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there whatever supplies they required of hogs and potatoes. Of the latter valuable esculent the natives made it their business to have such a quantity provided as was sufficient to supply all the ships that visited the bay; the quantity which, on an average, each vessel received being five tons. One hundred and fifty one vessels visited the Bay of Islands during the year 1836, ninety eight being American vessels.

From the number of foreign sailors of all nations who used at one time to frequent the Bay of Islands, the state of society became so depraved, that the missionaries at last had to give them up as a hopeless case; and Mr. Watkins mentions, in his examination before the House of Lords, that one Englishman in particular, was in the habit of supplying the captains of ships with potatoes, pigs, and women, in one lot, selling the pigs and potatoes, and the use of the women for the time being.

The Bay of Islands, however, has much declined within the last few years, provisions having become dear, and whales scarce; and the opening up of other parts of that country, has also had the effect of diminishing its former importance. The land near to it, is moreover, very mountainous, and north from it extremely barren; so that, with these drawbacks, the idea of placing the capital of the country at nearly the extreme point in that direction, was no great proof of naval wisdom.

The whaling ships that used to frequent it, now resort to Tahiti, the Fejees, the Navigators, and the other numerous islands of the Polynesian group near the equator, where they obtain fresh provisions and wood cheaper than they can now do in New Zealand. In the neighbourhood of the Bay of Islands there are

no forests, and very few large trees.

The natives at

the Bay of Islands are computed at 8000.

After Governor Hobson had made up his mind to abandon Russell, which filled the inhabitants of that quarter with dismay, he pitched his tent a hundred and twenty miles farther to the south, at a place to which he gave the name of Auckland; and thither his private secretaries, colonial secretaries, aides-de-camps, custom house officers, town-officers, bailiffs, land-surveyors, attorney-generals, solicitor-generals, land-commissioners, and his whole retinue of favourites and expectants flocked like sheep after their shepherd; leaving Russell almost deserted, and the greater part of the splendid town of Victoria confined within the walls of a room. There is no doubt that the Bay of Islands owed much of its fame to its good harbour, and to its being the seat of that zealous body, the Church of England missionaries; but the want of available land in its neighbourhood, and its position at nearly the extreme point of the three islands, rendered it totally unfit to be the capital of that country.

HOKIANGA. This settlement, distant betwixt thirty and forty miles by land from the Bay of Islands, was the second colony founded by Europeans, and is situated on the west coast of the North Island. It is the chief seat of the Wesleyan missionaries; and the native population settled on that river, and tributary streams, is very great. Both they and the Europeans are employed almost exclusively in cutting down, sawing, and shipping off the Kauri pine, of which it may be called the head quarters. The river Hokianga is one of the finest in New Zealand, though not above thirty miles long, commencing near the residence of the ce

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lebrated Baron de Thierry; and Mr. Russel, Mr. White, Mr. Munro, and some others, have large establishments there connected with the shipment of wood to England, the Australian colonies, and occasionally to the East Indies. Mr. Webster, from Glasgow, a passenger in the same ship with me, has also a large sawmill, propelled by water, on one of its tributary streams. The chief drawback to that river is the bar harbour at its mouth, which renders the access to it both difficult and dangerous There are about 200 Europeans, including the Wesleyan missionaries now located there, but the settlement, upon the whole, is not very flourishing. Baron de Thierry claimed, at one time, almost all the land in that part of New Zealand; but Tarcha, a great chief at the Bay of Islands, and a noted savage, threatened if he did not remain quiet, that he would kill him, and eat him up, which cooled the noble Baron's ardour in the cause very much.

AUCKLAND, the new metropolis adjoining the Thames, lies on an open slope, with little fresh water, and no wood for either fuel or building within several miles; and ships are obliged to anchor a long way off, as they cannot approach the shore at low water. Town allotments have been sold there at £1600 per acre, which is more than land was worth in Sydney, an unrivalled seaport, thirty years after its foundation. The plan of the town is designed apparently for a magnificent metropolis, one-fourth of it being covered with what appears at first to be a spider's web, consisting of circular streets, circuses, crescents, and an infinite number of radiations. The people of Auckland have built some very decent weather-boarded cottages at an enormous cost, and are now only waiting for emigrants to restore

their exchequer. A similar game was played at Adelaide, but latterly few pigeons have alighted in that land of promise.

The situation of Auckland, from being placed so near to Manukau on the west coast, must, however, be considered judicious, so far as that goes, as it has thus the singular advantage of securing part of the trade of both coasts; and a cargo of cattle from Port-Philip was landed at Manukau lately, and driven across the isthmus to Auckland, thus saving several hundred miles of water carriage. There is, however, but a small quantity of the land in its vicinity available, from the island there being so extremely narrow. The valley of the Thames certainly presents an extensive field for colonization, but the lower part is swampy, the best land being thirty miles from its embouchure. This, however, is in general covered with thick fern, ten or twelve feet high, so that it costs several pounds an acre to cut it down, and extirpate its immense roots, without which it would be of no avail. Firewood too is very dear, as it has to be brought by water carriage by the natives, from a considerable distance. Provisions, at one time, were high, as, in the Auckland Gazette of 24th July, 1841, I observed that potatoes were £6, 10s. the ton, beef ls. 4d. per pound, mutton ls., fowls 12s. the couple, eggs 6s. the dozen, and that they had no tea at all. Now, in the Gazette of 1st December, 1841, opposite to the word " Tea" there is still marked "none," so that from the want of that article during so many months, the Aucklanders had it not in their power to become tea-totallers, even though they had been inclined. They became, however, almost all rum-totallers during that time, and to that society they continue so much attached, that I fear they are

not likely to change it for any other. House rents were also at one time very high, the rent of a house suitable for a labourer or mechanic being, in 1841, 16s. per week, so that though labourers were receiving at that time £2, 2s. a-week, and bricklayers, carpenters, &c., £4, I doubt much whether, all things considered, they were better off than well employed operatives here, and probably found it nearly as difficult to obey the memorable injunction of the poet

"Spare in thy youth, lest age should find thee poor;
When time is past, and thou cans't spare no more."

The sum of £1 Sterling, per week, for rent and fuel, makes a serious hole in a labourer's pay, leaving only £1, 2s. to provide clothing and food for himself, his wife, and family. Were he to have used, for instance, eight pounds weight of potatoes for his own share, his wife seven, and his three children, (the average number of a young family,) other seven, which Mr. Hawley, one of the Irish Poor-Law Commissioners, states in the sixth annual Report, as the average quantity of potatoes consumed daily by the families of the labouring classes in Ireland; the price of these twenty-two pounds of potatoes daily at Auckland, would, at that time, have almost exhausted his wages for the whole week, leaving little or nothing for rent, fuel, clothing, or any thing else. At Adelaide, in South Australia, potatoes were sixpence a pound, in the year 1838, so that it would have cost this Irish labourer nearly £4 a-week, at that rate, to have kept his family there, in potatoes alone. It certainly would not have been a very profitable speculation to have boarded an Irish family, at that time, in Adelaide. Mr. Hawley mentions, that in some parts of Ireland

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