THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 27

arrived from Australia, and took away about
four hundred and fifty (450) tons, and three
vessels from New Zealand shipped about one
hundred and fifty tons (150) more: these all
cost, on an average, three pounds (£3) a ton,
so that last year about eighteen hundred pounds
(£1800), most part in trade, was laid out on
the islands. The goods taken from New Zea-
land were, no doubt, all duty paid at the ports
at which they were shipped. In consequence
of these few vessels calling last year, the natives
again made large plantations; both Maories and
Europeans assured me that the crop of the
present season would yield at least two thousand
(2000) tons, and from what I saw myself, I
believe this to be a low estimate. At Waitangi
alone, there were at least two hundred (200)
tons of the finest potatoes I ever saw, brought
into the pah to be ready for shipment. With
the exception of one hundred and sixty (160)
tons shipped for Wellington, all this large crop,
like that of 1859, must rot on the ground. The
"Esther" has been the only vessel that has
called to load this year. In the three trips
she has made, there have been shipped seven
hundred and thirty-two (732) bushels of wheat,
one hundred and sixty-two (162) tons of pota-
toes, and about twelve hundred (1200) pounds
of wool. The cost of this would be about
three hundred and fifty pounds (£350), and
more than two-thirds of this was paid for in
goods, duty paid in New Zealand. The natives
this year have been glad to take one pound
(£1) a ton for their potatoes, delivered on board
the vessel. The price of wheat has been four
shillings (4s.) a bushel.

In former years there were several whaling
stations on the main Island, and last year the
Maories had some boats out and obtained a
few tuns of oil, but this enterprize has now al-
together ceased.

The European population of the Chatham
Islands is now very small; beyond the three
German settlers and their families, and Mr.
Shand and family, on the main Island, and the
families of Messrs. Hunt and Reignault on Pitt's
Island, there are not a dozen others altogether,
and most of these live among the Maories and
cultivate small plots of ground or taupas in
common with them. I enclose a return which
shows the total number to be forty-six only,
viz.: thirty-three adults, and thirteen children.

I found great difficulty at first in my endea-
vours to ascertain the present number of Mao-
ries and Aborigines; all the estimates both by
Natives and Europeans differed very widely.
Shortly after my arrival, however, a large num-
ber of Natives assembled at Kaingaroa to see
me, and I took some pains to induce them to
make a complete list of the names of all the
Native inhabitants of the different settlements
round the Island. In this I succeeded, and
believe the list I procured, of which I beg to
enclose a copy, to be perfectly correct, as I had
several opportunities of testing its accuracy. I
enclose also an abstract of this nominal list,
which shows the Native population to be as
follows:-

Aborigines or Morioris ............ 160
Maories ............................ 413
Half Castes (by European fathers)... 17
Total...... 590

Five hundred and ninety souls. From this
return it will be seen that the Natives must be
rapidly on the decline, as there are only sixty-
four children to five hundred and nine adults.
At Kaingaroa and the adjacent kaingas, which
comprises about half of the population, thirty-
four, nearly all adults, have died since 1856,
and seventeen only have been born in the same
period. Several years ago the Lord Bishop
of New Zealand took a list similar to the one
I obtained, and then the Natives, I was told,
numbered over a thousand. It would be in-
teresting now to compare the two lists so as to
ascertain the exact rate of decrease. It should
be noted that in addition to those who have
died, about thirty left for Taranaki by the
"Esther," in 1859.

Everywhere that I met the poor Morioris
I found them delighted to see me, but the Mao-
ries appeared to exercise a most suspicious vigi-
lance over their actions, and rarely left them a
moment alone to talk to me. The miserable
remnant of this ill-used people, I believe, cling
most tenaciously to the belief that His Excel-
lency's Government will ere long restore them
to freedom, and to the possession of some por-
tion of the land which was so cruelly wrested
from them by their Maori conquerors. It is
estimated that there must have been three
thousand Aborigines on the Island when the
Maories first reached there, twenty-five years
ago; the greater part of these were slaughtered
at once, and the remainder subjected to a state
of most oppressive slavery. Of late years how-
ever their condition has much improved. I
believe they are not now beaten or ill-used,
and they are allowed to cultivate the ground
for their own benefit, in common with the
Maories; the men are also now allowed to take
wives, which they were not formerly permitted
to do, but are still prohibited from marrying
Maori women. Only two instances have oc-
curred of Moriori men having taken Maori
wives and in one of these the woman was for-
merly a slave in New Zealand.

The Maories have a large number of horses;
there must be nearly five hundred now on the
Island, as upwards of a hundred, principally
breeding mares, were brought down by the
traders from Sydney in the years 1853-54 and
55. There must be also about a thousand
head of cattle, but most of these are running wild
in the bush. I observed everywhere fine milch
cows, and working bullocks, in excellent con-
dition about the pahs. At Tupuange the
Maories have from eighty to a hundred sheep,
but of these they take so little care that the
dogs destroy them faster than they can increase.
The Europeans have about thirteen hundred
sheep which thrive pretty well; half of these
are on Pitt's Island, and belong to Mr. Hunt.

I regret very much that I am not able to
offer any correct estimate of the size of the