CoLENSo. — Bush Notes. 489 



require that particular attention as to the proper season of the 

 year for felhug them that our Enghsh timber-trees do, these 

 latter — as the oak, ash, elm, Sec. — being deciduous ; for in the 

 former the sap is always rising, while in the latter it is not so 

 in the winter season. 



I have intimated that some present may not have seen this 

 timber work, and I may, I think, pretty nearly equally say 

 that many of you have not seen or known the old, slow, and 

 painful mode of proceeding with such work at Home or in this 

 couutr}-. I, alas ! have not only seen it done, but have tried 

 my hand at it in order to get some boards from trees, when 

 none were to be had, by arduous manual labour — a slow and 

 laborious process. It was dear-bought experience ; the un- 

 pleasant remembrance of it I shall never lose. I have called 

 it "such work;" but that is not correct, save that boards 

 were obtained from trees by hand-sawing. One might with 

 equal justice compare the speed of a lighter propelled by oars 

 with that of another worked by steam ; or the tedious old 

 Maori n:iode of procuring fire by friction with the modern 

 instantaneous one by a match. 



9. On Working-oxen. 

 My lodging at Dannevirkc is close to the railway-station, 

 and my sitting-room window commands the main road leadiiig 

 to it. An especial object of hiterest to me is a dray with five or 

 six yoke of oxen coming along with a load to the station or tak- 

 ing one from it, as these generally come from a long distance 

 across the country, where in many places there are no made 

 roads. And this incident serves forcibly to remind me of what 

 once obtained (thirty or forty years ago) at Napier and the now 

 settled districts of Hawke's Bay, with their present towns and 

 boroughs, w-ell-metalled roads, and bridges. Contemplating 

 those oxen (generally twelve) in their ponderous dray, two 

 things are highly prominent : (1.) The muddy state of the dray 

 and its large high wheels, with the sj)aces between their 

 spokes completely filled up level with the felloe wuth stiff 

 hardened clay-mud securely fixed therein as if rammed, inso- 

 much that it would be a difficult matter to dislodge any por- 

 tion of it. This alone shows what kind of country they had 

 come over or through, their tediously slow journey occupying 

 in some cases several days. (2.) The calm and quiet de- 

 meanour and great docility of the oxen. There they patiently 

 stand, alike in the hot sun, cold wind, or driving rain, one, 

 two, or three hours, it may be, while the dray is being un- 

 loaded and reloaded with stores for the distant station. 

 Sometimes, however, one of a yoked pair reclines on the 

 ground, making it terribly disagreeable for its partner in the 

 same unyielding and heavy yoke, now forcibly bowed down at 



