20 HISTORICAL RECORD 



60 settlers on board, came into Hokianga with the intention of founding 

 a settlement, but as a tribal war was being waged among the natives 

 at the time, the party did not remain, but went off and landed at 

 Sydney. 



As I am not writing a history of New Zealand except in so far as 

 it relates to the facilities which existed for the introduction of new 

 forms of animal and plant life into the country, I must hurriedly 

 pass over these pre-settlement days, merely pointing out that a great 

 deal of communication must have been going on with outside ports 

 from many parts of the country. The township of Russell or Korora- 

 reka in the Bay of Islands, was founded in 1830 by Benjamin Turner, 

 an ex-Sydney convict, who built the first grog-shop there. Two years 

 later the population numbered about 100, and in 1838 about 1000. 

 "As many as thirty-six whalers were anchored there at one time, and 

 in one year 120 vessels sailed in and out." 



The first regular settlement scheme commenced in 1839 when 

 the 'Tory' with Captain Wakefield, Dr Dieffenbach, and others, 

 arrived in Port Nicolson, and after trying a site for a town near 

 Petone, founded what is now Wellington. Early in the following 

 year the immigrant ships began to arrive, and by the end of 1840 

 the population of Wellington numbered about iioo persons. 



The first official capital of New Zealand was Kororareka or Russell, 

 but the seat of government was shifted to the Waitemata, and Captain 

 Hobson selected the site of the future town there, which he called 

 "Auckland," in September, 1840. The same year saw the commence- 

 ment of the Taranaki settlement, and by the end of 1841, the popula- 

 tion of New Plymouth numbered some 500 persons. In 1841 Nelson 

 was founded, and in January and October of 1842, four vessels with 

 some 850 passengers arrived in Nelson harbour. In 1848 the Otago 

 settlement was founded and 278 immigrants were landed on the site 

 of Dunedin. In 1843 the Deans brothers settled near the present site 

 of Christchurch, but it was not till the close of 1850 that the pioneers 

 of the Canterbury settlement, numbering 800 souls, landed in Port 

 Cooper. 



In the First Annual Report (for 1843) of the Agricultural and 

 Horticultural Society of Auckland it is stated that the following trees 

 were then in cultivation: peaches, nectarines, apricots, almonds, figs, 

 lemons, oranges, olives, vines, plums, cherries, mulberries, pears, 

 apples, quinces, walnuts, filberts, loquats, gooseberries, red and black 

 currants, raspberries and strawberries ; the Cape gooseberry (Physalis 

 edulis) is said to be "almost indigenous; it grows wild in every part 

 of the country." 



In those early days of settlement voyages between Great Britain 



