282 ISLANDS IN THE [PART II. 



In short, it appears to me that there can be no 

 question but that the place has been very judici- 

 ously chosen for the site of a town, as commanding 

 a great extent of cultivable land in its neighbourhood, 

 great facility of communication with the coast and 

 the interior of the northern island, and as being a 

 central point for the most powerful native tribes, 

 the Nga-pui to the northward, the Waikato to the 

 southward, and the Nga-te-hauwa to the eastward, 

 separating them in a military point of view, but 

 uniting them for the purposes of civilization and 

 commerce. 



The Gulf of Hauraki contains a number of islands, 

 of which Aotea, or the Great Barrier, at the en- 

 trance into the gulf, and Waiheke opposite to the 

 entrance into Waitemata harbour, are the most im- 

 portant. The former is nearly eighty miles in cir- 

 cumference, contains much kauri-forest, and pos- 

 sesses an excellent harbour at its north-western ex- 

 tremity; it is called the Great Barrier Harbour, 

 and has only lately been discovered. 



From the Great Barrier I obtained specimens of 

 a copper-ore in a matrix of a decomposed micaceous 

 slate. Some of the specimens contained nearly 

 twenty-five per cent, of copper, the rest was sulphur, 

 iron, and silica. I could not ascertain the extent 

 and position of the vein in which it occurs ; but, from 

 the nature of the surrounding rock, I do not think 

 it improbable that a mine of some importance will 

 be found. 



Waiheke is about thirty miles in circumference. 



