AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND VOL II DU 102 T85 1876 Z ANTHONY TROLLOPE A 1,005,685 AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND LONDON CHARMAN AND HALI NEW ONE VOLUME NOTE SUITABLE ALL SEASONS. M: Mrs. Olipha In ly Chattert 1817 es La ARTEST SCIENTIA innie Thom M II: VERITAS LIBRARY OF THE LC Cc UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN VAL PLURIBUS VADO Livingston រ Lε TUEBOR St Se B1 SE WABAVADA C1 B T M B Author of "Ursula's Love Story. Ombra For Love and Life Wild Georgie Mrs. Middlemas. First in the Field Mrs. Oliphant. Mrs. Oliphant. SI-QUER:S-PENINSULAM-AMⱭNAM CIRCUMSPICE 66 Recommended to Mercy." Off the Line Innie Thom egime W. Robins Innie Thom Brook 'cy Fitzgera nie Edward County Three Wive' nes of the Count'' ades Mrs. Forres*. nour ils of Mayfa❞ lor of "Cas" Lady Thye. Caste Author of “Colonel Dac." Ladies of Lovel Leigl Author of "Book of Heroin? Lilian's Penance Author of "First in the Fie" LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, 193 PICC SDLIL 1 D DEL 102 785 1876 واد W. H. SMITH & SON'S REDUCED ORDNANCE MAPS OF THE PRINCIPAL DISTRICTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES, FOR TRAVELLERS AND TOURISTS. "These splendid Maps, unquestionably the most perfect ever published, have been compiled from the Ordnance and Admiralty Surveys, with railways up to the latest date. Their particulars are most-minute and accurate; every possible information that a map can give is afforded.”—Liverpool Albion. Price ONE SHILLING each. Full Coloured Clotkase for the Pocket. Scale Four Miles to an inch. 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LIVERPOOL MANCHESTER PLYMOUTH Do, 55 56 Do. "" IS. IS. IS. IS. 57 MAP OF ISLE OF WIGHT 58 Do. OF THE BRITISH ISLES, mounted on roller and varnished, s. 49 Railway Map of BRITISH ISLES, 23. 52 Do. GREAT BRITAIN, IS. SOLD AT ALL RAILWAY STATIONS. DE 102 T85 1876 < WORKS BY THE AUTHOR OF 66 JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN, Price 3s. per Vol, in Cloth binding, or 2s. in Picture Boards, TWO MARRIAGES. Fifth Edition. "In these days of sensation novels it is refreshing to take up a work of fiction, which, instead of resting its claims to attention on the number and magnitude of the crimes detailed in its pages, relies for success on those more legitimate grounds of attraction which, in competent hands, have raised this class of literature to a deservedly high position." " CATHA'S HUSBAND. Thirteenth Edition. "One of Miss Muloch's admired fictions, marked by pleasant contrasts of light and shade -scenes of stirring interest and pathetic incidents. The theme is one of touching interest, and is most delicately managed."— Literary Circular. OLIVE. Thirteenth Edition. "It is a common cant of criticism to call every historical novel the 'best that has been produced since Scott,' and to bring 'Jane Eyre' on the tapis whenever a woman's novel happens to be in question. In despite thereof we will say that no novel published since 'Jane Eyre' has taken such a hold of us as this 'Olive,' though it does not equal that story in originality and in intensity of interest. It is written with eloquence and power."-Review. HEAD OF THE FAMILY. Thirteenth Edition. "We have arrived at the last and by far the most remarkable of our list of novels, 'The Head of the Family,' a work which is worthy of the author of 'The Ogilvies,' and, indeed, in most respects, a great advance on that. It is altogether a very remarkable and powerful book, with all the elements necessary for a great and lasting popularity. Scenes of domestic happiness, gentle and tender pathos, abound throughout it, and are, perhaps, the best and highest portions of the tale."-Guardian. THE OGILVIES. Twelfth Edition. "The book is charming. It is written with deep earnestness and pervaded by a noble and loving philosophy; while, in giving form to her conceptions, the writer evinces at once a fine and subtle imagination, and that perception of minute characteristics which gives to fiction the life-like truth of biography. Nor does she want the power to relieve her more serious view by one of genial and well-directed humour.”—Athenæum. London: CHAPMAN & HALL, 193, Piccadilly. سول الحق CHARLES LEVER'S WORKS Price 6s. per Volume, demy 8vo, Cloth. LIBRARY EDITION, With all the Original Illustrations by "Phiz." 1 LUTTRELL OF ARRAN 2 BARRINGTON 3 MARTINS of CRO' MARTIN 4 TOM BURKE OF "OURS" 5 HARRY LORREQUER 6 JACK HINTON 7 THE DALTONS 32 Illustrations. 26 Illustrations. 40 Illustrations. 44 Illustrations. 22 Illustrations. 26 Illustrations. 48 Illustrations. 30 Illustrations. 8 ONE OF THEM 9 CHARLES O'MALLEY 44 Illustrations. 10 DODD FAMILY ABROAD 40 Illustrations. 11 THE O'DONOGHUE 26 Illustrations. 12 DAVENPORT DUNN 44 Illustrations. 13 KNIGHT OF GWYNNE 44 Illustrations. 44 Illustrations. 18 Illustrations. 16 BRAMLEIGHS OF BISHOP'S FOLLY 16 Illustrations. 14 ROLAND CASHEL 15 LORD KILGOBBIN 17 CON CREGAN 28 Illustrations. The collected Works of CHARLES LEVER in a Uniform Series must, like the Novels of Scott, Bulwer, Dickens, Thackeray, and Anthony Trollope, find a place on the shelves of every well-selected library. No modern productions of fiction have gained a greater reputation for their writer : few authors equal him in the humour and spirit of his delineations of character, and none surpass him for lively descriptive power and never-flagging story. London: CHAPMAN & HALL, 193, Piccadilly. AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND. BY * ANTHONY TROLLOPE. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. THIRD EDITION. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193 PICCADILLY. 1876. A VICTORIA AND TASMANIA. BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE, AUTHOR OF (( SOUTH AUSTRALIA AND WESTERN AUSTRALIA," NEW SOUTH WALES AND QUEENSLAND," (C NEW ZEALAND." NEW EDITION. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1875. Combed 12433 CONTENTS. VICTORIA. CHAP. I. SEPARATION II. EARLY HISTORY OF PORT PHILLIP III. MELBOURNE IV. BALLAARAT • V. BENDIGO UR SANDHUKST PAGE 3 12 29 43 52 VI. GIPPSLAND, WALHALLA, AND WOODS POINT . 62 VII. LAND 73 VIII. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN 89 IX. NEWSPAPERS, BOOKS, RAILWAYS, ROADS, TOWNS, AND WINES 105 X. LEGISLATURE, GOVERNMENT, AND COMMERCE 116 I. EARLY HISTORY II. PORT ARTHUR • TASMANIA. III. HER PRESENT CONDITION IV. FUTURE PROSPECTS • APPENDIX INDEX 127 142 154 169 181 194 VICTORIA. B VICTORIA. CHAPTER I. SEPARATION. I PROPOSE in this chapter to say a few words as to the treatment which the Australian colonies generally have received and are receiving from the mother country. In the next I will endeavour to trace very shortly the early history of the most populous and most important in the group, and in doing so I will take my facts from a pamphlet lately published by Mr. G. W. Rusden, of Melbourne ;- than whom I have found no one better informed on the affairs of Australia generally, and whose information, con- veyed in a small compass, is the latest that has been given to us,-bearing date September, 1871. It may perhaps be right that I should state that Mr. Rusden's pamphlet is dedicated to myself, lest they who are disposed to think that I am here repaying one compli- ment by another may claim to have "found me out" should they ever happen to have the two books in their hands at the same time. I find it also convenient to allude to the circumstance, in order that I may take this occasion of expressing an opinion as to the future destiny of our Australian colonies, which is specially evoked by a certain passage in Mr. Rusden's dedication. He, a colonist, seems to regard the colonies as an element in England's future glory, to look upon Victoria, for instance, as one of the gems by which that glory is to be maintained and consum- 4 VICTORIA. mated. I, on the other hand, who am an Englishman, look upon the colonies as an element, and a very material element, in the future happiness of Englishmen,-or of men and women of English origin,-thinking that England's glory should be left altogether out of the question in any consideration of the matter. Mr. Rusden speaks of the revolt of the American colonies having been brought about by the "wicked folly of Grenville and North," as though the effects of that revolt were still to be deplored, and implies that any act tending to the separation of the Austra- lian colonies from the mother country would be tainted with the same folly and partake of the same wickedness. It is most remarkable that this should be the aspect in which the future of these Australian colonies is regarded by all the best minds among the colonists. One hardly meets with an exception among educated men of British origin. The few of this class who entertain feelings and opinions of an opposite tendency are generally Irishmen, whose immi- gration has been of a comparatively late date. I hope that I am not myself dead to England's glory. I am indeed well aware that my own feeling on the matter— my own belief in my own country's pre-excellence—is so near to self-praise, that it should be checked rather than enforced. But I cannot believe that the homes of millions of human beings around the world are to be made subject to any special form of government, or that their mode of living is to be regulated in any special fashion, because such may be the form of government and such the fashion of living adopted by the country from which those millions have sprung, and whose language those millions speak. This form of government and this fashion of living may be the best the world has yet known. I, with my English idiosyncrasies, do believe that they are so. I believe further, -that we at home, with the honest, high-spirited, high- handed, blundering philanthropy which is peculiar to us, have, in spite of all the abuse which we have lavished upon ourselves in the matter, done nearly the best that we could have done with these colonies. But not on that account can I bring myself to look forward to their being kept as SEPARATION. 5 20 "gems" in England's "diadem." As long as the national prosperity of the colonies can be advanced by their de- pendence on England, that dependence England is bound, both morally and politically, to maintain. When the time shall come in which the colonies can serve themselves better by separation than by prolonged adherence, England, I think, should let them go. The difficulty will consist in fixing the time; but this question of time is one which must be solved mainly by the colonies themselves. It will be for them to declare, as it was for the United States, when that time shall have come. It will be for us to take care that, when the time does come, the work of separation may be effected, not only without hostility, but without acerbating roughness. 66 as "Here is a continent secured," says Mr. Rusden, never was continent secured by the genius of one man, for his countrymen to occupy." The one man is Mr. Pitt, to whose policy and firmness in opposing the attempts which were being made at the same time and with the same object by the French government Mr. Rusden attributes the final acquisition by England of Australia. "On the soil of Victoria there stand between seven and eight hundred thousand persons where twenty years ago there stood some seventy thousand. Thus fresh from their native land, are they not bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh to all living Englishmen as fully as if they still stood on English soil? Must it not be the shabbiest of statesmanship either in England or in the colony which would fret away the ties that bind the one to the other?" Of course it is matter of pride to us Englishmen that there should be so many of our people in Victoria,—and matter of higher pride that there should be some forty millions speaking our language, and living almost entirely by our laws, and in accordance with our fashions, on the continent of North America. We may probably take the language spoken as the truest indication of the influence of nationality and the justest source of rational pride. From our little island we have sent forth a people speaking English who are spreading themselves over all the world. VICTORIA. It is a much greater boast than that of ruling dependencies. on which the sun never sets. Though none of the English- speaking nations on the farther side of the globe should any longer acknowledge themselves to be dependent on Eng- land, it would matter nothing to the happiness of the race, and nothing to the true glory of the nationality,—so long as the numbers increased, and the material prosperity of those numbers. We are very proud of Victoria,-very proud of having colonised a country rich in gold and rich in flocks, and fitted by nature not only to support but to maintain and to increase the energy which is the gift of our race. We hope that the seven or eight hundred thousand may, as years run on, be quickly raised to millions. That they should have increased so rapidly, and been so prosperous in their increase, is to all of us a matter of self-congratulation. Though individually we at home may be less conversant than we ought with the details of Australian affairs, we keep a sufficiently accurate record in our minds of her rising condi- tion among the communities of the world. We know that the Australians are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, as fully as though they still stood on English soil. And we know the same of the Americans of the United States,-in spite of the "Alabama" and indirect claims; in spite of rows about the "Trent;" in spite of existing political differences; in spite of hostilities, should there be hostilities; and in spite even of war, should there be war. The grandchildren of our grandfathers are living there in prosperity and freedom, worshipping the God whom we worship, speaking the language which we speak, obeying the laws which we obey, and animated by that resolve to rule themselves, and to be free from the rule of individuals, which they took from our shores, and which is as strong with us as it is with them. I deny, therefore, altogether the shabbiness of the states- manship, whether in England or in the colonies, which would, not fret away, but gradually dissolve the ties which bind the one to the other. Such statesmanship,— when it exists, for as yet I am not aware that it has existed, -may be wrong, may be premature, may be one-sided, may SEPARATION. indeed possibly be shabby. Of what matter open to states- manship may not the same be said? But to declare that the statesmanship must be shabby that shall have the object. of allowing the colonies to start themselves as a separate people at some future time, is to pronounce an opinion, that indeed may be excused by the warm love of country which it indicates, but which can never stand an argu- ment. I am not aware that any British statesman has as yet entertained the idea of dividing the mother country from her Australian colonies,—has ever thought that the time has now come in which he himself might go to work and arrange the terms of separation. But I imagine that no British statesman ever employs himself in the affairs of these colonies without a conviction that, in all that he does, he should have before his eyes the fact that separation will come at some future day. It is impossible that any states- man, or any speculator, that any philosopher should foresee the time. It must depend on the increasing wealth and the increasing population of the country. Any invention -if such invention be within the bounds of natural possi- bility-which should save the wheat crops of the South Australian colonies from the disease called Red Rust, would greatly accelerate separation, because it would at once increase the population and the wealth of the colonies. Iron has been found, but iron mines have never yet been properly worked. If this could be done to any great extent, it would accelerate separation. Increased supplies of copper and gold will do so;-the finding of tin will do so;-success in making sugar will do so;—and the exportation of fresh uncooked meat to Europe, when such exportation becomes practicable, will do so very materially. Does anybody believe that a population of twenty millions in Australia would remain subject to a population of forty millions in the British Isles? And the former numbers may be reached as quickly as the latter. There is very much to be done before the question of separation can be regarded as one that is imminent, or fit for the immediate manipulations of statesmanship. Aus- 8 VICTORIA. tralia must be one whole before she can settle herself and take a place among the nations. There must be some federation of the different colonies before separation can be considered. The states must bind themselves together with the united object of making themselves a nation, and the men who now pride themselves on being Victorians, or South Australians, or Queenslanders, must learn to pride themselves on being Australians. At present they are very far from entertaining any such pride. The inhabitant of Melbourne thinks himself to be very much higher than the inhabitant of Sydney, and looks down from a great eminence upon the Tasmanian. In New South Wales there is a desire to maintain the distance between itself and Victoria, as though a gulf between the two, which could not be passed, would be for its good. Queensland, the youngest daughter of New South Wales, has but little respect for her parent. South Australia thinks herself better than her neighbours because she has never received a convict. There is, no doubt, something of similar jealousy between different groups of states in the American Union;-but there they have learned the strength of union and have pre- served it. As Australia becomes older, and as the number of her leading children who are Australian-born becomes greater, as the tendency to lean upon the mother country becomes slighter, the feeling for the newer patriotism will grow up; and with the feeling of Australian pride will grow the conviction that Australia, to be great and strong, should be one. The first step towards federation will be the union of the colonies for purposes of general taxation. At present the two great sources of public revenue are the customs duties and the sale and lease of public lands. Let the union be as close as it may, the use of the public lands will probably remain in each colony,-to be applied as may best suit its own wants, but the customs duties, from which by far the greater proportion of the public revenue is derived, may, and no doubt will, be collected under one tariff, by one arrange- ment, for the joint purposes of the whole group. At present these colonies all stand towards each other as though they SEPARATION. 9 were various nations, with varied interests, and endea- vour each to rise on the commercial injuries inflicted on the others by hostile tariffs. They charge duties on each other's produce, and are towards each other as were England and France before Mr. Cobden had made his treaty. I do not purpose here to fight the battle of the border duties, but here, and again hereafter, I must repeat the opinion, expressed by me in speaking of the other colonies, that at the present moment the creation of a cus- toms union should be the first duty of any statesman to whom the interests and well-being of the colonies may be entrusted. I look first to a customs union, then to federation, and then after some interval,—the duration of which I will not attempt to indicate,—to Separation and Self-control. In this idea as to the future of the colonies I cannot think that I am guilty of any shabbiness as an Englishman. And yet the expression of the accusation in Australia is by no means confined to the gentleman whose words I have quoted. Had it been so, had I not found it general among those whom I describe as possessing the best minds in the colonies,--I should probably have contented myself in endeavouring to defend myself from the charge with the eager arguments to which private intercourse is open. But I have heard on all sides accusations of the littleness of England,—and worse than littleness, of the weakness and infanticide of which England is guilty, in her desire to repudiate and put away from her her own children. I have heard it in details and in generals. England will not pay for this statue, or sub- scribe for that building; she will not give cannons and cannon-balls gratis; she has not left the vestige of a com- pany of soldiers in any one of the colonies; she charges a price for whatever she supplies, and does not always supply the best articles; when asked for selected emigrants she selects the dregs of the workhouses. There are these and a hundred other details which show the heart of a stepmother rather than of a parent. But the great general accusation is stronger still. Her statesmen--or at least some of the chief among them-have declared their opinion that the links IO VICTORIA. should be broken which bind Australia to the mother country. In regard to the details the answer is easy enough. The daughter has had her dowry given to her,—and should now pay her own way, and is able to do so. It often seems to be forgotten, in the colonies, that British statesmen cannot give away English property out of their own munificence. The colonies have agreed, with willingness, to certain terms, which certainly for them have not been unprofitable, and should not now ask for further small gifts. When our boys and girls are young we expect them to assail us for half- crowns, and rather like putting our hands in our pockets, even when we affect to rebuke the frequency of the solicita- tion; but when our girls are married and have had their fortunes, or when our sons have been set up in business by considerable self-sacrifice on the part of us their fathers, we do not like then to be told that we ought to pay for new carpets or cases of champagne. As to that general ac- cusation, I think it is founded not on any words spoken or acts done tending to immediate Separation, but on words and acts preparatory to Separation when it shall come. The mistake I think is in this, that the colonists allow themselves to believe that the mother country is repudiating them because the statesmen want to save themselves trouble, and because her people desire to avoid expense ;—whereas at home we feel, not a wish to repudiate the colonies, but a con- viction that after a while they will repudiate us, and that we are bound by our duty to them and to ourselves to be ready for the time when that repudiation shall come. We are called upon to rule them,—as far as we do rule them,--not for our glory, but for their happiness. If we keep them, we should keep them, not because they add prestige to the name of Great Britain, not because they are gems in our diadem, not in order that we may boast that the sun never sets on our dependen- cies, but because by keeping them we may best assist them in developing their own resources. And when we part with them, as part with them we shall, let us do so with neither smothered jealousy nor open hostility, but with a proud feel- ing that we are sending a son out into the world able to take SEPARATION. II his place among men. That is the halcyon view which I entertain of the closing days of the connection between Eng- land and Australia; and I think that it is one which is tainted with no shabbiness, and which should make me sub- ject to no reproof from any colonist. CHAPTER II. EARLY HISTORY OF PORT PHILLIP. "THE Discovery, Survey, and Settlement of Port Phillip," is the name of the pamphlet to which I have alluded, and to which I shall mainly trust for the facts to be stated in this chapter. In the lines which I shall quote between inverted commas in the early part of this chapter, the reader will understand that I am quoting the words of the author, Mr. Rusden. In the year 1802, fourteen years after the first actual occupation by the English of New South Wales, the inland sea which we now know as Port Phillip was first discovered by Lieutenant Murray, who had come out from England under Captain Grant in "The Nelson" with the special object of prosecuting Australian discoveries. The name was given by Captain King, the then governor of New South Wales, in honour of Colonel Phillip, the first governor. Captain Flinders, who, in regard to this period of Australian discovery, is Mr. Rusden's great hero, followed Lieutenant Murray after an interval of ten weeks. The French, in their exploration of the southern coast of New Holland, conducted by Captain Baudin, had sailed past the narrow entrance of Port Phillip without noticing it, and had called the whole region in those parts Terre Napoléon. Indeed they after- wards gave an appellation of their own to the harbour, but did not subsequently attempt to establish it. Captain Flin- ders, whose name is now perhaps better known from the street in Melbourne which bears it than from the deeds which he did and the sufferings which he bore in these dis- EARLY HISTORY OF PORT PHILLIP. 13 coveries, is the first who has left us any record of his having landed on the country which we now call Victoria. "At day dawn," says Captain Flinders, as reported by Mr. Rusden," I set off with three of the boat's crew for the highest part of the back hills, called Station Peak. Our way was over a low plain where the water appeared frequently to lodge; it was covered with small-bladed grass, but almost destitute of wood, and the soil was clayey and shallow. I left the ship's name on a scroll of paper deposited on a small pile of stones upon the top of the peak; and at three in the afternoon,—1st May (1802),-reached the tent much fatigued, having walked more than twenty miles without finding a drop of water. No runs of fresh water were seen in my excursion; but Mr. Charles Grimes, surveyor-general of New South Wales, afterwards found several, and in par- ticular a small river falling into the northern head of the port.' This small river was the Yarra Yarra, on which the city of Melbourne is now built,—and such was, in truth, the first discovery of Victoria. "} In 1803 Colonel Collins landed at Port Phillip to form a penal settlement, intended as a supplemental offshoot to that then fully established at Port Jackson,-which the world used to call Botany Bay,—on the eastern shore of the con- tinent; but he seems to have chosen his site badly, and to have kept his men close down upon the sea-shore where there was no fresh water. This attempt at a settlement was made at Point Nepean, the eastern headland at the mouth of Port Phillip, and was soon abandoned. The depôt was removed thence to the mouth of the Derwent, on the opposite island, and was the commencement of the great penal depôt which afterwards flourished in Van Diemen's Land,-if an establish- ment for the custody of convicts may under any circum- stances be said to flourish. From the settlement at Point Nepean some of the convicts escaped, and one of them was neither retaken, nor did he return, nor did he perish. This man, named Buckley, lived thirty-two years among the blacks, forgot his own language, and became as one of them. In 1835 he reappeared, and was found by a party of white men who then landed at Port Phillip from Van Diemen's Land. 14 VICTORIA. "No effort was made to colonise Port Phillip for many years after 1803." But during all those years explorations. from Sydney as a centre were being made into the continent. "In 1817 Oxley, the surveyor-general of New South Wales, had traced the Lachlan River nearly to its junction with the Murrumbidgee, and had therefore nearly approached the present boundary of Victoria, being within 240 miles of the site of Melbourne." In 1824 an expedition was formed under the auspices of Sir Thomas Brisbane, the governor, the object of which was to penetrate through from the known parts of New South Wales, across the rivers and over the mountains, to the southern coast. This expedition was entrusted to Mr. Hamilton Hume, who was joined by Mr. Hovell, two men whose names are well known among those of Australian discoverers. Both these gentlemen were still alive when I was in the colony, and I will not take upon myself to give to either of them the greater credit in the matter, but will content myself with stating that Mr. Rusden is a strong advocate of Mr. Hume's claims. The great Australian river which we know as the Murray was crossed, and was called the Hume, which name it still bears in its upper waters. After many sufferings and great dangers, Hume and Hovell reached Port Phillip overland. It will be understood that hitherto this district had only been touched from the sea-board, and that the very scanty know- ledge possessed by Hume and Hovell as to Port Phillip and Western Port was simply that which had resulted from the maritime discoveries of Murray and Flinders. At any rate they had reached the southern coast of that "Terre Napoléon," of which as yet no real possession had been taken on behalf of the British government. Another expe- dition was then made by sea to Western Port, under Governor Darling's instructions, apparently with the double object of opening a subsidiary convict establishment, and of confirming the claim made by Great Britain to the possession of the country. This was commanded by Captain Wright, accompanied by Mr. Hovell,—and was made in 1826,—at which time also another convict offshoot of the centre esta- blishment at Port Jackson was sent under Major Lockyer ÉARLY HISTORY OF PORT PHILLIP. 15 to King George's Sound,-the southern part of that colony which we now call Western Australia. This seems also to have been made with the double object of disposing of convicts, and taking possession of the land as against French claims. Major Lockyer had some success, but Captain Wright had none. "The fears of French colonisation evaporated, and Western Port was abandoned, its shores being described as 'scrubby.' "At this period," says Mr. Rusden, "John Batman must be introduced upon the scene. Now Mr. John Batman is a very interesting person, and was certainly the first coloniser of the ground on which Melbourne stands. On the 11th of January, 1827, he, conjointly with another energetic settler, addressed the following letter to Governor Darling, from Launceston, in Van Diemen's Land, to which place he had betaken himself from Paramatta, near Sydney, where he was born:- "SIR,-Understanding that it is your Excellency's intention to establish a permanent settlement at Western Port, and to afford encouragement to respectable persons to settle there, we beg leave most respectfully to solicit at the hands of your Excellency a grant of land at that place proportionable to the property which we intend to embark. We are in possession of some flocks of sheep highly im- proved, some of the Merino breed, and some of the pure South Devon; of some pure South Devon cattle imported from England; and also of a fine breed of horses. We propose to ship from this place 1,500 to 2,000 sheep; 30 head of superior cows, oxen, horses, &c., &c., to the value of from £4,000 to £5,000, the whole to be under the personal direction of Mr. Batman, who is a native of New South Wales, who will constantly reside there for the protection of the establishment. Under these circumstances, we are induced to hope your Excellency will be pleased to grant us a tract of land proportionable to the sum of money we propose to expend, and also to afford us every encourage- ment in carrying the proposed object into effect. "T. J. GELLIBRAND. JOHN BATMAN.” This letter is a clear indication of the manner in which it was then presumed that grants of land in the Australian colonies would be made to those who brought with them the means of occupying the land, and that the grants should be made in some proportion to the capital invested. On this 16 VICTORIA. application Governor Darling wrote the following curt memorandum, and we may presume that the answer was in accordance with it: << Acknowledge; and inform them that no determination having been come to with respect to the settlement of Western Port, it is not in my power to comply with their request. March 17 (1827.) R. D." Mr. Batman was rebuffed, and for a time silenced, but his idea of embarking all his fortunes for Port Phillip was never abandoned. Mr. Rusden goes on to describe how South Australia was founded in 1834, owing its birth to the enterprise of Captain Sturt. Of South Australia I shall speak elsewhere. But it may be well to notice here that although the discovery of Port Phillip was very much ante- cedent to that of the land on which Adelaide now stands, though Victoria had been crossed from north to south before any attempt at exploration had been made in the sister colony farther west, South Australia was an established province, with a company to regulate her proceedings, with a governor and recognised officers of her own, when the first real attempt was being made by any man to earn his bread or to push his fortunes in Victoria. Mr. Batman had meditated the attempt in 1827, but, as we have seen, had been rebuffed. In 1834, however, Mr. Henty, also a settler in the neighbourhood of Launceston, on the opposite island, determined to make a venture, and this he did,-no doubt having heard of John Batman's failure, without any refer- ence to the government. "Mr. Henty," says Rusden, "shipped off building materials, agricultural implements, and live stock. On 19th of November, 1834, having lost fifteen head of stock on the voyage, the adventurers reached Portland Bay, and on the 6th of December ploughing was commenced; and thus the first unbroken colonisation of Victorian soil dates from the enterprise of Mr. Henty. a very short time his few head of stock increased to some 7,000 sheep, and 247 cattle, and 25 horses, and continued intercourse was kept up with Launceston." As it happened, Mr. Henty had made good his footing, guided, as we must suppose, only by chance on the happiest point on all the In EARLY HISTORY OF PORT PHILLIP. 17 southern shore. Portland, and Warnambool, to the east of Portland, are the harbours of that western district of Aus- tralia, which was once called Australia Felix, and which is in many respects the fairest region of the whole continent. There Mr. Henty lived and prospered, and there he still lives and, as I believe, still prospers; but no great town sprang up on the site which he had chosen, and therefore his name has not become conspicuous, as perhaps it ought to have done, among the founders of his country. We will now return to Mr. Batman, who did become con- spicuous. His mind was still full of that opposite shore, respecting which he had, with a wide ambition but humble language, made his unavailing petition to the Governor of New South Wales. "Provoked beyond endurance, Batman would no longer be debarred from the downs of Iramoo, so temptingly described by Hume and mapped by Sturt. He determined to carve out his own way. South Australia was being occupied, and the occupation was called laudable in the preamble of an Act of Parliament. Henty had gone to Portland Bay, and no man had stayed him. Batman would go to Port Phillip; and as the New South Wales governor had not recognised his right to go there, Batman would make a convention with the rightful and natural 'lords of the soil."" Batman did go over, and did make a convention with the natives. He landed on Indented Head, on the western side of the harbour, and tracked out a large district of country, including the site on which the town of Geelong now stands, including the Iramoo Downs and the country called Dutigalla by the natives; and on a spot a mile or two north of the present city of Melbourne, he made a treaty with them, by which he pledged himself to protect them and to pay them some annual tribute, and by which they undertook to surrender to him the country which he pro- posed thus to purchase. Batman had with him the chart of the country, as drawn by Captain Flinders, and published by the subsequent explorer, Captain Sturt, and did not himself profess, as Mr. Rusden points out, to discover, but simply to occupy the country. But he prepared, or had C 18 VICTORIA. prepared for him, a chart of his proposed purchase, which he sent to the Governor of Van Diemen's Land, from whom he first endeavoured to obtain government sanction for what he had done. "The limits of the land purchased by me," he said, "are defined in the chart, which I have the honour of transmitting, taken from personal inquiry." In this chart, of which Mr. Rusden has published a copy, the land-not on which Melbourne proper now stands, but which is occupied by Emerald Hill, Sandridge, and other suburbs of the city is marked as reserved for the town- ship, and other public purposes." The site of the city itself is a part of the tract intended to be used by Batman for pastoral purposes. (6 The treaty is a marvellous document,-as being intended to make good a purchase of land from the aboriginal savages, in a country as to which Batman had already shown, by his petition to the Governor of New South Wales, that he was well aware that the British Crown claimed the ownership of it. He must have known that it could not have been operative either on his side or that of the abori- gines. It seems that he landed with the treaty in his pocket, with the places for the names and distances left blank, to be filled by him. When so completed it stipulated that we, "Jaga Jaga, and others,”—the black chiefs of the tribes,-"do, for ourselves, our heirs and successors, give, grant, enfeoff, and confirm unto the said John Batman, his heirs and assigns, all that tract of country situate and being in Port Phillip, running from the branch of the river at the top of the Port, about seven miles from the mouth of the river, forty miles N.E., and from thence west forty miles across Iramoo Downs, and from thence S.S.W. across Vilumanata to Geelong harbour at the head of the same, and containing about 500,000 acres, more or less." So that Mr. Batman was determined to obtain a goodly estate, if in this way it might be obtained. It would probably be difficult to ascertain how many millions of pounds the land so defined is now worth. This treaty was made in June, 1835. Batman probably never thought that he should be allowed to take possession of the land, but did think, and EARLY HISTORY OF PORT PHILLIP. 19 with just ground, that he would not be expelled from it without compensation, and that by his occupation of it he would obtain some recognised position. By asking much he would get something, especially when he adopted a mode of asking so much more likely to obtain serious attention than that which he adopted when he wrote to Governor Darling. Batman, having so far carried out his scheme, returned to Van Diemen's Land, and applied to the governor there for his sanction, sending a chart of his new estate. But the Governor of Van Diemen's Land had no sanction to give. Port Phillip was not within his jurisdiction, but was within the jurisdiction of the Governor-General of New South Wales. And the Governor of Van Diemen's Land also remarked, that the recognition of Batman's treaty "would appear to me a departure from the principle upon which a parliamentary sanction, without reference to the aborigines, has been given to the settlement of South Australia, as part of the possessions of the Crown." There could be no doubt about it. The British Crown had decided that it owned all Australia, that consequently the aborigines had nothing to sell, and that, consequently again, Mr. Batman could purchase nothing from them. Had Mr. Batman's claim to purchase from the blacks been allowed, very many such purchases would have been made,—and some of the purchasers would have been even less scrupulous in their dimensions than was Mr. Batman. But Mr. Batman did not stop here. He also applied to the authorities at home, and expressed a hope that the Crown would “relin- quish any legal point of constructive right to the land in question." But the Crown, or rather Lord Glenelg, who was then Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs, informed him "that the territory was part of the colony of New South Wales, and that no title to lands could be acquired there, except upon the terms presented in Sir R. Bourke's commission and instruction from the Queen." At this time Sir R. Bourke was Governor of New South Wales, and was also Governor-in-Chief over the Governor of Tasmania. Mr. Batman, though he was the moving spirit in the whole matter, was only one of an association in regard to the 20 VICTORIA. capital invested. This association at last wound itself up by selling whatever interests it had to two of its own members; and the government allowed to these two gentlemen a sum of £7,000, in liquidation of so much money expended on a legal purchase of lands; and this was done, as is expressed, in consideration "of expenses incurred by them in the first formation of the settlement.” I cannot complete this short record of Mr. Batman's adventures without alluding to Mr. Fawkner, on whose behalf many have claimed the honour of having founded Melbourne ;—and who, I believe, was declared to claim it for himself. Mr. Batman had been busy with Jaga Jaga, the native chief, in June, 1835. In October, 1835, Mr. Fawkner landed at Port Phillip,-also from Van Diemen's Land, whence came all the early settlers of Victoria, so that the leading Australian colony may be said to be an offshoot from that island, rather than from New South Wales ;—but the party with which he was connected seem to have made their way across in July. They encountered some of Bat- man's followers, and, after trying various places for a settle- ment, made their way up Port Phillip, and at last pitched on the present site of Melbourne, and seem to have settled there, not quite in unity with the Batman party, but without direct hostility. Their feuds, such as they were, will hardly interest the reader;—but it is interesting to learn that the situation of the city, and consequently the origin of the colony, was due to the enterprise of these two men, Batman and Fawkner, and of the associations with which their names are connected. In 1836 there arrived H.M.S. "Rattle- snake," bringing with her, as the official head of the new settlement, Captain Lonsdale,—after whom one of the main streets of Melbourne is now named. This seems to have been the first official recognition of the place; and at that time the town-or rather settlement-had been called by the inhabitants Glenelg, after the Colonial Secretary, whom we, who are old, remember as Charles Grant. It was not till the next year that it was named Melbourne, after the then Prime Minister in England. This was the beginning of Port Phillip; but Victoria did EARLY HISTORY OF PORT PHILLIP. 21 • not even then exist. From its very earliest commencement Port Phillip was a success. It must be remembered that in those days there was no gold, and that this new settlement was not bolstered up by money from home, as was the case with the convict establishments at Sydney, in Van Diemen's Land, and at Moreton Bay. It seems that from the first agriculture, joined with the growth of wool,-not the growth of wool only,--had been the purpose of those who migrated from Launceston to Port Phillip. We are told as regards the first comers that after so many days,-within five days or within six days of their arrival,-the plough had passed through the soil, and that the seed was sown. Australian colonists had become discontented with themselves in that they had not as yet produced wheat for their own use. In New South Wales the effort to do so had failed. In South Australia it was already succeeding. In Victoria the attempt was at once made, and it has progressed with moderate success. The colony has not as yet been able to feed itself. In 1838 the young settlement had all the healthy roughness of youth. Melbourne consisted of a few wooden huts, and, as we are told, looked like an Indian village. There was a wooden church with a bell suspended from a tree. There were two little wooden public-houses. Kangaroos were eaten because mutton was still scarce. Mr. Fawkner, of whom I have spoken, established a news- paper, but it was a newspaper in manuscript, of which I will speak further in a future chapter. In one of these papers there is an advertisement for a ferry between Melbourne and Williamstown, which is now the port of Melbourne. "Parties from Melbourne are requested to raise a smoke and the boat will be at their service as soon as practicable." The stumps of trees still stood in the one or two streets which were already in course of formation. That such should have been the condition of a young town is by no means remark- able; but that it should so lately have been the condition of a city so great as Melbourne now is, I regard as very remarkable. This was in 1838,-a period which to some of us does not seem to be very remote; and now Melbourne is one of the most successful cities on the face of the earth. 22 VICTORIA. " "The Port Phillip settlement was not five years old when its inhabitants began to call for separation from New South Wales, and for its establishment as a distinct colony, with equal privileges to those conferred upon Van Diemen's Land in the south and South Australia in the west. A partial answer to their demand was made by the political reform of 1842, which gave a larger area and political insti- tution to the district, and allowed it to send six delegates of its own to the Legislative Council at Sydney.” But such representation as this by no means satisfied the aspiring political idea of the new settlers. It did not suit them to send delegates to Sydney, which they regarded as a place subject altogether to government authority,-slow, conser- vative, and down-trodden. Such has ever been and still is the idea held in Melbourne and Victoria generally of Sydney and its surroundings. It seems that from the very beginning of its life Melbourne resolved that she would not be subject to Sydney. The agitation was continued down. to 1850, taking at last the form of a demand for absolute separation. In those days,-though they are but the other day,—such requests were not granted easily, as they are It was thought wise then to grant slowly and with seeming reluctance. But in 1850 the request was granted, and an Act of Parliament was passed making Port Phillip a separate colony. The arrangement commenced on 1st July, 1851, and its present name, Victoria, is said to have been selected by the Queen herself. On that date Victoria became a separate colony, the fifth in chronological order of those which we know together as Australia. New South Wales had been the first, Van Diemen's Land-now Tas- mania-the second, Western Australia the third, South Australia the fourth, and now Victoria, soon to become by far the most important, was the youngest. now. But its importance did not come from that wealth of pas- ture and wealth of corn-bearing soil to which the Hentys, Batmans, and Fawkners had looked when they passed over into the land from Tasmania. What might have been the *"The Story of Our Colonies," by Fox Bourne, EARLY HISTORY OF PORT PHILLIP. 23 future of Victoria had her success depended on those simple products of the soil, it is useless now to speculate. In grow- ing wheat she could not have competed with South Australia, as her climate is less favourable for the product. In pro- ducing wool she could not have competed with New South Wales, as her borders are narrower and her limits confined. In regard to fruits and vegetables she is infinitely inferior. to her despised mother, Tasmania. She has no special gifts of fine harbours, an advantage bestowed by nature, which will sometimes compensate evil qualities in other directions. Port Jackson, Hobart Town, and King George's Sound are infinitely better ports than Hobson's Bay, the roadstead at the top of Port Phillip, into which the Yarra River runs, and which forms the port of Williamstown and the harbour of Melbourne ;-for in reaching this haven vessels have to pass the Rip, which bubbles and eddies between the heads which guard the entrance forty miles down from Melbourne. Luckily for the new settlement, they who had founded it had been men of energy, fit for the work in hand, not expecting too much, anxious of course to thrive, but not looking for instant fortunes, prone to work themselves and capable of making others work; by no means gentlemen in the ordinary sense of the word, but as good a set of colonists as ever were landed on the shores of a new country. Within fifteen years from their start, if we count from the foundation of Melbourne,—or within sixteen from the date of Mr. Henty's arrival at Portland, they had already caused themselves to be classed as a separate colony, with a governor of their own,-and a parliament of their own, though not a parliament so thoroughly radical in its con- struction as that which they now possess. There can be but little doubt that without other chances in its favour a colony so founded would not have been the last in the race. But other fortune did attend it, so rich, so attractive, and so magnificent that it has become the very first on the list. No single British colony has ever enjoyed prosperity so great and so rapid as has fallen to the lot of Victoria. In 1851 gold was struck at Ballaarat or the neighbour- hood. It was soon apparent that the entire condition of the 24 VICTORIA. colony was changed by the success of the gold-finders, and that Victoria, as she is now and has been since we first began to talk about Melbourne at home as one of the great cities of the earth, was made out of gold. Gold made Mel- bourne. Gold made the other cities of Victoria. Gold made her railways; gold brought to her the population. which demanded and obtained that democratic form of government which is her pride. Gold gave its special value to her soil,—not only or chiefly from its own intrinsic value, not only or chiefly to that soil which contains it,—but to surrounding districts, far and wide, by the increased demand for its product and the increasing population which required it for their homes. But this success was achieved by no means without a struggle, nor did the good things come without bringing for awhile many ill things in their train. There is this pecu- liarity in gold, as an object of industry, that the quest of it disturbs all other adjacent industries. It is natural of course that men should seek that work in which they can earn the best wages, and that any new calling offering high pay will to a certain degree derange the supply of labour ordi- narily forthcoming for ordinary occupations. But in all other trades than that of gold-seeking, the customary work- ing of commerce soon brings matters to a level. Wages rise a little on one side and fall a little on the other. Skill, and power, and intelligence hold their own, and the disrup- tions that occur are those of a passing storm. But gold up- heaves everything, and its disruptions are those of an earth- quake. The workman rushes away from his old allotted task, not to higher wages, not to 35. a day instead of 25., or 6s. instead of 5s., but to untold wealth and unlimited splendour, to an unknown, fabulous, but not the less credited realm of riches. All that he has seen of worldly grandeur, hitherto removed high as the heavens above his head, may with success be his. All that he has dreamed of the luxurious happiness of those whom he has envied seems to be brought within his reach. It seems to him that the affairs of the world generally are to be turned over and reversed, and that thus at last justice is to be done to him EARLY HISTORY OF PORT PHILLIP. 25 who has hitherto been kept cruelly too near the bottom of the wheel. His imagination is on fire, and he is unable any longer to listen to reason. He is no longer capable of doing a plain day's work for a plain day's wages. There is gold to be had by lifting it from the earth, and he will be one of the happy ones to lift it. The presence of gold is a fact. All the corollaries of the fact might be plain to him also, if he would open his ears to them,—but, in regard to himself, he is deaf as an adder to them. That all the world around him is rushing to the diggings, he can see ;-and he knows that there are not princely fortunes for them all. In some rough way he knows that, were there fortunes for them all, the fortunes would cease to be princely. But “something tells him,”—as he explains to the friend of his bosom,- "something tells him" that he is to be the lucky man. There is a something telling the same lie to every man in that toil-worn crowd, as with sore feet and heavy burden on his shoulders he hurries on to the diggings. In truth he has become a gambler,—and from this time forth a gambler he will live; though his true industry, the sweat of his brow, which will be really productive for the world's good, will save him from those worst curses which attend a gambler's career. Thus it was that men from all this colony and all the colonies, and that men in crowds from the old mother country and from other countries, hurried off to Victoria. The effect upon South Australia, to the west, was so great, that for a time it was feared that the young settlement would be depopulated. Farms were abandoned, and sold for a trifle. Tradesmen shut up their shops. When their customers had gone to the diggings, what could they do but follow? Shepherds from the recently stocked pastures of the Riverina and the Darling rushed down over the Murray. And worse still, the shearers who should have shorn the flocks were gone when the fleeces were ready for the shears. All these were welcomed by the young colony. There was no jealousy of new-comers as long as those who came bore characters as honest men,-or had at least had no brands upon the forehead. But the convicts from Tasmania broke 26 VICTORIA. loose and swelled the crowd. Barriers which had sufficed to retain the unexcited felon availed nothing when the imagination of the wretch had been inflamed by tidings of gold. They also swarmed over from the island and joined the crowd, to the loudly expressed disgust of a colony which was perhaps somewhat Pharisaical by reason of her own comparative purity. Then there arose such a turmoil of circumstances, such a hurly-burly of social and material wants, as men were sure not to have anticipated, though in looking back upon the facts every one now can see well that they were unavoid- able. How was the crowd to feed itself, to shelter itself, and to clothe itself? With such business as that on which they were engaged, deficiencies in respect of house accom- modation could be endured. The smallest and the roughest tents sufficed. Boots, trousers, and a flannel shirt completed the wardrobe of many a high-born digger, and as long as the articles would hold together men working for gold would be content. But there must be food; and the feeding of 20,000 men, brought together as though by magic, requires almost miraculous energy. All things in the neighbourhood of the diggings became extravagantly dear, so dear that the absolute value of the article seemed hardly to bear at all on the price fixed. And in response to this, or rather as an encouragement to it, the diggers themselves, with newly found gold in their hands, indifferent as they were to comforts, seemed hardly to care what they paid for those luxuries of which they had dreamed. To such a one it was nothing to give an ounce of gold for a bottle of so-called champagne, though the champagne had cost in Melbourne perhaps 35. 6d., and the gold was worth certainly more than £3 105. But who was to supply the wants of diggers when every one was himself a digger? Or, if there were some steady enough to resist the temptation and to cling to haunts which were comparatively old, how were they to obtain that assist- ance in their work of living, which in this complex world we all render one to another? Who was to cook his dinner for the unfortunate lawyer who had lately settled in the rising EARLY HISTORY OF PORT PHILLIP. 27 town of Melbourne, when every young woman had rushed off to the diggings, to get whatever wages she chose to ask, even if she could not do better for herself by getting a dig- ger as a husband? Or, whoever was to sell him a mutton chop to be cooked, when the half-dozen butchers of the rising metropolis had gone away to the diggings, either themselves to dig or else to follow the much more profitable occupation of supplying the diggers? For it was soon found that this first El Dorado had brought a second with it. There was already a double set of gold-seekers. It was a grand thing to drink champagne at an ounce of gold the bottle; but it was a much better thing, if not a grander, to sell champagne at that price. It was fine to get a nugget; -only that nuggets were so uncertain. But there were nuggets found daily by some happy diggers, and those who found were always ready to buy everything that was offered to them. That second El Dorado was more certain though less glorious than the first. There was, indeed, an earthquake which at first it seemed impossible that the community as a whole should withstand. Everything was disordered and out of place. All that had been at the bottom was at the top. That which had been at the top was at the bottom. How were these men to be governed, who by the very nature of their calling want much of that protection which we call government? Something of the same kind occurred in the early days of California,—but not to the same extent; and there Lynch law had prevailed. They who saw those times in California declare that society there was preserved by Lynch law ;-that, bad as it must necessarily be, unjust, tyrannical, cruel, conducive as it must be to a reign of terror and unlimited power in the hands of some few utterly unfit to use it, it was infinitely better than the no-law which would otherwise have prevailed. But Cali- fornia had then been very distant from any recognised seat of power, whereas Ballaarat was no more than 100 miles from Melbourne. The government was bound to govern,— to send magistrates, commissioners, inspectors, constables, and the like. But you cannot make a man be a constable, nor even a magistrate, against his will. When the men to 28 VICTORIA. be watched were finding nuggets of gold before noon, and nuggets in the afternoon, and nuggets at night, at what rate per annum and per week were you to pay your magistrates and your constables? The reader will not, I think, fail to understand that there was much of what we call rough work in the colony at that time. There arose one turmoil so loud that soldiers were called on to fight the miners, and that miners entrenched themselves within palisades, intending to fight the soldiers. This, too, occurred at Ballaarat, and I shall say perhaps a word of that affair when speaking of Victoria's mining capital. My present object is to show the conditions through which the colony has passed, and the causes which have made it what it is. Gradually things settle themselves into the old grooves, and the earthquake died out. Its rumblings were still heard, but at last it rumbled only, and did not frighten. And when it had passed away the causes which had created it had filled the land with wealth. Many had been ruined. Many a youth, who in his own country had enjoyed all that love and education could do for him, had come out to perish miserably in the mud of an Australian gully. There had been terrible suffering, crushing disappointment,-all the agonies of toil, at first hopeful, but at last utterly unre- munerative, of which no history can ever be written. There had been broken hopes, wasted energies, the ague-fit after the fever. But a people had been established, and a land had been enriched. This, I take it, is all that need be said of the early history of Victoria. CHAPTER III. MELBOURNE. MELBOURNE has certainly made a great name for itself, and is the undoubted capital, not only of Victoria but of all Australia. It contains, together with her suburbs, 206,000 souls, and of these so-called suburbs the most populous are as much a part of Melbourne as Southwark is of London ;- or were I to say as Marylebone is of London, my descrip- tion would be true, as there is no line of demarcation trace- able by any eyes but those of town-councillors and the collectors of borough rates. There are very many cities in the world with larger populations, so many that the number does not strike one with surprise. But I believe that no city has ever attained so great a size with such rapidity. Forty years ago from the present date (1873), the foot of no white man had trodden the ground on which Melbourne now stands, unless it was the foot of Buckley the escaped convict, who lived for thirty years with a tribe of native savages. Melbourne is not a city beautiful to the eye from the charms of the landscape surrounding it, as are Edinburgh and Bath with us, and as are Sydney and Hobart Town in Australia, and Dunedin in New Zealand. Though it stands on a river which has in itself many qualities of prettiness in streams,—a tortuous, rapid little river with varied banks,— the Yarra Yarra by name, it seems to have but little to do with the city. It furnishes the means of rowing to young men, and waters the Botanical Gardens. But it is not joy for ever" to the Melbournites, as the Seine is to the a 30 VICTORIA. + people of Paris, or the Inn to the people of Innsbruck. You might live in Melbourne all your life and hardly know that the Yarra Yarra was running by your door. Nor is Melbourne made graceful with neighbouring hills. It stands indeed itself on two hills, and on the valley which separates them; and these afford rising ground sufficient to cause con- siderable delay to the obese and middle-aged pedestrian when the hot winds are blowing,-as hot winds do blow at summer-time in Melbourne. But there are no hills to pro- duce scenery, or scenic effect. Nevertheless the internal appearance of the city is cer- tainly magnificent. The city proper, that Melbourne itsel which is subject to the municipal control of the mayor, and which in regard to all its municipal regulations is distinct. from its suburbs,-is built on the Philadelphian, rectangular, parallelogrammic plan. Every street runs straight, and every other street runs either parallel to it or at right angles with it. The principal streets run east and west,-Great Flinders Street, then Collins Street,-which is the High Street of the city, and its Regent Street and Bond Street; then Bourke Street, which is its Oxford Street and Cheapside; and then beyond them Latrobe Street, Lonsdale Street, and others. Second class streets, but streets which do not admit themselves to be second class, run at right angles to these ; Russell Street, Swanston Street,-a street which by no means thinks itself second class; Elizabeth Street,--also a proud street; Queen Street, William Street, and King Street. And then between all these streets,—which are busy streets,- there run little streets calling themselves lanes, and assuming generally the name of their big brother. Thus there are Flinders Lane and Collins Lane, and so on. But they are all regular, all rectangular, and all parallelogrammic. It is the width of the streets chiefly which gives to the city its appearance of magnificence ;-that, and the devotion of very large spaces within the city to public gardens. These gardens are not in themselves well kept. They are not lovely, as are those of Sydney in a super-excellent degree. Some of them are profusely ornamented with bad statues. None of them, whatever may be their botanical value, are good MELBOURNE. 31 gardens. But they are large and numerous, and give an air of wholesomeness and space to the whole city. They afford green walks to the citizens, and bring much of the health and some of the pleasures of the country home to them all. One cannot walk about Melbourne without being struck by all that has been done for the welfare of the people generally. There is no squalor to be seen,-though there are quarters of the town in which the people no doubt are squalid. In every great congregation of men there will be a residuum of poverty and filth, let humanity do what she will to prevent it. In Melbourne there is an Irish quarter, and there is a Chinese quarter, as to both of which I was told that the visitor who visited them aright might see much of the worst side of life. But he who would see such misery in Melbourne must search for it especially. It will not meet his eye by chance as it does in London, in Paris, and now also in New York. The time will come no doubt when it will do so also in Melbourne, but at present the city, in all the pride of youthful power, looks as though she were boasting to herself hourly that she is not as are other cities. And she certainly does utter many such boasts. I do not think that I said a pleasant word about the town to any inhabitant of it during my sojourn there, driven into silence on the subject by the calls which were made upon me for praise. "We like to be cracked up, sir," says the American. I never heard an American say so, but such are the words which we put into his mouth, and they are true as to his character. They are equally true as to the Australian gene- rally, as to the Victorian specially, and as to the citizen of Melbourne in a more especial degree. He likes to be cracked up," and he does not hesitate to ask you to "crack him up." He does not proceed to gouging or bowie knives if you decline, and therefore I never did crack him up. I suppose that a young people falls naturally into the fault of self-adulation. I must say somewhere, and may as well say here as elsewhere, that the wonders performed in the way of riding, driving, fighting, walking, working, drinking, love- making, and speech-making, which men and women in Australia 32 VICTORIA. told me of themselves, would have been worth recording in a separate volume had they been related by any but the heroes and heroines themselves. But, reaching one as they did always in the first person, these stories were soon re- ceived as works of a fine art much cultivated in the colonies, for which the colonial phrase of “ blowing" has been created. When a gentleman sounds his own trumpet he "blows." The art is perfectly understood and appreciated among the people who practise it. Such a gentleman or such a lady was only "blowing!" You hear it and hear of it every day. They blow a good deal in Queensland ;—a good deal in South Australia. They blow even in poor Tasmania. They blow loudly in New South Wales, and very loudly in New Zealand. But the blast of the trumpet as heard in Victoria is louder than all the blasts, and the Melbourne blast beats all the other blowing of that proud colony. My first, my constant, my parting advice to my Australian cousins is contained in two words-" Don't blow." But if a man must blow it is well that he should have something to blow about beyond his own prowess, and I do not know that a man can have a more rational source of pride than the well-being of the city in which he lives. It is impossible for a man to walk the length of Collins Street up by the churches and the club to the Treasury Chambers, and then round by the Houses of Parliament away into Victoria Parade, without being struck by the grandeur of the dimensions of the town. It is the work of half a morn- ing for an old man to walk the length of some of the streets, and to a man who cannot walk well the distances of Mel- bourne soon become very great indeed. There seems to be this drawback upon noble streets, and large spaces, and houses with comfortable dimensions, that as the city grows the distances become immense. They are now far longer in Melbourne with its 200,000 inhabitants clustered toge- ther than in Glasgow with 500,000; and as the population increases and houses are added to houses, it will become impossible for pedestrians to communicate unless they devote the entire day to travelling. There will, no doubt, be rail- ways about the town, as there are about London, but it MELBOURNE. 33 seems strange that half a million of people should not be able to live together within reach of each other. The city, I have said, is magnificent,—and yet no street in it is finished. Even in Collins Street the houses stand in gaps. Here and there are grand edifices,-in the first place banks, as to which it seems that in these days grandeur pays as in old days did that quiet, almost funereal, deportment which was the characteristic of Lombard Street, and is still maintained by one or two highly respectable London firms. The banks in Melbourne are pre-eminent, and next to them the warehouses of ambitious retail dealers. And there are some very handsome churches,—not always built with close attention to the proprieties of church architecture as recog- nised by us, but nevertheless handsome. Here and there is a grand public building,—the Post Office and the Town Hall being very grand. There are Institutions of various kinds, all having domiciles more or less magnificent. A few private houses have been built with architectural pre- tensions, and in this way there is enough of detailed splen- dour to give a character to the streets. But no street is as yet splendid throughout. In speaking of the outward appearance of Melbourne, I must not forget the gutters, which in rainy weather run down each side of the street like little rivers. These are now bridged over so constantly and so well that they offer practically but little impediment to the walker. In hot weather they often flow with water from the reservoir, and help to cool the town. But in the old days, when the bridges were few and far between, or when there were no bridges at all,—it used to be a work of danger to get about. It was then no uncommon thing to hear that "another child" had been drowned in Melbourne that morning. Though the suburbs of Melbourne,-such specially as Collingwood, Fitzroy, and Richmond,—are in fact parts of the town, they seem to have been built on separate plans, and each to have had a ceremonial act of founding or settle- ment on its own part,-being in this respect unlike suburbs, which are usually excrescences upon a town, arising at hap- hazard as houses are wanted. But these subsidiary towns D 34 VICTORIA. are all rectangular and parallelogrammic on their own bottom, though not rectangular and parallelogrammic in regard to Melbourne. If the streets of the one run from north to south, and from east to west, the streets of the other run from north-east to south-west, and from south-east to north- west. This seems to have been of importance,—and equally so that they should have separate mayors, separate town- councils, and above all separate town-halls. Collingwood has over 18,000 inhabitants; Emerald Hill over 17,000; Richmond over 16,000; and Fitzroy over 15,000 inhabi- tants; but to the world at large these places are parts of Melbourne. But the magnificence of Melbourne is not only external. The city is very proud of its institutions, and is justified in its pride. Foremost among these, as being very excellent in the mode of its administration, is the public Library. In the first place it is open gratuitously to all the world, six days a week, from ten in the morning till ten in the evening. In the second place, whatever the library possesses can be got by any reader without trouble. It contained indeed, in 1870, no more than 60,000 volumes, which to those who are accustomed to wander among the shelves of the British Museum, or of the Oxford and Cambridge libraries, does not seem to be a large number. But the books have been selected for the uses of the people, and in such a library multiplied editions are hardly necessary. And the too vast multiplication of volumes leads to infinite difficulty in the manipulation of them. Here at Melbourne any man who is decent in his dress and behaviour can have books, shelter, warmth, chair, table, and light up to ten at night, day after day, night after night, year after year, women, who choose to be alone, the United States it is always presumed that women will choose to be alone,—a separate room is provided. This is only beaten at Boston, Massachusetts, where the inhabi- tants of the city are allowed to take the books home with them. and all for nothing. For and in the colonies as in Melbourne also has its University,-which has hardly as yet been as successful as its Library; though for it, as for MELBOURNE. 35 that at Sydney, I do not doubt that success will be forthcom- ing. It is at present richer in the possession of council, of senate, of doctors of law and medicine, and in masters of arts, than it is in students. In 1870 seven gentlemen took degrees as bachelors of arts, the average of ten years having been five in each year. In 1870, 122 students, in all, attended lectures,— a number which is poor for a university with a chancellor, a vice-chancellor, a senate, four professors, and nine other lecturers. In 1870 the government paid £9,000 towards the expenses of the University, the college fees amounting to no more than £2,793 ;—a pecuniary result which must be acknowledged to be poor in so rich a com- munity. But in considering all this the nature of the com- munity must be borne in mind, and the fact, that though education generally is more desired by such a people than it is in an old country such as ours, education of a high order is by no means equally in demand. People even who are rich are unwilling to pay the expenses of procuring it for their children,—an expense which is not at all in proportion with their previous experience of the cost of education. It will probably be acknowledged that a government, in such circumstances, is right to support a university among its people till the time shall come in which a class shall have grown up willing to support it for themselves. The University itself is a modest, pretty quadrangular building, of which three sides are completed, containing simply the lecture-rooms and library, and the residences of the professors. The fourth side will be added as funds are found. The University itself does not profess to provide accommodation for the residence of scholars. Attached to it, however, is an affiliated institution called Trinity College, -got up in the interests of the Church of England, and I believe I shall be correct in saying, chiefly by the energy of that most excellent of men, the present bishop. No salary is here provided by government for a fainéant Head of the House, as I found to be the case at Sydney. When I visited the Melbourne University in 1872, there was Trinity College,* * I have since been much pleased at learning that the affiliated college was nearly full. 36 VICTORIA. but as yet there were no collegians. The building had been erected and furnished, and was ready to take in twenty students, at 30s. a week for board and lodging. Here, it was hoped, might the future young pastors of the Church of England in the colony receive their learning. Seeing how much had been done by how good a man, I give the new college all my best wishes. Behind the University, and in the grounds belonging to it, stands the Museum, which is open to the public gratuitously. I am not, myself, qualified to speak of the value of museums, but this one seems to have the special and somewhat unusual merit of being so arranged that its contents are intelligible to ordinary capacities. I have spoken of the gardens of Melbourne generally as contributing largely to the spacious dimensions of the town; but I must not omit to make special mention of the Botani- cal Gardens, and of their learned curator, Dr. Von Mueller. Dr. Von Mueller, who is also a baron, a fellow of half the learned societies in Europe, and a Commander of the Order of St. Jago, has made these gardens a perfect paradise of science for those who are given to botany rather than to beauty. I am told that the gardens and the gardener, the botany and the baron, rank very highly indeed in the estima- tion of those who have devoted themselves to the study of trees, and that Melbourne should consider herself to be rich in having such a man. But the gardens though spacious are not charming, and the lessons which they teach are out of the reach of ninety-nine in every hundred. The baron has sacrificed beauty to science, and the charm of flowers to the production of scarce shrubs, till the higher authori- ties have interfered. When I was at Melbourne there had arisen a question whether there should not be some second and, alas! rival head-gardener, so that the people of Melbourne might get some gratification for their money. The quarrel was running high when I was there. only hope that flowers may carry the day against the shrubs. I can There are no poor-laws in the colonies, and consequently no poor-rates. Destitute men and women are not entitled by MELBOURNE. 37 law to be fed and housed at the public expense, as they are in England. As far as the law is concerned any man who cannot feed himself may lie down and die. But such is not the result of things as they exist. Poor and destitute there are, though they are very few in number as compared with those among us at home. Work is more plentiful. Wages are higher. Food is cheaper. In his personal condition the working man does not stand always near to the edge of the precipice of destitution, as he too frequently does in Europe. But there are poor,—both men and women,—and for them shelter and food are found, and very many of the comforts of life. These are provided in buildings called Benevolent Asylums, of which there are five in Victoria,— the largest establishment being in Melbourne. Here, in Melbourne, about 12,000 poor are relieved in the course of the year, some using it as a temporary refuge and some living in it altogether. No one is ever turned out; nor does there seem to be any great difficulty in getting in if the appli- cant be really destitute. It is worthy of remark that a very small proportion of those who apply for relief are colonial born. The growth of the colony, and the fact that most of the aged in the country have been immigrants, will account for this in some degree. But though Victoria is still growing the colonies are old enough to have produced destitution of their own. In 1870 there were 11,739 persons in the Victorian Benevolent Asylums, of which but little more than a tenth were born in the colony. This I attrioute to the fact that the generation born in the colonies drinks less and is more careful of its means than they who go thither from Europe. The theory of these asylums is that they should be supported by voluntary contribution with aid from govern- ment. The fact is that they are supported by government with some little aid from voluntary contribution,—and with something made by the work of the inmates. In 1870 the asylum at Melbourne cost £18,856, of which £15,000 were paid by the government, and but £2,000 by private contributions. In Victoria government pays for every- thing; and, why should the benevolent contribute when the thing is provided in a different way? I have said 38 VICTORIA that there were no poor-rates;—but perhaps it may be thought that the same thing is effected when the parlia- ment makes a grant out of the general taxes of the country. Could a pauper be suddenly removed out of an English union workhouse into the Melbourne Benevolent Asylum, he might probably think that he had migrated to Buckingham Palace. When giving a catalogue of the peculiar institutions of Melbourne, I must not omit "The Verandah." Not that there is anything beautiful or grand about the Verandah, or that it is an institution of which Melbourne is inclined to boast. It is one, however, which she uses perhaps with more thorough devotion than all the others put together. The opportunities offered by it are never neglected; and they who have once tasted its charms, seldom fail to return to them. "The Verandah" is a morsel of pavement in Collins Street, on which men congregate under a balcony, and there buy and sell gold shares. It is a small Bourse or Capel Court," held out of doors, the operations of which are conducted with all the broad daylight of the public. street upon them, but not on that account conducted with any peculiar formality or reticence. I shall, however, be under the necessity of speaking of "The Verandah” again when describing the gold-fields of the colony and the operations which they have produced. I visited the Lunatic Asylum at Yarra Bend,-or rather the two lunatic asylums, for there is an old and a new establishment on opposite sides of the river Yarra,—and other hospitals, and the penal establishment at Pentridge and other gaols. I could tell how many inmates there were in each, and how much each inmate cost,—no doubt with all that inaccuracy which a confidence in statistics customarily produces. But I doubt whether I should serve or interest any one by doing so. But it may be well to express the general conviction left on my mind by all these visitings, not only in reference to Melbourne and Victoria, but as regards the colonies generally,—that a care for public things predominates in them all. However greedy indivi- duals may be after the wealth of each other, whatever fall- MELBOURNE. 39 ings off there may be in individual morality and honesty, whatever lapses in individual honour, the care of public things is maintained throughout with an unspairing expen- diture. In nothing is this more conspicuous than in the protection given to the afflicted by the State. Let the cost be what it may, the poor are to be taught, the needy sheltered and fed, and the afflicted, whether in mind or body, relieved as far as outward appliances may relieve them. Melbourne is the centre of a series of railways of which I shall speak in another chapter, as they belong to the colony generally rather than to the town; but the city has the advantage of a local line,-belonging to a private company and not worked by the government as are the colonial lines generally,—which passes from St. Kilda and Emerald Hill on one side, through Melbourne to Richmond, Prahran, Brighton, and other suburbs on the other side, which is so generally used that Melbourne itself is nearly as hollow as London. I may almost say that no one lives in Mel- bourne. Of this, one consequence is disagreeable. When you dine out you are generally under the necessity of returning by railway,-which is an abomination. But in other respects the railway is a great blessing. People even of moderate means live in the country air and have gardens and pleasant houses. On two sides, south and east, Melbourne is surrounded for miles by villa residences. There is now being built, very close to the town, a new Government House, which is intended to be very magnifi- cent. The governors who occupy it will probably find it by far too much so. The present house, which is four miles out of town, is very much abused as being inadequate to its purpose. It certainly is much less grand than those at Sydney, at Hobart Town,—which is first among govern- ment houses, or even at Perth in poor Western Australia. Nevertheless I was present there at a public ball, at which all Melbourne was entertained with true vice-royal munifi- Were I appointed governor of a colony, I should deprecate very much a too palatial residence. I think it cence. 40 VICTORIA. may be admitted as a rule that governors find it hard to live upon the salaries allotted to them, and generally do not do so. Men used to accept bishopricks and governorships with a view to making fortunes. It is beginning to be admitted now that men with private means are wanted for both. There is perhaps no town in the world in which an ordi- nary working man can do better for himself and for his family with his work than he can at Melbourne. There may be places at which wages are higher, but then at those places the necessaries of life are dearer and the comforts of life less easily attainable. There are others undoubtedly at which living is cheaper;-but there also are wages lower, and the means of living less salutary and commodious. When I left Melbourne in July, 1872, flour was cheaper than in England. The price of wheat was then 6s. Ed. a bushel in the Melbourne markets. Meat had risen greatly during the last twelve months in consequence of the in- creased exportation and the rise in the price of wool, and then ranged in the city from 4d. to 6d. the pound. Butter varied from 6. to 1s. 9d. the pound; potatoes from £3 to £4 the ton; eggs from 10d. to 2s. the dozen; tea from Is. 6d. to 2s. 6d. the pound; coffee from Is. to īs. 1od. a pound; coals from 28s. to 355. a ton. The price of clothes, taken all round, is I think about 20 per cent. dearer than in London. A working man in Melbourne no doubt pays more for his house or for his lodgings than he would in London; but then in Melbourne the labourer or artisan enjoys a home of a better sort than would be within the reach of his brother in London doing work of the same nature, and in regard to house-rent gets more for his money than he would do at home. In Melbourne the wages of artisans and mechanics generally are 10s. a day. Such is stated by the registrar of the colony to have been the customary payment to blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, and bricklayers in 1870, and I am assured that there has been no reduction since that date. Gardeners receive from 50s. to 6os. a week, and common labourers about 36s. a week. These men, so paid, are supposed to be employed without MELBOURNE. 4I diet, or rations, as is the colonial phrase. A cook will earn from £35 to £45 a year; laundresses from £30 to £40; other maid-servants from £20 to £30. The ordi- nary wages of a housemaid, who of course lives in the house, are ros. a week. Men-servants, in the house, earn from £40 to £55 per annum. There can I think be little doubt that the artisan with £3 a week, paying 4d. a pound for his meat and 7d. for a 4-lb. loaf, may live very plentifully. He probably pays about 1s. a week for the schooling of each of his children, but such is the comfort of his condition that he can do this without difficulty. I would not say to every artisan in London that he should save his money and pack up all that he has, and come out to Melbourne. Too often he cannot save any money. Frequently he is unfit to emigrate. It is, too generally, the case that the man who thus seeks new fortunes has to undergo some hardship before he can find his feet in the country of his adoption. I would not have any one believe that he can enter in upon the good things of the new world without trouble, without doubt, and without delay. Many a poor fellow burdened with wife and family, the best of whose strength has gone from him amidst the hardships of labour at home, has been tempted to go out, and when there has been unable to bear the roughness of beginning and has fallen in the struggle. But when the first struggle is over, and when the first battle has been won, the life of the artisan there is certainly a better life than he can find at home. He not only lives better, with more comfort- able appurtenances around him, but he fills a higher position in reference to those around him, and has greater considera- tion paid to him, than would have fallen to his lot at home. He gets a better education for his children than he can in England, and may have a more assured hope of seeing them rise above himself, and has less cause to fear that they shall fall infinitely lower. Therefore I would say to any young man whose courage is high and whose intelligence is not below par, that he should not be satisfied to remain at home; but should come out,-to Melbourne, if that desti- nation will in other respects suit him; and try to win a 42 VICTORIA. higher lot and a better fortune than the old country can afford to give him. But if he take my advice and then turn recreant,—if he become idle or self-indulgent, or take to drink and vicious courses of pleasure, then will woe betidè him. For the fate of such a one in the colonies is worse even than it is at home. CHAPTER IV. BALLAARAT. BALLARAT, the gold-field city,-or Ballaarat as the conscien- tious orthographists of the district insist on spelling it,- deserves a separate chapter to itself. Not that the two towns of that name,-Ballaarat and Ballaarat East,—with their vicinities comprise now-A.D. 1873-the most pro- ductive gold-fields of Australia, as they are beaten by those of Sandhurst; but that the place has been more noticeable than any other in the history of Australian gold, and more productive, taking its history back to the time when gold was first discovered there in 1851. That was the great year of the discovery of Australian gold. I am not going into the deeply discussed question of the merits of this or that discoverer, as to which jealousy is still rife both in New South Wales and Victoria. Taking the belief which I now find to be the most common in the colonies, I may say that Sir Roderick Murchison and Count Strzelecki both foretold the finding of Australian gold, basing their opinion on the geographical condition of the country; that Hargreaves, acting with others, first struck gold at Ophir in New South Wales; and that gold was first discovered, in Victoria, at Clunes, some few miles from the present city of Ballaarat. I will not venture to say who was the first discoverer, but a miner named Esmond was re- warded for the discovery. In New South Wales gold was declared to be found in April, 1851, and at Clunes in July, 1851, so that the interval between the two colonies was very small, 44 VICTORIA. But, in regard to the discovery at Clunes, I think it is not. to be doubted that gold was in fact found there eighteen months before it was declared. The date usually given as that of Esmond's discovery is July, 1851,-that being the very month in which the government of the new colony of Victoria commenced. Both Hargreaves and Esmond had been gold-seekers in California, and were led to their discoveries by observation rather than by chance. There is, I believe, no doubt that gold had been found by chance previous to the discoveries of Hargreaves and Esmond,—but the finding of it had not led to great public results. Both Hargreaves and Esmond were rewarded. Clunes is about 16 miles from Ballaarat, but the richness of the Ballaarat gold-fields soon followed the first discovery at Clunes. I am aware that I shall tread on very dangerous ground indeed if I assign either names or dates to the first movement of the soil at Golden Point, which is now built over by the present town,-Ballaarat East. But before the end of 1851 the rush to Ballaarat was an established thing, and whole streets of canvas tents were covering crowds of miners. We are told that men flocked to the place at the rate of 500 a day,-for whom no preparation had been made, no shelter built, no food brought together, no local laws enacted, no powers to enforce the laws existing. Its too great prosperity, its prospect of immediate and appa- rently unlimited wealth, was for a time more than the colony could bear. The minds of men were so disturbed that no man would remain at any old employment. Servants were out of the question. Shearers would not shear sheep unless they could earn their £6 or 7 a day. Gold commis- £7 sioners with their clerks, police magistrates and policemen, were indispensable; but who would be a clerk, or a police- man,—who even a magistrate or a commissioner,-when gold could be washed out of the dirt at the rate of ten ounces a day to each happy miner? Food rose to incredible prices, but then it was almost matter of indifference to a man whether he gave a shilling or a sovereign for his meal. The young government was almost beside itself,—and letters BALLAARAT. 45 full of frantic questions, eager fears, ambitious hopes, and almost despair, must have reached our Colonial Office at home by every mail. To whom did the gold belong? If to the Crown, how should the Crown use and how protect its rights? In what way might this new wealth be turned to account, so that the colony at large might enjoy the pros- perity? Might any man dig where he pleased, and if so, how should he be protected in his digging? What should be his rights, and what his limits, and how should he be made to pay for the now to him inestimable blessing of protection? It was at first decreed that a miner should pay a fee of 30s. a month for a licence to dig. This was very shortly raised to £3 a month, though that amount was in truth never collected. The idea of charging a miner £36 a year for the privilege of digging arose from the desire to prevent all the labour of the colony from throwing itself into the one employment. But the outcry was so great that it was again fixed at 305. In October, 1854, the charge for a miner's licence was £2 for three months. In the colony of Vic- toria the licence now costs 5s. a year. But the system of licensing-of charging diggers even £18 per annum for the privilege of mining-was not received with ready submis- sion, and the money was collected with infinite difficulty. Recusant diggers were hunted down by armed police; men refused to pay; indignation meetings were held;—and at length something like war broke out at Ballaarat. This was in December, 1854,-when Sir Charles Hotham was gover- nor, and about twelve months before his death. The dig- gers entrenched themselves on the gold-fields in a place that was called the Eureka Stockade. Here they were attacked by night, and thirty of them were killed. The ringleaders were afterwards tried and acquitted,-and so the war was brought to an end. But in those days there was certainly much difficulty in governing the colony, and in bringing into order a new state of things. It seemed for a time as though the very wealth of the soil would prove the ruin of the country. Now it might be difficult to find a more quiet town than 46 VICTORIA. Ballaarat, as it certainly would be to find one of the same age better built and more lavishly provided with all the appurtenances which municipalities require. It is certainly a most remarkable town. It struck me with more surprise than any other city in Australia. It is not only its youth, for Melbourne also is very young; nor is it the population of Ballaarat which amazes, for it does not exceed a quarter of that of Melbourne; but that a town so well built, so well ordered, endowed with present advantages so great in the way of schools, hospitals, libraries, hotels, public gardens, and the like, should have sprung up so quickly with no internal advantages of its own other than that of gold. The town is very pleasant to the sight, which is, perhaps, more than can be said for any other " pro- vincial" town in the Australian colonies. When the year 1851 commenced, Ballaarat was an unknown name except perhaps here and there to a few shepherds. These words are written in the house of Messrs. Learmonth,—younger men than I, and therefore not old men to me,—who were the first pioneers in the country, and who ran the sheep which they brought with them from Van Diemen's Land over the hills adjacent to Ballaarat. They have given way to the gold-seekers, and, establishing themselves far enough from mines for rural serenity and pastoral comfort, are regarded as the territorial aristocrats of the district. Breath- ing their air and listening to their ideas, one feels as one does in the almost feudal establishment of some great Eng- lish squire, who watches with a regret he cannot quite repress the daily encroachments made upon his life by the approach- ing hordes of some large neighbouring town. Ballaarat has no navigable river. It is seventy or eighty miles from any possibility of sea-carriage. The land imme- diately around it is not fertile. It is high above the sea-level, and runs in gentle hills which twenty years since were thinly covered with gum-trees; and here wandered the flocks of a few patriarch pioneers. Then came first one or two rough seekers after gold, then half-a-dozen, then a score, then a rush, and Ballaarat was established as one among the few great golden cities of the young world. I do not think BALLAARAT. 