12 



SETTLEMENT 01-' NORFOLK ISLAND. 



their own inclinations, they soon began to be more sociable. 

 They were then given to understand the situation and short 

 distance of New Zealand from Norfolk Island, and were 

 assured that as soon as they had taught our women to work the 

 flax they should be sent home again. On this promise they 

 readily consented to give all the information they possessed, 

 and which turned out to be very little. This operation was 

 found to be among them the peculiar province of the women ; 

 and as Uru was a warrior and Tuki a priest, they gave the 

 Governor to understand that the dressing of flax never made 

 any part of their studies." Whatever may be thought of 

 the means King employed to obtain the services of Uru and 

 Tuki, it must be acknowledged that he fulfilled his promises to 

 them very handsomely. He decided to accompany them to 

 New Zealand, and embarked with them and a guard of soldiers 

 on board the Britannia to take them back to their homes. 

 This was safely accomplished, and the Governor and Iris Maori 

 friends parted with great expressions of mutual regard. 



The instruction given by Tuki and Uru, meagre as it was, 

 was sufficient to enable a i~ew hands with very primitive 

 appliances to manufacture 30 yards of coarse canvas in a week, 

 and the Lieut. -Governor stuck pluckily to his manufactory, 

 maintaining to the last that it was a valuable industry, and. 

 could easily give employment to 500 hands. 



On the 25th October, 1796, Lieut.-Governor King gave up 

 the government, which he had held, with a short interval, for 

 nearly nine years, and proceeded by the Britannia to England. 

 Shortly afterwards he received the appointment of Governor 

 of New South' Wales-, in which capacity, in 1803, he despatched 

 Lieutenant Bowen to establish the first settlement in Tasmania. 



On leaving Norfolk Island he wrote an account of the con- 

 dition of the settlement, which is printed in Collins' " New 

 South Wales " ; the population was 887, and of these onlv 

 198 were convicts. He says that 1528 acres had been cleared. 

 Besides huts and cottages a Government-house, storehouses, and 

 military barracks had been built. A water-mill had been erected 

 at the Cascades, and this and two windmills ground the corn 

 which each man had formerly to grind for himself. There 

 were two schools on the island. 



Of the fertility of the land he spoke highly ; the principal 

 products were maize, wheat, potatoes, and vegetables. The 

 yield of wheat averaged 18 bushels per acre. Maize gave two 

 crops a year, averaging 45 bushels per acre, and often reaching 

 as much as 70 to 80 bushels. He calculated that if the whole 

 of the arable land was put under cultivation it would produce 

 225,000 bushels of grain, or even 450,000 if fully cultivated. 

 There was little live stock, a few cattle and sheep, a number of 

 goats, and fully 5000 swine. The swine might be a. great source 



