162 



ZEALAND, NEW. 



the commencement of the intercourse of the New 

 Zealanders with Europe, the sphere of their hus- 

 bandry has been considerably enlarged, by the 

 introduction of several most precious articles which 

 were formerly unknown to them. Captain Cook, 

 in the course of his several visits to the country, 

 both deposited in the soil, and left with some of 

 the most intelligent among the natives, quantities 

 of such useful seeds, as those of wheat, pease, cab- 

 bage, onions, carrots, turnips, and potatoes; but 

 although he had sufficient proofs of the suitableness 

 of the soil and climate to the growth of most of 

 these articles, which be found that even the winter 

 of New Ze:il;md was too mild to injure, it appeared 

 to him very unlikely that the inhabitants would be 

 at the trouble to take care even of those whose 

 value they in some degree appreciated. With the 

 exception, in fact, of the turnips and potatoes, the 

 vegetable productions which Cook took so much 

 pains to introduce, seem to have all perished. 

 The potatoes, however, have been carefully pre- 

 served, and are said to have even improved in qua- 

 lity, being now greatly superior to those of the 

 Cape of Good Hope, from which the seed they have 

 sprung from was originally brought. In more recent 

 times, maize has been introduced into New Zea- 

 land ; and the missionaries have sown many acres 

 in the neighbourhood of the Bay of Islands, both 

 on their own property and on that of the native 

 chiefs, with English wheat, which has produced an 

 abundant return. 



Of the lofty forests of New Zealand, considered 

 as a mere ornament to the country, all who have 

 seen them speak in terms of the highest admira- 

 tion. Mr Anderson (the surgeon whom Cook took 

 with him on board the Resolution in his third 

 voyage) describes them as " flourishing with a 

 vigour almost superior to anything that imagination 

 can conceive, and affording an august prospect to 

 those who are delighted with the grand and beau- 

 tiful works of nature." " It is impossible," says 

 Mr Nicholas, " to imagine, in the wildest and most 

 picturesque walks of nature a sight more sublime 

 and majestic, or which can more forcibly challenge 

 the admiration of the traveller, than a New Zea- 

 land forest." And indeed, when we are told that 

 the trees rise generally to the height of from eighty 

 to a hundred feet, straight as a mast and without 

 a branch, and are then crowned with tops of such 

 umbrageous foliage, that the rays of the sun, in 

 endeavouring to pierce through them, can hardly 

 make more than a dim twilight in the lonely reces- 

 ses below, so that herbage cannot grow there, and 

 the rank soil produces nothing but a thick spread 

 of climbing and intertwisted underwood, we may 

 conceive how imposing must be the gloomy gran- 

 deur of these gigantic and impenetrable groves. In 

 the woods in the neighbourhood of Poverty Bay, 

 Cook says he found trees of above twenty different 

 sorts, altogether unknown to any body on board ; 

 and almost every new district which he visited, 

 afterwards presented to him a profusion of new 

 varieties. Among those which the natives princi- 

 pally make use of, are the henow, from which they 

 extract a black dye, and the vow, a species of cork 

 tree. But the trees that have as yet chiefly at- 

 tracted the attention of Europeans, are certain of 

 these more lofty ones of which we have just spoken. 

 These trees had attracted Cook's attention in his 

 first voyage, as likely to prove admirably adapted 

 for masts, if the timber, which in its original state 

 he considered rather too heavy for that purpose, 



could, like that of the European pitch-pine, be 

 lightened by tapping ; they would then, he says, l>-- 

 such masts as no country in Europe could produce. 

 Crozet, however, asserts, in his account of Marion's 

 voyage, that they found what he calls the cedar ot 

 New Zealand to weigh no heavier than the best 

 Riga fir. Of late years the attention of our own 

 government has been turned to the capabilities of 

 this wood, and its entire suitableness for the most 

 important purposes of ship-building has been suffi- 

 ciently ascertained. It was in order to obtain a 

 cargo of spars for top-masts that the Dromedary, in 

 which Captain Cruise sailed, was directed to pro- 

 ceed to New Zealand, in 1820. This ship had 

 already been provided with a fore-top-gallant-mast 

 of New Zealand timber, which had been brought to 

 England by the Catharine whaler, and of which 

 Captain Cruise says, " it was well tried during its 

 return to its native country, and proved itself to be, 

 in seamen's phrase, a stick of first-rate quality." 



According to Captain Cruise there are two kinds 

 of tree* known in New Zealand, which are lit for 

 mas-ts for large ships ; the one of which is called by 

 the natives kaikaterre, the other cowry or cowdy. 

 They both grow to an immense height without a 

 branch ; but the cowry seems to be the talkst, and 

 is also to be preferred on other accounts. It is not, 

 however, BO easily procured as the other, being to 

 be sought for frequently on the tops of the highest 

 hills, from which it is scarcely possible to get it 

 conveyed to the seaside ; whereas the kaikaterre is- 

 found generally in low swampy ground, often on 

 the banks of ri vers, so that little difficulty, of course, 

 is experienced in bringing it on board. It was thir 

 cowry which the Dromedary was directed, if possi- 

 ble, to procure ; but she was obliged at last to 

 come home with a cargo of the other timber, the 

 cowry forests being found to be at too great a dis- 

 tance from any place of embarkation in the Bay or 

 Islands, to make it practicable for the spars to be 

 conveyed to the ship; and the Captain having de- 

 clined to go up the Shukehanga river, the banks of 

 which were ascertained to be clothed with that 

 tree, from an apprehension of not being able to pass 

 the bar which lies across its mouth. It has since 

 been stated in the Quarterly Review, that the spars 

 brought from New Zealand have been " found on 

 trial to be of equal gravity with Riga spars, and to 

 possess a greater degree of flexibility, as well as of 

 strength, than the very best species of fir procured 

 from the north." " The wood of this tree," (the 

 cowry,) it is added, " is much finer grained than 

 any timber of the pine tribe ; and the trunks are 

 of such a size as to serve for the main and fore- 

 top-masts of the largest three-deckers." In a note, 

 it is said, " the Prince Regent of one hundred and 

 twenty guns is supplied with them ; they have also 

 been used in sea-going ships, and the reports of 

 their qualities are most favourable." The same 

 writer also informs us, that the cowry, " though 

 coniferous, is not allied to the pine tribe, but is a 

 species of the genus which Rumphius describes 

 under the name of Damanara, which affords the 

 pitch or resin used by the natives of the Oriental 

 Archipelago, and which is of a different genus from 

 that tree which in India produces the dammer." 



The only other vegetable production of New 

 Zealand which we can afford to notice, is one that 

 has of late attracted a great deal of attention, both 

 in this country and in other parts of Europe we 

 mean the plant from which the natives fabricate not 

 only their fishing lines and nets, and' such other 