47 that there is any city equal to it that has sprung from gold alone. I myself believe in cities,-even though there should be place in them for dishonest ambition, short-sighted policy, and rowdiness. The dishonesty, the folly, and the rowdiness are but the overboiling of the pot without which cannot be had the hot water which is so necessary to our well-being. I heard much abuse of Ballaarat from Ballaaratters. There are three towns conjoined, Ballaarat, Ballaarat East, and Sebastopol, with three town-halls, three municipalities, and the like. The smaller towns will not consent to merge themselves. There are in them men of obstruction, and things cannot be done as they should be done. Money is wasted; municipal funds are expended foolishly,-perhaps fraudulently on an occasion. If this class would only see with the eyes of that class, what a paradise it might be ! But they see with quite other eyes, and what a pande- monium it is becoming. So say the men of Ballaarat. Trade is going to the dogs, because there is not sufficient protection; -or else because a tariff of 20 per cent. on all imported goods, levied in accordance with the wisdom of certain ministers is destroying all trade by raising the price of bad goods and driving serviceable goods out of the market. No words which can here be used are strong enough to describe the iniquity which some MacEvoy attributes to some O'Brien, or some Murphy to some Jones or Smith. Popu- lation is falling off, so that shortly Ballaarat will be as a city of the dead. Such are the accounts a stranger hears either from this side or from that. One gentleman, who certainly was very much in the dark as to the statistics of his town, assured me that 20,000 people had gone out of Ballaarat in two years. Another was angry with me because I hesitated to believe that the place was ruined. I was assured that I might hire 1,500 vacant houses at an hour's notice if I wanted them. As for gold at Ballaarat, everybody knew that that game had been played out! As far as the eye Such were the records of some men. went, I saw nothing but prosperity. Here I found that most of the mines were worked by companies at wages paid 48 VICTORIA. to the men,—and that a miner's wages averaged from 40s. to 48s. a week,—the man working eight hours a day, and thus reaching that acme of the workman's bliss- "Eight hours for work, and eight for play, Eight for sleep, and eight shillings a day." And the necessaries of life, and the comforts, are at any rate as cheap at Ballaarat as they are in England, in spite of protective duties. Meat was about 23. a pound, and for nothing did the workmen of Ballaarat pay more than his brother in England, unless it be for clothes, for house-rent, -and strong drinks, if he be that way given. Wages for all work are high in proportion. In rural labour in the neigh- bourhood the farmer pays 20s. a week and rations, and at harvest-time must pay double that amount. Female servants in houses get 12s. a week,—or above £30 per annum. Houses no doubt have been built too quickly, as is always found to be the case when some check comes to the rising population of young towns. Such check had reached Ballaarat when I was there,-the rush for the time being to the gold-fields of Sandhurst ; and newly built houses were to be seen empty. "There's a 'spec' that won't answer,” said a gentleman to me, pointing to a row of houses just finished, but which from end to end showed no sign of habitation. In two years' time some great quartz-crushing operation will probably have been commenced; and the then owner of the row, for the unfortunate first speculator will no doubt have been sold out by his assignees,-will be making 30 per cent. on his money. There may be rowdiness, dishonesty and all other civic sins in the manipulation of the municipal powers of Ballaarat and other Australian cities ;-but as a rule the things which a city requires are there. Át Ballaarat this is conspicuously the case. The hospital has more wards than it uses, and more funds than it needs. As regards internal cleanliness and sweetness, and external prettiness, it is perfect. The Benevolent Institution,—which does the work that a poor- house does with us,-gives either out-door relief or in-door shelter and sustenance to all who cannot support themselves. BALLAARAŤ. 49 ► (( Such sustenance in Ballaarat-as indeed at all such institu- tions in Victoria-includes a thoroughly good dinner of meat and vegetables every day, with tea for breakfast and tea for tea." It includes a bed perfectly clean, sitting- room, books, newspapers, comfortable clothes, and a garden to walk in infinitely superior to that enjoyed by many com- fortable folk at home. Ballaarat has a public library, free to all the city, and a mechanics' institute, with newspapers and privileges, at £1 a head. It has indeed every munici- pal luxury that can be named, including a public garden full of shrubs and flowers, and a lake of its own,—Lake Wen- douree, with a steamer and row-boats and regattas. It has a cricket-ground, and athletic games; and it has omnibuses and cabs, which by their cleanliness and general excellence make a Londoner blush. For the privilege of seeing all these things with ease and comfort, and for much steady information, without exaggeration either on one side or the other, I have to thank that best of all mayors, Mr. R. Lewes, who reigned at Ballaarat at the time of my visit. But as yet I have said nothing of the gold-mines which have made Ballaarat what it is. Among Victorian gold-fields it is famous for alluvial dirt to be washed,—not for quartz to be crushed, as is the case with its rival town of Sandhurst, of which I shall speak in the next chapter. But the reader must not therefore suppose that Ballaarat is a place of mere surface scratching, an agglomeration of gullies from which the mud is shovelled into cradles, a congregation of "fos- sickers "-men who search about, picking and washing a bit of earth here and a bit there, or upper-air miners who know nothing of large operations. The alluvial dirt which pro- duces the greater portion of the wealth of Ballaarat has not only to be brought up many hundred feet from under the surface, but it has to be sought for through underground passages thousands of feet in length, and has to be fol- lowed up by geological deductions which too often fail in their promises. I went down one such mine called "Winter's Freehold," descending 450 feet in an iron cage. I was then taken 4,000 feet along an underground tramway in a truck drawn E 50 VICTORIA. by a horse. At the end of that journey I was called upon to mount a perpendicular ladder about 20 feet high, and was then led along another tramway running apparently at right angles to the first. From this opened out the cross passages in which the miners were at work. Here we saw the loose alluvial grit, so loose that a penknife would remove it, lying on the solid rock,-on it and under it,—to the breadth I was told of some four feet; for though I saw the bottom of the grit, where it lay on its bed, I could not see the top where it was covered. Here and there among the grit, with candle held up, and some experienced miner directing my eye, I could see the minute specs of gold, in search of which these vast subterranean tunnels had been made. It seemed to be but a speck here and there, so inconsiderable as to be altogether unworth the search. But the mining men who were with us, the manager, deputy- manager, or shareholders, for on such occasions occasions one hardly knows who are the friends who accompany one,— expressed themselves highly satisfied. We I was told that £150,000 had been expended on this single mine up to the present time, and that the machinery was the finest in the colony. Perhaps the finest machinery in the colony may be seen at more than one mine in the colony. But I was informed that hitherto the results had not been magnificent. There was, however, a good time coming, and all the money expended would certainly come back with copious interest. I hope that it may be so. were two hours in seeing the mine,—and I must say that as regards immediate enjoyment the two hours were not well spent. The place was wet and dirty and dark, the progress was tedious, and the result to the eye very poor. But such is the result to all amateur inspectors of mines. When we had extricated ourselves from the bowels of the earth we ascended to a platform on the top of the machinery, to which the wash-dirt is carried that it may there be puddled and the gold extracted. The height enables the water and mud to un off. The dirt is placed in a round flat recep- tacle or trough, into which water runs, and an instrument somewhat like a harrow is worked through it. The water and BALLAARAT. 51 mud are amalgamated, and the height enables them to run off together. The gold by its own weight falls to the bottom mixed with stones or shingle. This is afterwards sent down to an open spout below, through which water runs, a man the while working it with a fork prepared for the purpose. Again the stones and mud pass off with the water, and again the gold remains behind, sinking to the bottom by its own weight. When all has escaped that will escape, and the stones that will not fall have been thrown out, then the specks of gold are seen lying thick, collected in the little. furrows which are marked on the bottom of the spout. To the uninitiated eye the product of all this costly labour still seems to be small. After all this the gold is smelted into bars and sold to the merchants or bankers. We went to the offices of another company,—the Band of Hope and Albion Consols, -to see the smelting. In this operation there is nothing wonderful. The small gold-for it is all small in compari- son with the nuggets of which we have heard so much and which are now very rare in Australia—is poured into an earthen pot, is melted, is poured out into moulds, is then washed so that it may have a clean face, and is straightway sent to the bank. At present the greater part of the gold found at Ballaarat when thus prepared is worth something over £4 an ounce. At this Band of Hope mine they raise about 3,000 ounces of gold a month, at an expense of about half its value. The other half is divided among the shareholders, and gives an average interest of £12 15s. per cent. on the capital expended on the work. This, in a business subject to great risk, with bank interest at 8 and 9 per cent., does not seem to be a very rich result. We also saw a quartz-crushing machine at work,-for quartz is raised at Ballaarat, though in much less quantity than the wash-dirt. The nature of a quartz-crusher I have described in speaking of Gympie, the great Queensland gold-field. In Victoria, as I have said, Sandhurst is the great quartz district; but there are sanguine people who predict a vast wealth of quartz reefs at Ballaarat after the wash-dirt has been all extracted. CHAPTER V. BENDIGO OR SANDHURST. HAVING thus described Ballaarat, which in point of archi- tectural excellence and general civilised city comfort is at present certainly the metropolis of the Australian gold- fields, I should lay myself open to charges of gross partiality if I omitted to give some account of Sandhurst,—which intends to surpass Ballaarat, and to become mightier and more world-famous than that very mighty and world-famous place. I do not pretend to say what may be the result of the race. My readers have, no doubt, heard of the Bendigo gold- fields. I think it by no means improbable that some of them,-in England,-may never have heard the name of Sandhurst as connected with gold. I had not done so when I first landed in Australia, though I had been often told of Bendigo, having some hazy idea that the place had called itself after a prize-fighter, and therefore must be a very rowdy place indeed. I imagine that some such feeling must have been predominant with the people of the place when Bendigo, as a name, was dropped, and Sandhurst,- which is not only euphonious, but which carries with it also a certain mixed idea of youthful energy and military disci- pline, was chosen in its stead. Sandhurst means to go ahead, and become a great city. In regard to the produc- tion of gold it has gone very much ahead. As a city, when I was there, it was neither handsome nor commodious. had the appearance, which is common to all new mining towns, of having been scratched up violently out of the It SANDHURST. 53 (6 body of the earth by the rake of some great infernal deity, who had left everything behind him dirty, uncouth, barren, and disorderly! Any one who has seen the mining towns as they rose in Cornwall and Glamorganshire must have observed the same ugliness. At Sandhurst you see heaps of upturned dry soil here and there, dislocated whims, rows of humble houses built just as they were wanted, shops with gewgaw fronts put up at a moment's notice, drinking- bars in abundance, here and there an attempt at architecture, made almost invariably by some banking company eager to push itself into large operations;—but with it all a look of eager, keen energy which would redeem to the mind the hideous objects which meet the eye, were it not that the mind becomes conscious of the too-speculative nature of the work done, of the gambling propensities of the people. around,—and is driven to feel that the buying and selling of mining shares cannot be done by yea, yea, and nay, nay. In Melbourne there is the "verandah ;"-in Sandhurst there is a “verandah ;" in Ballaarat there is a verandah." The verandah is a kind of open exchange,-some place on the street pavement apparently selected by chance, on which the dealers in mining shares do congregate. What they do, or how they carry on their business when there, I am unable to explain. But to the stranger, or the passer by, they do not look lovely. He almost trembles lest his eyes should be picked out of his head as he goes. He has no business there, and soon learns to walk on the other side of the road. And he hears strange tales which make him feel that the innocence of the dove would not befriend him at all were he to attempt to trade in those parts. I think there is a racing phrase as to "getting a tip." The happy man who gets a tip learns something special as to the com- petence or incompetence of a horse. There are a great many tips in gold mines which fall into the fortunate hands of those who attend most closely, and perhaps with most unscrupulous fidelity, to the business of the verandahs. The knowing ones know that a certain claim is going to give gold. The man who has the tip sells out at a low price,-sells out a certain number of shares, probably to a 54 VICTORIA. friend who holds the tip with him. The price is quoted on the share list, and the unfortunate non-tipped sell out also, and the fortunate tipped one buys up all. A claim is not going to give gold, and the reverse happens. Or a claim is salted;-gold is surreptitiously introduced, is then taken out, and made the base of a fictitious prosperity. The tipped ones sell, and the untipped buy. It is easy to see that the game is very pretty; but then it is dangerous. It has certainly become very popular. One is told at Mel- bourne that all are playing at it,-clergymen, judges, ladies, old ladies and young, married ladies and single,—old men and boys, fathers unknown to their sons, and sons unknown to their fathers, mothers unknown to their daughters, daughters unknown to their mothers,--masters and servants, tradesmen and their apprentices. "You shall go from one end of Collins Street to another," a man said to me, "and you will hardly meet one who has not owned a share or a part of a share." Gold-mining in Victoria is as was to us the railway mania some twenty-four years ago. Melbourne no doubt is the centre of the trade in shares, but low beneath the surface in the mines of Sandhurst lie the hearts of the gold-gamblers. At Ballaarat the chief produce of gold is still obtained from alluvial dirt,—from dirt which is indeed extracted by deep working out of the bowels of the earth, and not, as at first, from the channels of rivers and the crevices of mountain gullies,—but still from alluvial dirt, which, when extracted, is washed. The gold remains after the washing and then the operation is at an end. At Sandhurst the gold is got by quartz-crushing. The gold-bearing rock is brought up in great masses,-thousands and thousands of tons of stone, which is called quartz. This is crushed by huge machinery, and the gold is separated from the dirt by the use of quick- silver and water. The washing of alluvial soil is the readier way of getting gold, but the quartz-crushing is the more important. Of the alluvial dirt there must, or at any rate there may, soon be an end. The geologists say that the crushers of quartz may eat up whole mountains, and still go on finding stone that will give gold. Looking at a table SANDHURST. 55 now before me as to quartz crushed at Sandhurst in 1871, I find that 2 oz. 14 dwt. to the ton of quartz was the highest amount extracted, and that 4 dwt. to the ton is the lowest quantity there quoted. The proportion that will pay depends of course on the amount of outlay. Some of the gold- It is bearing stone is brought up 800 feet, and some only 100. In some mines the levels and cross-cuts and underground passages are worked for long distances, perhaps for a mile, without gold. In others the gold is struck at once. impossible, therefore, to say what proportion will pay; but it is certain that in many mines half an ounce, or two sovereigns, to a ton of rock will pay well. It is on record that 250 oz. of gold were extracted on the Bendigo gold- fields from one ton of stone,-fifteen years ago. But the great glory of Sandhurst was reached, when an average of 9 oz. per ton was extracted from 264 tons of quartz, taken from "The Great Extended Hustler's mine." I venture to extract a quotation from a published "Digest of the Dividend-Paying Companies of the Bendigo Gold- Fields," which is now before me,-given in the shape of a note,—because it purports to be a record of the greatest event of the year 1871. "NOTE.-On October 18th, the greatest event of the year's quartz- mining occurred. For some days previously the gathering of the Extended Hustler's Tribute amalgam created much interest in mining circles; 6,400 oz. aggregate of amalgam was reached when the com- pany proceeded to retort, and betting, except with those intimately acquainted with the nature of the stone, was in favour of over 3,000 oz. of gold. A little after 7 p.m. of the 18th the Oriental Bank solved all doubts by exhibiting the Tribute Company's cake of 2,564 oz., and shortly afterwards the Great Extended Hustler's Tribute declared the largest dividend ever paid on Sandhurst,-6s. 6d. per share, equal to £9,100. The yield was obtained from 264 tons, reef 18 feet thick, average 9 oz. per ton." I saw this interesting cake at the Oriental Bank in Mel- bourne, on which occasion the manager kindly offered to give it to me on condition that I should carry it away. All prosperous trades have a slang of their own,-certain terms used to keep outsiders at a distance, and to create that feeling of esoteric privilege which we all like to have in 56 VICTORIA. regard to matters which we think we understand. A man who only uses horses can never talk in professional language to a man who breeds them and deals in them and lives with them. A layman in politics, let him be ever so anxious for his country, is all abroad when conversing with a member of parliament about bills and acts, about notices of motion and "the previous question." It is very much so with mining. Everything is told to the visiting stranger, but I don't think he is intended to understand anything. What with tributes and claims, with leads and lodes, with shafts and levels and cross-cuts and veins, with reefs and gullies, with quartz, amalgam, tailings, and mullock,—I am by no means sure of the spelling of that last word, he is made to feel that he is an outsider, and that he cannot learn mining in a day. At Sandhurst I felt this very strongly ;-and my reader will probably feel as I did. He will simply acknow- ledge to himself the fact that a cake of gold containing 2,564 oz.,—and worth about £10,000,―is a very large cake indeed. The names selected by various companies at the Sand- hurst gold-fields deserve attention. Sandhurst, which now aspires to be the leading Australian gold-field, and which certainly turns out more gold than any other, boasts at present no less than 1,200 different companies. I should say that there were 1,200 in the early part of 1872. The number will probably be very greatly increased before these words are published. The names chosen for these companies are certainly very quaint. There are not less than fourteen "New Chum" Companies, and there are three or four " Old Chum" Companies. There are the Peg Leg, the Perfect Cure, the Who can Tell, the Great Extended Who can Tell, the Sons of Freedom, the Sir Walter Scott, the Sailor Prince, the Royal Louisa, the Lord Byron, the Little Chum, the Jonadab, the Hand and Band, the Happy Day, the Happy- go-Lucky, the Great Extended South Golden Pyke, the Go by Gold, the Charles Gavan Duffy, the Gladstone,—indeed there are five or six Gladstone Companies;—and, to be fair, I must add that there is a Disraeli Company; I do not, however, find it quoted among those that are paying SANDHURST. 57 dividends. But, among all names at Sandhurst, the greatest name, the most thriving, the best known, and the name in highest repute, is-" Hustler." Whence came the appella- tion I do not distinctly know, but I believe that there once was-perhaps still is-a happy Hustler. If so, even the Marquis of Granby among publicans has not been a more prolific godfather than has Mr. Hustler among Sandhurst miners. What with original Hustler Companies and Tribute Hustler Companies, with simple Hustlers, and Extended Hustlers, and Great Extended Hustlers, with North Hustlers, and South Hustlers, and with Extended North and South Hustlers, the companies who claim the happy name are difficult to count. There are at any rate two dozen of them, and all, or nearly all, are doing well. Of these 1,200 different companies, about one-third are, so called, Tribute Companies. The parent company-for instance the parent Great Extended Hustlers-lets off a piece of land, or a claim, to a set of men, generally working miners, having performed a certain portion of the preliminary work, having opened the shaft and put up machinery, and probably shown that gold is to be had for the labour. The claim is let on a certain tribute, the tributers or sub- company agreeing to pay a fixed proportion of the gold extracted to the original company. The miners are very fond of going into this kind of speculation, as it opens up to them the chance of making a fortune. But on the other hand it opens up to them also the chance-and very often the reality-of working for nothing. The expenses of the mine and the tribute which is exacted will not unfrequently consume all the gold produced; or, worse than that,—the expense of the mine will go on, and there will be no produce. The tributer will not only be working for nothing, but will also be called on to pay towards the continuance of the enterprise. He must live the while,-and would thus seem to be debarred from such speculation unless he be possessed of capital. But in fact such is not the case. A miner at Sandhurst, when I was there, could earn from £2 10s. to £3 a week, and could live well on 20s. Two men, or more, would form a partnership, of which the one half would work · 58 VICTORIA. But for wages, and the other half on a tribute claim. The wages would suffice to support the whole, and even to pay up a certain amount of" calls." Should the speculation turn out well, the profits would be divided among the lot. The speculation often does turn out well, and men become suddenly enriched. It often turns out badly,—and in such cases the miners have worked barely for a subsistence. At such places as Sandhurst it is said that in this way a grand spirit of commercial enterprise is created and fostered. Men without capital are enabled to enter in upon the joys of com- mercial speculation. There is, however, another way of look- ing at it; and many no doubt will think that the commercial speculation is simple gambling on a great scale. I have no doubt myself that the miners who work simply for wages are in the long run more prosperous than they who work on tribute. A man's wages represent to him with clear and well-defined reality the very sweat of his brow. If there be enough for him to save something, and if he be given to saving, he will save the surplus of money so earned. that which comes to him in a lump, from some happy chance, from some pocket of gold found in the bowels of the earth, from some rich crushing of quartz with which it has been his lot to become connected, exalts him suddenly, upsets. his head,—and is apt to disappear as rapidly as it came. All this of course is old-world teaching and grandmother's tales. I feel as I write it that it is too trite to be written. But I feel at the same time that it is impossible to write of gold-mining in Australia without repeating the old lesson. No doubt instances may be adduced of men who have made and have kept splendid fortunes by gold-mining,—of men who have done so without capital, by small speculations at first, and by extended operations as the means have come to them. I have heard of men so blessed,—and could name one or two. But I have heard of no case in which the man so blessed was represented to me as living after a blessed fashion. I have, however, heard of cases by the score in which the questionable blessing has never been achieved, as to which I have been told, frequently by the speculators themselves, that had they stopped here or had SANDHURST. 59 they stopped there, they would have made two, four, six, ten, or twenty thousand pounds as the case may have been. There has been a shake of the head, and a soft regret; and I always felt that I liked the man the better in that he had lost it all, than I should have done had he become per-- manently successful. As regards the working miners, including all those who manage the works and overlook the machinery, I am bound to say that they are a fine body of able and industrious men. This is so on all the large gold-fields, and nowhere more noticeably than at Sandhurst. They are intelligent, manly, and independent,-altogether free from that subservience. which the domination of capital too often produces in most fields of labour. I have spoken, perhaps as strongly as I know how to speak, of the gambling propensities of the population of a gold-mining town. I should be wrong if I did not speak as strongly of the efforts which are made by such communities,-which in Australia are always made when the communities become large and apparently fixed,- to ameliorate the condition of the people. The hospitals are excellent, the provision for the indigent is so good ast almost to promote indigence, the schools are well conducted and well filled, the churches are sufficient, and the clergy- men are supported. The money comes freely and is freely expended. And in no community are the manners of the people more courteous or their conduct more decent. course there is drinking. The idle men drink,--would-be gentlemen, who are trying to speculate, without apparent means of livelihood, drink,-miners who are not mining, having what they call a spell, or holiday, will drink. But the working miner is a sober man, with a sober family; and of such the bulk of the mining population is made up. In England working men drink ;-work by day, and drink by night; then half work by day and double drink by night,- till the thing comes soon to an end. In Australia, as a rule, the working man does not drink while he works. The shearer does not drink; the shepherd and boundary- rider do not drink; the reaper and ploughman do not drink;-nor does the miner drink, Let them be idle for Of 60 VICTORIA. while; let them take their wages and go away for a "spell;" -then they will drink as no Englishman ever drinks, drink down in a fortnight the earnings of a year. But there is less of this with miners than with shearers or ploughmen. The miner gambles, and is so saved from the worse vice of drinking. And the gambling of the miner has about it a certain redeeming manliness which is altogether wanting to the denizen of the race-course or of the roulette-table. Though he gambles, he works and produces. The gambling is but an excrescence on his genuine industry. The Sandhurst regular miner works in shifts, of eight hours each shift, throughout the day and night. The gold is being sought and found, dug out and dragged up, and crushed out of its matrix, the quartz, for four-and-twenty hours a day, during six days of the week. And the skilled miner, by eight hours' work a day, may earn at least 9s. a day in a country in which he and his wife and children may live comfortably -and as regards food with absolute plenty-for 4s. a day. The gold-miner at Sandhurst who keeps himself simply to his work, and takes no part in New Extended Great Chum Tributes, has, as work goes on in the world, by no means an unhappy lot. I went down the shaft of one mine,-the Great Extended Hustler, I think it was called,-600 feet below the surface, and was received with the greatest courtesy. I am bound to say that I saw nothing that was worth seeing, and that I understood nothing of all that was told to me. This is an almost disgraceful declaration to make, after one has pretended to understand all that was said. But it was so with me, and is so I take it with all travellers. The experienced and good- natured professional miners who conduct the strangers are anxious that everything should be made plain. To them everything is plain. But the very A B C of their necessary knowledge is probably Hebrew to the listener, who is too grateful for the attention paid to him to tell the kind teacher how utterly unintelligible to him is the whole matter in question. It was so with me ;-but this I saw, and could ave seen as well above the earth as by going below, that SANDHURST. 61 tons of grey stone were dragged up, that the grey stone was all stamped and crushed into powder by machinery, and that out of the powder gold was got in certain proportions, --so many ounces, or more probably so many pennyweights, to the ton of stone,—and that, as the result was good or bad, dividends were divided or were not divided among the speculators. CHAPTER VI. GIPPSLAND, WALHALLA, AND WOODS POINT. I WENT by coach from Melbourne to Gippsland with a friend, partly with a view of visiting that district generally, and partly that I might see the eastern gold-fields of the colony. I had indeed become very tired of gold,-which to a traveller who enjoys none of the excitement arising from the hope of acquiring it, is but a wearisome object. I did not desire to go down more mines, and yet I felt that I should not be strong-minded enough to save myself from further descents. I think I should have taken the Gipps- land gold-fields on credit, had I not been told that the scenery around them was peculiarly beautiful. I was specially desired not to miss Woods Point,—which indeed is not in Gippsland, but which could be visited from Gippsland by any one who would trust himself among the mountains on horseback. From Woods Point I could return to Melbourne by a direct road, so as to avoid the dis- agreeable task of retracing my steps over the same path. As far as scenery was concerned, I was certainly repaid for the labour of a somewhat laborious journey. Gippsland is the south-eastern district of Victoria. It has I believe lately been divided into counties, or rather, a portion of it has been so far civilised. It is separated from the Murray district of Victoria by spurs of the so-called Australian Alps, among which lie the eastern gold-fields. We started by one of Cobb's coaches at one o'clock in the day, and reached the little town of Rosedale in Gipps- land at ten the next morning. Cobb's coaches have the GIPPSLAND. 63 name of being very rough,—and more than once I have been warned against travelling by them. They were not fit, I was told, for an effeminate Englishman of my time of life. The idea that Englishmen,—that is, new-chums, or Englishmen just come from home,—are made of paste, whereas the Australian native or thoroughly acclimatized, is steel all through, I found to be universal. On hearing such an opinion as to his own person, a man is bound to sacrifice himself, and to act contrary to the advice given, even though he perish in doing so. This journey I made and did not perish at all;—and on arriving at Rosedale had made up my mind that twenty hours on a Cobb's coach through the bush in Australia does not inflict so severe a martyrdom as did in the old days a journey of equal duration on one of the time- famous, much-regretted old English mails. More space is allowed you for stretching your legs on the seat, and more time for stretching your legs at the stages. The road of course is rough, generally altogether unmade, but the roughness lends an interest to the occasion, and when the coach is stuck in a swamp,-as happens daily,-it is pleasant to remember that the horses do finally succeed, every day, in pulling it out again. On this road there is a place called the Glue Pot, extending perhaps for a furlong, as to which the gratified traveller feels that now, at any rate, the real perils of travel have been attained. But the horses, rolling up to their bellies in the mud, do pull the coach through. This happens in the darkness of night, in the thick forest, and the English traveller in his enthusiasm tells the coach- man that no English whip would have looked at such a place even by daylight. The man is gratified, lights his pipe, and rushes headlong into the next gully. The land between Melbourne and Gippsland, through the county of Mornington, is very poor; as it is also for some distance in Gippsland itself. Then the timber be- comes less thick and the grasses rich. When first taken up the country was used for sheep ;—but it was not found to be good for wool, and the sheep have now given place to cattle. A large proportion of the beef with which Mel- bourne is fed is fattened on the Gippsland runs. Here, 64 VICTORIA. as throughout Victoria, all the best of the soil has been already purchased, and is for the most part in the hand of large owners of men whose successors will be lords of vast territorial properties, and not of small free-selecters or farmers. Throughout the colony it is impossible not to see how futile have been the efforts of legislation to prevent the accumula- tion of large domains in the hands of successful men. It has been thought by one ministry after another to be wise, -or, at any rate, to be expedient,-to break up the hold- ings of the great squatters, so that there should be no terri- torial magnates. The law has done all that it could be made to do, compatibly with justice,—sometimes perhaps more than it could do with that condition,—to make the colony a paradise for small landowners, and a purgatory for wealthy men who should attempt to accumulate acres. Politicians ambitious of being statesmen, who can reach power only by the aid of universal suffrage, are prone to look for popularity, and popularity in Victoria has much depended on adherence to the interests of the free-selecter. As I have said elsewhere, the interests of the small buyer of land are entitled to warmer sympathy than those of the would-be territorial magnates. One still dreams of a happy land in which every man with his wife and children shall live happily and honestly on his own acres,-owing neither rent nor submission to any lord. It may be that this feel- ing has been stronger with Victorian politicians than the love of political power. It is at any rate the feeling by which they claim to have been actuated, and they have worked hard to carry out their theory. But the wages of commerce and the enterprise of the intelligent have been stronger than any bonds which statesmen or legislators could forge. Wealth has been accumulated by a few, and wealth has procured the land in spite of the laws. Though cabinet ministers and land commissioners have had the land in their hands to sell under such laws as they have pleased to pass, though they have had a power entrusted to them as managers and agents greater than any confided by us to our ministers at home, though it has been declared by politicians that there should be no land magnates in GIPPSLAND. 65 Victoria, the rich have bought the land; and now vast territories are possessed by individuals which more than rival in area—and in course of time will rival in value— the possessions of great families at home. This is hardly so in the United States,—is not so certainly to the same extent. There men seek to build up wealth in the cities rather than in the country, and prefer shares and scrip and commercial speculation to land. Why there should be this difference in the same race, when settled away from home in different regions, some one some day no doubt will tell us. 66 4 To fatten cattle is the present business of the Gippsland squire. Cattle, no doubt, are bred there, but it seemed to be more usual to buy them young from some other district, and have them driven up over long distances to the Gipps- land pastures. I do not pride myself on having a good eye for a bullock,-but those I saw seemed to be very big and very fat, very tame and very stupid. Why a bullock who has a paddock of seven or eight thousand acres in which to roam should make so little of himself as these beasts do in Australia I cannot understand. At home I think they are more troublesome and have higher hearts. I went out one morning at four A.M. to see a lot drafted out of a herd for sale. Cutting out" is the proper name for this operation. Two or three men on horseback, of whom I considered my- self to be by far the most active, drove some hundreds of them into a selected corner of the paddock called a "camp." There was no enclosure, no hurdles, no gates, no flogging, very little hallooing, and very little work. This camp hap- pened to be in a corner; but camps for cattle generally are in the centre of the field, a bare spot,-made bare by its repeated use for this purpose, to which the bullocks go when they are told, and on which they stand quietly till the operation of cutting out is over. On the occasion on which I was assisting, the owner himself was the "cutter out." He rode in among the herd, and selecting with his eye some animal sufficiently obese for market purposes, signified to the doomed one that he should leave the herd. There was a stock-rider to assist him, and the stock-rider also signified F 66 VICTORIA. his intention. It seemed to be done altogether by the eye. The beast went out and stood apart, till he was joined by a second selected one and then by a third. On this occasion some thirty or forty were selected,—either as many as were fit or as the owner desired to sell. These were at once driven off on the way to Melbourne, and the others were allowed to go back to their grazing. I had looked for racing, and cracking of stock-whips, and horses falling, and some wild work among the forest trees. I would not know- ingly have left my bed at four o'clock to see so tame a per- formance. At least for half its distance the road up to Melbourne is not fenced off from the timber, and consists of devious forest tracts; but these tame brutes never make their way out into the woods on the journey, as they might do. My friend and I bought two horses and two saddles, and started from Rosedale on our journey to the mines. We had met some influential gentlemen of the district-a judge, a resident magistrate, and an inspector of police-who were united in their assurance that if we went without a guide we should certainly be lost in the bush. Now my friend was a man of mark, whose loss would have been severely felt by the colony, and for his security we were furnished with a mounted trooper, or policeman, to show us our way, and generally take care of us on our expedition. We certainly needed him, and, as I believe, would have been sleeping now in some Gippsland gully but for his assistance. Our first day's march was to Walhalla, a mining town of great wealth to which there is literally no road. Our journey was one of about forty miles;-for the latter half of it, continuously through forests, and as continuously up and down mountains. These were so steep that it was often impossible to sit on horseback. As the weather was very hot our toil was great, and I shall never forget the welcome with which I greeted the beer-shop on the Thomp- son River. The scenery through these mountains is magni- ficent, when it can be seen. But such is the continuity and contiguity of the trees, that it becomes impossible for miles together to see either the hill-tops or the depths of WALHALLA. 67 the valleys. Going down to the Thompson River, and again down into Walhalla, we found it to be impossible to ride; and yet we knew that immense masses of machinery had been taken down by bullocks for the use of the miners. We were told that very many bullocks had been destroyed at the work. I could not have believed that there had been such a traffic across the mountains and through the forests, had I not afterwards seen the things at Walhalla. At last we got to the place, very tired and very footsore, and had bedrooms allocated to us in the hotel close to the quartz-crushing machine, which goes on day and night eat- ing up the rock which is dragged forth from the bowels of the earth. The noisy monster continued his voracious meal without cessation for a moment, so that sleep was out of the question. To the residents of the inn the effect was simply somniferous. Their complaint was that from twelve o'clock on Saturday night when the monster begins to keep his Sabbath, to twelve o'clock on Sunday night when his religious observances are over, the air is so burdened by silence that they can neither talk by day nor sleep by night. The The mining town which has been dignified by the name of Walhalla lies at the bottom of a gully from which the wooded sides rise steeply. Through it meanders a stream which is now, of course, contaminated by the diggings and pumpings, and gold-washing and quartz-crushing, which have befallen the locality. Nevertheless it has a peculiar beauty of its own, and a picturesque interest arising in part from the wooded hills which so closely overhang it, but partly also from the quaintness of a town so placed. buildings, consisting of banks, churches, schools, hotels, managers' houses, and miners' cottages, lie along the stream, or are perched up on low altitudes among the trees. There is something like a winding street through it, which is nearly a mile long,—though indeed it is difficult sometimes to dis- tinguish between the river and the street; but there is no road to it from any place in the world;-and even the tracks by which it is to be left are not easy of discovery. We went down to it by the "Little Joe," the Little Joe being a hill- side, and I hope I may never have to go down the Little Joe 68 VICTORIA, again with a tired horse behind me. We left it by a path as steep and so hidden that we should never have found it without a guide. As it was, the mayor conducted us out of Walhalla with some solemnity. And yet in this singular place there are, or seem to be, congregated all the necessaries and most of the luxuries of life. There was a pianoforte in the hotel sitting-room, and framed pictures hanging on the wall,—just as there might be in Birmingham. And there was a billiard-table,-at which unwashed earth-soiled diggers were playing, and play- ing, too, very well. At what cost must the pianoforte and the billiard-table have been brought down the mountain track! Nevertheless the charge for billiards was no more than sixpence a game; and no charge whatever was made for the piano! The great mine at Walhalla when I was there was the Long Tunnel. Shares in the Long Tunnel were hardly to be had for money; but, bought even at most exaggerated prices, gave almost endless interest. I went down the Long Tunnel,—and came up again. As usual I found below a dirty grubbing world. Men were earning between £2 and £3 a week, living hardly, though always plenteously; and speculating in gold with their savings. But here, as else- where, they were courteous and kind. Their children are all educated, and if churches and meeting-houses may be taken as a proof of religion they are religious. I was told that the place contained about 1,500 inhabitants. I cannot repeat too often that I have never met more courteous men than the gold-miners of Australia. We stayed but one night, and then proceeded on our journey, still taking our mounted guide, and for the first ten miles were under the special guardianship of the mayor,- who was to be looked upon, I was told, as a deputation from the town in honour of my friend. A very pleasant fellow we found the Mayor of Walhalla, and we parted from him in great kindness, even though he did lose the way in the forest, and take us, all for nothing, up and down one mountain side. When he parted from us our trusty trooper was a safer guide. This man was, I believe, no more than an WOODS POINT. 69 ordinary policeman. The rural policemen of the colonies, who have to pass over wide districts, are all mounted. But they carry themselves higher, and stand much higher among their fellow-citizens, than do the men of the same class with us. We are apt to separate men into two classes, -and define each man by saying that he is or that he is not a gentleman. This man was a private policeman. Had I not known the fact, I should have taken him for a gentleman. Even as it is I rather think that I regard him in that light. He was a fine, powerful fellow, well mannered, able to talk on all subjects, extremely courteous, and he amused us greatly by explaining to us why it was that a policeman must be always more than a match for at any rate two rogues. He was an Irishman, of course. In the colonies those who make money are generally Scotchmen, and those who do not are mostly Irishmen. He had probably come out because his family could do nothing for him at home. I hope that he may live to be General-in-Chief of the Victorian police. He took us through the mountains to an old and appa- rently worn-out diggings called Edwards' Reef,--a miserable, melancholy place, surrounded by interminable forests, in which unhappy diggers had sunk holes here and there, so that one wondered that the children did not all perish by falling into them. But even at Edwards' Reef there was an hotel, though I was at a loss to imagine by whom it could be supported. It was a large wooden building, now nearly falling to the ground; though doubtless it had once been alive with the sound of miners' voices in the days when there was gold in those quarters. From Edwards' Reef we went on to Woods Point, having changed our policeman. It seems that the magistrates had ordered that we should be taken in safety as far as the latter place. We passed another day in traversing endless forests, and in ascending and descending ravines. Here and there, in the densest parts of the forests, we came on the old tracks of miners, finding the holes which they had dug in search of gold. How many a heart must have been broken,—how many a back nearly broken, among these mountains! The ascents and descents here were very steep, and on one 70 VICTORIA. occasion we submitted to be pulled up, hanging on to our horses' tails, an operation which I had not seen since I hunted, many years ago, in Carmarthenshire. On this journey we had an adventure. At an inn among the moun- tains, for here and there one comes upon an inn, though there are no roads, we found two girls who were desirous of going to a wedding which was to be held in a neighbour- ing gully. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, the mounted mailman came up, driving two spare horses before him. So the girls at once borrowed the horses, and the inn afforded one side-saddle. The girl who mounted without the side- saddle rode well, and might have reached the wedding triumphantly; but the other was somewhat at fault, even with the side-saddle. She was bold enough, but had pro- bably never been on horseback before. We had gone on during the trouble of the saddle as there appeared to be some bashfulness in completing the arrangement; but before long the poor maiden's steed was after us. He had run away with her, and for a moment or two I thought she must have perished among the trees, but as the beast passed us he shied, and deposited his burden close at the feet of the horse I was riding. She was shaken, for awhile speechless, soiled, and wretched; but before long she pro- claimed her intention of walking to the wedding. The dis- tance was not above six miles through the woods. The other girl like a true friend dismounted, that she might walk with her companion, and the mailman with his spare horses proceeded on with us to Jericho. Jericho was another digging town, down in a gully, at which men were grubbing for gold, scooping out great holes in and near the bed of the river. The great forests rose steep on each side, and the place was grandly picturesque. We were told that Jericho not long since had been a pros- perous place for gold-seekers. Thence we ascended a hill to Matlock, another gold-digging town, very high up, very bleak, and the most wretched place I ever saw. Some one there declared that Matlock was the highest inhabited spot in Victoria. This was in February, a summer month;- but even then the cold was intense. There is no gold now WOODS POINT. 71 at Matlock, and I could not understand what induced the few unfortunate inhabitants to remain there. Though it is a difficult thing to establish a town or village, it is still more difficult to disestablish it. But Matlock will soon disestab- lish itself under the effect of the winds of heaven. From Matlock we descended four miles into Woods Point. Woods Point is a gold-field of great importance,-of very great importance indeed in the estimation of the Woods- Pointers. It has been very rich, and is still producing gold in remunerating quantities. But I met nowhere gold- seekers so wedded to gold as were the heroes of Woods Point. I was allowed the privilege of dining with some of the great men of the place, and I thought that I should hardly have been permitted to leave the room alive, because I expressed an opinion that wool was of more importance to the colonies generally than the precious metal, which I found to be so well loved at this place. Oh, men of Woods Point, if ever these words should meet your ears, know how utterly unconvinced I was by your oratory, though in argu- ments I was unable to stand up against the fervour of your eloquence! At Woods Point I inspected a mine, but con- tented myself with inspecting it from the surface. Every opportunity, however, was given me to go below, had I chosen to avail myself of the courtesy of my conductors. Woods Point, like Walhalla, is a gully or ravine,-though less singular than Walhalla, because there is a coach-road running through it. The scenery around it is very lovely, —so much so as to inspire a feeling of sorrow that so much beauty should be desecrated by miners. Altogether the beauty of the country through which we had passed, and through which we did pass on our way back to Melbourne, contradicted the too general assertion that Australia is desti- tute of lovely scenery. Three days more, with a pleasant rest at a friend's house on the road,—as to which I have spoken in another chapter, referring to the Yering wine,-brought us back to Melbourne. On the way down we passed through a country now well known for its enormous trees,-all gum-trees of various sorts, or Eucalypti as they are called by the learned. 72 VICTORIA. At the land office in Melbourne I heard tidings of one enormous tree which had lately been discovered in this region, prostrate over a river-bed, and of which the remain- ing portion,—for the head had been broken off in the fall, -measured 435 ft. in length. The gentleman by whom this monster was found had been sent out by the commis- sioners of lands to inspect the timber in the ranges of the watershed of the Watts River, and a copy of his report was published in one of the Melbourne newspapers. It is, I believe, now admitted that the gum-trees of this district are the highest trees yet found in the world, surpassing alto- gether those world-famed productions of California, which have for a while been regarded as the kings of the forest. I believe I am right in asserting that no other measured trunk has been found equal in length to that above recorded. I reprint, in Appendix (No. 1), a copy of the official report made on the subject. At Melbourne I sold my horse and saddle for £3 10s. less than I had given for them, and I thought that I had made my journey with sufficient economy. CHAPTER VII. LAND. I WILL now speak of the disposition of waste or crown lands in Victoria. In doing so it will be my chief object to explain the terms on which land can at present be bought, or hired, from the local authorities who represent the Crown generally in the colonies. The still unalienated lands of Australia-by which term is included the great bulk of the Australian continent-did belong to the British Crown till the period at which the colonies commenced the task of self-government. Then each colony took possession of its own land, relieving the Crown-or in other words the tax- payers of Great Britain-of the expense of colonial govern- ment in return for that concession. From that time the existing governments of the day have administered the land as trustees for the people of the colonies in conformity, or, as some allege, not always in conformity, with the land laws as passed by the different colonial parliaments. That is, I think, after a rough fashion a correct statement of the manner in which the question of the disposition of Australian lands has been treated. But the subject is one full of complications, and for its thorough understanding demands the close study of some British Acts of Parliament, and of very many colonial land laws. I am aware of no general British Act of Parliament regulating the sale of waste lands in Australia, prior to that passed on June 22nd, 1842. By that Act the power of the Crown to alienate the lands was limited,—or I might almost say abrogated. With certain exceptions made on behalf of the public service, 74 VICTORIA. "the Crown shall not alienate these lands, unless by way of sale, nor unless such sales be conducted in the manner and according to the regulations hereinafter prescribed." Pre- viously to that date, grants had been made at the discretion of the Crown or of the governor, and sales had been made either by auction, or at fixed price, generally 20s. an acre, in accordance with the same discretion. But long before 1842, a great interest had grown up in Australia, which, though certainly dependent on the land, did not require its alienation ;-which was indeed in its effects altogether opposed to its alienation. In 1803, Captain Macarthur, who had been employed as a soldier in New South Wales, first proposed to the government the importation of sheep and the growth of wool. If the government would grant the land, then absolutely useless, he would, at his own risk, import the sheep. Grants of land were made to Macarthur, and his scheme was pre-eminently successful. There may be a doubt whom we should regard as the first discoverer of gold in Australia, but there is no doubt that we are in- debted to Captain Macarthur for the great staple of that country,—for that which was its staple before men had dreamed of Australian gold,—and for that which probably will be its chief staple again, when gold shall have either been worked out, or, as is more probable, shall have become less valuable than wool. Captain Macarthur at first asked, not for possession of land, but for "permission to occupy a sufficient tract of unoccupied lands to feed his flocks." Mr. William Campbell, of the Legislative Council of Vic- toria, in an indignant protest published by him against the legislation of his colony in regard of land, thus describes the commencement of those pastoral leases by which squatters first held their somewhat precarious property: "Others," he says, "followed his "-Captain Macarthur's-" ex- ample; the lands were lying waste; the government very wisely encouraged their occupation, and licensed any free and respectable person who desired to occupy them. Commissioners were appointed to manage these waste lands, and the occupants voluntarily paid an assessment to defray the commissioners' expenses, and that of the police under their direction ;--so that their occupation might not cost the government anything. But in the course of time, when nearly all LAND. 75 the lands within a penetrable distance were occupied, great evils were experienced from the arbitrary acts of these functionaries, who assumed great power in defining the extent of runs by lessening one run in order to enlarge another. They were accused of receiving bribes, and of acting very unfairly between man and man. The occupants were powerless against the government, as they had only an annual licence. They could not be otherwise than dissatisfied. They required a better tenure to secure them against the irresponsible acts of an arbitrary governor and his needy subordinates. They agitated their grievances, and ultimately obtained an equitable title to a lease upon definite terms, --with a preferable right to purchase at a fair value. They obtained that title through an Act of Parliament," an act, that is, of the Imperial Parliament," and an Order of Her Majesty in Council. They were grateful for that boon granted to them, and were encouraged to improve their property under the fullest confidence that the promise of the Queen under the sanction of the Imperial Parliament would be held sacred. In this, however, they have been much disappointed; as her Majesty's representative in Victoria violated that promise, by refusing to give the occupant of crown lands the stipulated pre-emptive right, and otherwise illegally disposed of such lands to their prejudice." The work from which I quote was published as long ago as 1855, at which time Mr. Campbell represented very accurately the state of the Australian squatter's mind. That mind has been in no degree altered since. As Mr. Campbell and the squatters felt then, Mr. Campbell and the squatters feel now. In the above passage Mr. Campbell speaks of the squatting interest of the Australian continent generally. When the Order in Council above referred to was made, both Victoria and Queensland-under the names of Port Phillip and Moreton Bay-were parts of the great colony of New South Wales, and the order, therefore, was supposed to govern the pastoral interest of the whole terri- tory now comprised in these three colonies. But the edge of Mr. Campbell's sword is specially sharpened against Mr. La Trobe, the first governor of Victoria, who was thought by him to have violated that Order in Council on behalf of the small farmers or free-selecters; and the swords of the Victorian squatters generally have been sharpened against the Victorian legislatures since Mr. La Trobe's days on the same ground,-under a biting, burning, overwhelming con- viction, not only that their interests, but also that their rights, have been sacrificed to a thirst for popularity. As 76 VICTORIA. Mr. La Trobe was supposed, by the squatters, to have been unjust in order that he might propitiate the growing num- bers of the agricultural interest as opposed to the pastoral interest, so succeeding legislators and succeeding cabinets have been supposed to be unjust in order that they might obtain the votes of the people. Indignation is the general tone of the Australian squatter's mind, and especially of the Victorian squatter's mind;-indignation such as glowed in the bosom of the old Duke of Newcastle when he asked whether he might not do as he liked with his own; that indignation which the aristocrat feels all the world over when he dreads that his heels will be wounded by the clouted toe of the aggressive peasant. In the old country men are reticent, and the indignation is expressed only among peers in fortune and in misfortune. When doors are closed, and the claret circulates, and all the company are azure blue, men lapped in luxury, and so secure in their possessions that they are content to hold them though giving but two per cent. for their capital, mourn together painfully, and with feigned horrors speculate on the coming of an imaginary chaos. Among the squatters of Australia the spirit of the men is the same, but the lamentations are loud and public. In both countries they who lament are the rich ones of the earth. In both countries real wealth has made itself secure, having the power which wealth always possesses of fortifying itself against aggression; and in both cases the basis of that wealth is the possession of land. Mr. Campbell, I think, makes out his case,—as I intend to endeavour to explain. He and the other squatters were unjustly used; were illegally deprived of their rights, I would say, were it not that the deprivation was effected by law. I conceive it to be impossible to examine the matter without coming to the conclusion that the squatters, at any rate in Victoria, were barred by the colonial government and colonial legislature from entering in upon certain privi- leges promised to them by a British Order in Council founded on an Act of the British Parliament,-in full confi- dence upon which promises they had expended their energies and their money. But a man may be defrauded of a por- LAND. 77 tion of his gains and still have so much left to him as to induce an outside observer to think that the country in which he has been able to accumulate so much so quickly, and to conserve so vast a proportion of what he has accumu- lated, has been a blessed country to him. Such I conceive to be the condition of the Victorian squatter,—of the man who was a squatter but is now a huge territorial landowner. He has been injured. But he has been too great to be much affected by such injury; and in spite of governors, in spite of laws, in spite of would-be-popular cabinet ministers and tribes of voters, he rides triumphant on the top of the tide. I have alluded to the law of 1842, passed by the British Parliament in reference to Australian lands, as barring the power of the Crown to give away the crown lands at its pleasure, or to sell them except in accordance with certain fixed rules. I have also alluded to a further Act of the Imperial Parliament and to an Order in Council founded upon it, as being the basis on which the Australian squatters generally, and especially those of Victoria, rested for that security which they think has been denied to them. This Act bears date 28th August, 1846, the Order in Council 9th March, 1847,-and they provide especially for the lease. of lands in New South Wales. They state the terms on which squatters will be allowed to run their flocks on the public unalienated lands in that colony, which then included both the Victoria and the Queensland of the present day. This Order, which had and has all the strength of an Act of Parliament, having been issued in conformity with the express injunctions of an Act of Parliament, divides the public lands into three classes—a settled district, an inter- mediate district, and an unsettled district, and it describes, as accurately as it can do, by the names of towns, counties, and rivers, the boundaries of each. Our concern at present is with the unsettled districts, over which, more extensively from year to year, the Australian wool-growers run their flocks of sheep. The settled districts consisted chiefly of lands lying contiguous to towns or townships, and did not much concern the squatter. The intermediate districts were wider, and did concern the squatter,—but as to them he 78 VICTORIA. makes no complaint. The Order in Council enacted that in using such land he should practically have no more than one year's tenure. If he chose to occupy such land with his sheep,—and these lands were so occupied almost exclusively, he did so with the knowledge that any portion of them might be thrown open to sale at a year's notice. They were thrown open for sale, and have been purchased, chiefly by the squatters themselves. In regard to the unsettled districts it stipulates that the squatters shall have a lease of fourteen years, that they shall pay a rental calcu- lated at the rate of £2 10s. per thousand sheep for such a number as the run may by survey be computed to be able to carry, that during their leases and at the end of their leases they shall have a "pre-emptive" right of purchase at some price not less than 20s. an acre, and that "during the continuance of any lease of lands occupied as a run, the same shall not be open to purchase by any other person or persons except the lessee thereof." The governor, however, has reserved to him the power of selling or otherwise dispos- ing of any special portion of land, the sale of which, or alie- nation of which by other means, may be required for the public good. It can be sold, for instance, if wanted for a village, for a railway, for a church or school, for a mine, 'or for any other purpose of public defence, safety, utility, convenience, or enjoyment, or for otherwise facilitating the improvement and settlement of the colony." "Hinc illæ lachrymæ." These words are very wide,—and from the extreme latitude given to them, or rather imposed on them, by governors, colonial cabinet ministers, and legislators have come the wailings and moanings of which Mr. Campbell eighteen years since was the eloquent expositor, and which are still heard at large through the colony. I think that no man of common sense, who understands the ordinary meaning of words, can doubt that the Order in Council intended to defend the lands leased to the squatters from all sale except when special plots were required for special purposes. It was not intended that the land should be thrown open to sale generally, in order that the improve- ment and settlement of the colony might be facilitated by LAND. 79 such proceeding. If so, why all these words? If so, why defend the squatters at all from the aggression of purchasers by a special Act of Parliament and a special Order in Council? The Act of 1846, and the Order in Council founded on it, may have been injudicious in conferring privi- leges with too open a hand upon the squatters. I think myself that such was the case. But the favours were con- ferred; and in any further operations either of the imperial or colonial parliaments the rights so given should have been regarded as far as the vested interests of the existing holders were concerned. It was surely a quibble to say that any governor,—as long as the governors were the responsible agents, -or any land minister when ministers were respon- sible,—could sell these lands without doing violence to the Order in Council, because they were empowered to do so by the clause in reference to the improvement and settlement of the colony. But this was done. The lands were put up to sale, because, as was asserted, townships would be beneficial, and it was expedient that there should be land to be had for agricultural purposes in the neighbourhood of townships. My sympathies are all on behalf of the townships and the agricultural lands. But a bargain But a bargain is a bargain, and a law is a law; and one's sense of justice is offended by any escape from a bargain or from a law by a verbal quibble. The nature of the quibble, and the ease with which an Act of Parliament may be thrown open to a coach and horses, is made ludicrously apparent by a legal opinion which the squatters got from our side of the water. They were much enraged, and determined to defend themselves, if there could be any defence, in the courts of law. So they sent home for an opinion to no less a person and no less a lawyer than our late Lord Chancellor, who was then Mr. Roundell Palmer. Probably the opinion of no English lawyer on such a subject would carry more confidence than his. Mr. Palmer's opinion was as follows:- "I am of opinion that Mr. Forlonge "-Mr. Forlonge's case having been that which was chosen for reference-"has a clear and indisput- able right to the leases; but inasmuch as they are to be granted by the 80 VICTORIA. authority of the governor, who represents the Crown, and no form of judicial proceeding against the governor is provided by the Act of Parliament, or the regulations, I do not think he has a specific remedy to compel the execution of such leases. At present, however, he has a complete equitable title, which the courts of justice in the colony would, I conceive, be bound and authorised to recognise, and to protest against any illegal encroachments, whether by the executive govern- ment or by private persons. "I am clearly of opinion that neither of the sections referred to gives the governor power to withdraw any part of the runs in question- assuming, as I do, that no forfeiture has taken place-for the purposes of sale to private persons. "I think Mr. Forlonge will be entitled to the right of pre-emption under sixth section. "There is no course open for Mr. Forlonge, that I am aware of, ex- cept to appeal to the courts of justice in case of any illegal disturbance of his possessions. “Lincoln's Inn, 26th July, 1853." "ROUNDELL PALMER. From this I think it will be manifest that, though Mr. Palmer held a strong opinion on Mr. Forlonge's rights, he was very far from being assured of Mr. Forlonge's power to enforce those rights. There can be no doubt of Mr. For- longe's rights, and as little that he was not able to enforce them. Mr. Campbell quotes with evident glee another opinion equally in his favour, and that from an enemy,—and, as it happens, from a person almost as great in the world as our late Lord Chancellor, namely, from our late Chancellor of the Exchequer. But he appeals to Mr. Lowe as to an enemy, and shows what evidence he can adduce to support his own views even from a foe. Mr. Lowe, when a colonist, was supposed to be inimical to the views of the squatters, and disapproved of the passing of the Act of 1846 and the Order in Council founded upon it. From an address which he made in 1847, Mr. Campbell quotes the following pas- sage: "Once grant these leases, and beyond the settled districts there will be no land to be sold. The lessees will have a right to hold these lands till some one will give £1 an acre for them. These leases cannot be sold, mortgaged, or sublet. Be the capabilities of these lands what they may, they are to be sheep-walks for ever." It was clearly Mr. LAND. 81 Lowe's opinion, when he spoke those words, that the squatters would be protected by the Order in Council against disturbance from purchasers, and that they would enjoy the right of pre-emption themselves if that Order were made. But the opinions held by Mr. Lowe as a politician, and expressed by Mr. Roundell Palmer as a lawyer, have been of no avail. The Order in Council was disregarded, and the free-selecters were let in upon the lands of the squatters. I doubt much whether it will now be worth the while of any ordinary English reader to trouble himself with these matters. The chief of the lands of Victoria have settled themselves down into the hands of undoubted owners,-and as to what remains, the present law, though it may be arbitrary, is clear. Mr. Campbell and his associate squatters cannot now gain anything, and are as little likely to lose anything, by the future doings of the colonial legislature. Lord Selborne's opinion and Mr. Lowe's oratory are equally inefficacious. The thing is a thing completed. But it is impossible to understand the completion without looking back to the manner in which it was accomplished. In the Australian colonies there is growing up a rich landed aris- tocracy, already surrounding itself with all the feelings which attach to land in the old country. Captain Macarthur, with his first importation of sheep, might be said to be the creator of this condition of things, were it not that it is a condition peculiarly conformable to the English mind in general, so that it was in truth created to hand before Captain Macar- thur ever owned a sheep. It is clear that such feelings would be fostered and brought into prominence by a pas- toral and therefore patriarchal life. Squatter added himself to squatter, often suffering much, sometimes going quite to the wall, struggling frequently with untoward circumstances, -with insufficient capital, with clever and greedy merchants, with insolent servants, with unforeseen causes of decay among his flocks,—sometimes with ill-conduct, idleness, profligacy, and extravagance on his own part; but his lot, on the whole, was a blessed lot, and he prospered marvel- lously. For a while it did seem as though the whole country would fall into his hands, and that the people of G 82 VICTORIA. Australia would consist of squatters and their servants. Very much has been said, and is repeated from day to day, of what is due to the squatters as the pioneers of Australian civilisation. I do not think very much of the claim. When a man encounters danger manifestly for the sake of others, -that knowledge may grow and science progress, and the world be opened to new-comers, as did such men as Colum- bus and Cook, as many Australian explorers did, as Living- stone was doing till he died the other day in the doing of it, -he is entitled to public recognition and honour. But he can hardly with justice put forward the same claim because he seeks fortune for himself in stormy paths. He probably counts his chances, and, seeing personal security with ten per cent. at home, with forty per cent. and not improbable annihilation at the hands of a savage at the Antipodes, chooses forty per cent. and the Antipodes with his eyes open. I admire his courage, and applaud his decision. But I cannot admit his claim as a great public benefactor, because he has thriven and others have followed him. He has his reward. It is the reward which honest, energetic men should seek. But I have heard the Australian squatter, when discussing these matters, continually assert that he and his interests should be especially regarded, because he has been the pioneer of the country. He has been the pioneer of his own fortune; and I have been rejoiced to find how often that fortune has been noble and even princely. The Order in Council, of which I have spoken, was clearly made in the interests of the squatters, and was therefore, of course, objectionable to the anti-squatting interests. In my own opinion it was not judicious. If followed to the letter it would, as Mr. Lowe said, have barred the land against new-comers, and have perpetuated wool-growing upon soil. adapted for purposes more beneficial to mankind at large. I do not think that there was any just claim at the time on the part of the squatters to such favours as were conferred upon them. The first object of the mother country, or of those to whose hands were confided for the time the duty of legislating for the colonies, was to prepare homes for the increasing hordes of colonists. The wool-growers had spread LAND. 83 themselves over lands which did not belong to them, and which they occupied-no doubt with proper sanction-as waste lands. Three acres to a sheep, which sheep would produce annually about 5s. worth of wool, may be taken as a fair statement of the condition of their affairs. As long as land could be converted to no better purpose it was well that it should serve this purpose. As far as we can see at present, a very large proportion of the lands of Australia can be made to serve no better purpose. It is doubtless a fact that Australia first grew to prosperity by means of wool. At the present moment, in the very midst of the pride which she feels in her gold-fields, I put more confidence in her wool than I do in her gold. I look upon the wool-growers of Australia as her aristocracy, her gentry, her strong men, her backbone. But, in managing the affairs of this world, I do not like the theory of giving to those who have got much, and taking away from those who have got nothing. If in 1847 the general welfare of the colonists demanded that the lands of the colony should be thrown open to general sale, there was certainly nothing specially due to the squatters. which should have interfered with such a policy. It must be remembered that a system of leases to the squatters was quite compatible with a system of free-selec- tion and open sale, that such a combination is now the law, with various modified circumstances, in the different Aus- tralian colonies, and that under it the squatters have grown rich and thriven,-unless when shut out from success by other circumstances, such as want of capital. The free-selecter will not select land serviceable only for pastoral purposes, or will ruin himself at once if he do so. He selects patches of land, and leaves the wild boundless prairies to the squatter. No doubt in Victoria the land has been bought up very much more extensively than in the other colonies; but the history of these sales proves two points, both of which militate against the squatter's plaintive view of the matter. It shows that very much of the land was fit for higher than pastoral purposes, and that therefore the adapting of it to such higher purposes was proper. And it shows also that the prosperity of the squatters had not been seriously damaged, as they them- 84 VICTORÍA. selves have been the great purchasers of land from one end of the colony to the other. The Act of Parliament of 1846, and the Order in Council of the following year, were surely issued in a spirit of unnecessary tenderness for the squatter. The result of this tenderness was disobedience to their spirit. The colony of Victoria, whether by its governor or subsequently by its own parliament, upset the Order in Council. Our great English lawyer declared very plainly the strength of Mr. Forlonge's undoubted legal rights. But Mr. Forlonge and his brethren did not get their legal rights. They only got what should have been their rights. That such a course has in the long run been greatly for the advantage of the squat- ters will hardly be doubted by a looker-on from a distance. No law can render permanent injustice endurable to a com- munity. As it is the squatters hold their own, and can hold it with a tight hand. The public feeling that if thay have. had some favour shown them they have also had some dis- favour, gives them strength. Nothing ruins so surely as uninterrupted and partial privileges. Nothing strengthens so healthily as bearable wrongs. The Victorian squatter has suffered no more than parental scourges. But indeed the Victorian squatter has almost ceased to exist,-for the squatter, properly so called, is he who runs his flocks upon crown lands. The Victorian wool-grower has generally purchased his run and owns it in fee,—as does also the Victorian grazier, who is as great a man as the wool- grower. Were I to attempt to describe the manner in which the lands of the colony have been purchased, I might devote a volume to the subject, and years to the study of it before I could write the volume. It seems to have been the object of the legislature to prevent the absorption of large tracts of land by great capitalists, and to create a yeomanry possessing freeholds. The result has been directly opposite to the intended purpose. The yeomanry, such as it is, can hardly as yet be regarded as a prosperous people. Their lands pass frequently from hand to hand. But, on the other hand, a strong race of territorial magnates has created itself, so wealthy and so extensive that the political LAND. 85 power of the country is inefficacious against them. Laws have been passed with the express intention of keeping the lands out of the squatters' hands. Nevertheless the squat- ters have bought the lands. There have been subterfuges, chicanery, bribery, the driving of many coaches through many Acts of Parliament. The squatters no doubt have been subjected to cruel ill-usage by a tribe of land-sharks. Men have lived and made fortunes by threatening to bid for land against the squatters, unless paid exorbitantly for bidding on their behalf. The poor squatters have bled at all pores. But they have had the blood to give, and now they own the land. I have said that the lands of Victoria have been for the most part sold. This, no doubt, is the case in regard to the colony at large, and the traveller as he travels through the better-known and better-cultivated parts of it,-especially those western regions which were at one time called Aus- tralia Felix,—will find that he passes from one property to another, much in the same fashion as he will do at home. But Victoria is a large place, and there is still very much land open for purchase from the government. The existing law under which land can be bought is as follows :— The intending purchaser, having selected his block of land, which must not exceed half a square mile, or 320 acres, applies for a licence to occupy it for three years as a tenant at a rent of 2s. an acre. The law states that this licence, may be granted by the governor, but in fact the power rests with a member of the cabinet, who is called the Commissioner of Lands. One half-year's rent must be paid in advance, and for the three years he continues to pay at the rate of 25. an acre. At the end of the three years, provided the selecter shall then have fenced his land and have cultivated one- tenth of it, he can become the freeholder by paying 14s. an acre down, or he can continue to pay a rental for seven years at the rate of 2s. an acre, at the end of which time the land will be his. He thus, in fact, pays a rental of 2s. an acre for ten years, and then becomes the owner of the land without further purchase-money. The terms are very easy, and it is certain that there is still land to be bought in Victoria on those terms, which is worth much more than 86 VICTORIA. the money required for it. But there are two difficulties in the way of the free-selecter ;-he may not know how to choose his land, and, when he has made his choice, his application may be unsuccessful. That many men choose amiss in this colony and others is too true. They are in a hurry for possession. They do not know the circumstances of the country or district which affect the land,—such as the prevalence of drought, the prevalence of rust in the wheat, the difficulty of finding a market, the cost of labour, and the like. They have no friend capable of giving counsel, or, more probably, they have a friend who has some interest of his own in the transaction. One's heart bleeds at hearing of the unfortunate purchases sometimes made by new-comers, and one thinks of Cairo and Martin Chuzzlewit. As to that want of suc- cess in the application, I feel that I tread on somewhat delicate ground in alluding to it. One supposes naturally that if the applicant comply with all the required stipula- tions and have his money in his hands, he will be successful as a matter of course. Why not? And if he be not so, on what ground and in whose bosom shall rest the decision of granting this application and refusing that? I must say that if there be no other ground than that of fitness,—if nothing else than the character and means of the applicant be considered in granting and refusing these applications,- the minister of the day who happens to be Commissioner of Lands is at the same time the best and the worst abused man in the colony. It is asserted everywhere that the sales of land are effected with direct reference to political sup- port, and that it would be impossible for a land minister to carry on his work in the colony on any other basis. This system of political corruption, of using the patronage and discretion of the government to bolster up the power of the government, from which we are only now emerging at home, is in truth so rampant in Victoria that honest men,-in no wise concerned in the matter, but who have become used to it by daily observation,-have learned to think that it is a necessary part of government. Remembering how offices in England were given away in my own time, how some LAND. 81 are given still, solely on the score of political subserviency, I do not feel justified in expressing great indignation at this practice in the colonies. It will doubtless pass away. But the wrongful exercise of patronage in a young colony is a much smaller fault than an unjust political manipulation in the distribution of public lands. It is especially stipulated by the Victorian land law that no one person, either in his own name or that of another, shall select and purchase above 320 acres,—the object being to prevent the accumulation of large landed estates. But the clause has been constantly set at nought. If I buy one section for myself, and nine other adjacent sections through the friendly assistance of nine "dummies," as they are called, how can a land commissioner, with a whole colony on his hands, discern the fraud? And if I be true to the party which have put him into office, why should he wish to discern it? Without a doubt the squatters them- selves, who are loud against the lawlessness of Victorian legislation, have been the most constant in evading the laws. Their success makes it impossible for the stranger to condole with their wrongs. At the end of this volume, as an appendix, will be found a digest of the present land laws of Victoria, as far as they refer to free-selection. This digest is taken from MacPhaile's Australian Squatting Directory. They who are still really squatters in Victoria,—who run their sheep on public lands, and not on their own,-now pay a pastoral rent of 8d. a sheep, or £33 6s. 8d. per thou- sand. The old rental as fixed by the Order in Council in 1847 was £2 10s. per thousand. The rental at present paid is four times higher than that collected in either of the other Australian colonies. But the bulk of the Victorian wool is grown by men who own the land which produces it. I found that the system of landlord and tenant-with which we are so familiar at home as almost to have con- ceived the idea that land cannot be occupied on any other system-does prevail in certain parts of Victoria. I visited a district in which large wheat farms were held by tenants, and I was told of rents varying from 5s. to 15s. an acre. 88 VICTORIA. But it did not appear that the tenant-farmers were a pros- perous class, or that the letting of land was popular among landowners. In some instances a whole property is let with the stock upon it, and I have heard of as much as £10,000 a year being paid for a sheep-run with the use of the sheep on it; but in speaking of the letting of land of course I do not allude to such cases as this. The small tenant-farmer in the colonies is seldom a man of means. Did he possess capital he would buy his farm. Not possessing capital he cannot pay his rent when bad years come;—and it almost seemed that, as far as the produce of wheat went, bad years were as common as good years in Victoria. The ground produced enormously,—with most generous vigour, I must say, considering how little is restored to it. But the climate is uncertain, and the disease called the rust is pernicious. One gentleman, who owned a large tract of corn-bearing land, assured me that he much preferred selling portions of his property, even though the purchase-money were left on mortgage, to accepting a promise of yearly rent for the use of his land. I have said that the public lands are alienated in fee for a rental of 25. an acre for ten years, and that tenant-farmers pay rents varying from 5s. to 15s. an acre,—the payment of which for any number of years gives, of course, no title to possession. It is presumed that the reader will understand that the public, or crown, lands spoken of are uncultivated, unfenced, and probably covered with timber. The farm lands let for the higher rentals named have been brought into cultivation, have been farmed, and are supposed to be capable of bearing corn. CHAPTER VIII. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. A WRITER attempting to describe England, and capable of doing so, would fill those chapters with the strongest interest. in which he painted the various forms of English country life. He would know, and he would teach his readers, that the English character, with its faults and virtues, its pre- judices and steadfastness, can be better studied in the mansions of noblemen, in country-houses, in parsonages, in farms, and small meaningless towns, than in the great cities, devoted as is London to politics and gaiety, or as are Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, and others like them, to manufactures and commerce. I doubt whether this be so in any other country. France has many aspects, but the Parisian aspect is more French than any other. Italy is to be seen only in her cities. In the United States the towns altogether overrule and subdue the country, so that the traveller who visits America under the most favourable cir- cumstances rarely sees aught of her corn-fields and pastures, except in passing from one great centre of population to another. But the visitors to England who have not sojourned at a country-house, whether it be squire's, par- son's, or farmer's, have not seen the most English phase of the country. The same form and fashion of life is repeating itself in the Australian colonies. The race of farmers, such as are our own well-to-do farmers at home, does not, indeed, exist. The clergy are scattered at long distances, and hardly as yet form. a distinctive social class,--probably never will do so as they 90 VICTORIA. do in England, and in England only. But the country gentlemen, almost all of whom were originally squatters, have fixed their homes about the colony, and have built their houses, not exactly after the English fashion in regard to architecture, because the climate is of a different nature, -but with the English appurtenances of substantial comfort, with many rooms, with gardens, outhouses, and lawns, and with sweeping roads leading through timbered parks to the retired abode of the rural magistrate who owns the property. The visitor to Australia, who goes there under favourable auspices, will as surely find himself pressed to make his home at such country houses, as will the stranger in the United States be asked to enjoy the luxurious hospitality of her rich citizens, either in city mansions or in suburban villas. And such a one, if he have time on his hands, and can dally with weeks in idleness, may pass from station to station, from one gentleman's house to another, till he will hardly know who has sent him on, or on what ground he bases his claim to the hospitality of his new friends. There is perhaps more of this in Victoria than in the other colonies, because the country gentlemen have more thoroughly established their fortunes there than elsewhere; but the same feeling prevails throughout Australia, and the same mode of life. They who rise to the top of the tree,—or, in other words, the gentry, if I may use a phrase which is somewhat invidious, but which will be better understood than any other,—seek to establish country houses for them- selves; and homesteads of this class have sprung up with incredible rapidity. Nothing, I think, so clearly declares the wealth of the colony-which is not yet forty years old-- as the solidity of her country life. When the stranger asks whence came these country gentlemen, whom he sees occa- sionally at the clubs and dinner-tables in Melbourne, exactly as he finds those in England up in London during the winter frosts, or in the month of May, he is invariably told that they or their fathers made their own fortunes. This man and that and the other came over perhaps from Tasmania, in the early days, joint owners of a small flock of sheep. They generally claim to have suffered every adversity with which LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. 91 Providence and unjust legislators could inflict a wretched victim; and, as the result, each owns so many thousand horned cattle, so many tens of thousand sheep, so many square miles of country, and so many thousands a year. Most of them have, I think, originally come out of Scotland. When you hear an absent acquaintance spoken of as “Mac,” you will not at all know who is meant, but you may safely conclude that it is some prosperous individual. Some were butchers, drovers, or shepherds themselves but a few years since. But they now form an established aristocracy, with very conservative feelings, and are quickly becoming as firm a country party as that which is formed by our squirearchy at home. I have spoken of country life in New South Wales without reserve, because the small establishment which I described belongs to my own son. In Victoria I visited many houses of infinitely greater pretension, but I fear to speak of any one in particular lest I should commit that great sin,—not always avoided as scrupulously as it should be by travelling authors,—of putting some kind host into a book, with his wife, family, kitchen and cellars. And yet, if it be possible, I would fain let English readers know what these houses are, and of what nature is the life contained in them. They are generally less remote from towns than are the habitations of squatters in the other colonies,—the towns being more numerous, and the roads more formed. The buildings themselves are generally of two stories, always having the tropical addition of a verandah, but not erected in that straggling, many-roofed, one-storied fashion which is common to tropical and semi-tropical countries. I like those straggling many-roofed nests of cottages which are common in Queensland and New South Wales. They betoken a gradually increasing prosperity. The squatter builds first a wooden hut which ultimately becomes his kitchen, then a wooden sitting-room and bedroom near to it; then a bigger sitting-room with two small bedrooms, still of wood,—and so on. But when he has realised to himself the fact that he is a rich man he rushes into brick and mortar or stone, and erects a European country house,— 92 VICTORIA. with the addition of a wide verandah. This has been done now very generally by the landowners of Victoria. But still the place has rarely all the finished comfort, the easy grace, coming from long habit, which belong to our country seats at home. There is a roughness and a heaviness about it, a want of completion about the gardens, of neatness about the paths, and of close-shorn trimness about the plots and lawns, which strikes the beholder at once, and declares that though the likeness be there, it exists with a difference. This difference is caused chiefly by the dearness of labour, a fact which influences not only the outside of the Victorian gentleman's house, but also every part of his establishment. Let his means be what they may, he never has the retinue of servants which is to be found in an ordinary English household. The high rate of wages and the difficulty of getting persons to accept these high rates for any considerable number of months together, cause even the wealthy to dispense with much of that attendance which is often considered indispensable at home even among families that are not wealthy. On the other hand, certain luxuries are common among Australian families, which few among us can enjoy without stint. He who has a carriage and horses at home is supposed to be a rich man. gentleman have daughters fond of riding, he will perhaps have one horse for two girls. Young men can hardly hunt unless their fathers be wealthy. But horses on an Australian station are as common as blackberries on English hedges, and the possession of a carriage and pair of horses is as much a matter of course as the possession of a pair of boots. But horses are cheap and servants are dear in Victoria. If a I have spoken of sweeping roads through timbered parks. It must not, however, be conceived that I speak of parks such as those which are the glory of our English magnates. The Australian park is hitherto much as nature fashioned it. The trees are the gum-trees which the present resident or his father found there when he first drove his sheep on the pastures which had never yet known the foot of a white man. The grasses round his house he may gradually have changed, and have extirpated those indigenous to the soil LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. 