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AUCKLAND.
IT would be idle in a work of this character to enter at any length into a history of the discovery and colonisation of New Zealand, it will be amply sufficient for our purpose to state, that it was first sighted by the celebrated Dutch explorer, Tasman, in the year 1642; but no results appear to have ensued until the voyages of Captain Cook, who formed a remarkably correct opinion of the capabilities of the country for European settlement; and his report of the genial climate, fertile soil, fine harbours, and evergreen forests, so captivated the practical mind of Benjamin Franklin, that the American philosopher published a proposal for its colonisation, but nothing came of it. In course of time, however, trade and intercourse began to spring up between Port Jackson (New South Wales) and New Zealand; in 1814 the first missionaries arrived; and, by degrees, various rude little mixed communities,--whalers, runaway sailors, convicts, petty merchants, &c., from New South Wales, settled themselves along the coasts, trading and frequently intermarrying with the natives; whilst year by year the bays and harbours of the country became the favourite grounds for vessels engaged in the whale fishery.
The reports carried home of the fine harbours, and the forests of magnificent kauri spars and ship timber, found in these islands, the glowing accounts of the fertility of the soil spread abroad by the visitors from Australia, and the testimony of the missionaries as to the bracing salubrity of the climate, eventually revived in England that desire for the regular colonisation of the country which Cook and Franklin had excited so many years before. In 1840, an influential body, including several eminent public men, and many of the leading merchants of London, formed the New Zealand Company, for the purpose of colonising the islands from the mother-country; whilst at the same time the Government formally raised New Zealand into a British colony, and sent out its first governor in the person of Captain Hobson, who planted the infant capital of the colony at Auckland, on the shores of the noble harbour of Waitemata.
New Zealand is situated between 34° and 47° south latitude, and between 166° and 179° east longitude. This country lies in the immense Austral Ocean, between New Holland and Cape Horn. On the east that ocean rolls to South America, on the south to the Pole, on the west to Van Diemen's Land, and, on the north, it stretches boundlessly to the Arctic Circle. New Zealand consists of two large islands, commonly known as the North and the Middle, but officially New Ulster and New Munster, with a lesser one called Stewart's or New Leinster, and several scattered islets. The extreme length, from North to South Cape, exceeds 1,100 miles; its breadth varies from 1 to 800 miles, though 100 is the average. The Northern and Middle Islands are separated by Cook's Straits, and Stewart's is divided from the Middle Island by Fourneaux's
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Straits. The North Island contains, it has been computed, about 31,174,400 acres of area; the Middle, 46,126,080; and Stewart's, 1,000,000.
The general government of the colony is vested in the Governor, appointed by the Crown. His Cabinet consists of the Colonial Treasurer, the Colonial Secretary, the Postmaster-General, Minister for Native Affairs, and the Attorney-General. The General Assembly is composed of the Legislative Council of twenty-four members, nominated by the Crown, and the House of Representatives, of fifty-three members, elected by the people for five years, Every owner of a freehold worth £50, or tenant householder, in the country at £5, in the towns at £10 a-year rent, is qualified both to vote for, or to be a member of, the House of Representatives. The civil and criminal law is virtually the same as in England. Four Crown-appointed judges residing at Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago, constitute a northern and southern Court for the "jury trial" of civil and criminal cases. In each province there is a Resident Magistrate's Court (answering to our county courts), for the recovery of debts under £100. When adjudicating in native cases the judge is generally assisted by a native assessor, a sort of native magistrate. Local courts of this description for the trial of small debt cases sit weekly or quarterly in each of the provinces, whilst quarter sessions are held, from time to time, by the local magistracy for the despatch of the petty criminal business.
The colony is divided into nine provinces, viz., Auckland, Taranaki, Wellington, Hawke's Ray (in the Northern), Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago, and Southland (in the Southern Island). For the administration of justice, the colony is divided into four districts. The provinces are governed by superintendents and a provincial council, elected by the inhabitant residents. Each province contributes its proportionate share of members to the House of Representatives. The various superintendents have their Executive Council, consisting of secretaries, treasurers, and law advisers.
The departments of the Central and Provincial Governments are admirably conducted.
After a settlement of now nearly a quarter of a century, the newly-arrived emigrant will find a great deal of the rough work of colonisation effected, but still a great deal left for his own individual exertions; but there is still ample room for new comers, inasmuch as, owing to the scanty numbers of the older colonists, the best locations and other advantages which fall to the lot of the first comers have not, by any means, been monopolised, as they have in other colonies. He will, however, find all the advantages of a well-organised government, a state of society as well defined as in England, with all the refinements and luxuries of modern civilisation, without its fierce competition in the battle of life. He will find thriving merchants and prosperous tradesmen, substantial land-owners and farmers, banks, insurance offices, brokers, agencies, markets, &c.
There is no state church in New Zealand. There is an Episcopal Church Establishment, supported by the voluntary contributions of its members, by certain endowments of the old New Zealand Company, by
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gifts and bequests of wealthy churchmen, and by pecuniary assistance furnished by societies in England for the extension of the church abroad. The Wesleyans are also a numerous and influential body in New Zealand, and maintain a large and active missionary establishment among the natives. The Free Kirk of Scotland is represented at Otago; Roman Catholics maintain establishments at Auckland and Wellington; and Dissenting congregations of various denominations are found in each of the six chief settlements. The various provinces have appropriated several thousand pounds of their annual public revenues to the endowment and support of grammar and free schools; and these, together with the Church and Wesleyan colleges at Auckland, the private commercial academies and ladies' seminaries, and the flourishing Sunday-schools of the religious bodies, afford ample means of secular and religious training, and no family now going to New Zealand need be left without the means of giving their children a good plain general education.
