The Sketcher.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 387, 12 July 1879, Page 7

The Sketcher.

AWAY IN THE FAR NORTH. i' .By J. G;■•■"•■ : ;Vi • No. 4." ' - ''

Some time prior to the death of Sir Donald McLean one of the measures which he adopted with a view to the permanent pacification _ of the country, was the establishment of native schools in various districts of the North ; but in adopting this course the then Native Minister was only following in. the footsteps of Sir George Grey, at whose instigation, when he occupied the position of. Governor, many very excellent schools were founded in certain centres of native . population. Amongst the native boarding schools established and maintained under the fostering care, of his Excellency, during the period of. Sir George-Grey's first Governorship of New Zealand, the following may be mentioned :—There' were three excellent institutions on the Waikato, kept by Archdeacon Maunsell, Mr. Ashwell, and Mr. Morgan, of the Church Missionary Society. Mr. Ashwell's was a girls' school, conducted by Mrs. Ashwell, and was a perfect model of what such a school should be. It and the other two on the Waikato had each about 120 pupils. There was another excellent school at the Three Kiugsj kept by the Wesleyans, with upwards of 150 children as boarders ; a very efficient girls' school at St. Stephen's, Auckland, under the direction of the Bishop of New Zealand ; a large boarding school at Otaki, kept by Archdeacon Hadfield, the present Bishop of Wellington ; another at Taranaki, kept, by Mr. Turton, a Wesleyan missionary ; there was a girls' orphan asylum at Wellington, kept by the late Bishop "Viard, an admirable school at Napier, conducted by two Catholic priests ; also two boarding schools at Auckland, under the direction of the late Bishop Pompallier, and throughout other parts of the colony similar institutions were in existence. All these were in a state of the highest efficiency in the year 1853, but they unfortunately fell into decay when the native war came on. In resuscitating the native school system, the late lamented Native Minister adopted one of the most certain measures that could be devised towards a reconciliation of the races, and the wisdom of such a course must be apparent to all who have seen that system in operation in the North Island. During my. tour in that part of the colony I visited several of these institutions. There was none of them with which I was . s.o highly pleiased as with the select boarding school established at a place called Taumarere, three . miles distant fror* Kawa Kawa. This excellent school is one which the Native Department may well feel proud of. It is conducted by Mrs. Tautari, than whom a more accomplished mistress is not iu the service of the Government. Mr. Commissioner Kemp took a great interest in the founding of this school, and in a conversation I had with him on the subject he was exceedingly pleased to find that my opinion coincided with his own respecting the highclass character of the school at Taumarere. There are upwards; of twenty female pupils in constant attendance, Europeans, Maoris, and half-castes. ' Mrs. Tautari obtains from the Government a certain, capitation allowance, but I do not consider the amount anything like adequate remuneration for the valuable services she renders to the Native Department. She imparts to the children entrusted to her care an excellent English education, besides instrumental music and singing ; and Europeans visiting the school for the first time would be suprised to see how far advanced several of the Maori girls are in the latter accomplishments. Mrs. Tautari is assisted by a highly cultivated governess (Miss G.), and what struck me very much was the entente cordiale existing between the. mistress and her assistant and the girls under their charge. In point of discipline, Mrs. Tautari is necessarily strict, but she is loved by all the children on account of her kind and amiable disposition. At the express desire of our chief, Mrs. lautari assembled her school for inspection, with a result that was as surprising to ourselves as it must have been gratifying to her. Several of the girls sang to Miss C.'s accompaniment, while others displayed their abilities on the pianoforte. Part singing was a prominent feature in the programme, and the choruses were sung with marked precision. The room was then cleared, and dancing was kept up with spirit for an hour or so. The Maori girls and halfcastes are exceedingly fond of dancing, and music, too, both vocal and instrumental, is another of their specialities. At Mrs. Tautari s establishment they are also instructed in household duties, in order that they may be Europeanised as much as possible, and in all respects rendered fit to become the wives of settlers in the country. In some instances, but I am happy to say few, Mrs. Tautari's exertions are in a great measure lost, in consequence ot some of the parents at adistancetakingtheir children away just at the time when their progress in English instruction gives promise of very satisfactory results. Some Maori parents do not sufficiently appreciate the.benefits derived from education, and if their children go home for the holidays, they don't allow them to return- but instances of this kind are exceptional. Children are sent to the Taumarere school from very long distances, on account of the high reputation it enjoys, and the time will soon arrive when a larger schoolhouse will require to be erected. A school such as this must "erfect a wonderful amount of good in establishing a better understanding between the two races, and I think the lady who is instrumental in doing this is clearly entitled to a sufficient recompense for her pains. I trust, therefore, that she will be dealt with a liberal spirit by the Native Department. Ihere are several other schools in the northern district —amongst others one at Te Ti, near the mouth of the Waitangi river, presided over by Mrs Hickson, another at Kaikohe, under the direction of a Europeanised Mftori named Hirini Taiwhangu, and a third (a- Very credit-

