Dec. 1835. waimate. 507 



At length we reached Waimate. After having passed 

 over so many miles of an uninhabited useless country^ the 

 sudden appearance of an English farm-house, and its weU- 

 dressed fields, placed there as if by an enchanter's wand, was 

 exceedingly pleasing, Mr. Williams not being at home, I 

 received in Mr. Davies's house a cordial and pleasant wel- 

 come. After drinking tea Avith his family party, we took a 

 stroU about the farm. At Waimate there are three large 

 houses, where the missionary gentlemen Messrs. WiUiams, 

 Davies, and Clarke, reside ; and near them are the huts of the 

 native labourers. On an adjoining slope fine crops of barley 

 and wheat in fuU ear were standing; and, in another part, fields 

 of potatoes and clover. But I cannot attempt to describe all 

 I saw ; there were large gardens, with every fruit and vegetable 

 which England produces ; and many belonging to a warmer 

 chme. I may instance, asparagus, kidney beans, cucumbers, 

 rhubarb, apples, pears, figs, peaches, apricots, grapes, olives, 

 gooseberries, currants, hops, gorze for fences, and English 

 oaks ; also many diff'erent kinds of flowers. Around the farm- 

 yard there were stables, a thrashing-barn with its winnowing 

 machine, a blacksmith's forge, and on the ground plough- 

 shares and other tools : in the middle was that happy mix- 

 ture of pigs and poultry, which may be seen so comfortably 

 lying together in every English farm-yard. At the distance 

 of a few hundred yards, where the water of a little rill was 

 dammed up into a pool, a large and substantial water-miU 

 had been erected. 



All this is very siurprising, when it is considered, that five 

 years ago, nothing but the fern flourished here. Moreover, 

 native workmanship,, taught by the missionaries, has eff'ected 

 this change : — the lesson of the missionary is the enchanter's 

 wand. The house has been built, the windows framed, the fields 

 ploughed, and even the trees grafted, by the New Zealander. 

 At the miU, a New Zealander may be seen powdered white 

 with flovir, hke his brother miller in England. When I looked 

 at this whole scene, I thought it admirable. It was not 

 merely that England was vividly brought before my mind ; 



