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27 chapters
WILLIAM DELISLE HAY,
WILLIAM DELISLE HAY,
AUTHOR OF "THREE HUNDRED YEARS HENCE," "THE DOOM OF THE GREAT CITY," ETC. "Queen of the seas, enlarge thyself! Send thou thy swarms abroad! For in the years to come,— Where'er thy progeny, Thy language and thy spirit shall be found,— If— —in that Austral world long sought, The many-isled Pacific,— When islands shall have grown, and cities risen In cocoa-groves embower'd; Where'er thy language lives. By whatsoever name the land be call'd, That land is English Still." Southey. IN TWO VOLUMES.— Vol
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
This book is descriptive of things as they are in a part of New Zealand, together with some reference to past history. It does not attempt to handle the colony as a whole, but refers to scenes within the northern half of the North Island only. This part of the country, the natural home of the kauri pine, is what I here intend to specify under the title of Northern New Zealand. I am not an emigration-tout, a land-salesman, or a tourist. When I went to New Zealand I went there as an emigrant. Not
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A "NEW-CHUM'S" INTRODUCTION.
A "NEW-CHUM'S" INTRODUCTION.
Three months on board ship seems a long while to look forward to, yet it is but a short time to look back upon. Emigrants, being for the most part drawn from among dry-land-living populations, are apt to be daunted by the idea of a long voyage. People would be more ready, perhaps, to contemplate becoming colonists, were it not for that dreaded crossing of the sea which must necessarily be their first step. Their terrors may be natural enough, but they are more fanciful than real; and once overco
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AUCKLAND.
AUCKLAND.
Passing up Queen Street, after landing on the wharf, a party of us notice—or fancy we notice—a rather singular feature in the Aucklanders we meet. The men are grave and serious in deportment, and nearly all are profusely bearded; but one of us draws attention to the fact that all have strangely aquiline noses. Hebrews they are not—we know, they are of the same nationality as ourselves—so we seek explanation from a whimsical fellow-voyager, himself an old Aucklander. "Ah!" says he, "that's a pecu
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GOING UP COUNTRY.
GOING UP COUNTRY.
I and my last remaining shipmate certainly came out here without any very clear idea of what we were going to do. We came to make our fortunes, of course, after the manner of all new-chums, but as to how we were to set about it, and what were to be the first steps we should take, we had the very vaguest notion. However, our condition of existence as new-chums sat very lightly upon us. Hope! We were all hope; we were hope incarnate! We felt that we were bound to win. It seemed, though, that the b
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IN THE KAIPARA.
IN THE KAIPARA.
The next morning after our arrival at Helensville, we go down to the wharf, close behind the hotel, and embark on board the steamer Lily . This vessel is the only regular means of communication, at present, with the young settlements lying round the Kaipara. She is a much larger craft than the Gemini , but she is of the same ancient and ruinous character. One would have thought that, on these new waters, such craft as there were must necessarily be new also. [4] Such does not appear to be the ca
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OUR SHANTY.
OUR SHANTY.
Several years ago now, we bought our land from the Maoris, and settled down here upon the Pahi. Necessarily, our first proceeding was to construct a habitation. We might have employed the carpenter and boat-builder, who resides at the township, to put up a good and well-made frame-house for us, for a price of a hundred pounds or upwards. But we had entire confidence in our own abilities, and besides, there was something enticing in the idea of building our future home with the actual labour of o
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OUR HOME-LIFE.
OUR HOME-LIFE.
Among the friends of colonists at home in Britain, among those who talk most and know least of this land of the blest, I specify three classes. First, there are the people who talk of "roughing it" with an air of rapturous enjoyment, and a Micawber-like roll of the voice, as if that were really something good, something both pleasant and praiseworthy in itself. Again, there are those who shudder at the bare idea, and who conceive it, perhaps, to be a good deal worse than it really is. Lastly, th
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OUR PIONEER FARM. I.
OUR PIONEER FARM. I.
Of course, all farms are not the same, even in the North. Nevertheless, there is a good deal of similarity in the work that has to be got through at the outset. The modifications in it are various, consisting in the character of the land, the amount of capital available, the labour employed, and so forth. But, generally speaking, most settlers must go through pretty much what we did before they get the wilderness reclaimed into an orderly farm. People who commence with plenty of capital have nat
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OUR PIONEER FARM. II.