able establishment), conducted by _ the Misses Lundon, at the Lower Waihou, on the Hokianga liver, a few miles below Herd's Point. The following is a complete list of the native schools at present open in the country north of Auckland, in addition to those already referred to, with the names of their respective teachers :—Pukepoto, Mr. C. M. Masters ; Ahipara, Mr. George Masters ; Kaitaia, Mr. Robert Dunn ; Awanui, Mr. Ernest D. W. Matthews ; Peria, Mr. John E. Capper ; Te Ngaere, Mr. Edmund C. Comes ; Ohaeawai, Mr. E. W. Watling; Waikare, Mrs. Horseley ; Oromahoe, Mr. E. M. Tabuteau ; Mangakahia, Mr. Samuel Calkin ; Waiomio, Mr. D. Lorrigan ; Waitapu, Mr. Charles P. Hill ; Waima, Mr. John Hosking; Whirinaki, Mr. John Mitchell ; Pakia, Mr. George E. Woods ; Orira, Mr. Joseph Harrison ; Upper Waihou, Mr. J. B. Needham ; Matakohe, Mr. J. Ovens ; Otamatea, Mr. R. Haszard ; Kaihu, Mr. H. W. Baker. On our way down from the Kawa Kawa, we called in at a small settlement named Paihia, where I observed a monument erected in front of the Church to the memory of the late Venerable Archdeacon Williams. Paihia was one of those places where the Church of England missionaries established themselves. In fact, the Bay of Islands was the first scene of their labors, for it was on the 22nd De - cember, 1814, that the Rev. Samuel Marsden arrived in the ship Active, and anchored off Bangihoua Tepuna, just inside the north head of the Bay of Islands, where he landed and settled Messrs. Kendal, Hall, and King, the first missionaries. On Christmas Day, 1814, the Rev. Samuel Marsden preached there for the first time the Gospel in New Zealand, which was interpreted to the natives by a chief named Ruatara, who had been to England. The text was very appropriate, being Luke 2, 10, "Behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy," &c. In August, 1819, Mr. Marsden brought Messrs. Butler and Kemp, and established a mission station at Kerikeri, at the head of the Kerikeri river, In August, 1823, Mr. Marsden brought the Rev. Henry Williams and family, and formed the mission station at Paihia. On the 25th of January, 1826, the schooner Herald, the first vessel built in New Zealand, under the direction of Mr. Henry Williams (who had been a lieutenant in the Royal Navy) was launched on Paihia beach, and was navigated by Mr. Williams to Sydney, where he met his brother, the Rev. William Williams, late

