History of Waikouaiti

Christie, John, Christchurch Press, Christchurch, N.Z., 1929

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The original publication details are as follows:

Title: History of Waikouaiti

Author: Christie, John

Edition: 2nd ed.

Published: Christchurch Press, Christchurch, N.Z., 1929

HISTORY OF WAIKOUAITI

REV. JOHN CHRISTIE WAIKOUAITI

SECOND EDITION.

CHRISTCHURCH. N.Z.

PRINTED BY THE CHRISTCHUKCH PRESS COMPANY LIMITED

1929

REV. JOHN CHRISTIE

PREFACE.

(Written in 1880)

The following pages have been written for the benefit of my fellow colonists in the County of Waikouaiti, that they may learn something about the locality in which they live, and for the use of intelligent strangers and visitors who may have an interest in the district, and desire information regarding it. It is hoped that the work will meet many of the enquiries that may be made by such parties. It does not profess to answer every question that may be asked. No book ever written could accomplish so comprehensive a task, but this one will supply, in an accessible form, many details not otherwise to be gained without much difficulty.

Waikouaiti, in its distinctiveness mid isolation, is passing away. It is speedily losing its past character and aspects. To the first Dunedin or Otago settlers it was an unknown region, lying beyond the block of land purchased from the Natives. It was given up to "Johnny Jones, Maoris, and drunken whalers." Extraordinary progress has been made by the district in the last twenty years, especially since the Dunstan gold rush disturbed its ancient seclusion, and threw it open to the world. Agricultural settlement, road-making and cultivation then commenced in earnest. Still more recently the antique solitudes and out-of-the-way recesses have been intruded on by the railway and whistle of the steam engine. Henceforth the iron pathway will be a prominent and permanent feature in every description and conception of Waikouaiti. It is therefore a duty, at the present time, devolving on some one to transfix in a historical record the past scenes, before all trace of them has disappeared. Soon the imagination only will be left to conjecture what must have been, unless there be some description uivcn of what really was.

Neither must the descendants of the aboriginal race be overlooked. The district has the credit of possessing an enterprising, thriving and industrious population of Maori descent, who have, to a large extent, lost the arts, customs, worship and traditions of their ancestry. The young Maoris and half-castes should have a record of the condition of their parents. It is

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by all means desirable that they should have a just conception of what European immigration and civilisation have done for them. They have been affected for both good and evil. European education, institutions, society, manufactures and religion have brought them many comforts, but they have grievously suffered through the base and immoral conduct of individuals. It should also afford pleasure and instruction to our native AngloSaxon youth to know about the aboriginal inhabitants, and the state of the country when their ancestors entered upon its colonisation. The rising and coming generations should not be left in ignorance of what has been done for them by their predecessors; they should know what difficulties have been surmounted, the hardships of early settlement, the expense and toil of clearing the land, road-making, bridging, fencing, building, draining and transporting implements, seed and cattle and families to the new homes in the wilderness.

Among the earliest attempts at settlement in New Zealand was in this district. While a few gentlemen in England were planning the New Zealand scheme, settlement was practical K entered upon by Mr. John Jones in the Bay of Waikouaiti.

The customs of the Maoris referred to in this work will not be different in substance from what is described in other books on the same subject. A close uniformity in the manner of living prevailed among all the tribes. The interest in this instance will lie in the fact that the customs referred to were practised by the natives in the district within the knowledge of many of the oldest residents, and have been noted down from information derived on the spot from themselves from eyewitnesses and personal observation.

Many of the dates given are not to be held as infallibly exact. Some of them have been supplied by the recollection of individuals and not from documents, and hence must be considered as only approximations. They will be found, however, upon the whole, not far from the mark. The greater number of important dates are precise, being copied from documents, or gathered from reliable sources, as written reports, minutes and private notes. It is of the highest importance that events be located in the actual periods when they took place.

More full and complete details in some matters may be desiderated, but no one without experience can realise the difficulty of getting at a simple fact that may appear necessary to an unreserved statement. Perhaps some other may make a more successful effort. Many fields of investigation lie invitingly

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open 10 those who may have opportunity and taste for Mich pursuits, as. for instance, native botany, zoology, entomology, etc. It is a fresh, untrodden soil for the student of nature. unexplored and unknown. The country lias been cultivated for grain and farm produce, hut its fauna, flora and minerals have not been studied and described. Its treasures await exposition and use.

It is only further necessary to acknowledge indebtness to many friends for help in gathering the materials laid before the reader. To Messrs. W. Apes and W. McLachlan, the only two surviving representatives of the old whalers in the district, is owing, to a large extent, our acquaintance with the primitive state of the Maoris and the whaling period. Messrs. David Gardener and D. Malloeh have contributed original and interesting sections respectively on geology and the early mail days. Messrs. Ancell, Cowan, Maloney, Gill, Philips, lire, Keen and Crump have afforded useful assistance.

The origin and progress of local institutions will, I trust, be a novel and acceptable page to many, as also references to properties, industires, antiquities and individuals with other things that are taken notice of.

CHAPTER I.

Waikouaiti—General Description of the County.

The cultivable portion of the County lies along the eoast. about thirty or forty miles in length, and is closely settled. It was the first pan of Otago occupied by Europeans. Mr. John Jones had purchased whal is now Hawksbury from the Natives five or six years before the Otago block was bought for the New Zealand Company. To those who took up their abode on the old Otago block, the country beyond Mount Cargill was an unknown region. The stream of immigration at that period was diverted toward Green Island, the Taieri, Tokomairiro and Inch Clutha. lie was esteemed a venturous man who would make the journey to Waikouaiti by what was called the Mountain Track. But the land, when brought into the market in 1860 and 1861, was quickly taken up. The land along the seaboard portion of the County is, for the most part, exceedingly fertile. In Blueskin neighbourhood, where the surface of the country is elevated and rough, and the soil of a cold clayey nature, the seasons are later, and the yield of grain not so good. Had it not been for the Main North Road passing through that district, and making it very accessible to Dunedin, it would not have been so quickly settled. Hawksbury and Shag Valley districts are not exceeded in fertility by any other part of Otago. The soil in these tracks is either a black vegetable mould of several inches deep, resting on the calcareous freestone or blue clay formations as a bottom, or rich alluvia] fiats. The back part of the country is broken and hilly, rising to mountainous altitudes. A characteristic feature of the country is a number of peculiar conical peaks, sonic of them attaining a considerable elevation. Mounl Watkin attains the height of 2,026 feet. The highest elevations are in the Silver Peak and Hummock Ranges. One point rises to the height of 2,515 feet above the level of the sea. Flagstaff, near Dunedin, is 2.192 feel high. The high land is almost exclusively devoted to pastoral purposes, although there arc considerable areas capable of maintaining an agricultural population. The County contains two municipalities, with half-a-dozen small townships, 14 district schools, 11 post offices. 14 railway stations, 16 churches and preaching stations. 4 resident clergymen, 2 doctors. 3 lawyers, 1 R. Magistrate, and 10 Justices of the Peace.

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Derivation of Name.

Waikouaiti is one of the Counties into which the Province of Otago was divided under the New Zealand Counties Act of 1876. The name is of Maori derivation, and means "the little wading or swimming river." This designation was applied by the natives to the river, and to an undefined extent of country in the vicinity. There were various methods of spelling the name, in what is now called the "early times." In documents of 1839 the following spellings occur: — -Whikowhiti, Whykowhite, Waikoaitc, Whykowat, Waikooli, Waikoaiti, Waikowaite, Waikawaiti, Whycawy. The present spelling was not fixed till 1843, since which time there has been no change in its orthography.

Boundaries and Subdivisions.

Waikouaiti County is bounded on the north by the County of Waitaki; on the west and south by the Maniatoto and Taieri Counties, and on the east by the Pacific Ocean. It is divided into seven ridings, viz., Waihemo, Dunbaek, Palmerston, Hawksbury, Merton, Blueskin and North-East Valley. Each riding sends a member to the County Council, which holds its meetings in the County Council Chambers, Hawksbury. The following persons comprised the Council in 1877: —Messrs. Matthew Todd, Isaac Green, John Duncan, H. Orbell, James Green, John McKenzie and Robert Donaldson. The borough of North-East Valley formed originally a part of the County, but during 1877, on a petition of the inhabitants, it was separated after a few months’ connection. Officials of the Council: —Mr. T. Green (Chairman), Mr. John Smith (Clerk), and Mr. Archd. Valentine (Inspector).

Members of House of Representatives

The County sends one member to the New Zealand Parliament. It has been represented in that Assembly successively by the following gentlemen Messrs. Capt. Frazer, Frederick Wayne, Mr. Vogel, Wm. Murison, Robert Mitchell, F. D. Rich, George McLean, Sir David Munro, J. L. Gillies, and George McLean (re-elected).

Provincial Council

During the period of the Provincial Council the district was represented in that body by Messrs. Julius Vogel, McLeod Orbell, Robt. Mitchell, I. Mills, John Smith. Mr. I. Mills, being re-elected, was member when the provinces were abolished. Mr. John McKenzie was, for a short time, representative for the Waihemo district.

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Road Boards

The County is also divided into seven road board districts, with names and boundaries corresponding to the ridings. These boards were established in 1871 under the Otago Hoads Ordinance.

Road Board Subdivisions and Holdings.

Palmerston Riding contains 4 Subdivisions, viz.:—Goodwood with 41 holdings; Blue Mountain, 46; Meadow Bank, 42. Hawksbury Riding contains 3 subdivisions, viz.Matanaka with 62 holdings; Cranbourne, 36; Hawksbury Bush, 114. North-East Valley contains 3 subdivisions: —Pine Hill, Harlington and Signal Hill with 118 holdings. Merton Riding contains 3 subdivisions:—Clevedon, Beaconfield, and Merton with 145 holdings. Blueskin Riding contains 3 subdivisions: —Purakanui, Waitaki and Deborah, with 390 holdings. Dunback Riding contains 52, and Waihemo 88 holdings. The three Ridings of Palmerston, Dunback and Waihemo were separated in 1882 to form the new County of Waihemo.

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CHAPTER 11.

Geology-Surface Outlines.

In the three Southern Riding- of North-Easl Valley. Blueskin and Merton. a basaltic formation predominates. A narrow strip along the sea-board in the Ridings of Hawksbury and Palmerston is a calcareous freestone. To the west of this freestone formation, and running almost north and south, is a thick outcrop of a comparatively soft blue clay stratum, in which is hollowed out a narrow valley stretching from Blueskin to Palmerston, through which lies the Main North Road. Still further west is a broken country, much disturbed with volcanic upheaval, with miscellaneous strata of quartz conglomerates. sandstones, shales, clay and brown coal. The more inland and elevated portions of the County in Waihemo and Dunback Ridings have, for the most part, rocks possessing mica schisl characteristics.

Rocks.

"The kinds of rocks most prevalent in the County of ~\\'aikouaiti are the older and gold-bearing rocks of the lower palaeozoic and metainorphic period, such as the crystalline schists, gneiss, mica and granitoid schists with the clay slate. There is no granite proper known to exist in the County. The rocks above referred to as prevailing in the County do not approach the coast line. From Dunedin to Oamaru there arc only three place in which they show themselves in the cuttings of the Main North Road. There are many places, within a quarter of a mile of the road, where they will be found in abundance. The first of the places referred to is al the foot of the Horse Range, just immediately after passing the Lime Kiln Road, at a bend on the Main North Road, and descending the hill there is a small cutting through the clay slate formation. The second place is at the first cutting north of the twentysecond mile post on Corner Bush Estate; and the third is near Mr. Jones' house in a creek a little above the Kilmo<* Bridge. In the two latter places the road passes through the mica schist. It is not impossible that some of these primary rocks may crop out between the road and the sea-coast, but they have not been observed. The other rocks of more practical importance form a margin along the eastern sea-board of the County, and extend from two to about thirty miles in breadth. These arc the basaltic and other allied igneous rocks, which are of great value

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as material for buildings of a permanent character and roadmaking. Waikouaiti is indebted to this stone (or its passable Were it not t'or the rock in the neighbourhood affording a supply of good metal, traffic through the district might be interrupted even in summer from die extremely bad character of the soil for road-making. The greatest development of this kind of rock is between the Waitali and Dunedin. Where it appears in other quarters it is in isolated or detached portions Waikouaiti Peninsula. Hobby's Head. Hawksbury quarrii s, and the other bluestone peaks scattered here and there. These rocks are to be found in all their different character-, and consistencies, from the compressed ashes of the volcano with the varieties of tuft' (a term used uow-a-days for any porous vesicular compound, although properly applied to cemented volcanic, scoriae and ashes). On through the differenl traps and basalts, such as the Clinkstone of Blueskin Bay, the true trap of the quarry in Hawksbury Bush, and also the now-famed buildine stone of Port Chalmers, which is a volcanic breccia, and may be found in some of the hills between Palmerston and 1 . onward still through all the hardened varieties suitable for public works, until some sorts are found harder than , nearly matching the diamond itself.''

( >BSIDIAN.

A piece of black obsidian is in the possession of Mr. Joseph Presto rood, tl was found a few years ago by one of his boys when following a plough near what is called the lagoon. He saw something with a clear sparkle in the newly turned-up furrow, which he picked up and brought home. It is about five inches in diameter, and is reckoned a very fine sample of volcanic or native glass. One supposition is that is has come from the submarine eruptions li i, in the neighbourhood of Poim or Moeraki Headland. These are the only places where it may sed a submarine volcano existed anything near the present coast line. The submarine eruptions are to be understood as taking place before the present dry land existed, at a time when all was under water. Another supposition would have ii to be a fragment of a larger lump. Portions have apparently been chipped oft' all round it except on on«' side, as maj be supposed for the purpose of making cutting instruments as knives and arrow-heads. Tt may have been brought by the .Maoris at some early period from some other part of New Zealand, from some of the volcanic districts. probably in the North Island, and dropped by them and lost till turned up by the plough.

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Calcareous Freest<>n e.

ihe last deposition of the teritary, sedimentary age in our locality was the calcareous freestone. The formation had just attained completion, when a volcanic outburst poured its burning lava over the bottom of the sea in which it then lay. The seats of our present hills were at that period deep depressions in the ocean bed, and were filled by the molten matter running into them as iron finds its way from the blast furnace into the prepared moulds of sand. The incandescent flood as it rose up from beneath, and rolled forward its resistless streams into the bowels of the deep, displaced the water with terrible commotion and uproar. The ocean boiled like a cauldron. Immense billows heaved, tossed, and lashed against each other in great fury. Enormous jets of spray were driven upwards into the sky. A thick vapour overspread the troubled ocean, and boiled it in a pitchy gloom. But this scene and many others have passed away. Since then the land arose into alpine heights, while the sea retired to other mundane hollows. Long ages have come and gone, till man arrived on these shores to contemplate the wrecks, upbuildings and changes of an inconceivable past. Greatly altered in extent and surface configuration must this freestone stratum be since its deposition, subsequent elevation and exposure to atmospheric influences.

As we have it now, it stretches from Blueskin to Shag River, submerged at the former beneath a load of basalt, and interrupted at the latter by the Horse Range upheaval. It is in some places of considerable thickness. The largest portion of it is comprised in the estates of Matanaka, Tumai, Goodwood and Bushy Park. Along the coast the stratum has a seaward dip, and rises gently as it spreads inland, lying conformably on the blue clay. Its main width is confined between the coast and the outcrop of the blue clay along the Hawksbury and Pleasant River Valley. Any portions of it lying to the west of the Main North Road are in small patches entering into the composition of several hills, owing their preservation to being wrapped under coverings of basalt. This formation, from its friable nature, has suffered severely from denudation. There can be no doubt of its being only a remnant of a more extended field of the same character. On the eastern side the ocean plies its incessant battery against the crumbling cliffs of marl and sand. The inland streams have cut their channels through it to the sea. What may be called Hawksbury Basin, containing Hawksbury townships and Cherry Farm, has been formed by the scooping out of the entire freestone with which it was

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originally filled, as also a considerable portion of (he underlying blue clay. This result has been accomplished by Waikouaiti river, ami the rivulets from Hawksbury Hills. Were ii not for the upward, landward sloping of the surface of the blue clay on which gravel and sand have collected to form the present beach and sandspit, and so, having arrested i. the Mies of Cherry Farm. West Hawksbury, and the lagoon would he an armlet of the Pacific, and the waves and tides would beat against a more inland shore. To witness the process of land degradation and advancement of the sea, one has only to visit the cliff's on cither side of Waikouaiti Bay. shag River ami Pleasant River I omplished similar work in their respective water-courses, in denuding and transporting the calcareous freestone to the sea. The calcareous freestone of Waikouaiti and Shag Valley is classed by geologists with Oamaru and Caversham freestone, and is designated "CretaeeoTertiary." Excepting the Oamaru section, very little of it is - for building purposes, not being fitted to resist the action of the weather. It will stand well enough in inside or covered walls. It possesses a great abundance and variety of fossils. particularly marine shells. The stratum must have been deposited in a sea favourable to molluscan life. This formation affords a rich soil. It is only excelled in fertility by the alluvia] fiats. The soil is a black mould, inclining to be dry. and hot enough in a droughty summer. It grows almost every kind of crop. Wheats and oats produce abundantly, and are iperior quality. The warm grassy limestone ridges, frequently refreshed with sea-moistened breezes, offer unrivalled pasturage for cattle, sheep and horses.

Blie Clay Greensands.

"Along with and included in the same tertiary scries is the blue clay formation, which is largely developed. This blue clay begins to appear in Oamaru neighbourhood, nd it is difficult to say how far south it may extend. Scraps of it may be seen at many points along the coast. This blue clay formation is. in its way. a sort of geological wonder, as from the want of perfect and reliable fossils geologists have been unable to decide whether it belongs to the Eocene, Miocene or Pleistocene periods. So far as is known this point has not yet been decided. Blue clay fossils have been eagerly sought for, and the discoveries made have generally been disappointing. A few bivalve shells of small size were found in the blue clay in 1878, five or six inches deep, in a cutting of the Main North Road near the head of Hawksbury Lagoon, but they very quiekly

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crumpled to dust on exposure. One thing, however, is certain regarding the blue clay, and that is, that it overlies the brown coal formation, and underlies the calcareous freestone of the Hawksbury township and other places. It is said to overlie immediately the Oamaru stone, but this may be doubted. It extends along the coast from Oamaru to Blueskin Bay almost without a break, and must be, in some places, of great thickness. Although it is called blue, it is not always of that colour. It is sometimes of a reddish yellow, and in some instances pretty hard. Moeraki,Waikouaiti and Blueskin Bays are formed of it. Prom the same clay formation the famous Moeraki boulders 01 septaria are derived. A good specimen can be seen near Waikouaiti, sticking out of the clay at the foot of a slope in a cutting near Ferguson's Road, not far from the twenty-third mile post from Dunedin. It is the bed of the lagoon, and is the cause of the many fine springs of water in the Government township; as the rainfall, percolating through the superincumbent freestone and marls, is met by this impervious clay, and forced to come out at suitable levels. This clay might be from 300 to 500 feet in thickness in the township of Hawksbury. It has a general dip toward the south-east, with lorn] disturbances altering the dip even to a north-west direction, but the general dip remains unaffected. It may be said that very nearly the whole of the agricultural land of Waikouaiti and Shag Valley, excepting what is on the calcareous freestone, lies on the blue clay. It forms the body of all the cultivated ridges. covered for the most part with an immediate stratum of gravel or rough shingle and boulders, and then with an upper and outer coating of red clay of variable thickness and irregular quality. If the surface mould is thin, it is cold and poor, stiff and unporous as soil. When mixed, however, to some extent with marl from the neighbouring limestone with a little careful sub-soiling, drainage and manure, it will meet the utmost demands of the most exacting agriculturist. The river flats also lie on the same clay, but covered more or less deep with river shingle and alluvium."

Sandstones, Conglomerates, Clays and Shales.

Next in the series, and subjacent to the blue clay, is a sandstone formation not less than fifty feet in thickness in some parts. It has less lime, is more gritty, and harder than that supervening the blue clay. It possesses a reddish colour, and is mixed with quartz pebbles. It contains an interstratification of alum quartz about three feet thick. The alum is found in several places in the same sandstone strata. Sandstones and

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conglomerates alternate with pipe-clays and shales as we descend the geological series till the coal is reached.

Coal.

The line of the coal outcrop will be found on an average of not more than two miles at right angles westward from the Mam North Road; and. although the line of strike is much jagged or serrated, so to speak, still it can be traced out and in throughout the whole length of the coast line of the County, and about the distance back from the road as stated. The line, as here indicated, will show where coal can be found with the least trouble and expense, as the blue elay generally lies conformably on the subjacent strata, which have nearly the same strike and dip, and therefore the shale beds and brown coal will be found at their minimum depths, or, in other words, at their outcrop. Bui the great difficulty in finding workable and payable seams of coal close to the output arises from the internal disturbances that have taken place along with the aqueous action, which also must have been of great force. It is supposed that very few. in any, of the great fields of vegetable and forest growth which constitute the basis of coal, have flourished and decayed, and become coal on the same spot on which they grew, but have been carried and collected by the action of water into heaps. The above supposition may be considered as proved from the fact that some of the seams which are twenty and thin ick will be found at a less distance than half a mile not as many inches. Thus in sinking for coal the chances are that ten seams of coal will be reached before one is found thick enough, and of good quality, to pay for working. The position of the coal seams are easily found near the outcrop, but not so the coal itself, unless under very favourable circumstances. There is every reason to believe that Shag Point coal seams extend under Palmerston and Hawksbury. more or less disturbed, cropping mi; at the line before-mentioned. At Shag Point Promontory the strata are very much disturbed, and had there been no upheavals there, the same predominating blue clay would have covered the coal as securely as it does at Hawksbury. The Shag Point upheaval has formed a basin inwards toward Palmerston and Waikouaiti, and again inwards towards Moeraki, but still the geological position is nol altered, as all belong to the Tertiary series.

To sum up the theory above sketched, or system, as it might be called, of the Hawksbury strata, and allowing that there lias been no internal disturbance of any magnitude, and making Hawksbury township, say, near the manse, the starting point,

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the result would be as follows:—Surface soiLs. marls and calcareous freestone, thirty to fifty feet; blue clay, with pieces of timber and impure beds of lignite near the lower side, and large quantities of sulphurous nodules interspersed, 300 feet; conglomerates and quartzose sandstones, such as may be seen above Mr. George Hasies' farm. Flag Swamp, say 100 feet; then shale, sandstone and brown coal seams, some of them, perhaps, both thicker and of better quality than at Shag Point, say another 100 feet; and finally the bed rock or schist as before described, which concludes the matter so far as the Tertiary series are concerned.

Marble.

The limestone in the Horse Range appears to be the oldest of any of the limestones yet found; certainly it is the most ancient in the County of Waikouaiti. It is very compact and suberystalline in its nature, but what is much against it is that it breaks up into rectangular pieces of various sizes instead of being fissile, and capable of being split into slabs, in which case its commercial value would be greater than only to be used as a mortar and fertiliser. It is capable of a fine polish, and when polished has all the appearance of a blue marble. Its first appearnce is near the lime kilns, and it forms a lenticular stratum of hundreds of feet in thickness, and interstratified with the slates of the Kakanui Range. It would be difficult to say how far it extends, but the outcrop of it can be followed for miles in a north-west direction, and some of the adjacent hills appear white with limestone. When burned this stone produces an excellent lime, and takes a superior mould when employed in ornamental stucco work.

PHYSICAL FEATURES

Mountain Ranges, Hills, Rivers and Native Bush

There are several mountain ranges in the County of considerable extent and elevation. The principal of these are the Horse Range, the Hummock Ranges, and Silver Peak Range. The Horse Range, called Pokohiwitahi ("one shoulder") by the natives, lies between the Counties of Waikouaiti and Waitaki. Silver Peak Range lies to the west of Blueskin, and is remarkable for its Alp-like scenery. It divides Waikouaiti from North Taieri. Snow lies on its higher summits for several weeks in winter. Hummock Ranges separate Waikouaiti from a portion of Upper Taieri. The highest elevation in the County seems to be in this quarter —one point is 2,515 feet above the level of the sea.

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Hills and Isolated Peaks.

The district contains a number of isolated hills and conical peaks. The highest of these is Mount Watkins, Ohikororua, which is 2,026 feet above the level of the sea. It is capped with basalt of various kinds, mostly of the truer sort. The top of the mount, apparently a peak seen from a distance, is a sharp ridge covered entirely with loose stones of the true trap character, and acres of the southern face are covered with the same kind of loose stones, many of the blocks being over six feet in length and from eighteen inches to two feet in diameter, and pentagonal in form, and are a superior quality of stone, and were the spot nearer the railway the stone would be of great commercial value for buildings of all descriptions. The position or site of the Mount has evidently been a depression or hollow in the tertiary formation before described. While the whole was submerged a volcanic eruption has taken place, and the flows of lava, following the laws of gravitation, have filled up this hollow, and by a certain time elapsing in the cooling the true trap has been formed. Then a gradual elevation of the land has followed, and by the continual flow and reflow of the surging waters, and other agencies such as glaciers—for there is evidence of glacial action not far off—the softer and surrounding rock have been disintegrated, worn down and carried away, while the now hard mass of trap, having withstood the tear and wear of the elements, continues to raise its proud head 2,000 feet above the level of the sea. There is the evidence of schist near the foot of the mount with quartzose sandstone and conglomerates. All the other peaks have been formed in the same manner, and just in proportion to their cooling are they sharp or rounded in form. Puketapu is composed of a mass of calcareous freestone eoronetted with a towering cap of basalt 1,100 feet in height. Hammond's Hill, in Merton District, although 200 or 300 feet higher than Puketapu, wants the sharp outline of that peak, but on the south and east side it has a limestone formation similar to the Government township of Hawksbury, bearing the same fossils, and with as good a soil. Some of the others are Hawksbury Hills, Pahatea, Mount McKenzie, Mount Royal, Ruapupu, and Smyler's Peak, near Palmerston. About half-a-dozen of these peculiar conical mounts can be seen at once from various points of the Main North Road, between Waikouaiti and Palmerston. Lying to the west, they form a beautiful horizon in the glow of a summer sunset. Very fine views of. the Otago coast line can be had from the tops of several of them when the atmosphere is clear.

B

!S

Rivers.

The largest river in the County is the Shag. It runs through a valley of the same name, and is 39 miles in length. It rises in Kakanui Peak, which is 4,978 feet above the level of the sea. The native name of the river is Waihemo meaning "the exhausted or dried-up stream." In its course the river drives two flour mills. The fellmongery of Scott and Tait has been established for several years five miles above Palmerston. Gold is found in the river bed, and has been wrought to some extent both by Europeans and Chinese. It is not in any degree navigable, and in the summer months is generally nearly dried up. The Main North Road crosses the river about half a mile from Palmerston by a handsome bridge, and Dunedin and Oamaru railway crosses it a little further down.

The next stream of any importance is Waikouaiti River, which will be about 20 miles in length. About 4 miles from the sea it divides into two branches. The north branch rises near Macrae’s Flat, and the south branch takes its rise near Blueskin, in the Silver Peak Range. The tide ascends the river about two miles, and forms a small navigable frith, which is entered by vessels of 20 and 40 tons burthen. During the Dunstan rush in 1862-3 steamers ran regularly between Dunedin and Waikouaiti sandspit, carrying goods and passengers. At low water, when vessels were unable to cross the bar, goods and passengers were landed in small boats. A few small coastal craft still carry on a trade with Port Waikouaiti. The river mouth has not unfrequently had a busy appearance, with half a dozen or more of these vessels lying in the Harbour loading and disloading cargo. The Port has a wharf, Harbour Master, marine stores, goods punt and watermen. The railway crosses the river about a mile from its mouth by a bridge of sixteen wooden piers, with a span between each of 30 feet. A little further up, the river is crossed by the Main North Road on a substantial structure resting on six stone piers with concrete basements. In the early days it was crossed at fording places, which were deep and dangerous at high tides, and if the river happened to be in flood. Particularly heavy floods have occurred in 1861, 1868 and 1879. A short time before the first bridge was opened a man with a horse and dray attempted to cross at the low ford when the river was somewhat higher than usual. The horse, unable to proceed, was drowned, and the man escaped by swimming to the bank. At low tide it can be passed through at several shallow parts, near which have been ancient camping grounds, where the wild Maori hauled ashore his fishing canoe,

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built his temporary hut, fed on the rough bounty of Nature, and lived his savage life among the primitive flax and scrub. The principal ford in use by Europeans was at Cherry Farm irate, another was immediately on the upper side of the present bridge, and a third was still further up, beside Cherry Farm homestead, called the Wild Dog Ford, from a native who, at one time, had his hut in the vicinity. The first bridge over the river, constructed of wood, was built in 1863, and was disused in 1878, when the present bridge was opened for traffic. During 1862-3 Mr. Chambers carried on a fellmongery at the site of the present bridge.

Pleasant River is about six or seven miles in length. It was called Te Hakapupu by the aborigines, and means “small shellfish.” On leaving the high land it is increased by the junction of Trotter’s Creek, flows through Pleasant Valley, and before falling into the sea it is joined by Flag Swamp Creek, which rises in Mount Watkin. The railway crosses Pleasant River at Brooklands farm, and the Main North Road crosses it at three points within a distance of two miles. The drainage of the neighbouring hilly country subjects it to heavy floods. In 1868 the water rose so high as to carry away the lower bridge on the Main North Road, and left it stranded in one of the fields of Brooklands. At the lower end of Brooklands the Goodwood District Road crosses it by a wooden bridge, and still near the sea another district road crosses it by a ford. The tide ascends the river to Brooklands. Before reaching the sea it divides the estates of Tumai and Goodwood. Fellmongery has for a number of years been carried on at several spots on the river.

Another small stream in the County is the Waitati (“near river”), which runs into Blueskin Bay. For some years a native flax manufactory was carried on near its mouth. The destruction of the flax by the progress of settlement has annihilated this branch of industry in the locality.

The "Waiema, or Carey's Creek, a small stream that runs into Blueskin Bay, passes through most picturesque native scenery of rock and bush. There are other short rivulets that have nothing to deserve notice.

Bush.

The largest extent of native bush is in the North-East Valley and Blueskin Ridings, covering the "basaltic mountains and ridges of that region. There was almost one continuous stretch of bush from Dunedin to the Maori kaik at Wakouaiti,

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but agricultural operations, and the demand for firewood and fencing have greatly reduced its area. Further north and west the bush exists only in patches, and strips at irregular intervals on the southern sides of hills, and deep, damp inaccessible gullies in the mountain ranges, where fires could not penetrate on account of the moisture and greenness of the vegetation. Such are Hawksbury, Goodwood, Puketapu bushes, and others of smaller dimensions. Most of the accessible bushes have been relieved of their best timber trees; ruinous fires have desolated large portions, and bare hill sides appear where shaggy, green forests waved, and with the different hues of the native foliage delighted the eye of the spectators.

Waikouaiti Bay.

This justly-admired Bay is semi-circular in form, with the two ends touching respectively Matanaka Cliffs on the north, and on the south the sandspit at the river mouth. It is skirted on the landward side by a line of low sandy hillocks, which are ever shifting their position according to the prevailing winds. The almost entire absence of vegetation gives the spot the aspect of a miniature African desert. From whatever point seen the Bay affords a beautiful view. In calm or storm it is equally fine. The waves ever roll in grandly from the Pacific, but they are terribly magnificent when the tempest drives them thundering on the sloping beach, white with foam. At ebb tide the beach is a splendid drive or walk. The sand is smooth and firm under the feet. It cannot be excelled as a bathing place in summer. A great variety of shells, sea-weed, moss, and other marine spoils can be gathered on the shore by visitors. Ships can be seen as they appear in the offing near the Heads, and steamers with their trailing lines of smoke as they ply out and in Dunedin Harbour. A jutting peninsula shelters it on the south, and the bold headland of Cornish Mount performs the same office on the north. "Waikouaiti River enters the Bay at its southern extremity.

Blueskin Bay is a shallow inlet of the sea, enclosed on the land side by wooded heights of considerable eminence. A range of sandhills shuts out the sea on the east, except where the tide channel is. Blueskin Bay is destined to become dry land by the silting up of its basin from the surrounding hills. Several small streams run into it, carrying gravel and clay, which, through time, will elevate the bottom. The railway and the Main North Road lie along its western border. The Waitati, a small village, and the railway station occupy positions on the south-west margin.

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Purakanui Bay lies a little further south than Blueskin. Purakanui means "large heap." This Bay is of small size. During the whaling period a station was established there. A few .Maori families still reside in very mean huts on a native reserve. The railway line passes along the face of the hill, overlooking the bay and the native settlement on the narrow flat.

Lagoon— Mata-Manga, a Species of Fish.

The lagoon is an interesting object in the llawksbury landscape, lying between the municipality and Government township. Its bed is hollowed out of the blue clay formation. When full of water it is extremely pretty. Its outlet to the sea is through the sandy beach that lines the bay. In a period of little rainfall the mouth of the lagoon is filled up with sand by the action of the sea, and the outflow of water being prevented, the lagoon becomes full. In heavy rains the volume of water is increased, and the sandy barrier gives way, and the lagoon empties itself; but the process of filling up is repeated till another recurring flood. The lagoon was a favourite fishing place with the natives in old times; and even in recent years it has been visited by them for that purpose. Flounders and eels are plentiful in its muddy bottom, and in low water are easily caught. It is the general resort of native aquatic birds. A few years ago native cranes, or white herons, with snowy plumage, might be seen stalking round its margin among the reeds and tall grasses. Being comparatively tame they fell a ready prey to the sportsmen. One has not been seen for a length of time. Bitterns also boomed their evening notes along its swampy shallows, but they are now unheard. European settlement has both chased away its early inhabitants and removed its native aspect. Houses, trees, cultivation and gardens now surround it. Roads have been made across it, and the view is changed. The railway skirts it at its upper end, crossing a portion of its former bed, where also the railway station and station master's house stand. A flock of black swans, the progeny of individuals liberated by the Acclimatisation Society, occasionally pays it a visit, and may be seen sitting on its surface among swarms of other birds. One or two evils arise from the lagoon becoming dry, for which as yet no remedy has been found. When the bottom is laid bare to the sun and air, the mass of rotten vegetation sends forth a very strong anil offensive odour, which is believed to be very unhealthy. To keep the water at a permanent level above the vegetation, a weir was built across

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the mouth of the lagoon in 1870, but as. there was nothing to regulate the water outflow in heavy rains, the adjoining fields on the low grounds were flooded. Now the dilemma lay between health and crops, it has therefore been suggested that a box channel be made through the beach to the sea neath Matanaka cliffs with a strong flood-gate, and so maintain the lagoon in a permanently dry state, and reclaim a number of acres of valuable land, which would repay the expenditure in a short period. In 1876 the first road was made across the lagoon by private enterprise; the Ilawksbury Road Board in 1878 made another.

