VI 
PREFACE. 
Diemen's Land and New Holland will soon be obso¬ 
lete names, being supplanted by the more euphonious 
ones of Australia and Tasmania. Why should not 
New Zealand, also, be re-named ?—why not call it 
Austral-Britain, Australbion, or something similar? 
The present name is about as appropriate as those 
given to the provinces into which the first Governor 
divided the country—Ulster, Munster, Leinster, and 
Connaught. They have been blotted out, so let this 
also. Thus much for the name. 
Next, with regard to the Work itself. The Author’s 
aim has been to rescue from that oblivion into which 
they were fast hastening, the Manners, Customs, Tra¬ 
ditions, and Religion of a primitive race : already the 
remembrance of them is rapidly being forgotten; the 
rising generation being almost as unacquainted with 
them as our Settlers in general. The Traditions of the 
Creation are now first presented to the Public. The 
late Governor Sir G. Grey has published a valuable 
collection of general Traditions, but I am not aware 
that any one has previously collected any of those 
here given, and few, indeed, could have done so, unless 
intimately conversant with the language and people. 
The natural features of the Islands are also described, 
and the Author, being a resident before it became 