Bishop of Waiapu, on his way to New Zealand, and on the 26th of March in the same year they arrived together in the George Osborne, and landed at Paihia. Bishop Selwyn arrived at Paihia on June 20th, 1842, and on the following Sunday, to the surprise of everybody, his Lordship preached a sermon to the natives in the Maori language, of which he had become a proficient master on the voyage out. On December Bth, 1842, at the time of the greatest apprehension for the safety of the young colony, consequent on the murder of the Robinson family and a half-caste girl (granddaughter of the chief Rewa) on an island in Paroa Bay by Maketu, a young chief of noble connection, who was hanged for the crime at Auckland, the famous helmet that had been presented by King George the Fourth to Waikato, a Ngapuhi chief, residing at Tepuna, was delivered up to Mr. Williams as a token of his fidelity to the English, just before the great meeting at Paihia, when the principal Ngapuhi chiefs, with the exception of Hone Heke (who withdrew), signed an address to Governor Hobson, professing their allegiance. The helmet was afterwards returned to Waikato by Mr. Williams, enclosed in a pair of blankets. The Venerable Archdeacon Williams died at his residence at Pakaraka on the 16th of July, 1867, at the ripe age of seventy-five years, and on the 11th of January, 1876, a monument to his memory was erected at Paihia, where he first settled, at the sole cost of the Maori tribes of the North Island. It bears the following inscription on each of its four sides : He Whakamaharatanga Mo TE WIREMU. He tohu aroha ki a ia na te Hahi Maori. He tino matua ia ki nga iwi katoa, He tangata toa kite hohou rongo i roto i nga riri Maori. E 44 nga tau i rui ai ia i te Rongo pai ki tenei motu I tae mai ia i te tau 1823. I tangohia atu i te tau 1867. Ih loving memory of HENRY WILLIAMS, 44 years a preacher of the Gospel of Peace. A father of the tribes, This monument is raised by the Maori Church. He came to us in 1823, He was taken from us in 1867. Nga iwi na ratou i whakatu tenei kohatu ko Ngapuhi Ngatiraukawa Te Rarawa Ngatikahungunu Te Aupouri Ngatiporou Ngatimaru. The tribes who raised this monument are Ngapuhi Ngatiraukawa Te Rarawa Ngatikahungunu Te Aupouri Ngatiporou Ngatimaru.

I am indebted for most of the foregoing information to the widow of the Archdeacon, who, far advanced in years, still resides at Pakaraka, within a stone's throw of her son's house, who now represents the Mangonui and Bay of Islands district in the General Assembly. Mrs. Williams has kept a diary with great regularity ever since her arrival in New Zealand in 1823, and the journal is a most interesting one. Many things recorded there are of great public value, and it is to be hoped that the diary will fall into the hands of some one who will be able to string a readable narrative together, and issue it in a presentable form. It would be a thousand pities if a complete record such as this is should continue in obscurity, or if its perusal should be confined within a limited family circle by reason of its non-publication. In saying this, I am fully aware that Mr. Carleton, in his " Life of Henry Williams," has drawn largely upon Mrs. Williams' diary for

his information, but another most interesting work might be easily compiled out of the abundant material it contains. A great many people are too ready to condemn the missionaries, and to declare that they have done more mischief than good in the country. On that subject I shall abstain from expressing any opinion. All I know is, that they showed great pluck in coming to New Zealand at a time when cannibalism was in full swing, when tribe fought against tribe, and the survivors devoured the bodies of the slain. People who now arrive in the colony can have no idea of what it was in primitive times ; and, experiencing all the comforts and conveniences of an English home, they can hardly estimate the privations which the early missionaries must have endured, the self-denial they must have practised, and the danger that constantly surrounded them. All these things considered, I don't think the missionary is quite the monster that he is frequently painted. A little distance further down the bay brought us to a place rendered famous in the history of New Zealand. It is named Waitangi, and here it was that the Treaty of Waitangi was signed on the 6th of February, 1840, in a large marquie a little in front of Mr. Busby's house. The spot is unmarked, but Mr. Busby will show it to anyone visiting his homestead. Our chief stopped here a couple of nights, and be slept in the very room that the celebrated Darwin occupied when in the capacity of naturalist he visited the Bay of Islands many years ago in the Beagle. He was then (1835) a comparatively unknown man. Mrs. Busby is still alive. She witnessed the burning of Kororareka on the opposite shore in 1845, and she left shortly afterwards for Sydney. Several chiefs, thinking that fear had something to do with her departure, gave her assurances of their protection, and Mrs Busby has lived to learn their sincerity. The Busby family own an immense area of land in the North, and it was on the Waitangi estate that I saw Angora goats for the first time in my life. By far the greater part of the land in the vicinity of the Bay of Islands is of very inferior quality ; cultivation is limited, and the growing of wool and the grazing of cattle is what settlers there confine their attention to. The grass is not good, being what is known as rat tail, and if the land carries a sheep to every three or four acres, I imagine it is just as much as it is capable of doing. Therefore the Bay of Islands has no attractions for the station owners of Canterbury or Otago, where the pasturage, compared with that about the Bay, is so abundant and of a very much better description.