The country is of volcanic origin, and presents many indications of mineral wealth. The soil, generally, is rich and fertile. The harbours are numerous and excellent. Rivers are numerous, being supplied by running streams from the high mountains, principally fed by melted snow. The climate is pronounced as genial and healthy as any other part of the southern hemisphere, and is frequently visited by persons suffering from delicate constitutions. The variations of temperature are not so common as in many of the Australasian group, and the weather being milder on the whole, consequently persons may promote health by frequent exposure to the open air. Altogether, the country is a remarkably healthy one. The temperature varies with the latitude, and may be compared with the South of France in the north and the south of England in the south. New Zealand being in the southern hemisphere, nearly opposite England, the seasons are, of course, reversed--July being the coldest month, January (the harvest month) the hottest. The sun is due north at noon; the south is the shady side, and the coldest wind is from that quarter. All native trees and plants being evergreens, there being no autumnal fall of the leaf, the country appearing almost equally green at all periods of the year, the change of seasons is far less marked than in England, and is, indeed, so gradual as to be scarcely appreciable. September, October, and November are, however, generally called spring; December, January, and February, summer; March, April, and May, autumn; June, July, and August, winter. In the Northern Island snow never falls except on the hills and mountains. New Zealand may be generally described as a strictly wooded highland country covered for the most part with a dense evergreen vegetation. There is a large export of timber from Auckland. Numerous wooded ranges of moderate elevation, and three snow-capped giants, Ruapehu, Tongariro, and Mount Egmont (9,000 and 8,000 feet), are found in the North Island; whilst a chain of rugged forest ranges, displaying mountain peaks 12,000 feet high, capped with perpetual snow, extends along the entire coast of the South Island, from Cape Farewell to Dusky Bay.
The natural characteristics are more distinctly marked in the Northern Island, with which we are now chiefly concerned, than in either of the others, although the hills are less distinctly connected;
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but one of them, Mount Egmont, in the province of New Plymouth, is an extinct volcano, estimated at 8,840 feet in height. Tongariro, a volcano still active, and Ruapehu, whose fires have long been extinguished, stand in the centre of the island--one 6,200 feet, the other loftier, both crowned with perpetual snow, and forming, with two or three others, a magnificent group of mountains, reared in the middle of a more level but picturesque country. Mount Edgecombe is an extinct volcano, near the Bay of Plenty, which is supposed to attain an altitude of 7,000 feet. From Wangaroa, which bears strong marks of volcanic action, passing onwards through the neighbourhood of the Bay of Islands, we come to Auckland, which is situated at the base of an ancient volcano, Mount Eden, the lava or scoria from which is employed as metal for the roads, and as a building material. Starting again from White or Sulphur Island and Whale Island, which are still in action, we, pass on to Lake Rotorua, and through the country to Lake Taupo, and thence to Wellington; mud-pools, sulphur and boiling springs abound, and, by exposure in some of these, articles may be rapidly silicified. A chain of lakes, closely connected with these volcanic agencies, gives additional proof of the formation of the region. Lake Taupo, in the south-west, is the most extensive. Of an irregular triangular shape, its greatest length is about thirty-six miles, its width twenty-five. Several streams feed it from the south; while the Waikato River, flowing away westward, bears to the sea its superabundant waters. Detached ridges, more or less elevated, diversify the aspect of New Zealand, lying almost invariably in one direction--from north to south--and dividing the low alluvial plains from the high table-lands. The North Island contains only two or three moderately-extensive plains; but abounds in large luxuriant valleys, and in sheltered dells and dales. The surface character of many of the districts bears a striking resemblance to that of Devonshire. Owing to the extent of its coast line and insular position, New Zealand possesses many bays, creeks, coves, estuaries, and anchorages, and possesses some of the finest naval and commercial harbours in the world--though these latter are found rather in isolated groups than in equally-dispersed order along the coast. In this respect Auckland is the most fortunate; one of its most striking natural features is the abundance both of water and of water power. Taupo is the only large lake, and the Thames, Hokianga, Waikato, and Manawatu are perhaps the only rivers navigable twenty miles up for anything larger than a canoe. But there are several smaller lakes, and the country from north to south is studded with rivers and brooks, bearing a close resemblance to many of the trout and salmon streams of the mother-country.
The North Island is very rich in minerals: gold, which is now being worked at Coromandel with profitable results; iron, coal, copper, of which considerable quantities have been raised in this province; excellent building stones, lime; and, as the late lamented Admiral Fitzroy, in one of his reports, as Governor of the colony, says:-- "Beneath the productive surface of these teeming islands are mineral stores as yet hardly known. If, from merely scratching projecting corners of the land, some dozen valuable minerals have been discovered-- coal, iron, silver, lead, tin, copper, nickel, manganese, alum, and sulphur
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--what may not be anticipated after a few years of research in the interior." Commerce and trade, agriculture and sheep and stock-farming have, however, proved so advantageous to the majority of the colonists, that the mineral resources of the country are comparatively neglected; but this is not likely to be long the case. Companies are already working some of the coal and stone quarries; and, as the population increases, the mining will become one of the most important interests of the colony. Many of the vegetable products in which the colony is very rich, such as the Phormium tenax, or well-known New Zealand flax, dye, and other woods, are certain to become staple exports. There are no wild beasts or other dangerous animals, and the whole colony is free from snakes, scorpions, hornets or wasps, stinging ants, and large centipedes. Mosquitoes abound near swamps and deep woods, but are not general throughout the country. Sandflies are troublesome in some localities, and the common small house-fly and large blow-flies are a somewhat greater nuisance than in England, though it is remarkable that the latter do not attack sheep.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROVINCE.
