ZEALAND, NEW. 



ZEALAND, NEW. 



1238 



in fertile and easily cultivated, and it has an easy communication with 

 all the countries both to the north and to the south. Many of the 

 English, who settled on the island before the foundation of the colony, 

 reside in the harbours north of Auckland, and a great number of small 

 coasting-vessels visit Auckland. Around Auckland are four pensioner- 

 Tillages for discharged soldiers. Auckland was incorporated as a 

 borough on July 29th, 1851, the district by which it is formed extend- 

 ing 16 miles in length, and from 5 to 7 miles in width. It is divided 

 into 14 wards, of which three are in the town itself. The Tamaki 

 Creek intersects the borough, is navigable for boats, and is made 

 available for the commerce of the district. The borough is governed 

 by a mayor, aldermen, and burgesses. The principal buildings in the 

 town are St. Paul's church, a handsome building ; two sets of barracks 

 built of scoriae ; a public hospital ; a market-house ; a native hostelry ; 

 public washing, bathing, and drying grounds ; several chapels ; and a 

 bank. There are also several bridges, wharfs, and landing.places. 

 The governor's residence and the bishop's are closely adjacent, and 

 four miles from the town, on the banks of the Tamaki, is St. John's 

 College. There U a church at each of the pensioner-villages mentioned 

 above. The population of the town is about 4000; in the district in 

 1851 there were 8840, of whom 4921 were males and 3919 females. 

 The flag-staff of the barracks is in 31 51' 27" S. lat, 174 45' 20" 

 E. long. 



Wellington, the principal settlement of the New Zealand Company, 

 founded in 1840, is on the shores of Port Nicholson, in the island of Xew 

 Ulster, but for government purposes the town and the whole of the dis- 

 trict are comprised in the province of New Munster. Port Nicholson 

 lies in 41 15' 3. lat, 174 47' E. long. ; it is surrounded by moun- 

 tains, except at the alluvial tract through which the river Hutt, or 

 Eritonga, reaches the sea. These mountains rise abruptly from the 

 water's edge, except in the most south-western corner of the harbour, 

 where a strip of flat land extends at their base, about one-third of a 

 mile broad and two miles long, the soil of which U composed of saud, 

 shells, shingle, and vegetable earth. On this flat ground, which sur- 

 rounds that portion of Port Nicholson called Lambton Harbour, the 

 town of Wellington has been built. It extends about three miles in 

 the form of a semicircle round the harbour. The flat ground not 

 being considered sufficient for the town, the hills south of it were 

 included. As these hills are generally too steep to build on, only the 

 more convenient parts were selected for that purpose, and thus the 

 most distant points of the town are nearly four miles from the harbour. 

 In 1848 there wen 525 houses, of which 45 were of brick or stone, 

 303 of wood, and 177 of clay and wood, or other materials. Other 

 houses, and large warehouses of brick, have been constructed since, 

 near the wharfs and jetties, which have been built so that vessels of 

 70 ton* can unload alongside of them. There are two churches, and 

 an Episcopal chapel, a Presbyterian chapel, five Wesleyan chapels, three 

 other Dissenting chapels, and one Roman Catholic chapel, with a 

 Roman Catholic bishop ; there are also an hospital, a bank, a savings 

 bank, a mechanics institute, a horticultural society, a custom-house, 

 an exchange, a jail, two sets of barracks, and the residence of the 

 lieutenant-governor. There are also 38 schools of various kinds. Most 

 of the public buildings are of wood only. The population of the dis- 

 trict in 1851 was 5722, of whom 3135 were males and 2587 females. 

 The town is well supplied with water by streams which run through 

 it ; it is lighted at night by lamps, which every public-house is com- 

 pelled by the terms of its licence to keep burning ; the streets are not 

 pared, bat excellent roads have been made in several directions along 

 the coast to the valley of the Hutt, and towards that of Wairarapo. 

 Two newspapers are published in the town. Three cemeteries have 

 been provided, all of them at some distance outside the town, one for 

 the Jews, one for Roman Catholics, and the other, a large one, pic- 

 turesquely situated, U used by all the Protestant sects, European and 

 native. The harbour is safe, and has good holding-ground. 



Akaroa is a small settlement formed, in 1840, by the French, who 

 had attempted to land in the Bay of Islands, but were prevented by 

 Governor Hobson ; and under his direction, and accompanied by an 

 English magistrate under the British flag, they were settled at Akaroa. 

 Akaroa is near the south-east point of Banks Peninsula in New Munster, 

 in 43* 52' S. lat, 173 E. long. The harbour is an inlet 7 miles in 

 depth, with steep shores, and has a bar at the entrance, but it ia per- 

 fectly landlocked within, though exposed to furious pusta from the 

 highlands around it, and there is 14 fathoms water inside the harbour. 

 The town contains a church, the residence of the magistrate, a jail, 

 and the cottages of the inhabitants, who are chiefly agriculturists. 

 Bay of Iilandi, at the northern end and east coast of New Ulster, was 

 originally the seat of a whaling station, and was at first selected by 

 Governor Hobson for the aite of the capital, but was abandoned in 

 favour of Auckland. Two towns however sprung up, Russell and 

 Kororarika; the first was burnt down and tba inhabitants expelled 

 by Heki, and from the other they withdrew to Auckland. Still some 

 Europeans have kept their petition here, and the government returns 

 utAUfthe population as 400. Canterbury U the name of a settlement 

 in Nw Monster, first founded in 1849, upon strictly Church of 



gland principles, and with a large ecclesiastical establishment. It 



uprisen the whole of Banks Peninsula, and a large district running 

 westward to the range of mountains, and extending along the 

 n coast for direct length of about 100 miles. The population 



in 1850 was estimated in the government returns at 1600 ; but Mr. Fox, 

 in his 'Six Colonies of New Zealand' (1852), gives the number at 

 3734 ; and two towns had been formed, Lyttelton, at Port Victoria, 

 and Christchurch, on the plains, where temporary churches had been 

 built, and a college and schools founded. Kaitaia is a native village, 

 and a missionary settlement in New Ulster, in the valley of the 

 Awaroa, a few miles S.W. from Doubtless Bay, and 8 miles from the 

 western coast. The natives in the valley are estimated at 8000. The 

 village is extremely picturesque, and much resembles an English one. 

