H. Travers.—On the Chatham Islands. 121 
The outside walls and roof are closely and smoothly thatched with toi grass. 
The building is about fifty feet long and nearly thirty broad, and about 
the same height to the top of the roof. There is a smaller building used as 
a church by the Roman Catholic natives, built in the same style, but more 
highly decorated and more neatly kept. 
_ “The population of Waitangi, including a few Moriori slaves, numbers 
about one hundred and fifty, all told. Their huts are surrounded by well- 
fenced paddocks, laid down to English grasses, but now almost smothered 
by the common daisy, mustard, and dock, which are spreading rapidly over 
the whole island. The natives generally possess considerable numbers of 
horses, cattle, and pigs, which run, in common, on the open lands and in the 
bush. They cultivate large quantities of potatoes, maize, pumpkins, and 
onions, which they supply to American whaling ships resorting to the islands, 
and occasionally export to New Zealand. I did not find that they cultivated 
any European fruits, but they use largely that of a small species of Solanum 
indigenous to New Zealand, and which they had introduced to the Chathams. 
There are also Maori settlements at Tubong, on the western side of the 
island, and at Warikauri, Taupeka, and Kaiangaroa, on the north side, 
having altogether a population of some four hundred souls, all told. The 
remnant of the Morioris (the name given to the aboriginal inhabitants), 
exclusive of the few who are still retained in slavery, is settled at Ohangi, 
on the south-eastern side of the island. They do not exceed two hundred 
in number, and are said to be rapidly decreasing. I believe this to be the 
case, for during my six months’ stay, not less than eight deaths occurred 
amongst them. In their habits of living they now assimilate to the Maoris, 
and speak a language compounded of their own original language and that 
of the New Zealanders. Before the invasion of the islands by the New 
Zealanders, which took place about the year 1832 or 1833, the Morioris 
were very numerous, numbering little short of fifteen hundred people. 
They are much shorter, but stouter built, than the New Zealanders, and 
have darker skins, but the same straight coarse hair. Their faces are rounder, 
and more pleasing in expression. Their noses are Roman in shape, resem- 
bling those of the Jews. They never tattooed, and although they originally 
practised cannibalism, they had discontinued it before the arrival of the 
New Zealanders. They appear to have been a very cheerful people, fond of 
singing, and of telling laughable stories. Their habits of living, however, 
were originally very rude and improvident. They built no huts, merely 
using afew branches of trees stuck in the ground as a shelter from the 
wind. Their chief food consisted of fish, birds, shell-fish, and fern root, which 
latter they prepared in the same way as the New Zealanders, but the women 
always eat apart from the men. 
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