93 by the use of English seeds. The road will probably be somewhat rough, and the fences which divide the paddocks still rougher. He is now a rich man, but he is rich because in all his expenditure he has thought more of a return for his capital than of the adornment of his place. He calls his park a paddock, and he has thought only of the welfare of his stock. But, nevertheless, there is that beauty about it which trees and grass, with the sky above them, always produce. And the territory is large and spacious, and all the magnificence of ownership is there. The man drives for miles through his own land. He has fortified himself on all sides against free-selecters. All those who frequent the place are his servants or his guests, and of every stranger whom he may see within miles of his house he is entitled to ask why he is there. He exercises a wide hospitality to the poor and the rich, and he is an aristocrat. I imagine that the life of the Victorian landowner is very much as was that of the English country gentleman a cen- tury or a century and a half ago. In those days roads in England were very bad, so that it was a work of trouble to get from one house to another, a distance of twenty miles. Country houses of pretension were not numerous as they are now, and they who owned the halls and granges scat- tered through the counties rarely moved from their homes. There was great plenty, but of that finished luxury which is now as common in the country as in the capital, there was but little. Roast beef-or in winter powdered beef and October ale were the fare. The men were fond of sport, but they did not go far afield for it as they do now, hunting in the shires, shooting on the moors, and fishing on all lakes and rivers. They shot over their own lands, and hunted over their own land and that of a few neighbours who would join them. The ladies stayed at home and looked after the house, and much that is now trusted to domestics and stewards was done by the mistress and her daughters, or by the master and his sons. The owners of these country houses were Tories, aristocrats, proud gentlemen; but they were not fine gentlemen, nor, for the most part, were they gentlemen of fine tastes in art or literature. We know 04 VICTORIA. them very well from plays and novels,—and know something of them too from history, as history has of late been written. The ladies' dresses, the books, the equipages, the wines, the kitchens, which are now found in English country houses, were in those days known only in the metropolis, or at the castle of some almost royal nobleman. As were country houses and country life then in England, plentiful, proud, prejudiced, given to hospitality, impatient of contradiction, not highly lettered, healthy, industrious, careful of the main chance, thoughtful of the future, and, above all, conscious- perhaps a little too conscious of their own importance, so now is the house and so is the life of the country gentleman in Australia. And as Justice Shallow in times still farther distant was ever anxious as to the price of a good yoke of bullocks or a score of ewes, so does the Australian country gentleman never omit his solicitude concerning those things which have made him what he is. The value of beef in the Meibourne market, and of wool at London, are continually in his thoughts, and as continually on his tongue, even though he may have reached that stage of prosperity which cannot be much affected by the transient rise or fall of prices. He has not at any rate reached that condition,—be it good or bad,—which enables the English country gentle- man to drop all outward show of solicitude for the trade in which he is embarked, the trade namely of living upon his land, and to pursue the unruffled tenor of his way as though all good things came to him and were sure to come to him like manna from heaven. The Victorian wool-grower or grazier will be sure to tell you, if you visit him in his own home, what has been his produce of wool, and what prices he has realised for it,—and will take you to his washpool, if he wash his sheep before shearing, and to his wool-shed; or he will show you his Durhams and Herefords, and boast how he has led the markets. Out of the full heart the mouth speaks. He has made himself what he is by his sheep and his oxen, and the sheep and the oxen are still dear to him. His grandson or great-grandson will probably be as outwardly indifferent as an English country gentleman, who is no more given to talk of his rents than a banker is of his LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. 95 profits, and who is concerned wholly, perhaps with his hounds, perhaps with his library, perhaps with his politics, or perhaps with his cook. Out-of-door sports do not form so prominent a part of country life in the colonies us they do at home, partly because there are not so many idle men, and partly because there has not been as yet so great an expenditure of money with the view of creating sport. As years pass on both these causes will vanish. The idle men will be forthcoming, and game, brought from England, Scotland, and Ireland, will be naturalised in the country. Hares in Victoria will be, I hope, not quite so plentiful as rabbits. There are deer already in the country, and they will soon abound with that prolific increase which seems to attend all animals brought from the old country to these colonies. Duck- shooting is much practised, and ducks abound. Pheasants are already more common in parts of New Zealand than in England, though not so plentiful, and will probably become equally common in Tasmania and Victoria. I despair, however, of fox-hunting. I think it improbable that that most anomalous, most irrational, most exciting, most de- lightful, and most beneficent sport should thrive elsewhere on the world's surface than in the British Isles. None but the British and Irish farmer will bear the invasion of a troop of horsemen. None but the British or Irish sportsman can have that tenderness in preserving and that stern perse- verance in killing a little vermin, which fox-hunting re- quires. None but a British or an Irish gentleman can expend thousands in furnishing amusement for an entire county. The fault of a country home in the Australian colonies is that it furnishes but little employment, and that its ordinary life seems to be antagonistic to industry, at any rate on the part of the visitor. The master of the house is or is not the working manager of his property. If he be so, his time is fully occupied. He is on horseback before break- fast, and seems never to slacken his labours till the evening dews have long fallen. The exclusive care of a large flock of sheep,-which includes breeding, feeding, doctoring, 96 VICTORIA. shearing, selling and buying, together with the hiring, feed- ing, inspection, and payment of a great number of by no means subservient workmen,-taxes a man's energies to the utmost. Cattle probably impose less labour, but a man will have his hands fairly full who owns three or four thou- sand head of cattle, who breeds them by his own judgment, and himself selects them for market. But very many squatters and graziers really manage their properties by deputy. Serviceable men have grown up in their employ- ment, and as years creep on the real work of the run is allowed to fall from their own hands into those of superin- tendents and overseers. Then the country gentleman, though he still talks of "a score of ewes " as did Justice Shallow, becomes an idle man. He comes down to break- fast at nine, and is impatient for his dinner before six, thinking that the clock must be losing time. The ladies no doubt look after their houses, order lunch and dinner, and superintend the servants. But they seem to be insufficiently provided with occupations over and above these. There is a piano in every house. There are always books,-enough for reading, though not enough for literary luxury. There may be croquet out of doors. There are horses to ride; and there is the unlimited bush, with its magpies, its laugh- ing jackasses, and its bell-birds, if you be good at walking. But there is no provision made for the passing of time. There is no period of the day at which books fall naturally into the hands of men and women. Loitering is common, and the hours too often become foes instead of friends. This is specially the case during the long evenings. I fancy that the same fault might have been found with country houses in England a hundred and fifty years ago. Eating and drinking occupy so many of our thoughts, and contribute so much to the excitement and to the amuse- ment of life, that I feel myself bound to say something of the Victorian country gentleman's taste. No table more plentiful or more hospitable was ever spread. Its chief distinctive feature is the similarity of the meals. The breakfast is nearly as substantial as the lunch and dinner, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. 97 and between the lunch and dinner it was long before I could find out any difference. Two or three hot joints of meat and four or five dishes of vegetables, wine-decanters, and not uncommonly a teapot, are common to both of them. As regarded the time allowed, or the appetite, or that addi- tion to appetite which greediness furnishes throughout the world, I could not ascertain that there was any distinction between the two. With us at home the cook never exerts herself,―or himself,-for lunch, and is not indeed expected to do so. The Victorian cook is equally awake all the day long. At last I perceived that at luncheon there would never be more than two puddings. At dinner the number was not limited. As a rule, gentlemen in the colonies do not sit long over their wine; and, as a rule, also,—and rules, of course, have their exceptions, the wine is not worth a long sitting. But these little details of which I have spoken do but form the outside skin of society, whereas the bones, the muscles, the blood, and the flesh consist of the people them- selves. Whether men and women dine at five or at seven, whether they drive out regularly or irregularly, whether they hunt foxes or kangaroos, drink bad wine or good, matters little, in regard to social delights, in comparison with the character, the manners, and the gifts of the men and women themselves. In describing Victorians of the upper classes, and of the two sexes, I would say that both in their defects and their excellences they approach nearer to the American than to the British type. And in this respect the Victorian is distinct from the colonist of New South Wales, who retains more of the John-Bull attributes of the mother country than his younger and more energetic brother in the South. This is visible, I think, quite as much in the women as in the men. I am speaking now especially of those women whom on account of their education and posi- tion we should class as ladies; but the remark is equally true to all ranks of society. The maidservant in Victoria has the pertness, the independence, the mode of asserting by her manner that though she brings you up your hot water, she is just as good as you,-and a good deal better H 98 VICTORIA. same. if she be younger, which is common to the American "helps." But in Victoria, as in the States, the offensiveness of this-for to us who are old-fashioned it is in a certain degree offensive-is compensated by a certain intelligence and instinctive good-sense which convinces the observer that however much he may suffer, however heavily the young woman may tread upon his toes, she herself has a good time in the world. She is not degraded in her own estima- tion by her own employment, and has no idea of being humble because she brings you hot water. And when we consider that the young woman serves us for her own pur- poses, and not for ours, we cannot rationally condemn her. The spirit which has made this bearing so common in the United States,-where indeed it is hardly so universal now as it used to be,-has grown in Victoria and has permeated all classes. One has to look very closely before one can track it out and trace it to be the same in the elegantly equipped daughter of the millionaire who leads the fashion in Melbourne and in the little housemaid; but it is the The self-dependence, the early intelligence, the absence of reverence, the contempt for all weakness,—even feminine weakness,—the indifference to the claims of age, the bold self-assertion, have sprung both in the one class and in the other from the rapidity with which success in life has been gained. The class of which I am now specially speaking is an aristocrat class; but it is an aristocracy of yesterday; and the creation of such an aristocracy does away with reverence and puts audacity in its place. The young housemaid does not shake in her shoes before you because you have £10,000 a year, and the young lady has no special respect for you because you are her father's old friend. Her father and her father's friends have had their time. It is her time now. It is for her to stand in the middle and for them to range themselves on one side. She will do her duty by her father and mother, but she does it as a superior person attending on those who are inferior. To her grandfather and her grandmother she alludes as poor things of the past, to whom much tenderness is due. But the attention is paid after a fashion which seems to imply LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. 99 that old folk, in the arrangements of life, should not inter- fere with their betters who are young. Luckily for fathers and grandfathers in Victoria the power of the purse remains with them, otherwise they would I fear be ciphers in the houses that were once their own. The Australian girls and young married women are not cruel, false, or avaricious, and I will not call them Gonerils and Regans; but I have seen old men who have put me in mind of Lear. There is a manifest difference between women who have come out from England and those who are "colonial-born," which is not at all points in favour of the former. If we are to take personal appearance as the good thing most in request by the female sex, I think that the girls born in the colony have the pre-eminence. As a rule they are very pretty, having delicate sweet complexions and fine forms. They grow quickly, and are women two years earlier in life than are our girls,—and consequently are old women some five years sooner. They are bright and quick, hardly as yet thoroughly educated, as the means of thorough education for women do not grow up in a new country very readily; but they have all achieved a certain amount of information which they have at their fingers' ends. They never appear to be stupid or ignorant,—because they are never bashful or diffident. We do not criticise very accurately the law as laid down to us by a pretty woman,-being thankful for any law from bright eyes and ruby lips. Sometimes at home we can get no law, no opinion, no rapid outflow of sweet- sounding words,—because some modest sense of the weak- ness of feminine youth restrains the speech. It must be admitted, however, that even at home this failing is less general than it used to be. Women, all the world over, are entitled to everything that chivalry can give them. They should sit while men stand. They should be served while men wait. Men should be silent while they speak. They should be praised, -even without desert. They should be courted,- when having neither wit nor beauty. They should be worshipped,—even without love. They should be kept harmless while men suffer. They should be kept warm 100 VICTORIA. while men are cold. They should be kept safe while men are in danger. They should be enabled to live while men die in their defence. All this chivalry should do for women, and should do as a matter of course. But there is a reason for this deference. One human being does not render all these services to another,-who cannot be more than his equal before God,-without a cause. A man will serve a woman, will suffer for her,—if it come to that will die for her, because she is weaker than he and needs protection. Let her show herself to be as strong, let her prove by her prowess and hardihood that the old idea of her comparative weakness has been an error from the beginning, and the very idea of chivalry, though it may live for awhile by the strength of custom, must perish and die out of men's hearts. I have often felt this in listening to the bold self-assertion of American women,—not without a doubt whether chivalry was needed for the protection of beings so excellent in their own gifts, so superabundant in their own strength. And the same thought has crept over me when I have been among the ladies of Victoria. No doubt they demand all that chivalry can give them. No ladies with whom I am acquainted are more determined to enforce their rights in that direction. But they make their claim with arms in their hands,—at the very point of the bodkin. Stand aside that I may pass on. Be silent that I may speak. Lay your coat down upon the mud and perish in the cold, lest my silken slippers be soiled in the mire. Be wounded that I may be whole. Die, that I Die, that I may live. And for the nonce they are obeyed. That strength of custom still prevails, and women in Victoria enjoy for a while all that weakness gives, and all that strength gives also. But this, I think, can only be for a day. They must choose. between the two, not only in Victoria but elsewhere. long as they will put up with that which is theirs on the score of feminine weakness, they are safe. There is no tendency on the part of men to lessen their privileges. Whether they can make good their position in the other direction may be doubtful. I feel sure that they cannot long have both, and I think it unfair that they should As LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. ΙΟΙ make such demand. For the sake of those who are to come after me,-both men and women,-I hope that there may be no change in the old-established fashion. I write these words in fear and trembling, lest the ladies of Victoria should condemn my book, and set me down as one who had accepted and betrayed hospitality. Let them remember all that I have conceded to thern. They are lovely, bright, quick-witted, and successful. If, having said so much on their behalf, I venture to add a few words of counsel, they should remember that unqualified praise is always egregious flattery. In speaking of men I can venture to use my pen with greater courage, and to say what I have to say without bating my breath. To their censure I can be deaf, and callous to their displeasure. The Victorian old man hardly as yet exists. Among those who are near the top of the tree it is rare to find even those who have been born in the other colonies. The men who have hitherto prospered best in Australia are they who came young from the old country, without much money, with great energy, and with a strong conviction that fortune was to be made by industry, sobriety, and patience. These men succeeded, and they or their descendants are now the landed gentry of the country. Some are dead, and their places are filled by their sons. Some are tottering in old age, and their work is carried on by their sons. But there are enough of them still left in hale strength to give a tone to the entire colony. They smack of England,-or of Scotland or Ireland, as the case may be,—and are very different in their manners from those younger than themselves, who have been born in Australia. There are of course many, still young, who have come out from England,—so many that they suffice to give a tone to the whole social life of the colony. But every year this becomes less so than it was the year before, and the time will soon come in which the colonial will be stronger than the home flavour. It is of interest to inquire whether the race will deteriorate or become stronger by the change. Dividing the population into two classes,-which, in order that I may be understood, I will call the upper and 102 VICTORIA. >> the lower class,—I speak now of that which is by far the less important as being the less numerous. As regards the masses of the men who earn their bread by their manual labour I have no doubt whatever that the born colonist is superior to the emigrant colonist,—any more than I have that the emigrant is superior to his weaker brother whom he leaves behind him. The best of our workmen go from us, and produce a race superior to themselves. The labourer born in the colonies is better educated than the man who has come from the old country, and is very much more sober. He is better fed than the labourer at home, better housed, better clothed, and is therefore more of a man. I think that any observer seeing the artisans in an Australian town, the miners on an Australian gold-field, or the shearers in an Australian wool-shed, would come to this conclusion, —and would feel that no workman should remain at home who can make himself master of a passage to the colonies. I cannot speak with the same confidence of those who are born to positions which we regard as higher than those of a daily workman. The young Australian-born "gentleman " has certain points in his favour. He who goes out from England belonging to that class has not uncommonly been sent there because he has not hitherto done very well at home. I have said that the best of our labourers emigrate ; but we certainly do not send to the colonies the best of our youth from Oxford and Cambridge, our most learned young lawyers, our cleverest engineers, or the most promising sons of our merchants and tradespeople. The young colonial scion is not called on to compete with the élite of the youth of the mother country. But in the competition to which he is called, he hardly as yet holds his own. He rarely runs into bad vices. He does not drink, or gamble, or go utterly to the dogs. But he is too often listless, unenergetic, vain, and boastful. Up to a certain age, that of advanced boyhood, he is generally clever, quick at learning what he does learn, and very often superior in general information to a boy from Harrow or from Winchester. He has more to say for himself, is less addicted to mere boyish amuse- ments, and comes out as a man at an earlier age. But he LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. 103 has that fault which belongs to all produce of field and garden which grows ripe too quickly. When Clara in "Philip van Artevelde" boasted that she, being of the softer sex, was privileged to grow ripe on the sunny side of the wall, she had probably not yet learned that the fruit which hangs through the autumn has the finer flavour, and can be kept till the end of winter. The colonial young man—a young man while he still should be a boy-hardly keeps the promise of his early years, and seems to lack something of that energy which grows up among us during the protracted years of our juvenility. It is common to hear this discussed in the colonies them- selves, where the old swans are by no means disposed to look upon their cygnets as goslings. It is acknowledged, at any rate, that the boy grows out of boyhood earlier than he does in the old country. It is common to attribute the change to the climate; and there certainly is apparent ground for doing so, as we know that puberty is attained earlier in warm than in cold countries. I do not, however, believe that the climate is accountable for the great differ- ence which exists,—especially as there is another cause in operation which must, I think, have produced it without other cause. Hitherto the education of youths in the Aus- tralian colonies has been quick, perfunctory, and perhaps superficial. That it should have been of this kind, is so natural,—that it should gradually cease to be open to such censure as the modes of education are improved, is again so natural,—that we may be justified in looking for the decrease and gradual cessation of an evil so caused, whereas, were it attributable to the climate, any remedy for it would be beyond the reach of our energy and wisdom. We are apt, in the old country, to complain bitterly of the years which are devoted to the pursuit of limited knowledge very im- perfectly mastered. At eighteen or nineteen our boys, though they have been at school for the last ten years, do not speak Latin, do not read Greek fluently, bungle in their French, and are novices at mathematics. But during the whole time they have been learning much which cannot be put into any examination paper, and which they cannot 104 VICTORIA. reckon up in the list of their acquirements. They may be idle, but they are rarely listless. They may dislike study, but they do not love to sit still and whistle. Gradually there is growing up in the colonies a desire for protracted education on the part of fathers who can afford to bestow such advantage on their sons. There are universities at Sydney and Melbourne, which indeed are as yet only in their infancy in regard to numbers, but which have the means of giving, and which are intended to give, the protracted education of which I speak. Gradually they will grow into favour, and the example which they set will be followed by schools throughout the colonies. What is chiefly required on behalf of the colonial-born youth is that he should be kept a little longer from the appurtenances of manhood. He should be taught to cease to think that the prime of life has been reached at nineteen, CHAPTER IX. NEWSPAPERS, BOOKS, RAILWAYS, ROADS, TOWNS, AND WINES. I DISLIKE the use of superlatives, especially when they are. applied in eulogy; nevertheless, I feel myself bound to say that I doubt whether any country in the world has made quicker strides towards material comforts and well-being than have been effected by Victoria. She is not forty years old, all told,-going back even to the date at which Mr. Henty landed at Portland,—and she has already at her com- mand most of the enjoyments of civilised life. Of her great city, Melbourne, I have spoken,-and of her gold-fields and that wonderful gold-town, Ballaarat; also of the country life of her country gentlemen. But there are other matters in which she has advanced as quickly: and I must say a word of her newspapers, her general produce, her railways, her roads and coaches, her country towns, and her native wines. With all the prejudice of a genuine Briton, I think that no country has ever yet produced newspapers equal to those of England. This fact-if it be a fact-I attribute partly to her wealth, partly to her general energy, partly to her love of fair play, but chiefly to her determination that the press shall be free. In France many of the writers of news- papers are at any rate equal in talent to their brethren among us, and, as a rule, they stand higher in public estimation. They are known by name, and they have a wider reputation. But they do not produce the same sort of article. The French newspaper is more confined than the English, and either more vapid in its obedience to authority, or more violent in its opposition. There is no catering for informa- 106 VICTORIA. tion at all approaching in extensiveness to that practised by our great metropolitan and provincial daily papers; and the means expended on the production of a newspaper are infinitely less. The article when produced is readable in regard to language and type, and has opinions of its own, perhaps very strongly developed, as to the central political subject of the day in France itself; but beyond that it is generally barren of information, and is often half filled with extraneous matter, which might be more conveniently used in the form of a volume. But if the French newspapers dissatisfy us, what are we to say of those of the United States? With a fair experience of their journals, with a conviction favourable in general to American habits and American institutions, with strongest feelings of social friend- ship for Americans whom I know and of political friendship for Americans generally, I am bound to declare that I never had a newspaper of the United States in my hand without suffering during the whole time that I was reading it. The sensational headings, spread over an amount of column often greater than that afterwards devoted to the subject itself, disgust and irritate. There will be a dozen such headings in every paper, and not a scrap of news to create sensation afterwards. The language is bombastic, vulgar, and very frequently so faulty as to leave on the mind an impression that the persons employed cannot generally be- long to the same class as do our writers for the daily press. Their type is bad. Their paper is bad,—and when you have read a journal through with the greatest diligence, you declare, as you throw it aside, that there is nothing in it whatever. An American can give a good lecture,—much better generally than any Englishman,-can make a good speech, can build a good house, can cook a good dinner, can bake good bread, can tell a good story, can write a good book, can do, as I think, anything on earth requiring in- tellect, energy, industry, and construction,-with this one exception. He cannot,—at any rate as yet he has not turned out a good newspaper. But Victoria, with her 750,000 souls, has a good daily newspaper, -as has also New South Wales, with her 500,000 NEWSPAPERS AND BOOKS. 107 (C souls. Indeed, in this respect I intend to give no priority to the one over the other, having failed to form an opinion as to which was the best. But I think that the Melbourne Argus" and the Sydney "Morning Herald" are the best daily papers I have seen out of England. Sydney is nearly a hundred years old, and is perhaps entitled to a good news- paper; but it is remarkable that there should be such a paper as the "Argus" in a town which was a wilderness forty years since. Melbourne also has a weekly paper, the Austra- lasian," which is as good in its way as the "Argus." Com- mon report says that as pecuniary speculations these perio- dicals have been highly successful;-but then so also is the New York "Morning Herald" ! 66 General literature is perhaps the product which comes last from the energies of an established country. Men must eat before they can write, and all think of eating before they think of writing. Leisure, which is compatible only with fixed means of living, is necessary for the production of books. Books in these halcyon days do no doubt provide bread for the writers of them; but the man who with empty pocket attempts to begin the opening of his oyster by the production of a book, will too often have to endure almost starvation before his oyster is reached. The production of books must follow the production of other things, and the growth of literature will be slow. Victoria, however, and the Australian colonies generally have produced many books. I cannot say that as yet their volumes are to be found crowding the shelves of European libraries. It would be odd indeed if it were so, as the country has not yet been open to European enterprise, or even to European footsteps, for a full century. I have been surprised to find not only how many books have been written in Australia, and sent home for publication,-books generally of colonial history, colonial experience, and colo- nial exploration,-which have made their mark, but also how vast a number of small volumes have issued in the colonies, from the presses of Melbourne and Sydney, which, alas! have as yet done but little either for the pockets or the fame of the writers, Very many of these little books-thẹ 108 VICTORIA. majority of the great number which reached my hands- contained verse, verse that was heroic, verse that was elegiac, verse that was burlesque, verse that was amatory, and very often verse that was plaintive. I never had one of these unpretending products of ambitious souls in my hand without thinking of the hopes which were once high, so soon to be dashed to the ground,-of the grand thoughts which heralded perhaps but a poor production, of the labour given without return, of the bitter disappointment, and, alas! too, of the money spent on the paper and printing which probably could be but ill spared. Taking each individual author, and regarding the agony which disappointed author- ship entails, I could not but deplore the production of many a little book. Now and again the author would tell of all his trouble, and would complain of the hardness of the world which would not give him a hearing. But, looking at the thing as a whole, I know it to be good for the colonies that such efforts should be made. Success will always at last attend such struggles; not, I fear, success for each individual struggler, but success for the people collectively, whose total of energy is thus exhibited. The desire, and the ambition, and the purpose are there, and that which a people really desires it will achieve. I cannot thus allude to the literature of the colony at large without mentioning the name of Mr. Marcus Clarke, of Melbourne, whose Australian tales are not only known familiarly by all colonists, but are almost as familiar to English readers. Victoria has made her railways after a system,-as we are sometimes told that France did, as England certainly did not do, nor, as far as I could judge, the other Australian colonies. In the first place she has a line perfected, as far as her territory is concerned, in the direct route to Sydney. The Melbourne and Sydney road crosses the Murray at Albury, and the Victorian railway was, when I was there, nearly finished up to the Victorian side of the river, and has since been completed. I do not think that New South Wales is making any effort to fill up the gap. She has a line as far as Goulbourn,—130 miles from Sydney; but the intervening space is so long, about 300 miles, that the RAILWAYS. 109 general transit from one town to the other is still by water. The distance, and the poorness of the country to be traversed, will afford an excuse for New South Wales, the validity of which it is impossible altogether to deny; but it is, I think, notorious that Sydney is not desirous of the close intercourse which a continuous railway would create, and that she would dread the effect of the unrestricted rivalry which it would produce. The wool-growers of the intervening districts would buy in Melbourne and would sell in Melbourne, if they could reach Melbourne as easily as Sydney ;—and then there would be renewed difficulty as to border duties. If all the southern part of the colony, and much of the south- eastern part, as well as the Riverina, bought their groceries in Melbourne, how would New South Wales collect sufficient taxes? The Victorian line, striking the Murray at Albury, is a branch from a main line, previously perfected, striking the same river at Echuca, lower down. By this main route the intercourse between the Riverina and Melbourne is carried on, and from this point the people of the Riverina are anxious that a line should be made into the heart of their country, or at any rate to Deniliquin, which they call their capital. But of this they have but faint hopes while the Riverina remains a portion of New South Wales. The line from Melbourne to Echuca passes directly through the great Victorian gold-fields of which Bendigo, or Sandhurst as they now call it, is the centre. There is a station at Castlemaine, and another at Sandhurst. The line to Ballaarat, the capital of the other great Victorian gold-field,—I am afraid to call it either the first or the second in regard to its gold, but in regard to its qualities as a town there can be no doubt that it is the first,-starts from the same station at Melbourne, but branches off a mile or two from the town. This line takes an indirect course, running down the north-western side of Port Phillip Bay to Geelong, and then turning north to Ballaarat. It is intended to continue this line into the rich farming districts of the west, towards Hexham, Hamil- ton, and Coleraine, but when I was in the colony there was a diversity of opinion as to the route which should be taken. 110 VICTORIA. There is apt to be a diversity of opinion as to the route to be taken by railways, when the money required for making them is to come from the colony at large. Victoria, as she makes her railways, borrows the money on the credit of the entire colony, and pays the interest out of the general revenue, applying the earnings of the railways to the revenue also. In 1869 the total interest on the amount up to that date borrowed for the construction of railways, is stated to have been £505,676, and the expenses of working the railways to have been £250,657, making a total of £756,333 expended,-whereas the proceeds earned amounted to £544,414, leaving a deficit of £211,919 to be paid out of the general taxes of the country. I regard the result as highly satisfactory to the colony. The railways are still in course of construction, and in that condition must be less remunerative than they will be when perfected. I believe that comparatively a few years will make the Vic- torian railways self-supporting, and that an excellent discre- tion has been exercised in the manner in which the money has been borrowed and expended. But it may easily be imagined that money borrowed and expended on this system should give rise to conflicting claims. Why should one district be favoured above another, when all pay? It will of course be urged that this district will support a railway, while that other cannot do so. But such an argument will find no favour with the rejected district, which may perhaps. be able to assert itself loudly by political support or political opposition. Another short branch striking off from the Geelong line down to Melbourne, goes to Williamstown, which is the port of the capital, and completes the set of government railways belonging to the colony. There is a suburban line, belonging to a private company, which runs to the south and south-east, and enables the citizens of Melbourne of all degrees to live out of the city. It was a matter of wonder to me that a town of such a population as Melbourne should afford so very large a local traffic;- but I soon found how large a proportion of the population lived in the suburbs which it accommodated. COACH ROADS AND COACHES. III There are still large districts of Victoria not touched by railway, especially the entire eastern part of the colony, which is called Gippsland, and the Wimmera district which lies to the north-west. The Gippslanders talk eagerly of a railway, but as their pleasant little capital of Sale holds only 2,000 people, and is the centre of a thinly populated country, I cannot think that their hopes will be soon gratified. The Wimmera district I did not visit. It is more remote and more sparsely populated even than Gippsland, but had I gone there, I should probably have heard of the great pro- jected Wimmera line. I cannot speak as highly of the coach roads as of the railways of Victoria. One effect of railways in a new country is to anticipate and supersede the creation of ordinary roads. A perfectly new country, hitherto known only to a few shep- herds, is opened up by a railway,-which is not carried hither and thither for the service of towns and villages, but creates them as it goes along. Then, the one great need of a central road having been achieved, neither the government nor the inhabitants are for a time willing to go to the expense of macadamization. The badness of the roads is, however, remarkable throughout Australia,-and it is equally remarkable that though the roads are very bad, and in some places cannot be said to exist, nevertheless coaches run and goods are carried about the country. A Victorian coach, with six or perhaps seven or eight horses, in the darkness of the night, making its way through a thickly timbered forest at the rate of nine miles an hour, with the horses frequently up to their bellies in mud, with the wheels running in and out of holes four or five feet deep, is a phenomenon which I should like to have shown to some of those very neat mail- coach drivers whom I used to know at home in the old days. I am sure that no description would make any one of them believe that such feats of driving were possible. I feel that nothing short of seeing it would have made me believe it. The coaches, which are very heavy, and carry nine passengers inside, are built on an American system, and hang on immense leathern springs. The passengers inside are shaken ruthlessly, and are horribly soiled by mud 112 VICTORIA. and dirt. Two sit upon the box outside, and undergo lesser evils. By the courtesy shown to strangers in the colonies I always got the box, and found myself fairly comfortable as soon as I overcame the idea that I must infallibly be dashed against the next gum-tree. I made many such journeys, and never suffered any serious misfortune. I feel my- self bound, however, to say that Victoria has not advanced in road-making as she has in other matters. There are three good towns in Victoria, towns which would receive such praise on the score of architecture and general arrangements in any country, whether new or old. These are Melbourne, Ballaarat, and Geelong. In some respects, a growing town with a look of growing prosperity about it, but with still something of the roughness of the bush. in its unfinished streets, is more interesting than a full-fledged city. There are many such in Victoria, in which the churches, the banks, the schools, and the hotels seem to bear a very undue proportion to the shops and private resi- dences. And in every such a town that has had any suc- cess there is a newspaper,—or perhaps two. For a mile or two on each side of such a town there will be made roads, and then, by gradual but quick decrease of road-making enterprise, the bush track will be reached. The population is very small, 3,000 being enough to justify corporate pride and a high position among boroughs, and even 500 sufficing for a mayor. In all these towns rough plenty prevails. In many of them I found that the rates of an artisan's wages were quite as high as in Melbourne, and in some higher. Large amounts of capital are occasionally expended on the erection of a store, or a huge inn,-which not unfrequently is lost to the speculator. But in a new country such losses do not frighten other speculators;-do not even frighten him who for the nonce has been ruined. The man who has lost his money "clears out," and some other speculator comes in. I visited various such towns as these, Beech- worth, Hamilton, Sale, Woods Point, Wangaratta, and others, and was invariably struck by their uncouth prosperity. You see them expanding and growing, as you do the young colonial girl of ten years old, who buds forth so quickly that AUSTRALIAN WINE. 113 the increase of her physical power becomes almost visible to you. Too often these towns are altogether ugly to the eye. How should an unfinished congregation of houses be other- wise than ugly when it is constructed with rectangular streets on a level plain? The pretentious dimensions of some two or three buildings,-of a church, a bank, or an inn,-adds to the ugliness of the houses generally, and gives to the stranger a feeling of mixed melancholy and of thankfulness that his lot has not been cast in so unsightly a place. When, however, he has learned on inquiry that every man there earns 4, 5, or 6s. a day, and that meat is 2d. a pound, and when he remembers that in his own pretty villages at home men are earning 25. a day and that meat is is. a pound, the melancholy by which he is pervaded takes another direction. From this general charge of ugliness I must except the pretty town of Beechworth, which is the capital of a large district, and which is graced by a lunatic asylum. But its charm does not depend on the greatness of its corporate condition, or even on its asylum. It is backed by the Aus- tralian Alps, and has had bestowed upon it the gift of fine scenery. I doubt whether there be a man alive who would prefer 25. a day and grand mountains, to 5s. and a flat country; but when the matter does not come home so closely to the spectators, a pretty landscape has a great effect. Australia makes a great deal of wine,-so much and so cheaply that the traveller is surprised how very little of it is used by the labouring classes. Among them some do not drink at all, some few drink daily,—and many never drink when at work, but indulge in horrible orgies during the few weeks, or perhaps days, of idleness which they allow them- selves. But the liquor which they swallow is almost always. spirits and always spirits of the most abominable kind. They pay sixpence a glass for their poison, which is served to them in a cheating false-bottomed tumbler so contrived as to look half-full when it contains but little. The drain is swallowed without water, and the dose is repeated till the man be drunk. The falseness of the glass seems to excuse I 114 VICTORIA. itself, as the less the man has the better for him ;—but the fraud serves no one but the publican, for though the "nob- bler" be small,-a dram in Australia is always a nobbler,- there is no limit to the number of nobblers. The concoc- tion which is prepared for these poor fellows is, I think, even worse than that produced by the London publican. At home, however, beer is the wine of the country and is the popular beverage at any rate with the workmen of this coun- try. In all the Australian colonies, except Tasmania, wine is made plentifully,—and if it were the popular drink of the country, would be made so plentifully that it could suffice for the purpose. All fruits thrive there, but none with such fecundity as the grape. One Victorian wine-grower, who had gone into the business on a great scale, told me that if he could get 2s. a gallon for all that he made, the business would pay him well. The wine of which he spoke was cer- tainly superior both in flavour and body to the ordinary wine drunk by Parisians. It is wholesome and nutritious, and is the pure juice of the grape. Accustomed to French and Spanish wines,-or perhaps to wines passed off upon me as such,—I did not like the Aus- tralian "fine" wines. The best that I drank was in South Australia, but I did not much relish them. I thought them to be heady, having a taste of earth, and an after-flavour which was disagreeable. This may have been prejudice on my part. It may be that the requisite skill for wine-making has not yet been attained in the colonies. Undoubtedly age is still wanting to the wines, which are consumed too quickly after the vinting. It may possibly be the case that though Australia can grow an unlimited quantity of wine, she cannot produce wines capable of rivalling those of Europe. On these points I do not pretend to have an opinion. But I regard a wholesome drink for the country as being of more importance than fine wines, even though they should equal the produce of the vineyards of the South of Spain or the South of France. France and Italy are tem- perate because they produce a wine suitable to their climate. Australia, with a similar climate, produces wine with equal ease, and certainly, I speak in reference to the common AUSTRALIAN WINÉ. 115 wine, as good a quality. There is now on sale in Mel- bourne, at the price of, I think, threepence a glass,—the glass containing about half a pint,-the best vin-ordinaire that I ever drank. It is a white wine, made at Yering, a vineyard on the Upper Yarra, and is both wholesome and nutritive. Nevertheless, the workmen of Melbourne, when they drink, prefer to swallow the most horrible poison which the skill of man ever concocted. CHAPTER X. LEGISLATION, GOVERNMENT, AND COMMERCE. THE scheme of legislation and government is the same in Victoria as in the other colonies, but it has been carried out after a more entirely democratic fashion, and with a more settled intention of throwing the political power of the colony into the hands of the people. There are, of course, the three estates,-King, Lords, and Commons, represented here by the Governor, with his appointment from Downing Street, the Legislative Council, and the Legislative Assem- bly. The Governor has, of course, the royal veto; and he has also, which is much more commonly used, the power of reserving bills which have passed the two colonial houses for the approval or disapproval of the home government. The Upper House, or Legislative Council, is elective, as it is also in South Australia. In Queensland and New South Wales it is nominated. The nominations in the latter colonies are, indeed, practically made by the premier for the time, who is the minister of the people; but a House is thus constituted much less democratic and at the same time more influential than when elected by popular constituencies. Political power necessarily belongs chiefly to the Lower House,-to that which is nearest to the community at large; but it falls altogether away from an elective Upper House, as the people devote all their energies and all their thoughts to the members whom they are to elect for the popular chamber. The Legislative Council in Victoria is returned by six provinces into which the colony is divided,-each province LEGISLATION. 117 returning five members. Of these five one goes out every second year, so that each member of the Council is returned for ten years. A property qualification is required both for the candidate and for the electors. The former must own property to the value of £2,500, and the latter must pay a rental of £50, or rates on property to that amount. The interest taken by Victorians in the elections of the Council is not great. At those which were made in 1870 there was no contest in four out of the six provinces, and in the other two less than 50 per cent. of the electors polled. The Upper House seldom initiates laws, and is looked upon rather for protection than action. This is certainly the case in the other colonies also, but in none of them to the same extent as in Victoria. In Tasmania and South Australia I found the prime minister in the Upper House. In Queens- land and New South Wales I found one of the cabinet there; and, in the latter, many of the leading men of the colony held seats in the Council. In Victoria the cabinet is no doubt represented in the Council; but the representa- tion is generally feeble, and the gentlemen selected have of late held no office and, I believe, received no emolument. as to The Lower House is elected for three years, by manhood suffrage, and no property qualification is required either for the candidates or for the electors. The votes for both Houses are of course taken by ballot. In regard to the ballot in Victoria, it is as well to point out that its value consists not in any security afforded by secrecy,- which the voters are happily quite indifferent;—but in the tranquillity at elections which it ensures. In Victoria, and in Victoria alone among the Australian colonies, members of parliament are paid. They receive £300 a year for their ser- vices, and are entitled to travel free by railways and mail- coaches. The system of payment has not, however, as yet been permanently adopted. Unless renewed by another bill, it will lapse after the first year of the parliament next to be elected, and would thus cease in 1875. Whether it will be renewed not a few in the colony profess to doubt; but I observe that the doubters are those who think such payment to be objectionable. I have but little faith myself in the modera- 118 VICTORIA. tion of a dog that has once tasted blood, and do not there- fore believe that the members of the next Victoria parlia- ment will be endowed by so strong a spirit of patriotic martyrdom as to abandon by their own act the salaries which they will be then enjoying. I will not trouble my reader here by attempting to prove that this making a pro- fession of parliament, this power of living poorly on the small means which parliament will produce, must be in- jurious to the legislature of the country, as the system has but few advocates at home. It has now been practised for many years in the United States, and certainly has not served there to raise the House of Representatives. It has not been long tried in Victoria, but it certainly has not as yet had that tendency. The mode of carrying on the government in Victoria sub- ject to the approval of parliament is almost identical with that which is familiar to us at home. The governor nomi- nally appoints his minister,-selecting one chief who selects his own cabinet; but the choice is in fact made by the Lower House, whose chosen leader remains in power as long as he is the chosen one, and gives way by resignation as soon as some other favourite has usurped the votes of the majority. The mode of changing ministers is nearly the same as with us at home,--but the power of the minister is in one respect confined within narrower limits. The outgoing minister in his last and generally futile attempt to regain that which he has lost, recommends the Crown to dissolve Parliament, so that the country at large may have an oppor- tunity of reversing the last decision of its representatives. We at home now think that the Crown is bound to follow the advice so tendered, thereby obeying the great constitu- tional rule that the sovereign can do no political act except by the advice of his ministers. The practice is not as yet recognised,—is at any rate not as yet established as consti- tutional usage,-in the colonies. During my sojourn in Australia I saw a ministry outvoted in New South Wales and another in Victoria. In each case the outgoing minister appealed to the governor for a dissolution. In New South Wales the governor acceded,—and was then blamed by GOVERNMENT. 119 every one for doing so. In Victoria the governor refused,— giving his reasons in a paper which was read to the House, and every one praised him for refusing. In the one case as in the other there was a general feeling that nothing could be gained by a dissolution,—as in New South Wales nothing was gained by the outgoing minister. Nevertheless it will come to be accepted in the colonies before long as good constitutional doctrine that in this matter, as in all other matters of political practice, the governor should be guided by his responsible advisers. A member of a colonial cabinet is not so great a man as a cabinet minister at home. He is not even relatively so great a man, and does not hold a position among his fellow citizens proportionate to that enjoyed by our own statesmen at home; but he holds very much more than proportionate powers, and exercises very much more than proportionate patronage. Everything is centralized. The roads, the bridges, and the railways of the colony are constructed by government. Asylums and gaols are erected and managed by the government. The lands of the colony, not as yet alienated, are the property of the government at large, and are sold or leased by the government. The local magis- trates are appointed by the government. Municipal institu- tions are growing, and as they grow this centralization of power will be lessened; but, in the meantime, the ministers of the day, who may be men but very little qualified to bear the weight of such responsibility, are called upon to arrange details affecting the interests of individuals which it would be impossible for any minister, however great, to adjust with true impartiality. Things are, in truth, adjusted with an eye to electioneering majorities. When a member for some remote district becomes a cabinet minister, that district at once expects all the good things which patronage can give. Should a Roman Catholic be prime minister the Roman Catholics throughout the colony expect government places; -and every porter at a railway holds a government place. But the minister for lands is he upon whom the greatest pressure is brought to bear. A supporter of the ministry considers himself entitled to buy good land cheap,-and 120 VICTORIA. considers also that every impediment should be thrown in the way of those who oppose the ministry but still wish to buy land. Tenders of contracts for the conveyance of mails are sent out in the name of the postmaster-general, who happened also to be prime minister when I was in Mel- bourne. Tenders for government clothing are sent out in the name of the treasurer. The same practice prevails throughout the cabinet, and produces a feeling that staunch support of the government may be quite as influential in procuring the desired job as favourable terms. The injus- tice done to individuals is not in itself so great an evil as the growing conviction throughout the colony that all this is a matter of course, and that it forms a recognised part of that concrete institution which we welcome under the name of Constitutional Government. I do not wish to say hard things of Victorian ministers of state;—nor do I condemn any individuals when I assert that the whole colony is permeated by a conviction that the power of government is used for jobbing. While matters are centralized as they are now, while members of the cabinet are compelled to exercise their own judgment in the appointment of gaolers, railway porters, and letter-carriers over the entire colony,-while tenders are sent in, not to the politically powerless head of a department, but to the political minister himself by name,-it would require more than human energy and impartiality to avoid jobbery. In the present circumstances of the colonial executive depart- ments is it not probable that the energies of ministers will be prompted to take quite the other direction? Indeed no man could sit for a month on the Victorian ministerial bench who determined to manage his office without any reference to his parliamentary position. It is taken as a matter of course that he will use his patronage for the promotion of his party. In this matter I do not know that even yet we have our hands at home quite clean. I think I do know that they have not at any rate been long clean. But the sin has been all but abolished among us, chiefly by the intense desire of statesmen to be quit of a business that had been thrown GOVERNMENT. 121. upon them gradually by the increasing propensity to raise bulwarks for political powers, but which they at last found to be not only onerous and disreputable, but also unservice- able. In the United States the system is still rampant,-- though there it has been somewhat lessened by the general feeling which prevails as to its iniquity. In all the Austral- asian colonies it exists. In each of them ministers are driven to seek parliamentary support by manipulating patronage. Fortunes already made are not common among legislators in a new country,—so that it may often happen that the brothers, sons, and kinsmen of a minister may themselves be in need of places. A ministry that was beaten in the parliament of Victoria in June, 1872, was turned out solely on the ground that it had misused its patronage. There may, perhaps, be room to hope that such an example may be of service, and that it may tend to teach the people generally that parliamentary government does not mean the partial advancement of a certain class who may support this or that set of politicians. There can be but little doubt that a decentralization of affairs and an increase in the power and responsibility of local manage- ment would greatly tend to save colonists themselves from falling into a miserably false view of politics, which at present it is almost impossible that they should avoid. The revenue of the colony for the year ending 30th June, 1872, was £3,721,648. This included about three-quarters of a million raised by the sale of public lands and by pastoral leases. It included also the amount collected on the railways, for water-supply to the city of Melbourne, for telegraphs, pilot-dues, and postage, and various other items, all of which are brought to the account of the public purse, though they have no connection with the taxation of the country. The absolute burden on the country, raised in the shape of taxes, does not exceed a million and a half, and is therefore not above 2 a head on the population. The public debt amounts to twelve millions, but it has been borrowed exclusively for the construction of public works, and almost exclusively for the construction of rail- ways. It must be admitted that the burden of taxation on 122 VICTORIA. the public is light in the colony, and is so although the government has undertaken enterprises on the public behalf, which no private companies could have achieved. The two great staple articles of commerce in Victoria are wool and gold. Of the gold-fields of the colony I have said. enough, but it may be well to add a comparative statement of the value of those two sources of wealth. In 1870 the gold exported from the colony was sold for £6,119,782, and the wool for £3,205,106. Gold maintains its nominal value, whereas wool vacillates so much that within twelve months the price may be nearly doubled or halved. Be- tween March, 1871, and March, 1872, the price of wool did rise fully 80 per cent. But since 1852, the first year of extended gold production in Victoria, the Victorian wool has never come near to the Victorian gold, and during the whole of that period has amounted to little more than a quarter of it. Nevertheless the established wealth of the wealthy man in Victoria has been made by pastoral pursuits. rather than by mining. The aristocracy is essentially an aristocracy of squatters,-that is of gentlemen who have made or are making their money by grazing cattle and shearing sheep. The gold may cost as much to raise it as it is worth,-may, indeed, and often does, cost much more. But the sheep increase in numbers and are shorn with com- paratively little outlay. Here, as in most other countries, land is more coveted, and seems to convey a higher influ- ence, than any other property. The squatter, even though he do not own his land, but runs his sheep on waste lands, as a crown tenant with a short lease, and no certainty of tenure even as to that, is still regarded as a territorial mag- nate. Though the gold produced in the colony be annually worth double the wool, and though the raids of the free- selecter on the squatter have been more cruel in Victoria than even in the other colonies, still the production of wool is the most popular and certainly at the present moment the most remunerative occupation in Victoria. In 1870 the total imports into the colony amounted to £12,455,758, and the exports to £12,470,014, thus very nearly balancing themselves. Each amount is about a COMMERCE. 123 million lower than it was ten years before,-in 1861. But I doubt whether this can be taken as showing any decrease in the substantial prosperity of the colony. The decrease in the exports has been chiefly on gold and live-stock, with a wholesome rise on most other articles of Victorian pro- duce. The export of wool increased during that period by more than a third, showing that it was better worth the while of the stock-owners to keep their sheep than to send them into the other colonies for sale. The produce of gold is necessarily fluctuating, and cannot be taken in any one year as an indication of the trade of the country. The decrease in the imports was chiefly on grain and flour, thus showing that the country had progressed in the important work of feeding itself. No doubt, whenever new gold-fields are opened, creating new "rushes," or old gold-fields show them- selves to be for a time specially productive, there will be a sudden influx of migratory population, and successful miners will spend money freely. They will thus raise the imports by their consumption, and the exports by the gold which they send away. A gold-producing country must be subject to these fluctuations, but they can hardly be taken as a proof either of the decay or the rise of substantial prosperity. As to the substantial prosperity of Victoria, no one, I think, who has visited that country can entertain a doubt. It is to be seen in the daily lives of the colonists, in the clothes which they wear, in the food which they eat, in the wages which they receive, in the education of their children, and in the general comfort of the people. TASMANIA. TASMANIA. CHAPTER I. EARLY HISTORY. It seems hard to say of a colony, not yet seventy years old, that it has seen the best of its days, and that it is falling into decay, that its short period of importance in the world is already gone, and that for the future it must exist,—as many an old town and old country do exist,—not exactly on the memory of the past, but on the relics which the past has left behind it. England has towns of her own at home and colonies of her own abroad,—it would be invidious to name them,—of which this may truly be said. On visiting them the stranger feels assured that the salt of life has gone out of them. Trade dwells in them no longer, and pros- perous men do not move about their streets. Their inhabi- tants are contented to be obscure, and generally have neither fears nor hopes. Society is mild and dull, and the remnant of the people who are left are for the most part satisfied to sit and wait. But a young colony should have young, sparkling, eager life. She should be hopeful, im- petuous, and loud, with a belief in her destiny; and if she be given somewhat to boasting, she will not, indeed, thereby show herself to be possessed of an actual virtue, but will give evidence even by that vice of the strength of youth which makes a community at first buoyant and then prosperous. Such essentially are Queensland and Victoria, which force even upon unwilling ears a conviction of their strength by 128 TASMANIA. the loudness of their self-assertion and the vigour of their confidence. I by no means say that the dreamy, dusty quiescence of decay, the imbecility of old age which does not become actual death because so little of the energy of life is expended on the work of living from day to day, have become the lot of young Tasmania; but I do say that Tasmanians are almost united in declaring so of themselves, and that they have said so till the other colonies are quite united in repeating the story. Tasmania as Tasmania is very young, -so young that many old-fashioned folk at home hardly recognise her under that name, and still know her as Van Diemen's Land. That name is now odious to the ears of Tasmanians, as being tainted with the sound of the gaol and harsh with the crack of the gaoler's whip; but it was under that name that the island was prosperous. England sent her convicts thither, and with her ruffians sent £350,000 a year for their custody and maintenance. The whole revenue of the island, including Customs, Inland Revenue, and Land Fund, does not now exceed £280,000. And the money sent from England was by no means all the wealth which the convicts brought with them. They had their thews and sinews, and the free squatters of Tasmania knew well how to turn such God-sends into money. And public works were done magnificently by them,―on the doing of which sufficiently, quickly, and without too close a regard to any immediate return of money, the welfare of a growing colony almost depends. Roads were made, and buildings were erected, and river-banks were cleared, and forests were cut down with a thoroughness which proved that convicts were at any rate useful. But though useful they were disgraceful. The Van Diemonians,—as colonists from other colonies are wont to call them in jeering mirth,—had a spirit of their own which could not be at ease within a prison, even though they themselves were the masters and wardens, and kept the keys of the prison. It began to be unendurable to them that their beautiful island, the sweetest in climate, the loveliest in scenery, the richest in rivers and harbours, the most accessible of all Great Britain's eastern EARLY HISTORY. 129 colonies, should be known to the world only as Great Britain's gaol. So they spoke their mind, and of course had their way,—as has been the case with all Great Britain's children since the tea was thrown overboard at Boston. The convicts were made to cease, and Van Diemen's Land became Tasmania,—Tasmania with free institutions of its own, with representative government, with Lords and Commons, with a public debt, with its own taxes, and a right to govern itself by its own laws,—so long as it should enact no laws contrary to the spirit of the laws of England. It became, in fact, as were and are the other colonies, all but independent, and it threw off from itself its convict stain. But then, as a matter of course, it threw off from itself also the £350,000 a year which in one shape or another the convicts used to bring with them from England, and it could make no more roads and put up no more public buildings except in the normal way of the world, by paying the market price for the works accomplished. → The feeling of disgrace, the aspiration for a different state of things, and the determination to be quit of the question- able well-being of a convict establishment, were very grand on the part of the free settlers of Van Diemen's Land. There was more in it than in the same resolution on the part of New South Wales;-for New South Wales was large, and was achieving property in another way when it resolved that convicts should be no longer received. New South Wales made no such sacrifice as did Van Diemen's Land. The government money, and government works, and government employment were no longer at that time all in all to New South Wales, as they were to the small colony settled in the southern island, which had been created in the first place for the convicts, and then nourished by them. A great fight was made by the mother country to retain the right thus to dispose of her ruffians, and Sir William Denison, who was the governor of the day in Van Diemen's Land, was very eager in his attempt to perpetuate the arrangement, acting no doubt under instructions from the Colonial Office at home. But the feeling against the convicts was too general, and the people, though few in K 130 TASMANIA. numbers, were too strong for Sir William Denison. In 1851 and 1852, when the agitation was going on, there were less than 75,000 free inhabitants in the colony, but they prevailed; and as a consequence the money was stoppe There were no longer British troops in the island, now re-christened as Tasmania. All the paraphernalia of home wealth, and home empire, and home influence were withdrawn. Of course there has been a reaction. I do not dare to say that the Tasmanians regret their convicts; but they do regret the attendant expenditure and attendant ceremonies of the convict establishment. The colony had been fostered by extraneous help and not by internal energy. It was easier to see and to feel the meanness in the eyes of the world of this position, than to rise at once to the national effort necessary for success on its withdrawal. The "Van Diemonians" were all but united in the declaration of their determination that no more convicts should be sent to them. They are now almost equally united in their declaration that the cessation of the coming of the convicts has been their ruin. They think that England has been hard to them in the measure of justice which she has meted. There might have been a regiment or at any rate a company of soldiers left in the island,—a few red jackets if only to enliven the streets and gladden the eyes of the women. Was it to be expected that all the money was to be with- drawn at once,- or if not quite at once with so great rapidity? There still remains, and will yet remain for a few years, as I shall explain more at length in another chapter,—a small subsidy for the expiring needs of the old establishment; but that is becoming less and less every and the want of the money is felt in every station and in every shop. year, We all know the listlessness and unmanly apathy which has hitherto been engendered all the world over by govern- ment pay. In England for the last twenty years we haye been making great efforts to cure the evil, but the fact that the efforts have been found to be necessary is the best proof of the truth of the assertion. Government cannot get the same work out of its workmen that is got by private EARLY HISTORY. 131 employers. It cannot build a ship, or manage an estate, or erect a palace with that economy which a private master can ensure. Six hours of work, diminished perhaps to five or four as opportunities may allow, takes the place of the eight hours given by servants employed in private enter- prises. This scope for idleness produces idleness till it becomes the great blessing of the service that real work is not exacted. To pretend to do something,—not even to pretend to do much,-is the gentlemanlike thing. There has been much of all this in England, but more of it, I think, among Englishmen employed out of England. The evil is by no means limited to the clerk, or secretary, or commissioner who feels himself to be a great man because he has very little to do for his salary, but extends itself to all those who see and know and envy the great man. A profuse expenditure of government money in any com- munity will taint the whole of it with the pervading sin. Men learn to regard the government as babies regard the nurse,—and are like the big calf which can only be kept from its overwrought mother's dugs by some process of disagreeable expulsion. Personal enterprise and national enterprise are equally destroyed by it. In Dublin, you are told that Dublin could not thrive if the Lord Lieutenant were withdrawn; and, consequently, Dublin with its Lord. Lieutenant does not thrive. Of all food this national mother's milk, when taken beyond the period of infancy, is the most enervating. Van Diemen's Land had the strength of character necessary for the abandonment of it by her own effort. I think myself that she has a constitution suf- ficiently strong to enable her to live through the consequent crisis, and to walk honestly on her own legs after a period of weakness. In the meantime she feels herself to be sick, and she longs for the unwholesome nourishment which she herself was wise enough to throw away from her. I need hardly say that the island now called Tasmania lies south of Australia. The port of Launceston, which is the largest town in the northern division of the island, is, at the present rate of steaming, about twenty-five hours distant from the port of Melbourne. The island, with the small 133 TASMANIA. adjacent islands belonging to it, is somewhat smaller than Ireland. It comprises nearly seventeen million acres, of which less than a fourth have been alienated from the Crown, that is, purchased and used by settlers in the colony. A small portion of the vast remaining area is leased by the Crown to squatters, and is depastured,-if I may use a word which I have found to be common in the colonies; but by far the greater proportion of the island ist covered by dense unexplored forests of gum trees. It is now divided into eighteen counties, of which five in the west are, as far as I could learn, altogether uninhabited and uninhabitable. Of others only strips of land near the sea or by the side of rivers have been "taken up." It is mountainous, the mountains boasting of but moderate alti- tudes,-5,000 feet, and the like. It is intersected by many rivers, and watered by many lakes, being in this respect altogether unlike the mainland of Australia. It was dis- covered in 1642, originally by Abel Jan Tasman, a Dutch- man,- as were so many of the Australian pioneers. Tasman, so says the legend, was violently in love with Maria, the daughter of one Van Diemen, who in those days was governor of the Dutch East Indian possessions. Tasman had been sent out on this expedition by Van Diemen, and showed his gratitude and gallantry by the liberal use of his patron's name and that of his patron's daughter in the nomenclature of the places he discovered. The whole country he called Van Diemen's Land. The largest of the adjacent islands which he saw he christened Maria. The lady's name still stands on the maps; but posterity, with a justice which is not customary in such matters, after more than two centuries, in its hatred of a sound which had become connected all over the world with rascaldom, has gone back to the real discoverer, and has created for the colony the name of Tasmania. For many years after Tasman's discovery it was thought to be a part of the continent of New Holland, as Australia was then called. It was not till 1798 that George Bass discovered the straits which still bear his name. In 1803 the island was first occupied on behalf of Great Britain by a party sent from New South Wales, and in 1804 EARLY HISTORY. 133 Colonel David Collins was appointed as its first lieutenant- governor, he being at that time subject to the governor of the parent colony. The settlement in Van Diemen's Land was made with the express intention of relieving New South Wales of a portion of its convicts, and specially with a view of sending thither those who had been hitherto stationed at Norfolk Island,-which place had been found to be ill fitted for the purpose. At this time the only, or at least by far the paramount, interest taken by the mother country in the possession of Australia had reference to her convicts. New South Wales had been found to be a place to which convicts could conveniently be sent ; but the number which could be safely kept there was not sufficient for the purposes of the home government. Van Diemen's Land might supply the deficiency, and to Van Diemen's Land were dispatched a certain proportion of the convicts who crowded and em- barrassed the hands of the governor of New South Wales. Two stations were opened, the first on the north and the second on the south side of the island. And thus sprang up two towns, Launceston on the Tamar in the north, and Hobart Town on the Derwent in the south. These are still the chief and, perhaps I may say without offence to various flourishing villages, the only towns in Tasmania; and they are joined together by such a road, 120 miles in length, as is not to be found elsewhere in the Australian colonies. This was, of course, made altogether by convict labour. From this time, 1804, down to the year 1856, when responsible government began, the history of Van Diemen's Land is simply the history of a convict establishment. How to manage convicts, how to get work out of them with the least possible chance of escape, how to catch them when they did escape, how to give them liberty when they made no attempt to escape, how to punish them, and how not to punish them, how to make them understand that they were simply beasts of burden reduced to that degree by their own vileness, and how to make them understand at the same time that if under the most difficult circumstances for the exercise of virtue they would cease to be vicious, they might 134 TASMANIA. cease also to be beasts of burden,-these were the tasks which were imposed, not only upon the governors and their satellites, not only on all officers military and civil, not only on the army of gaolers, warders, and such like, which was necessary, but also on every free settler and on every free man in the island. For no one who had cast in his lot with Van Diemen's Land could be free from the taint of the establishment, or unconnected with the advantages which it certainly bestowed. A double set of horrors is told of the convict establish- ment of Van Diemen's Land,-of horrors arising from the cruelty of the tyrant gaolers to their prison slaves, and of horrors created by these slaves when they escaped and became bushrangers. It must be borne in mind that almost every squatter was a gaoler, and that almost every servant was a slave. But no tidings that are told through the world exaggerate themselves with so much ease as the tidings of horrors. They who are most shocked at them, women who grow pale at the hearing and almost shriek as the stories are told them, delight to have the stories so told that they may be justified in shrieking. The ball grows as it is rolled, and the pile of wonder is accumulated. But no doubt the work to be done was very nasty work, and there was of necessity much of roughness on both sides. It must be understood that these prisoners in Van Diemen's Land were not to be kept as prisoners are kept in our county gaols and peni- tentiaries at home. They were to be out at work wherever the present need of work might be. Nor were they to be watched when at work by regular warders as many of us have seen to be done with gangs of prisoners at Portland, Portsmouth, and elsewhere at home,-so watched that im- mediate escape, though not perhaps impossible, is very difficult. A portion of the convicts sent to Van Diemen's Land were no doubt locked up from the first, a portion were employed on government works and were probably kept under close though not continued surveillance ;—but the majority both of men and women were sent out as servants to the free settlers, who were responsible, if not directly for the safe custody of those entrusted to them, at EARLY HISTORY. 135 least for immediate report should any escape. The first preliminaries of escape were easy. A man could run into the bush, and be quit at any rate of the labour of the hour. If he were shepherding sheep, or building fences, or felling timber, during the greater part of the day, no eye unless that of a brother convict was upon him. He could go, and the chances of the world were open to him. But when these first preliminaries were so easy it was of course essen- tial that they should ordinarily be rendered unsuccessful, and that the attempt should be followed by speedy and sharp punishment. The escaped convict was at once hunted, and generally tracked by the facilities which starvation afforded to his pursuers. No one but an escaped convict would feed an escaped convict, and none but they who had established themselves as bushrangers had food either to eat or to give. Even the established bushrangers, who had homes of some sort in the mountain recesses, who were in league with the blacks, and who knew how to take the wild animals, the kangaroos and walliby and opossums, were not unfrequently driven by famine to surrender themselves. Of course the escapes were numerous, and of course the punishments were severe. And it was not only that the men would escape, but also that when punctual to hours and punctual in the receipt of their rations, they would not earn their rations by work. They would not work after such a fashion as to please their masters;—and, as a necessity, the masters had a redress for such occasions. A convict who would only eat rations and never earn them, and who could not be dismissed as can an ordinary idle servant,— required some treatment more or less severe. The master himself was not allowed to inflict corporal punishment,—but the neighbouring magistrate was entrusted with that power. The magistrate could, on hearing sufficient evidence of wilful idleness or other delinquency, inflict a certain number of lashes. The thing became so common, of such everyday occurrence, that very light evidence was soon found to be sufficient. The neighbouring settler or squatter was pro- bably the friend of the magistrate, who was a squatter him- self; and what better,-indeed what other evidence could 136 TASMANIA. the magistrate have than his friend's word? The practice. became very simple at last. If the man would not work, or worked amiss, or was held to have sinned in any way against his master's discipline, he was sent to the magistrate to be flogged. He himself would be the bearer of some short note. "Dear Sir,-Please give the bearer three dozen, and return him." The man as a rule would take the note,—and the three dozen, and would return. A bold spirit would perhaps run away. Then he would be tracked and dogged and starved, till he either came back or was brought back, -and the last state of that man would be worse than the first. Of course these were horrors. The men who did escape, and some who did not, committed fresh crimes and under- went fresh trials, with very small chance of verdicts in their favour. And of all crimes murder and attempts to murder seem to have been most in excess. Men were hung for murder and attempts to murder and for various other crimes. The hangings were frequent and gave rise to sharp expostulations. There is a story in the island that the gaol chaplain at Hobart Town once remonstrated,—not against hanging in general or the number that were hung,- but as to the inconvenient celerity with which the ceremony was performed. Thirteen men, he said, could be comfort- ably hung at once, but no more. The crowding had been too great, and he trusted that for the future the accommoda- tion afforded by the gaol might not be too far stretched. The hangman was a great and well-paid official. There were flagellators also, generally convicts themselves, promoted to the honourable employment of flogging their brethren at the different stations. There is still, I am told, an old pen- sioned hangman living under protection in the island. The flagellators have disappeared, some having gone to Victoria as miners, some having died in their bed,—a reasonable pro- portion having been murdered. It may be understood that the flagellators would not be popular. Not a few of these forlorn ones did escape and make their way into the wilderness, living in holes and amidst rocks and sometimes in habitations built for themselves in the deep EARLY HISTORY. 137 (C recesses of the forests. The names of some of these still live in the memory of old Tasmanians, and some few still live themselves as respectable members of society. There was one Brady, who seems to have possessed himself of half the mountain tops in the island, for, let the traveller go where he will, he will be shown a Brady's Look-out." Brady, I think, was hung at last. And there was one Howe, who had a wonderful career, living with a native girl whom he at last murdered because she was not fleet enough of foot to escape with him, and who was himself at last mur- dered by a companion. And then there was one Cash, who had a long career as a bushranger, and who now lives in dignified and easy retirement. There is also one Markham, now carrying on business satisfactorily as a gardener, who lived for seven years in a retreat he made for himself in the bush, coming down occasionally and stealing such articles as were essential for him, growing a little wheat on a plot round his cottage, keeping a goat and rearing a few sheep. For seven years the man lived on in this way, all alone, undis- covered, sufficing in all things for himself,—except in regard to those occasional thefts from his nearest neighbour. Then the solitude became too much for him, and he crept down to a neighbour's house,-the squatter from whom he had been accustomed to steal,-and finding the mistress of the family, he gave himself up to her in order that the law might do as it would with him. The squatter, who had been the man's prey, was an Irish gentleman, with a tender heart, who felt thankful to the man for not having murdered his wife and children. Having position and influence he inter- fered on the man's behalf, and the law was lenient and the man was pardoned. The story was told to me by the lady to whom Markham surrendered himself, wild, with long locks, clothed in a sheepskin, haggard with solitude, tired out with absolute independence. Now he is a prosperous grower of apples. What an episode in life for a man to carry about always in his memory! There was much of murder and robbery; much of hanging and slavery. English settlers to whom convicts were as- signed of course learned the sweets of slavery. Their 138 TASMANIA. servants were intelligent beasts of burden, who had only to be fed, coerced, and made to work. The slave too was not purchased, and if he died there was no loss. The system of course was bad, as with our present lights we can see plainly enough. But though the system was bad, the men who carried it out did, I think, mainly strive to do so to a good end. Though one hears much of flogging in Van Diemen's Land, one hears still more of the excellence of the service rendered by convicts. Ladies especially are never weary of telling how good and how faithful were the females allotted to them and to their mothers. Indeed it is from the ladies of the colony that one hears the loudest regrets in regard to the good things that have now been lost for ever. And though the ladies are the loudest, men also tell of the excel- lence of the convicts by whose labour they were enriched in the old days. Again, on the other hand, the inquirer is constantly startled by the respectability of career and emi- nent success of many a pardoned convict. Men who came out nominally for life were free and earning large incomes within comparatively few years. Unless a man were recon- victed he was sure to be made free, having at first a ticket of leave, which enabled him to work within a certain dis- trict on his own behalf, and then a conditional pardon, which allowed him to go anywhere except to England. In the records of Tasmania, which we have at home, we are told of the cruelty and sufferings inflicted and endured on both sides, of the cruelty of masters and of all that their slaves endured, of the bloodthirsty malignity of bushrangers, and of the evils which they perpetrated on the community. Horrors are always so popular that of course such tales are told the loudest. Enduring good conduct with good results creates no sensational enjoyment, and therefore we hear little or nothing of masters and mistresses so satisfied with the docility of convicts as to find them superior to free servants, or of men who have been sent from England as abject, nameless wretches, who have risen, after a period of penal service, to opulence, respectability, and almost to honour. When the establishment was first set on foot in Van Diemen's Land, not only were convicts sent out to certain EARLY HISTORY. 139 of the settlers as labourers without hire, but the settlers who took them had with each convict a grant of land,-so many acres for each convict taken. The owner of the slave was then bound to feed and clothe the man, but was not required to pay him any wages. That the convicts were sufficiently fed and clad by their employers I have never heard denied. Indeed food was so cheap,—or at least meat was so,—that no deficiency in this respect was probable. Nor, as far as I can learn, were the men overworked. No doubt the amount of labour performed by them daily was less than that ordi- narily given by free labourers. But absolute submission was required from them,-that absolute touch-your-hat-and-look- humble submission which to this day is considered necessary among soldiers. They were to give implicit obedience, and masters accustomed to implicit obedience and absolute sub- mission are apt to become arbitrary. And the scourge, when it is in use, recommends itself strongly to those who use it. The system could not but be evil. Then, after some years, wages of £9 per annum were required from the masters for each man,-out of which the men found their own clothes. This was a great improvement in the con- dition of the convicts, as they were thus enabled to own property and to exercise some of the rights of free men. At the same time they had awarded to them the privilege of leaving their masters if they chose, and of going on to the public works. This was a privilege which was but seldom exercised, as private work and private rations and private discipline were always better than the work and rations and discipline of the public gangs. But it was something for a man who could not endure a master to be able to shake that master's yoke from his neck. In different parts of the island, as the public works de- manded, large stations were built for those employed. There were various of these stations on the route from Launceston to Hobart Town, where the men were kept while they con- structed the road. They were built of stone, and the ruins of them are still to be seen on the roadside. Here also resided wardens and gaolers and flagellators, and I fancy that life in the gangs was generally very much worse than 140 TASMANIA. life in private service. The streets and roads about Hobart Town were made after this fashion, and many of the public buildings were put up by the convicts. The traveller is astonished at the neatness and excellence of these works in Hobart Town till he learns by degrees what it was that con- vict labour in old days did for a convict establishment. And there was a third mode of bestowing the convicts in Tasmania which was,-and indeed is, for it still remains,- the most remarkable of the three. There were men who could neither be sent out as private servants, or even trusted to work in gangs,—men for whom a prison home was needed. A prison home also was needed for the new comers, as to whom in the first months of their service solitary confine- ment and good discipline were a part of the bad bargain they had made for themselves. This prison was after a while established at Port Arthur, a peninsula joined to the main- land by a neck of land only a few yards broad, and has been, I think, in many respects the most remarkable, as it is probably the most picturesque, prison establishment in the world. It is still in operation, as a certain proportion of old English convicts are yet in durance, and I shall therefore speak of it in the next chapter. Now it is altogether under colonial control; but it has been so only for a year or two. The transfer was, I think, finally made in 1870, till which time Port Arthur was an imperial establishment. Perhaps no spot on the globe has been the residence during the last sixty years of greater suffering or of guiltier thoughts. The system of transportation as carried on in Van Die- men's Land no doubt was bad. It was bad to stain with the crime of so many criminals a community which must neces- sarily be in itself so small. It could never have been hoped that the population of Van Diemen's Land could swallow up so large a body of English criminals as would be sent thither, without becoming a people especially noted for its convict element. And yet it was never intended that Van Diemen's I und should be devoted to convicts, as was Nor- folk Island, and as is the little spot of land called Spike Island in the Cove of Cork. And the portioning out of convicts to settlers to be employed as labourers was bad ; EARLY HISTORY. 