OUR PIONEER FARM. II.
We have a large farm, and a great deal of work to get through, but then there are eight or nine of us to share in the first and to do the latter; yet we find that we never have time to do all that we ought to do, and all that we want to do. Every year brings with it an increasing amount of labour, just to keep things going as they are, consequently the time for enlarging the farm becomes more and more limited. Thus it is, that though we cleared and grassed a hundred and forty acres in our first
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OUR SHOW-PLACE.
OUR SHOW-PLACE.
We have a show-place, and one of which we are excessively proud. It is not a castle, a baronial hall, or ruined abbey, as one would expect a properly constituted show-place to be—at "home." In this new country, it is needless to say, we have no antiquities of that sort. Yet this place, of which we are so proud, and that it delights us to extol to strangers, has a history that renders its singular picturesqueness additionally striking. Mere scenery is never so effective if it has no story to tell
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OUR NATIVE NEIGHBOURS.
OUR NATIVE NEIGHBOURS.
A great friend of ours, and a near neighbour, is Tama-te-Whiti, the old Maori. He is not the chief of the Ngatewhatua, but as he comes of the royal stock he is a chief. He belongs to the caste styled tana, or chieftains, a degree above that of rangatira, or simple gentlemen-warriors. In the old feudal times—for the ancient Maori system may be so designated—Tama would have held a delegated authority over some portion of the tribe, just as a Norman baron did in the elder world. Now the tribe is ve
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OUR SETTLER FRIENDS.
OUR SETTLER FRIENDS.
I think I need hardly say that we are not æsthetic here in the bush. In point of fact, we have no sympathy whatever with æstheticism or high art culture. We are, to put it shortly, Goths, barbarians, antithetics, what you will. The country is not æsthetic either; it is too young yet to use or abuse intellectual stimulants. There exists among us a profound contempt for all the fripperies and follies of fashion and civilization. We hold these things to be wrong—to be a sort of crime against manhoo
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A PIG-HUNT.
A PIG-HUNT.
It is a beautiful morning in March, when an unusually large party assembles at "our shanty." The sun is just rising, and is not yet visible above the sheltering ranges which hem in the central flat that forms the farm. The sky is cloudless, the air still and fragrant with the odours of the awakening woods. Day-dawn is always the most beautiful time in New Zealand. It is especially so on this occasion, for a few showers had refreshed the thirsty earth on the previous day; and to us, as we emerge
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BRIGHTER BRITAIN! OR SETTLER AND MAORI IN NORTHERN NEW ZEALAND.
BRIGHTER BRITAIN! OR SETTLER AND MAORI IN NORTHERN NEW ZEALAND.
BY WILLIAM DELISLE HAY, AUTHOR OF "THREE HUNDRED YEARS HENCE," "THE DOOM OF THE GREAT CITY," ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES.— Vol. II . LONDON : RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1882 . (All rights reserved.) PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES....
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CHAPTER I. OUR SPECIAL PRODUCTS.
CHAPTER I. OUR SPECIAL PRODUCTS.
One may say that the kauri is to Northern New Zealand what the oak has been to England, and even more. There, houses are built of it almost exclusively; it is used in the construction of vessels, for fencing, furniture, and all the more general purposes. And its valuable resin is the kauri gum of commerce; but that I must speak of separately. Not alone is the kauri monarch in the forests of New Zealand, but it must rank among the royallest trees the earth produces. It grows, for the most part, i
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CHAPTER II. OUR CLASSIC GROUND.
CHAPTER II. OUR CLASSIC GROUND.
When the history of New Zealand comes to be written, and when a new generation finds time to look back upon the country's past, that also having grown with the coming years, a new want will imperceptibly arise. A desire will develop in people's minds for something to reverence. Out of the crudest materials will be erected monuments to the past, and the older these become the more they will be esteemed, while the events they speak of will come to be regarded as of greater and greater importance.
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CHAPTER III. MAORI MANNERS.
CHAPTER III. MAORI MANNERS.
I. Old Colonial says that no book about Northern New Zealand, past or present, would be complete without some special reference to Maori manners. So, with his larger experience to aid me, I am going to try and depict them, in brief and to a limited extent. Perhaps the best way to begin is by sketching the early history of the race, so far as it is known. Also, we will be pedantic for the nonce, and such words of the native tongue as are used shall be free from European corruptions. Thus, to begi
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CHAPTER IV. MAORI MANNERS.
