1865 - Howitt, W. The History of Discovery in Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand [New Zealand sections] - CHAPTER XXI. INCIDENTS OF DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT IN NEW ZEALAND, p 399-417

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CHAPTER XXI.

INCIDENTS OF DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT IN NEW ZEALAND.

THE comparative narrowness of the New Zealand Islands has prevented that scope of expeditionary discovery which has prevailed in Australia. Yet there are incidents attending the laying down of its coast lines, the settling and opening up of its islands, mountains, and forests, that possess a deep interest.

THE SURVEY OF THE COASTS.

The great work of surveying the coasts, which Cook commenced in 1769, was nearly completed by Drury in 1856. To D'Urville of the French marines, and Stokes and Drury of the Royal Navy, the world is indebted for a complete outline of the coast; and to Captain Richards, Royal Navy, and Mr. Evans, Royal Navy, for an excellent description of them. The New Zealand coast-line

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Pakeha-Maories, or Stranger-Maories, from their adopting the habits of the Maories, and marrying into their families, were the earliest explorers of the interior of the North Island. The Pakeha-Maories became the mediums of trade with the Europeans on the coasts, and found it a profitable business, till the Maories became familiar with them, and discovered that it was their interest to trade directly with the English and other nations who frequented their shores, and were making settlements on them.

The Missionaries, Church of England, Methodists, and Catholics gradually established their influence with the natives, and by degrees penetrated with their schools and chapels into the most central regions of the island.

Mr. Charles Darwin, the naturalist, who visited New Zealand in 1835 in his voyage with Captain Fitzroy in the Beagle, was one of the first to present us with some vivid glimpses of the Maories and the missionary settlements at that period in the Northern Island.

He says:-- "I should think a more warlike race of inhabitants could not be found in any part of the world than the New Zealanders. Their conduct on first seeing a ship, as described by Captain Cook, strongly demonstrates this; the act of throwing volleys of stones at so great and novel an object, and their defiance of, 'Come on shore, and we will kill and eat you all,' shows uncommon boldness. This warlike spirit is evident in many of their customs, and even in their smallest actions. If a New Zealander is struck, although but in joke, the blow must be returned.

"At the present day, from the progress of civilization, there is much less warfare, except among some of the southern tribes. I heard a characteristic anecdote of what took place some time ago in the south. A missionary found a chief and his tribe in preparation for war; their muskets clean and bright, and their ammunition ready. He reasoned long on the inutility of the war, and the little provocation which had been given for it. The chief was much shaken in his resolution, and

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seemed in doubt; but, at length, it occurred to him that a barrel of gunpowder was in a bad state, and that it would not keep much longer. This settled the matter" --P. 419.

Mr. Darwin gives a striking illustration of the magical change produced in New Zealand by the introduction of European civilization:-- "At length we reached Waimate. After having passed over so many miles of uninhabited useless country, the sudden appearance of an English farm-house and its well-dressed fields, placed there as by an enchanter's wand, was exceedingly pleasant. * * * * At Waimate there are three larger houses where the missionary gentlemen, Messrs. Williams, Davies, and Clarke, reside; and near them are the huts of the native labourers. On an adjoining slope fine crops of barley and wheat were standing in full ear, and, in another part, fields of potatoes and clover. But I cannot attempt to describe all I saw; there were large gardens, with every fruit and vegetable which England produces, and many belonging to warmer climates. I may instance asparagus, kidney-beans, cucumbers, rhubarb, apples, pears, figs, peaches, apricots, grapes, olives, gooseberries, currants, hops, gorse for fences, and English oaks; also many kinds of flowers. Around the farmyard there were stables, a thrashing barn, with its winnowing machine, a blacksmith's forge, and, on the ground, ploughshares and other tools; in the middle was that happy mixture of pigs and poultry, lying comfortably together, as in every English farm-yard. At the distance of a few hundred yards, where the water of a little rill had been dammed up into a pool, there was a large and substantial water-mill.

