# The Boy Travellers in Australasia/Chapter 9

CHAPTER IX.
AFTER a glance at the interior of Auckland, our friends naturally turned their attention to its surroundings. They were reminded of Naples, as Auckland is in a region of extinct volcanoes, one of which, Mount Eden, rises only a mile from the city. Following the advice of the landlord of the hotel, they drove thither, passing numerous villas of the well-to-do residents, with which the sides of the mountain are dotted. From the edge of the crater there is a fine view of the city and its surroundings, and the view takes in several volcanoes.
LAKE IN THE CRATER OF AN EXTINCT VOLCANO.
The Maoris had formerly a fortification on the top of the mountain; it surrounded the crater, so that a whole tribe could be concealed there, if necessary, for purposes of defence. Frank and Fred traced out some of the terraces that formed the original fortification, and Doctor Bronson said the works showed a good, deal of military skill.
​"Within a radius of ten miles of the city no less then sixty-two points of eruption have been found, the greater part of them being only insignificant cones or hills. The largest and best specimen of the extinct volcanoes of Auckland is Rangitoto, which rises from a great mass of black lava, presenting a forbidding appearance. Unfortunately for the beauty of the landscape, the forest that once covered this region has been nearly all cut or burned away, and Auckland will doubtless regret in the near future the desolation which her settlers have made.
The youths were anxious to see the famous Kauri pine (Damara Australis), which is confined wholly to Auckland, and is the most renowned of New Zealand trees. Before returning to the city they SAWING A KAURI PINEwere driven where they saw a single specimen, and before their departure from the district they had the satisfaction of seeing a Kauri forest. Frank's note on this subject is interesting, and we are permitted to quote it:
"The peculiarity of the Kauri pine is that the trunk does not appear to diminish in size from the ground to where the limbs begin to spread. We saw some trees more than two hundred feet high; they were eight or nine feet in diameter at the base, and had no limbs within forty or fifty feet of the ground. They reminded us of the famous big trees of California, but were taller in proportion to their diameter. We don't think we ever saw more graceful trees anywhere. They haven't a great deal of foliage, and it grows in little tufts very much like bushes.
STOCK-FARM IN THE SUBURBS.
Many of the sticks have been sent to England to serve as masts and spars for her Majesty's ships of war, and altogether the trade in Kauri lumber is very large. The result is, a great deal has been cut away, and the time is not very distant when the Kauri forests will be gone.
"While we were walking among the Kauri trees our guide prodded the earth with a spear that he carried, and he kept doing this so frequently that we asked what it meant. He answered that he was looking for Kauri gum, and after a time he struck a hard substance, which he dug down to and brought to light.
"It was a lump of Kauri gum, and looked more like amber than anything else; in fact, it is said to be used very often in place of amber for the mouth-pieces of pipes and cigar-holders, and for other purposes where amber is ornamental. It is worth eight or ten cents a pound, and the shipment of Kauri gum from Auckland amounts to nearly a million dollars annually.
"'How do you get the gum?' one of us inquired of the man who was showing us through the forest.
"'In just the way you see,' he replied. 'The gum cannot be obtained ​from the tree by any process of tapping or reducing from the wood. The tree falls and dies, and then, when it decays, the gum collects in lumps in the ground. It takes years and years for it to collect, and this little lump, which I have just taken from the ground, has probably been lying here for centuries. A new forest has risen where the old one stood, and has taken a long, long while to grow.'
"We asked what other timber-trees there were in New Zealand, and our informant mentioned the Kahikatea, or white pine; the Rimu, or red pine; the Totara, which is claimed to be impervious to the attacks of the teredo; and the Tanekaha, which has a handsome, close-grained, and durable wood, and whose bark furnishes a strong dye. Then there is the Matai, which is much like the English yew, and is used for making furniture; the Miro, which has a beautiful red fruit on which pigeons grow fat; and the Kawaka, which has a remarkable leaf and a durable wood. A WATER-OAK
"There is a great variety of tree-ferns, some of them reaching a height of forty feet, and a diameter of twelve inches or more. The most tropical of all the trees of New Zealand is the Nikau, which is the only representative of the palm family. The ferns are more tropical than the trees, and add very much to the beauty of the forest, though they impede locomotion in many places. As for fruit-trees, there are very few indigenous to the country, but nearly everything that grows in the United States or England flourishes, and they have many things here that are strangers to us at home. Peaches, apples, apricots, figs, oranges, strawberries, pears, and other fruits are abundant in their seasons, and some of them reach a luxuriance and perfection surpassing that of the countries whence they came.
