488 THE NORTH ISLAND NO FIT EMIGRATION FIELD. than an Irish faction fight, or even rebellion, in Tipperary might affect Cornwall or Kent; and the South Island has ever been, and still is, an emigration field which, in combination of natural, social, and political advantages, is unsurpassed by any in the world. But as regards the North Island, whether it be the province of Auckland, or Taranaki, or Hawke's Bay, or Wellington, let the emigrant be warned. Troubles seem brewing there, a latent volcano may soon burst out. In a few months the sky may be clear again, and the commencement of years of serene weather may set in. But, at present, all is gloomy, doubtful, confused; and the North Island, in its present state, is no fit field for an English family emigrating to create a quiet, happy home in some new and more roomy Land. Let no one suffer himself to be deluded by listening to a contrary opinion. Agents, and employés of the various little local governments of the North Island are to be met with in this country who, I daresay, would still encourage, and honestly encourage, emigration to the particular corners of the colony they represent. If so, I tell the reader not to listen to them-they are not competent to judge of the gravity of the case. A man had better go to the Workhouse at once than go to a Colony where, after years of toil, he might some day see his home burnt down and half his family murdered by Natives-missionary converts though they might be; and it is by no means reasonably certain, as yet, that such a calamity as this might not some day overtake any man who now ventured to emigrate to the North Island of New Zealand. About the tenth of every month we get fresh news, and things may take so favourable and rapid a turn that in another month or two emigration to the Provinces even of Auckland and Taranaki may be safely renewed. But, on the other hand, things may grow worse, and even if they remain as they are, they are so bad as to lead me to entreat all families who may now be preparing to emigrate to any of the provinces of the North Island, either to delay their departure a while, or to change their path a little and settle in the safe South. Ramsgate, Feb. 1, 1861. APPENDIX. BUYING LAND OF NATIVES DEAR AND SELLING CHEAP. (1, page 442.) Great nonsense is occasionally talked on this subject by persons who speak without thinking. It is true that in the North Island the Government have often bought land of the Natives for a few pence per acre, and sold it to the Settlers for a few shillings per acre. But before the Govern ment can ask this enhanced price they have to survey the land, to lay out roads and bridges, villages and townships, to establish law and order, and make the wilderness habitable for the Settler. In the vast majority of cases, 100 acres of land bought for cultivation at ten shillings per acre of the Government, would be cheaper to the Settler than 100 acres bought of the Natives at ten pence per acre. OBSERVANCE OF THE WAITANGI TREATY. (2, page 442.) It is true that Governor Browne, in one of his despatches, incidentally alludes to some expressions of a certain Provincial Councillor at Auckland, indicative of a desire, on the part of such person, that if more land could not be obtained of the Natives by purchase, it had better be obtained by force. It may be true, that, here and there, members of our Provincial Councils, exasperated by the Natives' dog-in-the-manger monopoly of land, and by their evasions of such conditions of the Treaty as they disliked, have thought, to use their own style of language, that what was sauce for the goose was sauce for the gander, and may have asserted that if the Natives were to be permitted to break the Treaty by their refusals to obey British law, we were permitted to break it by departing from our agreement to acquire land in no other way than by the way of friendly purchase. But, as shown at page 172, our Provincial Councillors no more represent the people of New Zealand, than the Town Councillors of Little Pedlington represent the people of England; and I venture to assert, that before the present outbreak at New Plymoutl:, nine-tenths of the Colonists of New Zealand would have voted for our continued faithful observance of the Waitangi Treaty, unjust to them as they felt that Treaty to be. GOOD WILL OF THE COLONISTS TOWARDS THE NATIVES. (3, page 443.) As an answer to the old Missionary official cry that the Colonists and their modern representative Government are indifferent to the welfare of 490 THE FIRST MAORI KING, the Natives, I would observe that in his Budget for the year 1858, long before there was any ground for supposing that the Natives, as a body, were other than loyal and contented subjects-our popular Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Richmond, actually proposed, out of his slender resources, to double the annual expenditure made for the special benefit of the Natives; and instead of taking only 50,0001, from the revenues of the colony for native purposes, as provided by the Crown, to take 100,0007, and expend it, over a period of seven years, in establishing and extending native training schools, and native hospitals, and other special institutions for the welfare of the aborigines. THE FIRST MAORI KING. Te Whero Whero, alias Potatau, an Old Waikato chief, was the first Maori ruler ostensibly elected to the Kingship. I saw him on one occa sion at Taranaki, arrayed not in regal purple though, but wrapped up in an old blanket, and was much struck with his fine presence and his quiet port. He had, however, been a great warrior and cannibal, and in the bloody raid made on the Taranaki natives in 1833, by the Waikatoes under his command, is said to have killed nearly two hundred men with his own hand. Here, indeed, at Pukerangiora, the slaughter was so great that the air for miles around was tainted with putridity; and Te Whero Whero and his slipped " Dogs of War," returned home gorged with human flesh and rich in slaves. In his latter days he was a man of peace and a friend to the white men. He was almost in his dotage when named King, and it is thought would gladly have escaped the "greatness thrust upon him." He died a few months ago, and his son has been nominated his successor. PAKEHA MAORIES. (5, page 446.) may "Pakeha" is the native word for stranger or foreigner, and is the term used by the Natives to designate the Colonists. 'Maori" is the native name for the aboriginal race; and the phrase "Pakeha-Maori" be translated as a stranger turned into a native, a person who is halfwhite man, half-black. In Dr. Thompson's description of Pakeha-Maories he takes too narrow a view, treats of them as consisting only of old whales, and says that in 1853 there were only ten of them left in the country. The whalers deserve all the praise he gives them-I have known many, and a finer, better-hearted race of rough, rude men never lived; but old whalers form only a small and select portion of our Pakeha-Maories, and I have no doubt that at the present moment there might be found in both islands as many as a couple of hundred persons who, virtually, are Pakeha-Maories. FRENCH JESUITS. (6, page 447.) It has been asserted that the French Catholic Priests, attached to that French Missionary establishment which has long been suffered to exist in New Zealand, have also been instrumental in inciting the Natives to rebellion by ever picturing to them the English as a nation of shop |