My reason for writing about a country concerning which, as may be seen in the bibliography appended, ninety volumes, two hundred pamphlets, and nearly a hundred-weight of parliamentary papers have been already printed is this. On embarking to join the 58th Regiment, of which corps I have been surgeon for thirteen years, I could find no book containing a general history of the colony; and, at present, several professing to be accounts of New Zealand limit their information to one settlement and one race, while others are evidently written for political, colonising, or religious purposes, and not a few are flattering mercantile advertisements. In the hope of filling up this literary gap, I occasionally amused my leisure hours in collecting materials for the present work, and my means for doing so were considerable. During eleven years' residence I saw much of the country; held intercourse with representative men; sojourned for months among the aborigines in the interior; was permitted by Dr. Sinclair, the late Colonial Secretary, to consult many unpublished official docu ments; and enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing the true manner in which New Zealanders talk over passing events among themselves, from my enlightened friend Wiremu Maihi te Rangikaheke. This man, who lived for several years in my house, was a chief among the turbulent warriors of Rotorua, and a valuable contributor to Governor Grey's "Traditions and Chaunts of the New Zealanders." From personal observation, and materials culled from these sources, I have endeavoured to sketch the natural history of the country; to narrate the story of its people, their spiritual conquest, and the dawn of civilisation amongst them; to show how a few Anglo-Saxons planted and managed a colony in the midst of cannibals; and to describe their bygone dangers and difficulties, their present efforts to render a theoretical constitution practically useful, and the progress they have made in developing the resources of England's most distant colony. Aldershot Camp, November 10. 1859. |