"Near the Kauri forest we were shown a Maori pah, or fort, that is ​said to have been the scene of severe fighting in the early days of the colony. "While we were looking at it a man joined our group, and our guide told us he was a pakeha Maori. You will wonder, as we did, what a pakeha Maori is.
A PAKEHA MAORI.
"Well, he's a white man who lives among the Maoris, and in former times, before the colonization, there was a goodly number of them, for the simple reason that unless a man was a missionary he couldn't easily stay in the country without living among the natives. Pakeha means stranger, and is applied to any white man, and a pakeha Maori is a white man living among the natives. The tribes were very desirous of having pakehas among them, for the reason that they could learn useful matters from them, but more particularly they could buy muskets, gunpowder, tools, and other trade goods, of which they were in great need. A pakeha who had trade goods was always welcome, but a man who had nothing was of little consequence, and sometimes had a hard struggle to keep his head on his shoulders.
"With a judicious present of a few shillings we got on the right side ​of this man, and induced him to talk about what he had seen or knew among the Maoris. I have written down some of the things he said. I can't vouch that they are all absolutely correct; but his statements are corroborated by intelligent white men who have long lived in the country."
Here we will close Frank's journal for a few minutes and listen to the pakeha Maori.
"You see I'm an old man; I came here when I was very young, and have seen a great many changes. I was in Sydney, and heard New Zealand was a good place for trade, so I loaded some goods on a schooner that was coming this way, and in due time was landed in the country. At first I made my home with one of the whites, who had come here before me and got on friendly terms with the tribe where he lived; it didn't take long to do it, as the Maoris were very anxious to buy my goods."
A PAKEHA MAORI'S HOME.
Frank asked what goods they wanted most.
"Muskets and ammunition," was the reply, "and for these they paid fabulous prices in wild flax, which was the principal product worth shipping away. They were constantly at war, and the tribe that possessed the white man's weapons could destroy any tribe that was without them. This happened in many cases, and whole tribes who were without guns were destroyed by their more fortunate adversaries. They were literally eaten up, as the natives were cannibals in those times.
VIEW OF A PART OF AUCKLAND AND ITS HARBOR.
"To get muskets they impoverish themselves, neglecting their agriculture in order to gather flax to buy them with, and literally starving themselves. Many died of starvation in consequence, and in another way muskets proved the death of those who owned them. In the times of clubs and spears the Maoris had their pahs and villages on high hills, where the air was pure and the ground dry; when they got muskets they moved into the low ground, where they were carried off by the dampness and its consequent fevers. I have known whole villages and tribes killed in this way, so that not one man, woman, or child remained. The musket was as fatal to those who owned it as to those who did not; it was deadly either way.
"Now about some of the customs of the Maoris. They used to be tattooed very finely, and some of the fighting-men were beautiful to look at. The warriors used to bring back the heads of those they killed in battle, and some of the traders got to buying these heads provided they were finely tattooed. They gave a musket for a good head, and as soon as this was known some of the tribes began to make war on others just for the sake of getting tattooed heads to sell.
"You may think it strange, gentlemen," said the pakeha, "but I've known the head of a live man to be sold and paid for beforehand, and afterwards honestly delivered according to the agreement; and one ​time when the heads of warriors were not equal to the demand for them, some of the chiefs tattooed the faces of several slaves whom they intended to kill whenever the traders arrived who had agreed to buy the heads. But the slaves were not faithful to their masters, as they all ran away into the bushes just as the inflammation in their faces was passing away and they were getting in good condition to be marketable.
"They had the tabu in its most rigid form here," he continued; "but as you probably learned all about it in the South Sea islands I won't take your time to talk about it.
"Another curious custom of the Maoris was the muru; the word means 'plunder'—and some folks might call it robbery, which it amounted to, though it was the custom, and practically the law of the country.
