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+Project Gutenberg's Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2), by William Delisle Hay
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2)
+       or Settler and Maori in Northern New Zealand
+
+Author: William Delisle Hay
+
+Release Date: June 9, 2009 [EBook #29070]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BRIGHTER BRITAIN! (VOLUME 1 OF 2) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Heiko Evermann and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  BRIGHTER BRITAIN
+
+  OR
+
+  SETTLER AND MAORI
+
+  IN
+
+  _NORTHERN NEW ZEALAND._
+
+  BY
+
+  WILLIAM DELISLE HAY,
+
+  AUTHOR OF "THREE HUNDRED YEARS HENCE," "THE DOOM OF THE GREAT CITY,"
+  ETC.
+
+  "Queen of the seas, enlarge thyself!
+  Send thou thy swarms abroad!
+  For in the years to come,--
+  Where'er thy progeny,
+  Thy language and thy spirit shall be found,--
+  If--
+  --in that Austral world long sought,
+  The many-isled Pacific,--
+  When islands shall have grown, and cities risen
+  In cocoa-groves embower'd;
+  Where'er thy language lives.
+  By whatsoever name the land be call'd,
+  That land is English Still."
+
+  SOUTHEY.
+
+  IN TWO VOLUMES.--VOL. I.
+
+  LONDON:
+
+  RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON,
+
+  NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
+
+  1882.
+
+  (_All rights reserved._)
+
+  PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCELES.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+This book is descriptive of things as they are in a part of New Zealand,
+together with some reference to past history. It does not attempt to
+handle the colony as a whole, but refers to scenes within the northern
+half of the North Island only. This part of the country, the natural
+home of the kauri pine, is what I here intend to specify under the title
+of Northern New Zealand.
+
+I am not an emigration-tout, a land-salesman, or a tourist. When I went
+to New Zealand I went there as an emigrant. Not until a few days before
+I left its shores had I any other idea but that the rest of my life was
+destined to be that of a colonist, and that New Zealand was my fixed and
+permanent home. I have, therefore, written from the point of view of a
+settler. Circumstances, which have nothing to do with this chronicle,
+caused me to lay down axe and spade, and eventually to become a
+spoiler of paper instead of a bushman. The materials of this work,
+gathered together in the previous condition of life, are now put in
+print in the other.
+
+I trust no one of my colonial friends will feel offended, should he
+think that he discovers a caricature of himself in these pages. I have
+used disguises to veil real identities, occasionally taking liberties as
+regards time, situation, and personality. I think that no one but
+themselves could recognize my characters.
+
+The substance of one or two chapters of this book has, in part, been
+already placed before the public in papers that I contributed to _The
+Field_ last year, and is used again here by kind permission of the
+proprietor of that newspaper. Also, I have made the Kaipara the scene of
+several tales and sketches, which have appeared in sundry periodicals.
+
+If, in writing this book, I had any object beyond that of amusing the
+reader, it has been to give accurate information to young Englishmen
+belonging to the middle-classes. From this section of home society a
+considerable number of emigrants go out who had much better stop at
+home. On the other hand, there are many who do not stir, and who would
+be much better off in a colony. Perhaps, from the record I am now able
+to put before them, some of these young gentlemen will be more able to
+decide whether they are personally adapted to become colonists in
+Northern New Zealand or not. If one unsuitable emigrant is hereby
+deterred from leaving home, and if one capable colonist is added to the
+population of "Brighter Britain," my labour will not have been
+altogether useless.
+
+For the rest, I throw myself again upon the indulgence of critics, and
+on that of a public which has already abundantly favoured the efforts I
+have made to please and serve it.
+
+  THE AUTHOR.
+
+  LONDON,
+  _June 25th, 1882._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                    PAGE
+
+     I. A "NEW-CHUM'S" INTRODUCTION             1
+
+    II. AUCKLAND                               21
+
+   III. GOING UP COUNTRY                       63
+
+    IV. IN THE KAIPARA                         93
+
+     V. OUR SHANTY                            115
+
+    VI. OUR HOME-LIFE                         143
+
+   VII. OUR PIONEER FARM. I.                  174
+
+  VIII. OUR PIONEER FARM. II.                 196
+
+    IX. OUR SHOW-PLACE                        227
+
+     X. OUR NATIVE NEIGHBOURS                 253
+
+    XI. OUR SETTLER FRIENDS                   285
+
+   XII. A PIG-HUNT                            319
+
+
+
+
+BRIGHTER BRITAIN!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+A "NEW-CHUM'S" INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Three months on board ship seems a long while to look forward to, yet it
+is but a short time to look back upon. Emigrants, being for the most
+part drawn from among dry-land-living populations, are apt to be daunted
+by the idea of a long voyage. People would be more ready, perhaps, to
+contemplate becoming colonists, were it not for that dreaded crossing of
+the sea which must necessarily be their first step. Their terrors may be
+natural enough, but they are more fanciful than real; and once overcome,
+the emigrant smiles at his former self.
+
+After the first week or two at sea, the most inveterate "land-lubber"
+begins to feel at home; in another week or two he has become quite
+nautical, and imagines himself to have been a sailor half his life;
+while, when the voyage is over and the time come to go ashore, there are
+few who leave their floating home without regret.
+
+As things are managed nowadays, there exists no reason for apprehension
+of the voyage on the part of would-be colonists. Emigrants who are taken
+out "free"--that is, at the expense of the colonial government--as well
+as those who pay their own passage, are cared for in most liberal and
+considerate style. The rivalry between the various colonies of Australia
+has had this effect among others--that the voyage is made as safe,
+smooth, and inviting to emigrants as is possible. They are berthed with
+an ever-increasing attention to their care and comfort, while they are
+absolutely pampered and fattened with abundance and variety of the best
+food.
+
+No one expects to commence life in a new country without undergoing some
+amount of hardship and difficulty, and when the emigrant gets on shore,
+and begins to experience the various little annoyances that a "new-chum"
+must necessarily undergo, he realizes most thoroughly the pleasures and
+comforts he has left behind him on board ship; and, very frequently,
+vainly endeavours to suppress the wish that he was back on board "the
+old hooker" making the voyage out over again.
+
+As to _danger_, nothing amuses an old salt more than the bare idea of
+the "perils of the sea." To him, a railway journey, short or long,
+appears an infinitely more terrible and risky undertaking than a voyage
+half round the globe; and he will enumerate the various dangers to which
+a landsman is exposed as vastly in excess of those which may happen to
+the mariner.
+
+Life on board an emigrant-ship would, it might be thought, be somewhat
+dull and monotonous. As a matter of fact, it is scarcely ever found to
+be so. First of all, the little community of two or three hundred
+souls--men, women, and children--contrives to find sufficient fund for
+amusement in itself, in all the varieties of social intercourse.
+
+The progress of each day is marked by some fresh events that,
+insignificant as they may seem when regarded from a distance, do yet
+bear the strongest interest to all on board. A glimpse at some distant
+land, the signalling or speaking of other vessels, the appearance of
+strange birds and fish, the passage into different climates, the
+excitement of a storm, or the opportunity which a calm gives for general
+junketing; all such incidents are looked upon as a real gain by the
+voyagers, while there is always something stirring on board to divert
+and enliven them.
+
+All kinds of games are resorted to, many more, in fact, than landsmen
+have any idea of; a vast amount of reading is done; there are sure to be
+one or two on board who know how to spin a yarn with due effect; some
+are musical, and others can sing. Concerts, lectures, theatricals, and
+dances are got up; while, as there is generally a due admixture of the
+sexes, not a little flirting and downright courting is carried on; and,
+lastly, if there is any quarrelling and bickering, the differences of
+those who engage in it afford much amusement to the rest.
+
+Altogether, the modern emigrant's existence on board ship is a calm,
+easy, indolent, well-fed, and cheerful interlude of repose, amid the
+storms and worries of the great battle of life. If existence has been to
+him hitherto rather hard and thorny than otherwise, he finds the voyage
+out a pleasant interval of rest and refreshment; and, in any case, it
+recruits and prepares him to better commence the new life in the colony,
+with good spirits and high hopes, with invigorated strength, and renewed
+health in both mind and body.
+
+Although it might be thought that social equality would necessarily
+prevail on board ship, such is by no means the case. Of course there are
+great differences in the social tone of various ships, but, as a rule,
+"aft" seldom condescends to mix much with "forrard." Yet there are
+generally many interchanges of courtesy, as between upper, middle, and
+lower classes; and different messes will sometimes banquet one another.
+The "cuddy" will, perhaps, get up amateur theatricals or charades, to
+which spectacle the whole vessel will be invited; while the "steerage"
+will return the compliment with a concert, more or less brilliant in
+performance.
+
+Thus, a pleasant interchange of civilities goes on aboard most ships,
+and serves to help make the time pass away. Differences of rank and
+station are supposed to be pretty well levelled down in the colonies.
+Most of the time-worn prejudices of the old country, it is true, melt
+away before the revivifying breath of colonial life, yet sometimes "Mrs.
+Grundy's" awful features will show themselves, hiding the old foolish
+face under a new and somewhat strange aspect.
+
+It would be interesting to note how many of the most prominent and
+influential citizens of a colony came there originally in the humblest
+possible way; and how many of the dregs of colonial society--the
+occupiers of the lowest rung on the colonial ladder--reached their new
+home with all the pomp and circumstance of quarter-deck sublimity, and
+all the humbug and pretension of real or fancied aristocracy. Is the
+result we see--for these contrasts are to be found plentifully in all
+the colonies at the Antipodes--what it ought to be, or not? That is the
+question.
+
+In the colonies, and particularly in the younger and newer among them, a
+man must perforce be the sole architect of his own fortunes. Industry
+and energy, enterprise and perseverance pave the pathway to success, and
+yield a real and lasting benefit to him who holds such endowments. A man
+must prove what he _is_, not what he _was_; his antecedents go for but
+little, and his "forbears" for nothing at all. In the Antipodean
+colonies of Great Britain is realized, perhaps, the nearest approach to
+true freedom; and, in a wide social sense, the closest approximation to
+the ideal republic.
+
+However, we are still on board ship, and, after an easy and not too
+eventful voyage of some three months, are looking eagerly out for the
+first sight of the promised land. Bound to Auckland, New Zealand, our
+vessel is one of the largest that has yet sailed from Gravesend to that
+port; and she carries some three hundred emigrants and passengers on
+board. We have grown so accustomed to our good ship, and to our life on
+board of her, that we have got a strange feeling that this voyaging will
+never end; nor does the idea altogether arouse our discontent.
+
+We have had one or two births, and, alas! one poor child has been taken
+from our little company. There have, of course, been no weddings on
+board, but the prevailing opinion is that several have been arranged to
+take place as soon as we get on shore. And the time is very near now.
+
+At last, late one afternoon, as the ship is bowling steadily along with
+a ten-knot breeze on the port quarter, the deck is hailed from aloft,
+and the cheery, long-expected, and long-wished-for cry of "land ho!" is
+taken up by a hundred voices, and rings out across the sea. But there is
+nothing to be seen for all that; and though more than three hundred
+pairs of eyes keep anxious ward and watch, darkness falls before an
+almost imperceptible cloud upon the far horizon is pronounced
+oracularly by the mate to be Cape Maria Van Diemen, New Zealand's
+north-western-most promontory.
+
+One may easily imagine that it is difficult to "turn in" on a night when
+such a fresh excitement fills every mind, but, I suppose, most of us do
+contrive to get to sleep eventually. With the first break of dawn in the
+morning there is a stir and commotion all through the ship. Rules are
+forgotten, and etiquette broken through, as men, women, and children
+rush hastily on deck to take their first look at our future home.
+
+It is a beautiful summer morning. There is only a slight ripple on the
+surface of the water, and not a cloud in the blue sky overhead. The
+gentle breeze that just keeps us in motion blows off the land, bearing
+with it a subtle perfume of trees and flowers and herbage; how
+unspeakably grateful to our nostrils none can tell so well as we, who
+inhale it with ardour after so many weeks at sea.
+
+Yonder, a mile or two to starboard, and seeming within a stone's throw,
+is the land we have come so far to seek. A wall of rock, the northern
+cliff of New Zealand rises abrupt and imposing from the sea, broken here
+and there into groups of pillared, pinnacled islets, nobly irregular in
+outline, piled and scarred, indented and projected, uplifted and
+magnificent. On the summit of the cliffs, on ledges and terraces, down
+at the bottom of the rocks, filling every little bay, and sweeping down
+the gullies and ravines, is everywhere abundant the wild foliage of the
+evergreen forest. Glorifying the rich and splendid scene, diversifying
+with numberless effects of light and shadow the whole panorama, shining
+upon the glowing sea, touching the topmost crags with sparkling
+grandeur, and bathing in beauty the thousand-tinted green of the forest,
+is the sun, which, on the eastern horizon, is rising clear and bright
+and steady. And so we gaze rapturously on the wide and beautiful
+picture--a picture the remembrance of which will remain with us long:
+our first sight of the new land of hope and promise.
+
+Varied are the emotions that take possession of the individuals of our
+company; but I think there are some among us, more thoughtful or
+sentimental, perhaps, who, unconsciously to themselves, draw a kind of
+inspiration from the noble scene. To such there seems, in those majestic
+cliffs, sea-swept and forest-crowned, first seen as lighted by the
+rising sun, a nameless sermon preached, a wordless lesson taught, an
+everlasting poem sung. And our minds and spirits are calmed, refreshed,
+and invigorated; while in some dim way we grasp ideas that the silent
+scene irresistibly conveys to us. Rising within us, as we gaze, comes
+with fresh new force the knowledge of the qualities that should be ours:
+the high-hoping courage, the unshrinking energy, the dauntless
+resolution, and the unfailing industry that must animate the colonist,
+and be the best endowments of an inceptive nation!
+
+Later in the day we round the North Cape, and go sailing on down the
+coast, with light and rather baffling winds that eventually bring us to
+port on the following evening.
+
+Among our passengers are several old colonists, who are returning from a
+visit "home." In the colonies Great Britain is always spoken of as
+"home," even by colonial-born people. Talk about the raptures at
+returning to "my own, my native land!" that is nothing to the transports
+of joy that now infect our colonists. They laugh, they sing, they dance
+about the decks, they chatter "sixteen to the dozen," and display every
+eccentricity of unbounded delight and satisfaction.
+
+Probably a good deal of this is put on for the edification of us new
+chums, but there is no question that most of it is an expression of real
+feeling. All through the voyage these good people have been in great
+force, relating numberless yarns of their past experiences, more or less
+truthful in detail. But now their self-importance is overwhelming and
+superior to all considerations. Every headland, bay, or island that we
+pass is expatiated upon, and its especial story told, in which, I note,
+the narrator generally seems to have been the most prominent figure
+himself. No one is allowed to remain below, even for meals, scarcely for
+sleeping; he or she must be up on deck to hear strange-sounding names
+applied to every place we sight.
+
+Cape Kara-Kara is a name to us and nothing more. Whangaroa Heads, that
+guard the harbour of that name, with its settlements and saw-mills, is
+but little better, though some few, who have been industriously reading
+up, remember Whangaroa as the scene of the ghastly massacre of the crew
+of the _Boyd_, half a century ago. Capes Wiwiki and Brett we have no
+previous acquaintance with, though we have heard of the Bay of Islands,
+over whose wide entrance they are the twin sentinels. And then in slow
+succession we sight the Poor Knights Islands, Bream Head, the Hen and
+Chickens, the Barrier Islands--Great and Little, Cape Colville, Rodney
+Point, and the Kawau, Sir George Grey's island home.
+
+And now, on the afternoon of the second day, we are running closer and
+closer to the shore; islands and islets are becoming more numerous, and
+the seas are getting narrower. Right ahead a conical mountain top is
+perceived, Tiri-Tiri is close to, and it is high time the pilot came
+aboard. That mountain top is Rangitoto, an extinct volcanic cone upon a
+small island that protects the entrance to Auckland Harbour. Presently
+we shall see the similar elevations of Mount Eden and Mount Hobson, that
+look down on Auckland from the mainland.
+
+Of course, we are all on the _qui vive_ of expectation, looking out for
+the first signs of life. Hitherto we have seen nothing to rob us of the
+notion that we are a veritable cargo of Columbuses, coming to colonize
+some new and virgin land, until now utterly unknown to the rest of the
+world. The shores we have passed along have presented to us every
+possible variety of savage wilderness, rocks and bush and scrub and
+fern, but no appearance of settlement at all, not even any signs of
+aboriginal life have we descried.
+
+There is a growing idea getting the better of our common sense--an
+impression that there has been some sort of mistake somewhere or other.
+For, how can it be possible that we are just outside the harbour of a
+considerable city, with the shores of mainland and island as far as we
+can see, just as wild as Nature made them, wilder than anything most of
+us have ever seen before. The utmost recesses of Scotland, or Ireland,
+or Wales would look quite tame and domesticated contrasted with these
+rugged solitudes. Not a house nor a hut anywhere, not a trace of the
+presence of man, not even--so it chanced--another sail upon the sea!
+
+It is close upon sunset, the foresail is backed, the pilot's signal is
+flying, and the foghorn sounding, and soon we shall see if there is any
+life or not in this weird new land. Presently, comes a shout of "Ship
+ahoy! ahoy!" apparently from the sea, and a little boat emerges from the
+shadow of the shore and makes its way alongside.
+
+Of course every one rushes to the side to see the pilot come aboard. It
+being more than three months since we saw a strange face, we are
+naturally consumed with a burning curiosity. It is rather disappointing
+though, to have come half round the world only to be met by men like
+these. The pilot might be own brother to his fellow-craftsman who took
+us down the Channel, and his crew are just the same kind of brawny,
+bearded, amphibious-looking men that are to be seen any day in an
+English seaport. We had nourished an insane kind of hope that we should
+have been boarded by a canoe full of Maoris, in all the savage splendour
+of tattooing and paint and feathers; but here, instead of all that
+romantic fancy, are three or four ordinary "long-shore" boatmen, with a
+pilot who steps on board in the most matter-of-fact manner possible.
+
+Well, we must make the best we can out of the circumstances; so, when
+the pilot has come out of the captain's cabin, where he has shown his
+certificate and discussed his "nobbler," when he has formally taken
+charge of the ship, and we are once more moving through the water, we
+begin to pester him with the question, "What's the news?"
+
+Now, as we have been between three and four months at sea, isolated from
+the rest of the world, we are naturally all agog to hear what has
+happened in our absence. New Zealand's news of the old world is at least
+a month old, but then that is considerably in advance of our dates. The
+pilot has, therefore, enough to do in answering all the questions that
+are levelled at him, and as he is probably pretty well accustomed to
+similar experiences, he is, I fear, in the habit of allowing his fancy
+to supply any gaps in his actual knowledge of the progress of events;
+hence we glean many scraps of information that on further inquiry turn
+out to be more or less imaginative.
+
+And now that we are entering the harbour of Auckland, it is
+unfortunately getting too dark to see much. There is not a long gloaming
+in northern New Zealand--once the sun has dropped below the horizon
+darkness succeeds very rapidly; so, though we get an indistinct glimpse
+at some houses on the shore as we sail along, it is quite dark as we
+round the North Shore and come into Auckland harbour.
+
+There goes the anchor at last, with a plunge and a rattle! Now the good
+ship is swinging in the current of the Waitemata, and the voyage, that
+at its commencement seemed so long and that now appears to have been so
+short, is fairly terminated. Before us, extending to right and left, and
+up and down, are thousands of lights glittering and twinkling over the
+shadowy outlines of the city; while into our ears is borne the welcome
+hum and stir of city life. There is no going ashore until next
+morning--until the health officer and the customs shall have boarded and
+inspected us. So that night is devoted to the bustle and confusion of
+packing up; and various spoony couples moon about the decks, renewing
+promises and vows in expectation of their parting on the morrow.
+
+When morning comes we make our bow to Auckland. There it lies, this
+Antipodean city, looking so white and clean and fair in the morning
+sunshine, stretching away to right and left, rising in streets and
+terraces from the shore, cresting the heights with steeples and
+villa-roofs, and filling up the valleys below. In the far background is
+the heavy brow of Mount Eden, whose extinct crater we shall explore
+by-and-by, and whence we shall obtain a splendid view of the entire
+city, its suburbs, and the surrounding country.
+
+From our point of view out in the harbour the city presents a scattered
+and uneven appearance, that adds to its generally picturesque aspect. As
+a central feature are the long lines of wharves and quays with their
+clustering shipping; just beyond these is evidently the densest part of
+the city. Huge and imposing stone buildings stand thickly here, showing
+that it is the centre of the business part of Auckland. To right and
+left the ground rises abruptly and steeply, and the streets become
+irregular in outline. Nor is the shore a straight and continuous line;
+these heights on either hand are promontories jutting out into the
+stream, and hiding deep bays behind them, round which, straggling and
+irregular, sweeps the city.
+
+The further our eyes travel from the centre of the picture, the more do
+we lose sight of any trace of uniformity in building. Quite close to the
+busy parts, so it seems to us, houses stand in their own wide gardens;
+the streets and roads are lost amid the embowering foliage of trees and
+shrubs. The house-structures are built on every conceivable plan, up and
+down the wooded shores; every builder has evidently been his own
+architect to a great extent, and there is no lack of elbow-room
+hereaway.
+
+What surprise us most are the evidences of taste and cultivation and
+general prosperity everywhere in view. Our previous glimpses at the
+shore of our new country had not prepared us for anything like this. It
+is decidedly encouraging to new-comers, who are disturbed somewhat by
+the prospect of doing battle with the wilderness, to find a sort of
+Anglo-Saxon Naples here in the Southern Sea.
+
+We had an idea that our arrival would have been quite an event in this
+little place. Nothing of the sort; Aucklanders are too well used to the
+arrival of emigrant ships. One or two enter the harbour every month,
+besides other craft; and then the Pacific Mail steamers, large and
+splendidly equipped vessels, call here twice a month on their way to and
+fro between Sydney and San Francisco.
+
+There are one or two vessels like ours lying out in the stream at the
+present time, others are lying alongside the principal wharf, or its
+cross-tees, amid a forest of spars belonging to small coasting craft.
+Plenty of shore boats have come off to us on one errand or another; but
+it is evident that our arrival has not created that impression upon the
+city which we had had a notion that it would have done.
+
+The morning papers will notice our advent, with a brief account of the
+voyage, and will give exceedingly inaccurate lists of our passengers.
+Only those people who expect friends or cargo by us will take any
+special interest in us; the evening promenaders on the wharf will glance
+at our ship with a brief passing interest; and the current of Auckland
+life will flow on unchanged, regardless of the fact that some three
+hundred more souls have been absorbed into its population.
+
+Breakfast this morning is partaken of in the midst of a hurry-skurry of
+excitement, but, for all that, it is an imposing meal, and comprises all
+sorts of luxuries to which we have long been strangers. Beefsteaks,
+milk, eggs, fruit, and vegetables, fresh fish just caught over the side,
+and other fondly-loved delicacies are on the bill of fare. By-and-by,
+all formalities having been gone through, comes the parting with
+shipmates and the confusion of landing.
+
+It is not without a strong feeling of astonishment that we step out of
+the boat that has brought us off, and enter the city. We were totally
+unprepared for the scene before us. From the accounts we had read and
+received, we had pictured Auckland to our minds as little better than a
+collection of log-huts, with here and there, perhaps, a slightly more
+comfortable frame-house. And here is the reality. A city that would put
+to shame many an old English town. A main street--Queen Street--that
+might even compare favourably with many a leading London thoroughfare in
+all its details. Fine handsome edifices of stone, with elaborate
+architecture and finish; large plate-glass shop-windows, filled with a
+display of wares; gas-lamps, pillar letter-boxes, pavements, awnings,
+carts, carriages, and cabs; all the necessities, luxuries, and
+appurtenances of city life, civilized and complete.
+
+Truly, all this is a wonderful surprise to us. Our preconceived ideas,
+gathered from various books dating only a few years back, had led our
+fancies completely astray. Learning from these sources that, not much
+more than thirty years ago--in 1840,--the first ship-load of British
+emigrants landed in New Zealand; that since then the colony had
+struggled for bare life against many and great difficulties; that it had
+had to wage several desperate wars with the aborigines; had had its
+financial and legislative troubles; and was still so very very young, we
+were naturally prepared to find Auckland a rude, rough, and inchoate
+settlement, pitched down in the midst of a wilderness as savage and
+uncouth as those shores we passed along yesterday.
+
+We know that a very few years ago, Auckland really was but what we had
+fancied it still would be, and so we comprehend now how little the
+people at home actually realize of the conditions of life at their
+Antipodes. Moreover, as we pass along the streets of this British city,
+set down here on the shaggy shores of Britain's under-world, in the very
+heart of recent Maori-dom, so remote and far removed from the tracks of
+ancient civilization, we look around us and are filled with wonder and a
+feeling akin to awe. This is what colonization means; this is the work
+of colonists; this is the evidence of energy that may well seem titanic,
+of industry that appears herculean; this is Progress! The thought
+thrills us through and through. We, too, have made our entry into the
+new world; we, too, have crossed the threshold of colonial life; and
+thus to-day, at the outset of our new life, our minds have opened to
+receive the first true lesson of the colonist.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+AUCKLAND.
+
+
+Passing up Queen Street, after landing on the wharf, a party of us
+notice--or fancy we notice--a rather singular feature in the Aucklanders
+we meet. The men are grave and serious in deportment, and nearly all are
+profusely bearded; but one of us draws attention to the fact that all
+have strangely aquiline noses. Hebrews they are not--we know, they are
+of the same nationality as ourselves--so we seek explanation from a
+whimsical fellow-voyager, himself an old Aucklander.
+
+"Ah!" says he, "that's a peculiarity of the climate. You'll have long
+noses, too, after a year or so. There's an Auckland proverb, that a
+new-chum never does any good until his nose has grown. You've got to
+learn the truth of that pretty soon."
+
+Following up these remarks, he proceeded to add--
+
+"It's like the proverbial cutting of the wisdom-teeth. After inhaling
+this magnificent air of ours for a year or two, your nose will grow
+bigger to receive it; and about the same time you will have spent the
+money you brought with you, gone in for hard work, learnt common-sense,
+and become 'colonized.'"
+
+The reader will understand that a new-chum is, throughout the colonies,
+regarded as food for mirth. He is treated with good-humoured contempt
+and kindly patronage. He is looked upon as a legitimate butt, and a sort
+of grown-up and incapable infant. His doings are watched with interest,
+to see what new eccentricities he will develop; and shouts of laughter
+are raised at every fresh tale of some new-chum's inexperienced attempts
+and failures. Half the stories that circulate in conversation have a
+new-chum as the comic man of the piece; and if any unheard of
+undertaking is noised about, "Oh, he's a new-chum!" is considered
+sufficient explanation.
+
+However, the new-chum is not supposed to be altogether a fool, since he
+will sooner or later develop into the full-blown colonist, and since
+sometimes it happens that one of his order will show colonists "a thing
+or two." He is one of the recognized characters of colonial society, and
+as he affords much material that seems infinitely ludicrous to the older
+colonist, so his faults and failings meet with lenient condonation.
+
+Even the law seems to feel that the new-chum is scarcely a responsible
+being. At the time I write of, drunkenness was severely legislated
+against in New Zealand. A man who was merely drunk, without being
+actually incapable or riotous, was liable, if any constable saw fit, to
+be haled before the magistrate and fined one pound; and, on a subsequent
+conviction, might be sent to the Stockade (prison), without the option
+of a fine at all. The law stood something like that, and was impartially
+administered by the Auckland Dogberry. However, if an individual were
+pulled up, charged with even the most excessive tipsiness, including
+riot, assault, incapability, or what not, and could show that he was a
+new-chum, the sacred folly attributed to that state of being was held
+sufficient to bear him blameless, and he was always discharged on his
+promise not to do it again. I do not know whether this was intended as a
+sort of indulgence to newly-arrived voyagers, or whether, in the eye of
+the law, a new-chum was held to be an irresponsible being, who had not
+yet arrived at the moral manhood of a New Zealander. Certain it is, it
+was fact, and was largely taken advantage of, too.
+
+In order to bear out one of the received theories regarding new-chums,
+namely, their utter want of frugality, we, some half-a-dozen young
+"gentlemen," who have come out in the cabin, go to put up at one of the
+leading hotels of the city. We have looked in at some of the minor
+hotels and houses of accommodation, but are daunted by the rough, rude,
+navvy-like men, who appear to chiefly frequent them; and we do not care
+to go to any of the boarding-houses, where parsons, missionaries, and
+people of that class mostly abound, and tincture the very air with a
+savour of godliness and respectability that is, alas! repugnant to our
+scapegrace youth.
+
+We are young fellows with slender purses but boundless hopes, an immense
+belief in ourselves and our golden prospects; but with the vaguest
+possible idea of what manual labour, roughing it, and colonial work
+really mean. Therefore, we have decided that there is no reason to
+plunge at once into the middle of things, that we will look about a bit,
+let ourselves down gently, and taste a little comfort before proceeding
+further.
+
+Our hotel is a solid, comfortable-looking edifice of stone, standing on
+a wide street that traverses a high ridge, and commanding a fine view of
+the harbour. It is well furnished throughout in English fashion,
+resembling any first-class family and commercial hotel of the old
+country. There is a long bar or saloon occupying the ground floor, with
+a parlour behind it; there are also a spacious dining-room and
+business-room. Upstairs there is a billiard-room, smoking-room, ladies'
+drawing-room, and bedrooms capable of accommodating thirty or forty
+guests. Behind the house is a large courtyard, round which are ranged
+the bath-rooms, kitchens, offices, and stables; while further back is
+the garden, principally used for strictly utilitarian purposes.
+
+According to colonial custom there is little or no privacy, no private
+sitting-rooms, and if a visitor have a bedroom to himself, it is not
+quite such a sanctum as it would be in Britain. People stopping in the
+house are free to permeate it from kitchen to attic, if so minded.
+
+There are three common meals--breakfast, luncheon-dinner, and
+dinner-supper--and any one who is not present at them, or who is hungry
+between times, will have to go without in the interval, and wait till
+the next regular meal-time comes round, unless he dare to invade the
+kitchen and curry favour with the cook, or goes down to some restaurant
+in the city.
+
+Generally speaking, the table is furnished in a style most creditable as
+to both quantity and quality of the viands. There may not be such a show
+of plate and glass and ornament as there would be at a London hotel of
+similar status, but there is a plenteous profusion of varied eatables,
+fairly cooked and served up, to which profusion the home establishment
+is an utter stranger. Fish, fowl, butcher's meat, vegetables, breads and
+cakes, eggs, cream, and fruit, appear in such abundance that, when every
+one is nearly gorged, we wonder what can possibly be done with the
+overplus, especially since we are told that this is a city without
+paupers, as yet.
+
+Fresh from the crystallized decorum of English manners, we are
+necessarily struck by the freedom of intercourse that prevails. Class
+prejudices have certainly been imported here from Europe, and exist to a
+small extent in Auckland society, but there is, withal, a nearer
+approach to true liberty, equality, and fraternity, at any rate in the
+manners and customs of colonists. The hotel servants show no symptoms of
+servility, though in civility they are not lacking. Every one is
+perfectly independent, and considers himself or herself on an equal
+footing with every one else, no matter what differences may exist in
+their present position--new-chums always excepted--while they ever bear
+in mind that such differences are only temporary, and may disappear any
+day in the chances and changes of life in a new country.
+
+Our landlord and his wife preside at the meals, and, whoever may or
+might be present, comport themselves as a host and hostess entertaining
+a friendly party. In common with every one else, they take a lively
+interest in our intentions and prospects, and we are bewildered with
+conflicting advice and suggestions, some real and some jocular. They
+make us feel at home in the house very speedily, and cause us to forget
+that we are paying lodgers.
+
+Not but what the bill will come up with due regularity, and will have to
+be met as promptly. And the mention of it reminds me to state that the
+tariff is eight shillings per day, inclusive of everything but liquors.
+This would be moderate enough in all conscience, according to English
+notions, but it is thought to be a luxurious price here. The minor
+hotels and boarding-houses in Auckland charge from a pound to
+thirty-five shillings per week. At present there is nothing higher than
+the price we pay at our hotel.
+
+Having hinted at the social relations that obtain here, there will seem
+to be nothing outrageous in the following slight incident that
+illustrates them. One morning, soon after our arrival, I get down to
+breakfast rather late, after most of the guests have dispersed.
+Something seems to have creased our landlady's temper, for she greets me
+with--
+
+"Look here, young man! I can't have people walking in to breakfast at
+all hours of the day. If you don't come down at the proper time, you'll
+have to go without in future--mind that!"
+
+But at this juncture arrives the waiter, who is kind enough to favour me
+with his friendship, bringing with him a dish he has been keeping hot,
+and, as he slaps it down in front of me, he observes in a tone of mild
+remonstrance--
+
+"Leave the man alone. I'll look after him. Now just you walk into that,
+my boy, and see if it won't suit your complaint!"
+
+This is quite colonial style. But fancy an old-country landlady
+venturing to remonstrate with her boarder in such terms; and imagine the
+pitiable horror of a precise and formal Englishman, who might find
+himself so addressed by a waiter, and in the presence of the latter's
+mistress, too!
+
+I am particular in styling Auckland a "city," and not a "town," for were
+I to use the latter term I should expect to earn the undying hostility
+of all true Aucklanders. It is a point they are excessively touchy upon,
+and as the city and its suburbs contains a population of more than
+twenty thousand--increasing annually at an almost alarming rate--it were
+as well for me to be particular. We take a stroll or two about the city
+in company with a colonial friend, who obligingly acts as our cicerone.
+
+The wharf is naturally the first point of interest to new-comers. It
+stretches continuously out into the river from the lower end of Queen
+Street, and is over a quarter of a mile in length. It is built of wood,
+and has several side-piers or "tees," whereat ships discharge and take
+in cargo. The scene is always a busy one; and in the evening the wharf
+is a favourite promenade with citizens.
+
+Out in the river, lying at anchor, is the good ship that brought us
+here, and not far from her are a couple of others, one of which will
+shortly sail for England. Puffing its way between these vessels is a
+little white cock-boat of a steamer, that seems tolerably well crowded
+with men, whose white sun-helmets and yellow silk coats give quite an
+Indian air to the scene. These persons are probably business men coming
+over in the ferry-boat from North Shore, where we can see some of their
+villas from the wharf.
+
+Lying alongside the wharf are one or two vessels of considerable
+tonnage, loading or discharging cargo, while at their respective tees,
+whereon are offices and goods-sheds, are several fine steamers of
+moderate size. These ply in various directions, taking passengers
+chiefly, but also goods. Some go and come between Auckland and
+Grahamstown, or Coromandel, in the Hauraki Gulf; others go to Tauranga,
+the Bay of Plenty, Napier, Wellington, and the South Island; one or two
+go northward to Mahurangi, Whangarei, the Bay of Islands, Whangaroa, and
+Mongonui.
+
+The splendid and sumptuously fitted-up Pacific liners that call here
+once a month, on their way between "Frisco," Hawaii, Fiji, and Sydney,
+are none of them in the harbour at present; but there, at the extreme
+end of the wharf, lies _The Hero_, the Sydney packet, and a magnificent
+steam-ship is she. All the schooners, cutters, and craft of small
+tonnage that fill up the scene, and crowd alongside the wharf and its
+tees, are coasting or Island traders.
+
+There is one from the Fijis with cotton, coffee, and fresh tropical
+fruits; there is another from the Friendlies with copra and cocoa-nut
+fibre, which she will shortly transfer to some ship loading for England;
+and there is the _Magellan Cloud_, fresh from a successful whaling
+cruise in Antarctic Seas. There is a vessel from Kororareka with coal
+and manganese, or kauri-gum; there are others from Mahurangi with lime,
+from Whangarei with fat cattle, from Tauranga with potatoes, from
+Poverty Bay with wool, from the Wairoa with butter and cheese, from Port
+Lyttelton with flour, or raw-hides for the Panmure tannery, from Dunedin
+with grain or colonial ale, and so on and so on.
+
+Just off the wharf, and facing the river at either corner of Queen
+Street, are two large and handsome hotels, while to right and left on
+the river frontage are sundry important commercial edifices. Passing to
+the left as we leave the wharf, we come to several extensive
+timber-yards, and to a long jetty, used exclusively as a timber-wharf.
+The immense piles of sawn timber lying here give to us new-chums some
+notion of the vast timber-trade of Northern New Zealand, especially
+since we learn that much which goes to the South Island and elsewhere is
+shipped direct from Whangaroa, Hokianga, the Kaipara, and other ports in
+the north. The road along the river front, here, is shortly brought up
+abruptly at the base of a lofty bluff, whereon is a church and other
+buildings, near the site of old Fort Britomart.
+
+Retracing our steps, we enter Queen Street, the main street of the city.
+All the lower portion of it abutting on to the wharf was, we are told,
+reclaimed from swamp and mud only a very few years ago. The street is a
+fine one, leading straight away from the river, curving imperceptibly to
+the right, and gradually ascending for about a mile, until it branches
+off into other streets and roads. Down at the lower end of the street
+most of the buildings are of brick and stone; and some of them are of
+tolerably fine architecture. There are banks and warehouses and
+merchants' stores of all kinds, interspersed with hotels and public
+buildings. Higher up Queen Street, and in the cross-streets, stone and
+brick edifices are less numerous, and wooden houses more plentiful.
+
+The broad, well-paved thoroughfare is crowded at certain times of the
+day with carriages, cabs, buggies, omnibuses, equestrians,
+express-carts, waggons, drays, and every species of vehicle. The
+side-walks are thronged with passengers, who pass up and down under the
+awnings that stretch from the houses across the wide pavement. Many of
+the shop-windows would do no discredit to Oxford Street or the Strand,
+either as respects their size or the goods displayed in them.
+
+Some distance up Queen Street, and turning a little out of it, is the
+Market House, where a very fine show of fruit, vegetables, and other
+eatables is frequently to be seen; and then there is the United Service
+Hotel, at the corner of Wellesley Street, which is a structure that
+Aucklanders point to with pride, as evidence of their progress in street
+architecture. At night, when the gas is lit in the streets, the shops,
+and the saloons, and one mingles with the crowd that throngs them, or
+pours into the theatre, the Choral Hall, the Mechanics' Institute, the
+Oddfellows' Hall, or other places of amusement, instruction, or
+dissipation, it is almost possible sometimes to imagine oneself back in
+the old country, in the streets of some English town.
+
+New-chums are able to notice some of the peculiarities of Auckland
+street-life, wherein it most differs from an old-country town. These
+arise principally from that absence of conventionality, which, certainly
+in many external things, is the prerogative of colonists. There is a
+mingling of people who seem on terms of perfect equality, and who yet
+present the most extraordinary difference in appearance. The gentleman
+and the roughest of roughs may happen to get together on the same piece
+of work, and when their temporary chum-ship ends the one cannot entirely
+cut the other, such being a course quite inadmissible with colonial
+views of life. Only one man _may_ be scouted by any one, and that is the
+loafer.
+
+Of course there are good people here who would fain introduce all the
+class barriers that exist in the old country; but they cannot do more
+than form little cliques and coteries, which are constantly giving way
+and being broken down under the amalgamating process of colonization.
+Where these offer most resistance to the levelling influence is where
+they are cemented by religious denominational spite, which is,
+unhappily, very prevalent in Auckland.
+
+This general fusion of all sorts of people together produces a very
+amiable and friendly state of things. Etiquette is resolved into simple
+courtesy, not very refined, perhaps, but which is sufficient "between
+man and man," as Micawber would say. Prejudice must not be entertained
+against any man on account of his birth, connections, education,
+poverty, or manner of work; he is "a man for a' that," and entitled to
+the same consideration as the more fortunate individual who possesses
+what he lacks. Only if he be a loafer, or dishonest, or otherwise
+positively objectionable, will any man find himself under the ban of
+colonial society. And this society is not a mere set of wealthy
+exclusives banded together against the rest of the world; it comprehends
+everybody.
+
+One sees in the streets abundant evidence of these conditions of social
+relationship. In the first place, costume goes for little or nothing.
+Men--I am coming to your sex presently, ladies!--men wear just what they
+please at all times and in all places, and without remark from others.
+One sees men apparelled in all sorts of ways; and it would be impossible
+to guess at a man's condition from his coat, hereaway.
+
+In Queen Street once, I saw a well-dressed and thriving store-keeper
+touch his hat to a ragged, disreputable-looking individual, who was
+carrying a hod full of bricks, where some building operations were going
+on. It was a sudden impulse of old habit, I suppose, which had wrung
+that very uncolonial salute from the sometime valet to his former
+master, in whose service he had originally come out. I knew of one case
+where master and servant actually came to change places, and I may add,
+to their mutual advantage eventually.
+
+A man would not be likely to receive an invitation to the governor's
+ball unless he had some pretensions to gentility, or was locally
+important. Yet, I suppose that the recipient of such an invite might
+turn up at Government House in a grey jumper and moleskins, if he were
+so minded, and would pass unquestioned. In such a case it would only be
+surmised that Mr. So-and-so was "not doing very well at present."
+
+Women, as a rule, dress "to death;" and the more gorgeous the toilette
+the more likely is it that the wearer is unmarried, and a worker of some
+sort. The merest Irish slut can earn her ten shillings a week as a
+domestic, besides being found in everything; and better-class girls get
+proportionately more; so it is not surprising that they can clothe
+themselves in fine raiment. But there is no rule to go by--the
+expensively dressed woman may be either mistress or maid, and the plain
+cotton gown may clothe either as well. Only one thing is certain, the
+Auckland woman of any class will dress as well as she knows how, on her
+own earnings or her husband's.
+
+We new-chums observe one or two peculiarities of this kind as we stroll
+about the city, and they are explained to us by our colonial friend.
+Some extremely dowdy females we see riding in a barouche are the wife
+and daughters of a high official, who is stingy to his woman-kind, so
+they say. Two youths we pass are in striking contrast, as they walk
+along arm-in-arm. One is got up according to the fullest Auckland idea
+of Bond Street foppery, while the other prefers to go about in very
+"creeshy flannen;" yet the two sit at the same desk in one of the banks,
+and earn the same salary; and neither they themselves, nor anyone else,
+seems to notice any peculiarity in the costume of either.
+
+Then comes along a more remarkable pair still: a "lady" and a "man"
+apparently, or so they might be described at home. She is dressed in the
+latest fashion and with killing effect--muslin, silk, embroidery,
+chains, bracelets, laces, ribbons, the newest thing in bonnets, and the
+last in parasols--and has quite the air of a fine lady. He is a burly
+rough, bearded to the eyes, the shapeless remnant of a coarse
+wide-awake covering a head of hair that has seemingly been long unknown
+to the barber; his blue flannel shirt, ragged jacket, breeches, and long
+riding-boots, are all crusted deep with mud, while a stock-whip is
+coiled round his shoulders. They walk amicably along together,
+conversing, though there is something of an air of constraint between
+them. Our colonial friend nods to the man as they pass; and we ask him
+who the strangely assorted couple may be.
+
+"Oh! he's a well-to-do stock-farmer," is the reply, "and has just come
+in with a herd of fat beasts."
+
+"And the lady?" we ask.
+
+"The lady! Ha! That's a new dairy-maid and house-servant my friend's
+just engaged. Guess she'll have to leave her fine feathers in Auckland!
+Precious little good they'd be to her at his place in the bush!"
+
+And now for a sample of the native race, but very sparingly represented
+in the city at any time. A dignified and portly gentleman is rolling
+along, with an air as though the place belonged to him. He is a Maori,
+as we plainly see; moreover, he is a chief, and is at present a member
+of the House of Representatives. There is no trace of the savage about
+him, as he struts along in his patent leather boots, shining broadcloth,
+snowy shirt-front, massive watch-guard, and glossy silk hat, unless it
+be in the richly decorative tattoo that adorns his brown face, and over
+which a gold double-eyeglass has a somewhat incongruous effect
+
+There is another Maori on the curbstone, looking a horrible
+tatterdemalion as he stands there in the scantiest and wretchedest of
+European rags, offering peaches and water-melons for sale. Him and his
+proffered wares the chief waves off with aristocratic hauteur, until he
+suddenly recollects that his humble countryman has a vote at the
+elections; then he stops, enters into a brief conversation, examines the
+kitful of fruit through his glasses with supercilious disdain, but
+eventually purchases a chunk of melon, and goes on his way munching it.
+
+In the shops the same sense of equality is noticeable. Shopkeepers and
+their assistants are not the cringing, obsequious slaves that we know so
+well in England. There is none of that bowing and smirking, superfluous
+"sir"-ing and "ma'am"-ing, and elaborate deference to customers that
+prevails at home. Here we are all freemen and equals; and the Auckland
+shopman meets his customer with a shake of the hand, and a pleasant
+hail-fellow-well-met style of manner. Not but what all the tricks of
+trade are fully understood at the Antipodes, and the Aucklander can
+chaffer and haggle, and drive as hard a bargain as his fellow across
+the seas; only his way of doing it is different, that is all.
+
+Auckland possesses a class whose members are akin to the street-arabs of
+London and elsewhere, but differ from them in many respects. The
+Auckland "larrikin" is a growing nuisance, but he is neither so numerous
+nor so objectionable as yet as his fellow in Melbourne and Sydney.
+Unlike the street-arab, he is either a school-boy, or earns his living
+somehow, or he is a truant from work of either kind. He probably belongs
+to some working family, whom he favours with his company only at such
+times as pleases himself, for he is utterly unmanageable by his parents.
+He has exuberant spirits and an inordinate love of mischief, which shows
+itself in manifold ways. He has a sort of organization of his own, and
+seems to revel in uncurbed liberty of action. Occasionally some wrathful
+citizen executes summary justice upon him, in spite of the fear that
+such an act may bring down the vengeance of the whole boyish gang; and
+sometimes the youth finds himself in the police-court, charged with
+"larrikinism," an offence that is sure to be severely punished. The
+"larrikin" easily gets a job, and works by fits and starts when it suits
+him, or when he wants money. He lives in the open air, sleeping
+anywhere, and getting his food no one knows how. He is not altogether
+bad--not so frequently thieving and breaking the law, as intent on
+simple mischief and practical jokes of the coarsest and roughest
+sort--still, he is a pest that Aucklanders inveigh heartily against, and
+would gladly see extirpated by the strong arm of the law.
+
+We turn out of Queen Street into Shortland Crescent. At the corner is a
+large and handsome block of buildings constructed of brick, and having
+an imposing frontage on the Crescent. This contains the General
+Post-office and the Custom House. Not far distant, on the opposite side
+of Queen Street, is the New Zealand Insurance Company's establishment,
+more generally known as "The Exchange." It is the finest building in the
+city, excepting the Supreme Court, perhaps, and has a tower, and a clock
+which is the Big Ben of Auckland.
+
+At the corner of Shortland Crescent and Queen Street, and just under the
+front of the Post-office, is a kind of rendezvous that serves as a
+_Petite Bourse_, or Cornhill, to those who go "on 'Change" in Auckland.
+Here congregate little knots of eager-eyed men--stock-jobbers most of
+them--waiting for news from the Thames gold field, perhaps, or for
+telegrams from elsewhere. Ever and anon some report spreads among them,
+there is an excited flutter, mysterious consultations and references to
+note books, and scrip of the "Union Beach," the "Caledonian," or the
+"Golden Crown," changes hands, and goes "up" or "down," as the case may
+be, while fortunes--in a small way--are made or marred.
