39ff ADVE^P^URE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. XIV. 
At length we got into a line of road through the 
fern. One or two strong wooden bridges over the 
streams, and three or four neat houses and fields in 
various directions, soon told of the neighbourhood of 
a European settlement. We crossed a rough suspen- 
sion-bridge in process of erection, of which the chains 
were supported on the round trunks of four large trees ; 
then some smiling gardens, neatly hedged and ditched ; 
a forge ; a row of labourers' cottages ; some cob houses 
in various stages of progress ; and we reached the house 
of Mr. Cooke, who had invited me, when he was at 
Wellington, to come and find him out. 
From thence to the mouth of the Uatoki river, about 
a mile north of the Sugarloaf Islands, the houses and 
gardens thicken apace ; and there a little nucleus of 
dwellings forms the town.* 
The absence of a port had been of great advantage 
to the 1100 people who had settled at New Plymouth. 
The commerce of a shipping town had not encouraged 
a race of small shopkeepers and petty merchants ; but 
the colonists had at once struck the plough or the spade 
into the ground. I found that a very large proportion 
of the people were scattered about in different directions 
on promising farms ; and a numerous race of small 
farmers or yeomen is rapidly springing up there. A 
great many of this class originally arrived at this set- 
tlement from the West of England; and they have 
had no temptation to change their pursuit for one to 
which they were less accustomed. 
The soil of this undulating and very pretty country 
is for the most part excellent for agricultural pur}X)ses ; 
but the growth of pure fern is not suited for the imme- 
♦ One of the Illustrations, published by Smith and Elder, is a 
most interesting view of this commencement of a town, drawn by 
Mrs. Wicksteed. 
