CHAP. XXII.] MISSIONARY MEETING. 301 



vessels of about thirty tons can enter. But inside 

 the headlands the Waikato is a stately stream, and 

 when the tide has increased its depth it is navigable 

 even for larger vessels for about a hundred miles, 

 where it is joined by the river Waipa, which is 

 navigable for boats sixty miles farther. 



Near the mission-station are several native pas, 

 numerously inhabited, but only during certain sea- 

 sons, as the natives generally live in their planta- 

 tions higher up, on the banks of the river. About 

 2500 were present at a meeting which took place 

 the day after my arrival ; the manner in which it 

 was carried on, and the eloquent orations of the 

 chiefs, who, in addressing the assembled multitude, 

 alluded to their altered and improved condition, 

 seemed to prove that they are fast progressing in 

 civilization. Such progress is certainly owing to 

 the efforts of the missionaries. A great feast and 

 war-dance concluded the meeting, after which the 

 natives returned to their homes. The Rev. Mr. 

 Maunsell, who is at the head of this mission, is a 

 very zealous minister, and carries on his work with 

 true Christian disinterestedness. Among those pre- 

 sent at this meeting was Lady Franklin, who has 

 done much for the encouragement of science in 

 the southern hemisphere, as her distinguished hus- 

 band, Sir John Franklin, the present Governor of 

 Van Diemen's Land, has done for the same cause, 

 all over the world, by his important discoveries 

 within the arctic circle, and who was at this time 