+
+Toiling on up the steep ascent of the Crescent, we come out on a broad
+road that runs along the summit of the range, and close to an ugly
+church, St. Matthew's, that crowns the bluff looking over the harbour.
+From various points here there are good views of the city obtainable;
+and our guide is able to expatiate on most of its beauties and
+characteristics. Down below us is the splendid and extensive harbour,
+land-locked, and capable of containing the whole British navy. Right
+opposite is the North Head, or North Shore, as it is usually termed, on
+whose twin volcanic peaks is an Armstrong battery, to defend the harbour
+entrance in case of need. There is also the signal station on Mount
+Victoria, whence incoming vessels may be sighted outside of Tiri-tiri
+and the Barrier Islands. There are the villages of Stokes' Point, West
+Devonport, and East Devonport beyond, facing the open Pacific, and
+renowned for its salubrious sea-breezes.
+
+Just beneath us is the railway station, whence the line runs across the
+isthmus, connecting Auckland with Onehunga on the Manukau Harbour,
+where the West Coast traffic is carried on, and thus placing Auckland,
+like Corinth, upon two seas. The railway also extends southwards to the
+Waikato.[1] Onehunga is only some half-dozen miles from the outskirts of
+the city, and the road to it lies between fields and meadows, bordered
+with hedgerows, by villa and cottage and homestead, quite in English
+rural style. The road also leads by Ellerslie race-course, and the
+Ellerslie Gardens, the Auckland Rosherville.
+
+The coastal traffic that is carried on in the Manukau is nearly equal in
+extent to the similar trade done in the Waitemata, hence the commercial
+importance of Auckland can hardly be rivalled by that of any other city
+of New Zealand. Dunedin, in the far south, holds a similar status to
+Auckland in the north, but the cities are too far distant (some eight
+hundred nautical miles) to become rivals to the detriment of each other.
+
+Beyond the railway, we look across the inland sweep of Mechanic's Bay to
+the rising ground on its further side, crowned by the popular and
+picturesque suburb of Parnell. On the river side the streets descend to
+the shore; the houses, most of them pretty wooden villas, standing each
+in its terraced garden grounds, embowered in rich foliage. On the land
+side a gully divides Parnell from the Domain. This serves as a public
+park and recreation ground for citizens of Auckland. It is a tract of
+original forest or bush, through whose bosky glades winding walks have
+been cut, leading up and down range and gully, furnished with seats and
+arbours and artificial accessories. Conjoined to the Domain are the
+gardens of the Acclimatization Society, which are beautiful and
+interesting on account of their botanical and zoological contents.
+
+Rising at some distance behind the Domain, we catch a glimpse of Mount
+Hobson, upon whose sides nestles the suburb of the same name. To the
+right of it lies the Great South Road, whereon is the village of
+Newmarket, and beyond it again the scattered suburb of Epsom, and that
+gem of lovely hamlets, Remuera.
+
+Our eyes, slowly travelling round to take in all these points, are now
+turned directly away from the harbour. Before us stretches a long road
+named Symonds Street, leading past the Supreme Court--a brick and stone
+building of considerable architectural pretension--past the wide
+cemetery, and allowing beyond a sight of the hospital in the valley
+below, on till the large suburb of Newton--hardly disconnected at all
+from the city proper--is reached.
+
+In this direction is situated Government House, a large mansion of wood,
+standing in park-like grounds, where the English oak, the American
+maple, the Australian blue-gum, the semi-tropical palm, and the New
+Zealand kauri mingle their foliage together. Some distance further, and
+to the left of the road, rises Mount Eden. On one side of it is the
+gaol, a group of buildings surrounded by a wall and palisades, and
+situated in a scoria quarry. Among the spurs and declivities of the
+mount are many villas of the wealthier citizens, standing in well
+laid-out grounds, and making a very pleasing picture.
+
+We now look right across the densest part of the city, from our first
+standpoint near St. Matthew's Church. Below is Queen Street, with the
+roofs of the various buildings already noticed in it. Beyond it there is
+a corresponding high ground to that on which we are, and behind that
+again is Freeman's Bay. On the crest of the eminence is St. Paul's
+"cathedral"--so styled; the principal Anglican church of the city. In
+the distance the breezy suburb of Ponsonby is pointed out to us,
+occupying high ground, from which is visible the winding valley of the
+Waitemata, stretching away up into the hills. Here and there can be
+seen the spires or belfries of numerous churches and chapels, for
+Auckland is an eminently religious city, and has temples and tabernacles
+for almost every Christian creed.
+
+Our companion dilates upon the institutions of the city, which are
+highly creditable to so young a community, and are in advance of those
+of many European towns of equal population, that can trace back their
+history considerably further than Auckland's thirty-and-odd years. In
+matters ecclesiastical and educational the young city is indeed well
+endowed. There are two bishops, Roman and Anglican, a Presbytery, and
+governing bodies of other denominations. There is a College and Grammar
+School of the New Zealand University, common schools in the city,
+private schools of all sorts and sects, a training school and ship at
+Kohimarama, an establishment for young clergymen, and convent schools.
+There are asylums, orphanages, and refuges.
+
+There are institutes and halls belonging to all kinds of societies:
+Young Men's Christian Association, Mechanics, Good Templars, Freemasons,
+Orangemen, Oddfellows, Foresters, etc. There is the Auckland Institute
+and Museum, the Acclimatization Society, Agricultural Society,
+Benevolent Societies, etc. There are Cricketing, Rowing, and Yachting
+Clubs. There is a mayor and City Council, with Harbour Board, Highway
+Board, Domain Board, and Improvement Commissions. There is the Supreme
+Court, the District Court, the Resident Magistrate's Court, and the
+Police Court. There are public and circulating libraries, two daily
+morning newspapers, an evening newspaper, two weekly newspapers, two
+weekly journals of fiction, and two monthly religious periodicals.
+
+The city is lighted by gas supplied by a private company; and the
+water-supply is under municipal control. It returns three members to the
+House of Representatives, while Parnell and Newton each return one. So
+much and more does our cicerone favour us with, until he has, as he
+thinks, convinced us that Auckland is really the finest place of
+residence in the world.
+
+We now pass down into the city again, taking a new route past the
+Northern Club, a lofty and unsightly building, whose members are
+notoriously hospitable, and much given to whist and euchre. Downhill a
+short distance, and we come to the Albert Barracks, where newly-arrived
+immigrants are housed, and where most of our sometime shipmates now are.
+They are comfortably quartered here for the present, but no incitement
+is held out to them to remain long, and every inducement is given them
+to get an engagement and quit as soon as may be. It seldom happens that
+there is any difficulty in this; usually, indeed, there is a rush to
+engage the new-comers, so much are servants and labourers, mechanics and
+artizans in request.
+
+There have been times when would-be employers would go off in
+shore-boats to the immigrant ship in the harbour, and though not allowed
+on board, would make efforts to hire domestics and labourers at the side
+of the vessel. Again, when the government immigrants were landed, and
+were marched up from the wharf to the barracks, a mob of employers would
+escort the procession, endeavouring to hire helps, and with such success
+that sometimes the barracks were hardly needed at all. But such scenes
+are becoming rarer now, though there must continue, for many years to
+come, to be a run upon certain classes of immigrants, notably single
+girls for house-servants.[2]
+
+Turning into the barrack-yard, round which are the various buildings
+where the immigrants are temporarily housed, we find an animated scene
+before us. Here are assembled most of our immigrant shipmates, some few
+of whom have already got engagements and gone off. A considerable party
+of settlers and agents are now busily at work trying to hire the people
+they severally want; while the poor bewildered immigrants find
+themselves treated as though they were goods in an auction-room, and
+scarcely know whether they are standing on their heads or their heels.
+
+It so happens that there is just now a great demand for agricultural and
+domestics, so that settlers are actually bidding against each other for
+the individuals they want to engage. Our ship-load was no special body
+of people, but a motley collection of men, women, and children from all
+parts of the old country. Among them are natives of Kent and of
+Cornwall, of Yorkshire and of Wales, of Inverness and of Galway.
+
+Here are a couple of brothers whom we made special friends with on the
+voyage, young hardy Scots; let us see how they get on. We find them at a
+premium, surrounded by a little crowd of farmers from the Waikato, who
+each and all seem intent on hiring them. The lads do not wish to part if
+they can help it; and so, as to get one means to get both, the farmers
+are all the hotter in their pursuit of them. For these young men are
+just the right sort that are most wanted, having the thews and sinews
+and power of endurance so necessary for a rough life; having experience
+of sheep and cattle and agricultural work from their earliest infancy;
+having, in fact, all the qualities most essential and useful to the
+pioneer farmer. They come of the right race, too, as all the world
+knows--colonists especially--for honesty, sobriety, and patient
+industry.
+
+What a change for them--from the inclement sky, the hostile winter, the
+rugged battle for life they have left behind them with their native
+Grampians, to this bright clime of everlasting summer, of strange
+fertility, to these sunshiny isles of beauty and plenty! Well, well, it
+is not a land of indolence either; the work demanded here is stern and
+hard and rough; but what a reward may be reaped in the end from earnest
+and unshrinking toil! No wonder if, in a year or two's time, our friends
+yonder will write to the dear ones they left at home, in the Perthshire
+glen, such an account as shall bear witness that they, at least, have
+found on earth the Peasant's Paradise!
+
+There is hot and excited bargaining going on in the group of which the
+brothers form the centre. They are a little dazed, and do not venture to
+speak; but they are canny for all that, and bide their time. Amid the
+babel of voices that surrounds us on all sides, we catch a few
+utterances as follows:--
+
+"Five shillings a day, and your tucker!"
+
+"Five and threepence, lads!"
+
+"He'll give you nothing but salt pork; try me at the same wage!"
+
+"And you'll have to live on potatoes and pumpkins with him!"
+
+"Five and six, and as much mutton as you want!"
+
+"Too much, perhaps, and braxy at that!"
+
+"Come, a cottage to yourselves, rations, and five and six a day!"
+
+"Cottage! A tumble-down whare is what he means!"
+
+"Fresh meat every day with me, boys--beef, mutton, and pork!"
+
+"Yes; and he'll want you to work twelve hours!"
+
+"Better engage with me at five and nine; I'll lodge you well, and feed
+you first chop!"
+
+And so on and so on, until at last the brothers pluck up determination,
+and make choice of an employer. So our Caledonian friends begin to
+gather together their traps and make preparations to accompany their
+complaisant and well-satisfied boss to his farm on the banks of the
+Waikato. And an indescribable joy is in their hearts, for they are to
+receive six shillings and sixpence a day, and to be provided with
+comfortable lodging and lavish "tucker" withal; and though, no doubt,
+they will prove worthy of that high wage to their employer, yet what
+marvellous wealth it is, compared to the most they could have earned had
+they remained to toil upon the braes of Albyn!
+
+Of course, very few of the other immigrants get such a wage as that. The
+two young Scots are the picked men of the crowd. Five shillings a day
+and "all found" is the ordinary wage for an agricultural, and though
+some are worth more, new-chums are generally held to be worth a good
+deal less for their first year. The distich--
+
+  "Eight hours' sleep and eight hours' play,
+  Eight hours' work and eight bob a day,"
+
+has been, and is, verified literally over and over again in New Zealand;
+but the "eight bob a day" cannot be called an ordinary wage. A man must
+be worth his salt and something over to get it, and will not do so
+unless labour is scarce and in much demand. Those who contract, or do
+work by the piece, often make as much and more if they are first-rate
+workers; and that kind of engagement is preferred by both employers and
+employes, as a rule.
+
+All sorts of skilled labourers get high wages. Carpenters and
+blacksmiths will get ten and twelve shillings a day with their keep;
+and when they have saved a little money, and can go on the job by
+themselves, they may earn an advance on that.
+
+I have already noticed the great demand that there is for female
+house-servants, and the high wages they can get. Girls cannot be relied
+on to stop in a situation very long, as they are sure to receive
+numerous matrimonial offers; hence there is a perpetual seeking after
+new domestics. Marriage is an institution that turns out uncommonly well
+here. There is no such thing as a descent to pauperism for those who
+will work. By little and little the working couple thrive and prosper,
+and as their family--New Zealand families run large, by the
+way--multiplies and grows up round them, they are able to enjoy the
+comforts of a competence they could never have attained at home. Some
+settlers, who originally came out, man and wife, as government
+immigrants drawn from the peasant class, are now wealthy proprietors of
+broad acres, flocks, and herds; and are able to send their sons to
+college and their daughters to finishing-schools; the whilom humble
+servant girl now riding in her carriage, and wearing silk and satin if
+she list. Such are the rewards that may tempt the peasant here.
+Difficulties there are in plenty, but they lessen year by year; while
+comfort and competence are certain in the end, and wealth even is
+possible to the industrious.
+
+Occasionally it happens that among a body of immigrants are one or two
+who are decidedly unsuitable. There is an example among our particular
+ship-load. Here is a woman, purblind, decrepit, looking sixty years old
+at least, and, by some incomprehensible series of mistakes, she has
+found her way out here as a "single girl!" What was the Agent-General in
+London about, and what could the Dispatching Officer have been thinking
+of, when they let this ancient cripple pass them? Yet here she is, a
+"single girl" in immigrant parlance; and work she must get somehow and
+somewhere, for there are no poorhouses or paupers here as yet. But even
+she, useless to all seeming as she is, and unable to bear her part in
+the energetic industry of a new country, will find her billet. A
+good-natured farmer takes her off, judging that she may earn her keep in
+his kitchen, and if not--well! he is prosperous, and should be generous
+too. And so old granny toddles away amid the friendly laughter of the
+crowd, satisfied enough to find there is a niche even for her in our
+Canaan.
+
+The great question that of late years has been continually asked of old
+colonials in England is, what are the prospects afforded by New Zealand
+to men of the middle classes? The answer is usually unfavourable,
+simply because many colonials cannot disassociate the idea of a
+gentleman adventurer from that of a scapegrace or ne'er-do-well.
+Secondly, they look at the questioner's present condition; and never
+take into consideration the power he may have of adapting himself to
+totally different circumstances. I think this view admits of
+considerable enlargement, and my experience has led me to believe that
+many a man, who struggles through life in the old country in some
+exacting and ill-paid sedentary occupation, might have been benefited by
+emigration. The colonies have been inundated with ruined spendthrifts,
+gamblers, drunkards, idle good-for-nothings, who have been induced to
+emigrate in the belief that that alone was a panacea for their moral
+diseases. Very very few of them have reformed or done any good, so that
+colonists are naturally prejudiced against their class, and look upon
+gentleman-new-chums with great suspicion. Again, some go out who are too
+delicate or sensitive to stand the roughnesses they are bound to
+undergo, and these break down in their apprenticeship the first year or
+two, and, if they can, go home again to speak evil of the colony ever
+afterwards.
+
+One thing is certain, the educated man has the advantage over the
+uneducated, and his abler mind will sooner or later be of use to him,
+although his physique may be weaker than the other's. The
+gently-nurtured individual finds the preliminary trials of colonial life
+very hard indeed--he is heavily handicapped at the start--but there is
+no reason why he may not do well after a time. Gentlemen-immigrants
+usually think they may find work of a congenial sort, such as clerking,
+assisting in a store, or some occupation of the kind in the city. That
+is a mistake; while yet they are new-chums there is but one thing for
+them to do--to go away into the bush and labour with their hands. Of
+new-chums, only artisans are absorbed into the city population as a
+rule; all others have to look to manual labour of some kind, and
+generally up-country, for a means of subsistence. All the clerks,
+counter-jumpers, secretaries, and so on, are either old colonials, or
+colonists' sons. Very rare is it for a gentleman new-chum to find a
+berth of that sort, perhaps he may after he has become "colonized," but
+at first he will have to go straight away and fell bush, chop firewood,
+drive cattle, or tend pigs. About the best advice I ever heard given to
+middle-class men, who thought of emigrating to New Zealand, was couched
+in some such terms as these.
+
+"What are your prospects here? If you have any, stop where you are. But
+if you have no particular profession, nothing better before you than
+laborious quill-driving and the like, at eighty pounds a year, and small
+probability of ever rising so high as two hundred, however many years
+you stick to the desk, or the yard-measure, then you may think of
+emigrating. If you are strong and able-bodied, somewhere between sixteen
+and twenty-six years of age--for over twenty-six men are generally too
+old to emigrate, I think--I say, emigrate by all means, for you will
+have a better chance of leading a healthy, happy, and fairly comfortable
+life. But you must throw all ideas of gentility to the winds, banish the
+thought of refinement, and prepare for a rough, hard struggle, and it
+may be a long one, too. You may please yourselves with the prospect of
+competence, comfort, and even luxury in the distance, but you must look
+at it through a lengthy vista of real hard work, difficulty, and bodily
+hardship. Success, in a greater or lesser degree, _always_ follows
+patient industry at the Antipodes; it can scarcely be said to do so in
+Britain.
+
+"Now, _Il n'y a que le premier pas qui coute_, and the worst time you
+will have is at the first; also, it is only for the start that you need
+advice, after you become 'colonized' you can look out for yourselves. If
+you have any particular acquaintance with a useful trade, so much the
+better; if you have not, and can do so, learn one before you
+go--carpentry, boat-building, blacksmithing, tinkering, cobbling; it
+will help you through wonderfully. It doesn't matter twopence _how_ you
+go out, whether saloon, intermediate, or steerage, so far as your future
+prospects are concerned. If you can compass the means, go saloon--the
+extra comfort on a long voyage is well worth the extra price; besides,
+you might have some returning colonist as fellow-voyager, whose
+friendship would prove useful. When you land, bank any money you may
+have brought with you--whether it be ten pounds or ten thousand, I say
+the same--and resolve not to touch it, however you may be tempted, for
+two years at least. Then go about freely, get into the bush away from
+the city, make friends with every one everywhere, and let it be known
+that you are in search of work. Very soon you will hear of something or
+other. Take the job, the first that comes in your way, and stick to it
+till something better turns up. Don't be afraid of it whatever it is;
+don't imagine anything will hurt you or lower your dignity in the
+slightest so long as it is honest. Even if they make you a
+street-scavenger, remember that is better than loafing. In one year, or
+two, or three, you will be perfectly at home in the new life, and able
+to see, according to your abilities, the path that offers you the best
+prospect of the greatest success. During your new-chum days of
+apprenticeship you must consider yourself as a common peasant, like the
+men you will probably have to associate with; don't be disconcerted at
+that, just work on, and by-and-by you will get ahead of them. You will
+meet plenty of nice gentlemanly fellows in any part of New Zealand, and
+they will think all the better of you if you are earnestly and
+energetically industrious. Lastly, don't run away with the notion that
+you are going to jump into luck directly you land. Wages are high to the
+right people, but you are not among those at the outset. You may be
+satisfied if you do anything more than just earn your keep, for the
+first six or twelve months."
+
+I think that that is, upon the whole, pretty sound advice for the class
+of men to whom it is addressed; but I will go further, and point out
+what advantages the average middle-class "young gentleman" may
+reasonably look forward to from emigration to New Zealand. In the first
+place, he may expect to enjoy robust health, more perfect and enjoyable
+than he could hope for if tied down to a counting-house stool in the
+dingy atmosphere of a city. He will exchange the dull monotony of a
+sedentary occupation in the chill and varying climate of Britain, for a
+life of vigorous action in a land whose climate is simply superb. When
+he gets through the briars that must necessarily be traversed at the
+outset, he will find himself happier, freer from anxiety, and, on the
+whole, doing better than he would be if he had remained at the old life.
+He will "feel his life in every limb," and, remote from the world, know
+naught of its cares. If he be anything of a man, before ten or a dozen
+years are gone he will find himself with a bit of land and a house of
+his own; he will be married, or able to marry, his earnings will suffice
+for existence, while every pound saved and invested in property will be
+growing, doubling, and quadrupling itself for his age and his children.
+There is something to work for and hope for here: independence,
+contentment, and competence. It is not a stern struggle from year's end
+to year's end, with naught at the finish but a paltry pension,
+dependence on others, or the workhouse. The gentleman-colonist we are
+talking of is working for a _home_, and, long before his term of life
+draws to its close, he will find himself, if not rich, at any rate, in
+the possession of more comfort and happiness than he could hope for in
+the old country.
+
+I am not an emigration-tout, and have no interest in painting my picture
+in too vivid colours, and in these remarks I have transgressed against
+some of the ordinary colonial views on the subject; but I have done so
+with intention, because I consider them not entirely in the right. The
+colonist says--we don't want gentlemen here, we want MEN! But he forgets
+that the unfortunate individual he disparages has often more real
+manhood at bottom than the class below him. Therefore, the middle-class
+emigrant must remember the qualities most required in him--pluck,
+energy, and resolution.
+
+I have met many middle-class men in the colony, and all contrived to
+bear out the view I have put forward by their own condition. Those who
+come to grief do so from their own failings and deficiencies. Some growl
+and grumble a little now and then, and think they would rather be back
+in England; but, when they reflect upon the condition they would
+probably be occupying at home in the ordinary course of things, they are
+forced to admit that they are better off. At any rate, such bitter and
+terrible distress as overtook so many thousands in Britain a year or two
+ago, could scarcely fall to the lot of the same people under any
+circumstances, if they were industrious colonists. But I have digressed
+inordinately, and must get back to Auckland forthwith.
+
+The barracks are empty at last, and all our fellow-voyagers have found
+each his or her starting-point in the new life. Our own little party of
+cuddy-passengers is dispersed as well. Some have gone off to join
+friends in the country, some are gone on to distant parts of the colony,
+some have gone this way or that, scattering to work in all directions;
+only a couple of us are left, and it is time that we should begin to
+follow the plan we have conceived for ourselves.
+
+Parting with shipmates, with the faces that have been so long familiar
+to us, seems to have severed the last link that bound us to the old
+country, the old home, and the old ways. We shall meet with many of them
+again, no doubt, but then the old "Englishness" will have disappeared,
+and we shall be at one with those who now are strangers to us, we too
+shall be New Zealanders. Henceforth all before us and around us is
+strange and new, an untried, unknown world. We are about to enter on a
+life totally different to that we have hitherto led, and it is a life
+that we have got to make ours for the time to come; for there is no
+thought in our minds of retreat, even if we find the unknown more
+distasteful than we think. But, courage! "Hope points before to guide us
+on our way," and, as yet, there is nothing in the prospect but what is
+bright and inspiriting, surely; nothing to diminish our youthful energy,
+nothing to daunt our British pluck! The past lies behind us, with its
+sweet and tender recollections, and with a softened sense of
+remembrance of those failures and sadnesses and bitternesses that are
+linked with them. Now our cry must be "Forward!" for a page in the book
+of our lives is completely turned down, and we may imagine there is
+endorsed upon it, "Sacred to the memory of auld lang syne!"
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: 1882. The railway now runs northward to Helensville,
+connecting Auckland with the Kaipara; and is being pushed on to
+Whangarei. To the south, it penetrates far into the Waikato country, and
+it is only a question of a few years before Auckland, New Plymouth,
+Wellington, and Napier will be joined by rail.]
+
+[Footnote 2: 1882. During the last year or two, there has been some
+depression in New Zealand, and, for the first time in her history, many
+labourers have had difficulty in getting work. But that crisis is now
+past, and things are rapidly returning--as they were bound to do--to
+former conditions, such as I have described.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+GOING UP COUNTRY.
+
+
+I and my last remaining shipmate certainly came out here without any
+very clear idea of what we were going to do. We came to make our
+fortunes, of course, after the manner of all new-chums, but as to how we
+were to set about it, and what were to be the first steps we should
+take, we had the very vaguest notion.
+
+However, our condition of existence as new-chums sat very lightly upon
+us. Hope! We were all hope; we were hope incarnate! We felt that we were
+bound to win. It seemed, though, that the beginning must be made in some
+fashion that was, to say the least of it, unpleasant, now that we were
+face to face with the reality. Plenty of work offered, but none of it
+seemed to be of a particularly engaging kind; and, moreover, the wage
+offered us was extremely paltry, so we considered. For we belonged to
+that much maligned middle-class, which, in the chrysalis or new-chum
+stage, is so greatly contemned by colonists.
+
+But it happened that, long long ago, a certain schoolfellow of ours had
+gone forth into the colonial world. He was in the sixth form when we
+were in the first, or thereabouts; but, as his family and ours were
+neighbours in the old home, there had been enough intimacy between us.
+It was owing to his letters home that we had determined on emigration.
+He had been apprised of our coming, so now we were not surprised to
+receive a message from him through a resident in Auckland. This was an
+invitation to join him at a distant settlement called Te Pahi, there to
+make a beginning at pioneer farm work, and see what might turn up.
+
+We found on inquiry that little or nothing was known in Auckland of Te
+Pahi. It was a new township in the Kaipara district, lying sixty or
+eighty miles north of Auckland. That was about the sum of what we could
+learn of our destination, except that there were very few settlers in
+the Kaipara, and that communication between it and Auckland was not very
+good. Somewhat later than this date--in fact, to be precise, in 1875--an
+Auckland newspaper wrote of the Kaipara under the title of Terra
+Incognita. So that when we decided on going there, we felt that we were
+about to penetrate an almost unexplored country. But we found out what
+were the means of transit, and prepared to set out without further
+delay.
+
+Now that we were on the point of starting into the bush, and entering
+into the realities of our new life, we began to encounter the
+difficulties of our situation. The first that met us would be more
+annoying were it not for the ludicrousness of it. It was the baggage
+difficulty, a thing that took us quite by surprise; for, till then, we
+had never appreciated the word "transport" at its full meaning. Like
+most home-living Britons, hitherto surrounded by every facility for
+locomotion of persons and goods, we had utterly failed to understand
+that in a new country things are wholly different in this respect. One
+can get about one's self easily enough; travel can always be
+accomplished somehow, even if one has to walk; but it is quite another
+thing to move baggage. In a roadless country, where labour is scarce and
+dear, the conveyance of goods from place to place is a difficult matter.
+It can be done, of course, but the cost of it is frightful.
+
+Our old schoolfellow, who, by the way, will be known under the
+appellation of "Old Colonial" in these pages, had apparently had some
+experience of new-chums before. His agent in Auckland had been
+instructed to see to us, and one of that person's first inquiries was
+regarding our impedimenta.
+
+We had been out-fitted in London by the world-renowned firm of Argent
+and Joy. There being no experience to guide us, we had placed ourselves
+unreservedly in the hands of the firm, and had been provided by them
+with a sumptuous stock of what they were pleased to term necessaries.
+Altogether, these formed a goodly pile. Our bedroom at the hotel was
+cram full of boxes, trunks, and portmanteaus; and their contents were
+now spread out for the inspection of our adviser.
+
+"Good gracious!" was his exclamation when he surveyed our property, and
+then he mused awhile.
+
+"Look here!" he said suddenly. "I've got some distressing intelligence
+to break to you. Prepare your minds for a shock. This inheritance is a
+_dead horse_. Chuck it overboard at once!" And he waved his hand
+impressively over our belongings.
+
+We did not understand; we thought this was some new kind of joke--which
+it was, but not to us. We asked for explanations; all that we wanted was
+to know how we were to get these things up to the Kaipara. Our colonial
+friend sighed deeply, and proceeded mournfully to expound the position.
+He told us that we could not afford to possess more personals than were
+absolutely necessary, and these ought to pack into one box of easily
+portable size. In the first place, the freight of our baggage into the
+bush would cost us something approaching to the expense of our passage
+out from England. In the second place, we were not going to a house of
+our own, but were going to work on different farms, and might be moving
+about a good deal. We could not carry such a cargo about with us, for
+the cost of doing so would be simply ruinous. It appeared, too, that we
+could not even keep the things until we _had_ got a house of our own to
+store them in. For, our only resource, with that in view, would be to
+warehouse them in Auckland, and the expense of even this dead weight
+would make too large a hole in our possible earnings. Finally, there was
+hardly anything in our entire outfit that would be of much practical use
+to us.
+
+Aghast and grieving, we comprehended at last that we should have to rid
+ourselves of the too heavy burden with which Messrs. Argent and
+Joy had weighted us, in consideration of that prodigious and
+ever-to-be-regretted cheque. There was no help for it. An Israelitish
+dealer, who happily abided in the city, would have to be called in. And
+it could scarcely be said that he bought our property of us; it was a
+nearer approach to our having to pay him to take it away.
+
+Our friend contemptuously examined parcel after parcel of things. Dress
+suits and white waistcoats, broadcloth and doeskin, scarves and gloves,
+white shirts, collars, and cuffs all appeared to move his derision. He
+kicked aside a dozen pairs of boots with the remark that--
+
+"There's nothing there fit for this country. Rough-hide and hobnails is
+what you want."
+
+Certain tweed suits that the fancy of our London tailor had invested
+with the title "New Zealand Specialities" were, said our friend, only
+suitable for colonists who intended to settle on the top of the Southern
+Alps. Various knick-knacks, dressing-cases, writing-cases, clocks,
+etcetera, were regarded by him as contemptible lumber. Some silk socks
+he looked upon almost as a criminal possession.
+
+In the end we were reduced to a single box apiece, containing something
+like the following assortment, several items of which had to be
+purchased in Auckland. Six flannel shirts, two blankets, two pair
+moleskin breeches, one light pilot coat, one light tweed coat and
+trousers (which we wore at the time), some handkerchiefs, some socks,
+two towels, brush and comb, two pairs of boots, and one pair of
+leggings, a wide-awake hat, and a few odds and ends. Such books as we
+had we were allowed to retain, for, although the time for reading is
+very limited in the bush, yet, books being a rare commodity, are much
+prized there.
+
+Of course, there was much merriment among the colonials at our expense,
+but I think the greatest mirth was excited by our cases of revolvers.
+These we had brought under the idea that they would prove to be a
+necessity, imagining that war with the Maoris was the normal condition
+of things, and that society was constituted something like what Bret
+Harte writes of in the Rocky Mountains.
+
+We had had to pay a tax of five shillings each upon our pistols before
+bringing them on shore. We were now told that this tax was a main source
+of the Government revenue. Again, we were told that the exportation of
+new-chums' pistols to the United States was one of the main industries
+of the colony. But our purgatory was over at last, and our splendid
+outfits had passed into Hebrew hands, leaving a very meagre sum of money
+with us to represent them. And now we are ready to start in earnest.
+
+Low down in the water, almost beneath the timbers of the wharf, is lying
+a queer little steam-tub, the _Gemini_, which will convey us on the
+first stage of our journey. A loafer on the wharf cautions us mockingly
+to step aboard with care, lest we overset the little steamer, or break
+through her somewhat rickety planking. She is about the size of some of
+those steam-launches that puff up and down the English Thames, but she
+would look rather out of place among them; for the _Gemini_ and her
+sister boat, the _Eclipse_, which carry on the steam service of the
+Waitemata, are neither handsome nor new. They are rough and ready boats,
+very much the worse for wear. Such as they are, however, they suffice
+for the limited traffic up to Riverhead, and to the districts reached
+through that place. When that increases, doubtless their enterprising
+owner will replace them with more serviceable craft.
+
+Punctuality is by no means one of the chief points of the _Gemini_, and
+it is an hour or two after the advertised time before we get off. There
+is a good deal of snorting and shrieking, of backing and filling, on the
+part of our bark, and then at last we are fairly on our way up the
+river. We take a last long look at the good ship that brought us from
+England, as she lies out at anchor in the harbour, and when a bend in
+the river hides Auckland's streets and terraces from our view, we feel
+that we have turned our backs on civilization for a while, and are fast
+getting among the pioneers.
+
+On board the _Gemini_ is a face we know. It is that of Dobbs, a sometime
+shipmate of ours. He is a farm labourer from Sussex, and he and his
+wife have come out among our ship-load of emigrants. There is a chronic
+look of wonder on their broad English faces. They are in speechless
+surprise at everything they see, but chiefly, apparently, at finding
+themselves actually in a new country at all.
+
+Dobbs touches his hat, and addresses me as "sir," when he sees me, quite
+forgetting that we are now in the colonies, where such modes are not
+practised; regardless also of the fact that I am on my way to just the
+same life and work that he is himself. The skipper of the _Gemini_
+notices the action, and grins sarcastically, while he tells a
+subordinate in a stage-whisper to "just look at them new-chums."
+
+English readers must not suppose from this that colonial manners are
+discourteous. Far from it. Colonials will not touch their hats, or use
+any form that appears to remind them of servility, flunkeyism, or
+inequalities of station. On the other hand, incivility is much more
+rarely experienced among even the roughest colonials than it is in many
+parts of the old country, in Birmingham, for example. Apart from that,
+the new-chum is the incarnate comedy of colonial life. He is eagerly
+watched, and much laughed at; yet he is seldom or never subjected to any
+actual rudeness. On the contrary, he is generally treated with extra
+tenderness and consideration, on account of his helpless and immature
+condition. Perhaps I may sum up the analysis by saying, that, if polish
+is lacking to the colonial character, so also is boorishness.
+
+Our fellow-emigrant tells us that he has been engaged as a farm labourer
+by a settler at Ararimu, near Riverhead, and that his wife is to do
+washing and cooking and dairy-work. They are to have thirty shillings a
+week, and they, with their child, will have board and lodging provided
+for them as well, and that in a style a good deal better than
+agriculturals are accustomed to in England. They seem well enough
+contented with things, though a trifle daunted by the strangeness of
+their surroundings. Dobbs has misgivings as to the work that will be
+required of him. He knows, however, that the labourer's day is reckoned
+at only eight hours here, and is much consoled thereby. Very likely we
+may find him a thriving farmer on his own account, and on his own land,
+if we should chance to meet again in a few years' time.
+
+There is little or no attraction in the scenery along the eighteen or
+twenty miles of river between Auckland and Riverhead. Great stretches of
+mud-bank are visible in many places at low tide, varied by occasional
+clumps of mangrove, and by oyster-covered rocks. The land on either side
+is mostly of very poor quality, though a good deal of it has been taken
+up. Here and there, we pass in sight of some homestead; a white
+verandah-ed wooden house, surrounded by its gardens, orchards, paddocks,
+and fields. The steamer stops, and lies off three or four such places
+while her dingey communicates with the shore, embarking or disembarking
+passengers, mails, or goods. Generally, though, when the river-banks are
+low enough to permit of a view beyond them, we see nothing but very
+barren and shaggy-looking tracts, not unlike Scottish moorlands in
+general aspect. Occasionally there are poor scrubby grasslands, where
+the soil has not done justice to the seed put upon it; and where cattle,
+horses, and sheep appear to be picking up a living among the fern and
+ti-tree.
+
+As we get nearer to Riverhead the stream narrows. This is the point to
+which the tide reaches. Beyond it the Waitemata is supplied by two
+creeks, the Riverhead Creek and the Rangitopuni. Here the banks are
+steep and high, somewhat picturesque, with varied ferns and shrubbery.
+On the north side the ranges rise into a background of hills.
+
+This is the end of our river journey, as is evidenced by the Riverhead
+wharf, built out from the bank. Here we land, and are received by two
+men, who represent the population of the district, and who apparently
+are idle spectators. By their advice we shoulder our traps, and climb up
+some steps to the top of the bank. Right before us here is an
+unpretending house, built in the usual rambling style of architecture
+peculiar to frame-houses in this country. A board stuck up over the
+verandah announces that this is the hotel; and, as the arrival of the
+steamer is the signal for dinner, every one makes for the open French
+windows of the dining-room.
+
+Dinner is ready we find, and we are ready for it. Perhaps about a dozen
+passengers came up from Auckland in the boat, and as many of these as
+are not at home in the immediate neighbourhood sit down to the table.
+The party is further augmented by the skipper and his assistants, the
+wharf-keepers, one or two residents in the hotel, and the host and
+hostess with their family. Quite a large company altogether, and of very
+promiscuous elements. The only persons not entirely at their ease are
+Dobbs and his wife. They find themselves dining with the "quality," as
+they would have said at home, and have not yet learnt that that word is
+written "equality" in this part of the world.
+
+At the head of the table sits somebody who is evidently a personage,
+judging by the flattering attentions paid to him by the daughters of the
+house, and by the regard with which all but we strangers treat him. It
+is Dandy Jack, afterwards to become one of our most intimate and
+cherished chums. As I shall have more to say about him, perhaps I may
+here be allowed to formally introduce him to the reader.
+
+The first glance at him reveals the origin of his sobriquet. Amid the
+rawness and roughness of everything in the bush, its primitive society
+included, the figure of Dandy Jack stands out in strong relief.
+Contrasted with the unkempt, slovenly, ragged, and dirty bushmen with
+whom he mostly comes in contact, he is the very essence of foppery. Yet,
+as we are afterwards to learn, he is anything but the idle, effeminate
+coxcomb, whose appearance he so assiduously cultivates. Here is a
+photograph of Dandy Jack.
+
+Five feet six inches; broad and muscular, but spare and clean-limbed.
+Curly black hair, and a rosy-complexioned face, clean shaven--contrary
+to the ordinary custom of the country--all except a thick drooping
+moustache with waxed ends. A grey flannel shirt, with some stitching and
+embroidery in front; and a blue silk scarf loosely tied below the
+rolling collar. No coat this warm weather, but a little bouquet in the
+breast of the shirt. A tasselled sash round the waist; spotless white
+breeches, and well-blacked long boots. A Panama straw hat with broad
+brim and much puggeree. An expression of affected innocence in the eyes,
+and a good deal of fun about the mouth. Such is the figure we now look
+upon for the first time.
+
+Dandy Jack is a character; that one sees at once. He is generally
+understood to have passed lightly through Eton and Oxford, to have sown
+wild oats about Europe at large, to have turned up in Western America
+and the Pacific, and to be now endeavouring to steady down in New
+Zealand. He has a considerable spice of the devil in him, and is at once
+the darling of the ladies and the delight of the men. For to the one he
+is gallantry itself; while, to the other, he is the chum who can talk
+best on any subject under the sun, with a fluency and power of anecdote
+and quotation that is simply enchanting.
+
+Just at present Dandy Jack has charge of the portage, as it is called,
+between the Waitemata and the Kaipara rivers.[3] He drives the coach,
+carries the mails, and bosses the bullock-drays that convey goods
+between Riverhead and Helensville. And he is rapidly becoming the most
+horsey man in the whole of the North, being especially active and
+prominent in every possible capacity on the local race-courses.
+
+Dinner is over very soon, and a very good one it was, well worth the
+shilling each of us pays for it. Then we take leave of Dobbs and his
+wife, whose future boss has arrived in a rude cart drawn by two horses,
+in which to drive them and their traps over to his place in Ararimu. We
+ourselves are going on to Helensville in the coach, a distance of about
+eighteen miles.
+
+The coach partakes of the crudity which seems impressed upon everything
+in this new locality. The body of it is not much larger, apparently,
+than a four-wheeled cab, and does not seem as if it could possibly
+accommodate more than eight passengers altogether. Yet Dandy Jack avers
+that he has carried over a score, and that he considers sixteen a proper
+full-up load. On the present occasion there are not more than half a
+dozen, besides my chum and I. Glass there is none about the coach, but a
+good deal of leather. Springs, properly so-called, are also wanting. The
+body is hung in some strong rude fashion on broad, substantial wheels.
+Altogether, the machine looks as if it were intended for the roughest of
+rough work.
+
+As strangers, we are invited to occupy the seats of honour--on the box
+beside the driver. There are no lady passengers to snatch the coveted
+post from us. Dandy Jack says to me--
+
+"Of course, I should prefer to have a lady beside me, but, somehow, I'm
+always glad when there arn't any. It's a grave responsibility--a grave
+responsibility!"
+
+Whilst we are endeavouring to evolve the meaning of this mysterious
+remark--it is not until a while later that we fully comprehend
+it--preparations are being made for the start. Four ungroomed, unshod
+horses are hitched on, and their plunging and capering shows they are
+impatient to be off. Our driver's lieutenant, Yankee Bill, mounts a
+fifth horse, and prepares to act as outrider. Then Dandy Jack, loudly
+shouting, "All aboard! All abo-ard!" springs to his seat, gathers up the
+reins, without waiting to see whether every one has obeyed his
+injunction or not, bids the men who are holding the cattle stand clear,
+gives a whoop and a shake of his whip, and then, with a jolt and a lurch
+and a plunge, off we go.
+
+Hitherto we have seen nothing of the settlement, except the hotel and
+the goods warehouse on the bank above the wharf. These appear to have
+been shot down into the middle of a moorland wilderness. But now, as the
+coach surmounts some rising ground, several homesteads come into view,
+scattered about within a distance of one or two miles. Beyond the
+paddocks surrounding these, all of the country that is visible appears
+to be covered with tall brown fern, and a low brushwood not unlike
+heather.
+
+As we go lumbering up the rise we are passed by a young lady riding down
+towards the hotel. Very bright and pretty she looks, by contrast with
+the rough surroundings. Quite a lovely picture, in her graceful
+riding-habit of light drab, and her little billycock hat with its
+brilliant feather. So think we all, especially our gallant Jehu, who
+bows profoundly in response to a nod of recognition, and turns to look
+admiringly after the fair equestrian.
+
+Then, upon the right, we look down upon the great feature of the
+district, Mr. Lamb's flour-mill and biscuit-factory. In this
+establishment are made crackers that are well-known and much esteemed
+far beyond the limits of New Zealand. The Riverhead manufacture is known
+in the South Sea and Australia. The factory stands on the bank of the
+creek, having water-power and a water highway at its door. It is a large
+structure, mostly of timber, with a tall chimney of brick. Near it is
+the residence of the proprietor, and a row of houses inhabited by his
+employes. The whole is surrounded by a grove of choice trees and shrubs,
+by gardens and paddocks, evidently in a high state of cultivation.
+Beyond tower the brown and shaggy ranges, and all around is the uncouth
+moorland. It is an oasis in the desert, this green and fertile spot, a
+Tadmor in the wilderness.
+
+Yet when we make some remarks, as new-chums will, about the apparent
+richness of the land down there, a settler, who sits behind, takes us up
+rather shortly. He appears to consider Mr. Lamb's estate as a positive
+offence. "Bone-dust and drainage!" he says with a snort of contempt. It
+seems that the land about us is considered to be of the very poorest
+quality, sour gum-clay; and any one who sets about reclaiming such sort
+is looked upon as a fool, at least, although, in this case, it is
+evident that the cultivation is merely an ornamental subsidiary to the
+factory.
+
+But these poor lands are only bad comparatively. Much of the soil in
+them is better by far than that of many productive farms at home; only
+our colonial pioneer-farmers have no notion of any scientific methods in
+agriculture. They have been spoilt by the wondrous fertility of the rich
+black forest mould, and the virgin volcanic soils. They will continue to
+regard manuring and draining and so forth as a folly and a sin almost,
+until the population becomes numerous, and all the first-class lands are
+filled up.
+
+Fresh from high-dried systems and theories of agriculture as practised
+in Great Britain, we are dumbfounded by the tirade against manuring, and
+the revolutionary ideas which our coach-companion further favours us
+with. We are evidently beginning to learn things afresh, though this is
+our first day in the bush.
+
+By the way, I must explain this term to English readers. "Bush" has a
+double signification, a general and a particular one. In its first and
+widest sense it is applied to all the country beyond the immediate
+vicinity of the cities or towns. Thus, Riverhead may be described as a
+settlement in the "bush," and our road lies through the "bush," though
+here it is all open moorland. But, in a more particular way, "bush"
+simply indicates the natural woods and forests. A farmer up-country, who
+says he has been into the "bush" after cattle, means that he has been
+into the forest, in contradistinction to his own cleared land, the
+settlement, or the open country.
+
+Our road lies at first through the fern lands beyond Riverhead, and we
+soon lose sight of the settlement. We appear to be travelling at random
+across the moor, for not a trace of what our English eyes have been
+taught to regard as a road can we discern. The country is all a rugged
+wilderness of range and gully: "gently undulating," you say, if you want
+to convey a favourable impression; "abruptly broken and hilly," if you
+would speak the literal truth. There is not a level yard of land--it is
+all as rough and unequal as it is possible for land to be.
+
+The road is no macadamized way: it is simply a track that, in many
+parts, is barely visible except to practised eyes. Further on, where we
+pass through tracts of forest, the axe has cleared a broad path; and
+down some steep declivities there has been a mild attempt at a cutting.
+Where we come upon streams of any size or depth, light wooden bridges
+have been built; and fascines have made some boggy parts fordable in wet
+weather. Such is our road, and along it we proceed at a hand-gallop for
+the most part. The jolting may be imagined, it cannot be described; for
+the four wheels are never by any chance on the same level at one and the
+same time.
+
+When we have proceeded eight or nine miles, Dandy Jack seems to be
+preparing himself for some exciting incident. Yankee Bill gallops
+alongside, exchanging a mysterious conversation in shouts with him.
+
+"Better take round by the ford, Cap!"
+
+"Ford be blanked!" answers Dandy Jack.
+
+"The rest of the planking's sure to be gone by this time," continues the
+cavalier.
+
+"Then I reckon we'll jump it. Ford's two miles round at least, and we're
+late now."
+
+Our dandy charioteer glances round on his passengers, and remarks--
+
+"Hold on tight, boys; and, if we spill, spring clear for a soft place."
+
+So saying, he plants his feet firmly out, takes a better grip of the
+reins, and crams his hat well on to his head. We ignorant new-chums sit
+perturbed, for we don't know what is coming, only we do not admire the
+grim determination of our driver's mouth, or the devilry flashing from
+his eyes. The rest of the passengers say nothing. They know Dandy Jack,
+and are philosophically resigned to their fate.
+
+And now we plunge down the side of a gully, steep and wooded, with a
+brawling torrent pouring along its bottom. The road runs obliquely down
+the incline, and this descent we proceed to accomplish at a furious
+gallop, Dandy Jack shouting and encouraging his horses; his mate riding
+beside them, and flogging them to harder exertions. Then we see what is
+before us.
+
+Right at the bottom of the steep road is a bridge across the creek; or,
+at least, what was once a bridge, for a freshet or something seems to
+have torn it partially up. Originally built by throwing tree-trunks
+across from bank to bank, and covering these with planking, what we now
+see seems little more than a bare skeleton; for nearly all the planking
+is gone, and only the rough bare logs remain--and of these several are
+displaced, so that uncomfortable-looking gaps appear. Some feet below
+the level of this ruined bridge a regular cataract is flowing. Across
+the frail scaffolding--you can call it no more--that spans the torrent,
+it is clearly Dandy Jack's intention to hurl the coach, trusting to the
+impetus to get it over. We shut our eyes in utter despair of a safe
+issue, and hold on to our seats with the clutch of drowning men. It is
+all that we can do.
+
+Meanwhile the four horses, maddened by the whoops and lashes of our
+excited Jehu and his aid, are tearing down the slope at racing speed.
+The coach is bounding, rocking, jolting at their heels in frightfully
+dangerous fashion. We dare not glance at Dandy Jack, but we feel that he
+is in his element; and that, consequently, we are in deadly peril. Then
+the chorus of yells grows louder and fiercer, the swish of the whips
+more constant and furious. There is a tremendous rattle, a series of
+awful bumps that seem to dislocate every bone in my body, a feeling that
+the coach is somersaulting, I appear to be flying through space among
+the stars, and then--all is blank.
