CANOES. 
161 
circumference, and some even more than that, by 
twisting or plaiting several small cords or threads 
tightly together. Their twine and fishing-lines 
are all strong and well made, and capable of 
answering all the purposes for which they are 
intended : these have latterly formed an article of 
barter. The surprise of some of the natives was 
very great, when they saw the facility with which 
the raw material was manufactured into rope 
by the machinery at the Waimate, as conducted 
by Messrs. Hamlin and Matthews. They acknow- 
ledged the superiority of the article, when thus 
wrought, over their own. 
The canoes of the New Zealanders were for- 
merly procured only by immense labour, on ac- 
count of the utter absence of all edge-tools, ex- 
cept their blunt-edged axes, made of a kind of 
marble or jasper. When a man required a canoe, 
he had to go to the wood and fell his tree with a 
small stone-hatcliet ; which preparatory work 
generally occupied four or five men for two 
months : after this was accomplished, it had to be 
sliaped into the form of a canoe, which could only 
be done with great labour : the hollowing, how- 
ever, was the most tedious task : part would be 
burnt out, and part would be chipped out with 
the axe ; both with wearisome processes, and re- 
quiring much patience. After the vessel was 
launched, much remained to be done to it : if 
intended for a war-canoe, two more trees had to 
be felled, to cut out two planks for bulwarks ; and 
