✨ Māori Affairs Report
83
In the Return, I have merely stated what I found on the spot,—but on further enquiry, it appears that the present average is about 120 tons per annum, chiefly cut and cleaned in the country lying between Otaki and Manawatu, and sold at the rate of about £10 per ton. As the employment is one in which persons of all ages and sexes can engage, the trade is likely to become of very great importance to the Province, and will be more extensively carried on than it is now, if the prices do not fail.
-
As nearly as I could do so, I have endeavoured to give the distances between the several settlements, their total number of inhabitants, their usual employment, and means of subsistence. I have adopted this plan, because I believe it will give a tolerably good idea of the character and condition of the whole of the Native settlements scattered throughout the Northern Island, many of which I have personally visited; I think also that, with the exception of some few inland stations inhabited by the “Waikato” and “Roturua” tribes, the number and condition of the Natives inhabiting the settlements on the east and west coasts would now be found to correspond very nearly with those above described. In the Middle Island their numbers are comparatively few.
-
The entire population within the Districts of Wellington, Waikanae, Otaki, Manawatu, and Wairarapa, amounts to 4721; and the average of expenditure in articles of European Manufacture, at about 25s. per head, or near £6,000 per annum, as nearly as I am able to judge: If the flax trade should go on increasing in the ratio that it does now, the consumption will be greater, and the Revenue to which they are at the present time large contributors, will no doubt increase in proportion. With these few remarks I beg to conclude, in the hope that the particulars collected during the mission will be satisfactory to His Excellency, and found to be useful hereafter in compiling Statistics of a similar kind.
I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your most obedient humble servant,
H. Tacy Kemp,
Native Secretary.
The Honorable,
The Colonial Secretary,
New Munster.
ERRATUM.—Page 77—line 48—for 150 Day Scholars, read Day Scholars.
Next Page →
New Munster Gazette 1850, No 16
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
🪶
Report on Wairarapa District
(continued from previous page)
🪶 Māori Affairs15 June 1850
Wairarapa, Native Settlements, Trade, Education, Health
- H. Tacy Kemp, Native Secretary
📰 Errata Notice
📰 NZ GazetteErrata, Correction, Page 77