+
+When I recall my shocked and scattered senses, a minute or two later, I
+find myself half-buried, head downward, among moss and fern. I pick
+myself out of that, and stupidly feel myself all over, fortunately
+finding that I have sustained no particular injury. Then I survey the
+scene.
+
+We are on the other side of the stream--so much I discover--but we have
+evidently not attained it without a mishap. Not to put too fine a point
+upon it, we have experienced a most decided spill. The coach has
+overturned just as it crossed the bridge, and passengers and baggage
+have been shot forth into the world at large. Fortunately, the ground
+was soft with much vegetation, so that no one is much hurt; the
+"insides" alone being badly bruised. There is a confused heap of
+plunging hoofs, and among them Dandy Jack and Yankee Bill are already
+busy, loosening the traces and getting the horses on their feet.
+
+The passengers go one by one to their assistance, and much objurgation
+and ornamental rhetoric floats freely through the atmosphere. Presently,
+the coach is got on its wheels again by united effort, and it is found
+to be none the worse for the accident. In truth, its builder seems to
+have had an eye to such casualties as that we have suffered, and has
+adapted the construction of the machine to meet them.
+
+But with the horses it is different. Three of them are speedily got on
+their legs and rubbed down, being no more than scared. The fourth,
+however, cannot rise, and examination shows that one of its legs is
+broken, and probably the spine injured as well. It is evident the poor
+creature is past all further service. So Dandy Jack sits on its head,
+while Yankee Bill pulls out his sheath-knife and puts the animal out of
+misery. I overhear our eccentric driver murmuring--
+
+  "Woe worth the chase, woe worth the day
+  That cost thy life, my gallant grey!"--
+
+Adding, in a louder voice--
+
+"Twelve pounds I paid for that critter; but I reckon I've had the profit
+out of it, anyhow!"
+
+The horse that Yankee Bill was riding is now unsaddled and hitched up
+with the others, in place of the dead one. For baggage and passengers
+are being collected again, and it seems we are going on as though
+nothing had happened.
+
+It is, perhaps, not strange that no one should express surprise at the
+accident; but it is certainly singular that no one shows any resentment
+towards our driver, or blames him in any way. The prevailing feeling is
+one of simple congratulation that things are no worse. One would think
+the accident was quite a usual affair, and had even been expected. A
+passenger remarks quite seriously--
+
+"I will say this for Dandy Jack: he always contrives that you shall
+pitch into a soft place."
+
+They seem about to offer a vote of thanks to this reckless madman, for
+having overturned us without hurt to any one! It occurs to us two
+new-chums that our life in this country is likely to be eventful, if
+this kind of thing is the ordinary style of coaching. And we begin to
+understand what our driver meant, when he alluded to the grave
+responsibility of having a lady among his passengers; for his driving is
+only comparable to the driving of the son of Nimshi.
+
+Before we proceed on our way, the foppery of our charioteer reasserts
+itself. Of course, his neat and spruce trim has been considerably
+disarrayed, so now he proceeds to reorganize his appearance. Gravely and
+calmly he draws brushes and so on from a receptacle under the box-seat,
+and commences to titivate himself. This is too much. Laughter and jibes
+and energetic rebukes fall on him thick as hail. At first he pays no
+attention; then he says slowly--
+
+"Look here! If any one wants to walk the rest of the way, he can do it.
+I'm willing to split fares for the half journey!"
+
+There is a covert threat in this, and as no one cares to quarrel with
+the speaker, his eccentricities are allowed to develop themselves
+without further interference. Then we resume our drive on to
+Helensville.
+
+For the most part the road passes through open country, but we now more
+frequently see scrub and bush in various directions. At one place,
+indeed, for about two miles, we pass through forest. The trees, mostly
+kahikatea, seem to our English eyes of stupendous proportions, but we
+are told they grow much bigger in many other parts. Signs of human life
+are not altogether wanting in these wilds. We pass a dray coming down
+from the Kaipara, laden with wool, and pull up, that Dandy Jack may have
+a private conversation with the driver of it. This dray is a huge
+waggon, built in a very strong and substantial style, and it is drawn by
+twelve span of bullocks.
+
+Here and there among the fern, usually in the bottom of a gully beside
+some patch of scrub, we have noticed little clusters of huts. These are
+not Maori whares, as we suppose at first, but are the temporary
+habitations of gum-diggers, a nomadic class who haunt the waste tracts
+where kauri-gum is to be found buried in the soil. In a few places we
+pass by solitary homesteads, looking very comfortable in the midst of
+their more or less cultivated paddocks and clearings. These are usually
+fixed on spots where the soil, for a space of a few hundred acres,
+happens to be of better quality than the gum-lands around. At most of
+these settlers' houses somebody is on the look-out for the coach, and
+there is a minute's halt to permit of the exchange of mails or news. For
+travellers along the road are very few in number, and the bi-weekly
+advent of the coach is an event of importance.
+
+The afternoon is wearing late, and the rays of the declining sun are
+lengthening the shadows, when we emerge on the top of a high hill that
+overlooks the valley of the Kaipara. A wide and magnificent prospect
+lies spread before us. Far down below the river winds through a broad
+valley, the greater expanse of which, being low and swampy, is covered
+with a dense thicket of luxuriant vegetation. In parts we see great
+masses of dark, sombre forest, but even in the distance this is relieved
+by variety of colouring, flowering trees, perhaps, or the brilliant
+emerald of clusters of tree-ferns. Right out on the western boundary a
+line of hills shuts out the sea, and their summits glisten with a
+strange ruddy and golden light--the effect of the sun shining on the
+wind-driven sand that covers them. To the north the river widens and
+winds, until, far away, we get a glimpse of the expanding waters of
+the Kaipara Harbour. Successive hills and rolling ranges, clothed with
+primeval forest, close in upon the valley.
+
+About the centre of the broad-stretching vale, we discern a little patch
+of what looks like grass and cleared land. There is here a cluster of
+houses, whitely gleaming beside the river, and that hamlet is
+Helensville--the future town and metropolis of the Kaipara.
+
+The road, from the hill-top where we are, winds in a long descent of
+about two miles down to the township. It is scarcely needful to say that
+Dandy Jack considers it incumbent on him to make his entrance into
+Helensville with as much flourish and _eclat_ as possible. Accordingly,
+we proceed along the downhill track at breakneck speed, and come
+clattering and shouting into the village, amid much bustle and
+excitement. We are finally halted in an open space before the hotel,
+which is evidently intended to represent a village green or public
+square, the half-dozen houses of the place being scattered round it.
+
+The entire population has turned out to witness our arrival: a score or
+so of bearded, sunburnt, rough-looking men, three or four women, and a
+group of boys and children. A babel of conversation ensues. We, as
+new-chums, are speedily surrounded by a group anxious to make our
+acquaintance, and are eagerly questioned as to our intentions.
+
+Several persons present are acquainted with Old Colonial, and when it is
+known that we are going to join him, we are at once placed on the
+footing of personal friends. Hospitality is offered, invitations to take
+a drink at the bar are given us on all sides. We accept, for we are not
+total abstainers--or sich!--and are in that condition when the foaming
+tankard is an idea of supreme bliss.
+
+The hotel is larger and more pretentious than that at Riverhead. It is
+better built, and has a second storey and a balcony above the verandah.
+It is furnished, too, in a style that would do credit to Auckland--we
+particularly noticing some capital cabinet-work in the beautiful wood of
+the mottled kauri.
+
+And then we are treated to a dissertation on the wonderful advantages
+and prospects of Helensville, some day to be a city and seaport, a
+manufacturing centre and emporium of the vast trade of the great fertile
+tracts of the Kaipara districts. We are assured that there is no place
+in all New Zealand where it could be more advantageous to our future to
+settle in than here. And so to supper, and finally to bed, to sleep, and
+to dream of the wonders that shall be; to dream of cathedrals and
+factories and theatres rising here, and supplanting the forest and scrub
+around us; to dream of splendid streets along the banks of the Kaipara,
+but streets which ever end in rocky wooded gullies, down which we plunge
+incessantly, behind a rushing nightmare that is driven either by a demon
+or by Dandy Jack.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 3: A railway across this portage was opened for traffic in
+1876. It has since been continued from Riverhead to Auckland, and is
+now--1882--being pushed forward to the north, from Helensville on to
+Whangarei.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+IN THE KAIPARA.
+
+
+The next morning after our arrival at Helensville, we go down to the
+wharf, close behind the hotel, and embark on board the steamer _Lily_.
+This vessel is the only regular means of communication, at present, with
+the young settlements lying round the Kaipara. She is a much larger
+craft than the _Gemini_, but she is of the same ancient and ruinous
+character. One would have thought that, on these new waters, such craft
+as there were must necessarily be new also.[4] Such does not appear to
+be the case, however, for the steam service on the Waitemata and the
+Kaipara is conducted by very second-hand old rattle-traps. Where they
+were worn out I know not. Bad as they are, they are considered a local
+improvement, for, until quite recently, settlers had to depend on small
+sailing-boats, that plied very irregularly.
+
+The Kaipara is a name applied rather indiscriminately to a river, a
+harbour, and to a tract of country. The Kaipara river is that on which
+Helensville stands. It waters an extensive valley, and, flowing
+north-westerly, falls into the Kaipara Harbour, some miles below
+Helensville. It is tidal to a short distance above the settlement.
+
+The harbour is a vast inlet of the sea, almost land-locked, since its
+entrance, the Heads, is only about three or four miles wide. Opening
+from the harbour are sundry great estuaries, resembling the sea-lochs of
+Western Scotland. They are the Kaipara, the Hoteo, the Oruawharo, the
+Otamatea, the Wairau, the Arapaoa, and the Wairoa. Several of these have
+branches. Thus the Pahi, to which we are going, branches out of the
+Arapaoa. They are fed by creeks--that is to say, by freshwater rivers,
+as one would call them at home. The tidal estuaries are here called
+rivers; and the freshwater streams, of whatever size, creeks.
+
+All these waters have the generic name of the Kaipara. The united
+water-frontage is said to be over a thousand miles; and nearly two
+million acres of land lying round are comprised within the so-called
+Kaipara district. Ships of heavy tonnage can get up to Tokatoka on the
+Wairoa, to Te Pahi and Te Otamatea, and within a short distance of
+Helensville, these places being, respectively, from twenty-five to
+thirty-five miles from the Heads. Smaller vessels can, of course, go
+anywhere. The Wairoa creek is navigable for schooners and cutters for
+more than eighty miles, as well as its tributaries, the Kaihu, Kopura,
+Tauraroa, and Maungakahia.
+
+We have come into a district admirably adapted for pioneer settlement.
+For nature has supplied water-ways in every direction, and thus the
+first great difficulty in opening up a new country, the want of roads,
+is obviated. Here, indeed, as we shall find, no one walks to his
+township, or rides to see a neighbour, he jumps into his boat and rows
+or sails wherever he wants to go.
+
+As the _Lily_ steams down the Kaipara, we get a better idea of the bush
+than our previous day's coach-ride had given us. There is no more of the
+brown and shaggy gum-land, but, instead of it, such glorious woods and
+jungles and thickets of strange beautiful vegetation. Mile after mile it
+is the same, the dense evergreen forest stretching away over the ranges
+as far as one can see. Here it is the light bush, woods of young trees
+that have grown over what were once the sites of Maori cultivation;
+there it is the heavy bush, the real primeval forest.
+
+One great feature of the Kaipara tidal estuary is the quantity of
+mangroves. Immense tracts are covered with water at high tide, and are
+left bare at low tide. These mud-banks are covered with mangroves in
+many places, forming great stretches of uniform thicket. The mangrove is
+here a tree growing to a height of twenty or thirty feet, branching
+thickly, and bearing a dark, luxuriant foliage. At high water, the
+mangrove swamps present the appearance of thickets growing out of the
+water. When the tide recedes, their gnarled and twisted stems are laid
+bare, often covered with clinging oysters. Below, in the mud, are
+boundless stores of pipi (cockles), and other shell-fish and eels.
+
+The channel of the river is broad and deep, but often, to save some
+bend, the _Lily_ ploughs her way along natural lanes and arcades among
+the mangroves. It is a novel experience to us to glide along the still
+reaches among these fluviatile greenwoods. We are embosomed in a
+submerged forest, whose trees are uniform in height and kind. All round
+us, like a hedge, is the glossy green foliage, sometimes brushing our
+boat on either side. And we scare up multitudes of water fowl, unused to
+such invasion of their solitudes. Wild duck, teal, grey snipe, shags,
+and many kinds that no one on board knows the names of, start from under
+our very bows. Not gay plumaged birds, though, for the most part; only
+now and then a pair of kingfishers, flashing green and orange as they
+fly, or the purple beauty of a pukeko, scuttling away into the depths of
+the swamp.
+
+By-and-by we emerge into the expanse of the harbour. Once out in it we
+could almost imagine ourselves at sea, for, from the low deck of the
+_Lily_, we only see the higher grounds and hill-tops round, looking like
+islands in the distance, as we cannot descry the continuity of shore.
+And now we have leisure to make closer acquaintance with the boat that
+carries us.
+
+The _Lily_ is a queer craft. Though old and rickety, she gets through a
+considerable amount of work, and is sufficiently seaworthy to fight a
+squall, when that overtakes her in the harbour. Not that a gale is by
+any means a light affair, in this wide stretch of water. When one is
+blowing, as it sometimes does for two or three days at a time, the
+_Lily_ lies snugly at anchor in some sheltered cove, and settlers have
+to wait as patiently as may be for their mails or goods. She knows her
+deficiencies, and will not face stormy weather, if she can help it.
+
+Three times a week she visits certain of the Kaipara settlements,
+returning from them on alternate days. The arrangement is such that each
+township gets--or is supposed to get--one weekly visit from her. She is
+a boat with a character, or without it, which means about the same thing
+in the present instance. She has also a skipper, who is something of a
+character in his way.
+
+The Pirate, or Pirate Tom, as he is indifferently called, is a gentleman
+of some importance locally, for he is the channel of communication
+between the Kaipara settlers and the outside world. He is a man of
+ferocious aspect, black-bearded to the eyes, taciturn, and rough in
+demeanour. In his hot youth, he is credited with having borne his part
+in certain questionable proceedings in the South Sea, and hence his
+appellation.
+
+Freights run very high on the _Lily_, and it is by no means certain how
+far the Pirate may be concerned in keeping them so. He is apt to be
+captious, too, as regards the transit of cargo, and will refuse to do
+business if it is his whim, or if any particular individual happen to
+offend him; for he is lord paramount over the river traffic, and well
+does he know how to turn that to his own advantage. Apparently, he
+considers that he does you a personal favour if he carries you or your
+goods, and you have to keep on his good books, lest he should not
+condescend to do either.
+
+Besides the playful way in which he manipulates the commerce of the
+district, Pirate Tom has another mode in which he adds to his gains. At
+some of the river townships and stations there is no hotel, or store,
+where liquor can be obtained. The only immediate facility that settlers
+and bushmen at such places have for procuring it, is such as is afforded
+by the boat. The Pirate is always ready to dispense the vile compounds
+he call spirits to all comers--sixpence per drink being his price, as it
+is the established tariff of the colony. It is held to be manners to ask
+him to partake himself, when any one desires to put away a nobbler; and
+the Pirate, being an ardent disciple of Bacchus, was never yet known to
+refuse any such invitation. He also sells, at seven shillings a bottle,
+the most atrocious rum, brandy, or "square" gin.
+
+To assist him in the management of his craft, the Pirate has under him
+an engineer and a Dutch lad. The former of these has, of course, his
+special duties; the latter is cook and steward, sailor, landing-agent,
+and general utility man. He goes by the name of "The Crew." To beguile
+the tedium and monotony of constant voyaging, "The Crew" is wont to
+exercise his mind by conversation with such passengers as there may be.
+He is of a very inquiring disposition, and asks leading questions of a
+very personal nature. Seeing that I am a new-chum, he begins to ask me
+my name, age, birthplace, who my parents were, where I formerly lived,
+what I did, what my cousins and aunts are, their names, and all about
+them, and so on, a series of interminable catechetical questions on
+subjects that, one would think, could not possibly have any interest for
+him. This would be gross impertinence, were it not that "The Crew" is
+perfectly unconscious of giving any offence. He only asks for
+information, like Rosa Dartle; and this questioning is his idea of
+polite sociability.
+
+Among the points of interest about the _Lily_, the most noticeable are
+the engines with which she is supplied. These are fearfully and
+wonderfully contrived. How such rusty, battered, old-fashioned,
+rough-and-ready machinery can be got to work at all, it is hard to say;
+but it does. Of course the engines are continually breaking down, or
+bursting, or doing something or other offensive. But whatever may
+happen, the Pirate and his two aids consider themselves equal to the
+emergency, and make shift to tinker up the mishap somehow. Such unlooked
+for examples of misapplied force are constantly occurring, the
+consequence being that repairs are as often called for. Thus it is that
+the engines present a very extraordinary and uncommon appearance. Report
+has, perhaps, added somewhat to the truth, but numerous legends are
+current in the Kaipara about the _Lily_, her engines, and her captain.
+
+These amateur artificers are not in the least particular as to the
+materials they use for effecting their repairs, nor are they given to
+considering the relative differences of the metals. On one occasion,
+rust had eaten a hole through the boiler, and leakage ensued. Promptly
+they set to work, and soldered the lid of a biscuit-tin over the weak
+place. Then the boat went on as usual.
+
+Once again, so it is said, something or other gave way--some screw, or
+cock, or lever failed to act. The boat became unmanageable, could not be
+stopped, or slowed, or done anything with. In short, she ran away. But
+Pirate Tom was not to be imposed on by any such feeble tricks. He
+immediately steered the _Lily_ slap into the nearest bank and tied her
+up to a tree. Then the three went on shore, with a bottle of rum and a
+pack of cards, and sat down at a respectful distance to await the
+progress of events, and to enjoy a game of cut-throat euchre.
+
+The engineer bet Pirate Tom a note--colonial for a sovereign--that the
+engines would blow up, and the latter laid on the chance that the rebel
+craft would spend herself kicking at the bank. After churning up the
+mud, plunging at the bank, and straining at her tether for an hour or
+so, the _Lily_ quieted down, all her steam having worked off. So the
+Pirate won and pocketed the engineer's note; and then the party
+adjourned on board again, to resume their ordinary avocation of
+tinkering up.
+
+In the log of the _Lily_ there is supposed to be an entry, which would
+seem to indicate that the Pirate is not invariably so lucky as on the
+last-mentioned occasion. It is his rule never to spend any more money on
+repairs than what cannot possibly be avoided. There was an unsafe
+steam-pipe, which might easily have been replaced at a trifling cost;
+but, of course, the Pirate would spend nothing on it, and relied on his
+own usual resources. One day the steam-pipe burst, when a number of
+passengers were on board, and a woman got her legs scalded. After that,
+the Pirate found it absolutely necessary to get a new steam pipe; and
+was, besides, heavily mulcted in an action brought against him by the
+injured lady. The entry referred to probably runs like this:--
+
+                                                  L  s.  d.
+  To a new steam-pipe                             0  10   0
+  To fine and costs                               3  12   6
+  To damages awarded to Mrs. ---- by the Court    5   0   0
+  To doctor's fees for attendance on Mrs. ----    4   0   0
+
+On the whole, Pirate Tom did not take much by his economy on that
+occasion. But the lesson was not of any lasting use. He will go on in
+his old way, and will take his chance of accidents.
+
+The defects of the _Lily_ do not cause us any annoyance, on this
+occasion of our first voyage aboard of her. She is on her best
+behaviour, for a wonder, and neither breaks down, nor bursts up, nor
+runs away. We steam over a great stretch of the harbour, noticing here
+that strange effect, when the distant land seems to be lifted above the
+horizon, and to have a belt of sky between it and the water.
+
+Then we pass into river after river, proceeding up each some miles, to
+the townships, or stations, where we have to call, then descending into
+the harbour again, only to go on to the entrance of yet another river.
+The scenery is very varied, and there is much in it to attract our
+regard. Sometimes we pass below lofty bluffs, by wild rocky shores and
+islets, sometimes along great stretches of mud-bank or mangrove swamp.
+
+The land on all sides is a primitive wilderness for the most part. Range
+after range sweeps and rolls away, while ravines and gullies and basins
+open upon the rivers, with tumbling creeks or graceful cascades pouring
+through them. One might suppose that some giant of yore had ploughed out
+this country and left it. A newly-ploughed field must seem, to an ant's
+vision, something like the contour of this to ours.
+
+The land is richly wooded. Here and there we see the heavy bush, mammoth
+trees soaring up, overhung with creepers and ferns; but the heavy bush
+is chiefly at some distance from the waterside. What we see most of here
+is the light bush; dense thickets of shrubs, and smaller trees,
+resembling our remembrance of the denes and copses of England, or Epping
+and the New Forest.
+
+To us new-chums it seems absurd to call this bush "light," but we can
+see that it is so by comparison with the primeval forest, where the
+tree-trunks run from ten to forty feet in girth. Once upon a time, when
+they numbered millions, the Maoris inhabited these shores pretty
+thickly. They preferred to be near the water, as settlers do now, for
+the same reason of convenience in communication, and also because fish
+was a chief article of their diet. All the land near the rivers has been
+at some time under their cultivation, and the light bush has grown up
+upon it since.
+
+So late as fifty years ago, the Ngatewhatua tribe, who were lords of the
+Kaipara, were very numerous; but were then nearly exterminated in a war
+with the Ngapuhi of the north. Still, numerous as they may have been
+then, they could not have held the immense tracts here under
+cultivation. That must date from a more remote period. But the places
+where their villages stood, in the early part of this century, are now
+buried under such a wealth of scrub and shrubbery, as to show very
+clearly how rich is the soil and how fruitful the climate.
+
+We see at last what we have long been looking for, hitherto to no
+purpose, namely, Maoris and their habitations. Brown, gypsey-like people
+they appear in the distance, wearing ordinary clothes like Europeans,
+only dirty and ragged usually. Here and there we pass a cluster of their
+whares, low down near the beach--brown huts of thatch-like appearance,
+for they are made of raupo grass. Some of them are very neat, with
+carved and painted doors and fronts. Near them is usually some fenced-in
+cultivation, and possibly a rough-grassed clearing, on which may be a
+few cattle or horses. There are always pigs and dogs visible, and brown
+naked children disporting themselves on the beach, where canoes are
+drawn up, fishing nets spread out, and a scaffolding erected to dry
+shark-meat upon.
+
+Few and far between are these evidences of the native race, and few and
+far between, also, are evidences of the new nation that is supplanting
+it. Frere, the statesman, speaking of Spain, said--he loved it because
+God had so much land there in His own holding. If he could say that of
+Spain's bare sierras and bleak barrancas, what would he not have said of
+this land, whose splendid woods and forests clothe the hills and fill
+the glens with verdure.
+
+Here and there we lie off some settler's station, a white wooden
+homestead, perhaps with a few outbuildings beside it, perhaps alone;
+round it the pastures won by the axe and the fire, a mere bite out of
+the boundless woods behind. At such places "The Crew" paddles ashore in
+the dingey, or possibly a boat comes off to us, bearing two or three
+bushmen, who, may be, think that the opportunity for getting a nobbler
+ought not to be suffered to pass by.
+
+We have three or four townships to call at, places where the Government
+has set aside a certain tract of land for a future town. A township site
+is cut up--on paper--into allotments, which are sold, or kept in the
+Land Office until wanted. From what we see of the Kaipara towns, they
+are very much in embryo as yet. Te Otamatea, for instance, is a single
+house and nothing more. This is our ideal of a bush settlement; it is as
+it should be--not too much humanity and crowd. The house, a rambling,
+wooden building, is of a good size though, being an hotel and store.
+Round it are several hundred acres of grass. Sometimes it is very
+festive, for a large Maori kainga is not far off; and at Te Otamatea a
+race-course has been made, where the annual races of the Kaipara
+districts are held.
+
+Altogether, we like Te Otamatea, with its beautiful situation and lovely
+views, better than Port Albert. This is a sort of bloated Manchester or
+Birmingham of the district. No less than six or seven houses are
+visible close together. If you count barns and byres, and such more
+distant houses as are visible from the steamer's deck, there must be
+over a dozen. It is horridly populous. Moreover, one sees here, so
+strongly marked, that uncouth rawness that attends incipient
+civilization. Nature has been cleared away to make room for the art of
+man, and art has not yet got beyond the inchoate unloveliness of bare
+utilitarianism. The beautiful woods have given place to a charred,
+stumpy, muddy waste, on which stand the gaunt, new frame-houses.
+Gardens, orchards, cornfields, and meadows are things to come; until
+they do the natural beauty of the place is killed and insulted. But what
+have we to do with sentimental rubbish? This is Progress! Bless it!
+
+Of course we did not expect to get to our destination all in a minute,
+for Te Pahi is more than forty miles from Helensville, in a straight
+line. We started about five o'clock in the morning, but it is late in
+the day before we get into the Arapaoa. By taking advantage of the
+tides, the _Lily_ manages to accomplish ten knots an hour. But the going
+in and out of different rivers, though we do not go far up any of them,
+and the various stoppages, short though they be, make it late in the
+afternoon before we sight Te Pahi.
+
+We are coming up the broad Arapaoa, and before us we suddenly see Te
+Pahi, a vision of loveliness, "our" township, as we are already calling
+it. A high, wooded bluff, the termination of a hill-range behind, rushes
+out into the tranquil, gleaming water. Round the base of the bluff, on a
+little flat between it and the white shingly beach, are the houses of
+the settlement. Four families live here at this time; and besides their
+abodes, there are a row of three cottages, called immigrant barracks, a
+boatbuilder's workshop, and an assembly hall. The neatest, fairest,
+best, and to-be-the-most-progressive of all the Kaipara townships. We
+say this "as shouldn't;" but it is so.
+
+The broad, lake-like expanse of water over which we are moving--four
+miles across from shore to shore--parts before Te Pahi. It stretches
+away to the left in a wide reach, to form the Matakohe, out of which
+opens the Paparoa, hidden from sight at this point. Before us, bearing
+to the right, is the Pahi river. It is a vista of woodland scenery,
+glorious in the rays of the declining sun. Its shores are steep, and
+broken into numberless little bays and promontories, all clothed with
+bush to the water's edge. Far up, the towering ranges close down and
+terminate the view.
+
+On the left of our position the shore is not so high, and we can see a
+good deal of grass, with the white homestead of a settler's station.
+Beyond is what appears to be a chain of distant mountains. Looking to
+the right an exclamation bursts from our lips, for there is the
+loveliest view we have yet seen.
+
+A deep, semi-circular bay falls back from the river, bordered with a
+belt of dazzling shingle. Beyond and round it rises a perfect
+amphitheatre, filled with bush more sumptuous and varied than any we
+have gazed upon all day. The range seems to rise in terraces, and just
+one abrupt gap about the centre discloses the peak of a conical hill
+behind. The whole is a perfect idyllic picture, not to be described in a
+breath; for this is the showplace of the Kaipara. It is Te Puke Tapu,
+famous in Maori history as the scene of a great battle.
+
+Beautiful as this place is, it would doubtless soon have been marred by
+the pitiless axe and fire of the settler, but that it is sacred soil.
+The Maoris will not enter it, and they prohibit Europeans from
+transgressing within its boundaries. Nor will they sell the land,
+although its superb fertility has induced some settlers to offer almost
+fabulous prices. For, under those rich greenwoods, caressed and buried
+in ferns, lie scattered the bony relics of the flower of Ngatewhatua
+chivalry.
+
+So much and more a fellow-passenger tells us, while we gaze at the view,
+inwardly wondering whether wandering artist will ever present this
+glorious landscape now before us to people at home. But the story must
+be reserved for another time, until we are able to do justice to it.
+
+At last the _Lily_ is lying right off the beach of Te Pahi township, and
+her whistle is echoing among the woods on the ranges above, scaring the
+shags, kingfishers, and rock-snipe on the oyster-beds and beaches. Very
+speedily, two or three people appear at the township, and one of them
+puts off in a boat to board us.
+
+To him we are shortly introduced by the Pirate, and handed over to his
+care, as candidates for a berth in the immigrant barracks. We discuss a
+nobbler, which is at once a farewell one with Pirate Tom, "The Crew,"
+and the rest of our fellow-passengers, and an introductory ceremony with
+our new acquaintance, "The Mayor."
+
+A merry, athletic, thoroughly healthy and hearty Englishman is our
+friend, the Mayor, always in a hurry and bustle of business, for his
+avocations are startlingly numerous. He is the oldest inhabitant of the
+township, and was called the Mayor when he dwelt there solitary, a few
+years ago. Now he is postmaster, storekeeper, justiciary,
+acting-parson, constabulary, board of works, tax-gatherer, customs
+officer, farmer, dealer in everything, town clerk, lawyer, doctor, and,
+perhaps, a score of things beside, as they reckon such in Te Pahi.
+
+The Mayor hurries us and our traps ashore in his boat, and deposits us
+on the beach. Then he hastens back to the steamer, bidding us wait
+there, as "he'll be back to fix us before we can have time to wink."
+Half a dozen men and boys--the entire population--stand at a little
+distance, regarding us shyly, but inquisitively, with pocketed hands.
+Some young children are also apparent.
+
+As we stand gazing about us, and wondering how to make acquaintance with
+the group, a little girl comes running up to us. It is always the
+superior sex, you see, even in the bush, that make the first advances.
+She offers us peaches, the little bright-eyed, sunny-faced thing; and
+readily submits to be kissed; indeed, appears to expect it. Then she
+prattles away to us in right merry fashion.
+
+The little incident breaks the ice. The group of men come forward and
+enter into conversation. Perhaps a trifle constrained at first--for
+dwellers in the bush necessarily lose the readiness of people more
+accustomed to society--they show themselves anxious enough to be
+hospitable and welcoming. They are eager to know who we are, naturally,
+what we are going to do, and so forth. When it comes out that we have
+advented to join Old Colonial, we are admitted as chums at once, and
+formally accepted as free citizens of the soon-to-be prosperous and
+thriving town of Te Pahi.
+
+By-and-by the Mayor gets back; and the _Lily_ steams off again on her
+way to Matakohe, where she will anchor for the night, returning to
+Helensville next day. Old Colonial, it seems, is away up the river
+somewhere, but is expected at the township that night, as he knows that
+the steamer is due, and that we were likely to come by it.
+
+And now what are we to do? Go to the immigrant barracks, we suppose,
+since they are expressly designed for the accommodation of such
+new-chums as ourselves. Barracks be hanged! Is it likely that we are to
+be allowed to go there while the Mayor has a comfortable house in which
+to receive guests? Not likely! Why, others of the citizens are intent on
+hospitality as well, and any of the four homes of the place may be ours
+for the present, if we will.
+
+But the Mayor is not going to be choused out of his guests; don't you
+believe it! What is he Mayor and boss of the township for, he would like
+to know, if not to look after new-chums? Besides, on his own sole
+responsibility, he has turned the immigrant barracks into a warehouse
+for produce, since no immigrants ever seemed to be coming to occupy
+them. So, he is in a measure bound to take possession of us, don't you
+see? and, by Jove, he means to, what's more!
+
+Then we walk along to the Mayor's residence, and a comfortable,
+well-furnished house it is, quite a surprise to us, who hardly expected
+home-comforts in the bush. But then the Mayor is a thriving man, and has
+a wife to look after him.
+
+A cheerful, amiable lady bids us welcome, with a heartiness as though
+she were only too glad to see us, although it would appear as if her
+hands were full enough of housework already, without the additional care
+of looking after a couple of helpless, unready new-chums. But strangers
+are so rare up here, that much must be made of them when they do come;
+therefore, the fatted calf is killed, so to speak, and we are regaled in
+handsome fashion.
+
+Later, after supper, there is a sudden arrival in the darkness of the
+night. We hear a stamping on the verandah outside, and a loud, lusty,
+half-remembered voice addressing the Mayor.
+
+"Have they come, I say? Where are they, then?"
+
+The door of the room we are sitting in bursts open, and a burly, bearded
+man, rough and savage enough in outward appearance, sooth to say,
+rushes in upon us. He seizes our hands in a grip that brings the tears
+to our eyes, he shakes them up and down with vehemence, and while we are
+trying to make out whether this Old Colonial can really and truly be our
+sometime schoolfellow, he exclaims--
+
+"Well, this _is_ good! I _am_ glad to see you! _Now_ we'll have a
+splendid time! Now we'll _make_ this old place hum round! Oh, but this
+is glorious!"
+
+Thus, and much more; and so, with the true, hearty good-fellowship of
+the bush, are we welcomed to our future home.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And now that we have arrived at the scene of our future work, let this
+chapter close. No need any longer to pursue our history as new-chums. In
+the pages that follow we will resume the story at a further date, when
+we have arrived at the full estate of settlers and colonists. Such
+thread of narrative as these sketches possess shall henceforth be
+unwound off another reel.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 4: It must be remembered that this is ten or twelve years ago
+though it holds good down to 1876. Since the railway was made more
+colonists have come into the district, and two fine new steamers now ply
+on the Kaipara waters.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+OUR SHANTY.
+
+
+Several years ago now, we bought our land from the Maoris, and settled
+down here upon the Pahi. Necessarily, our first proceeding was to
+construct a habitation. We might have employed the carpenter and
+boat-builder, who resides at the township, to put up a good and
+well-made frame-house for us, for a price of a hundred pounds or
+upwards. But we had entire confidence in our own abilities, and besides,
+there was something enticing in the idea of building our future home
+with the actual labour of our own hands.
+
+Moreover, there was another reason, possibly of chief importance: we
+could not afford to pay for a house. After paying for our land, paying
+for our farm-stock, and calculating our resources for meeting the
+current expenses of the first year or two, we found there was but slight
+margin for anything else; therefore we decided to build a shanty
+ourselves. Meantime, we were camped on our new estate in a manner more
+picturesque than comfortable. A rude construction of poles covered with
+an old tarpaulin sufficed us. It was summer weather, and this was quite
+good enough for a beginning. From step to step, that is the way to
+progress, so we said. First the tent or whare, temporarily for a few
+weeks; then the shanty, for a year or two; then, as things got well with
+us, a well-finished frame-house; finally, a palace, a castle in the air,
+or anything you like.
+
+There are shanties and shanties. It is necessary to explain. Primarily,
+in its Canadian and original sense, the term means a log-house--a hut
+made of rough squared logs, built up upon each other. Such log-huts are
+not common in this country, though they may be seen here and there. The
+mild climate does not require such a style of building. The labour of
+cutting and squaring logs for the purpose is great. The native whare of
+thatch is quickly and easily raised, serves all requirements, and lasts
+for years. In most parts hitherto settled, water-communication places
+the settler within reach of a saw-mill, where he can obtain boards and
+so on at very moderate cost. A shanty here, is a name applied to almost
+any kind of nondescript erection, which would not come under the
+designation of whare, or be honoured by the ambitious title of house.
+Rough edifices of planking are the common form.
+
+We went up to Tokatoka on the Wairoa, and there we purchased enough sawn
+timber for our purpose, for about twelve or fifteen pounds. We hired a
+big punt, and fetched this stuff down to our place, a distance of some
+forty miles or so by water. Then we set to work at building.
+
+The site we selected was an ambitious one; too much so, as we were
+afterwards to discover. From the first Old Colonial objected to it. It
+was too far from the river, he said, and would necessitate such an
+amount of "humping." Bosh about humping! returned the majority. It was
+only a temporary affair; in a year or two we should be having a regular
+frame-house. Old Colonial gave way, for he perceived that, as our
+acknowledged boss, he would have but little of the humping to do
+himself. And the chosen site was central for the first proposed
+clearings of our future farm.
+
+The selected spot was a rising ground in the centre of a broad basin,
+nearly a mile across. Steep ranges surround this basin, and the whole
+was then covered with light bush. Half a mile in front is a mangrove
+swamp, beyond which flows the river--the mangroves filling up a space
+that without them would have been an open bay. The prospect in this
+direction is bounded by the forest-clothed ranges on the opposite side
+of the river, which is here about a mile in breadth. The land within the
+basin is nothing like level, and English farmers might be frightened at
+its ruggedness. To colonial eyes, however, it seems all that could be
+desired.
+
+Knolls and terraces gradually lead up to the ranges, which sweep away to
+run together into a high hill called Marahemo, about three miles behind
+us. The little eminence, on which stands the shanty, slopes down on the
+left to a flat, where originally flax and rushes did most abound.
+Through this flat a small creek has channelled a number of little ponds
+and branches on its way to the river beyond.
+
+On the right the bank is steeper, and upon it stand a number of
+cabbage-tree palms. Down below is a little rocky, rugged gully, with a
+brawling stream rushing through it. Just abreast of the shanty this
+stream forms a cascade, tumbling into a pool that beyond is still and
+clear and gravelly. It is a most romantically beautiful spot, shaded and
+shut in completely by fern-covered rocks and overhanging trees. This is
+our lavatory. Here we bathe, wash our shirts, and draw our supplies of
+water. This creek flows down through the mangrove swamp to the river;
+and, at high-water, we can bring our boats up its channel to a point
+about a quarter of a mile below the shanty.
+
+The site of the shanty has its advantages; but it has that one serious
+drawback foreseen by Old Colonial. Somehow or other, year after year has
+flown by, and still we have not got that frame-house we promised
+ourselves. It is not for want of means, or because we have not been
+quite so rapidly successful as we anticipated. Of course not! Away with
+such base insinuations! But we have never any time to see about it, and
+are grown so used to the shanty that we do not seem to hanker after
+anything more commodious. So all these years, we have had to hump on our
+backs and shoulders every blessed thing that we have imported or
+exported, from the shanty to the water, or the contrary--sacks of flour,
+sugar, and salt, grindstones, cheeses, meat, furniture. Oh, misery! how
+our backs have ached as we have toiled up to our glorious site, while
+Old Colonial laughed and jeered, as his unchristian manner is.
+
+Our work began with the timbers of the shanty itself, and with the heavy
+material for the stockyard. But humping was then a novelty, and we
+regarded it as a labour of love. Now we know better, and, when we do get
+that frame-house, we are going to have it just as near to the
+landing-place as we can possibly stick it. You may bet your pile on
+that!
+
+Of course, in building the shanty, we employed the usual fashion
+prevalent in the colony. Because, when we set to work we said we were
+going to build a proper frame-house, _not_ a shanty. That is a name for
+our habitation, which has since grown up into usage. We were none of us
+practised carpenters; but what did that matter? We knew how to use our
+hands; and had so often seen houses built that we knew precisely how to
+do it.
+
+First of all, then, are the piles. These are of puriri wood, tough,
+heavy, and durable. They are rough-split sections of the great logs,
+some two feet thick, with squarely-sawn ends. They are fixed in the
+ground two or three feet apart, so as to bring their flat-sawn tops upon
+a uniform level. The irregularities of the ground are thus provided
+against, while a suitable foundation is laid.
+
+The next process is to build a scaffolding, or skeleton frame, of
+scantling and quartering. When that has been done, the floor is planked
+over, the sides weather-boarded, doors, windows, and partitions being
+put in according to the design of the architect. Lastly, the roof is
+shingled, that is, covered with what our chum, O'Gaygun, calls "wooden
+slates."
+
+Our shanty is thirty feet long by ten in width. The sides are seven feet
+high, and the ridge-pole is double that height from the floor. There are
+a door and two windows, the latter having been bought at the township.
+There is a partition across the shanty, two rooms having originally been
+intended; but as this partition has a doorway without a door, and is
+only the height of the sides, being open above, the original intention
+in raising it has been lost, and it now merely serves for a convenient
+rack. There is no verandah on the outside of the shanty, for we regarded
+that as a waste of material and labour.
+
+The fireplace is an important part of the shanty. Ten feet of the side
+opposite the door was left open, not boarded up. Outside of this a sort
+of supplementary chamber, ten feet square, was boarded up from the
+ground. The roof of this little outroom slopes away _from_ that of the
+rest of the shanty, and at its highest point a long narrow slit is left
+open for a chimney. There is no flooring to this chamber, the ground
+being covered with stones well pounded down. Its level is necessarily
+sunk a little below that of the shanty floor, which is raised on the
+piles, so the edge of the flooring forms a bench to sit on in front of
+the fire. The fire used simply to be built up on the stones, in the
+middle of this chimney-place; but, after a year or two, we imported an
+American stove, with its useful appliances, from Auckland.
+
+Our shanty is the habitation of some half-dozen of us, year out and year
+in. There are in the district a good many settlers of the
+middle-classes. Men of some education, who would be entitled to the
+designation of "gentleman" in Europe. Of such sort are we. Some of us
+are landowners, and some have no capital, being simply labourers. Which
+is which does not matter. I shall not particularize, as each and all
+have the same work to do, and live in exactly the same style. There is
+brotherhood and equality among us, which is even extended to some who
+would _not_ be called by that old-world title just alluded to, anywhere
+at all. We do not recognize class distinctions here much. We take a man
+as we find him; and if he is a good, hearty, honest fellow, that is
+enough for us.
+
+A good many of us come from the classes in England among whom manual
+labour is considered low and degrading. That is, unless it is undertaken
+solely for amusement. Out here we are navvies, day-labourers, mechanics,
+artisans, anything. At home, we should have to uphold the family
+position by grinding as clerks on a miserable pittance, or by toiling in
+some equally sedentary and dull routine of life. If we attempted to
+work there as we work here, we should be scouted and cut by all our
+friends.
+
+Out here we have our hardships, to be sure; we have got to learn what
+roughing it really means. It is no child's play, that is certain. But
+here, an industrious man is always getting nearer and nearer to a home
+and a competence, won by his toil. Can every one in the old country, no
+matter how industrious, say that of himself? Is it not too often the
+poor-house, or the charity of friends, that is the only goal of
+labouring-class and middle-class alike, in overcrowded Britain? Does
+patient industry invariably lead to a better fortune for the declining
+years in England? We know that it does here.
+
+This is enough for one digression, though. Be it understood, then, that
+we are not horny-handed sons of toil by birth. We were once called
+gentlemen, according to the prevailing notions of that caste at home.
+Here, the very air has dissolved all those ancient prejudices, and much
+better do we feel for the change. Only occasionally does some amusing
+instance of the old humbug crop up. I may light upon some such example
+before I lay down my pen.
+
+It is now some years since our shanty was built--seven or eight, I
+suppose. The edifice certainly looks older. Not to put too fine a point
+on it, one might candidly call it ruinous, rather than otherwise. This
+is singular and surprising; we cannot account for it. Frame-houses in
+this country ought to require no repairs for twenty years at least. That
+is the received opinion. We dogmatically assert that the house we built
+ourselves, with such infinite labour and trouble, is as good as any
+other of its size and kind. Consequently, it will not want repairing for
+twenty years. _But it does._ It looks as old as the hills, and seems to
+be coming to pieces about us, though only eight years old. Nevertheless,
+we will not forswear ourselves, we will _not_ repair our shanty till
+twenty years are gone!
+
+As for allowing that there could be any fault in our workmanship, that
+our inexperienced joinery can have been the cause of the shanty's
+premature decay, that, even Old Colonial says, is ridiculous. No, the
+wood was unseasoned; or, perhaps, it was over-seasoned. We admit so
+much, but our handicraft was certainly not to blame.
+
+The imperfections of the shanty are many and grievous. The door and
+windows have quarrelled desperately with their settings. On windy nights
+we get no sleep, as every one is engaged trying to fasten and wedge them
+into noiseless security. The door developed a most obstreperous and
+noxious habit of being blown into the middle of the house during the
+night, with much hideous clatter and clamour. We stopped that at last by
+nailing it up altogether, and making a new entrance through the side of
+the chimney-place.
+
+Then, each particular board in the sides of the shanty has somehow
+warped itself out of place. We are thus enabled to view the lovely
+scenery lying round the place from our bunks, without the trouble of
+rising and going to the window. Old Colonial says that free ventilation
+is one of the great blessings of life. He thinks that the chinks in our
+walls are absolutely a provision of Nature, since, he says, we would
+certainly be choked with smoke if there were none.
+
+Sometimes the cattle, feeding on the clearings round the shanty, come
+and thrust their noses through the gaps in the boards, or stand and eye
+us as we are taking our meals. The Saint says he has invited them to
+breakfast with us, on the first of April next, by which time he expects
+that the chinks will have gaped wide enough to permit of the passage of
+cattle.
+
+Of course, the smoke of the fire will not go up the chimney as it ought,
+but floats freely about the shanty. This is good for the bacon and hams,
+when there are any, that depend from the rafters. It is also a wholesome
+thing, says Old Colonial, and sweetens and preserves everything. "None
+of your gassy, sooty coal-smoke, but the fragrant vapours of the burning
+forest!" so he remarked one night, when we were all blinded and choked
+by the volumes of smoke that rolled through the shanty. O'Gaygun is
+often funny, but not always original. He says that the smoke floats
+about our habitation because it never knows which hole it ought to go
+out at!
+
+On rainy nights--and that is nearly every night during some three months
+of the year--there is perpetual misery in the shanty. One hears some
+choice varieties of rhetorical flowers of speech; there is a continual
+shifting about of beds; and often unseemly scuffling for drier places.
+O'Gaygun says that he loves to "astthronomise" when lying comfortably in
+bed; but he adds, that, "a shower-bath is a quare place to sleep in."
+
+It will be surmised from this that our roof is leaky. All roofs are
+that, you know, in a greater or lesser degree, only ours in a greater,
+perhaps. Those shingles _will_ come off. We are sure we put them on
+properly and securely. The nails must have been some inferior rotten
+quality, doubtless. Loose shingles lie about all around the shanty. They
+come in useful as plates, as our crockery is generally short. In fact,
+O'Gaygun prefers them to the usual article, and always goes outside to
+pick up a plate for any stranger who may happen to drop in to lunch. To
+use his words, "They fall aff the shanty roof loike the laves aff the
+tthrees!"
+
+Somehow or other all these things go unremedied. It would, of course, be
+an admission that our work had been unsatisfactory, if we were to
+earnestly set about repairing the shanty, and thereby formally allow
+that it required such renovation. No one will dare to initiate such a
+serious thing. Besides, it is no one man's particular business to begin
+the work of mending; while we are always busy, and have acquired such an
+amazing notion of the value of our time, that we consider the necessary
+repairs would not be worth the time it would take us to effect them.
+
+Moreover, Old Colonial is a bush-philosopher, and delivers himself of
+moral orations in the shanty of nights. His views on some subjects are
+peculiar, and they are always hurled at our heads with the utmost scorn
+and contempt for all who may differ from them. This is his theory on
+repairing--
+
+"We are pioneers; it is our special duty and purpose to make, to begin,
+to originate. We inherit nothing; we are ourselves the commencement of a
+future society, just as Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. Our
+whole time and labour must be given to the one purpose of hewing out
+the new path. We cannot stop to repair our faults and failures. For _us_
+that would be a waste of energy and of time. It is for those who inherit
+the commencement we have made to do that; not for us, the pioneers. They
+will improve our beginnings; we must continue onward. _Never mend
+anything_, except your manners, boys! Put up with discomforts and
+hardships, as pioneers should!"
+
+The furniture and internal arrangements of our shanty are more simple in
+construction than elegant in appearance. We go in for utility, and not
+for show. As a central feature is the table. It is our pride and glory,
+that table, for it was made in Auckland, and imported by us from
+Helensville. It is the one piece of furniture we possess that displays
+an art superior to our own. Solid, strong and large, made of stout kauri
+wood, it has borne a great deal of rough usage, and is capable of
+bearing a great deal more.