The time had now arrived when we should go further north, and it was no agreeble task to have to rise between four and five o'clock in the morning and proceed breakfastless on board the lona, where passages had been secured for us on the previous night. This steamer does almost all the trade between Auckland and the northern settlements, and her captain is justly popular on account of his kind and obliging nature. It was a lovely morning when we steamed away from the wharf at Kororareka, and the passage up to Whangaroa was a most cheerful one. In weather such as that which favored us, a voyage between Kororareka and Whangaroa, if three or four hours' steaming can be designated by such a title, is one of the most delightful things I have experienced. Lamartine's trip down the Mediterranean I recollect having read with avidity, and I cau picture to myself how beautifully so skilled a descriptive artist as he was could reproduce by pen and ink the spectacle which was presented on the way. Except in point of time, the passage from Kororareka to Whangaroa very much resembles that between Tauranga and Auckland. Islands are passed in rapid succession, and on the most prominent of them we observed a solitary white goat which years ago had been placed there by the natives. I could find no one capable of giving an authentic account of the reasons which had induced the Maoris to banish this unfortunate quadruped from the mainland, but there was no doubting the fact that the goat was the victim of some superstitious whim of the Maoris, because it and the island upon which it held its solitary habitation were tapued, or, in plain English, made sacred. Until i had seen the harbor of Whangaroa, I considered that for loveliness Akama held the palm, but the attractions of the latter, from an artistic point of view, sink into insignificance when compared with those of Whangaroa, than which a finer harbor is not to be found in the colony. The entrance is not very wide, it is true, and sailing craft might find some difficulty in entering it and getting out again at all times, but steamers can get in and out on all occasions. The first prominent feature of the harbor is Peach Island, on which a villainous old savage once satiated his thirst for blood by tomahawking close on three hundred captives—age and sex being totally disregarded. There are various accounts about this terrible butchery, but the most reliable is what I shall relate to my readers below, because it has been obtained from the most authentic sources.

In the early days, before the worst type of European contagion had demoralised the Maoris, the natives of the North Island clung tenaciously to the traditions of their ancestors, and were in all respects a nobler and more trustworthy race of people. Then, as nature made them, there were no disturbing influences at work ; they had not before them the demoralising example of the runaway sailor, whose reckless conduct in after years was viewed by the Maoris iu the light of a reflex of modern civilization. They were then undisturbed by Pakeha-Maori " palaver" and bad advice, and dealt with each other, as honest men would, according to the merits of respective situations. Ear-wigged and incompetent Resident Magistrates were unknown creations ; and some years later the few unscrupulous layers then in the land had before them, in terrbrem, the fact that the slightest departure from the straightforward duties of an advocate would launch them into a sea of trouble and disaster. Those were the good old days, when the grip of a

