CHAPTER X
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CHAPTER X.
General Considerations on Cook's Straits.
The existence of a strait, which separates two long and narrow islands, extending for 800 miles, from the thirty-fourth to the forty-eighth degree of south latitude, is a geographical feature which early attracted the attention of those who wished to colonize New Zealand. Queen Charlotte's Sound was the favourite resort of the justly-celebrated Captain Cook, and, many as were the countries which he visited, he certainly could not have selected in any of them a more sheltered or convenient harbour. Here he procured in abundance--what he most needed--water, wood, and fish; he also availed himself of some of the indigenous vegetables for the purpose of refreshing his crew and improving their health. His name is gratefully remembered by the natives, to whom he left those things which now form the principal articles of their trading intercourse with the Europeans, namely, pigs and potatoes; the cabbage, which he sowed, has spread over all the open places in Cook's Straits, and early in spring the sides of the hills are covered with its yellow flowers.
These straits offer more secure, convenient, and
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capacious harbours than are to be met with on any other coast of similar extent. The country around the harbours consists principally of steep hills clothed with forest from the water's edge to their summit. The formation of these hills, a metamorphic slate and basalt, or Lydian stone, does not form a very favourable substratum to the thin layer of vegetable earth which covers them. The natives, therefore, choose for cultivation the very small extent of flat land found in the little coves and bays which the coast forms in innumerable places, and which are less wooded; or they choose still more frequently the bottom of ravines, where they destroy the forest by fire, leaving the unconsumed stems of the trees to decay naturally. Here the fertile earth is in greater abundance, and a never-failing crop of maize, potatoes, taro, turnips, cabbage, sweet potatoes, or pumpkins, recompenses their labour. In that part of the island a European population must therefore be satisfied to pursue the same system as the natives have done, namely, to disperse themselves in small communities over those little bays, and rear the necessaries of life, without other labour than their own, and gradually to work their way up the ravines, bringing them to such a state as to bear a low herbage of grass and clover on which to feed sheep and cattle. The island of Mana has been thus converted into sheep pasture; but I am certainly of opinion that here sheep should be reared chiefly for their carcase, as the country is not favourable to the
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growth of the wool. Goats, asses, and mules seem to be more adapted to this part of the country than the rest of the domestic animals. All those plants which are natives of England can be produced here, but not the natives of warmer climates. I have already expressed a doubt whether the products of the south of France would succeed, as, for instance, the olive, the vine, and the mulberry, although it has been frequently asserted that they would.
A squatting population, therefore, living apart from each other, but connected by a safe water communication, are the best pioneers for a colonization of that part of Cook's Straits. Shipbuilders also should choose a position in Queen Charlotte's Sound where they can command a great variety of useful timber.
It was a common impression that through the centre of the Middle Island there was a mountainous ridge rising above the limits of perpetual snow, and falling off towards the coast on both sides, leaving but little land for an agricultural population. From the concurrent testimony, however, of some Europeans and of the natives, I have reason to believe that the Middle Island has a configuration similar to the Northern; that its mountains form coast-ridges, which leave a sort of table-land in the interior, although from the narrowness of the island this cannot be of great extent. On the western coast these hills approach very near the shore, being broken however in places, and forming some conve-
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nient harbours; they contain anthracitic coal and limestone, and bear a variety of timber, of which I must especially mention a new species of the parsley-leafed pine (Phyllocladus trichomanoides), which the natives call E Hutu, to distinguish it from the tanekaha, another species of the same genus. On the eastern coast the hills in several places are of a more gradual slope, like those in the Bay of Plenty, and forming a rich field for colonial enterprise. Around Queen Charlotte's Sound and Cloudy Bay there is a knot of these hills, but the interior table-land opens towards Blind Bay, and also towards Wairoa in Cloudy Bay. Thus, it appears that the situation of Nelson in Blind Bay is the happiest which could have been chosen in Cook's Straits for opening a communication with the interior, and also for securing a sufficient extent of back country for an import and export trade.
In the northern island, as far as regards the parts bordering on Cook's Straits, the aspect is somewhat different. From the part nearly opposite Entry Island to Cape Egmont, and thence to the northward, a belt of undulating land runs along the sea-coast, increasing in breadth towards Mount Egmont; whilst that mountain rises imposingly with a very gradual slope from the sea-coast, from which it is distant thirty miles. The land here consists, as I have already mentioned, of aqueous strata, which have a comparatively even surface, and which owe their origin to the rise of the volcanic
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cone of Taranaki. This belt of land consists of light sandy soil near the sea-coast, not wooded, but capable of cultivation. This open land is three or four miles in breadth, at which distance from the sea the wood begins, and the soil becomes more substantial and rich. Fern and flax, which usually characterise the vegetation of open districts in New Zealand, are also found here, but are intermixed with some juicy shrubs, plants, and also some species of grass. Cattle and horses, if allowed a wide range, would find sufficient food, although it cannot properly be called a grazing district.
Many rivers discharge themselves into Cook's Straits. Their number is indeed so great, from Port Nicholson along the western coast, that they constitute a feature peculiar to New Zealand. None of these rivers can admit ships of the largest tonnage, but several are navigable for vessels of moderate burden, and offer great facilities for internal communications. The Manawatu, the Wanganui, the Patea, and the Mokau are the most important of them. The harbours connected with this district, and fitted to receive the larger vessels, are Port Nicholson and Kawia; the former is by far the best. The prosperity of Wellington, which is situated at Port Nicholson, and is the capital of the New Zealand Company, depends chiefly on the agricultural resources of this district, upon the early construction of roads to connect it with the town, and upon the employment of steam-boats drawing little
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water for the navigation of the rivers. These two latter requisites are essential for raising contemporaneously the prosperity of country and town. I should recommend the colonist who has but little capital to select the country rather than the town, as around Wellington there is no great extent of available land, and its prosperity must be deferred until it is enabled, by the produce of the agricultural districts, to exist as a commercial port. It must be expected that the rise of the colonies in Cook's Straits will be slow, although progressive, and that embarking capital in agricultural pursuits will most securely and most immediately yield the greatest advantages.
