VIEW OF AUCKLAND FROM MOUNT EDEN.
"Look at the map," continued the Doctor, "and you will see that New Zealand is divided nearly in the centre by a channel of the sea known as Cook Strait. The two islands thus formed are known as North Island and South Island, the former containing forty-eight thousand square miles, and the latter fifty-seven thousand. Beyond South Island is Stewart Island, which is triangular, and measures about thirty-six miles on a side; taken together the three islands remind you of Italy, and are shaped not unlike a boot with its toe towards the north.South Island is sometimes called Middle Island, from its position between North and Stewart islands.
MISSION STATION AT TANGITERORIA, NEW ZEALAND.
"Cook Strait commemorates the great navigator who was killed on the Sandwich Islands. He landed here in 1769, and took possession of the country in the name of England. He made five visits altogether to New Zealand, and introduced pigs, potatoes, sheep, goats, and other animals and vegetables."
"Hadn't Tasman already taken the country for Holland?" said Frank.
"No," replied the Doctor, "he did not set foot at all in New Zealand. He anchored in a bay in South Island, next to that in which the town of Nelson now stands, and had an encounter with the natives who opposed his going on shore. He lost four men in the fight, named the place Massacre Bay, in memory of the occurrence, and sailed away without landing."
"How soon after Captain Cook's occupation of the country did the British Government establish colonies?"
"Not for some time," replied Doctor Bronson. "In the latter partof the last century and the beginning of this many American and English whalers visited New Zealand, and year by year the knowledge of the country was increased. Visitors usually got along well enough with the natives, and were kindly treated; whenever there were encounters with the New Zealanders they were generally caused by the misconduct of the visitors themselves. Thus, in 1809, the captain of the English shipBoydflogged and otherwise ill-treated a native chief, and the followers of the latter took a terrible revenge by killing no less than seventy of the crew and passengers.
EARLY DAYS IN NEW ZEALAND.
"On some parts of the coast the natives were for a long time hostile, probably in consequence of outrages that had been committed by whalemen and others. Some of their ideas of the white men were curious. The natives paddle their boats with their faces towards the bow, and when they saw the foreign boats coming to the shore they thought the men had eyes in the backs of their heads because they rowed with their backs in the direction of their course. Some of them thought the ships were great birds, and their boats the birdlets or chicks.
"As in Polynesia, the missionaries were the pioneers of civilizationin New Zealand. They came here in 1814, and previous to that time only one European, a shipwrecked sailor, is known to have lived among the natives. The Church Missionary Society established a mission in that year at the Bay of Islands, now called Russell—the mission party consisting of Rev. Samuel Marsden, chaplain to the Government of New South Wales, and three other ministers, Kendall, Hall, and King. They were kindly received by the chiefs, and held their first service on Christmas-day, 1814. Eight years later the Wesleyans established missions in New Zealand, and sixteen years after that (in 1838), the Roman Catholics did likewise."
"Then the missionaries were in advance of all Government colonization?" said Fred.
"The Church Missionary Society and the Wesleyans certainly were," was the reply, "as the Government did not send a resident official here till 1833. He had no power beyond that of writing reports of what he saw and heard, and was felicitously styled by somebody 'a man-of-war without guns.' There had been an attempt to form a colony in 1825, but it was given up, and the sixty emigrants who came out from England returned in the ship that brought them. The mission establishment at Kororareka, in the Bay of Islands, became the nucleus around which a good many lawless adventurers gathered. The bay was the resort of whale-ships, and in 1838 it was visited by fifty-six American, twenty-three English, twenty-one French, one German, and twenty-four New South Wales ships. There was so much lawlessness and crime that a vigilance committee was formed, very much like the institutions of that name which have been famous in California history.
"In 1837," continued the Doctor, glancing occasionally at a book he held in his hand,[6]"an association was formed for the purpose of colonizing the country, very much as India had been colonized by the East India Company. It was styled the New Zealand Company, and was founded by Lord Durham, and after some delay a surveying ship was sent out, followed by several ships carrying emigrants. This was the beginning of the colonization of New Zealand; the first settlement was made at what is now Wellington, the capital, though it was then named Port Nicholson. Auckland was founded soon after; and with the foundation of that city and the establishment of a government, the colony was well under way. It prospered for a while, and then, owing to quarrels with the natives, there was a long period of gloom.