CHAPTER IV. MAORI MANNERS.
II. The Maori tongue is akin to several of the South Sea dialects. The language of the distant Sandwich Islands corresponds most nearly to it. A Maori and a Hawaiian can understand one another to a great extent. It is strange that intervening groups should be inhabited by people of wholly different races, who speak in altogether different tongues. For ordinary colloquial purposes a sufficiency of Maori is readily acquired, though those who study it deeply discover many difficulties. The alphabet
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CHAPTER V. MAORI MANNERS.
CHAPTER V. MAORI MANNERS.
III. Half-breeds, or Anglo-Maori men and women, form no inconsiderable section of the native community. Some have said of them, that they inherit the vices of both their parents, and the virtues of neither, but I cannot say that my own observation goes to support such a sweeping allegation. I have had some good friends among the Anglo-Maori, and never noticed any predominant vice in their character at all. In complexion and general appearance, the Anglo-Maori resemble Spaniards or Italians, thou
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CHAPTER VI. OUR NATURALIST'S NOTE-BOOK.
CHAPTER VI. OUR NATURALIST'S NOTE-BOOK.
"It is impossible to imagine, in the wildest and most picturesque walks of Nature, a sight more sublime and majestic, or which can more forcibly challenge the admiration of the traveller, than a New Zealand forest,"—writes an early voyager to this country. From the first, those who visited these shores were struck with the extent and beauty of our forests, the size of the trees, and the wealth of the vegetation. And, at the present day, the emigrant from Scotland or England, brought here into th
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CHAPTER VII. THE DEMON DOG—A YARN.
CHAPTER VII. THE DEMON DOG—A YARN.
Old Colonial is good at spinning yarns, and there is one of his I should like to put in here, because it is so thoroughly descriptive of the very first essays at pioneer-farming in this district. One night, when we were all comfortably settled to our pipes round the fire in our shanty, by general request, Old Colonial began as follows— "Ah! it's a good many years since I first came up into this district, new as it is even yet. Near as Auckland is, comparatively, the people there know no more abo
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CHAPTER VIII. OUR LUCK.
CHAPTER VIII. OUR LUCK.
The sun has just risen, and brilliant gleams of light are playing upon the waters of the Firth of Thames. Above, in the air, rise the rugged summits of the mountains, that golden range which stretches down through Coromandel, from Cape Colville to Aroha, a hundred and twenty miles of El Dorado. And just before us, occupying a flat at the base of the hills, is the gold-field centre, Grahamstown. The steamer which has brought us from Auckland, leaving late last night, is just drawing alongside the
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THE NEW ZEALAND PRESS.
THE NEW ZEALAND PRESS.
I must apologize for any omissions or inaccuracies that may be found to appear in the above list. The materials were not collected without considerable trouble, and every care has been taken to ensure fulness. The figures are derived from returns published according to the census and estimates of 1879 and 1880. Their incompleteness was unavoidable. The present total population of all New Zealand, both of Europeans and Maoris, may be set down at 506,548. In 1876, the old provincial divisions, wit
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POPULATION OF NEW ZEALAND.
POPULATION OF NEW ZEALAND.
The present total population of all New Zealand, both of Europeans and Maoris, may be set down at 506,548....
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POLITICAL DIVISIONS.
POLITICAL DIVISIONS.
In 1876, the old provincial divisions, with all their cumbrous local governments and legislative machinery, were finally abolished. Politically speaking, therefore, the provinces of Auckland, Taranaki, Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago, and Westland no longer exist. The names are still retained to some extent in general use, but they will probably pass away as the new arrangement takes deeper hold. The colony is now divided into sixty-three counties, which are here
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PRONUNCIATION OF MAORI NAMES.
PRONUNCIATION OF MAORI NAMES.
The letters of the Maori Alphabet are only fourteen in number. They are—a, e, h, i, k, m, n, ng, o, p, r, t, u, w. The vowels have an Italian sound. When two vowels come together in a syllable, both are pronounced in a single breath. Thus:— Ng always has a nasal sound, as in ringing . G is never hard. In common use among colonists, many names are becoming corrupted, principally by the shortening of vowel sounds. Thus, Wakatipu, the proper pronunciation of which should be Waw-kah-tee´-poo, has be
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