God, which are translated and put into their hands; and soon perceive that these ancient usages are incompatible with Christian precepts, and that such a superstructure cannot stand on a Christian foundation. To whom, then, can they apply for advice in this dilemma, but to the persons from whom their knowledge has been derived; and what less can the Missionary do, than give it freely and fully? I would not, however, be supposed to advocate the assumption of political authority by the Missionary, but, on the contrary, that he should interfere as little as possible; and, whether it be in civil, legal, or political affairs, that he should do so solely by his advice and influence. There are circumstances, however, especially in newly-formed Missions, where he must step out of his ordinary course, and appear more prominent than he would wish; for, frequently, a word from the Missionary, rightly timed, will do more towards settling a dispute, healing a breach, burying an animosity, or carrying a useful plan into execution, than a whole year's cavilling of the natives themselves would have effected. And here, in answer to the charge that the Missionaries in the South Seas have assumed even regal authority, I may observe, that no Missionary in the Pacific ever possessed any such authority; that his influence is entirely of a moral character; and I may add, that there are no instances on record where men have used their influence less for their own aggrandizement, or more for the welfare of the people."

Tahiti still continues the head-quarters, as it may be called, of the Missionary force of the London Missionary Society, whose labours extend principally from thence to the Friendly Islands. They have laboured hard, but with little success, to establish manufactures among the people. Printing presses, chiefly devoted to the production of bibles and religious tracts, in the native language, have been established; but, in our opinion, a just cause of complaint is made against the Missionaries, that they make no effort to instruct the people in the English language, preferring in all cases to teach them through the medium of the native tongue; and thus debarring their pupils of every opportunity of obtaining any knowledge that does not come through their hands. The civilization of these islands, therefore, remains at a point beyond which it is not likely to pass. The people have a knowledge of the great truths of Christianity, and they carry them out to the fullest extent, not only in their private but in their public relations. War, for instance, they consider as wholly unjustifiable; but, deprived as they are of the means of obtaining a true knowledge of the actual state of the world, what will be their opinions of their English teachers who thus keep them in a state of tutelage, when they learn-and some of them do so already—that Christian England still wages war? They must turn upon their teachers as the Hownyhyms upon Gulliver, and reproach them with telling them "the thing that was not."

The Missionaries have endeavoured to introduce the culture and manufucture of cotton and sugar among the Tahitians, both occupations requiring much labour and toil. They complain that the people are indolent and will not work; but in so favoured a country, where the air is seldom too hot or too cold, and but little labour is required to secure sufficient food and clothing, what is the inducement to labour and lay up stores of riches, bringing as they must do poverty hand in hand? There is a nobler ambition than that of heaping gold; and in a land where all bodily wants are so easily satisfied, why should not a race of philosophers spring up, whose undisturbed leisure, better applied than that of their forefathers, shall enlighten the world with yet-undiscovered knowledge? It is a land that Plato would have loved.

NEW ZEALAND.

THE general description of this country and of its inhabitants, given by Captain Cook, is, as we have seen in other instances, so accurate, that it will be unnecessary for us to go into further detail in regard to the condition of the inhabitants before their country was resorted to by English emigrants. "The survey of the coast made by Captain Cook," says Mr. Ward, the Secretary of the New Zealand Company, "is so accurate that it has been relied on up to the present day;" and his estimate of the character of the people, for a long time considered far too favourable, now that the dread so powerfully excited by the too true reports of their sanguinary wars, their massacres of ships' crews, and their undoubted cannibalism, is dissipated by a more intimate knowledge of their capabilities and character, has been recognised as faithful to the letter.

Whilst possessed of every requisite fitting them for the reception of the highest degree of civilization; robust frames-forms which might have served as models to Phidias for the sculpture of an Apollo-powerful intellect capable of any degree of cultivation-unflinching courage, joined to warm affections, beautifully manifested in their attention to their offspring -a strictness of chastity and decent modesty in their women, very opposite to the manners of the Otaheitans and other more tropical nations-and a natural refinement of taste, exhibited in the beautiful patterns carved on their houses and canoes, and in the intricate and truly elegant tracings of their "amokos," or tattooings, an art so valued by them as to raise its more skilful professors from the rank of a slave to somewhat of an equality with the higher ranks solely on account of their art-of which a remarkable instance is narrated by Mr. Earle*,- are all qualities which form the foundation of a noble character. All these were, it is true, sadly darkened by customs and manners induced by a state of society most opposite to the growth of improvement. The institution of slavery always must debase all, both masters and slaves, who live under its influence. Disregard to human life, the unchecked indulgence of the passions, pride, self-sufficiency, and cruelty, will more or less deteriorate the character of the master, even when assisted against temptation by a civilized education. The slave himself, deprived of all those rights which render humanity valuable, is subjected body and soul, and has almost lost the dignity of a man. Grovelling vice must necessarily be his characteristic. All the evils of this state of society were felt in their full degree in New Zealand. The life of a slave was held as of no importance, and was sacrificed to the slightest ebullition of temper. Chastity, so highly prized among the free women, was held of no account among the slaves; it was a distinction to which they had no right to aspire; and pilfering, lying, and cheating, which were rare vices among the chiefs, who when exposed to strong temptation, as in case of the visit of a European vessel, usually carried on their depredations by the hands of their slaves, were the reproach of that degraded class. The peculiar condition of society, not, as at the Sandwich and Society Islands, and in most of the Polynesian groups, united under one head or king, but divided into numerous independent tribes, necessarily engendered quarrels and involved them in perpetual wars; and this constant state of hostilities kept up with them the revolting practice of cannibalism, of which traces remain throughout all the nations which, like them, may be traced to a Malay origin. Their country has now become a part of the British dominions. Law is established, and no people have ever been found more ready to appreciate the advantages