"We will talk more on this subject by-and-by," said the Doctor; "just at present we will use our eyes in studying the present rather than the past."
With this hint the youths closed their note-books and returned them carefully to the pockets where they belonged.
The youths were curious to see a Maori (pronounced mow-ry, the first syllable rhyming with "cow"), and they had not left the steps of the hotel before their desire was gratified. Their fellow-passenger from theZealandiapointed out several of the aborigines of New Zealand, and among them he recognized an acquaintance, who greeted him cordially.
Frank was disappointed at seeing the man dressed in European garb, and looking altogether so much like an Englishman that he was not readily distinguished from the men of British origin. He was fully six feet high, muscular and well-formed, and had a slight tendency to corpulence. His face was darker than that of the average Englishman, and about the complexion of a native of the middle or south of France, and certainly lighter than the southern Italian. Frank thought it could be described as a light brown; but he was informed that these people are of different hues, and the Maoris have twelve names to indicate as many shades of color.
IN A STATE OF DECADENCE.
The eyes of this specimen native were black, and his hair was also black and slightly curly. As he talked he displayed a fine set of teeth; and as dentists are unknown among the Maoris, it is to be supposed these teeth were natural. His features were regular and symmetrical, the nose having a slight tendency to an aquiline form, the lips large and well developed, but not thick like those of the negro, and the mouth capacious enough for all practical purposes.
After a short conversation with his friend the Maori passed on, and then Frank learned that he belonged to one of the families of chiefs, and could therefore be considered as belonging to the aristocratic branch of the race.
"There are about forty thousand, or perhaps forty-five thousand, Maoris in New Zealand at present," said the gentleman. "Two or three thousand of them live on South Island, and all the rest upon North Island. The families of the chiefs are readily distinguished by their superior grace and dignity, just as the aristocratic part of a race is distinguished in any other part of the world. When Captain Cook came here the Maoris were savages and cannibals, though they had a patriarchal form of government, and in several ways had made an approach to civilization."
"They practised tattooing, did they not?" one of the youths asked.
"Certainly," was the reply; "and some of them still do so, though the habit is dying out. In another generation it will hardly be heard of any more. The Maoris are becoming assimilated to the European population around them. Many of them own houses and farms, have large herds and flocks, and there are several Maori merchants and ship-owners. Many of them are employed by the English settlers and merchants, and you will find them on the railways and in the coasting steamers, where they make good sailors and are generally liked by their employers."
Frank asked whence they were supposed to have come, and how long it probably was since they settled in New Zealand.
A KAINGA MAORI (NATIVE VILLAGE).
"They are of Malay origin," said the gentleman, "and according to their traditions, which are unusually clear, they came here from either the Sandwich or the Samoan islands, four or five centuries ago, in a fleet of thirteen large canoes, which were followed by others. The names of their canoes, the chiefs that commanded them, and the places where they landed are carefully preserved in their traditions. They say that they came from an island called Hawaiki, in the Pacific Ocean, and this is thought to be either Savaii, in the Samoan group, or Hawaii in the Sandwich Islands. Their language is so nearly like that of the Sandwich Islanders that the two people can understand each other after a little practice.
"They had no written language until one was made for them by the missionaries, and the nearest approach to it was a knotted stick, by which the wise men transmitted the names of successive chiefs. They had a great many songs of love, war, religion, and other things,but these are fast dying out, and so are their traditions and legends. Sir George Grey collected many of their poems, myths, and fables, and published them in a large octavo volume, and if you wish to know more on this subject you can see the book in our public library."
CARVED NEW ZEALAND CHEST.
Fred asked if they were diminishing in numbers as rapidly as the people of the South Sea Islands had diminished since the advent of the white strangers.
"Yes," was the reply, "but civilization has had less to do with their reduction than the quarrels among themselves. When Captain Cook took possession of the islands, it is thought there were 120,000 Maoris living here; to-day there are less than 50,000. Before the whites came here the Maoris were divided into eighteen nations or great tribes, and the nations were subdivided into tribes, of which each had its chief whom it acknowledged. Each tribal chief regarded the head of his nation as his lord and obeyed his orders.
"The nations were constantly at war with each other, and then, too, the tribes of any one nation might be at war among themselves. The Maoris loved war for its own sake, vastly preferring it to peace, however much it might inconvenience them. Some of their ways were peculiar, and quite at variance with European notions or customs. Shall I tell you some of them?"