"This is very surprising when it is considered that five years ago nothing but the fern flourished here. Moreover, native workmanship, taught by the missionaries, has effected this change--the lesson of the missionary is the enchanter's wand. The house had been built, the windows framed, the fields ploughed, and even the trees grafted by the New Zealander. At the mill a

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New Zealander was seen powdered white with flour, like his brother millers in England." --P.425.

When Dr. Dieffenbach, in 1840 and 1841, visited, in company with Captain Symonds, the most interior regions of Auckland, along the rivers Waikato, Waipa, and the Thames, and amongst the volcanic hills and geysers of the central districts, he found the missionaries almost everywhere settled amongst the natives, and teaching them both from school and pulpit; yet Dieffenbach tells us that he "was the first to visit or describe Mount Egmont, many places in the northern parts of the island, and some of the picturesque and interesting lakes and thermal springs in the interior," and he was of opinion "that a further knowledge would be owing rather to the gradual spread of colonization than to a previous examination of the country." Dieffenbach's explorations were in the character of naturalist to the New Zealand Company. He arrived in the ship Tory from England in Queen Charlotte's Sound in August, 1839. After remaining some time in Ship Cove, he visited many places on the coasts, beginning first with excursions to the island of Motuara, Cannibals' Cove, named Tory Channel after the ship, and paid visits to Te-awa-iti, the settlement of the whalers in Cook's Strait, where they found the whalers all living with native wives, to the islands of Moioio and Arapaoa, Cloudy Bay, Port Underwood, and then crossed over to Port Nicholson in the Northern Island.

Here, at this time, the New Zealand Company purchased Port Nicholson, and commenced the foundation of the town of Wellington. From Port Nicholson, Hr. Dieffenbach made an excursion into the mountains to the north-east, called the Tararua Range. At that time there was no road connecting the town with the valley of the Hutt, or across the neck of land to the Pararua River opposite the island of Mana. Dieffenbach was desirous to cross the snowy mountains northward of Port Nicholson, and to enter the valley of the Manawatu, but as there were no roads through the thick scrub

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and dense forests, he was not able to accomplish it. The surveyors were just beginning to cut lines up the right bank of the Eritonga River. The settlers were just clearing the ground for the commencement of the town of Wellington. On the fourth day of their journey they came upon a party under Mr. Deans, who were cutting a track through the hills to the west. Mr. Deans and two men, making Dieffenbach's party eight, soon after joined them. It was in August, and the weather was very rainy, with occasional hail and snow. At about fifty miles from the sea, they came upon another stream running into the Eritonga, and saw numerous footprints of wild pigs, dogs, and cats. After ascending the Tararua Hills amid deep snow, and beholding a very wild prospect as far as Kapiti Island in Cook's Strait, and over regions all around exceedingly mountainous, and covered on the lower land with continuous woods, they returned to Port Nicholson, after an absence of sixteen days, without seeing a single native; but they convinced themselves that roads to Hawke's Bay northeastward, and to the Manawatu north-westward, were quite practicable. At that time the natives in Port Nicholson district were estimated at 1500, but divided into several tribes, and living in the different coves of the harbour.

After again visiting different parts of the strait, they examined the Wanganui, Waimate, and other rivers, on the north of the strait to Cape Egmont. Whilst the company's agent was engaged in the purchase of the land from the natives, Dieffenbach set off with a small party to endeavour to ascend Mount Egmont, never yet ascended by any European. About Sugarloaf Point, where they landed from their boat, they found plenty of natives; the Taranaki tribe, however, were very much harassed by the powerful Waikatos, and glad to sell lands to the English to obtain their support against their too potent enemies.

The natives strove earnestly to dissuade Dieffenbach from ascending Mount Egmont, telling him that it was

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"tapu," or sacred, and that there were crocodiles and moas in its glens, and that he would assuredly be eaten. Spite of this, he persuaded an old priest and American man of colour to accompany him, and, on the 3rd of December, they started. On the way they came to concealed potato plantations, which the natives fled to in the woods, when their Waikato enemies came down. The cabbage-palm in the woods were the tallest Dieffenbach had ever seen. The heavy rains and the shortness of provisions, however, defeated their attempt, and they returned to the shore after an absence of fifteen days, but delighted with the beauty and fertility of the country as far as they could see it.