Fountains.

We have three classes of local fountains. There are no springs from the blue clay formation. The first source of springs is from the basalt. The rain-water filtered through the basaltic rock on the high peaks comes out on the sides of the hill when it reaches the stratum underneath. Water from the basalt is soft, clear and pleasant to the taste. There are five springs on Ilawksbury Hills. Stoney Peak and Mount Royal from the basalt on their summits.

A second source of springs is at the bottom of the calcareous freestone, where it rests immediately on the blue clay. The rain-water, having percolated through the freestone, is arrested when it reaches the less porous substance of the blue clay, and then makes its way to wherever it can find an outlet. The water from this formation is hard and mingled with lime and chalky matter. Although reckoned wholesome to drink, it is not suitable for many domestic purposes. If moss or similar vegetation be placed in the water, the fibres will become coated with lime, forming a lump of porous chalky-looking matter. Pieces of this material could be easily found below the springs in the Government township, but the trampling of cattle to get drink has destroyed it. All the higher springs of the Government township are from the calcareous freestone. The limy enfiltrations form the stalactites and stalagmites of Matanaka cave.

A third source of springs is from the beds of clay and gravel forming the terraces above, and skirting our present river flats. At the bottom of these terraces, where a bed of gravel lies almost uniformly on the blue clay, will be found springs of cool, clear water, free from lime, but containing iron. One fountain of this sort is what is called the Templar’s well, and other springs along the east side of the lagoon. Some springs on Cherry Farm, others near Brooklands and in West Hawksbury, are of this description.

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Waikouaiti River Basin and its Contents.

Rivers and streams are important factors in geology. Waikouaiti River Valley has been hollowed out of the calcareous freestone and blue clay formations. If the character and contents of this valley are indicated, it will show what the other valleys of the County contain, and how they were formed. The Waikouaiti River, on its emergence from the mountains till it reaches the sea, runs immediately over the blue clay, and sometimes in it, as may be seen at the cliffs beside the bridge, and at the terrace on which the brick cottages at the mill stand. The blue clay is the bedrock on which all the shingles, gravels, sands, and other deposits lie in Waikouaiti River, Pleasant River, and Shag River valleys.

Classification of Deposits in RiverVValley,

1. The newest or last deposition is the present river-flat, which forms the richest portions of Cherry Farm and the Island Farm on each side of the tidal river frith. The river has cut its present channel through this deposit. It is composed principally of four ingredients—fine sand, mica, and vegetable matter with a little clay. All the materials have been brought by the streams from the inland gullies and ranges. Geologists will say that this deposition was made when the sea stood in the bay at a higher level than at present. When a country or land sinks below the sea, the rivers fill up their lower channels, and make level plains. If the land is again elevated the rivers groove their channels in the plain. In this manner, then, the lowest river flats were formed.

2. It must be observed, however, that there are the remains of an older river-flat or plain, 15 or 20 feet above the lower one, and can be easily detected in the shingly terraces all round the sides of the valley. A portion of this ancient plain lies behind Cherry Farm. Merton creek has scoured its way through it to the river frith, dividing it from the same plain or table land in the Maori Reserve. On the south side of the river the old plain may be traced to the sea. On the north side of the river it runs through the Island Farm and round by the lagoon at the foot of West Hawksbury municipality. The torrents from Hawksbury Hills have carried it away to form the lagoon, leaving a small strip along the base of the Government township, and stretching to the base of the Matanaka cliffs on the extreme north of the bay. Over-lying the shingle and gravel of these plateaus there is generally a very thick deposit of red or yellowish clay. There can be no doubt that this clay has

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been washed on to them from the high clay ridges behind. These terraces may all be referred to the same era of time, and have been constructed by the same agencies. On the supposition that they are the remains of an old sea bottom, they must belong to a remote age.

3. There are, perhaps, indications of sea-formed terraces higher up, and of a still older date; but it is difficult to trace them on account of the soft clayey nature of the medium altitudes of the country. There is an accumulation of boulders and gravelly material on the northern face of Cornish Mount, through which the road to Matanaka is cut, that might indicate an older sea level, when our present hills would be mere islets above the waves of the ancient Pacific. We may suppose that the valley or basin was formed before those deposits were placed in it as they now exist. The material which a cup holds can only be placed in it subsequently to the formation of the cup. Was the river valley scooped out before the river and streams brought the stuff out of the hills to fill it up, or did the operations of scooping and filling up take place simultaneously ?

River Floods—Past and Present.

The freshets of our streams appear to pass more water through the river channels in less time of late years than previous to the cultivation of the land. In the early days the rivers rose less rapidly, and fell or subsided more gradually than at the present time. The surface drainage accomplished by tillage and pasturage allows the rainfall to run off more freely than when the land was covered thickly with coarse vegetation. The great quantity of decayed and rank grass which lay on the top of the ground blocked up the rivulets and held back the water. These impediments are now removed, and the water rushes off at once. Thus the river channels require enlargement for the greater volume of water to pass through them. Our rivers are consequently enlarging their beds at the expense of the fields of the cultivator. Instances of this process of enlargement can be seen in the encroachment of Waikouaiti River on its banks, and the same may be observed on other streams. In the early days some of the rainfall would not pass into the river channels at all. A large proportion of it would be lifted up by evaporation, as it lay longer exposed to the atmosphere, and from the same cause more of it would be absorbed into the ground.

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Travellers at one period required to wait several days before the rivers would fall sufficiently to become fordable. It is said that about 1860 or 1861 the Oamaru postman had to wait a whole week at Cherry Farm, detained by a flood, and when he did start the river was crossed on a raft, and the horses had to swim. The rivers also rise and spread over the low grounds when a flood and high tide are in conjunction. The water of the river, being prevented discharging itself readily into the sea, overflows the lower situations. A strong easterly wind during a high tide and heavy rainfall will also aid in holding back the water, and dispersing it over the low flats. The agency of the wind will be shown by the amount of driftwood left by the flood at the highest point to which the water rose.

Economical Uses Arising from Position of Strata.

A little attention will show that the farms of our settlers lie on the edges or weather-worn ends of two or three strata or rock deposits. There are great advantages to man arising from this circumstance. If the surface consisted of a single rock deposition, seven or eight hundred feet thick, it would make a very different condition from what is. Let us suppose that we had only the blue clay, with no mounds of earth and shingle from other formations lying on it, the land would be a barren inhospitable waste. There might be a plain, but it would be a monotonous Sahara. There would be no refreshing springs bubbling from the mountain sides. No minerals would have been accessible. They would be sunk far below. The scenery would have been without variety, and it may be questioned if human life would have been possible on it. It would be the same thing with any others of the geological formations singly occupying the surface. The sandstone, conglomerates or calcareous freestone would each by itself be inimical to animal and vegetable life. One of them alone would not have contributed a sufficient number of ingredients to compose a soil. It requires a portion of them all to form a fertile mould. Each by itself is barren, poor and unproductive. Mixed together they are rich, and the better they are mixed the more productive. In districts where there is only one geological substance prevalent there is poverty of soil. The less uniformity in the rocks and clays, there will be a greater profusion of material suited for vegetable and animal existence. By the deposition, upheaval and subsequent disintegration of strata, man has within his reach all the materials required for existence, use, comfort and pleasure. The pulverised rock gives clays and soil

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for garden and field; the hidden rock can be quarried for building and road-making; the seams of coal and other minerals have been first stored up and then partially exposed, that as the intelligence and ingenuity of man might be exercised in their discovery, development and manufacture. The wonderful revolutions through which the strata of the earth have been made to pass leave them in positions of interest and usefulness, which should excite our liveliest admiration, and promote gratitude to the wise, powerful and benevolent Creator.

Soil and Agriculture.

A great variety of soils is contained within the limits of the County. Perhaps there are few other localities that could show so much diversity in a similar space. Soils correspond in character to their substrata, and will be rich or poor, sweet or sour, deep or shallow, according as they lie on the limestone, blue clay, marine silt, mica schist, quartz conglomerate or alluvium. Within the cultivated areas few spots fall below average quality. Under the few inches of black mould, perhaps about a furrow deep, there is generally a stiff tenacious yellow or reddish clay which pulverises with the winter frost and gives a good seed bed. For most situations early ploughing is demanded. If dry weather sets in after late ploughing the season may be said to be lost. It is almost vain to cast the seed among the furrows. The clods become hard, like brick; the seed either lies exposed among a little dry dust, or gets encased immovably in the indurated clay, under which conditions germination and growth are impossible. The tendency to rust and smut is intensified, although these diseases have not appeared to any extent of late years. The remedy is early ploughing and sowing. By all means have the braird started with the first spring moisture. Late sown grain springs unequally, and ripens unequally, besides its liability to other casualities.

The choicest spots over the agricultural area are the alluvial flats. They have a rich soil, composed of a free loam of vegetable matter, mixed with mica and fine sediment containing fertilising ingredients. In some cases the river flats are shingly or covered with sand; or where the valley emerges from the hills, and apparently overflowed in past times by water, there is a poor clay, being denuded of its surface mould. The best soil is at the lower end of these valleys, where the finest sediment has been carried forward by the stream and deposited under still water.

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The most suitable land for cultivation terminates at the basement line of the outcrop of the blue clay formation, at a little distance to the west of the Main North Road. Mountainous regions lie beyond this boundary, best suited for pastoral purposes. Any spots of good soil are limited in extent, isolated, remote, and as yet difficult of access. This country also varies in pasturing capacity, as it may lie on the primary or lower tertiary strata. Quartz conglomerates constitute a very inferior mould, as also some of the associated clays. As farmers say, "They are hungry, and eat manure." Mica schist should supply a good mould, but, being in elevated ridges, it has a cold atmosphere, and suffers from the erosion of the weather, by which its finer particles are carried away to enrich the lower grounds, or borne to the sea and lost. Native vegetation is a good indicator of the quality of the soil. Manuka flourishes on a cold barren clay. The pines, broad leaf, kowhai and others select a loamy surface. The silver tussock indicates a sour, cold bottom. It is generally a favourable soil for most crops where flax is luxuriant. The finer kinds of tussocks show a kindly loam beneath. Fern land is better than one from the home country would expect. It is bitter when turned up with the first furrow, but if allowed a little fallow before seeding it will seldom disappoint. The sunny or northern sides of ridgcy country have the finer kinds of native grasses, although the vegetable mould is thinner. All native vegetable growths are more luxuriant on the southern exposures, and are of a coarser character. The southern faces of the hilly ground are steeper than the northern slopes, but from the greater amount of moisture and vegetable mixture, the cultivator realises a deeper and more productive tilth.

Farming may be said to have been conducted hitherto with more industry than skill. Anything else could not be expected. The virgin soil, broken up, yields good crops for a number of years without any special system of management. The high rate of wages has also prevented the intelligent and enterprisingagriculturist making experiments and improvements on his land. He has to economise the cost of labour to the utmost. If he labours personally he can make good wages, but without additional hands he cannot improve his fields and appliances in any important degree. Neither can he utilise, to the utmost, all the products of his farm. He cannot drain, subsoil or manure. His straw often goes to waste. It is burned, or lies rotting in a heap, and not returned to the soil with the fertilising power it might possess. The soil is thus exhausted of its chemical

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ingredients for supplying the materials and processes of vegetable growth. At length he has to come to a pause, and looks sorrowfully on his barren, sorrel-occupied fields. The restorative agents generally employed are cattle grazing and the effluxion of time; but these are slow methods of reparation. Human life ends before the exhausted earth again absorbs from the atmosphere and other sources sufficient strength to yield a payable harvest. The agriculturist has often also had to suffer from the unskilled labour within his reach; as in the case of an inferior ploughman, who spoils his horse-team and tools, and produces a deficient quantity and quality of work. In reaping and threshing this waste has existed. The inept workman will often destroy more than his labour is worth. Those drawbacks that have necessarily obtained in the past are, however, being speedily amended by an experimental acquaintance with the climate, seeds, seasons, stock and soils; and a hopeful future may be entertained for the agricultural and pastoral interests of the country.

Fencing—Hedges, Gorse and Hawthorn

The early settlers were fortunate in having native bush at hand, with plenty of excellent timber for fencing and building. Enclosures were speedily surrounded with posts and rails of the most durable trees, as the manuka, kowai, mapou and rimu. Fences of this kind will last about ten or twelve years, and with a little mending they could be made to stand longer. Many, however, keeping in view the decay to which wood is liable, gave some attention to the sowing and planting of live fences. When the ditch was cast up along with the post and rail fence gorse ■was sown. Notwithstanding the many arguments on its behalf, it is impossible not to look on this cultured pest without alarm. It sheds its seed over the adjacent ground, which is quickly monopolised by the yellow-blossomed nuisance. A great botanist is said to have taken off his hat in ecstacy at the sight of a gorse hillside in bloom. With all deference to the eminent man, it must be said that his action was more sentimental than wise. If he had been set to clear the ground, he would have required to remove his hat from a less poetical cause. These gorse hedges will take possession of the country, and pollute it from north to south beyond remedy. The road boards have found it necessary to take action aginst the weed. Plants will grow from root, and seed as luxuriantly as if indigenous to the soil, causing continual apprehension from fire, and providing a cover for vermin. Men talk of the labour they have had clearing their land of tutu, tussock, flax, fern and scrub, but it will be a

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ten-fold more difficult task to extirpate this hardy exotic so thoughtlessly introduced. The constant refrain of the gorse supporters is, "Keep it trimmed. Keep it trimmed!" But is it kept in trim? Let no man possessing land sow gorse unless it is desired to supply vexatious labour, and thorns of misery for generations to come. The proper fence is hawthorn. It grows readily in our soil and climate if kept free from weeds r and protected from cattle for a few years; and then the landowner has put down something that will be a credit, a pleasure, an ornament, and a lasting profit, and a provision of shelter and beauty, for which an industrious posterity will be gratefuL

Lost Features.

Cultivation has almost entirely obliterated many peculiarities belonging to the past state of the country. Old settlers and visitors recollect impassable swamps and lagoons, where no such things now exist, and where a modern traveller would hardly imagine them to have been. The old aspect is all but gone; large and prominent features only remain. Flax, tussocks, reeds of raupo and toi-toi, Maori-heads and stagnant water, are all cleared away. The natural water courses on the flat lands and even on the slopes were not clearly defined. Blocked up with rank or rotten vegetation, the streams, during heavy rains, spread in all directions, and caused extensive marshes, which were scarcely passable in the driest seasons. These marshes were the domains of aquatic birds, swamp-hens, ducks, bitterns and white cranes. The drainage of cultivation having destroyed their retreats, the sportsman now looks for them in vain. Native game is now scarce, and only to be found in the remote solitudes, and destined ere long to extinction, like their contemporaries the moa and the Maori. It was not unusual for the early traveller or pioneer to furnish his table in the wilderness with roast pig, pigeon and wilk duck, but the old venison has been supplanted by deer, hare, rabbit, pheasant and partridge. It is also natural to observe how the plough and harrow have smoothed down uneven surfaces. In a few seasons a rugged, steep, ferny spur will be changed into a rounded grassy slope, and expanses of boggy wilderness transformed into blooming meadow. Cherry Farm, Hawksbury, Flag Swamp, Pleasant River, and Shag Valley could all supply numerous examples of the changes alluded to.

Climate, Winds and Weather,

A very great alteration is supposed to have taken place in the climate of the country since settlement. According to

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the testimony of many who were resident in the locality at an early period, it has become drier and colder. There is every reason to believe the impression is correct, and that the dryness and coldness arise from the same cause, viz.: —the clearing of the land. Cutting down the flax, scrub and native forest has laid bare the face of the country, and removed the shelter. Hedges and plantations have not yet sufficiently advanced to supply the absence of the natural bield; therefore the unimpeded cold wind is more keenly felt.

A similar feeling will be produced by the different kind of dwellings. In the earliest times low sod huts were erected, with small apartments, which were quickly heated with the log fires. These humble cots, not rising above the surrounding scrub, and generally situated on the lee-side of a bush, where a blast seldom reached them, were considerably warmer than the common weather-board house of the settler, through whose gaping seams the south wind blows unresisted.

A rough matting of native grasses, both decayed and in growth, prevented the escape of the rain water. Thus held back, it produced broad and continuous marshes over the face of the country. From the evaporation over such an amount of aqueous surface the atmosphere was loaded with moisture. Since settlement the rain that falls is immediately conveyed away by drainage, or absorbed into the cultivated soil, instead of lying on the top of the ground to aw'ait the process of exhalation. The climate, upon the whole, may be said to be inclined to drought and wind, rather than w r et or damp. Heavy rains sometimes fall, hut the atmosphere, as a rule, is clear, bracing and salubrious, seldom sluggish. Heat and cold are never extreme; the temperature is thus moderate. The only peculiarity is the suddenness of the changes from heat to cold, and from cold to heat, in all the seasons of the year. Mornings and evenings, as a rule, are calm. The sea breeze sets in about nine or ten o’clock a.m., and lulls at sunset. Easterly winds bring rain. Muggy weather, with wetting mists blown from the sea, are not unfrequent during harvest. Wind from the east is not so cold as it is damp.

South winds are uniformly cold, frequently very keen. Fierce squalls come from the south in early spring, with cold showers, but seldom a continuous rain.

Westerly winds are warm, frequently pretty strong. Rain never comes from the west, except it be an electric shower accompanying thunder. Warm west winds give a clear, soft blue sky. With the wind in other quarters the sky has a darker hue.

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North winds are generally dry and moderately cold. Rain from the north quarter is mostly a light drizzle, rarely a downpour. The north and west winds are often very parching, turning the fresh mould rapidly into hard clods, and scorching the tender leaves of trees and plants. Northerly winds prevail in the early spring. Frosts are seldom severe, except on the inland mountain ranges, where persons exposed in winter may be frost-bitten. Sharp, nipping frosts, trying to young vegetation, occur in spring on the low grounds. A night's frost will not often penetrate an inch into the earth, and only in the dead of winter will the hoary frozen dew remain all clay behind a wall, hedge or sheltering tree. Snow lies on the higher ranges. It soon melts after falling on lower situations.

Minerals.

There is abundance of coal, gold, silver, copper and iron. It is not to be doubted that time will unearth many more, which, by the aid of improved appliances for working them, will be made to pay handsome returns.

Alum.

This double salt can be procured from a quartz stratum at Janefield, Pleasant Valley, and several other places. A quantity was manufacteured by Mr. W. C. Ancell, chemist, Hawksbury, and sent to the Dunedin Exhibition of 1864-65. No notice, however, was taken of this interesting local product. In preparing the alum Mr. Ancell produced some very beautiful crystals; the matrix of the alum in the locality is a conglomerate mass, mostly quartz. The alum appears on the exposed surface in the form of a whitish powder, which, if touched by the tongue, is felt to be strongly astringent.

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CHAPTER 111.

Moa Period was Pre-glacial. Dinarnis. — First Acquaintance with the Bird.

No account of even a very insignificant portion of New Zealand would be complete without a reference to the moa. An interest in this remarkable extinct bird was awakened in England about the year 1839 by the fragment of a bone about six inches in length falling into the hands of Professor Owen, the celebrated anatomist. An examination of this specimen of moa remains led him to conclude that there had been, and perhaps still was, in New Zealand a gigantic bird as large as the African ostrich. This conclusion was more fully verified subsequently by the Rev. Wm. Williams, an Episcopal missionary in Poverty Bay, North Island, sending home to Professor Owen a number of bones, with his own observations regarding them, in 1842. From these bone fragments the Professor gives an elaborate analysis of the structure and nature of the bird.

A Live Moa Almost Seen and Heard.

The nearest approach to a view of a living specimen of the moa was by Drs. Hector and Haast and Mr. Mailing. They first saw some tracks of the moa about two feet wide on the New Zealand Alps, through the manuka scrub. Dr. Haast, on one occasion, heard the cry of a moa, and Mr. Mailing at some other place and time saw a foot-print. How tantalizingly near to the actual creature! To think that the sight or cry of the bird will never more greet the vision or the ear of man! Oh, North Pole! Noble ships and brave-hearted men have perished in the attempt to greet thy frozen solitudes, but the lost sight of the moa! ‘ ‘ Ah, miseram Eurydicen ! ” the North Pole may yet be hailed. Hope has not yet utterly expired regarding that sight, but who may expect to behold the figure of the living, moving, feathered wonder—the moa! Oh, devouring time, enemy of science and sensible evidence, to leave only a “track,’' a “footprint,” a “cry”! Perhaps it is well that the last moa is out of sight. Its comfort and dignity are thereby both preserved. It has escaped the showman and the interviewer. For them the last moa died in peace. Had Captain Cook explored

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the country he might have caught a specimen, but he let loose the pig and dog that so harassed the “Dinornis” that it fled from the gaze of men. Just as the more fatal instruments of civilisation were to be landed in New Zealand, the last survivors of the race, panting and broken-hearted, died. So perished the moa; about Captain Cook and the moa is fiction.

Description of the Bird.

There were six or seven Bpecies of the moa, varying in size and other particulars. Some of the species attained a height of upwards of fourteen feet. The bones of the limbs indicate great strength. According to native tradition, it was a stupid, fat, indolent bird. Professor Owen had indicated from his examination of its bones that its nature would be sluggish. Perhaps this was an element leading to its sudden extermination. A livelier sagacity might have aided in the prolongation of its existence. With rega.rd to the size of its egg, it is mentioned by Mr. Wm. Mantell that one he had found would require an egg-cup as large as his hat to hold it.

From the quantitiy of these remains, their number must have been very great. Between twenty and thirty years ago tons of the bones could have been gathered off the surface of the ground over some parts of Waikouaiti district. They have been turned up by the plough in making ditches and fencing, and in constructing roads, at a great variety of depths in the surface mould and alluvial drift.

Remains of the Moa

These consist of bones, skin, cartilage, feathers, egg-shells and pebbles. Bones have been found sufficient to construct entire skeletons. Two very fine skeletons are in Dunedin Museum. One, the property of Dr. Hoeken, was found at Highlay, in the Dunback Riding; the other was found in Shag Valley, and presented to the Museum by A. W. Bell, Esq., in 1878. The head of the latter is 9ft. 6in. from the ground, and belonged to the species Dinornis Robutus.

c

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CHAPTER IV.

Maori Period.

About eight hundred years ago the ancestors of the Maoris landed from their canoes on the shores of New Zealand. They came from some of the Polynesian Islands. The traditions of their arrival are very obscure, so that there is no knowledge of what causes led to their migration, what they brought with them, or in what condition they came. Their landing place was the North Island, and, being suitable for them, they increased for many generations with great rapidity. While several of the main tribes occupied the North Island, an important tribe called Te Ngaitahu migrated southward, took possession of the middle island and other small islands attached. The centre of the tribe, with which the southern natives claimed connection, was at Timaru. Tuhawaiki, or Bloody Jack, a Ruapuke chief, had great influence among the whole of the natives along the east coast in the time of the whalers. Each tribe had its own local chief or chiefs, who claimed aristocratic descent, and exercised governing functions. All the branches of the Ngaitahu tribe throughout the middle island were on the most friendly terms. The North Islanders were reckoned their natural foes. Their war songs related battles with the Northern natives, in which they naturally enough represented themselves as the conquerors. Previous to 1837 the district was exclusively occupied by Maoris, who lived in their uneorrupted native style. By 1840 a number of the natives had been attracted from other parts on account of the whale fishing. There is supposed to have been about three or four hundred Maoris. At the present date, 1879, full Maoris and half-castes together will be under one hundred. The rate of mortality among the young is very high.

Native Weapons.

These appear to have been clubs, stones, greenstone meres, battle axes and spears. The use of the bow and arrow was unknown. Their clubs were formed of wood, richly ornamented with carving. A lethal weapon was made of stone, with a groove round it to hold a flax rope. An instrument made of nephrite, and called a mere, was the most highly prized of all their weapons. It would be from 18in. to 2ft. in length, and 3 or

42

4in. in breadth. One end was used as a handle, and the other was a double-edged blade, well polished and sharp. It was a formidable weapon, and fitted to cleave an ordinary skull with great facility if wielded by a strong hand.

A greenstone mere would be handed down from father to son for generations as a family heirloom. In some cases it would be secreted in a creek, or in some place where it was not likely to be found or sought for. If the person who had hidden it died suddenly, or without the opportunity of revealing the spot to the members of his family entitled to know, it might be lost. Instances are mentioned in which the precious secret was made known with the expiring breath. When the mere was used by its possessor in battle it was attached to his wrist by a stout cord, so that in the event of losing his grasp by being stunned with a blow from the enemy, he might still retain his weapon, and have it ready for fight on his recovery.

Greenstone.

This beautiful and highly-valued stone was brought from the West Coast, but the precise locality was kept a profound secret. Some privileged tribe guarded the spot with jealous care, and monopolised the production of the article. A journey to acquire possession of a piece of it was a momentous enterprise. Six or seven persons might go in company in the long pilgrimage of many months. It was like a voyage round the world to a European. When they returned to their tribe they were looked up to as men of mark, as having really seen the world, and gained the most gratifying treasure. Greenstone was their wealth. It was a source of power and influence. He who possessed it was entitled to command his fellows, or it might, be the means of causing a deeper envy to rankle in the breast or a rival or foe.

The Pah, Kaik and Whare.

In the Maori tongue a pah is a fortified village. A kaik, or, more properly, a kainga, is a cluster of huts without any protection. A Maori fortification was merely a rude fence of branees, from behind which an approaching enemy might be assailed with some degree of safety to the defenders.

A whare is a dwelling made of branches of trees, reeds and grass. It is large or small, according to the number of the occupants, the object or rank of the builder, or for public or private use. Much labour and ingenuity were spent on some of the whares. The reeds might be so placed, and the flax so

43

plaited and painted as to have a very pretty appearance. The whare had a hole for a door, through which the native crawled going out and in. The fire was kindled on the earth floor, and the smoke ascending among the rafters found its way out at an aperture in the end of the hut for that purpose. In such dingy, smoke-grimed dens did the nude aboriginal Maori squat himself on dried rush, grass or mat, surrounded by his equally dressless dames and frolicsome children enjoying their home felicities.

The only hut at Waikouaiti Maori Kaik has been erected since 1860, or about that time. It is the work of a professional native builder, the others only bringing him the materials. It is not in the pure style of Maori architecture. Both in the materials and construction there are European elements. Sawn timber and nails are used. The staves of old eases have been utilised. The Maori builder had an eye to what was most suitable for his purpose, and took advantage of it. The length of the hut is 37ft., and the width 18ft. A projection of the roof at one end. which is also the front, forms a kind of verandah. It is about 16ft. in height at the one end, and about 12ft. at the other. It has a single entrance 4ft. 4in. high by 37in wide. An opening, 45in. square, in the gable end, serves for a window. Another small hole in the rear is 18in. square. The entrance is closed by a sliding door, which is pushed aside into the building or wall. The ridge pole runs the whole length of the hut. and is supported by three posts. Reeds are tied by flax with some degree of skill and care beneath the thatch to the rafters. It is the general meeting house, council chambers, and church.

In 1840 a large pah stood near the mouth of the river, with about 300 inhabitants. The entire neighbourhood of Waikouaiti Bay and river has been a native camping ground. There are abundant evidences of Maori residence in the heaps of shells, fish bones, cooking stones, broken pieces of flint and greenstone.

Native Dress.

This was simply a mat made of flax, which was tied round the neck, and hung down over the shoulders and body to the knees. It was thick, heavy and warm. To make a mat the flax leaf was split into thin strips, and the ends fastened or plaited together. When a Maori aristocrat meant to cut a more striking figure than usual, he stuck feathers in his hair, to which might be added a bone. With boar’s tusks thrust through the lobes of his ears, and his tattooed skin well rubbed with oil of the wood-hen, and the more prominent and exposed portions of his

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face daubed with red-yellow ochre, he issued forth from his hut m complete costume, the admiration of his tribe and friends, and a terror to menials and enemies.

The Aral change in the native dress began during the whaling period, when the mat was laid aside for the European blanket Since that time the blanket has given place to the ordinary dress of the European population. The females are pt than the males in taking up with the fashions of the day. Dress has evidently not yet come to be the study of the Maori ladies. Even when rich and expensively clad they fail in the adjustment of their clothes. Their toilet is not remarkable for consistency or correspondence. There does not appear to them anything absurd in having on a fine silk gown, with bare feet, and a red sixpenny cotton handkerchief tied round the head. They are either more conservative naturally than the males, or, being less abroad among the European population, do not see so much. It may be that usages persisted in through long centuries from generation to generation, become a second nature, and are not to be eradicated at once. Some of the younger men have not, at the present day, given up some of their hereditary habits. In the morning after they rise it is not unusual for them to walk about in the open air wrapped in the blanket in which they have slept, before putting on their ordinary clothing for the day.

Longevity.

It is impossible to ascertain the precise age of an elderly Maori. No note of a birth was taken among them previous to European settlement. An old native has thus no idea of his age. It is believed that many of them lived upwards of a hundred years. It is an impression among themselves that they are inferior in physical energy to their ancestors. A reason for this is, without doubt, the rapid diminution of their number by death. The few survivors, though hale and happy, have a strong conviction that their race is destined to extinction at no distant date.

Gardens, Fields and Labour.

It would appear that the Maori had some acquaintance with field and garden cultivation before European contact. They grew potatoes, and a wild kind of cabbage supposed to have been introduced by Captain Cook or some other South Sea voyager. Mara was their name for a cultivation, field or garden. In their field labour they wrought in companies, and each

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labourer received a certain amount of the produce according to his rank or other qualifications. They believed in working together. Heavy work was done by the men. and the lighter kinds by the women. The men fenced and dug the ground, while the women planted and cooked the food. Each of the sexes wrought separately. Females among the Maoris were well treated. The Maori was not by any means a despot in his own family. In their garden work they turned over the soil with a sort of spade made from the wood of the manuka tree. A stick fastened crosswise to the lower end of this implement served to press it into the ground with the foot.

Tapu Places and Persons.

The houses of the chiefs, the whares of the dead and burial grounds were all tapu. Other places and things might be placed temporarily under tapu by the malediction of the highest chief or priest of the tribe, which was removable at his pleasure. On no account would a Maori desecrate anything tabooed by touch or tread. Certain classes of persons were tapu in the same manner. A tapu man took charge of the bodies of the dead. Every corpse was tapu. Neither tapu man nor thing would be touched by the living who were not themselves sacred. Persons, places and things under tapu were as safe from native violation as if under lock and key. If a child in its play entered upon a sacred spot, the mother would not set foot on the forbidden ground to recover her child. She would adopt some artifice to entice the child off without herself touching it. Tapu places were not necessarily enclosed. They were known to the natives by marks of their own. and generally had a neglected appearance. Every Maori knew them, even if a stranger in a locality, as by an instinct, and turned aside his footsteps. The person of a chief was sacred, and also his nee.

Ceremonies connected with the Dead

Wailing for the departed, called a tangi, is still maintained after a fashion among the natives. The females excel in this performance. It receives from snme of them special study and practice. It consists in enacting all the signs by which intense grief is expressed, as crying loudly and bitterly, shedding tears. performing a variety of gesticulations, and cutting themselves with shells.

Interment.

Tn burial the body was deposited in the ground in a sitting posture, with the mat and clothes worn during life, and all the

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personal effects possessed by the deceased. Skeletons found in the district indicate the position of the body in the grave. Another method of burial was to put the body into a long box, not unlike a coffin, made of four slabs, which was inserted into the ground in an upright position, the corpse occupying the upper part. The front of the box was sometimes highly ornamented with carving.

It was not unusual to bury in mounds of sand near the sea and river beaches. Such situations were likely selected on account of the ease with which a hole might be dug for a grave with their defective tools.

Cremation.

Burning the dead was also practised among the Maoris. There was a tapu man set apart to attend to this work. He was the undertaker, who had charge of everything on a person's decease. The body, and all that was considered to belong to it, fell into his keeping as soon as the breath departed. It was then tapu. It was the tapu man's duty to prepare the wood for the funeral pile when it was brought to him. Cremation was not. as a rule, immediately performed on the body. The tapu man would deposit the corpses in the ground till he thought he had a sufficient number to be conveniently burned. Neither was cremation general. It appears to have depended on the wish of the friends of the deceased, or as they might be able to contribute food and firewood to the sacred man.

When ;i person was dying, and apparently near his end, and all hope of recovery past, he was removed to a small whare prepared for him in which he might die. Food was placed near him that he might take or let alone. The reason offered for this practice was that the sick person might be away from the noise of the household and die in peace; but the more likely reason was to prevent the house becoming tapu. House, furniture and belonging were, on the person's death, immediately tapu if the death took place in it. It was no more occupied. No one entered into it. It was shut up till the decay of time mingled it with the dust.

After death the corpse might be taken out of the death whare by the tapu man, and carried forth to the open ground and fixed In ;i seat, dressed as he might be when alive, his hair in order, and his pipe in his mouth. While seated in this fashion the friends and relations would gather round, and sit at the distance allowed by the law of tapu, and feast and wail in turn. The spirit of the deceased was supposed to enjoy the company, the wailing and the festivity.

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The strangling of widows on the death of their husbands is only known among the Maoris as an old story. It is not known to have taken place in the locality within the memory of the oldest native. A funeral feast might last for several days. During the days of mourning it was customary to engage, as far as possible, in whatever pursuits, exercises and diversions were gratifying to the person deceased. If a bereaved husband should say that his wife who had just died was fond of riding, every man and woman, boy and girl that could get a horse would be mounted, and ride about till they were tired.

Food and Cooking,

The Maoris ate with avidity all kinds of animal food within their reach. Fish, fowl and wild pig were all made use of by them. Their range of vegetable diet was extremely limited. Roots of the fern and cabbage tree were prepared and eaten. The process of getting the fern root ready for food was as follows: —Having been dug out of the ground it was dried in the sun for about a week. It was then roasted by fire, and pounded between stones. The farina or flour was then separated from the fibres mixing with it by rubbing in the hands, and formed into a cake, which was sweet and not unpleasant to the taste. It was not by any means distasteful to a hungry European.

The cabbage or ti-tree was cooked in the ground in the same manner as wild pig or fowl. A circular hole was dug in the earth from 6 to 12in. deep. The bottom of this hole was then paved with stones. The size of the oven was proportioned to the bulk of the animal, or the quantity of cabbage-tree root gathered to be cooked. A layer of dry wood was laid on this paving, and stones and wood were continued in alternate layers till there was a considerable pile. The heap was then set fire to and burned. The ashes, burning embers and stones were all removed except the paved bottom, which was swept clean. A quantity of water was poured on it to cause a steam. Meanwhile the pig or other animal was disembowelled, and filled with the loose hot stones and potatoes or other vegetables, and thus put into the steaming oven, and covered over with the remaining hot stones and burning ashes, with an outer coating of grass and clay. The meat was left to bake in this crude oven for fully an hour, when it was dexterously turned out by the native cook. in a condition not to be despised by a good appetite and a sound digestion, such as exercise in the climate of New- Zealand can produce on European and native alike. Those who have feasted on this Maori roast do not readily forget the keen relish with which it was devoured.

