﻿6 New Zealand Institute. 



OFFICIAL VISITS OF THE GOVERNOR. 



After this brief and imperfect sketch of the recent Transactions and 

 present position of the Institute, I will proceed — so far as time will allow, 

 and in accordance with a request addressed to me — to give a short account of 

 my official visits during the past year to two of the most remarkable regions 

 to be found in this or in any other country of the world. I allude, in the 

 first place, to the great volcanic zone in the North Island, stretching for nearly 

 150 miles from the ever-steaming crater of Whakai-i (or White Island), in 

 the Bay of Plenty, to Lake Taupo and the burning mountain of Tongariro, 

 Here the traveller admires, under an Italian sky and in an Italian climate, a 

 long succession of panoramas of hot lakes and boiling springs, far surpassing 

 in variety, beauty, and .curiosity, the famed geysers of Iceland. In the 

 second place, I refer to MUford Sound and to those other grand and wondrous 

 inlets of the south-west coast of the Middle Island, which, rarely visited by 

 civilised man, and shrouded in almost perpetiial mist and storm, combine the 

 snowy peaks and glaciers of Switzerland with the gloomy forests, deep seas, 

 and winding channels of the fiords of Norway. 



I. THE HOT LAKES IN THE NORTH ISLAND. 



My visit to the Hot Lakes was made in company with the Duke of 

 Edinburgh and several officers of H.M.S. ' Galatea.' Leaving Auckland, by 

 sea, on the 12th of last December, we landed on the following morning at 

 Tauranga, where the " son of the Queen " {te tamaiti o te Kuini), as His Royal- 

 Highness is styled by the Maoris, was enthusiastically welcomed by seven 

 hundred chiefs and clansmen of the tribes of the Arawas and of the 

 Ngaiterangis. . It will be remembered that the last-named clan fought bravely 

 against the British troops at the Gate Pa,* and elsewhere, in 1864 ; but they 

 soon afterwards made peace with the Government, and now at the korero (or 

 conference) held to greet the Duke of Edinburgh, they vied with our faithful 

 friends, the Arawas, in expressions of loyalty to the Queen, and of good will to 

 the English settlers. At the conclusion of his speech, Enoka te "Whanake, 

 a chief foremost among our enemies during the late war, said ; "It is true 

 that I fought against the Queen at the Gate Pa ; but I have repented of this 

 evil, and am now living under the shadow of Her laws. As for this Tawhiao, 

 who styles himself the ' King of the Maoris,' let him be broiight hither as a 

 footstool for the son of our Queen, whom we welcome among us this day." 



From Tauranga we proceeded to Maketu, the principal kainga, or settle- 

 ment, of the Arawas, and celebrated in their traditions as the spot where 

 their forefathers, some twenty generations back, first landed in New Zealand. 



* This pa was thi-ee miles from Tauranga, and was so named because it commanded 

 the approach to the inland districts, at a point where the road passes along a narrow 

 tract of firm ground between two extensive swamps. 