Having laid in a better store of provisions, and adding to their party a chief, E. Kake, and Mr. Heberley, a European, they again set out to ascend the mountain. This time they succeeded, but the natives would not go higher than the limits of perpetual snow, about 7204, the mountain itself being 8839 feet. The natives took out their books and began to pray, overpowered by the silent awe of the mountain heights, and their dread of the mysterious animals that they believe to exist there. Dieffenbach and Heberley found the mountain an old volcano, with its crater filled with snow, and a high piled cone of cinders and scoriaceous lava. The travellers descended, predicting that the picturesque valley of the Waiwakaio, Mount Egmont, and the smiling land at its base, would become as celebrated for their beauty as Vesuvius, and the Bay of Naples, and attract travellers from all parts of the globe.

From Taranaki Dr. Dieffenbach made an excursion to Mokau, but this was merely along the coast. He next made a voyage to the Chatham Islands, which lie to the S. E. of New Zealand, and found the surface of the largest island to contain 305,280 acres, of which 57,000 were occupied by lakes, and 100,000 were considered good for cultivation, the remainder for pasturage. Water and water-fowl in abundance, as well as fish, and materials for building not less so.

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In October, 1840, Dr. Dieffenbach landed in the Bay of Islands, and proceeded with Captain Bernard, an adventurous Frenchman, to explore the northern long peninsular of the island. Commencing at Cape Maria Van Diemen, he traced the coast south-westward. He found on the peninsular missionary and squatting stations. A Mr. Southie was living on the Awaroa river, and employing 300 natives in clearing the land. There were natives busy fishing, and cultivating potatoes, kumeras, melons, pumpkins, and turnips, in neat enclosures. In the valley of the Awaroa, Dieffenbach calculated that there were 120,000 acres of arable land. A bridle road for fifty miles from Kaitaia had been cut through the forests by the natives, at the price of a blanket per mile. Dieffenbach and Captain Bernard extended their explorations into Lauriston Bay, the district round the harbour of Wangaroa, and the Pu-te-kaka river, amongst the forests of the mighty Kauri pines. They complained of the reckless destruction of the Kauri forests by the fire of the settlers, and the log-cutters, then going on; and of the equally wholesale destruction of the curious bird, the kiwi or apterix, which abound in those forests, by dogs and cats, and by the natives to make mats of their skins.

Crossing the peninsular, they visited the harbour of Wangaroa, celebrated for the massacre of the crew of the Boyd in 1809. Amongst the volcanic rocks and hills of this neighbourhood they found 2000 natives who had become Christians, some protestants, some catholics, having missions of both creeds. Returning to the west coast they traced it down to Wangape and Hokianga, around which latter place were 200 Europeans, traders, and sawyers, and all the natives converted to Catholicism or methodism. They visited in the interior the lake of Maupere, and the extinct volcanos, and the hot sulphurous springs about the Waimate, in the direction of the Bay of Islands. In the same manner crossing to and fro, they examined the Keri-Keri river, the Bay of Tauranga, the Bay of Islands, the Kaipara Harbour, and the

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Wairoa river with its tributaries. Up these rivers they found Englishmen located as farmers and timber dealers, who claimed most of the land, some of the timber ships ascending the Wairoa to a distance of eighty-five miles from the sea. Thence they continued their examinations of the country to the Gulf of Hauraki, Coromandel Harbour, the Waiho or Thames, to Waitimata Harbour, and Auckland. At Kati-Kati they found the southern boundary of the Kauri forests on the east coast. On the different rivers they still found missions, most of which had possessed themselves of large tracts of country. The church mission catechist, Fairbairn, on the right bank of the Tamaki river claiming the country from thence to the Wairoa, ninety square miles.