Auckland, the northern province of the North Island, is almost half the size of England, extending from north-east to south-west 400 miles, its greatest breadth being nearly 200, with an extent of coast line of about 900 miles. The natural features of the province are, from its position, a warmer climate than the more southern provinces, capable of bringing maize and other semi-tropical products to maturity; valuable pine forests; gold, copper, and other minerals; Lake Taupo, the largest inland water in the colony, with numerous hot and mineral springs; great facilities of water-carriage; with numerous harbours and creeks on its coasts. For the following interesting description of the province we are chiefly indebted to the works of Mr. Hursthouse and Captain Cooper:--
The reader may gain the best idea of this province by glancing at it divided into five districts:-- 1, the long peninsula forming the northern portion of the province; 2, the town of Auckland and its rural neighbourhoods; 3, the "West-coast" district; 4, the interior or "Central" district; 5, the "East-coast" district.
The Northern Peninsula, from Auckland to the North Cape, is some 200 miles in length, by from 20 to 40 in breadth. In sea position and greater warmth of climate, it bears about the same relation to New Zealand as Devonshire does to England. The surface is broken by wooded mountain ranges of moderate elevation, and a large portion of the western side is covered with the Kauri forests; the country is richly watered, and presents clusters of fertile valleys. Here we find the settlements of Matakana, Mahurangi, Wangarei, Wangaroa, and Monganui, and the older ones of Kaipara, Hokianga, and the Bay of Islands, numbering their little pioneer communities of from 50 to 500 settlers. Wangaroa, Monganui, and the Bay of Islands on the east coast (the latter one of the finest harbours in the world) have long been favourite recruiting stations of the American whalers. Hokianga and Kaipara, two fine estuaries on the west coast, are principal seats of the Kauri spar and timber trade; whilst Wangarei, a flourishing district about midway between Auckland and the Bay, appears to be a favourite locality with the North American emigrants, many of whom have actually abandoned these countries, to plant new homes in the "Garden of the Pacific. Here are the forests of Kauri, the finest flax, and the great stores of gum; here, from a hundred valleys, will come large exports of farm and dairy produce, corn, and fruits, and honey, and oil, and wool; here, peach and nectarine, pear and mulberry, bow their branches fruited to the ground; and here, pomegranate and citron, olive and orange, might ripen in the summer sun.
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A fleet of small coasters keeps up a brisk communication between these little northern settlements and the capital; and the most distant may now be reached, from Auckland (by sea), in 30 hours; the great north road links them together by land, when Wangarei, which may be called the central settlement, will be brought within a day's ride of the metropolitan town. Government possesses land for sale around various of the ports and village settlements we have named; and for retired Indians, or for any who might prefer a warm climate, combined with proximity to the sea, perhaps no place would be found more suitable than this portion of the province.
A glance at the map displays the commanding position of the city of Auckland. Planted on a neck of level land only six miles across, it stands on two harbours-- Waitemata and Manukau. An arm of the former connects it with the rivers Thames and Piako, presenting water carriage through 50 miles of country--an arm of the latter virtually connects it with the rivers Waikato and Waipa, navigable for canoes through some hundred miles of fertile valleys. Creeks and inlets of these two harbours indent the town and suburb shores at every point, and as a canal cut of three or four miles might unite them, and enable a frigate to glide from sea to sea, there is some reason for the boast, that Auckland is the "Corinth of the South." The eastern (Waitemata) harbour perhaps deserves to rank as the finest in New Zealand, and is at present the one chiefly frequented by shipping; but the western (Manakau) is a fine ocean inlet well suited for a fleet of steamers, and opening a short marine highway to Kawhia, New Plymouth, and all the Cook's Strait settlements to the south.
Auckland is built on the southern shore of the eastern harbour, and a good metalled road passing through farms, villas, and gardens, leads from the town to the village of Onehunga, the landing-place or terminus of the western harbour. The town displays a line of wharves, several streets of shops and substantial warehouses, some of wood, but more of brick or stone; together with various modest public buildings, such as churches and chapels, Government house, barracks, gaol, banks, custom house, and local West-end. The botanical gardens, Parnel and the little suburban bays, sparkling with the white villas of the wealthier residents, offer many beautiful walks; whilst "one tree hill," and the high grounds behind the town present a combination of hill and harbour scenery scarcely to be surpassed.
The rural districts of Auckland may perhaps be defined as--first, the Isle of Wight (Waiheki) overlapping the harbour, and of the lands which fringe the north shore opposite the town, all now becoming dotted with small farms and clearings; second, Coromandel and the islands of Kawau and the Great Barrier; third, the belt of Pensioner Villages (Onehunga, Otahuhu, Howick, and Panmure); and, fourth, the districts of Waiuku and Papakura.
Coromandel lies nearly opposite the capital, about 30 miles distant across the Gulf. It possesses a fair harbour for small vessels, and is the centre of a large and flourishing timber trade. Here, and on the opposite harbour of Mercury Bay, the kauri pine and other valuable trees are fine and abundant. The whole district, in fact, from Cape Colville to the Thames, forming an eastern peninsula 40 miles long, by 15 broad, is well wooded, but rugged and mountainous; though here and there it presents some valleys and fertile garden spots. Gold has been discovered in the neighbourhood of Coromandel, and, during the last year or so, it afforded remunerative employment.
