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an importance, as the grand thoroughfare for the interior of the 
country. The Waikato is in truth the main artery of the North 
Island , and this grand stream is wanting hut one thing , i. e. an 
open, unobstructed entrance from the sea. While a great many 
other large rivers of New Zealand, as, for example, the nearest 
neighbours of the Waikato, the I J iako and Waiho, or the Wairoa 
in the North, are emptying into protected bays of the sea, widen- 
ing near their mouths into broad estuaries, by which the sea 
penetrates far into the interior of the land , and where the regular 
change of ebb and flow enables larger and • smaller vessels to pass 
from the sea into the river, and from the river into the sea: 
there are huge sandbanks piled up in front of the mouth of the 
Waikato , upon which the sea breaks in foaming surges. This 
is a matter of great importance; for those sandbanks, which pre- 
vent the passing in and out of larger vessels, are a natural bul- 
wark for the natives. They look upon the Waikato more than 
upon any other river of New Zealand, as being the river ex- 
clusively their own. Never, up to the time of my journey, had 
a boat of European construction been known to float upon the 
proud Native-stream , 1 the Mississippi of the Maoris. Two Mission 
stations, the one near its mouth, the other at the Taupiri, were 
at that time the only European settlements on the banks of the 
river , where the Maori-king had taken up his abode. From his 
residence at Ngaruawahia , where the Waipa mingles its waters 
with those of the Waikato, the national flag of Nuitireni was proudly 
floating in the breeze , and from among the bushes of the flax-plant, 
the toetoe-grass and the ti-trees, the Maori-huts were everywhere 
peeping forth, now single, now in clusters of miniature villages 
and surrounded by thriving plantations. Flats are alternating along 
the course of the river with fern-hills, or with dusky wood-clad 
mountain-ridges, and picturesque landscape-sceneries are developing 
themselves there where the river in a narrow gorge of rocks is 
breaking through the mountain chains. The Waikato, at the junc- 
tion of the Mangatawhiri, has a breadth of about half a mile; it 
1 Now steamers are playing on the Waikato. 
* 