The youths expressed their desire to hear more about this interesting people, and their informant continued:
"Their wars were conducted with great ferocity, and the vanquished were either enslaved by the victors or killed and eaten."
"That is not so very strange," said Fred, as the gentleman paused; "savages in many parts of the world do the same thing."
"Of course they do," was the reply; "but they do not divide theirammunition and supplies with their enemies in order that they can fight on equal terms."
"Did the Maoris do that?" Fred asked in astonishment.
"Certainly they did, on several occasions that are known to the white residents. While they were at war with the English they used to send notice whenever they were about to make an attack, and they thought we did not treat them fairly in not doing the same. After the last war one of our officers asked a Maori chief why it was that when he had command of a certain road he did not attack the ammunition and provision trains. 'Why, you fool!' answered the Maori, much astonished, 'if we had stolen your powder and food, how could you have fought?'
"Once when one chief insulted another, the latter remarked that if chief number one had not known his own superiority in arms and ammunition, he would not have dared to behave in such a manner. Thereupon chief number one divided his fighting material into two equal parts, and sent one part to his enemy with an invitation to war.
"Sometimes two villages would get up a little war, and after fighting each other all day, the inhabitants would come out of their forts towards evening and talk over the day's sport in the most friendly way. The next morning they would begin again, and keep it up during the daytime, to meet in the evening for a social conference. An old missionary used to tell how, in one of these local wars, he had known the defenders of a fort to send out to their assailants that they were short of provisions, and the latter would immediately send in a supply of food. The same missionary said he had performed divine service one Sunday between two hostile forts, the inhabitants of which came out to worship, meet in the most perfect amity, and return, to resume fighting on Monday morning.
"It is estimated," said the gentleman, "that between the years 1820 and 1840 more than thirty thousand Maoris perished in these inter-tribal wars. Many perished in the wars with the English, and many others have died in consequence of their contact with civilization, as in the islands of the Pacific, some from intemperance, and others from small-pox, measles, and kindred diseases, which were brought here by the whites. At present wars among them have ceased, cannibalism is unknown, fully one-half of the adults can read and write, and two-thirds of them belong to the churches."
MAORI WAR CLUBS.
THE SUBURBS OF AUCKLAND.—EXTINCT VOLCANOES.—MAORI FORTIFICATIONS.—A KAURI FOREST.—KAURI LUMBER AND GUM.—HOW THE GUM IS FORMED AND FOUND.—TREES OF NEW ZEALAND AND THEIR VALUE.—FERNS AND THEIR VARIETY.—A PAKEHA MAORI.—HIS REMINISCENCES.—CURIOUS NATIVE CUSTOMS.—BUYING HEADS.—SALE OF A LIVING MAN'S HEAD.—THE LAW OF MURU.—NEW ZEALAND BIRDS.—THE GIGANTIC MOA, OR DINORNIS.—NATIVE WEDDINGS.—KAWAU ISLAND.—SHARK FISHING.—OYSTERS.—VISITING THE THAMES GOLD-FIELDS.—SIGHTS AND SCENES.—GOLD MINING IN NEW ZEALAND.—POPULATION OF THE COLONY.—ENCOURAGEMENT TO IMMIGRATION.—JOURNEY TO THE HOT LAKES.—CLIMATE OF NEW ZEALAND.
LAKE IN THE CRATER OF AN EXTINCT VOLCANO.
After a glance at the interior of Auckland, our friends naturally turned their attention to its surroundings. They were reminded of Naples, as Auckland is in a region of extinct volcanoes, one of which, Mount Eden, rises only a mile from the city. Following the advice of the landlord of the hotel, they drove thither, passing numerous villas of the well-to-do residents, with which the sides of the mountain are dotted. From the edge of the crater there is a fine view of the city and its surroundings, and the view takes in several volcanoes.
The Maoris had formerly a fortification on the top of the mountain; it surrounded the crater, so that a whole tribe could be concealed there, if necessary, for purposes of defence. Frank and Fred traced out some of the terraces that formed the original fortification, and Doctor Bronson said the works showed a good deal of military skill.