The Kawau, a small island about 20 miles north of the capital, is chiefly remarkable as having been the site of some promising copper works, now temporarily abandoned, owing the scarcity and dearness of the necessary mining labour. The Great Barrier, a large island, about 50 miles north-east of the Auckland harbour, to which it forms a good outer breakwater, has also produced some copper. It is well wooded, and possesses a fine harbour in Port Abercrombie, where a vessel of 500 tons has been built. The coasts abound with the hapuka, the best fish in New Zealand; and the few native and European residents possess some thriving little cultivations and a few fine cattle.
The Pensioner Villages were laid out by Government for a body of married pensioners, selected from volunteers in England; each on certain conditions of light military service, receiving the gift of a cottage and an acre of land. The experiment, in a civil or industrial point of view, has proved successful, many of the men having acquired landed property, and created clusters of little garden farms which supply Auckland and the shipping with a considerable quantity of grain, cheese, butter,
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poultry, vegetables, and fruit. These Pensioner Villages, connected with each other by good roads, lie about 5 miles apart, in a sort of irregular segment of a circle round the town and the suburban belt. Onehunga, the nearest, before alluded to as the rising port town of the western harbour, is 6 miles from Auckland; Howick, the most distant, about 12.
A few miles from Howick we reach Drury, in the Papakura district, which it is proposed to connect with the capital by a railway. Here are some good farms, and the whole district is rapidly coming under cultivation. Waiuku lies a little to the southwest of Papakura, nearer the coast, between an arm of the Manukau harbour, and the Awaroa stream, which latter runs into the Waikato. Here a short canal or a tramway across the portage would connect the Waikato with the western harbour of Auckland.
Except the "North shore," Coromandel, and the Islands, which are all woody, these rural districts of Auckland, including the nearest suburban lands and the Pensioner Villages, consist, for the most part, of open level country, interspersed here and there with small bush, but generally covered with fern, totoe, ti tree, manuku scrub, flax, and coarse grasses--lands for the most part reducible to cultivation at from £3 to £5 per acre, and capable (in grass) of feeding four sheep, or (under the plough) of producing twenty to twenty-five bushels of wheat per acre.
The remaining three divisions of the Auckland Province, the "West-coast," the "Central," and the "East-coast" districts require but brief mention; for, although they comprise by far the largest and even the finest portions of the Province, they are (as yet) almost entirely in the hands of the natives, and offered, until very recently, little trace of European settlement or population.
The West-coast may be briefly described as an extensive district lying along the coast from Waiuku to Mokau, and bounded inland by the river Waipa--a tract of country some 100 miles long by 25 broad. It contains a fair proportion of agricultural land, and exhibits the two European Settlements of Whaingaroa and Kawhia. The former is a settlement fifty miles south of the western harbour of Auckland. The latter, forty miles further south, is an older settlement, and an important Wesleyan mission station; it possesses a fair harbour for coasters, and is the depot of a large native trade--shipping pork, potatoes, wheat, maize, and flax, to Auckland, and importing groceries and general merchandise for its native customers in return.
The "Central District" of the Auckland Province consists mainly of the great valleys of the Waikato and the Waipa, which are now to be occupied by the Military Settlements on the lands confiscated from the natives, and will constitute a valuable means of defence if they should ever rebel again. This district extends almost from the Papakura district down to lake Taupo and the northern borders of the Wellington Province. It embraces a tract of country 100 miles long by some 40 broad; and in genial climate, rich soil, striking scenery, water-carriage, and agricultural and pastoral admixture of forest, fern, grass, and flax lands, it is probably entitled to rank as the "Garden of New Zealand." The beautiful lake Taupo (fifty miles in circumference), fitly forms the end of so fine a district, surrounded by lakelets, hot-springs, and chalybeate waters, whilst towering over Taupo, 7,000 feet high, is the snow-capped Tongariro. Albertland, a special settlement of the Nonconformists, is above 35 miles from Auckland.
The "East-coast" district winds along the coast from the Firth of the Thames to Poverty Bay, and embraces a tract of country, say 150 miles long by some 30 broad. The extensive tract of country, forming the shores of the great Bay of Plenty, well deserves the character which the name implies.
There are several native villages and missionary stations scattered over the entire territory, and these are generally connected with each other by native tracks, and canoe-streams. Here, the traveller-will frequently meet with the "germ" of some European Settlement; little knots of half-a-dozen white men, frontier squatters, native traders, bush sawyers and mechanics--rude pioneers of progress who have almost embraced the freer life of the natives.
About four-fifths of the native population are located in this province, but they are rapidly dying out, and it is believed that they do not now amount to 35,000 all told. The late disturbances, which really arose from the feeling of the natives that they were a doomed race, was a last desperate effort to get rid of the white settler as the only means of self-
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preservation, to which they were prompted by their naturally warlike propensities, their inherent contempt for the powers of Europeans, aided by the injudicious petting of their friends and patrons, and the bad management of the authorities. The result of the disturbances is that they have visibly deteriorated, and the sanguine hopes once entertained of the development of their great qualities, have all but disappeared.
STATISTICS.
At the last census, taken in the year 1860, the population of the colony was ascertained to be, exclusive of Queen's troops, 172,158, of whom 106,580 were males, and 65,578 females. Of the above total, 42,132 were located in Auckland, being the second province in point of numbers, Otago having 49,019, Canterbury 32,276, Wellington 14,987, Nelson 11,987, Southland 8,085, Marlborough 5,519, Tanaraki 4,374, Hawkes Bay 3,770, and Stewart's Island 86.