+
+Besides all the customary uses to which a table may be put, this article
+of ours fulfils even another purpose. It comes in very handy sometimes
+as a bedstead. I have known two men to sleep upon it on occasions; its
+breadth being considerable. For a long time it went by the name of
+O'Gaygun's four-poster, that gentleman having a predilection for
+sleeping on it. He is a huge, bony Irishman, and somewhat restless in
+his sleep. Accordingly, it was no unusual thing for him to roll off the
+table in the night, and descend upon the floor with considerable uproar.
+This was got over by inverting the table at night, and making him
+recline on the inside of it, with the legs sticking up around him. He
+does not like this position, though, for he says the rats run across him
+all night.
+
+Chairs we have none, except two curious contrivances belonging to the
+Saint and the Little'un. We use empty kegs and boxes, sawn logs set up
+on end, and the sides of our bunks, when we sit at table. When at our
+ease and our tobacco, we either recline in our bunks, or sit on the edge
+of the floor opening into the chimney-place.
+
+The two curious contrivances alluded to are styled armchairs by their
+manufacturers, and somewhat remarkable objects they are. The Saint's is
+made out of the section of a cask set up on four legs. It possesses a
+fifth leg, or outrigger at the back, and has cushions of flour-bags,
+stuffed with turkey's feathers. The owner doubtless finds it to his
+mind, but he has to guard against leaning to either side, or collapse is
+always the consequence.
+
+The other armchair is the Little'un's. Now, this young gentleman, though
+the most youthful of our party, is by no means the least. He is, in
+fact, six feet six inches in height, and is of broad and muscular build.
+His private seat is therefore of the ponderous kind. At first sight it
+would seem to be of immense strength, since it is made of heavy stakes,
+cut in the adjoining bush. These are abundantly jointed with bars and
+bolts of the same solid and substantial kind; the seat and back being
+composed of sacking. But, in spite of the apparent power displayed by
+this fabrication, disastrous accidents are continually happening. The
+Little'un has no inborn genius for joinery.
+
+Sometimes it has happened that, as we sat at a meal, a loud crack would
+be heard, some part of his throne would give way, and the Little'un
+would disappear from view. Shouts of laughter from the rest. Old
+Colonial, in high delight, would proceed to show how cleverly the
+Little'un had adapted his armchair to his exact weight; and how it was
+unable to support the addition of the great load of victuals which that
+individual had unthinkingly stowed away. The Little'un would arise
+silent and perplexed; and, by-and-by, we would find him deeply pondering
+over the manufacture of his scaffolding, and probably shaping another
+small tree with his axe to add to it.
+
+The most important items of the shanty's plenishing are the bunks and
+beds. The former are made in this way, having been constructed by the
+carpenter at the township. A simple folding trestle at head and foot
+supports two parallel bars. Across these is stretched and nailed stout
+canvas. Each of us has one of these bedsteads, which are very convenient
+in the limited dimensions of our shanty, for they can be folded and
+stacked out of the way when necessary.
+
+The beds themselves are curiously fabricated. Old potato-sacks,
+flour-bags, and the like have been utilized. The stuffing is of fern,
+feathers, mounga, and sundry other matters. Each of us has two or more
+blankets, which, I regret to say, are a trifle frowsy as a rule.
+O'Gaygun's call for special remark.
+
+This descendant of Hibernian kings is content to undergo even greater
+inconveniences than he necessarily need do, since he has determined to
+make his fortune in the shortest possible space of time. Moreover, he
+professes the profoundest contempt for luxury and even comfort. He holds
+that almost anything civilized is an effeminacy, and out of place in the
+bush, where he considers that life ought to be lived in a stern and
+"natchral" way. He is intensely conservative in the primitive usages and
+habits of the roughest pioneering times, and emphatically condemns any
+innovations thereupon. He works with furious zeal and unflagging
+energy, and saves all the money he earns, generally investing it in
+gold-mine scrip, or something that rarely turns out well.
+
+In the matter of blankets and bedding, the spirit of O'Gaygun's economy
+and self-sacrifice is apparent. His bedding is like that of all of us,
+except that it is less bulky--O'Gaygun asserting that a soft bed is a
+sin. His blankets have long been worn out; in fact, they are the mere
+shreds and tatters of what once were blankets. Bunk he has none. It
+would go against his principles to get one. If any of us is absent,
+O'Gaygun borrows his bunk for the time. When all are present he contents
+himself with the inverted table, his especial four-poster.
+
+To see this eccentric Milesian settling himself for the night is
+invariably a mirthful spectacle, and, it may be added, that, no one of
+us is more volubly humorous and laughter-loving than O'Gaygun himself.
+Reclining on the sacks which he has spread out upon the table, he
+proceeds to draw his tattered blankets carefully over his lengthy limbs.
+Piece by piece he spreads the coverings. First one foot and then
+another, then the waist, and so on, until at last he is entirely
+covered. The process is troublesome, perhaps; but when it is finished
+O'Gaygun lies as warm and comfortable as need be. Why should he go to
+the expense of new blankets?
+
+Of course there is in the shanty a litter of cans, kegs, old
+packing-cases, and the like, which come into use in various ways. Among
+them are the remains of former state, in the shape of certain trunks,
+portmanteaus, and boxes. These receptacles held our wardrobes, when we
+possessed such things, and the sundry personals we brought with us from
+England years ago, and imported up here.
+
+We have long got over the feeling that it is imperative to hoard up
+clothes and things in boxes; in fact, we have no longer any clothes and
+things that require such disposal. But in the bush everything must serve
+some purpose or other; and so all these now disused trunks are turned to
+use. One grand old imperial is now a brine-tub, within whose dank and
+salt recesses masses of beef and pork are always kept stored ready for
+use. Other cases hold sugar, salt, flour, and so on; a uniform case is
+now our bread-basket; each has its proper purpose, and is accomplishing
+its final destiny. There is a fine leather portmanteau, or what was once
+such, now the residence of a colley bitch and her litter of pups.
+Mildewed and battered as it is, it still seems to recall to mind faint
+memories of English country-houses, carriages, valets, and other
+outlandish and foreign absurdities. There must be magic in that old
+valise, for, the other day, Dandy Jack was looking at the pups that
+live in it, and remarked their kennel. A fragment of schoolboy Latin
+came into his head, and, to our astonishment, he murmured, "_Sic transit
+gloria mundi!_"
+
+To avoid the possibility of any mistakes arising from an admission just
+made, I hereby beg to state that we do _not_ consider clothing as
+entirely superfluous. But we no longer regard it from any artistic or
+ornamental point of view; that would be to derogate from our character
+as bushmen. We are not over-burdened with too large a choice of
+clothing. Such as we have is pretty much held in common, and all that is
+not in immediate use finds a place on the partition-rack, or the shelves
+upon it. We are supposed to possess _another_ change of garments apiece,
+but no one knows exactly how he stands in this matter, unless it be the
+Little'un, whose superior amplitude of limb debars him from the fullest
+exercise of communal rights.
+
+Our ordinary costume consists of flannel shirt and moleskin breeches,
+boots, socks, leggings, belt, and hat. In chilly and wet weather we
+sling a potato-sack, or some ancient apology for a coat, round our
+shoulders. When we visit the township, or our married neighbours, we
+clean ourselves as much as possible, and put on the best coat we can
+find in the shanty. We do not entirely dispense with such things as
+towels and handkerchiefs, though the use of them is limited, and
+substitutes are employed. Razors, of course, were discarded long ago,
+but some antique brushes, and a small piece of cracked looking-glass,
+represent the toilette accessories of the shanty.
+
+Our custom is to wear our clothes just as long as they will hold
+together, before we renew any garment by purchasing another of its kind
+at the township store. There is no time for mending in the bush, so we
+are often rather ragged. Washing is a nuisance, but we feel bound to go
+through it sometimes; and very knowing laundrymen are we, up to every
+dodge for economizing elbow-grease, and yet satisfactorily cleansing the
+things. But we do not undertake this work too often. Old Colonial has
+laid down a law upon the subject. He says--
+
+"Frequent washing spoils clothes, and causes them to rot sooner.
+Besides, it is unnecessary where there are no women about, and a loss of
+time if it trenches on more important work."
+
+Dandy Jack is an exception to the common sumptuary habits of the bush.
+In fact, he is an exceptional character altogether. Place him where you
+will, and he always looks fit for a drawing-room. How he manages it, no
+one knows. Many have tried to imitate him, but without success. They
+have expended much money, and time, and thought, in the endeavour to
+compete with our dandy chum, but have had, sooner or later, to give up
+in despair, and return to tatters and grime like the common run of folk.
+Dandy Jack always carries a small swag about with him from place to
+place, wherever he may temporarily pitch his tent. If he rides, it is
+behind his saddle; if he boats, it is beside him; if he walks, it is on
+his back. Yet it is not only this that enables him to appear as he does.
+Other people can carry swags as well as he. But Dandy Jack has a
+peculiar genius which other persons lack. That must be it!
+
+There is one portion of our domicile that we are accustomed to speak of
+with a certain fond and lingering reverence. This is THE LIBRARY. High
+up in one corner, festooned with cobwebs, are a couple of shelves. Upon
+them are a pile of tattered newspapers and periodicals, a row of greasy
+volumes, mostly of the novel sort, one or two ancient account-books, and
+the fragmentary relics of a desk containing pens, ink, and paper. Such
+as it is, our library is more than every establishment like ours can
+boast of. There is precious little time for reading or writing in the
+bush.
+
+The smaller half of the shanty, divided from the rest and from the
+chimney-place by the incomplete partition already spoken of, is termed
+by us the dairy. It is not in any way separate from the rest of the
+house, though, since we use it and sleep in it as part of the general
+apartment. But here, arranged on shelves all round the walls, are tin
+dishes and billies, a churn, a cheese-press, and the various
+appurtenances of a dairy. Humble and primitive as are these
+arrangements, we do yet contrive to turn out a fair amount of butter and
+cheese. At such seasons as we have cows in milk, this makes a fair show
+to our credit every week, in the ledger of the township storekeeper, our
+good friend the Mayor.
+
+It will be readily understood that our table equipage is not of the best
+or most sumptuous description. It fluctuates in extent a good deal from
+time to time, and always presents the spectacle of pleasing variety. We
+are never without appliances and substitutes of one kind or other; and
+members of the society now and then add to the stock such items as they
+severally deem desirable, or happen to pick up cheap "down the river."
+
+Experience has taught us that meat is meat still, although it may be
+eaten direct out of frying-pan or stew-pot. It is just as good, better
+we think, as when served up on Palissy ware or silver. Knives and forks
+are distinctly a product of civilization; custom holds us to the use of
+them. But what are a sheath-knife and a wooden skewer, if not
+everything that is needed?
+
+Those ultra-conservatives among our number, those rigid adherents to the
+most primitive bush-life, of course despise all the refinements of the
+table. Plates, forks, and spoons are to them degeneracies,--things that
+no noble bushman needs or requires. They scorn any leanings towards
+luxury and ease. Give _them_ a life that is totally free from the petty
+trammels and slavish conventionalities of the old world!
+
+At one time we were possessed of but a single plate, an iron one, which
+had lost its enamel, and was half eaten through by rust; we had only one
+fork, and that had only a prong and a half remaining. But we had our
+cooking-pots and billies, our sheath-knives, wooden skewers, fingers,
+and O'Gaygun's shingle-plates. What more could any one want? And if
+there were not enough pannikins or mugs to hold our tea all round, there
+were empty preserve-cans, gallipots, and oyster-shells! We were content
+and happy. But this blissful state was to be rudely broken.
+
+One day, a member of our party had been down Helensville way. There had
+been an auction of the effects of a settler, who was moving off to the
+South Island. Our chum had not been able to resist the temptation, and
+had invested all he was worth in an assortment of goods. It was night
+when he returned, and we were all in the shanty. He came up from the
+boat, staggering under the weight of a great kit full of crocks and
+such-like.
+
+Of course, the excitement was great as we surveyed the heap of new
+treasures we had acquired. Even O'Gaygun was enchanted for a moment,
+till he remembered himself, and assumed the stern and savage bearing
+befitting the leader of our conservatives. His scorn was withering.
+
+"F'what might this be?" he would ask, fingering contemptuously first one
+thing and then another.
+
+"An' f'what do ye do wid it, at all?" he inquired, as article after
+article was reviewed, affecting the airs of wonderment supposed to
+belong to a child of nature.
+
+Presently his humour changed, and he passed into the declamatory stage.
+
+"'Tis a sinful exthravagance! a temptin' av Providence!" he exclaimed.
+"Plates! an' faaks! an' dishes! an' sacers! did ivver anny wan see the
+loike? F'what do ye expict nixt? Kid gloves to work in, maybe! That
+ivver I'd see the day whan sich degrading emblems av the ould
+superstitions of sassiety was brought into the bush! Ough!"
+
+So much and more the O'Gaygun. But there is a sequel to the incident.
+
+Some time after, when we had learnt to love and cherish these
+acquisitions, the Little'un was one day detailed as hut-keeper. It so
+happened that he had our entire stock of crockery to wash up, as we
+generally work through the set before any one will act as scullery-maid.
+The Little'un got through his task; he washed every plate and cup we had
+got; but, not finding any towel or cloth handy, he disposed the things
+on the stones in the chimney-place, round the stove to dry. There he
+left them, and went off to chop firewood, forgetting to fasten the door.
+
+Directly the Little'un's back was turned, a wandering pig arrived on the
+scene. Seeing the open door, he resolved to prospect a bit, and
+accordingly entered the shanty. What followed can now never be precisely
+known, but conjecture allows us to arrive at the probable truth.
+
+The pig's first discovery was a number of comical objects, whose purpose
+he could not divine, stuck about among stones and gravel. He ruminated
+over these awhile, and at last inquisitively snouted one dish that stood
+alone, like a small monument. Down went the strange thing and smashed.
+The pig thought this was singular, and was somewhat startled. Still, he
+resolved to persevere in his investigations. He inserted his nose into a
+long, hollow thing that lay there, but could not get it out of the jug
+again. In his horror and fright at such an extraordinary accident, he
+plunged round and round the place; and, as he went, things fell and
+cracked and crashed under his feet in an awful and terrifying manner. At
+last he hit the thing that covered his snout against something hard, and
+it, too, broke. But a splinter wounded his nose, and made him squeal and
+fairly scream with pain and fright. At last, executing one final
+pirouette and gambado, while the strange things crunched and crackled at
+every move of his, he rushed out through the door, oversetting a man who
+was coming in with a bundle of firewood.
+
+It was a scene of woe when the rest of us arrived from work. Concern and
+consternation sat on every brow, as the Little'un unfolded his tale, and
+we surveyed the universal smash of our crockery. Only O'Gaygun showed
+signs of levity. In stentorian tones he shouted:--
+
+"A jedgment! a jedgment on ye, bhoys! The very bastes is sint to prache
+aginst yer exthravagance an' lukshury! The pigs is tachin' ye as they
+tached the howly St. Anthony av ould! O glory, glory! 'tis grand!"
+
+But his remarks were ill-timed. Conservatism was out of favour just
+then, and the Liberals were in power. The wrath of the assembly was
+turned upon this audacious prophet; and, excommunicated from the shanty,
+it was very late before humanity compelled us to let him have his
+supper. And I may mention that fresh pork chops were added to the bill
+of fare that night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+OUR HOME-LIFE.
+
+
+Among the friends of colonists at home in Britain, among those who talk
+most and know least of this land of the blest, I specify three classes.
+First, there are the people who talk of "roughing it" with an air of
+rapturous enjoyment, and a Micawber-like roll of the voice, as if that
+were really something good, something both pleasant and praiseworthy in
+itself. Again, there are those who shudder at the bare idea, and who
+conceive it, perhaps, to be a good deal worse than it really is. Lastly,
+there are some who are quite vacuous in the matter, either because the
+term conveys no meaning to their minds, or because Nature has made them
+indifferent to personal comfort and discomfort.
+
+Now, in the first place, roughing it is not a nice process. There is
+nothing at all delightful or charming about it. Plainly, it is
+suffering. Suffering of numberless discomforts and privations, slight
+in themselves as a rule, though not invariably so, but certainly a
+serious matter in the aggregate. Nor is there anything grand or glorious
+in the prospect of roughing it. Merely in itself it does not add to a
+man's good in any particular way. It has to be got through in order that
+certain ends may be achieved. That is about the sum of it.
+
+On the other hand, there is nothing to daunt healthy young fellows in
+the prospect of roughing it. Only those who are delicate, or who are of
+sensitive nature, need turn back from the possibility of it. And it must
+be remembered that, to succeed eventually in any path of life
+whatsoever, some sort of hardship, toil, and self-sacrifice must be
+undergone.
+
+Of course, you cannot carry the drawing-room with you into the bush.
+That side of life, with much of the refinement belonging to it, is swept
+completely out of your reach. And what is of more importance still, your
+existence is apt to grow somewhat unintellectual. Yet these are matters
+that are already remedying themselves. As comfort and competence are
+gradually achieved, and as society becomes large, so do the higher
+results of civilization follow. And as pioneering progresses into the
+more advanced stages of improvement, so do the opportunities and
+possibilities for mental work and culture become more generally and
+readily appreciable.
+
+To us, when we first came out from England, the life here seemed utterly
+delightful, because it was so fresh and novel. We were quite captivated
+with it. Our existence was a perpetual holiday and picnic, to which the
+various difficulties and discomforts that cropped up only seemed to add
+more zest. But we soon got over that. We soon began to find that it did
+not rain rosewater here. A rude picnic prolonged day after day, year
+after year, soon lost its enchantment, and merged into something very
+like suffering. We began to yearn after those flesh-pots of Egypt which
+we had left behind us; and there were times when we have regretted that
+we ever emigrated at all.
+
+Now we have settled down to a calm and placid contentment with our lot.
+We begin to see what results are possible to us, and there are signs
+that our chrysalis condition is finite after all, and that some reward
+for our toil will be ours ere long. The days of our worst poverty and
+difficulty lie behind us, and better things are in store.
+
+We have been thankful for one thing. Our society in this district is
+limited; but it comprises persons of some small amount of cultivation
+and intelligence. We appreciate this at its fullest, for most of us
+have, at one time or other, had to work in other parts of the colony,
+where our only associates were of the rudest and dullest mental
+organization. We are kindred spirits, and are happy in our way, making
+light of difficulties, laughing at hardships and privations, and mocking
+at poverty and toil. By this means we believe that we enjoy to the
+utmost all the good that there is in this life of ours, and that we
+measurably lessen the struggles and troubles that have to be gone
+through.
+
+And now to revert more particularly to our home life in the shanty.
+
+The insect world is a great feature in Northern New Zealand, both as to
+variety, which is extensive, and as to quantity, which is illimitable.
+Within our shanty there are certain species which make themselves felt,
+smelt, or otherwise apparent to our annoyance, without taking into
+consideration the hosts that, as far as we are concerned, are innocuous.
+
+St. Patrick is reported to have driven all the snakes out of Ireland;
+and, according to O'Gaygun, he afterwards journeyed over here, and
+performed the same service in these islands. The deed was done, says my
+informant, in order that this Canaan of the South Sea might be made
+ready for descendants of Hibernian kings, when the proper time should
+come; and that time, he continues, was when loyal and true sons of Erin
+should be seeking afar for a home, where the Land League would cease
+from troubling; and the landlord be at rest!
+
+Well, we have no snakes, thanks to St. Patrick, but if that gentleman
+had only continued and completed his work, so far as to have excluded
+certain insect pests as well, we could have felt more beholden to him.
+We have them both out of doors and indoors, but it is with the invaders
+of our sanctuary that I have at present to deal.
+
+First, there is the mosquito. We have them here of all sorts and sizes.
+Sometimes they come by twos and threes, and sometimes they come in
+swarms. They are a deadly nuisance anyway, and a most obnoxious addition
+to the inhabitants of our shanty. The peculiar delight of a mosquito is
+to arrive just at the moment when you are falling off to sleep, properly
+fatigued with your day's work. You hear a long, threatening boom, which
+finally ends with a sharp jerk, like buzz-z-z-z-z-z-zup. Then you wait
+in anxious expectancy for what you well know will come next. It does
+come, a sharp prick on some part where you least expected it. You slap
+angrily at the place, and hurt yourself, but not the mosquito. O no! he
+is gone before you can satisfy your just vengeance, and he leaves a mark
+of his visit that will worry you for days after.
+
+Wise people envelope themselves in gauze mosquito-bars, but we are not
+wise, and we do not. Conceive the fury of O'Gaygun at such an
+innovation, such pampering, effeminacy, luxury! Who would venture to
+introduce a mosquito-bar into a community of which he is member? What
+might not be expected from this most conservative of pioneers? Even Old
+Colonial says it is better that we should "harden ourselves to it." But
+occasionally, in the stilly watches of the night, I hear a hasty remark
+from his corner of the shanty, which leads me to believe that, with all
+the years of his mosquito experience, he is not wholly hardened yet.
+
+Then there is the sandfly, another enemy of our peace. This creature is
+not so bad as the first, though. It is true his sting is sharp, and
+always draws a drop of blood, but there is no after irritation.
+Sometimes, when sandflies abound about us, we make them contribute to
+our amusement in moments of leisure. Bets are made, or a pool is formed,
+and we stretch out our closed fists together and wait. By-and-by a
+sandfly settles on the back of some one's hand, and proceeds to browse.
+Once his proboscis is buried in the skin, the hand is opened, and he is
+caught, for he cannot withdraw his weapon from the now contracted skin.
+Then the capturer pockets the stakes, and executes the bloodsucker. Such
+is one of our simple pastimes.
+
+Another insect foe of ours is one not wholly unknown in other parts of
+the world. It is the nimble flea. St. Patrick is not to blame for
+leaving this reptile here. He is not indigenous. He was unknown to the
+Maoris until the coming of the Pakeha; but he has naturalized himself
+most thoroughly now. The "little stranger," as the natives playfully
+term him, is to be found in abundance in every Maori whare. Excluded
+with the greatest difficulty from the best appointed houses in the
+colony, in the humbler residences of the bush, and in our shanty, for
+example, his name is Legion. Why this should be so, we have never
+troubled our heads to inquire; we simply accept the fact as it is.
+Possibly our floor, that, in spite of a daily brooming and a weekly
+sluicing, is ever well carpeted with dust and mud, is one source of
+these pests. And, now I think of it, there is a nightly scuffling
+underneath the boards, which leads to the conclusion that pigs, dogs,
+and fowls, are harbouring among the piles beneath.
+
+Every night, before turning in, we are accustomed to shake whole
+regiments of fleas out of our blankets. Not infrequently we sprinkle the
+blankets with kerosene oil; and, sometimes, in hot weather find it
+necessary to anoint our bodies all over with the same thing. That keeps
+off the crawling plagues until we have time to get to sleep, and then
+we do not care for them. But I think we really have got hardened to the
+fleas. We feel the annoyance of them but little now.
+
+One of the chums, a harmless, peaceable fellow yclept "The Fiend"--I
+know not for what particular reason--has lately invented a new game for
+our evening's diversion. He calls it flea-loo. After supper it is our
+usual custom to sit on the edge of the floor, where it abuts upon the
+fireplace. That part of our domicile, it will be remembered, is paved
+with a sort of gravel of loose stones, and, sooth to say, with a good
+deal of _debris_ of every sort and kind. The stove stands in the middle.
+As we sit there, the sensations in our legs remind us that fleas like
+warmth too, and that the gravelly bottom of the chimney-place is a
+favourite assembly-room of theirs. But they are of aspiring nature, and
+this fact was known to the Fiend. Under his advice, each man plants a
+stick upright in the gravel before him. Then we make a pool and await
+the result. The fleas soon come out, and begin to crawl up the sticks;
+and, by-and-by, some individual of the race reaches the top of the
+stick. The owner of that stick takes the pool. Here is another gentle
+and Arcadian sport.
+
+And now, with considerable trepidation, and with something verging
+upon veritable awe, I approach a subject that I feel myself scarcely
+competent to handle. Fraught with the deepest interest to every
+new-chum, and a matter of no light concern to even the oldest colonist,
+it is one that demands an abler and more facile pen than mine to do full
+justice to it. Some one has boldly asserted that, throughout the
+infinite treasure-house of Nature, every separate and single thing has
+its particular and well-defined purpose. Without attempting to dispute a
+proposition so emphatically and dogmatically brought forward, it will be
+sufficient for me to say that men have asked in shuddering horror, and
+must still continue to ask, what part in the economy of creation is the
+sphere of duty or usefulness of that malignant thing we call the
+KAURI-BUG.[5]
+
+We do not know whether this insect is known to naturalists or not. That
+is a slight matter, and not particularly pertinent to the question of
+its interest for us. We believe, however, that no naturalist has yet
+been found of sufficiently ardent temperament, and of sufficiently hardy
+nerves, to attempt to classify or examine this most infamous of bugs.
+
+Appearances are deceptive very often; they are so in this instance.
+Nothing could look more innocent and inoffensive than the kauri-bug, yet
+few insects rival it in crime. It is an oval shape, anything under and
+up to the size of a crown piece. It is flat, black, hard, and shiny, and
+resembles a cross between the English black-beetle and the woodlouse or
+slater. It stinks. That is all it does, but it is enough. Look at it,
+and it is harmless enough. But tread on it, touch it, disturb it never
+so slightly, and instantly the whole surrounding atmosphere is permeated
+with a stench more infernally and awfully horrible than anything else
+this side of the Styx!
+
+The kauri-bug inhabits dead-wood of various kinds, but chiefly does it
+love that of the tree from which it derives its name. It invades houses
+built with open joints like ours in regiments and battalions, bringing
+all its family and luggage with it. The best class of houses are here
+built in a fashion styled bug-proof, but even they cannot wholly exclude
+this fearful thing. It comes in hidden in the firewood, and once in the
+house it stops there, since no one is courageous enough to turn it out.
+It appears to be indifferent as to whether the house is new or old,
+well-built or ruinous. If the structure is of kauri timber the kauri-bug
+will be there, and it will put up with any other wood if kauri timber
+is not available. It is one of the peculiar products indigenous to
+Northern New Zealand, and it is the least attractive of all.
+
+Dandy Jack, who has been in North America, is my authority for stating
+that the celebrated odour of the skunk is mild and refreshing, compared
+to the unutterable loathsomeness of that of the kauri-bug. I can well
+believe it. How well I remember one of my first nights in the bush! It
+appears that one of these diabolical insects had got into my blankets. I
+rolled over and crushed it in my sleep. Inured as I had been by
+circumstances to bad smells, this conquered me. I awoke perspiring from
+a frightful nightmare. I rushed from my bed, from the room, from the
+house, to escape the hideous effluvium; and--well, darkness veiled the
+rest!
+
+Nature has in this insect achieved the very acme and culmination of
+repulsive villainy. Fortunately she has mitigated it in two ways. The
+stench is volatile and soon disappears; while settler's noses get used
+to it in a measure. Were it not for these merciful provisions,
+colonization in this land would be an utter impossibility for people who
+had olfactory nerves at all. The kauri-bug would have driven us back to
+England long ago.
+
+As an instance of an earnest but mistaken striving after the true
+colonial fertility of invention and readiness of resource, I put on
+record the following. The Fiend once evolved from the obscurest depths
+of his inner consciousness a truly fearful and alarming plan. In this
+gentleman's somewhat feeble intellect there floats a sort of hazy
+reverence for a mysterious force denominated by him "kimustry." And to
+this occult power he appears to ascribe a magical potency, that recalls
+memories of the "Arabian Nights."
+
+We conclude that, at some time or other, the Fiend had been told, or had
+read, that a certain delightful perfume, _eau de millefleurs_ I think it
+is called, was derived by chemical agency from sewage, or some equally
+malodorous matter. He appears to have formed the idea that any
+disgusting stink could be turned, by "kimustry," into a delicious
+perfume; and, further, that the more horrible the original stink might
+be, the more ravishingly delightful would be the perfume to be derived
+from it.
+
+One night, when the parliament of our shanty was assembled in full
+conclave, the Fiend enunciated his views. Seriously and circumstantially
+he put forward his proposition. This was that we were to form ourselves
+into a joint-stock company; that we were to cultivate and make
+collections of kauri-bugs; that we were to find a "kimust" who could "do
+the trick," and employ him; and that we were to introduce to the world,
+and grow rich by, the sale of a sort of celestialized essence of
+kauri-bugs. In proof of good faith, the Fiend produced a box full of
+kauri-bugs that he had collected for experiment, and handed them among
+the midst of us.
+
+Conceive our horror and consternation at this unnatural and appalling
+proposal. Springing instantly to his feet, O'Gaygun demanded that the
+Fiend be forthwith taken out and hung from the nearest tree. But the
+Fiend saved his life by immediately withdrawing his proposition and his
+bugs, humbly suing for mercy. It was then thought that our duty to
+humanity would necessitate our sending the unhappy Fiend for
+incarceration in the Whau Lunatic Asylum, where they were in want of
+"subjects," as Old Colonial significantly remarked. That point is still
+under debate. Meanwhile, the Fiend still lives, but is kept under strict
+surveillance.
+
+There is another of our insect enemies which must have special mention,
+and that is the Maori blow-fly. We have flies of many sorts, house-flies
+and blue-bottles among them. The latter, the blue-bottles, get very big,
+and have an increased propensity for multiplying themselves, and that in
+their usual unpleasant manner. But over all the blue-bottles'
+old-fashioned systems the Maori blow-fly soars supreme. It is a
+colonizer with a vengeance. It does not go to the trouble of laying
+eggs or nits; it carries its family about ready hatched. The blow-fly is
+always ready, at a moment's notice, to deposit an incredible number of
+lively, hungry maggots upon any desirable surface.
+
+The difficulty of keeping fresh or cooked meat, and various other
+provisions, will be readily appreciated. The blow-fly will cause its
+disagreeable offspring to take part in every meal. Maggots are showered
+down on your very plate. A string of them may be deposited on the
+mouthful on your fork. The blow-fly is not particular. If you have a
+wound, cover it up, or the maggots will speedily be in it. The eyes of
+cattle and sheep are often full of them. If blankets or clothes are hung
+up to air in the sun, they will soon be white with living organisms;
+though, for want of moisture, they cannot live more than a few minutes
+in such a situation, luckily. There is little or nothing we can do
+against these foes. We get used to them, and try to forget their
+existence. We keep them out where possible. We salt our food, which they
+do not like. But we are unable to keep them down, or fight with them.
+Even argument with a blow-fly is inadmissible.
+
+We have spiders as big as walnuts, with great hairy legs two or three
+inches long. We would rather encourage them, as they help to keep down
+the flies, and they do no harm, though not pretty to look at. There is
+said to be a poisonous spider in the country, but no one in the North
+seems to know anything about it. We regard it as a myth. Other insects
+we have in profusion, but none that affect us like those I have
+specially spoken of.
+
+After all, we have no great cause for complaint. Some trivial annoyance
+is the worst we have to suffer in this way. We have no scorpions,
+snakes, poisonous centipedes, or any other vile thing of that sort. I
+have told the worst of our indoor plagues. Rats and mice we have, of
+course, as they swarm in the bush; but our dogs, and a cat or two, keep
+the shanty fairly clear of them.
+
+Our commissariat is plentiful and varied enough. With slight exception
+we are our own providers, living almost entirely on our own produce, as
+farmers should. Sometimes the pressure of work leads to carelessness in
+catering and cooking, and we are consequently reduced to short commons,
+for which there is no sort of need. In the worst times of poverty we
+should not starve. The river is always full of fish; and things must be
+more than bad if one could not get credit for a sack of flour or
+potatoes with the Mayor, or with some other storekeeper on the rivers.
+And, after the first year, the garden ought to produce enough
+vegetables, potatoes, kumera, taro, pumpkins, and maize, to keep the
+family going, even if everything else failed them.
+
+Pig-meat, in its various forms, is our staple article of food. We breed
+and fatten a large number of pigs on the clearings round the shanty.
+These we butcher in batches of six or eight, as required, and turn into
+salt pork, bacon, and ham. We have occasionally sent a cask or two of
+pork, some flitches or hams, to market; but as a rule we consume our
+pigs on the farm. Pig-meat is most reliable as a staple. One does not
+tire of it so utterly as one does of either mutton or beef, if one of
+these be the invariable daily food.
+
+Beef we rarely see in our shanty. The steers we breed are too valuable
+to be used by ourselves; they have to go to market. Only occasionally we
+find it necessary to slaughter some unmanageable rusher, a cow, or
+bullock, and then we have beef, fresh and salted down. Mutton was just
+as scarce for several years, as we could not afford to kill out of our
+small flock; and mutton is not good to salt down. Now, we kill a sheep
+every week, sometimes a couple, as the township will take the surplus
+meat, and so it pays us.
+
+We keep a great number of turkeys on the clearings, as also a less
+number of ducks and poultry, to diminish the crickets, caterpillars, and
+other insect foes. These birds are now practically wild, and give us
+something like sport to shoot them. There are hundreds of turkeys, as
+they thrive amazingly, consequently we often have them at table. Eggs,
+too, are plentiful enough, whenever any one takes the trouble to hunt up
+some nests.
+
+As to wild game of any sort, we get little enough of that; for we cannot
+spare time to go after it. Sometimes we may shoot some of the splendid
+wild pigeons, some kakas, parrots, tuis, wild duck, teal, or the
+acclimatized pheasants. Wild pig is nauseous eating, so that is not
+sought after.
+
+Every now and then we go in for fish. There are schnapper, rock-cod,
+mullet, mackerel, and herring, or species that answer to those, to be
+had for very little trouble. There are also soles, which we catch on the
+mud-banks and shallows at night, wading by torchlight, and spearing the
+dazzled fish as they lie. When we make a great haul we salt, dry, or
+smoke the capture for lasting use. The endless oyster-beds, and other
+shell-fish, we rarely touch, they are not worth the time and trouble, we
+consider.
+
+Tea is the invariable beverage at every meal, and almost the only one,
+too. Milk is generally available in our shanty as a substitute, but
+somehow we stick to the tea. We drink quarts and quarts of it every
+day, boiling hot, and not too weak. Throughout New Zealand and all the
+Australian colonies this excessive tea-drinking is the universal
+practice. Even the aboriginal races have taken to it just as kindly. It
+is such a good thirst-quencher, every one says, so cooling in warm
+weather, and so warming in cold seasons.
+
+We had an earnest medico on a visit to us lately. He inveighs strongly
+against tea-drinking, which he says is the curse of these countries. I
+think he would preach a crusade against it if he dared; for, of course,
+he would have to join issue with Good Templars, Sons of Temperance, and
+all the fanatical anti-alcoholists. These zealous reformers are so
+blindly infatuated with their hatred for alcohol, that tea seems to them
+its natural antithesis, and they vaunt it as if it were a celestial
+boon. And such people are a political power out here--worse luck!
+
+The doctor declares--"Tea-drinking is one of the most serious mistakes
+of our age and race in these new countries. It produces, first of all, a
+low form of chronic dyspepsia, whose effect is immediately perceived in
+early decay of the teeth. It often seriously affects the great
+organs--the liver, kidneys, stomach, and heart--predisposing them to
+derangement, and aiding the progress of organic mischief in them, should
+that arise from other causes. It affects the nerves, causing
+irritability and debility in them. Nervous power becomes impaired,
+reacting with evil effect upon the ganglionic centres and the brain.
+Hence the mind must become insidiously affected also. I am quite sure
+that the character of our colonists is being modified by their practice
+of excessive tea-drinking, and I cannot believe that the change will be
+for the better. I believe that we may trace to tea, gloominess,
+misanthropy, loss of cheerfulness, a restless energy without fixity of
+purpose, a sour temper, a morbid and abnormal simplicity, leading to
+intellectual retrogression instead of progress, and to a tendency to
+yield to superstitious fancies, with loss of control over reason and its
+advancement. What will be the future of these young tea-drowned
+nations?"
+
+Fortunately, we only understood a fraction of this tirade, yet we
+trembled and shivered ever afterwards as we drank our tea.
+Then the doctor showed us how to make sugar-beer, treacle-beer,
+cabbage-tree-root-beer, honey-beer, peach-cider, corn-cider, and various
+other drinks of a more or less unlicensed kind. So now we have usually
+something else to quaff besides tea. Peaches we have in any quantity;
+and the cider they make is capital stuff. Honey abounds in every hollow
+tree; and the mead or metheglin we compound is a fine drink.
+
+Flour and meal we have to buy. By-and-by there will be a flour-mill at
+the township, for already some of the more forward settlers near are
+growing wheat. Maize we do not use ourselves, except as a green
+vegetable. Some people grind it and use the meal for cakes, but we
+principally turn it into pig-meat or fowl-flesh.
+
+Our garden department, though not always so well managed as it might be,
+yet adds largely to our food supply. The principal crops are potatoes,
+kumera (sweet potatoes), and pumpkins; good substantial food that will
+keep, and, should we have a surplus, will sell. We don't bother with
+green vegetables; they don't pay, we think, and boiled green maize-cobs
+suffice us for that class of thing. But, in such seasons as it has
+occurred to any one to go in for more extensive gardening, we rejoice in
+a profusion of carrots, turnips, parsnips, onions, taro, beet-root, and
+sundry other things.
+
+Fruit can hardly be looked on as a food; it is merely an ornamental
+accessory to it, in our opinion. We are great fruit-consumers, but we
+look on such trifles as only refreshers for odd moments, and not as
+having anything to do with the serious business of eating. We have
+pretty well all the fruits that are seen in English gardens, and besides
+them we have quantities of various sorts of melons and peaches, also
+specimens of oranges, lemons, shaddocks, grapes, loquats, quinces,
+pomegranates, guavas, Cape gooseberries, figs, almonds, and some others.
+We have even bananas, which are a success in most seasons. The
+marvellous profusion and richness of our fruit-crops, leads to the
+belief that industries connected with fruit-growing will eventually be
+found to succeed best in the North.
+
+Of course, long practice in cooking has made us tolerably proficient in
+the simpler processes of the art. Several of us are very fair all-round
+cooks, but Old Colonial is supreme in this, as in most things. He is a
+veritable Soyer of the bush. When he chooses to exert his skill he can
+turn out the most wonderful dishes. Where he learnt, and how he learnt,
+no one can tell; but he seems to be a perfect master of cookery in every
+shape and form.
+
+In spite of the peculiarities of our table-service, we fare sumptuously
+often enough, much more so than many people who would disdain to feed
+without linen and dishes and plates, forks, spoons, and other things
+that we hold in slight regard. Old Colonial's name has gone abroad
+through the country. When any one of our neighbours goes in for the
+luxury of a wife, Old Colonial is not infrequently called in to educate
+her in culinary matters. He is a past master in endless wrinkles,
+dodges, makeshifts, and substitutes of all sorts; and has, besides, an
+unbounded faculty of invention that is highly satisfactory to our little
+commonwealth.
+
+One hot and blazing Christmas-tide we invited all the married people,
+who lived within anything like reasonable distance, to visit our
+shanty--Bachelor's Hall, as the ladies termed it. Such an entirely novel
+and unusual event as the visit of some of the gentler sex to our shanty
+was an occasion of no light moment. Old Colonial determined to banquet
+our visitors in the superbest possible style, and vast preparations were
+at once undertaken.
+
+Two days before the expected arrival, all hands set to work in the
+arduous and unavailing endeavour to render the shanty approximately
+clean and respectable. Such a turn out as that was! Such an unlooked
+for bringing to light of things that must be nameless! We broomed and we
+scrubbed, we washed and we sluiced, we even tinkered and mended, we
+cleaned and we swore, and made our lives temporarily miserable; and yet,
+with all this, how grimy, and dirty, and mean, and wretched, that shanty
+of ours would continue to look!
+
+Never had our household property been subjected to such a cleaning up as
+that was. Gradually some order was introduced into the chaos, and at
+last we began to think we should convey a favourable impression after
+all. But our chief concern was in the matter of table equipage.
+
+One of us was sent over to the township, with orders to beg, borrow, or
+steal, all the crockery and table-cutlery in the place. Another was
+dispatched on horseback through the bush somewhere else, and on the same
+errand, that something like proper table furniture might grace the
+feast. Then our wardrobe underwent inspection. Some one had to go over
+to the township and buy new shirts for all of us, with several pairs of
+trousers, and other things. O'Gaygun stormed and wept at this outrage;
+but our boss was firm for the proprieties, as he estimated them. The
+worst of it was, we had to contemplate frightful expenditure. And more,
+it was humiliating that our previous condition should be made known to
+the Mayor, who, with his wife, were to be among our guests. But, what
+matter? The Mayor is a good fellow, and a friend; and what can be too
+great a sacrifice to make for England, Home, and Beauty!--especially the
+last.
+
+We all had our tasks. There was the path between the shanty and the
+landing-place to be put in proper condition; various muddy places in it
+to be covered with fascines; a certain watercourse we were in the habit
+of jumping to be newly-bridged, and so forth. Then there was the
+catering. Two of us were out with guns, shooting turkeys, pheasants,
+pigeons, fowls, and anything else that was eatable. Others were
+butchering the fairest and fattest pig in our drove, and doing the same
+by a lamb. Two were out on the river diligently fishing, or collecting
+oysters and cockles. Some, too, were employed in the garden, picking
+fruit, gathering vegetables, and so forth, and so on.
+
+All day and all night the stove was redhot, while a supplementary fire
+blazed outside the shanty. Between them oscillated Old Colonial, pipe in
+mouth, hirsute and unkempt, grim, grimy, and naked to the waist. His two
+aids, the Saint and the Fiend, had a bad time of it. They were his
+scullions, marmitons, turnspits, or whatever you like to call it. They
+had to keep up the supplies of firewood, to prepare the fowls and fish,
+and generally to do all the dirty work; and the way that Old Colonial
+"bossed" them round was an edifying sight to see.
+
+The preparations were stupendous. Victuals enough had been laid in to
+feed a regiment, and the variety of them was endless. But Old Colonial,
+once having given way to the mania of extravagance, was determined to
+lay under contribution every conceivable thing, and to turn out more
+dishes than even an American palace hotel would put on its bill of
+fare.
+
+Finally, it was discovered that the shanty was far too small a place for
+our banquet. So, on the appointed morning we were up at sunrise, and,
+from then till noon, we laboured at the construction of a bower; while
+Old Colonial was busy with his hot meats and confections. The bower was
+an open shed, running all along the shadiest side of the shanty and
+beyond. It was a rude erection of rough poles, latticed and
+thatched--Maori fashion--with fern-fronds and flax. Under it was _the_
+table, supplemented by another of loose boards on such supports as we
+could fabricate; and round it planks resting on kegs and boxes made
+sufficient seats.
+
+Hardly were our preparations finished when the first boat was descried,
+coming through the mangroves from the river down below, and a parasol
+was visible in the stern. Then there was a hasty stampede down to the
+gully to wash; an agonized scuttle into the new shirts; and a hot and
+anxious assumption of restful calm. And so we welcomed the guests as
+they came.
+
+What a feast that was, and how it astonished everybody! And such a party
+as our shanty had never witnessed before! For curiosity brought half a
+dozen ladies--all there were in the district--and fully a score of
+masculine friends honoured our establishment with their presence.
+
+It is not to be supposed, of course, that all our neighbours inhabit
+rude shanties like ours. Some are further forward, or had more capital
+at the start; and men do not bring wives into the bush until they can
+manage to furnish forth a decently comfortable house for them. Our
+married friends live in respectable comfort. Still, the ladies, living
+in the bush, get to know its more primitive ways, though they may not
+experience them themselves. So, our domestic arrangements, though made
+the occasion for a great deal of banter and fun, were neither unexpected
+nor novel to our lady visitors. But the banquet that was provided for
+them made them open their eyes indeed. It was something altogether new
+to the bush. Such a miracle of catering! such marvellous unheard of
+cookery! It surpassed anything any one of them had ever seen before,
+anywhere.
+
+The table was covered with white linen, borrowed at the township, and
+all the equipage we could muster was displayed upon it. Plates, forks,
+spoons, and knives, there were in plenty; but we had not been able to
+collect enough dishes and bowls for the profusion of viands Old Colonial
+had provided. Some parts of the service were therefore peculiar, and
+caused much addition to the merriment. There was always such incongruity
+between the excellence of the comestible and the barbaric quaintness of
+the receptacle that happened to contain it. Soups in billies, turkeys
+in milk-pans, salads in gourd-rinds, custards in cow-bells, jellies in
+sardine-boxes, plum-pudding in a kerosene case, vegetables, fruits, and
+cakes in kits of plaited flax; anything and everything was utilized that
+possibly could be.
+
+High enthroned upon a pile of potato sacks, Old Colonial presided over
+the feast he had created; while, as vice, sat O'Gaygun, his barbaric
+conservatism laid aside for the nonce in favour of grace and gallantry.
+What glorious fun we had! What a flow of wit beneath the august
+influence of ladies' smiles! And we were cool in our ferny bower, out of
+the strong hot sunshine. And in the intervals of eating and drinking, we
+could look about us on the splendid perspective of bush and river,
+across the clearings, where the air shimmered in the heat, where the
+crickets whistled and hummed, and where the cattle were lazily lying
+among the stumps. It was a magnificent picnic, so everybody declared.
+There never was anything to match it in all New Zealand!
+
+I can fancy, that in days to come, when the full tide of civilization
+has overtaken this fair country, some of those ladies will be sitting in
+boudoirs and drawing-rooms talking to their children; and they will tell
+them of the early pioneering days. And one of their best-remembered
+stories will be that of the Christmas-time, when they were banqueted by
+Old Colonial and his chums at our shanty in the bush.
+
+To a certain extent we are of musical tastes, and, though our time for
+practice is limited to an occasional half-hour of an evening, we
+consider ourselves no mean instrumentalists, and sometimes give public
+performances, as will appear hereafter. We have two flutes, a clarionet,
+a cornet, and a French horn, often supplemented by two violins and a
+concertina. Old Colonial does not play, neither does O'Gaygun. They
+fiercely decline to add to what they term the beastly uproar.
+
+If we have a failing, it is to be found in an inability to hang together
+in our play, and an incapacity for comprehending the said fact. Set
+either instrumentalist by himself, and he will manage to stumble through
+a tune; but put the whole orchestra together, and the result usually
+falls short of what should be harmony. The hornist is our feeblest
+musician. He has not yet succeeded in eliciting more than two notes and
+a half out of his instrument, and these he lets off in spasmodic puffs,
+governed by a curious notion of the proper places for them to fit into
+the general performance. The flutes are a little unsteady and
+unreliable; the clarionet always squeaks in pathetic parts; and the
+cornet imagines that loudness is the chief thing to be desired.
+
+There was a newly-married couple recently established a few miles away
+up the river. Of course, they were received in the district with great
+acclamation, when they first came up here, after being tied up in
+Auckland. Bonfires blazed on the ranges, guns were fired, and a
+procession of boats escorted theirs home. As a strictly bachelor
+community, we felt some hesitation about going to call and congratulate
+the couple. This was owing to our own shyness and uncouthness, you
+understand, not to any disfavour with which we looked upon matrimony as
+an abstract thing. For we were previously unacquainted with the bride.
+However, some demon prompted us to give them a midnight serenade.
