From such independent sources, the table of pedigrees, above referred to, was composed. When it is borne in mind, that this was done merely from notes collected during three or four months' residence among the tribe, it will be understood that with time, and a sufficient knowledge of the language, data could be obtained, from which similar tables might be formed with very great accuracy; so that, when it was proposed by the Government to purchase land from the Aborigines, a reference to them would indicate the principal persons really interested in the sale, and lessen the risk of treating with persons as principals, whose claims were of a doubtful nature, or, at any rate, not worthy of preference to those of many others, who, perhaps, from living at a distance, or from being less importunate, might have been otherwise overlooked at the time.

CHAPTER VI.

VISIT WAIKOUAITI MR. J'S HISTORY 1 MODE OF PAYING WHALERS-THEIR FORMER DRUNKENNESS AND IMPROVIDENCE

-PRESENT IMPROVED MORAL CONDITION-TALE OF STEPHEN SMITH-AMICABLE RELATIONS OF THE TWO RACES-MODE OF GRINDING AND BORING HOLES THROUGH THE POUNAMU STONE -VISIT PURAKAUNUI-HOSPITALITY OF AN OLD WHALERFOUR NOTES OF THE BELL-BIRD.

ALL the cases brought before the Commissioner's Court having been examined, he left Otakou, on the 15th of October, in the Government brig, which had arrived the day before. I then removed to the native village at Te Rauone; and after having remained a few days there, hired a boat to take me to Waikouaiti, Mr. J's whaling station. At that place there were also a small body of natives, and a Wesleyan Missionary, w ad very hospitably offered to give me a bed house.

sail at day-break, on a misty

morning, but with a fair breeze off the land, which carried us the whole distance, about eleven miles, in two hours and a-half. We landed on the bank of the small river, which gives its name to this place, and flows into the southern extremity of a sandy bay. The mouth of the river is somewhat protected from the roll of the sea by a projecting headland, close to which there is deep water, while from its lofty summit a good view may be had of the offing, and of any whale which may chance to spout there. These advantages render the site an eligible one for a whaling station. It had first been occupied for this purpose, in 1837, by a merchant of Sydney, who became bankrupt the year following; and was then bought by the present proprietor, who has carried on the fishery, since that time, with various success.

Mr. J's history afforded one of many instances of the rapidity with which persons, in New South Wales, have elevated themselves from a lowly position to one of great wealth. It is a history of which he is justly proud, and there is no reason, therefore, why it should not be told. When a boy, he had been a sealer on the

coast of this island. Having saved enough money to purchase a boat, he went to Sydney, and employed himself as a waterman. There, being a careful and shrewd man, he found lucrative ways of investing his savings. Finally, he commenced business as a merchant; and in 1841, was considered one of the most wealthy and respectable of his class. In his prosperous days, he had speculated largely in the whale fisheries; he had also sent sheep, cattle, and several families of labourers, to this place, and had commenced farming operations on a more extensive scale than, perhaps, any other individual in New Zealand. In this he had distinguished himself from the great body of landclaimants, who had, in most cases, never attempted even to take possession of the land they pretended to have purchased. In 1840, he prevailed on the Wesleyan Society to send a missionary to Waikouaiti, by liberally offering to convey him and his family without charge, and to build a house for their reception.

About two years after this, ruin overtook most of the merchants at Sydney, where wild speculations, and a system of credit, had been carried

on to an extreme seldom before heard of. Mr. J suffered among the rest, but managed to retain his property in New Zealand, where he retired with his wife and family; so that, on my arrival at this, the then "ultima Thule" of the colony, my ears were astonished at the sounds of a piano, and my eyes at the black

cutaway” and riding whip of a young gentleman, lately of Emman. Coll. Cantab., but now acting tutor to Mr. J's son and heir.

This

The weather, for some while after my arrival, was very boisterous and rainy; the rivers flooded, and the country quite unfit for travelling. caused a delay in my proposed journey, by land, to Banks's Peninsula, which I found very irksome, but which, at the same time, enabled me to collect information respecting the different whaling establishments on the coast, and other matters of interest.

To equip one of these stations necessarily requires the outlay of a large sum of money. A pair of sheers, such as are used for taking out or putting in the masts of ships, must be erected, in order to raise the immense carcases above water, that they may be cut up more