NOTES FROM A JOURNAL,

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 137, 22 September 1847, Page 3

NOTES FROM A JOURNAL,

Kept during an excursion to the Boiling Springs of Jtotorua and Rolomahara, by way of the Waikato ami Waipa countries, in the Summer of Eihgteen Hundred and Forty six and Seven,

1 left Auckland at day break on the morning of the 22nd of September, with a companion well acquainted with the language and customs of the Maori, a knowledge indispensable to make an excursion of this nature either pleasant or profitable, for all the misstatement regarding native character, and almost all the quarrels which have t ken place between the races, have arisen from misconception and ignorance of each other's language and habits. The view of the town from the Manakou road, as it crosses the first ridge behind it, is very pleasing, but the scene had a peculiar interest in my eyes, as six years before I had stood almost un the same spot, at the sswne season of the year, wheu four white tents and a few scattered raupo nuts, scarce visible amidst the tangled wood around, containing about sixty individuals, weie the representatives of a town now numbering more than three hundred substantial wooden houses, and four thousand inhabitants. One Solitary barque then lay at anchor in the harbour, now a fine frigate and every variety of vessels boated on the waters of the YVaitemate. The subui bs were a brown waste, now they were sprinkled with pretty villas and cottages, and grass which seemed to spring almost spontaneously under the foot of matt, was everywhere replacing the fern and wild shrubs that had covered the site and precincts of the town. The retrospect appeared a dream. A great and pleasing change had taken place in the features of the country on either side of the road leading to the Manakou, during an absence of two years from the colony. Fields, fenced and cleared, many bearing crops, had replaced the fern and wild ragged scrub that then covered it. Remuera, as the space is called between Mount Hobson aud Mount St. John, which had formerly been roughly cultivated by the natives to supply the necessaiy provision for a feast, in doing which they hnd destroyed all the beautiful wood which covered the sides of Mount Hobson and the adjacent valley, was now, at any rate, improved by English agriculture. This was tie result of the late Governor Fitzroy's waiver of the Queen's right of preemption, by which private individuals were permitted to purchase lands directly from the aborigines, and which were confirmed to them by a Crown Grant on proving that the natives were satisfied, and on paying of a fee of Ten Shlillings per acre to the Crown. The amount of this fee was a sufficient gaurantee that the permission v/ould scarcely be taken advantage of by mere speculators ; but when the fee was subsequently reduced to One Penny per acre, it no doubt served as a bonus to speculation, or as it is caljed land-sharking, and vast tracts were immediately purchased from the natives by men who had hardly the means of satisfying them, and the majority of whom never could have cultivated a tithe pf what they had acquired, or niAke useful in any way', than by re selling it at a profit ; now this was such a manifest injustice to those who had formerly purchased laud at a high price from the Govcrnmeut — to the old claimants, and to those who had paid the ten shillings per acre, besides being totally opposed iv principle to the regulations by which land is to be acquired iv our /colonies, that Governor Grey did not fed himself justified iv confirming their titles, for the parties only held them by certificate, uuder Governor Fitzroy's hand ; but lie has offered them such fair terms of compromise as they cannot reasonably reject. Land intended to be cultivated or applied to any other legitimate purpose, ought to be marketable like any other commodity, and the original purchaser has a right to expect such an advance of price, on a resale, as the progressive value of land in a rising colpny ensures ' } but gambling in land, or the mere transfer on a profit from one lfaud to another, cannot be too much discouraged, as tending to forma race of reckless gamblers rather than useful colonists. A nursery garden prettily situated at the base of the lava spurs jutting out from Al punt EJdcn, was another improvement, it was filled with every variety of fruit tree in a thriving condition, and which, from being raised in the country, are more suited to the climate than those brought from Australia or Van Dieman's Land. It is to be hoped that the settlers will take ad. vantage of this supply at hand,' and form orchards, which have hitherto been postponed, or if planted, have b. een neglected as scarce worthy of attention. Everjj farm house in the United States has its orchard, the establishment w,ould be thought incomplete without it ; aud as an American generally combines pjofit wjth pleasure, he must find both in bis orchard, otherwise he would not trouble himself about one. The whole base of Amount Eden, now enenmbered with masses of basaltic lava and scoria, by removing