 There is a large church, with a wooden steeple, the work almost entirely 

 of native builders ; the houses are adorned with gardens in front, 

 where roses and other flowers are cultivated ; as are also various fruit- 

 trees, the vine, vegetables, and some tobacco ; they grow wheat and 

 hops, and they have cut a road 32 miles long through the forest to 

 Waimate on the Bay of Islands. Monganui is a small settlement on 

 an excellent harbour within Doubtless Bay, on the eastern coast, 

 towards the northern end of New Ulster. Mottuica is a native village, 

 with a slight admixture of Europeans, about 50 miles E.N.E. from 

 Nelson. In this village, of which the population is about 1400, agri- 

 culture seems to be the chief pursuit, though lying close on the shore 

 of Queen Charlotte Sound iu Cook Strait. Ndion, situated on Nelson 

 Harbour, in Blind Bay, New Munster, on the southern side of Cook 

 Strait, in 41 15' S. lat, 173 16' E. long., was the second settlement 

 of the New Zealand Company, and was made in 1843. The port is a 

 good one, but the district is chiefly agricultural. The population of 

 the whole district, which ia extensive, amounted in 1851 to 4287, of 

 whom 2317 were males and 1970 females. There are in the town one 

 church, one Wesleyan chapel, two other chapels for Dissenters, and 

 one Roman Catholic chapel. There are three other churches and six 

 chapels at various villages. We have noticed the great extent of 

 sheep farming in this district, and as the pastures lie wide it has led 

 to the construction of a great length of road ; from 60 to 70 miles 

 have been already formed, and a communication by land has been 

 opened with Canterbury, a direct distance of about 170 miles, to 

 Lyttelton. Coal exists in great abundance in the vicinity; one seam 

 at Nelson and one at Waikati have been worked for some years, and 

 in the latter end of 1852 a new seam of superior quality was dis- 

 covered by a landslip at South Wanganui, at the north-west corner of 

 the island, about 60 miles from Nelson in a direct line by land, but 

 easily accessible by sea. Copper is also found near the Dun Mountain, 

 about 8 miles from Nelson. New Plymouth, in New Ulster, is situated 

 between two small streams, the Huatoki and the Henui, near their 

 entrance into the sea, on the northern side of the peninsula of which 

 Cape Egmont is the western termination, and in the midst of which 

 stands the extinct volcano of Mount Egmont There is no harbour 

 properly so called, as the rivers are not navigable, and the mouths are 

 small, nor U the roadstead a secure one. But this is the only draw- 

 back, for the country around has been called the garden of New 

 Zealand. The land is so dry and so level that good roads are made 

 with but little trouble, and the soil is the most fertile of any yet 

 cultivated in New Zealand. The settlement was founded in 1841. 

 In 1851 the population was 1582, of whom 845 were males and 687 

 females. The town fronts the sea, about half a mile from the beach, 

 lying scattered on the slope of a hill, and contains two churches, one 

 of them of stone, a Wesleyan chapel also of stone, two Dissenting 

 chapels ; a jail, schools, and some other buildings, all constructed of 

 wood ; and there are a brewery and three flour-mills. Several bridges 

 have been formed over the various small streams that descend from 

 the sides of Mount Egmont and traverse the country. Iron and coal 

 exist in the neighbourhood. Coal is found in abundance near the 

 Mokau River, about 50 miles N. from New Plymouth. Otago, in New 

 Munster, is the district in which a settlement has been made by 

 members of the Free Church of Scotland. It is toward the southern 

 end of the island, on the eastern coast. The town named Dunedin is 

 on the Molyneux River, which has been re-named the Clutha. The 

 harbour formed by the mouth of the river is an excellent one ; it i.s 

 13 miles long, and averages 2 miles in width; but the channel ha 1 

 difficulties which have been guarded against by laying down guiding 

 buoys. The settlement was made early in 1848; in 1851 the popu- 

 lation was 1740, of whom 994 were males and 746 females. The 

 chief town, Duuedin, stands at the head of the harbour, and another 

 has been formed nearer the mouth, named Port Chalmert, which lies 

 in 45" 46' a lat, 170 43' E. long. There was in 1848 only one place 

 of worship, a Free Church chapel; but iu 1850 the number of adhe- 

 rents to that doctrine barely reached a majority. The Clutha is a fine 

 river, and, though difficult of entrance from a bar and consequent 

 surf at its mouth, is said to be navigable for 60 miles for vessels of 

 considerable burden. Coal is found at Coal Point, about 1 miles N. 

 from the mouth of the Clutha, and at a spot within a quarter of a 

 mile of the left bank of the Clutha, about 4 miles inland ; traces have 

 also been found iu other places. A kind of green serpentine or jade 

 is found here. Otuki is an exclusively native village on the western 

 shore of Cook Strait, about 50 miles N.N.E. from Wellington, and 

 was the village where the celebrated Rauperaha lived, and where ho 

 died. The church missionaries have taken much interest in this 

 village, and not without success. Mr. Tyrone Power ('Sketches in 

 New Zealand') describes it in 1848 as consisting of "houses neatly 

 built, in the midst of well-fenced gardens : and there is abundant 



