Information Relative to New Zealand, Compiled for the Use of Colonists, by John Ward, Esq., Secretary to the New Zealand Company. Second Edition, corrected and enlarged. London, Parker, 1840. 24mo., pp. 168.
"The New Zealand Group," says the intelligent author of the 'Information,' &c., "consists of two large islands, called the Northern and Southern, a smaller island called Stewart's, 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 160th to the 179th degree of east longitude. The extreme length exceeds 800 miles, and the average breadth, which is very variable, is about 100 miles. The surface of the island is estimated to contain 95,000 square miles, or about 60,000,000 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, which, however, it far surpasses in respect of soil and climate." p. 1-2.
The climate is peculiarly salubrious and delightful. The temperature resembles (after on allowance of about 7°, for the lower degree of heat of the Southern Hemisphere), that of the land between the south of Portugal, and the north of France,—pervading, we may say, but without exceeding, the most favoured part of the temperate region; and numerous witnesses of ample experience concur in describing the extremes of cold in winter, and heat in summer, as being within peculiarly narrow limits; which is to describe the climate as one of the most equable in the world. New Zealand is neither exposed to the scorching heats of summer, nor to the blasting frosts of a severe winter. The climate is unquestionably very congenial to European constitutions. The seasons are as follows;— spring commences in the middle of August; summer in December; autumn in March; and winter in July. Droughts, such as afflict some parts of Australia, are wholly unknown. A never-failing moisture is dispersed over the country by the clouds which collect on the mountain-tops, without the occurrence of rainy seasons, beyond storms of a few days' duration. This refreshing moisture, combined with the influence of the sea-breezes, renders the climate very favourable to the health, and developement of the human frame. Vegetation is, from the same cause, highly luxuriant; the verdure is almost perpetual; and there is no instance on record of a crop having been lost for want of rain.
"In speaking of the climate we should remark that there are no diseases peculiar to the country; in fact, none of any importance but such as have been introduced by the Europeans. Cook says, 'As there is no source of disease, either critical or chronic, but intemperance and inactivity, these people enjoy perfect and uninterrupted health—we never saw any person amongst them who appeared to have any bodily complaint.' Their wounds healed with an astonishing facility, and 'a further proof that human nature is here untainted with disease, is the great number of old men that we saw, many of whom, by the loss of their hair and teeth, appeared to be very ancient, yet none of them were decrepit, and though not equal to the young in muscular strength, were not a whit behind them in cheerfulness and vivacity.' Unhappily half a century of European intercourse has introduced disease, and done its usual destructive work in spite of the climate."—Information, p. 21-22.
"The rosy tinge of the cheek," he observes, "is the direct consequences of moist air, of a fresh stimulating coolness. The British fair may rely that England's rose will not fail to blossom in New Zealand in all its natural richness, giving the unmatched tinge of the flower— beauty and freshness. The danger is that it may even throw that of the mother country into the shade; although its sister, the vegetable rose, has never been seen indigenous in the southern hemisphere, whilst it surrounds the globe in the northern with a flowry chaplet… In other respects, from its soft moist climate, New Zealand, like Sicily, may be expected to be especially propitious to women. The prospects now before them must cause the bright blood to mantle on the cheek of the British fair."
"The soil is spoken of by all the writers in the most favourable terms, from Captain Cook downwards. After describing the fertility of many particular spots, Cook sums up his account by saying that the hills and mountains are covered with wood, and every valley has a rivulet of water; the soil in these valleys, and in the plains, of which there are many that are not overgrown with wood, is in general light but fertile; and, in the opinion of Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander, as well as of every other gentleman on board, every kind of European grain, plant, and fruit, would flourish here in the utmost luxuriance. From the vegetables we found here, there is reason to conclude that the winters are milder than those in England, and we found the summer not hotter, though it was more equally warm; so that if this country should be settled by people from Europe, they would, with a little industry, be very soon supplied not only with the necessaries, but the luxuries of life in great abundance."—p. 22.
Dr. Lang, says the intelligent author of the Information, p. 70, that the best helmsman on board a vessel by which he once returned to England, was Toki, a New Zealander. "Nothing," says Dr. Lang, "could divert his attention from the compass, or the sails, or the sea; and whenever I saw him at the helm, and especially in tempestuous weather at night, I could not help regarding it as a most interesting and hopeful circumstance in the history of man, that a British vessel of four hundred tons, containing a valuable cargo and many souls of Europeans, should be steered ocross the boundless Pacific, in
in the midst of storm and darkness, by a poor New Zealander, whose fathers had, from time immemorial, been eaters of men."
"But there is another view of the subject to be taken, and that view exclusively concerns those who contemplate the transplantation of themselves and families to the shores of New Zealand. I mean their personal safety. This, I think, is satisfactorily answered by the fact, that since the first residents took up their abode in New Zealand in 1814, up to the period I left the island to return to this country, not one single instance which I can recollect, or have heard of, has occurred of any European, or any other foreign settler, having lost his life."
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A valiant tribe of Caledonia, the Altacotti (or Scots), the enemies and afterwards the soldiers of Valentinian, are accused, by an eye witness, of delighting in the taste of human flesh. When they hunted the woods for prey, it is said that they attacked the shepherd rather than the flocks; and that they anxiously selected the most delicate and brawny parts, both of males and females, which they prepared for their horrid repasts. If in the neighbourhood of the commercial and literary town of Glasgow a race of cannibals has really existed, we may contemplate in this period of Scottish history, the opposite extremes of savage and civilised life. Such reflections tend to enlarge the circle of our ideas, and to encourage the pleasing hope that New Zealand may produce, in some future age, the Hume of the southern hemisphere.— Gibbon, 8vo. edit. vol. iv, p. 297, 1813.
Cum ipse adolescentulus in Galliâ viderim Attacottos (aut Scotos), gentem Brittanicam humanìs vesci carnibus; et cum per silvas porcorum greges, et armentorum pecudumque reperiunt, pastorum nates et feme-narum papillas solere abscindere, et has solas ciborum delicias arbitrari. Such is the evidence of Jerome (tom, 2, p. 75), whose veracity I find no reason to doubt. |