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Marriag

The entrance into the marital relation was not attended with any special rite or ceremony. Maori girls married about n or seventeen. A feast was generally held to celebrate the alliance. Chiefs were very careful not to ally them to ladies out of their own rank. Presents were often made to the girl'B parents by the wooer, and something not unlike a purchase was effected. The Europeans who took Maori women for wives generally presented some kind of gift to the parents. Marriage with Europeans was not in any way distasteful to the .Maoris. If the accepted suitor presented the parents with a blanket, knife! hatchet, supply of tobacco, or anything that a native valued, it rendered the marriage, if marriage it could be called, all the more agreeable to the family of his bride. There was not much of what ;§ called courtship among the New Zealand aboriginals, li was the custom for a man to carry off his bride with either real or pretended violence . The follow- - mentioned as a method by which tender sentiment was sometimes conveyed. If the youths and maidens were in company, a Maori wooer would throw a piece of stick with derable force at the girl he was pleased with. If she took up the stick and threw it back to him it was an intimation that his attentions were not unaccepted; if, however, it was thrown away, it was a token of rejection. The acknowledgment of each other by a male and female before witnesses as man and wife constituted a legal marriage among the Maoris till influenced by European custom and Christian teaching. They are said to have been faithful to each other in the marriage relation.

Polygamy.

Although the rule among the Maoris was one woman to one man. yet polygamy was practised to some extent, principally among the higher ranks. A chief of eminence might have as many wives as he plea there was no law in the Maori age to prevent polygamous indulgence, a Waikouaiti chief had ventured to furnish his home with a plurality of wives before the arrival of the first missionary. He was induced by the persuasions of Mr. Watkins to be satisfied with one only. It was with extreme reluctance that he yielded the point, arguing his rank and rights and immemorial custom for a lon<2' time before acquiescing in the scriptural law.

Slavery.

The Maoris held slaves till Christian missionaries came among them. Polygamy and slavery fell together. Christianity

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was the death-blow to these and many other customs. Slaves were generally captives taken in war. They did not enslave the members of their own tribe. Successful expeditions of war and plunder brought them supplies of slaves. They were not used cruelly, but made to perform all kinds of drudgery work for their masters. Otherwise their condition to an onlooker did not seem different from that of their superiors. Missionary teaching set them free. On the reception of Christianity the "Waikouaiti natives liberated their slaves and restored them to the Northern tribes from which they had been taken. Those who did not choose to return were allowed to remain anion;: them on terms of equality.

Wages.

There was nothing of the nature of money among them. Purchases and payments were made in kind. Rewards for services rendered were usually in food, as potatoes, birds, eels. or perhaps a mat (Kakahu).

Morals and Amusements.

An elevated or elevating code of morality could not be looked for among such a people. The main restraint laid on them beyond that of a physical nature was the law of tapu, and this law. as may be supposed, was very capricious. Theft was held in special abhorrence by them. Although said to be greedy and covetous in a high degree, they did not steal. They could be trusted to almost any extent. Theft, therefore, was not one of their vices.

They were faithful in the fulfilment of their promises and engagements. It could not be expected that they would be generous from the want of means, but they were not guilty of dishonouring themselves with untruth. If, however, they were treacherously dealt with, and had the opportunity of retaliation, they might exact a cruel vengeance. Parental affection was very strong among them. A Maori mother was a careful nurse. If infanticide existed at all. it must have been in exceptional circumstances. There was no special training of any kind for the young. They were allowed for the most part to do as they pleased, except in showing a due deference to the chief, and observing the law of tapn.

Their amusements consisted of dances and war songs, which were very ludicrous and repulsive to European taste. They sometimes went through their war dances in the early days to

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visitors for a trifling reward. In this exhibition they wriggled their bodies, flourished a greenstone mere or club, turned up their eyeballs, put out their tongues, and made themselves hideous to look at. Their music was a low monotonous kind of

Cannibalism

There can be no doubt whatever of their having occasional feasts on human flesh. Between 1837 and 1840 several human bodies were cooked on the beach at the mouth of the Waikouaiti river. A living eye-witness testifies to the fact. Tuhawaiki, a Ruapuke chief, well known in the whaling times, familiarly called “Bloody Jack,” had gone north with several of his war canoes, each manned by eighty stalwart heroes, and attacked Rauparaha’s tribe. On the return of these warriors with their spoils they landed some of their victims, and invited the natives of Waikouaiti to the cannibal feast. These were the days of savage glory. No protest had been lifted up against the long reign of barbarism. The Maori was yet neither tainted by the vices, nor fascinated by the comforts and advantages of civilisation. Then was the opportunity to get a picture of the maneating aboriginals. A visitor to the spit in those days might have had his wildest curiosity gratified. Hidden in a clump of scrub on the terraces above the beach on a dark night, he could have seen by the leaping flames of a pine branch fire a group of dusky females, male and female, round an earth oven, their eyes and features gleaming in the unsteady light, and scratching with shells from the burning ashes and soil the morsels of smoking flesh. Few things now remain to recall that past state, and those that do survive are quickly perishing. Cultivation has claimed the spot. Dark faces are met, but they are yearly becoming fewer. The tattoo is still witnessed, but the features are no longer fierce. The tyranny of fear, the bondage of suspicion, of serfdom, of polygamy, of warfare, of superstition, have all departed. Cattle, sheep and horses browse on the pastures. The manuka spade has been thrown aside, and the plough turns over the soil. Instead of women pounding the roasted fern-root, a steam threshing mill beats out the wheat and oats. In his peaceful hamlet the native sleeps without alarm. The foreigner has taught him the arts of industry, and he labours cheerfully and successfully under the shadow of imported and better institutions. The mild and peaceful faith of the gospel is a solace to him in trouble, and a comfort in death. The sun of the savage Maori goes down in tranquility. The lot of his posterity will fall on happier and better times.

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Maori Ethnology.

An opinion exists that the Maori is a mingled race, composed of the Negro, the American Indian from an Asiatic source, with a mixture of Chinese or Japanese. This supposition is founded on the colour of their skin, their customs and traditions, their features and language. There are supposed evidences of an earlier race in the country than the present Maori, with skins of a darker hue and a lower type of civilisation. The three races above referred to are designated the "Melanesian, Polynesian and Chinese." It must be allowed that individuals representing with certain features one or other of these sections of the human race could be easily selected from a Maori tribe. A person with a flat nose, black skin and frizzled hair would represent the African. Another with lighter complexion, brown skin, aquiline nose and straight hair would represent the Asiatic American. Others with oblique ej - es, high cheek-bones and scanty beard would indicate a mixture of celestial blood.

Language.

The speech of the Waikouaiti Maoris is the same as that in use by all the aboriginal tribes throughout New Zealand. It is largely mixed with .Malay terms, and is closely allied to the dialects spoken in the New Hebrides. Tahitian, and other island groups of the Pacific. Ordinary Maori books arc read by some of the Waikouaiti tribe with ease. Some of them can read both Maori and English. Their native tongue is becoming every day of less service to them, and the speech of the colonists more and more necessary. Only a few of the oldest Maoris do not understand or speak English well. Many of their articles in daily use have only English names, and they are constantly meeting w;th the settlers who cannot speak to them in Maori. In fact, the sooner the Maori is given up the better. In the native school established at the kaik only English is taught, and the children learn it with facility. With the English language they will imbibe ideas of religion, civilisation and morals that will obliterate the superstitions and habits of the savage state, and introduce a higher enlightenment. Their native speech has never been cultivated in any degree. l!s range is therefore very limited. It can be employed, however, with great force and fluency. Nor are the .Maoris by any means wanting in eloquence or oratorical power. Their style is natural, practical and bold. When once the ear has become a little accustomed to the sounds of the Maori tongue it is very euphonious. The names of places, rivers and hills throughout the country retained by the settlers are not unpleasing to the ear. and, when translated, interestingly descriptive.

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Maori Arts and Manufactures,

Mum of these have conic to an end. or nearly so. It is access emark here that this subject is beset with special difficulties. There are no records among themselves to indicate what has been ; whether they were advancing or retrograding when first known there is nothing to show. Speculation could have plenty of scope in this field. It would be interesting to know what arts and manufactures have ceased among them. when others arose, and what helps and hindrances they met. Are we to imagine that arts and manufactures were stationary araong them from age to age.' Were there no changes, no fluctuations from bad to worse, or from good to bad, or from a better to an inferior I It is natural to presume in favour of progress, but that progress ever checked by adverse circumstances. The elements in the Maori character favourable to the supposition of progress are their ready and keen? observation, aptness of imitation, faculty of invention, ambition, activity, bodily vigour and general mental capacity.

The difficulties that Maori native art had to contend with were their migratory habits, want of security for life and property arising from tribal feuds, and frequent scarcity of the sariea of life. Arts springing up in one tribe would not be easily communicated to another. Special gifts of invention and ingenuity would be lost at the possessor's death from want of systematic and encouraged instruction and protection. Patience and perseverance are natural qualities of the Maori mind, but they were often directed to unpractical, frivolous or vicious objects. Their tenacity of purpose was shown in many kinds of labour, as in making canoes, whares, wood and stone implements, and in various kinds of ornamental work.

iri Arts and Manufactures.

Pure Maori art and manufacture ceased immediately on contact with Europeans. The aboriginal New Zealander saw at once, with his acute and practical eye, the immeasurable superiority of European art and appliances. His struggle for bare life would greatly quicken this perception. From the character of the climate, and the scanty natural products, his skill and industry were taxed to the utmost. What the Maori saw his pale-faced visitors bring he fully appreciated. He may be said to have been charmed. He was prepared to accept the improvements they brought, yea, he was determined, if possible, to secure them. There was nothing he was not willing to do or give that he might become possessed of the same advantages

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as he saw belonged to Europeans. He was prepared to endure many things, adopt even their vices, bear their misconduct, accept their religion, cast away his prejudices, if he could only procure the means, the comforts and powers for good and evil that the Europeans enjoyed. Had the Maori, like an Ishmaelite, strode away from the newcomers with a haughty air and selfsatisfied mind, native institutions, customs and arts would have had greater permanence. He yielded to the fascination of the stranger, and was conquered without a battle. His flax mat at once became distasteful to him in the presence of the dressed pakeha. The manners, possessions and intelligence of his white visitors entirely captivated him. Among his own tribe, in the recesses of his native forest, in the whare or pah, he was a barbarous savage, rejoicing in his tattoo, feathers, nudity, oil and ochre, but his ambition in the presence of the white man was to be in dress and manners a gentleman. Attempts to enact the European are sometimes laughable, but such efforts, awkward as they may appear, indicate qualities by which the native race may be raised. They are a promise of future improvement. It is a sign of adaptation that will yet be profitable to themselves and to others, enabling them to fill the place that the colonisation of the country opens up to the immigrant and native race alike. Those that survive, or are absorbed in the populations of the future, will stand side by side in intelligence and civilisation with the progeny of the colonists.

An indication that they are fitted for social progi-' their capacity for uniting and working in concert. It has been their immemorial practice to labour together in their fishing, hunting and warfare, and more recently in their gardening, cooking, agriculture and storekeeping. In cultivating their maraes in the olden times the men farmed the enclosure, cut down the trees, and cleared the ground, dug over the soil, and then the females joined them in the planting.

An instance of the decay of Maori art may be seen in the whare runanga already described. The whare, as regards work and material, is a composite structure. European and Maori elements are clearly mingled. All the main posts and rafters are of native wood and workmanship. Their surfaces bear the mark of the adze, which was likely an iron rather than a stone one. The cut is too clean for a stone tool. The main pieces of timber have neither been sawn nor planed. Any foreign wood used bears the marks of the saw. There is little attempt at uniformity in shaping the rafters, except in their Length. They have no struts. Two posts standing up from the floor

47

several feet apart assist the two gable ends in supporting the ridge-pole. An innovation on Maori architecture is shown in the front weather-boarding. Older whares would have had reeds, wattle and flax neatly wrought together instead of boards. The verandah, about four feet wide, has been roughly paved with stones. It is not likely that the Maoris of Waikouaiti will ever build another similar whare. The manufacture of Maoris baskets, bags and ketes, either for use or ornament, is near to extinction. Some of the finer bags made from the flax were exceedingly pretty. They were wrought by the females, and showed no small degree of skill and taste in pattern and workmanship.

The Maoris have comparatively few relics. They have not made or constructed many things of any permanence. Their works have been mostly of a perishable nature. They have no buildings of stone, no earth mounds to tell of their condition in bygone ages. One or two seasons would be sufficient to obliterate all trace of their best huts. Mats, canoes, baskets and shells soon decay. There are no means of comparing the recent with the ancient. Permanent Maori remains are ovens, greenstone meres and idols, stone knives, adzes, cooking stones and refuse heaps. Shells were used by them as knives and spoons.

First Contact with Europeans.

The aboriginals in this part of New Zealand were most unfortunate in their first meeting with civilised man. Every right-thinking man must deplore the degrading and corrupting character of the early intercourse between the white and coloured races. The men who landed first on these shores were, many of them, notorious evil-doers. They were men who had escaped the gallows, jail and ship discipline. Depraved by drunkenness, reckless of life, honour and decency, they cast themselves among the unsuspecting islanders, who received them with confiding generosity. They have not certainly left behind them the odour of a good name, but a story of debauchery, and a heritage of disease, death and extinction to the aboriginals who befriended them. The British and American sailor, whaler and sealer were all before the missionary, and were more successful in doing evil than the missionary in doing good. They were not the persons to bring any accession of knowledge and virtue to the poor ignorant heathen, or to create among them a taste for the amenities of a well regulated life. They brought to them intoxicating liquor, taught them to use tobacco and other vicious habits, instead of those arts and manners that elevate, adorn and bless society. In return for

IS

kindness they sowed the evil seeds, which are proving more fatally disastrous to the Maori race than their own sanguinary atrocities.

Decay of the Maori Race

It is manifest that the original native population is gradually and certainly decreasing. It. is not unnatural to enquire what are the reasons of this decline. The question is met by several answers. One reply is that the Maori is a tropical race, that he is only fitted for a warm climate, and that, being driven too far south into the cold temperate region, he must deteriorate and die out. A second reply is that a change of diet, clothing, habitations and general mode of living proves to them a fatal ordeal. A third answer, and the correct one, is (hat the wasting away of the native Maori results from the introduction of European vice and immorality. Whatever truth may lie in the two first reasons, it is insignificant compared with the magnitude of what is contained in the last. Luxury and licentious riot, more than war, have been the bane of nations. By deadly vice all the old empires of the world fell. It is not possible that a Maori tribe could escape if polluted by the same mischief. The dissolute pioneers of our colonial settlement have certainly the unenviable credit of hastening the aboriginal Maori race to its grave, and the females have been the first victims to the pernicious intercourse, as is evidenced by the preponderance of males over females. Sir Charles Dilke bears witness to this fact with regard to the northern natives in his book entitled "Greater Britain."

One cannot help reflecting on the strange Providence that attends the proceedings and actions of different men. How seemingly undeserved a fate happens to the good and bad in this world! The first immigrant rovers, who landed on the Otago coast among its fierce and blood-thirsty inhabitants, only to diffuse new forms of wickedness, and propagate moral and physical ruin, were received with open arms, taken care of, fed and pampered as worthy beings, and not the villainous outlaws they were; while in other cases men with the heavenliest motives, seeking to spread the gospel of peace, and their souls breathing prayer for the benighted idolaters that they might be lifted up to a higher moral and spiritual life, have fallen victims, as soon as setting foot on shore, to the passions of cruelty and murder. Here is a mystery, no doubt; but this is only one stage of the great drama. Another impartial judgment awaits all the actors, and the decision then will be in accordance with righteousness and love.

49

Present Condition of the Waikouaiti Maoris.

They have made considerable advancement in the rearing and care of stock, and in agriculture. Large portions of their naerve, which is 'i.OOO acres in extent, are laid off in paddocks and under cultivation. Wheat, oats and potatoes are grown by them with success. They have supplied themselves with some of the most approved implements employed in farming. In l s 7£ they laid aside the ordinary horse threshing machine, and procured one driven by steam. Two steam threshing machines are now in their possession. Not only do they thresh their own grain, but occasionally give assistance to the surrounding settlers. They are strong, good workmen. A number of the younger men take employment on the sheep stations during the shearing season. They are not unwilling to make themselves useful to the community. It is gratifying to see a people who, a little over twenty years ago, were naked savages, showing such spirit and industrious energy. European dress has been generally adopted. They are fond of being well dressed, and are no mean judges of substantial clothing. Showy colours are greatly prized. A certain want of congruity in taste will doubtless be amended by time and use.

The common Maori huts have all disappeared. One whare runanga is the solitary remnant of the past state of things. It is their common council house and meeting place for worship. Weather-board houses are general, and a few of them not wanting in elegance and substantiality. The house of Mr. Thomas Pratt, J.P., is a very handsome erection. In the furnishing of their houses they ;ire also gradually improving. It was their habit to sit on mats laid on the floor, but chairs and tables are getting more plentiful. Properly built chimneys are attached to their apartments in which the fire is placed, instead of being in the middle of the floor as of old. They are adopting the European manner of taking their meals, sitting at table, and using forks and knives in lieu of their digits. The old style was to sit on the ground, and eat from a basket made of flax. Delph ware is supplanting the use of the indigenous flax at a native dinner. The Maori oven is obsolete, except occasionally for the novelty of the thing to recall the olden times.

As they had no special marriage ceremony of their own, they have readily fallen in with the custom of the colonists. The occasion is signalised by being declared a general holiday. The clergyman with the bridal party proceed to the church, where the. bridegroom and bride mutually plight their faith in

D

50

the presence of witnesses, and the Divine blessing invoked on behalf of the wedded pair. All are then invited to a repast, where conversation flows freely, and the rest of the day and evening arc passed in the usual merriment indulged in at nuptial celebrations. As no intoxicating liquor is allowed, the worse than beastly scenes of drunkenness do not follow to mar the happy auspices of the event. Not a little of the prosperity which blesses our Maori settlement is attributable to the mixture of a self-imposed "Maine Liquor Law." "Local Option" has, for many years, been in force. An obscure tribe of New Zealand aboriginals, just emerging from a state of savagism. have been able wisely to outstrip the lumbering machinery of British and colonial legislation. It is an example that should put to shame those who know more and profess more, and who should do better.

The Maoris are professing Christians, and it is to their credit that, although they have had no minister or missionary for many years, specially appointed to labour among them, they have their meetings for worship, where their devotions are conducted in the native tongue by some of themselves officiating, reading the Scriptures, and engaging in prayer. It would be impossible to give any just account of what their ancient religion was. True, they worshipped idols, their ancestors, and, probably, a number of other gods, and believed in spirits and a future state. But what notions they had of the power and character of their deities, of spirits and futurity, will never be ascertained with correctness. A proper idea of these matters could only have been given by one of themselves possessing sufficient literary qualifications to put them on record, antecedent to the introduction of Christianity. As soon as Bible truth was obtruded on the Maori mind it unfitted him to state his heathenism. It is equally impossible for any other, because what he knows or has heard, he will clothe with the complexion of his own thoughts.

All the young people understand English, being able to speak it readily, and even to write it. Very few of them in getting married are unable to sign their own name. Such ability is, to some extent, the fruits of early missionary labour. Works of faith and love are never lost. Many in life and death have possessed the consolations of the Christian faith, and have adhered through much temptation to its principles. A few years ago, when the Hau-hau fever —a sort of revival of heathenism produced by political and social excitement—rose among the northern natives, there were some who would have

51

nothing to do with it. One of them, at the time, who was asked what he thought of this Hau-hau movement, touched with significant gesture a large Maori Bible he held in his hand, replied. "'I stand by what is written here." Ka lu ahau ki tenet tuhituhinga kite pukapuka.

Half Castes.

As they are called, are the offspring of European fathers by mothers of the native race. There are about eleven families of them in the district. Their names are. Syzemore, Thomson, Lloyd. Parker. Pratt, Donaldson. Brown, Apes, Rupell, Crocame, Ellison, and Chicken. These names represent a portion of the first immigrants who arrived and settled on the Waikouaiti coast of Xew Zealand, took Maori wives, and casl in their lot with the natives. A number more had no offspring, or whose children have long since died. They came with early trading and whaling vessels from America, Great Britain and Sydney, and from the Continent of Europe, and finding a rude kind of liberty among the friendly and hospitable Maoris, chose the country as their home, and found in it their graves. A mild climate, an easy subsistence, and romantic surroundings, led them to this expatriation of themselves. A free life in the wilderness, living on the products of nature, chasing the wild boar through flax and fern among the gullies, was a more agreeable life to them than restraint and toil in the crowded populations and busy cities they had left behind. It was more to their taste to herd with painted savapre.s and live in wedded happiness with their dark-skinned daughters, than to be cooped up in a ship's forecastle at sea, or keeping watch through the dark niprht on deck, or mounting the rigging in the biting cold, or in a dangerous storm. Waikouaiti was not alone in harbouring the runaway sailor. Other places had a share. Escaping into the bush when they got on shore, it was impossible to recover them. With diminished crew the ship was obliged to weigh anchor, and leave the fugitives to take care of themselves.

The half-castes retain a considerable degree of the native physiognomy. They generally assume a superiority over their more dusky relations, and pride themselves not a little on their white skin and European blood. They have still, however, great sympathy with their maternal kindred. It appears easier for them than the Maori to adapt themselves to European ways. In general they can speak English and Maori with equal fluency. In youth they are remarkably robust, plump in flesh, but are considered to age at an early period of their lives. It is sup-

52

posed by some that their longevity is less than either of their parent ancestry. Time, however, is required to prove or disprove the supposition. Half-caste girls are not unhandsome, having pleasing features; but as the bloom of youth passes away the Maori traits seem to gain the ascendency. They are quick, lively and intelligent, and do not, in mental capacity or physical vigour, indicate any inferiority to the European. The half-castes marry readily into either of the races from which they have sprung. There are instances of half-castes married to halfcastes, of half-castes married to Maoris, and half-castes to Europeans. From this it will be seen that there is a process of absorption going forward, which will, in a few years, extinguish the Maori. The Maori blood, colour and features will gradually wear out, recurring only in peculiar exceptions. There are Europeans with skins as dark as a full half-caste; but the features and frizzled black hair and dark eyes will probably betray the native descent of individuals for several generations.

Educational.

The first instructions which the Maoris received were from the missionaries. In 1843 many of them were able to read and write. Education was maintained subsequently in some measure by private effort. Mr. C. H. Ropp, a native of Austria and a Maori scholar, occasionally taught elementary branches to classes of the young. Miss E. Robinson, an English lady, laboured among them for about two years, and was a great benefit to both parents and children. A school building was erected by the General Government Native Board of Education at Port Waikouaiti for the native children in the end of 1875. Mr. W. Maloney was appointed at Wellington to take charge as teacher in 1876. In the same year, when the school was opened on the 3rd of April, twenty-four names were entered in the school register. The number of pupils on the roll for the first quarter of 1878 was 60, viz.: —9 Maoris, 38 half-castes, 13 Europeans. The branches taught are reading, writing, arithmetic and geography. Mrs. Maloney instructs the girls in needlework and knitting. The natives and half-castes are quick at learning, and more apt at arithmetic and writing than the European children. Their faculties seem to have an earlier development. The greatest difficulty is with their reading and pronunciation. It is pleasant to see the amount of interest which the natives take in the school. Mr. Thomas Pratt, J.P.. has been very active in furthering it, and visited Wellington for the purpose of urging on the Government the necessity of

53

educational provision for the Waikouaiti Maoris and half-castes. There are six members on the school committee. Two are Maoris, three are half-castes, and one is a European. The school has been visited and examined by the Rev. .Mr. Stack, the Inspector of Native Schools, and reported to be in a satisfactory state. It was also visited by -Mr. John Duncan, of Cherry Farm, in .January. 187 S. when a distribution of prizes was made. He was much pleased with the appearance and progress of the Maori and half-caste pupils.

So ial Order

In -Maori society there appears to have been principally four classes. First, the chief; second, and almost on an equality, the priest or tapu man: third, the common people; and fourth, the slaves. The power of the chief was hereditary and absolute. Sometimes he exercised sacerdotal functions. The jurisdiction of the two offices was not very clearly defined. In fact, the government would seem to have been of a patriarchal nature, modified in some degree by immemorial custom. The influence of the chief was also necessarily affected by personal finalities. Great deference was paid to superiors and to the law of tapu. Any training that the young received may be said to have been limited to these two subjects. The same respect was paid by children to the child of the chief as those who were adult rendered to the chief himself. The boy who was the son of a chief was a ruler among boys. He grew up their own acknowledged superior in social standing from infancy to manhood. This subjection was rigorously exacted. In differences springing up between individuals the chief was the umpire, and his decision was final. At the present time matters of dispute are settled for the most part among themselves according to their own usages or ideas of justice and law. Questions of importance are not (infrequently referred to the bench of the Hawksbury Resident Magistrate. For some kinds of misdemeanours fines are imposed, which form a fund to give assistance to the poor among them, or for other public objects as the tribal council may determine.

Intercourse with First Otago Immigrants.

The arrival of the Otago colonists in 1848 did not affect the condition of the Waikouaiti .Maoris. Communication was more immediate with the natives at the Heads —then called Otakau—and the Taieri, than with those in the north. Waikouaiti lay beyond the boundary of the old Otago block, and

54

for want of a road was almost entirely isolated from tiie early settlers. Intercourse was either by sea or by the mountani track. The latter was a rough and unsafe bridle path along a leading ridge on the side of the Silver Peak Range. Catile purchased from Mr. John Jones by the Otago settlers were driven by this route to Dunedin.

Native Intercourse.

Appears to have been well maintained among the branches of the same tribe. They made frequent visits to each other at their pahs to hold feasts in times of plenty and rejoicing, and to wail together in seasons of sorrow. Their journeys were performed on foot in narrow paths through the bush and open land. One followed the other, in silence, on their marches, carrying their provisions and all they possessed on their backs. Conversation was thus prevented by the inability of two to walk abreast. It seems natural to them to continue this habit even when they have a wide enough path. They had no difficulty in procuring a lodging on their journeys. Any tolerably dry situation was good enough to pitch their camp. In a country still in a state of nature such shelter as they required could be had anywhere. A few dry sticks could easily be collected to prepare their coarse meal. Meat, even raw and rancid, was not rejected by them. To sit round an evening fire in the open air on the outskirts of a bush, beside a stream or shady rock, was the acme of savage life. As the night wore on, and slumber stole upon them, it was little trouble to make a bedroom by drawing together the tall leaves of two adjoining flax bushes for a roof, under which they crept and lay on a fresh couch of dry grass, wrapped in their mats, and so slept soundly till day dawned anew in the glowing east.

An Unfortunate European under Tapu.

In 1849 a messenger was sent by the Survey staff from Dunedin to Waikouaiti on urgent business. He chose to travel by the Maori track along the coast, by Blueskin and Brim's Point, now Seacliffe, through the bush. On his way he lighted on a Maori encampment at Blueskin, close on some part of the shore. Taking a look around him, lie saw two dead bodies lying on the beach. Knowing a few Maori words, he tried to make enquiries about the corpses, and why they were not buried, but could get no satisfactory answer. Without much reasoning on the matter, and knowing nothing of their customs with regard to the dead, he went and lifted the edge of the cloth that

55

covered the face of one of the corpses that he might see the features. The Maoris, who had before spoken to him. now fled in dismay. He had unconsciously become tapu by touching the dead. But his surprise was equalled by his destitution, for he was hungry, and wished something to eat, but not a Maori dare he approach to ask food or enquire about the road he should take. He had therefore to prosecute his journey under the ban of native malediction. This person was Mr. D. McNichol. still living on Puketapu in 1908, aged 97.

Maori Ovens.

Native hunting expeditions are marked by ovens, which are to be seen on the ground all over the district wherever the plough has not turned over the soil and obliterated all inequalities of surface. One of these ovens on the farm of Lamb Hill, Ilawksbury, is much larger than usual. It will be about six feet in diameter, and three feet in depth, and the sides are built up round about with stones. One would fancy that there must have been an extraordinary feast on that spot. The Maori was a born hunter. His daily life was in the chase. It was his trade, his subsistence. With inferior weapons to take his game, his industry was taxed to the utmost. Not having firearms to stalk his prey, he resorted to agility and craft. He was thus expert at the use of clubs, spears and stone weapons. He was similarly skilful in constructing fishing nets, eel-pots, and bird snares out of the flax within his reach. The game taken was dried in the sun for preservation, carried home in bags, or cooked and eaten on the scene of its capture.

Account of Wild Dog.

In the early days of European settlement a solitary Maori lived in a hut on the bank of the river near where Cherry Farm house stands. His hut was a miserable abode, into which he crawled by a hole that just admitted his body. The new arrivals considered him to be desperately savage, and called him "Wild Dog." Women and children were particularly afraid of him, but he was in reality timid, harmless and gentle. He subsisted by catching eels and birds, which he took with nets and snares. He was a very industrious man, constantly employed in manufacturing eel-pots, bird nets, fishing nets and snares. The eel-pots and nets were planted along the edge of the river and water ponds, but required unremitting attention. He had a wife and daughter who accompanied him. but they having

56

both died, he was left alone. Wild Dog and his family had no relish for European food. Bread they would not touch, preferring their own rough provision. It was understood that he had been a slave, and, being liberated, he chose to live in this fashion. The crossing place on the river beside Cherry Farm house was called the Wild Dog Ford, after the name of this singular Maori.

Burial Grounds.

There are two burial grounds at the kaik. One is near the house which was once occupied by the Rev. Mr. Watkin; the other is beside the church. Ancient places of sepulchre are pointed out in several localities. The sand-covered terrace above the beach at Matanaka Cliff was the site of an old burying ground. From the remains that lie scattered about this spot, it must have been frequently visited or occupied for a lengthened period by a native pah.

Cooking Stones.

Worthless-looking stones about the size of one's fist lie plentifully about where there have been old native encampments. Although black and burned, and looking like coarse road metal, they have an interest as having served a human purpose in their day. They are silent but truthful witnesses to what has been in an unrecorded, unhistorical past. As much as Egyptian, Punic and Grecian architectural ruins reveal the culture, art and genius of people in a remote age, so do these useless stones unfold a picture of wretchedness and savage degradation to him who would study the Maori in his palmy days of barbarian existence. Not only do they help to show from what a low scale man can be elevated to a higher, but also to what a depth of destitution he can descend and still survive. They are proof, along with many other things, of the elasticity and vitality of the human race in being able to accommodate itself to the widely varying conditions comprehended in the savage and civilised state. These stones were heated by being placed among the burning wood in their ovens, and were removed or replaced with two small sticks held in the hand like tongs.

Camping Places.

Are generally to be met with near the coast, close to the sea beaches. The Maoris were of necessity a migratory people. They had to follow the animals on which they fed. When a tribe became large it would be forced to remove, and break

57

up into several divisions. The country did not present to them means of subsistence and open passages in all directions. They were therefore shut up to the intermediate space between the wood and the water, where the salt spray and shifting sands stunted the vegetation, affording a natural highway to the wanderers. Their temporary or more permanent locations of rest in their migrations are ascertained by the piles of shells, fish bones, flints, cooking stones and refuse heaps. The mouths of rivers and estuaries were attractive centres of resort, where there was abundance of marine edibles, for which they eontended with the sea-gulls, and where they could launch their light fishing canoes in the fresh-water stream, and pursue aquatic fowl among the lagoons and sedgy shallows.

Modes of Salutation

It was the manner of the Maoris when they met to greet each other with the word "tenakoe," which means "that you." Very dear friends meeting each other after a short absence expressed their attachment by rubbing noses together. It must have gratified the most ardent admirer of novelty in the primitive days of Otago settlement to receive an affectionate native embrace, accompanied with a nasal polishing from a black, greasy, tattooed visage.

Maori Curiosities.

In Goodwood Bush, not far from the coast, an unfinished canoe was found it) 1853. Two large trees in the same vicinity had been selected apparently for a similar purpose, as they had the outlines of canoes marked off by native tools. The canoe manufacture had been interrupted by some means, of which there is no record. Here is an intimation of the changes that obtruded on the schemes of even prehistoric man. How futile were some of his purposes and plans! It would be interesting to know what caused the work to cease. Was it the alarm of approaching foes, or failure of the necessaries of life, or did death come by the hand of violence or disease, and stay prematurely the efforts of the workers? Native stone adzes, spear heads, chisels and knives have been discovered in that locality. Mr. D. McNichol, settler in Goodwood, found a stone adze when digging a ditch for his garden fence. This article is in the possession of the writer.

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The following articles of curiosity were found in the places mentioned since 1874 by Mr. James Murdoch, Stamp Office. Dunedin, and at present in his possession :

No. of

Name of Article Same Kind Description Where Found

Maori stone adzes or

Tomahawks Seven Green jade and

blackstone Waikouaiti

Tni 'ee „ Goodwood

Three Green jade Blueskin

» Seven Green jade and

, . . . blackstone Purakanui

Heitiki Maori idol

or neck ornament One Green jade Purakanui

Chisels . Two „ Waikouaiti

Maori sinkers Two Blackstone Waikouaiti

Lagoon Spear heads for

flounders Twelve lione YVaikouaiti

Moa egg shells Fragments Pleasant River

Traditional Maoris.

There are traditions of a different race of Maoris in the locality, from the present natives, whose hair was brown or reddish, with skin and features resembling the Chinese. It is said that some families of this race were living in the back parts of the country, and were known to some extent by the present tribe. They were often seen and recognised by name. It may be supposed, however, that they were only Maoris who had for some reason chosen to live by themselves* More probably they were runaway slaves or persons under tapu.

Maori Feeding.

lii 1860 the method of cooking and feeding by the natives was very rude. A meal is reported to have taken place as follows:—A large pot full of wheat, with a plucked mutton bird in it to afford a little fat, was boiled over a log fire. The mixture thus prepared was emptied into a large dish, or poured on to a mat. which the Maoris surrounded and supped with shells, or scooped up into their mouths with fingers and thumb. Spoons, knives and forks were, of course, then little known to them.

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Antiquities, Fossils ami chemicals found in Waikouaiti and in the possession of Mr. W. Ancell, chemist and druggist, Main North Road: —

Ist.—Moa bones, found at Matanaka in 1875 by Mr. Ancell

2nd. —Fragment of bone, found in a railway cutting 17ft. deep in the clay in Mr. W. Paddy's paddock near Bendigo.

3rd. —Maori tomahawk of greenstone, found in the sand at Matanaka beach in 1874.

4th. —A heitiki or Maori idol of greenstone with the face of an owl. Found in the district in 1864, and shown in the Otago Industrial Exhibition of 1864-65.