man's hand meant something—when you could depend on that man's word, and when impecunious pettifoggers could not intervene to disturb a mutual understanding. But, alas ! how things have changed. With the growth of our boasted civilization counterfeits of all descriptions have arisen, and, what is most lamentable, seem to prosper, too. A Maori now-a-days does not respect you and confide in you as of old, because by the vicious example that has been set him he has been taught to distrust you. If he has a dispute with you, however frivolous it may be, like the highly civilized Smith, Jones, or Robinson, he has recourse to one of the most demoralising of our institutions—the Resident Magistrate's Court, where the facilities afforded are so great as to encourage litigation. Judges, when admitting young men to practice at the bar in this colony, are in the habit of advising the new fledglings to discourage litigation, but alas ! how many of them there are who in after practice pay little heed to their Honors' admonition. lam aware there are numbers of highly honorable gentlemen in New Zealand practising the law as a profession—men who would a thousand times sooner save their clients their money by bringing about an amicable settlement where possible, than involve the parties i in an expensive suit ; but there are many more of the Dodson and Fogg family, who consider everybody fair game that come within their clutches, and are ever prepared to fleece them accordingly. What did I hear a leading member of the New Zsaland bar recently declare when referring to the duties of a Taxing Officer? " That it iB an office of trust, the holder of which has a large power to modify the evils attending litigation to the public at large ; one in which he has also a power which I consider to be of the highest value in checking what, as an old practitioner, I cannot help calling the rapacity of the profession in the matter of costs." The Resident Magistrates' Courts open the door to a great deal of needless litigation and expense, especially where (as in the case of a large Southern magisterial district) they are presided over by men who allow themselves to be ear-wigged and prejudiced in their private chambers either by their clerks or by parties who have some personal interest to serve in connection with some case or other that may afterwards be brought forward for investigation. If these Courts had appointed to them men who could administer the law with sound judgment and impartiality—such men, for instance, as Mr. Mansford, at Wellington.—the decisions of Resident Magistrates generally would be received with greater respect, and people could then rest assured that justice, according to Portia's example, would be administered with a due regard to statute law, and in accordance with the notions and feelings of honorable men when the question at issue became one of equity and good conscience.

In my last paragraph, I conducted my readers into the splendid harbor of Whangaroa, whieh, on account of scenery and the facilities for shipping it presents, is not to be surpassed by any other harbor in the colony. There is a fine depth of water all round, and ships of the largest tonnage could lie within an arm's length of the shore. Viewed artistically, there is no scene I know of which will impress itself so vividly on one's recollection as that to be observed the whole way up from the entrance to the wharf. The harbor is full of lovely indentations, andnumerousislands disclose themselves to view as the steamer proceeds to her destination. Among these the most notable is that known as Peach Island, so called on account of the peach orchards that at one time flourished upon it. But it is not for the peaches that grew there in such abundance that this island has become famous. There, in the coldest blood, and in the most cowardly manner, were put to death about three hundred natives, who had become captives of a bloodthirsty old chief of the Ngapuhi. Unfortunately, my note-book got mislaid, or I could give the name of the chief, at the mention of which some aged natives will shudder at the present day. The victims of this butchery were tied hand and foot, and place! in rows by other natives, who dared not to disobey any command which their chief had given. Everything being in readiness, the old cannibal went across to the island in his war-canoe one morning, and with his own hand he despatched the whole of his captives, totally regardless of age or sex. There was then a horrible feast, the choicest of the bodies being selected to appease the cannibalistic appetites of the chief and his followers. Cannibalism has long since disappeared in that part of the colony north of Auckland, but at the present day there are living amongst the Ngapuhi nation several old natives who have eaten the flesh of those of their enemies who had fallen in the tribal battles which took place from time to time for the sake of conquest, the acquisition of larger territory, and the extension of what amongst the natives are termed mahinga kai, or places from which the natural products of the country, such as Ti (cabbage-tree), fern root, &c, &c, were obtained. At Kororareka I remember meeting with an old native who informed our party, when questioned on the subject, that he had been in the habit of eating human flesh till ho was a grown up lad. We shuddered at the idea, but the old man (now thoroughly civilised and attired a la mode) did not appear to think that he had committed anything dreadful, seeing that it was the custom ©f his countrymen. The most recent display of a cannibalistic nature manifested itself on the occasion of the Rev. Mr. Volkner's murder on the East Coast, when Kerecpa scooped the eyes out of the head of the deceased gentleman, and fanatically swallowed them in front of his band of Hauhau murderers. Although this was at the time related with every indication of truthfulness, there are many persons who believe that the wretch Kereopa (since then most justly executed at Napier) did not carry out his barbarity to such lengths, but I fear the story was but too true.

