578 COOKING — CHUKCH — KOROllAREKA. DeC. 



down to a fair surface ; but I am inclined to think that the 

 wood is of a kind that splits easily into plank, like the alerse 

 of southern Chile,* Being the evening meal time, some wo- 

 men, and male slaves, were removing the cinders from holes 

 in the earth, whence steam was issuing profusely, under a 

 shed, near the house I was examining. The shed was a light 

 roof, upon upright poles, covering the cooking place — a few 

 square yards of cinder-covered ground. Out of each hole dirty 

 looking bunches of fish and leaves were raked with fingers 

 and sticks. Hot stones were at the bottom of the hole, placed 

 in the usual Polynesian and Chilote method. The fish had 

 been wrapped in the leaves, but taking it out of the oven 

 in such a manner had displaced the leaves, and substituted 

 a coating of ashes and cinders. Potatoes, raked out of ano- 

 tlier hot hole, looked more eatable : but leaving the natives 

 to their dirty food, we walked to the new church. A slightly 

 built edifice of bricks, and light frame work, with an abun- 

 dance of bad glass windows, gave me the idea of a small 

 methodist meeting-house, or an anabaptist chapel, rather than 

 an episcopal church. A good deal of money having been sub- 

 scribed by residents, and visitors, specially for this church, it 

 might be wished that a portion of it had been employed in 

 obtaining a better design, and better materials, as it stands in 

 a very conspicuous situation. To place a church in a strong- 

 hold of iniquity, such as Kororareka, the resort of the worst 

 disposed inhabitants of New Zealand, native and foreign, 

 Y/as a daring experiment ; yet notwithstanding the ill-will enter- 

 tained towards the missionaries, by their ' spirit-selling ' coun- 

 trymen ; by native chiefs, whose pandering trade was yearly les- 

 sened ; and by the evil disposed of every description, no 

 molestation had been offered, and not a plane of glass had been 

 broken ! neither had the church service been performed in vain 

 to inattentive hearers. 



Returning to the beach, we saw some of the fine canoes I 

 have already mentioned : we then paid a formal visit to 

 one of the chiefs ; and for another, who was not at home, I 

 * Kauri ? or some other pine ? 



