Chapter I: Preface

The fact that nothing has hitherto been published concerning life in this part of New Zealand from the pen of a _bona-fide_ settler has induced me to write the following pages.

Before commencing the undertaking, I had been at considerable pains to satisfy myself of the truth of this fact, and naturally so, for it is the life-buoy I cling to as I take this, my first dip, in the sea of literature; it is my one excuse for troubling the public, and in it consists my hope that they will consent to be troubled.

I do not pretend to literary talent, and my highest ambition is to lay the true narrative of my experiences in New Zealand before the public in a readable form. If successful in doing this, I shall be content, and trust that my readers will be also.

Many books have been written describing colonial life in this and other parts, in some of which the writers have identified themselves with the characters in their stories; but these have invariably been the works of _visitors to the colony_, not _settlers in it_.

There is to my mind as much difference between the two experiences as there is between the experience of a _volunteer_ and that of a _soldier of the line_, and it is on this account that I approach the public with some small degree of confidence, and venture to lay before my readers the experiences of a settler in North New Zealand.

THE NARRATOR.

MATAKOHE, KAIPARA, PROVINCE OF AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE

I. OUR ARRIVAL IN THE NEW COUNTRY 1

II. AN AUCKLAND TABLE-D'HÔTE 7

III. A CHAT ABOUT AUCKLAND 14

IV. MORE ABOUT AUCKLAND 21

V. MY FIRST RAILWAY JOURNEY 27

VI. LIVING IN NEW ZEALAND 33

VII. A PERILOUS JOURNEY 40

VIII. THE "TERROR" 50

IX. A SALE BY AUCTION 60

X. THE FAITHLESS MARY ANN 66

XI. MY INTRODUCTION TO KAIPARA 72

XII. A WILD PIG HUNT 80

XIII. PURCHASING LIVE-STOCK 88

XIV. A COLONIAL BALL 102

XV. THE FORESTS OF NORTH NEW ZEALAND 107

XVI. THE LABOURING-MAN SETTLER 118

XVII. KAIPARA FISH 125

XVIII. GODWIT SHOOTING 135

XIX. THE KAURI GUMDIGGER 142

XX. A STORY OF A BUSHRANGER 159

XXI. SPORTS 166

XXII. SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT IN NEW ZEALAND 176

XXIII. KAIPARA INSECTS 183

XXIV. A MAORI WEDDING 194

XXV. SYSTEM OF EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND 201

XXVI. A MEETING OF THE COUNTY COUNCIL 206

XXVII. CONCLUSION 212

KAIPARA.