TEA AND SILK FARMING IN NEW ZEALAND. 181 



determined on, which took the form of a public ceremony, by 

 which, on the 16th ISTovember 1840, New Zealand was formally 

 annexed to the British Crown, Captain Hobson being appointed 

 its first governor. The immediate result of this wise step was 

 that a tide of immigration set towards its shores, and for the 

 first few years thereafter a degree of comparative calm prevailed. 

 Thousands of colonists poured into the country from all Europe, 

 and it seemed as if at last the good time, for which the well- 

 wishers of the colony had so long been waiting, had arrived. 

 Soon, however, the old jealousies and mutual recriminations 

 reappeared ; the natives sometimes taking the initiative by 

 abjuring and disowning their own negotiations, as well as the 

 bargains made for them by their chiefs ; and the colonists ad- 

 hering with the might of possessson to the acres upon which 

 they had settled, and not hesitating occasionally to make the 

 most unblushing encroachments on the reserved territories when 

 favourable opportunities occurred. Thus, separate and indepen- 

 dent colonial communities grew inwards from the sea-ports at 

 which they originally landed, and these in time became the 

 nucleus of the populations which now occupy the nine provinces 

 into which New Zealand is at present divided. Thus, also, the 

 aborigines were elbowed further and further out of the way, 

 for it had long been evident that Christianity and cannibalism 

 could not co-exist on the same territory ; the colonists refused 

 longer to tolerate the oljjectionable habits of the natives, and 

 the natives on their part declined to be civilised. These and 

 other points of difference, viewed in connection with the con- 

 tinually recurring land disputes and encroachments, explain the 

 bitterness of the feeling which festered and matured on both 

 sides, and led to the scenes of slaughter which raged with 

 greater or less obstinacy during the succeeding thirty years. 



Such, then, were the barriers which prevented the develop- 

 ment sooner of some of the hidden resources of New Zealand. 

 "With a degenerate and dwindling native population, and inter- 

 mittent war occurring up to 1870, and even later, it is scarcely 

 surprising that, even among the more ambitious and scientifi- 

 cally inclined European settlers, only the ordinary grades of 

 agriculture and manufacture had, until recent years, been 

 attempted, and that the highly developed and refined industries 

 of tea production and sericiculture are still reserved for the 

 future. 



Arrived at this point, the reader may legitimately ask, " What 

 reason is there to believe that the cultivation and preparation of 

 tea and silk are at all suited to the climate of New Zealand ? " 

 And this query liaving i)(nm satisfactorily answered, " What are 

 the prospects of pecuniary success ? " As the simplest and most 

 effective way to a reply, it will be desirable to inspect some of 