Within a radius of ten miles of the city no less then sixty-two points of eruption have been found, the greater part of them being only insignificant cones or hills. The largest and best specimen of the extinct volcanoes of Auckland is Rangitoto, which rises from a great mass of black lava, presenting a forbidding appearance. Unfortunately for the beauty of the landscape, the forest that once covered this region has been nearly all cut or burned away, and Auckland will doubtless regret in the near future the desolation which her settlers have made.
SAWING A KAURI PINE.
The youths were anxious to see the famous Kauri pine (Damara Australis), which is confined wholly to Auckland, and is the most renowned of New Zealand trees. Before returning to the city they were driven where they saw a single specimen, and before their departure from the district they had the satisfaction of seeing a Kauri forest. Frank's note on this subject is interesting, and we are permitted to quote it:
"The peculiarity of the Kauri pine is that the trunk does not appear to diminish in size from the ground to where the limbs begin to spread. We saw some trees more than two hundred feet high; they were eight or nine feet in diameter at the base, and had no limbs within forty or fifty feet of the ground. They reminded us of the famous big trees of California, but were taller in proportion to their diameter. We don't think we ever saw more graceful trees anywhere. They haven't a great deal of foliage, and it grows in little tufts very much like bushes.
"The wood is full of gum, and is very valuable as timber. They told us it was the finest wood in the world for shingles, as the gum preserved it from the effects of the weather. A great deal of the lumber from the Kauri pine is shipped to other parts of New Zealand, and also to Australia, China, Feejee, and other places where it can find a market.Many of the sticks have been sent to England to serve as masts and spars for her Majesty's ships of war, and altogether the trade in Kauri lumber is very large. The result is, a great deal has been cut away, and the time is not very distant when the Kauri forests will be gone.
STOCK-FARM IN THE SUBURBS.
"While we were walking among the Kauri trees our guide prodded the earth with a spear that he carried, and he kept doing this so frequently that we asked what it meant. He answered that he was looking for Kauri gum, and after a time he struck a hard substance, which he dug down to and brought to light.
"It was a lump of Kauri gum, and looked more like amber than anything else; in fact, it is said to be used very often in place of amber for the mouth-pieces of pipes and cigar-holders, and for other purposes where amber is ornamental. It is worth eight or ten cents a pound, and the shipment of Kauri gum from Auckland amounts to nearly a million dollars annually.
"'How do you get the gum?' one of us inquired of the man who was showing us through the forest.
"'In just the way you see,' he replied. 'The gum cannot be obtainedfrom the tree by any process of tapping or reducing from the wood. The tree falls and dies, and then, when it decays, the gum collects in lumps in the ground. It takes years and years for it to collect, and this little lump, which I have just taken from the ground, has probably been lying here for centuries. A new forest has risen where the old one stood, and has taken a long, long while to grow.'
A WATER-OAK.
"We asked what other timber-trees there were in New Zealand, and our informant mentioned the Kahikatea, or white pine; the Rimu, or red pine; the Totara, which is claimed to be impervious to the attacks of the teredo; and the Tanekaha, which has a handsome, close-grained, and durable wood, and whose bark furnishes a strong dye. Then there is the Matai, which is much like the English yew, and is used for making furniture; the Miro, which has a beautiful red fruit on which pigeons grow fat; and the Kawaka, which has a remarkable leaf and a durable wood.
"There is a great variety of tree-ferns, some of them reaching a height of forty feet, and a diameter of twelve inches or more. The most tropical of all the trees of New Zealand is the Nikau, which is the only representative of the palm family. The ferns are more tropical than the trees, and add very much to the beauty of the forest, though they impede locomotion in many places. As for fruit-trees, there are very few indigenous to the country, but nearly everything that grows in the United States or England flourishes, and they have many things here that are strangers to us at home. Peaches, apples, apricots, figs, oranges, strawberries, pears, and other fruits are abundant in their seasons, and some of them reach a luxuriance and perfection surpassing that of the countries whence they came.
"Near the Kauri forest we were shown a Maoripah, or fort, that issaid to have been the scene of severe fighting in the early days of the colony. While we were looking at it a man joined our group, and our guide told us he was apakehaMaori. You will wonder, as we did, what a pakeha Maori is.
A PAKEHA MAORI.
