adapted for pasture and flax. The Auckland Gazette, when noticing, in November, 1841, an advertisement of town, suburban, and country allotments for sale there, makes the following remark :-" Nelson will not be an obscure provincial town, but in all probability will be the capital of the great South Island. It will have immediately a considerable population." This population, including the Germans, who lately arrived, now amounts to 3000.

In the Middle Island there is another thriving settlement called Akaroa, in Bank's Peninsula, where there is a tolerable harbour, adjoining a good agricultural district. In this settlement, in addition to a population of 200 British, there are about 100 French, who are all doing well, many who had not a sous on dissembarking from the "Comte de Paris," in 1840, being already possessed of several thousand francs.

NEW EDINBURGH.-Port Otago was fixed upon in 1844, as the site of this settlement, and several hundred emigrants, chiefly Scotch, are about to embark for it. It must be considered, on the whole, a most desirable locality, nearly as much so as any of the Company's other settlements; indeed, the whole of them have been most judiciously selected. Port Otago is a splendid bay, several miles wide, and extending about twenty miles into the interior of the country, with deep water and safe anchorage on all sides. It is situate on the Middle Island, now called New Munster, about 200 miles to the south of Bank's Peninsula, and about 400 from Port Nicholson. The ground to the north of it is high, but to the south, as far as Foveaux's Straits, 150 miles distant, it is toler

ably level, and the hills are of moderate height. The greater part of the natives now in the Middle Island are settled there, and as their numbers amount to about a thouand, they will soon become of great use to the settlers.

The whole British population now settled in New Zealand, may be stated pretty nearly as follows :—

rarika,) and the Church of England Missionary Settlements,

800

THE ABORIGINES.-The amount of the native population, owing to wars and various other causes, has been gradually decreasing. Dr. Dieffenbach, gives an accurate list of the various tribes, and computes their whole number as amounting at present to 114,890, though in Captain Cook's time they were supposed to amount to 300,000. They may be said to inhabit. the Northern Island almost exclusively, as there are probably not above 2000 in the Middle Island, and none in Stewart's Island, with the exception of a few brought from other parts, and living with the Whalers.

The natives in the Middle Island are chiefly settled at Otago, where New Edinburgh is placed; and there are a few at Cloudy Bay, two or three tribes at Massacre Bay, and one tribe near Nelson, and at one or two other places. They call themselves Maori, which means indigenous or aboriginal, in oposition to Pakea, which means a stranger. Their colour is of a light clear brown, varying much in shade, and sometimes even lighter than a native of the south of France. Their features are in general good, though their mouths are somewhat large, and their lips generally thick, but their eyes are dark and full of vivacity and expression, and their whole physiognomy exceedingly open and pleasing, bearing no signs whatever of ferocity, but exhibiting great placidity and composure. The females are not nearly so handsome as the men, and, though treated with great kindness, are burdened with the greater part of the heavy work, such as cultivating the fields, carrying wood and provisions from their distant plantations, &c.

One of the most powerful tribes is that of the Waikato numbering 25,000, and comprising eighteen subdivisions, inhabiting the country about a hundred miles to the north of the New Plymouth settlement. It was this tribe which drove the numerous tribes in the Taranaki district, into the country on both sides of Cook's Straits, and the natives at Port Nicholson are amongst the number who were driven away. Rauperaha, the leader of one of the divisions of the Ngate-awa tribe, also yielded at one time to this tribe, and took possession of a district of country east from Wanganui, called Rauperaha after him, not far from Porirua, besides other places, including the district of country at Cloudy Bay, in the Middle Island,

called the Wairoa Plains, the scene of the late massacre, he having conquered the original tribes settled there. The most numerous tribe of all, is that called Nga-te-Kahuhunu, estimated at 36,000, and inhabiting the east coast, from Waiapou to Hawke Bay. They formerly lived as far down as Port Nicholson, but were driven thence by the Nga-te-awa tribe, with whom they have lately made a peace. The natives in Cook's Straits are estimated at 6400.

I may mention here in passing, that the only advantage which Auckland possesses over Port Nicholson, is from being in the centre of the greater part of the native population of that country; and Dr. Dieffenbach takes notice of this also, as he says, in reference to Auckland, "In short, it appears to me that there can be no question but that the place has been very judiciously chosen for the site of a town, as commanding a great extent of cultivable land in its neighbourhood, great facility of communication with the coast and the interior, and as being a central point for the most powerful native tribes, the Nga-pui to the northward, the Waikato to the southward, and the Nga-te-hauwa to the eastward, separating them in a military point of view, but uniting them for the purposes of civilization and commerce."

Till of late there was one custom prevalent amongst the New Zealanders, as amongst all savage nations, namely, that the crime of an individual involved his whole tribe, little reference being had to the individual who actually committed the crime. It was in vain to represent to them, that the criminal alone should suffer; their answer was ready, and it is perfectly consistent with the dictates of natural justice, that as his tribe would not give him up to be punished for

his crime, they became, in consequence, participators in it. A war would then commence betwixt the two tribes; and the circumstance of those who survived among the defeated party having had to leave their pahs or native villages, accounts for the number of these that are to be found every where deserted. In New South Wales also, when any of the aborigines are killed by the whites, the former are sure to kill the first of the latter they meet, and thus the innocent have frequently to suffer for the guilty.

This custom, however barbarous it may at first sight appear, is really, after all, but little different from that which exists among civilized nations. Were an American, for instance, to shoot our Queen, and escape to his own country, and were the government there to refuse to deliver him up, a war would inevitably follow from the conduct of this single individual. The late affair of MacLeod, which is a case in point, almost involved the two greatest nations of the earth in a sanguinary war. Among savage tribes, the slaughter of a hundred or two on each side, generally puts an end to the matter; but these two civilized nations would probably have carried on till a hundred thousand, at least, had disappeared. Oh, that men were wise, that they would consider these things.

Of the three grand or staple productions of New Zealand, namely, flax, oil, and timber, the flax is undoubtedly the most important. This plant, though found in dry ground, flourishes best in swampy ground, and grows wild in every part of the country; that growing in hilly ground being of a different species from that which grows on swampy. In some marshy spots it has attained the height of thirteen feet, with a leaf six inches broad. The manufacture