartered New Zealand Company demanded grants for 20,000,000 acres. The Crown consented, in May, 1841, to bestow the charter, and issue grants for four times as many acres as the company had spent pounds in colonisation. This very greatly reduced their claim, but it enabled the immigrants to get possession of their purchased land. Among other mistakes, the land of Wellington settlement was bought of the wrong tribe. Compensation had to be made to the natives on account of previous sales; and disputes, expulsions, and even murders took place in the neighbourhood of troublesome chiefs. In the Wairoa Valley, near Nelson, a surveyor, in 1843, attempted to
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measure land without the observance of proper forms. The chief, Rangihaeta, burned his hut, hut returned his property. The surveyor came with a magistrate and force to seize him. The chief's wife was killed, and he, in revenge, murdered all the English party.
Captain Fitzroy was appointed Governor in 1843. He established the capital first at Russell, in the Ray of Islands, and afterwards at Auckland. At the first sale of land at Auckland, April 12, twenty-six acres fetched £21,000. With a large debt and small income, the Governor issued two-shilling assignats. To quiet the Maories, some land was purchased at two shillings an acre, but more afterwards at five shillings. This was to be re-sold at £1. But the natives began to doubt the sincerity of the English Government; for by some it was proposed to tax all their lands, and, by other English statesmen, to deprive them of all lands not actually cultivated by them. This led to the rebellion of Heki, Kawiti, and others. The Governor and the missionaries succeeded in making some northern chiefs, as Nene, or Tomata Waka, believe that the Queen would not break the treaty. But Heki cut down the flagstaff at Korararika, in the Bay of Islands, in July, 1844. The offence was repeated in January, 1845. War was declared. The English forces were defeated on March 11th, at Korararika. In an attack upon Heki's fort Okaehau, June 30th, one-sixth of the soldiers were killed. Ten days after, the Pah was secretly entered, while the unsuspecting natives were at church outside. In this war, Tomata Waka fought for the English. He and Heki agreed not to hurt women and children, and not to stop supplies. Chivalrous and generous acts were performed by both men. Captured friends of each were released. Heki once came alone, by permission, into the midst of Tomata's Pah, to visit and pray with a dying relative. Governor Grey arrived in 1845, and, by his prudence and clemency, restored peace to New Zealand. Honi Heki became his personal friend. The correspondence between the two was a Christian and an affectionate one. The warrior died of consumption, in August, 1850.
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The formation of the New Zealand Company gave the first great impetus to emigration. Their districts were in the southern part of the northern island, and the northern part of the middle one, embracing one fourth of the one and one fifth of the other, including Taranaki, Port Nicholson, Nelson, and Otago districts. Involved in debt, the company had to surrender their charter to the Crown in 1852. In 1840, a French Company settled in part of Banks' Peninsula; they were bought out. In 1849, a Church of England association, with two millions of acres attempted the formation of the model Canterbury Colony. It proved a failure. The country land was sold at £3 an acre, and town lots for £24 each; of which money one sixth was to pay for the original cost, one sixth for survey and roads, two sixths for emigration purposes, and the rest for churches and schools. By the charter one sixth part of the proceeds of sales was to go to the English Treasury. In default of this payment of £4,500, the company forfeited their control of the lands of the district in December, 1852. A similar attempt to establish a Sectarian colony was made by the Free Church of Scotland, with 400,000 acres at Port Otago; where the land was to be sold for £2 an acre, of which one eighth went to the support of religion and education, one fourth for surveys, one fourth for the cost of the land to the New Zealand Company, and the balance for emigration. But they were unable to complete the terms of their engagement with the English Government in 1852. Thus the three associations were virtually closed the same year. The Otago land now sells for 10s. an acre.
