THE MAORI MESSENGER. Auckland, March 9, 1854. THE NATIVE CANOE TRADE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume VI, Issue 136, 9 March 1854, Page 2

THE MAORI MESSENGER. Auckland, March 9, 1854. THE NATIVE CANOE TRADE.

Among the many branches of Agricultural, Commercial, and Maritime, industry, which are so rapidly elevating the inhabitants of Auckland into a place and position among the successful producers of (lie necessaries of life, there a - e few which deserve to j he more attentively considered than the ■ Native Canoe Trade. Three or four years ( since, the existence of such a traflic was all but unknown. To the Resident Magistrate we have been but recently indebted for a knowledge of its operations. They have increased in a degree altogether surprising, both in the extent and value of the produce, so conveyed to market; and asthcficld open lo (lie yel infinitely enlarged industry of the producers is as fertile as accessible, we feel confident thai this canoe trade will, year by year, become one of the main channels for conveyingourincreanng exports, lo their nspcctivc pqrts of shipment. The following digest of comparative returns, condensed from the Government Gazette, is well deserving the consideration of every one who feels an interest in the welfare of the Auckland Native Trade: During the past quarter, there was conveyed to Auckland in o8."i canoes, navigated by 1310 men and 431 women, uOOkils potatoes 24 kits onions, 191 kits maize, 24 kits knmrras, 2*25 kits cabbage, 2,734 bundles grass, 303 tons firewood, lo tons fish, 201 pigs, 4 goats, 78 fowls, 2 bags flour, 2geese, 7 turkeys, I kit pumpkins, 49G bushclswhcat, 23bundlcs straw, 51} tons kauri gum, and -12 kits oysters : the estimated value of which amounts to 2,193/. 17s. Cd. During the same period, there was landed at Onchunga, from 90 canoes, navigated by 292 males and 122 females, 52 kits potatoes, •112 tons firewood, 1 ton offish, 02 pigs, i ton flonr, and 30 tons kauri gum, valued at 981/, 10s. To this remains to be added 10 tons flour, valued at 301/., brought by the natives of Waikato in the culler "Harry Bluff." Adding ihc importations by canoe into Auckland's western and subsidiary port of Onchunga, with those conveyed into her main, or eastern harbour of Auckland, we find this joint native traffic amounting in 4852 10G,4G0/. 18s.; and in 1853 to 12,879/. •13s. Here again in one year, the productive industry of the Province has been doubled ; so that, within three years, iwosourceT of supply, 100 inconsiderable to be previously noted, have sprung into a trade of ihc utmost commercial importance.