the latter from the surface, and bnilding them into walls, is well adapted to the growth of the vine ; indeed it can be converted to no other use, and the luxuriant growth of the fern and shrubs occupying this rugged tract attest the richness of the interstitial soil. As the pLmi opened out, so did the extended cultivation of the last two years. The large plateau between Mount St. John and One Tree Hill, another volcanic cone, so named from a solitary potukawa tree, which has probably withstood the blasts of centimes, crowning the summit, was almost entirely enclosed and under crop, which however, as the soil is chiefly volcanic, and consequently of a light nature, seemed to suffer from want of rain. Similar cultivation spread out westward, to the base of the range of wooded hills lying between the southern slopes of Mount Eden and the triple summits of the volcanic hill, named the Three Kings. Fields whitening to the harvest, were cut out of these undulating hill?, divided by belts of wood, which had a most pleasing appearance, not unlike some parts of Kent ; and a wind-mill on a rising ground, gave an impression of greater age to the cultivation than any other object could have done. The lew houses, more in approximation than ordinary, are called by anticipation the village of Epsom, and some of .them with their grabs plats and gardens, would not have disgraced the mother country. It posses an inn, where may bo found good entertainment for man and beast, and is the neucluus around which in colonies a town always centres. That pait of Remuera which was the scene of the feast giyeu by Waiterc.a Manakau chief, to his friends the Waikiitos and Ngatiawa, is visible from hence. I have alluded to the destruction of a beautiful wood, in order to form plantation grounds. It " came off" to use a colonial phrase, in May, 1844, and although three thousand of these men, whom we choose to call savages, were assembled there for five days, to their praise be it spoken, no outrage was committed , and scarce any depredation, although they alf visited A tick land during the period of their stay. Now, as each individual consumes about five pounds of pota ocs per diem, and had also to be furnished with a supply lor his leturn homo, it may be imagined that it required the produce of a good many acres to satibfy so Urge a body. These feasts are very common, and the natives generally select wooded and fertile spots, often, as in this instance, distant from their usual place of residence, in order to raise the necessary provision Oa tins account they require, and tenaciously hold certain spots " tapu" lor the purposes of cultivation, to an extent far beyond what the individual members of the tribe might be thought to require, and it is only when the purposes for which they have been reset ved are fulfilled, that they will consent to part with them, and then only at a high price. Besides, pork holds a prominent place in the " carte," on these occasions, a hundred pigs are often carbonadoed and eaten at a sitting. Now a considerable tract of ground is required to feed these, as they subsist chiefly on the roots of the fern and succulent plants in the swamps, with the free use of which the natives will not dispense ; in fact, pigs are the flocks and herds of the maori, and they consider the lands on which they feed as much occupied, as we dp our grazing grounds for rearing young cattle on the moors of England, or on the mountains of Scotland and Wales ; and it will be found that iv most of their bonafule sales of land to Europeans before the colonization of the islands, for 1 do not take notice of these loose sales by degrees of latitude and longitude, they I always had an eye to the reservation of what is called i a pig run, for the use of the tribe, and never- parted with so necessary an appendage to their establishment. The road, at a sliort distance fiom Epsom passes over the western acclivity of One Tree Hill, and is thus elevated above the general level of the plain, by di verging a little from it, a commanding' view ot the neighbourhood is obtained; the first and principal j object which attracts the eye, is the glittering surface of the estuary of Manakou, an extension of the wes crn pacific, wbicn pours its waters, through acomparatnely narrow opening between two lofty head-lands, into a bay of more than foity miles in circumference, and thence into innumerable creeks, which pierce its level shores, and penetrate deeply inland, indeed, if their courses be followed, the water frontage of Msxnukao may be estimated at one hundred miles. The term " pours its waters" is strictly correct, for these creeks or armlets are filled by the tide alone, the fresh water j rivers and streams which empty themselves into them, being oi trifling size, except alter heavy and continued rain in the winter season. Now this is a great advantage in an economical point of view, in a new country not possessing roads, though at low water their muddy shores are anything but picturesque ; for as most of these cieeks have a deep channel, the exit of the fresh water streams, and as there" is a rise of ten feet at high water, small vessels and boats arc enabled to push tar inland with the flood tide, and return when it suits them with the ebb, and thus a ready means of transport is afforded at all times to a large extent of country without much delay, and as regards land carriage, at a comparatively cheap rate. A glance is obtained of the Tatnaki, a small estuary furnished by the eastern pacific, and thus the waters of the great ocean which surrounds the island are almost in contact. The advantageous position of Auckland in this respect is unrivalled, for a canal might easily be cut through', the nairoiv isihmus which separates the seas, and were a similar work carried out thro' the isthmus which lies between the Toro Creek, a branch of the Manakou, running southward to within a mile and a half of the head of the Awaroa, a tidal branch of the great river M'aikato, the whole of the produce of the vast country bordering it, and its tributary the \yaipa, might he con veyed by water to Karaugahape, the port of th ( e Manukao, or it might be brought to within five miles of Auckland, and carried there by a railway across the plain. This is no vjsipjiary scheme, but one which will assuredly be put into execution v\ lien population and capital find their way to these shores. The citizens of New York at tbe commencement of this century would have treated the idea of connecting their vast interior lakes with their city as a chimera, yet they have for many years enjoyed the advantages of that communication by means of a magnificent canal 250 miles in length; and they would have beeu equally incredulous eveti twenty years since, had the probability of a more ditect and rapid communication by rail-road been suggested $ yet now the good burghers, on tbe second day after leaving tbeir homes on the Broadway, can step from their carriage into a terminus almost on the shores »f Lake Erie, a distance of nearly 40,0 miles. Our works would be but as a drop in the sea to such vast undertakings. This spot commands also a fine view of the plains bordering the Manakou, and of tbe great wooded range which more than forty miles in length divides i this part of the country from the interior, abutting at one point on the Gulf of Hauraki, on tbe other almost dipping- into the sea at the mouth of the VVaikato river— and on the west slope after slope of Fern-covered hjlls stretch away Jo the base of the lofty Mauukou mountains, whose broken and picturesque ridges are clothed with noble forests. To the east, the more immediate country lying between the Waiteraate and the Tatnaki, opens out beyond tbe plaiu of Remuera. On the highest point of the undulating hills, which vary its surface, stands Bishop's Auckland, as the new college js naoied. The erection of this building docs honour to its zealous vnd pious founder in every sense, for by his earnest 'epresentations were the necessary funds obtained 'rom England, and by bis .energy under many diffi3ulties has the work been pushed forward. When ;ompleted ; it will uot only form an oruaineut to the

