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concerning that distant region and its native inhabitants were exceedingly vague. The public mind associated the horrors of cannibalism with the very name of New Zealand, and the country was assumed, without evidence, to be rich and fertile. The favoured few who had the means of ascertaining the true state of affairs, were incited to prosecute the formation of an association for emigration purposes on an extensive scale. Out of several failures the materials of the New Zealand Company emanated. At the same time the attention of the Government was drawn to the favourable reports brought by vessels of war visiting that coast. The result was a resolution, on their part, to establish a settlement in New Zealand, and to proclaim the Crown's right of pre-emption to all lands purchased from the aborigines by British subjects or foreigners in that territory. Many noble and influential friends of colonization joined the New Zealand Company, bringing considerable means to aid them in carrying out their views. They proposed a sale of lands at a uniform price, and the employment of a large portion of the purchase money as an emigration fund. These proposals were sanctioned by Government in June 1839. In the same year these rival projects were carried into effect by despatching authorized agents and surveyors to purchase from the natives conveniently situated lands. The result was the establishment of Auckland on the "Waitxmata" by the Government, and Wellington in Port Nicholson by the Company.

The cry among these colony-mongers was "Land! land! who will buy land! here it is cheap; one, two, three pounds an acre. Till the ground, sow and reap, we are rich, and your adopted country shall become mighty among the nations of the earth." Were these acres only one or two days' journey distant from the great maw of a London, or the lank jaws of a Manchester, these promises might be fulfilled; but, when we consider that our ships have to disappear on the horizon of waters for ten long and weary months, circumnavigating the great globe itself ere they can return from that land, such a market as Europe is beyond profitable supply. Nor is it likely that the adjacent colonies will hold out better prospects for their sanguine expectations, seeing that they at present ship their own surplus stores of flour to New Zealand and California. And it is not unreasonable to predict that Van Dieman's Land, South Australia, and Victoria, may be independent of foreign supplies of grain for centuries to come. But is there not a greater principle in political economy to maintain on this matter of prosperous emigration, of true colonization, than mere belly-filling? Is it not necessary to rear a product bearing some intrinsic value in a foreign market? Do not the colonists require a

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medium of exchange to barter for the products and manufactures of other lands-a currency of acknowledged standard amongst other nations, instead of the local debentures of wheat and oats? The histories of other colonies teach us the general fact that without an export to equalize the balance of trade they cannot flourish, as this fact, as we believe, is illustrated in the anomalous condition of New Zealand. Although the produce exhibited on its annual export-sheet for the last twelve years, would not have bought "salt to its broth," much less have paid for its large importation of foreign commodities, yet it has maintained its position, in a great measure, by continued supplies of extraneous wealth, in the shape of individual savings of British capital, a large outlay of British money by the missionaries, and an extravagant expenditure of the hard earnings of our home population, in maintaining an army of soldiers and ships of war for the protection of the colony.

The story of the planting of these cuttings from the parent tuber is an instructive fact in the modern history of nations. A small band of emigrant pioneers were landed upon the coast where a settlement was intended to be established. Their hearts were full of high hopes, great purposes, and good intentions. They had abundance of means to conciliate the good-will of the savages, and a store of arms to protect themselves in case of need. They likewise brought spades and ploughs to till the ground, with pots and kettles to cook their food. The ground they neglected in the immediate necessity of foraging for the food. Their wishes were readily responded to by the friendly aborigines, who supplied them with pigs and potatoes, receiving in exchange blankets and gew-gaws with which they were delighted. The neighbouring colonists arrived with ship-loads of beef and bread, for which they obtained high prices, receiving the hard cash that the emigrants had brought with them in payment. And thus they lived while negotiations were pending for the purchase of land. Meanwhile other vessels which had followed on their track, reached the newly found harbour and cast anchor in safety, landing great cargoes from "the workshop of the world," and conveying new bands of emigrants, possessed of money and credit, to the embrace of their delighted friends who had gone before them. The dangers of the passage, and the novelty of their position, soon gave way to the bustle and excitement consequent on "settling," and that spirit, inherent in the British character, of making a "home" even in the wilderness, spurred them on to the task. Land was soon obtained, surveyed, and portioned off to the several claimants. Fencing and building proceeded. Houses were erected and

multiplied into streets, and a township was formed almost with the rapidity of a Bartholomew fair. The newly-born city resounded loudly amongst the silent forests of the Maori, whilst the wondering savage looked with a jealous eye upon the giant child.

A year passed away, yet scarcely a ploughshare had entered the soil. All were trading and none producing. So much profit was realized in selling the provisions that were imported, that few capitalists could wait for the slow returns of an annual crop; and as the consumption increased prices rose, for there was no appearance of a harvest in the land. Speculation was rife in the towns; houses and land sold at enormous prices, and credit was freely given; so that money became plentiful, as the holders of it locked up their principal in the security of landed property. Then the people began to live extravagantly; luxuries in eating and drinking were abundantly supplied by the flour and cattle ships from the adjacent colonies, which were draining them fast of the real wealth they possessed. The short-sighted inhabitants deemed this state of things prosperity, and there was a continuous stream of new comers, whose means swelled the purses of the shipowners and land companies.