"If a man's child fell into the fire and was severely or perhaps fatally burned, he was plundered of nearly everything he possessed, and the MAORI TATTOOINGsame was the case if his canoe upset while he was fishing, or any other accident happened to him. The people of the tribe assembled and gave him notice that they would be there for the muru on a particular day. He prepared a great feast for them, and after the feast they sacked his house and carried away pretty nearly everything he had. Sometimes he did not have enough left to live upon, but he had the opportunity of getting even by joining in a muru against somebody else. These performances were never opposed, and in fact a man would feel insulted if a serious accident of any kind happened to him and no notice was taken of it. The greater the robbery, the greater the honor conferred upon the victim.
"If a man killed another through malice and with deliberate intent, the act was generally considered of no consequence, or it might even be meritorious. If it was his own slave that he killed, it was considered his personal affair entirely; if the victim was of another tribe, it was a matter of tribal revenge or retaliation; and if of his own tribe he would ​be defended by his family or section, and nothing came of it. But if he killed a man of his own tribe by accident, such as the discharge of a gun, then the law of muru had full force, and the man and all his relatives were plundered of everything they possessed."
INLAND SCENERY.
Fred asked if the Maoris were given to the ordinary kind of thieving, like most savage nations.
"Much less than you might suppose," was the reply. "Of course there were pilferers; but, on the whole, private property was pretty safe from burglary and sneak-thieving. The muru gave an opportunity for plundering, and so did the warfare between the tribes; but a man could exempt himself from the muru if he wished, by giving up all claims to its advantages on his own account. When I first came to New Zealand I was the subject of a muru, and afterwards joined in one upon a Maori friend; but I found so many disadvantages, losing so ​much more than I gained, that I stipulated to have nothing to do with these affairs in future.
"In actual honesty the Maoris have been injured by their contact with Europeans. They will steal and do other improper things more than formerly; but against this we must offset the abolition of slavery, cannibalism, tribal wars, polygamy, and many of their superstitious and cruel practices. When anything is stolen from you the chief can recover it, and will do so if you apply to him. Custom requires that you should tell him to keep it as a reward for his trouble, and so you don't gain much by the recovery of the plunder.
"They were not favored by nature," continued their historian, "as they did not have the bread-fruit, banana, and cocoa-tree to supply them with food, and they did not even have the pig until it was given to them by Captain Cook. Dogs and rats were their only quadrupeds, CAPTAIN COOK'S GIFT TO THE MAORIS.and they ate both. The native dogs are extinct, as the Maoris did not care to preserve them when pigs became plentiful.
"It used to be the custom to make human sacrifices on the death of a chief; prisoners of war were used for this purpose, their blood being sprinkled on the grave, and the flesh roasted and eaten. There was a grand feast at a funeral, and even now this custom is kept up, though they have no longer any human sacrifices. The festivities at a Maori funeral are very much like those of an Irish 'wake,' and something like an Arab burial ceremony. They eat and drink all they can get, and the mourning is performed by the women, who howl and cry for hours, simply because it is the custom to do so."
As the time of our friends was limited, they bade adieu to the pakeha Maori, and left him to meditate upon the changes that had taken place since his advent into New Zealand.
"He might have told you," said their guide, "that the native rat has been killed off by the European one, which was introduced from ships, and the European house-fly has driven away the native blue blow-fly. The foreign clover is killing the ferns, and European grasses ​generally are supplanting the native ones very rapidly. The English sparrow has become very common in New Zealand, and will doubtless destroy some of the native birds."
Fred asked about the birds of the country, but his informant could not describe them with any degree of accuracy. Later the youth learned that there are one hundred and thirty-six varieties in all, of which seventy-three are land birds. One of these, the Apteryx, or Kiwi, is wingless, and lives in the mountains. He is very scarce, and only rarely captured or even seen. There are six varieties of parrots, and two of falcons—one about the size of a pigeon, and the other a very active and industrious sparrow-hawk. There is one owl, and there is a blackbird, which is called the "parson bird" by the settlers, for the reason that it has two white feathers under its chin like the ends of a clergyman's neck-tie.
Fred asked if New Zealand was not the home of the now extinct Dinornis, the largest bird of which we have any positive knowledge.
