soon recovered;" one poor boy, a native of the Island of Lefu, died, however, at the College.

In October, 1852, the Bishop brought to New Zealand a second detachment of tropical children. This time there were twenty-seven of them, and they were collected from the Loyalty, Soloman’s, and New Hebrides Islands. They remained eight months in New Zealand, but during that short time, many of them fell sick, and two died, and they were all hastily removed in June, 1853, to prevent more from suffering. On embarkation, eight were sick with coughs and colds, and one died on board of ship shortly after leaving New Zealand.

Those acquainted with the history of the human race, know, that the children of the tropics cannot bear transplantation to a temperate climate without losing their health, and the example just quoted, are only additional facts testifying to the correctness of this opinion; they afford no evidence of the trying nature of the climate of New Zealand for the Anglo-Saxon race.

3.—THE CLIMATE OF THE NORTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND IS CHARACTERIZED BY THE GROWTH OF MAIZE AND POTATOES.

There is a curious, important, and characteristic peculiarity of the climate of the North Island of New Zealand which I cannot pass over without notice. It is, that both maize (Indian corn) and potatoes ripen in this country, are very fruitful, and afford a copious supply of food for the inhabitants. In Italy, and the Southern countries of Europe, maize is to the inhabitants what potatoes are to the people in the North of Europe—the staple article of food. The cause of this is thus explained:—Potatoes and maize do not grow together in the same climates in Europe; one flourishing best, where the other succeeds badly. The growth of maize in Europe is indeed almost limited to the country of the vine, for although potatoes can be raised in climates when the grapes of the vine come to perfection, yet potatoes in these countries are deficient in quantity, and bad in quality.

There is no climate in Europe where maize and potatoes grow to perfection side by side as in New Zealand, and there is no country where both these esculents form a large part of the food of the same people. In Van Diemen’s Land, potatoes grow to perfection, and maize decays; on the Australian continent maize yields abundantly, and potatoes are uncertain.

It is difficult to foresee the moral and physical results which will flow from the growth of these two productive plants in the climate of the North Island of New Zealand.

9.—EXAMPLE OF THE GROWTH OF TWO USEFUL TROPICAL PLANTS IN NEW ZEALAND.

Another curious and characteristic feature of the climate of the North Island of New Zealand I must relate. When the New Zealanders arrived in New Zealand, they brought with them according to tradition, in their canoes, seeds of the plants they used as food in the tropical Islands, from whence they came; some of these plants have become extinct, but the sweet potatoe (Convolvulus Batatas), with the Taro (Caladium Esculentum), and a few others still survive.

It is true the sweet potatoe, the Kumera Maori, as it is called, and the Taro, are cultivated with some difficulty in New Zealand, and have degenerated much, but the fact that these two tropical plants should have furnished for several centuries a large portion of the food of a whole people, speaks volumes for the mildness of the climate, the excellence of the soil, and the care bestowed on their cultivation by the New Zealanders.

Since the introduction of potatoes, maize, and other plants, the culture of the Taro, and Maori Kumera are much neglected.

10.—ON THE HEALTH OF THE NEW ZEALAND RACE.

It may seem strange that, in a country where the Anglo-Saxon race is remarkable for health, the New Zealanders should be distinguished for sickness, and that diseases of the lungs—the very class of maladies, I have been endeavouring to show are not very frequent among the English here—are the maladies which prove fatal to a large portion of the whole New Zealand race.

This circumstance, I wish it to be clearly understood, is no argument against the Climate of this Country, for the condition of the New Zealanders, is highly unfavourable for health. Three hundred days out of the year, their food contains little good nourishment; they are badly clad, and worse housed; their habitations are indeed miserable, ill ventilated huts; their beds are on the ground, the secretion from their skins is checked by filth, and they often sleep in crowded huts in winter, to keep each other warm, during which time, the air they respire is most unwholesome. That consumption and scrofula under such circumstances should be frequent is not to be wondered at. The same mode of life would soon produce the same diseases among the Anglo-Saxon race, and there is one point in the history of the New Zealanders which is often overlooked—they originally migrated from a tropical country, and are therefore children of the tropics.

It is difficult to suggest how this unhealthy condition of the New Zealanders might be removed. My own opinion is, that an abundance of good food is the first and most important point to be looked into, and that man will be their greatest benefactor, in a worldly sense, who can devise some plan, by which every New Zealander can get a pound of animal food, and a pound of wheaten flour every day in the year, a result which peace trade and civilization are, however, slowly bringing about.

I have the honour to be, Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

A. S. THOMSON, M.D.,

Surgeon 58th Regiment.

In charge of the principal Medical Officer’s Department, New Zealand.

Auckland, New Zealand, Dec. 10th, 1853.

Lang’s notes of a Traveller. 2nd Edition London, 1849.