NOTES ON NEW ZEALAND. 51 



was a population of 22,000, but now this is only 13,000. Everybody one sees seems to have 

 lost in the gold-diggings, and it is a mystery to me who is the lucky person that wins one 

 never seems to meet him." This somewhat random statement may be taken cum grano sails, 

 as the gold-fields have yielded largely at times. Nevertheless, mining is always more or less 

 a lottery. 



Mr. Anthony Trollope testifies to the intense British feeling in New Zealand, where he 

 felt thoroughly at home. Australia he found tinged with a form of boasting Yankeeism. 

 " The New Zealander," says he, * " among John Bulls is the most John Bullish. He admits 

 the supremacy of England to every place in the world, only he is more English than any 

 Englishman at home/' 



Discovered by Tasmau in 1642, England only commenced to take an interest in the 

 islands more than a century and a quarter later, when Cook surveyed the coasts. The 

 missionaries came first, in 1814, and a British Resident was appointed in 1833. All this time 

 a desultory colonisation was going on, and the natives were selling parcels of their best lands 

 for a few cast-iron hatchets or muskets, shoddy blankets, or rubbishy trinkets. In 1840 a 

 Lieutenant- Governor was appointed from home, and his presence was indeed necessary. The 

 previous year a corporation, calling itself the New Zealand Company, had made pretended 

 purchases of tracts of the best parts of the country, amounting to one-third of its whole area ! 

 The unscrupulous and defiant manner in which this company treated the natives and 

 the Government brought about many complications, and led to very serious wars with 

 natives not to be trifled with. The New Zealand Company was "bought out'"' by the Govern- 

 ment in 1852 for 268,000. During 1843-7, and in 1861 and after, England had to fight the 

 Maories foes that she learned to respect. At last, weary of war, all our troops were with- 

 drawn, and the colonists, who of course knew the bush and bush life better than nine-tenths of 

 the soldiers, were left to defend their homes and property, and in the end to successfully finish 

 the fight. The natives now are generally peaceful and subdued, while many are even turning 

 their attention to agriculture and commerce. Nine years ago they numbered 37,500, but are 

 fast dying out. 



Physically and intellectually, the Maories are the finest semi-savage natives on the face of 

 the earth. Mr. Trollope is an author and traveller whose words carry weight, and he has 

 given us the following concise summary of their qualities and character : " They are/' says 

 he, "an active people, the men averaging 5 feet 6 inches in height, and are almost equal in 

 strength and weight to Englishmen. In their former condition they wore matting; now they 

 wear European clothes. Formerly they pulled out their beards, and every New Zealander of 

 mark Avas tattooed; now they wear beards, and the young men are not tattooed. 

 Their hair is black and coarse, but not woolly like a negro's, or black like a 

 Hindoo's. The nose is almost always broad and the mouth large. In other respects their 

 features are not unlike those of the European race. The men, to my eyes, were better-looking 

 than the women, and the men who were tattooed better-looking than those who had dropped 

 the custom. The women still retain the old custom of tattooing the upper lip. The Maories 

 had a mythology of their own, and believed in a future existence; but they did not recognise 



* In " Australia and New Zealand." 



