228 
CHRISTCHURCH 
CHAP. 
ing took place, and Captain Wakefield and many of 
the pioneer Nelson settlers were murdered by Te 
Kauparaha, who disputed possession of the land which 
the Europeans were surveying, and drove them off. 
Some say the motive was revenge for the death of a 
Maori woman who had been accidentally shot by a 
white man on a small hill above the road. A monu- 
ment is erected to the memory of those who were killed. 
The plains themselves extend for sixty miles, and are 
wonderfully fertile, growing sometimes twenty tons of 
potatoes and sixty bushels of wheat to the acre. Leav- 
ing them behind, we came to the long fertile valley of 
Kitue. Here on all the mountain-sides, some so steep 
and the land so poor that no sheep could find a living 
on them, the ruthless deforesting of the country is going 
on. Can no one put a stop to it ? The beauty of New 
Zealand is quickly being destroyed in every direction. 
On an arm of Pelorus Sound we passed the picturesque 
village of Havelock. Some years ago this town grew 
to the size that it is, in consequence of the rich gold 
discoveries at Mahakipawa, but very little is coming 
from there now, and the place has a destitute look. A 
few yards farther on large sawmills came in sight. 
What a picture it made. The stacks of red cedar in 
the river; the background of deep indigo -coloured 
mountains high above, with the blue peaks growing 
fainter and fainter away into distance, with every grada- 
tion of shade upon them. Along the roads were willows 
and English trees just in the first yellow wane of 
autumn, and the briers and hawthorns were scarlet 
with berries, while tangled masses of blackberries with 
every shade on their leaves covered the ground. 
From there onwards for many miles we followed the 
swift, deep, winding Pelorus River, the waters of which 
were of the most peculiarly vivid green colour. High 
