PREFACE. G1667 มาระ THE following pages have been compiled from the notes of a journal written during part of the years 1843-4, while the author was employed in the service of the Colonial Government of New Zealand, as a Protector of the Aborigines. His duties obliged him at that time to visit the east coast of the Middle Island, from Banks's Peninsula to Foveaux's Straits a part of New Zealand to which the attention of colonists has lately been more particularly directed: and as several applications have been made to him for information regarding it, by persons who had formed the design of emigrating, or by their friends, he has been induced to publish the volume now offered to the public. It is hoped that the anecdotes and other matters illustrative of the habits of the aboriginal population of the country, which have been occasionally introduced, will prove instructive as well as entertaining; for it appears to be by no means an unimportant element of the prosperity of our settlements in New Zealand, that the colonists should understand as much as possible of the peculiar ideas and prejudices of the people with whom they must be constantly associated. The natives of New Zealand differ essentially from those of all other of our Australian Colonies. They are comparatively more numerous; they are given to agricultural pursuits; and have been found to learn, and readily adopt, the more civilized practices of Europeans; at the same time that their bodily and mental organization is generally considered not inferior to our own. These advantages, added to their natural bravery and love of freedom, constitute them a class who must always have a political weight in their own country. |