d 
i 
AN ORN AMENTAL FOOD-STORE. 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
MEANS OF SUPFORT. 
The New Zealanders have always been an agricultural people ; 
their country not naturally affording the means of subsistence 
in sufficient abundance to support them, without the cultiva¬ 
tion of the soil. 
Their ancestors brought the kumara, or sweet potatoe—the 
taro —an arum —and the hue , or calabash, with them from 
Hawaiki: these were the only vegetables they possessed, and 
they carefully cultivated them in large quantities, until the 
arrival of Europeans, who gave them the potatoe, the value of 
which was so soon discovered, that now it may be said to be 
their staple article of food. It is far more universally cul¬ 
tivated than the kumara, from its taking less labour in 
planting, and yielding a more certain and larger return.— 