141 for it created a taste for slavery which has not yet lost its relish on the palate of many Tasmanians. A certain amount of harshness and bitter suffering was, no doubt, incidental to it. But I do not believe that men became fiends under its working. The fiends came out ready made, from Eng- land, and were on the whole treated with no undue severity. Of course there were exceptions,—and the exceptions have reached the public ear much more readily than has the true history. Nevertheless the people rebelled against the system, -or rather repudiated it with such strength, that the govern- ment at home was at last forced to give way. In 1853 Van Diemen's Land ceased to receive convicts, and in 1856, following the example of her elder and younger sisters on the Australian continent, she went to work with a representative government of her own. There had been considerable difference of opinion between the colony and the mother country. The convict establishment was very convenient to us. We all know well how hard of solution is the question of the future disposition of the man against whom a judge has with great facility pronounced a sentence of penal servitude for a certain term of years. Whither shall we send our afflicted brother? Our depôts at home are small and easily crowded. Van Diemen's Land in this respect was convenient, and was at first hardly thought to have a voice loud enough to make itself heard. The gover- nor of the day, Sir William Denison, did what he could to save the thing. But the people were in earnest and they prevailed. Up to that time the colony had no doubt prospered. Wool, the staple of all the Australian colonies, had been grown with great profit in the island. It was from Van Diemen's Land that the district now called Victoria had been first supplied with sheep. It was found that almost every plant and almost every animal that thrives in England could be acclimatized in an island whose climate is only a little warmer than that of England, and a little more dry. It became known in the East for its breed of horses, for its whale fishery, which was pre-eminently successful,-for its wheat and oats, and especially for its fruit. It could supply 142 TASMANIA. all Australia with fruit if only all Australia could be made to take it. For a time the markets were at any rate good enough to secure wealth. Men in Van Diemen's Land became rich, and both Launceston and Hobart Town were prosperous boroughs. Schools were general, hospitals were established, the institutions of the colony generally were ex- cellent. Van Diemen's Land had not indeed a great repu- tation. It had a name that seemed to carry a taunt in men's ears. But it was prosperous and fat; and, unless when the bushrangers were in ascendency, the people were happy. Such was their history up to 1856, when transpor- tation had been abolished and representative government was commenced. Now the Tasmanians declare themselves to be ruined, and are not slow to let a stranger know that the last new name given to the island is that of “ Sleepy Hollow." When the stranger asks the reason of this ruin, he is told that all the public money has gone with the con- victs, and that—the rabbits have eaten up all the grass. The rabbits, like the sheep, have been imported from Europe, and the rabbits have got ahead of the sheep. "If it was not that this is Sleepy Hollow," they say, we should stir ourselves and get rid of the rabbits. But it is Sleepy Hollow, and so we don't." 66 CHAPTER IÏ. PORT ARTHUR. WHEN it had been decided between the mother country and the colony that transportation to Van Diemen's Land should be at an end, the colonial Houses of Parliament petitioned the Queen that the name might be changed,-so that the convict flavour and the convict odour attached to the old sound might be banished; and the Queen of course assented. Hence has sprung in the catalogue of our colo- nies the name of Tasmania, as pretty as any that we have, but to my ears somewhat fantastic. In New South Wales, with its enormous area, and in the absence of any sea barriers by which convicts could be hemmed in, the traveller does not at present hear much about convicts. They have wandered away whither they would. Now and then good- natured reference is made, in regard to some lady or gentle- man, to the fact that her or his father was "lagged," and occasionally up in the bush a shepherd may be found who will own to the soft impeachment of having been lagged himself, though always for some offence which is supposed to have in it more of nobility than depravity. But in Tas- mania the records are recent, fresh, and ever present. There is still felt the necessity of adhering to a social rule that no convict, whatever may have been his success, shall be received into society. "But if he should be a member of the Assembly?" I asked. Well, yes, my informant acknow- ledged that there would be a difficulty. There are occa- sions on which a member of the Assembly may almost demand to be entertained,—as a member of the House of 144 TASMANIA. Commons has, I imagine, almost a right to dine with the Speaker. It is not only that men and women in Tasmania do not choose to herd with convicts, but that they are on their guard lest it might be supposed that their own existence in the island might be traced back to the career of some criminal relative. In the meantime, though a new name sweet as a rose has been invented, the odour and the flavour have not as yet quite passed away. A certain number of convicts are at work on the public domain in Hobart Town, but they are always the convicts of the island,—men who have received their sentences for deeds done in Tasmania. At the extreme south-west of the island,-in a peninsula called by the name of Tasman, which is all but an island,—is maintained a station called Port Arthur, and there are at present kept as many as remain of the old English exiles. With them are a portion of the convicts of the island. For those who were sent out from England, England still pays the cost of maintenance, amounting to £36 19s. 8d. per annum for each man under sentence, and something less for lunatics and paupers. Of these the great majority are now either paupers or lunatics, who would be free were they able to earn their own bread. England also pays, and will, by agreement, continue to pay for some further term of eight or nine years, a lump sum of £6,000 per annum towards the general police expenses, which were commenced on behalf of the mother country. When an English convict, who has had a conditional pardon, is reconvicted, he is maintained at the expense of the colony if reconvicted after a period of six months of freedom;-but at the expense of England if within that period. And so the convict system is dying out in Tasmania, and will soon be extinct, and at last the odour and the flavour will be gone. I visited Port Arthur, and was troubled by many reflec- tions as to the future destiny of so remarkable a place. It is in a direct line not, I believe, above sixty miles from Hobart Town, but it can hardly be reached directly. The way to it is by water, and as there is no traffic to or from the place other than what is carried on by the government PORT ARTHUR. 145 for the supply of the establishment, a sailing schooner is sufficient,—and indeed more than sufficiently expensive. In this schooner I was taken under the kind guidance of the premier and attorney-general of the island, who were called upon in the performance of their duties to inspect the place and hear complaints,—if complaints there were. We started at midnight, and as we were told at break of day that we had made only four miles down the bay, I began to fear that the expedition would be long. But the wind at last favoured us, and at about noon we were landed at Tasman's peninsula in Norfolk Bay, and there we found the commandant of the establishment and horses to carry us whither we would. We found also a breakfast at the policeman's house, of which we were very much in want. Tasman's peninsula, which has been held entire by the Crown for the purposes of the convict establishment, is an irregularly formed piece of land about twenty-five miles long and twelve broad, indented by various bays and creeks of the sea, very hilly, covered with primeval gum-tree forest, and joined on to the island by a very narrow neck of sand. Port Arthur, where are the prisons, is about nine miles from Norfolk Bay; but our first object was to visit the neck,- called Eagle Hawk Neck,-partly for the sake of the scenery, and partly because the neck is guarded by dogs, placed there to prevent the escape of the convicts. I had heard of these dogs before I visited Tasmania, but I had thought that they were mythic. There, however, I found them, to the number of fifteen, chained up in their appointed places at and near the neck. The intention is that they should bark if any escaped prisoner should endeavour to swim at night across the narrow arm of sea which divides the two lands. In former days they used to be employed in hunting the men down. I doubt whether they are now of any service. They are allowed regular rations, one pound of meat and one pound of flour a day per dog; and I found the policemen stationed at the Neck very loud in their assurances that the business could not be carried on without the dogs. The policemen also have rations,-some- what more than that of the dogs, though of the same kind; L 146 TASMANIA. and it struck me that to the married men who have families in the neighbourhood, the rationed dogs might be service- able. The scenery at this spot is very lovely, as the bright narrow sea runs up between two banks which are wooded down to the water. Then we went farther on, riding our horses where it was practicable to ride, and visited two wonders of the place,--the Blow-Hole, and Tasman's Arch. The Blow-Hole is such a passage cut out by the sea through the rocks as I have known more than one on the west coast of Ireland under the name of puffing-holes. This hole did not puff nor blow when I was there; but we were enabled by the quiescence of the sea to crawl about among the rocks, and enjoyed ourselves more than we should have done had the monster been in full play. Tasman's Arch, a mile farther on, is certainly the grandest piece of rock con- struction I ever saw. The sea has made its way in through the rocks, forming a large pool or hole, some fifty yards from the outer cliffs, the descent into which is perpendicular all round; and over the aperture stretches an immense natural arch, the supports or side pillars of which are per- pendicular. Very few even now visit Tasman's Arch; but when the convict establishment at Port Arthur comes to an end, as come to an end I think it must, no one will ever see the place. Nevertheless it is well worth seeing, as may probably be said of many glories of the earth which are altogether hidden from human eyes. On the following day we inspected the prisons, and poor- house and lunatic asylum and farm attached to the prisons; -for there is a farm of well-cleared land,-seventy or eighty acres under tillage, if I remember rightly; and there is a railway for bringing down timber and firewood. The whole was in admirable order, and gave at first sight the idea of an industrial establishment conducted on excellent commercial principles. The men made their own shoes and clothes and cheeses, and fed their own pigs, and milked their own cows, and killed their own beef and mutton. There seemed to be no reason why they should not sell their surplus pro- duce and turn in a revenue for the colony. But prisons PORT ARTHUR. 147 never do turn in a revenue, and this certainly was no excep- tion to the rule. I found that there were altogether 506 persons, all males, to be looked after, and that no less than 97 men were em- ployed to look after them. Of these 25 were officers, many of whom were in receipt of good salaries. There was the commandant, and the Protestant chaplain, and the Roman Catholic chaplain, and the doctor, and the doctor's assistant, and the postmaster, forming with their wives and families quite a pleasant little society, utterly beyond reach of the world, but supplied with every comfort,-unless when the wind was so bad that the government schooner could not get round to them. These gentlemen all had houses too. I was hospitably received in one, that of the commandant, which, with its pretty garden and boat-house, and outlook upon the land-locked bay of the sea, made me wish to be commandant myself. There would have been nothing peculiar in all this, except the cleanness and prettiness of the place, were it not that it must apparently all come to an end in a few years, and that the commandant's house and the other houses, and all the village, and the prisons, and the asylum, and the farm, and the church, will be left deserted, and allowed to fall into ruins. I do not know what other fate can be theirs. Tasmania will not maintain the place for her own prison purposes when there is an end of the English money;-and for other than prison purposes no one will surely go and live in that ultima Thule, lovely as are the bays of the sea, and commodious as may be the buildings. Of the 506 men to be looked after, 284 belonged to England, and 222 to the colony. Of the 506, 234 only were efficient for work; and of this latter number only 39 were English convicts. It will be understood that the lingering English remnants of transported ruffianism would by this time consist chiefly of old men unfit for work. There were 146 English paupers,—convicts who have served their time, but who would be unable to support themselves if turned out,—and there were ten invalids who would return to their convict work when well. There were also 89 148 TASMANIA. lunatics, of whom only four were still under sentence. With 506 men to be looked after, 97 officers and constables to look after them, and with only 234 men able to do a day's work, it may well be imagined that the place is not self- supporting. Its net cost is, in round numbers, £20,000; of which, in round numbers again, England pays one-half and the colony the other. It was admitted that when the English subsidy was withdrawn,-for in fact England. does pay at present £6,000 a year for general expenses over and above her contribution per man to the establish- ment at Port Arthur,-that when this should be discon- tinued, Port Arthur must be deserted. The interest of such an establishment as this of course lies very much in the personal demeanour, in the words, and appearance of the prisoners. A man who has been all his life fighting against law, who has been always controlled but never tamed by law, is interesting, though inconvenient, —as is a tiger. There were some dozen or fifteen men,- perhaps more,-whom we found inhabiting separate cells, and who were actually imprisoned. These were the heroes of the place. There was an Irishman with one eye, named Doherty, who told us that for forty-two years he had never been a free man for an hour. He had been transported for mutiny when hardly more than a boy,—for he had enlisted as a boy, and had since that time received nearly 3,000 lashes ! In appearance he was a large man and still power- ful,—well to look at in spite of his eye, lost as he told us through the misery of prison life. But he said that he was broken at last. If they would only treat him kindly, he would be as a lamb. But within the last few weeks he had escaped with three others, and had been brought back almost starved to death. The record of his prison life was frightful. He had been always escaping, always rebelling, always fighting against authority,—and always being flogged. There had been a whole life of torment such as this; forty- two years of it; and there he stood, speaking softly, arguing his case well, and pleading while the tears ran down his face for some kindness, for some mercy in his old age. "I have tried to escape;-always to escape," he said," as a PORT ARTHUR. 149 bird does out of a cage. Is that unnatural ;-is that a great crime?" The man's first offence, that of mutiny, is not one at which the mind revolts. I did feel for him, and when he spoke of himself as a caged bird, I should have liked to take him out into the world, and have given him a month of comfort. He would probably, however, have knocked my brains out on the first opportunity. I was assured that he was thoroughly bad, irredeemable, not to be reached by any kindness, a beast of prey, whose hand was against every honest man, and against whom it was necessary that every honest man should raise his hand. Yet he talked so gently and so well, and argued his own case with such winning words! He was writing in a book when we entered his cell, and was engaged on some speculation as to the tonnage of vessels. Just scribbling, sir," he said, "to while away the hours." (( There was another man, also an Irishman, named Ahern, whose appearance was as revolting as that of Doherty was prepossessing. He was there for an attempt to murder his wife, and had been repeatedly re-tried and re-convicted. He was making shoes when we saw him, and had latterly become a reformed character. But for years his life had been absolutely the life of a caged beast,—only with inci- dents more bestial than those of any beast. His gaolers seemed to have no trust in his reformation. He, too, was a large powerful man, and he, too, will probably remain till he dies either in solitary confinement or under closest surveil- lance. In absolute infamy he was considered to be without a peer in the establishment. But he talked to us quite freely about his little accident with his wife. There was another remarkable man in one of the solitary cells, whose latter crime had been that of bringing abomin- able and false accusations against fellow-prisoners. He talked for awhile with us on the ordinary topics of the day not disagreeably, expressing opinions somewhat averse to lonely existence, and not altogether in favour of the im- partiality of those who attended upon him. But he gave us to understand that, though he was quite willing to answer questions in a pleasant, friendly way, it was his intention 150 TASMANIA. before we left him to make a speech. It was not every day that he had such an audience as a prime minister and an attorney-general,-not to speak of a solicitor-general from another colony who was with us also, or of the commandant, or of myself. He made his speech,—and I must here declare that all the prisoners were allowed to make speeches if they pleased. He made his speech,-hitching up his parcel-yellow trousers with his left hand as he threw out his right with emphatic gesture. I have longed for such ease and such fluency when, on occasions, I have been called upon to deliver myself of words upon my legs. It was his object to show that the effort of his life had been to improve the morals of the establishment, and that the commandant had repressed him, actuated solely by a delight in wicked- ness. And as he made his charge he pointed to the com- mandant with denouncing fingers, and we all listened with the gravest attention. I was wondering whether he thought that he made any impression. I forget that man's name and his crime, but he ought to have been a republican at home, and should he ever get out from Port Arthur might still do well to stand for a borough on anti-monarchical interests. But of all the men the most singular in his fate was another Irishman, one Barron, who lived in a little island all alone; and of all the modes of life into which such a man might fall, surely his was the most wonderful. To the extent of the island he was no prisoner at all, but might wander whither he liked, might go to bed when he pleased, and get up when he pleased, might bathe and catch fish, or cul- tivate his little flower-garden,-—and was in very truth monarch of all he surveyed. Twice a week his rations were brought to him, and in his disposal of them no one interfered with him. But he surveyed nothing but graves. All who died at Port Arthur, whether convicts or free, are buried there, and he has the task of burying them. He digs his graves, not fitfully and by hurried task-work, but with thoughtful precision,—having one always made for a Roman Catholic, and one for a Protestant inmate. In this regularity he was indeed acting against orders,—as there was some prejudice against these ready-made graves; but he went on with his PORT ARTHUR. 151 work, and was too valuable in his vocation to incur serious interference. We talked with him for half an hour, and found him to be a sober, thoughtful, suspicious man, quite alive to the material inconveniences of his position, but not in the least afflicted by ghostly fear or sensational tremors. He smiled when we asked whether the graves awed him,— but he shook his head when it was suggested to him that he might grow a few cabbages for his own use. He could eat nothing that grew from such soil. The flowers were very well, but a garden among graves was no garden for vege- tables. He had been there for ten years, digging all the graves in absolute solitude without being ill a day. I asked him whether he was happy. No, he was not happy. He wanted to get away and work his passage to America, and begin life afresh, though he was sixty years old. He pre- ferred digging graves and solitude in the island, to the ordinary life of Port Arthur; he desired to remain in the island as long as he was a convict; but he was of opinion that ten years of such work ought to have earned him his freedom. Why he was retained I forget. If I remember rightly, there had been no charge against him during the ten years. "You have no troubles here," I said. "I have great troubles," he replied, "when I walk about, thinking of my sins." There was no hypocrisy about him, nor did he in any way cringe to us. On the contrary, he was quiet, unobtrusive, and moody. There he is still, living among the graves,—still dreaming of some future career in life, when, at last, they who have power over him shall let him go. Of the able-bodied men the greatest number are at work about the farm, or on the land, or cutting timber, and seem to be subject to no closer surveillance than are ordinary labourers. There is nothing to prevent their escape, except the fact that they must starve in the bush if they do escape. There is plenty of room for them to starve in the bush even on Tasman's peninsula. Then when they have starved till they can starve no longer, they go back to the damnable torment of a solitary cell. None but spirits so indomitable as that of the man Doherty will dare to repeat the agonies of escape above once or twice. 152 TASMANIA. There was a man named Fisher dying in the hospital, who had been one of those who had lately escaped with Doherty, and had, indeed, arranged the enterprise, and had gotten together the materials to form a canoe to carry them off. Before they started he had been possessed of £10, which, so the officers said, he had slowly amassed by selling wines and spirits which he had collected in some skin round his body, such wine and spirits having been administered to him by the doctor's orders, and having been received into the outer skin instead of taken to the comfort (( of the inner man. This, it was supposed, he had sold to the constables and warders, and had so realised £10. Now he was dying,-and looked, indeed, as he lay on his bed, livid, with his eyes protruding from his head, as though he could not live another day. But it was known that he still had three of the ten sovereigns about him. "Why not take them away?" I asked. They are in his mouth, and he would swallow them if he were touched." Think of the man living,—dying, with three sovereigns in his mouth, procured in such a way, for such a purpose, over so long a term of years;-for the man must have been long an invalid to have been able to sell for £10 the wine which he ought to have drunk! What a picture of life ;--what a picture of death;—the man clinging to his remnant of useless wealth in such a fashion as that! In the evening and far on into the night the premier was engaged in listening to the complaints of convicts. Any man who had anything to say was allowed to say it into the ears of the first minister of the Crown,-but all of course said uselessly. The complaints of prisoners against their gaolers can hardly be efficacious. So our visit to Port Arthur came to an end, and we went back on the next day to Hobart Town. The establishment itself has the appearance of a large, well-built, clean village, with various factories, breweries, and the like. There is the church, as I have said, and there are houses enough, both for gentle and simple, to take away the appearance of a prison. The lunatic asylum and that for paupers have no appearance of prisons. Indeed the PORT ARTHUR. 153 penitentiary itself, where the working convicts sleep and live, and have their library and their plays and their baths, is not prison-like. There is a long street, with various little nooks and corners, as are to be found in all villages,—and in one of them the cottage in which Smith O'Brien lived as a convict. The place is alive, and the eye soon becomes used to the strange convict garments, consisting of jackets and trousers, of which one side is yellow and the other brown. If it were to be continued, I should be tempted to speak loudly in praise of the management of the establishment. But it is doomed to go, and, as such is the case, one is disposed to doubt the use of increased expenditure. All those whom I questioned on the subject in Tasmania agreed that Port Arthur must be abandoned in a few years, and that then the remaining convicts must be removed to the neighbourhood of Hobart Town. If this be done there can hardly, I think, be any other fate for the buildings than that they shall stand till they fall. They will fall into the dust, and men will make unfrequent excursions to visit the strange ruins, CHAPTER III. HER PRESENT CONDITION. It is acknowledged even by all the rival colonies that of all the colonies Tasmania is the prettiest. This is no doubt true of her as a whole, though the scenery of the Hawkesbury in New South Wales is, I think, finer than anything in Tasmania. But it may be said of the small island that, go where you will, the landscape that meets the eye is pleasing, whereas the reverse of this is certainly the rule on the Australian continent. And the climate of Tasmania is by far pleasanter than that of any part of the mainland. There are, one may almost say, no musquitoes. Other pernicious animals certainly do abound, but then they abound also in England. Everything in Tasmania is more English than is England herself. She is full of English fruits, which grow certainly more plentifully and, as regards some, with greater excellence than they do in England. Tasmanian cherries beat those of Kent,-or, as I believe, of all the world,—and have become so common that it is often not worth the owner's while to pull them. Strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, plums, and apples are in almost equal abun- dance. I used in early days to think a greengage the best fruit in the world; but latterly, at home, greengages have lost their flavour for me. I attributed this to age and an altered palate; but in Tasmania I found the greengages as sweet as they used to be thirty years ago. And then the mulberries! There was a lady in Hobart Town who sent us mulberries every day such as I had never eaten before, and as,—I feel sure,-I shall never eat again. Tasmania PRESENT CONDITION. 155 ought to make jam for all the world, and would do so for all the Australian world were she not prevented by certain tariffs, to which I shall have to allude in the next chapter. Now the Australian world is essentially a jam-consuming world, and but for the tariffs Tasmania could afford to pick, and would make a profit out of, the cherries and raspberries. And this is not the only evil. The Victorians eat a great deal of jam. No one eats more jam than a Victorian miner,-unless it be a Victorian stock-rider. But they eat pumpkin jam flavoured with strawberries, and call that strawberry jam. The effect of protection all the world over is to force pumpkin jam, under the name of strawberry jam, down the throats of the people. The Tasmanians in their loyalty are almost English-mad. The very regret which is felt for the loss of English soldiers arises chiefly from the feeling that the uniform of the men was especially English. There is with them all a love of home, which word always means England,-that touches the heart of him who comes to them from the old country. "We do not want to be divided from you. Though we did in sort set up for ourselves, and though we do keep our own house, we still wish to be thought of by Great Britain as a child that is loved. We like to have among us some signs of your power, some emblem of your greatness. A red coat or two in our streets would remind us that we were English- men in a way that would please us well. We do not wish to be Americanised in our ways and thoughts. Well,-if we cannot have a red-coated soldier we will at any rate have a mail-guard with a red coat, after the old fashion, and a mail-coachman with a red coat, and a real mail-coach." And they have the mail-coach running through from Launceston to Hobart Town, and from Hobart Town to Launceston, not in the least like a Cobb's coach, as they are in the other colonies, but built directly after that ancient and most uncomfortable English pattern which we who are old remember ;—and they have the coachman and the guard clothed in red,-because red has been from time immemorial the royal livery of England. Launceston is a clean, well-built town, and does most of 156 TASMANIA. the importing and exporting business of the island. It is on the north side of the island, and therefore within easy reach from Melbourne, with which port most of the business of Tasmania is done,-exclusive of the export of wool. It has no look of decay, in spite of the evil things that are said, and at any rate appears to prosper. The scenery round Launceston is not equal to that at Hobart Town, but there are one or two very pretty walks,-noticeably those up the hill over the waterfall whence the visitor looks down upon the South Esk, which there is as pretty as the Lynn at Linton. 1 An English farmer hearing of land giving 60 bushels of oats to the acre, averaging over 40 lbs. the bushel, would imagine that the owner of such land ought to do well,- especially if he knew that the same crop could be raised on the land year after year. But yet land growing such crops will not give a rent, or even a profit, to the combined land- owner and farmer of 1os. an acre. The corn has to be sent into Launceston, and will not fetch when there above 2s. a bushel,—or 16s. a quarter. Now oats in England, at that weight, range I believe from 30s. to 34s. a quarter. With us the wages of rural labourers are 11s., 125., or 14s. a week, according to the county or district. In the part of Tasmania of which I am speaking, men were receiving £30 per annum wages, with rations, consisting of 10 lbs. of meat, 10 lbs. of flour, 2 lbs. of sugar, and lb. of tea per week, worth 75. a week. They also had cottages if married, or house-room if single, and some extra sums of money were given to them at harvest time,-£3 or £4,—to secure their services. This altogether, would be worth 20s. or 21s. a week;-whereas living is generally cheaper to the working man in Tasmania than in England. The result is that the labourers are able to pay, and as a rule do pay, 6d. a week each for the schooling of their children. The labourer does well,-but the farmer makes but a poor profit out of his tilled land. It should be explained that on the farms which I visited,—and which belonged to a family of brothers, cousins, and uncles,- everything was done with the best implements brought out from England, and that manure was used. Hitherto the use of manure in tillage is not common in any of the 4 PRESENT CONDITION. 157 colonies. It is thought to be more profitable to take what the land will give and then to leave it for awhile than to carry manure to it. Gradually, however, they who are most deeply concerned in agriculture find that there must soon be an end to a system such as this. In the district of which I am speaking wheat was subject to rust, which is the great Scourge of the Australian farmer. The price of wheat in Launceston was 4s. 3d. to 4s. 6d. a bushel; but my friend told me that it would pay him better to send his wheat to London than to sell it in the colony, and that he intended to do so. I found that ordinary day-labourers throughout the colony were getting 4s. a day without rations, or on an average from 9s. to Ios. a week with rations and house accommoda- tion. The men without rations would of course be employed with less certainty of duration than those hired as permanent hands with rations. Journeymen carpenters, masons, plas- terers, wheelwrights, and the like, were getting 6s. 6d. a day; domestic men-servants £30 per annum with board and lodging, and female servants about £20. I found also that all provisions were cheaper than in England, or as cheap bacon 8d. a pound; butter Is. to 1s. 6d. ; bread 3d. the 2 lb. loaf; beer, brewed in the colony and very good, 2s. the gallon; mutton 4d. a pound; beef 6d.; sugar 4d. a pound; coffee, s. 2d.; tea 25.; potatoes £3 a ton. I am afraid that domestic details may not be very interesting to general readers, but they may serve to afford to some intending emigrant an idea of the fate which he would meet in Tasmania. : I must say of this colony, as I have and shall say of all the others, that it is a paradise for a working man as com- pared with England. The working man can here always eat enough food, can always clothe and shelter himself, and can also educate his children. His diet will always com- prise as much animal food as he can consume,—and if he be a sober, industrious man he will never find himself long without work. Tasmania is no doubt at present not popular with the young Tasmanian working man, because the search for gold has not hitherto been prosperous in Tasmania. The 158 TASMANIA. young men go off to Victoria, though it may be doubtful whether they improve either their comfort or their means by the journey. A miner in Victoria will earn from 7s. to 8s. a day; the average wages were 7s. 6d. when I was at Sand- hurst; but to earn that a man must be a miner. He must lose time in going in quest of his work, and cannot always readily find it. And when he has got it, and has learned to be a miner, and is in receipt of 45s. a week, he lives hard in order that he may gamble in gold speculation with all that he can save. I think that the labourer in Tasmania has the best of the bargain: but the desire for gold is so strong, and the chances of fortunate speculation are so seductive, that the young men of the island colony are gradually drawn away. Of males, there were in the island in 1870, in round numbers, 27,000 under twenty years of age;-only 10,800 between twenty and forty, and 11,500 between forty and sixty. These figures prove that the male population has by far too great a proportion of old and of young for thorough well-being and a wholesome condition. Of females, there were 25,000 under twenty, the number of the girls as com- pared with that of the boys giving one evidence among many of the fact that the male progeny in Australia is more numerous than the female,-a rule which applies to horses, sheep, and cattle as well as to the human race. Between twenty and forty there were 12,000 women, who thus beat the men during that, the strongest, period of life, by 1,200; and between forty and sixty there were only 7,000 women, sinking below the number of men for the same period by 4,500. What becomes of the old women in Tasmania I cannot say. Between sixty and seventy there are 3,200 men, and only 1,200 women. I cannot suppose that after a certain time of life the Tasmanian women go to the dig- gings. I am almost disposed to think that the statistical tables of the colony show that ladies in Tasmania do not give correct records as to their ages. On 31st December, 1870, and I have no information corrected up to a later date,—there were altogether in Tasmania 53,464 males and 47,301 females,-in all 100,765. Since 1870 the increase PRESENT CONDITION. 159 has been very slight. In 1853, when transportation from England ceased, the population was 75,000. The colony, therefore, has not grown as have the other Australian colo- nies, not as Queensland, which began her career as an independent colony in 1859 with 18,000 inhabitants, and had 115,000 in 1870. But even in Tasmania there has been a steady increase, though the increase during the last few years has been small. The road from Launceston to Hobart Town is as good as any road in England, and is in appearance exactly like an English road. It was made throughout by convicts, and was manifestly made with the intention of being as like an English road as possible. The makers of it have perfectly succeeded. When it passes through forest land,—or bush,— the English traveller would imagine that there was a fox covert on each side of him. There are hedges too, and the fields are small. And there are hills on all sides, very like the Irish hills in county Cork. Indeed it is Ireland rather than England to which Tasmania may be compared. And, as I have said before, English,-or Irish,—coaches run upon the road; a night mail-coach, with driver and guard in red coats, and a day coach with all appurtenances after the old fashion. I found their pace when travelling to be about nine miles an hour. We went by the mail-coach as far as Campbelltown,-a place with about 1,600 inhabitants, which returns a member to parliament, and has a municipal council, four or five resident clergymen, a hospital, an agri- cultural association, and a cricket-club. Quite a place!— as the Americans say. When I asked whether it was pros- perous, my local friend shook his head. It ought to be the centre of a flourishing pastoral district. It is the centre of a pastoral district, which is not flourishing,-because of the rabbits. This wicked little prolific brute, introduced from England only a few years ago, has so spread himself about, that hardly a blade of grass is left for the sheep! But why not exterminate him, or at least keep him down? I asked the question with thorough confidence that the energies of man need not succumb to the energies of rabbits. I was told that the matter had gone too far, and that the rabbit 160 TASMANIA. had established his dominion. I cannot, however, but imagine that the rabbit could be conquered if Tasmania would really put her shoulder to the wheel. We passed a place called Melton, at which a pack of hounds was formerly kept, so called after the hunting metropolis in Leicestershire; and as I looked around I thought that I saw a country well adapted for running a drag. Foxes, if there were foxes, would all be away into the mountains. They used to hunt stags, but I should have thought that the stags would have taken to the hills. But the hunting had belonged to the good old prosperous con- vict days, and had passed away with other Tasmanian glories. At Bridgewater, within ten miles of Hobart Town, there is a magnificent causeway over the Derwent, about a mile long, which was of course built by convict labour, and which never would,-in Tasmania never could—have been made without it. Hobart Town, the capital of the colony, has about 20,000 inhabitants, and is as pleasant a town of the size as any that I know. Nature has done for it very much indeed, and money has done much also. It is beautifully situated,-as regards the water,-placed just at the point where the river becomes sea. It has quays and wharves, at which vessels of small tonnage can lie, in the very heart of the town. Vessels of any tonnage can lie a mile out from its streets. It is surrounded by hills and mountains, from which views can be had which would make the fortune of any district in Europe. Mount Wellington, nearly 5,000 feet high, is just enough of a mountain to give excitement to ladies and gentlemen in middle life. Mount Nelson is less lofty, but perhaps gives the finer prospect of the two. And the air of Hobart Town is perfect air. I was there in February,-the height of summer, having chosen to go to Tasmania at that time to avoid the great heat of the continent. I found the summer weather of Hobart Town to be delicious. And there were no musquitoes there. I have said something about Australian musquitoes before. They were not so bad as I had expected; but in certain places they had been troublesome, especially at Melbourne. But I knew nothing PRESENT CONDITION. 161 of them in Hobart Town. Other living plagues there were plenty in Tasmania, no doubt introduced, as were the rabbits, with the view of maintaining the general likeness to England. All fruits which are not tropical grow at Hobart Town and in the neighbourhood to perfection. Its cherries and mulberries are the finest I ever saw. Its strawberries, raspberries, apples, and pears are at any rate equal to the best that England produces. Grapes ripen in the open air. Tasmania ought to make jam for all the world, and would make jam for all the Australian world, were it not for Aus- tralian tariffs. Tasmanian jams would probably come to England if Tasmania could import Queensland sugar free of duty. As it is, fruit is so plentiful that in many cases it cannot be picked from the trees. It will not pay to pick it! So much in regard to the gifts bestowed by nature upon the capital of Tasmania. Art,-art in the hands of con- victs, has made it a pretty, clean, well-constructed town, with good streets and handsome buildings. The Govern- ment House is, I believe, acknowledged to be the best belonging to any British colony. It stands about a mile from the town, on ground sloping down to the Derwent,- which is here an arm of the sea, and lacks nothing neces- sary for a perfect English residence. The public offices, town-hall, and law courts are all excellent. The supreme court, as one of the judges took care to tell me, is larger than our Court of Queen's Bench at Westminster. The Houses of Parliament are appropriate and comfortable with every necessary appliance. They are not pretentious, nor can I say that the building devoted to them is handsome. There is a Protestant bishop of course, and a cathedral,— which a stranger, not informed on the subject, would mis- take for an old-fashioned English church in a third or fourth rate town. I was told that it is tumbling down; but a very pretty edifice is being erected close by its side. The work is still unfinished and funds are needed. Perhaps a generous reader might send a trifle. From Hobart Town various expeditions may be made. which amply repay the labour. I have already told how I went to Port Arthur. I was very anxious to get to Lake M 162 TASMANIA. St. Clair, but did not succeed. Lake St. Clair is nearly in the middle of the island, somewhat towards the west, or wilder part of it,-in County Lincoln, and is, I was informed, wonderfully wild and beautiful. It was described to me as another Killarney, but without roads. The beauty, too, I was told, could be well seen only from a boat, and there was no boat then on the lake. I found that I could not compass it without devoting more time than I had to spare, and I did not see Lake St. Clair. I went up the Der- went to New Norfolk and Fenton Forest, and across from Hobart Town to the Huon River and a township called Franklin, finding the scenery everywhere to be lovely. The fern-tree valleys on the road to the Huon are specially so,- and in one of these I was shown the biggest tree I ever saw. I took down the dimensions, and of course lost the note. It was quite hollow, and six or seven people could have sat round a table and dined within it. It was a gum-tree, bigger I imagine in girth, though not so tall as that which I de- scribed as having been found in Victoria, near the road from Woods Point to Melbourne. The River Huon is a dark, black, broad stream, running under hanging bushes,- very silent and clear, putting me in mind of the river in Evangeline. On the Upper Derwent, in the neighbourhood of New Norfolk, where the river Plenty joins the Derwent, there are the so-called Salmon Ponds. Now these salmon ponds are a matter of intense interest in Tasmania, and very much skill and true energy have been expended, and no slight amount of money also,-in efforts to introduce our river fish, especially the trout and salmon, into Tasmanian waters. In reference to trout the success has been perfect. The quantity in the rivers is already sufficient to justify the letting of fishing licenses at 20s. a year, and men who know how to fly-fish can get excellent sport. I have seen trout six and seven pound weight, and have eaten I think better trout in Tasmania than ever I did in England. In regard to salmon I can only say that there has as yet been no suc- cess. No one has as yet caught a Tasmanian salmon, though there are stories about of salmon having been seen. The PRESENT CONDITION. 163 man who catches the first salmon will be entitled to £30 reward.* Mr. Allport, of Hobart Town, a gentleman who has taken pains with the subject, and who thoroughly under- stands it, is confident of success. He gave me reasons to show how it is that the salmon should take much longer than the trout to establish themselves, and to prove that there was as yet no reason for a faint heart on this great matter. Mr. Allport's enthusiasm was catching, and I found myself ready to swear, after hearing him, that there must be salmon. Some other great scientific authority has declared,—thinks I believe that he has proved,—that it is impossible that there should be a salmon in Tasmania. It is a great question. I myself, in my ignorance, lean to Mr. Allport's side altogether, because I had the advantage of knowing Mr. Allport. I was only told of the adverse great authority. But the trout are a fact. I ate them again and again, with great satisfac- tion. I do not doubt that before long, with true Australian fecundity, they will swarm in Tasmanian rivers. In this part of the Island,—the part of which New Norfolk is the centre, about twenty-four miles up the Derwent from Hobart Town,—hops have lately been introduced with suc- cess. They grow with great luxuriance, and bear heavily. It is, indeed, hard to find anything that will not flourish in Tasmania,—except wheat, which seems in the Australian colonies generally to be of all crops the most hazardous. Everywhere one hears of rust. The stalk becomes hard, red, and thick under the influence of the sun, and then the grain is either not produced at all, or is a withered, shrivelled atom, giving no flour. Respecting the hops, I asked whether that at any rate was not a profitable enterprise. It would be, I was told, but for the damnable Victorian tariffs which had been invented with the primary object of ruining Tasmania, of bringing her so low that, to escape absolute ruin, she should be forced to annex herself to her big and cruel sister. That is the Tasmanian creed, and it is one not altogether unfounded on facts. It must be understood that * Since these words were first published the first salmon has, I am informed, been caught, and the reward given. IG4 TASMANIÀ. Victoria is the natural market for Tasmanian produce. Set- ting wool aside, which almost as a matter of course goes to England, and which constitutes above a third of the total exports from the colony, we find that nearly three-fourths of its surplus produce is shipped for Victoria. This is done in the teeth of the terrible Victorian tariffs, and we may there- fore be sure that the proportion would be much greater, and the produce sent very much more extensive, if the Victorian markets were open. Permission to sell her produce in Mel- bourne is the one thing necessary to ensure prosperity to Tas- mania. This refers to almost everything she produces,—to flour, wheat, oats, barley, fruit, jam, vegetables, cheese, butter, hides, and horses. I always take delight in reminding a Vic- torian,—who is a jam-loving creature,—that he is obliged to eat pumpkin jam, a filthy mixture just flavoured with fruit, because of the tariff by which he protects the fruit-grower of Victoria, who after all can't grow fruit. I know that this will bring down wrath on my head, because fruit is grown in Victoria,―very fine fruit, which I have seen and eaten. And how shall I be believed when with the same breath I warm my fingers and cool them ;-when in the same paragraph I declare that the fruit is grown and is not grown? Money and care no doubt will produce fruit in Victoria ;—but even Victorian shearers and Victorian miners cannot afford to eat jam made from costly fruits. Over in Tasmania fruit is rotting, fruit as fine as any that the world can produce,— because it is thought expedient to protect the Victorian raspberry. Oh, my Victorian friend, deluging your unfor- tunate inwards with pumpkin trash, it grieves me to think that the madness of this protection will not make itself apparent to you, till your taste will have been polluted and your digestion gone! You will, I fear, never live to learn what comforts, what luxuries, what ample bounties the rich world will give to him who will go out freely and buy what he wants in the cheap markets;—or how great, how fiendish, how unnatural is the injury done by him who won't let others go out and buy! In the meanwhile Tasmania sits pining because she cannot sell her fruit,—cannot sell her hops. PRESENT CONDITION. 165 Wool is at present the staple of this colony,-as of all the others. But pastoral interests do not prosper here as they do in the four great colonies on the continent. Although com- paratively so small a portion of the land has been bought from the Crown,-less than four million out of a total of nearly seventeen million acres,-very few flocks are pastured on runs leased from the Crown. There are altogether in Tasmania 1,350,000 sheep; and of these all but about 100,000 are pastured on purchased lands. In 1870 the sum derived by the colony from leases was only £7,210. In 1853 it amounted to very nearly £30,000. No doubt this has been caused by the sale of lands which had before been let; but the fact shows that it has not been found expedient to take up new lands for pastoral purposes, nor is it worth the wool- grower's while to do so. By far the greatest portion of the island is unfit even for pastoral purposes,—is too rough, too inaccessible, too rocky, and too heavily timbered. The grasses used for wool are not there,-or if there cannot be reached. I must not misuse the colony by omitting to say a word of her gold-fields. She has gold-fields,-especially that at Fingal. I believe I shall hardly be wrong in saying that there is no other to which it is necessary to call special atten- tion. But even on the Fingal gold-digging, very much has not yet been done. The young men of Tasmania who run to gold-rushes seek their fortunes beyond the island. Never- theless, gold that pays has been found in the north-eastern part of the colony, and it may be that even yet Tasmanian rushes will come into fashion. 66 The form of government in Tasmania is very much the same as in the other colonies. There is a "Legislative Council" or Upper House, and an Assembly," which is the Lower House. The governor of course is king, and is politically irresponsible. The Council is elected, and goes. out by rotation, each man sitting for six years. The As- sembly is elected for three years. In the latter manhood suffrage is the rule,—it being necessary that a man should be twenty-one years old, and have resided for a certain number of months in his district. For the Legislative Council there 166 TASMANIA. is a property qualification. Votes are of course taken by ballot. The chambers were not sitting when I was in Tas- mania, and I was informed that they do not sit on an average above two months in the year. Legislation in the colony is undemonstrative and unexciting. But I think that a quiet common sense prevails which makes it unnecessary that a Tasmanian should blush when he compares the legis- lative doings in his parliament with the work of any other colony. It strikes an Englishman with surprise to find repeated in so small a community as that of Tasmania all the fashions of government with which he has been familiar at home, but which, while he has acknowledged them to be good and serviceable for their required purposes, he has felt to be complex and almost confused,—and which he has known to have been reached not by concerted plan, but by happy accident, or rather by that arranging of circumstances which circumstances effect for themselves, when the intentions of men in regard to them are honest and high-minded. When a ministry at home is in a minority on any important sub- ject, any subject as to which the ministry has pledged itself,—the ministers resign in a body, and the Queen, at the advice of the outgoing premier, sends for that premier's chief political enemy. If that enemy, on assuming power, finds that the majority which brought him there will not support him while he is there, he goes to the country. Ą new House of Commons is elected, and as that House may have a bias this way or that, this or that political chieftain becomes the Queen's adviser. The system is complex, and very difficult to be understood by foreigners. Even Ameri- cans find it difficult of comprehension. We call it con- stitutional, but it is written nowhere. There is no law compelling the beaten minister to resign. There is no law compelling the monarch to send for a perhaps unpalatable politician. There is no standard by which, the importance of measures can be measured,—so that a man may say, On this measure a beaten minister will retire; but in regard to that measure a ministry, though beaten, may hold its ground. But by those who attend to politics at home the working of PRESENT CONDITION. 167 the thing is understood, and the system has become con- stitutional. No minister could live who would put himself into direct opposition to it, let his genius and statesmanship be what they might. Nor could any sovereign oppose it, and continue to be a sovereign in England. The system is supported by no law, but by a general feeling which is stronger than all laws,—and that general feeling of what is expedient makes, and builds up, and alters from time to time the political arrangement of public matters which we call our constitution. We understand, not accurately indeed, but after some fashion, this slow growth, and gra- dually self-arranging political machinery among ourselves at home who are an old people. But it is very singular that the same system should have been adopted with com- placency, almost without thought,-by our democratic children. The Australian colonies claim to govern them- selves in everything, to make what laws they please, to have what public ministers they choose, to spend what money they think right,-to be bound to the mother country only by their loyalty to the Crown. They do choose their own ministers, and give them what name they like. In one colony they have a colonial secretary, in another a chief secretary. In one colony it is reckoned that this secretary must be, and in another that he only may be, the head of the government. One colony delights to call its minister the premier, another taboos the name altogether. One colony has seven cabinet ministers, another six, another five. Tasmania has only four, one of whom has neither portfolio nor salary. In these matters they independently make their own arrangements. But the system under which ministers go out and come in, dissolve parliament, and live upon majorities,-under which the governor is advised by the retiring chieftain to send for the then popular rising star,—even though he, the governor, should think the then popular rising star to be the most inefficient and dangerous man in the colony,-is the exact copy of our political con- stitutional system at home. The revenue in Tasmania amounts to about £220,000 a year, and the expenditure has been a little higher. I do 168 TASMANIA. not give the exact sum, because the figures before me will be an old story before this is published. The public debt amounts to £1,328,000, which includes a sum of £400,000 advanced to the Launceston and Deloraine Railway. The taxation only just exceeds £2 a head, and cannot therefore be regarded as heavy. There is a separate land fund, which is burdened with expenses incident to the land. The amounts received for sale and leases of crown lands are expended on the land or on public works, so that no abso- lute revenue is thus received. CHAPTER IV. FUTURE PROSPECTS. THAT Tasmania is going gradually to the mischief seems to be the fixed opinion of Tasmanian politicians generally. That such a belief as to one's country should not be accom- panied by any personal act evincing despair, has been the case in all national panics. English country gentlemen have very often been sure of England's ruin; but I have never heard of the country gentleman who, in consequence of his belief, sold his estate and went to live elsewhere. Speculative creeds either in politics or religion seldom prove their sincerity by altered conduct. Modern prophets have more than once or twice named some quick-coming date on which the world would end; but the prophets have made their investments and taken their leases seemingly in anticipation of a long course of future years. So it is in Tasmania. Even they who are most unhappy as to the state of things live on comfortably amidst the approaching ruin. What the stranger sees of life in the island is very comfortable. The houses are well built, and are kept in good order. The public offices are clean, spacious, and commodious. The public garden is large, and, for so small a place, well kept and handsome. The inns are fairly good, as also are the shops. I here speak both of Hobart Town and Launceston, the only two towns in the colony. Hobart Town in round numbers has 20,000 inhabitants, and Laun- ceston 11,000. But they have the appearance of large and thriving cities much more than have towns with a similar population in England. Nevertheless, the Tasmanians ac- 170 TASMANIA, knowledge it to be the fact that Tasmania is going to the mischief. The loudest grumblers declare that the ruin is to be found rifest in the rural districts, among the country folk and poor people. Hobart Town, they say, is kept alive by visitors who flock to it for the summer months from the other colonies; and Launceston has whatever relics of prosperous trade the island still possesses. The people in the rural districts, they say, are generally so poor that they can with difficulty live. I have, however, already stated how infi- nitely superior is the condition of the Tasmanian labourer to that of his brother at home in England. No doubt, however, there are grounds for grumbling; or it might be more just to say that there is cause for appre- hension. Though Tasmania is as yet only seventy years old, as a country inhabited by white men, and, being still in its early youth, it should be yearly laying up new blood and new bone in the shape of increased population. It is not doing so. For some years past, there has been no increase of which the colony can boast. During four years, from 1866 to 1870, the total increase was 403. As 340 emigrants, chiefly German, were brought into the colony in 1870 by a system of bounties,-a number so small as to show that the effort was a failure, it must be acknowledged that those immediate attractions which give increased popu- lation to a young colony have departed from it. And the grumblers are justified also by the condition of trade gene- rally. In 1861 the eight chief articles exported from Tas- mania were as follows:- • Wool Wheat Oats Sperm oil Timber Fruit (including jams) Horses Flour • Value £326,000 82,000 81,000 59,000 55,000 50,000 42,000 39,000 £734,000 FUTURE PROSPECTS. 171 In 1870 the amounts were altered as follows:- Wool Wheat • Oats • Sperm oil Timber Fruit (including jams) Horses Flour • £246,000 15,000 56,000 33,000 37,000 84,000 5,000 I1,000 £487,000 These figures show a decrease in every article except fruit; a total decrease of £247,000,―or, in round numbers, about one-third,—and a decrease of £120,000 in corn and flour alone. No doubt for so small a community such a falling off is very serious, and justifies apprehensions. Such a diminution in the supply of wheat would lead to the fear that the colony would soon fail to feed itself with flour and grain, did not we know that the exportation of these articles from Tasmania had been stopped by the Victorian tariffs. As long as Victoria charges 9d. a hundredweight on the importation of all grain, Tasmania will be shut out from the market which is nearest to her,—indeed, from the only foreign market to which she has hitherto been able to sell her produce other than wool. In regard to wool, which is still the staple of the colony, and as to which the above figures show the greatest decrease, the circumstances admit of a certain amount of explanation. The weight of the wool exported in 1870 was as great as that produced in 1861,-indeed, something greater; and the fall in the figures is due to the depreciation in value,- which, as all persons interested in the Australian colonies are aware, has again risen very greatly since the crop of 1870 was sold. And, again, the time of shearing, which varies according to circumstances of the year, threw over a portion of the wool of 1870 to the sales of 1871. It appears that in 1868 the amount of Tasmanian wool sold was 6,136,426 lbs.; in 1869, 5,607,083 lbs. ; and in 1870, only 4,146,913 lbs. The great difference apparent between 1868 172 TASMANIA. and 1870 was caused by the later shearing of the latter year, and therefore does not show, as it might seem to do, any serious decay in the pastoral interest of the colony. In respect to the other articles enumerated, especially in regard to cereal produce,—there is evidence of decay where especially there should be increasing life; and it is of extreme importance that they who are interested not only in this colony, but in the Australian colonies generally, should inquire and understand how it has come to pass that in a land so gifted as Tasmania,-in a land more fitted by climate for English emigrants than, I believe, any other on the face of the earth,—in a land that might flow with milk and honey, in a country possessing harbours, rivers, and roads,— things should already be going from bad to worse, instead of from good to better. The convict system no doubt brought with it much of evil for which it must answer, also many advantages with which it should be credited. The profuse expenditure of government money, and the use of what may be called slave labour, no doubt had a tend- ency to paralyze the energies of the settlers. The condition produced was unwholesome, and such unwholesomeness clings long. But the Tasmanians themselves understood this, and got rid of the thing. The convict flavour is quickly passing away from them; and though a certain lack of vitality among some classes may still be due to the condition of a convict settlement as I have endeavoured to describe it, Tasmania will gradually throw off that disease as New South Wales has already done. But there are other diseases which she cannot throw off,-or rather there is another cause for disease of which she cannot rid herself,—as long as the existing unnatural position of the Australasian colo- nies towards each other in regard to commerce remains unaltered. I will state here the populations of the colonies. roughly :- Victoria has New South Wales South Australia Queensland Tasmania 750,000 souls. 500,000 "" 185,000 I20,000 "" "" 100,000 99 FUTURE PROSPECTS. 173 Western Australia • New Zealand • 25,000 souls. 250,000 Putting aside New Zealand,-which, however, is quite as much interested in the matter as the others, we find that they are like so many English counties, or, as the area is very large, like so many American states, contiguous to each other, speaking the same language, having the same or similar interests, connected in and out by joint properties, joint families, and joint names, attached to the same mother country, having nothing but a name to mark their borders. There is indeed no such dissimilarity of interests as between Lancashire and Wiltshire, for wool is the staple produce of each of them. There is no such cause of disruption as between the Southern and Northern States of America,— no dissimilarity of character as between the Eastern and Western States. They are at least as much one people as are the inhabitants of the dominion of Canada. They are much more one people than were the various German nationalities who had found it to be impossible not to bind themselves together by a customs union, even before Prussia had bound them together politically. They are all English ;—and not a law can be passed by them without the assent of an Eng- lish minister or his deputy. And yet they levy customs duties among each other as do the various nations of Europe;—or rather as did the various nations of Europe before the prin- ciple of free-trade had been efficacious in liberating a single branch of commerce. It is not my purpose here to discuss free trade, or to attempt to prove its beneficent action. I am content in my humble way to point out that people who reject free trade must be content to eat pumpkin mixture and call it strawberry jam. Those of my readers who are still in favour of protecting home industry by duties on imported goods will not be converted by me. In regard to the great majority of my countrymen I may take it for granted that on this matter we are of one opinion. The question here is not one of free trade;-but of free trade between the Australian colonies, which may be accompanied by any amount of protection by them all against the outside world. 174 TASMANIA. It is as though we should have discussed the expediency of border customs between Lancashire and Yorkshire at a time in which we levied duties on silks from France and Italy. There was a question among us then,--a much-vexed ques- tion,—as to the imposition of duties on foreign articles; but no man would have been listened to for a moment who would have proposed border customs between our counties at home. Such a man would have been simply insane. The man who should do so in America with regard to the different states would be equally so. The German Zollverein showed what was the feeling of Germany generally in the matter. But the Australian colonies still act against each other as though they were separate nations. And they are forbidden by the English law as it at pre- sent stands to do otherwise, though the English govern- ment has more than once offered to the colonies its sanction for the abolition of the absurdity in the gross. As the law stands at present any British colony, and therefore any one of the Australias, may levy what taxes and what customs duties it thinks fit to levy; but it cannot levy differential duties. New South Wales for instance may put what duty it shall please on sugar;—but it cannot receive Queensland sugar free of duty and charge a duty on sugar from the Mauritius or from Cuba. And yet there is no more than a nominal border-line between the two colonies, the two places being as closely joined as any two English counties. Victoria may receive wheat free from all the world; but she cannot receive wheat free from South Australia, with which she borders as Yorkshire does with Lancashire, unless she receive it free also from all the world. The law has been so fixed in order that no dependency of Great Britain should be able to sin against that free-trade policy by which Eng- land professes to regulate her dealings with foreign countries. Differential duties may, no doubt, be levied with the express view of injuring the trade of an especial country; and if England binds herself not to commit the injury, it is intel- ligible that she should bind her dependent colonies to the same extent. But England has in point of fact abandoned the principle FUTURE PROSPECTS. 175 in regard to intercolonial trade;-not because it is felt that the principle is not as applicable to the colonies as to Eng- land, but on the conviction that Australia in regard to trade must and should be regarded as one whole,—as is the Canadian dominion, as are the United States, as were the German kingdoms when Germany was politically divided. A reference to the population of the colonies, to their geographical position and affinities, to their joint interests, to their real oneness as a people, convinces the merest tyro in political economy of the absurdity of border duties be- tween them,—almost equally of the absurdity of duties levied from port to port. On the 15th July, 1870, the Secretary of State for the Colonies wrote the following circular to the different Australian governors :— "SIR,-I think it important to ensure that the governors of the Australian colonies should not misunderstand the views of Her Majesty's government with regard to intercolonial free trade. "The different colonies of Australia are at present, in respect of their customs duties, in the position of separate and independent countries. So long as they remain in that relation, a law which authorised the importation of goods from one colony to another on any other terms than those applicable to the imports from any foreign country would be open, in the view of Her Majesty's government, to the objection of principle which attaches to differential duties. "But Her Majesty's government would not object to the establish- ment of a complete customs union between the Australian colonies, whether embracing two or more contiguous colonies, or,-which would be preferable,—the whole Australian continent with its adjacent islands. If any negotiations should be set on foot with this object you are at liberty to give them your cordial support. (Signed) "KIMBERLEY.' I cannot think that any one will read this without agree- ing with Lord Kimberley, though probably most who do so. would express their agreement in stronger terms, as to the present condition of Australian customs duties than it would suit a Secretary of State to use. But this proposition on the part of Lord Kimberley altogether abandons the ques- tion as to differential duties between the colonies. If there were an Australian customs union New South Wales would get Queensland sugar free of duty, but might still charge what duty it pleased on Cuban sugar. Victoria would 176 TASMANIA. import free wine from New South Wales,-which she does largely, and free wine from South Australia, and free hops from Tasmania; but would still put what duties she pleased on French wines, and Chilian wheat, and English hops. And this permission would be given, not because English statesmen have gone back in their opinion about differential duties, but because the maintenance of hostile trade in- terests between communities so bound together as are these colonies is a worse evil than the semblance of differential duties which would thus be allowed to exist. But the colonies are not ready for a customs union. Three of them, Tasmania, South Australia, and New Zealand, have expressed a general concurrence; others a qualified con- currence. Victoria is the greatest sinner in the matter,— being for the time wedded to protection in all its deformity. In the meantime permission has been asked by certain of the colonies, and notably by Tasmania, on whose behalf the matter has been argued with great vigour by her minister, Mr. Wilson,—that they should be allowed to arrange their intercolonial customs without reference to the duties charged on extra-colonial articles,—and that they should be permitted to do this, as a measure paving the way to a customs union. This permission has been refused them, and I must acknow- ledge that in the correspondence which has taken place on the subject I think that the Tasmanian statesman gets the better of Downing Street. I give in an Appendix, No. 3,- as they are too long for insertion in the text,—Lord Kim- berley's circular dispatch on the subject, dated 13th July, 1871; and Mr. Wilson's memorandum in answer to it. We cannot prevent the colonists from entertaining pro- tectionist principles,-cannot go back to a condition of things which would enable the mother country to dictate to the colonies on the subject. Universal suffrage undoubtedly assists protection. The fabricator of any article sees that a tax on that article when imported will force the world around him to use the article home-made, and that then his peculiar labour will be fostered and protected. If foreign boots be made dear by a tax, the local bootmaker can get 5s. a pair for making boots; but if foreign boots be sold cheap, he FUTURE PROSPECTS. 177 cannot get above 3s. 6d. The Victorian farmer,—a very small man usually,-thinks that he cannot grow wheat and live if wheat from Adelaide be admitted to the markets on the same terms as his own wheat. Men learn so much quickly. The lesson is acquired on the first aspect of the matter. The consequent evil results to these shallow pupils in having to pay double for goods which they consume and do not produce, requires a deeper insight into matters, and an insight accompanied by some calculation, before it pro- duces a conviction. At home, in England, the working man is certainly not superior in intelligence to his Australian brother, but he is subjected in his political instincts and inquiries to higher and, I must say, to more honest influ- ences. I cannot bring myself to believe that he is generally made to understand great political truths, but he is made to believe that this or that politician is a safe political guide, and he votes accordingly. And on one subject, which is to him of all the most important,-the subject of food,-he has been made to understand that free trade means a cheap loaf. In Australia food is plentiful, and the labourer feels com- paratively little solicitude on this subject. Each man wishes to protect from competition that which he himself makes. The Victorian, in his wisdom, desires to give nothing out of his store to any fellow-labourer from South Australia or from Tasmania;—at any rate to give as little as possible. He therefore is a protectionist ;—and the would-be minister of the day is a protectionist because he wants the labourer's vote. It is thus that protection has become rife, and we cannot cure the evil suddenly by any order to be given, or by any permission to be refused. The ordinary educated traveller in the colonies,-getting into the society which will fall naturally in his way,—will find that almost every person he meets is opposed to protection. But everybody will tell him at the same time that protection cannot be abolished. The voters like it, and the voters are omnipotent. There is a variation in the feeling in the various colonies ;-but this is the general state of the colonial mind on the subject. If it be so, it should, I think, be the object of governments at N 178 TASMANIA. same. home to develop as far as possible all operations which will tend in the first place to create intercolonial free trade. The existing state of things has the double evil,—the first natural evil of impeding trade and of impoverishing every- body concerned; and the further evil of fostering rivalries and hostilities between people who are in fact one and the That a general customs union would, of all steps in the right direction, be the greatest and the wisest there can hardly be a doubt. To me it seems to be almost equally clear that any measure tending to abolish customs duties between the colonies would be a step towards a customs union. Let New South Wales be enabled to take free sugar from Queensland, and Queensland will take fruit on the same terrns from New South Wales. The condition of the colonies makes it obvious that there should be no customs levied between them. Poor little Tasmania is straining every nerve to obtain the privilege of sending her produce for the consumption of her sister colonies, especially of Victoria, without which privilege she cannot continue to exist. The value of the exports from any country are, or should be, but small in comparison with the value of the produce consumed at home;—but the smaller the country is, the more certain is the ruin entailed upon it by prohibition from selling its goods in an outside market. Its condition becomes such as that would be of a small wheat-growing English county debarred from selling its wheat beyond its own confines. The richness of its own produce would become its own greatest burden. Industry and energy would naturally disappear. A large population with diverse employments, producing all, or nearly all, that it wants, can live in such a condition, though the life would be a bad life;-but a small community would be as were Robinson Crusoe and his man Friday, wanting almost all that man requires, though overladen with much plenty. There is a remedy at hand for the injury which Tasmania now suffers,—but it is a remedy which she cannot adopt without soreness of heart, without dishonour, without self- annihilation. She can become a part of Victoria, and then FUTURË PROSPECTS. 179 the Victorian markets will be open to her. Let her implore Victoria to take her, and then she will be able to sell her wheat and her oats, her fruit and her jam, her hops and her horses at Melbourne. "You had better do it," the Vic- torian says to the Tasmanian. "It will come at last.” Men in Tasmania are beginning to feel that perhaps they had better do it, though the idea is odious to them. It is impossible that this island ever should be amalgamated with the big continental colony on equal terms. Were the arrangement made on seemingly equitable terms, on terms fixed in accordance with the population, Tasmania would send to the Victorian legislature one Tasmanian for every eight Victorians, or thereabouts; and the men so sent would have to remain in Melbourne for eight or nine months of parliamentary work. This small minority would be almost voiceless among their louder brethren, and it would soon come to pass that Tasmanians would not go there. Tasmania would be represented by Victorians, to whom she would have to pay the salaries which Victorian legislators now receive. Hobart Town would no longer be a seat of government. Some judge would come there on periodical visits as often as Victorian generosity would permit, and that judge would be Victorian. The little colony would be handed over, bound hand and foot, to her strong-fisted sister, and there would be the end of all her glories. The reader will perhaps feel that these are simply sentimental objections, and will say that the material advantages to be gained would more than compensate them. But sentimental grievances are of all grievances the heaviest to bear, and the material advantages are only those which the colony has a right to expect without any sacrifice of her honour. Such a change of things would be detrimental not only to Tasmania, but to all Australia generally. I have suggested in a former paragraph that a general federal union of these colonies into one nationality will take place sooner or later. Such I believe to be the opinion of almost all who have thought upon the subject. But nothing will tend so much to delay this result as the special greatness and supe- riority in population and wealth of any one colony. The 180 TASMANIA. big colony will think twice before it will admit the little colony to equal terms with it. There was much generosity on foot when Virginia and New York united themselves with Rhode Island, and a great patriotic idea was urgent in the breasts of great patriots. Among the Australian colonies each colony recognises with astonishing accuracy its own position in wealth and population. Victoria is even now much the biggest. Were Tasmania to become a part of Victoria, I fear that the difficulty of forming, first, a customs union and then a political federal union, would become greater even than it is at present. It is to be presumed that such amalgamation could not be effected without the consent of the government at home, and that the matter is one as to which a Secretary of State would feel himself justified in refusing his consent on the ground of general policy. If there is to be an Australian as well as a Canadian dominion, or rather a union of states,— for such must be the condition rather than the other, it will be more easily effected with many than with a few. Before that day shall arrive, there will probably be a northern colony in Queensland, and a further division from New South Wales in the direction of the big rivers. And there will be a northern territory in that which is all now called South Australia, with a capital at Port Darwin. I trust that the fairest and prettiest and pleasantest of all the colonies will not then have been absorbed, so that the name of Tasmania shall be absent from the roll of Australiar. States, APPENDIX. APPENDIX No. I., page 87. Regulations under which free-selections of Land can be made in Victoria, taken from MacPhaile's Australian Squatting Directory. For Crown lands, not being lands included in any city, town, or borough, licenses to occupy for a period of three years, at a rental of 2s. per acre per annum, any such license not to be for more than 320 acres, may be granted by the Governor to any person applying and paying half a year's rent in advance for such allotment. Applications for licenses may be made on any day during office hours, personally, to a land officer for the district, and applicants shall at the time of application deposit half a year's rent of allotment in advance. Every license shall be issued under the following conditions:-(1.) A condition for the payment of the fee in advance at half-yearly intervals. (2.) A condition that the licensee will not, during the currency of such license, assign the license, nor transfer his right, title, and interest therein, or in the allotment therein described, or any part thereof, nor sublet the said allotment or any part thereof, and that the license shall become absolutely void on assignment of such license, whether by operation of law or otherwise, or upon the said allotment or any part thereof being sublet. (3.) A condition that the licensee shall, within two years from the issue of such license, enclose the land described in such license with a good and substantial fence, and shall, during the currency of such license, cultivate at least one acre out of every ten acres thereof. (4.) A condition annulling the license in case of non- payment of the fees, or any of them, in accordance with the conditions herein mentioned, or in case the licensee shall not, within six months after the issue of the license, and thenceforward during the continuance of such license, occupy the allotment, or in case substantial and per- manent improvements certified in writing under the seal of the Board or under the hands of arbitrators to be of the value of £1 for every acre and fractional part of an acre of the allotment shall not have been made on the allotment, by the licensee, his executors, or administrators, 182 APPENDIX. before the end of the third year from the commencement of the license, or in case of the breach or non-fulfilment of any of the conditions of the license, or of a violation of any of the provisions of this Act. (5.) A condition that if the licensee shall, during the said period, occupy the allotment for not less than two years and a half, and shall fence and cultivate as herein provided, and make the improvements of the nature and value in the previous condition mentioned, on the allotment during the said period of three years, and shall prove to the satisfaction of the Board (to be certified under its seal) by such evidence as the Board may require that he has complied with the said conditions, and with all other conditions of the said license, he shall be entitled at any time, within thirty days after three years from the commencement of the license, to demand and obtain from the Governor a Crown grant, upon payment of 14s. for each acre or fractional part of an acre, or otherwise he may obtain a lease of the said allotment; and every such lease shall be for a term of seven years, at a yearly rent payable in equal parts half-yearly in advance of 2s. for each acre or fractional part of an acre so demised, and shall contain the usual covenant for the payment of rent, and a condition for re-entry on non-payment thereof; and upon the payment of the last sum due on account of the rent so reserved, or at any time during the term, upon payment of the difference between the amount of rent actually paid and the entire sum of £1 for each acre, the lessee, or his representatives, shall be entitled to a grant in fee of the lands leased, and every such grant shall be subject to such covenants, conditions, ex- ceptions, and reservations as the Governor may direct: Provided that in the case of the death of the licensee during the currency of such license it shall not be obligatory on the executors or administrators of such licensee to comply with the said condition of occupation. No such license or lease shall give power to any licensee, lessee, or assignee to search for or to take any metal; and it is provided that before any license or lease is issued to any applicant, he shall make a declaration on oath before a justice, in a form settled by the regulations, that his application is made in conformity with the provisions of this Act. No person shall become the licensee, either in his own name or in the name of any other person, of any allotment, who shall have selected, under any previous Land Act, the maximum number of 320 acres allowed under this Act, or who shall have taken up a pre-emptive right, or shall have made a selection, or whose selection shall have been forfeited or cancelled for the evasion of any such Act. But a selecter under any previous Act may take up a sufficient quantity of land to make up the 320 acres allowed by this Act. No person shall become the licensee of any allotment who is under eighteen years of age, or who is a married woman not having obtained a decree of judicial separation, or who is a trustee, servant, or agent in respect of the license applied for, or who has entered into any arrange- ment to permit any other person to acquire, by purchase or otherwise, the allotment or any part of it, or the applicant's interest in the usufruct of it, and all land applied for under this Act shall be so applied for APPENDIX. 183 bonâ fide for the use and benefit of the applicant in his own proper person, and not as the agent, servant, or trustee of any other person, on pain of the forfeiture of the license, and all contracts made in violation of the Act shall be held to be illegal and absolutely void both at law and equity. I If it be proved to the satisfaction of the Board within sixty days of the end of the third year from the commencement of the license that substantial and permanent improvements of the value of £1 per acre of the allotment have been made upon it, in the terms of the condition of the license, a certificate under the seal of the Board, to that effect, shall be given to the licensee, his executors or administrators. But if the Board be not satisfied that such improvements of the value aforesaid have been made, then such improvements as have been made may be valued by arbitration, one arbitrator being chosen by the licensee, his executors or administrators, another by the Board, and a third by the two arbitrators so chosen; and such arbitrators, or any two of them, shall make their valuation in writing within four months after the end of the third year from the commencement of the license. But if either party shall neglect to appoint an arbitrator, then the one chosen by the other party shall have full power to value. The Board shall, as soon as possible after the last days of June and December in every year, prepare a list of the names of all persons from whom fees or rent shall have become due on leases granted under the Land Act, 1862, or the Amending Land Act, 1865, on leases or licenses under this part of this Act, and who shall not have paid such fees or rent, and the days upon which such fees or rent become due, and such list shall be forthwith published in the "Government Gazette,' and the insertion in such list of the name of any person from whom such fees or rent have become due, shall be prima facie evidence of the non-payment of such fees or rent, and shall be evidence of notice to the parties named that their fees or rent are due, and that payment thereof has been lawfully demanded. >> The licensee, the lessee, and assigns of an allotment of land shall have all the rights against trespassers which at law belong to the owner in possession of any land, except the right of impounding; but so soon as the allotment, or the part of it trespassed on, shall have been properly fenced, then they shall have that right also. Holders of licenses of land under any other Act, of which the licensees shall have been in possession at least two years and a half, if it be proved to the satisfaction of the Board that they have erected buildings or other improvements on such lands, and that the conditions of the license have been complied with, and there be no objections on account of the ground being auriferous, or other reasons of a public nature, shall have the exclusive right to purchase the allotment on which such improvements stand, at a price to be determined by the Board not to exceed the upset price of the nearest land sold by the Crown before the issue of such license, and so much of the rent paid by the licensee during his possession of the land shall be credited to him in the purchase money of the said land. 184 APPENDIX. APPENDIX No. II., page 72. Melbourne Botanic Garden, 21st February, 1872. TO CLEMENT HODGKINSON, ESQ., ASSISTANT-COMMISSIONER OF LANDS AND SURVEY. Sir,-Referring to your suggestions of the 12th inst., I took the earliest opportunity of acting upon them, and accordingly, on the 15th inst., I proceeded to the Watts River, and carefully inspected the heavily timbered country extending from Mount Monda to Mount Juliet, also the various spurs and tributaries of the Watts, extending as high up as the crest of the dividing range and the watershed of the Goulbourn River. I have now the honour to report that a very large extent of the above country is densely timbered with various species of Eucalypti, consisting principally of Eucalyptus obliqua, E. Amygdalina, and E. Goniocalyx. Immense numbers of each of the above species have attained gigantic dimensions, and very much surpass any other species of Eucalypti I have ever met with in other forests. On penetrating into many of the secluded spots near the source of the Watts, and on the spurs of the ranges in the vicinity, I met with large tracts of valuable timber; enough to supply all ordinary demands for many years, if carefully conserved. In many places I observed large areas where the axe of the splitter is yet unknown, and where the timber averages from 100 to 150 trees per acre, with a diameter of from 2 ft. to 6 ft., and from 250 ft. to 300 ft. in height, the most of which is as straight as an arrow, with very few branches. Some places, where the trees are fewer and at a lower altitude, the timber is much larger in diameter, averaging from 6 ft. to 10 ft., and frequently trees of 15 ft. in diameter are met with on alluvial flats near the river. These trees average about ten per acre; their size, some- times, is enormous. Many of the trees that have fallen through decay and by bush fires measure 350 ft. in length, and with girth in propor- tion. In one instance I measured with the tape line one huge specimen that lay prostrate across a tributary of the Watts, and found it to be 435 ft. from its roots to the top of the trunk. At 5 ft. from the ground it measures 18 ft. in diameter, and at the extreme end where it has broken in its fall, it is 3 ft. in diameter. This tree has been much burnt by fire, and I fully believe that before it fell it must have been more than 500 ft. high. As it now lies it forms a complete bridge across a deep ravine. Proceeding from Fernshaw up the Black Spur, some large specimens of Eucalyptus obliqua and Amygdalina may be seen; but it is only by leaving the main road and following some of the splitters' tracks for several miles higher up the Watts that the forests of fine timber and large trees are to be found. On some spurs of these ranges, where the APPENDIX. 185 timber is extra fine in quality, some few trees have been felled by splitters, but the mountainous nature of the country, and the difficulty of transport, is so great, it will be many years before much destruction can be done in this part of the forest. The number of splitters at present working in these forests is very limited, and is likely to continue so. In many places they have to carry their paling and shingles for long distances on pack-horses. The ranges are so steep that it is a work of much difficulty to convey them to some accessible spot. However, the splitter in this region seldom meets with a hollow tree, and he takes care to select such trees only as will turn out from 10,000 to 20,000 palings, and frequently a much greater number. The only destruction at present to be dreaded in these forests is fire. The scrub is so dense that it is difficult to penetrate far into it, and frequently fire is used to clear a track, and in its progress makes sad havoc. Many of the deep ravines and sides of creeks in this locality abound with splendid specimens of native beech (Fungus Cunninghamii), some of which measure upwards of 100 ft. high, with a diameter of trunk from 5 to 8 ft. This timber is of great value, and ought to be strictly preserved. Great quantities of blackwood (Acacia Melanoxylon), of large dimensions and fine quality, are everywhere interspersed through- out these forests, mixed with sassafras trees (Atherosperma Moschatum) and dogwood (Pomaderris apetala), also of large size. Lomatia Fraserii also forms a goodly sized tree in the fern-tree gullies, along with Acacia decurrens, many of which have attained the height of 150 ft., with magnificent straight trunks of from two to three feet in diameter. The timber of this species is well adapted for staves for wine casks and other purposes. Seeing that such large quantities of valuable timber abound in the valley of the Watts, and on the spurs adjacent, I would respectfully beg to recommend the reservation of every acre, wherever it would not interfere with settlement, for, as a whole, the timber in the locality of the Watts, and ranges adjacent, is of far more value than the land, and it is rare to find such forests of sound timber in any other part of Victoria. I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant, WILLIAM FERGUSON, Inspector of State Forests. 