Earle's" New Zealand."

of good order and civilization; but while adapting themselves with great pliability to the new position of their social relations, they have not become mere servile imitators, or in the least degree sacrificed their national dignity. Such is their present condition. The designs of England in regard to her new possession are not yet matured; the schemes of the colonists cannot yet be looked upon otherwise than in the light of a grand experiment; but as respects the aborigines, the New Zealanders have shown themselves superior to any other nation in their capacity of appreciating the value of civilization, and of improving themselves. Whether the colonists ultimately succeed or fail, we feel sure that the New Zealand people must speedily emerge from the ranks of barbarism, and take a well-deserved place among the nations within the pale of civilization.

The New Zealand group consists of two large islands, called the Northern or New Ulster, and Southern or Middle, now New Munster; a smaller island called Stewart's, or New Leinster, to the extreme south, and several adjacent islets. The group extends in length, from north to south, from the 34th to the 48th degree of south latitude, and in breadth, from east to west, from the 166th to the 179th degree of east longitude. The extreme length exceeds eight hundred miles, and the average breadth, which is very variable, is about one hundred miles. The surface of the islands is estimated to contain 95,000 square miles, or about sixty millions of acres, being a territory nearly as large as Great Britain, of which, after allowing for mountainous districts and water, it is believed that at least two-thirds are susceptible of beneficial cultivation. Even without assuming any extraordinary degree of fertility, New Zealand is thus capable of maintaining as large a population as the British Isles.

The distance of Queen Charlotte's Sound, on the southern shore of Cook's Straits, from Sydney and Hobart Town, is, in round numbers, about 1200 miles,—from the New Hebrides and Friendly Islands about the same,-from the Marquesas about 3000,-from the Sandwich Islands 3600,-from South Australia 1800,-and from China or Valparaiso, about 5000 miles. The length of the voyage from England is about the same as that to New South Wales, or South Australia. The westerly winds blowing steadily in those latitudes for about nine months in the year, the distance northward from Bass's Straits to Port Jackson is practically greater than from the same point of separation to Queen Charlotte's Sound. In return-voyages to Europe, by way of Cape Horn, the whole distance between the places mentioned is gained by ships coming direct from New Zealand, over those from any part of Australia, which pass usually through Cook's Straits. In the not improbable event of the establishment of regular steam-communication across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with land-passage by railway over the Isthmus of Darien, it is easy to foresee that the voyage from England to New Zealand may be reduced at no distant day to the compass of a few weeks.

Very soon after the capabilities of New Zealand had been made known to Europe by Captain Cook, projects for its colonization were entertained. The earliest scheme was suggested by the celebrated Benjamin Franklin, who in 1771 published proposals for forming an association to fit out a vessel by subscription, which should proceed to New Zealand, with a cargo of such commodities as the natives were most in want of, and bring back, in return, so much of the produce of the country as should defray the expenses of the adventure. The main object of the expedition, however, was stated to be the promotion of the civilization of the New Zealanders.

The expedition was to have been commanded by Mr. Dalrymple, the admiralty hydrographer, a man of a very enterprising disposition, and who had distinguished himself in the QQ2

conduct of an exploratory voyage in the Eastern seas. He estimated the total expense of the voyage at not more than 15,000l. ; but the requisite funds were not raised, and the plan consequently never took effect. As soon as the South Sea whale-fishery was established, New Zealand became the resort of ships of all the nations engaged in it, and scattered settlements began to be formed on the most favourable parts of the coast, particularly by shoreparties of whalers, to which we shall presently refer; but the Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, and the Wesleyan Board of Missionst, who have been engaged in the labour for more than twenty years, have the merit of being the first who have directed their efforts to the improvement of the aborigines. In 1841 the Church Missionary Society had ten stations in the Northern Island, and thirty-five persons were employed by them as missionaries, catechists, &c. ; there were fifty-four schools of the same society, containing 1431 scholars; and the total number of persons forming the ten congregations is stated to be 2476, of whom 178 were communicants. The Wesleyan Missionaries are five in number, besides teachers, catechists, &c., and their exertions are stated to have been very successful.

