294 ADVENTURE IN NEW ZHEALAND. Chap. XII. 
home. Then perhaps a grumhler steps over the gang- 
way ; and the puzzled emigrant is met by totally dif- 
ferent accounts. The gnimbler shrugs his shoulders 
and sneers at almost every answer that he makes ; and 
looks at his querist as much as to say, " Well, you are 
** a fool." He dribbles out words of doubt and dis- 
couragement, looks forward to difficulties, and puts 
everything in the light of a deception. He says the 
land is all over 12 miles of hills like those ; that it 
blows and rains worse than any part of the world ; 
that the people are nearly starving ; that the farms on 
the Hutt, about which you have read so much, are only 
model-farms of the Company, managed under some 
good name so as to act as a trap for land-purchasers ; 
and ends by telling you that the Company are a set 
of swindlers, the Government no better, and both 
leagued together to take in every new-comer and do 
for him. And then, perhaps, a violent and ill-bred 
discussion ensues between the pifffer and the grumbler 
across the table, and the poor settler retires to his cabin 
half distracted between the two. 
Some few of the puffers have at least an apology for 
making great men of themselves. They are auctioneers, 
shipping-agents, or people with land to sell or houses 
to let ; and if you once show them the way to your 
breeches-pocket, they at once descend from their Pegasus 
and become your very obedient humble servants. But 
I have been ashamed to see one or two men of some 
station, who ought to have known better, puffing on 
board a ship out of mere wantonness and inordinate 
self-esteem. 
Some of the grumblers, too, have " reason in their 
" madness." They are often from among the little ped- 
ling class of shopkeepers who have been forced into the 
trade by the long delays about land-titles, and who 