5th —Alum, prepared by Mr. Ancell from alum quartz found in Jane Field Farm, Pleasant Valley; the property of the late Mr. Wm. Mitchell.

6th. —A number of perfect crystals of alum salt.

7th.—Plaster of Paris, manufactured by Mr. Edward Swallow, of Goodwood, from Horse Range marble. The alum, crystals and plaster of Paris were forwarded to the Otago Industrial Exhibition of 1864-65.

Bth.—Piece of felspar, about two inches diameter, found 60ft. deep by Mr. Thomas Templeton when sinking a well at head of Beach Street for the corporation in 1866.

9th.—Piece of wood found in blue strata 20ft. deep in the railway cutting through Mr. G. Gilmour's paddock, 1878.

10th.—Pyrites, found in the Blue Clay Mountain at Matanaka Cliffs.

11th.—Rack, with piece of coal attached, from the calcareous freestone in Government township, 1878.

12th.—Moa egg shells and miscellaneous fossils.

Maori Names of Waikouaiti Birds.

Putangitangi—Paradise Duck (now scarce

Parera—Wild Duck (Grey Duck)

Pukeko—Long-legged, Black Swamp bird

Matuku—Hurepo (Bittern)

Kereru—Native Pigeon (now scarce)

Kakariki—Paraquet (two species)

Koau—Sha?

Kotuku—White Crane (Heron) —never seen now

Tui—Parson bird

Piwakawaka—Fantail (a fly-catcher), two species

Kaka—Large Parrot

Koukou—Morepork (an Owl)

Pihoihoi—Ground Lark

(*\

Totoara —Native Robin

Kahu^—Hawk

Kotare—Kingfisher

Miro-Miro—Wren (Pied Tit)

Karoro—Gull

Torea —Red Bill or Native Plover (oyster catcher

Titi—Mutton Bird

Weka.—Wood Hen

Roa —A West Coast bird; rare (South Island Kiwi)

Names of Quadrupeds

Bat—Pekapeka

Rat or Mouse —Kiort

Lizard—Tuatara

Dog—Kuri

Maori Names of Trees

Ti—Cabbage Tree

Kowhai—Goai

Mapau—Maple

Kapuka—Broadleaf

Manuka

Miro —Black Pine

Rimu —Red Pine

Kahikatea —White Pine

Hinau-Hinau

Mokau

Totara

Hohere —Ribbon Wood

Ngaio (Myoposum laetum).

Kohutuhutu—Fuchsia

Rautawhiri— I Turpentine tree,

Rata—Climbing plant

ornamental, fragrant

Horopito—Pepper tree

Horoeka —Grass tree

Maori Names of Shrubs.

Poroporo—Boolaboola

Memuka—A Creeping Bur

Tauhinu —Small shrub with

Koi—Fernroot

yellow' blossom ; very plenti-

Piki-Arero—Clematis

ful in some parts

Koromiko—Veronica

Tutu

Tataramoa—Bramble (lawyer)

Kareao—Supple Jack

Miki Miki—General name of

Matakaura—Thorny Shrub

scrub

Maori Names of Grasses.

Harakeke —Native Flax (Phormium Tenax)

Wiwi —Bush

Toetoe —General name for sedges (twenty varieties'

Pukaka —Seed stalk of the Toetoe (a long reed)

Raupo—Swamp reed, with head of down

Korari —Power stalk of Flax

Puwha—Thistle

Patiti—Tussock

Taramea —Spear-grass; oil expressed from it by the natives

Rimu—Kelp or seaweed

Karamea is red ochre

61

Miscellaneous Maori Names

Tohora—Whale

Manga—Barracouta

Kaka-poro—A small fish

Tuna—Eel

Inanga—A small fish (white-

Mimiha—Seal

bait)

Pipiharau—Lamprey

Mango—Shark

Hapuka—Cod

Koura—Crayfish

Koeke—Grasshopper

Pokorua—Ant

Range—Meat Fly

Pepe—Moth

Puawore —Spider

Namu—Sandfly

Tanghvai Inferior Green-

P ounamn—Greenstone

stone

69

CHAPTER V.

Early European Immigration

Whaling Period.

Next in order to the Maori is the advent of the whalers. They were the first European immigrants. British and American whale-ships began to visit New Zealand in 1793. By 1827 whaling stations were established at various parts of the Middle Island. Waikouaiti Bay was among the last to be occupied. Whaling parties were stationed at Otago Harbour, Purakanui and Moeraki Bay before Waikouaiti. Weller's Station commenced at the Heads, then called Otakau, in 1833, and Moeraki, under Mr. John Hughes, in 1836. Messrs. Long and Wright, of Sydney, sent a whaling party to Waikouaiti Bay in 1837. In the following year this firm became insolvent, and their whaling station fell into the possession of Mr. John Jones. At this point the connection of Mr. Jones with Waikouaiti begins.

Evidences of the whaling establishment are still to be seen around the Bay and at the river mouth, in the enormous skulls, ribs, vertebrae', and other bones of whales lying about, half buried or bleaching among the drifting sands. In 1848 the whaling ceased, having been carried on about eleven years. The monsters of the deep then forsook the New Zealand coasts. For a few subsequent years the whale-boats, with their harpoons and other necessaries for whale-hunting, were maintained in readiness at the spit, and occasionally there was a renewal of the excitement of the old times, but the whale fishery has never been resuscitated. The skeleton of one of the last that was caught may be seen in Dunedin Museum. Dead whales have been cast ashore since that period at Tumai and Goodwood. But the hunters of the ocean have extirpated their game. The supply of whales seemed to the old whalers inexhaustible. They do not believe they had anything to do with their disappearance. The steamers are blamed for having frightened them away.

It was believed that the whales visited the shores of New Zealand for the purposes of calving and feeding. The mature whales were attended by their young, which were called calves,

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and would be about the size of porpoises. When the parent was killed the calf was supposed to die. It was disregarded by the whalers as not having any oil.

Whaling was a remunerative pursuit. The whalers might have enriched themselves, but they were, as a class, exceedingly spendthrift. They threw away fortunes in dissipation. A principal competition among them was. who would spend the largest sums, and swallow the most drink! Spirits were supplied to them in great quantities. The Magnet and the Success, two vessels belonging to Mr. Jones, landed 120 tons of liquor on the beach at the mouth of the river at one time, when there were not more than forty Europeans to consume it. Drinking to very great excess was one of the bad habits of the whalers. Governor Hobson abolished the duty on spirits, and the whalers considered themselves in duty bound to encourage the trade. Their carousals exceeded all the known rules and ordinary limits of drinking. The usual, exciting bottle and glass had no place among these revellers Spirits were supplied from the store in buckets, like water for horses, to the drinkers, who helped themselves by dipping their tin jugs into the liquor. It was no unusual thing for a few men to have a cask brought them, when the end of it was knocked in, and each man drank as much and as long as hi' could, till he lay down overcome and slept, and when he a woks from his stupor drank again till the quantity was exhausted. These drunken orgies disgraced what would otherwise have been the happy early days of the whale fishery. The results of this rioting were that many died delirious, or prepared themselves for an early grave. On this account the whaling period possesses a romantic but melancholy interest.

About forty Europeans were employed at the station besides natives. They were whalers, coopers, carpenters, and other trades. Nearly thirty of the men were living with Maori women as their wives. Kor some of the first years there were only two white women at the station; one was the wife of Mr. Thomas, who began the cultivation of Cherry Farm, and the other was the wife of Mr. Wm. McLachlan, a cooper. McLachlan died not long ago, one of the only two survivors of that period in the district. The party at the station would sometimes be increased with a visit of seal hunters. Seals were very numerous on the coast and bays, and were keenly pursued for the sake of their valuable skins.

The whaling season usually commenced in the end of April, and continued till October. It may be supposed that the whales

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migrated north at that particular time to escape the intense cold of the Antarctic seas. It must have been a pleasure excursion to the inhabitants of the polar ocean till the murderous harpoon was flung at them, as the New Zealand latitudes are freer from storms, and have less boisterous winds in winter than during the late spring and summer months.

The method of taking the whales was generally as follows: Six boats with six rowers and a harpooner to each proceeded to sea. They divided themselves into three companies, with two boats to each. Two boats would steer in a northerly direction, and two south, while the other two would take a middle position. To assist in directing the operations of the boats, a man would be stationed on the head of the peninsula on the south of the bay, or on Cornish Mount, with a flag. When the whales were caught they were floated into the river mouth to the beach at the try-works, where they were cut up and the blubber boiled, and the oil put into casks for exportation. If a whale happened to be taken, and the hands too few to bring it to shore, a harpoon surmounted with a flag was stuck on the floating carcase till assistance was secured. A large wooden shed was erected on the shore, where the work of preparing the oil was carried on. A heavy iron boiler, now lying deeply embedded in the sand, marks the site of the old whaling operations. The number of whales taken in a season would be from fifteen to twenty. In one season, which was the best during the time Mr. Jones had the station, the quantity of oil was 627 tons. In the last season of the regular whaling there were only seventy tons.

The Maoris were often utilised in helping the whaling parties, and rendered good service. They were partly remunerated by receiving portions of the whales, which they carried away and cooked and ate. Their unfastidious appetites did not reject the blubber, even although raw and rancid.

Besides the whalers proper and natives there were runaway seamen, generally British and American, with a number of convicts escaped from some of the penal settlements. It was thus a rendezvous of as rough a set of men as could possibly be brought together. Their conduct became so outrageous that the Maoris complained to the Government, and Mr. Mantell was commissioned to order them to leave the Maori settlements within a few hours of the mandate being proclaimed. Mr. Mantell, with a number of attendants, personally executed the commission in 1849.

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Christian Missions to the Natives of Waikouaiti

The establishment of a Christian Mission among the local natives was during the early part of the whaling period, and took rise originally from their own request. Mr. John Jones, on account of instructions received from themselves, laid an application for a missionary before the Wesleyan Mission Board in Sydney. The Rev. James Watkin was the first missionary sent by the Board. He arrived in 1841, and laboured about three years, when he returned to Sydney. The natives, with some European assistance, built a church and mission house. It is said that the church would contain about 200 persons, and was often well filled when Divine service was held. The house built for Mr. Watkin still stands on the terrace overlooking the river mouth and bay, beside an old enclosed burial ground, where some of the first roving immigrants slept in peaceful groves. This house has the honour of being the oldest in Otago. being not less than forty years old. The house itself has undergone some alterations and repairs, but the chimney is the same, the bricks of which it is built being shipped from Sydney. The Mission under Mr. Watkin seems to have been peculiarly successful, as by 1843 many of the Maoris are reported to have been able to read and write, and some had made a profession of Christianity.

The Rev. Charles Creed succeeded Mr. Watkin in the year (April) 1844, and laboured at the kaik for about seven years and a half. This second missionary had great influence with the natives, and was very much respected by them. He paid them a visit about fourteen years ago, and experienced a very cordial reception. The Rev. Wm. Kirk was his successor, who spent about two years among the natives. A fourth missionary, the Rev. George Stannard, only laboured a few months. With Mr. Stannard ended the Wesleyan mission to the Waikouaiti Maoris. The whole time they occupied the place as a mission station would be about thirteen years. The effect of these missionary labours has been very marked, and it may be regretted that the operations were not sustained. The natives appear to have attended to the Gospel ministrations with devotedness and profit. A few of the surviving Maoris and Europeans cherish an affectionate memory for the early missionaries.

An agent of the Bremen Missionary Association was the next occupant of the field for a few years. The Rev. Mr. Remenschneider was settled among the natives at the Otago Heads, but he occasionally visited Waikouaiti to hold religious

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services among the natives till his death, which took place in 1867.

The next missionary who gave the Waikouaiti Maoris any attention was the Rev. Alexander Blake. He was brought out from home by the Presbyterian Church of Otago and Southland to labour among the Maoris in their settlements along the east coast of Otago. He arrived in the beginning of 1869, and was inducted by the Presbytery of Dunedin, at the Heads, in the native church there, on the 23rd March of the same year. Mr. Blake paid frequent and regular visits to the Maoris at Waikouaiti till he retired from the Mission in 1871. Since that time they have not been receiving special attention from any religious body. It is to their credit, however, that they maintain regular worship among themselves, conducted in their own language.

Supporters of the Maori Mission

The Wesleyan mission was supported by the Mission Board in Sydney, and liberally encouraged by Mr. Jones. In pressing his land claims before the Governor of New Zealand, His Excellency Captain Fitzroy, he states that he had given free passages to the missionaries, their families and furniture, and had erected, at a cost of £250, a church, mission house and school. He also promised 100 acres of land to the mission in the event of his Maori purchase being sanctioned by the Governor. But as the Governor never recognised his claim to the entire extent represented, this promise was not fulfilled. The Mission Board, seeing the hopelessness of this engagement being implemented, from the difficulties which Mr. Jones had to contend with in securing a Crown grant for his alleged purchase, withdrew their agent, and so the Wesleyan mission ceased.

Mr. Remenschneider was mantained by the Association in Germany with which he was connected. At his death the Bremen Association requested the Presbyterian Church of Otago to take over the mission as being nearer to it, and relieve the Association of the burden, and enable it to overtake other fields. In consequence of this overture from the Association in Germany, the Presbyterian Church took over the mission by paying a sum of money to the family of Mr. Remenschneider, as compensation for outlay on the mission property. In this manner the Maori mission field fell into the hands of the Presbyterian Church, and resulted in the appointment of Mr. Blake. The extreme difficulty of getting a Maori speaker has prevented the Presbyterian Church of Otago and Southland doing all it has desired for the benefit of the aboriginal race.

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Early Settlement at Waikouaiti.

Permanent European occupation commenced with the purchase of Mr. Jones, which was contemporaneous with the appointment of the first New Zealand Governor, Captain Hobeon, K.X., in 1839. Auckland was established in 1840; Taranaki was planted in 1841, and Wellington in the same year; Nelson in 1842. The old Otago block was purchased from the natives in 1844. Canterbury was established in 1850, and Southland in 1861.

Mr. John Jones' Purchase.

A variety of circumstances renders this transaction of Mr. Jones of special interest to the inhabitants of the district. Had he got his own way no other would have possessed an acre of Waikouaiti soil or property of any kind on it, but at his pleasure. He was, however, a pioneer settler and merchant. That possition cannot be denied him. Making a little allowance for the exaggerated sums he professes to have spent on colonisation, there can be no dispute as to his strong purpose to absorb the entire country in a lordly estate, and with his almost boundless command of wealth to found a family whose members would rival the style of princes, and make a figure in the future annals of the colony.

But let us trace here as far as may seem necessary the facts and fortunes of his native purchase. The main points of the bargain and its vicissitudes may be stated as follows: — Mr. James Bruce, captain of one of Mr. Jones' trading vessels, on or about the year 1838, purchased, on behalf of Mr. John Jones, merchant, Sydney, from the natives that portion of land extending in width from Waikouaiti river mouth to Matanaka Heads, and ten miles back into the country. This area is represented by what has since been called the Hawksbury Estate, the municipality of West Hawksbury, Hawksbury Government township and several small holdings. For this property, the price stated in the Deed of Conveyance, drawn up in Sydney in 1839, as paid, was one tierce of tobacco and ten dozen cotton shirts. Three chiefs of the Middle Tsland were conveyed by Mr. Bruce to New South Wales to exhibit their marks to the deed of sale, viz., John Taiaroa, Karaiti, called Jackie White, and John Tuhawaiki.

In the same year Mr. James Bruce bought from two native chiefs, Karaiti and Taiaroa, for two sealing boats and fifty pairs of blankets, the land between Matanaka Heads and Pleasant River mouth, and extending ten miles back into the country. This purchase is represented by Matanaka and Tufnai, and

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would embrace Flag Swamp, Brooklands and Mount Royal. Captain Bruce transferred this property to Mr. Jones for £lOO. A third property purchased from the natives was all that portion of country extending from the mouth of Waikouaiti river southwards to Omimi, and as far inland as to include the present Maori Reserve, Comer Bush, Cherry Farm, Merton and the whole country back to the southern branch of the Waikouaiti river.

The land which Mr. Jones considered himself to have purchased from the natives would be not less than fifteen miles in length by ten miles in breadth. The sea formed the eastern boundary, Pleasant River on the north, and somewhere about Omimi on the south, while the western boundary was very indefinite. Several hills are mentioned, which it would be difficult now to identify by the names then given to them. Lake Wanaka is referred to as marking a western limit. His own expressed notion was that he should have at least 20,000 acres. It is said that a Maori chief went with him to the summit of one of the high hills in the district, and endowed him with the possession of all the country in view, for a few blankets, muskets and gallons of rum. Whatever truth there may be in the story, and it is not unlikely, his well-known aspirations reached these bounds. He entertained the idea of having no rival proprietor from Blueskin on the south to the northern boundary of Goodwood, and from the sea westward as far as at that time had been explored or was known to Europeans. No one might cultivate a yard of soil or graze a goose within that vast territory without liberty from Mr. Jones; 100,000 acres would be nearer the size of country he aimed at than the modest 20,000 acres he insisted on having conveyed to him by Crown grant. But he found others in the field equally as grasping as himself, who, although not having the means to buy as he had, had the power to hinder to some extent the one great monopoliser.

Value of Goods alleged by Mr. Jones to have been Paid to the Natives, over and above what is stated in the Deed of Sale of 7th June, 1839.

Big Fellow's Account on January 3rd, 1840—To shirts, blankets, muskets, sealing boat and cash, £159 Bs. Od.

Karaiti's Account on February 14th, 1839, and January 3rd, 1840 —To cash, shirts, blankets, muskets, sealing boat and gin, £176 14s. 6d.

Given to Topai, Kowai and Pokarua in June, 1839—Cash, shirts, blankets, trousers, comforters and boots, £lBB 9s. Od.

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Given to Taiaroa by Mr. Jones on account of land at Waikouaiti, March 20th, 18:39, and January :ir<], IS 10—Shirts, jackets, blankets, muskets, scaling boat, drawers, stockings, shoes, tobacco and gin. £155 Bs. fid.

Given to Tuhawaiki on account of lands at Matanaka and Waikouaiti on November Ist, 1838, March 19th and 25th, and September 3rd, 1839, and January 3rd, 1840 —Flour, whaleboat, sealing boat, blankets, rum, tobacco, rope, nails, cattle, muskets, and miscellaneous articles, £476 15s. Od. According to statement before the Commissioners he had paid to the natives in cash and foods the sum of £3,957 16s. Od. It is spoken of in round numbers as £4,000.

Sums alleged by Mr. Jones to have been Spent by him in Planting the Settlement.

Paid on account of the Rev. James Watkin and family, £100; cost of erecting mission house and schoolroom, £250; bringing families and cattle from Sydney, £1,900; 4,000 roods of fencing at ss. per rood, £1,000; clearing 600 acres, £2,400; erecting houses, stores and farm buildings, £1,000; in all, £6,650. The stock imported by Mr. Jones into the district in the first four years of his occupation of the property was as follows: 2,000 ewes, 100 mares, 200 cows, 80 horses, 40 head of horned cattle, and 50 families.

History of Claim till settled in 1867.

The annals of Mr. Jones’ purchase begin with the Sydney deed of conveyance of 7th June, 1839, signed by the three Maori chiefs. The transaction was advertised in the Sydney newspapers, and His Excellency Governor Gipps apprized of it, that it might be referred to the proper Commissioners on March 10th, 1841. Messrs. E. L. Godfrey and M. Richmond, Land Commissioners, held a Court at Otago or Otakou, now called the Heads, on December 21st, and other days, in 1843. These Commissioners, after investigation, awarded to Mr. Jones 2,560 acres, which was at the time the maximum grant allowed to native purchasers. A deed for the 2,560 acres was made out in due form, and signed by Governor Fitzroy. Mr. Jones was, of course, greatly dissatisfied with this deed, and, in a measure, refused to accept it till advised by Governor Sir George Grey many years afterwards with the assurance that it would not prejudice his claim to a much higher award. In 1844 Mr. Robert Fitzgerald, Land Commissioner, recommended an award to Mr. Jones of 10,000 acres. On this recommendation His Excellency Captain Fitzroy gave instructions that a deed of grant for 8,560 acres be drawn up. This deed was accordingly

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prepared in 1846, but not issued to Mr. Jones. That it might be complete, Mr. Jones had the land surveyed by Mr. James Charles Drake, and a definition of the boundaries furnished to the Government, at a cost of £4OO. Here, for a time, the matter rested till 1849, when the 2,560 acres were surveyed in three blocks: Matanaka and Tumai in the first, Hawksbury in the second, and Cherry Farm in the third. Sir George Grey was urgently pressed by Mr. Jones in 1860 to sign his Crown grant for the 8,560 acres, but he excused himself on the ground of some legal proceedings to be instituted with regard to other claims of a similar nature. Mr. Jones brought his claim by memorial before His Excellency Thomas Gore Brown in 1861. Meanwhile the Otago Provincial Council placed in the market the land outside the boundaries of the 2,560 acre survey, but included in the 8,560 acre survey of Mr. Drake, and Mr. Jones, not to be deprived of property he had long reckoned his own, bought largely from the Provincial Council. Mr. John Hyde Harris again brought up Mr. Jones' claim before the Government in 1867, when Mr. Jones was authorised to select, without payment, 8,500 acres from any part of the unsold land of Otago, and for which he received his Crown grant. Thus the whole quantity of land representing his original Maori purchase is 11,060 acres. This great native transaction passed through a 28 years' trial, and came forth a little over the half of what at first had been supposed to be bargained for.

Sketch of Mr. John Jones.

He was a native of New South Wales, and said to be of Welsh extraction. By daring speculation and business talent he gained a start in the race for fortune, and by some may be thought to have gained the favour of the partial goddess. His connection with Waikouaiti begem in 1838, but he came to live in the locality in 1843. His place of residence was at Matanaka. Of a domineering spirit, the only employer of labour, propertyholder, and assuming to possess such a vast tract of country, he was sometimes designated "the king of Waikouaiti." He was. without doubt, the most important personage in the south of New Zealand in these primitive days. This early colonist united a variety of enterprises, of which he was the sole proprietor and principal manager. He was at the same time, farmer, runholder, ship-owner, moneylender, commission agent and general merchant. When the first immigrants settled in Dunodin and neighbourhood he took them under his fostering care. He regulated their markets and supplies of food; articles were bought and sold according to his mandate. The first inhabitants

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of Dunedin could live in luxury or on scant fare at the caprice or dictation of this one man. Without the vessels of Mr. Jones visiting Dunedin Harbour, the Otago settlement for some years would have had little communication with the outside world. Cast on a peculiar time, this man partook somewhat of its character. Before regular settlement the opinion of John Jones was the law, and the means of its enforcement his strong right hand. Living for a time among the natives in their rudest state, and exhibiting an inexhaustible profusion of good things peculiarly acceptable to them, and bestowing on them comforts apparently for nothing—for they reckoned their land of little value —they looked up to him as a benefactor and special friend.

He was a broad-built, stout man about the average height. His face might be described as square, rather broad than long, corresponding to the Dutch frame on which it was set, with a stern countenance, grim when in repose, but when animated his eye possessed a singular impressiveness. The deep jaw and firm step indicated a man of resolute purpose. Those who had dealings with him encountered a shrewd, if not a sharp man of business. He was cautious, yet venturous in speculation, occasionally reckless, but a maker of money. He possessed a good memory for arithmetical details, with rough notions of justice and honour, could assume manliness at times, and was strictly temperate and regular in his personal habits. He was not by any means unkind, even generous after a fashion, indulgent to his family, but the victim of an unruly temper. There was in Mr. Jones a compound of sense, angry passion, conscious ability, iron nerve, self-will, and physical strength. His peculiar picture fills admirably the transition period that witnessed the bucking up of the aboriginal race, and the advent of British civilisation. His strength made many dependent on him. Variable in temper, he was often imposed on. Many persons approached or avoided him according to the mood in which they found him.

Having made his way in the world by force rather than by sympathy, he did not secure the highest place in the affections of men. If his life in the search for riches was a success, in many other respects it was a failure. To his children he was indulgent, and to domestics just and liberal. He was faithful, trustworthy and punctual in every-day affairs. But his example to an observer presented a mixture of capricious energy, worldly prudence, and an impotence before the tempest of his own passionate nature. A believer in the potency of money, he mistook its attractiveness for the charm of goodness. Although

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intensely a man of business, he was attentive to many of the duties and services of piety, and showed a steady respect for religion and its maintenance, as will appear from his bequests to the several religious denominations, lie fully availed himself of its hopes and promises, and appreciated the fellowship of Christian friends while in the grip of his fatal malady. The fortune and the estate for which he had laboured so hard for many years he saw prospectively with dying eye threatened with disaster. He passed for a sort of giant, a man of power, for a few years among the feeble remnant of a native tribe, the company of dissipated whalers and the small colony of Otago settlers; but the rush of population to the auriferous fields of Otago in 1861, and the social forces connected therewith, pressing on him from all sides, irritated and worried him. Rival merchants chafed him; associated capital rose above him in the control of trade. The commercial and civil life that surged around him he could neither comprehend nor sympathise with. As he was thus sinking out of view by the uprising vigorous colonial institutions, death suddenly snatched him from the struggle with the new state of things. At an early stage of Waikouaiti settlement he built and endowed the Episcopal Church with a number of township sections, and gave sites with donations to the Presbyterians, Wesleyan and Roman Catholic inhabitants for churches. He died on 16th March, 1869, at the age of 60, and was buried at Dunedin in a vault in the Southern cemetery. His wife, Sarah Sizemore, died in 1864, aged 57.

Endowments and Donations by the late Mr. John Jones to Public Institutions in the District of Waikouaiti.

Ist.—To the Episcopal Church, three acres for church site and burying ground; ten acres glebe, and sixty-four quarter-acre sections in West Hawksbury.

2nd. —Two acres for site to district school and teachers' residence.

3rd.—One acre of land and £5O to Presbyterian Church

4th.—One acre of land and £5O to Wesleyan Church

sth. —One acre of land and £5O to Roman Catholic Church

6th.-—Two acres of land for site, and timber for Goodwood Episcopal Church.

A private bequest of half an acre of land was made to Mr. Duncan Smith, at Cherry Farm, Toll Bar.

Joseph Crocome, Surgeon, M.L.R.C.S.

As one of the earliest European residents of Waikouaiti, the doctor deserves a passing notice. It appears that he landed in Otago on the Bth of May, 1836. Coming into the country at

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that early period he hail been a witness of the initiation and progress of New Zealand colonisation. In his youth he had made choice of the medical profession, and for several years pursued the prescribed studies, and on the 19th of June, 1833, received from the London Royal College of Surgeons his Surgical Diploma, and was enrolled a member of that body the same year. Shortly after being licensed for surgical practice he joined as medical officer the whaling ship Lucinda. With this ship he continued about two years, and visited various parts of the world. <ln one voyage the ship made a short stay at Iquique, in South America, while the doctor made an excursion in a medical capacity to the mines in that neighbourhood. Having rejoined the ship, she was wrecked on a reef near to New Caledonia. This even happened during the night, and the crew, with difficulty, escaped in two boats, one in charge of the captain, and the other in charge of the mate. The boat in which was the mate and portion of the crew was never again heard of. New Caledonia was the first land sighted by the party in the captain's boat. With two or three men the captain went ashore, and ascended an eminence to see the country, and what assistance it could afford them. They were seen by a group of natives, and chased to their boat. Prom their threatening aspect the boat's crew felt that if taken they would supply a cannibal feast to the fierce islanders. The savages, with wild yells, rushed through the breakers and swam to the boat, seizing it with their hands to prevent it getting away. The oars and some hatchets were all the party had wherewith to defend themselves. They were therefore forced to the cruel necessity of using the latter to chop off the hands of the savages to get away from them. Leaving the inhospitable shore they put to sea, and for fourteen days endured the severest hardships from want of food and water. Some of the party went mad and died. A Sydney schooner picked up the survivors, who were in a pitiable condition, one of whom was the doctor, and brought them to Sydney, where they received every attention and kindness. For medical services rendered in South America the doctor obtained a few Spanish doubloons, which he had put into a belt, and tied round his waist under his dress. As he had only saved a shirt and shoes from the wreck, he was able with his Spanish money to purchase a new suit of clothes in Sydney. When he had sufficiently recovered from the exhaustion arising from starvation and exposure, he engaged to attend Weller's whaling station at Otago, now called the Heads. After two years' residence at the station he proceeded to Sydney, with the

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intention of finding a vessel to visit England; but he received letters there which determined his return to Otago. At Sydney he met Mr. Jones, who engaged him for his whaling station at Waikouaiti, where he, in consequence, took up his residence in 1838, performing various kinds of duties as they were required, acting as clerk to Mr. Jones' goods store; medical adviser and teacher to the European families. He was twice married; his first wife was a native, by whom he had a son and daughter. ,> She died on October 19th, 1850. The doctor died in 1873,. leaving a widow and seven children. J'oAxzl'

Steve Smith and Kuti

Mr. Smith was also a striking character, inseparable from that period. He was a much respected but eccentric individual. He was originally from London, had been for some time at the whale fishing, had a gift of making remunerative bargains, and, unlike other whalers, had acquired considerable wealth. Although his lot had fallen on rough times, he was a man of industry and piety. Being a capitalist, he advanced money to carry on whaling and sealing expeditions. His wife, who was a native, was known by the name of Kuti. Her kindness and other good qualities made her a general favourite among the families in Goodwood neighbourhood. Mr. Smith purchased for life ten acres of land at Goodwood from Mr. Jones for one hundred pounds sterling, on which he built a clay hut. and lived there till his death in 1862. Before his decease he bequeathed the sum of £2OO to the Episcopalian Goodwood school. The trustees of the bequest were the Rev. Charles Creed, Mr. T. Ferens, and some others. Mr. Smith's hut, which stood for many years beside the road near Goodwood House, was removed during 1878 by Mr. Young, blacksmith, a new occupant of the ground. The widow, the bereaved Kuti, left the district shortly after her husband's death, and died a few years aero at Oamaru.

Captain Cherry.

A melancholy interest attaches to Captain Cherry, after whom Cherry Farm is said to be named. He was the commander of a trading vessel belonging to Mr. John Jones. He * was murdered in 1840 fby a Porirua chief and eaten. It is said that a slave held the captain's feet while his master killed him. The other Maoris, to show that they had no complicity in the deed, when they saw that it had been offensive to their white visitors, caught the slave, killed, cooked and ate him. but the master fled and managed to escape. Mrs. Captain Cherry resided with Mr. Jones' family for many years, greatly respected, and it is said that Mr. Jones bequeathed her a thousand pounds at his death.

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Tuhawaiki

Or "Bloody Jack," as he was generally called, was a powerful chief of the Middle Island at the time when it began to be visited by British and American whalers. He was drowned at Tiniaru retufjng from the north in an open boat, which was capsized on a reef. A young chief in another boat could have saved him, but. having a grudge against him about the price of some land, allowed him to perish. Such was his end. His connection with Waikouaiti was of an intimate character. He belonged to Raupuke, an island off the Bluff, near Inverc-argill. He was one of the three chiefs who went with Captain Bruce to Sydney in 1837, and sold Waikouaiti to Mr. John Jones. So, being the superior chief, lie received the largest share of the pay. It is recorded regarding him that, besides being of a sanguinary disposition, he was fond of display. He assumed to be a military chief, having a number of natives drilled and dressed after the fashion of European soldiers, such as he had seen them in Sydney, and took a pride in exhibiting them to strangers who visited him. The old whalers and he were very intimate and friendly. Through them he derived his wealth and power. The means with which they supplied him enabled him to gratify his ambition in making war against the northern tribes.

Marriages, Births and Deaths in Waikouaiti and Palmerston from 1858 till 1878.

Waikouaiti Palmerston.

Year Marriages Births Deaths Marriages Births Deaths

1858 . . 1

1859 . . 3 7 3

1860 ..10 27 11

1861 ..6 39 9

1862 .11 41 16 .. .. " ..

1863 .. 19 51 10

1864 .. 16 79 20

1865 . . 22 100 19

1866 ..19 84 32

1867 .. 12 118 23

1868 7 120 20

1869 ..17 112 14

1870 .. 15 127 19

1871 .. 11 150 36

1872 .. 7 126 38

1873 ..7 73 23 7 56 11

1874 67 21 9 72 13

157.-> . . 9 88 30 10 88 19

1876 .. 15 82 17 16 106 13

1877 ..16 87 12 9 93 19

Palmerston became a separate Registration District in 1873.

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Mr. P. Franks was appointed Registrar for Waikouaiti district in 1861. The Rev. Mr. Penton acted in that capacity for the two previous years. Mr. .James Philips was Registrar for twelve years, during the time he held office as teacher. At present Mr. W. Ancell acts in that capacity. There have been four Registrars in office since 1859, or between 1859 and 1879.

John Orbell. Esq.

Was for thirty years an inhabitant of the colony. He arrived in New Zealand with his family in 1848, and took up his residence in Waikouaiti. His dwelling, witth the exception of the old Mission House at the Maori Kaik, is the oldest erection in the district. It was built in 1849. He was cordially welcomed to the locality by Mr. John Jones, who, at that time, resided on his property at Matanaka.

Mr. Orbell was an intelligent witness of the changes through •which the country passed during his lifetime in it, and took a hopeful interest in all things that concerned its welfare. He had strong faith in the future of New Zealand. His gentlemanly and hearty manner secured him the respect and goodwill of all with whom he came into contact. Owing to his retiring habits the circle of his acquaintance was not very extended. He preferred a quiet home life, in rural seclusion, enjoying, most of all, the fellowship of his family. Being a diligent reader, his mind was well stored with information. He could discourse freely and accurately on the general and special topics of the day; and, having mingled in early years with men of business and English society, he was remarkably intimate with human practical life. Though conservative in his education and tastes, he was too well informed and considerate of the feelings and principles of .others tc be illiberal either in religion or politics. As a Justice of the Peace he was most attentive to its duties, and rendered ungrudging assistance to the bench in the stirring period of the goldfield excitement. In the colonial field to which all his personal and family interests had been transplanted, he did not forget to cuter warmly into all matters affecting his English home. He retained a strong affection for his mother country. From the innate geniality of his disposition, and for the sake of his children, he took kindly to the new soil of his adopted land; still, the half of his heart was in the scenes of his younger years. It was to him a special pleasure to relate his early Colonial experiences, and talk of hrdships that looked like happy memories in the reflections of later life.

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Ills partner in life died a few years before him. This bereavement was very keenly felt. He seemed ever after to be impressed with a sense of being alone in the world, and although enjoying the gifts of Providence he had the appearance of one waiting for the end. In the days of health he had been attentive to the means of grace, and so, in the feebleness of age, he was not deserted by the consolations and hopes of the Christian faith. His attendance on public worship was regular, punctual and exemplary. lie departed this life, after a brief illness, on the 13th of January. 1879, full of years .and surrounded by a numerous family of children and grandchildren, by whom he was much beloved. The beginning of the year was to him the end of this earthly pilgrimage, and his ashes rest in peace; his soul is with the Saviour, into whose gracious hands he was able to commit its safe keeping. A marble monument has been erected by his family to his memory over his grave in the Church of England burying ground.

