268 REPOKT— 1891. 



deed, of the very shirts they wore. On the last two days of the 

 journey they were reduced to wild cabbage and cold water, 

 sleeping by night in this famished condition round a large iire, 

 and in the morning plunging breakfastless and exhausted into 

 the dense bush. In this most wretched plight they made the 

 Hutt on the thirty-third day, where Mr. Mason, the most out- 

 lying settler, received them with every hospitality. Mr. and 

 Mrs. Mason, very old settlers now, still live in the Hutt Valley. 



Mr. Kettle brought back full and valuable information of the 

 districts through which he had travelled, besides numerous 

 sketches, and bearings of distant points. In 1846 he was pro- 

 moted to be the Company's chief surveyor. He superintended 

 the surveys of the new Otago Block, and cast in his lot with 

 the settlers in their principal town — Dunedin — where he died 

 in 1862, at the comparatively early age of forty-two. 



In the summer of 1841-42 Mr. Colenso, F.E.S., made — on 

 foot, of course — an excursion of unusual interest, extending 

 from Hicks Bay dowm the coast to the present site of Gisborne, 

 then inland to the Waikare Lake, over the Whakatane Moun- 

 tains to the hot lakes and Tauranga, then inland again, 

 canoeing a hundred and fifty miles down the Waikato Eiver to 

 its mouth, which he crossed, proceeding overland to the Kai- 

 para by Mangawai, Whangaruru, and Te Eanga to the Bay of 

 Islands, the seat of the mission, whence he started. The 

 ground thus covered must be between five and six hundred 

 miles. A charming account of this journey was published 

 by the learned author in 1844, in Launceston, Van Diemen's 

 Land. It is written in the freshest manner, and abounds 

 throughout in valuable natural-history notes, principally 

 botanical, and in information of all kinds. Though the 

 pamphlet extends over nearly a hundred octavo pages it is 

 entirely too short. It is a matter of sincere regret that Mr. 

 Colenso is not able to take part in the meetings of this 

 Association, and to lay before it some portion of that rich 

 store of knowledge which he has gathered during the last 

 fifty-five years in New Zealand. His contributions to New 

 Zealand botany are well known, as well as those relating to 

 the Maori race and to subjects connected with our earliest 

 history. Let us hope that he may be. spared for many years 

 fui'ther to enrich us from the horn of his plenty. 



But this by no means exhausts Mr. Colenso's claim to rank 

 as an explorer. He was the first to cross the Euahine Eange, 

 making his way more than forty years ago from Hawke's Bay 

 to Wellington. When, in 1841, Sir Joseph — then Dr. Hooker 

 — visited the Bay of Islands in the Antarctic expedition, his 

 constant companion was Mr. Colenso, who doubtless then 

 became first imbued with the botanical ardour which has since 

 shown no sisjn of abatement. 



