WAIMATE. 207 



passed over so many miles of an uninhabited, use- 

 less country, the sudden appearance of an English 

 farm-house, and its well-dressed fields, placed there 

 as if by an enchanter's wand, was exceedingly 

 pleasant. Mr. Williams not being at home, I re- 

 ceived 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 gentle- 

 men, 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 warm- 

 er 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 farm -yard 

 there were stables, a threshing-barn with its win- 

 nowing machine, a blacksmith's forge, and on the 

 ground ploughshares and other tools. In the mid- 

 dle was that happy mixture of pigs and poultry, 

 lying comfortably together, as in every English 

 farm- yard. 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 sub- 

 stantial 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 les- 

 son of the missionary is the enchanter's wand. 

 The house had been built, the windows framed, 



