v4il ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XV. 
the reign of the Colonial Secretary ; who used to tell 
the applicants " that they were all squatters, that they 
*• had no more right to the timber than the sawyers, 
"until the Crown had granted a title to the land, 
". and that he expected shortly to receive orders to 
** eject them from the Crown lands." 
During the building of the town, so great had been 
the demand for sawn timber, and so high the price paid 
in consequence, that the sawyers, paying nothing for 
their logs, used to earn enough in two days to remain 
idle and drunk the other five. Reckless in their de- 
struction of the forest, they cut down only the best 
trees, and often left a log untouched after it was felled, 
in order to take some other which would fall in a 
more convenient position. They lived a wild life on 
the outskirts of the settlement, and their forest huts 
afforded shelter to the sailors who deserted their ships, 
and to many worse characters. 
The activity of all classes at this time was truly 
cheerful to behold. Carpenters, land-agents, mer- 
chants, shopkeepers, and hotel-keepers advertised in 
the paper and got their premises into order ; the de- 
mand for labour exceeded the supply ; the numerous 
fleet of coasters and the neighbouring natives combined 
to keep food at a reasonable rate, by pouring into the 
market large quantities of pigs and potatoes ; and 
the constant employment of every one, so satisfactory 
because productive of progress and improvement, con- 
tinued to keep the great majority of people gay and 
contented. 
During the Police Magistrate's trip of eleven days 
in the Strait, the absence of this solitary authority 
was very severely felt. Constant rows, unheeded or 
unrepressed by the feeble and now headless police, 
occurred on the beach, especially among the seafaring 
