102 VEGETATION OF NEW ZEALAND. 



and much broken up, but the ordinary Fern which clothes them is so 

 high and unyielding as to oppose an almost insurmountable obstacle. 

 It is not more than about fifteen miles in a direct line from my house 

 in the Waimea to the Wairau valley, but the difficulty of crossing the 

 mountain-range; from the causes adverted to, is so great, that the per- 

 sons who have accomplished it have had four days of most laborious 

 work, and every one bound for the Wairau sroes round a distance of 



about seventy miles rather than face these fifteen miles over the moun- 



tains. I will take notice of what you say about seeds of trees and 

 shrubs, and will endeavour to send you some. I shall particularly en- 

 deavour to get some of the seed of the Beeches which are found at the 

 highest levels ; they are, when well grown, very handsome trees, and 

 would be a great addition^to an English arboretum. I sent you in a 

 letter, two years ago, the seed of the large Carmicliaelia^ but I presume 

 it had lost its vitality by the time it reached you. I raised some 

 young plants in my garden here, and I observed that they showed at 

 first true leaves, small and set at considerable distances along the 



stem, but either the soil or the situation did not suit them, and they 

 died off. 



Gardening in this climate would be very satisfactory if we only could 

 get labour ; but w^e cannot, and therein is the great gi-ievance of every 

 New Zealand capitalist at present. Wages are high, but the farmers 

 would not object to pay the wages if they could get hands. In the 

 Blind Bay district we have as much sun perhaps as in any part of 

 New Zealand. The summer temperature is not high, the thermometer 

 seldom passing 80"^, the temperature reduced by an almost constant 

 breeze from either tlie sea or the land ; and yet judged by its results 

 in ripening fruits, the climate should be almost equivalent to the south 

 of France, where the temperature is sometimes for weeks together be- 

 tween 90° and 100°. We have Peaches, of very good quality, upon 

 standards in great abundance. Figs of excellent quality; and grapes upon 

 a wall ripen perfectly, or in any sheltered situations where the sweep 

 of the breeze is broken. Melons ripen well without any artificial heat. 

 Pomegranates do not ripen ; and I have not heard of any one yet try- 

 ing the Orange, but it is unlikely that any but the hardiest sorts would 

 ripen, and those only against a wall. 