From Waitemata, accompanied by Lieutenant Best, Dr. Dieffenbach proceeded to the Manukau, and thence, also accompanied by Captain William Cornwallis Symonds, directly southward into the interior as far as the great central lake Taupo. This was by far the most important exploration on the part of Dieffenbach and his English companions, of whom it is rather remarkable he says so little. We know that they went with him, and that is nearly all. The country from Waitemata to Manukau they found extremely interesting, as consisting of comparatively level land, with pleasant valleys, but with a number of extinct volcanos rising here and there out of the plains; the conical hills reaching 400 or 500 feet with still deep and well defined craters. The shores of the Manukau they represented as the last place on the western coast southward where the Kauri was found at all in any quantity.

Lieutenant Best accompanied some natives to the Awaroa, and thence proceeded to the Waikato, but Dr. Dieffenbach followed the coast southwards, accompanied by Captain Symonds. They found the mouth of the Waikato narrow and shallow, but the river within the heads capable of carrying large vessels for 100 miles. Near the embouchere of the river at the Church Missionary Station, Maraenui, they met with Lady Franklin,

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Sir John Franklin at this time being engaged in an extensive examination of New Zealand. The party continued along the shore of Waingaroa harbour, which they found overlooked by limestone cliffs of seventy or eighty feet in height. At Waingaroa they found a tribe of 1200 natives, and a Wesleyan Mission. Thence they continued their coast journey to Aotea and Kawia, an extensive harbour, into which fall the Awaroa and Kauri rivers. On the northern shore of this harbour was formerly the head-quarters of the famous Rauparaha, who was driven from it by the Waikato, and settled at Entry Island. There were about 1500 of the Waikato living here, and they had all become Christians. From the size and capacity of this harbour, the depth of water, the rivers flowing into it, and the quality of the land, it appeared likely to become one of the most important ports of the western coast. There were already about forty Europeans settled on its northern shore, and the greatest part of the land in the vicinity of Kawia was claimed by them.

From this point they struck off into the interior, having engaged a numerous band of natives to carry their luggage, the payment for which service was a shirt or a gown to each. They crossed in a canoe to the small river Operau, and then ascended gentle hills towards the Waipa river. These hills were all of volcanic origin, covered with fern, and in many places with forests. In one place they saw a very ancient rata-tree, its stem fifty-four feet round, and having been hollowed out by fire, served for a convenient shelter to the natives. It was strictly "tapu," that is, no one was allowed to cut down or injure any portion of it. On reaching the summit of the hills overlooking the valley of the Waipa, they had a vast prospect. Seawards they saw Kawia and Aotea, to the N. E. Maunga-Tautari, a volcanic ridge in the interior; before them the broad valley of the Waipa, bounded to the east by distant hills, and to the south-west the hilly chain of Rangitoto, near Mokau. Only some small spots of the valley of the Waipa were wooded, and the

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burnt and blackened stems of old trees were the only signs of the intrusion of man into the dominions of nature.

Natives and missionaries welcomed them to the Valley of the Waipa, which was extensive, flat, and very fertile. At the Church Missionary station of Otawao, they found fine tobacco growing: most of the natives were Christians. Here they saw the old chief, Puata, the father of tha famous Te Whero-Whero, the head of the Waikato tribe. The Waipa there was fifty yards wide, and two fathoms deep. They directed their course eastward for the Valley of the Waikato, which joins the Waipa about a hundred miles below Otawao, passing the ranges of Maunga-Tautari, whence also flowed the rivers Piako and Waiho, or the Thames. The forests were chiefly of the Kahikatea pine. Here and there, in the level of the valley rose conical volcanic hills. As they approached the Waikato river, the woods changed to matai and totara pine; the one red and beautiful for furniture, the other most valuable for ship-building. They found the Waikato lying between steep banks, like an Australian river, about fifty yards broad, but showing that in floods it was frequently 150 yards wide. They saw in the far distance Horo-Horo, the mountain in which the Thames takes its rise. The Valley of the Waikato was very different to that of the Waipa. It was broken up into hillocks of cemented tufa and pumice-stone, the hillocks not descending in regular slopes, but in steps or terraces, evidently formed by the fall of waters. The country was altogether volcanic, barren and stony. Numerous streams ran on all sides; the hills became even more rugged and broken, and the grand forest of totara, rimu, and matai pines, gave a solemn grandeur to the scene. They were now approaching the most extraordinary region of New Zealand, the land of volcanoes, boiling springs, steam and sulphur jets, and mud cauldrons, red as vermillion, and boiling and bubbling heavily. Still they found themselves amongst natives who were partly converted to Christianity.