186 APPENDIX. APPENDIX No. III., page 176. CORRESPONDENCE AS TO THE CREATION OF A CUSTOMS UNION AMONG THE COLONIES. CIRCULAR. SIR, Downing Street, 13th July, 1871. I HAVE had for some time under my consideration Despatches from the Governors of several of the Australasian Colonies, intimating the desire of the Colonial Governments that any two or more of those Colonies should be permitted to conclude agreements securing to each other reciprocal Tariff advantages; and reserved Bills to this effect have already reached me from New Zealand and Tasmania. It appears that whilst it is at present impossible to form a general Customs Union, owing to the conflicting views of the different Colonial Governments as to Customs Duties, the opinion extensively prevails, which was expressed at the Intercolonial Conference held at Melbourne last year, in favour of such a relaxation of the Law as would allow each Colony of the Australasian Group to admit any of the products or manufactures of the other Australasian Colonies Duty free, or on more favourable terms than similar products and manufactures of other Countries. At the same time it has not been stated to me from any quarter that the subject urgently presses for the immediate decision or action of Her Majesty's Government; and I trust, therefore, that any delay that may arise in dealing with it will be attributed to its true cause, namely, to the desire of Her Majesty's Government to consider the subject delibe- rately in all its bearings with a view to arrive at such a settlement as may not merely meet temporary objects, but constitute a permanent system resting upon sound principles of commercial policy. The necessary consultations with the Board of Trade and with the Law Officers have unavoidably been protracted to a late period of the Session; and if Her Majesty's Government were satisfied that they could properly consent to the removal of the restrictions against Differential Duties, it would not be possible now to obtain for so im- portant a measure the attention which it should receive from Parliament. It is by no means improbable that the introduction of a Bill to enable the Australasian Colonies to impose Differential Duties might raise serious discussions and opposition both in Parliament and in the Country, on the ground that such a measure would be inconsistent with the principles of Free Trade, and prejudicial to the commercial and political relations between the different parts of the Empire; and I feel confident that the Colonial Governments will not regret to have an opportunity afforded them of further friendly discussion of the whole subject, after learning the views of Her Majesty's Government upon it, before any final conclusion is arrived at. I will therefore proceed to APPENDIX. 187 notice those points which seem to Her Majesty's Government to require particular examination. The Government of New Zealand appears from the Bill laid before the House of Representatives, and from the financial statement of the Treasurer, to have originally contemplated the granting of special bonuses to goods imported into New Zealand from the other Australa- sian Colonies. As, however, this expedient was not eventually adopted, I am relieved from the necessity of discussing the objections to such a mode of avoiding the rule against Differential Duties. The proposal now before me raises the following questions; viz.,— I. Whether a precedent exists in the case of the British North American Colonies for the relaxation of the rule or law now in force. 2. Whether Her Majesty's Treaty obligations with any Foreign Powers interfere with such relaxation. 3. Whether a general power should be given to the Australasian Governments to make reciprocal Tariff arrangements, imposing Dif- ferential Duties, without the consent of the Imperial Government in each particular case. 4. Whether on grounds of general Imperial policy the proposal can properly be adopted. The Attorney-General of New Zealand, in his Report accompanying the reserved Bill, observes that its main provisions are almost a literal copy of provisions which have been for some time past in force in Canada and other North American Colonies; and I observe that in the various communications before me the argument is repeatedly pressed that the Australasian Colonies are entitled to the same treatment in this respect as the North American Colonies. It may be as well, therefore, to explain what these provisions actually are. I enclose extracts from the Acts of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island of the year 1856; but I need not dwell upon them, because, as dealing with a limited list of raw materials and produce not imported to those Colonies from Europe, they are hardly, if at all, applicable to the present case; and I shall refer only to the Act passed by the Dominion of Canada in 1867 (31 Vict. cap. 7), which is the enactment principally relied upon as a precedent. Schedule D of this Act exempts from Duty certain specified raw materials and produce of the British North American Provinces; and the 3rd Section enacts, that "any other articles than those mentioned in Schedule D, being of the growth and produce of the British North American Provinces, may be specially exempted from Customs Duty by order of the Governor in Council." This, which was one of the first Acts of the Legislature of the newly constituted Dominion in its opening Session, was passed in the expecta- tion that, at no distant date, the other Possessions of Her Majesty in North America would become part of the Dominion; and the assent of Her Majesty's Government to a measure passed in circumstances so peculiar and exceptional cannot form a precedent of universal and necessary application,-although I am not prepared to deny that the 188 APPENDIX. Australasian Governments are justified in citing it as an example of the admission of the principle of Differential Duties. With reference to the second question, as to the existence of any Treaty the obligations of which might be inconsistent with compliance by Her Majesty with the present proposal, the Board of Trade have informed me that this point could only be raised in connection with the terms of the Treaty between this Country and the Zollverein of 1865, extended through the operation of the "most favoured nation" Article to all other countries possessing rights conferred by that stipulation. The 7th Article of that Treaty, which extends the provisions of previous Articles to the Colonies and Foreign Possessions of Her Majesty, contains the following provision:- "In the Colonies and Possessions the produce of the States of the Zollverein shall not be subject to any higher or other Import Duties than the produce of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland or of any other Country of the like kind." I am advised that this 7th Article may be held not to preclude Her Majesty from "permitting the Legislature of a British Possession to impose on articles being the pro- duce of the States of the Zollverein any higher or other Import Duties than those which are levied on articles of the like kind which are the produce of another British Possession, provided such Duties are not higher or other than the Duties imposed on articles of the like kind being the produce of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire- land." But, apart from the strict interpretation of the Treaty, it seems very doubtful whether it would be a wise course on the part of the Australa- sian Colonies, which both as regards Emigration and Trade have more extensive relations with Germany than with perhaps any other Foreign Country, to place German products and manufactures under disadvan- tages in the Colonial markets. Proceeding to the third question, whether, if the principle of allowing the imposition of Differential Duties were conceded, the Colonies could be permitted to impose such Duties without the express sanction of the Imperial Government in each particular case, you will be prepared, by what I have already said, to learn that I consider it open to serious doubt whether such absolute freedom of action could be safely given. Her Majesty's Government are alone responsible for the due ob- servance of Treaty arrangements between Foreign Countries and the whole Empire: and it would be scarcely possible for the Colonial Governments to foresee the extent to which the trade of other parts of the Empire might be affected by special Tariff agreements between particular Colonies. It must, moreover, be anticipated that these differential agreements, being avowedly for the supposed benefit of certain classes of the com- munity, would be liable to be affected by temporary political circum- stances. The door having been once opened, each producing or manu- facturing interest, and even individuals desirous of promoting any new enterprise, might in turn press for exceptionably favourable treatment under the form of Intercolonial reciprocity, while the real grounds for APPENDIX. 189 such changes as might be proposed would be intelligible only to those concerned with local politics. It would appear, therefore, to be by no means clear that Her Majesty's Government could be relieved from the obligation of examining the particulars of each contemplated agreement, however limited; and while it would be very difficult for them to make such an examination in a satisfactory manner, a detailed inquiry of this kind could hardly fail to be irksome to the Colonies, and to lead to misunderstandings. It remains for me, lastly, to ask how far it is expedient, in the interests of each Colony concerned, and of the Empire collectively, that the Im- perial Parliament should be invited to legislate in a direction contrary to the established commercial policy of this country. Her Majesty's Government are bound to say that the measure pro- posed by the Colonial Government seems to them inconsistent with those principles of Free Trade which they believe to be alone per- manently conducive to commercial prosperity; nor, as far as they are aware, has any attempt been made to show that any great practical benefit is expected to be derived from reciprocal Tariff arrangements between the Australasian Colonies. At all events I do not find anywhere among the papers which have reached me those strong representations and illustrations of the utility or necessity of the measure which I think might fairly be expected to be adduced as weighing against its undeniable inconveniences. It is, indeed, stated in an Address before me that the prohibition of differential Customs treatment "operates to the serious prejudice of the various producing interests of the Australian Colonies." I understand this and similar expressions to mean that it is desired to give a special stimulus or premium to the Colonial producers and manufacturers, and to afford them the same advantage in a neighbouring Colony over the producers and manufacturers of all other parts of the Empire and of Foreign Countries as they would have within their own Colony under a system of Protective Duties. What is termed reciprocity is thus in reality protection. It is, of course, unnecessary for me to observe that, whilst Her Majesty's Government feel bound to take every proper opportunity of urging upon the Colonies, as well as upon Foreign Governments, the great advantages which they believe to accrue to every country which adopts a policy of Free Trade, they have relinquished all interference with the imposition by a Colonial Legislature of equal duties upon goods from all places, although those duties may really have the effect of protection to the native producer. But a proposition that in one part of the Empire commercial privi- leges should be granted to the inhabitants of certain other parts of the Empire to the exclusion and prejudice of the rest of Her Majesty's sub- jects, is an altogether different question; and I would earnestly request your Government to consider what effect it may have upon the relations. between the Colonies and this country. Her Majesty's subjects throughout the Empire, and nowhere more than in Australasia, have manifested on various occasions of late their 190 APPENDIX. strong desire that the connection between the Colonies and this Country should be maintained and strengthened; but it can hardly be doubted that the imposition of Differential Duties upon British produce and manufactures must have a tendency to weaken that connection, and to impair the friendly feeling on both sides, which I am confident your Government, as much as Her Majesty's Government, desire to preserve. I have thought it right to state frankly and unreservedly the views of Her Majesty's Government on this subject, in order that the Colonial Government may be thoroughly aware of the nature and gravity of the points which have to be decided; but I do not wish to be understood to indicate that Her Majesty's Government have, in the present state of their information, come to any absolute conclusion on the questions which I have discussed. The objections which I have pointed out to giving to the Colonies a general power of making reciprocal arrangements would not apply to a Customs Union with an uniform Tariff; and although such a general union of all the Colonies is, it appears, impracticable, it may be worth while to consider whether the difficulty might not be met by a Customs Union between two or more Colonies. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, Governor Du Cane. KIMBERLEY. MEMORANDUM. TASMANIA. LORD KIMBERLEY'S Despatch, under date of the 13th July, 1871, on the question of Intercolonial Reciprocity, has received the attentive consideration of His Excellency's Advisers. It is satisfactory to find that the Secretary of State admits that, in the cases of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island in 1856, and of the Dominion of Canada in 1867, Her Majesty's Government have assented to Acts exempting Colonial products from the duties imposed on similar articles when imported from Europe: and that, as regards the latest precedent, Lord Kimberley is "not prepared to deny that the Australasian Governments are justified in citing it as an example of the admission of the principle of Differential Duties." It is not easy to understand why the earlier precedents are not similarly recognised as applicable to the recent demand for an admission of the same principle by the Legislatures of New Zealand and Tas- mania, to which may now be added that of South Australia. The lists of articles in the sections of Statutes appended to the Despatch com- prise, in the main, the products and manufactures of the Provinces and Colonies therein named. And the Reciprocity Conventions contem- plated by the reserved Bills of Tasmania and New Zealand would deal APPENDIX. 191 similarly with the products and manufactures of the Australasian Colonies. There is, however, another example of the admission of the principle of Differential Duties by Her Majesty's Government which is not referred to by Lord Kimberley. The Acts of the Legislatures of Vic- toria and New South Wales which sanction the reciprocal importation across the Murray Border of goods, which are liable to Customs Duties on the wharves of Melbourne and Sydney, have received Her Majesty's assent, and constitute a recent and conspicuous precedent for legislation in favour of Intercolonial Reciprocity: and this example derives special importance from the fact that the Acts in question were passed in the exercise of powers to legislate on this point, specially conferred upon Victoria and New South Wales by the Imperial Statutes which granted to those Colonies their present Constitutions. It would, therefore, seem that all the precedents that can be instanced of Imperial assent to Colonial Legislation on this point may be "cited as examples of the admission of the principle of Differential Duties." When we come to the extent to which such Colonial Legislation would affect Her Majesty's Treaty obligations with Foreign Powers, it is admitted that there is but one Treaty in existence which contains a stipulation restricting the fiscal legislation of "Colonies and Posses- sions" of the British Crown; and that the Secretary of State is "advised" that the Article in question "may be held not to preclude Her Majesty from permitting -to quote the language of the Dispatch -"such a relaxation of the Laws as would allow each Colony of the Australasian Group to admit any of the products or manufactures of the other Australian Colonies duty free, or on more favourable terms than similar products and manufactures of other countries." "" From this we may infer that, while Her Majesty is bound to require that Differential Duties shall not be imposed upon imports into British Colonies from the United Kingdom and Foreign States, Her Majesty is not required by any Treaty to refuse the Royal Assent to Measures admitting the reciprocal importation between two or more British Possessions, duty free, of articles which the Colonial Legislatures have subjected to Customs Duties when imported from Europe. Lord Kimberley's suggestion of the impolicy of placing "German products and manufactures under disadvantages in the Colonial mar- kets," seems to touch a subject on which it may be said the Legislatures of Australasia are the legitimate, perhaps the best, judges. Lord Kimberley's observations on the question of Colonial Diffe- rential Duties as affecting the general Imperial Policy seem to proceed upon a misconception of the object aimed at by the Australasian Governments, and of the motives which influence the advocates of the removal of Imperial restrictions on the fiscal legislation of the Colonies. The object of the Tariff Conference held in Melbourne last year was to establish a Commercial Union of the Australias and New Zealand on the basis of a common Tariff, with a distribution of the Customs Revenue to the several Colonies according to population. That object was found to be, at that time, unattainable; and the Conference 192 APPENDIX. adopted a unanimous Resolution to the effect that it was desirable that the Colonial Legislatures should be freed from Imperial restrictions on their reciprocal fiscal arrangements. Her Majesty's Government had intimated their readiness to assent to a Customs Union of two or more Colonies; but, when such an arrange- ment was found to be impracticable, the Governments represented at the Conference were willing to rest content with the removal of the existing restrictions on Intercolonial trade by Reciprocity Conventions. It is difficult to apprehend the force of objections offered to this mode of treating the question when no objection is raised to a Customs. Union, which would produce precisely analogous results on a much larger scale. A Customs Union between all the Australasian Colonies would enable these Countries to impose, if it were thought desirable, protec- tive duties upon imports from Europe, while Colonial products and manufactures were reciprocally interchanged duty free. How, it may be asked, can such a system be deemed legitimate and admissible, when a plan for carrying it into only partial operation by less direct means is held to be open to grave objections? Her Majesty's Government are prepared, we are informed, to sanc- tion an arrangement that would enable a group of six Colonies, if they were so minded, to establish absolute Free Trade among themselves in combination with Protection against all the world beside. But when two Colonies desire to be placed in a similar position by a Tariff Con- vention, "Her Majesty's Government are bound to say that the measure proposed seems to them inconsistent with those principles of Free Trade which they believe to be alone permanently conducive to commercial prosperity." By Lord Kimberley's own showing there are precedents for the legis- lation now submitted for the Royal assent; and there are no legal obstacles to its recognition in the shape of Imperial Treaty obligations. It is only on an abstract theory of the superior advantages of a Free Trade policy that the Secretary of State objects to a proposal which seems to sanction Protection under the name of Reciprocity. These are views which can find no acceptance with Colonial Legis- latures under a system of Constitutional Government. The question they desire to solve is one directly affecting the interests of the com- munities for which those Legislatures are elected to make Laws. Its effect upon Imperial interests is almost inappreciable. The doubt whether the imposition of Differential Duties upon British produce and manufactures might not have a tendency to weaken the connection. between the Mother Country and the Colonies, and to impair the friendly feeling on both sides," seems scarcely warranted by a fair consideration of the whole bearing of the application under discussion. It may be observed that the Tariffs of the Australasian Colonies have, in effect, for some years past imposed duties on British manu- factures either intentionally or incidentally protective. Is it to be supposed that the "friendly feeling on both sides" which has survived the imposition of Protective or Prohibitory Duties on APPENDIX. 193 British manufactures would be "impaired" by a Reciprocity Conven- tion,-for example, between Victoria and Tasmania,-which permitted the products and manufactures of those Colonies to be mutually ex- changed duty free, or under a lower duty than similar articles imported from the United Kingdom? It may be suggested with far greater probability that "the friendly feeling on both sides " is more likely to be impaired by the refusal of Her Majesty's Government to relax a Law which imposes an irksome restriction on the fiscal legislation, and vexatiously intermeddles with the domestic taxation, of these self- governed Colonies. "" Lord Kimberley seems to complain of the absence of "strong repre- sentations and illustrations of the utility or necessity of the measure. The unanimous Resolution of the Conference of last year, and the subsequent identical legislation of New Zealand, South Australia, and Tasmania, may be taken as a sufficient indication of the strength of the conviction of the Governments and Legislatures of Australasia of the urgent necessity, and by consequence in their judgment of the utility, of the measure. "" As far as the Colony of Tasmania is concerned, the "necessity and utility of the measure are sufficiently obvious. Our Customs Duties are imposed for revenue purposes only. But when our nearest neigh- bours practically close against our producers and manufacturers their best and natural market by the comprehensive operation of an inten- tionally Protective Tariff, we seek relief in Reciprocity Conventions, which, while they would extend the basis of commercial operations between us and our neighbours, would in no way prejudice the interests of European producers and manufacturers, inasmuch as the desired Convention would, for the most part, "deal with a limited list of raw materials and produce not imported to these Colonies from Europe." Lord Kimberley's treatment of this question indicates throughout a natural anxiety to avoid a decision which might seem to commit Her Majesty's Government to a departure "from the established commercial policy" of the Mother Country. But, since His Lordship assures us that Her Majesty's Government have not "come to any absolute con- clusion on the questions which he has discussed," we may venture to hope that a firm but respectful persistence in the course of legislation already adopted by New Zealand, Tasmania, and South Australia, will shortly secure for the Australasian Colonies that freedom from Imperial restrictions on their fiscal relations with each other which the con- ciliatory policy of Her Majesty's Government has already conceded to the Colonies of British North America. JAMES MILNE WILSON. Colonial Secretary's Office, 11th September, 1871. His Excellency the Governor. INDEX. VICTORIA. "Argus," Victorian Newspaper, 107 Australasian," Victorian News- paper, 107 Ballaarat, 23, 43 Band of Hope and Albion Con- sols, 51 Batman, John, applies for Land at Port Phillip, 15 Baudin, Captain, French Ex- plorer, 12 Beechworth, 113 Bendigo or Sandhurst, 52 Benevolent Asylum, Melbourne, 36 Campbell, Mr. William, 74 Clunes Gold-field, 44 Coaches, Victorian, 111 Collingwood, Suburb of Mel- bourne, 33 Country Gentlemen, 92 Country Houses, 89 Country Life, 95 Cutting out Cattle, 65 Darling, Governor, 14, 19 Diggers' Licenses, 45 Edwards' Reef, 69 Emerald Hill, Suburb of Mel- bourne, 34 Esmond, Discoverer of Gold in Victoria, 44 Fawkner, early Settler, 20 Fitzroy, Suburb of Melbourne, 33 Flinders, Captain, Explorer, 12, 17 Free-Selecters, Mode of selecting Land, 83, 85 Gambling in Gold-fields, 58 Gipps Land, 62 Government House, Melbourne, 39 Great Extended Hustler's Tribute Mine, 55 Grimes, Mr., Surveyor-General of New South Wales, 13 Hargreaves, Discoverer of Gold in New South Wales, 44 Henty, Mr., first Colonist in Vic- toria, 16 Hovell, Mr., Explorer, 14 Hume, Mr., Explorer, 14 Imports and Exports, 122 Land Laws in Victoria, 73 La Trobe, Mr., Governor, 75 Legislative Assembly, 116 Legislative Council, 117 Lewes, Mr. R., Mayor of Bal- laarat, 49 Literature, Colonial, 107 Long Tunnei Mine, Walhalla, 68 Lonsdale, Captain, Vice-Gover- nor, 20 Lowe, Mr., his Opinion as to the Land Laws, 80 Lunatic Asylums, Melbourne, 38 Manners of the People, 97 Matlock, Gold Town, 70 INDEX. 195 Melbourne, Foundation of, 29 Melbourne Banks, Magnificence of, 33 Miners' Habits, 59 Mining Companies, Number and Names, 56 Mueller, Dr. Von, Botanist, 36 Murray, Lieutenant, first dis- covered Port Phillip, 12 Newspapers, Australian, 107 Oxley, Mr., Surveyor-General in New South Wales, 14 Palmer, Mr. Roundell, his Opinion of the Land Laws, 79 Patronage, Misuse of, 119 Port Phillip, Early History of, 12 Railway System, 108 Rent, Pastoral, 87 Revenue, 121 Richmond, Suburb of Melbourne, 33 Rusden, Mr. G. W., of Mel- bourne, 1, 12 Sale, Capital of Gipps Land, III Sandhurst or Bendigo, 52 Separation of the Colonies from Great Britain, I "Sydney Morning Herald," Syd- ney Newspaper, 107 Trinity College, Melbourne, 35 University of Melbourne, 34 Verandah, The, 38, 53 Walhalla, Gold Town, 67 Wine, Australian, 113 "Winter's Freehold" Gold-mine, 49 Women, 99 Woods Point Gold-field, 71 Wool, Staple of the Colony, 122 Yarra Yarra River, 23 Yering, Manufacture of Wine, 115 Young Men, IOI TASMANIA. Allport, Mr., as to River Fish, 163 Annexation to Victoria, 179 Barron, a Convict, 150 Brady, a Convict, 137 Campbelltown, 159 Cash, a Convict, 137 Change of Name of the Colony, 129 Collins, Colonel, Governor, 132 Lieutenant- Convict System, 134—144 Convicts, Numbers of, 147 Customs Duties, International, 174-178 Decrease of Trade, 171 Denison, Sir William, Governor, 129 Dogs used to guard Convicts, 145 Doherty, a Convict, 152 Eagle Hawk Neck, 145 Early History, 127-133 Farming, 156 Fingal Gold-field, 165 Fish in Tasmanian Rivers, 162 Fisher, a Convict, 152 Fruit in Tasmania, 164 Future Prospects of the Colony, 169 Gold, 165 Government House, Tasmania, 161 Hobart Town, Capital of the Colony, 160 Hops, 163 Howe, a Convict, 137 Launceston, Town so named, 155 Loyalty in Tasmania, 155 Maria Van Diemen, Island so called, 132 Markham, a Convict, 137 Melton, Town of, so named, 160 Population, 158 Port Arthur, 143 Rabbits, 142 Revenue, 167 Tasman, Abel Jan, 132 Tasman's Arch, 146 Tasman's Peninsula, 145 Van Diemen's Land, Island so called, 132 Victorian Tariffs, 164 Wages of Convicts, 139 Wages of Labourers, 156 Wool, 171 17-3-75. LONDON: PRINTED BY W. H. SMITH & SON, 186 STRAND. NEW ZEALAND. NEW ZEALAND 66 BY ANTHONY TROLLOPE, AUTHOR OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA AND WESTERN AUSTRALIA,” "" NEW SOUTH WALES AND QUEENSLAND,” "VICTORIA AND TASMANIA.” NEW EDITION. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1875. CONTENTS. CHAP. I. EARLY HISTORY II. THE MAORIS III. OTAGO,-THE LAKE DISTRICT IV. OTAGO.—DUNEDIN V. JOHN ROBERT GODLEY VI. THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS VII. MARLBOROUGH AND NELSON VIII. WELLINGTON AND THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT IX. TARANAKI PAGE I 16 40 55 66 79 91 100 123 X. AUCKLAND 126 XI. THE AUCKLAND LAKES AND HOT WELLS 137 XII. THE WAIKATO 154 APPENDIX INDEX . 159 164 NEW ZEALAND. CHAPTER I. EARLY HISTORY. In an appendix to his work on New Zealand, Dr. Thompson gives a catalogue of more than four hundred different publi- cations which had appeared before 1860, in reference to that colony, and he does not state that it is exhaustive. In the face of this immense bulk of literature about New Zealand, I am almost bound to feel that more writing would be super- fluous. I reflect, however, that till I had conceived the intention of visiting the colony myself, I had never even opened one of these four hundred publications; and, think- ing that others may have been as remiss as myself, I venture to add another to the list, hoping that it may reach some few who have hitherto neglected, as I had done, the multitu- dinous opportunities of information afforded them. It is, I believe, now recognised as an historical fact that the Maoris, or natives whom we found in New Zealand when we first visited the land, are a Polynesian race who came to these islands from Hawaiki,-which was probably one of the Navigators. As to the latter point, however, there is a difference of opinion, some thinking that the migration was from a point as far east as the Sandwich Islands. It is stated that Cardinal Mezzofante declared the Maori language and that of the Sandwich Islands to be the same. We are told not only the names of the chiefs who brought the travellers, but also those of the boats in which B 2 NEW ZEALAND. they came; nor is there any absurdity in this, as the tradi tions of the Maori people have been preserved with tenacious fidelity, and the period at which the migration took place is not very remote. They were, for the most part, a brown people, of the Malay race, and seem to have found no human inhabitants before them when they landed. It has been calculated from the succession of chiefs, of whose names tradition has kept the record, that the Maoris landed in New Zealand about the beginning of the fifteenth century. It is perhaps impossible now to fix the date with accuracy. Of all the people whom we have been accustomed to call savages, they were perhaps, in their savage condition as we found them, the most civilised. They lived in houses; had weapons and instruments of their own made of stone; held land for cultivation as the property, not of individuals, but of tribes; cooked their food with fire; stored property so that want and starvation were uncommon among them; possessed a system for the administration of justice, and treated their wives well. But they were greatly addicted to civil wars, and they ate their enemies when they could kill or catch them. They are an active people, the men averaging 5 feet 61 inches in height, and are almost equal in strength and weight to Englishmen. In their former condition they wore matting; now they wear European clothes. Formerly they pulled out their beards, and every New Zealander of mark was tattooed; now they wear beards,—and the young men are not tattooed. Their hair is black and coarse, but not woolly like a negro's, or black like a Hindoo's. The nose is almost always broad, and the mouth large. In other respects their features are not unlike those of the European race. The men, to my eyes, were better looking than the women, and the men who were tattooed better looking than those who had dropped the custom. The women stil retain the old custom of tattooing the under lip. The Maoris had a mythology of their own, and believed in a future existence; but they did not recognise one Supreme God. Virtue with them, as with other savages, consisted chiefly in courage, and a command of temper. Their grea passion was revenge, which was carried on by one trib CANNIBALISM. 3 against another to the extent sometimes of the annihilation of tribes. The decrease of their population since the Eng- lish first came among them, has been owing as much to civil war, as to the injuries with which civilisation has afflicted them. They seem from early days to have acquired that habit of fighting behind stockades,-or in fortified pahs,—which we have found so fatal to ourselves in our wars with them. Their weapons, before they got guns from us, were not very deadly. They were chiefly short javelins and stones; both flung from slings. But there was a horror in their warfare to the awfulness of which they themselves seem to have been keenly alive. When a prisoner was taken in war, he was cooked and eaten. I do not think that human beings were slaughtered for food in New Zealand, although there is no doubt that the banquet when prepared was enjoyed with a horrid relish. I will quote a passage from Dr. Thompson's work in refer- ence to the practice of cannibalism, and will then have done with the subject. "Whether or not cannibalism commenced immediately after the advent of the New Zealanders from Hawaiki, it is nevertheless certain that one of Tasman's sailors was eaten in 1642; that Captain Cook had a boat's crew eaten in 1774; that Marion de Fresne and many other navigators met this horrible end; and that the pioneers of civilisation and successive missionaries have all borne testi- mony to the universal prevalence of cannibalism in New Zealand up to the year 1840. It is impossible to state how many New Zealanders were annually devoured; that the number was not small may be inferred from two facts authenticated by European witnesses. In 1822, Hongi's army ate three hundred persons after the capture of Totara, on the River Thames, and in 1836, during the Rotura war, sixty beings were cooked and eaten in two days." I will add from the same book a translation of a portion of a war- song :—“ Oh, my little son, are you crying, are you scream- ing for your food? Here it is for you, the flesh of Heke- manu and Werata. Although I am surfeited with the soft brains of Putu Rikiriki and Raukauri, yet such is my hatred that I will fill myself fuller with those of Pau, of Ngaraunga. 4 NEW ZEALAND. of Pipi, and with my most dainty morsel, the flesh of the hated Te ao." In these wars they threatened each other with cannibalism, and boasted of the foes they had devoured. The two larger islands of New Zealand together are about as big as Great Britain. The little southern island is too small to have any importance. The French, Spaniards, and Dutch, all claim to have been the first discoverers, but the honour is now conceded to the latter. J. Van Tasman, he who also discovered for us Tasmania, is supposed to have been the first to have seen New Zealand closely, though he never put his foot upon it. He came over from Batavia in 1642, anchored off the north-western coast of the middle island, and gave to the country the Dutch name of New Zealand. There was doubtless some fighting, but, according to his story, the natives first attacked him. His discovery was of no service to him, for he could get neither water nor food,—and so he went his way. After that we have no distinct record of any visit to the islands till Cook landed there in 1769. Cook had much intercourse with the natives, frequently trading with them, and as frequently fighting them. It is perhaps hardly worth the while of any English reader now to sift the merits and demerits of the two parties, or to attempt to discover which first used violence to the other. But it is impossible not to feel that whereas the strangers had no moral right to attack the natives, the natives cannot have been morally wrong in attempting to destroy their invaders. It has generally if not always been the case on such occasions, that the new-comers have intended to be gracious, if the natives whom they found would only be gracious also; —but have as firmly determined to be masters, if not by fair means, then by foul. They have claimed what they wanted as though it were their own, and have punished offences against their own laws with a high hand. In all the inter- course of Europeans with savage races it has been so,— though in a less degree in our intercourse with the New Zealanders than with any others. "We desire your land for high purposes of our own which you cannot understand. If you will give it us without molesting us, you shall live on it EARLY OCCUPATION. 5 and not be molested. But you must live as we direct you." Such have been the orders given to races who could not be made even to understand them, and the orders, if not obeyed, have been enforced. Perhaps in no case since Europeans have sought for new homes in distant countries, has so true an attempt been made to treat the old inhabitants with justice as has been done in New Zealand,—and it has been so because New Zealand has been the last discovered; --but the result has been the same. In other countries, ast in Australia, we have simply declared the land to be our own. In New Zealand we at last declared the land not to be ours, to be the property of the Maoris,-but as a fact, by far the greater portion of the land belongs to us already, and the remainder will soon be ours. Possession of New Zealand was taken by Cook in the name of George III., but the English nation never acted on the claim so made. It is, indeed, still stated in the official records of the Colonial Office, that New Zealand was added to the British Empire by "settlement" in 1814; but such settlement was a settle- ment only on paper, was followed by no governing action, and, if ever of any avail, was superseded by acts of recog- nition on the part of Great Britain of the independence of the natives of New Zealand. For seventy-five years after Cook's first visit, we had continual dealings with New Zea- land, without any official assumption of political dominion. English traders, not always of the best character, frequented the shores, bringing away the native flax, in return for which they supplied the New Zealanders with firearms; catching seals and whales, marrying New Zealand girls, sometimes domesticated with the people, sometimes governing them, sometimes flying in dread from their awful practice,—and sometimes eaten. Missionaries settled among them, some- times obtaining great influence, and, again, sometimes eaten. Attempts were made by individuals, subjects of the British Crown, to obtain kingly authority over the people ;- and as late as in 1835, an English gentleman, who was styled the British Resident, who had been appointed by British authority, and who died but the other day, endea- voured to establish an independent native government, 6 NEW ZEALAND. which was to be in some sort subject to himself. This was Mr. Busby; but nothing came of his New Zealand constitu- tion,—as nothing had previously come of a former attempt made by that famous New Zealand settler, a Briton with a French name, Baron de Thierry, to make himself king in the country. But these doings show that Great Britain exercised no real authority over the islands while they were in progress. Though the European inhabitants were growing in numbers, though their influence was becoming great if not supreme, though the work of the missionaries was pro- gressing, and in speaking of the early days of New Zealand, even so cursorily as I am doing now, it would be wrong to leave the name of Mr. Marsden unmentioned, though that which we call civilisation was extending itself among the Maoris, who were gradually adopting European habits,—yet the British Crown hesitated to found a colony. New Zealanders were brought to England and shown at Court, and elsewhere,—and were, no doubt, the more interesting because they were cannibals. But cannibals they still were, and authorised colonisation among them was felt to be difficult. They must either be exterminated or Christianized, -and probably the too rapid extermination which would go hand in hand with the slower Christianization, might bring more blame than praise upon a philanthropic Secretary for the Colonies. There can, I think, be no doubt that the difficulty was of this nature. There were two parties, each anxious to do good;—a colonising party which desired to create a home for Englishmen in a country fitted apparently above others. for the purpose by soil and climate, and which sought by its influence and its arguments to force the Colonial Office to give way to their views of colonisation; and a missionary party, whose philanthropy was exercised, not on behalf of Englishmen, but for the native inhabitants of the colony. The missionaries were altogether hostile to the colonising schemes of such men as Lord Durham, Francis Baring, and Edward Gibbon Wakefield, and desired to keep in their own hands any civilising operations which might be extended from England to New Zealand, Christianity for the heathen, NEW ZEALAND ASSOCIATION. 7 even though it might be hardly more than a nominal Chris- tianity, was their object. Land for emigrating Britons, even though it might be bought by the extermination of the heathen, was the object of their opponents. The Colonial Office was for a long time inclined to favour the missionaries rather than the colonists. There was less of political danger on that side. It is asserted that when Lord Nor- manby, as Colonial Secretary, at last gave orders for asserting the Queen's right to New Zealand, he told the first governor that the colonisation of New Zealand had been deferred as long as possible, because it had been found that the progress of white men among savages had always led to the extirpation of the native race. But it was in vain that any Secretary of State should endeavour to stop the tide of those who have been born to people the earth. The advantages to be gained were too great to be hidden out of sight, or withdrawn from the uses of the world. In 1825, a New Zealand company had been formed under the auspices of Lord Durham, with the avowed object of buying land from the natives,—thus recognising the right of the natives to sell the land. The recognition was of course not a national recognition, nor in any way sanctioned by British authority;-but it showed the tendency of the minds of the leading men who at that time interested themselves in the science of colonising. Land was bought, but this first company did not effect much. In 1836, renewed attention was drawn to the subject by two Committees of the House of Commons, which were appointed to inquire, one into the condition of the colonial Aborigines generally, and the second as to that vexed question, the manner in which colonial lands should be sold; and in the subsequent year the New Zealand Association was formed, of which Mr. Francis Baring, afterwards Lord Ashburton, was chairman. The Colonial Office was evidently adverse to the Association from the first, fearing that although its own official responsibility would remain, its privileges and influence in regard to the management of colonisation would be taken from it. It refused to give a charter to the Association on the ground 8 NEW ZEALAND. that the Association was not a company bound together for any commercial purpose. It was a political, not a com- mercial speculation,—and as such, it was at last refused all countenance by the Colonial Office. There can, There can, I think, be but little doubt that there existed a desire on the part of one of the leaders of the New Zealand Association,—and that leader, the man who was most energetic in the matter, -to stultify and conquer the Colonial Minister of the day, and to raise himself on the ruin he might thus make. No one can read Mr. E. G. Wakefield's written words,—either his book on the "Art of Colonisation," or his published Letters,—without feeling that such was his purpose. It But Mr. Gibbon Wakefield was joined with men who were both too good and too strong to be put down by any minister. In 1839, out of the ashes of the Association arose the New Zealand Land Company,—another New Zealand com- pany. Of this Lord Durham was the governor; and among its members were Lord Petre, Francis Baring, Russell Ellice, William Hutt, Sir William Molesworth, John Abel Smith, and others almost as well known. Mr. Wakefield was not a director, but he was one who often directed directors. is not probably too much to say that he was the moving spirit of the company, and the parent of the scheme which in truth led to the adoption of New Zealand as a colony by Great Britain. The scheme, however, had by no means that object. As the Colonial Office had thwarted the Asso- ciation, the Company resolved upon going to work without the Colonial Office, and buying land on their own authority, as though the New Zealand chiefs were altogether independent of the British government. In 1839 their first ship sailed for the islands. I have been told that the day before it sailed Lord John Russell, the Secretary of State of the time, hearing of its intended purpose, declared the illegality of the proceeding, and his intention of making known to these embryo pioneers of New Zealand colonisation that they would not be allowed to take up land from the natives without sanction from the Crown. But in the course of that very night the ship weighed anchor in the Downs, and my informant assured me that during the night Gibbon Wake- THE FIRST GOVERNOR. 9 field himself travelled from London down to Deal, gave the necessary orders, and was back in London on the following morning. The story may probably be inaccurate in its details, possibly altogether untrue; but it passes as true in details,―possibly New Zealand. At any rate the ship went, and it was known to the Colonial Office that it was the purpose of those on board of her to make purchases of land from the New Zea- land chiefs as though the Colonial Office had no voice in the matter. It was felt that the time had come in which some action must be taken. Great Britain could not with reason forbid her children to settle on the shores of New Zealand in independence of herself, unless she was prepared to form some plan by which they might do so with the usual depend- ence on her protection. She could not be a dog in the manger to her own children, refusing to take New Zealand herself, and forbidding them to take it because she claimed it, though she would not use it. In spite of the horrors of cannibalism, in the teeth of the missionaries, who with true courage but mistaken philanthropy were anxious to endure all the perils of Christianizing these people after some fashion which should not also exterminate them, the Colonial Office did take the matter up when she found that the new company had sent out a shipload of colonists; and on the 15th of June, 1839, New Zealand was proclaimed a part of the colony known as New South Wales, and subject to the government there exercised. On this occasion a step towards real possession was taken. Captain Hobson was appointed as the first lieutenant-governor,—at first indeed with the name of consul, but with powers in his possession to assume the higher functions of governor. The settlers had been sent out by the New Zealand Land Company, under the guidance of Colonel Wakefield, a brother of Gibbon Wakefield, and they landed, in August, 1839, on the southern extremity of the northern island, in Wellington Harbour as it is now called. Captain Hobson in the following January disembarked at the Bay of Islands, which is almost at the northern extremity. Both gentlemen seem to have gone to work earnestly to perform the tasks ΙΟ NEW ZEALAND. assigned to them. Before the end of 1839 Colonel Wake- field and his followers had bought land enough for a kingdom; a tract, it is said, as large as Ireland, paying for it in goods. Muskets, gunpowder, ball-cartridge, bullet- moulds and flints, red nightcaps, pocket-handkerchiefs, looking-glasses, jews'-harps, shaving-brushes, and sealing- wax, are all conspicuous in the list of the chattels for which the land was bartered. For a time everything was rosy- coloured, both with the savages and the new-comers; but it appeared before long,—as of course would be the case,—— that the New Zealanders had understood but little of the terms of the contract, and that in many cases they who had professed to sell the land, had no commission from their tribes and no title of their own to make the sale. A few days after landing Captain Hobson initiated his powers by entering into a treaty with the natives, which was diametrically, though not at the time intentionally, opposed to the transactions of the Company. This was the treaty of Waitangi, which was signed at Waitangi by 46 chiefs, and afterwards by 512 Maoris in all, throughout the two islands. It stipulated, first, that the united tribes of New Zealand owned the Queen of Great Britain to be their Queen, secondly, that the Queen of Great Britain owned that the land of New Zealand, for all purposes of private possession, belonged to the native tribes;—and thirdly, that the Queen would protect the tribes. This treaty is still law, and is the basis on which Great Britain really founds its claim to the possession of New Zealand. As far as first principles of truth and justice are concerned, it must pro- bably be acknowledged that they who on the part of New Zealand executed the treaty of Waitangi, knew what they were about no better than their brethren who received bullets and red nightcaps for the land round Wellington Bay. But then, had we as a nation been always scrupulous as to first principles, we should never have colonised any country. Had we done nothing, sent out no first governor to New Zealand, and made no attempt, either by treaty with the natives or by imperial power, to put ourselves in a posi- tion to govern the land, three very adverse interests would NEW ZEALAND A COLONY. 11 have torn New Zealand to pieces between them,-the natives, the missionaries, and the colonists. The natives would have eaten many missionaries and many colonists; but the colonists would finally have extirpated both the natives and the missionaries. And terrible injustice would have been done, without even law to give it a seeming justification. Probably no better step towards civilisation could have been taken at the time than the treaty of Waitangi. The colony was thus founded, and Great Britain as a nation was bound to protect and to keep hold of that which was now her own. The Bay of Islands offered no good site for a town, and Governor Hobson moved down south and placed his seat of government at a place which he called Auckland. Till 1865 Auckland was the capital of New Zealand. It was then removed south, to Wellington, at which place the New Zealand Company had founded its first town, as being central for both the islands. In 1842 New Zealand became a bishopric, and Dr. Selwyn, the first bishop, arrived. But, as we all know now, the real work of colonising the country had barely as yet been commenced. Indeed the mode in which it had been commenced, though noticeable as far as the home government was concerned for its intended justice, was, by reason of its very justice, ill-adapted for quick permanent settlement. The one thing which uncivil- ised races have possessed, and which invading colonists have required, has been land; and it has all but universally been held that the invading nation had a right to take the land as national property, either without price, or at a price to be settled by itself. At Port Phillip, now Victoria, Bat- man was not allowed to purchase land from the Aborigines of the country, because the land was held to belong to the Crown. This assumption on the part of the Crown renders colonisation easy. Anything done afterwards for the natives is done under the guise of charity. The natives are sup- posed to possess nothing, and therefore nothing can be taken from them. This has been felt so universally to be the practice of colonising nations, that even in regard to New Zealand, many years after the treaty of Waitangi by 12 NEW ZEALAND, which it was stipulated that the land should be left in the possession of the natives, a dispatch was sent out from the Colonial Office intimating that the native inhabitants of the islands had no right of property in land which they did not occupy. It was abhorrent to the feelings of the Colonial Office generally,—as indeed it is to those of almost every Briton,—that land on which men could live should be allowed to remain waste. But by the treaty of Waitangi it had been acknowledged that the actual ownership of all land in New Zealand was in the hands of the New Zealand tribes. Such being the treaty which had been completed, it was not likely that Colonel Wakefield's companions would be allowed to retain possession of the enormous territories which they had bought for a small ship's cargo of English goods. Mr. Fox, who, when I reached Wellington in August, 1872, was premier of the colony, endeavours to show in his history of the war in New Zealand that the war between the settlers and the Maories did not owe its origin to quarrels about land. I do not think that he has succeeded. It is at any rate manifest that the condition which enabled the Maoris to maintain a war was one which arose from the rights which we gave them, and that their disposition to wage a war with us was created by the idea of European weakness which our concessions to them had generated. I do not say that those concessions were wrong. In abstract justice they were no doubt right,-unless wrong in that they did not concede enough. But they paved the way to the war. When government was established on the basis of the treaty, Europeans claimed to have bought something over forty-five millions of acres; but it was necessary to investi- gate the claims, and to ascertain with some sort of rough justice for how much land some payment, which might be presumed to be adequate, had in truth been made. It was enacted that the title of the purchaser should be made good by crown grants, the crown grants to be given on exarnina- tion of land claims. The land claims were disallowed, and the grants, or titles, refused, unless the purchase was shown to have been made from tribal authorities entitled to sell, BEGINNING OF WARS. 13 and at adequate prices. The greater portion of the land said to have been bought was restored to the natives,—to the great disgust of the colonial landholders,—or land- sharks, as they were soon afterwards called. Mr. Fox explains,—and no doubt with some truth,—that certain small preliminary wars between the natives and the colonists,—in 1845 and afterwards,—were not immediately produced by any quarrels as to land; but even these could hardly have occurred had not the natives been taught to think that, great as the Europeans at first appeared to them, that greatness was on the wane. Auckland and Wellington were not the only spots at which Europeans had begun to colonise. Settlements had been formed, and towns had grown up, at Nelson, on the north-western coast of the Southern Island, at New Plymouth, in the province which still keeps the native name of Taranaki on the western coast of the North Island, and at other places, before the days of the great war came; but Otago and Canterbury, the now flourishing provinces of the Southern Island, were not as yet founded. At all these settlements the acquisition of land was the one great object. The feeling of the natives may be best ascertained from their action. In 1853 a land league was formed among them, originating in Taranaki, where the great war after- wards originated, with the object of preventing any further alienation of their lands by the New Zealanders to the white men. 'The money," they said, "which we receive for our land is soon gone, but the land remains with the Europeans for ever!" In this league there was much of the spirit of the “unions" at home, the members of which, not content with binding themselves to certain stipulations, endeavoured to carry out their views by ill-using those of their trade who would not join them. Tribes willing to sell were deterred from selling, and so strong was the league at Taranaki, that not an acre of land could be bought round New Plymouth by the white settlers. Then the natives in the centre of the North Island determined, like the Jews, that they would have a king of their own. It was natural enough that they should not understand the precise extent 14 NEW ZEALAND. of the submission which they, or others on their behalf, had made to Queen Victoria. They did understand that Queen Victoria's governors did not govern them in accordance with their own laws, and also that the laws of the white men did not suit them. They seemed to have acknowledged among themselves that British authority was to prevail in the parts of the country which belonged to the colonists, and on lands which they recognised as having been sold; but they considered themselves justified in appointing a king for them selves, to rule them within the pale of the lands which were still their own. So the king was appointed,—the title having been adopted as that to which the new-comers amongst them had accustomed them, and a part of the North Island became his kingdom. He was, and still is, but a mock king, for few even of the natives have recognised his power,—but he was strong enough to shut up his country, to keep a body of armed followers whom he called his army, to forbid the for- mation of roads, to defy the British law, and to keep him- self beyond the reach of European contact. And this king still exists, shutting up a portion of the Northern Island, not only against individual enterprise, but also against the Queen's authority. To It is not within the scope of my purpose to write a history of New Zealand. Neither my knowledge of the subject nor my space would allow me to do so. It has simply been my intention to endeavour to describe to those who are as ignorant of New Zealand as I was before I visited her shores, the circumstances under which she became a British colony. When speaking of the Northern Island further on I will venture to say something of the Maoris and their wars. this chapter I will here only add a few dates. Captain Grey, now so well known in connection with New Zealand as Sir George Grey, landed in the colony in November, 1845. At that time the governor was aided by a council, but was in fact supreme. The condition of the colony on Captain Grey's arrival was one of warfare with the natives, which warfare continued till peace was proclaimed, on 21st Feb- ruary, 1848. In 1852 gold was first found, in the North Island in the province of Auckland, but was not then worked to any success. It was not till 1860 that gold was NEW ZEALAND CONSTITUTION. 15 found in the Middle Island, and that New Zealand became one of the great gold-fields of the world. In 1846, Sir George Grey being Governor, an Act was passed by the British Parliament "to make further provision for the Government of the New Zealand Islands." I need not specify the provisions of the Act. In 1852, still during the reign of Sir George Grey,-his first reign, for, as all know who are interested in New Zealand, Sir George was twice Governor, another act was passed, with the object of giving a constitution to New Zealand. That constitution, though it has been much amended, still exists, and is certainly not deficient in its enactments for the liberty of the subject. It created a New Zealand parliament, called the General Assembly, consisting of the Governor as king, -a Legislative Council, in which there were at first ten members, the members being nominated by the Crown for life, and of a House of Representatives elected for five years. An electoral qualification was instituted, which still exists, and is about equal in its bearing to household suffrage at home, and of which the lowest terms are £10 household in the town, and £5 household in the country. So far, the constitution of New Zealand is similar to that of the Australian colonies; but, in addition to this, the colony was divided into provinces, at first six provinces, Auck- land, Wellington, Taranaki, Nelson, Otago, and Canterbury, -and to each province was given a separate legislature, under a superintendent elected by provincial votes. This scheme was, no doubt, taken from the State legislature of the United States. By the constitution the Maoris were endowed with political rights equal to those of the white men-which rights they still enjoy. Indeed, they have now higher privileges, as four Maoris sit in the House of Repre- sentatives as members returned by exclusively Maori con- stituencies. By these constituencies no white man can be returned, but a Maori can sit for any electoral district in the country. The constitution came out to New Zealand in 1853,- and the Provincial Council at once went to work. Sir George Grey left New Zealand at the close of that year, and the first General Assembly sat at Auckland in 1854. CHAPTER II. THE MAORIS. I FEEL it incumbent on me to write a chapter on the Maoris, and the Maori wars. It is indeed impossible to write even a fraction of a book about New Zealand without it. This arises not only from the importance of our dealings with these people to the colony generally, but also from the fact that in our thoughts and conversation about New Zea- land at home, we take more heed of the Maoris and of their battles than of any other details concerning the colony. Of the mining prosperity of Otago, Westland, and Auckland we hear little, unless we dabble in gold ourselves The agricultural prosperity of Canterbury hardly touches us, unless we have known some one who, twenty years ago, knew Gibbon Wakefield, Mr. Godley, or the present Lord. Lyttelton. Even the politics of Wellington and the state- craft of Mr. Vogel interest us but slightly. Of Nelson we hear but little. Of Marlborough, Taranaki, and Hawkes Bay, as provinces of New Zealand, who, out of the Colonial Office, has ever heard even the names? As Bishop Selwyn has returned to us uneaten, and now, to the advantage of some and the delight of all, presides safely over a comfort- able English diocese, even he is in danger of oblivion. But we do not forget that within ten years from this date we had 10,000 British soldiers fighting in New Zealand, with by no means triumphant success,-and that the Maoris were the people over whom we failed to triumph. Of the early history of the Maoris I have said a very few words, but perhaps sufficient, in the former chapter. We THE MAORIS. ོ་ have always heard of them as savages and cannibals ;—and have heard truly. But in spite of their savagery and can- nibalism they seem in early days,—we will say before 1840, -to have been delighted to have European settlers among them. Pakeha is the native word for stranger, and a Pakeha Maori is a stranger who has come and lived among Maoris more or less after their own ways. They were always glad to have Pakeha Maoris among them, and allowed wonderful liberties to these comers,-giving up their women, and even submitting, in some instances, to the desecration of their religious observances. And this welcome was not without a substantial reason. The Pakehas were traders, and brought with them all manner of good things, clothes, seed potatoes, iron tools, domestic utensils, pigs, poultry, and corn,-and above all, they brought with them guns and gunpowder with which enemies could be killed. What the Pakehas took in return for this was not of much value to the Maoris. Native flax was the ch'ef article, and of native flax there was abundance. Whale oil, seal skins, and kauri-gum when it was found, could be equally well spared, and the amount of land which the first Pakehas wanted was very small. It was a great thing for a tribe to have a few Pakehas to trade with,—so great a thing, at last, that no tribe could get on without them. The tribes which got the guns and gunpowder killed and ate up, root and branch, the unfortunate wretches whom no God-sent Pakeha had furnished with that blessed means of rapid destruction. And so the Pakehas were very popular. This went on till 1840 with a fair amount of comfort on both sides. The British merchants who engaged in the trade were not perhaps of the highest order,-nor were their lives passed after any very regular fashion. Now and again one may have been eaten, but the number who achieved martyrdom after that fashion was small. And in those days there were missionaries as well as Pakeha Maoris in the land who did what they could to soften matters, and who were not averse themselves to the acquiring of land. It will be remembered that at this time, though Great Britain had made a nominal claim to C 18 NEW ZEALAND. the islands, she had not exercised sovereignty. Then came the New Zealand Land Company in 1839; and in 1840 there came Governor Hobson and the treaty of Waitangi. It must be remembered that at this time the Northern Island only was concerned, and that in speaking of the Maoris, little need be said concerning the other two islands. The Maoris of the north, having at first enjoyed nearly a monopoly of guns and gunpowder, seem to have pretty well eaten up their southern brethren, before the days of Otago and Canterbury. Late in 1841 Mr. Wakefield's Nelson settlers occupied a part of the northern extremity of the Middle Island,-where, in 1843, took place the Wairau massacre, of which I will say a few words when speaking of Nelson province. But the chiefs by whom this was effected were Maoris connected with the Northern Island. Cook's Strait, which divides the Islands, is a narrow passage, and the southern shores of it were easily accessible. But our battles with the Maoris all took place in the Northern Island; and before the wars and before the coming of Governor Hobson the doings of the Pakeha Maoris were mainly confined to the North. The books which I have read about New Zealand almost always abuse the governor. Dr. Thompson,-whose story of New Zealand is the most comprehensive and impartial that I have read,-is by no means complimentary even to Governor Hobson, and covers acting-Governor Shortland and Governor Fitzroy with ridicule. In Mr. Fox's history of the war, he deals very hardly both with Sir George Grey and Sir Thomas Browne. The present governor,—or rather he who was governor during my visit, for his governorship has now passed away,—has so far escaped. I trust his good fortune may continue,-but books have not as yet been written about him. I take it to be the fact in regard to governors of colonies that they have either so easy a time of it that they can hardly go very wrong,-in which case they are abused for doing nothing; or so difficult a time that they cannot possibly go altogether right,-in which case they are abused for doing too much. The early governors of New Zealand were certainly called upon to PURCHASE OF LAND FROM THE MAORIS. 19 reign under the latter condition. It was probable that things might drift into order,-wafted on by that tendency to well-being which we call Providence, but which in truth arises from the combined intelligence of the community,— but it was impossible that it could be governed into order. In the last century, when governors were thought nothing of at home but were really governors in the dependencies which they were deputed to rule, it was different. Governor Phillip, when he was sent out to create a penal settlement at Botany Bay, had at any rate plenary power. He could do what he pleased either with aboriginals or Europeans, and being a man capable of the work, he did govern and was successful. But with Governors Hobson, Shortland, and Fitzroy it was very different. They had power neither over the natives nor over the Europeans,-and yet it was neces- sary that they should always be doing something. When Governor Hobson arrived the New Zealand Land Company claimed to have bought twenty million acres, or nearly a third of New Zealand. This acreage was reduced, by government inquiry and government decision, to little more than a quarter of a million. Of course after this there would be ill-blood between the government and the settlers. Of this quarter of a million,—282,000 was the exact number of acres,-60,000 were around a young settlement called New Plymouth, on the western coast of the Northern Island, in the district of Taranaki,—now a province of that name, -as to the present condition of which I will speak in another chapter. But certain Taranaki natives declared that the 60,000 acres, though paid for, had not in truth been bought, as the purchase had been made from natives who had no title to sell. This was in Governor Fitzroy's time. When complaint was made to the governor he in- quired into the matter energetically. But how could any inquiries enable a governor to go right in such a matter? The complaining natives had lost the land in question by warfare with another tribe, and the selling natives had gained the land by conquest. Now transference by con- quest of the absolute possession of the land, with the right to sell, had always been Maori law,-and in respecting the 20 NEW ZEALAND. Maori rights we had been forced to recognise Maori laws. The complaining natives had certainly been conquered and driven off their lands,—which had been sold to us by the conquerors. But there is another Maori law, which enacts that the conquerors do not in truth obtain the right to sell the land unless they have occupied it as well as conquered it; and in this case the conqueror who had driven the old natives from their land, and had very effectually performed his part of the sale by getting the money from the Euro- peans, who had regarded his title as good,—was held never to have occupied the soil, though his conquest was not disputed. Should any lawyer ever read these lines, let him. think of this little trouble, and of the position of a governor called upon to decide in such a matter! The money had been paid. The conqueror, by name Te Whero Whero,- who was afterwards elected as the first Maori king, and was known as King Potatau,-was secure. Restoration of the money would be out of the question. The settlers had been put into possession of their reduced estate amounting to 60,000 acres,-the original purchase having been infi- nitely larger. But the complaining natives were entitled to have the question adjudicated by their own laws! Come what come might, the natives were to be protected in their rights. Captain Fitzroy reduced the purchased area to 3,500 acres. The settlers were of course disgusted and half-ruined. The natives were of course convinced that they had made a great mistake from the beginning in sup- posing the white men to be greater or stronger than they. This is one story out of many that might be told as to the disposal of land between the natives and the Europeans. Justice on our part was in their eyes tantamount to weak- ness. The juster a governor might attempt to be, the weaker would he be in the eyes of the natives, and the more injurious in the eyes of the settlers. And there was soon another cause of dissatisfaction among the natives. The Pakehas had been the best of fellows as long as they were only traders,-taking flax, and bringing guns and gunpowder, and living after the Maori fashion; but they were very much less agreeable as perma- PAKEHA CUSTOMS. 21 nent residents when they began to exercise ways of their own. A certain number of chiefs had accepted the treaty of Waitangi,—partly overawed by the natural ascendancy of Europeans, and partly through appreciation of the mate- rial good things which the Pakehas brought with them. But now the very beauty and charm of the Pakeha trade was destroyed by new Pakeha inventions. Custom-houses were established, which to the Maori mind seemed to be utterly hostile to trade! The chief scene of Maori-cum- Pakeha commerce had been at the Bay of Islands, where Governor Hobson had first touched, and had placed his government before he moved down south to the harbour on which the town of Auckland now stands. Custom-houses and other abominable European fashions utterly destroyed the genuine old trade in the Bay of Islands. The American whaling-ships no longer came there. Blankets and tobacco became dear. Guns and gunpowder no longer were to be had. The very nature of the Pakehas seemed to be altered. Now a flag-staff had been set up on the hill over Kororeka, the once flourishing scene of Maori and Pakeha trade at the Bay of Islands. It came to pass that the new European fashions and the new European dominion connected themselves in the minds of certain natives, and especially in the mind of a leading native named Heke, with the flag-staff; and this Heke, on the 8th of July, 1844, with a body of followers, cut down and burned the flag-staff, thereby destroying the symbol, and intending to destroy with the symbol the reality, of the authority which had come among them. The flag-staff,— after some delay caused by the necessity of sending to Sydney for soldiers,—was again erected; but at the same time Kororeka was declared a free port. The obnoxious custom-house was abolished. This was a concession,—but was of course accepted as a sign of weakness, and in the following year the flag-staff was again cut down. It was a third time erected, and after the third erection was protected by troops. But for the third time it was cut down by Heke, and on this occasion there was a battle. The natives had by far the best of it, and the Europeans evacuated Kororeka 22 NEW ZEALAND. and were carried off in three or four ships which were lying in the port. This was in 1845, and was the beginning of the Maori wars, and Heke was the hero of the hour. The governor then felt that he must fight and put down Heke. Either that must be done, or the place must be abandoned, and all the emblems of the Queen's authority taken away. Of course the native chiefs. had not under- stood the treaty of Waitangi,—and the natives generally had known nothing about it. To accuse Heke and his allies of treachery and rebellion would be absurd. A condition of things which no New Zealand native had contemplated was coming about,—and thraldom was the purpose of the Pakehas. Thraldom no doubt was intended. It was our purpose to be masters of New Zealand, and to rule over those people; and therefore there must be war. But the war then, as it has often been since, was disastrous. We have kept the country by numbers, by money, and by intel- ligence. We have held it in spite of military misfortune. We followed up Heke to a pah at Okaikau, and there we were repulsed with terrible loss. We did not even get pos- session of the pah. With renewed forces we again followed Heke to a pali at Oheawai, again attacked, and were again defeated, though on this occasion the Maoris deserted the pah in the night. After this, poor Governor Fitzroy departed from the scene, and Governor Grey took his place. He commenced his career by victory. The natives now divided their forces, and we followed, not Heke, but his ally Kawiti, to a pah at Ruapekapeka, and from thence we succeeded in driving him and his men. But their food was exhausted, and, as savages, they had had enough of fight- ing for one war. After this there was unconditional pardon, with intentions of brotherly love and Christianity,—and so the first war ended in January, 1846. It was thus that the natives gradually learned the art of constructing fortifications and fighting within them, which throughout all the Maori contests was so terrible to us. It seems that our men could not be brought to endure the idea of starving them out, but always attempted to "rush" the pahs, generally making the attempt in vain. The EARLY WARS. 23 Maoris were seldom adequately provided with food for a siege, and hardly ever with water ;-but within their pahs they were almost impregnable to sudden attacks. The defence of the pah depended chiefly on the nature of its ditch, and the description of the ditch as given by Dr. Thompson may perhaps interest my readers. "In an Eng- lish fort the ditch is deep, and outside the defences; in a New Zealand pah the ditch is shallow, and inside the palisades. In an English fort the ditch is made to obstruct the enemy; in a New Zealand pah the ditch is made to cover the defenders, who stand in it and fire at the besiegers." After this there were two wars in the province of Wel- lington,-one in the valley of the Hutt, and the other in the country between the towns of Wellington and Wanganui, which lasted from the beginning of 1846 to the beginning of 1848. They were not absolutely disastrous, as had been the attacks against the pahs in Auckland,-but they were very unsatisfactory in their results. Whether the rebellious Maoris were pardoned or punished, it seemed to be impos- sible to treat them at the same time with justice and wisdom. Without punishment rebellion could not be put down,—and there seemed to be cruelty in hanging men who felt that they were fighting for the preservation of their own pro- perty. It would often occur that those of their deeds which were most horrible in our eyes were done in the performance of duties absolutely exacted by their laws,— and for those deeds it was necessary that we should hang them! Blood for blood is law with them, even though the first blood should have been shed in accident. We, of course, declared that such was not our law, and that they must obey our laws, because of the treaty of Waitangi. When we can bring ourselves in our dealings with a people so different to ourselves to act upon the law of bold and unscrupulous expediency,-when we declare to a people, as we did to the Australian aboriginals, that they are utterly deprived by us, for our advantage, of all ancient rights, of all laws of their own, and of all property,--the road, though it be rough, is straight. The colonist may be humane,- he is to a horse, bu he is persistent. But the mixed as 24 NEW ZEALAND. treatment which we have tried with the New Zealand natives has made government and life among them very difficult. All that we can do is to drift through the diffi- culties, while the tribes are melting. These little wars, as we may call them, were brought to an end in 1848, and then there came a period of peace, during which fond hopes were entertained that the Maoris were becoming peaceful subjects, and that the great question as to the possibility of civilising a savage race had been happily solved by the rulers of New Zealand. In three years very much was done for the Maoris. Mills were built for them,-and churches and schools. Agricultural implements were given to them. In all contests with the settlers as to their lands or privileges there was a tendency to favour the natives,—a tendency which in the circumstances of the colony was very natural. But in these years, and even from the very year in which the first wars had ceased,—namely in 1848,-the seeds of the future wars were sown. In this year commenced the land league and the king faction,—of both I have already spoken. The land league was a union carried on with the professed object of preventing land from falling into the hands of the settlers, and was, in truth, not only the cause of the latter wars, but the beginning of them. There were certain tribes about the centre of the North Island, and especially upon the west-central coast, which had been con- sistently averse to selling their land,—and who were per- fectly justified by the treaty of Waitangi in their policy, as regarded land belonging to themselves. While they con- fined their operations to their own territory their course of action was not illegal, even in accordance with our own laws. But when they interfered either by arms or threats to thwart the purchases made from other tribes, then,—in accordance with the treaty of Waitangi,-they became rebels. The chief among these were the Waikato tribe who inhabited the fertile valleys of the river of that name and of the Waipa, and the Ngatimaniapoto, who owned the wild district further south. The country of the Waikato has now been confiscated, and the valleys are green with EARLY WARS. 25 English grasses. The Ngatimaniapoto still hold their land, and among them lives the Maori king. The league from year to year became a great and still greater impediment to European settlers,—and looking back at it now I find it hard to conceive any measure short of war by which its evils could be stayed. It was allowed to progress, and its success, of course, taught the Maoris, among whom it had originated, to think that they had discovered the means by which they could stop the growing ascendancy of the white man in their country. The election of a king was of the same nature, and was equally intelligible. I do not suppose that at the beginning of the king movement there was any belief among the Maoris that they could drive the Europeans out of the islands,—an idea which did grow among them after their subsequent successes;-but there was a feeling that as the Europeans had a Queen and a government of their own, the Maoris should have the same. It was another protest against the political ascendancy of the strangers, made no doubt in direct contravention of the treaty of Waitangi as understood by us, but probably with no conception on their part that they were violating any law to which they had in truth made themselves subject. I have spoken of the difficulty which befell Governor Fitzroy as to the purchase of land in Taranaki in earlier days. Taranaki, or New Plymouth, has from the com- mencement of its career been the most unfortunate part of New Zealand. It was here again that the wars com- menced. A native named Taylor* declared himself willing to sell certain land at Waitara, in the province; but the chief of the tribe, named William King, declared that the land should not be sold. On inquiry it was decided that Taylor's right to sell was valid, and the purchase was made. But King, with his followers, would allow no Europeans to enter on the land. This led to a war which lasted for months, * By this time many of the natives had grown up to manhood with names taken from European godfathers, but which they altered to suit their own language,-multiplying the vowels and eliminating the con- sonants. Teira is Taylor; Tamati is Thomas; Pooipi is Busby; and so on. 26 NEW ZEALAND. and brought New Plymouth almost to death's door. King was assisted by a great chief from the Waikato tribe named William Thompson, a leading man among the Maoris, and one who did more than any other to enforce the land league on Maoris who were willing to sell. Thompson sent down a body of the Waikato fighting men to reinforce the Taranaki natives, but these men were encountered by Europeans on their arrival, and were beaten. Then Thomp- son himself went down, and a truce was made. This occurred in the first six months of 1861. But, though a truce was made, the question as to the Waitara land was not settled. The native, Taylor, had got the price, or part of it; but the government, which had been the purchaser, had not got the land, and the poor settlers of Taranaki were again ruined. Then there arose a question as to carrying the war into the Waikato country,—so as to punish those who had instigated the rebellion in Taranaki. Governor Browne was for war; —but his ministers were against it. Mr. Fox, whose narra- tive of the war I shall follow in the few details which I shall give, is of opinion that had we then attempted to invade the Waikato territory, the results would have been disastrous. General Cameron, who for the next four years held the command in New Zealand, had arrived ;-but it is alleged that he had no more than 3,000 men, and that as he after- wards had as much as he could do to clear the Waikato with 15,000 men, he would have failed in any attempt in 1861. I cannot but doubt whether this follows. The Maoris used, as we did, the time which followed for pre- paration, and were strengthened in all their feelings, in their prestige, in their self-confidence, in their growing disregard of the white man, by the fact that their opposition was successful. Of those 15,000 men whom General Cameron afterwards had, 5,000 were furnished by the colony, and these would have been forthcoming on our side as quickly as were the Maori recruits on the other side. This, how- ever, now is but matter of speculation. The question of the immediate attack on the Waikatos was settled by the with- drawal of Governor Browne, and the return of Governor MAORI WAR. 27 Grey, who, as we well remember in England,-was sent back in this time of difficulty as the great New Zealand governor. He arrived in September, 1861. Governor Grey began by an attempt to settle the question of that Waitara land which had been bought but not obtained, -and of which the occupation by European settlers was still prevented by the Maoris. As long as that was unsettled we were practically confessing ourselves unable to hold our own against the Maoris. There were conferences, therefore, and offers to refer the matter to arbitration. It was not the absolute land which we wanted so much as an opportunity of getting out of the scrape without disgrace in the eyes of the Maoris. But they saw that as well as we did, and were determined that we should be disgraced. They would neither give up the land nor consent to arbitration. Thomp- son, who was the leading spirit of the day, would do neither. He was the Maori king's great support, and now apparently began to think that he might, by persistent opposition, drive the Europeans altogether out of the land. The governor went to the stiffnecked Waikato tribe and was magnanimous. The minister went and was persuasive. The bishop went and preached to them. Other natives were got to operate upon them. Anything was better for us than war with a race whom we had thought to bind to us by giving them the blessings of civilisation. But it was all of no avail. They would do nothing in a friendly spirit about the Waitara land. During the whole of 1862 and the early months of 1863 these peaceful efforts were continued. And other land, undoubtedly purchased in unfortunate Taranaki, was in the meanwhile taken from the settlers by the Maoris. As it was necessary that something should be done, European soldiers were sent to re-occupy this land. A party of these soldiers, consisting of eight men and two officers, were killed by a Maori ambuscade, and thus the war was re-commenced. This was on the 4th May, 1863,— and it now seemed to be our only choice whether we should abandon New Zealand or put down the Maoris altogether. Singularly enough we have not as yet absolutely done either, —and it is to be hoped that we never shall do either. Other 28 NEW ZEALAND. outbreaks had been occurring in the Waikato itself much about the same time. A magistrate whom we had appointed was turned out of his district, and a court-house which we were building was pulled down and thrown into the river. It was very evident that William Thompson's country must be the scene of the war. It is not my purpose to give a history of the war of the Waikato. In the valley of this river and of its confluent the Waipa, the great Maori contest of which we heard so much was mainly carried on. General Cameron had 15,000 men under him, and the fighting Maoris were computed at 2,000. It must not be supposed that these numbers were ever brought together at one spot, or even in one part of the North Island; but such are supposed to have been the rela- tive proportions of the men in arms, and in our different engagements with them we generally outnumbered them almost in that proportion. But they never met us in the open field, and gained their successes either by ambuscades. or within their pahs. We were always fighting them as a master may be supposed to fight a mutinous boy. It was essential that we should conquer them, but we wished to do it with the least possible injury to them. On the 12th July, 1863, the campaign began, at the lower end of the valley of the Waikato, about thirty-eight miles from Auckland, at a spot that had been reached by the frontier settlements of the Europeans, and it was ended by the escape of the Maoris from the Orakau pah on April 2nd, 1864, at the top of the valley. During the time we had slaughtered probably a third of those who were in the Wai- kato, had captured nearly another third, and had driven the remainder out of their own tribal grounds into those of their allies. In fact we put an end to the Waikato tribe. But we did this at a terrible cost to ourselves, and achieved but little glory in doing it. They fought their way back, from one pah to another, with extraordinary persistency,- and at Rangariri, where they stationed themselves in two pahs, we lost one hundred and thirty-five in killed and wounded before we could drive them out. Out of one of the pahs the Maoris who were not killed escaped through THE GATE PAH. 29 a swamp. prisoners. All those in the other gave themselves up as These prisoners were afterwards sent to Kawau, an island which was the property of the governor, and were there re- leased from absolute constraint on parole. But they all escaped. It does not appear, however, that they ever had an opportunity of taking up arms against us again, even were they so disposed. During this Waikato campaign there had been fighting also in another direction, on the east coast,-and here had occurred a disaster almost worse to our arms than that at Rangariri. I remember well how we felt in England when the news reached us of the repulse of our men from the Gate pah, little thinking then that I should ever see the scene of their slaughter and the spot in which they were buried. Tauranga is a harbour on the east coast in the neighbourhood of which hostile Maoris were congregated, and from which reinforce- ments both in men and provisions were sent across the country to the Waikato. Consequently it was thought neces- sary to attack the Maories at Tauranga. The Gate pah was a fortification which they had constructed about three miles from Tauranga, at which place we held a redoubt called Te Papa. The pah was of the usual description, with an ex- terior palisade, a ditch within, and with more than the usual amount of holes and caves made for rifle-pits. It is supposed to have been held by 300 Maories. We had nearly 1,700 men with which to attack it. We had also enormous Arm- strong guns. We fired into it,—or not into it, as it might be,—an infernal bail-storm of shot and shell throughout an entire day till four P.M., and then our men attempted to "rush it. They made their way in, and the poor Maoris seem to have attempted to escape at the back. But they were turned by others of our men who had got round the pah, and as they came back, in the dark, their numbers were multiplied in the imagination of the British soldiers who had entered the pah,—and a panic ensued. We lost 27 killed and 66 wounded, of whom many died, and among the dead there were 11 officers. The Maoris remained in possession of the pah that evening, but during the night "9 30 NEW ZEALAND. they evacuated it. They betook themselves to another pah a few miles distant called Te Ranga, from which they were dislodged the next day, and almost annihilated. The Tauranga natives were crushed,—but at a vast expense both of life and of prestige. It was wonderful to me, as I stood and looked at the remnants of the Gate pah, also as I walked about among the mounds left at Rangiriri, that human beings could have existed there under such fire as was poured upon them. That a 110-pounder Armstrong gun should not at once de- stroy a Sebastopol, or frighten all the besieged out of their lives, I can comprehend ;—but that it should be fired point blank against palisades and not cut everything before it to pieces, or that assault should be endured by savages within without panic, I cannot comprehend. Earthworks we know are very efficacious against heavy guns, but these Maori earthworks, though admirably adapted to protect men with muskets and rifles against other men with muskets and rifles, would, I should have thought, have buried the besieged in dust when knocked about by such a force as was employed. The besiegers of the Gate pah had fourteen other cannons of various kinds. The mysteries of warfare, like other mys- teries, are very wonderful to the uninitiated. Like most of our fighting in New Zealand, this fighting at Tauranga was disastrous, but finally successful. We did stamp out the rebellion there, and the lands of that neigh- bourhood have now been confiscated, and a portion of them divided among military settlers, as has been done with the lands in the valley of the Waikato. But that day at the Gate pah, the 28th April, 1864,-was I think of all days. the most unfortunate in our New Zealand annals. It is only fair here to remark that nothing could have exceeded the dogged bravery with which the Maoris awaited death within their palisades. We must now go back again to unfortunate Taranaki,- for it was necessary that the war should be brought to an end here, as had been done in the Waikato. In the Waikato the natives had by no means surrendered, or owned them- selves conquered; but they had either been destroyed or had THE HAU-HAUS. 31 receded. The country from whence the armed opposition to us had been instigated was now in our hands,-and the reader may as well remember that it has remained so since. But in Taranaki the rebels were also as firmly in possession of our land as we were of theirs in Waikato. A renewed war commenced there on 24th March, 1864, of which it became ultimately the object to clear the way from New Plymouth down the west coast by the settlement of Wan- ganui to Wellington. South of Wanganui the affair was pleasantly managed by the adhesion to our interests of an old chief named Wi Tako; but north of Wanganui, and indeed all through the province of Taranaki, except imme- diately round New Plymouth, the Maoris were still in arms against us. And now, during this campaign, there arose among the Maoris a further scheme of opposition to the Europeans. At first these people liked us, and liked our dealings with them. Appreciating our superiority, they, or some among them, consented to a treaty with us, by which they no doubt did understand that after some fashion they were acknowledg- ing our superiority;-but they did so in the supposition that they would thereby render easier and more frequent, more lucrative and more attractive generally, those dealings of which I have spoken. But after a while they began to feel that absolute submission was required of them ;-and against this they struggled. Such was the nature of the cutting down of the flag-staff; such was the Wairau massacre in Nelson; such were the first quarrels about land in Tara- naki and elsewhere; such was the land league and the king movement ;—and of this nature also was the determina- tion to which various tribes now came to throw aside the Christian religion, and to set up, not any old Maori worship, but a new religion in its place. This religion was called by its votaries the Pai Marire, and they who practise it are called Hau-Haus,-pronounced How-Hows,-from the fact that a considerable portion of its ceremonies consists in the repeated and violent exclamation of that sound in the hour of battle, or when fighting is imminent. It would be use- less here to describe the childish mixture of Bible legends 32 NEW ZEALAND. and horrible Maori practices which constituted the forms of this faith. The object was to make those who adopted it believe that it would give them victory against their enemies, and also to induce a feeling that the separation thus effected from European habits was final;-that it was of a nature to defy the missionaries, and that by it would be severed alto- gether any cord which might still be binding between the two races. One of the earliest objects of the missionaries had been the abolition of cannibalism, and for many years, from 1843, namely, down to this war in 1864,—they were able at any rate to boast that cannibalism had been brought to an end. Whether the Maoris were or were not persistent Christians, whether they did or did not so far understand Christianity as to be able to regulate their lives by the reli- gious teaching they had received,—so much had been done. And the boast was true. Dr. Thompson commences a chronological list of the improvements which the Maoris had received at our hands, by stating that in 1770, when we first knew them, they were cannibals; that in 1836 can- nibalism was still practised; but that since 1843 cannibalism had been discontinued. Dr. Thompson's book was pub- lished in 1859, and his statement was then no doubt correct. But the Pai Marire religion produced, if it did not demand, a return to this horrid custom. After its adoption the Maoris drank their enemies' blood, and swallowed the eyes of those they murdered. Another great object with the missionaries had been to render sacred the marriage vow; but the Pai Marire religion requires that men and women shall live together in common, basing the order on the mis- taken notion that thus would the Maori race become more numerous. This new religion sprang up first in Taranaki, and became a leading principle during the remainder of the war. When speaking of our own Church in Auckland, in a subsequent chapter, I shall venture to express there an opinion of the result of missionary labour on the religion of the Maoris ;— but I may as well state here that the Hau-Hau religion is still held by a large portion of them, not only among the LAST SCENES OF THE WAR. 33 King-people, but among tribes who are on friendly terms. with us. It may be that it has been softened in some of its aspects, that it has got itself mixed up with some forms and names of Christian worship,—but they who follow it ignore the teaching of Christian pastors, and claim thorough reli- gious independence for themselves. The remainder of the war along the coast was diversified by two occurrences, which changed the nature of the pro- ceedings. The governor and the British general quarrelled bitterly, and our successes, for at last we were successful, —were due to colonial troops and to friendly natives rather than to the British soldiers,-in reference to whom it had been decided at home that they should leave the colony as soon as they could be spared. As to the quarrel, the nature of my little narrative does not require that I should say anything. It was, however, unfortunate, and must have retarded the suppression of the Maoris generally. In re- gard to the friendly natives, it is perhaps not generally known in England that, while during the entire war many tribes have been altogether inactive,-as has been the case with all the tribes north of Auckland, since the days of Heke and the cutting down of the flag-staff,-other tribes have fought gallantly for us. This was done, in a most picturesque fashion, by certain of the Ngatihau tribe who lived near Wanganui, and who in this campaign fought a kind of duel in our behalf with a body of the Hau-Haus, who had. proclaimed their intention of coming down the Wanganui River to attack us. It seems that a certain number of men was fixed for each side, and that they agreed to fight on an island in a river called Montona. The fight came off, and our allies beat our enemies,--but not without great loss. The war was brought to an end early in 1865, by the gradual reduction of the strongholds of the natives,—a ser- vice in which the colonial forces seem to have taken the most prominent part, and by the opening up of the entire road between New Plymouth and Wanganui, as had been declared necessary;-and then there was a proclamation of peace. But the Maoris never owned themselves beaten, and do not do so to this day. D 34 NEW ZEALAND. I have not attempted here to narrate all the wars that were waged, much less all the battles that were fought. There was another campaign in 1865, if it can be so called, upon the east coast,-south-east from Tauranga, at Opitiki, -which arose from the murder of a missionary, Mr. Volkner. In this war we were again assisted by a friendly tribe, the Arewas. The hostile Maoris were hunted down, slaughtered, and taken prisoners by colonial forces, who seem to have shown themselves better able to cope with natives in bush- fighting and in pah-fighting than soldiers of the line. After this there was more fighting lower down on the east coast, and the town of Napier, the capital of Hawkes Bay, was attacked by natives. This was in 1866, at which time there was in those parts a certain Maori, now widely knowr. through New Zealand as Te Kooti,—whose name, I am informed, was Scott. A little examination will recon- cile the reader to the alteration. This man was a "Friendly," or pretended to be so; but he was found to be intriguing with the Hau-Haus against us, was arrested, and was banished to the Chatham Islands, with three hundred other Maoris who had been taken with arms in their hands. These islands are a dependency on the colony of New Zealand. From thence he made his escape in 1868, with nearly all his remaining fellow-prisoners. This he effected by making himself master of a schooner which had gone there with stores, and compelling the captain to land him and his friends at Poverty Bay, on the east coast of New Zealand, just north of Hawkes Bay. From thence he made his way across the North Island, and for four years, up to May, 1872, the New Zealand government and the New Zealand troops were employed in hunting him. He has been wounded three times, but on each occasion has con- trived to escape, though not above thirty of the men who returned with him are now left alive. During these four years Te Kooti has been the Maori hero,—as William Thompson was during the Waikato campaign. There has been other fighting,-especially in Taranaki, where one. Tito Kowaru headed a faction, but Te Kooti has been the great difficulty. As many as 2,000 men have been in LAST SCENES OF THE WAR. 35 the field after him, and he has cost New Zealand the in- credible sum of nearly half a million. Te Kooti has not been caught, and is now living on the Mokau river, which is the northern boundary of Taranaki. He is of course an outlaw, but when I was in New Zealand the pursuit of him had been abandoned as hopeless, and the question was dis- cussed whether a general amnesty should not be proclaimed, in which he should be included. At the same time the king was living among his own people,—and though apparently powerless to do the settlers or the colony injury, was living in defiance of New Zealand laws, holding his own land, not only as his own property but as a territory into which he would admit no white man except on sufferance. The present governor, in sending home to the Secretary of State, on June 10, 1871, a certain map, says in his dispatch that on it his "" Lordship will recognise a 'pale,' in the sense familiar in Irish history, with the important difference that in Ireland the 'pale' was set up by the colonists against the natives, whereas in New Zealand it is set up by the natives against the colonists." The existence of such a pale is a fact which is not with- out humiliation to us. It has not been intended by us. We have never surrendered our jurisdiction over this country. That jurisdiction has been taken from us, and has been held from us by force of arms. I can easily understand that colonial ministers in New Zealand should have been anxious to take Te Kooti, and to reduce the King Tawhiao as he is called,*—the son of Potatau, the first king. But after the money that has been expended in the wars, and the enormous cost of the vain hunt after Te Kooti, and as it is acknowledged on all sides that the Maoris are melting, it may well be questioned whether the game is worth the candle. Things are quiet now, and will probably remain so if left alone. The Maoris, though they are conscious of having troubled us much by their personal prowess, though they doubtless believe themselves to be, * This man was originally named and probably christened Matutaera, which stands for Methuselah ;-but when he became a Hau-Hau, he rejected his Bible name, and called himself Tawhiao. 