+
+By dint of tremendous practice, we had mastered, as we thought, those
+three famous melodies, "Home, Sweet Home," "Juanita," and "God Save the
+Queen." The orchestra was equal to _them_, anyhow, we considered.
+Neither of our two unmusical associates cared to be left out of the
+proposed excursion, so a drum was manufactured for Old Colonial, by
+stretching a sheepskin over the open ends of a cask; O'Gaygun was found
+incompetent to play on any other instrument but the ancient comb and
+piece of paper of his happy youth. Then we started, rowing up the
+river, and anchoring silently off the beach opposite our victim's
+residence, one night soon after their arrival.
+
+The moon was at the full, throwing sombre shadows down from the woods
+upon the gleaming water, and making the splendid scenery of the river
+mysterious and romantic. The husband and wife were out on their
+verandah, enjoying the calm beauty of the night, and sentimentalizing,
+as newly-married couples will.
+
+Suddenly, from the river below them, rises the melancholy and discordant
+clamour of our performance. Quickly, the voices of the night awake in
+earnest protest against it. Roosting shags and waterfowl fly screaming
+away. In the swamp a bittern booms; and strange wailing cries come from
+the depths of the bush. On the farm dogs bark energetically, cattle
+bellow, horses neigh, sheep bleat, pigs grunt, ducks quack, and turkeys
+gobble. Frightful is the din that goes echoing among the woods. And then
+the outraged bridegroom gets out his gun, and commences rapid
+file-firing in our direction.
+
+But nothing daunts us, or makes us flinch from our fell purpose.
+Perspiring from every pore, we labour manfully on to the bitter end.
+Cornet and clarionet strive for the mastery, the flutes tootle along in
+the rear, the violins screech and squeal, the horn brays with force and
+fury, and Old Colonial pounds at his drum as if he were driving piles.
+Not until the last notes of "God Save the Queen" have been duly murdered
+do we cease; then, breathless and exhausted, we row down river on our
+homeward way, rejoicing in the performance of a meritorious deed.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 5: A species of _Blatta_, or cockroach, called by
+entomologists _Polyzosteria Novae Zealandiae_.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+OUR PIONEER FARM.
+
+I.
+
+
+Of course, all farms are not the same, even in the North. Nevertheless,
+there is a good deal of similarity in the work that has to be got
+through at the outset. The modifications in it are various, consisting
+in the character of the land, the amount of capital available, the
+labour employed, and so forth. But, generally speaking, most settlers
+must go through pretty much what we did before they get the wilderness
+reclaimed into an orderly farm.
+
+People who commence with plenty of capital have naturally a great
+advantage. They can employ more labourers, and get the first operations
+over more quickly. But, more than that, they are not hampered by the
+necessity of making a living as they go along. They can afford to wait
+until the farm is in thorough working order before they expect any
+returns from it.
+
+Not many of this class have settled in the North. When a man has large
+capital, his chief idea is sheep or cattle. And he is not impressed with
+the notion of making a home, but with the desire to make a great pot.
+So, if he comes to New Zealand, he goes South as a general thing, and
+leases a vast run of natural pasturage. In ten or twenty years he has
+made his pile, and gives up farming altogether. Then he either goes
+home, or settles down in one of our cities.
+
+We were circumstanced very differently from that. When we made up our
+minds to work for ourselves, instead of acting as labourers to others,
+we were not blessed with much capital. Our joint purse contained just
+enough, as we calculated, and it did not contain more. But our notion
+was to make ourselves a comfortable home, primarily, though, of course,
+we had our golden dreams as well.
+
+The bulk of the land in the North Island belongs to the Maori tribes,
+who sell tracts of it to Government or private individuals occasionally.
+In the South Island all the waste land is the property of the Crown--a
+nice little estate of about the size of England and Wales. Most of the
+Kaipara district belonged to the Ngatewhatua tribe when we came on the
+scene; and the early settlers bought their stations from them.
+
+We had our korero with the chiefs, and arranged to purchase a block, or
+section of a block rather, on the Pahi. We selected our location--from
+such a creek to such a creek, and back from the river as far as such and
+such a range. We offered ten shillings an acre for it, the then
+market-price. The chief said, "Kapai!" and so that was settled.
+
+Then we got up the Government surveyor for the district, and to it we
+went with billhook and axe, theodolite and chain, fixing the boundaries
+and dimensions of our slice of forest. Said the surveyor, after plotting
+and planning and making a map, "There you are! Two thousand and
+twenty-one acres, two roods and a half!" "Right," said we; and proceeded
+to the next business.
+
+A Land Court was held by the Crown official at Helensville. Thither
+proceed the Ngatewhatua chiefs, with the surveys and maps of the section
+we had chosen. They make out their claim to the land, according to
+established usage, and receive a Crown grant as a legal title. This is
+then properly transferred to us, in lieu of our cheque. Various
+documents are signed and registered, and we stand the proud possessors
+of so much soil and timber; while the Maoris make tracks straight to the
+hotel and store, with much rejoicing.
+
+Not that we paid in full at the time. Such a simple arrangement would
+not have suited our pockets, any more than it would have suited the
+Maori idea of a bargain. A part of the land was paid for and bought
+outright, the rest was to be paid off in certain terms of years, or
+sooner, if we liked. Meanwhile, we were to pay interest on the sums
+remaining due, which was actually a sort of rent for the balance of the
+estate. As a concession on their side, the Maoris gave us the right of
+running cattle free over the unpaid-for acres. And as there were no
+fences, of course, this really meant that we might run our cattle over
+the whole country side, which was practically what we paid the interest
+or rent for. Then we entered into possession, and built the shanty. But
+observe what we had to do in the forthcoming years. We had to get a
+living, first. We had to pay the annual sum agreed on as a sort of rent,
+second. We had to provide for the purchase of implements, sundry
+accessories, and stock, third. Lastly, we had to lay by to meet the
+future large payments for the land, which would make us proprietors of
+the whole of it, and, of course, annul the annual rent.
+
+Perhaps it will be better understood now why we live in a shanty, and
+why the furniture of it is so unique in quality and restricted in
+quantity. How we have got on so well is a marvel, and shows what hard
+work will do in this country. A thousand pounds would have bought our
+station outright. But we had not a thousand pounds among us, or anything
+like it; and we had to reserve money to live on for the first year, to
+buy our axes and spades and milk-pans, and to buy the nucleus of our
+future herds and flocks and droves. We have done all we had to do, and
+now we are beginning to see that our joint work during all these years
+will eventually produce for us homes and comfort.
+
+It is a hard and difficult thing to make money without capital to start
+with. It is as hard a thing to do in the colonies as it is at home,
+though people at home are apt to think differently. And it is always the
+early years of toil that are the worst.
+
+Money is like an apple-tree. At first it grows but slowly, and there is
+no fruit. Then there come little scanty crops, increasing year by year,
+until at length the tree attains maturity. Then there are full crops,
+and you realize a handsome profit on your planting.
+
+Our station--or, as you may choose to term it, our estate, selection,
+place, farm, location, homestead, or run--may be reckoned a choice bit
+of land.
+
+The soil is not all of one character, it seldom is so on any one farm in
+this country, but it is all good class. Most of it is a rich black
+humus, resting on clay and mountain limestone. In configuration it is
+of the roughest, like the country generally, being an abrupt succession
+of ranges, gullies, and basins, in every variety of form and size.
+
+When we took possession, nearly every inch of the property was covered
+with what is termed light bush. It might have been a slice out of the
+New Forest. The light bush is just as dense a wood of small trees,
+twenty to fifty feet in height, shrubs, creepers and undergrowth, as can
+well be conceived of. Where the thicket is thinner the trees are larger,
+and the smaller they are the denser the covert. If you wish to journey
+through this light bush, where there is no semblance of a track, it will
+take you perhaps two hours to make a single mile, so thick is it. To
+ride through it is, of course, impossible, unless a track has been cut.
+
+Two or three miles back from the river--at our back, or behind us, as we
+say--the heavy bush begins. This is the primeval forest: endless miles
+of enormous timber-trees, girthing ten feet, twenty feet, thirty feet,
+forty feet, and even more, and of startling height. People cannot make
+farms out of that; at least, not all at once. The timber is slowly
+encroached upon to feed the saw-mills. Then the land so denuded can be
+done something with. The stumps can be fired and left to rot, which they
+do in about twelve or fifteen years, or they can be stubbed up with
+infinite labour, or blown out with dynamite, the quickest and least
+expensive way.
+
+We have not much big timber on our section. Here and there are groves of
+larger trees amidst the jungle, and most of this sort we shall leave
+standing, for it is not good to totally clear a large farm. Patches of
+bush are wanted for shade, for cover, and to keep up the supply of
+moisture. Settlers before us, who have inconsiderately made a clean
+sweep of everything, have found out their error, and are now planting
+out groves.
+
+But when you get a slice out of miles and miles of pathless woods, and
+have to hew your future farm out of them, you are apt to forget the more
+distant future, and go at everything before you with axe and fire. You
+want to see grass-paddocks and plough-lands. Time enough to think of
+planting again, or of saving bits of bush.
+
+Our first operation was to clear some twenty acres or so, as a primary
+clearing, wherein our shanty might be built, and a little grass provided
+to keep the milch-cows near home. We had two or three weeks chopping,
+then, in the height of the dry season, managed a successful burn of the
+fallen stuff, letting the fire run among the standing bush where it
+would, and which it would not to any great extent, as the undergrowth
+always keeps fresh on such rich soil. Thus we had a small clearing ready
+to be sown with grass-seed directly the rains should come. And then we
+were occupied with the erection of the shanty, as already described.
+
+After that we had our first stockyard to set up. It is a simple
+enclosure, measuring a chain or two square; but had to be made of great
+strength, in view of the contingency of unruly mobs of charging cattle.
+To procure material we went six or eight miles off, to a creek that ran
+through heavy bush. There we felled certain giant puriri trees, cut them
+into lengths, and split them up with wedges into posts and rails. Puriri
+timber is terribly tough stuff to work. It is harder than oak, and very
+heavy, too, so that transporting it is serious toil. We groaned over
+this job, and spoilt numerous axes; but we did it.
+
+Terrible work it was getting this material on to the ground. After we
+had finished cutting, and had split out all the posts and rails we
+wanted, it was comparatively easy work to punt the stuff into our own
+water. But then the carrying up from the landing-place, a quarter-mile
+or so, to the spot selected for the stockyard, was a labour indeed. It
+took six of us to lift one of the posts, so solid were they, and so
+heavy the timber. Old Colonial said--
+
+"We are giving over work, and taking to humping."
+
+This is a bit of pleasantry that only those who have tried it can
+understand, for humping timber is one of the most undesirable
+occupations possible; as many a galled shoulder and aching back could
+testify.
+
+Puriri timber is the strongest and most durable of any in the country.
+We knew that kauri would give us less work, but the result would not be
+so lasting or satisfactory. Therefore, we elected to go in for puriri.
+
+The posts stand about eight feet above ground, and are sunk some three
+or four into it. Their average thickness will be from nine inches to a
+foot. They carry five rails almost as substantial as the posts, both
+being of roughly split timber. The rails are fixed into holes, bored and
+wedged in the posts. Slip-panels form an entrance. Such was our first
+stockyard--a substantial, thoroughly secure, and cattle-proof enclosure.
+And it is as good now as it was eight years ago. For a long time it
+served all our needs; but, subsequently, we have put up other yards, a
+milking-shed with bails, sheep-pens and hog-pens, all constructed of
+rough material, cut by ourselves in the bush.
+
+Having now got our habitation and our stockyard completed, and it being
+well on in the wet season, with the newly-sown grass springing green
+over the charred surface of the clearing, obviously it was time to
+introduce stock. Our agent in Auckland bought for us a dozen good, young
+cows and a bull, which were despatched to us on a small schooner. She
+brought them up the river; and then they were dumped into the water, and
+swum ashore. The whole lot cost us about a hundred pounds, freight and
+other charges included, the cows being four or five pounds apiece, and
+the bull forty, he being a well-bred shorthorn from the Napier herd.
+
+The cows were belled, and the whole little herd turned loose in the
+bush. But the cows were tame, some of them being in milk, and we had not
+much trouble in keeping them near home. The bull would not wander far
+from the cows, and we drove them up and yarded them, with a good feed of
+fresh koraka, every now and then. Besides the cattle we introduced some
+pigs, fowls, and a dog or two. Before long we were milking daily, and
+beginning to turn out butter and cheese; for the cows throve on the
+plenteous feed in the bush.
+
+Although the wet season is not the usual time for felling bush, yet we
+went to work at that at once. We were anxious to get as much grass as we
+could the first year, so that we might get some sheep on it. For, though
+cattle find plenty of feed in the bush--leafage, and shoots of
+trees--sheep must be provided with grass, and there is no grass suitable
+for pasturage indigenous to _Northern_ New Zealand. Accordingly, we
+worked steadily at bush-falling right along to the end of the succeeding
+summer; and when the next wet season came round again, we were able to
+contemplate a hundred and forty acres sown down with grass.
+
+Axe-work was our principal daily toil, and it is a somewhat different
+thing as practised here, to what the English woodman has to do. A
+bushman's work is severe and energetic, altogether in contrast with the
+lazy stop-and-rest methods of too many labourers at home. It is a fierce
+but steady and continuous onslaught upon the woods. Everything must fall
+before the axe, and everything does fall. Once I was watching the
+prostration of a Worcestershire oak. It was a tree that might have had
+some twelve feet of girth. Three men and a boy were employed at it,
+armed with ropes and pulleys, wedges, saws, and all sorts of implements,
+besides axes; and it was two days and a half before they got the tree to
+earth. If a single bushman could not have knocked that tree over before
+dinner-time, he would not have been worth wages in this country; I am
+sure of that.
+
+Of course, it is an understood thing that England cannot turn out an
+axe. If you want an axe that is really good for anything, you must go to
+America for it. Here, in the bush, all our tools come from the land of
+the Stars and Stripes. Why it should be so ask English cutlers. English
+tools and cutlery of all sorts cannot find a sale here; for bitter
+experience has taught us what inferior and unreliable goods they are.
+American things never fail us. We do not buy them because they are
+cheaper, but because they are better. They are exactly what we want, and
+of sterling quality.
+
+Now, Sheffield can turn out the best hardware in the world, no one can
+deny that. Then, why do we not get some of it out here? Some settlers,
+who have furnished themselves in Sheffield itself, can show tools of
+finer make than the American ones. But all the cutlery that we see
+anything of in the stores, if it be English, is thoroughly worthless.
+Why will English traders continue to suppose that any rubbish is good
+enough for the colonies? We are afraid to buy English implements and
+tools out here; and every experienced colonist prefers to trust America.
+Our patriotism is humiliated, but we cannot afford to be cheated.
+Surely, trade interests must suffer in the long run, by the pertinacity
+with which English traders send inferior goods to the colonies.
+
+In felling bush, or "falling" it, as we say here, advantage is taken of
+the lay of the land. To make the burn which is to follow a good one, the
+stuff must all lie in the same direction. The tops of the felled trees
+should point downhill as much as possible. The trees are gashed at about
+three feet from the ground. This saves the bushman's back, obviating the
+necessity of his stooping, and, moreover, allows him to get through more
+work. Also, in after years, when the stumps are rotten, they are more
+easily pulled out of the ground. By a simple disposition of the
+direction in which the gashes are cut, the bushman is able to bring down
+his tree to whichever side he wishes. A bill-hook, or slasher,
+supplements the axe, for the purpose of clearing all the undergrowth.
+Nothing is left standing above waist-height.
+
+The usual time for bush-falling is the dry season, that is to say, from
+August till March, in which last month the burn is usually accomplished.
+By that time the fallen stuff has been pretty well dried in the summer
+sun, and will burn clean. Fires are started along the bottoms on days
+when the wind is favourable. Some experience is needful to ensure a good
+burn. Should the burn be a bad one, after work is much increased, and
+wages consequently spoilt.
+
+After the burn comes the logging, that is, the collection into heaps of
+such _debris_ as lies about unburnt, and the final burning of these
+heaps. During April and May the rains begin; and then grass seed is sown
+broadcast over the charred expanse. It soon sprouts up, and in a couple
+of months there will begin to be some pasturage. Before next season a
+good strong turf ought to have formed among the stumps. Every farmer has
+his own particular ideas as to the kinds of seed to use. We used a
+mixture of poa pratensis, timothy, and Dutch clover, and have abundant
+reason to be satisfied with the result.
+
+When bush-falling is performed by hired labour, it usually goes by
+contract. The bushman agrees to fall, fire, and log a specified tract,
+at a fixed price per acre. Such bush as ours would go at thirty
+shillings to three pounds an acre, according to the size of the trees on
+the average. A bushman reckons to earn five shillings a day, taking one
+day with another, so he ought to knock down an acre of stuff in from
+five to ten days. Thirty or forty acres represent one man's work for the
+season.
+
+A good deal of judgment is required in making these contracts. Where
+there is a great deal of supple-jack, or tawhera scrub, the work may get
+on as slowly as if the trees were comparatively large. And there is a
+good deal of luck in the burn, for if it be a bad one there may be
+weeks of logging afterwards. Sometimes, at the end of the season, a
+bushman may find that his contract has not paid him much more than the
+worth of his tucker during the time; or, on the other hand, he may find
+he has made ten shillings a day clear out.
+
+New-chums often find a job of bush-falling is the first thing they can
+get hold of, and a bitter apprenticeship it is. Their aching backs and
+blistered hands convey a very real notion of what hard work and manual
+labour means. And this goes wearily on day after day, while, very
+likely, they find they are not earning a shilling a day, do all they
+may. The ordinary English agricultural labourer, transplanted here, does
+not seem to do better at this work at the start than the "young
+gentleman." His class take a lot of teaching, and anything new appears
+to be a tremendous difficulty to them. Moreover, they have to learn the
+meaning of an Antipodean ganger's frequent cry, "Double up, there!
+Double up!" And they do not like to work so hard that every now and then
+a stop must be made to wring out the dripping shirt. Worst of all, there
+is seldom any beer in the bush!
+
+After we had got some grass clearings, the next thing to do was to fence
+them in. A very necessary thing that; first, to keep the sheep in--and,
+second, to keep the wild pigs out. Two most important reasons, besides
+other lesser ones.
+
+Fencing of many kinds has been tried in the colony, the question of
+relative cost under different circumstances mainly influencing settlers
+in their choice. I need only mention four varieties as being general in
+the North. They are post-and-rail, wire, wattle, and stake.
+
+The first is undoubtedly the best of any, but the labour of cutting,
+splitting, getting on the ground, and setting up is so great, that the
+cost of such a fence is very heavy. It may cost two to five pounds a
+chain, or more; but it should require no repairs for ten or twelve
+years, and is proof against cattle, sheep, or pigs. The materials,
+whether kauri, totara, or other timber, is much the same as that we used
+for our stockyard, only, of course, it is not needed anything like so
+strong. But it is the same sort of rough stuff, procured in the same
+way.
+
+As to wire fences, they are useful enough for keeping sheep in, and come
+in well for inner fences, being sufficiently cheap and easily set up.
+But they will not keep out wild pigs, and cattle, accustomed to force
+their way through the thickets of the bush, mistake wire fences for mere
+supple-jack, and walk straight through them. Wattles interlaced on
+stakes make first-rate protection, but they can only be used with
+economy when the supply of them is close handy.
+
+The fence most commonly seen on new farms, and that may fairly be termed
+the pioneer's mainstay, is a simple one of stakes. This is the kind we
+went in for, as we had the material for it in any quantity upon our own
+land.
+
+The stakes are the trunks of young trees, either whole or split. They
+are about four inches diameter at the thickest end, and are set up at
+three or four inches apart. The stakes are connected by one or more
+battens nailed along them, or by wires. They are cut eight or nine feet
+in length, so as to allow of a good six feet above ground when set up.
+Red, black, and white birch are used, also red and white ti-tree, the
+last variety being most esteemed, as it is more durable. A stake-fence
+ought to be proof against both pigs and cattle, and is reckoned to be
+good for seven years; if of white ti-tree it will last ten or twelve
+years. It will cost, in labour, from eight shillings a chain and
+upwards, according to the distance the cut stakes have to be moved.
+
+Our work in fencing was as follows. The first clearing we set about
+enclosing was on the side of a range, and included forty or fifty acres.
+If this were a square there would be some eighty chains or a mile of
+fencing required to enclose it. Practically, there were nearer a
+hundred chains of boundary. Each chain required from a hundred to a
+hundred and thirty stakes. This is about the number that one of us could
+cut in the day, and bring out of the adjoining bush on to the line. For
+we got our material in the standing bush close to the clearing, working
+along the edge of the woods, and seldom having to go further than five
+chains away from the edge of the clearing to find suitable trees.
+
+Two or three men were engaged in pointing the stakes, and dumping and
+malleting them into the ground. Sometimes they would put up four or five
+chains in the day, sometimes only one; it depended on the nature of the
+ground. When the weather was wet, and the ground soft, the work was
+naturally lighter. After the stakes were set up we had to batten them
+together. We bought several boatloads of battens--rough outside boards
+split up, and the like--for next to nothing, at the Wairoa saw-mills,
+and got them down to our place. Then we had to hump them up to the
+ground; no light work, for a load had to be carried often nearly a mile
+uphill. We purchased a keg or two of nails, and finally fixed up the
+fence.
+
+We were proud of our clearings when they were new, and we are proud of
+them still. But they would look strange sort of paddocks to an English
+farmer's eye. The ground is all hills and hollows, lying on the sides of
+ranges, or stretching across the gullies. Amidst the grass is a dazzling
+perspective of black and white stumps, looking like a crop of
+tombstones, seen endways; and round the whole careers, uphill and down
+dale, the rough, barbarous, uncouth-looking stake fence. Never mind! Off
+that gaunt and unseemly tract has come many a good bale of wool, many a
+fair keg of butter, or portly cheese. What have we to do with trim
+appearances?
+
+In the course of fencing operations, the Little'un developed a wonderful
+aptitude for the manufacture of gates. Whether he had learnt the whole
+art of carpentry from his practice upon a certain chair, elsewhere
+described, I do not know; but his gates are a marvel of ingenuity, and
+really very capital contrivances. Only, he is so vain of his
+performance, that he wishes to put a gate about every hundred yards. A
+constant warfare is waged upon this point, between him and Old Colonial,
+who does not seem to approve of gates at all.
+
+In subsequent years we have done something towards making live-fences.
+We have dug ditches and banks within some of the fences, planting them
+with thorn, acacia, Vermont damson, Osage orange, and other hedge
+material. We have now some very good and sightly hedges. Luckily, we
+never tried whins, or furze, as here called. This is a vile thing. It
+makes a splendid hedge, but it spreads across the clearing and ruins the
+grass; and it is the worst of weeds to eradicate.
+
+Whins and thistles are the only bad things that Bonnie Scotland has sent
+out here. They, and sweetbriar, are given to spreading wherever they go.
+In some localities in the North there are clearings submerged under
+whins or sweetbriar, and there are forests of thistles, which march
+onward and devour all before them. Whins you cannot clear, unless by
+toil inadequate to the present value of land. But thistles can be
+effectually burnt, I believe. At any rate, they die out after a term of
+years, and, it is said, leave the land sweet and clean. So they are,
+perhaps, not an unmixed curse.
+
+We think that thorn makes the best hedge. But there are objections to
+it. It is not easily or quickly reared, and it straggles on light soils;
+moreover, it is always needing attention. We have no time to spare for
+clipping and laying and all that sort of thing. Labour has to be
+severely economized on pioneer farms.
+
+Of course, all the time these things were proceeding, we were
+simultaneously busied with other matters. Chiefly were we providing for
+our own immediate sustenance. The pigs were bred and well looked after,
+fattened, butchered, made into pork, or cured. Poultry was also
+carefully regarded, especially the turkeys, which are so valuable in
+keeping down crickets, and make such an important addition to the
+commissariat. Then there was the garden.
+
+We have several gardens at present, as we follow the custom of enclosing
+any particularly choice bit of land, and using it for our next year's
+crop of potatoes, kumera, or maize. Some of these enclosures are
+afterwards turned into the general grass, or are converted into
+orchards, and so on.
+
+The first garden we made was set apart for the purpose directly after
+the shanty was finished, and certain of our party were engaged
+exclusively upon it for the time being. It comprehended two or three
+acres on the shoulder of a low range, and was once the site of a Maori
+kainga, or village. Hence, the scrub that covered it was not of large
+growth, while the soil is exceptionally loose and rich, consisting of
+black mould largely intermixed with shells. This space we cleared and
+fenced in. Then we went to work with spade and pickaxe and mattock.
+
+We cut drains through the garden, and laid it off into sections. These
+were planted with potatoes, kumera, melons, pumpkins, onions, and
+maize. Digging was, of course, a hard job, the ground being full of
+roots. We threw out these as we dug, or left them; it does not matter
+much, for as long as we just covered the seeds anyhow, the rest was of
+small concern. After a crop or two the ground gets into better
+condition, and what we put in thrives just as well among the stumps as
+not.
+
+Round the sides of the garden we planted peach-stones, which have now
+developed into an avenue of fine trees. We also set cuttings of
+fig-trees, apples, pears, loquats, and oranges, obtained from some
+neighbour.
+
+Thus, before we had been a year on the land, we had gone a good way
+towards providing the bulk of our food-supply for the future. We have
+since seldom had to buy anything but our flour, tea, sugar, salt and
+tobacco, so far as important and absolutely needful items are concerned.
+
+And now that I have recorded the manner of our start, I may go on to
+speak of things as they are, seven or eight years later.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+OUR PIONEER FARM.
+
+II.
+
+
+We have a large farm, and a great deal of work to get through, but then
+there are eight or nine of us to share in the first and to do the
+latter; yet we find that we never have time to do all that we ought to
+do, and all that we want to do. Every year brings with it an increasing
+amount of labour, just to keep things going as they are, consequently
+the time for enlarging the farm becomes more and more limited. Thus it
+is, that though we cleared and grassed a hundred and forty acres in our
+first year, yet we have now only five or six hundred acres of grass in
+our eighth.
+
+Hampered as we were by the lack of capital, and by the necessity of
+scraping and pinching to meet those payments spoken of, it is little
+wonder that we seem as poor and pauperized as we were at the
+commencement. But we are by no means really so. We are actually in very
+good circumstances. Our farm is immensely increased in value, and is now
+beginning to pay substantially. Another year will see the sum completed,
+which will close the purchase of the land. After that, we shall have
+means to make outlays of sundry kinds, be able to build a fine house, go
+in for marriage. Who knows what else?
+
+The grass on our clearings is rich and abundant, and, owing to the
+nature of the soil, keeps fresh and green all through the dry season,
+when other districts are crying out against the drought. In spite of the
+standing stumps, the rough ground, and the mere surface-sowing, our
+grass will carry four sheep per acre all the year round; some of it
+more. It is not all fenced in--that would be too much to expect--but
+most of it is; and what is not gives the milch cows plenty of feed, and
+so keeps them from wandering off. The clearings are not all in one
+piece. They are divided off into paddocks, and there is a good deal of
+standing bush among them, some of which will eventually come down, and
+some of which will be left.
+
+We have now seven or eight hundred head of sheep. We had to buy our
+original store flock on credit, but the increase and wool has enabled us
+to pay that off long since. Similarly, grass-seed, some stock, and
+other things were bought on credit, which has since been liquidated.
+What we have is our own. We have had years of incessant toil, the
+hardest possible work, with plenty of food, but little comfort and no
+holidays to speak of. Two or three years more of it, and then we shall
+be in a condition to really enjoy the prosperity we have laboured for.
+
+Except at shearing and lambing seasons, our Lincolns and Leicesters give
+us but little trouble. We did try the merino breed, but they broke
+through the fence and ran away into the bush, where we occasionally see
+traces of them, and have once or twice caught one and turned it into
+mutton. Shearing is a great business, but we are all accomplished hands
+at it now, and our bales are larger every year as the flock increases.
+Wool is ready money here, being an article that can always be negotiated
+at once with the Auckland dealers. Our wool is reckoned of even better
+quality than that grown on the great sheepwalks of Canterbury and Otago.
+
+During a great part of the year we are milking ten to twenty cows daily,
+and, in spite of the seeming inefficiency of our dairy arrangements, we
+send a goodly store of butter and cheese to the township, whence it goes
+to Auckland and elsewhere. We fatten pigs, too, on skim-milk, maize,
+pumpkins, and peaches grown by ourselves. A score or two are usually to
+be seen on the clearings round the shanty. We are able butchers and
+curers; and Old Colonial excels in the manufacture of brawn, sausages,
+collared head, and the like. Most of the pig-meat is consumed by
+ourselves. In one form or other it is our staple food. But occasionally
+we sell a barrel of pork, or some flitches and hams, to such local
+buyers as the bushmen employed at the saw-mills.
+
+Dandy Jack talks of introducing Angora goats. I do not know exactly why,
+but he appears to think the project a good one. He has long ago given up
+mere coaching. In fact, people began to have doubts about entrusting
+themselves to his driving, though I hesitate to record such a
+disagreeable matter. He joined our society some years ago, though he is
+not always with us, gravitating invariably towards all the races, horse
+and cattle fairs of the country. But he has set up as a horse breeder
+and trainer, keeping his stud on our clearings, and thus adding another
+industry to the various others of our pioneer farm. This is a good thing
+for us, as Jack's horses come in very usefully sometimes, for carrying
+or dragging purposes.
+
+Our largest source of income just at present is the herd. First there is
+the dairy business, which I have already spoken of. The milch cows keep
+on the clearings, or near to them, and soon get tame enough to come up
+when called. They are brought to the bails morning and evening, fastened
+up, and given a feed of koraka. All cattle are very fond of the leaves
+of the koraka-tree, and it is used to entice them with when that is
+required. Of course, it will be understood that, as there is no cold
+winter here, we do not require to house our cattle at any season, nor do
+we need to provide them with hay or root food. They find their own
+living all the year round, either in the bush or on the clearings, and
+the most we do is to give them maize-stalks when we have some.
+
+The bulk of the herd, numbering now upwards of two hundred head, runs
+free in the bush. There is no native grass, as I have before mentioned,
+and the feed is tree leafage. This suits the cattle, and they fatten
+well upon it, though not turning out very large beasts. But the
+pasture-fed cattle of the South are not in prime condition for market
+during the dry-season. Our bush-raised beasts are, and this gives us a
+pull.
+
+The best part of one man's time is always taken up with stock duty. To
+keep the cattle from becoming unmanageably wild, and from getting too
+far away, they must be constantly driven up to the yards, and accustomed
+to discipline. It is our practice to give every beast a night in the
+yard at least once in six weeks. And it is also essentially necessary
+to keep an eye on calving cows, for if the calf is not brought up at
+once, branded, and so forth, it will be sure to turn out wild and a
+rusher, and then it would have to be shot at once, to prevent its
+infecting other beasts.
+
+Of course, we are all stockmen more or less; but Old Colonial and the
+Saint are the chief hands at this work. The latter gentleman did not
+receive his appellation, as might be supposed, from any relations which
+his character bore to it. He was intended for the Church at one time;
+but, perhaps, the Church is to be congratulated in that it did not
+receive him. There is nothing mild or milk-and-watery about our Saint,
+though he has his own peculiar moral code, and is strictly scrupulous in
+its observance.
+
+The Saint is the most elaborate swearer I ever heard. That is, when he
+is driving cattle. At other times he most conscientiously refrains from
+everything but abstract rectitude of speech. He says that you cannot
+drive cattle without swearing; that they understand you so far, and
+never think you are in earnest till they hear an oath. Whip and dogs and
+roaring will not do without some good hearty swearing, too. The Saint
+says so, and he ought to know. He declares that he could never bring up
+cattle unless he swore at them. I think I have heard something similar
+from other drovers. Perhaps some naturalist will be good enough to
+explain this extraordinary characteristic of cattle.
+
+The cattle associate themselves into mobs. Each such mob is headed by an
+old bell-cow, sometimes by two or three. Bulls, of which we have now
+two, are sometimes with one mob and sometimes with another. Individual
+beasts, belonging to neighbours of ours, are to be found running with
+certain mobs belonging to us, and the reverse is also the case. We have
+to look after the strange beasts with our own, and our neighbours do the
+same by us. At musters, or when drafting for market, we make the
+necessary exchanges. But we have only two neighbours on this side the
+river who run cattle in the bush; one lives six miles off, and the other
+fifteen.
+
+We keep a stock-book, in which every beast is entered. Each cow receives
+a name when she becomes a mother, and her offspring are known by
+numbers. Steers are never named. They have only four years of it, being
+sent off to market at the end of that time. Then a line is drawn through
+the "Beauty's third," or "Rosebud's fourth," which has designated their
+individuality in the stock-book; and the price they have fetched is
+entered opposite. The various mobs are known by the names of the old
+cows that lead them. Thus, we speak of "White Star's mob," or "Redspot's
+mob."
+
+It is the stockman's duty to know each individual beast, and also to
+know the members that compose each mob. He has to go out with the dogs
+almost every day to hunt up some mob or other. Our bush is much too
+dense to admit of riding, except along certain narrow tracks, partly
+natural and partly cut with the axe, which serve as bridle-roads, and
+keep open communication with distant settlements or settlers' places. So
+the member of our fraternity who happens to be stockman has to go
+cattle-hunting afoot.
+
+Cattle-hunting, as we term this employment, has a certain charm and air
+of sporting about it; but it is by no means light work, especially in
+warm weather. The stockman has to travel through pathless woods all the
+time, and has an area of twenty to thirty miles round our place in which
+to search for his cattle. He takes some fixed route to start with,
+making for some distant locality, where experience has taught him such
+and such a mob are likely to be feeding. On his way he takes note of any
+cattle he may come across, marks the gullies they are in, and thus,
+having knowledge of the ways of cattle, is able to guess within a mile
+or two where those mobs are likely to be found when wanted.
+
+Moreover, a good stockman gets to be experienced in tracking. He reads
+"sign" in every broken bough or trampled water-hole, and this guides him
+in finding the mob he wants. We know the bush around us pretty well by
+this time, about as well, in fact, as a cabman knows the streets of
+London. It is all mapped out in our minds, and we talk of various spots
+by name, either their Maori names, if they have such, or fancy titles we
+have given them.
+
+Of course, the dogs are our main reliance, though, even without them,
+such able hands as Old Colonial and the Saint can get on well enough.
+But clever, well-trained cattle-dogs are a treasure beyond price in the
+bush; and this we know, taking great pains with our colleys. The cattle
+lie very close in the dense thickets of foliage, and hide themselves
+from sight. One may run slap into a beast before it will move. But the
+dogs traverse the gullies on the stockman's flanks, and start up any
+cattle that may be in them. Here is where the value of the dogs
+consists, for, if they are not well-trained, they may run after wild
+pigs, or rats, or kiwis, and give a lot of trouble.
+
+Sometimes, after tracking the forest for many a weary mile, the stockman
+will have to return without finding the mob he wanted. Occasionally he
+will have to camp out, not because of losing himself--that seldom
+happens to us now--but because of the distance he is from home. So a
+stockman rarely goes out without three requisites about him--food,
+matches, and tobacco. Except in wet weather, camping out is no
+particular hardship to us. One can always make oneself comfortable
+enough in the bush, if one has those three articles, that are the
+bushman's "never-be-withouts."
+
+When the cattle are found, belonging to a mob that the stockman thinks
+proper to drive home, comes some very heavy and exciting work. We call
+our beasts tame, and so they are in a sense; still, compared to the
+gentle creatures one sees on English meadows, they are scarcely to be so
+characterized.
+
+At one time a mob will head for home, and go straight and quietly
+enough, needing only the dogs at their heels to keep them in the right
+direction. At another time the mob will scatter, and the members of it
+prove very unruly. They will charge and rush in every direction but the
+right one, and the very devil seems to be in the beasts. Scrambling up
+steep ranges, dashing down precipitous ravines, and always forcing a
+passage through dense undergrowth and jungle, plunging through marsh and
+bog, chasing to right and to left, it is a wonder how dogs and men get
+through the work they do. And often there are miles and miles of this
+before the welcome clearing comes in view.
+
+What is the condition of a stockman after he has brought up his mob and
+yarded it for the night? He has walked and run and scrambled, perhaps,
+twenty or thirty miles during the day, and that not over a plain road,
+but through the rough and hilly forest. He is totally tired out and
+exhausted. He is dripping with sweat, caked with mud from head to foot,
+his shirt torn to rags, his skin scratched all over, and very likely
+some nasty bruises from tumbles. He has hardly energy enough left to
+wash himself. Supper does not revive him, though he stows away an
+appallingly large one. And then he stretches himself in his bunk and is
+happy. Only, when morning comes again, he awakes stiff and sore. But, no
+matter for that, inexorable duty claims him for the same toil. And so
+wags our daily life--hard, unremitting, unromantic labour, day after
+day, year after year. Still we say it is a glorious life, and we believe
+what we say. Anyhow, it is better than being chained to a desk, or
+growing purblind "poring over miserable books."
+
+If you can only realize what cattle-hunting means, the shouting and
+roaring after them and the dogs, the loss of temper that fatigue
+induces, and the consequent aggravation when beasts are unruly, perhaps
+you will forgive the Saint for his "exuberant verbosity" in relation to
+cattle. Even a real saint might swear under the circumstances, and be
+held excused by his peers in the celestial hierarchy.
+
+Our four-year-old steers do not show very large, considered from English
+farmers' points of view. Fifteen or sixteen hundred lbs. is about the
+maximum of our fat beasts. But the beef is of first-rate quality; and as
+bush-fed beasts are in good condition at the end of the dry season, when
+pasture-raised cattle are poor, we do as well by them as could be
+desired. The bush is always cool and fresh and moist, even when all the
+grass is withered and brown on the pastures; and this is one of the
+reasons why we prefer bush-land to open-land for pioneer farming.
+
+There is a standing controversy waged among settlers, as to whether it
+is better to take up such land as ours or to go in for a tract of open
+fern-land. On open lands you can easily clear the ground, and, though it
+will not, as a rule, yield grass for mere surface-sowing, yet the plough
+can be put into it within a year or two. But the cost of fencing it is
+much higher; and the open-land farmer must wait longer for returns such
+as will keep him. He has no bush-feed for cattle as we have, and it is
+cattle that the pioneer relies on for his support at first. It is eight
+or twelve years before the bush-farmer gets a chance of ploughing; but
+then his cattle keep him going from the outset. Also, our burnt
+clearings will yield us good grass for surface-sowing, which will feed
+sheep until the stumps have rotted and the plough can be used. The sum
+of it is that open-lands will pay a man with good capital quicker, while
+bush-lands are the only possible thing for such poorer folk as
+ourselves.
+
+We send steers to Auckland market two or three times a year. Once or
+twice we have driven them overland, a distance of eighty miles or so by
+the map. This is not so far, certainly; but then there are no proper
+roads, and most of the way lies through thick bush. There is a faint
+apology for a bridle-track through the forest, not very easy to find,
+which strikes the Great North Road about twenty miles from here. And
+this same Great North Road, in spite of a pretentious title, and also in
+spite of being marked in the maps with a heavy black line, as though it
+were a highway of the Watling Street description, is just a mere
+bridle-track, too, hardly discoverable at all for the greater portion of
+its length.
+
+Two or three of us ride along these tracks with the cattle. One or two
+have to be most of the time on foot, while the third leads their horses.
+They are plunging through the otherwise impenetrable scrub after dogs
+and cattle, which last will not keep the line. The whole journey takes
+about a week. We camp down at night, and half the next day is taken up
+with hunting for some of the beasts that have strayed. Usually one or
+two are lost altogether before Auckland is reached.
+
+This sort of thing hardly pays, unless a considerable number of beasts
+have to be sent at once; and then the steers have lost condition before
+they can be got to market. I have had some experience of this
+cattle-driving work; and of all the aggravating jobs I know, it
+certainly is the very worst.
+
+We usually send up our fat steers in batches of a dozen or so at a time,
+and prefer now to have them conveyed by water. When we have arranged to
+do so, there is a grand muster of the herd. Mob after mob is brought up
+and enclosed in the fenced clearings, until we have collected together
+all we deem necessary.
+
+Then comes the job of drafting out the steers selected for market. This
+is a work of difficulty. All hands are required to achieve it, and often
+several neighbours will come over to assist. A small paddock, or a
+stockyard, opens out of the larger one wherein the herd is assembled.
+The slip-panels between are guarded by four men. Others on horseback,
+armed with the formidable loud-cracking stock-whips, drive the cattle
+slowly towards the gate. Then comes the tug of war. Each man uses all
+his endeavours to drive the chosen steers through the gate, while the
+rest are excluded.
+
+A regular battle is fought over every steer; for the guardians of the
+gate often fail in preventing other beasts from getting through as well,
+as they will not separate. Then the driving is renewed from the other
+side. The cattle get wild and furious, charging and rushing at
+everything and everybody, and the men on foot have to look out for
+themselves very warily. The racket and row make up an indescribable din.
+
+As each four-year-old is finally drafted out, it is driven into a
+separate yard, until all are secured there. Then the bulk of the herd
+are turned loose into the bush again. By-and-by, perhaps a day or two
+later, comes the job of shipping the steers. In order to effect this
+they are transferred to a stockyard on the beach.
+
+We have chartered a sea-going cutter, and she lies off in the river,
+possibly two or three hundred yards from the beach. A rope connects her
+with the beach; and the noosed end of this is passed over the horns of
+one of the steers in the yard. Then comes a tussle to get that
+particular beast out of the yard while the others shall be kept in.
+Often, in spite of the dreaded stockwhips, one of the guardians of the
+slip-panels gets knocked over, and then away goes the mob of terrified
+beasts, tearing along the beach, and giving no end of trouble to get
+them back again. Once, I remember, a heavy steer bounded clean over the
+eight-foot fence of the stockyard, and got away.
+
+When the roped animal is got out on the beach, a ring of men drives him
+down to the water, the people on board the cutter hauling at the rope
+meanwhile. By this means he is easily got alongside of her, when once he
+is off his legs and swimming. Then a sling is passed under his belly,
+tackle is affixed, and, with a "Yeo, heave ho!" he is lifted on board
+and deposited in the hold. Then the process begins afresh until all the
+batch is shipped.
+
+The cutter sails down the river and out through the Heads into the open
+sea. She then coasts down and enters the Manukau Harbour, going up to
+Onehunga to unload. Onehunga is only six miles from Auckland, of which
+it is practically a part, being the port of the city on the west coast.
+It is connected with Auckland by railway and macadamized carriage-road.
+
+In Auckland market fat cattle sell at twenty to thirty shillings per
+hundred lbs., sometimes even a little more. Our beasts usually fetch us
+ten or twelve pounds apiece, after deducting freightage, and our
+agent's charges for receiving and selling them. This year, our herd of
+two hundred head yielded us three batches of four-year-old fat steers,
+each batch containing about a dozen head.
+
+When cattle breed wild in the bush they may be a source of considerable
+annoyance and loss. This does not matter in remoter districts, such as
+the recesses of the Hokianga forests. Wild cattle abound there, possibly
+in hundreds; and the Maoris make a good thing by hunting them for their
+hides. There are no settlers' cattle running in the bush there; but
+where there are, wild cattle would make them as wild as themselves, and
+would spoil a herd in no time. When they appear in a district,
+cattle-farmers have to combine to hunt them down and extirpate them.
+
+Once there were some wild cattle in the bush between Te Pahi and
+Paparoa, on the opposite side of our river. The settlers of Paparoa were
+hunting them down, and we were warned to look out, for fear the beasts
+should take to the water. They did do so, and a whole mob of them tried
+to swim over to our side.
+
+Fortunately we were on the look-out. At once a party took to the boats,
+while others watched along the shore. We were in a great funk about the
+matter, for if the wild bulls got over to our side it might mean almost
+ruin for us. So we charged gallantly at them in the water, and strove to
+head them back to the other side, where the Paparoa men were waiting for
+them.
+
+Such guns as we had were brought out, but they were little good, not
+being rifled, and we had no ball cartridge. Dandy Jack performed
+prodigies of valour with an old harpoon; and O'Gaygun used his axe with
+great success. Altogether, the excitement was great and the sport good.
+One bull overturned a boat, as it rowed alongside him; but the Fiend,
+who was in it, adroitly clambered on to the animal's back as it swam,
+and, with great difficulty, managed to open its throat with his knife.
+Seven or eight were killed in the water. Even the despised new-chums'
+pistols were brought into use, and in this emergency they proved really
+valuable. The beasts that effected the crossing were slaughtered on the
+beach; and altogether we killed some eighteen or twenty. We prevented
+them thus from getting into our bush, so saving our own herd from
+contamination. This has been our only experience of the kind in this
+district, luckily.
+
+There was an incident that happened once, in connection with cattle, of
+rather an unusual sort. So much so, in fact, that most people to whom we
+have at times spoken of it have doubted our veracity. I suppose it will
+add but little weight to the story if I premise it with the assertion
+that it is simple truth. Nevertheless, it _is_ actual fact, believe it
+or not who list.
+
+There was a grand assemblage at the station of a friend and neighbour of
+ours, on one of the Kaipara rivers. He had been running a large herd,
+over a thousand head of cattle, and was now going to dispose of the
+greater number. This was because the feed for them was getting short in
+his immediate neighbourhood; and because his land was now becoming ready
+for sheep and the plough.
+
+Nearly all the men in the district had been asked to come and assist at
+the mustering, drafting, and so on, of the herd. It was a gathering of
+the kind known in America as a "bee." And as a bee usually winds up with
+festivity, feasting, dancing, and the like, such femininities as the
+district possessed were brought over by their respective husbands or
+male relatives. While we busied ourselves with the cattle in the yard
+and on the run, the ladies were occupied with industries peculiar to
+themselves indoors, giving the mistress of the house the benefit of a
+sewing, scandal, and cooking bee, probably.
+
+We had been all day hard at work, and had pretty well got through all
+there was to do. Most of the cattle had been drafted into yards, had
+been branded or handled as required, and the work was nearly complete.
+Towards sundown we came to be most of us assembled about one of the
+yards.
+
+This was a stockyard, or paddock, of about two acres in extent, and
+within it an obstinate young bull remained solus, holding his own
+against us. It was necessary, for purposes which need not be specified,
+that the beast should be thrown and tied down. We usually accomplish the
+overthrow of big beasts by noosing their legs, and so tripping them up;
+but this bull was far too wary to let any one get near him, and was wild
+and vicious, moreover. Several of us had been fruitlessly trying, for an
+hour or more, to do something with him, and our host was now saying the
+beast had better be shot out of hand; but we had spent so much time over
+him already that we did not like to give in, and resolved we would throw
+him anyhow. None of us could stay inside the fence, so fierce were the
+rushes of the bull, and he was too cunning to let himself be caught by
+coming near the rails.
+
+As man after man concluded his other tasks, and came up to assist, our
+perplexity seemed to increase. Various plans were discussed, and put in
+operation, but the bull baffled them all. There was beginning to be a
+good deal of ill-temper and swearing among us.
+
+And now Dandy Jack appeared on the scene. He had not been with us during
+the day, having just rowed over from somewhere else. Of course he had
+gravitated towards the house when he arrived, and had been sunning
+himself in the ladies' smiles. Now he was strolling out to have a pipe,
+and to see what we were about.