Three miles from a pah of these natives at Ahirara,

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they saw the masses of white vapour rising in jets from the hot springs. The scenes which now opened upon them were of the most extraordinary kind. The whole country appeared to be based upon a fire stratum, which was sending up through crevices and through gaping funnel-shaped chasms, boiling waters, spurting steams, and fumes of sulphur. The water which boiled up was not easily approached, and was of a milky, clayey appearance, apparently very much the colour of a glacial river. The water was above the boiling point, and in constant agitation. It had the appearance of a country existing over fire-regions, where a volcano might burst forth at any moment. The party visited similar regions on the opposite side of the hills. They found numbers of these boiling springs sending up their columns of steam in a rugged ravine, under deep and precipitous cliffs.

The water in these was nearly clear, with a pleasant acidulous taste, smelling slightly of hydro-sulphurous gas, and throwing out incrustations of alum and sulphur.

One of the boiling mud-ponds lay at the base of a steep cliff, sixty feet high, white, oxidized, corroded, and undermined. The mud was continually boiling, with a white foam, throwing out jets of fluid ten feet high, with violence and noise. The pond was very deep. Many of these ponds threw up mud and sand, which hardened into truncated cones of about ten feet high, and stood up as many as eight in one pond. The whole scene was most impressive. It was a Tartarus above ground.

On reaching the great central lake, Taupo, they were struck with admiration at its extent, and at the scenery around it. Across it rose to the south-east, the still active volcano, Tongariro, and the mountains, Titiraupena, and Wakakahu. They found the rocks of which these hills consist, a leucitic lava of great fineness. On looking back at the Valley of the Waipa, which they had crossed, they gave the decided preference to it over that of the Waikato. "This valley," says Dieffenbach, "is bounded to the westward by a range of coast hills, to the eastward by the range of Maunga-Tautari. It

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has an average breadth of thirty miles, is even and flat in its lowest part, especially up to the point at which the river Waipa joins the Waikato. Higher up, the country is broken and undulating, covered with a vegetation of fern and coarse grass, alternating with groves of the Kahikatea pine. The lower part rivals in fertility the best districts of the island." He says it is not only very sheltered, but has the advantage of the river being navigable for sixty miles above its junction with the Waikato, while the Waikato in the middle of its course is impeded by rapids. The Valley of the Waipa lias also easy communication with the harbour of Waingaroa, and has an almost uninterrupted water communication with Waitemata, or Auckland. They found a great demand for European commodities amongst the natives.

After crossing the lake, to ascend Tongariro, they found the chief Te-Heu-Heu was absent, and had laid a solemn "tapu" on the mysterious mountain.

Lake Taupo, which is thirty-six miles long and twenty-five broad, but very irregular in shape, is surrounded by a volcanic country all alive with boiling springs, solfataras, and stufas; and at its eastern end was an island, called Puhia-i-wakari, or White Island, still active as a volcano. On the western side, where the scenery was magnificent, they saw vapours bursting from hundreds of crevices, and heard a constant subterranean noise, like the working of a steam engine, or the blast of an iron-foundry. The natives cooked their food by laying it on fern over these crevices.

