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Distant Homes; or the Graham Family in New Zealand

Chapter II

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Chapter II.

The Departure—Tom visits the Diggings—Captain Hobson's Race with the Frenchman—Birds in New Zealand.

The Christmas holidays passed peacefully and happily away, and being the last spent by the Grahams in their native land, remained deeply impressed on the memory of each member of the family. All their friends knew of their intended departure; and as they had been both loved and respected by their neighbours, many a regret was spoken and felt. These could not cloud or darken the faces of the children; but to the parents, who knew the difficulties before them, such partings could not fail to be saddening. Besides this, they would be divided from many relations and friends, and last, though not least, the quiet churchyard, in which were buried two little angel children, who had both died in one week, and now lay in one grave with a tall white cross at the head, round which it had been the duty of brothers and sisters to keep flowers of every sort in order.

The last Sunday came; and, after service, the whole family proceeded to the little grave and knelt round it, while Captain Graham offered up a prayer that God would grant their re-union in his Heavenly Kingdom. This sad duty over, Mrs. Graham became more reconciled to the parting, her only anxiety being the fact of leaving George, page 11 who had still two years to remain at Cambridge, at the end of which time, and when he had taken his degrees, he would immediately join his family in New Zealand, having obtained a promise from the Bishop that he would give him work to do in the colony, and in the mean time, while pursuing his other studies, it was recommended that he should make himself master of one or two of the languages spoken in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

Parting from their old home was at last over, and the whole family on board the ship that was to carry them to their new one. George kept by his mother's side until the last moment; when he was obliged to say good-bye, his sisters, crying bitterly, hung round his neck, while Tom, forgotten in their grief, stood choking back his own tears, and determined poor George should see one cheerful face at parting; he was the last to come forward, and for an instant the brothers were clasped in each other's arms, and Tom felt George's breast heave with a deep sob as he whispered—

“If I never come out to join you, Tom, take care of Papa and Mamma, and God bless you.”

I shall not tire my dear readers with a long account of the voyage out, the sea is always much the same, and the amusements on board such ships vary very little. Tom, I believe, enjoyed the voyage more than any of them, and made great friends with the midshipmen, becoming so expert in all their duties, that he was laughingly enrolled as volunteer by the Captain, and grew so fond of his work, that Captain Graham began to fear he should have some difficulty in weaning him from it on their arrival at their destination; while Tom, himself, openly declared he would be a sailor, and nothing else.

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There was a long spell of fine weather at the beginning of the voyage; but this deserted them, just as they reached Melbourne, at which port the ship was to leave some passengers. During the week they were detained here, Tom and his father saw a good deal of the surrounding country.

Melbourne, as most of my readers probably know, is one of the principal ports of Australia; and is situated near Hobson's Bay.

Port Philip has been very much better known since the discovery of the gold diggings, and of course become much larger. At first, when gold was discovered, there was such a rush of people to Melbourne, that there was no room for them; and poor people who had come thousands of miles, had to sleep upon the bare ground, only too glad, to get under a shed of any sort; even though for this, they had to pay largely. The hardships they endured in Melbourne were, however, nothing in comparison to those which they had to bear during their long journey inland; the nearest gold field, that of Ballarat, being nearly a hundred miles up the country. There were, then, no roads, and nothing like an inn or resting place; and whether one thinks of the mud and cold of winter, or the heat and dust of summer, without food, except what they could carry, or any shelter better than a chance bush or rock, we may understand, in a small measure, something of what the poor miners had to undergo.

At the time Tom and his father saw Melbourne, things were very much improved; good inns and capital roads, made travelling so easy, that, finding the ship must remain at least three days in harbour, they made an excursion to Ballarat, just to take a peep at what a gold-field was like.

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Lucy begged hard to go too; but, could not persuade her Papa to take her, and most reluctantly had to be content with Tom's promise of bringing back a nugget as big as his head.

It was not Tom's fault that he did not fulfil his promise, as, though he looked most diligently about, he could see nothing bearing a sign of gold; and was, on the whole, very much disappointed with his trip; and told Lucy, the gold-field was only a dull dirty-looking plain, covered with holes, and wooden huts; the diggers themselves, all looking very wretched, and making a dreadful noise all night—altogether such a dismal sight that Tom never wished to see the “diggings” again, or dreamt, as he had done, of beautiful plains glittering with gold dust.

They left Port Philip on the sixth day, and, as they might expect to see their new country in a very short time, every body on board was in a state of great excitement, and Tom seldom left the rigging, being determined to have the first glimpse; and while all this anxiety is going on amongst our friends on board, I think we might employ ourselves very well, in finding out something about the discovery of New Zealand.