Captain Hobson dying in 1842, the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Shortland, administered till the arrival of Captain Fitzroy as Governor in 1843. Captain Grey, afterwards Sir George Grey, late Governor of South Australia, and explorer of Western Australia, was nominated Governor in Chief of New Zealand in 1846, and Mr. Eyre, the bold overlander from South Australia to Western Australia, was appointed Lieutenant-Governor under him. In 1852 it was determined that there should be, under a Governor in Chief, six Superintendents, elected by the people. The
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six provinces of Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, Nelson, Otago, and New Plymouth, have now separate legislatures, subject to the central legislature at Auckland, in whose control the lands are placed. The Maories, as well as English, have liberty as citizens to he electors. The first six Superintendents were; for Auckland, Lieutenant-Colonel Wynyard; for Wellington, T. E. Featherstone, Esq.; for Nelson, A. Stafford, Esq.; for Canterbury, J. E. Fitzgerald, Esq.; for Otago, Captain Cargill; and for Taranaki, W. Brown, Esq. Upon the departure of Governor Grey in 1855, Colonel Wynyard acted until the arrival of Governor Colonel Gore Brown. The New Zealand settlers have had a more liberal Government than the Australians. The gold of New South Wales and Victoria has presented a fine market for the agriculturalists of New Zealand.
CLIMATE.
The climate of New Zealand is colder than that of Australia in the same latitude. The atmosphere is a moist one, swamps are common, and winds very boisterous. Though without hot winds it is not without dust. The country is more agricultural than pastoral. In the north, the soil is sandy, about Wellington rocky, in Taranaki fertile. The Canterbury and Otago plains are well grassed. On the western side of the Snowy Mountains it rains almost incessantly; scrub and rock cover the ground. The good soil of New Zealand is in patches beside rivers. The excessive moisture and density of vegetation render travelling unpleasant in New Zealand. The cold of Otago is sometimes severe. Auckland has a mean temperature of 59°. Its winter is as mild as at Sydney, and its summer is not hotter than in Hobart Town. Few parts of the world are so delightful for a residence as Taranaki, under the shade of the romantic looking, snowy Mount Egmont; with the absence of mosquitoes and sand
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flies it would be indeed a paradise. Earthquakes have been repeatedly felt in New Zealand. One occurred at Wellington on Sunday Night, October 16, 1848, in the midst of a violent storm of rain. Houses and chapels reeled and fell. The hills rocked to and fro. The ground quivered like jelly. The noise was compared to the crushing of ten thousand forests at once. The shock lasted but one minute. The next great shocks came after intervals of 38 hours each. Smaller shocks followed for months after. Another considerable earthquake happened on January 23, 1853, which was simultaneously felt at Wellington, Nelson, New Plymouth, Auckland, and Canterbury, occasioning some loss of life.
GEOLOGY OF NEW ZEALAND.
The principal features of New Zealand are unlike those of Australia. There are extensive swamps, many rivers, dense forests, pumice soil, and active volcanoes. The fundamental rock, as elsewhere, is slate. The surface of the Northern island is especially volcanic. The Alps of the Middle island are of similar primitive formation to the Victoria Dividing Range.
Commencing at the north of the Northern island, we have volcanic conglomerate at Cape Maria Van Diemen, and down below the Bay of Islands, with anthracite at North Cape. From the Bay across to Hokianga are several volcanic cones. On the edge of one crater are remains of a Kauri Forest, illustrating a time of peace and subsequent convulsion again. Hot springs are observed at Waimate, and cornelian pebbles in Hokianga sand. Passing slate ranges the basaltic plains of Waitemata are approached. A wall of basalt 200 feet high there pierces through the slate and sandstone. Auckland is on a Tertiary basin; the cliffs are either of soft horizontal sandstone, or conglomerate with fossil wood. Twenty extinct volcanoes surround the town, containing good lava building stone; one of the craters now contains a fine
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kauri forest. The rough and volcanic nature of New Zealand led Mr. Dieffenbach, the geological explorer of that country, to declare that it was not yet finished for the occupancy of man.