"Well, he's a white man who lives among the Maoris, and in former times, before the colonization, there was a goodly number of them, for the simple reason that unless a man was a missionary he couldn't easily stay in the country without living among the natives.Pakehameans stranger, and is applied to any white man, and a pakeha Maori is a white man living among the natives. The tribes were very desirous of having pakehas among them, for the reason that they could learn useful matters from them, but more particularly they could buy muskets, gun-powder, tools, and other trade goods, of which they were in great need. A pakeha who had trade goods was always welcome, but a man who had nothing was of little consequence, and sometimes had a hard struggle to keep his head on his shoulders.
"With a judicious present of a few shillings we got on the right sideof this man, and induced him to talk about what he had seen or knew among the Maoris. I have written down some of the things he said. I can't vouch that they are all absolutely correct; but his statements are corroborated by intelligent white men who have long lived in the country."
Here we will close Frank's journal for a few minutes and listen to the pakeha Maori.
A PAKEHA MAORI'S HOME.
"You see I'm an old man; I came here when I was very young, and have seen a great many changes. I was in Sydney, and heard New Zealand was a good place for trade, so I loaded some goods on a schooner that was coming this way, and in due time was landed in the country. At first I made my home with one of the whites, who had come here before me and got on friendly terms with the tribe where he lived; it didn't take long to do it, as the Maoris were very anxious to buy my goods."
Frank asked what goods they wanted most.
"Muskets and ammunition," was the reply, "and for these they paid fabulous prices in wild flax, which was the principal product worth shipping away. They were constantly at war, and the tribe that possessed the white man's weapons could destroy any tribe that was without them. This happened in many cases, and whole tribes who were without guns were destroyed by their more fortunate adversaries. They were literally eaten up, as the natives were cannibals in those times.
"To get muskets they impoverish themselves, neglecting their agriculture in order to gather flax to buy them with, and literally starving themselves. Many died of starvation in consequence, and in another way muskets proved the death of those who owned them. In the times of clubs and spears the Maoris had their pahs and villages on high hills, where the air was pure and the ground dry; when they got muskets they moved into the low ground, where they were carried off by the dampness and its consequent fevers. I have known whole villages and tribes killed in this way, so that not one man, woman, or child remained. The musket was as fatal to those who owned it as to those who did not; it was deadly either way.
VIEW OF A PART OF AUCKLAND AND ITS HARBOR.
"Now about some of the customs of the Maoris. They used to be tattooed very finely, and some of the fighting-men were beautiful to look at. The warriors used to bring back the heads of those they killed in battle, and some of the traders got to buying these heads provided they were finely tattooed. They gave a musket for a good head, and as soon as this was known some of the tribes began to make war on others just for the sake of getting tattooed heads to sell.
MAORI TATTOOING.
"You may think it strange, gentlemen," said the pakeha, "but I've known the head of a live man to be sold and paid for beforehand, and afterwards honestly delivered according to the agreement; and onetime when the heads of warriors were not equal to the demand for them, some of the chiefs tattooed the faces of several slaves whom they intended to kill whenever the traders arrived who had agreed to buy the heads. But the slaves were not faithful to their masters, as they all ran away into the bushes just as the inflammation in their faces was passing away and they were getting in good condition to be marketable.
"They had the tabu in its most rigid form here," he continued; "but as you probably learned all about it in the South Sea islands I won't take your time to talk about it.
"Another curious custom of the Maoris was themuru; the word means 'plunder'—and some folks might call it robbery, which it amounted to, though it was the custom, and practically the law of the country.
"If a man's child fell into the fire and was severely or perhaps fatally burned, he was plundered of nearly everything he possessed, and the same was the case if his canoe upset while he was fishing, or any other accident happened to him. The people of the tribe assembled and gave him notice that they would be there for the muru on a particular day. He prepared a great feast for them, and after the feast they sacked his house and carried away pretty nearly everything he had. Sometimes he did not have enough left to live upon, but he had the opportunity of getting even by joining in a muru against somebody else. These performances were never opposed, and in fact a man would feel insulted if a serious accident of any kind happened to him and no notice was taken of it. The greater the robbery, the greater the honor conferred upon the victim.
"If a man killed another through malice and with deliberate intent, the act was generally considered of no consequence, or it might even be meritorious. If it was his own slave that he killed, it was considered his personal affair entirely; if the victim was of another tribe, it was a matter of tribal revenge or retaliation; and if of his own tribe he wouldbe defended by his family or section, and nothing came of it. But if he killed a man of his own tribe by accident, such as the discharge of a gun, then the law of muru had full force, and the man and all his relatives were plundered of everything they possessed."