Mr. James Neil.

Died at Annisfield, near Palmerston, on 10th November, 1879, at the age of 75 years. He was born near Edinburgh in 1804. The last fifteen years of his life were spent in Shag Valley, to which he came in 1864. His life was eminently a church life. He was upwards of thirty years an elder, along with five ministers in as many congregations. Mr. Neil suffered from deafness, which greatly impaired his usefulness, preventing him taking part in public affairs. His piety was of a genial and happy character. Being fully alive to the duties and responsibilities of the eldership, he was a useful coadjutor to the minister in the session, prayer meeting, and in the congregation. He was forward in every scheme for the advancement of religion, and often willingly bore a part of the burden of others in church work. Any service was ungrudgingly and lovingly performed. Beside the sick bed in remote districts he took the place of the minister, offering prayer and Christian consolation to the distressed. His remains were interred in Palmerston Cemetery. He leaves a widow, two sons and two daughters, and eighteen grand-children.

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CHAPTER VI.

Later Settlement.

As elsewhere stated, the first settlement began with Mr. Jones, fully twenty years before the influx of the present inhabitants in the year 1860. Hawksbury Hundreds having been surveyed and placed in the market were largely bought up. About the same time Mr. Jones had laid off a portion of West Hawksbury township, and, to attract population, had offered sections thereof on very liberal terms. If anyone erected a house or dwelling worth £3O he was entitled to a free conveyance of the quarter-acre on which it was placed. Several individuals, by taking advantage of the offer at the time, secured to themselves sites for houses and gardens.

An impassable country then lay between Dunedin and Waikouaiti. Goods were sent to the latter place by sea. About that time Waikouaiti promised to be the harbour for the northern parts and inland goldfields of Otago. Local residents were enthusiastic over the prospect, and proposed and advocated schemes for enlarged shipping accommodation in the river mouth, the bay, and the lagoon. The Provincial Council of Otago was applied to for a grant of funds, but there were only a few hundred pounds spent on the entrance of the river to meet the requirements of the current traffic. The immediate opening of the Main North Road from Dunedin rendered water conveyance less necessary. Many other causes led to the abandonment of Waikouaiti Bay as a shipping harbour. There were natural obstacles, such as the sand bar at the river mouth, impassable for vessels at low tide, causing danger, injury, and vexatious delays. Articles of merchandise had also to be conveyed in flat-bottomed punts some distance up the river, on account of the mud flats along its banks rendering road formation difficult. Other drawbacks were the absence of an extensive agricultural back country and the rival or superior harbours of Moeraki and Oamaru. Any lingering hope that might remain of agitating a Waikouaiti Harbour has died out since the opening of the railway. The river is now nearly as deserted as in the days of the Maori. Accounts of the traffic, shipping, and stores of its busy period will be found under other designations.

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Cost and Trials of Settlement.

The following items are from Mr. Jones' statement of expense:—'•2oo head of cattle, brought from Sydney, £1,000; 50 horses, £300; 4,000 roods of fencing, £1,000; clearing 600 acres of land, £2,400; erecting house, store, farm building, etc., 11.000."

As the first settlers, in most instances, did the work of clearing and breaking up their lands with their own labour, the expense cannot well be stated. It is impossible to estimate the amount of untiring industry expended in clearing, fencing, building, planting, and other labours in the first years of rural colonial life. Many a hard day’s toil has even now no appearance, and for which the toilers will get little or no credit from their successors. There is very soon little to indicate the hard tasks that were oftentimes unostentatiously but bravely encountered. Present comforts and conveniences were not obtained without past discomforts, self-denial, seemingly rash undertakings, exposure, and persevering exertion. The first settler entered into no other man’s labour. His work was radical. He pitched his camp on virgin soil in the primeval wilderness. The wild beast, winged bird, or wandering savage only had been over the spot before him. They were merely roving hunters. He was a different kind of visitor, that brought his domestic animals, mattock, and plough, and fixed his tent or built his hut or house on the waste.

Each took his own independent method of beginning. One carefully examined the land and then selected his section or sections for purchase. If the buying exhausted his funds he had to wait till, by other employment, he had gained sufficient to stock his farm and subsist on for the first season. Another might trust to the opinion of some one who had been on the ground and gave a good report of it, and so make his purchase without having seen for himself the selected spot. He might then leave his wife and children and start with a few horses and cattle, and, by building and fencing, make some temporary accommodation for those he had for a season left behind. Neither was it an unusual proceeding for a man to pack his household, wife and children, into a farm waggon along with boxes, furniture, and miscellaneous implements, and to steer his course for his future home, and with difficulty finding his way to its location. After days or weeks of travel he erects his tent on a hillside or sheltered hollow near a rivulet or spring of water, and at once enters on colonising work. House-building, enclosing, clearing, dairying, ploughing, and cooking are all

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performed by one or two pairs of hands. The first settler was a jack-of-all-trades. He had to make or mend whatever was required. A requisite of the pioneer colonist was to be able and willing to do anything or everything. He was carpenter, cobbler, blacksmith, saddler, and tailor for the establishment, and, if the work was not up to the standard, there were no complaints, and the end was served. Having provided house accommodation, the next duty was to chop and burn the flax, tussock, tutu, fern, and other scrub that occupied the land. His posts and rails were brought from the neighbouring bush. From the absence of timber on the waste land opened for sale he was saved the laborious work of felling trees and waiting for years the decay of the roots before using the plough. He was generally able to commence at once to plough up the soil, and with the first furrow would sometimes have a fair crop. It was an advantage, however, to let it lie fallow for a season.

Roads —Ancient Maori Track.

The earliest passage in use was a narrow Maori track near the coast. It was a very circuitous footpath, passable only by a single person at a time. This was the reason of the Maoris always marching in single file on a journey in company. A European had difficulty in travelling by this path, as it would frequently be blocked up by fallen trees in the bush, and through the scrub it was indistinct. It was easily detected by the practised eye of the natives. This oldest way was partially used by the early surveyors, till they cut passages for themselv a through the thick vegetation and formed bridle paths. The old Maori track was easily obliterated, being only the grass beaten down by the feet of the natives, which were generally bare, although they sometimes wore a kind of shoe made from the flax. The last fragment of this path was through The bush south of the Maori Kaik, leading to Brinn's Point, before the railway was made. It had been enlarged so as to admit a man on horseback, but forming a very rough bridle path. The rider was ever in danjrer of having his head caught in a bough, getting entangled among supplejacks, entertained with raps on the legs from projecting trees at the sharp turns, and not infrequently his horse would be brought to a halt by his foot caught in a creeper as affectually as if taken in a snare. A ride in this path was a rapid series of watchful duckings of the head, energetic and hasty dodgings to right and left of the body, with smart switches in the face from swinging branches, and not altogether without danger and suffering. If the weather had been wet,

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horse and rider were well spattered with mud, even although they escaped rolling over into a dirty gutter among tree stumps, broken branches, and stones. The formation of the railway has closed up this Maori path, which had no doubt been utilised by the natives for many generations in pilgrimage both of war and peace.

Mountain Track.

The next passage leading into and through the district was the Mountain Track, and lay along the Silver Plate Range to the west of Blueskin and Merton. It left Dunedin by Flagstaff and followed a low leading ridge till entering Waikouaiti River Valley behind Cherry Farm, and ran along the terrace in front of Hawksbury Bush, and north through Goodwood, crossing the lower end of Shag Valley, and ascending the Horse Range by a steep spur to the west of the railway line. This track, opened up by the pioneer settlers, was much shorter and more suitable for them than the native footpath. It was free from bush, so that horses, sheep and cattle could be driven to market by it. Though superior to the Maori track, it was not free from drawbacks. Travellers often lost their way, and. were benighted on account of the thick fogs that lay on the hills in dull weather, and lives were sometimes lost. The names of several persons are mentioned who entered that region but were nevermore seen or heard of. Skeletons have been found at different times among the mountains in the neighbourhood of this old route, which were supposed to be those of lost travellers. Two were found at a comparatively recent date. Human bones, along with fragments of cloth, a portion of a leather belt, and a few shillings, were found by workmen on the edge of the swamp near Cherry Farm mill about ten years ago, 1863. A skull and some bones were discovered about the same time further back among the ranges. The cattle which Mr. Jones supplied to the early Otago immigrants were taken to Dunedin this way. Some may also be astonished to learn that the first Goodwood settlers carried their groceries on their backs from Dunedin by the Mountain Track, a distance of nearly forty miles. It is related by an old settler, Mr. Edward Swallow, how he started from Dunedin on foot one afternoon, intending to reach his home at Goodwood before the following morning. He was alone. Having proceeded several miles he was overtaken by darkness. A heavy rain began to fall. He thought himself sufficiently intimate with the leading ridge not to lose the way, but his knowledge failed him in the black night which gathered around him. Losing the track, he found himself unable to

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recover it. No objects were visible on account of the dense mist. To add to his bewilderment, his ears were greeted on all sides by the rushing sound of water. The rivulets became swollen, and a creek which he waded took him to the waist. Thinking it unsafe to proceed in any direction, he climbed a tree and sat there till daybreak, in the drenching rain. As soon as the daylight appeared he descended from his perch, and was able to pursue his journey, and reached his home in safety. When the traveller was overtaken by mist or darkness in this region, the rule of safety was to camp on the spot till the daylight came or the mist cleared away. A gentleman named Smith is reported to have started this way on foot and was lost. It was supposed that he had fallen into one of the precipitous ravines, where it would be impossible to discover him in the impenetrable brushwood. An old whaler, Mr. Thomas Tandy, well known at that time, had occasion to go to Dunedin on business, and was lost on the Mountain Traek.

One of the reasons of mishaps to travellers in those days was the pernicious custom of taking a supply of spirits with them. When they became tired or bewildered they applied to their flask for vigour and enlightenment. This method of refreshment was not likely to improve their wits, or make the path any plainer. A man may lose his way and stumble with all his senses in their normal state, but if his brains are muddled with liquor the best made road is full of peril. The Mountain Track was the only inland communication for Europeans between Dunedin and Waikouaiti till 1863.

Main North Road

A vast improvement on these ancient paths was the formation of the Main North Road, which was opened to Hawksbury at the end of 1863. It was one of the undertakings of the Otago Provincial Council, and from the rugged nature of the country through which it lies, cost an enormous outlay. But for the wealth poured into the Government treasury from the gold discoveries, the work might not so soon have been undertaken. Neither was it made for the sake of Waikouaiti, but to have freer access to the inland goldfields and to the north of Otago and Canterbury. The Main North Road is an excellent macadamised highway, and lies in an intermediate position between the two ancient tracks.

Dunstan Track.

This was a natural road opened up by the original squatters, and more particularly in 1861, when a private mail

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was started to the Dunstan from Waikouaiti, establishing regular communication between the sheep stations over that portion of country. When gold was found, in 1862, at Clyde and vicinity, this road was traversed by drays and waggons with goods for the new scenes of activity. The present up-country road very closely follows the old route chosen by the first pioneer travellers.

Railway.

The perfection of travelling, for speed and personal comfort, is the railway; still, it wants the quiet and retired freshness and rural beauty of the walks of nature. A series of embankments, cuttings, and bridges hardly supplies the place of the varied scenery of hill and dale and bushy glen. Cottages, mansions, and farmsteads are built with some regard to appearances on other ways; whereas the railway stares suddenly, impertinently, and ruthlessly on all sorts of backdoor exhibitions, exposing the nakedness, poverty, and filth of mankind. The Main Northern Trunk Line from Dunedin was opened at various points during 1878. The length of railway through the County will be nearly fifty miles; and there may be some interest in the fact that the skilled railway engineers kept as nearly as possible to the route of the old Maori Track. Civilisation and savagism meet in the article of road-making. Both are led in this matter by similar necessities. A branch line of railway is projected to run from Palmerston up the Shag Valley. With the establishment of railways, Otago will have to be differently described. A very important readjustment of the relations of localities to each other will be necessary. Dunedin, the towns, and the country have hitherto been of equal consideration. Most of the small towns will henceforth gradually dwindle down to mere railway stations, while Dunedin and the country, like Paris and Prance, will alone survive.

Mail Transport in the Early Times —Up-country.

Letters, papers, byok parcels, and other things of a like nature were at first carried up-country by private enterprise. Mr. Donald Malloch commenced to run the mail from Waikouaiti to the Manuherikia, via Shag Valley, in April, 1861. The mail was run fortnightly, on horseback. The postman was remunerated for his work by the settlers. The places of call were: Wayne’s Station, Shag Valley; Saxton’s Station, Highlay; Philip and Seal’s, Upper Taieri; Borton and McMasters’, Mount Ida; Hepburn and McMasters’, Maniatoto; I. and W. Murison’s, Rough Ridge, Puketoi; Richmond, Stafford and Bell’s Station, Ida Valley; and W. A. Low and Watson Shen-

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nan's, on the Manuherikia. This arrangement continued till the Dunstan gold rush, in 1862, when the Government took charge of the up-country and goldfields mails, and had them carried by contract. Messrs. I. and D. Malloch, obtaining the contract, ran the mails once a week to the Dunstan, via Shag Valley, calling at Naseby after the discovery of gold and settlement of population at that place. Two waggonettes or Yankee expresses, covered in, each with a pair of horses, were now employed, and took passengers and parcels as well as the mails. The two expresses started at the same time, one from the Dunstan and the other from Waikouaiti, and met at Naseby, where each took charge of what the other brought, and returned to his separate starting point. In 1864 Messrs. D. and I. Malloch sold out their interest in the up-country mail and coaching enterprise to Mr. Charles Hoyt and Co. At this point the two first periods and systems of mail-running came to an end; the earlier with the mail bags mounted on horseback, and the latter with their being conveyed in a strong two-horse waggonette. Charles Hoyt and Co., under the title of Cobb and Co., occupied the road, carrying passengers and mails till 1878, when they were superseded by the railway.

Early Mail Incidents

Some account of the events, accidents, difficulties, and shifts attending the running of the early mail may not be without interest. It is not easy now to realise the state in which the country then was. In a new country roads could not be expected. There was not even a track. Every traveller had to find his own way. The rule of travelling was to follow some leading ridge as far as possible in the direction he wished to go. Swampy creeks and deep gullies, difficult to cross, were continually met with. Houses stood from five to fifteen miles apart. Among the sparse population the postman was a welcome visitor. The kindly reception he met at the various stations helped to cheer him in the long, hazardous and weary journeys. The diet of the times was invariably the same. Breakfast consisted of bread, mutton, and tea; the noonday meal was bread, mutton, and tea; after miles of travel through dust and heat, or splashing mud and rain, the supper was bread, mutton, and tea. In shepherd’s hut and squatter’s lordly hall the monotonous fare served up was bread, mutton, and tea. With vigorous exercise and the bracing air of mountain and plain, bread, mutton, and tea were light and wholesome food. Men took longer rides on horseback then on this nourishment than they do now on a more miscellaneous and richer fare.

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Fording the Taieri.

Arriving at what is now called Marling's Ferry, the postman found the river in flood. As might be expected, he looked for a time dubious on the swollen stream. There was no house nearer than seven miles in which he might wait the subsidence of the flood. Anxious to prosecute his journey, he urged his horse into the strong and rapid current. The horse was tall and steady, which are excellent qualities in such an emergency. The water was as high as the horse's back, and the current forced him down the stream below the usual landing place, where the bank was perpendicular and as high as the horse's head. The rider then scrambled on to the land, over the horse's neck and head, taking the reins in his hand. With some difficulty the horse also succeeded in getting out, and the journey was completed in the allotted time.

Hogburn Creek Mishap.

Crossing this creek in the dark during a time of frost and snow, the horse carrying the mails got bogged. He could not be extricated from his position, neither could he be relieved of the mail, for the fastenings were beneath his body and under water. The horse and mail were left in the creek by the postman till he went to Messrs. Hepburn and McMaster's Station, some miles distant, for assistance. On his return he found that the horse had struggled out, but was too exhausted to travel further. Being relieved of his burden, the poor beast was left, with the forlorn hope that he might live, but more likely to die. He survived, however, to do more work in the mail service.

Catching a Horse

With a few weeks' solitary grazing on the site of the modern Naseby diggings, the horse regained his usual energy and spirit, and also a preference for liberty, so that he refused to be caught. He had made up his mind to enjoy his freedom and give up the drudgery of carrying mails. The halter was offered him in vain. He looked at the bridle with a saucy eye and lofty head. But his career of liberty was suddenly terminated by the following stratagem:—There was no stockyard near into which he might be driven, and the only assistance the postman had was the horse he rode. So the ridden horse was tied by the bridle to a snow-grass tussock, and a tether-rope with a noose on the end of it laid on the ground beside him. As the saddled horse was left alone by the rider retiring to a short distance, the free horse

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immediately joined him as a companion, and, putting his fore foot in the loop of the rope lying on the grass, the animal was at once captured.

Coach Driving.

To drive a vehicle over the country in its primitive and rough state was no easy task. The ground was anything but smooth and level. The driver of the early mail coach had sometimes to unload at the bottom of a steep hill and carry his luggage to the top on his back. It was enough for the horses to take up the empty machine. Having got everything on to the higher ground, the load was replaced and the journey prosecuted. This work was sometimes rendered more inconvenient by having to be performed in the dark. The rule was to accomplish the allotted task of every day within the appointed time, at all hazards.

In one of these journeys, on account of the uneven surface of the ground, the fore-axle became bent, so that the wheels refused to turn. This circumstance brought the postman to a standstill at Mr. Wayne's Station, Shag Valley. No blacksmith was nearer than twenty miles. The difficulty was surmounted by unscrewing the nuts with a small wrench and giving the bent axle a few blows with a common axe on the frosty grass, which had to do duty as an anvil. It was thus straightened and replaced in its position and the journey continued, the driving being maintained with greater caution than before.

A Pig Hunt.

Wild pigs were then very numerous all over the country. On one occasion a solitary porker was started, and a dog accompanying the mail carrier gave chase and soon caught it by the ear and held on. Instantly the postman ran up to the pig with the intention of killing him, and seized the hind leg. At that moment the dog let go. The pig, being thus set free, turned round on the hunter, and, with a dash, sprang through between his legs and escaped. He believed his hair stood on end in the jeopardous crisis when the enraged and screaming brute turned on him, and that he jumped into the air with an undignified facility that might have provoked the laughter of a humorous onlooker.

Native Wild Dog.

Native dogs in a wild state were said to be frequently seen by persons travelling over the waste, unoccupied country. A young one. seemingly four or five months old, was pursued and

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killed by the postman with his stirrup iron. The dog was of a white colour, with long, coarse hair, and had the appearance of being poorly fed. The New Zealand dog, which the Maoris say they brought with them when they came to these islands, was of this description. He was small in size, of a dirty white colour, with a bushy tail.

Cases of Distress.

Shortly after the Dunstan gold rush the postman relates how he met a man one day near the Hound Burn, carrying a swag and looking very much exhausted. The stranger asked a piece of bread, and the postman gave him all the lunch he had with him. He seemed so moved with the providential relief that he could not express his thanks, but the tears ran down his cheeks. There were no further communications, and they separated, each taking his own way—the postman with the gratification that he had helped a fellowman in extreme need. Similar cases of want were not uncommon in the days of the gold rushes. The venturous prospectors often ran short of food. Shepherd's huts on the sheep runs were daily visited by gold miners in all stages of starvation. It was with difficulty in some days that the shepherds could cook a meal for themselves and eat it. A few hungry men would appear, and in a few minutes devour a week or fortnight's provisions. Remuneration could not in every case be obtained. It was suspected that the gold hunters not infrequently helped themselves to mutton from th« flocks of the runholders.

Sea Traffic.

For a short period during the years of 1862 and 1863 several small steamers ran between Waikouaiti, Port Chalmers, and Dunedin, taking goods and passengers. But steamboat communication was not very regular even while it lasted. Except in very fine weather, the landing of goods at the spit was far from satisfactory. It was attended with a great amount of damage and waste. Great quantities of valuable property were destroyed. It was necessary to transfer the goods to be landed to small boats while the steamer lay at anchor, rocking on the heaving waves. No steamer, unless a very small one, could pass over the bar into the river mouth to discharge her cargo, and that only at full tides. Even the landing boats, after receiving their cargoes, were required to lie out in the bay, exposed to wind and weather, till the tide rose sufficiently high to float them in. Some of the larger steamers trading with the

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northern ports might call occasionally. Passengers in those days were carried ashore on the backs of Maoris, who charged a small sum for this service. The native females also took part in this work, in a nearly nude state. Rough diggers and nervous ladies, mounted on their sable shoulders, were borne through the breakers and landed safely on the beach.

Freight from Dunedin for goods was upwards of 30s. per ton. Passenger fares, Bs. or 9s. each.

As soon as the Main North Road opened for waggon traffic the steam communication ceased. A considerable amount of trade was still maintained by craft of twenty or forty tons till 1878, when it may be said to have terminated.

A two-horse passenger and parcel express was run by Mr. Thomas Alcock in connection with the steamers between the Sandspit and Beach Street, at a charge of 2s. 6d. per passenger.

Land Carriage.

The conveyance of persons and goods by wheeled vehicles between Dunedin and Waikouaiti began in the end of 1863. When the Main North Road was opened, Mr. T. M. Smith started a three-horse covered express for passengers and parcels. Mr. Smith's express went into Dunedin on the one day and returned on the day following. As the road improved he was able, by a skilful management of horses, to run in and out again on the same day. The single fare for a passenger was generally 7s. 6d. Small parcels, one shilling. This express was a great public convenience.

In 1868 the headquarters of the express were removed to Palmerston, and a further change adopted, in which two vehicles were employed; one starting from Palmerston and another from Dunedin every morning and meeting at Blueskin, returning the same day to their separate starting points. This arrangement lasted for ten years, till 1878.

Cobb's Coaches.

Mr. Charles Hoyt and Co. began to run their large coaches in the end of 1863-64, under the name of Cobb and Co., carrying the mails, passengers, and parcels. As this line of coaches only passed through the district, and not being a local institution, the account of it belongs equally to other localities. The large mail coach, generally a very pyramid of human beings, rattling along the Main North Road, will not soon be forgotten by the inhabitants. Day after day, and year after year, it brought, with the utmost regularity and punctuality, its living freight to

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and from the Golden Fleece, its favourite baiting place. The burly form of Mr. Ned Devine, the prince of drivers, seated on the box, managing with steady hand and eye his six-horse team, will be long associated in the memory of those who have travelled through Waikouaiti. This skilful and trusted driver has seen the first and last of mail coaching on the Main North Road. Road or no road, through mud axle-deep, through darkness, frost, sunshine, wind, pelting rain, flood, rut, and dangerous sidling, he has taken thousands of men and women, young and old, in safety to their destination. Farewell, Ned and mail coach! .Travellers, passengers, and people will henceforth attend to the whistle of the train and the railway station. These will be the centres of attraction in this land of changes. Nevertheless, the old mail coach has faithfully and fully served its day. Its familiar apperance is regretfully missed from the highway. Cobb's fares were ten shillings to Dunedin.

Coach Disaster.

Coaching in the district closed with a melancholy accident, such as had never happened when the roads were really bad and more difficult and dangerous to travel on. On Tuesday, the 21st of May, 1878, the last day the coach was to run between Palmerston and Moeraki, as it was descending the north side of the Horse Range, one of the traces is supposed to have loosened, and, tickling a horse’s flank, caused the whole team to bolt and become unmanageable, which ended in the coach rolling over an embankment. One person was killed on the spot, a boy died in a few hours, and the driver, with several others, were severely injured.

The Bullock Team.

New arrivals from Home looked on this horned institution with great interest. A team of six or eight working bullocks yoked to a strong, single-shafted dray was able to accomplish valuable service before metalled roads were formed. Working bullocks were in common use at the era of the opening of the goldfields. The bullock is an exceedingly slow draught animal, but he is steady, staunch, and patient. He was remarkably well fitted for certain kinds of work; as drawing timber from the bush, and taking a load over rough and new country. The proprietor of a good bullock team could find steady and remunerative employment. Their maintenance was inexpensive before the country was enclosed and occupied. The natural pastures afforded them abundance of food. Long journeys could be undertaken by them without the fear of want. One of the

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principal dangers to which the working bullock was liable arose from eating the native tutu plant. In the spring season the leaves of this plant are very tender and juicy, and the hungry animal was apt to eat them too greedily when unyoked. The tutu was not poisonous if eaten in limited quantity along with other grasses, but if eaten by itself a pernicious gas wa.s generated in the bowels which often proved fatal. Working bullocks are now greatly out of use, except among the remote settlers, who find them suitable for rough pioneer work. A good team of six or eight bullocks would be yalued at £lOO.

The Covered or Tilted Horse Waggon.

This heavy vehicle for conveying supplies to the inland diggings has been their mainstay. It is an imitation of the old English baggage or carrier's waggon. Many a load, from 1863 to 1878, has passed by this method of conveyance along the Main North Road. They have passed at the rate of from twenty to forty waggons a day, with all sorts of merchandise, hard and soft and liquid. The old waggoners ventured through the country when there were only tracks. The waggon was their home, their bedroom, the rallying and feeding place for their horses; it was larder, granary, general store for man and beast in all seasons and in every kind of weather. It was a kind of inland ship, drawn by six, eight, or ten horses. The rate of travel was about twenty miles a day. Several waggoners generally journeyed in company, so as to render help to each other in an emergency. It was a somewhat rough and exposed life, but the sturdy waggoner pursued his toilsome way without a murmur, although it might frequently happen that he would not have the pleasure of a dry skin for weeks together. No doubt he had his reward in stiffened joints, with twinges of rheumatic pains and lung complaints. Not a few of them have been able to lay something past for a rainy day, and now, when the days of waggon traffic are drawing to an end, can retire to less exposed employment, or live at ease in the evening of life on their dearly-won savings. The harvest season of the aarrier is gone. It has collapsed before the encroachment of railways.

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CHAPTER VII.

Health Notes —Maoris.

Concerning the health of the aboriginal population when first known to Europeans, very little can be said. From all that can now be learned, the Maoris enjoyed a fair share of immunity from disease. Dr. Crocome lived among them at an early period, but he has not left any notes respecting the health or diseases of the natives, He had the intention of giving an account of the Maoris, which he was well able to have done, and had some papers prepared on the subject, but for some reason destroyed them before his death. This is to be regretted as a loss that otitflt otherwise be supplied. Some of the Maoris became very old. and. it is supposed, attained the ripe age of one hundred years. The principal ailment from which they suffered was a skin disease, arising from the nature of their food, and readily yielded to simple remedies. The healing art among them was of a very primitive order. Diseases were understood by them to be the effect of witchcraft, and required to be counteracted by suitable charms. The skill of the Tapu, or medicine man, was called into requisition to expel any mischief that had entered their bodies. It was their firm belief that few or none died a proper natural death. They were supposed to be afflicted and to die through the malicious designs of some enemy. The invalid Maori looked on himself as in the grip of an invisible and resistless power, and passively yielded to a fatality he could not withstand.

About the years 1848 and 1849 many of the Maoris succumbed to the measles, which had been imported among them by their European visitors. The malady was to them a mystery. Nothing like it had ever come within their experience. For relief from raging fever they ran to the sea and bathed themselves in it, and, becoming tapu, were left to die. This isolation of those who were stricken may have saved the extermination of the tribe. Imported diseases and vices proved a severe scourge to the native in their first contact with the white race.

There does not appear to have been any special maladyindigenous to the climate. No malaria arose from the numerous swamps; no fever lurked in the tangled bush; a clear, breezy atmosphere prevailed then, as now. Since coming into contact with Europeans, pulmonary complaints have been most common

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among the Maoris. Whether this ailment existed in bygone times there are no means of ascertaining. A want of proper care on the adoption of European garments is reckoned as at least an aggravation of this chest complaint. Other changes may also contribute their share, as the use of European food and stimulants.

Health of Europeans

The country has not been long enough inhabited by people from the Northern Hemisphere to test fully its being favourable or otherwise to their health and longevity. Immigrant and their offspring have as yet enjoyed exuberant health. There is no reason to doubt the salubrity of the climate for the constitution of the British race. Immigrants, however, do not linger long under any illness when once they are seized, especially if somewhat advanced in years. Something may be attributed to the acclimatising process, by which the thread of life may be rendered less tough and elastic. From whatever cause, it is at any rate the fact that immigrants past middle age are quickly cut off when once they begin to break down. They do not long endure trouble. A few days' illness will often issue fatally.

The ailments incident to Europeans are not new. They are such as they have brought with them, and which are inherent in the British constitution. Some forms of disease assume different symptomatic complexions, supposed to arise from change of climate, habits, food, and mode of life. It is reasonable to conclude that diseases will thereby alter in some characteristics, and be rendered more rapid and seductive in their action, and require new and varying methods of treatment to be arrested or mitigated. A medical man is allowed to have special difficulties to contend with in the colony, from the new forms that specific maladies assume, and from the limited knowledge of his patients with respect to family or hereditary tendencies. He is frequently called on to take up critical cases where a little acquaintance with relations, early life and habits would be a great assistance to a happy treatment.

With regard to the climate, it may be safe to say that a healthy person will be invigorated under its influence, and an invalid enfeebled below a certain point will be quickly prostrated. The atmosphere being full of oxygen, the vital processes of the body are well supplied with the elements of life, but if the organs are impaired they cannot bear the strain of a vigorous climate in which the changes from heat to cold and from cold to heat are sudden, frequent, and incessant. It is

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not a climate to be sought for by invalids; it is for the robust. If a disease is only incipient it may be quickly eradicated, but if established it will be stimulated to greater activity.

Common kinds of complaints are; rheumatism, heart and chest affections, face-aches, colds, nervous disorders, inflammation, etc. The country is peculiarly fitted to promote rheumatism. Persons having this constitutional tendency should guard against damp, draughts, and excessive heats and colds.

In a new country there is a considerable amount of unavoidable exposure, inimical to freedom from pain. With many the body is under a perpetual subjection to changes of temperature and rough usage, as sleeping in tents, in damp clay huts, and in draughty weatherboard houses poorly lined with calico and paper. There are, however, numerous instances of unnecessary and injudicious exposure, which make serious inroads on the constitution, although not felt at the time. Waggoners are apt to suffer from being out in every kind of weather, and requiring to sleep in wet clothes, under their tilts, for lengthened periods. Shepherds and diggers, living in remote huts and out-of-the-way places, suffer from badly cooked food, sleeping in miserable tents, and working in the sluices with the feet constantly in cold water. Roughing it, as such circumstances are called, is severely trying to the hardiest frame, and ultimately exacts an unrelenting forfeiture of bodily sanity. Wealth gained at such a price is a dear bargain. Years of pain and a shortened, crippled existence are the inevitable results of such inconsiderate hardihood. Some think to inure their bodies to the weather by going out in the rain and getting drenched to the skin needlessly. It is a duty to humanity to warn these men of their folly. The laws of health are not to be violated with impunity.

Scarlet fever has been introduced several times into the district within the last fourteen years, and proved alarmingly fatal in a number of eases. In 1867 it found its way into West Hawksbury, and nearly a dozen children were carried off by it in a few weeks. During 1871 several families in Flag Swamp and Goodwood had a similar visitation, which proved fatal to many of their younger members. It was brought into the locality at a still later date, but the isolation of the family attacked, for a few months, stamped it out. The source of the disease in all the cases referred to could be easily traced to importation. >ln the first two instances it assumed, as it spread, a more virulent type. About the year 1875 there was an epidemic of measles, and twice during the last five years the

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mumps have prevailed, affecting both children and adults. Cases of goitre, or swelling in the neck, are not infrequent. Diphtheria and croup do sometimes attack infants, but they have not in many cases proved fatal. Children at school are subject to frequent ailments, some of them apparently contagious, and others arising from a combination of causes, as crowded rooms, improper ventilation, getting heated at play, irregular meals, bread lunch, and damp feet. His Excellency Sir Hercules Robinson very specially referred to the healthy appearance of the school children when passing through the district on the 6th of May, 1879.

Inroads on the health are produced by evening meetings, particularly if crowded and overheated. Those who attend soirees and public meetings should take special care. Concerts with late dancing parties are fruitful of mischief. Many a robust youth and blooming maiden have there had the seeds lodged in their bosoms that blighted their fair promise of life. In a state of unusual excitement and perspiration they thoughtlessly rush out of a heated and impure atmosphere into the sharp, frosty, night air, which results in a fever and an obstinate cough, and a slow consumption, which leads its victims gently but surely to an early grave. Fatal examples could be noted as proceeding from the midnight carousal; therefore, young man and scantily-dressed damsel, beware! Do not lightly cast away the precious boon of health. Pleasure is good, but health is better.

The abuse of tobacco, tea, and alcoholic beverages are very pernicious to physical vigour. They sadly interfere with the pleasures of exercise, a sound mind, refreshing sleep, and length of days. Nervous disorders of the worst character are induced by a criminal indulgence in these stimulants. It is difficult to say anything in favour of tobacco, which is at once filthy, wasteful, and dangerous. As for tea, it is too frequently taken. Tea three times a day, or oftener, tea late, tea early, is more than the stoutest heart can stand for any length of time without palpitation. In the use of alcoholics, apart from the waste of means, loss of character, immoral habits, misery of family and friends, there is, in addition to all, the sacrifice of happy existence. Who can compute the folly of him who, without motive and forethought, hastens himself to the grave, or stores up years of pain and misery for the evening of life in these selfish indulgences! With regard to strong drink, abstinence should be the rule. Moderation in its use is not safe. More madness and death are caused by drunkenness than from any other single source.

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Some attention should be given to clothing. It should be adapted to the state of the atmosphere and the kind of labour or exercise engaged in. From the sudden changes of temperature it is not easy to avoid having on either too few or too many clothes. In one hour a person's dress may be an insufferable load; in the next, by a change of wind, it may be hardly felt. Although difficult to regulate clothing, a little consideration would help to conserve the vitality of the body.

Diet should be plain and wholesome. Too much animal food, as a rule, is eaten. By many it is taken three times a day, along with tea. Milk, with broth and soups, are preferable for the noonday meal. Tea, to be truly refreshing, should not be infused more than two or three minutes, and in no case boiled. Food should be well cooked, and meals regular.

Seasons have a considerable influence on the animal frame for enduring fatigue or favouring disease. More violent exercise can be undergone with safety in cold than in warm weather. Asthma is most common in early spring, dysentery in autumn or fall of the year. If the system has been heated by exercise, care should be taken to cool off gradually. In such circumstances never take a hasty drink of cold water, do not lie down on the damp ground, or sit still for any time in a draughty or cold place, else a rheumatic fever or fatal inflammation will ensue.