36 NEW ZEALAND. man for man, very much better soldiers than we are, have learned that our combined power is too great for them. As they "melt they will gradually sell even the lands from which we are at present banished,—and so at last even Taranaki will be at rest. The feeling of the colony is, I think, in favour of such conduct,—and it is recommended by humanity as well as prudence. Before the pursuit after Te Kooti had commenced, and when we were doubting whether we should or should not wage war against the king, a loyal Maori chief, in an inter- view with the Governor, gave him this advice :—“ O Gover- nor, Matutaera is now like a single tree left exposed in a clearing of our native forests. If left alone it will soon wither and die. My word to you, O Governor, is to leave Matutaera alone." I think that the Maori chief gave good advice. Before I close this chapter I will mention one or two Maori peculiarities. It is singular that they have never learned our language. On the contrary, they have forced many among us to learn theirs. They have doubtless been aided in this by the action of the missionaries, who felt, as has been common with those who have based the progress of civilisation chiefly on religious teaching, that they could retain a more exclusive hold on the natives by learning their language than by teaching to them the language of the settlers. The effect has been greatly to increase the diffi- culty of amalgamating the races. Those difficulties have been overwhelming, and no amalgamation is now possible. The Maoris, with all the teaching that has been lavished on them, seem never to have overcome the incubus of barbarous superstition. The "tapu," before we came, was with them all-powerful. Doubtless the power has been weakened, but it has not been got rid of even by Christian Maoris. The " tapu" makes a thing sacred, so that it should not be touched;-sacred, or perhaps accursed. Priests are tapu." Food is very often " tapu," so that only sacred persons may eat it, and then must eat it without touching it with their hands. Places are frightfully "tapu," so that no man or woman may go in upon them. Chiefs 66 "TAPU" AND "MURU.” 37 (6 are "tapu,”—particularly their heads. Dead bodies in some circumstances are tapu." Indeed there was no end to the tapu," and it is easy enough to see how strongly the continuance of such superstition must have worked against civilisation. 66 (( The desire of accumulating property, combined with the industry necessary for doing so, is perhaps of all qualifica- tions for civilisation the most essential. But the Maoris had, and still have, an institution terribly subversive both of the desire and of the power to collect wealth. This is called 'muru," and consists in the infliction of punishment for faults, or accidents, or even for faults or accidents com- mitted by others. Sometimes it is enforced in the way of compliment, and a Maori in such cases would consider himself to be slighted if he were not half-ruined by a inuru." Those who perform the "muru" visit the afflicted one, eat up all his provision, and take away all his moveables. The expedition that thus performs justice is called a "taua." taua." If a man's wife runs away, a "taua" of his own friends visits him as a mark of condolence, another "taua" of his wife's friends visits him to punish him for not taking better care of her. A third "taua" taua" on behalf of the Lothario comes, because he also has got into a mess,-and between the three the unhappy victim is denuded of everything. The author of that very amusing book, "The Pakeha Maori,"—which all who care to learn anything about the Maoris should read, thus describes the "muru :" "The offences for which people were plundered were sometimes of a nature which, to a mere Pakeha, would seem curious. A man's child fell into the fire and was nearly burned to death. The father was immediately plundered to an extent that almost left him without the means of sub- sistence; fishing-nets, canoes, pigs, provisions,-all went. His canoe upset, and he and all his family narrowly escaped drowning —some were perhaps drowned. He was immedi- ately robbed, and well pummelled with a club into the bargain, if he was not good at the science of self-defence,- the club part of the ceremony being always fairly adminis- tered, one against one, and after fair warning given to defend 38 NEW ZEALAND. himself. He might be clearing some land for potatoes, burn- ing off the fern, and the fire spreads farther than he intended, and gets into a 'wahi tapu,' or burial ground. No matter whether any one has been buried in it for the last hundred years ;—he is tremendously robbed. In fact, for ten thousand different causes a man might be robbed; and I can imagine a case in which a man for scratching his own head might be legally robbed. 66 Now, as the enforcers of this law were also the parties who received the damages, as well as the judges of the amount, which in many cases,-as in that of the burned child,—would be everything that they could by any means lay hands on, it is easy to perceive that under such a system personal property was an evanescent thing altogether. These executions or distraints were never resisted. Indeed in many cases it would have been felt as a slight and an insult not to be robbed ;-the sacking of a man's establishment being often taken as a high compliment, especially if his head was broken into the bargain. And to resist the execu- tion would not only have been looked upon as mean and disgraceful in the highest degree, but would have debarred the contemptible individual from the privilege of robbing his neighbours. As the old Pakeha Maori well remarks, personal property, in such a state of things, was an evanescent kind of thing altogether. I must also observe, that though the morality of married women among the Maoris is not low for a savage people,— for I was informed by those who ought to know that the wives are generally true to their husbands,-that of the unmarried girls is as debased as possible. The feeling of it does not exist, and the girl commits no offence either against father and mother, or against public opinion. And yet illegitimate children are rare. I need hardly say that a race so circumstanced must melt away. In 1842 they were estimated at 114,000; in 1850, at 70,000; in 1858 they were numbered at 55,790. In 1866 Mr. Fox estimated them at 45,000. In 1872 I was assured that they were below 40,000 None of these numbers may have been correct. None of PROBABLE EXTINCTION OF THE RACE. 39 them probably were correct, as no accurate census of them has been possible. But the estimates have been made as well as the government could make them, and they indicate clearly the course which the race is taking. It is with pain that I write as I do about a gallant people, whose early feelings towards us were those of kindness and hospitality, and as to whom I acknowledge that they have nearly had the gifts which would have enabled us to mix with them on equal terms. And I feel grieved that I cannot participate more cordially than I do with the sympathies of those who have been stirred by a certain romantic element in the Maori character, to build up in their own imaginations the fiction of a noble race. More than one such has descanted to me in glowing language on the poetry of the Maori story, and has pointed out to me that it required but a New Zealand Walter Scott to make the Maoris equal to the High- landers. I cannot but answer to this that the blood of the Highlander is to be found at present wherever the English language is spoken, and that among all mankind no man is less likely to melt away than he. But the Maoris are going. No doubt the story of the Maori may be told with poetry. Such an attempt is not in my way; but as far as I have told it, I have endeavoured to tell it with truth. CHAPTER III, OTAGO, THE LAKE DISTRICT. Ir may be well to explain to any who have omitted New Zealand from their acquired geography, that the colony bearing that name consists of the North Island, the Middle Island, and Stewart Island,--which latter is a small affair, forming a part of the present province of Otago, and at pre- sent only interesting on behalf of its scenery. It must be understood that both the Northern and Middle Island are divided into different provinces. The government is attempt- ing to form a fishing establishment in Stewart Island, and to induce immigrants to come out with the object of follow- ing that occupation. That there is abundance of fish, including oysters, is an established fact. The island is at present very thinly occupied, chiefly by Maoris and a half- caste race. The colony of New Zealand in fact consists of the Northern and Middle Islands. The southern portion of the latter is now the province of Otago, and is, of all the New Zealand provinces, the first in point of population. Three years ago there were two separate provinces, Southland and Otago, which are now combined. The Bluffs, at which I landed from Melbourne, is the seaport of Southland, and hence there runs a railway to Invercargill, which was its capital when as a separate province it had a capital,-and twenty miles beyond it to a place called Winton. On land- ing I immediately asked to be shown some Maoris, but was told that they were very scarce in that part of the country. Indeed, I did not see one in the whole province, and it seemed as though I might as well have asked for a moa,— FIRST ARRIVAL. 41 the great bird which used, in former days, to stalk in soli- tary grandeur about the island. The place at which we landed had a quay, and a railway, a post office, and two inns ;-but it had nothing else. The scenery was wild and pretty, more like the western sea-coast of County Cork than any other that I have seen. The land was poor, and for some distance around apparently useless. There were hills on all sides, and mountains in the distance. It would be impossible to imagine any country more unlike Australia, from which I had just landed,-a remark which I may as well make once for all, and which may be applied to every- thing in New Zealand. The two countries both grow wool, and are both auriferous. Squatters and ininers are common to them. But in all outward features they are dissimilar,— as they are also in the manners of the people, and in the forms of their government. I found myself struck, for a moment, with the peculiarity of being in New Zealand. To Australia generally I had easily reconciled myself, as being a part of the British Empire. Of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land I had heard so early in life, as to have become quite used to them,—so that I did not think myself to be very far from home when I got there. But New Zealand had come up in my own days, and there still remained to me something of the feeling of awful distance with which in early years I had regarded the young settlements at the Antipodes,—for New Zealand is, of all inhabited lands, the most absolutely Antipodean to Greenwich. I remembered the first appearance in public of the grim jokes attributed to Sydney Smith, as to the cold curate, and the hope expressed that Bishop Selwyn might disagree with the cannibal who should eat him. The colony still retained for me something of the mysterious vagueness. with which it was enveloped in early days,—so that when landing at The Bluff I thought that I had done something in the way of travelling. Melbourne had been no more than New York, hardly more than Glasgow, certainly not so much as Vienna. But if I could find myself in a Maori pah,-then indeed the flavour of the dust of Pall Mall would for the time depart from me altogether. Most travellers 42 NEW ZEALAND. have experienced the feeling, have anticipated a certain strangeness which they have never quite achieved. But when I had got as far as Invercargill, the capital of South- land, I felt exactly as I might have felt on getting out of a railway in some small English town, and by the time I had reached the inn, and gone through the customary battle as to bedrooms, a tub of cold water, and supper, all the feeling of mystery was gone. I began to inquire the price of tea and sugar, and the amount of wages which men were earn- ing;—but had no longer any appreciation of my Antipodean remoteness from the friends of my youth. I can hardly explain how it is that Invercargill, and indeed all New Zealand towns, are more like England, than are the towns of Australia ;—but so it is. When one gets into the country the reasons for this are apparent. The everlasting gum forests do not belong to New Zealand, and the trees which are indigenous to the soil are brighter in hue than the dull-coloured foliage of the eucalyptus tribe. And "the bush," at any rate in the Southern,—or so-called Middle,-Island is not ubiquitous, as it is over so vast a proportion of Australia. At first it struck me that there was an absence of timber, and in some places I found that fuel was terribly expensive, in consequence of the distances over which wood had to be carried. Again, no animal is now seen in New Zealand different from those which are familiar to us in England. There is, I believe, a rat in the country whose ancestors are said to have existed there previous to the coming of the English,-though some naturalists cast a doubt even upon the rat,-but there is no other four-footed animal that has not been imported and acclimatized. There are a few native birds, but those which are commonly seen are to the eye in no way different from English birds. The moas have left their skeletons, which are to be seen standing at the museum at Christchurch from 11 to 13 feet high, but the last moa died some say more than 1,000 years ago, while others contend that they existed down to the coming of the Maoris, who are supposed to have eaten the last of them not more than 250 years since. In Australia there is a whole class of animals very strange to British UNLIKE AUSTRALIA. 43 eyes-kangaroos, wallibies, and paddymelons, running about on their hind legs, and carrying their young in their pouches; and there are parrots and cockatoos, laughing jackasses, and native-companions, lyre-birds, and bell-birds-all of which savour of a strange land. But I found nothing strange in the province of Otago. All English animals have not only acclimatized themselves, but seem to thrive with a prolific increase beyond that which we know at home. The hens lay more eggs, the bees swarm more frequently, the rabbits breed more quickly;-the ewes are more certain with their lambs than they are with us. This is, no doubt, the case in Australia also,—but then in Australia there is an animal life of its own. In New Zealand everything is Eng- lish. The scenery, the colour and general appearance of the waters, and the shape of the hills, are altogether un-Aus- tralian, and very like to that with which we are familiar in the west of Ireland and the highlands of Scotland. The mountains are brown and sharp and serrated, the rivers are bright and rapid, and the lakes are deep, and blue, and bosomed among the mountains. If a long-sleeping Briton could be awaked, and set down among the Southland hills, and told that he was travelling in Galway or Cork, or in the west of Ross, he might be easily deceived, though he knew the nature of those counties well;-but he would feel at once that he was being hoaxed if he were told in any part of Australia that he was travelling among Irish or British scenery. We were unfortunate in the time of the year, having reached the coldest part of New Zealand in the depth of the winter. Everybody had told me that it would be so,-and complaint had been made to me of my conduct, as though I were doing New Zealand a manifest injustice in reaching her shores at a time in which her roads were all mud, and her mountains all snow. By more than one New Zealander I was scolded roundly, and by those who did not scold me I was laughed to scorn. Did I imagine that because August was summer in England, therefore it was summer at the other side of the world; or did I think that I should find winter pleasant in Otago, because winter might be pre- 44 NEW ZEALAND. ferable to summer in Queensland? I endeavoured to explain that I had no alternative,—that I must see New Zealand in winter or not see it all; but one always fails in attempting to make one's own little arrangements intelligible to others, and I found it better to submit. I had come at the wrong time ; was very sorry for it, but would now make the best of it. Perhaps the roads would not be so very bad. I was assured that they could not possibly be worse. Nevertheless, as I had come to see scenery, I determined to see it as far as my time and strength would allow. I had learned that Lake Wakatip was the great object to be reached,—Wakatipu is the proper name, but the abbrevi- ated word is always used. From Invercargill I could cer- tainly get to Wakatip, as the coach was running, and from Wakatip I might possibly get down to Dunedin,—but that was doubtful. If not, I must come back to Invercargill. I hate going back, and I made up my mind that if the mud and snow were no worse than British mud or British snow, I would make my way through. We were accompanied by a gentleman from Invercargill, whose kindness I shall never forget, and whose fortitude in adversity carried us on. After staying two days at Inver- cargill,—which is a thriving little Scotch town without any special attractions, but which boasts a single cab, and a brewer who was very anxious that I should take a barrel of his beer home to England in order that people there might know what New Zealand could do in the way of brewing, and who generously offered to give me the barrel of beer for that purpose, we started on our journey by rail to Winton. Although I know how utterly uninteresting to the general reader are the little trials of a traveller's life, I cannot refrain from explaining that we,-I and my wife "we,"-were constrained to send the bulk of our luggage on to Dunedin by steamer, as it was impossible to carry overland more than one or two leather bags, and that it was long before we regained our boxes. As in Australia, so in New Zealand, locomotion is effected chiefly by means of coasting steamers. The boat in which we had come from Melbourne to The Bluff, would pass in its usual course up were LUGGAGE. 45 the eastern coast, touching at Port Chalmers,. the port for Dunedin; at Lyttelton, the port for Christchurch; at Wel- lington, the capital, which lies at the extreme southern point of the Northern Island, through Cook's Strait which divides the two islands to Nelson, and down the western coast of the Middle Island to Greymouth and Hokatika, and from that place back to Melbourne. This is done every fort- night, and in the alternate weeks another steamer takes the reverse course, reaching Hokatika direct from Melbourne, making its way round to The Bluffs, and returning thence to its home at Melbourne. There are also smaller boats plying occasionally from port to port,-and in this way the New Zealanders travel from one province to another: but of all the conveyances with which I have had dealings, these New Zealand steamboats are the most regularly irregular and heart-breaking. If a would-be traveller should be informed that steamboats would start from a certain port to another, one on the 1st and another on the 15th of the month, his safest calculation would probably be to make his arrange- ments for the 8th. Of course travelling by sea cannot be made as certain as that by land,-and equally of course boats which depend for their maintenance chiefly on freight must be dependent on the incidents to which freight is liable. I make no complaint ;—not even on the score that I never could be at any place at the same time with my clothes. I used to be unhappy, but accepted my misfor- tunes as a part of the necessity of the position. But it is right to say that travelling in New Zealand was uncom- fortable. We could not carry our portmanteaus overland, and therefore trusted them to the steamers with copious addresses, with many injunctions to persons who naturally were not quite so strongly interested in the matter as we were ourselves. After a long and painful separation we and• our luggage did come together again; but there was much of intermediate suffering. A hero, but nothing short of a hero, might perhaps sit down comfortably to dinner with the full-dressed aristocracy of a newly visited city in a blue shirt and an old grey shooting jacket. I will endeavour to say no more on a subject which at 46 NEW ZEALAND. (( the time occupied too many of my thoughts. With great misgivings as to the weather, but with high hopes, we started from Invercargill for Lake Wakatip. Our first day's journey was by coach, which was tolerably successful, though fatiguing. A Swede drove us who owned the coach, and kept an inn half-way, at which we got a very good dinner. He was married to a half-caste Maori woman, and I made a note that the mixture of the breed on the female side seemed to be favourable to cookery. A better boiled turkey and plum-pudding were never put upon a table. I did not like the Swede himself so well, as I enter- tained a suspicion that he made us pay double fare, as strangers to the country. I fancy that this practice is pre- valent in Otago generally, which is a canny province, colo- nised by the Scotch, given to thrift, and prosperous accord- ingly. Indeed it was impossible not to remember the story of George III., who, when charged a guinea by some innkeeper for a boiled egg, suggested with gentle sarcasm that eggs were probably scarce in that part of the country. No, your Majesty ;—but kings are." Travelling strangers are scarce in Otago, especially in winter,-and therefore it answers better to make something of the bird in the hand than to allure birds out of the bush by reasonable charges. For the present, perhaps, the practice may be prudent; but as the scenery of the country is both lovely and magnificent, as it has had bestowed upon it by nature all those attrac- tions which make Switzerland the holiday playground of Europe, and as it is near enough to the growing cities of Australia to offer the same allurements to them, it may soon be well for the innkeepers up the country to consider whether it may not answer their purpose to establish some fixed rate of charges, and to look to what may be got from the public generally rather than to the individual victim of the moment. Again I make no complaint. It is better for the traveller to pay high prices for poor accommodation than to find none at all. In New Zealand the prices are no doubt very much higher than in Australia generally;-in Otago they are perhaps double the Australian prices; and in Australia they by no means startle the traveller by their lowness. SQUATTERS AND FREE SETTLERS. 47 The first night we stayed at a squatter's house, and I soon learned that the battle between the squatter and the free- selecter, of which I had heard so much in the Australian colonies, was being waged with the same internecine fury in New Zealand. Indeed the New Zealand bitterness almost exceeded that of New South Wales,-though I did not hear the complaint, so common in New South Wales, that the free- selecters were all cattle-stealers. The complaint made here was that the government, in dealing with the land, had con- tinually favoured the free-selecter at the expense of the squatter,—who having been the pioneer in taking up the land, deserved all good things from the country of his adop- tion. The squatter's claim is in the main correct. He has deserved good things,—and has generally got them. In all these colonies,-in New Zealand as well as New South Wales and Victoria,-the squatter is the aristocrat of the country. In wealth, position, and general influence he stands first. There are no doubt points as to which the squatters have been unjustly used,-matters as to which the legislature have endeavoured to clip their wings at the ex- pense of real justice. But they have been too strong for the legislature, have driven coaches and horses through colonial acts of parliament, have answered injustice by illegal pro- ceeding, and have as a rule held their own and perhaps something more. I soon found that in this respect the con- dition of New Zealand was very similar to that of the Australian colonies. The gentleman who accompanied us was the government land-commissioner of the province, and, as regarded private life, was hand and glove with our host;--but the difference of their position gave me an opportunity of hearing the land question discussed as it regarded that province. I perceived that the New Zealand squatter regarded himself as a thrice-shorn lamb, but was looked upon by anti-squatters as a very wolf. Lake Wakatip is about seventy miles from Invercargill, the road to it being fairly good,-for a "bush" road. The name must be taken in a colonial sense. There was hardly a tree to be seen throughout the journey, but the word has made its way over from Australia, and the traveller when he 48 NEW ZEALAND. is out of the town is in the bush. A country road which is merely formed and not metalled is a bush road, though it pass across an open plain, or up a treeless valley. We passed up such a valley, broad, with mountains on each side of us, some of which were snow-capped. We crossed various rivers,—or more probably the same river at various points. About noon on the second day we reached the lake at a place called Kingstown, and found a steamer ready to carry us twenty-four miles up it to Queenstown, on the other side. Steamers ply regularly on the lake, summer and winter, and afford the only means of locomotion in the neighbourhood. But no sooner were we on board than the rain began to fall as it does only when the heavens are quite in earnest. And it was very, very cold. We could feel that the scenery around us was fine, that the sides of the lake were precipitous, and the mountain-tops sharp and grand, and the water blue; but it soon became impossible to see anything. We huddled down into a little cabin, and endeavoured to console ourselves with the reflection that, though all its beauties were hidden from our sight, we were in truth steaming across the most beautiful of the New Zealand lakes. They who cannot find some such consola- tion from their imagination for external sufferings had better. stay at home. At any rate they had better not come to New Zealand in winter. Queenstown is probably the biggest and most prosperous of the Otago gold-field towns. The greater portion of the province is divided into different gold-fields, which are being worked with more or less success. The process at present is chiefly that of alluvial washing, which always goes before quartz-crushing. I had visited so many Australian gold-fields that I determined not to devote myself to similar inspection in New Zealand;—and as I have written much about Australian gold, I will say but little as to that of New Zealand. I found, however, that a miner's wages in New Zealand were considerably higher than those in Australia, averaging as much as 10s. a day for eight hours' work, and running sometimes as high as £4 a week. I was assured that the miners, at any rate in Otago, do not themselves QUEENSTOWN. 49 embark in speculation so constantly as do their brethren at Sandhurst and Ballaarat. Surface gold-seeking, the work of washing the dirt extracted from gullies and river-beds, is of course carried out by the speculation of the seekers and washers themselves; and at this a man may earn nothing for three weeks and 20s. or £20 in the fourth week. In this work speculation is of course a necessity to the worker. But the men employed on deep sinking at weekly wages are not so commonly given to gambling as they are in Australia. The opportunities for doing so are probably not so readily afforded to them. But if they do not gamble so much, they drink more. Queenstown on Lake Wakatip is a town of about 2,000 in- habitants,—looking, as is the case with all these towns, as though it were intended for more than double that number. It is built close down upon the water, and is surrounded by mountains,—on all of which the snow was lying. There are many towns so placed in Switzerland, and on the Italian lakes,—which in position this New Zealand mining borough much more closely resembles than anything at home; but the houses, and something in the fashion of the streets, the outside uses and bearings of the place declare it to be unmistakably English. The great drawback to New Zea- land,—or I should more properly say to persons travelling in New Zealand,—comes from the feeling that after crossing the world and journeying over so many thousand miles, you have not at all succeeded in getting away from England. When you have arrived there you are, as it were, next door to your own house, and yet you have a two months' barrier between yourself and your home. A steamer from Queenstown generally runs up to the top of the lake one day, returning the next, making the journey once or twice a week; but the good-natured captain, who, I believe, was also the owner of the boat, on being asked, at once consented to take us up and down in one day. The distance is about thirty-six miles, making the entire. length of the lake about sixty miles. It was a bright clear cold day, with the temperature at freezing-point from morn- ing to evening. There were two ladies in the party for E 50 NEW ŻEALAND. I whom cloaks and opossum rugs were very necessary. myself spent a great part of the day within the genial in- fluence of the funnel. But I enjoyed it greatly. I do not know that lake scenery can be finer than that of the upper ten miles of Wakatip;—although doubtless it can be very much prettier. The mountains for the most part are bare, and steep. Here and there only are they wooded down to the water's edge,- and so much is the timber in request for fuel and building, that what there is of it close to the water will quickly disappear. As the steamer gradually winds round into the upper reach, which runs almost directly north and south, one set of peaks after another comes into view. They are sharp and broken, making the hill-tops look like a vast saw with irregular gaps in it. Perhaps no shape of mountain-top is more picturesque than this. The summits are nearly as high as those of Switzerland, that of Mount Earnshaw at the head of the lake being 9,165 feet above sea-level. The mountains themselves, however, do not look to be so big as the Alps. There is no one peak which strikes one as does the Matterhorn, no one head like the head of Mount Blanc;-no one mountain which seems to be quite so much of a mountain as the Yungfrau. But the effect of the sun shining on the line of peaks was equal to anything I had seen elsewhere. The whole district around is, or rather will be in coming days, a country known for its magnificent scenery. Among the mountains there are vast glaciers, but the means of reaching them are not yet at the command of ordinary tra- vellers. To the south-west of Lake Wakatip, and nearer the coast, are Lake Teanau and the Manipori Lake, of the beauty of which I was told very much. The woods come down to the water's edge, and in summer all is green and sweet, secluded and soft. To the north-east is Wannika Lake, running into the province of Canterbury, in sight of which stands Mount Cook, over 13,000 feet high. About forty miles to the north-west of Wakatip Martin's Bay_may be reached, on the western coast, at which place when I was in Otago a few settlers were struggling to make a home. I was assured that unless the government would do something WEST COAST. 51 ༤ for thern, would make them a road across to the lake, or send occasionally a ship to them with provisions, the place must be abandoned. Down the coast, south from Martin's Bay, there is a series of so-called sounds, which are said to resemble closely the Norway Fiords. They are very numerous, and are at present desolate, without inhabitants, and almost unknown. The late Governor of the colony visited them in the spring of 1852 in H.M.S. "Clio," and I publish in an appendix (No. 1) his account of the voyage. Dr. Hector, whose words Sir George Bowen quotes, is curator of the Wellington Museum, and a fellow of the Royal Society. This part of New Zealand is so little known, and is at the same time so remarkable for that wild landscape beauty which during the last fifty years Englishmen have gone over the world to find, that it may be well to let some English tourists know where they may discover new fields for pic- turesque travelling and Alpine climbing. At present these. lakes and fiords are difficult to reach,—and New Zealand is very far from London. But that very difficulty will to many enhance the charm,—and from year to year the distance, as computed by time, will become less and less. It may be as well to remind travellers that the English winter,-or perhaps the English spring as late as March or April,—is the time of year in which the scenery of New Zealand should be ex- plored. I was there in the New Zealand winter, and could not reach the sounds on the coast or the lakes either to the north-east or south-west of Lake Wakatip. From Queenstown we journeyed overland to Dunedin, the capital of Otago, and the journey is one which to me will ever be memorable. It is generally performed in three days. It took us six,—during the first five of which we travelled in a buggy with a pair of tired horses. Our average daily distance was about twenty-five miles, our pace about three miles an hour, and the cost of travelling about 3s. 6d. a mile. When I think of the road which we traversed I feel that the pace was good, and the price reasonable. But the tedium was great, and the inns at which we stopped were not delightful. The scenery, however, was grand almost throughout the journey. We came down the course first of 52 NEW ZEALAND. one river and then another, crossing them now and again by means of double punts, which are fastened to ropes and carried over by the effect of the stream,-as is done on different bridgeless rivers in Italy. We journeyed on from one gold-field town to another, finding the people always in a state of prosperity. Ordinary labour throughout the country receives 5s. or 6s. a day,—or 45. with rations. The little towns seemed to be well to do, all having banks and numerous hotels. The life is rough; but is plenteous and comfortable. Things are ugly to European eyes, but are neither poor nor squalid. There have been three successive styles of archi- tecture in these towns, indicating different periods. The first is the canvas style,-in which men live in tents. That had passed away from the Otago gold-fields before our arrival. The second is the corrugated-iron period, and that style was flourishing at the time of our visit. The third is the wooden period, beyond which no advance has yet been here made in many of the New Zealand towns. Corrugated iron does not make picturesque houses. Probably my readers all know the thin fluted material of which I speak, drawn out so fine that it can be cut like cloth with a pair of shears. It is very portable; very easily shaped; capable of quick construction; and it keeps out the rain. It is, however, subject to drawbacks. The rooms formed of it of course are small, and every word uttered in the house can be heard throughout it, as throughout a shed put up without divisions. And yet the owners and frequenters of these iron domiciles seem never to be aware of the fact. As I lay in bed in one of these metal inns on the road, I was constrained to hear the private conversation of my host and hostess who had retired for the night. "So this is Mr. Anthony Trollope," said the host. The hostess assented, but I could gather clearly from her voice that she was thinking much more of her back hair than of her visitor. "Well," said the host, "he must be a fool to come travelling in this country in such weather as this." Perhaps, after all, the host was aware of the peculiarity of his house, and thought it well that I should know his opinion. He could not have spoken any words with which at that moment I should have been more prone to agree. TUAPIKA. 53 On the fifth day,-the worst of all, for the snow fell in- cessantly, the wretched horses could not drag us through the mud, so that I and the gentleman with me were forced to walk, and the twelve miles which we accomplished took us five hours,—we reached the town of Tuapika, whence we were assured there would run a well-appointed coach to Dune- din. Tuapika is otherwise called Lawrence, and it may be as well here to remark that in this part of New Zealand all towns have two names. The colonists give one,—sometimes, as in the case of Tuapika, taking that of the natives,—and the government gives another. We had come through Dunstan alias Clyde, through Teeviot alias Roxburgh, through Beaumont which had some other name which I have forgotten, and at last reached Tuapika alias Lawrence. The rivers and districts have been served in the same way, and as the different names are used miscellaneously, the difficulty which travellers always feel as to new localities is consider- ably enhanced. At Tuapika we found an excellent inn, and a very good dinner. In spite of the weather I went round the town, and visited the Athenæum or reading-room. In all these towns there are libraries, and the books are strongly bound and well thumbed. Carlyle, Macaulay, and Dickens are certainly better known to small communities in New Zealand than they are to similar congregations of men and women at home. I should have liked Tuapika had it not snowed so bitterly on me when I was there. On the following day we got on board the well-appointed coach at six in the morning. It certainly was a well- appointed coach, and was driven by as good a coachman as ever sat upon a box; but the first stage, which took us altogether six hours, was not memorable for good fortune. There was a lower new road and an upper old road. The former was supposed to be impracticable because of the last night's snow, and the man decided on taking the hills. As far as I could see we were traversing a mountain-side with- out any track;. but there was a track, for on a sudden, as we turned a corner, we found ourselves in a cutting, and we found also that the cutting was blocked with snow. The coach could not be turned, and the horses had plunged in : 54 NEW ZEALAND. so far that we could with difficulty extricate them from the traces and pole-straps. The driver, however, decided on going on. Shovels were procured, and for two hours we all worked up to our hips in snow, and did at last get the coach through the cutting. But it was not practicable to drive the horses down the hill we had ascended, and we therefore took them out and brought it down by hand,—an operation which at any rate kept us warm. We had hardly settled into our seats after this performance, before one of the wheelers slipped into a miner's water-run, and pulled the other horse under the pole atop of him. The under horse was, as it were, packed into the gully and buried, with his brother over him, like a tombstone. So we went to work again with the shovels, and dug out first one animal and then the other. We were wet through, and therefore a good deal the worse for our task, but the horses did not seem to mind it. At last we reached the town of Tokomairiro, alias Milton, where comforts of all kinds awaited us. In the first place there was a made road into Dunedin, and a well-horsed coach to take us. We had descended below the level on which the snows were lying. My wife found a kind hostess who took her to a fire and comforted her with dry stockings, and I got some dinner and brandy-and- water. About eight in the evening we reached Dunedin, alive, in fair spirits,—but very tired, and more ready than ever to agree with that up-country innkeeper who had thought but little of the wisdom of one who had come travelling by winter in Otago, CHAPTER IV. OTAGO.—DUNEDIN. Ir must be understood that New Zealand has a double form of government, resembling in some of its features that of the United States. There is a great federal congress in the United States which concerns itself with the affairs of the whole empire, and there is also in each State a separate smaller legislature, which is nevertheless a legislature com- plete in all its functions, making laws for its own State. So in New Zealand, there is the General Assembly, which sits at Wellington, and is endowed with all those parliamentary powers which belong to the parliaments in the Australian colonies, and there is also a Provincial Council in each province, which manages the revenue of the province, sells the land of the province, and within certain limits makes laws for the province. And as in each of the United States there is a governor elected by the people, so in each of the provinces of New Zealand there is a corresponding officer called the superintendent. And this superintendent has his own cabinet,—his own set of responsible advisers,—as the governor of the colony has his cabinet, who of course sit in the General Assembly. There are at present eight pro- vinces in New Zealand, four in the Northern and four in the Middle Island,—and there is also in the Middle Island the county of Westland, which has also a quasi-provincial estab- lishment. The provinces are Otago, Canterbury, Nelson, Marlborough, with the county of Westland in the Middle Island, Wellington, Taranaki, Hawkes Bay, and Auckland in the North Island. There are therefore eight separate 56 NEW ZEALAND. governments, and a half-government, under the general government. On the 1st of January, 1872, the total popu- lation of New Zealand was estimated at 267,000 in round numbers, so that the average population of these separately governed states is not above 30,000 each. But in truth the population of three of the provinces, Taranaki and Hawkes Bay, in the Northern Island, and Marlborough, in the Middle Island, is below 10,000 each. And yet in these, as in the others, there is a separate paid legislature, and separate paid officials. In the United States no territory has been held entitled to be proclaimed a State till it has gathered together for itself a population of 100,000 souls, and the average population of the States is about 100,000 each. The stranger in New Zealand is certainly tempted to think that this copying of State government has been prema- ture, if not in itself unnecessary. There can hardly be a doubt, I think, that New Zealand is over-governed, over-legislated for, over-provided with officials, and overburdened with national debt. That it will have strength to struggle through with all the weight im- posed upon it is not improbable. It has a magnificent climate, rich mineral gifts, good soil,-and among its people a resolution to succeed which is in itself equal to half a battle won. It is from this elasticity of pride on the part of the New Zealanders themselves that these burdens have sprung. "Don't tell us that 5,000 human beings are not enough to justify a separate legislature, cabinet, govern- ment, and the rest of it. If the things be good in them- selves we will have them, let the cost be what it may. We are not afraid of expense!" It is thus they seem to speak of themselves and their affairs; and so the thing is done. And certainly there has hitherto been no ruin, no collapse, no crying out for external assistance, although the costliness has been very great. The superintendent of each province may sit in the General Assembly if he be returned by any constituency. When I was in New Zealand, all the eight superintendents were in the Assembly, and one of them was in the cabinet. From this it follows that the General Assembly and the PROSPERITY OF OTAGO. 57 Provincial Assemblies never sit at the same time. The session of the General Assembly may last for about three months. It is considered that those of the Provincial Assemblies should complete their work in about six weeks. As the General Assembly was sitting when I was in New Zealand, I saw none of those Provincial Assemblies at work. Otago is the most populous, and I believe I may add the richest, province in New Zealand, and its capital, Dunedin, is its largest city. According to the census of 1871 the population of the province was 69,491, being something above a fourth of that of the whole colony. Dunedin con- tains about 21,000 people. The settlement at Dunedin was founded on 28th of March, 1848, when a small band of Scotch emigrants, under Captain Cargill, first landed, and pitched their tents on the present site of the town. The rise, both of the province and of the town, has been very quick, having been greatly accelerated by the rushes. after gold made from the various Australian colonies. It seems that from the first finding of gold in New Zealand, the gold-fields there have exceeded in popularity those of Australia. The higher rate of miners' wages would seem to justify this, were it not rather the result than the cause. I found that New Zealand still enjoyed much of the charm of novelty in reference to other pursuits as well as that of gold. The wool-growers, graziers, agriculturists, and miners of the younger colony were, I will not say, envied by Australians generally, but regarded as having had almost unfair advan- tages bestowed upon them. The climate has had much to do in producing this happy condition. It is, certainly, an undoubted fact that during the last ten years there has been a considerable re-emigration from the Australian colonies to New Zealand. Dunedin is a remarkably handsome town,—and when its age is considered, a town which may be said to be remark- able in every way. The main street has no look of newness about it. The houses are well built, and the public build- ings, banks, and churches are large, commodious, and orna- mental. It strikes a visitor as absurd that there should be six capitals in New Zealand, a country which forty years 58 NEW ZEALAND. ago was still cursed with cannibalism ;-but it strikes him as forcibly with wonder that it should so quickly have pos- sessed itself of many of the best fruits of civilisation. This prosperity has come, I think, less from any special wisdom on the part of those who endeavoured to establish New Zealand colonies on this or another scheme than from the fact that in New Zealand British energies have found a country excellently well adapted for their development. In regard to Otago and Dunedin, it was the intention of the founders, or at any rate of those who instigated the founders, to establish an especially Presbyterian settlement. Doubt- less many Scotch families did come out to it, and Scotch names are predominant. The Scotch have always been among the best,—or perhaps the very best,-colonisers that the world has produced. But Otago is by no means now an exclusively Presbyterian province, nor is Dunedin an exclusively Presbyterian city. In the now united provinces of Otago and Southland the Presbyterians are less than half the population. As to Dunedin we have heard lately more of its desire to have a Church of England bishop of its own than of any other propensity. And it is going to have a bishop, I may say has got one, though when I was there the prelate had not yet arrived. A former bishop did indeed come out, but he was not approved of, and was returned, having never been installed. It is marvellous to me that the Australian and New Zealand sees can find Eng- lish clergymen to go out to them. The pay is small,- generally not exceeding £500 a year. That bishops do not become bishops for money we are all prepared to admit. But the power also is very limited, the patronage almost none at all, and the snubbing to which they are subjected is excessive. It seemed to me that this latter process was exacerbated by the small remnant of baronial rank which is left to them. The colonial bishop is still called, my lord; -and of course wears an apron,-and lawn sleeves when he is in church. But there is a growing determination that the clergyman of one Church shall have no higher rank than those of another, and that a Church of England bishop, therefore, shall have no special social position in his NEW ZEALAND BISHOPS. 59 colony. At present this feeling is less strong in New Zea- land than in Australia, and is to a certain degree restrained by the quiet, unproclaimed action of colonial governors, who like these bishops, and do what in them lies to pre- serve the rank. But the operation of the colonist's mind, even when he belongs to the Church of England, works in the other direction. I shall no doubt be told that bishops do not undertake their duties with any view to the places that may be assigned to them in walking out of rooms, as to patronage, or even to power. But we know that authority cannot be maintained without its outward appen- dages, and that clerical authority has needed them quite as much as civil or military authority. Dunedin did not like the first bishop chosen for the see, because he was supposed to have lent his countenance to some High Church cere- monials. He was, therefore, sent back again. The salary offered is small, and as yet uncertain. No house, or "palace," is provided. I was told that it was considered indispensable that the new bishop should be a member of Oxford or Cambridge, a gentleman distinguished for piety and eloquence, and a man of fortune. Upon my word I think you are very exigeant," I said to my informant. He answered me by assuring me that they had now got all that they asked. The colonial sees always do find bishops. There are six at present in New Zealand,- with a population about half as great as that of Manchester, of which not more than two-fifths belong to the Church of England. (( The Provincial Council was not sitting, but I was shown the chamber in which it is held. The members sit, like Siamese twins, in great arm-chairs, which are joined together, -two-and-two, like semi-detached villas. I was specially struck by what I cannot but call the hyper-excellence of the room. There has been, in most of the New Zealand provinces, a determination that the Provincial Assembly shall be a real parliament, with a Speaker and Speaker's chair, reporters' galleries, strangers' galleries, a bar of the house, cross benches, library, smoking-room, and a "Bel- lamy,”—as the parliament refreshment-rooms are all called, 60 NEW ZEALAND. in remembrance of the old days of the House of Commons at home. The architecture, furniture, and general apparel of these Houses,-such of them as I saw,-struck me as being almost grander than was necessary. The gentlemen as they sit are very much more comfortable than are the members in our own House at home, and are much better lodged than are the legislators in the States of the American Union. The Congress of Massachusetts sits in a building which has indeed an imposing exterior, but the chamber itself inspires less awe than does that of Otago. In one respect the New Zealand legislatures have pre- ferred American customs to those which they left at home. They are paid for the performance of their legislative work. The pay of a member of the Provincial Council in Otago used to be £1 a day. It is now 19s. 11d. When this information was first given to me, I own that I disbelieved my informant, attributing to him an intention to hoax a stranger. But I was assured that it was so. And it was arranged in this way. The legislature, bent on economy, reduced the salaries of various provincial officers, and with that high-mindedness for which all legislative chambers in free countries should be conspicuous, reduced their own allowances from 20s. to 125. a day. But, on trial, it was found that the work could not be done for the money. The Otago gentlemen who came from a distance, could not exist in Dunedin on 12s. a day,-which, if it be considered that a member of parliament should be paid at all, is surely very low in a country in which a journeyman carpenter gets as much. A proposition, however, to raise the sum again to 20s. was lost by a small majority. The rules of the House did not permit the same proposition to be again brought before it in the same session, and therefore in another notice the nearest sum to it was named,—and carried. The moderation of the members was shown in the fact that a fraction under, and not a fraction over, the original stipend, was at last found to satisfy the feeling of the House. I think that in Otago a more general respect would be felt for its legislature if the gentlemen sitting in it altogether repudiated the receipt of the small sum, perhaps £50 per annum, which is paid for their services. PROSPERITY OF OTAGO. 61 The chief products of Otago are gold and wool;--but agricultural pursuits are extending themselves in all parts of the province. The number of free-selecters, or "cockatoos," is increasing, and by their increase declare their own pros- perity. Individually, they almost all complain of their lot,- saying that the growth of their corn is precarious, and its sale when grown effected at so poor a price as not to pay for the labour of producing it. The farmers are in debt to the banks, and their lands are not unfrequently sold under mort- gage. But such complaints are general all the world over. No man is contented unless he can make a fortune,—and no man is contented when he has made a fortune. The squatters, the miners, the cockatoo farmers, and the labourers working for him, all say the same thing. They regret that they ever left England. It is a mistake to suppose that the colony is a blessed place. Argyleshire, or even County Galway, is much better than Otago. But in Otago all men live plenteously. Want is not known. If a man fails as a free-selecter, he still lives plenteously as a labourer. I will quote a few words from a printed despatch respecting Otago, sent home by Sir George Bowen, the Governor of the colony, in 1871-"After the lapse of only twenty-three years" from the first settlement of the province,-"I find from official statistics that the population of the province of Otago approaches nearly to 70,000, that the public revenue, ordinary and territorial, actually raised thereon exceeds £520,000; that the number of acres farmed is above a million; that the number of horses exceeds 20,000; of horned cattle, 110,000; and of sheep, 4,000,000. The pro- gress achieved in all the other elements of material pros- perity is equally remarkable; while the provincial council has made noble provision for primary, secondary, and indus- trial schools; for hospitals and benevolent asylums; for athenæums and schools of art; and for the new university which is to be opened at Dunedin in next year." I found this to be all true. The schools, hospitals, reading rooms, and university, were all there, and all in useful operation : so that life in the province may be said to be a happy life, and one in which men and women may and do have food to 62 NEW ZEALAND. eat, and clothes to wear, books to read, and education to enable them to read the books. The province is now-(1873)-twenty-four years old, and has 70,000 inhabitants, and above four million sheep. Poor Western Australia is forty-five years old, and, with a territory so large, that an Otago could be taken from one of its corners without being missed, it has only 25,000 inhabi- tants, and less than one million sheep,-sheep being more decidedly the staple of Western Australia than of Otago. I do not know that British colonists have ever succeeded more quickly or more thoroughly than they have in Otago. They have had a good climate, good soil, and mineral wealth; and they have not had convicts, nor has the land been wasted by great grants. In founding Western Aus- tralia but little attention was paid either to climate or soil;— land was given away in huge quantities, and convicts were introduced to remedy the evils, and to supply the want of labour which that system of granting lands produced. And in Western Australia gold has not been found. I know no two offshoots from Great Britain which show a greater contrast. Otago possessed no railways in 1872,-but a whole sys- tem of railways was in preparation,-partly as yet only on paper, and partly in the hands of working contractors. This system, indeed, is one intended to pass through the entire middle island, and to be carried out in conjunction with an equally extended system in the northern island. For, where public works are concerned, millions are spoken of in New Zealand with a reckless audacity that staggers an economical Englishman. Debt does not frighten a New Zealand Chan- cellor of the Exchequer. Legislation in New Zealand takes a pride in asserting that every New Zealander bears on his own shoulders a greater debt than do any other people in the world. Telegraphic wires run everywhere in Otago, and before long railways in the low countries will be almost as common. As it was we determined to travel by coach into the next province of Canterbury,-finding that the boats were uncertain, and that the coach ran three times a week from Dunedin to Christchurch. The coach takes three days, NEW ZEALAND NAMES. 63 travelling about sixty miles a day, and stopping during the night. We were told that the journey was harassing and tedious, but it would not be so harassing and tedious as that we had already made;-and then, by this route, we should see the country. Leaving Dunedin, we rose up a long wooded hill, with a view to our right over the land-locked arm of the sea down to Port Chalmers, which is the port for Dunedin. It was a most lovely drive. The scenery of the whole country round Dunedin is beautiful, and this is the most beautiful scene of it all. After a drive of about sixteen miles we breakfasted at a place called Waikouaite, at which we found the landlord firing guns up the chimney to put out the fire. In spite of this little confusion, we were excellently provided,—getting a much better coach breakfast than used to be common in England. I may now say a few words on the disagreeable nature of New Zealand names. Wai is the most customary When prefix to the names of places, and signifies water. divided in this manner, from what follows, it would seem to form a very simple addition ;-but in truth it makes the word complex, difficult to catch, and almost impossible to be remembered. There are no less than twenty-eight post- towns beginning with Wai, and of course the post-towns are but few in comparison with the less important places. In the north island Nga, or Ngate, is the prefix which the reader most frequently meets in records of the early days of New Zealand. It signifies son, and corresponds with the Scotch Mac and the Irish O. In Dr. Thompson's history of New Zealand he recapitulates no less than forty-five sub- divisions of one tribe, the names of forty of which begin with Ngate. The sound, however, has not found favour with the colonists, and has been dropped in the names which they have adopted. From Waikouaite the coach goes on to Palmerston,-which sounds more familiarly to English ears. As far as this place, a distance of about thirty-five miles, the road is as good as any in England; but then there comes a change, and thence on to the bounds of the province the road was very bad indeed. The first night's rest was, for the coach, at a small town called Oamaru, and for us at a 64 NEW ZEALAND. squatter's house four miles further on. This we reached at nine P.M., and left the next morning at six A.M.;—hours at which in fully civilized countries one does not expect a stranger to entertain one; but we found our hostess expecting us at dinner, and in the morning she got up and gave us our breakfast. Twelve miles of as miserable a road as ever I travelled brought us to the Waitangi river, which is the boundary of the province. It was a piercingly cold morning, and we felt aggrieved greatly when we found that we had to leave the coach and get into a boat. But the dimensions of our own hardships lessened themselves to our imagination when we found that two of the boatmen de- scended into the river, and pushed the boat for half a mile up the stream. During a part of the way three men were in the water, and yet the boat hardly seemed to move. For this service we were charged 2s. a piece, which sum was not included in the coach fare. Pitying the men because of their sufferings, I gave them something over "to drink." It was taken, but taken without thanks, and with evident dis- pleasure, and handed over with the ferry money to the employer. In New Zealand, and in some much lesser degree in Australia also, you may ask any man, or any number of men to drink, without running the slightest risk of displeasing them; but the offer of money is considered to be offensive. The drinking must be done at the bar of a public house; and the money must be paid to the publican, and not to your friend who drinks. Even servants will refuse money offered to them. A poor girl whom I had in- jured, knocking down into the mud the line on which all her clothes were drying, though she was in tears at the nuisance of having to wash them again, refused the money that I offered her, saying that though she was only a poor Irish girl without a friend in the world, she was not so mean as that. Another girl told my wife, in perfectly friendly con- fidence, that she did not think that she ought to take money. It is odd that so excellent a lesson should be learned so quickly. The pity is that in the course of years it will doubtless be unlearned. There are many such rivers as the Waitangi running into NEW ZEALAND RIVERS. 65 the sea on the eastern coast of New Zealand, very dangerous in crossing, and the cause of many accidents. We were then in the depth of winter, and they are not then full. It is after the winter rains, and after the snows, when the mountains give up their load of waters, that the streams become full, and the banks overflow. In the spring the coaches often cannot pass, and are occasionally washed away bodily when the attempt is made. At other rivers besides the Waitangi there is a custodian, who is in some degree responsible for the safety of travellers, and who seems always to charge 25. a head, whether he preside over a ferry with boat and boatmen, or simply over a ford, across which he rides on horseback showing the way. When across the Waitangi, we found ourselves in the great Church-of-England province of Canterbury. منا CHAPTER V. JOHN ROBERT GODLEY. FROM Otago we went north into the province of Canter- bury,—a name which was selected for a then undetermined part of New Zealand about twenty-five years ago. As far as I can ascertain the Canterbury Association, so called, was first started in 1848; but the idea of such a settlement, to be established in some part of New Zealand, had existed for a considerable time before that date. Mr. Gibbon Wake- field, in a letter to Mr. John Abel Smith, dated 30th No- vember, 1847, says, "We adhere to the old plan of a settle- ment to consist of 300,000 acres, with right of pasturage attached, to be purchased from the Company for 10s. per acre, or £150,000. The place to be, if possible, the valley of Ruamahanga, near Wellington, which is delineated in the illustrations of my son's book." Wellington, however, is in the northern island, and the Province of Canterbury is in the middle island. The settlement was to be made in strict connection with the Church of England, and was to be a model colony. Without a doubt the aspirations which pro- duced first the idea and then the thing were nobly philan- thropic. Many colonising reformers, among whom were such men as Mr. Adderley, Mr. Aglionby, Mr. J. A. Smith, Lord Lyttelton, and Sir John Simeon, were strongly of opinion that British men and women seeking a home in the new lands which their country possessed were not put in the way off effecting their purpose happily by the operations of the Colonial Office. The old belief which had created the New Zealand Association, still remained. There was · NEW THEORY OF COLONIZATION. 67 the same desire to establish a colony with which our Colonial Office should have little or nothing to do. There existed a feeling that something great might be done for a small portion of the British race, by establishing a settle- ment on an entirely new footing, in which the best of every- thing English should be retained, English habits of life, English principles, English local government, English freedom, and above all the Church of England. And there existed also a feeling that the interference, bureaucracy, and incapacity of the Colonial Office in Downing Street had up to that time debarred our existing colonies, such as Canada, New South Wales, and Van Diemen's Land, from the enjoyment of these blessings. I can hardly but fail in expressing at the same time, and with equal strength, my admiration for the spirit in which these gentlemen worked, and my conviction that they were wrong both in their con- demnation of the Colonial Office and in their theory as to the construction of a settlement in which colonists should live a blessed life after some special fashion to be fixed by them. The scheme had all the merits and all the faults which have attended the fabrication of Utopias, since the benevolence of men has taken that direction. But it has to be acknowledged that they did succeed in creating a prosperous settlement,-though the success has not been of the nature which they anticipated. Many of their aspira- tions have been realised,—especially that of so-called re- sponsible local government; but the local government has come, not specially to Canterbury, but to Canterbury as a part of New Zealand; and not especially to New Zealand, but to New Zealand as one of those thoroughly British de- pendencies of the mother country which have gradually acquired for themselves the power of parliamentary self- government. The two names which are most prominent in the history of the Canterbury settlement are those of John Robert Godley and Edward Gibbon Wakefield. I put that of Godley first because in truth it was his heart and courage which founded the settlement rather than the head of the man who first formed the plan. Mr. Wakefield had been a colonial 68 NEW ZEALAND. reformer of an early date, who had for many years devoted himself to preparing schemes of colonization, and who in the prosecution of his schemes had fallen very foul indeed of the office in Downing Street. Mr. Wakefield had been perhaps the author, certainly one of the authors, of the plan by which South Australia was originated. His scheme had been by no means fully carried out, and he had con- ceived great enmity against the officials of the Colonial Office who had not sympathized with his ideas as to the settlement of a colony without any other control from home than that which might be necessary to make it a part of the British empire in reference to foreign affairs. In February, 1849, he brought out a book on the art of colonizing, which professes to be a correspondence between himself and an English statesman, in which he propounds his scheme. But by far the greater part of the book is devoted to exposing what he believed to have been the evil policy of Great Britain to her colonies, and especially to the virulent abuse of one special minister for the colonies,-namely, the present Earl Grey. Clever as that work is, I can hardly imagine that it could convince any reader. To me it is one of those books which from first to last creates in my mind a feeling of antagonism to the writer on account of its special pleading, its injustice, and its egotism. He says himself, in one of his published letters, that the book is "awfully per- sonal to Lord Grey," and in another letter to Mr. Rintoul, the editor of the " Spectator," "You are sure to think the preliminary matter, the statement of the subject, and the personalities, and the egotism,-far too long." After read- ing Mr. Wakefield's book and his letters I cannot think him to have been a good guide for a young colony ;-but un- doubtedly he did hit upon certain truths, the first and chief of which was the inexpediency of bestowing grants of land on coloniss, and the wisdom of selling the public lands at a certain fixed price. In addition to this he saw that the future prosperity of the thoroughly British colonies would render self-government on their part essential. But I imagine that al who gave their minds to the subject saw this also,-differing from Mr. Wakefield only as to the mode MR. GIBBON WAKEFIELD. 69 in which the concessions should be granted, and the date from which they should commence. It was a part of his theory that a colony,-or set of colonists,-should go out with a full constitution in the pocket of some leading colonist, which should be granted by the Crown,-as a power of ruling was granted by the Crown in former days to Lord Baltimore in reference to Maryland, and to Mr. Penn in reference to Pennsylvania. In this present work I should probably only annoy my readers were I to attempt to show that in the time of Mr. Penn, and still less in the time of Lord Baltimore, the Crown had no power to bestow that superintendence on its colonies which it possessed from the first settlements in Australia, and down to the settle- ment of New Zealand, and to show also that the constitu- tion of those colonies which were founded under direct superintendence from home, has been much happier than that of the early American colonies established without this superintendence. Such an argument would certainly be beyond my scope. But I can hardly give the short descrip- tion of the settlement of Canterbury which is necessary for my purpose, without stating my impression of Mr. Wake- field's views on colonization. He was an eager, hard- working, clever man, very energetic in his purposes, but who, in ali his colonizing work, seems to have thought more of his own schemes than of the happiness of the colonists whom he proposed to send to their future homes,—and who was quite as anxious to rule his colonists from home by laws made by himself as was ever a Secretary of State in Downing Street. It was his influence, however, that worked upon Mr. Godley, and induced that gentleman to become the real leader of a special band of colonists to New Zealand. Mr. Godley, whom I remember as a boy at school thoroughly respected by all his schoolfellows, seems early in life to have been taught by the Tractarian movement at Oxford that the religion of a community should be its most impor- tant consideration. He was a religious man himself, and his men were friends whose thoughts about religion were serious, and whose convictions were sincere. His letters to 70 NEW ZEALAND. his friend Mr. Adderley have been published,--or at any rate printed and circulated; and no volume of correspond- ence ever fell into my hands which left upon my mind a higher impression of the purity, piety, philanthropy, truth, and high-minded thoughtfulness of the writer. They are written with all the elegance which education gives, and all the abandon which the privacy of loving friendship pro- duces. I fear that they are only known among his friends. It appears that Mr. Wakefield and Mr. Godley came to- gether in 1847, when Godley's thoughts had been turned towards colonization by the state of the Irish during the famine. He was an Irishman belonging to one of the poorest counties in Ireland, and ideas as to a happier home for his countrymen were thrust upon him by the tragedies of the famine and the pestilence which followed it. But with those ideas were others which sprang from his devotion to the Church which he loved, and of these Gibbon Wakefield took advantage. Mr. Wakefield was ever at work seeking for colonists who would act under his impulses, and who would do credit to his theories by their education, cha- racter, and social position. For him I doubt whether the Church of England had any special charms. He had been instrumental in founding a colony in South Australia, of which, according to his friends, it should have been one leading feature, one governing principle, that there should be no ascendant Church. He had assisted in establishing a Scotch, and therefore a Presbyterian, colony in Otago,- in regard to which it was his intention that the Presby- terians should have complete ascendancy. It is rumoured of him in New Zealand that at one time he had set his mind on the formation of an Anglo-Jewish settlement, a community which should be subject to the British Crown, but in which the Jews should govern themselves after their own laws. It is told how he propounded this to a wealthy Jew in New Zealand. "What ;-no Christians!" said the Jew. "None at all," said Mr. Wakefield; "not a Chris- tian-why should not Jews have a happy home to them- selves as well as others?" But the Jew dissented. "I do not see how Jews shall thrive without Christians to make CLASS COLONIES. 71 money by," said the wise Jew;—and that scheme fell to the ground. There is no reason why the same man should not propose a Church of England colony, a Presbyterian colony, a Jewish colony, and a no-Church colony, and should not be equally anxious for each,—as a minister for education may be zealous both for sectarian and undenominational schools. No blame attaches to a man for so wide a sympathy. But the wide sympathy is not compatible with strenuous advo- cacy of a peculiar doctrine. The anxiety of Mr. Wakefield was more in regard to his scheme than to the Church. When in the course of his letters we find him struggling to get first one man as a bishop for his colony, and then another, trying to overcome one man's scruples, and then loud in praise of another of whom we are aware that he could only have heard the name the day before, we feel that he had caught, or was trying to catch, an obedient sympathizer with his plans, and a colonist who would prove himself to be a Wakefieldite rather than a staunch ecclesias- tical supporter. In every word that he wrote and spoke, and in every act, he was fighting the Colonial Office at home for colonial influences, not propagating either one church or another. With Godley it was very different. He brought to the joint work strong religious convictions and a warm philanthropy. It was in his heart to be one of the means by which a country might be built up in which men should live religious lives in peace and plenty,—and with this view he was ready to devote himself to the cause either at home or in the colony. But he allowed himself to be imbued with his fellow labourer's especial views, and was for a time as hotly in favour of a colonial government, carried on by the Canterbury Association at home in lieu of one administered from Downing Street, as was Mr. Wake- field himself. And it must be admitted that many others shared these views, including those whose names were mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. The idea seemed then to pre- vail, as it has at all times prevailed with regard to one or another of our public departments, that the man entrusted 72 NEW ZEALAND. with power was of all men the least capable of exercising that power with wisdom,, and the least likely to exercise it with fidelity. The barque of the British empire has upon the whole been steered with success,-and yet the man at the helm is always being denounced as blind, and feeble, and foolish. No sooner is a leading man advanced to high place than in the minds of many of us he is already con- demned for undertaking a task which it must be manifestly the duty of some man to perform. In regard to the colonies this was much more strongly the case twenty-five years ago than it is at present, as twenty-five years ago the question of constitutional government in the colonies was not settled as it is now. I will not say that the battle for colonial parliamentary governments was being fought, because I do not admit that there was an enemy with whom to fight. Before parliaments could be established it was necessary that there should be a distinct assurance that they were desired, and before they could sit and act, some proof that there were men to sit in them. I think that the future writer of the history of the Australian colonies will acknow- ledge that representative government was given to each colony at any rate as quickly as the circumstances de- manded. With reference to the proposed Canterbury settlement, and to the Canterbury Association by which it. was produced, it was desired that perfect powers of self- government should be bestowed upon it at once, and that it should start, not as a part of New Zealand, but as a thing separate, standing alone, ruling itself. This the govern- ment of the day would not allow,-and Canterbury now exists as one province of the colony which we call New Zealand, and has never held the position in which Mr. Wakefield was anxious to launch it upon the waters. Mr. Godley had intended to work for the Association at home, at any rate to remain at that work longer than he did; but in 1849 his health failed him. His chest was weak, his lungs in danger, and his friends recommended that he should leave England for a while. Though the eldest son of a man of property in Ireland, he was himself poor, and therefore some payment for the work of his life MR. GODLEY'S VIEWS. 73 was necessary to him. In these circumstances he under- took to proceed to New Zealand as the salaried officer of the Canterbury Association,—not as a colonist himself in the usual acceptation of the term, not as one bent on making a new career and a fortune for himself and his children, but as an agent who should busy himself exclu- sively for the advantage of others. Bearing this in mind he never owned an acre in Canterbury. With this intention and these prospects before him he left Plymouth for New Zealand, in December, 1849. As he started he wrote to Mr. Gladstone a letter on the condition of the colonies generally, which I venture to reprint in an appendix (App. No. 2), as it gives a fair sample of the man's mind, and shows the intensity of his patriotism and the noble eagerness of his convictions. There is not much in that letter with which I agree. I have no fear that the British empire will be broken up through the discontent of her children. I think that the colonies should remain attached to England or be separated from them, not with reference to England's prestige or glory, but as such continued adherence, or such separation, may be best for the hap- piness and prosperity of the colonists. If the colonies were separated on friendly terms they would, I think, by no means be rendered less available than at present for British immigration. I think that the writer's fears were groundless, and that the anticipation of shipwreck felt by the colonial reformers of that day arose from an imperfect study of the subject. But not the less is the letter the genuine production of an ardent and most philanthropic man, who was grandly anxious for the welfare of others. In truth that which can be done for a new country by government is very little,-very little indeed, for a new colony colonized from Great Britain. Englishmen are so accustomed to be free, have had so little experience of thraldom, that on settling themselves down on new lands they proceed in truth to govern themselves, let the forms of government be what they may. In the establishment of convict colonies,—of penal settlements as they have been better called, of course it is not so, In them it has been 74 NEW ZEALAND. necessary to adapt the life and habits of the place to the requirements of a huge prison; and free men who have. chosen to place themselves near to such prisons have of necessity been subject to police regulations. But with this exception our colonists have in fact governed themselves. They have at any rate been as free,-free to go and free to come, free to buy and free to sell,-free to marry and to give in marriage,-free to pray or to let it alone,-free to work and to eat, or to be idle and starve, as have ever been any people on the face of the earth. In their material con- dition very little change has been made by the substitution. of parliamentary for home government, so little that he who has not busied himself in politics has not felt the change. Of all the colonists who came with Godley to settle in Christchurch, few probably cared aught about the form of government which might be adopted, caring much, however, caring indeed all in all about the nature of the land on which they were to settle. They would trust to England for freedom with an unanxious faith;—but as to the land and the crops which it could bear, as to their future meat and drink and shelter, there were doubt and fear enough, alternate hopes and doubts,-alternate fear and joy. "I am a little puzzled," says Mr. Godley, in one of his letters, 66 as to what ought to be done in political mat- ters. The people are thinking too much just now of getting on their land to care much about attending public demonstrations." No doubt they were. In the meantime Mr. Wakefield was earnest at home that the colony should be ruled by Wakefield, and not by Earl Grey or any other Secretary of State in Downing Street. On the 11th April, 1850, the "Lady Nugent," in which Godley had sailed, came to anchor in Lyttelton Harbour,- or Port Cooper, as it was then called. The town of Lyt- telton now stands at the head of the harbour named after the nobleman without whose aid the Association could not have made its settlement. The two bold rocks which form the entrance are called Godley Head and Adderley Head. From that date till the time of his departure, nearly three years afterwards, Godley worked at his appointed task, and GODLEY'S ALTERED OPINIONS. 75 no doubt did succeed in forming the settlement of which we used to speak as the Colony of the Canterbury Pilgrims. Land had been purchased from the Maoris by the New Zealand Company, and was repurchased from the New Zealand Company by the Canterbury Pilgrims. This land is that which we now know as the Canterbury Plains. Lyt- telton stands down upon a sea inlet, surrounded on every side by mountains, with hardly room around it to grow a few potatoes. On the other side of these are the plains: which stretch thence to the range which forms the back- bone of the Middle Island. These inner hills must have been a sad affliction to the early comers, as their future farms and future city lay beyond them. Mr. Godley truly wrote word home that the track lay up the side "of what might fairly be called a mountain." I walked it, and found it to be a veritable mountain. Now not only has the city, Christchurch, been built on the other side, and the farms tilled, and the distant country stocked, but a railway has been made through the mountains from Christchurch to the sea-port, at the cost of £200,000, about a mile and a quarter in length. This tunnel was a gallant undertaking for so young a community. The community throve,-but it did not thrive by reliance on the theory on which it was founded. Godley soon found that the Association at home, with Mr. Wakefield at the back of it, was quite as bad as Downing Street. His complaints on this head are most amusing, as showing the difference which had been achieved in so short a time by experience between Utopian theory and practical reality. "I often think," he says to Mr. Adderley," of the fun we should all have taken in old times out of the didactic dis- patches which are written to me, if they had emanated from Downing Street." Again, "So long as the practical management of Canterbury affairs is carried on at Adelphi Terrace," the_domicile of the Association, -we have no right to complain of the Colonial Office." Again, "I earnestly hope and firmly believe that we have now seen the last of colonizing associations. I long held with Wakefield that they were positively good; then I came to look on 76 NEW ZEALAND. them as lesser but necessary evils;-now I am convinced that they do more harm than good." Again, "Wakefield out-Herods Herod in the outrageous virulence of his abuse; tells me I am inconsistent, ungrateful, wild, furious, in- capable, worn-out, perverse, delirious, and winds up by advising me to retire into the country." This was the dear friend who had acceded with warmth to all Godley's Church views, and had declared Godley to be absolutely essential to Canterbury, as long as Godley had agreed with him! The less colonists are meddled with by powers outside themselves the better they will thrive; but meddling by responsible government officers is better at any rate than meddling from an Association. In his letters Godley says very little about. the Church of England characteristic of the settlement. After a while a bishop was found who came out, but did not suit the place, and went back again. After that the present bishop, Dr. Harper, who is now primate of New Zealand, accepted the see, which he has since administered with success. But there has been no strong Church of England peculiarity about the community. Dr. Harper's see, which is, I believe, coterminous with the province of Canterbury as it was before the Westland gold-fields were divided from it, contains a population of 62,158, of which 30,038 are claimed by the Church of England. The proportion is no doubt greater than in the Australian colonies or other parts of New Zealand. It would have been odd, indeed, had no results come from the efforts which were made to found a Church of England settlement. But the numbers show the impracticability in these days of dictating to any community the religious convictions by which it shall be guided. In a few years the very idea of Canterbury being specially the province of one denomination will be lost to the memory of the colonists themselves;—unless indeed it be perpetuated by the huge record of their failure which the town of Christ- church contains. In the centre of it there is a large waste space in which £7,000 have been buried in laying the foundations of a cathedral; but there is not a single stone or a single brick above the level of the ground, The idea LORD LYTTELTÓN. 77 of building the cathedral is now abandoned. It was a sad sight to me to look down upon the vain foundations.