450 ADVENTURE TN NEW ZEAT.AND. Chap. XVII 
When the tide flowed, I heat across the bar, and up 
to my house, about four miles from the mouth. We 
passed the Elizabeth, a schooner of 70 tons, aground 
on a mud-flat opposite TVahifurm ; and the old cutter 
at anchor a little higher up. 
Of course the White population of the place was 
much increased since my last visit ; they now mustered 
fifty or sixty. Nearly all the houses built by the 
natives had been bought or bargained for by the new- 
comers ; and a large number of Maori found ample and 
well-paid employment in erecting fences, assisting to 
land goods, and other initiatory measures of the set- 
tlers. Two or three gentlemen with their families 
were among the number ; and I was delighted to see 
this settlement, which I almost considered identified 
with myself and E Kuru, in such active progress. Seve- 
ral people had travelled hither by land, in readiness for 
the first selection of lands advertised by the Surveyor- 
General, on the 18th of March. But the Assistant- 
Surveyor was not yet ready for such a proceeding, and 
several walked back as they had come. Others, liking the 
place, and finding living very cheap from the abundant 
supply of food by the natives, determined to remain 
here until the land should be distributed. Some 
engaged in the trade with the natives ; others wasted 
their money and their time at two grog-shops esta- 
blished by Macgregor and another person on either 
side of the river. The Government had not scrupled 
to grant two publicans' licences for this small popula- 
tion, as it brought sixty pounds per annum into their 
treasury ; but they had provided no police, not even a 
constable, for the maintenance of law and order. 
Among other bad characters who had found their 
way to this refuge for the lawless, were two prisoners 
escaped from the jail at the Bay of Islands. They had 
