94 



THE FUTURE HOME OF THE WAIKATO SETTLERS. 



[By Lieut. Col. Chesney]. 



Although some twenty-six years' have cla2->sed since the 

 first English colony was founded in New Zealand, but little is 

 known of the interior of those beautiful islands which now 

 form part of the scattered empire of Great Britain. A few 

 travellers have crossed some of the rivers, ascended the hills 

 and skirted the lakes ; missionaries have fixed themselves in 

 places where native population invited their residence ; and 

 traders were located in spots easily accessible from the 

 settlements : but, owing to the rugged nature of the Middle 

 Island and to the jealousy of the natives in the North Island, 

 the Eughsh race are to be found chiefly at the seaports and 

 near the Coast line. To the bulk of the colonists the interior 

 of the islands has been hitherto a terra incognita. 



Discoveries of gold combined with the explorations of Dr. 

 Hector and others are making us acquainted with the Middle I., 

 and the campaign of 1864 against the native races has opened 

 a highway into the centre of the Northern Island. Whether 

 that highway will be again closed by the action of the present 

 ministry of New Zealand is partly a political, partly a mihtary 

 question and is therefore not a fit subject for discussion within 

 these walls, but, inasmuch as many people have left Tasmania 

 and the Australian colonies to become military settlers in New 

 Zealand, a short account of the the physical and geographical 

 features of the territory recently acquired may be of interest 

 to many of the Fellows of the Society. 



It is proposed to lay before you a brief account of the 

 interior of the North Island of New Zealand, to review the 

 causes that led to the campaign in the valley of the Waikato 

 and Bay of Plenty, to glance at the proposed scheme of military 

 occupation, and to describe the future home and prospects of 

 the Waikato settlers. 



Near the centre of the island the volcano of Eua-pehu rises 

 from what is evidently the water-shed. Its snow-clad summit, 

 and that of the neighboring mountain, Tongariro, which rises 

 to a height considerably greater than that of Mont Blanc, 

 may be seen from Cook's Straits in clear weather. South of 

 Tongariro the country is of a singularly broken and difficult 

 character, and through it winds the river Wanganui, carrying 

 quantities of pumice floating like balls of froth upon its surface. 

 At first a swift shallow stream, after a course of about 50 

 miles it enters a cleft in the rock, and for about double the 

 distance is bounded on either side by perpendicular walls of 

 rock, so that the traveller has some difficulty in finding 