The population of Auckland had increased from 18,177 in 1858 to 24,420 in 1861, and to 42,136 in 1864, or during the whole period at the rate of 131.78 per cent. --a very satisfactory progress, notwithstanding the disturbances with the natives. The male population in 1864 was 25,686, the female 16,446; of these there were 6,827 males and 6,131 females married, 18,238 males and 9,652 females unmarried, 464 widowers, and 567 widows. Five persons were deaf and dumb, and 5 blind. The number of half-castes included in the above totals was 252 males, and 271 females. The military settlers in the province amounted to 5,124, including 1,089 females.
Auckland returns 15 members to the General Assembly, and the population, as given under the head of the electoral districts, was-- Auckland East, 3,743; Auckland West, 8,208; Parnell, 2,878; Onehunga, 2,136; Franklin, 3,982; Raglan, 3,866; Newton, 2,317; Northern districts, 3,566; Mongonui, 447; Bay of Islands, 1,107; Pensioner settlements, 1,107; and Marsden, 2,505.
The number of houses in the province was 7,823, of which 6,446 were built of wood, and 361 of brick or stone. Of the total number, 1,721 only had six or more rooms. The increase in the number of houses since 1861 is 1,760, but 464 were uninhabited, while 346 more were building.
Of the population of the province, 15,179 were born in England, 4,360 in Ireland, 4,378 in Scotland, 159 in Wales, 2,028 in Australia, 1,581 in other colonies, 363 in America, 117 in France, 469 in Germany, and 10,783 in the colony itself. As regards the occupations of the inhabitants, 1,742 were engaged in trade and manufactures, 2,050 in agriculture, 3,736 as mechanics or skilled artificers, 138 as miners. Of the professions there were 84 clergymen, 52 doctors, 42 lawyers, 180 teachers, 123 surveyors; 3, 485 labourers, 1,330 domestic servants, and 1,193 mariners. Under the head of religion we find that 47 1/2 per cent, of the population belong to the Church of England, 17 to that of Rome, and 17 to that of Scotland; 7 1/2 were Wesleyans, 3 1/2 Independents, 2 1/2 Baptists. 30,542 of the inhabitants could both read and write, 2,676 could only read, and 8,864 could neither read nor write; 4,020 children were attending school, including 1,447 receiving Government aid.
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With respect to the agricultural returns, 129,148 acres had been fenced in, of which 87,566 were under crop as follows:-- 856 wheat, 3,411 oats, 154 barley, 761 maize, 3,477 potatoes, 75,842 under sown grasses, 1,037 other crops, and 2,016 gardens or orchards. The progress since 1858 has been as follows:--
|
|
1858.
|
1861.
|
1864.
|
| Acres fenced
|
90,467
|
112,318
|
129,148
|
| " under crop
|
60,201
|
75,916
|
87,556
|
| Horses
|
3,839
|
5,621
|
7,482
|
| Cattle
|
31.700
|
36,482
|
42,294
|
| Sheep
|
58,792
|
67,803
|
73,151
|
| Goats
|
3,179
|
5,999
|
3,264
|
| Pigs
|
11,461
|
12,612
|
13,072
|
| Poultry
|
--
|
82,861
|
105,404
|
The statistical tables give the following result:--
|
|
1858.
|
1861.
|
1864.
|
1865.
|
| Imports
|
£345,262
|
£598,988
|
£2,231,342
|
£1,255,605
|
| Exports
|
91,749
|
78,546
|
353,339
|
299,102
|
| Revenue
|
65,507
|
97,692
|
199,486
|
--
|
The value of the chief exports during 1864 was:-- Gold, 3,448 ozs., valued at £10,552; kauri gum, £58, 190; oil, £1, 455; timber, £22,974; wool, £29,160.
The average price of provisions during the last year in this province was:-- Beer, per hhd. £8; brandy, per gallon £l. 1s.; bread, per lb. 3 1/2d,; butter, fresh 2s. 3d., salt 1s. 9d.; cheese 1s. 6d.; coffee 1s. 6d.; rice 3 1/2d.; salt 1 1/2d.; sugar 6d.; tea 3s. 3d.; tobacco 5s.; wine, per gallon 15s. 6d.; cattle per head, store £7. 10s., fat £13. 10s.; horses, hack £15. 10s., draught £57; sheep, fat £l. 12s.; swine, fat £4. 17s. 6d.; beef, per lb. 7 1/2d.; mutton 9d.; pork 8d.; milk, per quart 6d.
SUITABLE EMIGRANTS.
New Zealand has for some years attracted the best, if not the largest proportion of the emigrants from Great Britain. Persons of large capital will here find ample employment for it, whilst the small farmer, the mechanic, and the labourer, will do far better than in the bleaker regions of Canada, and the bare prairies of the Western States. With industry and sobriety, the artisan or labourer soon becomes master, or farmer; and some of the most wealthy men are those who landed without any capital beyond that which is most valuable--individual labour, coupled with energy and sobriety. In England, a large family is often a social calamity; in New Zealand, a large family proves a source of ultimate wealth. Persons not accustomed to labour should be possessed of some capital. Gentlemen without a profession or capital are the most unsuitable. Families of the middle class, accustomed to the comforts of an English home, but reduced in circumstances, must feel the privations of a new country; but a family emigrating with £5,000 and upwards would not have to experience any privations worth speaking of, but might be comfortably settled from the first, as, even without engaging in any business, this sum would insure an income of £500 a year, if invested on good security, at the ordinary rate of colonial interest. It must, however, be borne in mind, that owing to the high rate of wages, and
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difficulty in getting good domestic servants, even wealthy settlers will experience many discomforts and inconveniences.
Cattle and horse breeding, connected with dairy-farming near towns, will generally be attended with less risk than that of sheep, and it is more suited to the means of a small capitalist. Young men unacquainted with colonial management should acquire experience on a station of some old colonist, before they invest their money.
