452 NEW ZEALAND chap. 



The soil is volcanic ; in several parts we passed over 

 slaggy lavas, and craters could clearly be distinguished on several 

 of the neighbouring hills. Although the scenery is nowhere 

 beautiful, and only occasionally pretty, I enjoyed my walk. I 

 should have enjoyed it more, if my companion, the chief, had not 

 possessed extraordinary conversational powers. I knew only 

 three words: "good," "bad," and "yes;" and with these I 

 answered all his remarks, without of course having understood 

 one word he said. This, however, was quite sufficient : I was 

 a good listener, an agreeable person, and he never ceased talking 

 to me. 



At length we reached Waimate. After having passed over 

 so many miles of an uninhabited useless country, the sudden 

 appearance of an English farmhouse, and its well-dressed 

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

 ceedingly pleasant. Mr. Williams not being at home, I 

 received in Mr. Davies's house a cordial welcome. After 

 drinking tea with his family party, we took a stroll about the 

 farm. At Waimate there are three large houses, where the 

 missionary gentlemen, Messrs. Williams, Davies, and Clarke, 

 reside ; and near them are the huts of the native labourers. 

 On an adjoining slope fine crops of barley and wheat were 

 standing in full ear ; 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 clime. 

 I may instance asparagus, kidney beans, cucumbers, rhubarb, 

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

 currants, hops, gorse for fences, and English oaks ; also many 

 kinds of flowers. Around the farmyard there were stables, a 

 thrashing -barn with its winnowing machine, a blacksmith's 

 forge, and on the ground ploughshares and other tools : in the 

 middle was that happy mixture of pigs and poultry, lying 

 comfortably together, as in every English farmyard. At the 

 distance of a few hundred yards, where the water of a little 

 rill had been dammed up into a pool, there was a large and 

 substantial water-mill. 



All this is very surprising when it is considered that five 

 years ago nothing but the fern flourished here. Moreover, 

 native workmanship, taught by the missionaries, has effected 