"Yes," replied his informant; "the bird was called Moa by the natives, and it is pretty clearly established that he was abundant when the Maoris came here, but was wiped out of existence some two hundred years ago. Skeletons of the Moa have been found, and show that the largest of these birds must have attained a height of fourteen to sixteen feet."
"Were they dangerous?" was the very natural query which followed.
"Not by any means; they were wingless, and belonged to the ostrich family, and the naturalists say they were stupid birds, that could easily fall a prey to man. This fact accounts for their extinction in the first two or three centuries of the presence of the Maoris in New Zealand. It is fortunate that their skeletons have been preserved in the earth, so that we can know positively that such great birds existed."
"How do you know the Maoris lived upon these birds?"
"Partly through their traditions, and partly from the discovery of many of the bones of the Moa in the ovens and in the heaps of rubbish around the ruins of ancient villages. The natives devoured any birds they could catch; parrots, pigeons, parson-birds, anything and everything edible was legitimate food. Those that dwelt on the coast lived chiefly on a fish diet, and those in the interior made annual or more frequent migrations to the sea-side for purposes of fishing. The rivers abound in eels, and they grow to an enormous size; I have seen eels weighing fifty pounds each, and have heard of larger ones."
SKELETON OF THE EXTINCT MOA (DINORNIS).
​Frank asked what the clothing of the natives was made of before the Europeans came to the country.
DRESSING FLAX.
"It was made from the fibre of the flax," was the reply. "There are several kinds of flax, and it grows everywhere and near every village. Not only did it supply the material for garments, but for nets, baskets, lines, mats, dishes, cordage, and other things. They used cords made from it for binding the walls and roofs of their houses together, and thus made it serve in place of nails. Great quantities of flax are raised here nowadays, as you will understand when you know there are some forty and odd flax-mills in the colony, and considerable flax is exported every year.
"Most of the Maoris that you will see during your stay in New ​Zealand wear clothes of European style, as they find them more convenient than the cloaks and mats of former days. On ceremonial occasions the old finery is displayed, and the cloaks of some of the chiefs are really magnificent. Cloaks and mats or blankets were the ordinary dress, one mat being wrapped around the waist, and the other thrown over the shoulder. Men wore their mats on the right shoulder, and women on the left, and they sometimes adorned their heads with the gayest feathers they could find. Children went naked in their early years, except in the coldest weather, when they wrapped themselves in any old garments they could lay hands on."
The youths learned many other things about the Maoris, but we have not room for all the notes they made on the subject. Frank asked particularly about the marriage ceremonies of the natives, probably for the information of his young lady friends at home. He learned that children might be betrothed by their parents when very young, or if not so betrothed they could marry very much as in civilized lands. Sometimes the parents and families, and more frequently the whole tribe, discussed any proposed match, and made all sorts of hinderances to it. Courtship was begun by the girl quite as often as by the young man, and when marriage was decided there were great preparations for a festivity, and the bride and bridegroom were provided with new mats and many other articles of household use. The funny part of the business was that during the marriage-feast everything movable was carried away by the friends, under the law of muru already described. The young couple started in life with nothing except the clothes they wore and the house that had been built for them.
During their stay at Auckland our friends visited some of the islands in the bay, including that of Kawau, where Sir George Grey, a former governor of New Zealand, has a fine residence. The house is quite English in appearance and character, and contains a good museum of Maori and other curiosities. The grounds around the house abound in pheasants of several kinds from Europe and Asia, kangaroos from Australia, tree-kangaroos from New Guinea, and several members of the deer family. Near Kawau they saw a fleet of boats manned by Maoris engaged in the capture of sharks. The creatures they pursued were not the ordinary shark, which is abundant in New Zealand waters, but a smaller variety measuring about six feet in length.
As the sharks were hauled into the boats they were killed by sharp blows upon the nose, and then flung into the hold. When a boat was filled it proceeded to an island, where the prizes were hung up to dry; ​and Frank was told that from twelve to twenty thousand of these sharks are taken in the bay of Waitamata every year, and either dried for winter food or eaten fresh. Out of curiosity our friends took a luncheon of shark steak, which had been baked on a hot stone after the native fashion. They found it palatable, but rather tasteless, and so dry that Fred suggested oiling each mouthful, or smothering it with butter. It was unanimously voted that shark with the Maoris was not half as enjoyable as salmon with the Indians of the Columbia River, or shad with the fishermen of Delaware Bay.