* Opposite the spot where the door would have been, stands a statue, by Woolner, of my old schoolfellow,—the great ornament of the city of Christchurch. Judging from portraits of the man, the likeness is excellent, though the artist never saw his subject. The statue itself, which was known to many Englishmen before it came out to New Zealand, is very noble. Among modern statues, I know no head that stands better on its shoulders. Godley came home to England, held office for some years in the Civil Service, and died on November 17th, 1861, of the disease which had made his journey to New Zealand a necessity. Of a better or more earnest man I do not remember to have read the record. I cannot finish this short notice of one of those men, who with true energy and in a real spirit of philanthropy instituted the colony of Canterbury, without making some reference to another of the body, without whom Canterbury must have been a failure. This I may perhaps best do by quoting a passage from a speech made at Christchurch on Feb. 6th, 1868, at a breakfast given to Lord Lyttelton and Mr. Selfe, who were then visiting the colony with which their names are so intimately associated. Mr. T. E. Fitz- gerald, than whom no New Zealand colonist is better known, in proposing the health of their English guests, spoke as follows of Lord Lyttelton;—and spoke with accurate truth. "I well remember soon after I first joined the Canterbury Associa- tion, and when we were falling into all kinds of difficulties, when we had no money to pay our agent's expenses in the colony, when bills were coming due and we had no funds to meet them, and when in fact there began to be every appearance of an awful failure-I well remem- ber, after a long conversation with Mr. Gibbon Wakefield, going down to consult Lord Lyttelton, and appearing before him suddenly at eleven o'clock at night at Brighton. The result was that his Lordship came up at once to London and took charge of the affairs of the * Since this was written I have heard from New Zealand that there is a prospect that the building of the Cathedral will be recommenced. 58 NEW ZEALAND. Canterbury Association; and from that time, for a long time afterwards, laboured in those affairs as few men ever did labour in any public office. Without the smallest prospect of remuneration, he advanced thousand after thousand of pounds to keep the settlement going till the time should come when its own funds would be available. The very roads on which some of you may have worked were made out of funds supplied out of the pockets of two or three members of the Canterbury Association, of whom Lord Lyttelton was the foremost. [Loud cheers.] It is a fact of which Canterbury may be justly proud-nay, without which none of us could dare to show our faces here to-day—that the debt thus incurred has been repaid; but though the money has been repaid we can never forget the feeling with which it was advanced, nor cease to remember how much we owe to the generous self-sacrificing spirit which carried the colony in safety through the difficulties that beset the first year of its existence." CHAPTER VI. THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS. ON crossing the Waitangi River in the manner I have described in the last chapter but one, we found ourselves in the province of Canterbury and among the people,-very few and far between for the first two miles of our journey,- who are still called the Canterbury Pilgrims. The precise spirit of the name will be easily understood. The founders of the colony,—for it was in truth a separate colony created with a distinct settlement of its own,-came out with the express idea of forming a religious community, and were thus entitled to be called pilgrims. The name of the chosen locality was assumed as having a special Church of England savour, and thus a happy old combination was revived, which from different causes sounded pleasantly in the ears of the educated men and women who had determined to make this part of New Zealand their future home. From the Waitangi to Christchurch, the capital of Canter- bury, was a journey of two days, through the towns of Waimoti and Timaru. The rivers here form the chief peculiarity of the country. They are very broad, having generally two, three, or more courses, which when flooded by rains or by melting snow form one rapid course. They are for the most part unbridged, and therefore at certain times impassable. Over one river with apparently endless different courses, called the Rangitata, we were preceded by a horseman, who for his services charged us 25. a piece. Over another, the Raknia, the first elements of a railway bridge had been constructed, and we were taken over on a 80 NEW ZEALAND. truck dragged by a horse who kept the bed of the river where it was dry or the water shallow, and ascended to the level of the frail-looking bridge where the stream was deep. The whole thing looked like sudden death,--but we reached the farther side of the Rakaia in safety, and were only charged 2s. a head for all that was done for us. It may be taken as a rule that rivers in Canterbury cost so much and no more. During our whole journey from the Waitaki to Christ- church, we were crossing the Canterbury Plains,-of the fertility of which so much has been heard in England. It is an uninteresting journey as far as scenery is concerned. To the left the great range of mountains which runs through- out the island was always in sight with its snow-capped peaks, somewhat relieving the dulness of the plain;-but they are not sufficiently near to create landscape beauty. To the right was the sea, often close at hand during the first day, but seldom visible. We passed on from one squatter's run to another, through vast paddocks containing perhaps 20,000 acres each, without a tree. The grass con- sisted of long coarse tussocks,-brown in colour,-with nothing of green prettiness to relieve the monotony. To the eye it certainly was not charming, but I had already learned enough of sheep to know that as a pastoral country it was good. I was told that it would carry two sheep to three acres. Any pastures that will do that on aboriginal grasses must be very good. I had thought that we should pass through more culti vated ground than I saw on the road. Indeed I had ex- pected to find the Canterbury Plains one vast expanse of corn-bearing land. This is by no means the case." Owing to the course which the road takes the traveller sees little of agriculture, except in the neighbourhood of Timaru, till he reaches Selwyn, within a few miles of Christchurch. this there are two apparent reasons. The land which has been purchased for tillage at a distance from Christchurch lies chiefly on the river beds, and has been taken up with reference to water frontages. It runs therefore in strips down from the mountains to the sea, and does not meet the For SALE OF LANDS. 81 traveller's eyes. And, then, the squatters have found it worth their while to buy large tracts of land for pastoral purposes,—so as to keep free-selecters and farmers at a distance. The price of land under the Canterbury Associa- tion was at first £3 per acre,-and at this rate the land round Christchurch was sold to the first settlers, by those who bought it from the New Zealand Land Company on behalf of the Association. The price was then reduced to Ios. an acre, at which rate much of what was then considered the distant districts of the province was alienated to a few happy capitalists. But for some years past the prices for all land in the province had been 2 an acre. For £2 an acre any man who can pay the money down, may purchase as many sections as he desires containing twenty acres each; -and he may pick the sections as he pleases, buying a bit here and a bit there,-a practice which in Australia they call picking the eyes out of "the country,”—and one which the framers of the land laws in the different Australian colonies have done their best to prevent. In Canterbury it is urged that at the higher price thus exacted for land,—40s. an acre in lieu of zos, or less, with ready money in lieu of deferred payments, the colony can afford to welcome any pur- chasers, and that purchasers picking out the best land, and thus opening up the country, will soon be followed by others who will content themselves with the second best,-and so on. I have heard many lengthened arguments on both sides of the question,-with which I will not trouble my readers. Each colony may perhaps be fairly presumed to know what mode of sale will suit its own circumstances. In the excellence of its land Canterbury has been very happy; and, as a consequence of that excellence, it is second in achieved success to no colony sent out from Great Britain. The majority of the land bought of late has been pur- chased by squatters, and not by farmers or free-selecters. In the year ended the 30th June, 1872, run-holders,—or squatters-bought 23,184 acres in the province, and other persons, who no doubt all purchased as farmers, bought 17,807 acres. The figures are interesting as showing the progressive nature of pastoral pursuits in New Zealand. G 82 NEW ZEALAND. No squatter in New South Wales or Queensland can afford to pay 40s. an acre for land on which to run sheep,-nor even 20S. When he does pay the latter sum, it is done with the object of protecting himself against the inroad of free-selecters, by the purchase of some special block,-so that by obtaining possession of that block, he may raise a barrier against his enemy. But in New Zealand the pur- chaser lays down artificial grasses, and in a few years is enabled to carry five, six, or seven sheep, instead of perhaps half a sheep, to an acre. In every province of New Zealand which I visited,—and I visited them all except Hawkes Bay, I saw English grasses in profusion, and English- looking fields. In Australia English grasses have no doubt been introduced, but I have never seen the side of a moun- tain covered with them, as I have in New Zealand. The cause of this is to be found in the climate. In New Zealand it seems that everything thrives which ever throve in Eng- land. The Southern, or Middle,-Island is a second England, only with higher mountains, bigger lakes, and rougher shores. She has indeed gold instead of iron and coal,* and is in that respect much the poorer country of the two. The province of Canterbury already exports large quanti- ties of grain, assisting to feed all the other provinces of New Zealand, and occasionally exporting wheat to Victoria and to England. The ports from which it is sent are Lyttelton and Timaru. The first object of a colony should be to grow wheat enough for itself,—if it be placed in a country capable of growing wheat. New Zealand in the year 1871 exported wheat and flour to the value of £75,176,—but imported to the value of £127,040,-showing a deficiency of £51,164. But the province of Canterbury, in regard to the production of wheat, holds her head high. Not only does she supply the greater portion of the bread-stuffs exported from New Zealand to other countries, but largely *There is coal in the Middle Island. In Otago they burn a kind of coal, by no means of a pleasant nature, which they call lignite. Coal has been found also in Nelson, but has not hitherto been profitably worked. RAILWAYS. 83 helps to supply her weaker sister provinces. In 1870 she supplied the other provinces with corn and flour to the value of £127,000, and in the first six months of 1871 to the value of £59,800. Beginnings of railways, with railway rumours, railway prophecies, and railway fears, met us everywhere on our passage up the islands. It must always be remembered that these colonial railways are not private speculations as they are with us, but are constructed,—or to be constructed, -with money borrowed by the colony for the purpose. If be calculated that the money can be borrowed at 5 per cent., and that the expected traffic will pay for the work- ing of the railway,-two positions which the advocates for the New Zealand railway system take for granted,—then the question is this: will the value of railway communication to the colony be worth the interest which the colony must pay for the money borrowed? Any partisan could talk by the hour,—if given to talking, or write by the chapter,—if given to writing, either on one side or the other; and first on one and then on the other. Facts can prove nothing in the matter, and speculation must carry the day either on that side or on this. That a national debt is a grievous burden to a young community is of course not to be denied. That railways running through a country, at present deficient in roads, will increase trade, and add greatly to the value of the land and to the value of the produce of the land, is equally manifest. Such a question in a community governed by free institutions, representative parliaments, and respon- sible ministers, at last becomes simply one of partisan politics. There will be the borrowing and spending side of the House, the members of which will be great in their oratory on behalf of progress,—and there will be the cau- tious side of the House, which would fain be just before it is generous, whose oratory will be equally great in denouncing the reckless audacity of the spendthrifts. The borrowing and spending side will generally have some great prophet of its own who can look far into futurity, who can see ample returns to the community for any amount of expenditure, who is himself fond of political power, and who can see at 84 NEW ZEALAND. any rate this, that the great body of voters in the country, on whom he must depend for his power, are for the most part indifferent to future circumstances so long as money at the moment be spent in profusion. When I reached New Zealand Mr. Vogel was the great prophet of the hour,—and under his auspices money had been largely borrowed, and great contracts had been given for railways which are ulti- mately to run through the two islands from The Bluff up to Auckland and north of Auckland. Of Mr. Vogel and his fate, while I was in the colony, I shall have to say a few words when speaking of the parliament at Wellington; but I have found it impossible to touch the subject of railways in New Zealand without mentioning the name of a man who I was assured by one party will hereafter be regarded as the great promoter of the success of his adopted country,—or, as I was assured by another party, be denounced as the cause of her ruin. At Selwyn we got upon one of these beginnings of rail- ways, which took us into Christchurch, a distance of twenty- three miles, through one of the richest districts of the settle- ment. Christchurch as a town is certainly not magnificent, but it is comfortable and thoroughly English. The houses are chiefly of wood,—as are also the greater number of the churches. The banks here, as elsewhere, luxuriate in stone. Throughout all these colonies I have grudged the grandeur of the banks, being reminded by every fine façade of per- centages, commission, and charges for exchange. I believe that in Australia and New Zealand a man might melt his money down to nothing quicker than anywhere else, simply by transferring it from one place to another. I feel myself to be ill-natured in saying this, as personally I received great courtesy from bankers;-but not the less did I find that the melting process was the practice. Christchurch as a city is certainly much less imposing than Dunedin. The population of the city is about 8,000, —that of the electoral districts of Christchurch is something over 12,000. The special religious tenets of the founders of the colony may be gathered perhaps more clearly from the names of the streets than from any other characteristic CHURCH ASCENDANCY. 85 which a stranger will observe. They are all named after some Church of England bishopric,-and in the choosing of the special dioceses which were to be so honoured, there has certainly been no mean time-serving, no worship of the great ones of the Church. The Irish Church has been specially honoured, for there are Armagh Street, Tuam Street, and Cashel Street. There are also Gloucester Street, and Lich- field Street, and Hereford Street, and St. Asaph Street. But there is no York Street, or London Street, or Winchester Street. There is, however, an Antigua Street, a Barbadoes Street, and a Montreal Street; and the chief street of all is Columbo Street. I have already spoken of the failure of the Canterbury pilgrims in reference to the building of a cathedral. There is the empty space, with all the foundations of a great church laid steadfast beneath the surface; but it seemed to be the general opinion of the people that a set of public offices should be erected there instead of a cathedral. I could not but be melancholy as I learned that the honest, high-toned idea of the honest, high-toned founders of the colony would probably not be carried out; but, perhaps, on that spot in the middle of the city, a set of public offices will be better than a cathedral. Public offices all the community will use. A cathedral will satisfy something less than one half of it ;- and will greatly dissatisfy the other half. Such a church, by its site, by its magnificence, by the very zeal of those who are hot in its erection, proclaims ascendancy ;--and if there be one feeling more repugnant than any other to the genuine British colonist it is that of Church ascendancy. Many of the settlers have come away from their old homes in order that they may be rid of it. It savours to them of tyranny and priest-rule. They do not dislike the worship of the Church of England, perhaps they prefer it on the whole to any other. Statistics show that it is still more popular than any other one form of worship in the colonies. But colonists as a body are averse to any assertion that one church is by its own merits deserving of higher outward honour than another. The name of a cathedral may be innocent enough, but the builders of them in the colonies 86 NEW ZEALAND. should I think for the present make them large only in accordance with the wants of their flocks. In Christchurch there is no doubt a disappointed feeling of ungratified ascendancy. Canterbury has a parliament of its own, as has Otago,- and in Christchurch there still exists a hope, as there does also in Dunedin, that a good time is coming in which the General Assembly may be moved south from favoured Wel- lington to its own halls,-if only for a time. I trust the colony will at any rate never make the mistake into which Canada once fell, of having a peripatetic parliament, an arrangement which makes it necessary that all the appur- tenances of government,-secretaries, clerks, messengers, blue books, stationery, and red tape, should be kept moving continually from one town to another. The hall in which the Provincial Council of Canterbury sits is spacious and very handsome, and I was told that it was built with a view to accommodate the Colonial House of Representatives. I was assured afterwards at Wellington that the question of such a journey southwards was still considered to be open. The hall in question is perhaps a little too highly coloured, but is certainly very fine. I was accompanied by a member of the Provincial Council, who admitted that it had one slight drawback. Those who spoke in it could not make themselves heard. I myself had no opportunity of testing it, as the General Assembly was sitting at Wellington while I was in the colony, and the General Assembly and the Pro- vincial Councils never sit together. This hall forms part of a set of buildings erected for the management of the affairs of the province, which as a whole pleased me very much. It is partly of stone, and partly of wood, but is Gothic throughout, the woodwork being as graceful and as true to the design of the whole as the stone. It stands on the banks of the little river Avon, which meanders through the town, having a few willows on the bank, with a wooden footbridge. The buildings form a quadrangle, and look as though one of the smaller and prettier colleges had been transplanted thither bodily from the banks of the Cam. As I stood and looked at it I could not but think that some exiled member CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 87 of the university may some day have consoled himself with the same feeling. Some- I found that allotments of land for building purposes within a mile or two of the town were worth from £50 to £150 an acre. In all these towns the great proportion of comfortable villa residences to poor and squalid cottages is very striking. Indeed there are no poor or squalid cottages. All round Christchurch there are houses which in the neigh- bourhood of an English country town would denote an expenditure of £500 or £600 a year, and which here certainly cannot be maintained at a lesser rate. The one great complaint made by the ladies who occupy these houses,—the one sorrow indeed of the matrons of New Zealand,―arises from the dearth of maid-servants. times no domestic servant can be had at all, for love or money, and the mistress of the house with her daughters, if she have any, is constrained to cook the dinner and make the beds. Sometimes a lass who knows nothing will consent to come into a house and be taught how to do house-work at the rate of £40 per annum, with a special proviso that she is to be allowed to go out two evenings a week to learn choral singing in the music-hall. By more than two or three ladies my sympathy was demanded on account of these sufferings, and I was asked whether a country must not be in a bad way in which the ordinary comfort of female attend- ance could not be had when it was wanted. Of course I sympathized. It is hard upon a pretty young mother with three or four children that she should be left to do every- thing for herself. But I could not help suggesting that the young woman's view of the case was quite as important as the matron's, and that if it was a bad place for those who wanted to hire maid-servants, it must be a very good place for the girls who wanted to be hired. The maid-servant's side of the question is quite as important as the mistress's. The truth is, that in such a town as Christchurch a girl of twenty or twenty-three can earn from £30 to £40 a year and a comfortable home, with no oppressively hard work; and if she be well-conducted and of decent appearance she is sure to get a husband who can keep a house over her 88 NEW ZEALAND. head. For such persons New Zealand is a paradise. It is not only that they get so many more of the good things of the world than would ever come in their way in England, but that they stand relatively in so much higher a position. in reference to the world around them. The very tone in which a maid-servant speaks to you in New Zealand, her quiet little joke, her familiar smile, her easy manner, tell you at once that the badge of servitude is not heavy on her. She takes your wages, and makes your bed, and hands your plate,—but she does not consider herself to be of an order of beings different from your order. Many who have been accustomed to be served all their life may not like this. If so they had better not live in New Zealand. But if we look at the matter from the maid-servant's side we cannot fail to find that there is much comfort in it. I would advise no young lady to go out to any colony either to get a husband, or to be a governess, or to win her bread after any so-called ladylike fashion. She may suffer much before she can succeed, or may probably fail alto- gether. But any well-behaved young woman who now earns £16 as a housemaid in England would find in New Zea- land a much happier home. I I must say a word about the museum at Christchurch, though museums are things of which I am very ignorant. I was taken to the museum by the curator, Dr. Haast, to see the skeletons of various moas, in the arrangement and recon- struction of which he is a great authority. There is a little world there of moas and kiwis, and a collection of large stones which the moas have swallowed, as other birds pick up gravel, to assist digestion, and of eggs which the kiwis have laid almost as big as themselves. Next to the Maoris, who are not as yet quite extinct, the moas, which are, must be regarded as the most wonderful productions of New Zea- land. They fed upon grass, with stones an inch in dia- meter to assist their digestion. They were twelve feet high, and seem at one time to have had the islands almost to themselves. In the museum are various clusters of their broken bones,-of bones which have been found broken ; and from these fractures Dr. Haast draws the conclusion PORT LYTTELTON. 89 that there were, before the Maoris, a race of moa-hunters, who regaled themselves with the marrow which was thus obtained. I do not express doubt of the correctness of his view. I never do doubt the facts which science proclaims to me. But I found men in New Zealand who would not believe in the moa-hunters. In the museum there is a portrait of Gibbon Wakefield and his dogs, portions of which are said to have been painted by Landseer. The statue of Godley is at a little distance outside,—and is as much supe- rior to the picture as the character and attributes of the man sculptured were greater than those of him who was painted. The appearance of the country round Christchurch is especially English. The land is divided into small English- looking fields, with English grasses, and English hedges. In regard to the hedges it may be well to remark that the gorse, which has been brought over from England and accli- matized, has taken so kindly to its new home that it bids fair to become a monstrous pest. It spreads itself wide over the land and lanes, and unless periodically clipped claims. the soil as its own. But each periodical clipping, with rural labour at 6s. a day, is a serious addition to the ex- pense of farming. Lyttelton is the port by which Christchurch imports and exports what it buys and what it produces; and between Christchurch and Port Lyttelton there is a range of moun- tains so steep as almost to defy traffic. When the first Can- terbury pilgrims landed at Port Lyttelton their courage for new adventure must almost have passed away from them, when they perceived that the settlers in the plain beyond the mountains would be divided by such a barrier from the sea. A road has indeed been made over the barrier, not so steep but what a horse may travel it, and round from the harbour there is a tedious navigation by the channel of the Heathcote River nearly up to Christchurch. But neither of these modes of transit suffice to put a town into comfortable communication with the sea. Consequently the Canter- bury folk determined to make a railway, and in doing so have carried a tunnel through the mountain, a distance of a mile and three-quarters, at an expense amounting to 90 NEW ZEALAND. £200,000. It was a great enterprise for so small a com- munity, and was absolutely essential to the well-being of Christchurch as a town. There can be no doubt, however, that the tunnel has doubled the value of the land lying immediately on the inland side of the hills. Port Lyttelton itself is a very picturesque place, hemmed in on every side by hills, at the head of a narrow land-locked bay, with the mountains of Banks's Peninsula standing over it. I must say a word of the county of Westland before I have done with Canterbury,-of Westland and its capital, Hokatika, which till 1868 were comprised within the pro- vince of Canterbury. Hokatika is a thriving gold-town on the western coast, and is the centre of various gold-fields. When gold "broke out," as the phrase goes, on the western side of the Middle Island, and when the rush to Hokatika, together with the export of gold from Hokatika, became a great matter, the pastoral and agricultural province of Can- terbury not caring to maintain an alliance with interests so different from those to which it was accustomed, severed itself from the gold-fields. Then the name of Westland was assumed, and Westland became, not exactly a province, but a county independent of any other province, with muni- cipal institutions of its own. Time did not admit of my crossing the island from Canterbury to the west coast, so that I saw none of the glories of Hokatika,—to my infinite regret. For though the district is famous for its gold, it is, if possible, more famous for its scenery. It lies under Mount Cook, the monarch of New Zealand mountains, less, but only less, in altitude than its brother monarch in Europe. I had heard much of the beauty of the road across the island, much of the scenery around Mount Cook and its glaciers, and I had determined to visit them. But Australia and New Zealand together cover a wide space, - and I was obliged to give up the west coast of the Middle Island. Of course to my dying day the conviction will haunt me that when in New Zealand I did not see the one thing best worth seeing in the colony. CHAPTER VII. MARLBOROUGH AND NELSON. FROM Port Lyttelton we went by steamer to Wellington, the political capital of the colony, which is situated at the southern extremity of the Northern Island; but as we touched at Picton, in the province of Marlborough, and at Nelson, in the province of that name, on our journey from Wellington northwards to Auckland, and as these two pro- vinces are in the Middle Island, it may be well that I should take them first. I am entitled to say but little about them, as I did in fact but touch them. The The journey from Wellington to Nelson, through Cook's Strait, which divides the two islands, is very picturesque, especially if the steamer take Picton in its course. headlands and broken bays, with the rough steep mountains coming sheer down into the blue waters, the closeness of the land, and the narrowness of the passages, all tend to create a mysterious charm, which he who gazes at them finds himself unable to analyze. He feels tempted to land at every gully which runs up among the mountains and to investigate the strange wild world which must be beyond. them. He knows, in truth, that there is nothing there,— that one brown hill would lead only to another, that there is no life among the hills, and that the very spots on which his eyes rest really contain whatever there may be of loveli- ness in the place. But though he knows this as fact, his imagination will not allow him to trust his knowledge. There is always present to him a vague longing to investigate the mysteries of the valleys, and to penetrate into the bosoms 92 NEW ZEALAND. of the distant hills. The sweetest charms of landscape are those of life;-they consist of the anticipations of something beyond which never can be reached. I never felt this more strongly than when I was passing from one land-locked channel to another along the coast of Cook's Straits. We left Wellington during the night, and at six in the morning we were entering Tory Channel on the opposite island, so called from the name of the vessel in which Wake- field's first party of emigrants arrived. From thence we passed into Queen Charlotte's Sound, at the top of which is the little town of Picton, which till lately was the capital of the province of Marlborough. I believe it still considers. itself to be so, but the Provincial Council,-the presence of which I presume to be the truest mark of a New Zealand capital, has been removed to the other town which the province possesses, called Blenheim. Neither of these places has as yet a population of 1,000 inhabitants, and the whole province, by the census of 1871, possessed no more than 5,235 souls, and yet in 1860, when the number was very much less, the people of the district found it essential to their well-being to separate themselves from the province. of Nelson. The land in those parts, they said, was sold by the Nelson Council or the Nelson Executive, and the money forthcoming for the land was spent in Nelson, instead of being used to open up the very country which produced it. As to the expedience or inexpedience of the change, I have no opinion, but it strikes an Englishman as strange that a scattered community of a few thousand persons spread among the mountains should require a separate government for themselves,—with a separate parliament, and all the attendant expenses. I could not, however, but remember how I had been myself convinced of the necessity of sepa- rating the Riverina from New South Wales, for the very reasons which caused the separation of Marlborough from Nelson, and I was disposed to think that the people of Marlborough may have been right. The population of the Riverina was indeed much larger, but one fails to see the exact limit at which a population may claim its right not to have its wealth consumed by a larger population at a PICTON. 93 distance. Marlborough, however, carried its point,—and Picton became a capital, among New Zealand capitals, till further jealousy removed its honours to Blenheim. Small as Marlborough is in numbers, there is a smaller province, that of Taranaki, of which I shall speak by-and-by. At Picton I found the son of an English friend, who himself had been among the earliest of the New Zealand settlers, superintending the creation of a railway from thence to Blenheim,—a railway with about 700 people at each end of it, and which may perhaps benefit in some remote way an entire population of 2,000 or 3,000! The financial ministers of New Zealand have certainly been very brave. Navvies I found had been brought out from England under contracts to work for a certain time at certain rates; but, of course, these contracts were ignored by the men when they found, or thought that they had found, that they could do better for themselves by ignoring them. It is absolutely useless for any employer of labour to take labour out to the colonies for his own use, paying the expense of the transit. Un- willing services are of all services the dearest, and such services if they be kept at all are sure to be unwilling. Picton itself is a pretty, straggling, picturesque little town, lying, as do all these New Zealand ports, pressed in between the mountains and the sea. It is a strangely isolated place, with no road anywhere but to its rival Blenheim. Once a week from Wellington, and once from Nelson, a steamer touches there, and thus it holds its communication with the world. How it lives I could not find out. The staple of the province is wool, and it owns over 600,oco sheep,- about as many as all Western Australia possesses,-but Nelson is not the port at which the wool is shipped. That goes down to another bay near to Blenheim. It is hard to discover how such towns do live, as 700 persons can hardly make their bread by trading on each other; and as they import their clothes, their brandy, their tobacco, and, I am sorry to say, their wheat also, they must produce something wherewith to purchase those good things. Whilst navvies are earning 6s. or 75. a day by making a railway I can understand that trade should go on. The wages of the 94 NEW ZEALAND. men fall into the little town like manna from heaven. But such a fall of manna as that is apt to come to a speedy end. As far as outward appearances go, Picton seemed to be doing very well. There were good shops, and tidy houses, and pretty gardens, and a general look of sleepy, well-fed prosperity. In all these places the people are well fed and well clothed, whatever may be the sources from whence the food and raiment come. I may say also that Picton enjoys a beautiful climate, produces all English fruits in rich abundance, is surrounded by fields deliciously green, and has for an immediate background some of the finest scenery in New Zealand. The great sight of the province of Marlborough is a hill a few miles behind Picton, which was the scene of the so- called Wairau massacre. This was not exactly the begin- ning, but it was one of the beginnings of the rebellion of the Maoris against their English masters. The treaty of Waitangi, by which the Maoris professed subjection to the Crown of Great Britain and obedience to English laws, was made in 1840. In 1843 a party of English settlers, armed with proper magisterial authority, attempted to arrest two Maori chiefs, Rauparaha and Rangihaeta, who had inter- fered with the work of a surveyor who had been sent to survey the Wairau valley, on the plea that it had been pur- chased from the natives by the New Zealand Land Com- pany. The two Maori chieftains denied the purchase, and resisted the arrest. A fight ensued, in which thirteen settlers were killed and five wounded, and after the fight Rauparaha murdered in cold blood nine other settlers whom he and his party had taken prisoners. But this was not all. After the massacre Rauparaha and Rangihaeta were not taken, and there arose a question, not only whether there was force enough in the country to appre- hend them, but whether they were subject to English writs. It will easily be understood how such doings as this would shake the prestige of their British masters in the minds of these New Zealand savages. "The Wairau conflict," says Dr. Thompson, "attracted the attention of Europe, and created interest in the minds of men who never thought NELSON. 95 about colonies. It completely stopped emigration to New Zealand, called forth the sympathy of people in different parts of Great Britain; and at Paris,"-oh, unfortunate New Zealand!—“at Paris a proposition was made to com- mence a subscription to enable the unfortunate settlers to return home." What a bathos of misery into which to fall! This was the Wairau massacre, which, as I have said, was one of the commencements of the Maori war; and the scene of the massacre, with the graves of those who fell, is but a few miles above Picton, and is shown with awe to such travellers as have been to visit the spot. I heard the tale, but did not visit the graves. From Picton we came back through Queen Charlotte's Sound, up Admiralty Bay, which is another of the wonderful land-locked harbours with which the coast is indented, and through the French pass, as it is called, on to Nelson. Admiralty Bay is not in fact an indentation of the land, but is formed by D'Urville's Island, and the French pass is a very narrow channel,-made doubly interesting by a fatal rock in the very centre of it,-between the island and the main land. It is all very well now for steamers with charts and coal and all nautical appliances to thread their way in and out through these marvellously intricate passages; but one is lost in wonder at the audacity of the men when one thinks of the work which such sailors as Tasman and Cook were called on to perform. Nelson is a settlement which has attracted much more attention at home than has been paid to Picton. Few parts of New Zealand, indeed, were oftener made the subject of conversation in England some years back than the settle- ment of Nelson. It has a bishop, too, of its own,-a sturdy clergyman of the right sort for such a position, who looks as though he had been created to manage the clergy of a colonial diocese,—a man who can put the collar on his own horse, or ride fifty miles at a stretch, or hold his own in any conflict either by word or hand. A colonial bishop should be hale, vigorous, young, and good humoured, ready to preach, to laugh, or to knock a fellow down at any moment. $5 NEW ZEALAND. Nelson was first settled by the New Zealand Land Com- pany. In 1841 the company issued a prospectus for the Nelson settlement, encouraged to do so by the great avidity with which their purchases at Wellington and New Ply- mouth, in the Northern Island, had been re-purchased by intending emigrants from England. In September, 1841, the future Nelson settlers reached Wellington, and it seems that in spite of the choice of a name already made for the place of their destination, there was at first a doubt where they should be located. It was the heyday of Wakefield's success, when he could still boast that he had purchased on behalf of the company a territory as large as Ireland,- when he may have looked forward to re-name New Zealand Wakefieldia, and almost have dreamed of future sovereignty. A brother of his,-who was afterwards murdered in the Wairau massacre of which I have just spoken,-led this Nelson expedition. Governor Hobson, who was then at Wellington, wished to send the immigrants on north into Auckland. Some of the settlers themselves had already heard of the plains of which the Canterbury settlers after- wards became the owners, and desired to be taken thither. But the Wakefield interest at last prevailed, and Blind Bay, on which the town of Nelson now stands, was chosen for the settlement. It seems that these emigrants had bought land from the Company, though no one among them knew where was the land they had bought,--except that it was to be found somewhere in New Zealand. Lots of twenty acres each were sold at 30s. an acre, with a town lot added to each,—the site of the town not yet fixed. But of the money so paid none was intended to go, and I am not aware that any did go, into the pockets of any speculator. Half was to be applied to further emigration; two-sixths were to be applied to reimbursing the company,—which had made the original purchase from the natives with Jew's harps, gunpowder, and shaving-brushes, and had not provided itself with those articles or transported them to the Anti- podes for nothing: and the remaining sixth was to be, and was, expended in improving the condition of the settlers. It was applied to education, and created a still existing fund. NELSON. 97 All this was very delightful. It was a system of co- operation established on the purest philanthropical motives. But there were difficulties. The purchased lands were to be distributed by lot. So many thousands of acres were to be divided by arbitrary lines, which on a map would give the necessary quantity to each settler; but these chess- board partitions would have placed many an astounded settler on the rough side of a barren mountain, and elevated others to the sublimity of snowy peaks. And then the Maoris, who seem to have been very courteous to the strangers, disputed the purchase. Dr. Thompson quotes. the speech they made when they declined the cunning gifts of their visitors. "We welcome the white men," they said, "but decline their presents, lest they be construed into proofs that the land were fairly purchased." We may dis- credit the accuracy of argument, but we can well understand that the feeling indicated would exist and find expression in some language. However, they did admit a purchase, and made no opposition to the survey of a town site. The air was pleasant, the scene was beautiful around them, the harbour, though difficult of entrance, was secure, and though there was snow on the mountains close around them, there were sweet flowers on the plain, and good herbage. When subsequently, in 1843, a report was made to the government by the land commissioner who had been appointed to inquire for how much land the New Zealand Land Company had really given value to the natives, it was decided that at Nelson 151,000 acres had been fairly pur- chased,—and on that amount of territory, which would have been amply sufficient for their purposes had there been no beautiful but barren mountains, the settlers made themselves a home, and established Nelson, by no means the least important of the New Zealand provinces. But there was of course quarrelling with the natives, who did not understand the extent to which they were supposed to have alienated their lands. Coal and lime were found, and there was quarrelling about that. Then there was the Wairau massacre,—and the vain attempts to make the Maoris subject to English laws after a manner intelligible to them- H 98 NEW ZEALAND. It selves. Certain words quoted by Dr. Thompson from a dispatch written about this time by Lord John Russell, show very plainly what have been the hopes and what the diffi- culties,—what at last the despair of European colonizers in reference to the savage tribes with which they have been brought in contact. "To rescue the natives of New Zealand from the calamities of which the approach of civilised men to barbarous tribes has hitherto been the almost universal herald, is a duty too sacred and important to be neglected, whatever may be the discouragements under which it may have been undertaken." Most true, thou honest and philan- thropic quondam prime minister and secretary of state! is this truth which is grinding the heart of us all as we deal with these peoples, either in buying their lands or making laws for them, or writing books about them. We would fain be just and also generous. But we must populate the land. That will be done at any rate. And if they who be just, and generous, and great, the Lord John Russells of the day, desist from all efforts in the matter, the thing will be done with infinite injustice and cruelty. By their interposition the injustice and cruelty are brought within certain limits, and do not absolutely appall us by their horrors. I do not know that we can hope for more. I doubt whether the statesman whom I have named ventured to hope for more when he penned that paragraph. We cannot be just to these native tribes, because our justice is not their justice. We cannot weigh goods with them, because we have no common standard. Very slowly we force our standards upon them; but by the time that they have taken our laws and our weights and measures home to themselves,—they have perished out of the land and are gone. As lately as 1858 the number of natives in the North Island was estimated at 53,000. Fifteen years have since passed, and they are now under 40,000 in number. In the other islands they are all but extinct. Nelson is in the Middle Island, and the Maoris now there are altogether harmless. A few may be seen loafing about, smiling, apparently contented, and dying out after no very un- happy fashion. The settlement has no longer troubles of that NELSON. 99 nature. Nor do I know that it has any troubles,-but those which may arise in the minds of individuals from slowness of progress. The town contains 6,000 people, and the pro- vince something over 22,000. I was told that the land was good, but light and worn out from continual cropping; that nearly all the land in the province available for agriculture was sold; that farming, or at any rate growing wheat, did not pay unless a man could get his work done by the in- mates of his own family;-and that there was but slight material prosperity in the place. One or two men might be making fortunes,-but, for the rest, Nelson was a slow spot. There was no money there, and no enterprise. They did not even grow wheat enough for themselves, though they professed to be an agricultural community. There was certainly a sleepiness about the place when regarded with commercial eyes. But, though sleepy, it seemed to be happy. I was there about the beginning of September,—a winter month,—and nothing could be sweeter or more pleasant than the air. The summer heats are not great, and all English fruits, and grass, and shrubs grow at Nelson with more than English profusion. Every house was neat and pretty. The site is, I think, as lovely as that of any town I ever saw. Merely to breathe there, and to dream, and to look around was a delight. Nobody seemed to be either rich or poor,-to be either great or humble. They have their own Parliament House, and their own parliament, and manage themselves after a sleepy, fat, and plentiful rather than prosperous fashion, which is not without its advantages in the world. The children are generally well taught, and certainly should be so, as there is nothing to pay for education. Every householder pays £1 per annum towards the school, and for every child between five and fifteen the parents pay 5s. a year, whether the child be at school or not. The pay- ments are made as a matter of course, and the children are educated. I was very much in love with Nelson during the few hours that I passed there; but it is not the place to which I would send a young man to make a fortune. CHAPTER VIII. WELLINGTON AND THE CENTRAL GOVERNMENT: WE went from Port Lyttelton by steamer to Wellington, passing on our way northwards the Kaikora mountains, which make the coast of the province of Marlborough mag- nificent. They are snow-clad, and of beautiful form, and to a member of the Alpine Club, would offer, I should think, irresistible temptation. The town of Wellington, now the capital of the colony, stands high up in a bay which was originally called Port Nicholson, and is still so named on the map. The site as seen from the sea is very lovely, as the town is surrounded by hills, and is open only to the water. It reminded me much of St. Thomas,-among the Virgin Islands; but in appearance only. St. Thomas is one of the most unhealthy places frequented by man, whereas there is perhaps no spot more healthy than Wellington. It is, however, noted for being windy, and the character seems to be deserved. The town is built only of wood,* including even the Parliament House, which is a very spacious building, and the Government House, which is a handsome English mansion. This has been found to be necessary, as the locality is subject to earthquakes. In 1848, the town, which was then but a small thing, was nearly destroyed, and there have been slighter shocks since that time. In 1848, the panic was so great that it was considered for a time that it *Throughout all New Zealand, houses are generally built of wood. In the whole colony there are 57,182 houses, including 2,402 tents used as houses. Of these 45,951 are built of wood, and only 1,540 of stone or brick. TOWN AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. ΙΟΙ would be necessary to desert the place. From the position in which Wellington stands, and the manner in which it is surrounded by the sea on all sides but one, it is too closely hemmed in, and too destitute of land immediately around it, for extensive prosperity as a town. It contains something under 8,000 inhabitants, whereas the population both of the city of Auckland and of Dunedin, with their suburbs, is over 20,000 each, and that of Christchurch is over 12,000. But it is a pleasant little town, and when the General Assembly is sitting, it is gay enough. Of course, it is subject to the condition of all cities which have been chosen as capitals, not on account of their commercial prosperity, but because they are centrally situated for political purposes. Washington is a very poor place when Congress is not there, and I imagine that life at Ottawa must be slow when the represen- tatives of the people are away from it. There are interesting spots around Wellington. Within two or three miles of the town there are the remains of a New Zealand forest,-than which no forest is more lovely. They are absolutely impervious, unless a way be cut through them, owing to the thick growth of the forest vines. They are green throughout the year, not with a dull greyish green tint, such as that of the Australian gum,—but are bright with semi-tropical growth. The hills all round the town were a few years since covered with such forests, but there is now but little left of them. A botanical garden is in course of construction, which has great advantages in the lie of the lands and the shape of the surrounding hills. It is a pity perhaps that it was not commenced before so much of the surrounding timber was taken away. I visited the valley of the Hutt, so named after that old coloniser, the late member for Gateshead, up which one of the new rail- ways is being formed,-with, I should think, questionable political economy, as there is water-carriage from Wellington up to the Hutt, and there may well be doubts whether the pastoral districts in the valleys beyond will afford traffic sufficient to pay for working the line. But it is the policy of New Zealand to spend money, and to look for that prosperity which is supposed to come from a generous 102 NEW ZEALAND. expenditure. And I was taken up to the Horokiwi valley, a beautiful glen, some forty miles out of the town. From the head of the valley, on the coach-road from Wellington to Wanganui and Taranaki, the traveller rises on to a range of hills from whence he looks down on to the eastern coast, and the river, and the island of Kapiti. The view here is very fine, and at the same time very interesting to those who concern themselves closely in the history of New Zealand and her troubles;—for here it was that the great chief Rauparaha lived, and near to this spot, at Porirua, he was taken prisoner, not in warfare, but by stratagem. I cannot stop to tell the story of Rauparaha, with all its incidents, nor should I interest general readers were I to do so ;--but he was a representative man, perhaps more so than any other chieftain,-in the early days of our New Zealand troubles. It was he who instigated the resistance which led to the Wairau massacre on the southern side of Cook's Strait, though the massacre itself was consummated by his companion in arms, Rangihaeta. After this he went across to the Northern Island, and lived either in the Island of Kapiti, or opposite to it, at Otaki, on the main- land. Then there arose a great question whether Raupa- raha should be taken and punished; but there was a doubt whether he were not justified in what he did by Maori laws, and he was pardoned,-to the great indignation of many settlers. Then he was for a time our ally, in the war about the Hutt and Wanganui, in 1845 and 1846,-our ally, or pretended ally. He was a great man, and great in our councils, though still hated by the settlers,-till evidence came that he was in alliance also with the Maoris who were fighting us under Rauparaha's old friend, Rangihaeta; and then he was surrounded in his tent, near the Horokiwi valley, and taken prisoner. This was in July, 1846. He was kept ten months on board a man-of-war, and after that, was allowed to live in dignified but secure seclusion from the world till 1848, when at his own request he was per- mitted to go home to Otaki. There he died in November, 1849,-being then about eighty years of age. He had been a great cannibal, and had been a horrible scourge to the RAUPARAHA. 103 Maoris of the Middle Island, of whom he had devoured many. But he had a great reputation for wisdom, and managed, after all his troubles, both with Maoris and white men, to die in his bed at a fine old age. I had the pleasure of meeting his son at the Governor's table, and of playing battledore and shuttlecock with him in the Governor's hall. For this Rauparaha also is a great man among Maoris, and is very friendly with the white men. It is said of him,—the present man, that he has killed men, but never eaten them ;—of his father, the hero of my little tale, that he had killed and eaten men,—and he had no doubt eaten a great many; but of his grandfather, that he had killed men, and eaten them, and had then himself been killed and eaten, like a true old Maori warrior, as he was! At Horokiwi we dined and slept, and the Governor, whose guests we were, asked an old chieftain who was coming along the coast to dine with us. He was tattooed all over, up to his hair, and round almost to the nape of his neck, —and he wore a great chimney-pot hat about 15 inches high, as some men used to wear in London a quarter of a century ago. He was very careful with his hat, and ate his dinner solemnly, with excellent appetite. When asked his opinion about this and that other Maori chief, he shook his head in disgust. They were all bad men, and had had too much land awarded to them. He rode a wretched old horse, and said that he was going about for pleasure to spend a month among his friends. Of course it is known to all men that at present there are no imperial troops in New Zealand, and that it is not the intention of the British government to send troops there again. The subject is one on which many settlers in New Zealand still feel very keenly,-expressing, almost with indignation, their conviction that if England really cared about New Zealand, she would not leave the colony alto- gether unprotected,—would not at any rate begrudge a few companies of soldiers, the whole expense of which the colony would willingly pay. But then I found also another conviction to exist, which seemed to me to be hardly compatible with the one I have above stated. All the European successes in 104 NEW ZEALAND. the war,-say the colonists,—were achieved by colonial volunteers, and not by regular soldiers. The regulars were not fit for bush-fighting, and could not cope with the Maoris as men could do who had known them intimately. With- out meaning here to question the efficiency of the British army in New Zealand, I cannot but say that I agree with the latter opinion. I have no doubt at all but that the settlers themselves are strong enough and astute enough to keep down the Maoris,—and that their personal interest will be keen enough to induce them to do so. Two certainly adequate reasons have existed for the withdrawal of the British troops. I will first put forward that which probably operated most strongly in producing the decision of our ministers at home. When the Maori early wars began, New Zealand was governed from home, and all responsibility for her well-being attached to our Secretary of State. In 1852, between the little and the big war, a free constitution was given to the colony as to her European affairs, but all matters affecting the Maoris were still left in the hands of the imperial authorities. In that condition of circumstances we sent 10,000 soldiers to New Zealand, and paid for them about £12,000,000. During the war the Statesmen in the colony complained of this divided government, and demanded that the management of Maori affairs should be given to them also. In this I think that they were distinctly right, as the “imperium in imperio" was unmanageable and dangerous. But it should have followed as a consequence in the minds of those who made the demand, that British troops could not be left in New Zealand at the disposal of a colonial parliament no more responsible to our parliament than is the Congress of the United States. An amalgamation of imperial and colonial authority was attempted in reference to our troops during the war,-with consequences so unfortunate and so absurd, with so many little jealousies, so much bickering, and so small a result, that now,-when it is all over,—he who attempts to review the past can only feel that the less said about the thing the better. The only excuse for re- ferring to it is to be found in the necessity of showing that QUESTION AS TO BRITISH TROOPS. 105 Great Britain has not behaved with that harshness to the colony of which she has been accused by Colonial Ministers of State. The second reason is to be found in the fact that British troops were not needed for the purpose of suppressing the latter Maori rebels. It was asked that one regiment should remain merely as a moral support;-that they should not be asked to fight ;—that they should simply garrison towns and do that out-of-danger work in aid of the colonial soldiers, which in times of common peril has been often done by women in aid of their husbands and brothers! We were to lend a regiment of our men, with perhaps is. 6d. a day pay, to do this sort of work at the rear of colonial fight- ing soldiers, with 5s. a day pay each,—and to do it under the control of colonial ministers who had already declared very plainly that they regarded the British soldier in no very high repute! Let any one consider how the British soldiers would have borne their condition; and consider also what moral support men so placed would be able to give! As for that third-rate work on which they were to be employed, surely New Zealand could find a thousand colo- nists to do it without borrowing an English regiment. "" Mr. Fox, who was Prime Minister of New Zealand during my visit, in the dispatches and memoranda which as Colonial Minister he has caused to be sent to our Secretary of State, deals largely with threats when he is applying for the reten- tion of the regiment. The removal of the regiment will "precipitate a conflict," and "invite the rebels in arms to unite in devastation and massacre.' He speaks of the "fearful loss of life which the removal of the imperial force at this perilous juncture would probably entail." One of his colleagues, writing under his auspices, and demanding the continued services of the regiment, says that the colony "should be practically recognised as an integral part of that empire,”—meaning of course Great Britain," and not thrust out beyond its pale, as of infinitely less consideration than a British subject in foreign lands." Mr. Fox, again, himself accuses our ministers at home of "unpatriotic harsh- ness," and allows himself to say, in an official document, in 1 106 NEW ZEALAND. reference to one special minister, that "To satisfy the theories of Lord Granville as to responsibility, New Zealand must cease to be a part of the empire." Mr. Fox has not only been a War Minister in New Zealand, but he has also been the historian of the war,—and I must put Mr. Fox the historian into the witness-box to give evidence against Mr. Fox the minister. Mr. Fox the minister is never weary in asking for a regiment of British troops to be used in New Zealand, under the control of a New Zealand statesman,— and when the request is not granted, uses towards statesmen at home terms of reproach which are not common in official documents even from superiors to inferiors, and which be- tween equals are tantamount to the abandonment of the courtesies of life. But, as historian, Mr. Fox is never weary of telling us that all the successes of the war were achieved by colonial forces, and that the management of the imperial forces in New Zealand was so ridiculously bad as to make them comparatively useless. The reader, with Mr. Fox's history in his hands, is led to feel that New Zealand would hardly have had a war with the Maoris at all,—or, if So, would have got out of it very readily,—had there been no British troops, no 10,000 idlers, to trouble her. But when he has Mr. Fox's dispatches in his hands, he is taught that New Zealand can be saved by one British regiment, but that salvation without it is impossible. Up to the beginning of 1870, the Governor continually sent home remonstrances of this nature,—for the production of which he was not responsible, and which he could not repress. Read without the light of latter days, these docu- ments would be very dispiriting. They foretell triumph to the Maori rebellion, and massacre to the Europeans, should the last regiment go. Early in 1870, the last regiment re- turned home. In 1872, the Governor, with his suite, made a journey through the very centre of the North Island, going through districts which a short time before had been a part of the "King" country,-and in his official report of his trip, has declared that he was received everywhere with enthusiastic loyalty. We have not yet conquered the Maoris. We probably never shall conquer them. They will melt, QUESTION AS TO BRITISH TROOPS. 107 "O Governor, my word to you is to let King Matutaera alone." I think no one now pretends to say that a better state of things than that existing would have been produced, had the one regiment been left to garrison the towns and afford moral support. The Colonial Ministers of New Zealand in asking for a British regiment to be left in their hands, for them to do as they pleased, were asking for the top brick of the chimney. And they have cried very loudly because they did not get it. But then there always arises in these discussions the senti- mental view of the question,-"Why not let us have a few companies wearing the colours that are so dear to us, seeing that it is only for love that we ask them, and seeing also that we are ready to pay all the cost?" I could never get any colonist to agree with me that it was impossible for the colony to pay all the cost,-that the chief cost was the cost in men, and that England found a difficulty in getting soldiers enough for her absolute needs. It was quite in vain too that I pleaded that a bargain should be held as a bargain as well between friends, as between strangers or enemies ;- and that as New Zealand had at her own request been allowed to raise her own revenues, and spend them, and to govern herself, there should be no semblance left of dependence on English assistance. There is a pride in seeing an English redcoat, which even an Englishman must visit the colonies to understand. Indeed, the pride which is felt in all English institutions, and the pride in England herself, makes itself very much more conspicuous among our distant offshoots than it is at home. I have found it cropping up even in the States of America, in a manner that it hardly takes among ourselves. "We, too, are English by descent, and speak the language, and are governed by the laws, and are therefore as good as you are." It is this feeling which, with its various ramifications, repeats England all round the world; and it is one with which an Englishman cannot but be in love. I have always myself felt a soft regret when could not admit that there ought to be a company of English soldiers in a colonial town. In the meantime, they have taken the matter up in New 108 NEW ZEALAND. Zealand with substantial prowess, and have a body of armed constabulary,—who are in truth soldiers,-and whose head- quarters are at Wellington. In addition to this, there is an armed contingent of Maoris, and there are the volunteers. I am inclined to think, that in regard to force with which to protect herself against the Maoris, New Zealand is better situated than when she had 10,000 British troops to protect her. I have already spoken of the chief peculiarity of the con- stitution under which New Zealand is governed, the working of which was not fully commenced till the arrival in 1855 of Colonel, now Sir Thomas Gore Browne, as Governor. In 1846, an attempt had been made to divide New Zealand into two colonies, with a governor-in-chief and two lieutenant- governors. The colonies were to be re-christened New Munster and New Ulster, and two lieutenant-governors were actually appointed. There was to be a Legislative Council appointed by the Crown,—and a House of Representatives elected by the people. But it was enacted that no man could vote who could not read and write English! Then, too, came out that doctrine from the Colonial Office, opposed to the assumption of property in land not absolutely occu- pied by the reputed owners, which was considered to be opposed to the treaty of Waitangi. From the first it was seen that this constitution could not work, and no real attempt was made to work it. It was out of the question that the Maoris should be told,-as they had been told over and over again,—that in the eye of the law, under their first sovereign, Queen Victoria, they were the same as white men, and that nevertheless they should be governed by a parlia- ment with which they could have no concern unless they could read and write a language, of which none of them then had, and of which none of them still have, any know- ledge. No doubt those very men who were most keenly alive to the necessity of giving votes to the Maoris,—and Governof Grey among the number who remonstrated against the constitution on this ground, and was authorised on this ground to postpone its execution--all felt in their hearts that a parliament returned by Maoris would have unfitted. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COLONY. 109 the country altogether for European settlers. But they felt, also, that though the power of voting should be given to the Maoris, the Maoris would not use the privilege. In 1853, when the first elections really took place, and when another new constitution had come out, in which there was no clause as to reading and writing English, there was a very large majority of Maori population in the North Island which then returned twenty-three members to the House of Assembly, and a majority of white men only in the Middle Island which at that time was called upon to return but fourteen members. But the interference of the Maoris had no appreciable effect on the elections. It was, however, out of the question that they should be excluded from the fran- chise, after having been invested with the property in land, and having at the same time been made subject to English law. In 1852 the parliament of Great Britain passed the act which gave its present constitution to New Zealand. Of course it contains the old arrangements as to king, lords, and commons,—the Governor taking the place of the king, the Legislative Council of the Lords, and the House of Repre- sentatives of the House of Commons; and there soon followed, as a matter of course, an Executive Council, con- sisting of the responsible ministers of the day, and taking the place of our cabinet,-though this natural sequence was not effected without considerable commotion among the new and untried politicians of the colony. In addition to all this the colony was divided into provinces, and to each province was given its own Provincial Assembly elected by the people, its own Superintendent, also elected by the people, as are the governors of the separate States in America,—and its own political officers, who act as the Superintendent's cabinet. There can, I think, be no doubt that in all this there has been an attempt to graft the American form of State government on the monarchical forms of England. As regards the Upper House of the General Assembly the constitution is less democratic than that of Victoria or South Australia, in which colonies the members of the Legislative Council are elected by the people. In tio NEW ZEALAND. New Zealand they are appointed nominally by the Crown, in reality by the minister of the day,-as they are in New South Wales and Queensland. In other respects the consti- tution of New Zealand is more democratic than that of any other British colony, as it gives to each province the power of making certain of its own laws, of disposing of a large proportion of its own taxes, and of dealing with its own land, without reference to the General Assembly. The Governor has no doubt a veto on the laws passed in the Provincial Assemblies,-as he has on the general legislation. of the colony, but this is a defence against crude legislation which cannot be frequently used, and which when used is of course unpopular. By this system of sub-government in the provinces a class of men of a standing lower no doubt in social condition, and lower probably in education, than those who find their way into the General Assembly, are enabled to act as legislators. Political critics will approve or disap- prove of this according to their diverging political tendencies, -but there can, I think, be no doubt that the system has been devised with the intention of bringing the manipulation of political power closely into the hands of the people. There can be as little doubt that incompetent persons have been tempted to play at a little game of House of Commons at the public expense. It must be acknowledged on the other hand that in these Provincial Assemblies is found a certain safeguard against dangers which have been injuriously felt in the Australian colonies. Taking the instance of New South Wales, we can see that the settlers in remote parts of that vast dominion feel no confidence in the manner in which they and their lands are dealt with by a parliament assembled at Sydney. Lands sold at, we will say, Moreton Bay, were supposed to be sold to the advantage of the people living very far from Moreton Bay. Duties collected at Moreton Bay were supposed to be spent in the vicinity of the favoured capital. The Executive was composed of men living at Sydney. The great bulk of the legislature was composed of men living at any rate much nearer to the centre than to the extremities, and thus was created a justifiable suspicion that a Sydney SEPARATION. fil legislature was prejudicial to districts which were not only very remote from Sydney, but which had but very little communication with that city. Hence arose a cry for division, and Moreton Bay became a separate colony under the name of Queensland. But Queensland itself is very large, and now it is thought that the interests of the settlers on Yorke's Peninsula and north of Rockhampton are sacrificed to Brisbane and Ipswich. No doubt to a great extent it is So. Brisbane, Ipswich, and the southern districts of the colony, return the greater part of the House of Representa- tives, and the members of parliament will prefer the interests of places which return them to those of distant districts with which they have no concern. The same feeling prevails now with reference to the Riverina. The interests of the Riverinan district are naturally subordinated to those of the Illawarra, the Hunter, New England, Bathurst, Goulbourn, and Sydney itself, which being more thickly inhabited. altogether dominate the Riverina in the councils of New South Wales. But The question must of course be one of degree, and the proposal for increased legislature may easily be carried to an absurdity. At home we should not be disposed to grant a separate parliament to the Isle of Wight were she to con- sider herself injured by her connection with England at large. We are not even willing to grant a separate parlia- ment to Ireland, which says that she is so oppressed. with us at home the different elements have been more per- fectly welded into one whole than can as yet be the case in a colony, and from that it comes to pass that our leading statesmen are taken from the country at large, and not as a rule from one favoured part of the country. There is hardly a suspicion that London receives more than it gives because of the action of parliament, and such a suspicion. could hardly be well founded, as London has a thinner representation in parliament than any other part of the country. There are those who complain of this, not per- ceiving that what London loses in representation she gains by the presence of the entire parliament. But in the colonies there is no such balance of advantages,—and I 112 NEW ZEALAND. shall hardly be unjust to colonial statesmen generally in saying that the condition of the colonies does not yet admit of the production of men capable, from education, position, and habit, of regarding the country as one whole which, as a whole, is confided to their patriotism,—as is I believe the case with us. Time and wealth have with us produced a race of statesmen and a race of legislators, and the feeling with us is general that the interests of the country will be fairly dealt with, let the men who deal with them come whence they may. Now and again there may be a gradual shifting of representation;-but, as a rule, Devonshire is not suspicious of Yorkshire, nor Lancashire of the metro- politan counties. In the colonies it is certainly otherwise; and the provincial governments of New Zealand have a tendency not only to allay the suspicion, but to prevent the injustice which has occasionally produced it. I must con- fess that at first I was tempted to ridicule these provincial parliaments, but before I left New Zealand I was reconciled to their action. I found, however, in the colony generally, and, as I think, among the best men in the colony, a prevailing opinion antagonistic to the Provincial Councils, and from this I am led to imagine that they will gradually be deprived of their powers, and be ultimately abolished. They will by that time have perhaps done the work demanded of them. The first elections under the new constitution took place in 1853, and the provincial parliaments at once went to work. The General Assembly did not sit till 1854, when it was convened by Colonel Wynyard, who acted as governor for twenty months, between the first reign of Governor Grey and that of Governor Browne. The Legislative Council at first consisted of ten members. In 1857 it was increased to twenty, and it now consists of forty-five, a number which seems to be out of all proportion to the size of the colony. There is nothing in the Constitution to prevent the Gover- nor and the Minister of the day together from increasing the number as they may please,--as there is nothing to prevent the Queen and her Ministers from increasing the number of peers indefinitely in England. The number of REVENUES. 113 the representatives was at first thirty-seven and is at present seventy-eight, which seems to be large for a population hardly, if at all, exceeding 300,000,-the Maoris included. By the census of 1871 the European population was found to be 256,393,-whereas the Maoris are estimated to be under 40,000 in all the islands. I have found it difficult, in more than one of the colonies, to ascertain the exact condition of the public purse in reference to revenue, annual expenditure, and public debt; and though in New Zealand the greatest courtesy was shown in supplying me with everything that had been published on these subjects, I have not been able altogether to under- stand the figures thus supplied to me. I imagine that a special education is necessary for the easy comprehension of Treasury accounts. Additions and deductions have to be made to and from all the totals before the real fact sought for can be attained; and though, no doubt, the necessary information for such additions and deductions is given,-if the seeker after financial facts only knew as much as the compiler of the accounts,-it generally occurs to the poor tyro, when he begins to manipulate his figures, that he finds himself in the position of a man who should attempt to drive a locomotive without having learned the first prin- ciples of a steam-engine. I think, however, that I can collect without doubt from the pages before me that the total revenue for New Zealand for the year 1871, exclusive of money borrowed, was £1,342,116. The total expenditure for that year is given as £2,657,586; but from this has to be deducted, as far as I can understand, something like £250,000 for money repaid,—so that the expenditure for the year would exceed the actual revenue by about £1,100,000, in a community. consisting of less than 300,000 persons. I can state at any rate with certainty that the amount of the public debt up to June 30th, 1872, was £9,983,341 ;-in round numbers, ten million pounds. I doubt whether any community ever got together has shown the same energy in obtaining and spending money on public purposes. The circular published under the authority of the Colonial I ii4 NEW ZEALAND. Office for the year gives the following details as to the population, revenue, and expenditure of certain colonies; but in looking at these figures the reader should remember that the column in which the revenue is stated can hardly be taken as affording accurate information, as the sums named contain not only the year's actual revenue but the amounts borrowed during that year for the year's wants. The population and the sums expended may no doubt be taken as accurate ;— Population. Revenue. Expenditure. Canada. 4,283,000 £4,500,000 £4,574,000* Victoria 731,000 3,175,000 3,273,000 New South Wales 485,000 3,890,000 3,494,000 Jamaica 441,000 414,000 355,000 New Zealand. 283,000 1,864,000 3,890,000 This certainly gives to New Zealand a grand pre-eminence. With a population not quite a fifteenth that of Canada, she can spend an amount of public revenue less than that of Canada by not quite a ninth. While Canada spends little more than 1 a head, New Zealand spends more than £13 a head. But Canada with its partly French population may be thought to be a sleepy place. Victoria, however, is wide awake, and is supposed to know the value of stirring business. She spends about £4 10s. a head; and New South Wales, who flattered herself that she was certainly not deficient in spirit during that year, spent something over £7 a year. Poor Jamaica had not even £1 a head to spend, and lacked the spirit to spend all she had. There can be no doubt that if audacity, dash, and a true adherence to "go-a-head" principles will make a colony, New Zealand ought to flourish. There is perhaps no subject more open to argument on * In regard to Canada the amounts are stated in dollars, and for the sake of ready reckoning the dollar has been computed at 4s. NATIONAL DEBT. ری ii5 both sides than that of the expenditure of public money ;- no question on which a public orator would find it easier to declaim, first in one direction and then in the other, than the expediency of public economy and the expediency of public liberality. In private life it is the same. One man will tell you that you should never put out your arm so far as to lose the power of drawing it back, and that you should never owe more than you can pay,-while another will assure you that he who nothing dares will nothing have, and that no man can thrive as a merchant who trusts solely to ready money and ignores a system of credit. And then the same man will give you both the one lesson and the other almost in the same breath. It must, I think, be conceded in reference to new coun- tries, such as are our Australian colonies and New Zealand, that it would not only be impossible that they should develop their resources without borrowing money on the security of the wealth to be produced, but also that it would be unjust to the present generation to make the attempt, were it thought possible that success should be so achieved. In an old country, such as our own,—or at any rate in the old country, which is our own,-the government is not called upon to develop its resources. I will take railroads as an illustration of what I mean when I speak of the resources of a country. Railroads with us have been made by private companies, the members of which have con- sidered that they saw the means of turning their capital to good account in such enterprises. Whether they have been right or wrong in so considering, the capital and the spirit to spend it have been sufficient, and the railways have been made. But in the colonies such a state of things is out of the question. The capital does not exist, and the fact is patent to all men that the railroads when made would not pay a fair interest,—very often that they would pay no interest whatsoever,-on the money to be expended on their construction. It is equally patent that nothing tends so quickly to enrich a country and to enable a people to use the wealth which God has placed within their reach, as a ready conveyance for themselves and their goods. Wheat 116 NEW ZEALAND. is not grown because it cannot be conveyed to market. Copper and iron and coal are left unworked because they cannot be profitably conveyed away. Wool-growers dare hardly venture to distant pastures, awed by the same diffi- culty. The young colony therefore demands a railroad,- which the government only can make, and can do so only by the means which its parliament shall grant to it. Then arises the question whether the present or a future genera- tion shall pay for the railroad,—and it becomes at once apparent to the shallowest thinker that, even were it pos- sible to saddle the country with immediate taxation suffi- cient for the purpose, it would be most unjust to do so. Why should we, who are struggling here to-day, make a railroad for the benefit of those who are to come after us, and who in all human probability will be much better able than we are to bear the expense? This same argument applies to roads, harbours, bridges, public buildings, and all institutions as to which the public will possess the completed property. Therefore the money is borrowed, and the present generation feels that it bears its fair share of the burden by paying the interest as it accrues. The argument is good, and the practice will probably have the adherence of all sagacious statesmen, as long as the value of the property actually created by the expenditure does not sink below the amount of the debt incurred. As long as such a state of things is preserved, the colony or country cannot in truth be said to be in debt at all. Its assets are equal to its liabilities, and its annual revenue in such a condition will infallibly preserve it from any incon- venient pressure upon its means. The colony of Victoria now owes a debt of twelve millions, but very nearly the whole of this sum has been expended in railways, and the remainder on works of similar permanent value,—and Vic- toria is in truth not indebted. That unfortunately is not the case with New Zealand. Her wars with the Maoris, which have been declared by competent authority at home to have cost England twelve millions, have cost that colony nearly four millions and a half. And again, in considering the matter of borrowing money NATIONAL DEBT. 117 for public works it must be remembered that, unfortunately, inducements other than those of the direct public good may allure ministers to ask for loans, and may allure members of parliament to grant them. Or even if the motives of ministers and of members be as pure as Patriotism herself, there may be lacking the sagacity necessary for the profitable expenditure of public funds. Or, as is much more commonly the case, the motives, and the sagacity, also, may be mixed. A minister may assure himself that his sole object is his country's good, that he is spending himself night and day on her behalf, that he is remunerated, by a clerk's beggarly salary, for energies and intellect which would make a fortune for him if devoted to trade; and in this way he may be as sure of his own virtue as were Pitt and Peel. But not the less does he teach himself to think that the one thing most necessary for his country's welfare is his own continuance in office, and to effect that,-simply for his country's good, and to his own personal ruin,—he will make compromises with dishonesty, or perhaps rush into a policy of which the only value to his country will consist in the fact that it will obtain for himself a popularity among voters outside sufficient to keep him in office. When a minister achieves the power of handling millions. in the manufacture of railways, the temptation to waste hundreds of thousands is very heavy on him. Each por- tion of a colony, each district, or each province, wants its rail- way. A railway for you gentlemen down south!" says a northern member. Certainly, but on condition that we have one here, up north." To an eager politician, anxious to please his own constituency, it matters little that it be shown to him that there will be nothing for the northern railway to carry, while the other may be expected to do a fair business. Votes are counted, and the northern gentle- man has his way. Then, again, it comes to pass that a large part of the population in a new country finds so great a benefit from the immediate expenditure of the money,- labourers who get the government wages and of course vote, and tradesmen who cater for the labourers and of course vote, that the patriotic minister, anxious only for 118 NEW ZEALAND. his country's good, finds that the country will certainly be robbed of his services unless he maintain this popular con- dition of things. In such circumstances a minister is apt, I will not say to become unscrupulous,-but to allow a great latitude to his scruples. And then there is also the danger,-from which nations, as well as colonies, have suffered,—of there arising some Cagliostro in politics, some conjuror in statecraft, who shall be clever enough to talk steady men off their legs by fine phrases, and to dazzle the world around him by new inven- tions in the management of affairs. Such men can invest democratic measures with tendencies purely conservative, can run into debt upon theories of the strictest economy, and commingle patriotic principles with cosmopolitan prac tices in a manner very charming to weak minds. A states- man of this class is of necessity unscrupulous, and to a young community may be ruinous. It is his hope to leap to great success by untried experiments,-and being willing himself to run the risk of extermination if he fail, he does not hesitate to bind his country to his own chariot-wheels as he rushes into infinite space. Such a minister in a colony, should he get the power of the purse into his hands, will throw his millions about without any reference to the value of the property acquired. He will learn the charm of spending with profusion, and will almost teach himself to measure the prosperity of the community which is subject to him, by the amount which it owes. When I reached Wellington, a vote of want of confidence in the present ministry had just been brought before the House of Representatives by Mr. Stafford, so that I had the opportunity of hearing a debate in which the ministry. and their opponents were fighting for the possession of immediate political power. The same thing had occurred when I was at Sydney, and there the minister had been forced to resign,-after having obtained the Governor's sanction for the dissolution of the House, and having tried what a new parliament would do for him. I had again been present at a similar battle in Melbourne, in which the minister was defeated there also,-and had been driven to MR. VOGEL. 119 resign, after a terrible conflict, at the close of which the Governor refused to him the privilege of dissolving the House, for which he had pleaded. These facts doubtless affected the conditions of the combat in New Zealand. It was felt that the Governor would not dissolve the House, and that the ministers, if beaten, would not ask him to do so fearing the risk of a refusal. There was therefore no immediate means of effacing their defeat within their reach, should they be beaten by the vote then to be given; and the fight was therefore signally one of life and death. Both at Sydney and at Melbourne the ministry had been beaten by a very narrow majority, and the tendencies of men's minds were sufficiently well known to make it certain that the numbers would be very nearly equal at Wellington. When I reached the capital general opinion gave the ministers a majority of three or four. As days passed by this imagined superiority dwindled to a supposed tie. On the morning of the day on which the division was taken it was believed that there would be one against them. On that night they were beaten by a majority of two. Three adverse resolutions were proposed to the House, but, as is usual in such cases, they who attacked the minis- ters assailed their entire policy. It did not require a long sojourn in the colony to enable an observer to understand that distrust of Mr. Vogel was the feeling which first made the attack possible and then rendered it successful. Mr. Fox was Premier, but I think that I shall not be held by that gentleman to do injustice to his position as a minister, if I say that Mr. Vogel was regarded in the colony as the acting spirit of the cabinet. Mr. Fox held no portfolio, whereas Mr. Vogel was, as we say, Chancellor of the Exchequer, or Colonial Treasurer as he is called at the Antipodes. Now New Zealand had latterly been pre- eminently conspicuous for spending money, and con- spicuous also for the amount of money which she intended to spend. It had seemed to be Mr. Vogel's theory of government that blood should be infused into the veins of a young community, and energy given to the action of the heart, by an open-handed, and I may perhaps say, profuse 120 NEW ZEALAND. liberality. Railways were to be created throughout the colony. Railways in Auckland, railways in Wellington, railways as I have before said even in Marlborough, rail- ways from the southern point of the Middle Island through Otago and Canterbury, up to Nelson were to leave no district in the colony unsatisfied. And the natives were to be kept quiet by a good-humoured liberality, which would leave them nothing to gain by rebellion. That a colony should have life in it all New Zealanders were willing to allow, for they are an energetic people. And they were ready to admit that public credit is too grand a thing not to be used for raising this life,-for they are a sanguine people. Mr. Vogel's theory had had its charms for them, -as is proved with sufficient clearness by the money which he has borrowed. But that which at first was taken for dash and good courage, seemed to many after a while to become recklessness and fool-hardihood. Mr. Vogel was playing a great experiment,-at the expense of the community,—and the colony began to ask who was Mr. Vogel, that it should trust him. I am constrained to say, looking back at the figures on the previous page, that I think the colony trusted him too far. The old ministry was beaten, and a new ministry came in. But when I left New Zealand it was held to be doubtful whether the new ministry could stand, and since I have returned home Mr. Vogel has been restored to his seat on the Treasury Bench. A majority of two for pur- pose of defeat does not give assurance of a working majority,—and it was said at once that there were dissensions. As I have given my own opinion of Mr. Vogel as a minister, I am bound to say that many men in the colony believe in him,—that they think that a new prophet has arisen whose absence of timidity will enable him to manage politics as they have never been managed before, and who will create prosperity out of expenditure. Mr. Vogel is now again in a position to throw his money broadcast over the land, and it may be that he will continue to do so, while the credit of the colony lasts. I was often asked in New Zealand whether the line of PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES. 121 parliamentary debate in that colony did not contrast favour- ably with that which I had heard in the Australian parlia- ments. I am bound to say that at Wellington I heard no word to which any Speaker of a House could take excep- tion, and that this propriety of language was maintained while very hard things were being said by members, one of another. This is, I think, as it should be. The life neces- sary for political debate cannot be maintained without the saying of hard things; but the use of hard words makes debate at first unbearable, and after a time impracticable. But I thought that the method of talking practised in the New Zealand House of Representatives was open to censure on another head. I have never in any national debating assembly,—not even at Washington,—seen so constant a reference to papers on the part of those who were speaking as was made in this debate. It seemed as though barrows full of papers must have been brought in for the use of gentlemen on one side and on the other. From this arises the great evil of slowness. The gentleman on his legs in the House, when custom has made that position easy to him,-learns to take delight in delaying the House while he turns over one folio after another either of manuscript which has been arranged for him, or of printed matter which he has marked for reference. And then, to show how very much at home he is, while gentlemen are gaping around him, he will look out for new references, muttering perhaps a word or two while his face is among the leaves,—perhaps repeat- ing the last words of his last sentence, and absolutely revelling in the tyranny of his position. But while doing so, he is unconsciously losing the orator's power of per- suasion. I doubt whether Demosthenes often looked at his papers, or Cicero when he was speaking, or Pitt. Judg- ing from what I have seen from the strangers' gallery at home, I should say that a New Zealand minister had learned to carry to an absurdity a practice which is authorised, and no more than authorised, by the usage of our House of Commons. A Speaker, on observing such fault, can hardly call the offender to order,—but he might have the power of putting out the gas. 122 NEW ZEALAND. I cannot conclude my remarks about the Wellington Assembly and the debate which I heard there, without say- ing that the four Maori members discreetly split their votes, two supporting, and two voting against, the ministry. The province of Hawkes Bay I did not visit at all, or even look upon its coast. It was separated from Wellington in 1858, and now contains a population of 6,059 souls,- exclusive of natives, of which 2,179 belong to its capital, the town of Napier. The staple industry of the province is the growth of wool on artificial grasses. Hawkes Bay possesses nearly as many sheep as the whole of the re- mainder of the North Island put together, and considerably more than either Nelson or Marlborough, in the Middle Island;—but it produces little else. I am told that the province is prosperous. It has not been disturbed by war with the natives, as have Auckland, Wellington, and poor little Taranaki. Its land has belonged to a great tribe, the Ngatikahungunu, who have been friendly to the Europeans, -so that the grass farmers of Napier, Clive, and the Wairoa, have been able to carry on their operations in com- parative peace. It must be remembered by those to whom the pastoral concerns of New Zealand are a matter of interest, that the sheep-farming of the North Island is not at all like that of Australia. In Australia sheep are chiefly pastured on original grasses, at perhaps an average allowance of three acres to the sheep. In northern New Zealand they are pastured on artificial English grasses, at an average of perhaps five sheep to the acre. In the Middle Island of New Zealand the Australian system prevails, but even here the growth of English grasses is being adopted, to the greatly increased value of the land. Perhaps the most noticeable fact in reference to Hawkes Bay is the circum- stance that a rental of £12,500 a year is paid to the Maoris for pastoral lands used by the Europeans. CHAPTER IX. TARANAKI. By the constitution of 1852 New Zealand was divided into six provinces, of which New Plymouth was the smallest in area, in white population, and in the amount of land pur- chased from the natives by the Europeans; but in native population it ranked next to Auckland and Wellington, and among all the native tribes there were perhaps none so hostile to the settlers as those of Taranaki. In 1858 the province of New Plymouth assumed, by Act of the General Assembly, the old native name of Taranaki, keeping the English appellation for its capital. In 1853 the native population of the province was estimated at 3,000, and the Europeans were counted to be 1,985. In 1871 the Europeans had increased to 4,480, having something more than doubled themselves. In the province of Auckland they had increased sixfold; in that of Wellington, including Hawkes Bay,—a new province formed out of Wellington,- they had increased more than fourfold; in that of Nelson, -including Marlborough, formed out of it,-nearly sixfold; in that of Canterbury,—including the county of Westland, formed out of it,-nearly sixteenfold; and in that of Otago twentyfold. In the meantime the Maori population has certainly decreased in every province except that of Taranaki, in which, owing to the shifting of the tribes in consequence of the wars, it has not improbably increased. As by far the greater portion of the province is not at present accessible to Europeans, as we have no settlements in those districts, occupy no land, and as, in fact, the 124 NEW ZEALAND. Queen's law does not run there, no information can be ob- tained with any precision as to the number of natives there located. The figures above given are sufficient to show that of all parts of New Zealand, this has been the least progressive, and that in the improbable event of a further Maori war, property here would be more precarious than elsewhere. I was informed at New Plymouth,-during the few hours that I stayed there, that the settlers are presumed to own about 150,000 acres, claiming to have bought that amount from the natives; that of this about 80,000 were in the possession of persons preparing to occupy them,—that is, ready to go on their property when things should be suffi- ciently settled to enable them to do so,-but that no more than 22,000 acres were actually at present in permanent use. I found that in 1870 no acre of country land,—as distinct from urban and suburban land,—was bought by the settlers in Taranaki, though in that year such land in all the other provinces was either bought, or given to immigrants, or made over to military settlers. Wool-growing is the trade of the Middle Island rather than of the Northern ; but from every other province in both the islands rent is received by the government for pastures. But no such rent is received by the government from Taranaki. And yet when the New Zealand Land Company planted a young community of settlers here in 1841, New Plymouth was called the garden of New Zealand. The land is said to be good, but light. Hitherto the people have not grown wheat enough for their own consumption. The little town is beautifully situated under Mount Egmont, which is 10,000 feet high,—with a lovely summit of snow, sharp almost as a church steeple. The land around Mount Egmont is grandly timbered, and said to be of high quality; but, at thirty miles distant from the town, it is held by the natives, and is inaccessible. And then there is no harbour at New Ply- mouth,—a want which must itself go far to mar the prosperity of the settlement. All along this coast the sand is composed chiefly of iron, or, as the people there say, of steel;-so that when you TARANAKI. 