and his Travels in Nev) Zealand. 127 



that, with a little exertion he may render himself independent of forel ,i supply 

 for his food ; and that, when he looks around him, he can almost fancy him- 

 self in England, instead of at the antipodes, were it not that in his adopted 

 country an eternal verdure covers the groves and forests, and gives the land an 

 aspect of unequalled freshness and fertility." (Vol. i. p. 4.) 



The climate is wet and windy. " New Zealand, being situated within the 

 temperate zone, altliough nearer the equator than Great Britain, possesses, 

 from its peculiar geographical position, especially from its being insular, and 

 also from the nature of its surface, a climate so modified as to resemble that of 

 England more nearly than that of any other country I am acquainted with. 

 It is moderate in every respect, the range of its temperature throughout the 

 year and during the day being very inconsiderable. This is principally owing 

 to the immense expanse of ocean which surrounds these narrow islands on 

 all sides, preserving a temperature little varying, and moderating alike the 

 cold of the antarctic regions, and the heat of the tropics." (Vol. i. p. ]73.} 

 " Without pronouncing a decided opinion from a single series of observations, 

 and these taken at only one place, and during ten months, I may, I think, 

 safely draw the conclusion that New Zealand has a rainy climate, and may 

 be ranked, in this respect, with several places in England." (Vol. ii. p. 176.) 



Notwithstanding this flattering picture, many of the emigrants who have 

 flocked to New Zealand during the last two years have been sadly dis- 

 appointed ; because they did not intend to make their new colony their second 

 home, but to export native produce, and, after having made a rapid fortune, to 

 return to their native country. Our author, however, shows at length, "that 

 there is at present in New Zealand no article of export which can be de- 

 pended upon, to procure that balance of trade which is necessarj' for the 

 success of all commercial communities. Exports must be created in the 

 island by means of the agriculturist ; and it is the highest praise of the country 

 that they can be created, and that they do not differ from the same articles 

 produced at home. England, in former times, had scarcely more exports 

 than New Zealand has now ; but the internal resources and geographical po- 

 sition which secured to Great Britain its unequalled prosperity are, although 

 much inferior, yet similar in New Zealand, and may give her, in the course of 

 time, as high a position, 



" It will readily be concluded from these observations that, in the first set- 

 tlements of New Zealand, by far too much importance has been attached to 

 commerce and to those natural products just mentioned, and that many 

 incorrect and exaggerated statements on the present capabilities of the cola y 

 have been brought forward. In a country like New Zealand, favoured in ^o 

 many respects by nature, but which cannot be regarded as an entrepot or 

 point of transit, the first question as to its future prosperity and succe:;s 

 should be : — Can the settlement produce all that it may require for internal 

 consumption, and will provisions be cheap as compared with the price of 

 labour? This should, undoubtedly, be the case in New Zealand ; and, con- 

 sequently, the supply of provisions to ships and to the Australian colonics, 

 will be the principal source of export from the colony. 



" To afford facilities to the first settlers of creating agricultural produce ; tu 

 extend the utmost liberality to those who have purchased land and intend to 

 become working colonists ; to permit them to have an extensive choice, that 

 they may select the good land in preference to the bad ; to give them legal 

 titles accordingly, and not to allow them to consume their capital after their 

 arrival in the colony by a delay of the surveys, are the only means of se- 

 curing prosperity to New Zealand. Under such circumstances, the system of 

 land sales in England at a fixed price, and the application of the purchase- 

 money to send out agricultural labourers and mechanics in a just ratio to 

 the demand of labour, the price of provisions, the quantity of capital em- 

 ployed, and the actual produce of the land, accompanied by a sound discretion 

 as to the number of emigrants sent out, cannot, it appears to me, be easily 

 replaced by a better one." (Vol. i. p. 9.) 



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