310 



which were calculated to redeem them even in the eyes of civilized man. 

 Brave to a fault, having a clear perception of the distinctions of rank, and 

 therefore proud in character, they also possessed a large amount of intellectual 

 capacity, and even of latent moral character. Acute in their understanding 

 and comprehension, they rapidly fell in with many of the arts and habits of 

 the colonists, but, unaccustomed to the restraints of civilized life, and in the 

 habit of indulging with little check their natural impulses, they have found it 

 difficult to adopt as fully, as their own appreciation of them would otherwise 

 lead them to do, the social habits of the Europeans. Unfortunately too we 

 have shown too little regard to their feelings of pride and nationality, and by 

 the ridicule with which we have treated their habits and manners, we have 

 driven them to adopt, as individuals as well as collectively, a position of 

 isolation, if not of hostile feeling towards us. Without having introduced 

 amongst them any form of government more siiitecl to promote and foster our 

 intercourse with them, we have broken down the power and influence of the 

 greater chiefs, and have induced a consequent disorganization of their own 

 social condition, which is producing unfortunate results. I wish, however, not 

 to be misunderstood in this matter. It has been admitted by foreign political 

 economists that the English are the only nation which, of late years, have felt 

 any true sympathy for the people amongst whom they have sent their colonists, 

 who have acknowledged their rights, and who have seriously proposed to 

 civilize them, to protect them, and to make them happy. But in their efforts 

 to effect these objects from a distance, and with the imperfect knowledge they 

 necessarily possessed of the original character of the native races, and of the 

 changes which contact with civilization would produce upon them, they have 

 constantly overlooked many important considerations. They have forgotten 

 that those to whom the task of protection was entrusted, would naturally place 

 themselves in antagonism to the advance of the colonists, whilst the latter 

 would certainly view with distrust and dislike, those who stood in the way of 

 their efforts to acquire wealth ; and thus, between the two, the natives would 

 come to grief. Our colony (as it appears to me) has exhibited to some extent, 

 this unfortunate phase of English philanthropy, and yet elements of hope 

 present themselves to our view. It is not, however, my purpose to pursue 

 any further this enquiry, which belongs rather to the political economist and the 

 legislator, than to the student of geography and natural history, and I will 

 proceed at once to call your attention to the general physical appearance of 

 these Islands, and the character of their fauna and flora before the introduction 

 of European civilization, and to the changes which have since been effected 

 and are now in progress. In doing this, however, I propose to disregard such 

 alterations as had resulted from their occupation by the native race. 



• Stretching from the thirty -fourth to the forty-seventh degree of south latitude, 

 in a general north and south direction, with an average breadth in the Middle 

 Island not exceeding 120 miles, and in the North Island (except above 

 Auckland) of about 150 miles, the whole extent may be treated as a great 

 mountain chain divided by Cook's Strait. In the North Island there are, in 

 the western and north-western sides of this chain, several large volcanic cones, 

 some of the mountains of which rise to altitudes varying from 4000 to 9000 

 feet above sea level, and of which Tongariro, nearly in the centre of the 

 greater mass of the island, is still active. In the Middle Island the great 

 mountain chain extends from, the north (in the form of spurs radiating from the 

 Spencer mountains on the west side, and from the Kaikoura . mountains on 

 the east) to the extreme south, attaining its greatest elevation in Mount Cook, 

 whilst in many places it reaches an altitude of 10,000 feet, and has a general 

 elevation of from 6000 to 8000 feet. In the Middle Island, with the exception 

 of the Canterbury plains and the undulating country to the north and south of 