+
+Tired, ill-tempered, and covered with muck as we all were, there was a
+tendency among us to resent this late arrival of Master Dandy Jack's;
+and this feeling, you may be sure, was not lessened by a contemplation
+of the extravagant cleanliness and daintiness of apparel that, as usual,
+pervaded this spruce lady-killer's outward man.
+
+He was hailed with a volley of sarcasm and personalities, amid which he
+stood, hands in pockets and pipe in mouth, placidly surveying us and the
+situation. At length, when a pause in the tempest of words gave him an
+opportunity of speaking, he said, in his softest and most delicate
+tones--
+
+"I see before me a number of gentlemen with whom I have the honour to be
+more or less acquainted. They are all hot, dirty, and disagreeable. I
+also see a stockyard, and within it four quarters of fresh beef,
+likewise hot, dirty, and disagreeable. There would seem to be a
+difficulty somewhere. Can I assist in removing it?"
+
+He was answered by a burly giant of a bushman, a Wairoa man, who had
+scant knowledge of our dandy.
+
+"P'raps you'll be so blanked polite as to show us how to capsize that
+blanked beast," he said, adding with bitter irony, "if it ain't too much
+to ask from such a blanked, pretty, drawing-room ornament!"
+
+"Oh, certainly! with all the pleasure in life!" responded Dandy Jack
+urbanely. "Will you kindly keep my pipe alight for a minute?"
+
+Then, to everybody's amazement, he vaulted over the fence and approached
+the bull. Instantly that animal saw him, down went his head, of course,
+and up went his tail, as he charged upon the sauntering figure. But Jack
+dodged the rush with the nimbleness of a practised picador; and the bull
+crashed against the fence. Again and again the same performance was
+repeated, while we all watched round the fence, calling to Jack at
+intervals to come out of his dangerous situation. He only nodded
+carelessly, and continued to saunter about as if no bull was near him.
+
+Presently, the bull stood stock-still, then commenced pawing the ground,
+tossing his head and tail, bellowing, and eyeing Jack, who was leisurely
+moving towards him right in front. He had apparently grown tired of
+charging this figure that always eluded him, and was uncertain what to
+do next. So Dandy Jack walked on till he was within a yard or two of the
+bull's nose. Then the beast thought it was time to do something, and
+concluded to try the effect of one more rush.
+
+But he was too late. Directly that his angry head went down, with a
+preparatory sweep, Dandy Jack, whose assumed carelessness really covered
+a preternatural degree of alertness, sprang at him.
+
+It was all done so quickly that we spectators could hardly distinguish
+what was happening. We saw Jack seize one of the bull's horns with both
+hands, we saw him place his foot upon the other. Then came a wrench and
+a wrestle, all in the space of one moment, and then Jack was whirling
+through the air, to fall lightly enough on the soft ground half a dozen
+yards off.
+
+But the bull lay rolling on his back. That twist of his head had
+overbalanced him. And before he could recover himself and scramble to
+his feet, we had sprang over the fence and got him securely tied with
+our ready ropes.
+
+A few minutes later, our eccentric chum was quietly sitting on the
+prostrate and helpless carcase of his late antagonist. With his usual
+dainty care he was ridding himself of the dust and dirt that had soiled
+him when he fell. The Wairoa man was regarding him in blank
+astonishment. Clearly, Dandy Jack was an entirely new species of the
+_genus homo_ to him. Thus spake the bull-fighter, with elaborate
+affectation of languor and softness--
+
+"Look here, old fellow! You don't understand what a bull is. I'll tell
+you. It's a thing that some people look at from the safe side of the
+fence, and that other people take by the horns."
+
+This was hardly fair upon the giant, perhaps. But after his doughty
+deed, Dandy Jack was to be excused if he improved the occasion, and
+revenged himself for the sneer that had previously been cast upon him.
+
+Oh! we are getting on fast and famously now, with our farm. The stumps
+on the first clearing are now completely rotten; so we have pulled them
+out, piled them in heaps, and burnt them. This clearing is ready for the
+plough. Besides, there is a piece of flat, marshy ground below our
+shanty on the left, and this was only covered originally with flax,
+swamp-grass, and small shrubs. In the dry season we have burnt this off
+as it stood. The soil is not deep, but it is good, and we shall plough
+this in with the other. There will be about fifty acres of plough land
+altogether, and twice as much more next year, or the year after.
+
+We have borrowed a plough and harrows from a neighbour, and are going
+to work. Ploughing is quite a new industry up here. There are some of
+the settlers round who have got lands under plough before this; but not
+to any great extent. To us it seems to open up a boundless vista of
+opulence, and there is no end to our speculations, and to the general
+excitement in our shanty.
+
+Wheat! We must grow it, of course; and a flour-mill at the township is
+an imperative necessity. Somebody must start one, and that quickly. Why
+should we go on eating Adelaide flour, when we are growing wheat
+ourselves? They have reaped sixty and eighty bushels to an acre, in the
+South Island, and their average is thirty! So Old Colonial tells us.
+Well, our land is richer than theirs, and our climate is better too, so
+much cannot be gainsaid. _Ergo_, we shall have better crops. South
+Island corn has been sold in London at a profit; and has been judged
+first-class in quality. _Ergo_, again, ours must infallibly top the
+markets of the world. That is, what we are _going_ to grow, you
+understand.
+
+Then there is the great sugar question. Government is always offering
+divers incentives to new industries. It has offered a bonus of L500 to
+whomsoever produces the first fifty tons of beet-root sugar in New
+Zealand. That is, over and above what the sugar may fetch in the market.
+We say, why should not we go in for it? So many acres of beet, a
+crushing mill, a few coppers and some tubs, and there you are! Wealth,
+my boy! Wealth!
+
+But O'Gaygun has misgivings. "This is not a whate-growin' counthry," he
+declares. It is far too rough and hilly. There are too many difficulties
+in the way. You can grow wheat to a certain extent, of course. The North
+can produce enough for its own consumption, and more. It will pay as one
+among other operations and productions. But we must not think of it as
+our principal or staple industry.
+
+And then as to sugar. You must have a couple of hundred acres of beet at
+least, to begin with. A mill and appliances that are to be of real use
+would cost L2000 or so. Your bonus would be but a small thing if you got
+it. If all the farmers in the district were to combine to grow beet-root
+on every acre they could plough, and nothing else, even then it would
+hardly pay the sugar-mills, or possibly the farmers either. Stick to
+cattle and sheep, to pigs and potatoes, "Ontil ye're able to give ye're
+attintion to fruit. Fruit! Whativver ye can do wid it, that's what this
+counthry's made for! Wine! an' ile! an' raisins! an'----"
+
+"Oh, shut up, O'Gaygun! Get out, you miserable misanthrope!"
+
+Nevertheless, I think our Irish chum was about right in what he said,
+after all, especially in the last part of his remarks.
+
+Dandy Jack had been training horses, and Old Colonial had been gentling
+bullocks; so we had a choice of draggers for the plough. We ploughed in
+those fifty acres, fenced them round, and put in potatoes for a cleaning
+crop, to thoroughly break up the old turf. We hope to get two crops in
+the year. The second will be maize and pumpkins. Then, next year, wheat.
+
+The new-ploughed land is surveyed with rapture by us; but it is
+something different from an English field, after all. The ground was so
+irregular and rough; our beasts were not too easy to manage; and
+then--but this is unimportant--it was our first essay at ploughing. The
+furrows are not exactly straight, and there is a queer, shaggy look
+about them. But the potatoes are in, and a crop we shall have, no doubt
+about it. What more can possibly be needed?
+
+I have mentioned that we have several enclosures that may be termed
+gardens. So we have, and what they produce fully bears out O'Gaygun's
+opinion, as to this being essentially a fruit country. Of course our
+spade industry gives us all the vegetables we require, when we lay
+ourselves out for it. The worst of growing anything except roots is the
+immense amount of weeding required; the weeds spring in no time; and
+they are of such a savage sort in this fertile land.
+
+We grow large quantities of melons--water-melons, musk-melons,
+rock-melons, Spanish melons, pie-melons, and so on. Also, we grow
+marrows and pumpkins in profusion, as the pigs are fed on them as well
+as ourselves. These plants do not want much weeding. They may be grown,
+too, among the maize. Kumera, or sweet potatoes, we grow a good deal of;
+also many other vegetables, when we think we have time to plant them.
+
+But in fruit we excel. There is a neighbour of ours who goes in for
+tree-culture exclusively, and who has a nursery from which he supplies
+Auckland. To him we owe a greater variety than we should otherwise have,
+perhaps.
+
+First, there are peaches. We have a great number of trees, as they will
+grow from the stone. We eat them in quantities; pickling, preserving,
+and drying them sometimes. But the principal use to which we put them is
+to fatten our pigs. We have several kinds of peaches, coming on at
+different seasons. The earliest kind are ripe about Christmas, and other
+sorts keep on ripening to March or April. Then we have some few
+apricots, nectarines, plums, cherries, loquats, etc., all yielding
+bounteously.
+
+The last are a very delicious fruit, ripening about October or November.
+Figs we have till late into the winter, and they begin again early; we
+are very fond of them. Oranges, lemons, and shaddocks grow fairly well,
+and are fruiting all the year round. Apples do badly, being subject to
+blight, though the young trees grow rapidly, and, if freely pruned, will
+yield enormous crops. To obviate the blight we keep a constant
+succession of young trees to replace those that are killed. Pears are
+not subject to the blight, and do well. Grapes are very luxuriant; and,
+no doubt, this will be a wine-country in the future. Already, some
+people at Mangawai have made good wine, and have started a little trade
+in it. Of strawberries, guavas, Cape gooseberries, and other small fruit
+we have a little. The former fruit so plenteously here, that the leaves
+are entirely hidden by the clusters of berries and blossom. The second
+is a bush; and the last a plant like a nettle, which sows itself all
+over. The fruit is nice.
+
+Both the gardens and the clearings are subject to a horrible plague of
+crickets. They are everywhere, and eat everything. But turkeys and ducks
+fatten splendidly on them, acquiring a capital gamey flavour.
+Cricket-fed turkey would shame any stubble-fed bird altogether, both as
+to fatness and meatiness and flavour. We have hundreds of turkeys wild
+about the place, which keep down the crickets a good deal. Although we
+eat them freely, they increase very rapidly, like everything else here.
+The worst of it is they will not leave the grapes alone, and if they
+would the crickets won't, which is a difficulty in the way of
+vine-growing. But notwithstanding that, some of us are convinced that
+wine-making is the coming industry of the Kaipara. Then there is the
+olive, and the mulberry for serici-culture. Both these things are to
+come. Experiment has been made in growing them, but that is all as yet.
+Tobacco, too, will have its place. It grows well; and the Maoris
+sometimes smoke their own growth. We prefer the Virginian article. A man
+at Papakura has done well with tobacco, we hear. Government has bonused
+him, so it is said; and his manufactured product is to be had in all the
+Auckland shops--strong, full-flavoured stuff; wants a little more care
+in manufacture, perhaps.
+
+Tobacco, like some other things we have tried--hops, castor-oil, spices,
+drugs, and so on--needs cheap labour for picking. That is the _sine qua
+non_ to success in these things. And for cheap labour we must wait, I
+suppose, till we are able to marry, and to rear those very extensive
+families of children, which are one of the special products of this
+fruitful country, and which are also such aids to the pioneer in
+getting on.
+
+Take it altogether, we--the pioneers of Te Pahi--are of opinion that
+pioneer-farming here is a decided success. We are satisfied that it
+yields, and will yield, a fair return for the labour we have invested in
+it. We think that we are in better case, on the whole, than we should
+have been after eight years' work at other avocations in the old
+country. Putting aside the question of the magnificent health we
+enjoy--and that is no small thing--we are on the high road to a degree
+of competence we might never have attained to in England. Not that we
+wish to decry England; on the contrary, we would like to return there.
+But for a visit, merely. Here is our home, now. The young country that
+is growing out of its swaddling clothes, and that we hope, and we know,
+will one day be a Brighter Britain in deed and in truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+OUR SHOW-PLACE.
+
+
+We have a show-place, and one of which we are excessively proud. It is
+not a castle, a baronial hall, or ruined abbey, as one would expect a
+properly constituted show-place to be--at "home." In this new country,
+it is needless to say, we have no antiquities of that sort. Yet this
+place, of which we are so proud, and that it delights us to extol to
+strangers, has a history that renders its singular picturesqueness
+additionally striking.
+
+Mere scenery is never so effective if it has no story to tell. There
+must be something, be it fact or fiction, to attach to a place before
+its beauties can be fully appreciated. The charm of poetry and romance
+is a very real one, and can add much to one's enjoyment of a particular
+view. I suppose that something is needed to interest and attract the
+intelligence, at the same moment that the sense of sight is captivated,
+so that a double result is produced.
+
+Scotland is one fair example of this. Fine as the scenery there may be,
+is it to be supposed that alone would attract such hordes of tourists
+every summer? Certainly not; it is the history associated with each spot
+that throws a glamour over it. Much magnificence of nature is passed by
+unheeded in Scotland, because history or tradition has conferred a
+higher title to regard upon some less picturesque place beyond. The
+fiction and poetry of Scott, and of Burns and others in less degree,
+have clothed the mountains and the glens with a splendid lustre, that
+causes people to view their natural beauties through a mental magnifying
+glass. Nature unadorned seldom gets the admiration bestowed on it that
+it does when added to by art.
+
+But why pursue this topic? Every one knows and feels the power that
+associations have of rendering picturesque nature more picturesque
+still. Therefore, a show-place, to be regarded as such in the true sense
+of the word, must possess features of interest of another kind,
+underlying the external loveliness of form and outline that merely
+please and captivate the eye.
+
+Here, in our Britain of the South Sea, we have abundance and variety of
+the most glorious and splendid scenery. So far as wild nature is
+concerned, there is nothing in Europe that we cannot match. Our Alps
+might make Switzerland envious; one or two of our rivers are more
+beautiful than the Rhine; the plains of Canterbury are finer than
+midland England; the rolling ranges and lakes of Otago may bear
+comparison with Scotland and with Wales; Mount Egmont or Tongariro would
+make Vesuvius blush; the hot-spring region of Rotomahana and Rotorua
+contains wonders that cannot be matched between Iceland and Baku; and
+here in the North our forest country is grander than the Tyrol, and more
+voluptuously lovely than the wooded shores of the Mediterranean. At
+least, that is what those who have seen all can say.
+
+But, though nature has given us such sublime triumphs of her raw
+material, these have no history, no spirit. They tell to us no story of
+the past; and poetry has not crowned them with a diadem of romance.
+Hence their effect is partly lost, and when we New Zealanders go "home"
+for a trip, we find a charm in the time-hallowed landscapes of the Old
+World, above and beyond all our greater scenic glories here.
+
+Still, here and there in this new land, we have contrived to invest some
+special spot with a kind of infant spirit or baby romance of its own.
+Here and there our short history has left a landmark, or Maori
+tradition a monument. Already we are beginning to value these things;
+already we are conscious of the added interest they give to our scenery.
+But to our children's children, and to their descendants, some of these
+places will speak with more vivid earnestness. They will appreciate the
+stories that as yet are so new, and will take a rare and lively pleasure
+in the scenery enriched by the tale of their pioneer ancestors, or by
+legends of the native race that then will be extinct.
+
+New Zealand has even now what may be termed its "classic ground," as
+will be found in another chapter. But there exists a great deal of Maori
+tradition connected with various spots, and some of us do the best we
+can to preserve the tales that adorn certain localities. Some of the
+legends are mythological. Of such sort is that which gives such vivid
+interest to lonely Cape Reinga; the place where the spirits of dead
+Maori take their plunge into the sea, on their way from earth to the
+next world. Such, too, is the dragon legend, the tale of the Taniwha,
+which graces the volcanic country in the interior.
+
+Besides these are the numerous stories of a more historical sort,
+incidents of love and war, which hang around the places where they
+happened. A country like this, so rich in natural beauties, so filled
+with the glories and magnificences of the Creator's hand, is surely--
+
+     "Meet nurse for a poetic child."
+
+It is not surprising, then, that we find the Maori character actively
+alive to such impressions. The oldest men absolutely revel in the
+abundance of the tales, both prose and poetry, that they are able to
+relate about the scenes around them. But Young Maori is more civilized,
+and does not trouble his head so much with these old narratives. It is
+well, then, that some should be preserved while that is possible.
+
+Old Colonial is a great hand at yarns. He loves to hear himself talk,
+and, in truth, he can tell a tale in first-class dramatic fashion.
+O'Gaygun and Dandy Jack are both given to the same thing a good deal.
+They run Old Colonial pretty close in all respects save one, and that is
+when he gets into a peculiarly Maori vein. There they cannot follow him,
+for neither has achieved his command over the intricacies of Maori
+rhetoric, nor has that intimate experience of the natives, which enables
+Old Colonial to enter so thoroughly into the spirit and character of
+their narrations.
+
+As I know that Old Colonial's hands are more accustomed to the axe than
+to the pen, and that he will never take the trouble to give his
+wonderful collection of anecdotes to a larger audience than his voice
+can reach, I have made notes of his narratives, and some day, perhaps,
+shall put them in print. In the meantime, I may as well mention, that,
+it was from his lips that I heard the tale of our show-place.
+
+One day, some lime was wanted on the farm for some purpose or other, and
+it became a question as to how we had better get it. The usual method
+employed in the neighbourhood was to utilize oysters for this purpose. A
+rude kiln would be constructed in the bank, where it sloped down to the
+river-beach. In this would be placed alternate layers of dead wood and
+of living oysters, with a proper vent. The burn usually resulted in a
+fair supply of good shell-lime, than which there can be no better.
+
+But on this occasion we wanted a tolerably large quantity of lime, so
+that there were objections to the plan I have just detailed. For though
+oysters abounded on our beach, and covered the rocks that low-tide laid
+bare, yet, when a good many tons of them were wanted, all of which must
+be gathered with a handshovel and carried on men's backs to the kiln, it
+became evident that a considerable amount of labour must be undergone
+before our ultimate object could be attained.
+
+Now, one of the first and chiefest considerations of the pioneer-farmer
+is always how he may most closely economize time and labour. It is
+particularly necessary for him, because of the scarcity of the latter
+commodity, and the consequent pressure upon the first. It is usually a
+strictly _personal_ question.
+
+On this occasion the subject was debated at one of our nightly
+parliaments in the shanty. Then the Saint broke out with one of those
+quaintly simple remarks that used to amuse us so much. He said--
+
+"I don't think it can be right to burn oysters, you know. It must hurt
+them so awfully, poor things!"
+
+Of course, we all laughed long and loudly. It seemed too ridiculous to
+consider the possibilities of an oyster feeling pain.
+
+"Well done, Saint!" was the general exclamation; "that's a good excuse
+to get yourself off a job of humping over the rocks."
+
+The Saint flushed up, and proceeded argumentatively, "Look here!
+Wouldn't it be better to burn dead shells?"
+
+"F'what did shells is it, me dear?" asked O'Gaygun, in a wheedling tone.
+
+"Well, there's plenty on Marahemo, for instance."
+
+Marahemo, I may mention, is a hill about three miles back from the
+river. It is about one thousand feet high, I suppose, and lies behind
+our land.
+
+"Did ye ivver hear the loike av that, now?" roared O'Gaygun,
+boisterously. "Here's the bhoy for ye! Here's the bhoy that's afraid to
+ate an eyester fur fear av hurtin' the baste, an' that's goin' to hump
+Marahemo down to the farrum, aal so bould an' gay! Shure now, thim's the
+shouldhers that can do that same!"
+
+After a brief, friendly passage of arms between the two, the Saint
+continued hotly--
+
+"Well, all I can say is, it seems to me more sensible to burn our lime
+on Marahemo and to hump it down here, than to hump oysters along the
+beach, and then have to hump the lime again up from there."
+
+"By Jove!" broke in Old Colonial, "the boy's right, I believe. Shut up,
+you Milesian mudhead, and listen to me. Right from the old pa on the top
+of Marahemo down to the very foot, there's the Maori middens: a regular
+reef of nothing but shell, oysters and pipi and scollops and all the
+rest. There must be hundreds and hundreds of tons of pure shell. All
+we've got to do is to make a kiln near the bottom and shovel the shell
+into it; and there's any amount of firewood, dead stuff, round about."
+
+"Well, but look at the long hump from there down to the farm."
+
+"I know; but won't it be simpler to do that than to collect oysters on
+the beach? We should have to hump treble the weight of the lime we
+should get after burning them. And then we should have to hump the lime
+at least half a mile up from the beach. There is a track through the
+bush up to Marahemo, and we could easily open it a bit. Half a day's
+work for the lot of us would make it passable for a bullock-sled; or we
+might pack the lime down on some of Dandy Jack's horses. Then the stuff
+we should get there would be easier burnt and make better lime. And we
+could make enough to supply the neighbourhood. A few boat-loads sold at
+a fair price would pay us for our work, and we should have the lime we
+want for our own use as pure profit. If we didn't find a market on the
+rivers, I'm certain it would pay to charter a schooner, load her up, and
+send her round to the Manukau. Auckland has to get all her lime from
+Whangarei or Mahurangi as it is."
+
+So the thing was settled, and we went to work on Marahemo as
+lime-burners.
+
+One day when we were "nooning," Old Colonial and I chanced to be
+together on the top of Marahemo. We were looking at the splendid
+prospect, glorious under the mid-day sun. All around us was bush--a
+dense jungle of shrubs and trees. The conical hill on which we stood was
+thickly clothed, and all round, over the steep, rough ranges, the
+abrupt ravines and gullies, with their brawling streams, was spread the
+one variegated mantle of gorgeous foliage.
+
+Since then I have seen certain of the far-famed forests of the tropics,
+but I must candidly say that the scenery they offer is, on the whole,
+far less striking and beautiful than that of the bush of Northern New
+Zealand. The colouring is not so good; in the mass, it is not so
+lustrous, nor so varied. The rich flowers are hidden away, so that the
+fewer and less gaudy blossoms of our bush are more conspicuous, because
+severally more plentiful. But a woodland scene in England, the old home
+across the seas, even surpasses all in the glory of its autumn dress.
+
+From where we stood on Marahemo we could see for considerable distances,
+where the ranges did not intervene. Here and there, through some vista
+of wooded gullies, we could catch a glimpse of shining river reaches,
+and, in one or two directions, could make out the house of some
+neighbour, easily distinguishable in the pure atmosphere, though
+possibly ten or twelve miles distant.
+
+Looking towards the west, we could see our own farm. The distance was
+just enough to mellow the view softly. The shanty looked neat and tidy;
+the grass in the paddocks bright and fresh; the fences appeared regular
+and orderly; the asperities and irregularities of the ground were not
+seen, even the stumps were almost hidden; and the cattle and sheep that
+dotted the clearings might have been browsing on English meadows, so
+fair and smooth was the picture. As we looked on our home thus, the
+growth of our labour, we realized our independence of the outer world.
+And I dare say that, for a moment, "our hearts were lifted up within
+us," to use the Scriptural phraseology.
+
+I believe I was guilty, under the inspiration of the scene, of uttering
+some sentimental nonsense or other, in which occurred reference to
+"primeval forests," or something of the sort. Old Colonial took me up
+shortly--
+
+"'Tain't primeval," he said. "There's the heavy bush, the real primeval
+stuff," pointing to a well-marked line that commenced about half a mile
+further back.
+
+"No," he continued; "all this round us is only about fifty years old."
+
+"Only fifty years!" I exclaimed wonderingly, for the woods looked to me
+as old as the New Forest, at least; judging by the size and luxuriance
+of the trees."
+
+"Oh, here and there, there are older trees; but half a century ago all
+this land was under Maori cultivation."
+
+Then he showed me the old ramparts that had defended the crest of the
+hill. A double bank of earth, now all overgrown with trees and shrubs,
+not unlike the outlines of ancient British and Roman encampments. On
+every point around us similar traces could be found, showing that the
+district had been thickly inhabited. As the Maoris had no grazing stock
+in those days, and no grass in these parts, their lands were solely
+spade-cultivations. Some thousands of acres between the Pahi and the
+Wairau had once grown their taro and kumera and hue, together with
+potatoes and other things introduced by Captain Cook.
+
+Marahemo Pa was the capital of the district. Its position, occupying the
+crest of a sugar-loaf hill, defended by earthworks and stockades, must
+have made it seem impregnable to people unacquainted with artillery. The
+space enclosed was considerable; and the immense quantities of shells
+thrown down the sides of the hill attested the numbers of its
+population--for all the shell-fish would have to be brought up here on
+the backs of women and slaves from the beach, which is over three miles
+distant; and shell-fish was by no means the principal item of the Maori
+commissariat.
+
+"That must have been the way they went," said Old Colonial, looking in a
+direction where a strip of the Arapaoa was visible through a gap made
+in the ranges by a narrow gully.
+
+"Who went?" I asked, for I did not follow his thought.
+
+"Hoosh!" cried he. "Do you mean to say you've never heard the story of
+the battle and capture of Marahemo, the tale of Te Puke Tapu?"
+
+No, I had not heard it. At least, I remembered only some confused
+account of a conflict having taken place at the latter spot, which,
+being our show-place, I had often seen and knew well.
+
+"Well," said Old Colonial, "there's no time now; but we've got to get
+some schnapper for supper to-night, so you and I will go and fish down
+the Arapaoa yonder; then I'll tell you."
+
+In the evening we were sitting in the boat, anchored in the river nearly
+opposite our much venerated show-place. We were fishing with line and
+bait, diligently securing a supper and breakfast for ourselves and the
+rest of the company who make our shanty their home. Every now and then
+either of us would pull up a great pink slab-sided schnapper, a
+glistening silvery mullet, or a white-bellied whapuka; we were in a good
+pitch, and the fish were biting freely. Our minds were relieved from the
+anxiety of a possible shortness of provisions. The scenery around us is
+truly magnificent, if only it were possible to describe it. I must,
+however, try to convey an idea of its outlines.
+
+We are lying in the Arapaoa Firth, at the point where it loses its
+distinctive name and divides into three heads. These three lesser
+firths, together with the main creek that flows into each above the
+point where the tide reaches, are respectively the Pahi, the Paparoa,
+and the Matakohe.
+
+Our boat seems to be floating in a lake, rather than in a river, for
+here the Arapaoa is between three and four miles across. Looking down to
+the right we see it stretching away, between bold, high banks of
+irregular outline, flowing down to the harbour and the sea thirty miles
+off. To our left is our own river, the Pahi, narrower than the other. It
+is, perhaps, a mile across at the mouth. Its shores present a
+diminishing perspective of woods; and, as mangroves line the beach on
+either side, the leafage and the water seem to melt into one another.
+Five or six miles up, the ranges rise higher and run together, so that
+the beautiful Pahi appears to lose itself in the forest.
+
+The opposite shore of the Pahi ends in a high bluff that, from our point
+of view, appears like an island in the expanse of gleaming water. Round
+the base of the bluff are gathered the white houses of Te Pahi township;
+and the masts of several small sailing-craft are seen off the beach.
+Behind and above is a bold sweep of dark woods, forming a background to
+the baby town.
+
+The township bluff hides from us all view of the Paparoa, which lies
+just behind it. But we have a full prospect of the wide reach of the
+Matakohe, which has quite a lake-like look. Just within it, on the
+further shore, are some low mud-banks, partially covered with stunted
+mangrove. Here great flocks of grey snipe continually assemble, together
+with kingfishers, shags, wild duck, teal, and other waterfowl. The high
+bank conceals all behind it; but in one or two places we catch a glimpse
+of some settler's house, cresting the bold bluff, or half hiding in its
+orchards.
+
+And now we face to the east, with the setting sun behind us sending its
+rays full upon the central interest of the view, and thus we gaze our
+fill upon Te Puke Tapu. A small but deep bay forms a bend in the shore
+of the river, guarded by steep heights on either hand. On the left a
+long promontory runs out into the Pahi, as though to meet the township
+bluff upon its further shore. On the right a towering scaur shows the
+abrupt termination of the range behind it. The tide in the Arapaoa flows
+swiftly by, but within the bay the water lies smooth as glass.
+
+Between these two points may be a distance of about a mile straight
+across. The curving line of the shore, sweeping round from one to the
+other, forms a complete crescent. No rocks or mangroves, no mud-banks or
+oyster-beds spoil the effect of a narrow belt of white and glittering
+shingle, which lines the beach of the little bay. And right at the edge
+of this border-line begins the mingled green of fern and forest.
+
+The land slopes upward gradually from the beach, rising by regular steps
+into a grand semicircle of heights. The general shape is that of an
+amphitheatre. And here so rich is the soil, so sheltered the situation,
+that all the wild vegetation of the country seems growing with magnified
+luxuriance.
+
+The colouring is brighter and more brilliant than it often is in the
+bush; and there is a more extensive mingling of different trees and
+shrubs, a more picturesque grouping of forms and tints. There are
+emerald feathery fern-trees, copper-tinted "lancewoods," with their
+hair-like tufts, the tropic strangeness of nikau palms, crested
+cabbage-trees, red birch and white ti-tree, stately kauri, splendid
+totara, bulky rimu, dark glossy koraka, spreading rata, and half the
+arboreal catalogue of the country besides.
+
+And, in their several seasons, the blossoms which all the evergreen
+trees and shrubs put forth bloom more brightly here than elsewhere;
+and, while creepers of strange and beautiful forms twine and suspend and
+stretch from tree to tree, the woodland greenery is set with a rich
+variety of scarlet cups and crimson tassels, of golden bells or
+flesh-pink clusters, or the darker depths are lit up by showering masses
+of star-like clematis.
+
+Terrace above terrace, receding from the water's edge, the encircling
+lines of bush rise upwards and away, until at last the leafy mantle
+flows over the summit of the topmost range. Far back, and central, in
+the wide sweep of the amphitheatre is a sudden dip in the outline. It is
+the opening of a little gully, through which a hidden stream comes down
+below the trees and babbles out across the shingle; and that opening
+just reveals Mount Marahemo behind. His wooded crest has caught the
+tinted radiance of the sunset, and stands out in glorious relief against
+the purpling background of sky, framed in the glowing beauty of the
+nearer Puke Tapu.
+
+Such is our show-place, the "Sacred Soil," where sleep the departed
+warriors of the Ngatewhatua. The bell-bird and the tui sing a requiem
+over them by day, while the morepork and the kiwi wail for them at
+night. And the wonderful loveliness of this spot, where they fought and
+died, might well inspire a Tennyson to pen another "Locksley Hall."
+
+"Jee--roosalem!" sighed Dandy Jack. "Only put _that_ on canvas, and hang
+it in Burlington House, and what an advertisement it would be for us!"
+
+Old Colonial goes on to tell the tale of Te Puke Tapu, in the intervals
+of hauling up schnapper. He says--
+
+"The boys call it 'The Burying Ground,' because of the bones and skulls
+that are lying about or stuck up in the trees. That's rather misleading,
+though, for it was never a wahi tapu, or native cemetery. This bay was
+evidently the landing-place or port for Marahemo, and the subordinate
+kaingas on the ranges yonder. You can see it was naturally that. As such
+there would be constant traffic through it, even if there were no whares
+in the place itself. Now a wahi tapu was so sacred that no one but a
+tohunga dared to approach its boundaries, even under pain of death and
+damnation; so that such a place was always in some very out-of-the-way
+locality, certainly never near a spot so much frequented as this would
+be.
+
+"It's tapu enough now, though, and has been ever since the battle,
+which, I opine, must have been fought somewhere about 1825. The chiefs
+won't sell an inch of this piece to any one; and not a Maori dares go
+near it. Lots of people have tried to buy it, and have even offered as
+much as five pounds an acre for its magnificent soil; but the Maoris
+are not to be tempted, and, what's more, say they'll have utu from any
+Pakeha that goes into it.
+
+"Once, some years ago, I was out pig-hunting, and killed a big one just
+on the top of that scaur. The carcase rolled down into the water, and
+the tide carried it away down river. It was washed up at Tama-te-Whiti's
+place, six miles below this. Now Tama, although he's an ordained parson,
+still retains most of the old superstitions, as all the older Maoris do.
+He was in a terrible stew when this pig, killed on tapu ground, and
+consequently tapu itself, stranded on his beach. His wife and he came
+out with long poles and pushed it into the water. Then they got into
+their boat, and managed to get the pig out into the channel and set it
+floating off again. Afterwards they carefully burnt the poles that had
+touched the dreadful thing. Finally, Tama came up to me and demanded
+utu, which I had to pay him. If we had not been such good friends, and
+if Tama had not been more sensible than the other Maoris, I believe the
+district would have been too hot to hold me.
+
+"Tama told me the whole history of the place; and gave me a graphic
+account of the battle, in which he took part. He is one of the 'last of
+the cannibals,' one of the few survivors of the old fighting days,
+before the missionaries caused the abolition of cannibalism.
+
+"You know who Hongi was, I suppose? The great chief of the Ngapuhi, who
+was so friendly with Marsden and the first missionaries, who went to
+Sydney and then to England, was presented to King George and made much
+of. When he got back to Sydney, this astute savage 'realized' on all the
+fine things that had been given him, and turned the proceeds into
+muskets, powder, and ball. Then he loaded up a trading-schooner,
+chartering her with a promise of a return cargo of pigs, timber, and
+flax, and joyfully sailed back to New Zealand.
+
+"All his life, Hongi was very friendly to the missionaries, as well as
+to traders from Sydney. But the former never converted him. He remained
+a ferocious manslayer and cannibal to the last. Yet it was owing to this
+chief that missionaries gained a first footing in the country.
+
+"Hongi's great idea was to make himself king of all New Zealand. In
+pursuance of this plan he armed his fighting men with fire-arms, and
+when they were drilled in the use of them, he started on a grand maraud
+all through the island. His notion of kingly power seems to have been to
+kill and eat, or enslave, every other tribe but his own. He certainly
+slew his thousands; and utterly depopulated the country wherever he
+went.
+
+"The Ngatewhatua, whose country lay all round these waters, were the
+ancient foemen of the Ngapuhi; consequently, they were among the first
+to experience Hongi's new mode of civilizing. A great battle was fought
+up on the Wairoa, where two or three thousand of our fellows were
+discomfited by Hongi's army. The fugitives came down the rivers and
+rallied again. Every man of the Ngatewhatua who was able to bear arms,
+took up his mere and patu and spear, and went forth to fight for his
+fatherland. They fought the invading Ngapuhi all the way down from the
+Wairoa, as they marched through the forests between this and Mangapai.
+
+"But badly-armed bravery had little chance against the superior
+equipment of Hongi's bands. Do all they might, the Ngatewhatua could not
+stay the progress of their foes. When, at last, the invaders drove them
+as near as the Maungaturoto bush, our tribe gave way in despair, and
+came back to this place. They had still one hope, one refuge, the
+hitherto unconquered Marahemo Pa.
+
+"Into that pa, then, where we stood this morning, crowded the whole
+population of the district--men, women, and children. Here they would
+make their last despairing stand. The attack would come from the
+north-east, consequently this bay would be in rear; and in it the canoes
+were drawn up for flight, if that were necessary.
+
+"Then Hongi and his ruthless army swept out of the woods, and rushed
+upon Marahemo. They surrounded the hill, and, advancing to the
+fortifications, poured in a hot fire. Frightful were the losses among
+the besieged; and little could they do in return, spears and stones
+being their only missiles. Still, they held out for three days, their
+crowded ranks gradually thinning and thinning.
+
+"At last, at daybreak on the third day, Hongi delivered a grand assault.
+The Ngapuhi came up in three columns on the eastern slope of the hill,
+where the principal gate of the pa was. The two outer flanks
+concentrated all their fire on the point, while the centre, headed by
+Hongi himself, wearing a helmet and breastplate that King George had
+given him, constituted the storming party.
+
+"The struggle at the gate must have been terrific. At close quarters
+fire-arms were no longer of service, and the Ngatewhatua would be equal
+to their assailants. Both sides fought with all the fierce courage of
+their race. Tama says that the bodies of the slain lay in piles, and
+that their blood flowed in streams down the hill.
+
+"Tuwhare was the name of the ariki or supreme chief of the Ngatewhatua;
+he was also a tohunga, or priest. A lion-like old man he seems to have
+been, from Tama's description. Seeing that all was lost, when the
+conquering Ngapuhi had forced their way into the pa, and were
+mercilessly slaughtering men, women, and children, he did the only thing
+left to be done. He took from its perch the palladium of the tribe, an
+heitiki ponamu, or greenstone image, and, summoning around him the
+remnant of his men, together with some of the women, they fled from the
+western side of the pa, hotly pursued by the victors.
+
+"The fugitives came down through that little gully, here to the bay,
+intending to take to their boats, and escape down the river. Tama was
+among them, and he afterwards concealed himself in a tree, and, thus
+hidden, was a witness of the final scene; for a band of Hongi's men had
+come along the beach, and had captured the canoes beforehand, so that
+retreat was cut off.
+
+"But a short time was there to consider what should now be done. The
+pursuing Ngapuhi were close at their heels. The sacred tiki was placed
+in the branches of a tree for safety. And as the yelling and elated
+victors came bounding down the gully, brave old Tuwhare and his
+remaining warriors, with mere in hand and war-cry ringing through the
+woods, hurled themselves against the foe. Overpowered by numbers, and
+by superiority of weapons, the grim fight was soon over, and the last of
+the Ngatewhatua were slain. But, beside their bodies, many a Ngapuhi
+corpse showed that the vanquished had died as warriors should.
+
+"The Ngapuhi who had slain Tuwhare, cut off the dead chiefs head, and
+placing it in the nearest tree, rushed back towards Marahemo to summon
+Hongi. Now Hongi was brave as man could be, but, like all Maoris then,
+he was intensely superstitious, and held all the Maori gods and devils
+in the very highest respect.
+
+"Hongi and his principal warriors were led across the field of battle by
+the lucky slayer of the Ngatewhatua chief, in order that they might
+insult and taunt Tuwhare's head, as was their custom. When they were all
+assembled round the tree, with the bodies of the dead lying about where
+they had fallen--'There! that's the place, to the left yonder, where the
+koraka trees are thickest!'--the branches were drawn aside to expose the
+grim trophy of the conquered chief. There it was, sure enough, just
+where the victor had put it, fresh and gory, with its white locks and
+richly tattooed features. But, oh, horror of horrors! right above the
+head, with all its hideous fluttering adornments of feathers and
+tassels, was the horrible, grotesque, and grinning idol!
+
+"Chance had led the slayer of Tuwhare to put his head into the self-same
+tree where the dead ariki had, a short time previously, disposed the
+tiki. There it now appeared, stuck in a fork, just where he had put it
+for safety. None of the Ngapuhi knew how it had got there, and to their
+superstitious minds it seemed to have come by supernatural means. And
+this thing was tapu in the most deadly degree.
+
+"The mighty and terrible Hongi trembled and shrieked when he saw the
+unlooked-for wonder. He and his men turned and ran out of the
+amphitheatre of the bay as fast as they could, shouting, 'Te tapu! te
+tapu! The gods have taken to themselves the bodies of the slain!'
+
+"So they left this part of the battle-field, not daring to carry off the
+bodies as usual for a cannibal orgy. A long time afterwards, Tama, and
+certain priests of the almost exterminated Ngatewhatua tribe, ventured
+to return here. With much solemn karakia and propitiatory sacrifice,
+they tremblingly crept into the precincts of the bay. They placed the
+remains of their kindred in the forks of the trees, and hid the sacred
+tiki for ever from mortal eyes. Then they departed, and the aegis of a
+holy place invests for posterity Te Puke Tapu.
+
+"It is a charnel-house if you like, under those trees there, but a very
+beautiful one as is evident. We ought to keep alive the memories that
+make the place romantic. It would be a pity if utilitarian axe and fire
+were to spoil the beauty of Te Puke Tapu. There is plenty of other good
+land to be had. No need for us to covet this, fertile as it is; no need
+to make a commonplace farm out of that picturesque old battle-ground.
+May it long remain just as it is now--a lovely natural monument to
+ancient Maori valour, a quiet undisturbed resting-place for the warrior
+dead, the patriot chivalry of the Ngatewhatua!"
+
+Such is our show-place and its tale.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+OUR NATIVE NEIGHBOURS.
+
+
+A great friend of ours, and a near neighbour, is Tama-te-Whiti, the old
+Maori. He is not _the_ chief of the Ngatewhatua, but as he comes of the
+royal stock he is _a_ chief. He belongs to the caste styled tana, or
+chieftains, a degree above that of rangatira, or simple
+gentlemen-warriors. In the old feudal times--for the ancient Maori
+system may be so designated--Tama would have held a delegated authority
+over some portion of the tribe, just as a Norman baron did in the elder
+world.
+
+Now the tribe is very small, having been almost exterminated by the
+Ngapuhi fifty years ago. Three or four families form the section over
+which Tama presides. But civilization and European colonization have
+abolished the old order of things, so that even a head chief's authority
+is now more nominal than real.
+
+In his youth Tama was a warrior, having taken part in the battle which
+ended with the affair at Marahemo, as described in the previous chapter.
+A fugitive from his own district, his hopes of one day becoming a lordly
+ruler over some large kainga of his own being shattered by defeat, he
+fell in with Samuel Marsden, and by that Apostle of New Zealand was
+converted to Christianity.
+
+So now, in his old age, Tama is a worthy exponent of the new
+dispensation. Born to warfare, he is now an ordained deacon of the
+Anglican Church; instead of cannibalism, he has taken to thrifty
+farming; instead of fighting, he preaches among his countrymen; instead
+of leading a ferocious taua, he finds himself the venerated pastor of a
+little community of earnest Christians.
+
+Tama's place is some seven or eight miles away, down the Arapaoa. He has
+a very comfortable little kainga, a fenced-in enclosure, wherein are
+raupo whares built in the best styles of Maori architecture, with little
+verandahs in front of them, and curiously carved doors and fronts.
+
+Here reside Tama and his wife, and one or two others; while just across
+the river is a larger kainga, where live the remainder of Tama's flock.
+Round about his whares is a plentiful clearing, whereon are to be seen
+pigs and poultry, a few cattle, and a horse or two. On a well-selected
+hill-side close by are his cultivations--some few acres of maize,
+potatoes, kumera, melons, taro, fruit-trees, and so on, surrounded by a
+strong stake-fence. A few yards below the kainga is the beach, where a
+capital boat shows that Tama prefers Pakeha workmanship to the native
+article--a canoe that also lies near. Nets and other matters prove that
+he reaps a harvest in the water as well as on land.
+
+A very "comfortable" man is our Maori friend, for he has a claim over
+many hundred acres of good land around, some of which has already been
+sold to the Pakeha. Much of this is heavily timbered with valuable kauri
+and puriri. Bushmen cut on his land to a small extent, and pay him a
+royalty of a pound per tree. We often say, jokingly, that the old fellow
+must have a tolerably well-filled stocking somewhere.
+
+Tama is amazingly industrious. He and his wife together get through an
+immense amount of work. The produce of the farm is amply sufficient to
+provide them with all necessaries. More than that, the surplus produce
+probably pays for all the groceries, tools, and clothes required by the
+family. His seventy years weigh lightly on him. He is as strong and
+active as most men of forty, and is never idle. He fully understands the
+duty that devolves on him of setting an example to his flock, as well
+as of preaching to them.
+
+Tama's ordinary costume is much the same as ours, except that he prefers
+to go barefooted. On Sundays and occasions of state he dons the black
+cloth and white choker of an orthodox clergyman; but even then he avoids
+boots. Only on very special occasions, such as when there is a grand
+gathering at the township, or on the rare occurrence of an English
+clergyman's visit, only then does Tama put on boots; even then he brings
+them in his hand to the door of the place of meeting, puts them on
+before entering, and takes them off with evident relief directly he
+feels free to go.
+
+Tama is about five feet ten inches in height. He is broad and square,
+very muscular, and without an inch of fat on him. His body is long and
+his legs short; the usual Maori characteristic. His face bears the
+elaborate moku that denotes his rank, and is without hair. The hair of
+his head is grizzly; but his features, the shape of his head, and the
+expression of his eyes, bespeak an intelligence superior to that of many
+Europeans who come in contact with him.
+
+Tama visits us very frequently, and often brings his wife with him. She
+is a pleasant, buxom body, with a contented smile always on her face.
+Though not young, being probably between thirty and forty, she has not
+yet grown at all hag-like, as Maori women generally do. She dresses
+cleanly and nicely--cotton or chintz gowns being her usual wear--but she
+leans to an efflorescence of colour in her bonnet, and has a perfect
+passion for brilliant tartan shawls. I think I once saw her at the
+Otamatea races in a blue silk dress. But, both she and her husband have
+discarded all the feathers and shells and pebbles that are purely native
+adornments.
+
+Astute and intelligent as Tama really is, it is, of course, to be
+expected that he cannot comprehend all the novelties of civilization.
+His deportment is always admirable, and he would carry himself through a
+drawing-room without any sensible _gaucherie_. He would be calm,
+composed, and dignified among any surroundings, however strange to him;
+only his keen and roving eyes would betray his internal wonder. Like
+Maoris in general, he is critically observant of every little thing
+among his Pakeha friends, but, with true native courtesy, endeavours to
+hide from you that he is so. But the extraordinary mixture of grave
+intelligence and childish simplicity in him is perpetually leading to
+very quaint little incidents.
+
+One day, when routing among the "personals" I had brought with me from
+England, I discovered at the bottom of my chest an umbrella. Now, in
+England, I suppose most people consider an umbrella as quite an
+indispensable article of attire, and even in colonial cities its use is
+by no means uncommon; but I need hardly say that in the bush such a
+thing is never seen.
+
+I brought out my relic of other days, and displayed it to the boys in
+the shanty. It was received with great applause, and I was unmercifully
+chaffed. It pleases our community to regard all the comforts and
+luxuries of a more complete civilization as effeminacies; and it is the
+received theory among us that we live the purest and highest life,
+having turned our backs upon all the corrupting influences of an effete,
+old world.
+
+There is among us a party, headed by O'Gaygun, who take the position of
+ultra-conservatives; the object of their conservatism being the keeping
+alive of all the most primitive usages of the bush. To them anything new
+is an insult; the introduction of imported comforts and appliances a
+horrible iniquity. It will be remembered how fierce was O'Gaygun's wrath
+on the occasion when forks and spoons were brought into the shanty. Now,
+his sublime indignation was roused to the utmost at the spectacle of
+such an outrageous incongruity as an umbrella, in the pure and holy
+atmosphere of our shanty. An umbrella! Did it not convey an instant
+recollection of all the worst emasculating tendencies from which we had
+come out? Why, it was almost as bad as that acme of horrors, a
+chimney-pot hat!
+
+"Smash it! Burn it!" he shouted. "Mother av Moses! f'what nixt?"
+
+However, it was eventually decided that I should give the umbrella to
+old Tama, it being a handsome one, with carved ivory handle, silver
+mounting and crest, etc. This would ensure the removal of the obnoxious
+invention from the shanty; and, moreover, so O'Gaygun declared, the vile
+thing would be an acceptable addition to a museum of Pakeha curiosities,
+which, he said, Tama was collecting.
+
+The next time that Tama visited us I formally presented him with the
+umbrella, giving him the minutest instructions concerning the spreading
+and furling of it. He had taken a strong fancy to me; and was much
+pleased with the gift. His first inquiry was, naturally, what I expected
+to get out of him by such a splendid gift. Knowing that it would be
+futile to attempt to persuade him that I gave the thing freely, and
+without expecting any return, I said that, although the umbrella was
+worth a mere ponamu,[6] at least, yet that I should be satisfied if he
+would give me a kitful of taro in exchange.