Tongariro had been tapued by Te-Heu-Heu, because Mr. Bidwell, an Englishman, had ascended it without leave; Hr. Dieffenbach could, therefore, only give us Mr. Bidwell's account of his ascent. It was on March 2nd, 1839, that he made his ascent. The natives whom he took with him would only ascend to a certain height, where they said they used to sit down and cover their heads, because it was "tapu" to look at the dreaded peak of the mountain, which they believed to be inhabited by powerful spirits. Two natives only would pass that spot, and they stopped short within a mile of the

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base of the cone. As Mr. Bidwell ascended, he heard a noise, and saw an eruption of black smoke. He found the cone composed of loose cinders, not to be climbed without intense labour. It was much higher than volcanic cones in general, and the crater was the most terrific abyss he ever looked into, or imagined. The rocks overhung it on all sides, it was continually discharging steam, and it appeared at least a quarter of a mile in diameter, and very deep. The stones he threw into it did not strike anything for seven or eight minutes, and many were heard no more. The mountains around stood up quite perpendicular, and most magnificent. They were all covered with snow. He had a vast prospect of lakes, rivers, and country clothed with wood. The natives said he ought to have seen Taranaki and the island of Kapiti, in Cook's Straits. Tongariro he calculated to be 6,200 feet above the level of the sea. It did not appear, from the accounts of the natives, that there had been any violent eruption for many years; but Tongariro must be regarded as the centre of the modem volcanic action of the northern island.

Dieffenbach calculated the natives around lake Taupo at 3200, including those about the Rotu-Aire and other hills and lakes of that region. He regarded them as the best specimen of the race he had met with in New Zealand, hospitable to strangers, industrious, cleanly, and disposed to Christianity.

From the Taupo the party continued their route down the banks of the Waikato, through a similar country of lakes, hills, hot springs, and sulphur springs, to the Rotu-Mahana, or Warm Lake. A lake of a blue colour, surrounded by verdant hills; in the lake several islets, in all of which steam issued from a hundred openings between the green foliage of the bushes, without impairing their verdure, and on the opposite side a flight of broad steps, of the colour of marble, of a rosy tint, and a cascade of boiling water falling over them into the lake. The steeps were firm, like porcelain, and had a tinge of carmine. They continued their journey to Tauranga by a number

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of other lakes, of which there are fifteen, extending at intervals from the Taranaki to the eastern coast. From Tauranga they travelled to the valley of the Thames, everywhere finding missionaries, and natives who had sold their land to Europeans, and were vainly trying to get some of it back again. From the valley of the Waiho, or Thames, they sailed up the gulf of Hauraki to Auckland. In this journey Dr. Dieffenbach made a valuable addition to the geology and natural history of New Zealand, the particulars of which will be found in his work.

Amongst the most active explorers of the Northern Island must be reckoned Captain William Cornwallis Symonds, one of Dieffenbach's companions in this journey. Captain Symonds was the son of Sir William Symonds, surveyor of the navy. He was himself deputy-surveyor of New Zealand, and besides this journey with Dieffenbach, made various explorations, especially to the sources of the Wanganui and Manewatu rivers which fall into Cook's Straits. He had prepared a chart, and details of his observations, and had collected a vocabulary of 3000 native words, when he was cut short by the fate so common in New Zealand. He was upset in crossing the bay of Manukau, on a duty of friendly benevolence, and drowned in November of 1841.

At the close of December, 1858, the Novara, an Austrian frigate, out on a voyage of inquiry into the geology and natural history of various countries, especially of the southern hemisphere, entered the harbour of Auckland. On board of this frigate was Dr. Hochstetter, as the geologist of the expedition. At the Cape of Good Hope Sir George Grey, then governor there, had recommended Dr. Hochstetter to devote some time to a geological survey of the north island of New Zealand. On arriving he was readily engaged for this purpose by the Colonial Government. And the result of his visits to various parts of the coast, and into the interior, has resulted in two splendid works, one essentially geologic, the other uniting his scientific with his general observa-

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tions, entitled simply, "Neu Seeland, von Dr. Ferdinand von Hochstetter," in quarto, Stuttgart, 1863.