INLAND SCENERY.
Fred asked if the Maoris were given to the ordinary kind of thieving, like most savage nations.
"Much less than you might suppose," was the reply. "Of course there were pilferers; but, on the whole, private property was pretty safe from burglary and sneak-thieving. The muru gave an opportunity for plundering, and so did the warfare between the tribes; but a man could exempt himself from the muru if he wished, by giving up all claims to its advantages on his own account. When I first came to New Zealand I was the subject of a muru, and afterwards joined in one upon a Maori friend; but I found so many disadvantages, losing somuch more than I gained, that I stipulated to have nothing to do with these affairs in future.
"In actual honesty the Maoris have been injured by their contact with Europeans. They will steal and do other improper things more than formerly; but against this we must offset the abolition of slavery, cannibalism, tribal wars, polygamy, and many of their superstitious and cruel practices. When anything is stolen from you the chief can recover it, and will do so if you apply to him. Custom requires that you should tell him to keep it as a reward for his trouble, and so you don't gain much by the recovery of the plunder.
CAPTAIN COOK'S GIFT TO THE MAORIS.
"They were not favored by nature," continued their historian, "as they did not have the bread-fruit, banana, and cocoa-tree to supply them with food, and they did not even have the pig until it was given to them by Captain Cook. Dogs and rats were their only quadrupeds, and they ate both. The native dogs are extinct, as the Maoris did not care to preserve them when pigs became plentiful.
"It used to be the custom to make human sacrifices on the death of a chief; prisoners of war were used for this purpose, their blood being sprinkled on the grave, and the flesh roasted and eaten. There was a grand feast at a funeral, and even now this custom is kept up, though they have no longer any human sacrifices. The festivities at a Maori funeral are very much like those of an Irish 'wake,' and something like an Arab burial ceremony. They eat and drink all they can get, and the mourning is performed by the women, who howl and cry for hours, simply because it is the custom to do so."
As the time of our friends was limited, they bade adieu to the pakeha Maori, and left him to meditate upon the changes that had taken place since his advent into New Zealand.
"He might have told you," said their guide, "that the native rat has been killed off by the European one, which was introduced from ships, and the European house-fly has driven away the native blue blow-fly. The foreign clover is killing the ferns, and European grassesgenerally are supplanting the native ones very rapidly. The English sparrow has become very common in New Zealand, and will doubtless destroy some of the native birds."
Fred asked about the birds of the country, but his informant could not describe them with any degree of accuracy. Later the youth learned that there are one hundred and thirty-six varieties in all, of which seventy-three are land birds. One of these, the Apteryx, or Kiwi, is wingless, and lives in the mountains. He is very scarce, and only rarely captured or even seen. There are six varieties of parrots, and two of falcons—one about the size of a pigeon, and the other a very active and industrious sparrow-hawk. There is one owl, and there is a blackbird, which is called the "parson bird" by the settlers, for the reason that it has two white feathers under its chin like the ends of a clergyman's neck-tie.
SKELETON OF THE EXTINCT MOA (DINORNIS).
Fred asked if New Zealand was not the home of the now extinct Dinornis, the largest bird of which we have any positive knowledge.
"Yes," replied his informant; "the bird was calledMoaby the natives, and it is pretty clearly established that he was abundant when the Maoris came here, but was wiped out of existence some two hundred years ago. Skeletons of the Moa have been found, and show that the largest of these birds must have attained a height of fourteen to sixteen feet."
"Were they dangerous?" was the very natural query which followed.
"Not by any means; they were wingless, and belonged to the ostrich family, and the naturalists say they were stupid birds, that could easily fall a prey to man. This fact accounts for their extinction in the first two or three centuries of the presence of the Maoris in New Zealand. It is fortunate that their skeletons have been preserved in the earth, so that we can know positively that such great birds existed."
"How do you know the Maoris lived upon these birds?"
"Partly through their traditions, and partly from the discovery of many of the bones of the Moa in the ovens and in the heaps of rubbish around the ruins of ancient villages. The natives devoured any birds they could catch; parrots, pigeons, parson-birds, anything and everything edible was legitimate food. Those that dwelt on the coast lived chiefly on a fish diet, and those in the interior made annual or more frequent migrations to the sea-side for purposes of fishing. The rivers abound in eels, and they grow to an enormous size; I have seen eels weighing fifty pounds each, and have heard of larger ones."
