1835.] WAIMATE. 309 



breast-high, the land by tillage becomes productive. Some of the 

 residents think that all this extensive open country originally was 

 covered with forests, and that it has been cleared by fire. It is said, 

 that by digging in the barest spots, lumps of the kind of resin which 

 flows from the kauri pine are frequently found. The natives had an 

 evident motive in clearing the country; for the fern, formerly a staple 

 article of food, flourishes only in the open cleared tracks. The almost 

 entire absence of associated grasses, which forms so remarkable a 

 feature in the vegetation of this island, may perhaps be accounted for 

 by the land having been aboriginally covered with forest-trees. 



The soil is volcanic ; in several parts we passed over slaggy lavas, 

 and craters could clearly be distinguished on several of the neighbouring 

 hills. Although the scenery is nowhere beautiful, and only occasionally 

 pretty, I enjoyed my walk. I should have enjoyed it more, if my com- 

 panion, the chief, had not possessed extraordinary conversational 

 powers. I knew only three words ; " good," " bad," and " yes ; " and 

 with these I answered all his remarks, without of course having under- 

 stood one word he said. This, however, was quite sufficient : I was 

 a good listener, an agreeable person, and he never ceased talking to 

 me. 



At length we reached Waimate. After having passed over so many 

 miles of an uninhabited useless country, the sudden appearance of an 

 English farmhouse, and its well-dressed fields, placed there as if by 

 aa enchanter's wand, was exceedingly pleasant. Mr. Williams not 

 being at home, I received in Mr. Davies's house a cordial welcome. 

 After drinking tea with his family party, we took a stroll about the 

 farm. At Waimate there are three large houses, where the missionary 

 gentlemen, Messrs. Williams, Davies, and Clarke, reside; and near 

 them are the huts of the native labourers. On an adjoining slope, fine 

 crops of barley and wheat were standing in full ear ; and in another 

 part, fields of potatoes and clover. But I cannot attempt to describe 

 all I saw; there were large gardens, with every fruit and vegetable 

 which England produces ; and many belonging to a warmer clime. I 

 may instance asparagus, kidney beans, cucumbers, rhubarb, apples, 

 pears, figs, peaches, apricots, grapes, olives, gooseberries, currants, hops, 

 gorse for fences, and English oaks; also many kinds of flowers. 

 Around the farmyard there were stables, a thrashing-barn with its 

 winnowing machine, a blacksmith's forge, and on the ground plough- 

 shares and other tools : in the middle was that happy mixture of pigs 

 and poultry, lying comfortably together, as in every English farmyard. 

 At the distance of a few hundred yards, where the water of a little rill 

 had been dammed up into a pool, there was a large and substantial 

 water-mill. 



All this is very surprising, when it is considered that five years ago 

 nothing but the fern flourished here. Moreover, native workmanship, 

 taught by the missionaries, has effected this change ; the lesson of the 

 missionary is the enchanter's wand. The house had been built, the 

 windows framed, the fields ploughed, and even the trees grafted, by the 

 New Zealander. At the mill, a New Zealander was seen powdered 