The great object of Hochstetter's inquiries was the same volcanic district of the interior which Dieffenbach traversed, his aim being a more close and scientific survey of its geologic structure. Hochstetter informs us that Sir George Grey himself had traversed much of the interior of the North Island since Dieffenbach, and that the Rev. A. G. Purchas and Charles Heaphy had visited some particular districts of the North Island, and that James Dana, geologist of the American Exploring Expedition of 1849, had visited the Bay of Islands, and had scientifically examined the surrounding country. After some preparatory visits to places on the coasts, and a voyage across the straits to Nelson, Dr. Hochstetter prepared to set out for the interior. He was furnished with a strong party and plenty of provisions, and was accompanied by Julius Haast, a fellow German, and also a geologist, who had arrived at the same time on a professional tour in Auckland, and who has since become the government geologist of Canterbury. Captain Drummond Hay, an officer well acquainted both with the Maories and their language, was appointed manager of the expedition and interpreter. Mr. Bruno Hamel attended as photographer, and another German, Herr Koch.

Rich as was this journey in geologic and naturalistic acquisitions, it is unnecessary for us to follow the details of it, for it was chiefly over the ground traversed by Dieffenbach. Dr. Hochstetter describes the country and their reception by natives and missionaries, in terms of the highest enthusiasm. There is no new land that in his opinion can compare with New Zealand. It is a paradise of climate and scenery, and in the peculiarity of its natural productions. He luxuriates in its forests, its mountains, its wonderful volcanic regions, its friendly people, both native and European. "Indelible," he says, "remain in my memory those scenes, when after the labour and fatigue of the day, we encamped on

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the edge of the forest, near a rushing mountain stream. When the fire blazed up, and the natives sang their songs; and then all became silent till with the awakening day, the birds of the wood, the kokorimolo and the tui commenced their morning strains. I look back on such scenes, on our sailing on the rivers in the canoes of the natives, on our sojourn in their pahs, and on our wanderings through the dark old forests in the shade of trees which are unknown to every other land, with a joy which makes me truly feel how high the pleasures of nature stand above the pleasures of artificial life."

There are a few points which we may however notice. In the upper Waipa valley they explored one of the celebrated caves in the lime-stone hills, called the Moa Cave, the Spirit Cave, and the Dark Cave. The Moa Cave had been successfully examined in 1852, by Dr. A. Thomson, major Hume, and Captain Cooper, for the remains of moas. The Dark, examined by Hochstetter, he describes in one place as having a vault seventy feet high, and magnificent with stalactile formations. Scarcely a cave in these hills but formerly abounded in remains of the moa. They found the Tongariro volcano as strictly "tapu" as ever, but Mr. Dyson, in 1851, had ventured to ascend it unknown to the natives, and found it in much the same state as Mr. Bidwell in 1839. Dyson's account has been published in the Auckland "New Zealander." At Pukawa, on the Taupo Lake, they had an interview with the great chief Te-Heu-Heu, and at Tokanu saw some remarkable native carvings. Like Dieffenbach, Dr. Hochstetter and his party proceeded by the valley of the Thames and the Gulf of Hauraki to Auckland.

Besides the immediate results of this journey which greatly extended the knowledge of the geology of New Zealand, Dr. Hochstetter's work contained a great amount of information on the botany and zoology of the islands, on the discoveries of coal and gold, on the character, manners, poetry and romance of the Maories. The ground over which he went has been the great scene

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of the struggle in the late war, and he has given a lucid narrative of its origin and progress. Dr. Hochstetter gives a very lively narrative of the gold discoveries in New Zealand from the first formation of a "Reward Committee in Auckland, in 1852," and the discovery of this metal by Mr. Charles Ring, a settler on the peninsular of Cape Colville, near the Coromandel Harbour, of which Mr. Charles Heaphy was made commissioner, to the first faint discovery of gold in 1842 by Mr. M'Donald, one of a party sent out by Captain Wakefield, at Massacre Bay, then converted into Golden Bay, the more important discovery of the Aorere gold-field in the same quarter in 1857, and then the Takata Diggings, and finally, the great outburst of the gold-fever in Otago in 1861. Gold is said to have been found in Otago in 1857 and 1858, by Mr. Ligar, since Surveyor-General of Victoria in Australia: but the discovery of the prolific gold-field of Tuapeka by Mr. Gabriel Reed, in 1861, put the climax to the gold-fever of New Zealand, brought diggers by thousands from Australia, so that by the succeeding January 250,000 ounces of gold, worth one million sterling, were raised in the gold-fields of Otago. Well might the nurses be said to rock the children to sleep with the song-

Since then extensive gold-fields have been discovered on the western coast of Canterbury.