This, it appears, has been falsely attributed to Captain Cook; the man who really first put on record a visit to it was a Dutch sailor, named Abel Tasman: and it was quite a hundred years after his discovery of the islands, that Captain Cook saw them.

Tasman sailed from Batavia, a settlement upon the island of Java, by the orders of Governor Antonio Van Diemen; and it was in honour of his daughter, Maria Van Diemen, that Tasman named his first discovery. If you look at the page 14 map, you will find it was a very natural thing for the discovery of New Zealand to follow that of Van Diemen's Land.

Tasman coasted up the shore of New Zealand, and cast anchor in Nelson Bay, which, owing to a fight his sailors had with the natives, he called Massacre Bay. From this he returned to Batavia, where he reported his discoveries; and advised that this new island should be named New Zealand, after the old Dutch province of Zealand.

In the reign of George the Third, 1768, Cook began one of his great voyages of discovery; and upon the 6th of October, 1769, descried the Island of New Zealand; and finally took possession in the king's name.

At this time, it is quite certain the natives were Cannibals, and that an enemy slain in battle was pretty sure to be eaten. In spite of this character, however, they were by no means an inhospitable or ferocious race, and whalers who formed settlements along the coast, had no reason to complain of bad treatment or treachery. They soon found out, that the natives preferred eating each other, and held the white strangers in great veneration.

Missionaries came out about 1814, and, congregating chiefly in the north part of the northern island, formed the settlement named Kororarika, which not many years ago was completely destroyed by the natives. As yet, people in England know very little about New Zealand; and it was only in 1820, when the newspapers announced the arrival of a native chief in London, and became filled with his wonderful doings and sayings, that people began really to take an interest in the colony, and feel ashamed that they should know so little of such an important place.

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Hangi was the name of the chief, and though he pretended that he only came to see King George, his real reason was to get guns and powder to fight with a rival tribe, and after he returned home he certainly made great use of his arms, and for the years he survived, killed and ate numbers of people. In the year 1837, a party in England, with the late Lord Durham as leader, sent out a great number of settlers. Another association came forward in 1839, headed by a Colonel Wakefield. Just then it was made known to our Government that France was planning as expedition to take possession of New Zealand, as a country to which they could send their prisoners, as we do to Australia and Botany Bay. Immediately upon finding out this, the English government sent a naval officer, Captain Hobson, to look closely to our interests. Just after he had planted the English flag upon the ground near which the capital was to be built, now called Auckland, a French frigate arrived, but too late, of course. Not to be completely foiled, the French captain set sail for what is called the Middle Island; but again Captain Hobson was before him, and having the fastest sailing ship, had just planted the British ensign on the high ground above Lyttelton when the French frigate entered; so the Captain of the latter, finding he could not take possession, arranged with Captain Hobson to land his passengers under the protection of the English crown, whilst he himself went off to report his failure at home.

In New Zealand the seasons are exactly the reverse of those in England: thus, July is the same as the English January; June, July, and August are called winter; September, October, and November, spring; December, page 16 January, and February, summer; March, April, and May, autumn. Yet there is very little appearance of the different times of the year in the looks of the country, principally owing to most of the trees and shrubs being evergreen. Besides, it is seldom that snow is seen, except in the mountainous portions of the country; and if a chance shower is blown down into the plains it does not lie, and whiten the ground as in England, but melts away directly it falls. People who have lived many years in New Zealand all agree that the climate is much better than that of England; that there is less sickness, and a greater proportion of fine days: that is to say, days upon which the weather does not prevent people being out of doors, or farmers continuing their farm-work. There is more wind and rain, very seldom any thunder or lightning; the days are an hour shorter in summer, and an hour longer in winter. There are no reptiles, such as snakes or toads, and very few rats, and not one of the larger wild animals, such as lions or tigers, etc.; even the wild dogs now found there are the descendants of those left by ships visiting the islands long ago.

It is said that Captain Cook was awakened in the morning after he reached the shore by the singing of millions of birds, which he said sounded like the chimes of church bells at a great distance. The birds he heard were most probably the Bell-birds, though the Tui (a funny little black-coated fellow, with a tuft of white on his throat which has given him the nickname of Parson-bird) sings very sweetly, and hops about, making a great noise; he has a wonderful talent for mocking any sound, and can bark like a dog, mew like a cat, or whistle a tune. Besides these page 17 curious accomplishments he has another, which is turning heels over head, like a tumbler pigeon, only much more quickly.

There are several kinds of parrots, which are easily tamed and taught to talk.

While I have been giving this short description of the things our friends the Grahams were so fast approaching, the wind has been bearing them steadily along. Tom has at last been gratified by being the first to shout, “Land!”