120 Transactions. 



bay at the north end of the island, and at the head of which is the residence 

 of Mr. Frederick Hunt, an Englishman, who has been settled there for 

 nearly twenty years. Immediately opposite Mr. Hunt's house is a rock 

 called the Mower-pot, which forms a shelter for boats engaged in landing 

 or shipping goods. Mr. Hunt's house is close to the beach, and is sur- 

 rounded by about two hundred and fifty acres of cleared land, mostly laid 

 down to English grasses, and divided into paddocks, forming a very compact 

 and well-cultivated farm. With the exception of these clearings, and of 

 insignificant patches of open land in various parts of the island, the whole 

 of Pitt's Island is covered with bush. I was received with much civility by 

 Mr. Hunt and his family, who invited me to stay with them during the time 

 I should be engaged in collecting plants, &c. On this occasion, however, 

 I remained on Pitt's Island for a Aveek only, having been detained by a 

 tremendous gale from the north-west. 



" We left on the 26th, and reached Waitangi (a Maori settlement on 

 Chatham Island) on the following day. Here I presented my letters to 

 Captain Thomas, the Collector of Customs, by whom I was treated most 

 courteously, and who promised to give me every assistance in his power in 

 carrying out the objects of my journey. Waitangi is the chief Maori settle- 

 ment on the Chatham Islands, and is situated at the south-eastern extremity 

 of Petre Bay, Avhich forms an indentation some forty miles broad on the 

 south-west side of the island. Bi;t for this bay the shape of the island 

 would have been nearly that of an isosceles triangle, of which the south- 

 western side would have formed the base. A small but deep river flows 

 into the bay close to Waitangi, washing on its western side the foot of some 

 low ridges of reddish sandstone. The river drains a considerable tract of 

 hilly ground on the south side of the bay, and is also fed by a stream 

 running from a lagoon close to the settlement. Were it not for a bar 

 at its mouth, vessels of from forty to fifty tons burthen might enter it, as 

 inside the bar the water is deep for a considerable distance inland. 



" The huts of the Maoris and the residence of Captain Thomas are 

 situated on low ground on the east side of the river. The Maori huts are 

 built of fern posts lashed together with supplejacks, and thatched with toi 

 grass, resembling in all respects those found in the old pahs in New Zealand. 

 Captain Thomas's residence is built in the same way with the exception of 

 the roof j which is shingled ; but it is plastered inside and out with clay, and 

 whitewashed. A chapel belonging to the Church of England natives is a 

 very handsome specimen of their style of building : the inside walls are lined 

 with fronds of tree ferns, from Avhich the pinnules have been stripped, and 

 which are interwoven in a curious manner with leaves of I'liormium tenax. 

 The roof is braced with boards having white scrolls painted on a red ground* 