Across the Frith of Thames from Auckland is Coromandel Peninsula, having Cape Colville to the north, with Coromandel Harbour on one side, and Mercury Bay on the other. This district is auriferous. The ranges are of clayslate, with intrusive trap and quartz. The same formation is contained in the Thames chain. Gold was found at Coromandel Harbour in 1851. Copper and lead are also found there; the copper ore of Kawau Isle by Cape Colville contains one third sulphur. Magnesia occurs on some islands near Auckland. The Valley of the Thames, 60 miles long by 3 broad, and only 6 feet above high water level, is of alluvial deposit with veins of greenstone. In the Bay of Plenty are evidences of volcanic action in the obsidian of Meyer's Island, the sulphur of the ever smoking White Island, and the veins of greenstone through the marly limestone of Tauranga Pay. The western and southern country is of slate traversed as at Port Nicholson with dykes of basaltic greenstone. There are terraces of trap boulders at Cape Palliser fifty feet high. The islands of Cook's Straits are of basalt.
The interior of the Northern Island is of great geological interest. The noble Waikato River rushes through hills of light pumice, and through rises of more ancient lava, and volcanic conglomerate. In its valley is an area of 100 square miles of anthracitic coal, fibrous and shining. The sandstone is not sufficiently cemented to be useful. In the lower lands are three sorts of oolitic limestone, from the size of a poppy seed to that of a pea, which rest on an argillaceous rock abounding in marine fossils. Under that again is a red sandstone without fossils, which becomes micaceous when in contact with the ancient Silurian rocks beneath. The district about the Rotorua Lakes is very interesting. Going from the Bay of Plenty a sandstone is passed over which abounds in salt. Many sulphurous, saline and alkaline springs are seen, with
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steaming fountains and boiling mud ponds. The natives sit in the warm sulphur springs as a cure for diseases of the skin. One of the lakes is the site of a Totara forest which sunk during the eruption. In the district is a heartless plain rendered absolutely sterile with the quantity of salt in the soil; in the midst of this is a brimstone valley, with roaring caverns, and sulphurous and boiling ponds. Around the sides of Rotarua are jaspar like deposits. High cliffs of volcanic trachyte bound the basin of Lake Taupo, an ancient crater; near it are springs with flint in solution. In proximity to this lake rises the burning mountain of Tongariro, of which there are frequent eruptions, with issues of black compact lava, and from which there are constant jets of steam, depositing siliceous matter; the crater is a quarter of a mile broad. The rock consists of porphyry and other trappean formations. The tradition of the natives asserts that Lake Maupere occupies the place of that which was recently a populous neighbourhood. A plateau district extends from Rota rua to Cook's Strait.
On the eastern side of Northern Island more of the tertiary development appears, consisting of clay rock and sandstone, with recent fossils. About 50 miles south-east of Cape Egmont is the port Waingongoro, in the sand flat of which an abundance of fossil remains has been disinterred. There are the bones of the Moa, a gigantic apteryx, or wingless bird, called also the Dinornis, of different species, from 4 to 12 feet high. The upper jaw indicates its power of grubbing up roots. Its leg-bones were of great size and strength. The Palapteryx was more like an Emu, with a broader skull than that of the Dinornis, and a greater development of the organs of smelling. The Notornis, or Southern Bird, had a short head, and a sharp strong beak. It must have been like the Porphyrio, being a sort of swamp-hen. Along with all these, there were found, also, at Waingongoro, fossil seals and nocturnal parrots, with bones of dogs and existing birds. But, more curious than all, there were the calcined bones of men, spear heads, and whalebone weapons; proving that the Moa was living at the time of some
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ancient cannibal feast. Many Moa eggs have been discovered, being a yard in circumference. There are limestone caves on the western coast also containing fossil bones of birds, &c. This limestone is said to consist of fossil animalculae similar to those of English chalk. Mount Egmont is scoriaceous. The plain near is covered with lava boulders, the decomposition of which forms the fine soil of Taranaki. Rich magnetic ore is abundant by Cape Egmont. Near New Plymouth are mounds of silicious, calcareous sand, consisting of the fossil-siliceous shields of infusorial animalculae. Excellent limestone and coal are known at the Mokau River, 50 miles north of New Plymouth. North again of this, at Kawia Harbour, the limestone rocks contain Terebratula shells in a perfect state, with Ostreae a foot long. Titaniferous iron-sand abounds at the mouths of the western rivers. Blue slate crops out at Hokianga Harbour.