The occasional hot winds have a prostrating effect on most persons, producing an unpleasant languor and repugnance to activity. Dry weather is the most agreeble, but not in all cases the most innocuous. Sicknesses are more common in bright, dry weather than when it is wet and less enjoyable. The sudden closing of the pores of the skin by the parching winds checks perspiration and induces fever. A similar effect is produced by the cold which frequently succeeds heat.

Drainage and Ventilation.

We may boast of our fresh and bracing atmosphere, but it may be rendered noxious by want of proper drainage and ventilation. Not a few complaints of an indefinite kind arise from these insidious causes. Special attention should be given to sanitary arrangements, both in townships and rural dwellings. The festering cesspools, whose rank effluvia greets the nostrils of the passer-by in many localities, cannot be too severely condemned. He is an enemy to himself, family, and neighbours who neglects the sanitary state of his premises and allows

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noisome liquids and solids to accumulate when' they should not be. The vicinity of many Maori and European habitations are very faulty, from the absence of sanitary provision. In summer heat or dull weather the disagreeable and evil effects are most felt. Almost the same labour that creates a pestiferous ditch, rightly directed, would procure a rich, grassy lawn, or, better still, a flower border that would please the eye with its floral beauties and delight the sense of smell with an attractive and refreshing fragrance.

To secure ventilation, the upper sashes of windows should not be immovable. Apartments are often small, and in warm, quiet evenings are too much crowded to be wholesome. There is no escape provided for the vitiated air. The lungs cannot supply pure blood to the heart without inhaling air that is fresh and sweet.

Increase of Population and Longevity.

An impression exists that population in colonial districts increases at a quicker rate than in the Old Country. This notion is fostered by the absence of old people who have become sterile, and the apparently large proportion of juveniles in the community. But children are not more numerous in families than what they are in other countries under the same circumstances. It is also a fact that a singularly large number of married couples are without offspring. Neither must it be overlooked that the present adult population came to the country in the prime of life, at an age most favourable to family increase. Immigration, along with the colonial-born, in the meantime, produces a double rate of increase, but when the former ceases, as it is likely soon to do, and the present adult population passes middle age, the young will be both apparently and really less numerous in proportion. When those special factors, which immediately affect the peopling of the country, naturally and necessarily change or come to an end, the growth of population will be found not to exceed the ordinary rate.

It may be still further noticed that the youth of both sexes, among Europeans and Maoris alike, are more robust than their parents. It has been thought that the youths of New Zealand would, as in the Australian colonies, be thinner in flesh and of a Yankee structure, but so far as experience goes, it points to a fuller muscular development in the next generation. Should this initial circumstance be verified, an extension of the duration of life in our colonial posterity will naturally follow.

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Diseases among Horses, Cattle, and Sheep.

For many years the domestic animals have been remarkably free from disease. During 1863 and subsequent years there was a great mortality among cattle from pleuro-pneumonia. The dead carcases that lay unburied in many places rendered the atmosphere very unpleasnt. Mr. Jones slaughtered an infected herd beside Hawksbury Bush, and burned the carcases. The soil on the spot is still saturated with the grease. The Provincial Government awarded compensation for the holocaust. A herd of eighty or ninety cattle, imported by Mr. James Hepburn, Brooklands, was cut off by the disease in a few weeks, not leaving a hoof. Settlers who allowed their cattle to mingle freely with imported animals on the waste land lost severely, while cattle within fences were generally safe. The diseased animal gave up eating, stood alone, with hair on end and curved back, till emaciated, and then lay down and died. A cure, declared infallible by some of the cattle doctors of the period, was to take what they called lymph from the diseased lung of a dead cow and innoculate the living beasts in the tail. The experiments made were not very well attested. An inspector, Mr. B. Buist, was appointed at the public expense to ride over the country, attended by a man with a loaded rifle, and every unfortunate animal not up to the thriving mark was shot down. Being an exotic disease, it seemed after a time to expend itself. A similar complaint prevailed among horses about the same period, from which many perished. It seemed to be most fatal in some of the inland localities, where imported mobs had been taken to breed.

Sheep, if not taken care of, in some localities are apt to become affected by scab. On low, marshy ground they suffer from an overgrowth and softening of the hoof. A scour not unfrequently attacks them in the early spring, supposed to arise from the new grass and the sharp frosts, causing loss of flesh and weakness. A change of pasture for a short time affects a cure in the two latter eases.

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CHAPTER VIII.

Properties.—Matanaka.

This estate, though small, is reckoned among the finest in the County. It lies along the coast on the north of Waikouaiti Bay, and contains somewhat under one thousand acres. The house on the property was built by the late Mr. John Jones, about the year 1843, and he resided there for a few years with his family, superintending the whaling operation which were then carried on in the bay. The garden and ornamental grounds being early laid off and planted, gave a European aspect to the situation, very pleasing to a visitor or stranger, when all the surrounding country was in its native state. The position of the house and garden is sheltered from the cold south winds by Cornish Mount, and from the raw, chilling sea breezes by a patch of native bush toward the east. It was for some years occupied by Mr. John R. Jones, but since his removal to Dunedin, in 1871, the property has been held in lease by Mr. McLeod Orbell. George McLean, Esq., M.H.R., purchased the estate in 1878.

TUMAI.

Adjoins Matanaka on the north, and lies between the latter place and the mouth of Pleasant River. It was a part of the original properties bought from the Maoris by Mr. John Jones, through his agent, Captain .lames Bruce. It was intended to be the inheritance of Mr. Frederick Jones, who resided there for a few years, but about the time of his father's death he removed with his family to Dunedin, and the property was leased to Messrs. P. D. Rich and J. C. Buekland. The latter has been residing on the estate for the last eight or nine years. It contains about two thousands acres of excellent agricultural and pastoral land.

Goodwood

Goodwood estate was a private native purchase. It was bought from the Maoris by Mr. James Bruce, about the year 1838. It comprised 640 acres, or a mile square. Mr. Bruce sold it, in "Wellington, to Mr. Morgan Evans, a land agent from London. The third possessor and occupant w;is Mr. Charles Ebrard Suisted. He took up his residence with his family on

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the land in 1848, the year of Otago settlement, and built Goodwood house and laid off the garden. In subsequent years, by various purchases, he added 540 acres, making in all 1,180 acres. Goodwood fell into the hands of Mr. Jones in 1859, for the sum of £12,000. Mr. Jones still further enlarged the estate to the extent of 2,300 acres. It was occupied by Mr. Wm. Jones till 1871, since which time it has been held from Mr. John Jones' trustees by Mr. Thomas Calcut, with a purchasing clause. The purchase money is to be about £24,000. This beautiful property lies along the sea coast, and is bounded on the west and south by Goodwood Bush and Pleasant River Frith. The land is all arable, and the soil of superior quality. Several clumps of natural bush on the grounds are both ornamental and useful. Goodwood house is situated on an elevated and central spot, and, surrounded by young plantations, forms an attractive and desirable residence.

Bkooklands.

The estate of Brooklands, one of the old Goodwood properties, is situated in the lower end of Pleasant Valley. It is intersected by Pleasant River and the northern trunk railway. It contained originally 550 acres, and was purchased in 1853 by Wm. Dalrymple, Esq., who occupied it till 1857, when it was sold to the Hepburn family, of Half-way Bush. In 1878 it was disposed of by Mr. Wm. Hepburn to a variety of purchasers. Mr. James Kilgour, of Roslyn, bought the homestead, with 330 acres attached. Brooklands, before its last sale and subdivision, was a very superior property, containing between two and three hundred acres of rich alluvial flat, capable of grazing five sheep to the acre, even in midwinter. The rear portion of the property, lying on the southern slope of Mount Royal, is covered with bush, in which is some useful timber. Brooklands possesses stone and lime quarries. Goodwood railway station stands on what was formerly a part of Brooklands. Brooklnds might be described as including, in a compact space, most of the points which a landowner could desire. It has wood and water in plenty, high and low land, stone and lime easily accessible by road and railway; surpassed by few places in fertility, and well suited for both grazing and tillage. The homestead is a substantial stone building with attics, the plan of Mr. R. A. Lawson, architect, Dunedin. As it is only a section of a more extended plan, it has an unfinished aspect, and, being for some years neglected, it lost that air of neatness and comfort which it ought to have had from its situation and value. It has, however, begun to improve in appearance under the management and taste of the Kilgour family.

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.Mount Royal (Ruapupu).

This estate lies partly in Pleasant River Valley, and will contain about 24,000 acres of agricultural and pastoral country, absorbing a large proportion of the old Hawksbury and Shag Valley Hundreds. It contained originally nearly 2,000 acres, but it has been gradually enlarged by its successive possessors. The original portion of the estate was purchased from the Otago Provincial Government, in 1861, by Messrs. B. Fullerton and T. B. Neilson. About two years after the purchase, Mr. Fullerton sold his interest in it to Mr. Neilson. Through the insolvency of Mr. Neilson, in 1870, it fell into the hands of John Douglas, Esq. Immense additions have been made to the land, homebuildings, and farm offices since coming into his possession. Upwards of two thousand acres have been put under the plough and laid down in English grass. The hilly portions of the estate have also been cleared, at a large amount of outlay, the tussock, flax, and scrub being chopped and burned, and grass seeds sown on the ashes and exposed mould. It supports between 20.000 and 30,000 sheep, 1,000 head of cattle, and 40 or 50 horses, but its capabilities may be increased to an indefinable extent.

Mount Royal is certainly one of the finest estates in the County. The Main North Road and the Northern Trunk Railway run through it. It is also intersected by Pleasant River, which adds, in a high degree, to its value and interest. Of minerals, it contains alum, sulphur, and coal in abundance. The pasture is rich in native and artificial grasses, and the hillsides have many clear perennial springs. The climate is dry, healthy, and bracing. It encloses many finely-sheltered gullies, with refreshing rivulets passing through them.

Beginning at Pleasant River toll bar, near Mr. James S. Young’s accommodation house, it stretches close to Palmerston, embracing on the right hand the mount which gives name to the property. The home buildings stand back from the Main North Road on the left hand, near the base of Smyler’s Peak, and on the edge of the pastoral division of the estate. The property extends westward to the northern branch of Waikouaiti River, including a number of the conical or peaked hills which give a peculiar aspect to the features of the country in that quarter. Of late years the plantations and hedges round the “Douglas Mansion” have grown well, presenting an air of elegance, shelter, and sylvan retirement.

Corner Bvsh.

Mr. Thomas Jones, a nephew of Mr. John Jones, was the first owner of this property. It was purchased in several allot-

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incuts by Mr. Jones on behalf of his nephew. Mr. Thomas Jones occupied the property till his death, on the 28th of August, 1869. His family remained in occupation for some time after, till it was sold to Mr. John Reid, Dunedin. Mr. Reid added to the original property till it reached about 1,600 acres. Its size was reduced, in 1878, by the sale of between 500 and 600 acres. A part of the land is under native bush. It lies in Merton Riding, and is bounded on the west and north by the Main North Road and the Native Reserve; on the south by a Government bush reserve and the lands of other settlers. Corner Bush is a desirable property, has a northern exposure, and is well watered. A part of it which lies along the Main North Road was an impassable swamp, but within the last few years it has been drained, and when once fairly under cultivation, will be of high value. Two basaltic, conical peaks rise above it on the east, and obstruct the sea-blasts with their bushy covering. The soil is best suited for pasture. Geologically it lies on the blue clay formation. The homestead, which originally stood in the bush, was removed by Mr. Reid to a more accessible situation on the open land, and surrounded with plantations. The soil seems to be suitable for the growth of pines. An unsightly broken hillface along the roadside has been planted with them, and promises soon to be covered with their dark, evergreen foliage.

Hawksbury Estate.

This valuable property would be somewhere about 2,000 acres in extent. It was to have been the portion of Mr. James Jones, the fourth son of the Jones family. Before it was broken up it lay along the western side of the Main North Road, occupying the entire southern face of Hawksbury Hills. The back part of the property was bounded by the Government Bush Reserve, which was sold, in 1877, to several purchasers. Hawksbury estate was subdivided by the trustees of Mr. Jones into ten or twelve allotments in 1872, and leased to .Messrs. J. and W. Maxwell, J. Irwin, M. McGarry, R. Pearson, D. Grant, J. Valentine, A. Stewart, and others, at £8 per acre, on conditions, with purchasing clause. A. C. Strode, Esq., purchased Hawksbury House in 1878, for a residence, with 250 acres of land, at £2O per acre. A few allotments along the Main North Road, adjoining the Borough of West Hawksbury, were laid off for building sites. Hawksbury has since been purchased by Mr. Townsend.

Cherry Farm.

According to Mr. Kettle's Government survey, in 1852, Cherry Farm contained 600 acres. Since that time it has been

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enlarged to about 1,000 acres of first-class alluvial and table land. It was cultivated under the personal superintendence of Mr. Jones till his death in 1869. The first land cultivation in Otago was on Cherry Farm, probably as early as 1840. Some of the managers of the whaling stations raised crops on it. The farm is at present held in lease by Mr. John Duncan for nineteen years, entered on in 1869. The soil has been formed by the alluvium of Waikouaiti River and other streams. It is bounded and enclosed by the Main North Road, and by the district roads of Clevedon and Ilawksbury. As the traveller from Dunedin by the Main North Road comes in view of the river firth he has Cherry Farm on his left hand, readily distinguishable by its cluster of houses, like a village, among the tall bluegums and willows at a distance from the turnpike. It is the first piece of really good land that meets the eye travelling north from Dunedin. Its position indicates its origin, the formation and nature of its soil, and the reason of its fertility. Being a mixture of vegetable deposit, with a large proportion of mica and sand, it has a free, open, deep, rich soil. It neither suffers so much from the dry, parching winds, nor from the drenching rains as do the tenacious clays of the higher grounds of the Count}'. It is also well sheltered by the surrounding hills from the bitter south and dry west winds. Its fertility is. in a sense, inexhaustible, as it is only necessary to strike a deeper furrow in ploughing to bring up a fresh mixture of vegetable mould. From its low position-—not being many feet above the level of the sea—the frosts are severe on the winter growth. Sheep suffer severely in spring from scour, on account of the juicy nature of the grass, and perhaps the sand and frosts in that season affect the bowels. Although not marshy, it seems to induce those ailments that sheep contract on fenny lands — softening of the hoof, etc. Cattle thrive well on the summer pasture. Clover and English grasses luxuriate on the brown soil. Wheat produces an enormous sheaf, and, though crops of the same kind have been taken off the fields for many successive years, there is no appreciable diminution of productiveness. The bulk and quality of turnips are excellent. Couchgrass and sorrel have found their way into the soil, and one of the difficulties of the farm is to keep it clean. An enormous outlay has been incurred to destroy the couchgrass. but it seems to recover in a few years, and threatens to master the situation by a tenacity of life and vigour of growth, trying to the purse and patience of the cultivator. The river, before settling to its present bed, has made a number of channels over

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the land, leaving stagnant lagoons. The drawbacks to the farm are its liability to floods, the encroachment of the river on its banks, and sands which are drifted by the winds over some of the fields.

Bushy Park.

The property of F. D. Rich, Esq., lies along the coast, on the south side of Shag River mouth. It was purchased in 1863. The greater part of it has been put under the plough and laid down in pasture for sheep. Lying on the calcareous freestone formation, it possesses a warm, rich, black soil. The homestead is situated in an elevated position. When erected, it had a bare and exposed appearnce, but the plantations around it have grown rapidly, giving it a picturesque and sheltered aspect. The dark clump of trees, composed of bluegums, pines of various kinds, and numerous exotics, form a conspicuous object to the traveller as he passes by rail or, road across the lower end of Shag Valley.

Meadow Bank.

Lies about two miles from Palmerston, up the Shag Valley. It was purchased by Mr. John Jones in 1864, when the Shag Valley Hundreds were put into the market. It was the residence of Dr. Nelson, the son-in-law of Mr. Jones, for a short time before his death. The property has a pleasant situation on the south side of Shag Valley. For many years it has been leased as a run for sheep.

Coal Creek Station.

Was first taken up by Mr. John Jones. He held it as a sheep run under the superintendence of a manager. In 1865 it passed into the hands of Sir Francis Dillon Bell. It lies in Upper Shag Valley, about seventeen miles from Palmerston.

The Grange

The pioneer settler on this property was Mr. Charles Hopkinson. Its second possessor was Captain Fraser, and at a later date it belonged to the Company of Messrs. Hamilton and Wayne. In 1865, during its occupation by Mr. F. Wayne, a substantial stone house was erected near the Shag River, at a point where the Maniatoto and Naseby Road enters the mountainous district of the Waihemo. For some time the house, with adjoining lands, have been the possession of Capt. Kitchener.

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The River.

11. Orbell, Esq., bought this property shortly after the Hawksbury Hundreds were placed in the market. It consists of a narrow strip of land, four or five hundred acres in extent, on the north bank of Waikouaiti River, overlooking Cherry Farm and adjoining settlements. It is, for the most part, of a pastoral character. Except in the steepest parts, it has been greatly improved by being put under the plough and laid down with English grasses. The dwelling is a substantial structure, erected on the lower end of the property, on a terrace facing the rising sun. Like other houses planted on the open land, it had for many years a bare appearance, but as the growing plantations rise into view, the homestead acquires a cosier look.

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CHAPTER IX

Municipalities and Townships.

West Hawksbury (Waikouaiti).

West Hawksbury is the County town, and generally designated by the Maori name—Waikouaiti. It is pleasantly situated on a gentle elevation between the beach and Hawksbury Hills, and skirted on its eastern side by the lagoon. As a town, it is now supported almost entirely from the surrounding rural settlement. It was put into the market in 1860, by Mr. John Jones, as a private township. In 1864 it contained a resident population of about 600.

Beach Street. —During 1862, and for two or three subsequent years, Beach Street was a busy thoroughfare. It contained nine general stores, four hotels, a blacksmith ’s shop, a timber yard, a watchmaker, a parcel express office, a boot and shoe mart, a painter and paperhanger, a druggist, a saddler, two drapers, two butchers, three bakers, a printing press, with many private houses and tents erected here and there among the luxuriant native flax. Heavy waggons, with eight and ten-horse teams, were daily loading goods at the stores for the up-country diggings. Great bustle and excitement prevailed. Money was exceedingly plentiful among the people, and the hotels literally drove a roaring trade. But this traffic was short-lived; as soon as the Main North Road was passable the waggoners no longer loaded at Waikouaiti, but went through to Dunedin for their goods. By 1865 many of the business places and stores began to be removed to the Main North Road, which has continued ever since to be the trade centre. Druggist, draper, saddler, butcher, tailor, and watchmaker, one by one, slowly and reluctantly deserted Beach Street, moralising on the mutability of worldly affairs, and sorely regretting the brief, bright days that would not return. Among the removals was Mackenzie’s store, which was taken down in 1868 and re-erected for a wooli shed on Mr. Henry Orbell’s estate. A very fine store, belonging to Mr. E. W. Durden, was burned to the ground. Beach Street Hotel was taken to Palmerston in 1873, and became there the Star Hotel. R. and J. Lawson’s large store was also removed,

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and several others followed. The last removal was that of Mr. Robert Pearson, who shifted his Old Kilmarnock Store to new premises near the railway station in 187:». The principal representatives of the old busy times are: Mr. Stephen Letham's bakery, established in 1863; the Royal Hotel, erected by the late Mr. Joseph Beal; and the antique house and garden of Mr. Kenneth Cameron. A few other empty dwellings, hastening to decay, remain the frail memorials of the past. The old store of the Baird Brothers has been transmuted into the Municipal Council Chambers.

The others streets of this waning township possess what is characteristic of all colonial towns, a few straggling houses neatly enclosed, and some of* them not wanting in elegance, surrounded by small paddocks and garden enclosures. There is nothing in the meantime on which to ground a hope of a near resuscitation of bygone times, or a more permanent growth from other causes than those which have stimulated the locality in the past. It may not be vain, however, to expect that the district will participate in the future prosperity of Otago and the rising colony of New Zealand. Waikouaiti has an undoubtedly healthy and vigorous rising generation to populate her hills and valleys, a superb climate, a limited but unrivalled soil, with mountains containing undeveloped mineral wealth; so that, in ages to come, she may not be altogether without a worthy place in a wider history.

Municipality of West Hawksbury

West Hawksbury Municipality was incorporated in 1866, under the "Muncipal Corporation Ordinance of 1865." The boundaries of the municipality are: on the east, Hawksbury Bush Subdivision; on the west, the Government township; on the north, the Main North Road; on the south, Mr. Jones' property. The town is divided into four wards, viz.: Beach Ward, Manse Ward, East and West Wards. During the past twelve years four mayors have held office. M. C. Orbell, Esq., first mayor, held office for two years; T. S. Pratt, Esq., for five years; John Smith, Esq., for four years: Thomas Whinam, Esq., held office in 1878; and Stephen Letham, Esq.. was elected for 1879. The first councillors in office with Mr. Orbell were: Messrs. E. W. Burden. W. James, D. Gloag, T. Whinam. and A. H. Gill, Town Clerk. The mayoral election takes place in each year on the 21st of February. When the Corporation was initiated there were 155 ratepayers; in 1878 the number of ratepayers was 170, showing an increase of 15 in the period specified.

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It is needless to say that the establishment of the Corporation has been a great benefit to the inhabitants. Street formation and preservation have been the chief objects attended to by the Council, and much comfort and convenience have thereby been secured to the townspeople. The sidewalks have been gravelled, so that, even in wet weather, persons can pass from place to place with dry feet. Many grievances arising naturally from original settlement have been rectified or abated. Within the bounds of the municipality there are four churches and three hotels. It contains, also, the English Church Parsonage, a snug little mansion nestling among trees and garden hedges. Near to it stands the residence of the district teacher. The office of the Bank of New Zealand is a handsome erection, built in 1869, of Pleasant Valley stone.

Townships.—Hawksbury Government Township.

This township was surveyed and opened for sale by the Provincial Government of Otago in 1862. It adjoins the municipality of West Hawksbury, from which it is separated at one part by the lagoon. The whole township will cover three or four hundred acres. It contains a population of nearly three hundred persons. Five stores have been opened in it, viz.: Messrs. D. and J. MaUacha, Mrs. G. Frazer, Mr. Robert Pearson, Messrs. Anderson and Co., Mrs. Bassett's drapery. Mr. Peter Duncan's butchery and slaughter yards, Mr. Wm. Mills' timber yards. Anderson's flour mills, Presbyterian Manse, court house and police camp, district school, public pound, two hotels and railway station, are all in this township. There are about two hundred acres of a valuable reserve attached and used as a commonage for grazing cattle by the inhabitants.

Isaac. —Town.

When the trustees of the late Mr. John Jones resolved to place Hawksbury Estate in the market, a number of quarteracre sections as sites for building were laid off along the north side of the Main North Road. These sections were speedily taken up, and places of business erected on them. This suburb of West Hawksbury Municipality contains the post office and telegraph station, County Council Chambers, barber's shop, Mr. Oxley's general store, Mr. A. G. Eeid's store, Mechanics' Hall, library and reading room, Mr. D. Glog's drapery, Mr. Bray's butchery, Mr. A. K. Brown's stationery and newspaper depot, Mr. J. Bates' boot and shoe warehouse, and Mr. W. C. Ancell's drug shop.

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Port Waikouaiti and River Bank Marine Store

A small township which stands at the mouth of Waikouaiti River receives this designation. It adjoins the Maori Kaik, and is about four miles from West Ilawksbury. It has a Native school and a wharf for landing goods. Small craft, carrying from 20 to 60 tons, are able to enter the river mouth in full tide and discharge their cargoes. Till 1878 a large quantity of goods of various kinds was imported and exported. The trade was cjnsidered of sufficient importance to have a lighthouse and Harbour Master. The following statement of River Bank Store will give some notion of the river traffic: —

River Bank Store was established on its present site, where the Main North Road approaches the river, in 1868. It first stood at the Spit, near the river mouth, but was destroyed by a flood in the above-mentioned year. At that time it was the property of Mr. T. Paget. After his death, in 1873, it was sold to Mr. T. Smith.

Imports for the Year 1877

Bridge Timber, feet super. .. 540,244

Ale and Spirits . . . . . . tons

Measurement Goods . . . . 112 tons

Goods Weighed .. .. .. 480 tons

Bales of Sacks .. . . 25 tons

Flour and Oatmeal Bags . . 33J tons

Coal 200 i tons

Fencing Wire .. . . . . 15$ tons

Slates .. .. .. .. 150 tons

Fencing Rails .. . . 1,300 tons

Railway Material . . .. .. 400 tons

Exports for Year 1877

Wool 812 bales

Wheat . . .. 5,754 bags *

Barley . . .. 1,602 bags

Oats 1,480 bags -

1,033 tons

Flour 1,300 bags

Bran . . .. 198 bags

Potatoes .. 1,469 bags or 122 tons

Butter 92 firkins

Honey .. . . .. 22 casks

Eggs .. .. 5 cases, 20 dozen each

Sundry Goods .. .. 19 tons

Empty Casks 194

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Sandspit

The spit is a narrow point of land covered with heaps of drifted sand, lying between the river mouth and the bay. During the Dunstan rush this desolate spot became a busy scene. Two restaurants and several stores were quickly planted on it. Thousands of diggers were landed here with their swags, to tramp to the inland goldfields. But its existence and activity were of brief duration. Since the destruction of Mr. Paget V store by a freshet in the river, in 1868, there is not a trace of these days left. Everything has vanished like a dream. "Not a wreck is left behind." The site is entirely resigned to the shifting sands, the screaming gulls, shags, and sea spray, with now and again a wandering Maori.

Population

In the census of 1867 no town or township of a population of 500 was separately enumerated. The population of Waikouaiti and Palmerston for that year is included in the general returns for Otago.

The population of Waikouaiti Electoral District in 1874 was 3,250; half-castes, 57; Chinese, 71; inhabited houses, 621.

According to the census of 1878, the population stood as follows:—Biding of Waihemo, 296; Dunbaek, 255; Palmerston, 1,239; Hawksbury, 1,006; Merton, 799; Blueskin, 1,707; NorthEast Valley, 616; total, 5,918. The municipality of West Hawksbury contained, in same year, a population of 468, and Palmerston 814. The entire population of Waikouaiti County was 10,826 —5,892 males and 4,934 females. Waikouatiti Electoral District at the same date contained 4,877 persons—--2,850 males and 2,027 females.

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CHAPTER X.

Public Institutions.—Churches. —Industries. —Presbyterian Church. —Origin and Church Erection.

For some time previous to 1862 the Presbyterian families resident in the districts of Ilawksbury and Goodwood received ministerial visits from the Rev. Wm. Johnstone, Port Chalmers, and the Rev. Dr. Stuart, Dunedin. In October of the above year the latter dispensed the Communion to members of the Church who had, from time to time, settled in the district. This Communion was celebrated in Episcopal Church, kindly granted for the occasion by the Rev. Mr. Fenton, first curate of Waikouaiti. About this time the Presbyterians began to think of having a church and minister for themselves. To encourage this movement, the late Mr. John Jones, of Fern Hill, Dunedin, liberally granted an acre of ground for a site and a donation of £5O in aid of the building. The building committee then formed was composed of the following persons, viz.: Messrs. James Wilson, John Smith, T. B. Neilson, James Hepburn, Charles McGregor, Robert Andrews, James Scott, and Wm. Souter. The Rev. James Kirkland, of West Taieri, then a probationer, was chairman of the first meeting of this committee, and the meeting was held in the district school, in Beach Street. Divine service was held in the same schoolroom till the church was erected. The church was originally built in Thomas Street, West Hawksbury, on a site comprising sections 10, 11, 16, 17, block XIII., and was opened for public worship in the end of July, 1863. It contained 172 sittings, and was erected by Messrs. Sommers and Gunn for the contract sum of £474. The whole cost, including extras and inspector’s fee, amounted to £492 ss. Subscription lists realised £417 2s. 6d.; a church-door collection for the building fund, made on 26th July, 1863, amounted to £2l 14s. 9d.; the entire sum subscribed at the time for the erection of the church was £438 17s. 3d. —leaving a debt of £53 17s. 9d. Besides the above sums, the congregation had paid toward preacher’s maintenance £24 13s. 7d. A still further item of £27 or thereabouts was subscribed by the ladies for minister’s gown, bands, pulpit Bible, Psalmbooks, and other

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things. The above are a few of the particulars contained in the balance-sheet and report laid before the first congregational meeting, held on the 2nd of October, 1863, and signed by Mr. James Wilson, treasurer to the building committee.

The Church might now be considered as fairly started. Debt, the great burden of congregations, was comparatively light. It appears that in the congregational report of 1865 there were only £9 18s. lOjd. of debt, and a balance of £l4 3s. 6d. in favour of the Sustentation Fund. An interruption, however, to this happy state of affairs occurred in 1866, when a severe gale of wind carried the roof off the church, and otherwise did considerable damage. Replacing the roof, with other repairs and alterations found to be necessary, incurred an account of £132 15s. Bd. To reduce this liability, £7O were raised at once, and by 1867 the entire debt was cleared off. With the exception of a few weeks, while the dismantled building was undergoing repairs, the congregation has met in it every Sabbath for divine worship for the last fifteen years, till closed on the 14th of April, 1878, to be re-erected where it now stands. In accordance with a resolution of the congregation in the beginning of the year, it has been removed to its present more central situation, with important additions, at the contract price of £272. The new portion will increase the sittings by 100, making accommodation for 272 persons.

Minister and Session,

Waikouaiti ministerial charge was at first sanctioned under the title of Hawksbury and Goodwood. During 1863 the joint congregations, having heard several probationers, gave a call to the Rev. John Christie, who was ordained on the 13th August of that year to the pastoral superintendence of the united parishes, by a commission of Dunedin Presbytery, consisting of the Rev. D. M. Stuart and the Rev. Wm. Johnstone. Leave also having been subsequently granted by the Presbytery to form sessions at Hawksbury and Goodwood, and the usual steps being taken, two elders were set apart in each place on the Bth November. The four elders were: Messrs. William Mill and Donald Malloeh for Hawksbury, and T. B. Neilson and John Craig for Goodwood. The first meeting of session was held on the 27th December, 1863, and appointed the first regular sacrament to be dispensed on the third Sabbath of January, 1864. In 1866 two more office-bearers were added to the roll of the session: Messrs. John Smith and Alexander Stewart were

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elected and ordained in that year. .Mr. Stewart, on account of bodily infirmity, withdrew from the eldership in 1870. In 1871 the session was still farther increased by the election and ordination of Messrs. David Gardiner and George Hardie. -Mr. Ilardie, teacher, Flag .Swamp, resigned his eldership on leaving the district for a situation in .Southland, in 1874, and Wm. Mill had also withdrawn by this time. The places of those who had thus left were supplied by Messrs. John Duncan and James Scott, who were elected and ordained to office in 1875. Mr. Donald Malloch resigned in 1876, and Mr. David Gardiner in 1877. There are at present three elders in office.

Connection with Goodwood and Palmerston.

It will be necessary here to bear in mind the fact that Goodwood congregation was associated with Hawksbury from 1863 till 1865, but possessing a separate session and managing committee of its own. At the latter date the congregation of Goodwood became merged in that of Palmerston, with which the same relationship was maintained till 1870. The Presbyterians set to work and erected a church, which was opened on the 6th of August, 1865, for public worship, by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Burns, Dunedin. In January, 1870, Palmerston congregation, having applied to the Synod of Otago and Southland, was disjoined from Waikouaiti. The congregation, being relieved by the disjunction from Palmerston, opened a preach-ing-station at Flag Swamp, which forms a portion of Waikouaiti ministerial charge, receiving weekly religious services, which artheld in the schoolroom. Thus the year 1870 formed an important era in the history of this congregation. Hitherto it had the companionship and assistance of Goodwood for two, and Palmerston for four years, but it was now thrown entirely on its own resources. It is pleasant to be able to state that, during the period of connection, Goodwood and Palmerston honourably bore their share in the maintenance of ordinances, and wrought with this congregation over these six years in uninterrupted harmony. It will therefore be easily understood how Waikouaiti congregation began its independent career with some misgiving. The Presbyterian families were not numerous or wealthy, and there was little prospect of any increase; but congregations, like individuals, must submit to the inevitable, so the people accepted their condition and prepared themselves to meet events. Arrangements were at once entered into to take up the anatentatioo fund quarterly, instead of half-yearly, as had been the practice hitherto. The result showed the wisdom

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of the plan adopted, as the sum collected quarterly was about equal to what before had been raised in the half-year. There can be no doubt of this being a proof of the advantage of frequent gatherings for objects of this nature. Small offerings taken up often are less burdensome to the contributors, and at the same time more money is obtained. The position anxiously desired by the congregation with respect to this fund has not, yet been attained, nevertheless it has more than kept its ground, even making progress, and has done more for the fund than it promised or thought itself at one time able to do.

Managing Committee.

The business of the congregation has all along been attendee! to by managers, elected yearly at the annual congregational meeting. It is only justice to say that the Church Managing Committee has done its work most satisfactorily. The elders make it a point to attend and take an active part in all the meetings. At the annual congregational meeting in 1866, according to the recommendation of Presbytery, the formation of a deacon's court was considered at some length; but it was agreed to continue the management by a committee. The method of conducting the business of the Church with which the committee set out in 1863 has been substantially adhered to ever since. Meetings of managers have been held, on an average, about once a month.

Dispensation of Ordinances.

The sacrament has been celebrated twice in the year, accompanied by fast-days and other religious services during the previous week. The number of communicants at the first sacrament is not recorded, but the roll made up in 1865 contains 85 names. During the past fifteen years there have been 57 disjunctions b}' certificate; received from other congregations by certificate, 84; admitted to the fellowship of the Church for the first time by the session. 59; marked on the roll as having left the bounds, 15; number of members deceased, 12. Eight hundred and twenty baptisms have been dispensed; 105 marriages have been celebrated. Prayer-meetings have been held once a week in the church, and occasionally cottage or district meetings.

Manse.

Up till 1867, or for the first four yeai-Sj the office-bearers rented a dwelling for the minister. Efforts were several times

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made to procure a site for a manse and glebe, but without success. In 1867 the present manse and ground were purchased from Mr. Oliver. Half-way Bush, for £315. Two years after the purchase, £165 of debt were paid off, with the aid of £lOO from the Trust Fund, leaving a debt balance of £l5O, which has been discharged some time ago. On account of the unfinished state of the manse when it came into the possession of the Church, considerable sums have at various times been spent on it. The roof was covered anew with corrugated iron; several rooms have been lined, one room added to the building, the grounds laid off and planted, and the house made as efficient as the design of the structure will admit. About two years ago a movement was set on foot to dispose of the present manse by sale, and erect another on the new site beside the church; the proposal, however, was on consideration delayed ; but the congregation has not lost sight of having at some future period the church and manse together.

Sabbath School and Bible Class.

