132 Votjage of the Novara. 



As of yore, hovering above the rocky cliffs, 

 The sea-fowl in clouds obscure the sky! 

 But the beloved one comes not ! 

 Not even a lock of thy waving tresses 

 Is left us to mourn over ! 



The truly paternal interest and attention bestowed by the 

 Government on the destinies of the New Zealanders, and on 

 the means being adojDted to raise them morally and materially, 

 as also the repeated asseverations of loyalty, fidelity, and gra- 

 titude towards the British nation, which were constantly in 

 the mouth of the New Zealanders (the Gascons of the South, 

 as an English author nicknames them), gave no reason to an- 

 ticipate that the colony was about to become the scene of a 

 war, which can hardly have any other result than the total ex- 

 tinction of the small remnant of the Maori ; for although the 

 English troops have hitherto encountered a severe and protract- 

 ed resistance, and the Maori, intrenched in their PdJiSj required 

 Armstrong guns, bombs, and heavy artillery to be brought 

 against them ere they yielded, yet to the impartial observer 

 the issue of the contest cannot be for a moment doubtful. 

 This unhappy contest originated in the sale of some land in 

 the province of Taranaki, or New Plymouth, on the S.W. 

 shores of the Northern Island. A native, named Te Teira 

 (John Taylor), had sold to Government, under the j^rovislons 

 of the treaty of Waitangi, a small piece of land adjoining 

 New Plymouth. Rangitaki, or as he is better known by his 

 Christian name, Wiremu Kingi (William King), a resolute 

 and powerful chief of the Ngatiawa tribe, opposed the sale, on 



