NEW ZEALAND. 



CHAPTER I. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



IT is natural that in the selection of a new colony, 

 in a distant region, a preference should be given to 

 a country the climate and other circumstances of 

 which are in some degree analogous to those of the 

 native land of the colonists, in order that the phy- 

 sical and intellectual energies of their posterity may 

 not retrograde, but be developed and matured in a 

 congenial soil, and thus may conduce in the greatest 

 degree to the general prosperity and happiness. It 

 is natural, also, that the attention and views of 

 those to whom the land of their birth affords little 

 prospect of advancement should be directed towards 

 that country which promises from the resources 

 within itself a steady progress^ to ultimate pros- 

 perity without being a burthen to the mother 

 country for a longer period than that which may 

 be termed its infancy, whilst at the same time it 

 insures to the latter that reciprocal benefit which 

 she has a right to expect. 



It is with man as with plants and animals ; each 



VOL. I. B 



