or finest flax, worked in what is called the Kaitaka stitch, has all the soft lustre of floss silk. So tough is the substance, that, even when just cut from the root, one of the long flag-like leaves is commonly used as a strap, to fasten heavy loads on the shoulders of men or the backs of beasts; and in the construction of the strongest pahs it serves to bind together the picquets of the stockade work. The Hera-keke, or Phormium tenax, grows spontaneously in most parts of New Zealand, and is found in all kinds of soil. I have seen it flourishing with equal luxuriance in the arid crater of an exhausted volcano, and in the black alluvium of a swamp-in the valley, on the hill-side, and on the mountain top. When machinery shall have superseded the slow process of manual preparation, the New Zealand flax will probably become a very important article of colonial export.

On our retreat from the rope-walk through Mechanic's Bay, where we again came into unpleasant proximity with the weird cooks afore mentioned,-our sight was refreshed and our good opinion of womankind re-established by meeting a remarkably pretty native girl as we ascended the hill, whom his Excellency stopped and addressed with his usual amenity. It was charming to see the blush of modesty tinge her nut-brown cheek, like the rosy sunset shining through a thunder cloud; and I was marking, with the analytic coolness of middle age, the singular visibility of this suffusion through a skin so dusky; when a young man hurried over the crest of the hill, and strode hastily towards us. His face coloured also-but from very different emotions. It was evident that he imputed to us no good motive in thus making

acquaintance with his wife or sister; and never was jealousy more fiercely manifested in any juvenile countenance (in old ones it is common enough !)—than in that of the youth before us; when, suddenly recognising Captain Grey, his face as suddenly brightened up, and he frankly held out his hand to Te Kawana for a shake.

On the whole, the countenance of the natives when youthful and untattooed struck me as very winning; but the deep tortuous lines of the Moku add fierceness to features strongly marked, and give hardness and rigour to those muscles which are acted upon by the softer passions. There are, however, even in these islands, some fat, fubsy, Gibbon-like faces, that this savage operation fails to invest with ferocity. Of such is the jolly good-humoured visage of our firmest friend and ally,

Tomati Waka.

The young girls have fine almond-shaped eyes, emitting a mixture of fire and langour, good hair and teeth, taper hands and feet, and a certain resemblance to the bulbous beauties and plants of the Cape of Good Hope, which renders their town dress of a single blanket or a simple calico round-about becoming or unbecoming, according to taste. To many of the more redundant dames this Nora Creina-like costume was very unsuitable. Poor things!—some of them were terribly heavy laden, and were too toil-engaged, as they staggered past Government-house, to think of their personal appearance. I saw young tender girls with the family baggage, newly purchased goods, or agricultural produce of their husbands or fathers, strapped on their backs—while the men, like all savage males, carried nothing, not even their arms,

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for the English law allows them to carry none in the settlements. If it be true, as it undoubtedly is, that the softer sex is "the sex that civilizes ours," it is not less true that woman, in return, owes infinitely more to civilization than man does. The angel, the idol, the goddess of London, Paris and Vienna, is the slave, the drudge, the beast of burthen of the red man, the negro, the Australian, and the Maori ;-the mere toy of the Asiatic, imprisoned and denied even the possession of a soul.

Travellers, residents, and writers in wild countries, tell incredible stories of savage wooing by dint of stunning blows from the club, and of cracked skulls and broken bones as common incidents in married life. I rejoice to say that in all my travels, no such instance of marital remonstrance ever fell under my observation. I therefore firmly disbelieve in their occurrence. Yet, after all, who knows but that if wife-beating became the right thing; if some autocrat of fashion gave the sanction of his name and practice to this kind of domestic discipline -who knows that it might not become of general adoption even in the highest civilized communities! Human nature is human nature all the world over; and since truth to nature is more likely to exist in the untutored Aboriginal than in the conventionalized denizen of the Court-we arrive at the logical conclusion, that the will to vapulate wives exists in civilized countries, although law and custom forbid its indulgence!

CHAPTER VI.

A PRAYER-MEETING-NATIVE

CHRISTIANS-OLD PAGAN CHIEFS-MOUNT EDEN AN OASIS-ANCIENT SEPULCHRE-THE KAURI-A DESERTED HOME -MAGIC-LANTHORN-A GIFT HORSE-AN INAUGURATION—A WAR-DANCE, AND BREAD AND JAM-MAN AND WOMAN EATING-VOYAGE TO THE BAY OF OF ILL-BLOOD-TROOPS APPLIED FOR-HEKI-HIS FIRST OUTBREAK-CONFERENCE OF WAIMATE -TRUCE BROKEN-PANORAMA OF THE BAY OF ISLANDS-KORORARIKA SURPRISED, SACKED, AND BURNT.

ISLANDS-WAHAPU-KORARARIKA-CAUSES

AUCKLAND Christmas-day. Divine service at the little brick-built church of St. Paul's. The interior was prettily decorated, Christmas fashion, with the graceful fronds of the tree-fern, some of them eight and ten feet long entirely covering the windows. I perceived none of the Aborigines among the congregation, nor do I know whether they are encouraged or permitted to frequent the parish church, there being separate houses of prayer devoted to their spiritual teaching apart from the white population. I observed, however, several bushy heads and wild tattooed faces peeping at times through the windows during the service; and towards its close two or three stole into the body of the building, stared about them for a few minutes, and quietly withdrew.

In my afternoon stroll I passed the door of the Maori chapel, a short way out of town, where a very

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attentive and crowded congregation were engaged in singing in excellent time and tune a well-known psalm in their own language. As a Chinese artizan, in working from a pattern, faithfully copies into a new garment all the holes and other defects observable in the old one, so the New Zealand Christian servilely imitates the English rural fashion of psalmody, enlisting the nose into the service as an important vocal organ -the national NG giving him a nasal superiority over his instructors.

On the following day, which happened to be Sunday, as the Governor and myself were returning from a walk to the summit of Mount Eden, on turning one of the angles of the volcano, we came suddenly upon a small hamlet, belonging probably to a party of natives employed permanently by Government in quarrying stone at the foot of the hill. I do not remember a more interesting and impressive scene than met our view as we looked down into the little valley below us. About eighty or a hundred Maoris of various age and sex were standing, sitting, or reclining among the low fern in front of their village, in such groups and attitudes as accident had thrown them into. In the midst, on a mound slightly elevated, stood a native teacher, deeply tattooed on the face, but dressed in decent black clothes of European fashion, who, with a Bible in his hands, was expounding the Gospel in their own tongue. Taking off our hats we approached so as to become part of the congregation. No head turned towards us-no curious eyes or ears were attracted by the arrival of the strangers, (as so often occurs in