Capital may be profitably laid out, by those who are present to look over it, at from 12 to 25 per cent., on security in land or houses. It is easy, with sufficient local experience, to make from 50 to 100 per cent, by buying and selling town, suburban, or country sections of land. People emigrating to engage in trade, without a previous knowledge of colonial requirements, should rather take out money than goods. It would also be well for people of small capital, unacquainted with colonial trade, to attach themselves to some old house, prior to engaging in trade on their own account.
Almost everything necessary to comfort and convenience may now be procured in the towns, but not always of the best quality. House-rent and servants' wages are at least double what they are in England. But there are no taxes, rates, or dues of any kind. Clothing of all kinds, is, of course, dearer in New Zealand than in England; but wine, spirits, and groceries, are. for the most part, cheaper. Bread and butchers' meat are about the same.
As to the system of farming, and the method of going about it, the observation that an intelligent man will make during a few days' travel will be of more service to him than the contents of volumes on the subject.
From the fact of this province being for the most part so heavily timbered, and containing so many rivers, it is generally speaking more adapted for arable than pasture farming; but agricultural labourers, smiths and millwrights, and all "sons of toil," are certain of enjoying advantages offered by few other places. Although not essentially a wool-producing district, the quantity of that staple is on the increase in this province, and some of the flocks of sheep are of especial excellence, and their strain is eagerly sought in the other provinces, and even in Australia. The absence of wide extended plains accounts for its pastoral capabilities being less developed than in the smaller portions of the colony, but many intelligent settlers are of opinion that from the nature of the soil, artificial grasses can be cultivated with great success, and that by this means Auckland may hereafter compete with the other provinces as a wool-producing district.
As a rule, a large capital cannot be invested profitably in farming, owing to the high rate of wages and the low price of produce; but labouring men who have saved some money, or those who have been small farmers in England, will find agriculture an extremely profitable business. For capitalists, sheep, cattle, or horses are a better investment; but if all the available country has been leased out, a new comer might have to wait some time before he could obtain a run by purchase from some previous occupant. For those who do not require an immediate return, rural or town land would be a very profitable investment.
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From its numerous harbours, and the many fine rivers which intersect this province, its coasting trade is large, and gives employment to a great number of sailors, and for the same reason, mechanics and shipwrights accustomed to the building and repairing of boats and small vessels, find ready and remunerative work.
The extensive forests of the Auckland district provide constant occupation in the hewing and sawing of wood, and this labour is exceedingly profitable; the timber exported from New Zealand (nearly all being from this province) annually is usually a very large amount, in addition to the immense quantity consumed in the colony, for house and shipbuilding purposes and firing.
THE PROGRESS OF THE COLONY.
The gold-fields and the Maori war have drawn New Zealand from her obscurity, and started her on a career of progress which already promises to be marked and rapid, in the North Island, with its fine climate and abundance of fertile land, the natives were a formidable obstacle; while, in the South, the discovery of the Otago diggings, and of the more extensive ones on the West-coast, has caused a vast influx of population. The path to prosperity is now also thrown open to the provinces of the north. Scattered around the shores and widely separated, its settlers were formerly very much at the mercy of the natives. On every outbreak of war the outlying settlements were in danger of devastation or even extinction, but the recurrence of such a risk is now at an end. The most powerful of the tribes, those of the Waikato confederacy, is broken up. Military posts and cordons of military settlers are interspersed over the districts where the natives are numerous, and they themselves are fast dying off. Auckland, which before this last war was almost confined to the neighbourhood of the town, is now casting out shoots in all directions; its population is increasing as rapidly as that of the gold regions of the south. According to the last census returns, just published, Auckland had 42,132 inhabitants, while Otago had 49,019, and Canterbury, which includes Hokitika and the adjacent gold-fields, counted 32,276. These three are by far the most populous provinces; and since the census was taken, the proportionate increase has been still more marked. The entire white population of the two islands amounted in 1864 to 172,158 persons, having enlarged in three years from 99,021, or almost 74 per cent. The South Island has, by reason of the gold-fields, the largest share of this population--namely, 106,809. The North, with its superior climate, but hitherto with the Maori drawback, has 65,263. In it the aborigines are supposed to number at present no more than 35,000; in the South Island they are only a couple of thousands, and were never numerous there.
The rapid decline of the native tribes presents a sad contrast to the rapid growth and prosperity of the white settlers. If the two races could have lived side by side in harmony--and in a country so large there is plenty of room for both--the aborigines would have been in a little time a valuable portion of the population. Now it is too late to hope for this. They are disappearing so fast that but a remnant will survive in another generation. When the white man first settled near
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them, and the missionaries undertook their reclamation, they showed themselves readily amenable to improvement, but later experience has shown that in the case of the great body of them, this was merely superficial, and the only result has been to engraft European vices on their own semi-barbarous habits. The increase of the white settlers, and the perpetual spuabbles about land, precipitated the late wars, but even without these conflicts the Maories were diminishing. The half civilised man is exposed to dangers from which both the secluded barbarian and the really civilised are free. There is a sudden change of habits, but not a complete change. There is that want of knowledge of "common things," that inattention to the plainest sanitary laws which is so productive of mortality, especially among young children. In old times when every tribe was at feud with its neighbour, the Maori built his dwelling on the steepest hill for safety, and descended to cultivate his plantation, which was usually beside a swamp, as the most fertile spot. When he was pursuaded to discontinue his tribal quarrels, he left his dry elevated residence, and raised his hut on the moist flat. He sleeps on the ground, and as the hut is used in common, crowded, and filthy, the consequences may be imagined. Again, the old costume, the "mat," was an excellent protection in a humid climate, and was easily laid aside; the European dress, generally adopted in its place, does not similarly throw off the wet, and is not readily put off, and the native returning at night to his hut, sleeps in his damp clothes. These and similar practices sufficiently account for the great number of deaths of late years from phthisis and influenza. But the fact of such modes of life among the chiefs as well as their followers, explains why an amalgamation of the two races has not been possible, and the Maori, with all his prowess and natural intelligence, is doomed to the same fate as the ignoble savage of Australia.
