8 GENERAL REMARKS. [CHAP. I. 



southern whale-fishery, it is quite erroneous ; the 

 fact being that, as soon as New Zealand became a 

 British colony, the whalers deserted it, and went to 

 Otaheite, or some other of the Polynesian Islands, 

 where they could be supplied with wood and pro- 

 visions at a much cheaper rate. 



I would wish to impress these facts upon the 

 reader, for the purpose of showing that there is at 

 present, in New Zealand, no article of export which 

 can be depended upon, to procure that balance of 

 trade which is necessary for the success of all com- 

 mercial communities. Exports must be created in 

 the island by means of the agriculturist ; and it is 

 the highest praise of the country that they can be 

 created, and that they do not differ from the same 

 articles produced at home. England, in former 

 times, had scarcely more exports than New Zealand 

 has now ; but the internal resources and geogra- 

 phical position which secured to Great Britain its 

 unequalled prosperity, are, although much inferior, 

 yet similar, in New Zealand, and may give her, in 

 the course of time, as high a position. 



It will readily be concluded from these observa- 

 tions that, in the first settlements of New Zealand, 

 by far too much importance has been attached to 

 commerce and to those natural products just men- 

 tioned, and that many incorrect and exaggerated 

 statements on the present capabilities of the colony 

 have been brought forward. In a country like New 

 Zealand, favoured in so many respects by nature, 