Little is known of the Middle Island. No volcano, extinct or active, has been seen there. The rocks of the western coast are primitive. Throughout the island is the great chain of the Snowy or Southern Alps, which are of clay slate and granite, with dykes of quartz, greenstone, porphyry, &c. The spurs are numerous, and of the same character. The eastern flanks are partly covered with a volcanic grit. The plains, as in Canterbury, are of a loam upon a quartz pebbly gravel. The expedition of Dr. Smith, from Otago, will reveal much of this unknown land. On the north side of Middle Island, by Cook's Strait, the rocks are of clay slate traversed by quartz, serpentine, and greenstone veins. In the neighbourhood of Nelson, by Blind and Massacre bays, good bituminous coal is found. An imperfect coal, at Massacre Bay, is overlaid by quartz gravel, but in fossiliferous sandstone and limestone. Near Cape Campbell, the north-east corner, is silicified vegetable clay with chalky limestone. All the great plains of Middle Island are covered with rounded quartz pebbles. At Dusky Bay is mica slate with garnets; and at Milford Haven are nephrite, serpentine, and limestone with trap. At Preservation Harbour, near Chalky Bay, is a coal, slightly bituminous, found associated
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with shales, sandstone, and basalt veins. Imperfect coal, with silicified wood, also occurs on the plains of Canterbury, on the flanks of Mount Grey, in fossiliferous blue clay alternating with recent sandstone. Banks' Peninsula is a mass of basaltic hills, presenting the appearance of a star-fish. Claystone porphyry is the summit of Mount Pleasant, Port Victoria. Amygdaloidal trap with mesole crystals may be seen on Quail Island, Port Victoria; also, volcanic tufa between ranges of basaltic pillars.
Mr. Mantell made a geological survey of the coast from Canterbury to Otago. A spur from the Alps, with slate and quartz, reaches the sea at Waikhoura. South of this is a yellow, porous sandstone, containing the echinus, terebratula, teeth of shark, &c.; cemented by masses of formanifera animalculae. Lignite and rough coal appear halfway along the beach. An earth, from Lake Waihora, was sent to England for magnesia; it turned out to be simply fossil animalculae. 30 miles north of Otago, garnets are seen in hornblendic rock. South of this are tertiary blue clays with existing fossils. A mineral curiosity is observed here, called "Nine Pins," or "Vulcan's Foundry." They are septarian boulders, washed out of the clay cliffs; the septaria are fossil testaceous tubes. These stones, from a few inches to 12 feet in diameter, would form a good cement. In this formation, the Moa bones again appear. Once more a spur of slate and trap extends to the shore. Over that, we gain the blue clay, as before. In the vegetable deposit of Waikowaiti, 17 miles north of Otago, is another immense Moa collection. The bed, upon blue clay, was once a submerged swamp. One specimen was obtained when in an upright position, as if mired in the morass. Along with the Moa are the bones of the existing teal, penguin, and parrot. It would appear not improbable that animals of such vast size as formerly lived in New Zealand had a larger range of country than is now presented, embracing a portion of the now submerged southern continent.
The celebrated Greenstone Lakes, west of Otago, furnished the natives with greenstone or serpentine axes and spear-heads. The country around Otago is crystalline
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chiefly hornblendic granite. Carbonate of lime runs in veins through the clay slate of Otago. Imperfect coal, or lignite, is found at Dunedin. Towards the Molyneux River, by the shore, is a rock in which several seams of bituminous coal appear, but which are unapproachable; one seam is 16 feet thick. At the mouth of the Molyneux, the bones of the Dinornis and other fossil birds are again found in great abundance. A small species of the Notornis yet exists in the Middle Island. Its head, breast, and wings are blue, its abdomen and thighs bluish-black, and its bill and feet bright red; the middle toe of the bird is three inches long.