The chief station of the Missionaries is at the Bay of Islands, a part of the country that has been most frequented by whalers and other European vessels, where the climate and soil have generally been supposed to be better than in a more southerly direction. They have, however, made settlements on the opposite shores, for the interior is little frequented by the natives, all of whose villages are in the neighbourhood of the coast and rivers; but we have never heard that they have attempted any settlement in the Southern, or rather Middle Island, now New Munster. They paid a good deal of attention to agriculture, and many purchased large tracts of land from the natives, but on such terms and to such an extravagant extent as to render it certain that their nominal possessions will be very much reduced by the interference of Government in the resumption of grants which have not been obtained upon the conditions which have been laid down as a rule in the consideration of all land-claims existing when the island was annexed to Her Majesty's dominions.

In 1825 a commercial company was formed in London under the auspices of the late Earl of Durham, which despatched two vessels to New Zealand, and acquired land at Heed's Point in the Hokianga River, and also at the mouth of the River Thames. The company was prevented by circumstances from pursuing its intention of forming a settlement, but its land was set apart and ultimately became vested in the present New Zealand Company.

That body, which has lately played so conspicuous a part in forwarding the progress of emigration to New Zealand, and whose proceedings, as far as we can form a judgment, appear to have been conducted with much skill and prudence, owes its rise to an Association formed in 1837, whose object was to induce the Government and the Legislature to apply to New

At a later period the Roman Catholics have arrived in New Zealand as candidates for the religious suffrages of the natives, and at this present time there are a bishop and twenty priests actively engaged on the Northern Island. Bishop Pompalier is a man peculiarly adapted for the purposes of his church. By education a scholar, in manners engaging, in countenance prepossessing and expressive, added to sincere and earnest zeal in the cause he has undertaken, although possessed of private personal wealth, it may be easily imagined, with the aid of pontifical robes,

that he creates no ordinary sensation among the abo rigines. He has a large beautiful schooner, in which he is continually visiting the coast, and is very kind and liberal to the Natives.-Terry's New Zealand, p. 190.: An English bishop, Dr. Selwyn, has been recently appointed to New Zealand, and is now on his way to take possession of his see, accompanied, as we understand, by eight cler gymen, in addition to four already engaged in their duties at Auckland, Russell, and Wellington. At the latter place there is also a minister of the Scottish Kirk.

Zealand the peculiar system of colonization which has been pursued in the case of South Australia, where no land has been granted gratuitously, but a large portion of the purchasemoney paid by capitalists has been appropriated to an emigration fund for conveying labourers to the colony-a plan practised with considerable success. Government offered to grant the Association a charter similar to those granted in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to North American colonies, but clogged with the condition that the Association should become a trading company: but this not suiting their views, the offer was declined. Having failed in their first attempt, Mr. F. Baring, their chairman, introduced (in 1839) a bill into Parliament by which it was proposed to place all those portions of New Zealand to be settled by the Association under the auspices of commissioners to be appointed by the Crown, under the immediate care of the home government, and to establish a colonial government, which should have jurisdiction not only over those parts of the country which by the bill were proposed to be annexed to the British dominions, but over all British subjects on the Islands. As respects the last-named parties, independent settlers, they had, as early as 1817, been declared, by Act of Parliament, to be under the control of the Australian government, and all criminal offences and civil suits were referred, at great inconvenience, to the courts at Sydney. The bill we have just referred to did not receive the support of Government, who no doubt entertained ulterior views; their conduct at the time appeared somewhat unaccountable, as although it could not be desired that they should adopt a bill framed confessedly for the purposes of a private association, yet the wants of the numerous settlers already established called for more attention than could be afforded by a resident consul who had been recently appointed, but whose power was merely nominal, being unsupported by any native government, there being none, and who was in fact merely a channel of communication from the authorities at Sydney. The bill being lost in the House of Commons, the New Zealand Association was dissolved; but many of its more influential members, and other friends of colonization, formed the plan of continuing the prosecution of its leading objects by means of a Joint-Stock Company, with a subscribed capital. This scheme was carried into effect with almost unprecedented despatch, since the New Zealand Company sent out their first vessel on the 12th of May, 1839.

We cannot follow the course of colonization in New Zealand step by step; and as indeed it would be the history of a movement still in progress, it must in any case terminate abruptly. The establishment of the New Zealand Company was quickly followed by that of another company, called the New Plymouth Company, but both are now blended into one. They have, especially since their conjunction, carried out their objects with great success. Three large towns have been founded ;-one, Wellington, the first settlement of the New Zealand Company, in Port Nicholson, in Cook's Straits; the others, New Plymouth and Nelson, in the bay of Taraniki, near Mount Edgcombe. Both positions, although not the actual sites of the towns, are marked on the map which accompanies this work. Besides these main stations, around each of which the conjoined companies have procured, by authorized purchases, very considerable possessions, they have obtained valuable lands on both the main islands-the Northern, Eaheinomauwe, or New Ulster, and the Middle, sometimes called the Southern, Tavai Poenammoo, or New Munster. By the last report of the New Zealand Company, (into which the New Plymouth board has merged,) made public in October 1842, it appears that 8473 emigrants have arrived in their settlements, exclusive of those who have gone to the government stations or private settlements; and the tide of emigration appears still to run strong in the direction of New Zealand.