country, but aftiiul the means of a sound classical ami religious education, combined with secular acquirements of the greatest value to the rising 1 generation. This is in general lost sight of in our colonies, or in comparison to their foundation, brought very tardily into action. Instruction based on any other principle, may give knowledge, but not that which in a Christian country should be the primary object of all education. The smokenvas curling upwards from the roofs of the n'umtrous farm houses around, giving cheering evidence of the residences of industry : how different was the scene six years before, when the fires of a small settlement occupied by Kauwau, the Ngatiwatua chief, at the base of the voh anic cone of Maungaii, on the opposite shore of the Manukou, were the only evidence that mau inhabited the vast eouu'ry around me. I had at that time reuched the spot oil which I now stood by diverging from a narrow and scarcely marked Maori path, now a broad road traversed the plain, on which carts were passing to and fro, and bunds of natives were hurrying on droves of pigs, in cheerful expectation of a liberal " utu" at Auckland, and similar parties were crossing these, bound lor the interior, laden wtth articles of European manufacture purchased from the result of a like expedition— then the plain around was a naked unlenanted waste, now it was covered with cultivation, settlers were busy at their various occupations, and its surface was sprinkled with sheep and cattle— such reminiscences gave an inexpressible interest to the scene. The road slopes gently down to Oheonga, a landing place on the Manakou, to which small vessels cati ascend. ' It may be about five miles distant from. Auckland. The aspect of this place had also undergone a favourable change. The few native huts, which lay near a rugged cultivation, hud disappeared since my last visit in 1841, and were replaced by those of some settlers amidst fenced fields, and a somewhat superior " ware," occupied by the great chief Te Wero Wero, on his occasional vi its to this part of the country, was now represented by a publichouse. I remember to have spent a cold comfortless night under its porch, after a very meagre meal, the interior being " tapn," so as not to be desecrated by a " pakeha." Now a bed and supper can be pro* cured by any person with money in his pocket, anil I believe without it, if he should chance to be in that unpleasant predicament. It may be thought trifling to narrate such matters, but they are part of the history of a new country, and future travellers may have to make mention of a splendid hotel where Forbes's humble public-house once stood. Although it cannot be said of each individual colonist, in relation to the advancement of the colony, quorum pars magna fail, yet their collective exertion*, however small, assist in forming what Joseph Hume calls " the toltlc of the whole," and the man who makes even a blade of grass grow, where none had growu before, is entitled to the thanks of the community.

(To be continued.)