Frank asked what the clothing of the natives was made of before the Europeans came to the country.
DRESSING FLAX.
"It was made from the fibre of the flax," was the reply. "There are several kinds of flax, and it grows everywhere and near every village. Not only did it supply the material for garments, but for nets, baskets, lines, mats, dishes, cordage, and other things. They used cords made from it for binding the walls and roofs of their houses together, and thus made it serve in place of nails. Great quantities of flax are raised here nowadays, as you will understand when you know there are some forty and odd flax-mills in the colony, and considerable flax is exported every year.
"Most of the Maoris that you will see during your stay in New Zealandwear clothes of European style, as they find them more convenient than the cloaks and mats of former days. On ceremonial occasions the old finery is displayed, and the cloaks of some of the chiefs are really magnificent. Cloaks and mats or blankets were the ordinary dress, one mat being wrapped around the waist, and the other thrown over the shoulder. Men wore their mats on the right shoulder, and women on the left, and they sometimes adorned their heads with the gayest feathers they could find. Children went naked in their early years, except in the coldest weather, when they wrapped themselves in any old garments they could lay hands on."
The youths learned many other things about the Maoris, but we have not room for all the notes they made on the subject. Frank asked particularly about the marriage ceremonies of the natives, probably for the information of his young lady friends at home. He learned that children might be betrothed by their parents when very young, or if not so betrothed they could marry very much as in civilized lands. Sometimes the parents and families, and more frequently the whole tribe, discussed any proposed match, and made all sorts of hinderances to it. Courtship was begun by the girl quite as often as by the young man, and when marriage was decided there were great preparations for a festivity, and the bride and bridegroom were provided with new mats and many other articles of household use. The funny part of the business was that during the marriage-feast everything movable was carried away by the friends, under the law of muru already described. The young couple started in life with nothing except the clothes they wore and the house that had been built for them.
During their stay at Auckland our friends visited some of the islands in the bay, including that of Kawau, where Sir George Grey, a former governor of New Zealand, has a fine residence. The house is quite English in appearance and character, and contains a good museum of Maori and other curiosities. The grounds around the house abound in pheasants of several kinds from Europe and Asia, kangaroos from Australia, tree-kangaroos from New Guinea, and several members of the deer family. Near Kawau they saw a fleet of boats manned by Maoris engaged in the capture of sharks. The creatures they pursued were not the ordinary shark, which is abundant in New Zealand waters, but a smaller variety measuring about six feet in length.
As the sharks were hauled into the boats they were killed by sharp blows upon the nose, and then flung into the hold. When a boat was filled it proceeded to an island, where the prizes were hung up to dry;and Frank was told that from twelve to twenty thousand of these sharks are taken in the bay of Waitamata every year, and either dried for winter food or eaten fresh. Out of curiosity our friends took a luncheon of shark steak, which had been baked on a hot stone after the native fashion. They found it palatable, but rather tasteless, and so dry that Fred suggested oiling each mouthful, or smothering it with butter. It was unanimously voted that shark with the Maoris was not half as enjoyable as salmon with the Indians of the Columbia River, or shad with the fishermen of Delaware Bay.
FAMILY OF DEER ON KAWAU ISLAND.
More palatable than shark steak were the oysters which abound in the bay. The island of Kawau has a coast-line of about thirty miles, and all around it there are oyster-beds, some of them of great extent. Not only do the oysters grow on the rocks and in the water, but they cling to the overhanging limbs of the trees, and grow there quite contented with their immersion of a few hours twice a day during the risingof the tide. Frank and Fred found the oysters of good flavor, and soon became quite expert at opening the shells with the oyster-knives which were opportunely brought along in the boat.
"Don't fail to visit the gold-mines and the Hot Lake district," was the injunction repeatedly made to Doctor Bronson and his young companions. As soon as they had exhausted the sights of Auckland and its neighborhood they proceeded to follow the foregoing advice.
PROSPECTING FOR GOLD.
