338 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XI. 
wWcli they" bring to market in the settlements. The 
mere trader, also, is naturally a degree below the 
whaler. In order to make a profit, he must take pains 
to fawn and flatter the natives, without making any 
unnecessary presents ; a task very difficult, and debasing 
in its moral effects. The best man is the one who 
retires, after his " spree," to the village where the tribe 
of his native woman reside, and spends the summer in 
cultivating a bit of land given to him by the natives. 
Some few of these are in constant doubt between the 
quiet pleasures of agriculture and a domestic life, and 
the wild excitement of the whale-chase. I have heard 
more than one declare, as he showed me his neat patch 
of wheat, or promising fruit-trees, that " he had had 
" enough of whaling," he should " let those fag that 
" would next year ;" but the 1st of May saw him again 
at his steer-oar, eagerly backing up, and shouting, 
" There she spouts !" 
^" The lumberers and sawyers of the kauri districts, 
the pork and flax traders who catered for the Sydney 
coasters for many years in the Northern Island, at 
Kawia, Taranake, the Bay of Plenty, and Poverty 
Bay, and Rotorua and the other neighbouring inland 
districts, were all of the same class, and have often dis- 
played the same reckless courage while taking a part 
in the native wars. The sealers of the south were as 
nearly as possible the same men, and were distinguished 
for the same qualities. 
The refuse of these different classes is to be met with 
in all parts of the islands. Idle, drunken, vagabond, 
and vicious in his habits, he would become the bush- 
ranger of New Zealand were there temptation enough 
for such a class. As it is, he wanders about without 
any fixed object, cannot get employed by the whaler or 
any one else, as it is out of his power to do a day's 