The massacre on Peach Island is not the only one of which the harbor of Whangaroa has been the theatre. Here it was that in the year 1809 occured the murder of the crew and passengers, of the ship Boyd. This vessel

sailed from Sydney for England, with the intention of calling at Whangaroa for spars. She carried seventy Europeans and five New Zealand natives, who were shipped at Sydney to work their passages to their own country. Of the latter, Tara (or George, as he was called on board ship,) was the son of a Whangaroa chief. During the voyage he refused to work, because he was sick, for which the captain stopped his food, and flogged him twice at tha gangway with much severity. When the vessel arrived at Whangaroa, and Tara and hi 3 four shipmates went amongst their friends, they related how cruelly Tara had been treated on the passage from Sydney, and Tara bared his back to afford ocular proof of the sort of treatment he had been subjected to. The vessel had come there for spars, and the natives, after a council of war, resolved to turn this circumstance to advantage, in order that they might have revenge upon those on board the ship. One day, by appointment with the natives, and in total ignorance of the plot, the captain and doctor of the Boyd were rowed ashore by some of the crew. On the captain's landing, the natives agreed to supply the spars, ; and a price was fixed upon. In order to satisfy him as to the quality of the spars they intended to supply, they asked the captain to follow them into the bush, and they would point them out to him. He assented to the proposition, and the doctor accompanied the captain. In order not to arouse the suspicions of the boat's crew, the natives allowed their women to remain with the sailors until they might return. Having penetrated the bush a sufficient distance, the natives despatched the captain and doctor, and, returning to the water's edge, and taking the sailors by surprise, they murdered them also. The assassins now proceeded in their canoes to where the Boyd was lying at anchor, and, not knowing their designs, those on the ship allowed them to board her without opposition. Once there they resumed their revengeful work, and only four souls amongst the "crew and passengers escaped this sanguinary slaughter. Having no more lives to take, the natives at once set to work to pillage the ship, and there are natives still alive who can tell you everything about it ; they were either youths at the time and were living witnesses of what happened, or they have been told of what occured by those who took an active part in the affair. Before commencing to pillage the ship, lines were stretched across the deck from the starboard to the port side, and whatever was found in each partition from the deck to the bottom of the ship was to belong to the respective chiefs. In their ignorance many of the natives seized bars of brown soap and commenced eating away at it, in the most ravenous manner, but they soon discovered its distasteful qualities, and threw it away, frightened out of their wits at the amount of froth which the eating of the soap had produced. That circumstance is thoroughly well remembered, but such of them as are living would sooner have you knock them down than suspect them of having taken part in the massacre or in the feast on shore. They rummaged the ship from stem to stern, and some of them became intoxicated. Happening to go into the magazine, they were experimentalising with the flint guns, when a spark got amongst the powder, and the ship and all the natives who remained on board were blown up. It is believed that a mere handful of those who had assisted in the massacre escaped, and these were on shore at the time, participating in the feast which the women had prepared with the bodies of those who had fallen there in the morning. What remained of the Boyd drifted further up the harbor, and came aground on a mud flat. When I visited this part of the world in the beginning of the present year, the remains of the Boyd were still to be seen at low water, and by rolling your trousers up as far as the knees you could stand on the ribs of the ill-fated vessel. Mr. Ratcliffe, a most courteous and obliging gentleman, with whom it was our good fortune to meet at Whangaroa, once ventured to place a flag on the hull of the ship, in order to indicate where she lay to strangers visiting the harbor, but an aged chief the next day pulled off to the spot and tore it down. Then he went to Mr. Ratcliffe and begged of him not to re-erect it, because the natives had no desire to have perpetuated the recollection of an event which occured in by-gone days, when the hearts of the Maoris were dark. This is an expression commonly used by the native people when they wish to prove their repentance for acts committed at a time when civilization had not reached them, and when their hearts were guided in accordance with their savage notions of revenge' and disregard of human life. Mr. Ratcliffe has respected the old chief's feelings, and the curiously-inclined will have to find out the spot where the hull of the Boyd now lies by making personal inquiries on the subject. Several articles which belonged to the vessel have been discovered at various times, and during a very pleasant hour or two which I spent at Mr. Ratcliffe's house, he showed me a silver spoon, shell pattern, with the word " Boyd" engraved upon it. He assured me that he dug it up himself three or four feet below the surface, and there is not the slightest doubt whatever that it was a portion of the plunder which the natives succeeded in getting ashore before the explosion took place.' It seemed but an act of retributive justice that most of those who had cruelly put to death so many innocent persons in the forenoon should on the afternoon of the very same day be themselves blown to atoms. The four Europeans who escaped death when the vessel was boarded were a woman, two children, and a cabin-boy. The latter was saved by Tara (the cause of the massacre) in gratitude for a trifling kindness. The four survivors were rescued subsequently from the natives by Te Pahi and Mr. Berry, the supercargo of the ship, who was then at the Bay of Islands. Two very prominent features in the harbor of Whangaroa are a couple of large hills which, from their resemblance to domes, have been named respectively St. Peter's and St. Paul's. They face each other from opposite sides of the water, St. Paul's being on the left and St. I Peter's on the right-hand side from the en«

