CHAP. XXI.] COUNTRY NEAR MANUKAO. 



297 



us two days by demanding an exorbitant sum for 

 the hire of a canoe ; indeed the effect of their con- 

 tact with Europeans has been to render them 

 covetous and extortionate, as among the colonists 

 they see no transactions but what are based upon 

 an exchange of money and labour. But their know- 

 ledge of the value of time and money will remain 

 for a long time very imperfect. 



The northern shore of Manukao is the last place 

 on the western coast where the Dammara australis, 

 or the kauri, is found. It is true, that a little farther 

 to the southward, in Kawia, in latitude 37 27 ', there 

 are some dozen trees or so, but they are of stunted 

 growth. I have already mentioned that on the 

 eastern coast the range of this pine does not even 

 reach thus far ; and this fine tree has therefore a 

 range of less than three degrees of latitude and one 

 degree of longitude ; and even within these narrow 

 boundaries it is by no means a common tree. It 

 generally grows in the neighbourhood of the sea- 

 coast, but not in parts exposed to the spray, and on 

 the sides of ravines ; it is, in fact, entirely confined 

 to hilly situations. Large districts within the above- 

 mentioned boundaries have formerly been covered 

 with kauri-forest, but are now bare ; and its destruc- 

 tion, through waste and negligence, is now going 

 on in other districts. There is no proof that the 

 kauri ever grew to the southward of its present 

 boundaries, although conflagrations of forest have 

 taken place throughout the island. With the de- 