In quitting this notice of the explorations of the Northern Island I may remark how much German naturalists and scientific men have had to do with Australasian researches. Dr. Solander, who accompanied Sir Joseph Banks on Cook's first voyage to the South Seas, and Dr. Sparrmann, who added to the botanic knowledge of Dusky Bay, and of the south-west coast of the Middle Island, were Swedes; but the Forsters, father and son, who attended Cook on his second voyage, were Germans, as was Dr. Leichhardt, the first great ex-

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plorer of Australia to the north coast, and Dr. Dieffenbach, and as are Doctors Haast and Hochstetter. It may not be altogether out of place in a work on Geographical Discovery to notice the distinguished men who have contributed to the botanic knowledge of New Zealand. Besides Captain Cook, Sir Joseph Banks, Doctors Solander and Sparrmann, and the Forsters, already mentioned, Dr. Menzies, who was the naturalist in Vancouver's voyage, collected, principally in Dusky Bay, many mosses and lichens, and added greatly to the collection of the cryptogamic plants of New Zealand. In 1824 and 1827 the French expeditions of Duperrey and D'Urville visited New Zealand, and Professor Richard published descriptions of 200 species of trees and plants there collected. After the establishment of the Sydney Botanic Garden, Charles Frazer, the Sydney botanist, visited New Zealand in 1825, and the brothers Allan and Richard Cunningham in 1826, 1833, and 1838, whilst, at the same time, zealous missionaries, as Dr. Logan and William Colenso, made extensive collections of specimens. Mr. Bidwell, who first climbed the volcano of Tongariro, in 1839, and Dr. Dieffenbach, the first European who ascended Mount Egmont, also in 1839, added very interesting contributions to the sub-alpine and alpine Flora of New Zealand. Then followed M. Raoul, the French savan, who accompanied the frigate L'Aubre from 1840 to 1841, and the frigate L'Allier, as naturalist, and described his botanic acquisitions in a splendid work. But it remained for Dr. J. D. Hooker, the son of Sir William Hooker, who attended the Antarctic Expedition under Captain James Ross, in 1839 to 1843, to put the crown to the botanic knowledge of New Zealand, in his magnificent and most scientific work, "The Flora of New Zealand." To this great work the collections of Dr. Lyall, who accompanied Captain Stokes in the Acheron, in 1847, of Dr. Menzies, rich in cryptogamias, of Captain Drury, Mr. Jolliffe, Lieutenant-Colonel Bolton, the Rev. -- Taylor, Thomas H. Hulke, Dr. Andrew Sinclair, and Mr. Knight, of

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Auckland, of Dr. Munro and Captain Rough, of Nelson. These enabled Dr. Hooker to complete the work down to 1853. The work contains nearly 1900 pages, to which Dr. Haast, Dr. Monro, W. T. L. Travers, Captain Rough and others, have since made additions, some of which have been described by Dr. Muller, of Melbourne, in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, vol. xiv.

As the missionaries have been amongst the earliest and most extensive openers-up of New Zealand, it is due to them to remark that the first foundation of missions there originated with the venerable Samuel Marsden, the apostle of the South Sea. The Church Missionary Society established their mission in the Bay of Islands in 1814, the Wesleyans theirs on the Hokianga, in 1822, and the Catholics theirs in New Zealand, in 1838. The last act of cannibalism ceased under their teaching on the Katikati River, near Tauranga, in the Bay of Plenty, in 1843. New Zealand might be said to be a missionary dominion till the New Zealand Company, projected by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, landed their expedition, and founded their first settlement at Wellington, Port Nicholson, in 1839.

For a knowledge of the very interesting traditions, poems, and oratory of the Maories, we are indebted to the collections of Messrs. Polack, Backer, Shortland, and Dieffenbach, to Davis's "Maori Mementos," Taylor's "Te Ika a Maui," and Sir George Grey's "Poetry of the New Zealanders."