It has been asserted, by practical men who have seen New Zealand after visiting other colonies, that, if it had not been for the squabbles and mismanagement which marked the first settlement of the country and the native wars--in a great measure their result--the physical advantages of the country, her soil and climate, her natural gifts, would by this time have attracted to her a population of a quarter of a million of the flower of British emigrants. Although these troubles terribly crippled her early progress, they have produced the effect, of making her a better emigration field for those who are now emigrating, who, in 1867 will find a population sufficiently large to have subdued the desolation of the wilderness, secured law and order, established society and social institutions, have founded thriving factories, and raised annual exports to the value of three millions sterling; but they will not find a population sufficiently large--as in the United States, Canada, and Australia--to have taken the cream of the country by monopolising town and village sites, garden valleys, water privileges, and the best agricultural lands. The present population of New Zealand amounts to but 170,000, planted in a few spots of a country as large as the United Kingdom; and offering to the emigrant of 1867 security of life and property, cheap land and plenty of it, good laws, and all the advantages of a well-established society.
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LAND AND IMMIGRATION REGULATIONS.
All industrious persons, male or female, of appropriate occupation and good character, and not, through infirmity, or other causes, unlikely to form useful colonists will, on approval, receive an order to select a free grant of forty acres of land, with forty acres more for each person above 18 years, and twenty acres for each child above 5 and under 18 years of age, whom they may take out with them. It is probable that the Land Order system will shortly undergo a modification or be done away with.
These orders will be delivered to all eligible applicants, by Messrs. A. F. Ridgway & Sons, Agents to the Provincial Government, 2, Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, London, on payment of a fee of 10s. for each forty acre grant, and 5s. for each twenty acre grant. The only condition is, that the party shall have engaged to find his own way to the colony.,
Capitalists, agricultural labourers, servants, mechanics of various kinds, and, in general, men of any trade wanted in a new country, or sufficient capital to benefit the colony by the employment of labour, are eligible for the grants; but clerks, shopmen, and young men in the rank of gentlemen, without capital, not brought up to any profession or business, are, as a general rule, not likely to succeed in the colony, and by the express instructions of the Government, precluded from receiving land orders.
Persons desirous of obtaining land orders must apply to Messrs. A. F. Ridgway & Sons, for the necessary documents; these gentlemen will also afford every desirable information respecting the province of Auckland.
We make the following extracts from the Waste Lands Act, 1865--
FREE LAND GRANTS.
In order that persons emigrating at their own cost from the United Kingdom may acquire land in proportion to their expenditure, the Superintendent has appointed Agents in the United Kingdom, with authority to grant Land Orders to persons intending to settle in the Province, but no person is entitled to demand Land Order as a right, unless he has obtained previously to his emigrating, from the Agents of the Province, a Land Order as herein provided.
Land Orders are granted according to the following scale. For any person eighteen years of age and upwards, forty acres; and for any child upwards of five years and under eighteen years of age, twenty acres; but in the latter case the Order shall be granted to the parents. and not to the child, and in the case of a servant brought out at the sole expense of the master, the allowance shall be made to him and not to the servant.
No Land Order is transferable, but in event of the death before the expiration of three years of the term to whom the Land Order has been granted, all his right under it shall vest in his appointee constituted in writing, or in his legal representative who shall be at once entitled to a grant of the land in case all the conditions have been fulfilled up to the time of death. In the event of the death of any child or servant in respect of whom any Land Order shall have been granted, the parent or master, if all the conditions have been fulfilled up to the time of death, is entitled at once to a Crown Grant.
Every order shall be void unless the person in whose favour it is granted shall present it in person, in the Province, within three calendar months after his arrival, &c. The Commissioner on being satisfied that the person presenting is the party to whom the Land Order was granted, shall allot the same. Every Land Order thus allotted authorises the person entitled, or his agent, to select the number of acres out of the
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Special Settlement Land, if any, specified in such Order, or out of any General Country Land, subject in either case to the Regulations.
Every Land Order, when attested, shall be in force for three years from the day of the arrival, and if no selection is then made, the Order is void.
When any person, to or for whom any Land Order has been granted, has within the three years been absent from the Province more than twelve calendar months in the whole, his Land Order is void. At the expiration of the three years, the person entitled receives a Crown Grant on proving that the person to or for whom the Order was granted is then resident, and has resided in the Province for three years.
Persons who qualify before the Board of Education at Auckland to teach in Common Schools in the Province, will become entitled to a Grant of 80 acres of land, and other advantages. Officers of the army and navy, who retire from service for the purpose of settling in the Province of Auckland, are entitled to select 400 acres of land; noncommissioned and warrant-officers to 80 acres, and privates and seamen to 60 acres. All parties have the privilege to select the lands for themselves.
TOWN LANDS.
Town and Suburban lands not reserved for public purposes, &c., are offered for sale by public auction at an upset price, to be fixed by the Superintendent in Council, who shall, from time to time, notify what lands are to be sold, and the upset prices, at least two calendar months before the time of sale.