First in order were the Thames gold-fields. A steamer carried them in five hours from Auckland to Grahamstown, and as soon as they were on shore they began their inspection of the mines. There are no placer diggings here, the mining being almost entirely confined to the veins of quartz in the mountains, which rise abruptly from the shore of the bay on which Grahamstown is built. For this reason Grahamstown, which takes its name from Robert Graham, its founder, has a more permanent and substantial appearance than the ordinary town in a newly opened mining country. It lies along the shore of the bay, and the numerous reduction-works, founderies, and similar establishments were suggestive of a manufacturing centre rather than a mining one only a few years old.
STAMP-MILL AT GRAHAMSTOWN.
Doctor Bronson had a letter of introduction to a gentleman interested in one of the largest mines, and the trio of travellers were at once made welcome. Clad in appropriate costumes, they were taken into the mine, where they walked a long distance through a tunnel, and were then conducted through a perfect maze of shafts and levels, where the workmen were busily occupied in removing the auriferous rock, which was carried directly to the reduction-works, where it was crushed and the precious metal extracted. The gold contains a large amount—thirty per cent.—of silver, and consequently has an appearance of pallor when turned out from the retorts. As the work of gold-mining has been described elsewhere in the wanderings of the boy travellers, it is hardly necessary to give it here, the processes of mining and reduction being practically the same all over the world.
Frank and Fred obtained the following information relative to gold-mining in New Zealand, and especially in the region now under consideration:
"Gold-mining in New Zealand properly dates from 1861, when gold was discovered by Mr. Gabriel Read at Tuapeka, in the province of Otago. The existence of the precious metal was known nine or tenyears before that date, it having been found at Coromandel by a Mr. Ring, who reported his discovery to the authorities at Auckland. Since 1861 it has been found in many places, and is now an important industry of the country. Some of the mines are wholly alluvial, or placer, diggings, others are wholly quartz-mines, which are called reefs in New Zealand and Australia, and others are combinations of alluvial and quartz mining.
"STRUCK A POCKET."
"For the enlightenment of some of my younger readers I will here explain that alluvial, or placer, mines are those where the gold is found in the earth or soil and is separated from it by washing. Quartz-mines are those where the gold is in the ledges of the mountains and requires to be removed by tunnelling or blasting, or both. The rock containingthe rock must be crushed to powder, and the gold separated from the powder by washing and mingling it with quicksilver. Quartz-mining requires a great deal of money to carry it on; so much, indeed, that it is generally conducted by companies, and these companies, it is proper to say, very often take more from the pockets of the stock-holders than they do from the mines. Alluvial diggings are the resort of the poor man, who needs only pick, shovel, and pan to set him up in business.
"During the year ending March 31, 1886, the mines of New Zealand yielded 233,068 ounces of gold, which was valued at more than four millions of dollars; at least this was the amount entered at the custom-house for exportation; some was doubtless absorbed in the colony, but no one can tell how much.
"The yield of the Thames district for the same time was 61,939 ounces, or more than one-fourth the entire amount for the colony. During the month of May, 1886, 3039 ounces of gold were taken from 2574 tons of rock. Some of the mines have paid good dividends to their owners, but others have never made any returns. The ups and downs of mining in New Zealand are about the same as in other parts of the world.
"There are nearly five hundred mining companies registered in New Zealand, with a paid-up capital of about ten million dollars. Down to the end of 1885 more than two hundred million dollars' worth of gold had been exported from New Zealand, so that there can be no question of the importance of the colony as a mining region. According to the official returns there are more than eleven thousand men engaged in mining; two thousand of these are quartz-miners, and the rest, including three thousand Chinese, are in the placer mines.
"The placer miners do not confine themselves to the valleys of the rivers among the mountains, but seek gold along the west shore, where they find it under the bowlders and other stones embedded in the sand of the beaches. The popular idea is that this gold is washed up from the sea during severe gales; the scientific men say it is really washed up by the lifting power of the waves on the sand that has been brought down by the rivers and drifted along the shore. Some of this gold is obtained by washing the sands in sluice-boxes, just as in operations among the mountains; and deposits, or 'pockets,' are occasionally discovered in the sand under the loose stones. Sometimes these deposits are of considerable value, and we have been told of a miner who found a single pocket containing nearly thirty ounces of gold. Similar pocketsexist in the mountains, and it is the height of a miner's ambition to find a well-filled one and secure its contents without anybody's help.
"The alluvial mines in North Island are less extensive than those of South Island. It is estimated that these mines cover an area of twenty thousand square miles in South Island alone, and as very little capital is required for working them, they are more popular than the others.