A Sabbath school for the young in connection with the Church was established on October 4th, 1863. It was opened with twelve pupils and one teacher—Mr. Robert Andrews. It has had four superintendents in succession. Mr. John Smith has been superintendent for thirteen years. There are at present about 100 children, with a staff of eight teachers. A Sabbath school library was instituted in 1867, and contains 300 volumes. A young men and women's Bible class was instituted in 1870, and conducted by the minister on Sabbath evenings, with an attendance varying from twenty to thirty. It was supplanted by the commencement of regular Sabbath evening services in 1875.

The Sustentation Fund from August, 1863, to December, 1877.

Waikouaiti and Goodwood.—lB63 and 1864, £219 6s.

Waikouaiti and Palmerston.—lB6s, £192 7s. 6d.; £lB4 Bs.; 1867, £2OO 18s. 6d.; 1868, £196 7s. 4d.; 1869, £256 3s.

WaikouaitL—lB7o, £l6l 95.; 1871. £159 145. ; 1872, £160; 1873, £160; 1874, £163; 1875, £195; 1876, £2Ol 175.; 1577. £202 ss. sd.

Reopening of the Church, 1878.

Sabbath, the 29th of September. 1878, waa appointed for this purpose. The morning being wet prevented the expected assemblage from gathering. Many, however, bused the storm

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and the muddy paths to be present. Those from a distance arrived in vehicles and on horseback. Divine service was conducted by the Rev. Dr. Stuart, who gave two excellent and suitable morning and evening sermons. He also addressed the children of the Sabbath school in the afternoon, with a number of the parents and others, and found an attentive and appreciative audience.

A soiree was held on the Tuesday following. The teaspread was prepared in the Mechanics’ Hall, and was very tastefully and sumptuously provided by the ladies of the congregation. Many willing hands rendered assistance, and thus made the labour light. The tables were visited by at least five relays of consumers, who did ample justice to the eatables. When the tea and talk were ended, all adjourned to the church. The meeting was then opened with praise and prayer. Apologies were read from the Rev. Dr. Stuart and the Rev. B. Vanes.

The Chairman, the Rev. J. Christie, alluded to the late Mr. John Jones as entitiled to grateful remembrance, and to Episcopal and Wesleyan friends and others, as having shown good feeling in several ways to the congregation; and read a brief outline of events associated with the church since its first erection, in 1863.

The Rev. James Clark, Palmerston, spoke of the Bible as a grand promoter of civilisation, social order, and as guiding the steps of men to a happy immortality.

The Rev. A. M. Pinlayson pointed out in his address that a church had a higher value than the amount of money spent in its erection. It was a Bethel, a house of God, and a Bethlehem, a house of bread, to the Christian.

Mr. John Duncan, Cherry Farm, pressed the importance of liberality in the maintenance of religious ordinances, adducing Scripture precept and example to enforce the duty.

Mr. J. Mackay drew attention to the progress of the country during the last fifteen years in population, mails, roads, railways, churches, etc., and the privileges and responsibilities resulting therefrom.

The choir, led by Mr. Pitcher, the precentor, gave a number of selected hymns from the third edition of Sankey's collection. The usual votes of thanks to the ladies, choir, architect, and chairman were proposed, and carried with applause. The sums raised at the opening services and soiree amounted to £5O; by subscription lists to building fund, £200; missionary box, £1 12s. Entire amount from all sources, £251 12s. The removal, with additions, will cost about £4OO.

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Episcopal Churches and Parsonage,

St. John's Episcopal Church, West Hawksbury, was built about the year 1858, on a glebe of ten acres gifted by Mr. John -Jones, with an additional endowment of 46 quarter-acre township sections. It was tit ted to accommodate 75 people. The building was erected by Mr. Jones; the seats and furniture were supplied by the congregation. An enlargement was made in 1877, which renders it capable of holding 100 persons. The cost of additions and repairs amounted to £2OO. The Rev. J. A. Penton was the first curate, and entered on the charge in the beginning of 1859. Mr. Fenton was succeeded by the Rev. A. Dasent, in 1864. Mr. Dasent resigned in April, 1875, and was succeeded by the Rev. E. 11. Granger.

St. Mary’s Church, Palmerston, was built by subscription, and accommodates 100 persons. This handsome stone edifice was opened for public worship in March, 1872. The cost of erection was £BOO. Services are supplied by Waikouaiti incumbent.

St. Barnabas’ Church, Warrington, was built in 1872, and was opened for divine service in November of that year. The cost of erection was about £6OO. It is a neat structure, and the enclosure in which it stands is laid off with taste, and trimly kept. Since its consecration, services have been held by the Rev. F. L. Stanley, from Dunedin. It has accommodation for 80 people.

The Parsonage stands in West Hawksbury, immediately adjoining the church, built in 1858. It was also the gift of Mr. Jones to the Episcopalians. It is nicely situated, and surrounded by a tasteful garden with shady bluegums and ornamental shrubs. Some additions have been recently made to the buildings, which render them more suitable and commodious. It is a most desirable residence, being easily accessible from Beach Street and near to the railway station and the sea.

Wesleyan Church

The Wesleyan body in the locality began to be organised in 1863, under the Rev. J. Hardin?. The church was erected in the latter part of that year by Messrs. McEachen and Eden. contractors for the labour. It was erected on a site granted by Mr. Jones, between Henry and Thomas Streets. In 1878 it was shifted to a new site in Beach Street. The congregation has all along been small and struggling. It has generally been on the list of home mission stations, and supplied by local'preachers

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or by young men serving their probationary term with a view to the regular ministry. The following persons have officiated for longer or shorter periods since 186:5:—The Revs. 11. Flamank, J. Reeves, McNichol, J. Gilbert, J. Gray, and B. Vanes. For the most part of the time referred to above, a Sabbath school has been conducted with a fair attendance.

Roman Catholic Church.

A few Roman Catholics had taken up their residence in the locality along with the other settlers, in 1862-63. Mr. John Jones gave them an acre of ground, between Henry and Thomas Streets, on which they erected a church, in 1868, at a cost of about £2OO. Religious services are occasionally held by a visiting clergyman.

Schools. —Public District School

A public school was established in Waikouaiti in 1861. The schoolroom and teacher’s dwelling were erected on two acres of land in the lower end of Beach Street, granted for school purposes by the late Mr. John Jones. Mr. Francis Franks was the first teacher. During the time Mr. Franks was in office the school attendance increased from twenty to thirty pupils. Mr. Pranks having resigned, Mr. James Philips was appointed, in 1865. Mr. Philips had an attendance of about thirty-five during his first year. In 1869 there was a demand for more accommodation. By application to the Education Board the Committee secured the erection of a substantial building, on an education reserve of half an acre in the Government township, sufficiently large to accommodate 100 children. Some three or four years afterwards another acre was added to the playground from the police paddock. The school was opened in the new building in January, 1870, with an attendance of 75 children. In the same year Miss Kate Russell was appointed female teacher. Miss Russell resigned in 1872, and was succeeded by Miss Jane Millar in the same year. To provide accommodation for 110 pupils now in attendance, the old schoolroom was removed from Beach Street and attached to the main building. Miss Millar having resigned, Miss Mary Sinclair was appointed in 1873. To meet the work required by the influx of scholars, which had reached 140 in 1874, Miss Louisa Woolley was appointed pupil teacher. On the resignation of Miss Sinclair, Miss Maria Thompson was appointed her successor in the year 1875. Another pupil teacher being required, Miss Janet Mill was appointed. The crowded state of the school during 1876

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led to the addition of a new room, to contain 100 scholars, which was opened in January, 1877. In this year the committee made application to the board for a second master, but the contemplated change in the general education scheme for New Zealand prevented action being taken. Mr. Philips, head master, and Miss Woolley, senior pupil teacher, resigned in 1877, and Mr. Samuel Moore, being appointed, commenced duty in January,. 1878. School attendance at the close of 1877 was 225. Miss Thomson resigned in the end of 1878, and Miss Harriet Darton succeeded, entering on her duties in the beginning of the following year. In 1878 a second master, Mr. W. Maule, was appointed. Attendance in 1878 was 290. Another new room was aided in 1879. Steps are in progress to have a new residence for the teacher, adjoining the school buildings.

Private School.

A school for private tuition was opened in September. 1874. in the Oddfellows' Hall, by Miss Jane Millar. Between thirty and forty pupils, on an average, were in attendance. On account of the general education scheme coming into force in 1878, Miss Millar gave it up, and accepted an appointment in Dunedin High School in February of that year.

Post Office.

Waikouaiti post office was originally kept at Messrs. Baird's store, Beach Street, now the Municipal Council Chambers of West Hawksbury. In 1864 a post office building was erected in the vicinity of the court house and police camp, in the Government township, which served for a telegraph station as welL till 1874, when the offices were removed to the Main North Road, and the old building sold to Mr. Wm. McDougall, who turned it into a private cottage. Letters, papers, and books passing weekly through the post office in 1878 were as follows: —Letters. 400; papers, 100; books, 20.

Library and Mechanics' Hall

The library was instituted in 1862, principally through the exertions of the Rev. J. A. Fenton and Miss Emily Orbell. The nucleus of the library was a donation of fifty volumes from Mr. Fenton, with contributions of books from other persons, making in all about 100 volumes. The books were first kept in the recently-erected schoolroom. Shortly after the commencement of the library a subscription of £5O, with a subsidy of another £5O, greatly increased the quantity of reading matter. The

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members of the first committee were: .Messrs. 11. Williams, F. Franks, J. Bates, J. A. Chapman, M. Orbell, J. S. Mitchell, Thomas Whinam, and the Rev. A. Dasent. Except a short time at the start, it was held in a building in Geelong Street, known as the Athenaeum. In 1872 it was removed to Commercial Row, where it remained for two years. Through several additions made to it, the library, in 1878, contained 1,071 volumes, consisting of a selection of books on geography, history, travels, science, natural history, poetry, and novels. It has been maintained by a body of subscribers, with assistance from the Otago Education Board, and a grant, in 1878, of £3O from Waikouaiti County Council. For the first ten years the annual subscription per member was £1; since 1872 it has been 10s. The average income from members and readers is about £2O per year. A name deserving honourable mention in connection with the library is that of the Rev. A. Dasent, who acted as chairman, secretary, and treasurer from 1863 till 1874.

The Mechanics’ Hall was built by the Waikouaiti Mechanics’ Institute Company Limited, in 1872. The capital of £3OB was raised in shares of £1 per share. The site of the building was the gift of Mr. W. Isaac to the inhabitants of Waikouaiti, and comprises one-quarter acre of land. Mr. T. S. Pratt is credited with making the arrangement with Mr. Isaac. Being built by contract, it was erected at a cost of £225. Mr. D. Ross, Dunedin, was the architect. About £75 were paid for painting, lamps, and fittings. The first directors were: Messrs. T. S. Pratt, W. James, A. G. Reid, T. Whinam, J. Latham, E. W. Durden, D. Malloch, Wm. McDougall, and J. Drumm. In September, 1873, it was proposed that a building for the library should be added to the hall, when it was agreed that the directors meet the library committee and consult with them as to the advisability of such a plan. After many interviews, it was arranged that the library committee buy the hall for £l6O. Messrs. Pizey and Orbell were successful in purchasing the 308 shares for £l7l, and in April, 1875, the hall was handed over to Mr. W. C. Aneell, secretary to the library committee, together with a sum of £45 7s. 9d., which remained in the hands of the liquidators, Messrs. Orbell, Gill and Pizey. The income of the hall will vary from £5O to £7O annually. It has also an endowment of fifty acres of land, worth £25 per annum. Mr. W. C. Aneell acted as secretary and treasurer from 1874 till 1878. The property is vested in Messrs. J. W. Murdoch, H. Orbell, and R. Oxley as trustees for the inhabitants of Wai-

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kouaiti A committee of seven members, elected annually at a meeting of the subscribers, attends to the business, meeting once a month.

Burying Grounds.

The ancient cemeteries, as might be expected, are at the Maori kaik. One is beside the present native church, and close to the railway. A more ancient burial place is beside the old Wesleyan mission house, on the terrace above the river mouth. There were many other native burial places among the sandhills near the coast, where bones of Maoris have been found—th<> position of the bones indicating the sitting posture of the corpse when bnried.

The modern public cemeteries are at Hawksbury (Government towship), Palmerston, Macrae’s Flat, Blueskin, Merton, and Brinn’s Point. Hawksbury cemetery was surveyed in 1866, and the following managers appointed by His Honour the Superintendent of Otago, viz.: Messrs. Mill, Malloch, Chambers, Dyson, Oxley, Whinam, Drumm, and Hanley.

On the 28th of May, 1866, in accordance with the request of the inhabitants of Shag Valley, Palmerston, and Goodwood, the following were appointed managers of the public cemetery at Palmerston, viz.: Messrs. John Muir, T. B. Neilson, J. P. Hepburn, J. Runciman, W. Cochrane, and J. Gilmour.

There are private buryincr grounds attached to West Hawksbury and Goodwood Episcopal Churches. In 1879 a public cemetery was set apart at Merton, near the Presbyterian Church.

Associations.—Agricultural and Pastoral Association.

This society was instituted in 1865. John Jones, F. D. Rich, and John Douglas, Esqs., have successively been presidents. The vice-presidents have been: Messrs. P. D. Rich. M. Todd, Wm. Mackenzie, and 11. Orbell. The members of the first committee were: Dr. Nelson. Messrs. J. R. Jones. A. Oliver. J. Preston. R. Mitchell, C. McGregor, Thomas Jones, J. P. Hepburn, J. Muir. Wm. Mitchell. M. Todd, J. Diack. E. W. Burden. Wm. Logie, and Wm. Muirson. In 1878 the names of the committee were as follows, viz.: Messrs. A. Bannatyne, D. Malloch, Wm. Hecklar, J. C. Buckland. J. Diack, R. Jeffries. T. Butters, Wm. Ooutts. A. Little. J. Cochrane, C. McGregor, M. Todd. D. Kennedy. Wm. Souter. A. Morrison, and T. Dent. Mr. Wm. Cowan has been secretary since the beginning of the association, and Mr. W. A. Yonng was treasurer for some years, till 1879.

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The members of the association have varied from 80 to 100 gentlemen. Among those who have been most successful in Taking prizes may be mentioned Messrs. John Duncan, Win. Hecklar, A. Bannatyne, J. V. W. Diaok, M. and W. Todd. T. Dent, Win. Souter, Win. Puddy, Charles Reid, A. Dempster, A. Annan, Wm. Cowan, and Little Bros. It shows the estimation in which several of the active members are held as judges of cattle, in that they have been frequently called on to judge at the exhibitions of other associations. Among those who have been thus honoured are the names of Messrs. C. McGregor, A. Bannatyne, M Todd, Wm. Hecklar, Wm. Souter, J. Muir, T. Dent, and Wm. Puddy. Though many methods of selecting judges have been suggested, the association has hitherto adhered to choosing and appointing its own judges—making it a point to fix on men who have acquired a reputation in special departments. An exception to the usual custom was made in 1878, when the judges for dairy produce were nominated by kindred societies.

At the exhibitions of the society the prizes awarded range from 7s. 6d. to £3 3s. Between £lOO and £2OO are spent annually on prizes. The exhibitions have been held alternately at Waikouaiti and Balmerston. On account of the exhibitions, great improvements are alleged to have taken place in the breed of stock, both as respects quality and value. A special opportunity is thereby afforded to breeders to compare results, and thus ascertain where, and in what direction, improvements can be effected. Any dispute arising comes before the committee in the form of a protest, and its decision on the point is final. Cattle exhibits are arranged in five sections: first, Shorthorns; second, Ayrshires; third, any other breed; fourth, dairy cows in pairs; fifth, fat stock. The Ayrshire breed of cows for dairy purposes is fast gaining ground. Horses are arranged in three main sections; first, draught horses and mares; second, thoroughbreds; third, hacks. Special attention has been devoted to the draught Clydesdale breed, with great success. This horse has risen into high favour in the colony, where his merits are duly appreciated, both in waggon and plough.

Sheep are arranged in the showyard in four sections: first, Merinos; second, long-woolled Leicesters; third, long-woolled Lincolns; fourth, fat sheep.

Brizes are also awarded for swine, dairy produce, poultry, bacon, garden produce, and agricultural implements. The entires in all classes on T9th December, 1879, were 620. The association has all along been maintained with enthusiasm, and

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every succeeding year has witnessed an increase in the variety and excellence of the exhibits. Oamaru Cup. worth £3O, was gained by Mr. Wm. Cowan, Lower Tumai. in November, 1877.

Band of Hope and Total Abstinence Association. On January 29th, 1873, a meeting was held in the schoolroom at which a Band of Hope and Total Abstinence Association was formed, of which the Rev. J. Christie was president. The following persons were elected as a committee:—Messrs. Grey, Muir. Fry. Bates, Proctor, Apes, Thomson, Wilson, and Smith. Messrs. .Smith and Pearson were appointed secretary and treasurer. Mr. D. Malloeh gave a donation of 16s. This association existed till a Good Templar Lodge was opened in November of the same year.

Good Templars

The Order of Good Templars was established in Waikouaiti on November 9th, 1873. Eleven members joined the Lodge at its commencement. For the first three or four years it drew together a number of people of both sexes, and has exercised a salutary influence on the general community. The highest number on the roll at one time was about 170. Since 1877 the membership and attendance have decreased, but the temperance cause hs gained a footing in the district that will not be easily unsettled. The movement gave a decided blow to the drinking usages of the place, and diffused a healthy abstinence sentiment that will not soon pass away. Drunkenness still continues, but it is less bold and open, and many who renounced the bottle have not returned to the degrading indulgence.

Oddfellows.

Waikouaiti Lodge of Oddfellows was instituted on the 29th of August, 1866. It commenced with a membership of nine. By 1878 the number of members had increased to fifty, ft is named the Royal Prince Alfred Lodge, No. 5467. Its branch name is the Otago District. The title of the order to which it belongs is the Manchester Unity, Independent, shortened into M.TJ.1.0.F. Since its origin, till 1878, it has afforded relief to 27 cases. These cases would be equal to the support of one for 182 weeks. Only three deaths up to the present date have taken place among the members. The meetings are held on every alternate Wednesday, at the Oddfellows* Hall, Camp Street. Hawksbury.

Sons of Temperance.- A division of this order was opened in the town of Hawksbury in 1878, with a prospect of success

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Volunteer Rifles.

This military corps was initiated on September 26th, 1864. when a public meeting was held, at which Mr. W. J. Hull, agent of New Zealand Bank, acted as chairman. On October 4th a second meeting was held, and a memorial drawn up to lay before the Superintendent of Otago, requesting that they might be provided with arms and uniforms. On November 18th 2+ members were sworn. Mr. Blair Fullerton was elected Captain. Mr. W. J. Hull Lieutenant, and Mr. W. C. Ancell Sub Lieutenant. After a short time the movement collapsed, but was resuscitated in 1868, and on January 19th of that year a meeting was held and 44 members enrolled. Mr. Graham Orbell was chosen Lieutenant and Mr. F. Wain Sub-Lieutenant. In 1869 rifle competition was commenced, and contests held every three months. The conditions of the corps for a number of years has experienced little change. According to a report of 1878, the corps was fifty strong, with two officers, three sergeants, and forty-five rank and file. Henry Orbell, Esq., Captain, and Mr. W. C. Ancell, Lieutenant.

Drum and Fife Band

This band has sixteen members, of which Mr. D. Sutherland is leader. The instruments used are twelve fifes, one bass drum and a tenor, and a triangle. They were procured by a subscription among the inhabitants. The band was organised on November 11th, 1867, and is under the care of the Rifle Volunteer Company.

Choral Society

For a short period during 1877 and 1878 a choral society existed. It was organised on the 20th October of the former year. The conductor was Mr. E. Campbell, agent of Bank of New Zealand. It had eighteeen members; ten males and eight females. The meetings were held once a week in the Mechanics’ Hall. During the term of its existence a successful concert was given on behalf of the funds of the library.

Stores.

Mr. John Jones’ Beach Street store was commenced in 1860, and taken charge of by Mr. R. Oxley. Shortly after its erection it was filled with goods to the value of £24,000. The building was removed to a new site on the Main North Road in 1870. Since the death of Mr. Jones it has been leased by Mr. Oxlev from the trustees of Mr. Jones’ estate. The stone erection

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occupied by the Post Office, Telegraph Station, and County Council Chambers formed a portion of the Beach Street store till removed to the present site.

Among the earliest stores in Hawksbury was the one belonging to D. and .J. Malloch Bros., on the Main Xorth Road. It was established in 1862, and leased for upwards of a year to the Baird Bros. Messrs. Walter and Adam Lennox occupied it for a further term of two years. When the Main Xorth Road was formed the store was left on a high bank, above a roadcutting. The high bank was thereupon cut down to the road level and the present building erected, which has been occupied as a store by the Brothers D. and J. Malloch since 1866.

Horticulture

The nursery and fruit gardens. Main Xorth Road, a property of Mr. George Anderson. They were established in 1866, and occupy about four acres of ground, laid out in orchard, nursery, vegetable, and flower allotments. The work of the gardens employs three or four persons the whole of the year. A great variety of fruit and forest trees have been successfully reared from imported seeds. Not a few of the private gardens and orchards of the district, as also many of the hawthorn hedges that fence the roadsides and subdivide the fields of the farmers, have been supplied from the nursery beds. The fruit trees that have come to perfection are the apple, pear, plum, grape vine, cherry, peach, quince, apricot, fig, gooseberry, currant, and raspberry. Culinary herbs and roots trrow luxuriantly, as rhubarb, asparagus, seakale, and artichokes. Strawberries also prove a successful crop. Mr. Anderson keeps an extensive stock of all kinds of trees, shrubs, and flowers for iise and ornament as grow freely throughout the County.

Mr. W. Pickup commenced the cultivation of his nursery and flower gardens in West Ilawksbury in 1870. They are of small extent, but capable of raising many useful trees and plants. The gardens will prove an interesting ornament to the part of the town in which they are situated. Private gardening has also been pursued for many years by Messrs. W. Reid. A. Affleck, and George Brown. Strawberry culture has been started in 1879 on an extensive scale, in the Government township, by .Ali-. Marshall.

Almost nil Home or European trees, plants, and vegetables •will thrive well in the County where there is sufficient soil for them to grow in. The favourite kinds of pines that have a

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specially rapid growth are the pinus insignis and macrocarpi Moderately hardy evergreens will, in some instances, preserve their foliage during the winter. Fruit trees suffer from hot and strong winds, that chafe the leaves and shake off the immature fruit. American blight has shown itself in somegardens during the last few years, while it has not appeared in others. A careful selection of plants from clean nurseries is a preventative. Red spider occasionally makes its appearance. For some years it has almost entirely disappeared, but in the present year, 1880, has returned.

Fruits, vegetables, and flowers require shelter from the prevailing winds by hedges or plantations. Small fruit grows to perfection with little trouble, such as currants, gooseberries, and strawberries. Peaches, apricots, and other delicate fruit trees succeed well if placed against the sunny side of a wall. Vines do not thrive in the open air. The finest kinds of fruit are not the thriftiest, unless very carefully attended to with regard to shelter, soil, and management.

Accommodation Houses.

The earliest house of this description was erected by Mr Joseph Beal, about the year 1858, in front of Hawksbury Bush, for the entertainment of the early up-country runholders. The house and lands adjoining have since become the property of Mr. Robert Pearson. In 1862, all along the main route to the Dunstan, accommodation houses were established by private enterprise, besides other places that were called shanties. The latter were often tents or sod huts where drink was sold toswagmen. In some instances they improved into accommodation houses or hotels. Among the most prominent of these houses was that of Mr. J. S. Young. Pleasant Valley; Mr. J. Kitchen, Palmerston; Mr. J. 11. Gilligan, Shag Valley; Messrs. Leek and Morrison, at Coal Creek. Pigroot Accommodation House was the stage where the Dunedin coach rested for the night.

Old Houses.

The oldest building in Otasro is al tlio Maori Kaik. A portion of the Mission House, built for the Rev. Mr. Watkin. still stands, and was erected in 1840. Mr. Jones' residence at Matanaka was built in 1843, and the next erected was Mr. John Orbell's house in Hawksbury, in 1848. Probably the next in the order of time would be the residence of Mr. David Dickson. of Bhieskin.

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River Fords and Bridges,

In the early days the river was crossed at fording places. The riverbed is, in some parts, soft and dangerous, especially after floods. There was, as there is still, a crossing-place near the river mouth at low tide. This was the ancient wading-place of the Maoris, which gave name to the stream. A principal ford in use after the main road was opened, and before the bridge was erected, was at Cherry Farm gate. The crossing-place for Europeans who travelled by the Mountain Track to Dunedin was near Cherry Farm buildings, and called Wild Dog Ford. The first bridge over Waikouaiti River, constructed of timber, was built in 1864. hi 1878 it became unsafe, and was taken down, and the new one constructed of stone piers with timber planking.

"Waikouaiti Herald."

This local newspaper was started in October, 1864. The first issue appeared on the 27th of the above-named month. Messrs. Matthews and Carrick were for a few months associated with the enterprise, but for eleven years of its existence it was chiefly in the hands of Messrs. Pratt and Gill. It began with a weekly issue of about 350 copies, and in 1876, when it ceased, it had an issue, probably, of 450. Over the whole period of its existence it may be said to have sent forth 5,000 copies into the district and other parts of the country. The office of the Herald was in the lower end of Beach Street, in an unpretentious, barnlike structure. From five to seven hands were employed in the Waikouaiti Press. The paper took an active interest in most of the local, general, and political questions of its day. Its pages were usually well occupied in local election seasons. The correspondence columns afforded a ready safety valve for outbursts of exuberant humour or irrepressible resentment. It sent forth a weekly burden of grievances, and not unfrequently the hopeless wail of unappreciated wisdom. It was forward in advocating reserves for public institutions, and in its own way interviewed order and progress. The Herald had the opportunity of watching, fostering, and helping forward several institutions that have become permanent and of undeniable benefit. In 1876 a newspaper company was formed at Palmerston, to which the plant and goodwill of the Herald was sold; so that the same press supplies to the locality the weekly issue of the Palmerston and Waikouaiti Times.

Waikouaiti Herald had a somewhat precarious and chequered career. It had the difficulty of contending with the con-

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flicting views and personal interests of a small community. It is no more within the power of a newspaper than it is within the power of a single person to represent and please everybody. The impossibility of giving universal satisfaction was fully realised in the experience of the Herald. Its field was also narrowed by the Dunedin dailies and weeklies, with their frequent and larger quantities of reading matter. A rigid economy enabled it to exist as long as it did. Proprietors and editors were earnest, persevering, and industrious men, but the current of events was against them, and the enterprise may be looked upon as a struggle and a failure. Mr. Thomas Slater Pratt, for many years principal editor of the Herald, did not long survive its extinction. He died in January, 1879.

Fisheries.

Sea-fishing enterprises have at various times been entered into at different points on the coast. All of them have only had f. verv ii m ited success. It should rather be said they have been failures. The shores are stormy; changes come suddenly. There are no good sheltering places to flee to in a gale. Even when there is comparatively fine weather on land the sea is rough, with heavy swells, which makes the work difficult and the fish less willing to be captured. The unsteady employment, waiting on the weather, subjects the fishermen to considerable loss. Fishcuring has also been attempted, but with no success. The preserved fish have not kept. It is supposed that the climate is either too warm or the fish too fat for taking on the pickle. Men from curing establishments in the north and west of Scotland and other places, with considerable experience in the work, have not as yet succeeded. It would seem that some system not yet applied is necessary. The kinds of fish found are: cod, butterfish, groper, mullet, barracouta. gurnard, flounders, and frostfish. The fishing season extends from January to May. It is said that the fish are not so plentiful now on the coast as they once were. One reason alleged is the absence of kelp from the bay, which was at one period filled with it. With the kelp have departed the finny tribes. Some, again, attribute the decrease of fish to the number of sharks that infest the shoal reefs. But there may be other causes not easily ascertained. Porpoises appear to be plentiful. Persons walking on the beach can watch their gambols in their search for food among the breakers. Fishing was at one time prosecuted by the Maoris, but it does not now receive any attention from them. A few fishermen live

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beside the bay, who, with praiseworthy, perseverance, pursue the precarious calling, and more or less regularly supply the tables of the inhabitants with the luxuries of the ocean. Several kinds of fish also ascend the streams at certain seasons of the year, and are readily taken with the net or bait. Eels, lampreys, and flounders abound in the lagoons and streams, but are objected to for the table on account of their clayey taste. Shellfish of various species is also abundant—as the crab, whelk, limpet, clam, and mussel.

I'Lour Mills.

Anderson's Waikouaiti flour mill stands on the Main North Road, in the township of Hawksbury. It is a large iron structure, built in 1872, and is the property of Mr. James Anderson, Dunedin. The machinery is driven by a steam engine of about twelve horsepower. It has been a great advantage to the grain growers of the district since its establishment, and has turned out many an excellent ton of flour for the bread market. The store with which the mill is connected was started, in 1863, by Mr. John Merritt, but was burned down the same year. After being rebuilt, the site and business were purchased by Anderson and Co., and reopened as a grain, chaff, and general store, which has all along been under the management of Mr. Robert Shand. Cherry Farm flour mill was erected by Mr. John Jones, in 1862. which, along with a steam engine, brought out from England, and three small brick cottages, cost the sum of £B,OOO. The length of the main building is about 57ft., in width 36ft., width of wing 12ft., length of wing 24ft., length of engine shed 36ft., and of the same width as the rest of the building. The mill has three storeys and an attic. It ceased to work in 1564. Mv. Jones would not grist for the settlers; he would only purchase their grain. To this they objected; so, after grinding the wheat grown on Cherry Farm for two seasons, and a few hundred bags procured from the Maoris at the Kaik. the mill was shut up.

Stone Houses, Timber Yards, Brewery, and Brickfield.

Buildings of stone are few. There are eight in Shag Valley, all built since 1864, viz.: two churches, three hotels, two farmsteads, and what was originally office of Otago Hank. Hawksbury has the Presbyterian manse. Bank of New Zealand, and Mr. Jones' old store; and in Goodwood the residence of Mr. Kilgour. of Brooklands, is of stone. Good stone for mason work has not yet become easily accessible.

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The absence of suitable building stone has necessitated a large consumption of timber. And, on account of the local supply from the native bush being limited, nearly the whole of the building material has been imported. Mr. Wm. Mill has been among the earliest, as well as the largest, importers of timber and ironmongery. He came to Waikouaiti in 1860, and shortly afterwards opened his timber yards. Mr. Thomas Whinam's timber yards, in Beach Street, opened a little later, were closed in December, 1879. During the years 1868 and 1869 Mr. F. Franks made an attempt to establish a brewery, which was designated the Pierian Spring, but the enterprise proved a failure. Mr. J. Pemberton's brickyard has been for many years in active use on the Main North Road, Government township.

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CHAPTER XI.

Districts. —Goodwood District.

The district of Goodwood takes its name from the Goodwood Estate. It may be described as stretching from the lower portion of Pleasant River to the lower Shag Valley, and bounded on the east by the sea, and on the north and west by a line at some distance from the principal district road, and nearly parallel to it. In the order of settlement it was next to Waikouaiti. Mr. B. Suisted and his household were its first European inhabitants. There were no other families till 1853, when Mr. Wm. Dalrymple settled on Brooklands, and Messrs. Edward Swallow, Senr., Wm. Kennard, Senr., Joseph Preston, Donald McNiehol, Samuel Woolley, and Wm. Madams took up properties just outside the boundary of Goodwood Estate. The later settlers gathered into the district in 1861, when the remaining unsold land w r as placed on the market by the Otago Provincial Council. These were: Messrs. J. Craig, J. and G. Sutherland, J. Chisholm, A. McLaren, and A. Wright.

The Main North Road was first surveyed through Goodwood. By that route the Dunedin-Oamaru mail was conveyed. When Mr. David Hutcheson began to carry the mail, in 1859, he passed through Goodwood. The mail being carried on horseback, men were employed in making culverts on the worst of the creeks, to make them passable for the postman. The post office was kept by Mr. Wm. Kennard from 1859 to 1863, when it was removed to Palmerston and placed in charge of Mr. T. Davis, of Palmerston Hotel, for three years. For some time it was kept at Mr. R. Johnstone's store, till the present post office was erected. It was a great disappointment to the Goodwood people when the Main North Road was surveyed through Pleasant Valley and Palmerston. The opening of the road by this new route took from them the highway, school, Presbyterian Church, and post office.

Episcopal Church

This church was erected in 1861 by Mr. John Jones, in conjunction with the early settlers. Mr. Jones contributed two acres of land for the site, and the timber for the building. The

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settlers raised, by subscription, the cost of the labour. It has accommodation for nearly one hundred persons. It was granted to the Presbyterians of Goodwood for divine service during 1863 and 1864 for a small rent, till a church was built at Palmerston. Fortnightly services are still maintained in it by the Episcopal curate of Waikouaiti.

Private Library.

It is creditable to the early inhabitants of Goodwood that they did not neglect the means of education and the acquisition of knowledge. A subscription library was for a short time maintained among them, containing upwards of one hundred volumes, which met the reading requirements of these days. Since 1860 public libraries have been established both in Waikouaiti and Palmerston, with a greater variety of books, and the private library, unsupported, has fallen into decay. Neither was religion neglected among them. Miss Dalrymple gave special attention to the young by holding a Sabbath school. About the year 1859 or 1860, a day school was established, and for a few years taught by Mr. N. McLeod, who received a subsidy from the Otago Provincial Government. The school was given up when the Otago educational scheme was launched. Mr. Suisted kept a family tutor.

Goodwood Bush is a strip of native forest two or three miles in length, beginning on Mount Royal and running in an easterly direction till it reaches the sea. It lies on the southern exposure of a low hill range. The district road passes through it near its seaward extremity. Portions of the Bush belong to the adjoining proprietors and part of it is a Government reserve. It contained at one time an abundance of good timber, but the best of it has been used up for fencing and building.

Flour Mills.

The pioneer settlers at Goodwood had no little difficulty in supplying themselves with provisions. The nearest baker’s shop was forty miles distant. There was no goods store between them and Dunedin. Household necessaries were carried on horseback from Dunedin by the Mountain Track. Residents not wealthy enough to possess a horse carried their groceries all that distance on their own backs. This labour was in some degree lessened by one or two families procuring hand mills to grind the wheat they had grown. One settler would carry his wheat several miles to his nearest neighbour who had a mill to have it ground before his family could get bread. About this time the first atte

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was made to have a flour mill driven by water in the district, if not in Otago. Mr. John Lemon, brother of Mr. Charles Lemon, who is now at the head of the New Zealand Telegraph Department, with a view to reducing the manual labour of corn-grind-ing, fixed a waterwheel in a creek, which served to drive his steel hand mill. His example was followed and improved upon by his neighbour, Mr. Edward Swallow, who lived a little further up on the same creek. To prepare his wheat for the household bread he procured in Dunedin a pair of small grindstones, which he adjusted to a waterwheel of six feet diameter and less than a single horse-power. These original flour mills were set up about the year 1857. Mr. Lemon's waterwheel, standing for years idle, has decayed and disappeared from the site of its half-forgotten uset'ulnes. .Mr. Swallow's waterwheel, supplanted by the introduction of steam power, was recently sold, and in the present year, 1880, does duty in driving a chaff cutter at Mr. J. .Morrison's accommodation house. Coal Creek.

