Sheep-farming has of late years made an enormous advance in New Zealand, the export for 1857 being 2,648,716 lbs., value £176,581, that for 1859, 5,096,751 lbs., value £339,779, averaging 1s. 4d. per lb. The list of articles suitable for export must continually increase with immigration, and the consequent spread of population through the interior.
The entire commerce of New Zealand, both import and
export, is at present about £2,000,000, the value of imports having risen from £597,827 in 1853 to £1,551,030 in 1859, while the exports, which in the former year were only £331,282, had risen in 1859 to £551,484. The last-mentioned year employed 836 ships, of which 438, representing 136,580 tons and 7594 of crew, were engaged in the import, and 398 of 120,392 tons and 6483 of crew, were employed in the export trade. The net revenue of the Government for the same period was £459,648.
The majority of the colonists are emigrants from Great Britain, only a small fraction coming from the continent.[50] A large Irish population lives in the neighbourhood of Auckland, while the Scotch cling together about Taranaki and the southern parts of the island. The European population was 52,155 in 1857, and 73,343 in 1859, the proportion of sexes in the latter year being 42,452 males, and 30,891 females.
While most of the naturalists of the Novara staff went on the invitation of Government to examine the coal-beds lately discovered in Drury district, others made frequent excursions
in the environs of Auckland, three of which deserve special mention.
The first was to the picturesque Judges and Oraki Bays, the latter formed by the ruins of a crater. Here for the first time we beheld what is called the New Zealand Christmas tree, Metrosideros Tormentosa, which at the festive season comes forth pranked in all its gay blossoms, and is extensively used in decorating churches and dwelling-houses. Its large deep-red, umbellate blossoms are visible from afar gleaming among the green vegetation along the coast. The natives call this tree the Pohútu-Káwua; it is most extensively found on the slopes along the coast. The wild pepper, Kawa-kawa (Piper excelsum), is very common in the country round Auckland, but is not brewed into an intoxicating drink like the Piper methysticum of the Southern Ocean. The natives indeed are exceedingly temperate, and, unlike other half-civilized races, are very little addicted to drink; this however may be partly due to the wise precautions of the Government, which under a heavy pecuniary penalty forbids all tavern-keepers throughout the province from selling the Maori any drink except beer. Two species of grass eminently characteristic of the country, which often overrun vast tracts of land, and are used by the natives for thatching their huts, are the Toi-toi (Lepidosperma elatior) and the Kekaho (Arundo Australis). There are also the Puka-puka, or paper-seed (Brachyglottis repanda),
an object which, where it is found, imparts a peculiar aspect to the landscape, like the silver poplars on the flanks of Table Mountain at the Cape. The name of the plant is derived from the under side of the leaves being as white as paper.
We also during this excursion saw great quantities of Raorao or Aruhe (Pteris esculenta), and were told that the roots (roi) of this fern, baked and ground, were highly prized by the Maories as a specific against sea-sickness. No native makes a sea-voyage, at least to any distance, without carrying with him a piece of this root, using it when baked as an antidote against that most depressing of maladies, from which even primitive races are not exempt. The efficacy of this remedy is however rather reputed than actual, the experience of Europeans, who have availed themselves of its supposed virtues, tending to show that it is absolutely worthless.
While at Oraki Bay we also visited the Maori village of Oraki. Here we found some 80 natives, men, women, and children, who had encamped on a hill outside the village. They were clothed partly in European style, partly in clothes made of native flax. The diversity of feature was most remarkable, as was also the great difference in the hair of the head. Some had thin black, others crisp, hair; many had it of a dark brown colour, while yet others had regular fox-coloured locks. The elder men had