One-fourth of the purchase-money must be paid at the time of sale as a deposit, and the remainder within one calendar month after. In default the sale is void, and the deposit forfeited.
Lands unsold are for twelve calendar months open for sale for cash at the upset price, and lands forfeited at the price at which they were knocked down at auction.
SPECIAL SETTLEMENT LANDS.
The Superintendent from time to time declares by Proclamation that Blocks of Land are set apart for certain Immigrants expected to arrive from the United Kingdom or elsewhere, other than the Australian Colonies.
Special Settlement Land Orders can be exercised upon any General Country Land available, but General Country Land Orders arc not available for Special Settlement Lands, nor can Capitalists purchase Special Settlement Lands without being enrolled members of such Special Settlement; the Special Settlements are Albertland, Church of England, Pollock, and Presbyterian.
COUNTRY LANDS.
The Superintendent, from time to time, notifies a day on and after which any Country land will be open for sale, and any person desirous of purchasing must send in a written application, sealed and directed to the Commissioners, at the place stated in the notification.
Every application must state the name of the purchaser, the quantity in acres, and situation of the allotment, and its number on the map in the office of the Commissioner, endorsed with the words "Application for Land." The purchase-money at the rate of 10s. per acre must be paid to a receiver of Land Revenue, who will give a receipt in duplicate, one of which must be annexed to the application, and the Commissioner, on its receipt, will enter in a book a minute of the receipt.
Applications shall not be opened until noon of the day appointed for the sale, after which no applications are received. In the event of one person only having given notice to purchase any allotment, and duly paid the purchase-money, such person shall be deemed the purchaser; but if two or more persons have made applications for the same allotment, it will be put up for sale by auction at the upset price of 10s. an acre, at which sale only the applicants or their agents may bid. Unsuccessful bidders will at once receive an order for the return of the money deposited by them. All the unsold portions will be open for sale to the first applicant for the same. Every application must be made in writing to the Commissioner, and payments made as directed above. The Commissioner immediately, on receipt of the application, enters in the minute-book the name of the purchaser, the area and extent of the allotment, &c., and the land is deemed to be sold, and the purchaser at once entitled to a Crown Grant.
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THE VOYAGE.
The usual length of the voyage by sailing ship to Auckland is from 80 to 100 days, and by the new mail service via Panama, the time occupied to Wellington is 49 days, from whence passengers are conveyed by one of the Company's steamers to Auckland. The terms of passage (including provisions) by Messrs. Shaw, Savill & Co.'s Passenger Line of Packets are as follows:--
Saloon Cabin, 50 Guineas and upwards.
Second Cabin, £25 Enclosed Cabins.
Third Cabin (Intermediate) £18 Enclosed Berths.
Third Cabin (Steerage) £15 Open Berth.
Children under Twelve Years, one-half; Infants under One, free.
Saloon passengers receive a full supply of provisions of the best quality, including live stock; but wines, spirits, and malt liquors are specially charged for. The other classes of passengers are entitled to good provisions according to a published scale.
The Panama, New Zealand, and Australian Mail Company convey passengers on the 2nd of each month, and the through rates for passage to Auckland are £94 first class, and £64 second class.
Messrs. Goy & Co., 36, Leadenhall Street, or Messrs. Monnery & Co., of Fenchurch Street, will supply a detailed list of all articles necessary for the outfit of either class of passengers.
Money not required on the voyage can be paid into the London Offices of the Bank of New Zealand, Bank of New South Wales, or Union Bank of Australia; these institutions have branches in all the principal places in New Zealand. Baggage and effects of passengers may be insured in London on policies payable in Auckland, at the offices of Messrs. Bowley & Bristow, 74, Cornhill, the agents for the New Zealand Insurance Company.
The Auckland newspapers are filed at Mr. Algar's Colonial Newspaper Office, 11, Clement's Lane, Lombard Street, who receives advertisements for insertion therein.
The mails for Auckland are despatched with the Australian mails (overland route) on the morning of the 20th of each month, via Southampton; also by the Panama route on the 2nd of each month, postal rate 6d. half ounce, newspapers one penny each; and on the 26th of each month via Marseilles, postal rate lOd. half ounce, newspapers 3d. each. The mails usually arrive in London about the 13th of each month via Marseilles, and the 28th of each month via Panama; the news received from the colony is published in the Australian and New Zealand Gazette, at 11, Clement's Lane, E. C.
PUBLIC COMPANIES
CONNECTED WITH NEW ZEALAND, HAVING OFFICES OR AGENCIES IN LONDON.
Names..... Secretaries, &c..... Address.
Bank of New South Wales ........ J. Currie, Sec............... 64, Old Broad Street, E.C.
Bank of Australasia.. ........... W. Milliken, Sec...........4, Threadneedle Street, E.C.
Bank of New Zealand ............ F. Larkworthy, Man. Direc.. 50, Old Broad Street, E.C.
Bank of Otago.................... A. Grace .................. 5. Adam's Court, Old Broad Street.
Union Bank of Australia.......... H. W. D. Saunders, Sec.....6S, Old Broad Street, E.C.
New Zealand Insurance .......... Bowley & Bristow, Agents.. 74, Cornhill, E.C.
Panama, N.Z. and Aus. R. Mail... T. Worley, Sec.............41, Moorgate Street.
New Zealand Trust and Loan ..... T. D. Saunders, Sec.........31, New Broad Street.
New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency .....W. J. Steele. Sec....50, Old Broad Street, E.C.
Otago and Southland Investment.. A. Grace.................... 5, Adam's Court, E.C.
Peninsular and Oriental Steam... C. W. Howell, Sec........... 122, Leadenhall Street, E.C.
