Chap. VI. SIGNS OF PROGRESS. 15^ 
dray-road up the steep side facing the harbour, which 
gave access to the sunny nooks and terracing flats on the 
N.W. slope ; and then they put so many lots up to auc- 
tion at once. Johnny Wade was already well known 
as the George Robins of the colony, and sold off many 
allotments at the rate of 20/. per acre. And these 
were not speculating land-jobbing prices, for they were 
agreed upon by bond fide occupants, chiefly labouring 
men, who had time given them in which to pay up 
their purchase-money. They used to work at their 
little patches of ground after their labour for the day 
was over ; and Wade's Town, which had before looked 
a very bleak hill, of poor soil, and denuded of timber 
by the clearing of former years, soon boasted a popu- 
lation of 200 working people, whose neat cottages and 
smiling cultivations peeped from every nook among 
the picturesque hills, especially on the N.W. side, 
which is sheltered from the cold winds, and timbered 
in pretty patches, overlooking the velvet foliage of the 
Kai Tf^ara TVara. 
In the upland valley of the Karori, too, several 
people had begun to clear. The road had not yet 
reached this, having to cross a steep part of the Kai 
TVara TVara valley ; but the clearers used to find their 
way by an old Maori path, and live in the bush for 
days together. This valley is situate at the eleva- 
tion of 700 or 800 feet above the level of the sea, 
about two miles S. W. of Wellington by the present 
road. The level land in it is about 1000 or 1200 
acres, and this tract boasts the very finest totara and 
other timber. 
Three wooden jetties now projected into the port at 
the south side of Lambton Harbour; and alongside of 
one of them a schooner of 70 tons had loaded the 
machinery of a steam saw-mill, destined for the banks 
of the Manavmtu. 