+
+This thoroughly jumped with the old man's humour. Not only did he shake
+hands with me, but he also accorded me the nose salutation. The rubbing
+of noses is now disused; and when a Maori confers it on a Pakeha it
+means an extra display of feeling, almost a making brotherhood. It was
+the highest honour old Tama could pay me.
+
+I thought I had fully explained to the reverend gentleman the uses of an
+umbrella. I had over and over again hammered into him that it was meant
+to protect one from rain. But it appears that the idea failed to reach
+his mind.
+
+When Tama left the shanty it looked threatening to rain, so I unfurled
+the umbrella, and placed it open in his hand. He stumped off proudly
+with it held above him. We watched him go down the clearing towards the
+river, where his boat was moored. Presently it came on to rain in
+earnest. Then Tama seemed to hesitate, it evidently occurring to him
+that something was wrong. In an undecided sort of way he inverted the
+umbrella, and held it handle upwards in front of him; but as the rain
+came thicker and faster, even this seemed unsatisfactory.
+
+At last he stopped altogether, having apparently come to the conclusion
+that the wet would injure the umbrella. After a prolonged struggle, for
+the catch was a mystery to his unaccustomed fingers, he managed to
+close it. Then he took off his coat, laid it flat upon the ground, and
+placing the umbrella upon it, wrapped that up in the coat. Lastly, he
+cut some strips from a flax-bush close by, and carefully tied up the
+parcel. Then he put it under his arm, and marched off in his
+shirt-sleeves contentedly, evidently feeling that he had got the better
+of the pouring rain.
+
+Tama keeps the umbrella stowed away in the recesses of his whare. He
+often tells me, with a quiet, good-humoured sneer, as of one talking to
+a child, that it does not keep off the rain. His view is that I, in my
+incomprehensible Pakeha way, imagine the thing to be an anti-rain
+fetish; a notion which superior Maori wisdom has found to be erroneous.
+
+I saw that umbrella once again. It was a fine moonlit night, and two or
+three of us were rowing up the river on a return from some excursion. On
+the way we passed a boat-load of Maoris coming down. In the stern of
+their boat sat Tama, and above him he held the umbrella open. As the
+boats crossed, he called to me:--
+
+"It is not raining to-night. But it is not this thing that keeps it off;
+it is God only who does that!"
+
+And so the good man went on his way, doubtlessly glowing at the thought
+that he had fitly rebuked my folly; for, like some other Christians,
+though he might retain some superstitions of his own, yet those are
+real, and all other people's false.
+
+On another occasion Old Colonial had been away in Australia. On his
+return, Tama and his wife came up to welcome him home again. Old
+Colonial had brought back presents for all our Maori friends; and he had
+selected for Tama a silver watch, with a gorgeous guard and seals. This
+pleased the old fellow mightily; and for three mortal hours did Old
+Colonial strive to instruct him in how to tell the time, and how to wind
+it up. He thought at last that he had thoroughly succeeded in
+enlightening the Maori about his new acquisition. Tama departed with
+ill-concealed glee, stopping every now and then, as he went, to listen
+to the watch ticking.
+
+However, the next morning, as we sat at breakfast, Tama appeared, with a
+serious and sad expression on his face. He would eat nothing; but,
+drawing Old Colonial aside, communicated to him the distressing
+intelligence that the watch had _died_ during the night. Without
+betraying any amusement, Old Colonial wound up the watch again, and
+proceeded to give another lecture on its action to the ancient child.
+
+He went away apparently satisfied, and much lightened in his mind; but
+we began to have a fear that the watch would prove an injudicious
+present. The next morning Tama appeared again, with the same sad and
+serious aspect, this time complicated with a look of intense puzzlement.
+He contemplated Old Colonial's hands as he wound up the watch again and
+set it going. This was a total mystery to the old fellow. He said he had
+been "doing that" to the watch all night long, talking to it, and
+telling it not to die. We opined that he had not succeeded in opening
+the case of the watch, but had sat twiddling the key about the outside
+of it.
+
+The same thing went on day after day. Tama began to grow weak and ill.
+He was haggard with anxiety, spending his days in listening to the
+regular tick-tick of the watch, and his nights in trying to keep it
+alive. In vain he sat up with it night after night, holding it in his
+hands, caressing it, wrapping it in warm clothes, and laying it beside
+the fire, even, so he told us, reading the Bible and praying for it. In
+spite of this generous treatment the watch invariably died about five
+o'clock in the morning. Then the miserable proprietor had to take his
+boat and row up the eight miles of river that lay between his place and
+ours.
+
+At last the old fellow began to get a better idea of the hang of the
+thing. He essayed to wind the watch at night, but failed, and in some
+indescribable way managed to break the key. Then the charm was
+dissolved. Feeling that his health was becoming impaired by his devotion
+to this Pakeha fetish, and that consideration finally overcoming his
+pride in its possession, he returned the watch to Old Colonial. He said
+it was "Kahore pai;" or, as a Scotsman would put it, "no canny."
+
+Tama keeps the guard and seals to wear on festive occasions. But the
+watch, no. He has had enough of such silly things. Henceforth, as
+formerly, the sun will suffice him for a timekeeper. That is not given
+to dying, nor does it require sitting up with at night and such like
+attentions, and it manages its own winding up.
+
+We have other Maori neighbours besides Tama and his immediate following.
+There are several families living on the different rivers and creeks
+round about, and with them all we are on friendly terms; with some we
+are passably intimate, though with none quite so affectionately at one
+as with Tama. Perhaps our next best friends would be found at Tanoa.
+
+Tanoa is a large kainga on the Otamatea river, and lies about sixteen
+miles across the bush from our farm, or somewhat more by the water-road.
+It contains a population of two or three hundred; men, women, and
+children. This Maori town may be considered the metropolis of the
+Ngatewhatua tribe.
+
+Tanoa is prettily situated, for the Otamatea, though a larger river than
+the Pahi, is very picturesque in parts. The kainga lies embosomed in
+orchards of peach and pear, cherry and almond, and extensive
+cultivations and grass-paddocks surround it. Most of the houses are, of
+course, the usual raupo whares, but there are carpentered frame-houses
+in the kainga as well.
+
+A Wesleyan mission has been established in this place for about a score
+of years; and an English minister and schoolmaster reside permanently at
+it. The former has great influence with his flock, who are fervent
+Christians to a man. The latter is bringing up the rising generation to
+a standard of education that would put to shame many a rural village of
+the old country.
+
+The ariki of the Ngatewhatua lives at Tanoa. He is between forty and
+fifty, if as much, a very tall and very portly personage. He is a great
+man, corporeally certainly, and, perhaps, in other ways as well. Arama
+Karaka, or Adam Clark in Pakeha pronunciation, has had more English
+education than Tama, and is altogether of larger mind. Nevertheless, we
+do not feel that we can like him quite so well as our dear old
+barbarian.
+
+Arama rules his little community in paternal and patriarchal spirit. He
+understands the Pakeha better than many Maoris; and in most things
+accepts the guidance of his friend, the missionary. He carries on
+affairs of state in a manner blended of Maori and Pakeha usages. He is,
+of course, a politician, and takes a leading part in the local
+elections. But he adheres to Maori customs in their modified and
+civilized form, and may be called a Conservative in such things.
+
+Arama has a pet theory, on which he often enlarges in picturesque style
+to such Pakehas as he considers as of more than common note. Pre-eminent
+among these is Old Colonial. Indeed, our chum is generally looked upon
+by the Maoris as a sort of chief among the Pakehas of the district. His
+experience and acumen have made him a general referee among the Kaipara
+settlers; and, in all important matters, he is usually the interpreter
+and spokesman between them and the natives. Moreover, he is now the
+oldest settler in the district; that is, he is not the oldest man, but
+has been in the Kaipara longer than any other Pakeha, having come here
+before any settlement had been made in this part. And so he is an old
+and intimate friend of the Maoris.
+
+To him, then, I have heard Arama discoursing on his project for the
+regeneration of the Maori race, talking as one chief among men may talk
+to another. For the ariki is thoroughly aware of the gradual extinction
+which is coming for his race. He sees and knows that the Maori is dying
+out before the Pakeha, and his great idea is how the former may be
+perpetuated.
+
+Says he to Old Colonial, for example, somewhat as follows:--
+
+"Oh, friend! What shall be for the Maori? Where are they now since the
+coming of the Pakeha? The forest falls before the axe of the Pakeha; the
+Maori birds have flown away, and strange Pakeha birds fly above the new
+cornfields; the Pakeha rat has chased away the kiore; there are Pakeha
+boats on our waters, Pakeha fish in our rivers. All that was is gone;
+and the land of the Maori is no longer theirs. God has called to the
+Maori people, and they go. The souls of our dead crowd the path that
+leads to the Reinga.
+
+"Lo! the Pakeha men are very many. It is good that they should see our
+maidens, and it is good that they should marry them. Then there will be
+children that shall live, and a new race of Maori blood. So there shall
+be some to say in the time to come, 'This is the land of our mothers.
+This was the land of the Maori before the Pakeha came out of the sea.'
+
+"Oh, friend! send your young men to Tanoa, that they may see our
+maidens, and may know that they are good for wives. The mihonere and the
+kuremata[7] have taught them the things of the Pakeha. It is good that
+we should cause them so to marry."
+
+Thus does Arama propound his plan for a fusion between the races. Still
+more to further it, he proposes to endow certain young ladies of his
+tribe with considerable areas of land, in the event of any
+Pakeha--_rangatira_ Pakeha--who may be acceptable to the tribe, offering
+to marry any of them. We have tried to urge the Little'un, or the Saint,
+or even O'Gaygun into some such match; but they are shy, I suppose, and
+do not seem to fancy taking "a savage woman to rear their dusky race."
+Yet it would be unfair to call the brunette beauties of Tanoa savages.
+
+_Place aux dames!_ Let us get on to consider the ladies.
+
+Ema, and Piha, and Ana, and Hirene, and Mehere; there they are, the pick
+and particular flower of all that is beautiful, fashionable, young, and
+_marriageable_ in Tanoa. Bright and cheerful, neat and comely, pleasant
+partners at a bush-ball are these half-Anglicized daughters of the
+Ngatewhatua. They can prattle prettily in their soft Maori-English,
+while their glancing eyes and saucy lips are provoking the by no means
+too hard hearts of Pakeha bushmen.
+
+Ah! live in the bush, reader! Live and work from month's end to month's
+end without even a sight of a petticoat, and then go slap into the
+middle of a "spree" at some such place as Tanoa or Te Pahi. Then you
+would appreciate the charms of our Maori belles. Under the influence of
+music and the dance, supple forms and graceful motions, scented hair and
+flower-wreaths, smiles and sparkling eyes, the graces of nature not
+wholly lost under the polish of civilization, you would say our Maori
+girls were very nice indeed. And so say all of us, _although_ the Saint
+and the Little'un and O'Gaygun hold aloof from matrimony--as yet.
+
+These Maori maidens are not to be thought of as savages. Far from it.
+They can read and they can write, in English as well as Maori. They can
+read the newspaper or the Bible to their less accomplished papas and
+mammas. They can cipher and sew; have an idea of the rotundity of the
+earth, with some knowledge of the other countries beyond the sea. They
+are fully up in all the subjects that are usually taught in Sunday
+schools. They can play croquet--with flirtation accompaniment--and wear
+chignons. Oh no! they are not savages. At least, _I_ should say not.
+
+But far pre-eminent among the young ladies of Tanoa is Rakope. She is
+the daughter of Mihake, the nephew and heir of Arama, and who is himself
+a great favourite and good friend of ours. Mihake is a jolly,
+good-tempered kind of man, very knowing in stock and farming matters,
+and a frequent guest of ours. His daughter, as Arama is childless, ranks
+as the principal unmarried lady of the tribe, and most worthy is she to
+bear such a dignity.
+
+O Rakope! princess of the Ngatewhatua and queen of Maori beauty! how am
+I to describe the opulence of your charms, your virtues, and your
+accomplishments? How am I to convey an idea of what you really are to
+the dull and prejudiced intellects of people in far-off foggy Britain?
+Yet have I sworn, as your true knight, O beautiful Rakope! to noise your
+fame abroad to the four corners of the earth, with the sound of shouting
+and of trumpets!
+
+Prepare, O reader! with due reverence, with proper admiration, to hear
+of our Maori paragon.
+
+For she is a beauty, our Rakope; and more, her intelligence amounts
+almost to what is genius, by comparison with her companions. You can see
+it in her broad, low brow, in her large, clear, liquid eyes, shaded with
+their black velvety fringe of lashes. Her features may not be good,
+judged by Greek art standards; but what do we care about art and its
+standards here in the bush? We can see that Rakope is beautiful, and we
+know that she is as good as she is beautiful.
+
+Her colour is a soft dusky brown, under which you can see the blood
+warming her dimpling cheeks. Her figure is perfection's self, ripe and
+round and full, while every movement shows some new grace and more
+seductive curve. Her rich brown hair reaches far below her slender
+waist, and when it is dressed with crimson pohutakawa blossoms, the
+orange flowers of the kowhaingutu kaka, or the soft downy white feathers
+that the Maoris prize, then it would compel the admiration of any London
+drawing-room. And what is it in Rakope's cheeks and chin, and rare red
+lips and pearly teeth, that makes one think of peaches and of rosebuds
+and of honey, and of many other things that are nicest of the nice?
+
+Away, away with your washed-out, watery Venuses, your glassy-eyed Junos,
+your disdainful, half-masculine Dianas! Away with all your pretended and
+pretentious beauties of the older Northern world! We will have none of
+them. Give us our Rakope, our Rakope as she is, glowing with the rich
+warm colour, the subtle delicacies of form, and all the luxuriant beauty
+that is born between the South Sea and the sun!
+
+And is she not clever? Words fail the schoolmaster when he attempts to
+sound her praises; for she has learnt nearly all that he can teach her.
+She is the apple of his eye and the crown of his labours. To hear Rakope
+sing is to believe in the Syrens; to chat with her and receive her looks
+and smiles, to dance with her--ah!
+
+She is the pet of the tribe. Men and women, girls and boys are never
+weary of admiring or caressing or spoiling her. She can coax and wheedle
+her father and Arama, mihonere and kuremata alike, to do almost anything
+she desires, and through them she may be said to reign over the
+Ngatewhatua. She is the delight and darling of all the settlers round.
+She is the idyll of our shanty, and our regard for her approaches to
+idolatry. O Rakope, Rakope! I hope you will some day marry a Pakeha
+rangatira, and endow him with your ten thousand acres; for if you mate
+with even an ariki from among your own people, your lot will be but a
+hard one when age has dimmed the brighter glories of your beauty!
+
+There was a spree at the township; an event that had been looked forward
+to by everybody for months past. English people are given to associating
+the idea of a "spree" with that of a bacchanal orgy. Not so we. With us
+the word is simply colonial for a festivity of any kind, private or
+public. And whatever may be the primary object of the spree, it is
+pretty certain to conclude with a dance.
+
+On this occasion "The Pahi Minstrels," who had advertised themselves for
+long beforehand, were to give a musical entertainment, disguised as
+niggers. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to explain who these personages
+were, since it will be remembered that our shanty was given to sending
+out serenading expeditions. _We_ were the Pahi Minstrels; having
+laboriously trained ourselves in a certain _repertoire_, and having been
+reinforced by one or two other amateur instrumentalists.
+
+In the bush a very little is accepted as an excuse for amusement. The
+public festivities of our district are confined to two events in the
+year--the Otamatea races and the Pahi regatta; so that any addition to
+these is received with unanimous pleasure and applause. Our present
+intention had met with a hearty reception.
+
+On the appointed evening, just about sundown and after, there was a
+grand gathering at the township. All along the beach boats lay drawn up,
+and the number of people walking about made the place seem quite
+populous. Of course, everybody was there from our own river, and from
+Paparoa and Matakohe besides. There were people, too, from the Wairoa
+settlements, from the Oruawharo, even from Maungaturoto and distant
+Mangawai. Our hearts sunk into our boots when we saw the prodigious
+audience that was assembling to hear our crude attempts at minstrelsy.
+
+Our Maori friends were there in full force. Rakope, Piha, Mehere, and
+the rest of the girls, a blooming band of native beauty, escorted by a
+large contingent of their male relatives. All the married settlers round
+had brought their wives, and--theme of all tongues!--there were actually
+as many as four young single ladies! This was evidently going to be a
+spree on a most superb scale. Dandy Jack fairly beamed with rapture, and
+the gallant O'Gaygun almost burst with the overflow of his exuberant
+feelings.
+
+The scene of the spree was, of course, to be our Assembly Hall, although
+every citizen of Te Pahi township kept open house that night. The
+Assembly Hall has been already mentioned, but must now be more
+particularly described.
+
+Although the township is all parcelled out into town and suburban
+allotments, yet, for the most part, it remains in its original
+bush-covered condition. There is a piece of flat land round the base of
+the bluff, and this is all under grass; the half-dozen houses of the
+citizens, with their gardens and paddocks, being here. But all beyond is
+bush, with a single road cut through it, that leads up and along the
+range to Paparoa and Maungaturoto.
+
+When it occurred to us as advisable to build a hall, and when we had
+subscribed a sum for the purpose, a site was selected further along the
+beach up the Pahi. Here there is a little cove or bend in the shore,
+and, just above it, a quarter-acre lot was bought. This was cleared, and
+the hall built upon it. All around the little patch of clearing the bush
+remains untouched. A track connects it with the houses on the flat,
+about a quarter of a mile off; and the beach just below is an admirable
+landing-place for boats.
+
+The hall is simply a plain, wooden structure, capable of containing two
+or three hundred people. The Saint, when describing it in a letter home,
+said it was "a big, wooden barn with a floor to it." However, we voted
+this statement to be libellous, and cautioned the Saint on the misuse of
+terms. The Pahi Town Hall is not to be rashly designated with
+opprobrious epithets. Such as it is, it serves us well, by turns as
+chapel, court-house, music-hall, and ball-room.
+
+On the night in question the hall was brilliantly illuminated with
+candles and kerosene lamps. The benches were filled with an eagerly
+expectant audience, brown and white, who applauded loudly when the Pahi
+Minstrels emerged from a little boarded room in one corner, and took up
+their positions on the platform at the end of the hall. Then, for two
+mortal hours, there was a dismal and lugubrious travesty of the
+performances of that world-famous troupe which never performs out of
+London.
+
+But our audience were not captiously critical, and received our
+well-meant but weak attempts to please them with hearty pleasure and
+vigorous applause; and when we finally took ourselves off down to the
+river to wash our faces, every one declared we were a great success, as
+they busied themselves in clearing the hall for the dancing that was to
+follow.
+
+It is not my purpose to describe the entire spree. I have merely alluded
+to it in order to record one of its incidents, which may fittingly
+conclude this brief account of our Maori neighbours; moreover, it is an
+illustration of something I said once before about caste and class
+prejudices.
+
+Of the four young English ladies who were present at the spree, three
+were known to us as the daughters or sisters of settlers in the
+district. The fourth was a visitor from Auckland, who was staying with
+some friends in the district, and had come with them to the township.
+Miss "Cityswell" I will call her, the name will do as well as another.
+
+Now, it is the praiseworthy custom of settlers' wives in the bush, to
+ask their unmarried lady friends from the city to visit them as much as
+possible. There is a dearth of feminine society in the newer districts;
+and the most insignificant miss, on her travels from house to house up
+country, receives pretty nearly as much homage and attention as did the
+Queen of Sheba on her visit to King Solomon. If she be matrimonially
+inclined--and, to do them justice, our colonial ladies are not backward
+in that respect--she has an infinite variety of choice among suitors
+eligible and ineligible. But on that head more anon.
+
+Every woman is a lady in the bush, and Miss Cityswell was, of course, no
+exception to the general rule. We were aware, however, that her father
+and mother were of the English peasant class, though he had prospered
+and was now an Auckland magnate. She was a fairly educated young woman,
+passably good-looking; but her head was evidently turned by the
+attentions of which she was the recipient. Certainly, if mannerisms,
+affectation, vanity, and dress have anything to do with it, her claim to
+be called a lady was a most emphatic one.
+
+Auckland city people know little or nothing of Maoridom. In fact, the
+generations born and bred in Auckland seem to be as ignorant about the
+natives as people at home. They never come into contact with them. They
+see an occasional Maori in the streets, or perhaps witness a native
+canoe-race at the regatta. But as for knowing anything of Maori life and
+character, past or present, that they do not. And they are generally
+absolutely ignorant of the history of the colony. They are given to
+looking on the Maoris much as people at home regard gypsies--as quite an
+inferior order of beings, in fact.
+
+Miss Cityswell was naturally imbued with these notions. She regarded the
+Maoris who were present at the spree with sublime contempt and gathered
+skirts. During the early part of the evening, she confined herself to
+saying that she thought we took too much notice of our native
+neighbours. But when it came to the dancing, and when she saw the Maori
+girls making ready to take part in it, then the storm burst.
+
+"Pray, are you gentlemen actually going to dance with those creatures?"
+
+We intimated, mildly, that such was our explicit intention.
+
+The lady's indignation was almost too great for words. She regarded us
+with mingled horror and disgust, replying--
+
+"Well, all I can say is, that I shall certainly decline to dance with
+any gentleman who demeans himself by taking one of those brown wretches
+for a partner."
+
+Here was a terrible to-do. Expostulations, explanations, entreaties, all
+alike failed to move Miss Cityswell's determination. The matter began to
+assume a darker complexion as we thought it over. Under ordinary
+circumstances, every gentleman present would consider it his privilege
+to lead out the fair stranger for at least one dance, an honour he would
+not concede on any account, and would fight and bleed for if necessary.
+But now we began to perceive that we were between the horns of a
+dilemma.
+
+An eager and excited group of us withdrew to consider the matter.
+Something like _lese majeste_ must be committed either way, that was
+apparent. To give up the chance of a dance with Miss Cityswell was to
+forego a rare and exquisite moment of ecstasy; and yet, to qualify
+ourselves for it, we were required to put an insult upon, and to
+neglect, our beautiful Rakope and her sisters. Whatever was to be done?
+
+Dandy Jack, O'Gaygun, the Fiend, and another, in spite of their
+exuberant gallantry, declared themselves firmly for the belle of the
+Kaipara, _versus_ her white and more sophisticated rival. Probably,
+these gentlemen were actuated by a sneaking expectation that Miss
+Cityswell would not be able to hold out against the advances of such
+magnificoes as themselves, all night. But the Saint, Yankee Bill, and
+Whangarei Jim headed a party who were all for the Auckland lady. Her
+slightest wish was to them an absolute law, for that evening, at least.
+They would dance with no one else, look at no one else, speak to no one
+else, if this heaven-descended apparition so desired it.
+
+Then there was a party of moderates, represented by Little'un, the
+Pirate, Wolf, Dark Charlie, and the Member. These were all for a
+compromise of some sort. And at last they were inspired with a plan that
+seemed the best that could be done under the circumstances, and that was
+finally, after much dispute, accepted as our line of action by all
+parties. It was this. Each one of us was to go in rotation and to lead
+out Miss Cityswell for a single dance; after that he would be free to
+devote himself to all and sundry. No one was to dance with any other
+until he had had his turn with the haughty Aucklander. We hoped that
+such homage to her would appease her pride; while we relied on the good
+sense of all the other ladies, to put our singular conduct down to a
+whimsical desire on our part to pay a fanciful attention to a fair
+visitor and stranger.
+
+But there was one factor we had entirely forgotten to reckon. As we were
+proceeding in a body back to the hall, we met all the Maori girls coming
+out, and a high state of indignation they seemed to be in. Some
+officious person had carried Miss Cityswell's dictum to their ears, and
+up went all the brown noses in the air as a consequence. _They_ were not
+going to stop in the hall to be grossly and gratuitously insulted! No,
+thank you! If they were not good enough for Pakeha men to dance with,
+they had no further business there! It was time for them to be going
+home!
+
+Here was another nice little mess. All the Maori girls, from Rakope
+downwards, were as wrathful as such brown darlings could be. They would
+go straight home at once, they said, and never, never again come to a
+Pakeha spree! And their masculine friends were siding with them, and
+already making for the boats, though, for the most part, indignantly
+silent, waiting to see what we would do.
+
+Several of the Pakeha ladies present tried to pacify the outraged Maori
+feeling, but without avail. On the other hand, it appeared that Miss
+Cityswell was inwardly somewhat frightened at the turn things had
+taken, and at the excitement every one was in. She would not move from
+her silly standpoint, however; but when Dandy Jack blandly, and with
+many elaborate compliments, proceeded to lay our proposal for compromise
+before her, she eagerly grasped at it as an escape from the awkwardness
+of the situation.
+
+So far that was settled, then; but how the Maori beauties were to be
+pacified it passed our understanding to conceive. Old Colonial was at
+last discovered behind a flax-bush, deep in a discussion on beet-root
+sugar-making with a stranger, and wholly oblivious of the row. He was
+instantly dragged forward into the light, and every one turned to him as
+the one person who could save our honour and our partners.
+
+When the case had been fully explained to him, Old Colonial's eyes
+twinkled with fun. "I see my way to square matters," he said, "but you
+must leave me to do it by myself."
+
+He then went down to the beach, where the Tanoa ladies were sitting in a
+group in the moonshine, waiting for the tide to turn before they
+embarked to return home. He sat down amidst them, and after some
+desultory chat, and flirtation perhaps, he brought the talk round to
+Miss Cityswell and her proceedings.
+
+"Yes, she's a niceish girl," he drawled meditatively, "rather foolish
+and ignorant, though, I think. You see, she is a visitor up here, this
+Auckland person; and we are bound to be hospitable and attentive, and to
+put up with her whims."
+
+His auditors assented to this, but intimated that _they_ were not bound
+to put up with Miss Cityswell's arrogance, and did not intend to.
+
+"Of course not," returned Old Colonial, with a wave of his pipe-hand, as
+he reclined at Rakope's feet; "of course not. But then, you see," and
+here he glanced cautiously round to make sure that no Pakehas were
+within hearing, "she's not worth thinking about, _not being rangatira_."
+
+"Oh!" cried Rakope, with round open eyes; and "Oh!" cried Piha and
+Mehere, and all the chorus.
+
+"No," continued he, lazily contemplating a smoke-ring in the moonlight;
+"her father and mother were only kukis, or something not far off it, and
+she, of course, is not rangatira, not a lady."
+
+"Oh!" cried Rakope and the others briskly, and joyously jumping to their
+feet, "that alters the case. We thought she was a lady, and were
+offended at what she said; but as she is not, it does not matter--she
+knows no better, and what she says is nothing. _We_ are ladies, and
+don't mind what common persons say or do."
+
+So, back to the hall came the whole body, romping and laughing round Old
+Colonial, the acute and wise diplomatist, who had made matters straight
+and pleasant once more. And we, standing in a body near the hall, heard
+the rippling laughter of the merry band, and saw their white muslin
+dresses and bright ribbons glancing among the trees. From within the
+lighted hall came the sound of fiddles and of stamping feet. We forgot
+all about Miss Cityswell; we left her to the care of Saint and Whangarei
+Jim; we forgot the terms of our compromise. We rushed into the bush to
+meet our partners, as they came up from the beach, with streaming hair
+and eager eyes. And presently twenty couples took the floor--we Pakeha
+men and the dusky daughters of the land; and Old Colonial and Rakope
+waltzed fast and furiously at the head.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 6: A battle-axe of polished green jade. One of the most valued
+of Maori possessions.]
+
+[Footnote 7: Missionary and schoolmaster.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+OUR SETTLER FRIENDS.
+
+
+I think I need hardly say that we are not aesthetic here in the bush. In
+point of fact, we have no sympathy whatever with aestheticism or high art
+culture. We are, to put it shortly, Goths, barbarians, antithetics, what
+you will. The country is not aesthetic either; it is too young yet to use
+or abuse intellectual stimulants. There exists among us a profound
+contempt for all the fripperies and follies of fashion and civilization.
+We hold these things to be wrong--to be a sort of crime against manhood.
+
+In a measure we are Puritan; not altogether in a religious sense, but in
+a moral and social one, certainly. We regard our horny hands with pride,
+and talk about "honest labour" with something more than a virtuous glow.
+We are apt to be rather down on city foplings and soft-handed
+respectabilities. All such people we despise with positively brutal
+heartiness. When we read of what is doing in London and Paris we swell
+with indignation and contempt. We look upon the civilization we have
+come out of as no fine thing. Life is a serious matter-of-fact business
+to us, and we hold in stern derision the amenities of more sophisticated
+communities.
+
+I think that we must look upon things at home much in the same light as
+the Norsemen of old did upon the frivolities of Rome or Byzantium. The
+spirit of O'Gaygun's philosophy pervades the colonial mind a good deal,
+and, possibly, we may be prone to cultivate it as a means of stifling
+any regrets we may have after the old life. We are very natural men, you
+see, very simple and childlike, unused to the artificialities of larger
+and organized society. Our characters have been reformed back to primary
+essentials; and the raree-show of civilization dazzles and frightens our
+primitive nervous systems. We may have our little failings, but we ask
+no pity for them from people whom we so utterly scorn, as we do the
+denizens of the elder world. Art! Culture! AEstheticism! Bah! Pouf! Away
+with all such degrading, debasing, dehumanizing trumpery! We are men of
+a harder, sterner, simpler mould than the emasculate degeneracies of
+modern England! We are the pioneers and founders of a new Britain, of a
+stronger and purer life!
+
+When describing our farm I gave some hint as to the causes which have
+kept us from building a better house hitherto. Some day we shall have
+one, of course; or, possibly, we shall have more than one, for some of
+our chums have been showing a tendency towards matrimony of late; and if
+any of us marry they must have houses of their own, I suppose. We should
+need a barrack else, you understand, for families _do_ run large out
+here.
+
+Some of our neighbours live in very comfortable houses; and by visiting
+them we are kept from becoming reformed into the uttermost savagery
+altogether. Other people had more capital than we, or spent what they
+possessed in a different manner. There are those who have laid
+themselves out to render their homes more in accordance with the taste
+that prevails among--I had nearly written _decent_ people, but will say
+worldly instead. They have got nicer domiciles than our shanty; but,
+then, it takes a woman to look after things. There must be a mistress in
+a house that is to be a house, and not a--well, shanty, let us say. Even
+Old Colonial is sensible of that.
+
+A frame-house here is built upon exactly the same plan as ours, so far
+as regard the piles, framework, outside wall and roof; but the plan of
+it varies much. Every man is his own architect, or at least that
+business lies between him and the carpenter who builds for him. One sees
+some very singular examples sometimes. Rows of isolated rooms connected
+by a verandah; houses all gable-ends and wings; all sorts in fact.
+
+A good house will have the outside walls boarded up and down, with
+battens covering the chinks, instead of weather-boarding like our
+shanty. The inside walls and ceilings will be lined with grooved and
+jointed planking, so as to make the house what is styled bug-proof.
+There is a broad verandah round the whole or part of the house. There
+are brick chimneys inside the house, though, as they are usually an item
+of considerable expense, this is not invariable, and chimney out-puts
+like ours will be seen not infrequently. There are various rooms, and
+possibly an upper storey, which may or may not have a balcony above the
+verandah. It is a common practice to have French windows, opening upon
+the verandah, instead of doors.
+
+Such houses can be made very elegant as well as comfortable. They are
+painted and decorated with carvings outside, and the inside walls may be
+painted, papered, or varnished. Furniture and upholstery of all kinds
+is, of course, procurable in Auckland; so that one can have all the
+comfort of an English home, if one is able to pay for it.
+
+Necessarily, the cost of house-building will vary considerably,
+according to the style and size of residence. A cottage with two to four
+rooms will cost L100, or less. The average price paid for houses in our
+district--large roomy houses for prosperous family-men, contracted for
+with a carpenter, to build, paint, and thoroughly finish off--runs from
+L250 to L500, or something like it. Kauri timber is used almost
+exclusively in the North, so that we may say we live under the shadow of
+the Kauri pine.
+
+We keep up the usages of society so far as to pay visits occasionally,
+especially to houses where there are ladies. You have got to live in a
+country where petticoats are few and far between, where there is not one
+woman to twenty or thirty men, as is the case here, in order to
+thoroughly appreciate the delights of feminine society. People at home
+don't know how to treat a lady; they are too much used to them. Why,
+there are actually more women than men in England!
+
+We treasure our ladies, because they are so rare among us in the bush.
+Good creatures they are, these settler's wives. How kind and benevolent
+they are to us, to be sure! And how they do delight to "boss" us about!
+But we like it, we enjoy it, we revel in it. We would lay ourselves down
+for them to trample on us, and be truly grateful for the attention.
+That is our loyal feeling towards the married ladies resident in the
+district. Conceive, if you can, how much more extravagant is our
+gallantry when certain other persons are in question--young ladies whom
+the irreverent covertly term "husband-hunters!"
+
+Those good lady dwellers in the bush--how it does delight them to
+promote the matrimonial felicity of others! How they do enjoy
+matchmaking!
+
+Every settler's wife, so soon as she has got over the exclusiveness of
+honeymoon happiness, does her best to induce her girl friends from the
+city to come and visit her. She is so lonely, she says--poor thing! No
+one but her husband, and his neighbours and workmen; her devoted slaves
+every one of them, but still, all rough men, you know. She pines for a
+companion of her own sex. Oh yes; very much so! It would be a charity,
+indeed, if dear Ada or Fanny would come and stay with her a bit.
+
+Dear Ada or Fanny is only too glad of the opportunity. She did want to
+see what the bush was like, for she has never been out of Auckland yet,
+except a trip to the hot lakes, or so. In fact, her school-days are
+scarcely over yet. And then she is so sorry for her friend's loneliness.
+It must be dreadful to be isolated in the bush like that. She will
+certainly come and see her.
+
+So Miss Ada or Fanny packs up her box. Sweet, amiable creature! She
+flies to alleviate her friend's hard lot. She constrains her
+inclinations, and sets out bravely for the bush, solely at friendship's
+call; for, of course, there is no _arriere pensee_ in her mind. Oh no;
+how could there be?
+
+The young lady was not considered exactly a belle in the city, perhaps;
+but the bush receives her as an incarnation of Venus herself. Directly
+she gets beyond the confines of the city, into the rough, primitive, and
+inchoate wilderness, she finds herself elevated to a rank she never knew
+before. Coach-drivers, steamboat-captains, hotel-keepers treat her with
+a deference and attention that is quite captivating, rude examples of
+male humanity though they may be.
+
+Some settler is introduced, or introduces himself, who is travelling
+too. He will be delighted, honoured, to be permitted to act as her
+escort. Perhaps he has been deputed by her parents, or by her friend, to
+look after her. Whether or no, he almost suffocates with importance if
+she graciously accords him permission to act as her courier and footman.
+
+Other men who are journeying on the roads or rivers somehow become
+attached to Miss Ada's luggage. It appears that they are going in the
+same direction. They say so, at any rate. They form themselves into a
+sort of bodyguard to look after this wonderful visitant. Mysterious
+dangers, not to be explained, are darkly hinted at, in order that cause
+may be shown for their attendance. They are necessary as porters to look
+after her traps, as purveyors to fetch her milk and fruit, and so on.
+
+Miss Ada may not unnaturally be a little timid at first, but she soon
+gets over that, finding that these big, bearded men are a good deal more
+timid of her. Some of them actually colour up when she looks at them.
+She discovers that she is a wit; her little jokes being applauded
+uproariously, and repeated by one of her bodyguard to another. Every eye
+is upon her, gazing at her with undisguised admiration; and every ear is
+humbly bent to catch the slightest whisper that falls from her lips.
+Really, these bushmen are very nice fellows, after all, in spite of
+their rough looks. Quite different from the affected young fops of the
+city.
+
+As the young lady journeys onward her train swells, like a snowball
+gathering snow. Somehow or other, it seems that the whole district is
+meditating a visit to the place that is her destination. And everybody
+is so polite to her, so embarrassingly attentive, and so determined she
+shall enjoy her trip, that she begins to think the bush is the most
+delightful part of the habitable globe; while the scenery grows more and
+more enchanting every minute.
+
+By-and-by the end of the journey is reached. The settler's wife comes
+out to meet her guest, while a long procession files up from the river,
+actually quarrelling for the privilege of carrying Miss Ada's various
+impedimenta. The ladies are embracing and kissing with effusion, to the
+manifest discomfiture and perturbation of the crowd, who try to look
+indifferently in opposite directions.
+
+"_So_ good of you to come, dear, to these far away solitudes; so _kind_
+of you, and so _disinterested_, for I'm sure there's nothing here to
+attract you in the _least_!"
+
+"Oh, I think you've got a _charming_ place! And the gentlemen have been
+_so_ kind. I didn't mind the journey at _all_, I assure you. And, of
+course, I would come to keep _you_ company, you poor, banished thing!"
+
+Thus do these innocent creatures chatter to each other in their
+hypocritical fashion. But the wife just glances slyly at her husband,
+and he looks guiltily away at the far horizon; for the dear schemer has
+been making a confidant of him, for want of a better.
+
+And Miss Ada's tail makes itself at home, after the free hospitable
+manner of the bush. And the men are received with greater unction than
+ever on the part of their hostess; albeit they profess to have called
+casually, on some mysterious business or other with her husband. And
+they are housed for the night, at least, and to each of them separately
+the good little woman finds an opportunity of saying--
+
+"Isn't she a sweet, pretty girl? And such a capital manager, I do assure
+you. Be sure you come up on Sundays, and every other day you can spare,
+while she is with us. It will be so dull for her, you know, coming from
+all the gaieties of the city!"
+
+Rumour flies about the country, apprising it of the fact that a young
+lady visitor is stopping at So-and-so's. The district incontinently
+throws itself at her feet, and worships Beauty in her person. Each of
+the few married ladies round invites the stranger to come and stop with
+_her_, after a bit, and to lighten _her_ heavy load of solitude, and
+_her_ craving for a companion of her own sex. And Miss Ada finds it
+impossible to refuse these invitations; and so the district entraps her,
+and keeps her in it.
+
+What wonder that when she does return to the city, it is only to make
+ready for an impending event; for she was really obliged to take pity
+on one of those poor bachelors, you understand. And the bush is so
+charming! And she will be near her dear friend! And so--it comes about
+that there will be one "husband-hunter" the less.
+
+One season there had been an entire dearth of lady visitors. In our
+shanty people were going melancholy mad. The district was losing its
+charm for us. We had not set eyes upon any young lady of flirtable
+estate for months and months. Old Colonial and the Saint had taken to
+making their cattle-hunting expeditions invariably lead them to Tanoa;
+where they said they went to talk to Mihake about stock, but where, it
+was remembered, too, pretty Rakope and her sisters dwelt. O'Gaygun's
+conversation was burdened with constant reference to "purty gurls," whom
+he had seen in former days; and he became so violently attentive to the
+wife of one of our neighbours, that, we began to think he would have to
+be seriously expostulated with. Dandy Jack was restless, betraying less
+interest than usual in his personal appearance, and talking of going to
+Auckland for a spell. All of us were getting gloomy and dispirited. Our
+life didn't seem to be so glorious a one as usual. But relief came at
+last.
+
+One Saturday, the Fiend had been over to the township, taking our weekly
+consignment of butter, and bringing back such news as there was, and
+such stores as we required. He returned with intelligence that set our
+shanty in a ferment. A young lady had come up from Auckland on a visit!
+
+The Fiend had found a note at the township, left there for our community
+generally. It was from the wife of a settler whom we speak of as the
+Member. She informed us that her friend. Miss ---- Fairweather, let it
+be, was on a visit to her; and she invited us to go there on Sunday, the
+next day, and whenever else we could. The epistle concluded with some
+adroit reference to the charms and graces of her guest, conveyed in that
+vague and curiosity-exciting manner so peculiarly feminine.
+
+Full parliament of the shanty was instantly summoned, and we proceeded
+to discuss the matter. It was decided, without opposition, that we
+should accept the invitation, and should spend the following day at the
+Member's. Not a dissentient voice so far as that was concerned. The
+whole parliament would pay its respects to Miss Fairweather, somehow or
+other; no question about _that_. And then we had to take into
+consideration the important subject of dress.
+
+Every one wished to make the best appearance he possibly could, and Old
+Colonial peremptorily commanded that we should turn out in our best
+attire. But our best was a poor thing.
+
+The common wardrobe of the shanty was overhauled; and it became evident
+that we were worse off than we had at first supposed. Under ordinary
+circumstances, not more than two or three of us would require a
+go-to-meeting rig-out at one and the same time. Even a full change of
+garments was scarcely ever called for by the whole party at once.
+Commonly, when going to visit one of our married neighbours, we thought
+it enough to clean ourselves a bit and put a coat over our shirts; that
+was all. But something more killing was needful on this occasion; and,
+to our consternation, we found we had not got a square change of clothes
+to go round.
+
+It was too late to go to the township to buy some additional clothes;
+besides, we could not afford such extravagances just then. Three or four
+of us might have turned out pretty decently, perhaps, but not the whole
+crew. And no one would hear of any plan that might keep him at home. We
+would all go, making shift as well as we could.
+
+All other work was at once put aside, and we were soon briskly at it,
+washing out shirts and trousers. A roaring fire was kindled outside the
+shanty, for the purpose of quickly drying the cleansed integuments; for,
+some two or three were reduced to the temporary necessity of draping
+themselves in blankets, _a la_ Maori, while the only clothes they had
+were being washed and dried.
+
+Two of the boys had canvas breeches, that were supposed to be white when
+they were clean. Now canvas goes hard and stiff when wet, and is
+therefore not readily washed. Our chums were dissatisfied with the
+stained and discoloured appearance their nether garments presented,
+after all the washing they could give them. Pipeclay was suggested, but
+of pipeclay we had none. In lieu of it the boys got some white
+limestone, which they first calcined, and then puddled up into a paste
+with water. This mixture they rubbed into the fabric of their breeches.
+
+The effect of this could not be very well made out by firelight, and
+next morning there was no time to alter it if it did not suit. However,
+the ingenious whitewashes were satisfied. They had what Dandy Jack
+called "stucco breeches," which had a dazzling effect at a distance,
+certainly. The worst of it was that the plaster cracked and peeled off
+in flakes, and that the four whitewashed legs left visible traces upon
+everything else they touched. Still, we do not go courting every day,
+you know, and some little variation from conventional routine is
+excusable when we do.
+
+We had all to take to tailoring, sewing, mending, and cobbling.
+Everything we had was tattered and torn; and had to be patched and
+repaired somehow. We could not confront the gaze of Beauty with great
+rents in our shirts. This was a fearful business, the materials for
+effecting it being exceedingly limited, and our fingers unused to the
+work. It was a sight to see O'Gaygun, his philosophy and gallantry at
+war with one another, sewing blue flannel patches on a red shirt, and
+groaning lamentably over the task.
+
+Old Colonial officiated as barber, and, one by one, we all passed under
+his hands, he himself being operated upon by the Saint. With a pair of
+wool-shears, and the relics of the common comb, he clipped our flowing
+tresses close to our heads, reducing the unruly touzles to something
+like order; and he trimmed our beards to a uniform pattern, such as he
+considered was neat and becoming. We did not want to look like savages,
+he said.
+
+Unfortunately, the Saint was not such a good hand at the hair-cutting
+business, so Old Colonial looked rather singular, the white scalp
+showing in patches among his raven curls. But the boss could not see
+this himself, and no one mentioned the matter to him, out of merciful
+consideration for the Saint.
+
+Then Old Colonial manufactured pomatum out of lard and beeswax, scenting
+it with lemon-peel and a sweet-smelling leaf. This stuff he styled "Te
+Pahi Brilliantine," and with it he plentifully bedaubed our hair and
+beards.
+
+As a customary thing we never dream of cleaning our boots. It is
+altogether a waste of time, and it would be entirely useless to do it.
+Moreover, our boots are of rough hide, and not adapted for blacking. We
+merely scrape the mud off them with a shingle; that is quite enough.
+But, on this unusual occasion, it was decreed that we should black our
+boots and leggings. The tide would be full when we started in our boat,
+therefore we could get on board in the creek; and, not being under the
+necessity of plodging through the deep mud that is laid bare at low
+tide, we should reach our destination with passably clean feet.
+
+Blacking we had none, of course; that had to be made. We did not know
+exactly how to do it, so we tried various experiments. We prepared
+charcoal, and we scraped soot out of the top of the stove. We mixed
+these with kerosene oil, and, as some one said there ought to be
+sulphuric acid in blacking, we put in some vinegar instead of it. This
+mess was held to be the most effective, and was consequently used. Our
+foot and leg-gear was ridded of the mud of many weeks, and was smeared
+with the newly invented blacking.
+
+Behold us next morning ready to start! A line of nine ruffianly-looking
+scarecrows, under review by Old Colonial, head-master of the ceremonies.
+Our shirts are clean, though elaborately embroidered in many colours.
+Our trousers ditto. Our boots, whether high ankle-jacks, or lace-ups and
+leggings, are black, if not polished. Each man wears a coat. Rather
+ragged, rather ancient are these coats, originally of very varied kinds.
+But the etiquette of the bush does not demand much in coats. So long as
+your shirt is clean and whole, your coat may be a little off colour, so
+to put it. People are not so particular about the coat. It is an
+excrescence, not an essential garment like the shirt and breeches.
+
+There is one coat short, but Dandy Jack gracefully waives any claim he
+might have had, and goes without. He can well do so. Such is the force
+of habit, that, somehow or other, he looks more elegant than any of us.
+He is even well dressed, as we estimate that condition. It is
+aggravating, because----But no matter!
+
+There is one garment that has been the cause of introducing "hatred,
+malice, and all uncharitableness" among us. It is a coat of brown
+hemp-cloth, faced with leather. A coat of English make, with many
+pockets, such as sportsmen and gamekeepers wear sometimes. It had been
+thought too good to be used, and had been stowed aside in the library.
+Such as it is, it is the best garment we have got. After much wrangling
+we had to draw lots for it, and, much to his satisfaction, Old Colonial
+acquired the right to wear it.
+
+A box of paper collars had been discovered, so our unaccustomed necks
+are all tightly throttled in them. They do not fit, of course, and have
+to be fixed up with string and slips of flax; still, the effect is
+dazzling. The wet had got into the box, however, and a brown patch
+appears on the left side of each collar. This does for a trade mark, or
+badge of the shanty. Scarves or neckties we have none, nor any
+substitute or apology for them.
+
+Our newly-cropped and pomatumed heads are thatched with strangely
+ancient and weather-worn hats. These are of three general varieties, or
+were, when they were new. First, come soft felt wide-awakes,
+broad-brimmed and steeple-crowned, now presenting every diversity of
+slouch. Next, are hats of the same original shape, made of coarse
+plaited straw or reeds, now very much broken and bent. Finally, there
+are the remains of one or two pith helmets and solar topees.
+
+We have striven to make our head-gear look as jaunty and fresh as was
+possible. We have blacked the hats or whitewashed them, and have stuck
+feathers and flowers in them to give an air of gaiety to our otherwise
+sombre and sedate aspect. And thus we stand, while Old Colonial examines
+the regiment, giving a finishing touch here and there, where he deems it
+requisite. Then he draws back and proudly surveys us, and, bearing in
+mind the contrast we present to our customary everyday appearance, he
+says--
+
+"We shall do, boys! Proceed to victory, my Pahi lady-killers!"