FAMILY OF DEER ON KAWAU ISLAND.
More palatable than shark steak were the oysters which abound in the bay. The island of Kawau has a coast-line of about thirty miles, and all around it there are oyster-beds, some of them of great extent. Not only do the oysters grow on the rocks and in the water, but they cling to the overhanging limbs of the trees, and grow there quite contented with their immersion of a few hours twice a day during the ​rising of the tide. Frank and Fred found the oysters of good flavor and soon became quite expert at opening the shells with the oyster-knives which were opportunely brought along in the boat.
"Don't fail to visit the gold-mines and the Hot Lake district," was the injunction repeatedly made to Doctor Bronson and his young companions. As soon as they had exhausted the sights of Auckland and its neighborhood they proceeded to follow the foregoing advice.
PROSPECTING FOR GOLD.
​Doctor Bronson had a letter of introduction to a gentleman interested in one of the largest mines, and the trio of travellers were at once made welcome. Clad in appropriate costumes, they were taken into the mine, where they walked a long distance through a tunnel, and were then conducted through a perfect maze of shafts and levels, where the workmen were busily occupied in removing the auriferous rock, which was carried directly to the reduction-works, where it was crushed and the precious metal extracted. The gold contains a large amount—thirty per cent.—of silver, and consequently has an appearance of pallor when turned out from the retorts. As the work of gold-mining has been described elsewhere in the wanderings of the boy travellers, it is hardly necessary to give it here, the processes of mining and reduction being practically the same all over the world.
STAMP-MILL AT GRAHAMSTOWN.
Frank and Fred obtained the following information relative to gold-mining in New Zealand, and especially in the region now under consideration:
"Gold-mining in New Zealand properly dates from 1861, when gold was discovered by Mr. Gabriel Read at Tuapeka, in the province of Otago. The existence of the precious metal was known nine or ten ​years before that date, it having been found at Coromandel by a Mr. Ring, who reported his discovery to the authorities at Auckland. Since 1861 it has been found in many places, and is now an important industry of the country. Some of the mines are wholly alluvial, or placer, diggings, others are wholly quartz-mines, which are called reefs in New Zealand and Australia, and others are combinations of alluvial and quartz mining.
"STRUCK A POCKET."
"For the enlightenment of some of my younger readers I will here explain that alluvial, or placer, mines are those where the gold is found in the earth or soil and is separated from it by washing. Quartz-mines are those where the gold is in the ledges of the mountains and requires to be removed by tunnelling or blasting, or both. The rock containing ​the rock must be crushed to powder, and the gold separated from the powder by washing and mingling it with quicksilver. Quartz-mining requires a great deal of money to carry it on; so much, indeed, that it is generally conducted by companies, and these companies, it is proper to say, very often take more from the pockets of the stock-holders than they do from the mines. Alluvial diggings are the resort of the poor man, who needs only pick, shovel, and pan to set him up in business.
"During the year ending March 31, 1886, the mines of New Zealand yielded 233,068 ounces of gold, which was valued at more than four millions of dollars; at least this was the amount entered at the custom-house for exportation; some was doubtless absorbed in the colony, but no one can tell how much.
"The yield of the Thames district for the same time was 61,939 ounces, or more than one-fourth the entire amount for the colony. During the month of May, 1886, 3039 ounces of gold were taken from 2574 tons of rock. Some of the mines have paid good dividends to their owners, but others have never made any returns. The ups and downs of mining in New Zealand are about the same as in other parts of the world.
"There are nearly five hundred mining companies registered in New Zealand, with a paid-up capital of about ten million dollars. Down to the end of 1885 more than two hundred million dollars' worth of gold had been exported from New Zealand, so that there can be no question of the importance of the colony as a mining region. According to the official returns there are more than eleven thousand men engaged in mining; two thousand of these are quartz-miners, and the rest, including three thousand Chinese, are in the placer mines.
