CHAP. XVII.] WAIMATE. 247 



flock to these baths in the course of time, especially 

 as the distance from the Bay of Islands is trifling, 

 the communication easy, and the valley well sheltered 

 from the winds. 



Waimate, which is situated about fifteen miles to 

 the westward of the Bay of Islands, has a very 

 European aspect. A church has been built, and in 

 its neighbourhood are the houses of the missionaries, 

 surrounded by rose-trees, and other plants of foreign 

 extraction. There is a great want of flowering 

 plants in New Zealand, and every introduction of 

 such improves the landscape. In the neighbour- 

 hood are the poor and slovenly huts of the natives, 

 forming rather a painful contrast. However, when 

 I saw the natives in church on the Sunday, most of 

 them were cleanly dressed in the European style ; 

 and the work of Europeanfaing them seemed to be 

 gradually progressing. 



Waimate was chosen many years ago as the agri- 

 cultural settlement of the Church Missionary So- 

 ciety, and has been ever since the residence of an 

 ordained clergyman. Although convenient as a 

 Mission-settlement in many other respects, being in 

 the common road from the Bay of Islands to Hoki- 

 anga, and from the southern to the northern districts 

 of the island, its immediate neighbourhood has no 

 great pretensions in an agricultural point of view ; 

 and the produce of the Missionary farm has always 

 been at a very low ebb. In fact, a great deal of the 

 land has been relinquished, for the very sufficient 



