H. Tkaveks. — On ilie ChatJiam Islands. 121 



The outside walls and roof are closely and smoothly thatclied vdtli toi grass. 

 Tlie 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 E,oman 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. Tlieir faces are rounder, 

 and more pleasing in expression. Their noses are Soman 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 a few 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. 

 16 