+
+We have a good distance to go, for the Member's place is fully twenty
+miles off; but we have plenty of rowers, and have wind as well as tide
+in our favour. Locomotion by water being our customary means of getting
+about, we think nothing of the distance, and get over it in fair time.
+
+The Member's place is a very different style of thing to ours. He has
+been some years longer here than we have on the Pahi; and has had plenty
+of means to enable him to do as he liked. In former times some of us
+worked for him, and we are all very good friends. But it is a year or
+two since most of us visited here, and so we are much struck with the
+improvement that has been effected since we last saw the place.
+
+To begin with, we land upon a little wharf or causeway of planks laid
+upon piles, which runs out over the mud to low-water mark, and enables
+people to land or embark at any time, without struggling through the mud
+first of all. For, on all these rivers, mud is the general rule. Shingle
+and sand appear in places, and there is often a belt of either above
+high-water mark; but below that, and as far as the ebb recedes, is
+almost invariably a stretch of greenish-grey sticky ooze. It is in this
+that the mangroves flourish, and it contains the shell-fish which the
+Maoris largely eat. Our boats are usually built flat-bottomed, so that
+they may be readily hauled up from, or shoved down to the water on the
+slippery surface of the mud, as may be required.
+
+The Member's house stands close to the beach, but on a little elevation
+just above it. It is placed in an irregularly shaped basin, that opens
+out upon the river. Round the basin run low ranges, covered still with
+their original bush. But all the undulating extent between them and the
+river, some seven hundred acres or so, is under grass or cultivation. It
+is all enclosed with a boundary fence of strong pig-proof
+post-and-rail, and divided off by well cared for hedges, or wire fences.
+There are other and newer clearings beyond the ranges and out of sight,
+but here all that is visible is very much trimmer and neater in
+appearance than our farm.
+
+Over three parts of the basin the plough has passed. About one-half is
+under wheat, maize, and other crops, while the grass on the remainder
+looks wonderfully rich, freed as it is from stumps, drained, and, to a
+measurable extent, levelled. Cattle, sheep, horses, and pigs are feeding
+in the paddocks.
+
+We eye the scene with great admiration, and even envy. This is the sort
+of thing our farm ought to be, and will be. It is what it might have
+been already, perhaps, if we had been capitalists. But then we weren't.
+
+The Member has got beyond the stage where we are still stuck. He is
+scarcely a pioneer farmer any longer. He has made his home, and a
+beautiful home it is, though shut out, seemingly, from all the world
+beside. The ranges, dark with woods, sweep round the fertile fields, the
+river flows below, and beyond it the untouched virginity of forest is
+again picturesquely apparent.
+
+But we are in a hurry to get up to the house, and so we walk at once
+from the landing-place. A well-made gravelled path leads up from the
+waterside, not straight to the house, which is rather to the right, but
+along a neat paling, which encloses the gardens round it. On the left is
+an orchard of some extent, within which we see a great many more
+fruit-trees than we possess ourselves; they have been grown with care,
+and the varied produce of that fruit-yard would be a mine of wealth in
+Covent Garden.
+
+Beyond the orchard, which is divided from the path by a hedge of orange,
+lemon, and quince, cut down into a dense shrubbery, we catch a glimpse
+through the trees of several labourers' cottages, and some barns or
+wool-sheds. The path is shaded by an avenue of fine trees, very large
+considering how young they are. Among them may be seen English oaks and
+beeches, American maples and sumachs, Spanish chestnuts, Australian
+blue-gums, Chinese and Japanese trees and shrubs, tropic palms, and some
+of the indigenous ornaments of the bush.
+
+A hundred yards up this avenue, and we pass to the right through a gate
+in the garden paling. There we find ourselves in enchanted ground, for
+there is surely no garden in the North, except, perhaps, that of the
+Horticultural Society at Auckland, which is superior to this. It is
+beautifully laid out, and to us, fresh from the uncouth barbarism of our
+shanty and its surroundings, this place seems to breathe of the "Arabian
+Nights." And is there not a certain princess within, into whose
+seraphic presence we are now entering? We inhale a new atmosphere, and
+tread lightly, almost on tiptoe, speaking unconsciously in whispers, and
+with the blood running quicker through our veins.
+
+The Member has money, as I have mentioned, and here, as elsewhere, money
+is a magician's rod that will work wonders. To the Member labour and the
+cost of it bear other relations than they do to us. He is able to look
+on life in a different light, and may expend toil on other matters than
+such as are of bare utility. And he has done so, wisely and lavishly,
+and so his home is what a home should be in this fair land--an Eden of
+natural beauty.
+
+In this garden there are smooth lawns and dainty flower-beds, winding
+walks and blossomy banks, trellised arbours and shady groves. Taste and
+elegance are manifest all round us, from the scented rosery to the
+well-kept melon-patch. The rich and splendid hues of countless flowers
+delight our eyes, while their unwonted sweetness sends a mild
+intoxication into us with every breath we draw. We pass up to the house
+along a straight, broad path, smooth and white with shell-gravel. The
+path divides the garden in a part of its length, and has a hedge on
+either side. But these hedges are of ornamental rather than useful kind.
+One is of geranium and the other of fuchsia. Here those beautiful
+plants, which are guarded so carefully in English conservatories, grow
+into trees in the open air. These geranium and fuchsia hedges are
+composed of many varieties of both. They are about eight or ten feet in
+height, and are constantly and carefully pruned to keep down their too
+exuberant tendencies. They are loaded with blossom, while the fuchsia
+fruit is a palatable addition to the many dainties of garden and
+orchard.
+
+The house before us carries about it the same air of comfort and ease as
+the garden, not to speak of elegance. It is a large villa, similar to
+some of the mansions one may see about colonial cities. Of what style
+its architecture may be I cannot say. It appears to partake of the
+character, externally, both of a Swiss chalet and a Norwegian country
+house.
+
+Of course, the material of the building is entirely kauri timber, with
+the exception of the chimneys, which are of brick, and the piles, hidden
+from sight, which are of puriri wood. There are many angles, corners,
+gables, wings, and outputs, designed for utility as well as appearance.
+Round the whole house runs a broad verandah, following the
+irregularities of the edifice. Above it is a balcony, forming a verandah
+for the upper storey, and the high, steep roof extends evenly over this.
+Between the pillars of the verandah is a light rail or trellis, upon
+which flowering creepers are twined, passion-flowers, with their
+handsome blossoms and refreshing fruit, conspicuous among them. Openings
+give admittance from the garden here and there; while light staircases
+connect the upper and lower verandahs outside the house.
+
+There has been some care in the ornamentation and finish; suitable
+carvings and mouldings adding beauty to the general design. The walls
+are painted white, picked out with green, while the shingled roof, being
+coloured red, looks passably like tiling. Altogether, the Member is to
+be congratulated on his domicile. It is a very different affair to ours.
+It would be honestly called a mansion in any country.
+
+This is the sort of house _we_ intend to have, we say, as we walk up to
+it. And this is the kind of garden we will have round it, too. O'Gaygun
+sniffs at the flowers with pretended disrespect, and mutters something
+about "taters" being more useful and to the purpose. But even he is a
+little quelled by the surroundings, and we hear no more of his barbaric
+philosophy for a time.
+
+Still, mark this, there is an air about the place that makes it
+different from so many old-country habitations. You do not feel that you
+may look but mustn't touch. You are not reminded that everything is for
+show, and not for use. There is no primness in the garden. There is an
+honest degree of orderly disorder, and an absence of formality. You do
+not feel as if you ought not to walk on the grass for fear of hurting
+it. There is no artificiality apparent; no empty pretences whatsoever.
+
+The house partakes of the same characteristic. It looks homely, and as
+if it was meant to be lived in. As we reach the verandah we notice a
+saddle or two carelessly slung over the rail; we see a hammock hung in
+one corner; and some clothes drying on lines in another. A couple of
+colley dogs come barking to meet us from their kennels on a shady side;
+and various other slight details betoken that we are still in the
+unsophisticated bush.
+
+We tramp heavily along the verandah, a formidable gang of uncouth
+barbarians. Old Colonial, at our head, gives a gentle coo-ee to intimate
+our arrival. Then out pops our hostess from somewhere. A merry,
+bright-eyed little woman is she, such as it does one's heart good to
+behold. She comes forward, with two of her children beside her, not a
+whit dismayed at the invasion. She gives us a hearty welcome, shaking
+hands religiously all along our lengthy line.
+
+This is one of those women who always make you feel gratified and
+contented with yourself and all the world, after you have shaken hands
+with or spoken to her. "Magnetic," some people call it. She is every
+one's sister, and you feel an instinctive affection for her, of that
+sober and yet warm kind which may be termed loyalty. She is queen in the
+Kaipara; and all of us think it the greatest pleasure in life to obey
+her behests.
+
+Chatting gaily, our hostess leads us through an open French window into
+the drawing-room, and we follow her, with a pleased and yet bashful
+sense of expectancy. Into the drawing-room, mark you! and a real
+drawing-room, too; not a visible make-believe, like the library in our
+shanty. This is a large room, furnished as people do furnish their best
+reception-chamber in civilized lands. Pictures hang on the varnished
+walls; books and book-cases stand here and there; tables loaded with
+knick-knacks, vases of flowers, workboxes, albums, and so forth; chairs
+and sofas and lounges; ornaments, statuettes, brackets, and various
+etcetera, betoken a life of greater ease than that of our shanty.
+
+We sit around in an uncouth semicircle, awkward and somewhat ill at
+ease, for we feel ourselves a little out of place in that room. One
+cannot live the life that we have lived for years past, without feeling
+strange and uncomfortable when once again brought within the influence
+of refinement. So we look at our boots with a sense that our hobnails
+do not match with the white Japanese matting that covers the floor; and
+we sit on the edge of our chairs just as other rustics would do at home.
+Our hats removed, the results of Old Colonial's tonsorial operations are
+made fully apparent. Our hostess surveys us with a puzzled air. I think
+she is struggling with a desire to laugh at the quaint simplicity of the
+communal wardrobe of our shanty, as it is now displayed on our persons
+before her.
+
+We have been petting the children, and, like other children, these are a
+trifle too observant. One of them, who is sitting on Old Colonial's
+knee, suddenly becomes aware of the state of his poll, and, pulling his
+beard to attract attention, asks--
+
+"What made you cut your hair off?"
+
+Old Colonial looks across at the Saint; and then, catching Mrs. Member's
+eye, he and she and all of us go off into peals and roars of laughter.
+In the midst of this the door opens, we catch sight of another lady
+entering, and we stumble confusedly to our feet. It is _she_!
+
+Miss Fairweather comes forward, escorted by the Member, and followed by
+a straggling crowd of half a dozen men, similar barbarians to ourselves,
+who have got here before us. She is a pretty girl, a very pretty girl,
+would be considered so anywhere. Here, in her dainty elegance of
+costume, to our rude senses she appears almost too beautiful. She
+dazzles us altogether; we know no longer whether we are standing on our
+heads or our heels.
+
+We are being severally introduced with all due ceremony. The little
+beauty is not by any means disconcerted at the ordeal; she is evidently
+used to the position she occupies; used to being regarded with awe as a
+superior being by ranks and regiments of bearded bushmen. She receives
+our reverential bows with an amused expression in her blue eyes, and
+shakes hands with us, one by one, with the air of a princess according
+gracious favours to her subjects. And a funny little incident occurs.
+
+Miss Fairweather remarks to the Little'un that she thinks she has met
+him before; in Auckland, probably. Either she is mistaken, or, the
+Little'un has forgotten, and is shamefaced. He blushes the colour of
+beet-root. His huge frame wobbles in confusion; and, awkwardly trying to
+shrink out of sight, as his bashful habit is, he steps backward, and
+plants a giant heel upon O'Gaygun's toe. That outraged individual
+startles the assemblage with the sudden exclamation, "Gosh!"
+Endeavouring to extricate himself, he lumbers against the Saint and Dark
+Charlie, whom he sends flying into a centre-table. The table overturns,
+of course, and Dark Charlie's short, thick person sprawls and flounders
+heavily over it.
+
+The ice is now thoroughly broken. The ladies fall into seats, fairly
+screaming with laughter, and all of us, except the unlucky ones, begin
+to feel more at home. Then Mrs. Member tells her friend all sorts of
+wild legends about our shanty, such as obtain among the feminine public
+of the district. She says we are just a pack of overgrown schoolboys,
+who are rapidly turning into absolute savages. And they banter us
+deliciously to their hearts' content.
+
+But we are not noisy visitors, you know, on such occasions as these. On
+the contrary, the ladies do most of the talking, as some of us are
+absolutely tongue-tied. We can do nothing but sit and gaze at the young
+lady in our midst with all our eyes. She is a houri straight from
+Paradise, and we poor mortals just get a glimpse from beyond the gate,
+as it were.
+
+Then more arrivals keep dropping in by twos and threes, neighbouring
+settlers and chums of ours. So at last a circle of some thirty more or
+less rough-looking men form a court about those two ladies. Then we go
+to dinner in another room. Most of us dine chiefly off Miss Fairweather,
+devouring her with our admiring gaze, listening enraptured to her chat,
+and pulsating with wild joy if she do but smile or speak to us
+personally. Many can hardly eat anything; they are too love-sick
+already.
+
+After dinner our shyness has disappeared, and our native manhood
+re-asserts itself. The men of the Pahi must not be cut out by rivals
+from other rivers. They must do all they know to find favour in those
+beautiful eyes. We go strolling about the place in little knots,
+admiring the garden, eating fruit in the orchard, visiting the paddocks
+to see the stock and the crops, and generally enjoying ourselves after
+our manner.
+
+Each of our ladies has a little group around her, which goes off
+separately. The component parts of Miss Fairweather's immediate train
+may change from time to time; men may come and men may go, as it pleases
+her; but the gallant O'Gaygun, the devoted Dandy Jack, the obliging Old
+Colonial, and the fascinating Fiend are ever hovering around her,
+deferent, attentive, and adoring. Whether she is strolling or sitting,
+walking or talking, one or all of them seem to be by her side. They will
+not leave the field open to their numerous rivals, not for one minute,
+if they know it.
+
+How it was managed I cannot tell, but I have the fact on the best
+authority, Mrs. Member's in good sooth, that something happened very
+much. That is to say, my informant tells me that the young lady
+received no less than sixteen distinct proposals of marriage that day,
+nearly all of which were renewed on subsequent occasions. It can only
+have been for the barest fraction of a minute that any gentleman could
+find himself alone with her. But, whenever any one did get the chance,
+he must have jumped at the opportunity.
+
+You see, it is the custom of the country, of the bush at all events. We
+have no time for courting, scarcely any opportunity for it. We propose
+first--marry first if we can--and do the courting afterwards. We have to
+be spry about these things if we ever intend to get wedded at all. It is
+the result of competition. A great many men are hungering and yearning
+for wives, and there are very few girls for them to choose among. So
+matches are made without very extensive preliminaries. The ladies appear
+to like this celerity. Perhaps they are unwittingly philosophic, and
+reflect that, with months of courting, they can really know little more
+of a man than they did the first hour they met him, because he is
+naturally on his best behaviour then. Marriage is a lottery any way you
+can work it. It is only afterwards that each partner can obtain a true
+knowledge of the other. And I am bound to say that you will not find
+better wives or better husbands anywhere, than you will in the bush.
+
+So, as I have said, Miss Fairweather received sixteen offers that day.
+In point of fact she took all hearts by storm. Not a man in the Kaipara
+who would not have laid down and died for her. Not a bachelor among us
+who would not have felt exalted to the seventh heaven if he could have
+won her for his wife. But I dare say no more on this topic, and no more
+about the dear little beauty either, lest the too fortunate and
+ever-to-be envied gentleman, who now calls himself her husband, should
+come after me with his stock-whip.
+
+When the sun has set and evening has come, supper over, we sit in the
+lamp-lit drawing-room, enjoying the sweet intoxication of the ladies'
+presence. Or we lounge on the verandah outside the open windows,
+listening to the chat within, hearing around us the whispers of the
+forest, or the ripple and risp of the moonlit river, gazing at the
+profound shadows of the wooded ranges opposite, and inhaling the
+fragrant sweets of the sleeping garden. Peaceful and silent is that
+starlit night in the bush.
+
+Then, it being Sunday, the Member gives us service. And as the piano
+sounds, and we all join in singing the 23rd Psalm--
+
+  "In pastures green, He leadeth me,
+  The quiet waters by,"
+
+I think, that to even the most irreligious or most careless among us,
+the words, under the influences of our situation, come fraught with
+homely inspiration.
+
+Later, we are rowing back home with the tide. But we carry with us
+renewed hope and energy for our daily toil; for we have had, as it were,
+a foretaste of what is to be ours, some day, not so very far hence.
+We, too, shall have a home like that, as a reward for years of toil and
+hardship. And, God willing, it shall be graced for each of us with a
+wife like--_her_.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+A PIG-HUNT.
+
+
+It is a beautiful morning in March, when an unusually large party
+assembles at "our shanty." The sun is just rising, and is not yet
+visible above the sheltering ranges which hem in the central flat that
+forms the farm. The sky is cloudless, the air still and fragrant with
+the odours of the awakening woods.
+
+Day-dawn is always the most beautiful time in New Zealand. It is
+especially so on this occasion, for a few showers had refreshed the
+thirsty earth on the previous day; and to us, as we emerge from our
+blankets eager with expectation, all Nature seems to wear a fresher and
+more blooming aspect.
+
+Half a mile below the shanty rolls the river, broad and blue, while the
+wooded shore opposite seems scarcely a stone's throw distant. The smoke
+curls lazily up from the fire within the shanty, where men are
+breakfasting and girding themselves for the fray.
+
+Outside on the clearings the hum of the crickets is as yet scarcely
+perceptible, but a party of turkeys can be seen advancing across the
+grass in line of battle, commencing their day's onslaught on the insect
+tribes. Cattle and sheep, pigs and poultry, have withdrawn from the
+immediate neighbourhood of the shanty, and are assembled in groups at a
+respectful distance, wondering and frightened at the unusual gathering
+of the human species.
+
+For with the sun come settlers and Maoris from all sides, some brought
+by boats and canoes upon the river, some galloping on horseback along
+the beach, others on foot struggling through the woods and across the
+ranges on either hand, all converging upon the shanty with shouting
+salutations, that are responded to with loudly demonstrated welcome.
+
+A rough and wild-looking assemblage we are, I make no doubt, yet fitting
+well into the foreground of the scene, with its rude and incipient
+civilization insulting the dominant wildness of Nature all around. Long
+before the sun has had time to climb above the ranges our muster is
+complete, and a larger party assembled than a stranger would imagine it
+possible to gather from so sparsely populated a district. Some thirty,
+settlers and their workmen, are there, together with about twice as many
+natives.
+
+All are equipped for the hunt in the lightest possible marching
+order--shirt, trousers and belt, boots and leggings, with an apology for
+a hat to crown the whole--such is the costume; a sheath-knife and
+tomahawk the weapons; with a store of food, tobacco and matches, to
+provide against all emergencies--such is the provision. Our native
+allies are attired in much the same guise, only slightly more ragged and
+dirty--if that be possible--and, generally speaking, barefooted. They
+are in a state of suppressed excitement, shown by their gleaming eyes
+and teeth, and in their wild exclamations and gestures.
+
+And I must not forget the most important members of the hunting
+party--the dogs. Some two dozen have been collected for the occasion,
+most of them belonging to Maoris; of no particular breed, but all large
+and heavy, strong-jawed and supple-limbed animals, wolfish-looking
+fierce creatures, but all more or less trained to the work before them.
+Good pig-dogs are not easily met with, and in the bush they are esteemed
+a prize. Our lot are a scratch pack, made up of any that can be induced
+to seize a pig, and have weight sufficient to hold on to him; a few are
+thought to be more experienced and capable.
+
+The men, on assembling, mostly go into the shanty to get some
+breakfast, in the shape of tea, bread, smoked fish and pork, and then
+straggle about the place, smoking, chatting, and waiting for the order
+to start. Picture the rough grassy slopes, covered with the standing
+stumps among the new grass, the rude shanty in the middle of the lower
+ground, as I have described it, the background of bush-covered heights,
+with the sun just coming up from behind them into the brilliant sky; and
+people this scene with the groups of men--Maori and Pakeha, uncouth in
+appearance as the shaggy cattle that are looking on from a corner of the
+clearing, or as the clumsy-looking but savage dogs that roam about, or
+are held in leash by their owners. Such is a "meet" in the bush.
+
+"Rather a different affair from the last meet of the Pytchley that you
+and I rode to," remarks one brawny, blue-shirted and ankle-jacked giant
+to another, as they squat on a log, comfortably enjoying an early whiff
+of "Venus" from their short, black clays.
+
+"What would they say at home, if they could see us now?" replies his
+friend, pushing back the battered relic of a "topee" from his unkempt
+hair and somewhat dirty face. Truly, the pair would scarcely appear to
+advantage in an English huntingfield, in their present trim.
+
+And now, while the last preparations are being made for the start, let
+us see what it is we are about to attack. The New Zealand wild pig of
+the present day is the descendant of animals introduced by Captain Cook
+and other of the early voyagers from the old countries. These people
+gave pigs to the natives with whom they opened intercourse, and the
+Maoris, not being used to live stock, lost a good many of their new
+acquisitions, which ran away into the bush and easily eluded pursuit in
+its dense coverts. Here they bred and multiplied to such a degree that
+immense droves of them are now to be found in all parts of the islands.
+In the fern-root and other roots of the bush they find an endless supply
+of food, which, if it does not tend to make their meat of good quality,
+at any rate seems to favour an increase in their numbers.
+
+Whatever may have been the original breed of these animals, the present
+representatives of the race are neither particularly good-looking or
+useful. They are lank and lean, with large heads and high shoulders,
+narrow, spiny backs sloping downwards to the short hind legs; hams they
+have none. They are thickly covered with bristles, and are mostly black,
+brown, and grizzled in colour. The mass of them are not large, but the
+patriarchal boars attain a great size, some of them standing over three
+feet in height. These fellows have enormous tusks curling on each side
+of their massive jaws, sharp as razors and strong as crowbars.
+
+Wild pigs are usually shy, and keep well out of the way of human
+invaders of their solitudes; but boars have occasionally been known to
+"tree" some incautious wayfarer, while, when hunted, they become
+exceedingly ferocious. One of our stockmen, out riding on open ground,
+was attacked by a boar that suddenly rushed upon him from a thicket; his
+horse was ripped up in a moment, and he only escaped by nimbly climbing
+into a tree that was fortunately near.
+
+In hunting the pigs it is necessary to go afoot, on account of the
+density of the bush, and accidents sometimes occur. Some dogs are sure
+to be killed; while now and then a too rash hunter may get the calf of
+his leg torn off, and might be otherwise injured, even fatally, though I
+never knew of any case of so grave a nature.
+
+Settlers regard wild pigs as vermin, only made to be exterminated; and
+they have, I think, considerable reason for their hatred. The pigs are
+capable of doing a great deal of damage. Fences must be strongly and
+closely put up to keep them out, and they must be continually examined
+and carefully repaired when necessary; for one rotten stake in a fence
+has often been the cause of a loss of great magnitude. In a single
+night the wild pigs may devastate many acres, if they once gain
+admittance, and destroy tons of potatoes, maize, or any sort of crop.
+
+But there is also another way in which they are prejudicial to the
+farmer, and peculiarly so to the newer settler. I have said that they
+are excessively lean and ill-shaped beasts, and I may add that their
+flesh is not only very tough, but it also has a strong smell, and a
+peculiarly nauseous flavour. The old pigs, both male and female, are
+absolutely uneatable in any part, though very young sows are appreciated
+by the Maoris--when they cannot get domestic-bred pork--and are eaten on
+a pinch by settlers and bushmen, whose vigorous appetites overcome all
+fastidiousness.
+
+Pork--fresh and salted, bacon and ham--is the natural and invariable
+food of the settler. Beef and mutton are too valuable as marketable
+steers, dairy cattle, and wool-growers, and are not so conveniently
+prepared into keeping forms; hence the pigs he breeds on his clearings
+are looked upon by the bush-farmer as the regular source whence to draw
+his household provision in the meat way. Now, if the wild boars out of
+the bush get among the brood sows upon the clearings, the result is
+deplorably manifest in the next generation, which will display more or
+less of the evil characteristics of the wild race. Thus, both the older
+farmer and the newest settler are nearly touched, and both unite in a
+common warfare with the enemy.
+
+It is often possible to stalk down and to shoot individual wild pigs on
+open ground, but that is looked upon merely as a cheerful interlude of
+sport; it has no deterrent or scaring effect upon the bulk of the
+droves, and is a waste of time, so far as regards the clearance of a
+district. A grand and well-organized drive, such as that we are about to
+see, will often result in not a single wild pig being visible in the
+district for six months and more afterwards. It is good sport, too; very
+arduous, since the hunter has to run and scramble through miles of
+forest. It has in it a good spice of danger, such as Britons love, and
+is, on the whole, pretty popular. Pig-hunting may be described as a sort
+of national sport in New Zealand.
+
+But here is Old Colonial issuing from the shanty, and a start seems
+imminent. The plan of campaign has been arranged between him and Mihake
+Tekerahi, the Maori, and another settler from a neighbouring river. The
+straggling groups of men and dogs are divided into three bodies, two of
+which will proceed to right and left respectively, and the third will go
+directly "back" from the farm. All the parties will become subdivided
+into smaller gangs, in the course of the day, but all will converge upon
+a given point in the bush, which will be the limit of the hunt.
+
+The block of land on which we are lies between three large rivers, and,
+owing to the conformation of the country and the winding of the rivers,
+its fourth side is a narrow neck of land not more than a mile and a half
+wide. Here there is a very lofty and rugged range, and it is the spot
+agreed on as our final rendezvous, being some fifteen miles distant from
+our shanty.
+
+Besides the men who have met at the farm, there are several parties who
+will start from more distant places, and who will also make for the
+range as their terminal point. We hope, by this concentrated drive, to
+kill as many pigs as possible, and to cause the rest of them to retire
+beyond the narrow space between the rivers; then the whole of our block
+will be free from them for some time to come. We have thought of running
+a fence across from river to river, but the rough nature of the ground,
+and the absence of suitable material quite close to the required spot,
+would make this rather too arduous--and therefore too expensive--a work
+for us to perform just yet, in our incipient stage of settlement. So we
+content ourselves with an annual hunt on a grand and conjoint scale,
+and with such minor forays as it pleases individuals to make from time
+to time.
+
+Our way at first--I speak of the band which regards Old Colonial as its
+chief director--lies up the clearings, through the bush above, and so to
+the elevated ground behind the shanty. Here a halt is called, and our
+band is again subdivided into two divisions, which are to take along the
+two ranges that commence from this point, hunting the gullies on both
+sides of them as they go. Then there is a loud fire of coo-ees, to
+ascertain the position of the brigades that started under Mihake and the
+other man. Their answering coo-ees come faintly but clearly out of the
+distant bush on both sides of us, denoting that they have severally
+reached their appointed starting places.
+
+And now the work begins in earnest. There is a tightening of belts, a
+putting out of pipes, and a general air of alertness on every face. For
+a time we go plunging on among the trees and brushwood, encouraging the
+dogs that are hunting the gullies below with frequent shouts of "Hi,
+there, Rimu! Go in, Shark!" and so forth. We have not yet started any
+pigs, though here and there we pass tracts of ground ploughed up by
+them.
+
+But, soon, there is a sudden burst of barking from the right, and some
+of us rush frantically off in that direction. But the loud voice of Old
+Colonial is heard calling in the dogs and shouting--
+
+"Ware cattle! Ware cattle! Keep back there, it's Red Spot's mob!"
+
+And presently, with flying tails and tossing horns, a score of great
+beasts go lumbering and crashing by, pursued by that ill-conditioned
+Shark, who never will remember his duty, and persists in chasing pigs
+when his business is to be after cattle, and so, to-day, is earnestly
+and conscientiously driving cattle when he ought to give his mind only
+to pigs.
+
+All the roaring and swearing that goes ringing through the trees only
+serves to convince Shark that he is in the right; and he is only stopped
+in his wild career by the fortunate fact that the Saint, who has lagged
+far in the rear, steps in the way, cajoles Shark into listening to his
+advice, and, with a big stick and a few of the most gorgeous expletives
+of which he is eminently the master, persuades the errant hound of his
+mistake. Deep and dire are the maledictions heaved at the unhappy Shark,
+and in which his companions, Rimu and Toto, Wolf and Katipo, have
+unjustly to share. For the row occasioned by the episode has been enough
+to scare away all the pigs in the district; or, as a Maori near me
+mysteriously phrases it, "Make te tam poaka runny kanui far hihi!"--a
+sentence that I put on record, as a specimen of the verbal excesses to
+which education may lead the once untutored savage.
+
+However, the most knowing may sometimes be mistaken, and so it luckily
+proves in the present instance, for scarcely have we recovered from our
+disgust at Shark's misconduct, and resumed our hunting operations, than
+again the canine music breaks merrily out, followed by shouts in a dozen
+voices of--
+
+"Pig! pig! Lay up there, dogs! Good dogs! Lay up there, Rimu, Rimu,
+Toto! At 'em, boys! At 'em! Lay up! Pig! pig!"
+
+And then the hot excitement seizes upon us all, and, as we hear the
+unmistakable grunting, squealing, and hough-houghing of pigs, we plunge
+madly down to the scene of action. It is no time for considering one's
+steps; we go straight for the point where the noise leads us, crashing
+against trees, stumbling over logs, regardless of every obstacle. We
+pitch headlong into holes hidden by treacherous banks of ferns; we swing
+over little precipices by the help of supple-jacks and lianes; we press
+through thorny bush-lawyers, heedless of the rags and skin we leave
+behind us; we splash through mud and water up to our waists; hot and
+breathless, torn and bleeding, bruised and muddy, we come tumbling,
+crashing, plunging, bounding down the sides of the gully, mad with the
+fierce excitement of the moment.
+
+A number of pigs are rushing wildly about among the flax and fern-trees,
+not knowing which way to escape. The dogs are at them gallantly, seizing
+them by the ears, laying up against them flank to flank, and holding on
+like grim death. The din is terrific, every one is shouting
+encouragement to the dogs, or to himself; the pigs are squealing and
+crying as only pigs can.
+
+Half a dozen dogs have fastened on to as many pigs, growling and
+worrying, but holding fast in spite of the twisting and shaking of their
+prey, in spite of the clashing of tusks and the savage snorting of one
+or two boars among the drove, in spite of being dragged and scraped
+through brushwood and timber, keeping always flank to flank with the
+pigs they hold, like good dogs as they are.
+
+I see Old Colonial bounding on before me, after a huge pig that is
+dragging the great dog on his ear as a bull-dog would drag a rat in a
+similar position. The pig heads up the bank, but Old Colonial is upon
+him; he grabs at a hind leg and seizes it with both hands.
+
+He is down, and is also dragged on his face for a moment; but he still
+keeps his grip in spite of kicking and struggling; keeps a firm, hard
+hold, regardless of the bruises and scratches he is getting; never
+leaves go till he gets his opportunity, till he can put foot to the
+ground; and then, with one mighty heave, over goes the pig on his back.
+Then triumphantly does Old Colonial put his knee on the boar's belly,
+calmly he presses back the snout with one hand, while, in the other, his
+knife glitters for a moment in the sunshine, and is then driven well
+home.
+
+In another minute, with Old Colonial's whoop of victory ringing in my
+ears, I, too, am engaged. A great, heavy sow passes close before me,
+with Katipo tearing at her ear. Simultaneously a couple of Maoris and
+myself charge after her. One of them stops behind to tomahawk such of
+her litter as he can catch; the other man and I hurl ourselves down upon
+the animal, after chasing her a hundred yards or so among the scrub.
+
+I seize at a leg and am thrown violently to the ground, getting a kick
+in the face that sets my nose bleeding. The Maori comes to my aid and
+gets a hold, and together we are rolled over on the ground.
+
+Alas! we have not between us Old Colonial's knack and activity, nor are
+we endowed with muscles of such steely fibre. We keep our clutch
+determinedly, desperately, and we are flung and bumped among the
+tree-roots and brushwood. The pig is screaming like a hundred railway
+engines; kicking, plunging, stamping, tearing, twisting from side to
+side in a vain endeavour to rid herself of us, or to get at us with
+those formidable jaws; shaking Katipo--a big mastiff-like cur--about, as
+a cat would shake a mouse. But still we two men hold on to that hind leg
+of hers, careless of our hurts, prone on our faces, but straining every
+muscle to keep the grip. Presently we get a chance; together we get our
+knees upon a log, together we put our backs into the effort, and heave.
+Over she goes.
+
+Hurrah! On to her at once! Sit on her belly and keep her down! Never
+mind the kicking legs in the air! Get a hand between the struggling
+forelegs, gently, along the neck! Now then, out with the ready
+sheath-knife, and dig it in! There! Right to the heart, till the blood
+spurts out over us! Hurrah! Good! There's another mother of a family the
+less!
+
+And now we may take breath for a minute or two, praise old Katipo, and
+cut off the pig's ears as a trophy. Only for the shortest possible
+minute, though, for the hunt is going on with headlong haste and hurry.
+We must be up and off after more pigs, and must rejoin the rest of the
+scattered party, whose shouts may be heard in various directions; there
+must be no loitering when pigs are near, for _they_ will not wait, we
+may be sure.
+
+As we run and scramble on through the scrub, making way upwards along
+the gully, we pass several dead pigs at intervals, which show that the
+rest of the boys have been well employed. Presently we come upon the
+Saint, in the midst of a gloomy thicket of birch, sitting astride of a
+great dead boar, and employed with his tomahawk in endeavouring to chop
+out the tusks.
+
+Then Katipo discovers a small family of pigs comfortably stowed away
+among the dense vegetation of a little marshy hollow. These give the
+three of us some diversion; we manage to kill two of them, and drive out
+the remainder upwards through the bush. Following them up hotly for
+about a mile, Katipo lays hold of one after another, which we turn over
+and stick as we can, killing two or three more in this way.
+
+But the work is very arduous, and the day is wearing towards noon, and
+is consequently very hot--March being here equivalent to an English
+September, but much warmer and drier. We are dripping with sweat, our
+shirts torn and muddied, blood all over us--both pigs' and our own--and
+we feel well-nigh exhausted for the time being by the tremendous and
+violent exertions we have been making.
+
+After the next pig is finally, and with desperate fighting, slaughtered,
+there seems to be a general tacit advance towards taking a rest. Katipo
+and another dog that we have picked up have taken to lapping at the
+creek in the gully, and laying themselves down near the stream, seem
+inclined for a brief snooze. The two Maoris are hacking at some nikaus,
+and extracting the pith therefrom; and the Saint and I think it well to
+do likewise.
+
+After munching away at the refreshing stuff for a considerable while, we
+guiltily put on our pipes; guiltily, for we know that our earnest
+leader, Old Colonial, will persevere with unflagging zeal and untiring
+energy, and will continue the chase without a moment's cessation. Many
+of the settlers will do the same, though probably but few of the
+natives, for they have not a fine power of endurance, and it pleases
+them usually to do things by spurts.
+
+However, we are all the better for the temporary relaxation, and pursue
+our course with renewed vigour. We have now reached the recesses of the
+heavy forest, after passing through various gradations of lighter bush.
+Here and there, on our way, we have come across stretches of open
+fern-land; but in this district bush is the most prevalent
+characteristic of the vegetation.
+
+Now and then we come upon some gully or flat that has been fired at some
+previous period, either by Maoris or settlers. These old burns are now
+covered with a dense and uniform jungle of ti-tree second-growth,
+through which it is often not easy to pass. The cane-like stems of the
+young ti-tree grow close together, like a field of corn, bearing a
+feathery green foliage and a white flower, and having a pleasant
+balsamic odour. High above the soft green surface of the second-growth
+are lifted the bleached trunks and skeleton arms of dead trees, standing
+gaunt and grim at intervals among the younger growths below.
+
+These ti-tree coverts afford very close harbourage for pigs. In them
+pigs may hide so well that the hunter might touch them before he saw
+them; nay, cattle even may hide as closely. Through the ti-tree there
+frequently run narrow paths, or irregular tracks, worn by pigs and
+cattle; and, as the wayfarer passes along any one of these tracks, he
+has the pleasant excitement of knowing that at any moment he may come
+face to face with a boar, in a position where the boar naturally has all
+the advantage, if he chooses to avail himself of it.
+
+In the course of the day our little party makes way onward through the
+bush, in the direction of the general rendezvous. Occasionally we start
+up pigs, sometimes losing them, and sometimes getting one or two; but
+the details of the capture and sticking of those we manage to catch do
+not differ very much from the account already given, except that we have
+not killed any pigs of particularly large size.
+
+About noon, or somewhat after, we make a decided halt for the purpose of
+getting our dinners, of which we begin to feel very much in need.
+Unhappily, no one has brought a tin pannikin along with him, so we
+cannot make ourselves any tea; but we light a fire at the bottom of a
+shady gully, beside some running water, and commence to cook our repast.
+
+Each man has got his little parcel of bread or biscuit and meat, tied up
+firmly in flax, and fastened to his belt; but besides this, the bush is
+affording us other kinds of tucker. Katipo killed a kiwi in the course
+of our morning's hunt, and this bird is now being skinned, cut up, and
+roasted on sticks. We wish it had been a weka, or bush-hen, as that is
+more succulent eating; but we have hearty appetites, and will do justice
+to the kiwi, anyhow.
+
+Then the Maoris have cut out the livers of a couple of young pigs, and
+these are toasted in strips, and are not such bad eating after all. By
+way of desert we have some berries from the trees around, that prove
+very nice.
+
+After our appetites are satisfied, and the digestive pipe duly smoked,
+we resume our hunting operations. But luck is no longer with us, and
+when, after walking and scrambling for two or three miles, and feeling
+that the time is fast slipping by, we do come upon pigs, we get
+separated in the chase that ensues, and I find myself very shortly after
+that completely alone.
+
+I keep walking on, however, in the direction I judge will bring me out
+upon the place of assembly; and, after an hour or two, I begin to hear
+sounds of life. I am on somewhat high ground, which gradually slopes
+downward in the direction I am taking. It is all heavy bush in this
+part; huge trees, covered with ferns and creepers, soar upwards on all
+sides. The sunlight falls in patches here and there, through the canopy
+of branches far overhead, and occasionally there occur little glades and
+dells and openings, quite open to the light.
+
+Below the great trees are many smaller ones, among which I notice
+nikau-palms, cabbage-palms, fern-trees, and tingahere, attracting the
+eye with their stranger forms. Below these, again, is a thick jungle of
+shrubs of many species, masses of creeping-plants matting the bushes
+together, or depending from the trees and ferns in infinite profusion
+and luxuriance.
+
+The late afternoon sun is slanting from behind me, so that when its rays
+shoot through the branches they light up the scenes in front, and thus
+the picture I presently witness comes before me with proper artistic
+effect. I hear sounds of life coming through the trees in advance of
+me--the sounds of men shouting and yelling in excitement; the noise of
+dogs barking and yelping; and through it and above it all, clearer and
+clearer heard as I run hastily forward, the horrid hoarse
+"hough-hough"--that sound so hollow and booming as heard in the "echoing
+woods,"--with the sharper metallic clashing of savage jaws, that I know
+can only proceed from some patriarchal boar.
+
+A minute later and I come out upon the scene of action. It is a
+comparatively open glade, surrounded on all sides by the dense forest,
+and having, near the opposite extremity, a small, abruptly-rising knoll,
+that is crowned by a single gigantic rata-tree. The little glade is full
+of unwonted life; nigh a score of the hunting party, and eight or ten
+dogs, are making things pretty lively within it.
+
+The cause of all the uproar and excitement is seen among the spreading
+and massive roots of the rata; it is a boar, one of the largest any of
+us ever saw, and he is now "bailed up" below the great tree.
+
+To say that he seems as big as a donkey but feebly expresses the
+apparent size of the beast. His stern is set back against the tree; but
+the mighty and ferocious head is turned full upon his foes. Every
+bristle on his crest stands erect with rage. The small but fierce eyes
+take in every movement, and survey dogs and men with desperate and
+fiend-like animosity. The long snout is pointed straight forward,
+showing the gleaming teeth below it, while the great tusks, curving up
+from the jaws, shine like scimitars.
+
+Nor is the huge brute one moment still; his fore-feet are pawing and
+tearing at the ground; his head is turned first in one direction and
+then in another; his whole body is quivering and shaking; foam flies
+from his grinding jaws; while his continued snorting, with its roaring,
+bellowing, and shrieking intonations, is horrible to hear.
+
+Yet as this savage king of the forest stands there at bay, there is a
+something grand and majestic about him, something of barbaric and
+unconquerable pride and courage, despite his demoniac and ogre-like
+ugliness; but, I am afraid, no one sees anything but a big fierce pig,
+who must be slaughtered as speedily and cleverly as possible.
+
+Most of the men keep at a respectful distance, not caring to get too
+close to those formidable tusks; but they are actively employed in
+shouting and brandishing knives and tomahawks. Close in front of the
+pig, amid a whirling circle of barking dogs, Old Colonial, O'Gaygun, and
+one or two Maoris appear to be performing an exciting kind of war-dance.
+They are endeavouring to urge in the dogs, and are trying to draw the
+pig out from among the tree-roots; while, at the same time, they are
+springing actively about in order to avoid each fancied and expected
+rush of the boar.
+
+But the boar is not to be drawn out from among the high branching roots
+that protect his flanks and stern. At every near approach of dog or man
+he feints to charge, lowering and tossing his head, uttering yet fiercer
+notes of wrath, or tearing up the ground, and sending splinters flying
+from the tree with blows from his tusks; such threatening movements on
+his part effectually deterring his foes in their advance. Sticks and
+stones, large and weighty, are hurled at him from all sides. What does
+he care for such puny projectiles? Even a well-aimed tomahawk, that
+strikes him full and fairly, fails to hurt or penetrate his armour of
+bristles and tough hide. Like Achilles, his weak place is in his
+heels--his rear, and that is well protected behind him.
+
+But another foeman to the swinish champion now appears upon the scene. A
+man, whom I have come close to in the hurry-skurry, suddenly calls to
+me--
+
+"Look at old Tama up there behind the tree!" Then he shouts in
+stentorian delight--
+
+"Te toa rere, te toa mahuta! Go it, Tama, old boy! Hopu te poaka! Jump
+in and kill him!"
+
+Looking up at the great trunk of the rata, with its extensive pedestal
+of gnarled and twisting roots, that for six or eight feet from the
+ground branch down all round its base, I see peering round the stem, and
+from above the roots, a face that I know well; it is that of
+Tama-te-Whiti. He has made a circuit, got behind the tree, and is now
+climbing over and among the extended roots, cautiously and silently
+stealing upon the pig, with intent to drive it out of the cover of the
+tree.
+
+Old Tama's grey hair hangs loosely over his brows; his elaborate
+tattooing looks unusually conspicuous; his arms are bare to the
+shoulder; and, as he gradually draws himself into our view, we see his
+body is almost bare, except a few fluttering rags of shirt that still
+remain about him. The other day I saw Tama at the township, elaborately
+attired in black broadcloth and white linen and all the rest of it,
+looking a perfect picture of smug respectability and aged innocence.
+Now here he is, grasping a tomahawk in his sinewy hand, with a knife
+held between his teeth, and--albeit 'tis only a boar he is
+attacking--with a fire dancing in his eyes like that which shone there
+in his hot youth, when, here in these self-same woods, he and the young
+braves of his tribe met in deadly conflict with the invading Ngapuhi.
+
+The boar is unconscious of Tama's approach; he is occupied with his
+adversaries in front, who are redoubling their efforts to attract his
+attention. And at this moment another of the hunters is seized with an
+heroic impulse.
+
+It has at last come home to the mind of that impetuous and much
+objurgated dog, Shark, that his destiny in life is to be a boar-hound.
+Hitherto, his experience of the manners and customs of pigs has not been
+great; but the conviction has come to him that he knows all about the
+business; and, too, he is probably anxious to retrieve his disgraceful
+conduct of the morning. Shark is a fresh arrival on the scene, having
+just come in with one of the straggling parties. He is not contented to
+join his canine companions, who are warily waiting their opportunity to
+dash in on the boar's flanks and rear; but, like all high-couraged and
+impetuous youth, Shark dashes, barking, to the front, and blindly,
+quixotically, and madly, he charges on the boar.
+
+Alas! poor dog! great as was his bravery, his size, his strength, what
+could they avail in such foolhardy strife? One jerk of the black snout,
+one flash of the white tusks, and, with a last yelping scream, the body
+of poor Shark goes whirling up into the air, and falls a bleeding,
+bisected, lifeless lump. Poor Shark! with all his faults, I think we
+loved him well!
+
+But even in his death he is avenged. The boar darted a few feet forward
+in his onslaught upon Shark, and the opportunity has been seized upon.
+The war-cry of the Ngatewhatua goes echoing through the forest, as old
+Tama springs down in rear of the boar; his swinging tomahawk inflicts a
+gaping wound, and he seizes a hind leg of the pig before that animal can
+back itself among the roots.
+
+Other Maoris, Old Colonial, and more of the party rush to his aid. Dogs
+seize on the boar's bleeding ears. For a minute there is a scene of
+direful confusion, an indescribable struggle in which men, dogs, and pig
+are mingled in a twisting, shouting, panting, wrestling heap. Another
+dog gets his flank slit up, a man has his legging and trouser torn off
+his leg, and then the giant brute is conquered. Overturned and
+shrieking, kicking, biting, struggling desperately to the last, till
+half a dozen knives are buried in his heart.
+
+With the slaughter of the monster boar the day's hunt comes to an end.
+The spot is close to the rendezvous, and most of the parties have
+arrived, or are not far off. There is an interchange of gossip over the
+doings of the day among the various groups; and, by-and-by, a count up
+of the number of pigs killed. Ears and tails are produced as vouchers,
+and about three hundred and fifty pigs, big and little, are thus
+accounted for, while half a dozen pair of tusks, of more than ordinary
+size, denote the killing of as many large boars. The tusks from the last
+slain monster become the property of Old Colonial, and, gaily mounted in
+silver, they may now be found among the ornaments of an English
+drawing-room.
+
+But now evening is upon us, and many of the party are tramping homewards
+in divers directions through the bush. Others make their way to a point
+on one of the rivers, a mile or so from the rendezvous, where boats have
+been brought up, and whence they will have a long row to their various
+places. But by far the greater number are too much fagged out with the
+exertions of the day to move from their present resting-places.
+
+So a camp is formed in a suitable spot, and one or two of the least
+tired set about getting some supper ready, and gather fern for
+bedding. And when night deepens overhead, and the shadows of the forest
+fold round us, recumbent forms are stretched around the roaring
+camp-fire; supper, rude and rough, but hearty, has been eaten, pipes are
+lighted, and while some are snoring, others are lazily recounting their
+doughty deeds, and enjoying to the full the well-earned rest that fitly
+terminates a pig-hunt in the bush.
+
+END OF VOL. I.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2), by
+William Delisle Hay
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