trance. Of the two St. Paul's ia the more dome-like in shape, and I believe it is much higher than its Roman rival, its height being somewhere about 800 feet. It is surmounted by a mass of solid rock, up one side of which a guide from the regions of Mont Blanc might ascend with comparative ease ; but it was too perpendicular to tempt me to risk my neck for the mere sake of saying that I had accomplished what others of our patty had not the boldness to attempt. The land all around the harbor of Whangaroa falls so abruptly down to the water that there is no room whatever for a township • )f any size. On the hill side, immediately behind the sawmill, a number of houses threaten to roll over one another at every instant into the water beneath. A winding narrow roadway has been scooped out around the base of the hills, and sites for dwelling-houses have been obtained by the process of excavation, which is ten times more necessary at Whangaroa than in the Empire City even. As arm-in-arm my friend G. B. and Miyself walked round that narrow pathway by the water's edge in the clear moonlight, we could not but admire the scene, with the puriri trees overhead, and their outspreading branches reflected on the surface of the glass-like waters ; but we could not at the same time help thinking about the solitude of the place, and how unsuitable it would be for those who had been accustomed to the perpetual hubbub of large cities ; and yet there are in that ©ut-of-the-way locality, where many would consider themselves buried alive if they were obliged to live there, several whose early career was associated with the never-ending stir and bustle of city life. A Liverpool lady told me that when she first went to reside at Whangaroa she thoughtshe would go mad with ennui, but she has lived there long enough to boast that she would not abandon Whangaroa for a thousand Liverpools. Can anyone doubt that lady's happiness, however much they may consider themselves incapable of arriving at alike conclusion if circumstances forced them into a residence at a place where everything is s» unchanging from year's end to year's end, and where people seem to live merely for existence's sake, without a single yearning for anything less monotonous ? Public-houses are so much an acknowledged and apparently indispensable institution in this country, that it is needless to say Whangaroa boasts of two of these establishments—one called the Gloucester Arms, at which, in Yankee parlance, we " put up," and the other rejoicing in the extraordinary name of " The Donkey's Nest." Why it was so called nobody seemed to be able to inform me, notwithstanding that I was most persistant in my inquiries, and even incurred a long walk on two occasions, and an expenditure of 5s each time, with a view to obtaining the desired information ; but each time I got there I found that the old gentleman who " ran" the establishment had retired for the night. His name is Downes, and I am told there is no man living in those parts who can tell so many interesting yarns about the olden days. He has been a principal actor in many scenes where coolness and courage were both required, and many a rowdy and bounceable whaler has had cause to regret coming to any misunderstanding with my hero. He became a pakeha-Maori when quite a young man, and he is the father of a large family of half-castes. I regretted very much that he was in the land of dreams on both nights I called to see him, in hopes that I would obtain some information about his early adventures amongst the Northern tribes, as well as about their onslaughts vipon each other, at a period when only a handful of white men could live amidst them without fear of molestation. The Donkey's Nest is an antique and unpretentious establishment, whose patrons are attracted to it by the associations of the past. The hotel we stopped at, however, is a creation of modern days, and its host and hostess are comparatively new to Whangaroa. They both tried hatd to make us comfortable, and if they did not entirely succeed, I must at any rate give them credit for their good intentions. The hostess was a chatty little Irishwoman, with a pronounced brogue, and at each meal we sat down to she was good enough to see that we were supplied with an abundance of grapes and water melons. She was most attentive to our wants, and we therefore paid ungrudgingly for what we received, however much we might think that to make hay while the sun shone was the maxim of the establishment. It was our misfortune to be at Whangaroa a short time prior to the approach of St. Patrick's day, and several of the true sons of old Erin, who had been working in the bush for a twelvemonth, some less, had come down to do honor to the Patron Saint. This consisted in their getting religiously drunk at the start, and remaining in that condition day after day, now attempting to sing an Irish patriotic song, and again vainly endeavoring to dance an Irish jig without the remotest rega,id to time or gracefulness of motion. Meantime they were "knocking dotvn" their cheques, and living at the rate of ten thousand a year fur a brief period, but their extravagance pleased them, and they appeared to derive intense satisfaction from the knocking-down process until their resources were exhausted, and it was time for them to depart days before they could " wet their shamrock " on the date facetiously known as the seventeenth of Ireland. The disregard which the majority of bashmen have for money is almost unaccountable. 'I hey work hard mouth after mouth, and when their cheques have accumulated to a pretty round sum, they make for the nearest " public," and squaiider the lot in a few days. This is not a characteristic of the Whangaroa bushmen only ; it applies to every locality in the North Island where the timber trade is in full operation, and where hundreds of reckless, dare-devil men find employment. For their own sake, it is a pity they do not learn to appreciate more highly the value of their toil and the honest reward of their labor, but I believe that even the forcible and kindly advice of a Father Matthew would be of little avail amongst a class of men whose natures have been changed by their isolation from society, aud whose lives are spent iu the company of those who contaminate them by bad example,