Among this motley crowd there were a few prudent men who turned their attention to ascertain the much vaunted resources of the colony. They were disappointed to find the soil poor and scanty. Where they expected to meet with grassy pasture lands, there was little but fern and brushwood, and withal a troublesome native population to oppose their right of occupation. The New Zealand Company were perpetually at variance with the vacillating local government, while the grievances of the unfortunate settler were unattended to amidst the din of contention. During the two following years, accordingly, the influx of emigrants diminished, trade slackened, and money became scarce. The revenue failed, and government issued a paper currency to pay their salaried officers and maintain their credit.

It is difficult to conceive the effect of all this rushing to and fro, this coming and going of men and merchandise, upon the minds of the aborigines. Here were thousands of Pakehas (foreigners) come to dwell amongst them, eating strange food, drinking strange drinks, building fine houses to live in, dressing themselves in gay garments, and shewing great anxiety to be possessed of their lands. They could scarcely understand the motives of that large body of strangers from their previous experience of the good missionaries. Consequently they became suspicious; and as they had heard of, and a few had seen, the lands where the white man had exterminated races akin to their own, they concluded that a similar fate awaited themselves. Yet they were fully alive to their own immediate interests, and re

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ceived readily the gold and property of the Europeans in exchange for the much coveted land. As it is natural to suppose

that in their rude savage state they could have no fixed boundaries exact enough to satisfy the nice distinctions of our surveyors, so their claims to the possession of lands were clashing, contradictory, and confused. Meanwhile large bodies of settlershad arrived from England, and demanded possession of lands in the colony they had bargained and paid for at home; but the lands were withheld by the natives, probably through misapprehension of the technicalities of the Company's negotiations. At all events, quarrels ensued between them and the settlers, and they disputed the power of the surveyors in measuring their land. The melancholy catastrophe of the Wairau massacre ensued. Troops were brought into the field, and the demon of war and bloodshed stalked through the devoted land. Many of the affrighted settlers fled the country for safety, whilst others who had not the means to follow sat down in despair and wept, cursing the land in which they had been ruined and deceived.

The period of reaction after this feverish time soon arrived. And what had the immigrants achieved, or wherein had they provided for the future? Scarcely one-fifth of them were to be found in the interior; the remainder were located in the townships of Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, and Russell, peddling with the natives and amongst each other, like hawkers at a fair. Instead of having advanced in circumstances by their emigration, the majority had retrograded. The savings that had been accumulated in the mother country, with which to commence a new life of labour in this "land of promise," were gradually dwindling away, and it soon became difficult to obtain the means of subsistence: this was the condition of families who were accustomed to labour for their bread. Still more distressing was the case of the small capitalists who had conjured up visions of independence on those distant shores. This class included retired officers in the army and navy, who had commuted their pensions; younger sons from the higher classes, packed off by their relatives, after receiving their passage and outfit-money, with a few hundred pounds besides; and a numerous class of adventurers, from all parts of the United Kingdom. Obliged to work with their hands when their purses became empty, they had in some instances to perform menial offices, while their want of skill in any trade placed them in the social scale below the mechanics. Among them might be found college-bred men working as labourers to builders, and sons of country gentlemen acting as sawyers to carpenters. Many a tale of suffering these helpless emigrants could divulge, if their pride would brook the disclosure. Apart from this distress of the white men, the friendly tribes

of aborigines lived in their usual style, comfortable and contented. They fattened their pigs, planted and gathered their potatoes and kumeras, having abundance to gratify their limited wants. They presented an enviable condition of life to the impoverished settler. Human nature could stand it no longer. Many of the young colonists abandoned the society of their fellow-countrymen and became domesticated amongst the Maories, adopting their savage habits of living, and cohabiting with their women.

The news of the sanguinary affray at Wairau created a feeling of insecurity among the Europeans in the north as well as the south of New Zealand. They called upon the Governor, Captain Fitzroy, to protect them and punish the murderers; but he, from mistaken motives of humanity, dealt leniently in all cases of Maori aggression, carrying out a pre-conceived theory of mediation and non-interference. The consequence was that bitter recriminations passed between him, the New Zealand Company, and the people; while the hostile native tribes took advantage of the imbecile measures of the Governor and Council, and the disaffection of the settlers, to renew their insults and depredations. In the north that notorious turbulent chief Honi Heki, now gathered to his fathers, committed repeated outrages at the Bay of Islands, sacked the town of Russell, treated the women and children in the grossest manner, and, finally, with the greatest deliberation, cut down the British flag-staff. Governor Fitzroy could no longer temporize with this savage and his myrmidons. He summoned the available naval and military forces in the Australasian seas to his aid. The sanguinary engagements which followed between our troops and those warlike Indians, with the temporary subjugation of the latter, at the expense of much British life and money, are now matter of Colonial history. The Imperial Parliament, on hearing of the state of the Colony, without delay despatched frigates and war steamers, with fresh detachments of troops to succour our forces. Governor Fitzroy was recalled, and Captain Grey, LieutenantGovernor of South Australia, superseded him, with unlimited powers to quell the insurrection that threatened to ruin the Colony.

These momentous occurrences hushed the internal dissensions of the Colonists for the time. All were busily engaged in assisting to preserve the general safety of the community. After the lapse of years of dire foreboding, during which the settlers had called upon the Executive in vain for protection, it inspired their despairing hearts with renewed confidence to find their appeal to the Imperial Parliament so quickly responded to, and that their relations with the parent country were not entirely forgotten. Many an eye glistened with joy on seeing the "wooden

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