125 handle it, though it be as soft as sand, it is almost as heavy as iron. I was told that from some of it 70 per cent. of pure metal has been extracted. Works have been esta- blished at New Plymouth for utilising the iron, and making steel,—but have never as yet prospered, from the want of a proper flux for the metal. I heard the matter discussed there, at Auckland, and elsewhere, and the opinion seemed general that ultimately these sands would become the source of great wealth. They are found along the east shore of the North Island as far as Manukau harbour, in the province of Auckland. The sensation of weight when the soft stuff is gathered in the hand is very remarkable. Of the way in which the Maori troubles originated in Taranaki, of the original difficulties as to the purchase of land from the natives, and of the manner in which those troubles were perpetuated by the war, I have spoken in a former chapter. The miracle is that the settlement should have survived after the perils to which, in its isolated posi- tion, it was subjected,—and that the inhabitants did not flee from it as they did from Kororeka, when Heke for the third time cut down the flagstaff. But they did not flee, but are still there, expecting golden days and future pros- perity. "I do not quite see," said I, to one of the leaders among the citizens, who was kindly showing me the place, "how ordinary trade can hold its head up in a place so small and so remote." "It does," said he, "and we never have any bankrupts." I could not continue my ill-nature by remarking that there can be no bankruptcy without credit. But there is the province, with its own little House of Commons, with its own Superintendent, and its own three members in the General Assembly at Wellington; and if it lives, as it surely now will live,-till the Maoris havė melted, it will have scope for its energies, and land on which to grow its own corn. CHAPTER X. AUCKLAND. AUCKLAND still considers herself to be, and certainly has been, the leading province of New Zealand. In the old days, before the colony had been divided into provinces,― before the colony was a colony,-the northern portion of the Northern Island was the only part of New Zealand with which Europeans were acquainted. It was here that the Pakeha Maoris settled themselves and dwelt with the natives. It was here that Governor Hobson fixed the seat of the government. It was here,-up at Kororeka, in the Bay of Islands,—that Heke cut down the flagstaff. It was here that Bishop Selwyn was settled when there was only one bishop in New Zealand, and it was here that all the governors have lived, and here the general parliament was held, till the seat of government was moved to Wellington in 1864. The province of Otago is now the most populous of the provinces, and its capital, Dunedin, the most populous of New Zealand cities. And as Otago is also the most southern province, and is therefore far removed from Auck- land; and as Canterbury, also in the south, has grown in power and population, there came to be the same feeling in regard to Auckland that existed in Canada respecting Quebec,—and therefore the capital was removed to the central, but comparatively small town of Wellington. Because of its age, and old history, and early dealings with the Maoris, I regard Auckland as being the representa- tive city of New Zealand,—as Melbourne is of Victoria, or Sydney of New South Wales. Dunedin, which hardly knows ALLEGED SUPERIORITY OF NEW ZEALAND. 124 the appearance of a Maori as well as does London where the interesting stranger has been seen at Exeter Hall, has no title to be so considered. Dunedin is a Scotch town, and Christchurch an English town, here planted,—and Wellington is a chosen site for a parliament; but Auckland is redolent of New Zealand. Her streets are still traversed by Maoris and half-castes, and the Pakeha Maori still wanders into town from his distant settlement in quest of tea, sugar, and brandy. And the councils by which New Zealand has been governed as a colony in the perilous days which she has passed, were all held at Auckland. It was here that over and over again peace with the natives has been decided upon as the policy of the day, till peace was no longer possible and the colony drifted into war. Though both parties desired peace,—and such I believe was the desire of each party,- peace was impossible because they did not desire it on the same basis. Peace, certainly, but of course we must hold our own;" said the white man. The Maori said iden- tically the same thing, but the possession claimed as "our own" was one and the same, namely, the right to decide questions of property, each according to his own laws. It may be imagined that at Auckland there is a feeling that Dunedin and Christchurch are interlopers, as New Zealand towns. The Maori war has been the great feature of the colony of New Zealand, and Otago and Canterbury have had no more to do with the war than Buckingham and Berkshire. Therefore Auckland still considers itself to be the capital of the colony,—and it has much reason in its claim. It may be well to notice here the fact that as Auckland considers herself to be the cream of New Zealand, so does New Zealand consider herself to be the cream of the British empire. The pretension is made in, I think, every British colony that I have visited. I remember that it was insisted upon with absolute confidence in Barbadoes; that no Deme- raran doubted it in British Guiana; that it was hinted at in Jamaica with as much energy as was left for any opinion in that unhappy island; and that in Bermuda a confidence in 128 NEW ZEALAND, "" potatoes, onions, and oleanders had produced the same effect. In Canada the conviction is so rife that a visitor hardly cares to dispute it. In New South Wales it crops out even in those soft murmurings with which men there regret their mother country. In Queensland the assertion is always supported by a reference to the doubtful charms of her perhaps too luxurious climate. In Victoria the boast is made with true Yankee confidence in " our institutions.' Victoria declares herself to be different from England, and therefore better. But in New Zealand the assurance is alto- gether of a different nature. The New Zealander among John Bulls is the most John-Bullish. He admits the supre- macy of England to every place in the world, only he is more English than any Englishman at home. He tells you that he has the same climate,-only somewhat improved; that he grows the same produce, only with somewhat heavier crops; that he has the same beautiful scenery at his doors, -only somewhat grander in its nature and more diversified in its details; that he follows the same pursuits and after the same fashion,—but with less of misery, less of want, and a more general participation in the gifts which God has given to the country. He reminds you that at Otago, in the south, the mean temperature is the same as at London, whereas at Auckland, in the north, he has just that improve- ment necessary to furnish the most perfect climate in the world. The mean temperature of the coldest month at London is 37°, which is only five degrees above freezing, whereas at Auckland it is 51°, which enables growth to con- tinue throughout the whole year. Of the hottest month the mean temperature at Auckland is only 68°, which,-says the Aucklander,-neither hinders a European from working, nor debilitates his constitution. All good things have been given to this happy land, and when the Maori has melted, here will be the navel of the earth. I know nothing to allege against the assurance. It is a land very happy in its climate;—very happy in its promises. The poor Maori who is now the source of all Auckland poetry, must first melt; and then, if her coal-fields can be made productive,— for she has coal-fields,—and if the iron which is washed to AUCKLAND GOLD FIELDS 129 her shore among the sands of the sea, can be wrought into steel, I see no reason why Auckland should not rival Lon- don. I must specially observe one point as to which the New Zealand colonist imitates his brethren and ancestors at home,—and far surpasses his Australian rival. He is very fond of getting drunk. And I would also observe to the New Zealander generally, as I have done to other colo- nists, that if he would blow his trumpet somewhat less loudly, the music would gain in its effect upon the world at large. Gold-fields, in which I do not believe much as the source of permanent prosperity, Auckland has already. New Zea- land gold was first found in 1852 at Coromandel, in the pro- vince of Auckland, on the peninsula on the farther side of the Frith of Thames, about forty miles east of the town ;- but the diggings here did not prove productive. In the southern provinces gold "broke out," to use the diggers' phrase, in 1860; but in the Northern Island the business did not really commence till 1867, when gold was found on the Thames River. The city of Graham's Town, which is now the capital of the Auckland gold-fields, was founded in 1868. Up to the 31st December, 1871, counting from the first finding of the metal, gold to the value of £11,207,760 had been exported from the province of Otago; to the value of £6,343,835 from the county of Westland, which includes Hokatika; to the value of £4,458,340 from the province of Nelson;—and to the value only of £2,193,946 from the province of Auckland. But for the year ended 31st December, 1871, Otago exported only £619,760; Westland, £531,648; Nelson, £439,936; whereas Auck- land exported, as the produce of that year, £1,888,708. As I had seen many gold-fields in Australia, and gone down many mines,-to the great disturbance of my peace and happiness, and had generally come away with the impres- sion that I had learned but little by my personal inspection, I did not visit the Thames gold-fields. I am, however, able to say, from inquiry on the subject, that the miners as a body conduct themselves with that general courtesy of manners which I found to be universal among the Australian K 130 NEW ZEALAND. mining population. I own that I had thought before visit- ing the colonies that contact with gold made men rough. I am bound to say that, as regards the workers themselves, it seems to have the opposite effect. Kauri gum—an article of trade found, as far as I am aware, only in the province of Auckland, has been of material service to the colony. It is used in the glazing of calico, and as a cheap substitute for copal varnish in the preparation of furniture; and also,—if the assertion be not calumny, for the manufacture of amber mouthpieces. I chipped a morsel of kauri gum one day with my penknife in a merchant's store, and then chipped the mouthpiece of my tobacco pipe. The chipping seemed to be identical. I don't see why kauri gum should not make very good mouth- pieces for pipes; but, if so, the consumer ought to have the advantage. Kauri gum, at the wholesale price, is worth from 30s. to 40s. per cwt.; and as it is very light, a great many pipes could be made beautiful with a hundredweight of kauri gum. In 1870 the amount exported fetched £175,074; and in 1871, £167,958. The kauri gum exudes from the kauri tree, but is not got by any process of tapping, or by taking the gum from the tree while standing. The tree falls and dies, as trees do fall and die in the course of nature;-whole forests fall and die; and then when the timber has rotted away, when centuries probably have passed, the gum is found beneath the soil. Practice tells the kauri gum seekers where to search for the hidden spoil. Armed with a long spear the man prods the earth,-and from the touch he knows the gum when he strikes it. Hundreds of thousands of tons probably still lie buried beneath the soil;—but the time will come when the kauri gum will be at an end, for the forests are falling now, not by the slow and kind operation of nature, but beneath the rapid axes of the settlers. I was taken out from Auckland by a friend to see a kauri forest. Very shortly there will be none to be seen unless the searcher for it goes very far a-field. I was well repaid for my trouble, for I doubt whether I ever saw finer trees grouped together; and yet the foliage of them is neither KAURI FORESTS. 131 graceful nor luxuriant. It is scanty, and grows in tufts like little bushes. But the trunks of the trees, and the colour of the timber, and the form of the branches are magnificent. The chief peculiarity seems to be that the trunk appears not to lessen in size at all till it throws out its branches at twenty-five or perhaps thirty feet from the ground, and looks therefore like a huge forest column. We saw one, to which we were taken by a woodsman whom we found at his work, the diameter of which was nine feet, and of which we com- puted the height up to the first branches to be fifty feet. And the branches are almost more than large in proportion to the height, spreading out after the fashion of an oak,- only in greater proportions. These trees are fast disappearing. Our friend the wood- man told us that the one to which he took us,--and than which he assured us that we could find none larger in the forest,—was soon to fall beneath his axe. When we met him he was triumphing over a huge monster that he had felled, and was splitting it up into shingles for roofing houses. The wood as it comes to pieces is yellow and resinous with gum, and on that account, so he told us,-was super- excellent for shingles. The trees are never cut down for their gum, which seems to be useless till time has given it a certain consistency. Very soon there will not be a kauri tree left to cut down in the neighbourhood of Auckland. Many of us still remember the kind of halo which surrounded Bishop Selwyn when he first came out to New Zealand. People thought more about hirn and his mission than they ever thought of any colonial bishop,-till their thoughts, from quite other causes, were given to Bishop Colenso. This arose partly from his reputation, partly from his being much loved by many good men, partly, no doubt, from the fact that his episcopate was an experiment among a more than usually savage race of savages,-who also, as savages, were more than usually powerful and intelligent. Bishops who went to Calcutta and Sydney were sent out simply to guide the churches of England established for the use of exiles from our own shores. They certainly did not go out as missionaries. The proselytism of Hindoos and Maho- 132 NEW ZEALAND. medans has ever been looked upon with disfavour at home, -and the Australian savage has generally been regarded as beyond the reach of the Christian teacher. There have been exceptions in both cases, but I think that I have, in the general, stated the truth. But the Bishop of New Zealand went out, not only to guide the Church of England on behalf of colonists, but also to Christianize the Maori. There can be no question of the zeal, the intellect, and the sagacity with which he did his work. As to the colonists, there can be as little question as to his success. I doubt whether there be any part of the British dominions in which the Church of England numbers, proportionally, a greater part of the population than in New Zealand. Taking the whole island, she claimed, in February, 1871, 102,389 out of 256,393,—or more than two-fifths of the whole. In the province of Auckland,-which on the bishop's arrival was the scene of his first labours,—she claims 28,210, out of 62,335,—thus coming very near to the same proportion. The members of the Presbyterian and of the Roman Catholic Churches, which are the next most nume- rous, do not together amount to the numbers of the Church of England, either in the colony at large, or in Auckland in particular. I am not saying that these people became members of the Church of England through the exertions of Bishop Selwyn,-but I think that their numbers show that the Church of which he was the first guide and pastor was well shepherded. But perhaps his work, as missionary to the natives, was nearer to his heart even than that of ruling the Church of his countrymen. No question is more fiercely debated in New Zealand than that of the success of these endeavours. That there was great apparent success, achieved by great labour, and with results of a certain class very widely visible, is certain. It is impossible to arrive at correct numbers with regard to the Maoris, but, undoubtedly, a very large proportion of them became professing Christians. They learned to read, and read the Bible more than any other book. They attended churches, and sung hymns,- and took delight in calling themselves Christians. While I MISSIONARY LABOURS. 133 was in the province, a Maori of the name of Wiramu, fifty years old, was ordained a clergyman of the Church of Eng- land. But I fear that these efforts, though they have been unceasing, have in truth but availed little in bringing the very pith of Christianity home to the minds of these people. They have many virtues. They are too proud for petty dishonesty; they are good-natured, and have a manly respect for themselves and for others; they are, in the main, truthful and brave; and their hospitality is proverbial. But these were their virtues of old,-before we came to them; and many who know them will say that these virtues are fading under their assumed Christianity. The virtue of so living, or of striving so to live, that a man's life shall be beneficial to others, and not a curse,—which I regard as the very essence of Christianity,—they have not learned. And that which they did learn very quickly, the forms of the Church, Bible history and Bible stories, the singing of psalms, and especially the ceremonial observance of the Sabbath, is departing from them. Prolonged contact with Europeans has dimmed in their eyes the lustre of European observances, and there is no longer any pride in being a Christian because the Pakehas are Christian. Familiarity has bred contempt. Very many have professedly dropped their Christianity, and, assuming a new form of worship, call themselves Hau-Haus. Among the Kingites, I am told that there remain vestiges of Christian teaching, but joined to forms of worship quite opposed to the lessons they had received from Christian pastors. Even among the friendly tribes the zeal for the thing has died out, and with most of them I think but little remains but a not uncomfortable understanding that Sunday should be more thoroughly devoted to idleness than other days. I was surprised to find that in New Zealand generally education progresses less favourably than in the Australian colonies. New South Wales, with a population in round numbers of half a million, has 74,503 boys and girls at school, of whom 59,814 are at the common or public schools, and 14,689 at private schools. This gives something over one in seven for the whole population, New Zealand, with 134 NEW ZEALAND. a quarter of a million inhabitants, has 18,180 scholars at the common or public schools. I have not the means of getting at the number educated at private schools, but, pre- suming the proportion to be the same as in New South Wales, the number would be about 4,000. This would give a total of 22,180 at all schools,—or something less than one in eleven. In the North Island the average at the public schools alone is not much above one in twenty,—that in the Middle Island about one in nine. It is fair, however, to observe with reference to New Zealand generally, that I got no information as to the public schools later than that for 1870. None later had been published. For the province of Otago the numbers had risen from 6,227 scholars in 1870 to 8,662 in 1871,—or by more than one-third. If the two statements be correct,— and I have no reason to doubt either,—the progress shows that the province will very soon be open to no reproach on this head. I fear, however, that no such progress as this has been made in the Northern Island. In Auckland I found that the province made no public provision whatever for the education of its children. A supreme court, with one judge, is held in each of the provinces, and a court of appeal, at which the judges sit together, is held at Wellington. The chief justice of the colony, Sir George Arny, is, at any rate at present, attached to the province of Auckland. This apparent anomaly has arisen from the removal of the seat of government from Auckland to Wellington. Auckland is becoming an agricultural province. In another chapter I shall speak of what has been done in the Valley of the Waikato. 2,702,582 acres of land are now held within it by Europeans, with titles confirmed by government; but, nevertheless, it is not a corn-growing country. Meat and wool are its staples. While it contains 181,521 acres under artificial grasses, it had in 1872 but 2,455 acres under wheat. In the year, up to the 30th June, 1872, it imported bread-stuff to the value of £59,392. It may, therefore, be accepted as certain that hitherto the farmers of the Northern Island have not found the growth SIR GEORGE GREY. 135 of wheat a profitable employment, and that meat and wool are the produce of the land from which the best return can be had. I may add here, that in the province of Auckland the Maoris still own 11,275,036 acres, of which they hold 2,587,350 acres with a title that has been fixed by passing through the courts, and which is recognised by the Crown as enabling the owners to sell the land;-and that they hold 8,687,686 without any such authorised record, which land, therefore, they cannot sell so as to give a recognised title to the purchaser. But in regard to all the land com- prised under the latter head, no difficulty would be made by the land court in conferring the title, if the tribes who hold it would consent among themselves to have the property individualised. The ownership by the Maoris is not contested by the European government. At the close of the war, 3,006,905 acres in the province were confiscated from the natives in retaliation for the injury done by the Maori rebels. A small portion of this has been sold. A portion was restored to the natives. The greater portion of it remains in the hands of the government. Much of it is at present nearly worthless. When at Auckland I had the pleasure of meeting Sir George Grey, whose name has been so intimately connected with the fortunes of New Zealand, whether in peace or war. He is now residing at the island of Kawau, some miles from the harbour, and is there turning a wilderness into a garden. I have endeavoured in my remarks about the colonies to abstain from offering opinions as to the conduct of gover- nors who are still living. From many I have received kind hospitality, and I think that a writer for the public should not praise when he feels himself to be deterred by friend- ship from censure. But, as to Sir George Grey, I may fairly say, without expressing any opinion of my own as to his conduct as governor, that he certainly managed to endear himself in a wonderful way to a population with whom it was his duty to be constantly fighting. There can be no doubt of Sir George's popularity among the Maoris. The harbour of Auckland is very pretty,-though hardly so picturesque as those of Lyttelton or Wellington;-and it 136 NEW ZEALAND. is trustworthy for ships. The immediate harbour is land- locked by the island called Rangitoto, and the bay beyond, called Hauraki Gulf, is again guarded by two further islands, called the Great and Little Barrier. Its ports have been the making of Auckland, which stands on so narrow a neck of land, that it has another harbour, called the Manukau, within seven miles of the city on the western coast,—Auckland itself being on the eastern. This double seaboard has given the place a great advantage, as a portion of the intercolonial trade is made by the eastern route. Thence is made the quickest route to Wellington, Nelson, and Hokatiki,-and to Melbourne; and by this route the passengers from Otago and Christchurch generally reach the north. But the direct course from Auckland out to the world at large is by Ran- gitoto and the Barriers. Till within the last few years, the direct course from Great Britain to New Zealand was round the Cape of Good Hope, or by the Isthmus of Suez and the Australian colonies;-and the direct route home was by Cape Horn, or back by Suez; but now a line of American steamers has been established direct from San Francisco to Auckland which carries the mails under a contract with the New Zealand government, and which will be a popular route for passengers as soon as a certain prejudice is over- come which in British minds is apt to attach itself to American enterprises. CHAPTER XI. THE AUCKLAND LAKES AND HOT WELLS. THE Scenery of the Middle Island, though perhaps as fine as anything in Europe, is, I think, altogether unknown even by character, to English travellers. At any rate, I heard little or nothing of it till I was on my way to New Zealand, and was preparing myself by inquiry for the journey. But I had heard much of the geysers or hot springs of the pro- vince of Auckland, and was aware that I could see in the North Island jets of boiling water and of steam,—such as could be found elsewhere only in Iceland. One of my first anxieties was to be put in the way of making an excursion into the hot-water territory in such a fashion that I might see whatever was worth seeing,—and this, through the kind- ness of the Governor, I was enabled to accomplish. It must be understood that at present there is no road into this country, which lies south of the city of Auckland, or I may perhaps more accurately say south of the Bay of Plenty which forms a considerable bight in the very irregular north-western coast-line. There is at present no completed road, but roads to it are being made in three directions. There is the route north from Napier, the capital of Hawkes Bay, by which a coach runs, with a short intermediate space of ten miles, over which passengers were still carried on horseback in September, 1872,-as far as Lake Taupo, which is the centre of the island and the largest of the New Zealand lakes. But, though there are hot springs near Lake Taupo, and though the grandest jet of all, when it pleases to disport itself, is on Tongariro, a mountain to the south of 138 NEW ZEALAND. Taupo, the traveller will see but little of that which he desires to see at the big lake. Lakes Tarawera and Roto Mahana are in truth the spots of which he is in search, and they lie forty miles north of Lake Taupo. The second route is by the valley of the Waikato River, up which a coach runs from Auckland, as far as Cambridge, making the journey in two days. But Cambridge is ninety miles from Taupo, and about fifty from the district of the hot springs. The third route is by Tauranga, a seaport on the Bay of Plenty, which is reached by steamer from Auckland in about twenty hours. From Tauranga, the lakes I have named lie about forty or fifty miles. In either direction, either from Taupo, Cambridge, or Tauranga, the journey must be made on horseback,—or on foot. Such was the condition of the places at the period of my visit, but the road from Tau- ranga was being made through to Taupo, and when this is finished, the lakes and hot springs will be easily accessible. I went by steamer from Auckland to Tauranga, thence I rode through the lakes down to Taupo and back to Cam- bridge, and returned to Auckland on wheels, having taken a fortnight for the excursion, during seven days of which I was in the saddle. We rode something over thirty miles a day, carrying such baggage as we required on our horses before us, carrying also, during a portion of the journey, our provisions also. I was informed that any one desirous of seeing the lakes could hire horses and a competent guide at Tauranga. The trouble of doing this was taken off my hands, as I was accompanied by Captain Mair, of the Native Contingent, and by two orderlies, one a Maori and the other a European. There can, however, be but little doubt that in a year or two the trip will be made easy to all lovers of scenery, and that Roto Mahana and Tarawera will be reached from Auckland, if not so quickly, still as readily as Dartmoor or Windermere from London. At Tauranga, on the Bay of Plenty, I found myself close to the Gate pah, which was the scene of the massacre of European soldiers on April 29th, 1863, of which I have before spoken. That was the most fatal day throughout the unfortunate Maori war. The pah is now but the relic of a MAKETU. 139 ruined earthwork,-in viewing which one requires to be told that the sand-holes covered with briars were rifle-pits, and the stranger, ignorant of strategy as I am, fails to understand how the poor creatures within it could have lived under the storm of iron that was rained upon it. Three miles from the pah, on the very beach of the sea,—so close that a sea- wall has been necessary to prevent the inroad of the waves, —there are the graves of the sixty men, British soldiers, who fell on that unfortunate day. They lie in two lines, and the name of every man is given. But the visitor is chiefly struck by the number of officers who were killed. I counted, I think, the names of eleven on the tombs in the graveyard. From Tauranga we rode eighteen miles along the beach to Maketu, where I found myself in the midst of Maoris. These Maoris belong to the Arewa tribe, who were always friendly,—whereas, at Tauranga the natives were hostile. Consequently the land around Tauranga has been confis- cated, and divided among military settlers, whereas the Arewas still hold their ground,-not at all as far as one can see to the advantage of humanity at large. At Maketu I walked up among their settlements, and shook hands with men and women, and smiled at them, and was smiled upon. At the inn they came and sat alongside of me,—so near that the contiguity sometimes almost amounted to an embrace. The children were noisy, jovial, and familiar. As far as one could judge, they all seemed to be very happy. There was a European schoolmaster there, devoted to the Maori children,-who spoke to me much of their present and future condition. He had great faith in their secular learning, but had fears as to their religious condition. He was most anxious that I should see them in school before I departed on the next morning, and I promised that I would do so. Though I was much hurried, I could not refuse such a request to a man so urgent in so good a cause. But in the morning, when I was preparing to be as good as my word, I was told that the schoolmaster had got very drunk after I had gone to bed, had smashed the landlord's win- dows, and had been carried away to his house by two policemen, greatly, I hope, to the sorrow of those Maori 140 NEW ZEALAND. scholars. After this little affair, it was not thought expe- dient that I should trouble him at an early hour on the following morning. I cannot but remark here that I saw very much more of drunkenness in New Zealand than in the Australian colonies;--and I will remark also, for the benefit of those who may ever visit these lakes, that there is a very nice little inn at Maketu. On the following day we rode thirty-five miles, to Ohine- mutu, through a very barren but by no means unpicturesque country. The land rises and falls in rapid little hills, and is tossed about in a wonderful fashion; but there is no serious ascent or descent. The first lake seen is Roto Iti, at the end of which we had to swim our horses across a river, passing over it ourselves in a canoe, -as we had done also at Maketu. And here at the end of the lake, we found a very fine Maori house, or whare;-I believe the word is properly so spelt, but it consists of two syllables. And by the whare was a huge war-canoe, capable of carrying some sixty men at the paddles. These, as far as I could learn, were the property of the tribe, rather than of any individual. The whare was a long, low room, with high pitched roof, with an earthen floor, and ornamented with grotesque and indecent carvings. I may, however, as well say that I doubt whether I should have discovered the indecency had it not been pointed out to me. I don't think any one lived in the whare,—the chief of the tribe, as is usual, preferring his own little hut. No doubt had I wished to stay there, I might have slept on one of the mats with which a portion of the floor is covered. Roto Iti, as I saw it, was very pretty, but I did not stop to visit the farther end of it, where, as I was told, the chief beauty of it lay. It may be as well to state that Roto is the Maori word for lake. We went on to Ohinemutu, passing a place called Ngae, on the lake Roto Rua, whence, according to the Maori legend, a Maori damsel, hearing the flute of her lover in the island Mokoia, swam off to him. As the distance is hardly more than a mile, and as the Maoris are all swimmers, the feat did not seem to me to be very wonderful,-till I heard that the flute was OHINEMUTU. 141 made out of the tibia of a man's leg. At present there is a telegraph station at Ngae, and I found an unfortunate telegraphist living in solitude, inhabiting a small office on the lake side. Of course one took the opportunity of tele- graphing to all one's friends;-but as visitors to Roto Rua are as yet but very scarce, I can hardly think that the station can pay its expenses. On the farther side of Roto Iti I had seen great jets of steam at a distance. At Ohinemutu, on Roto Rua, I came to the first hot springs which I saw closely, and I must own that at first they were not especially pleasing. Before reaching the spot, we had to take our horses through the edge of the lake up to their bellies, at a place where the water was so impregnated with sulphur as to be almost unbearable on account of the stench. I had known the smell of sulphur before, but here it seemed as though the sulphur were putrid. Ohinemutu itself is a poor little Maori village, which seems to have collected itself round the hot springs, close on the borders of the lake, with a view to the boiling of potatoes without the trouble of collecting fuel. Here was a little inn,-or accommodation-house, as it is colonially called,-kept by a European with a half-caste wife, at which the traffic must be very small indeed. He appeared to be the only white inhabitant of the place, and I cannot say that I thought him happily placed in regard to his neighbours or neighbourhood. At Ohinemutu there is nothing pretty. The lake itself has no special loveliness to recommend it. But close upon its edge, there are numerous springs of boiling water,-so close that some of them com- municate with the lake, making the water warm for some distance from the shore. There were half-a-dozen pools within a couple of hundred yards of the inn, in which you could boil potatoes or bathe at your will, choosing the heat which you thought desirable. Close beside the gate was one pool which is always boiling. My companion told me that a Maori man had come to him at that spot, desiring to be enlisted in the Maori Contingent. He was bound to refuse the recruit as being too old,-whereupon the dis- appointed man threw himself into the pool and was boiled 142 NEW ZEALAND. to death. Along the path thence to the bathing-pool mostly frequented by the Maoris, there were various small jets here and there, some throwing up a little water, and others a little steam,-very suggestive of accidents in the dark. Such accidents are not at all uncommon, the thin crust of earth not unfrequently giving way and letting through the foot of an incautious wanderer into a small boiling cauldron below. Farther on there is a small square pool, round and in which Maoris are always clustering;-on which no Euro- pean would, I should imagine, ever desire to encroach, for the Maoris are many, and the waters are not much. Above and around this, flat stones have been fixed on the earth over steam-jets,—and here the Maoris squat and talk, and keep themselves warm. They seem to become so fond of the warmth as hardly to like to stir out of it. A little to the left, there is a small land-locked cove of the lake in which canoes were lying, and into which a hot spring finds its way, so that the water of the whole cove may perhaps average ninety degrees of heat. Here on the following morning I bathed, and found myself able to swim without. being boiled. But on the previous evening, about nine, when it was quite dark, I had bathed in another pool, behind the inn. Here I had gone in very light attire to make my first experience of these waters, my friend the Captain accompanying me, and here we had found three Maori damsels in the pool before us. But this was nothing, —nothing, at least, in the way of objection. The night was dark; and if they thoroughly understood the old French proverb which has become royally English, why should we be more obstinate or less intelligent? I crept down into the pool, and as I crouched beneath the water, they encouraged me by patting me on the back. The place was black, and shallow, but large enough for us all. I sat there very comfortably for half-an-hour while they conversed with the Captain, who was a Maori scholar. Then I plunged into a cold river which runs into the lake a few yards from the hot spring, and then returned to the hot water amidst the renewed welcomings of the Maori damsels. And so I passed my first evening among the geysers, very pleasantly. WAKAREWAREWA. 143 At Ohinemutu I saw nothing of uplifted columns of boiling water; nor throughout the district did I see any- thing of the kind at all equal to the descriptions which I had read and heard. Indeed, I came across nothing which I could call a column of water thrown up and dispersed in the air. At some spots there were sudden eruptions, which would rise with a splutter rather than a column, perhaps six or eight feet high,-throwing boiling spray around, and creating an infinite quantity of steam; but these were not continuous,-lasting perhaps for a minute, and remaining quiescent for four or five, during which the rumbling and boiling of the waters beneath would be heard. In other places, jets of steam would be thrown up to a considerable height,-probably over twenty feet. As to the jets of water, I was told that I was unfortunate, and that the geysers were very tranquil during my visit. I have, however, observed, all the world over, that the world's wonders, when I have reached them, have been less than ordinarily wonderful. But I had not yet come to Roto Mahana, and was there- fore not disappointed with Ohinemutu. Any deficiency in the geysers had been made up by the courtesy of the girls, —and it had been something to bathe in a lake, in water almost boiling me. On the next morning we rode up to a place called Wakarewarewa, about three miles from the lake, at which the sulphur, and the steam, and the noisy roaring boiling processes, were going on with great ferocity at various holes. Perhaps in some respects the thing is better realised as I saw it, than when columns of water are thrown up. I could stand and look down into the holes, and become thoroughly aware that a very slight spring, a step forward, would not only destroy me, but destroy me with terrible agony. All around me were small boiling pools,- for the most part delightfully blue,-each of which had its own boiling spring at the bottom. And among the pools were great holes in the rocks, crusted with sulphur, out of which the geysers ought to have been lifting their heads, but down which instead I could look, and see and hear the ferocious boiling waters. At Wakarewarewa there were no Maoris, and no inhabitants of any kind. 144 NEW ZEALAND. From thence we rode on past a beautiful little sheet of water called the Blue Lake to Kaiteriria, on another lake, -Roto Kakiki. Kaiteriria is the spot at which a certain number of the native contingent force,—the Maori soldiers in the pay of the government,-are kept, I cannot say in barracks, but in what I may perhaps call a Europeanised pah. The men live in huts of their own, but the huts are surrounded by a palisade, at the two gates of which Maori sentinels are stationed. The men are under the command of a European officer, who had two other Europeans with him in the depôt. There seemed to be no danger of any disturbance among the men. As long as they are paid, and fed well, and not overworked, these Arewa Maoris are too well alive to the advantages of their military service to risk them by mutiny or disobedience. The value attached to the service may be understood by the act of the man who boiled himself to death because he could not be admitted. The entrance to Roto Mahana is by a beautiful little stream, which empties that lake into Tarawera, and Tara- wera is about four miles from Kaiteriria. At the head of Tarawera, which, in point of scenery, is by far the finest. of all these lakes, as Roto Mahana is the most interesting,— much had been done to form a civilised settlement of Maoris. There was a church, a clergyman's house, a corn-mill, and a considerable extent of cleared land lying amid the beautifully broken ground. The church was empty, and deserted. The clergyman's house was falling into decay, and was occupied by a Maori woman and a Frenchman. The corn- mill was choked up and in ruins. On the land there was no sign of crop, or of preparation for crops. Peach-trees had been planted in abundance, and here and there patches were bright with the pink peach-blossom. English primroses were in full flower up at the parsonage. But everything was going back to the savageness of the wilder- ness. The attempt had been made, and had been made among a friendly tribe;—but it had failed, and the failure seemed to have been acknowledged. There were Maoris in plenty, a village full of Maoris. When I asked how TARAWERA. 145 they lived, I was told that they were Friendlies, and that therefore the government fed them. This Maori chief had a salary,—and that Maori chief. Then there were men on the roads who received wages, and the sugar-and-flour policy was prevailing. It may perhaps be better to feed them than to have to fight them. I do not at all intend to find fault with the policy at pre- sent pursued in regard to the Maoris,-neither with the existing policy nor with any previous policy. I know the great difficulty of the subject,-arising from our desire to do, after some fashion that shall be as little unjust as possible, a thing which according to our light seems to be radically unjust from the beginning. The attempt at justice has been so earnest that adverse criticism is stopped. And any one presuming to criticise should have had much more opportu- nity of mastering the subject than has come in my way. But I think that I could see that the race was not progressing towards civilisation, either with or without Christianity, as it was our thought that they would progress. The people are dying out, and thus, and thus only, will the Maori difficulty be solved. The deserted church and parsonage, with the Maori village, which no longer wanted a corn-mill because rations of flour and rations of biscuit were at their command, were most picturesquely placed among the hills from which we descended to Lake Tarawera. Here we found a canoe with three natives, our own party consisting of the Captain, two Europeans under his orders, and myself. The passage across the lake to the mouth of the little stream coming out of Roto Mahana, took us four hours. The shape of the lake is so fine, the mountains so well grouped, and the timber so good, that the spot will undoubtedly become famous with tourists on some future day. This would be so, even if there were no hot lake near, and no geysers to attract holiday wan- derers. Tarawera has this advantage among lakes,—that it is almost equally lovely on all sides. At the mouth of the river the Captain and I got out and walked to Roto Mahana, while the men worked the long canoe against the sharp stream, one or two of the natives getting into the L 146 NEW ZEALAND. water for the purpose. As we were leaving the larger lake the water had gradually become warm, and in the river which came out from Roto Mahana it was almost tepid. For the hot springs round Roto Mahana are sufficiently numerous to warm the whole lake, which is small and irregularly formed, being perhaps a mile long and half a mile broad. (6 Here we found an incredible number of ducks,—as to which I was told that the Maoris do not approve of their being shot. In fact they are tapu," or sacred by Maori law,—in order that they may be the better preserved for a great slaughtering and preserving process, which takes place once a year, in December. But the "tapu" in these days has become, even to Maoris themselves, a thing very much of pounds, shillings, and pence, or of other material condi- tions. The "tapu" was taken off the ducks for the Duke of Edinburgh, when he visited Roto Mahana,—and might, I think, be lifted for awhile to accommodate any one who would pay high enough for a day or two's shooting. It was nearly dark when we reached the lake,-there being just light enough for us to see the white terraces as we passed across the lowest part of them. We were to eat our supper and sleep in a whare, on the side of the lake, a little way from the terraces, in the midst of various steam- jets and water-jets. As I followed my leader through the bush I was cautioned not to step aside here, or to make a blunder there. In one place the Governor's aide-de-camp's dog had been boiled alive in a mud-jet, and in another a native girl had dropped a baby, and had herself plunged in after the poor infant,-hopelessly, tragically gone for ever amidst horrible torments. I heard more, however, of the Governor's aide-de-camp's dog than I did of the girl and the baby. These mud-jets, or solfataras, are to be seen throughout the whole district, and are very far from being lovely. By some infernal chemistry, probably not very low beneath the surface, earth and water are mixed and are sent up in a boiling condition. When the aperture is small the mud simply boils and bubbles. When the mouth is large it is thrown up, and lies around in a great bubbling ring of dirt, ROTO MAHANA. 147 soft and hot, and most damnable to any one who should place a foot upon it. Solfataras is a very pretty name, but the thing itself is very ugly both to the eye and to the imagina- tion. Our whare was close upon the lake-side, close also to various boiling springs. Here we cooked our bacon and potatoes, and then, when it was dark, crouched into a warm pool, and sat there and enjoyed ourselves. When the water became too warm I crept out into the lake, which was close at hand, with a barrier of stones dividing them, and which was warm also, though less warm than any of the pools. And then I got back again into the pool, conscious, in the dark, of the close vicinity of a naked Maori, who was supposed to see that I fell into no difficulties. But here the companions of the bath were of the less interesting sex, and I almost wished that they were away. The bathing was certainly good fun, but the night in the whare after- wards was less enjoyable. The ground was hard, the ad- jacent stream made the air hot and muggy,—and I had a feeling as of many insects. The glory of Roto Mahana is in the terraces. There are the white terraces on the side on which we had slept, and the pink terraces across the lake. I will endeavour in describing these to avoid any word that may seem to savour of science,-being altogether ignorant in such matters, and will endeavour simply to say what I saw and felt. These terraces are formed of a soft friable stone, which is deposited by the waters streaming down from the hot pools. above. The white terraces are in form the finer of the two. They are about three hundred feet in width, and rise nearly two hundred in height from the lake. As you ascend from the bottom you step along a raised fretwork of stone, as fine as chased silver. Among this the water is flowing, so that dry feet are out of the question, but the fretwork, if the feet be kept on it, assists the walker, as the water, though it runs over it, of course runs deeper through it. As you rise higher and higher, the water, which at the bottom is hardly more than tepid, becomes warmer and warmer. And then on one terrace after another there are large shell-like 148 NEW ZEALAND. alabaster baths, holding water from three to four feet deep, —of different temperatures as the bather may desire them. Of course the basins are not alabaster, but are made of the deposit of the waters, which is, I believe, silica; but they are as smooth as alabaster, only softer. And on the outside rims, where the water has run, dripping over, century after century, nature has carved for herself wonderful hanging ornaments and exquisite cornices, with that prolific hand which never stints itself in space because of expense, and devotes its endless labour to front and rear with equal per- sistency. On the top terrace is the boiling lake from whence the others are filled. We had swum in Roto Mahana early in the morning, and did not bathe at the white terraces, having been specially recommended to reserve ourselves for those on the other side. So we crossed the lake to the pink terraces. In form, as I have said before, the white terraces are the finer. They are larger, and higher, and the spaces between the pools are more exquisitely worked, and to my eye the colour was preferable. Both are in truth pink. Those which have the name of being so are brighter, and are salmon- coloured. They are formed after the same fashion, and the baths are constructed,- of course by nature,—in the same way. But those which we last visited were, I was told, more delicious to the bather. I can, indeed, imagine nothing more so. The bather undresses on a piece of dry rock a few yards distant, and is in his bath in half a minute without the chance of hurting his feet,—for it is one of the properties of the stone flooring which has here been formed that it does not hurt. In the bath, when you strike your chest against it, it is soft to the touch,-you press yourself against it and it is smooth,—you lie about upon it and, though it is firm, it gives to you. You plunge against the sides, driving the water over with your body, but you do not bruise yourself. You go from one bath to another, trying the warmth of each. The water trickles from the one above to the one below, coming from the vast boiling pool at the top, and the lower therefore are less hot than the higher. The baths are shell-like in shape,-like vast open shells, the walls of ROTO MAHANA. 149 which are concave and the lips ornamented in a thousand forms. Four or five may sport in one of them, each without feeling the presence of the other. I have never heard of other bathing like this in the world. And from the pink terraces, as you lie in the water, you look down upon the lake which is close beneath you, and over upon the green broken hills which come down upon the lake. The scene here, from the pink terraces, is by far the lovelier, though the white terraces themselves are grander in their forms. It is a spot for intense sensual enjoyment, and there comes perhaps some addition to the feeling from the roughness you have encountered in reaching it; a delight in dallying with it, from the roughness which you must encounter in leaving it. The time probably will soon come in which there will be a sprightly hotel at Roto Mahana, with a table d'hôte, and boats at so much an hour, and regular seasons for bathing. As I lay there, I framed the programme of such a hotel in my mind,—and I did so, fixing the appropriate spot as I squatted in the water, and calculating how much it would cost and what return it would give. I was somewhat troubled by the future bathing arrangements. To enclose the various basins would spoil them altogether to the eye. To dabble about in vestments arranged after some French fashion would spoil the bathing to the touch. And yet it must be open to men and women alike. The place lies so broad to the world's eye that I fear no arrangement as to hours, no morning for the gentlemen and evening for the ladies, would suffice. Alas, for the old Maori simplicity and perfect. reliance on the royal adage! The ladies, indeed, might have the pink, and the men the white terraces; but the in- tervening lake would discourage social intercourse,—and there would be interlopers and intruders who might break through the "tapu" of modern propriety. After bathing we went to the top, and walked round the hot spring from which the water descends. It has formed a lake about a quarter of a mile in circumference, the waters of which are constantly boiling, and are perfectly blue. In the centre it is said to be many feet deep. The colour is lovely, but in 150 NEW ZEALAND. order to see it we had to get behind the wind, so that the steam should not be blown into our faces. As we came down we found parts of the crusted floor perfectly yellow with pure sulphur, and parts of the fretted stone-work on the under curves of the rocks, where they were not exposed to the light, as perfectly green. Then there were huge masses brightly salmon-coloured, and here and there deli- cately-white fretwork, and the lips and sides of the baths. were tinted with that delicate pink hue which we are apt to connect with soft luxury. We returned across the small warm lake, and down the rapid river, which has some Maori name meaning the 'breaking of canoes," derived from the accidents occasioned by the rapid windings of the stream; and we were rowed again across the great lake Tarawera to the deserted chapel and the broken corn-mill, and thence we walked to Kaiteriria, where I slept amidst the Native Contingents. Having done this I had really seen the hot springs of the province of Auckland, and I would advise no traveller who is simply desirous of seeing them to go farther south. One cannot travel through any part of that wild country without seeing much that is worth seeing, and south of Roto Mahana or of Kaiteriria there are very many steam-jets and geysers. As I have said before, the greatest geyser of all, when it chooses to play, is on Tongariro, south of Lake Taupo. But jets of boiling water, and jets of steam, and jets of mud, though they are wonderful, are hardly in them- selves beautiful ;—and in the neighbourhoods of Õhinemutu and of Roto Mahana there are enough to gratify even an ardent curiosity. But I had made my plans to see Lake Taupo, and to return by the Valley of the Waikato, and this I did. From Kaiteriria to Taupo it was a long day's work, the distance of which we increased from forty-five to fifty miles by losing our way. On the route we passed a hot river in which we bathed,—a river which became hot at a certain point by the operation of a boiling spring, and then cooled itself by degrees,-so that the bather might wade into hotter or into cooler water as he might wish. Fifteen miles beyond this we crossed, for the first time, the LAKE TAUPO. 151 Waikato River, which in the lower part of its course had been the scene of so much fighting, and here we left the friendly Arewa tribe and got among the Wharetowa, who in the time of the war were our foes. When we crossed the river we found a village, and another close to the lake,- looking poor, miserable, and dirty. At ten o'clock at night we crossed back over the Waikato, and found ourselves at the town of Tapuaeharu, which consists of a large redoubt held by European armed constabulary, and of an inn. There were a few Maori whares round about, but they clus- tered chiefly on the side of the river we had just left. I crossed the lake, which is about twenty-five miles long and twenty-two broad, in a boat rowed by six constables, and put up for the night at the Maori village of Tokano at the other end. The country all around,-as it had been indeed since we left Maketu, with the exception of small patches at the head of Tarawera,—was not only uncultivated but apparently barren and poor by its nature. The ordi- nary growth is a low stunted fern, which sometimes gives place to tufts of thick yellow grass. I was told that sheep had been tried upon it in places, but that they had fallen off and had perished. The attempt had been a failure. At Tokano there was a large village, and here I found in the valley of the river some potato patches. The land was better than it had been beyond the lake: but I saw nothing that savoured either of prosperity or of civilisation. Old tattooed natives came and grinned at me. Young women, tattooed, as are all the women, on the under-lip, sat close to me and chattered to me; and young men kindly shook me by the hand. I encountered nothing but Maori friendship ;-but at the same time I encountered no Maori progress. had not time to go on to Tongariro I returned on the next day to the other end of the lake,—and during the following three days I rode to Cambridge, a new little town on the Lower Waikato. As I The distance is about ninety miles, and a more desolate country it would be hard to imagine. In the first eighty miles there is not a sign of cultivation. The land is fern- covered, and is very poor, and is not yet in the hands of 152 NEW ZEALAND. Europeans. During the whole distance we descended the course of the Waikato, though at some places we were miles away from it. Our first night we spent at another depôt of the native contingent force, in a collection of huts similar to that at Kaiteriria. Here again we bathed in a warm spring close to the river, and here again we crossed the Waikato in a canoe. Some of the scenery on this route was certainly very fine. We passed through one winding gorge, with the rocks high above our heads, which seemed to be the very spot for another Thermopylae. And at certain places the river had made for itself a grand course, rushing down rapids, and cutting a deep channel for itself between narrow banks. But the desolation of the country was its chief characteristic. There were no men or women, and nothing on which men and women could live. There were no animals,-hardly even a bird to be seen, till as we came near to European haunts, we occasionally put up one of the pheasants with which the Lower Waikato has been stocked. There is perhaps no country in the world more destitute of life than the wilder parts of the Northern Island of New Zealand. During one long day a wild cat was the only animal we saw after leaving the neighbourhood of the place from which we started. On that night we slept at a Maori pah, which we did not reach till dark,—and before reaching it we had to pass through a dense wood in darkness so thick that I could not see my hand. I mention the fact in order that I may express my wonder at the manner in which my friend the Captain made his way through it. That night I had a small Maori hut all to myself, one in which were deposited all the tokens of recent Maori habitation. There was a little door just big enough for ingress,-hardly big enough for egress, and a heap of fern-leaves, and a looking-glass, and a bottle which looked like perfumery,—and the feeling as of many insects. In the morning two old women cooked some potatoes for us, and I rode away, intending never to spend another night among the Maoris. They are certainly more highly gifted than other savage nations I have seen. They are as superior in intelligence GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE MAORIS. 153 and courage to the Australian Aboriginal as they are in outward appearance. They are more pliable and nearer akin in their manners to civilised mankind than are the American Indians. They are more manly, more courteous, and also more sagacious than the African negro. One can understand the hope and the ambition of the first great old missionaries who had dealings with them. But contact with Europeans does not improve them. At the touch of the higher race they are poisoned and melt away. There is scope for poetry in their past history. There There is room for philanthropy as to their present condition. But in regard to their future, there is hardly a place for hope. CHAPTER XII. THE WAIKATO. IN 1864, when the war in the Waikato was over, though no final victory had been won, and no peace proclaimed, we assumed the power of conquerors, and confiscated in the North Island the lands from which we had driven the fight- ing Maoris. In this way we took possession of nearly four million acres, and, as regards this territory, we have so far settled the land difficulty that we have held the ground ever since. More than half of these acres are in the province of Auckland, and nearly a million and a quarter lie in the Valley of the Waikato. Now the Waikato tribe were among our enemies. Most of them we have killed, and the rest have receded among a tribe who were still more bitterly inimical to us, the Ngatimaniapoto,-who are still enemies, though at present quiet enemies, who have the king among them, and live according to their own laws, and will not allow our telegraph posts to be put up,-and are altogether a great nuisance to the young colony. But the Waikato tribe, as a tribe, is exterminated. The acquisition of the Valley of the Waikato, which con- tains excellent land, was a great thing done. The natives, by the treaty of Waitangi, had been declared to be the owners of the land,—and the difficulty in buying land from them was great. There was trouble in getting it from them unfairly ;—more trouble in getting it fairly. But acquisition by war settled all this. A great portion of the acquired VALLEYS OF THE WAIKATO AND WAIPA. 155 land was divided out among military settlers, and the remainder kept for sale to selecters. The military settlers have not generally succeeded as farmers in New Zealand ;- but the general process has been successful. After a short period of occupation, the old soldiers were enabled to sell their lands, and have very generally done so. The purchasers have gone upon it with true colonising inten- tions, and now the upper part of the Lower Waikato and the Valley of the Waipa which runs into it, the districts round the new towns of Cambridge, Alexandra, Hamilton, and Newcastle, are smiling with English grasses. I was there in 1872; the first occupation of it by Europeans had been in 1865; and the wilderness had become a garden. I do not know that I have ever seen the effects of a quicker agricultural transformation. This has been effected on the land of natives who had been hostile and had fought with us, and who had therefore lost their possessions. Among the Arewas, "the Friendlies," I did not see one cultivated patch of ground. Coming down the Waikato during our last day's ride, the king's country had been on our left, just over the river. I had been told, and I believe truly, that a European might now travel through it safely if he wore no uniform or were not ostensibly armed. And among the Kingites, as they are now called, a certain amount of agriculture is carried on. They want potatoes and corn, and cannot get them by other means. The question now is whether they shall be allowed to die out on their own territory,—which is claimed by us as British territory, but in which the British law, or the law of the colony, does not run, in which we cannot put up a telegraph wire or make a road,—or whether we shall make good our claims to political dominion. In the mean- time the natives in these parts still hold the escaped criminal Te Kooti, in endeavouring to retake whom we have spent something like half a million of money, and they may on any day make a raid on our advanced settlers on the Waikato and Waipa. All politicians in New Zealand find consolation. at any rate in the reflection, that while the matter is being considered the Maoris are melting. The flour-and-sugar 156 NEW ZEALAND. * policy, joined with the melting policy, will probably carry the day to the end. A party of gentlemen from Auckland met me at Cam- bridge, which is as it were the frontier settlement of civilisa- tion in that direction. From thence we were driven by Mr. Quick, that gallant American coach proprietor and true descendant of the great Cobb, through Ohaupo to Alexandra, thence to Hamilton, Newcastle, Rangariri, fatally known to British arms during the war, and then on through Mercer and Drury back to Auckland. During the earlier part of this journey, and down to the junction of the Waipa and Waikato at Newcastle, we were for the most part among fields green with English grasses. The fern, which through- out the district had occupied the land, is first burned off, the land is then ploughed, and grass seeds are sown. Then in two years' time it will carry five, six, and on some ground seven sheep to the acre. I saw very little wheat farming, and was told here, as I was in all parts of the Northern Island,—that it did not pay to grow cereal crops. A man might produce what oats he could use,—and what wheat he wanted if he had a mill near him. But the high rate of wages,―averaging over 4s. a day,—and the cost of transit combined, make the farmers afraid of wheat. Though the land is excellent for the purpose, and the climate not unpro- pitious, I saw on the road flour, imported into Auckland, on its way up to these agricultural settlements. As in most of the Australian colonies, so in most of the New Zealand provinces, farmers, who no doubt know what they are about, are afraid of growing wheat. They cannot get in their seed and get their crops off without hired labour,—and for hired labour wheat at 5s. a bushel will not enable them to pay. The labourer with his 4s. a day will get more out of the crop than the farmer who employs him. Meat is at present the great produce of the Waikato valley,-for sheep and oxen will feed themselves if there be grass, and will then kindly carry themselves to the market. All English fruits grow there, and all vegetables. It is a country of great * The flour-and-sugar policy is the nickname given to the practice by which the Government bribes the tribes into submission. BACK TO AUCKLAND. 157 abundance,—and the day will even yet come when the valley will be yellow with corn. At Alexandra, which is the European outpost in the direction of the Ngatimaniapoto tribe and the Kingites,- and which is so near the "King" country that a moderate walk of three or four miles would place you in his Majesty's dominions,—we found a large fort or redoubt in the course of construction. It was being made, we were told, as a place of refuge for the inhabitants, should the king's people ever attempt to make a raid upon the town. "It would be the saving of the lives of all the women and children,” said one of my companions. I could not help thinking that I would not like to live in a place where such refuge might be necessary, and that it was a pity that it should still be necessary in any part of her Majesty's dominions. The inhabitants, however, seemed to fear nothing, and were of opinion that the Kingites would not come down upon them. I found the feeling to be general throughout the islands that if the property now left to the natives were respected,—not only in regard to those rights of property which belong to individual owners in all civilised lands, but also as to political rights,-if the Europeans should not insist on ex- tending their dominion, as they would do, for instance, if they were to continue their attempts to retake Te Kooti,— then there would be peace; but that the Kingites would surely fight, should we practically assume dominion over the small portion of the Northern Island still left to them. Some time since the Governor thought that it would be expedient that he should meet the king, on friendly terms. But the king thought otherwise,—“ What have I to do with the Governor, or the Governor with me?" So there was no meeting. Rangariri, where the fighting took place in 1863,-where the natives held two redoubts when General Cameron attacked them, and escaped from the one in the night, sur- rendering the other on the following morning, after a terrible slaughter inflicted on our men,- -is on the Waikato, below Newcastle. Here again I saw the crowded graves of British soldiers, and the wooden memorials, bearing the name of 158 NEW ZEALAND. each, already mouldering in the dust. The redoubts are now but heaps of earth, one of which is already hardly discernible by the remnants of the rifle-pits which remain. From this, down to Mercer, and nearly as far as Drury,— so called from my old friend and schoolfellow, Captain Drury, Lord Byron's godson, who surveyed the coasts in these parts, and selected the site of the capital,—the land is again poor. There is now a railway in course of construc- tion from Auckland up to Mercer, and from thence there is water-carriage by the two rivers to Cambridge and Alex- andra. That the colony can afford to make these railways, I will not take upon myself to say. The making of them is a part of that grand go-ahead policy of which Mr. Vogel is the eminent professor. That the Waikato district will be benefited by the railway when it is made there can be no doubt whatever. I returned to Auckland under Mr. Quick's able guidance, and then my wanderings in these colonies were over. Three days afterwards I shipped myself on board the famous American steamer "Nebraska," Captain Harding, and was carried safely by him as far as Honolulu, among the Sand- wich Islands, on my way home. APPENDIX. APPENDIX No. I., page 51. SIR GEORGE BOWEN'S ACCOUNT OF THE SOUTH- WESTERN SOUNDS OF NEW ZEALAND. WE left Wellington on the 4th of last February, but the "Clio" was much delayed at first by baffling winds, and afterwards by a strong contrary gale with a heavy sea. We reached Milford Sound on the 11th, and remained there, thoroughly examining that extraordinary inlet, until the 17th February. Admiral Richards has observed that the only harbours of shelter for large ships along the West Coast of the Middle Island of New Zealand—a distance of five hundred miles-are the thirteen sounds or inlets which penetrate its south-western shore between the parallels of 44 deg. and 46 deg. south latitude, including a space of little more than one hundred miles. They are, counting from the north, and according to the names given chiefly by the adventurous whalers, who alone have frequented these inhospitable regions, as follows:-1. Milford Sound; 2. Bligh Sound; 3. George Sound; 4. Caswell Sound; 5. Charles Sound; 6. Nancy Sound; 7. Thomson Sound; 8. Doubtful Inlet; 9. Daggs Sound; 10. Breaksea Sound; 11. Dusky Bay; 12. Chalky, or Dark Cloud Inlet; 13. Preservation Inlet. As I wrote to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, these arms of the Great Southern Ocean, cleaving their way through the massive sea wall of steep and rugged cliffs, reach far into the wild solitudes of the lofty mountains which form the cordillera, or "dividing range," of the Middle Island. These mountains attain their highest elevation further north, in Mount Cook, a snowy peak rising 13,200 feet above the sea level, and visible in clear weather at a distance of more than a hundred miles to the mariner approaching New Zealand; thus forming a noble monument of the illustrious navigator who first recommended the planting of an English settlement in this country. Though Milford Sound far sur- passes the others in stern magnificence of scenery, these inlets have many features in common. To quote Admiral Richards :-"A view of the surrounding country from the summit of one of the mountains 160 APPENDIX. bordering the coast, of from 4,000 to 5,000 feet in elevation, is perhaps one of the most grand and magnificent spectacles it is possible to imagine; and standing on such an elevation rising over the south side of Caswell's Sound, Cook's description of this region was forcibly called to mind. He says:-'A prospect more rude and craggy is rarely to be met with, for inland appeared nothing but the summits of moun- tains of a stupendous height, and consisting of rocks that are totally barren and naked, except where they are covered with snow.' We could only compare the scene around us as far as the eye could reach, north to Milford Haven, south to Dusky Bay, and eastward inland for a distance of sixty miles, to a vast sea of mountains of every possible variety of shape and ruggedness; the clouds and mist floated far beneath us, and the harbour appeared no more than an insignificant stream. The prospect was most bewildering; and even to a practised eye, the possibility of recognising any particular mountain, as a point of the survey from a future station, seemed almost hopeless.' The following extract from Dr. Hector's account of Milford Sound shows the probable mode of its formation :-"Three miles from the entrance of the sound it becomes contracted to the width of half a mile, and its sides rise perpendicularly from the water's edge, sometimes for 2,000 feet, and then slope at a high angle to the peaks that are covered with perpetual snow. The scenery is quite equal to the finest that can be enjoyed by the most difficult and toilsome journeys into the Alps of the interior; and the effect is greatly enhanced, as well as the access made more easy, by the incursion of the sea, as it were, into their alpine solitudes. The sea, in fact, now occupies a chasm that was in past ages ploughed by an immense glacier; and it is through the natural progress of events by which the mountain mass has been reduced in altitude that the ice stream has been replaced by the waters of the ocean. The evidence of this change may be seen at a glance. The lateral valleys join the main one at various elevations, but are all sharply cut off by the precipitous wall of the sound, the erosion of which was no doubt continued by a great central glacier long after the subordinate and tributary glaciers had ceased to exist. The precipices exhibit the marks of ice-action with great distinctness, and descend quite abruptly to a depth of 800 to 1,200 feet below the water level. Towards its head the sound becomes more expanded, and receives several large valleys that preserve the same character, but radiate in different directions into the highest ranges. At the time that these valleys were filled with glaciers, a great 'ice lake' must have existed in the upper and expanded portion of the sound, from which the only outlet would be through the chasm which forms its lower part." On account of the great depth of water in these inlets, and of the sudden storms of wind rushing down from the mountains above, vessels are generally obliged to moor to trees or pinnacles of rock, whenever they reach a cove in which an anchor can be dropped. Accordingly, while we were in Milford Sound the "Clio " lay at anchor in Harrison's Cove, only a few yards from the shore, and moored head and stern to huge trunks of trees. Immediately above rose Pembroke Peak to the APPENDIX. 161 height of nearly 7,000 feet, covered with perpetual snow, and with a glacier reaching down to within 2,000 feet of the sea. The lower slopes of the mountains around are covered with fine trees, and with the luxuriant and evergreen foliage of the tree-fern and the other beau- tiful undergrowth of the New Zealand forests. Two permanent water- falls, one 700 and the other 540 feet in height, add picturesque beauty to the gloomy and desolate grandeur of the upper part of Milford Sound. During a storm of wind and rain, mingled with snow and sleet, which, though it was the middle of summer, raged during three days of our stay, avalanches were often heard thundering down, with a roar as of distant artillery, from the snow-fields above; while a multi- tude of foaming cascades poured over the face of the lower precipices, hurling with them into the sea masses of rock and trunks of trees. On the other hand, nothing could exceed the charm of the few fine days which we enjoyed during our voyage. APPENDIX No. II., page 73. EXTRACTS FROM LETTER FROM MR. GODLEY TO MR. GLADSTONE. Plymouth, December 12, 1849. • On the eve of leaving England for one of our most distant colonies, I cannot resist the desire of saying a few words before I go, to the British public, on the subject of colonial politics, under the new aspect which they have lately assumed; a subject in which I have long been speculatively interested, and in which I am now about to acquire a deep and immediate personal concern. I have ventured, with your kind permission, to prefix your name to my observations. A year or two ago I thought, as perhaps you think now, that, though a system so absurd in theory, and so unsuccessful in practice, as that by which our colonies are ruled, must break down sooner or later, still it might last indefinitely; for ten years to come, perhaps for twenty; and that our efforts might safely be directed to a gradual amelioration of it. I am convinced now that I was wrong. The real danger is, not that the despotism of the Colonial Office will last ten or twenty years,—not that the colonists will be oppressed by it for an indefinite time to come,- but that it may last just long enough to break up the British Empire, a consummation which, at the present rate of progress, will not perhaps take a great deal more than ten or twenty months. I shall be very glad now to be as sure that the flag of my country will not be hauled down during my lifetime in any part of the Queen's dominions, as I am that the hours of "Mr.-Mother-Country's" reign are numbered. The point, therefore, which I am most anxious to urge upon you, as upon all colonial reformers, is, that whereas they have hitherto pleaded in M 162 APPENDIX. the interests, as they thought, of suffering colonies alone, they must now plead in the interests of British honour and British supremacy. Many causes have contributed to this change in the aspect of the question; but the chief of them are these-first, the increased strength of the colonies, or rather, perhaps, their increased consciousness of strength; and secondly, the growth in England of a political school holding the doctrine that the colonies ought to be abandoned. The best argument perhaps against separation is to be found in the strength and prevalence of a moral instinct which separatists do not recognise, and which they hardly understand, though they bear a strong testimony to its truth in the remarkable reluctance which they manifest to avow their doctrine. A true patriot personifies and idealises his country, and rejoices in her greatness, her glory, and her pre-eminence, as a loving son would exult in the triumphs of a parent. Doubtless such greatness and glory may be too dearly bought; but that is not the question. I say that, independently of reasoning, they are felt to possess a great and real although an immaterial value, and that they are the more keenly so felt in the most heroic periods of a nation's history, and by the best and noblest of its sons. Nay, I maintain, that the love of empire, properly understood,—that is, the instinct of self-development and expansion,-is an unfailing symptom of lusty and vigorous life in a people; and that, subject to the conditions of justice and humanity, it is not only legitimate, but most laudable. Certain I am, that the decline of such a feeling is always the result, not of matured wisdom or enlarged philanthropy, but of luxurious im- becility and selfish sloth. When the Roman eagles retreated across the Danube, not the loss of Dacia, but the satisfaction of the Roman people at the loss, was the omen of the empire's fall. Or, to take an illustration nearer at home, it is unquestionable that notwithstanding the disgraceful circumstances under which America was torn from the grasp of England, we suffered less in prestige and in strength by that obstinate and disastrous struggle, than if, like the soft Triumvir, we had "lost a world, and been content to lose it." Depend upon it, the in- stinct of national pride is sound and true; and it is no foolish vanity which makes Englishmen shrink from the idea of seeing their country diminished and humbled in the eyes of the world. • But the case of those who defend the preservation of our colonies, does not rest on any such instance alone; it rests also on perfectly tangible and material grounds. . . . By making "foreign countries of our colonies, we should cut off on the one hand the best part of the British nation from colonisation, and on the other we should abandon the plain duty of building up society in its best form, throughout those wide regions which are destined to be peopled by our descendants. We should deliberately provide for the construction of hostile democracies out of the worst materials which compose the British people. Again, the union of the provinces which make up the British empire, constitutes a positive element of material strength. It is perhaps true, that now the value of our colonies may be counterbalanced by their cost; but such has been the case only since the invention of the APPENDIX. 163 Colonial Office,—that is, since we have made colonies effeminate by our protection, and disaffected by our tyranny. • I am not going to write arguments in support of the municipal system as applied to colonial government, because, in fact, everything has been said that can be said on that side of the question, whilst, literally, nothing worth notice has been said on the other. Besides, we really have passed the argumentative stage in this part of the business. That the central system, whether right or wrong, will be speedily abolished, no man with a grain of political foresight can doubt. I repeat, that the only question which remains to be settled is, whether its abolition shall be the result of a dissolution of our colonial empire or not. • But it is necessary for me to state what I mean by local self-govern- ment; as the phrase, though hackneyed, has been much abused. I do not mean, then, mere powers of paving and lighting and road-making; nor the privilege of initiatory legislation; nor the liberty of making subordinate official appointments: I do not mean a regimen involving the reservation of civil lists, or the interposition of votes, or any other of those provisions in virtue of which ministers in Downing Street are in the habit of interfering with the internal concerns of colonies. I mean by local self-government, the right and power to do, within the limits of each colony respectively, without check, control, or intervention of any kind, everything that the Supreme Government of this country can do within the limits of the British Islands-with one exception. I allude to the prerogative of regulating relations with foreign powers. This one prerogative, the concentration of which is essential to imperial unity, the colonists themselves would gladly see reserved, in exchange for the privilege and the security of being identified with the empire; but more than this it is neither beneficial nor possible for us to retain. I need hardly say that my idea of self-government includes the power of making and altering local constitutions. We ought not, I am sure, to impose upon the colonists any form of govern- ment whatever, even to start with. When we shall have duly authorised them to act for themselves, our function, with regard to their internal affairs should end. Paper constitutions drawn up by amateurs without personal interest in the subject, never answer. All the best of the old colonial constitutions were framed by the colo- nists. · As a matter of course, colonies enjoying, as those of New England did, the perfect administration of their own affairs, ought not to cost the mother country a shilling for their government; and I am confident that, like Massachusetts and Pennsylvania of old, they would regard total pecuniary independence of the mother country as an important means of preserving their municipal privileges. INDEX. Adderley, Mr. Godley's Letter to, 75 Arewa Tribe, 34, 144 Auckland, Capital of the Colony, 15 Auckland Gold-fields, 129 Auckland Harbour, 135 Auckland, a Province, 126 Baring, Francis, 7 Bay of Islands, 21 Blenheim, Town, 93 Busby, Mr., 6 Cambridge, Town, 156 Cameron, General, 26 Cannibalism, 3 Canterbury, Land, Price of, 81 Canterbury, Parliament, 86 Canterbury Pilgrims, 79 Canterbury Plains, 80 Canterbury Provincial Council, 86 Canterbury Settlement, 67 Canterbury Wheat, 82 Captain Cook, 3, 4 Christchurch Cathedral, 76, 85 Christchurch Town, 84, 87 Church of England, 132 Colonial Expenditure, 114 Colonial National Debt, 116 Confiscation of Land, 135 Constitution first declared, 15 Constitution of New Zealand, 108-110 Debates in Parliament, 121 De Thierry, Baron, 6 Dunedin, Bishop of, 58 Dunedin, Capital of Otago, 55, 57 Durham, Lord, 6 Early History, I Earnshaw, Mount, 50 Education, 133 Ellice, Russell, 8 Fitzroy, Governor, 19, 22 Fox, Mr., his Actions as Premier, 105, 119 Fox, Mr., his History of the War, 12, 18 General Assembly, 112 Gladstone, Mr. Godley's Letter to, 73 Godley, John Robert, 66, 74 Grasses, English, 156 Grey, Sir George, Governor, 18, 22, 27 Guns and Gunpowder, 20 Haast, Dr., Curator of the Mu- seum, 88 Harper, Dr., Primate of New Zea- land, 76 Hau-Haus, 133 Hawaiki, whence the New Zea- landers came, I Hawkes Bay, a Province, 123 Hector, Dr., 51 Heke, Maori Chieftain, 21 Hobson, Captain, Lieutenant-Go- vernor, 9 Hokatika, 90 Hongi's Army, 3 INDEX. 165 Horokiwi Valley, 102 Hot Wells and Springs, 137 Hutt, Sir William, 8 Invercargill, Capital of Southland, 42 Jewish Colony, Suggestions of, 70 Kaiteriria, Barracks for Maori Soldiers, 144 Kauri Forest, 130 Kauri Gum, 130 Kawau, Escape of Maori Pri- soners, 29 King chosen in New Zealand, 14, 25 Kingstown, 48 Kororeka Flag-staff, 21 Land League, 13, 24 Land, Price of, 81 Language, same as that spoken in the Sandwich Islands, I Legislative Council, 112 Lyttelton, Lord, 66, 78 Lyttelton, Port, 89 Maid-Servants, 87 Maketu, 139 Manipori, Lake, 50 Maoris, 2, 16, 35 Maoris, Members of Parliament, 122 Maori Population, 38 Maori Superstition, 36 Marlborough Province, 94 Marsden, Mr., 6 Martin's Bay, 50 Matutaera, King Tawhiao, 35 Missionaries, 6, 32 Moas, Extinct Birds, 42 Mokoia Island, 140 Molesworth, Sir William, 8 Morality of the Women, 38 Mount Cook, 90 Nelson, Bishop of, 95 Nelson Province, 95 Nelson Town, 99 New Plymouth, Town, 13, 19, 33, 123 New Zealand Association, 7, 66 New Zealand, first claimed by English, 5 New Zealand Land Company, 8, 19 New Zealanders, Description of, 2 Ngatimaniapoto Tribe, 25, 157 Ngatihau Tribe, 33 Oamaru Town, 63 Ohinemutu Hot Baths, 141 Okaikau Pah, 22 Otago Province, 40 Otago Travelling, 46 Otago Settlement, 45 Pah, Description of, 23 Pai Marire Religion, 31 Pakeha Maoris, 17 Parliament, Creation of, 15 Petre, Lord, 8 Picton Town, 92 Provincial Assembly, 110 Provincial Government, 56 Provincial Legislators, Payment made to them, 60 Queenstown Gold-fields, 48 Queenstown, Travelling from, to Dunedin, 51 7 Railways, 62, 83, 93, 101, 120 Rakaia River, 79 Rangariri Pah, 28, 157 Rangitata River, 79 Rauparaha, Maori Chieftain, 94, 102 Representation, System of, III Representative Government, 72 Revenue, 114 Roto Iti Lake, 140 Roto Kakiki Lake, 144 Roto Mahana Hot Lake, 145 Roto Rua Lake, 140 Ruapekapeka Pah, 22 Selwyn, First Bishop, II, 13! Selwyn Town, 84 Simeon, Sir John, 66 Smith, John Abel, 8, 66 Soldiers, Withdrawal of, 103 Southland formerly a Province, 40 Stafford, Mr., 118 Stewart Island, 40 Supreme Court, 134 Taranaki Province, 13, 19, 25, 32, 123 Tarawera, Lake, 144 166 INDEX. Tasman, Van, First Discovery of New Zealand, 4 Taupo, Lake, 150 Tauranga Gate Pah, 29 Tauranga, Starting Point for the Hot Springs, 138 Teanau, Lake, 50 Te Kooti, Rebel Maori, 34 Terraces under the Hot Lakes, 147 Te Whero Whero, King Potatau, 20 Thompson, Dr., his History, 18,94 Tuapika Town, 53 Volkner, Mr., murdered, 34 Vogel, Mr., 84, 119 Waikato River, 28, 151 Waikato Tribe, 24 Waikato Valley, 154 Waikouaite, Coach Breakfast, 63 Wairau Massacre, 18, 94 Waitangi, Treaty of, 10 Waitangi River, 64, 79 Waitara Lands, 27 Wakarewarewa Geysers, 143 Wakatip Lake, 44, 47 Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, 8, 66, 75 War of 1863, 28 War, Beginning of, 19 Wellington, Capital of the Colony, II, 100 Woolner, his statue of Godley, 77 Wellington Province, 23 Wiramu, Maori ordained Clergy. man, 133 17-3-75. THE END. W. H. Smith & Son, Printers, London, W.G. WORKS BY THE AUTHOR OF JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN," Price 3s. per Vol. in Cloth binding, or 2s. in Picture Boards, TWO MARRIAGES. Fifth Edition. "In these days of sensation novels it is refreshing to take up a work of fiction, which, instead of resting its claims to attention on the number and magnitude of the crimes detailed in its pages, relies for success on those more legitimate grounds of attraction which, in competent hands, have raised this class of literature to a deservedly high position. " ACATHA'S HUSBAND. Thirteenth Edition. "One of Miss Muloch's admired fictions, marked by pleasant contrasts of light and shade -scenes of stirring interest and pathetic incidents. The theme is one of touching interest, and is most delicately managed." Literary Circular. OLIVE. Thirteenth Edition. "It is a common cant of criticism to call every historical novel the 'best that has been produced since Scott,' and to bring 'Jane Eyre' on the tapis whenever a woman's novel happens to be in question. 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Boards. 9 The Ogilvies IO Olive: a Novel 13 Two Marriages SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. < 1 Jurbark E 1 I C A [ 'I 让 ​τ N H I UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 3 9015 01072 8460 THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN Badna DATE DUE JUN 22 1987 AUG 31 1940 :] AUG 24 990 H С A ;C L R 10 Y