"The placer miners do not confine themselves to the valleys of the rivers among the mountains, but seek gold along the west shore, where they find it under the bowlders and other stones embedded in the sand of the beaches. The popular idea is that this gold is washed up from the sea during severe gales; the scientific men say it is really washed up by the lifting power of the waves on the sand that has been brought down by the rivers and drifted along the shore. Some of this gold is obtained by washing the sands in sluice-boxes, just as in operations among the mountains; and deposits, or 'pockets,' are occasionally discovered in the sand under the loose stones. Sometimes these deposits are of considerable value, and we have been told of a miner who found a single pocket containing nearly thirty ounces of gold. Similar ​pockets exist in the mountains, and it is the height of a miner's ambition to find a well-filled one and secure its contents without anybody's help.
"The alluvial mines in North Island are less extensive than those of South Island. It is estimated that these mines cover an area of twenty thousand square miles in South Island alone, and as very little capital is required for working them, they are more popular than the others.
GOLD-MINING ON THE SEA-SHORE.
"The principal quartz-mines are in the Coromandel and Thames districts; the reefs have been prospected to six or eight hundred feet below the sea-level, and also to a height of two thousand feet above it. In some places the rock has yielded six hundred ounces to the ton; at least it has assayed to that extent, but the amount obtained upon working it in quantities is far less. Of course such rock as this is a rare exception in New Zealand as everywhere else.
"In the province of Otago there are rich reefs, and in some places gold has been found at elevations of six and seven thousand feet above the sea. The highest mine in New Zealand is on the summit of Advance Peak, near Lake Wakatipu, in South Island.
A miner's camp in the mountains.
Our friends remained at Grahamstown over Sunday, and observed a state of affairs which was an improvement over that of American mining towns in general on the first day of the week. All work was suspended, and the whole population turned out in its best clothes. There are churches of nearly every denomination at Grahamstown, and all ​were well filled with worshippers; one of the churches has a stained-glass window which cost some fifteen hundred dollars—certainly an unusual sight for a mining town.
VISITING A MINE.
"We had a charming ride," said Frank, "over the railway to Oxford, where we took the coach in the direction of the famous region of New Zealand geysers. Much of the country through which the railway passes resembles England both in scenery and products; English fruit-trees grow well here, and English grasses seem adapted to the soil. American pines have been introduced and are doing well; they make a pleasing contrast to the New Zealand wattle-tree and cabbage-palm and the ferns which abound everywhere. The country is thinly settled, but will undoubtedly support a large population in course of time. Villages with European houses alternate with Maori encampments, the latter abounding with lazy aboriginals.
"One of the advantages claimed for New Zealand is its similarity to England in climate and products, with the great point in its favor that while the climate has all the mildness of that of England it lacks its severity. The average temperature of London is said to be seven degrees colder than that of North Island, and four degrees colder than the temperature of South Island.
"They tell us that snow seldom lies on the ground at the sea-level on North Island, and not very often on South Island; but the summit of Ruapehu, the highest mountain in North Island, and also the tops of the peaks of the great mountain chains in South Island, are perpetually covered with snow. The snow line is about seven thousand five hundred feet high.
"The sun was shining brightly and there was a genial warmth to the air when we left Auckland, but within an hour we were in a terrific rain that beat heavily against the windows of the railway-carriage and pattered like hail on the roof. 'This is our one drawback,' said a gentleman who accompanied us, when the rain began to fall. 'The changes of weather and temperature in New Zealand are very sudden. The alternations from heat to cold, from sunshine to storm, from calms to gales, are so frequent and marked as to defy calculation and prevent our saying with truthfulness that there is any uniformly wet or dry season throughout the year.'
"Then he went on to say that compared with Great Britain the climate seemed to be far superior when the death-rate was considered. It was less than eleven in one thousand annually, and lower than in any of the colonies of Australia. He claimed that the salubrity of the ​climate was due in great measure to the breezes for which New Zealand is noted, there being no less than one hundred and twenty-six gales or high winds in a single year (1885), and good winds for nearly all the rest of the time. The prevailing winds are from the north-west and south-west, with occasional storms from the opposite quarters. The annual rainfall is twenty-eight inches at Auckland, thirty-six inches at Wellington, and twenty-five inches at Dunedin, and there is more rain on the east coast than on the west."
INLAND SCENERY.
We will learn in the next chapter what our friends saw among the Hot Lakes of New Zealand.