and who soon SHeceed in depriving them of any feelings of Sweeney or self-respect which they might have possessed when first they became bushmen. Let it not be understood from these observations, that all bushmen in the North deserve to be placed in the same category. There are exceptions, lam glad to say, but compared with the total number of "black sheep," these exceptions would not bear the proportion of forty to every hundred. There is a large saw-mill at work at Whangaroa, belonging to the Auckland Timber Company, but occasionally it is stopped until a fresh comes down the creeks and rivers, and brings down with it the immense kauri logs which perhaps have been felled and squared many months before. Alter these freshes the water along the shores swarms with magnificent logs, kauri being the predominant species of timber, and these are sawn up in due course, and forwarded to Auckland and the South. There is an enormous kauri trade carried on between the saw-mill districts of the North and the province of Canterbury and the consequence is that a great deal of the produce raised in Canterbury finds its way into the North. I think that in all my journeyings I never came across so thoroughly demoralised a lot of natives as I beheld at Whangaroa. I was informed, however, that the majority of them belonged to the Kaeo, and had come to Whangaroa on this occasion " to see life " after the manner of many of their pakeha acquaintances. Whether they hailed from the Kaeo or elsewhere, they were no credit to their countrymen numbers of whom witnessed their uproarious behavior with mingled feelings of disgust and sorrow. During the whole of the time they stayed there they appeared to be in a perpetual state of intoxication, and this condition of things was not confined to the men only, but extended also to the women. These people had evidently profited little by contact with the Europeans, and the vices of both races made themselves conspicuous in the conduct of these rowdy, drunken brown-skins. The time was now approaching when we should have to leave for Mangonui, and our journey overland will form the commencement of my next chapter.