86 "Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
the men always had loaded fire-arms by them, and the * waka taua," or 
war-canoe, was always ready for an expedition. 
From the pa we pulled up the Waiwhetu River, which there had lofty 
pine trees on its banks. The various bends were very beautiful and secluded, 
and seemed to be the home of the grey duck and teal, and numerous other 
wild fowl. Here and there, on the bank, was a patch of cultivation, and 
the luxuriant growth of potatoes, taros, and kumeras, indicated the richness 
of the soil. As seen from the ship, or the hills, a lofty pine wood appeared 
to occupy the whole breadth and length of the Hutt Valley, broken only by 
the stream and its stony margin. This wood commenced about a mile from 
the sea, the intervening space being a sandy flat and a flax marsh. About 
the Lower Hutt and the Taita, it required a good axe-man to clear in a day 
a space large enough to pitch a tent upon. The cultivations of the natives 
were nearly all on the hill-sides, and chiefly about what is now the Pitone 
railroad station. 
The path to the West Coast led up the hill from the west end of Pitone 
beach, and was very steep and difficult. There was one fine view-spot on 
ihe summit, and the track descended to the Porirua valley at what is now 
Mr. Earp'sfarm. There was then no path from Ngahauranga or Kaiwhara, 
but a war-track existed from Belmont to Pahautanui. 
The site of the City of Wellington was, in 1839, covered at the Te Aro 
end with high fern and tupakihi, save about the upper part of Willis Street 
and Polhill's Gully, where there were high pine trees, partly felled for native 
cultivations. Wellington Terrace was timbered chiefly with high manuka, 
some of the trees forty feet high. Thorndon Flat, about Mulgrave and 
Pipitea Streets, was fern-covered, but with high trees towards the Tinakori 
Road. The native cultivations were along what is now Hawkestone Street, 
Tinakori Road, and the base of Tinakori hill, the sides and summit of which 
were densely timbered, the rata, with its crimson flowers, being conspicuous. 
The native villages were— first, Pakuao, with two or three families, at Dr. 
Featherston's; Tiakiwai, where Mr. Izard lives, with three or four families ; 
Pipitea, from Mr. Charles Johnston's to Moore Street, with about fifty na- 
tives; Kumutoto, Lindsay's to James', twenty natives; and Te Aro pa with 
sixty natives. 
From Mr. James’ to the Court House the beach was so narrow as barely 
to afford room for passage at high-water, between the sea and the cottages 
that were built close under the hill, or on sites dug out of its foot. Where 
the Bank of New Zealand stands there was a short reef of rocks, at the foot 
of “ Windy Point." The site of the present cricket ground was a deep 
morass, arranged by the surveyors for a dock reserve; after the earthquake 
of 1848 raised the land, generally, about the harbour, it became drainable. 