The present district school at Goodwood was opened in the beginning of 1879, with Mrs. M. Trotter as teacher.

Flag Swamp District.

The character of Flag Swamp was what its name implies. It was an almost impassable morass, covered in some parts with shallow, stagnant water, in others with raupo, tree grass, and flax. It is a narrow valley, about five or six miles in length, with Mount Watkin standing at its head on the one hand and terminating on the other in the tidal frith of Pleasant River. Its position is midway between Hawksbury and Palmerston. The old Dunstan Track, as it was called, headed the swampiest part nearly half a mile above where the Main North Road now crosses it. It is traversed by the railway a little lower down. Flag Swamp maintains about a score of families, with a district school and teacher's residence. This little valley possesses some spots of exceedingly fertile alluvial land. It is equally well suited for dairy arid tillage. Both are industriously pursued by its thrifty inhabitants. Its lower parts are liable to inundations. Flag Swamp began to be settled in 18(1, ; nid by 1862 the land was mostly taken up and occupied. Among the earliest residents were: Messrs. Adam and Alex. Falconer. R. Sutherland, David .Martin, Wm. Souter, Alex. Stewart, Wm.. Robert, and James Mitchell. Wm. Chapman. James Magill. and James Ritchie. In this vicinity brown coal is found, but it has not been work such an extent as to prove its quality and quan'

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School and Teacher's Residence

During 1866 the residents in Flag Swamp began to take action to secure a school. A meeting was called, and a memorial on the subject proposed to lay before the Otago Education Board. While correspondence was going forward with the Education Board, Mr. A. W. McLeod opened a private school in a house rented from Mr. David Martin, settler. Through the representations of some of the settlers, Mr. McLeod received a small subsidy from the board, till 1868, when the board issued authority for the formation of a school committee, which set about the erection of a schoolhouse. Mr. A. Montgomery was appointed teacher in 1869. In the end of the same year he resigned for an appointment to North-East Valley, and was succeeded by Mr. George Hardie. A teacher's residence, separate from the schoolhouse, was erected in 1872. Mr. Hardie resigned on 20th March, 1874, and Mr. James Barton was appointed on June 20th of the same year. Mr. Barton resigned in 1878, and was succeeded by Mr. James Philips. Mr. Philips resigned in 1878, and was succeeded by Mr. \Ym. Bennett, who only taught a few months, and Mr. Pollock was appointed to the situation in the beginning of 1880.

A post office was established at the schoolhouse while Mr. Hardie was teacher. The average number of letters, books, and papers passing weekly through this post office, in 1878, was as follows:—Letters, of); newspapers. 50; books, 4.

Preaching Station.

Divine services began to be statedly held in the schoolhouse in 1870. There will be an average atendance of forty persons. It receives supply from the Waikouaiti minister. A small committee of three is elected annually, to take charge of the collections. For several years there has been a Sabbath school kept, with an attendance of from thirty to forty children, with five teachers. It possesses a well-furnished Sabbath school library. A few pounds are raised annually by the missionary boxes for the New Hebrides Mission or Dayspring Mission vessel.

A Good Templar Lodge was instituted in Flag Swamp on 26th June, 1876. It existed only a few months.

Shag Valley.

This river strata, two or three miles in width, and about thirty miles in length, is situated, for the most part, between the Horse Range and the Old Hawksbnry Hundreds. The valley has been formed by the Shag River, which flows through it in

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a south-easterly direction. The country around the source of the river is called the Waiherno. Shag Valley is entered from the south by the Main North Road and railway between Puketapu and Smyler's Peak. The road and the railway diverge from each other as they leave Palmerston, and only come into conjunction again when they reach the north side of the Horse Range. The soil of the valley is considered good, but varies considerably. It is in some parts shingly. A good quantity of mica and sand mingles with the clay, which renders the soil sharp and dry and the seasons early. A series of low ridges lying on both sides of the river flat, being the fragments of an old geological plain, terraced by the action of water, are exceedingly well suited for cultivation. The largest amount of settlement is located on these water-furrowed slopes, and bountiful harvests of yellow grain are annually gathered from them. The land in Shag Valley was placed in the market in 1864, and was soon occupied by a large body of settlers. The following names were among the early residents: —Messrs. John Muir, J. McAU, J. Neil, R. Steel, D. Guffie, J. McKenzie, D. Ross. A. Gilmour, G. Park. J. Millar. D. McLeod, A. Pagan, W. Cochrane, Thorn. Falconer, H. Williams, Dr. Nelson. 8 Bowman, J. Hewitt, M. Todd, F. D. Rich, J. and J. Runciman, J. Milne, R. Hunter, R. Drysdale, D. Howden, J. Geddes. .1. Day, J. Robertson, J. Black, J. Matheson, D. McDonald. R. McAlwee, P. W. Amyes, J. Stenhouse, E. McDonald, J. Kitchen. T. Davis.

Palmerston

In the beginning of 1863 the only two houses on the spot were Mr. Davis’ hotel and a tent accommodation house belonging to Mr. James Kitchen. The townshsip was surveyed and placed in the market by 1864. In that and the following years sections were bought and dwellings erected. On October 17th. 1871, it was formed into a municipality, consisting of three wards, viz.: North Ward, East Ward, and West Ward. It is bounded by the sections of Block X., Moeraki Survey District. Up to 1879 eight Mayors have held office. Mr. W. A. Young was the first Mayor, and held office till 1873; Mr. J. 11. Gilligan held office in 1874; Mr. James Arkle during 1875 and 1876: Mr. Charles Haynes in 1877; Mr. M. Fagan in 1878; Mr. Charles Haynes in 1879; Mr. Michael Fagan was re-elected on November 26th. 1879.

During Mr. Haynes’ term of office, in July, 1877, Palmerston was constituted a borough under “The Municipal Corpora-

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tions Act, 1876." There have been five town clerks in office, viz.: Mr. W. A. McLeod, in 1872; Mr. W. Cobden, 1872; Mr. C. A. Post, 1877; Mr. Charles Crump, 1878.

The members of the first municipal council were: Mr. -James Arkle, Michael Fagan, Alex. Crawford, James Little, Wm. Robertson, and llobert Johnstone.

Annual rateable value: —

1872—£3,000 1873—£3,312 1874—£3,664 1875—£4,388

1876—£5,787 1877—£5,924 1878—£5,910 1879—£6,467

On which a rate of one shilling in the pound has been levied in each year. The rent of the municipal reserve in 1879 amounted to £l5O. The borough endowment of 1,526 acres in the Dunback District, acquired under the provision of "The Municipal Corporations Act, 1876," is worth annually £l2O. In 1875 the corporation borrowed £2,000 at 7 per cent, for public works, and provided for by a sinking fund, payable in twenty years. In 1879 the Council was greatly hampered by an adverse verdict in the District Court by Mr. Murray for damages to his property in Stuart Street, by a drain. The attention of the Council has been mainly directed to drainage and street improvement.

Palmerston has two banking offices, four churches, five hotels, three blacksmiths, six boot and shoe makers, three solicitors, five carpenters, three butchers, two saddlers, three livery stables, immigration barracks, courthouse, Palmerston and Waikouaiti Times office, post and telegraph stations. The last were built in 1870.

Public School.

On 7th December, 1864, a memorial for the establishment of a school at Palmerston was sent to Mr. John Hislop, Educational Inspector for Otago. In the beginning of the year 1865 Palmerston and Shag Valley were declared an educational district, entitled to a main school. On August 3rd, 1865, a meeting of the residents was called to elect a school committee, Mr. W. F. Amyes in the chair. The first committee consisted of Messrs. John Muir, A. Oliver, T. B. Neilson, F. N. Moore, T. Davis, J. McAll, Wm. Cochrane, S. Dixon, and W. P. Amyes; T. B. Neilson, secretary. Having advertised for a teacher, the committee met on 6th September, to consider the testimonials of three applicants. The choice fell on Mr. Merry. His salary was to be £lOO per annum with the school fees. But, as Mr. Merry was a married man, and no dwelling house obtainable, he declined the appointment. The committee again met, on the 11th, and appointed Mr. John Ferguson. The school was

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opened in the Presbyterian Church, which had just been built. At a meeting, on the 6th April, 1866, Mr. Ferguson resigned for an appointment in Dunedin Middle District School. He was succeeded by Mr. John Watt, in the following month. Mr. John Mcßryde was appointed teacher in 1874, and Mr. Wm. Porteous in 1877. The second master, Mr. T. D. Foster, was appointed in October. 1877. The female teachers have been: Mrs. Margaret Trotter, appointed in 1869; Miss Hookem, in 1872: Mrs. Xish, in 1873; Miss Findlay, in 1874; Miss Denham, in 1877; Miss Black, in 1878. The pupil teachers in 1879 were: Master Patrick Clark and Miss Janet Fleming. Average daily attendance at school in 1879, 240.

The sections of land for school buildings and glebe were selected on July 11th, 1866. By March 11th, 1867, the erection of the first part of the present buildings was completed, and the school opened. The contract price for the erection was £550 —contractor, Mr. It. Spiers, of Hampden. An additional room for girls was made in 1869, at a cost of £B2. A further addition in 1871 cost £270; another, in 1876, cost £180; and the last alterations, in December, 1879, cost £l4O. A teacher's residence, erected in 1879, cost £345. Total, £1,567 10s.

Public Library.

The library was established on May 31st, lt was opened in the schoolhouse, where the books were kept. Mr. John Watt, teacher, was the first librarian.

Banks.

The town of Palmerston maintains two banking establish - menls. A branch of the Xew Zealand Bank was opened in February, 1869. The Bank of Otago opened a branch about the same date. Mr. G. Stevenson was the principal agent for the New Zealand till he opened a branch of the Colonial, in 1874. From 1874 till 1878 there were three banking offices. The merging of the Bank of Otago in the National is more of a general than local interest. It may be stated, however, that the branch office of this bank in Palmerston closed on the 25th of November, 1878. The two remaining banking offices of the Xew Zealand and Colonial have had a steady and gratifying increase of business since their establishment.

Flour Mills.

The third flour mill enterprise was started in Shag Valley. Shortly after the settlement of that district, in 1864. Mr. James Runciman, of Green Tsland, erected a flour mill on the Shag

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River. It was driven by a waterwheel. This mill was destroyed by the flood of 1868. The water of the river in that year rose unusually high, and several lives were placed in great jeopardy. Mr. James Runciman and his family were the severest sufferers. The dwelling house stood on a low flat, near the river, and, as the water began to rise around it on the night in question, the household removed into the mill, which stood on higher ground. But the water, continuing to rise, carried away the dwelling house and threatened to undermine and overthrow the mill where they had taken refuge. What prevented the mill being swept away was the amount of flour and wheat which it contained. Their weight caused it to settle down heavily into the water when the piles gave way. To remain inside the mill became unsafe, as it lay over, half-capsized, against the current. The force of the stream was drawn toward the mill by following the lead which conducted the water to the wheel. As the night wore on, the family found it necessary to remove outside on to the waterwheel, where they sat through the weary hours under a downpour of rain, with a roaring deluge around, and no means of escape, fearing every moment the whole fabric might give way and roll them into the flood. When the morning broke, the melancholy situation of the family was seen by the inhabitants of the valley, who quickly gathered to the help of the sufferers. A strong swimmer ventured with a rope across the water that ran between the mill and a higher terrace, and Mr. Runciman, with his wife, two children, and a servant girl, were rescued from their perilous position. Mr. Runciman then sold his interest in the ruin to Mr. W. T. S. Young, and another mill was erected in the end of 1868, at some distance from the old site, on higher ground and lower down the river, and driven by both water and steam. During 1879 the mill property again fell into other hands.

Another flour mill was established in Upper Shag Valley by Mr. A. King, in 1878.

Presbyterian Church, Manse, and Sabbath School. This congregation originally met for worship in Goodwood Episcopal Church, and for six years formed a part of Waikouaiti Ministerial charge. In 1862 the Presbyterians of Goodwood joined the people of Waikouaiti in applying to the Preshy tery of Dunedin for a hearing of probationers. 1 laving heard several, they gave a unanimous call to the Rev. J. Christie, who was ordained to the pastoral superintendence of the united parishes of Hawksbury and Goodwood, on the 13th of August.

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1863. On the 4th October of the same year the first session was formed at Goodwood, consisting of Messrs. T. B. Neilson and John Craig. The congregation did not number over thirty in attendance at the fullest gathering. There were seventeen persons at the first Communion. In about eighteen months the attendance was doubled, on account of the settlement of Shag Valley. It was, therefore, resolved to remove the congregation to Palmerston, which had just recently been laid off for a township. In 1864 a building committee was formed, and by August, 1865, a wooden structure for a church was completed, at a cost of nearly £7OO. This new erection was opened for worship by the Rev. Dr. Burns, First Church, Dunedin, with a church-door collection of £l7. For this building the architect was Mr. R. A. Lawson, of Dunedin. The communicants in 1867 had increased to 65. The first meeting for religious service in Shag Valley was held in the house of Mr. Samuel Dickson, on October 11th, 1864. In January, 1870, the congregation applied to the Synod of Otago and Southland for disjunction from Waikouaiti, and to be erected into a separate charge, which was granted. In the following year, 1871, the Rev. James Clark, of Riverton, was called to be their pastor, and the induction took place on the 30th May. By 1876 it was found necessary to erect a more commodious and substantial structure of stone, at a cost of nearly £3,000. A preaching-station connected with the church is maintained in the Upper Valley, about six miles from Palmerston, and supplied with religious services once a month. The manse, a handsome wooden structure, was erected on a suburban section, bought at the upset price of £2O, the whole outlay on manse being between £5OO and £6OO.

The Sabbath school was first kept in Mr. John Muir’s, in the beginning of 1865, by Mr. Robert Neil, with an attendance of from six to nine children. It was removed to the church as soon as it was built, and Mr. Neil was joined by other officebearers, who gave assistance. It has been very fully equipped since the settlement of Mr. Clark, numbering about one hundred scholars and eight or ten male and female teachers, with a well-stocked library.

In 1876 a small building was erected by the Wesleyans for a place of worship, in which services are held by the minister residing at Waikouaiti. The building cost about £lOO, and was erected on a site presented to the Wesleyan body by Mr. A. Kennard, of Goodwood. The work was done while the Rev. J. Gray was stationed at Waikouaiti and superintending the

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Wesleyans in the two places. A small place of worship was also erected by the Roman Catholics, in 1872.

A lodge of the Independent Order of Good Templars was instituted on November 11th, 1873.

Cemetery.

On the 28th of May, 1866, in accordance with the request of the inhabitants of Shag Valley, Palmerston, and Goodwood, the following persons were appointed by His Honour the Superintendent of Otago to be managers of the cemetery at Palmerston, viz.: Messrs. John Muir. T. 1!. Neilson, J. P. Hepburn, •J. Runciman, W. Cochrane, and A. Gilmour.

Acclimatisation

Fifty-three young trout were liberated in Shag River in 1869; 75 were sent to Mr. W. P. S. Young’s ponds in the same year; 61 were also at the same time sent to Waikouaiti River; 500 trout were put in the Waihemo or Kilmog Creek in 1875; 400 were sent to Pleasant River in 1873; 200 were also put in Flag Swamp Creek in 1873. Red deer were introduced to Bushy Park in 1864. Several were liberated on the Horse Range in 1879. In 1879 there were about seventy at Bushy Park, and in Goodwood Bush, to which some had escaped, there would be about forty. The axis deer, a pretty, spotted little animal, was introduced at a later date. It appears to be more delicate, but has had satisfactory increase. They are enclosed at Bushy Park within a large paddock, with a wire fence 6ft. high.

Sparrows made their appearance in Shag Valley about 1865. Larks were heard in 1869, and have become numerous. Green linnets very early found their way to Hawksbury Bush, and for a number of years been most destructive to fruit trees, eating off the fruit buds in winter. Rabbits were liberated on the back part of Mount Royal in 1864, and hares were introduced to Bushy Park shortly after. Flocks of starlings have been seen for several years. Partridges and pheasants were first introduced to Goodwood; they have spread over the whole country. Yellow-hammers have begun to appear.

Weeds. —Thistles, docks, capeweed, couchgrass, sorrel, nettles, and other pests of the field and garden were introduced along with imported seeds. In the new soil they grow luxuriantly, requiring all the attention of the cultivator to keep them in check.

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Blueskin.

Blueskin is distant from Dunedin fourteen miles, and about the .same from Waikouaiti. Jt was not very accessible to Dunedin till a bridle track was formed through the bush in 1862. Among the earliest settlers was Mr. John Dickson. For a number of year, before proper accommodation houses were erected on the Main North Road, his mud hut. which still stands, was a favourite hostelry. Traveller! on horseback or on toot bj the first bridle track through that romantic region were well qualified to enjoy the refreshment and rest afforded by Air. Dickson and family.

As soon as a few settlers had gathered into the neighbourhood the Rev. Wm. Johnstone, of Port Chalmers, visited them, and held religious services in private houses. Mr. Wm. Morris began to labour among them as a missionary in 186.!. For three years the meetings were held in Mr. John Wilson’s barn, and then in the schoolroom. A session and deacon’s court were formed in 1864. The members of the former were Messrs. John Wilson and John Morris; of the latter, Messrs. Peter Wilson, Wm. Drysdale, and Alex. Dodds. The church was erected in 1866, at a cost of £238, with accommodation for 150 persons. Mr. Morris’ connection with the district ceased in 1876, and in the following year the Rev. A. M. Finlayson was ordained to the united parishes of Blueskin and Merton. The two places were sanctioned by the Synod as a ministerial charge in 1875. The roll of membership contains eighty names. The Sabbath school in connection with the church has an attendance of thirty, with four teachers.

The first school committee was elected sth October, 1863. A soiree, to celebrate the opening of the school, was held in April, 1864. Mr. D. McLachlan, the first teacher, was appointed Bth February, 1864, and resigned in the same year. His successor was Mr. Wm. Porteous, who resigned on being appointed to Palmerston school in 1876. An enlargement of the school was made in 1871, at a cost of £l4O. Misses Sinclair, Duncan, and Ferguson have been successively pupil teachers. A schoolmistress, Miss Sarah Cross, was appointed in 1876. Mr. Donald Stuart, third headmaster, was appointed in 1877, and removed to a school in Canterbury in 1880. He has been succeeded by Mr. R. H. Ferguson, elected 24th February, 1880. The roll of pupils is 134. The teaching staff is a headmaster, mistress, and female pupil teacher. A new stone building for a school is about to be erected on a more suitable site, close to

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the .Main Road, opposite the Wesleyan Church. A district library was established in 1867, and kept in the school. It contains 327 volumes.

Orakanui College, under the proprietorship and superintendence of the Rev. R. L. Stanford, has been in existence about two years, and promises a gratifying amount of success.

A stratum from which a mineral oil can be extracted, has been found in the district. A few years ago an attempt was made to sink for coal, near the bay, but the enterprise did not succeed.

In 1868 Waitati township had two general stores, one baker, a blacksmith, two hotels, and a post office. The Wesleyan Chapel was erected in 1868, and the road to Port Chalmers was opened in 1869. Prom 1872 till 1876 Messrs. Grant and Co. prosecuted the manufacture of the native flax.

Blueskin Agricultural and Pastoral Association was instituted in 1868. At the show held on the 9th January, 1880, the entries for exhibition over all the classes amounted to 331. The visitors were about 500.

Merton.

Merton district lies in the Waikouaiti Hundreds. There was no settlement on the land till the opening of the Main North Road. Among the early settlers were: Messrs. Wm. Palmer. James Hay, Thomas Pryde, John McKean, D. Brunton, Thomas Jones, Archd. Campbell, Thomas and James White, R. Murray, M. Millar, John McFaren, E. Downes, D. Pullar, A. Catherwood.

In 1869 the schoolhouse, including teacher's residence, was erected, at a cost of £lB5 17s. 6d. The first teacher was Mr. James Orr. He commenced duty on the Bth of June, 1869, and resigned 25th May, 1871. Mr. George Wilson was appointed in 1871, and resigned in 1872. Mr. Wm. Johnstone succeeded, and resigned in same year. The fourth teacher, Mr. Francis Golding, became master in 1873, and taught four years. Mr. Philip Bremner was appointed in 1878. A sewing mistress was appointed in 1880. A separate residence for the teacher was built in 1874, at a cost of £l7O, and at the same time the schoolroom was enlarged by including the former residence of the teacher, at an expense of £47 lis. 6d. The roll of pupils in attendance in 1873 was 52. The subsequent opening of schools at Seacliff and North Blueskin reduced the attendance. In 1880 the roll contained 43. Merton Public Library was opened in

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1872. The post office was opened in December, 1865, and has been kept for many years by Mr. D. Brunton. For several years a Good Templar Lodge has met regularly in the schoolroom.

Divine services began to be held in Merton on sth August, 1867, in Mr. Wm. Palmer's barn, and at Mr. Hay's, by Mr. We Morris. When the schoolroom was built the meetings were transferred to it till the erection of the church in 1878, which was opened by the Rev. Professor Salmond on 10th March of same year. The total cost of the building was £5OO 19s. It accommodates 202 persons. By the authority of the Dunedin Presbytery, the Rev. Win. Johnstone, of Port Chalmers, on 10th September, 1871, set apart the following office-bearers: —Messrs. James Hay and John Reid, elders; Messrs. Henry Scott, Archd. Champbell, and .1. Barron, deacons. There were 48 name the roll of church membership in 1874; in th.'re were 67.

The Sabbath school at Merton is undenominational, and has a staff of four teachers, and is well attended.

Senior Bible classes are held at Blueskin and Merton, conducted by Mr. Finlayson, with a joint attendance of 32.

Macral's Flat.

After the discovery of gold at Tuapeka and the Dunstan, prospectors in search of the precious metal explored the whole country. Around the Maniatoto Plain auriferous spots were found almost weekly, and rushes were made to them. Men expected to find fortunes by being first on some rich field. In this manner Hamilton's, Naseby, Hill's Creek. Sow-bam, Hyde, Welshman's Gully, and other places were established. About 1864 gold was discovered in the neighbourhood of Macrae's Plat. A place called Murphy's Flat was first rushed. Some, however, afterwards tried Macrae's Flat, and, sounding the note of discovery, Murphy's Flat was deserted. Scores of miners. with their swags, tin dishes, and shovels, gathered on the plain. Tents were spread; sod, wood, and iron houses were quickly erected. A township in a few days arose on the tussoeky waste, with a gold-receiving office, court house, stores, hotels, and bakers. Although not a very rich or extensive goldfield, it has for many years maintained a small township. In IST! the European and Chinese populations were about equal, being about two hundred in all. The Duke of Edinburgh steam quart-crushing machine was in full operation during this year. The quartz reef, however, proved too poor to pay. Macrae's Plat is about fifteen miles from Palmerston, has a school and

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post office, is visited by two banking agents, a magistrate, and clergyman. The climate is bleak and the soil poor. Being 1,700 feet above the sea level, the winter is cold.

Miscellaneous—Historical Memoranda

1837—Whale fishery established in Waikouaiti Bay by Messrs Long and Wright, of Sydney.

1838 —Waikouaiti whaling station became the property of Mr. John Jones, Sydney.

1839 —Land at Waikouaiti purchased by Mr. Jones from three Maori chiefs through his agent, Mr. James Bruce. Horses and cattle introduced from Sydney into the district.

1840 —The last reported act of cannibalism among the natives of Waikouaiti.

184 D—The Rev. James Watkin sent as missionary to the natives of Waikouaiti.

1843—Mr. John Jones resident among the whalers in Waikouaiti Bay while Matanaka house was being built.

1844—Otago Block purchased from the natives. Principal land purchases made by Mr. 6. C. Wakefield.

1848—First Otago immigrants arrived and founded Dunedin. Bishop Selwyn, making a tour through Otago, counted 300 morasses. Whale-fishing in Waikouaiti Bay ceased. Mr. Kemp’s purchased from the Maoris for £2,000.

1849-50 —Many of the Maoris died from measles.

1852—Europeans warned off Maori reserves by Mr. Mantell, complaints having been made to Bishop Selwyn of the bad conduct of the whalers.

1854—Bishop Harper arrived in New Zealand.

1856—Mr. Mantell engaged adjusting native land claims.

1858 — The Rev. J. A. Fenton arrived in Waikouaiti. 1859 — Episcopal Church erected in West Hawksbury.

1860 —West Hawksbury township opened for sale by Mr. Jones. Hawksbury Hundreds placed in the market by the Otago Provincial Council.

1861 —Gold discovered in Gabriel's Gully. Tuapeka.

1862—Dunstan goldfields discovered. Goods landed at the Spit from Dunedin for the diggings. Stores erected in Beach Street.

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186:!— Presbyterian Church built. The Rev. J. Christie ordained. The Kev. J. A. Penton departed for England. The Kev. A. Dasent appointed Episcopal Curate. First Presbyterian congregational meeting held. Sessions formed at liawksbury and (ioodwood. Mr. W. Mill's timber yards established on Main Xorth Koad. Dr. Chapman arrived in the district.

1864 —Main North Koad opened from Dunedin to Waikouaiti. Rev. J. Christie’s first visit to Maniatoto Plain, Dunstan and Alexandra. Divine service held in a theatre on Hamilton’s Diggings. Telegraph line established on Main North Road. Waikouaiti Herald started. First bridge erected over Waikouaiti River. Red deer introduced to Bushy Park. Land in Shag Valley placed in the market. First Presbyterian congregational meeting held at Goodwood. Religious services held in Shag Valley, in the house of Mr. Samuel Dickson.

1865 —Settlement of Shag Valley. Palmerston first Presbyterian Church built.

1866—West Hawksbury incorporated. Scarlet fever in Hawksbury. Cemetery managers appointed at Waikouaiti and Palmerston. Meetings of Flag Swamp and Merton settlers to have schools established in their respective districts.

IS67—Sir Geo. Grey's visit. Dejeuner provided by Mr. John Jones, at Matanaka Hotel. Water-race, forty miles Long, constructed at head of Shag Valley. Alfred Jones died. Final adjustment of Mr. Jones' land claims. P.lueskin Presbyterian Church erected. Dr. W. Chapman died.

1868 —Great Hood in Shag River. Mr. James Runciman's flour mill destroyed. Land Court held in Dunedin to investigate and deal with Maori reserves, Blueakin Wesleyan and Hawksbury Roman Catholic Chapels erected.

1869 —Office of Hank of New Zealand removed from B Street to Main North Road.

1870—Scarlet fever visited Flag Swamp and (ioodwood. bronghl from immigrant ship. Port and telegraph offices built al Palmerston.

1871 —Mr. .John Cook drowned at Shag Point. The Rev. -lames Clark inducted at Pahnerston.

1875 —Week of evangelistic meetings held in Hawksbury Mechanics' Hall

1880 Trade depression. Superior harvest. £4,000 paid to the Maoris at the Heads for Princes' Stn rve.

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Public District Schools with Dates of Establishment. Goodwood, I860: Waikouaiti, 1861; Blueskin, 1862Palmerston, 1866; Macrae's Flat, 1866; Merton, 1867; Flag Swamp, 1867; Eight Mile, 1871; Lower Shag Valley 1872° Upper Shag Valley, 1872; Maori School at the Kainga J875 ■ Warrington, 1877; Dunbaek, 1877; Shag Point, 1879; Goodwood re-established, 1879.

The Native Flax.

The open country could not have been thickly timbered for many ages previous to European settlement, from its being so fully occupied by the flax plant. The flax is not an annual, but having a longevity equal to the trees of the forest, and seeds every three years. There can be no doubt of its monopoly of the soil for thousands of years; and, although we associate the plant with the Maori, it was rather the companion of the moa. it was certainly made use of by the Maoris, but it was neither planted nor cultivated by them. It was employed by them in the manufacture of huts, baskets, and mats. Two mills were at one time established at P.lueskin to manufacture the flax. One of them continued in operation for a considerable time, but it ceased a number of years ago from the destruction of the flax plant by the cultivation of the land. It soon perishes where cattle are allowed to eat it. They are fond of the heart-growth, which they pull out, and then it quickly dies.

Governor's Visit.

On the 23rd of February, 1867, His Excellency Sir George Grey was entertained by Mr. John Jones at Matanaka Hotel, Beach Street, West Hawksbtrry. His Excellency the Marquis of Normanby passed through Waikouaiti, travelling southward, in May, 1875. His Excellency Sir Hercules Robinson passed through Waikouaiti by rail on April 26th, 1877. He was interviewed at the railway station by the schools and volunteer cadets.

Shag Point Coal.

Was known and used as early as 1848, but the pit was opened by Mr. D. Jlntcheson in 1863. This coalfield is supposed to occupy an area of twenty-six square miles, stretching from the Shag to the Otepopo River. Dr. Von Haast published an account of it in 1871, which appears in Report of the Geological Survey of New Zealand, 1871-2. Rounded pebbles of white quartz are found in Shag Point coal. Kaitangata coal is next to it in quality.

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Waikouaiti Coalfield.

There is a bed of coal underlying the whole country, on its eastern edge, at an accessible depth, at almost any point. The outcrop of the coal can be traced easily at a little distance inland. A line commencing at the Horse Range, crossing Shag Valley by Palmerston, continued through Smyler's Peak, Ilawksbury, and Waikouaiti Hundreds, by Mount Watkin, Kilmog, and Blueskin, would mark its inner boundary a< regards the County, but the outer boundary of the coalfield. The coal stratum shows itself at manj- points along the line indicated in the properties of Messrs. Ileclar, Valentine, Souter, and Douglas. A shaft seventy feet deep was sunk on Mr. llecklar's property, beside a creek in whose bed good coal is found. The enterprise was given up on account of a flow of water into the shaft, which rendered more appliances and capital necessary than the parties were willing to become responsible for at the time.

Moa Skeletons.

In 1878 a quantity of raoa bones, Maori stone adzes and greenstone chisels were in the possession of Mr. James Gilmour, Bendigo Farm. The stone adze is loin, long by oin. in width. The articles were found near the mouth of the Shag River. The thigh bones, claws, and other portions of a moa were found at Bendigo Farm in 1879. A skeleton, seven or eight feet high, might have been constructed from the pieces. Moa bones were found a few years ago on Mr. James Sizemore's laud, at the north end of Ilawksbury Bush, beneath the roots of a large broadleaf, intimating the presence of that bird at a very early period. The broadleaf is of slow growth, hence the bones must have lain there for many years. The situation where they lay was on the edge of a tiny rill.

Fragments of Fossil Bones.

A portion of a bone was found on the Oth December, 1878, by some workman in the cutting behind Mr. R. Pearson's store. Main North Road, eight feet below the surface, in a blueish sandy clay stratum. Several whole bones were also found with the thick joint ends on them, but were too soft to be removed. The single piece of bone referred to was a marrow bone, and had been broken in detaching it from its matrix. Its colour was a dull yellow. Tt was soft in substance, about the consistency of chalk, and brittle. The smell of decayed animal matter was distinctly felt. The gravel bed on which the bones lay must have been exposed on the surface when the owner of the bones.

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in the form on a living animal, laid itself down there to die. Perhaps the spot was the edge of some bay or shallow riverbed. A few days after the above date more fragments of bones of larger size were found near the same place, but about a foot deeper. The largest piece was the joint end of a long bone about three inches across, with smaller pieces forming the shaft. The marrow canal was clearly indicated, with the reticulations on the internal surface. The marrow holes were filled with clay. The bones were much broken disengaging them from the clay in which they were embedded. Bones of that size and character indicate that a large animal inhabited the country when the involving stratum w y as deposited. The bones have been deposited in Dunedin Museum.

Bivalve shells were found three or four inches in the blue clay at the same cutting as the above. The shells, nearly an inch in breadth, were very thin and brittle. It was impossible to preserve them. Their shape and size could easily by determined when first exposed, but they crumbled to pieces quickly in the atmosphere. They were as thin and fragile as a piece of damp paper, and of a lime or chalk substance. The shells were doubtless belonging to living creatures existing in the soft mud now forming the rock of the blue clay or green sands.

Oamaru Freestone —The stratum of the Oamaru freestone, of the same formation as Waikouaiti calcareous freestone, is equally fragmentary. It exists in patches here and there, lying on the surface of the blue clay in a more or less horizontal position. It has either been an irregular deposit, or its softer portions have been denuded and carried away while the harder parts remain. On the surface of the blue clay, in the immediate neighbourhood of large sections of Oamaru white rock, is a layer of quartz gravel, with a considerable depth of clay above, apparently of a sedimentary character. The Oamaru stone or formation, when disintegrated, has been entirely removed, else the surrounding soil would be mixed with it, which is not the case. The present red clay of the surface has been laid down over the country subsequent to the denudation and transportation of immense areas of the cretaceous rock.

A Diggings Accommodation House Experience.

Having on one occasion to remain over the evening on a diggings township, when it had only been a few months in existence, I applied at an accommodation house for lodging. The lady of the house said she had plenty of room, but seemed reluctant to say she was willing I should have a bed. She said,

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however: "If you are not very particular you can have a crib to sleep in." This being arranged, 1 went and had tea with a friend I had met, who had kindly invited me to spend an hour with him in his small temporary dwelling, after which 1 returned to the accommodation house for my bed. 1 was shown into a room of the following dimensions: —It was seven or eight feet in length, and apparently about the same in width. There was a narrow passage, barely three feet wide, up the centre, between the beds. There were three single beds on each side, placed above each other, after the manner of bunks in a pi ship. Thus the room would contain six sleepers. The floor was the earth with an old chaff bag laid on it. The walls inside were lined with old sacks, cut up and nailed to the frame; the outside was covered with corrugated iron. It was a very cold night, and the appearance of the bedroom did not contribute to one's sense of comfort. Having blown out the candle, which i on a board that served for a window-sill, I stowed myself into one of the "cribs." It had a plentiful supply of blue blankets so popular with swagmen. I then made an endeavour to compose myself to rest. In a brief space of time I d i that the hope of rest or sleep was an entire delusion. As my body began to gather warmth among the bedclothes an army of fleas began to march and countermarch over my skin. I have always been able to congratulate myself in escaping being bitten by these nimble creatures. They have some antipathy to my blood. I was thus able to bid them a kind of defiance, but, oh! the racing and chasing my outer man afforded for their troops during that long night. I did wish eagerly for the morning light, and. although the event happened many years ago, I still frequently recall its memories with the liveliest emotion.

Ohrtitcburch Ptcm 00. Ltd.. Prlnter», Chriitcburch. S.Z.

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