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Travel Eighty Years ago
Auckland at Last!

The following is the final instalment of some rough notes of travel in New Zealand, in 1858. These notes are taken from a small, and now very rare, book published in England, by Mr. Robert Scott, in 1860, and submitted to the “N.Z. Railways Magazine” by P. S. Smallfield.

On October 29th, while I was dressing, a gun was fired intimating the arrival once more of the steamer White Swan. I hastened and got on board early, and safely, this time. Before I sailed a number of the New Plymouth people came with smiling faces to bid me farewell. During the three months I had resided among them I had formed several agreeable friendships. But my anxiety to get to Auckland prevented me from feeling much sorrow at leaving them.

Early the following morning we crossed the dangerous sand bar and entered the Manakau Harbour. By 12 o'clock we were lying at anchor. The passengers were conveyed in small boats from the steamer into shallow water, and then on men's backs to the beach at Onehunga, for which they paid 2s. 6d. They are conveyed from Onehunga to Auckland over a good macadamised road in an omnibus for the same amount. As we drove along I admired the hawthorn hedges intermixed with roses.

The harbour of Auckland is splendid, having the best entrance for shipping in New Zealand. All the captains report that its trade is equal to that of all the other trading ports put together. The accommodation now in progress is perfectly wonderful for so young a colony. The city stands on the south shore of the Waitemata. It contains about 15,000 inhabitants, and is enlarging every day. There are four English newspapers and one in the Maori language published in the Province—the “New Zealander” twice a week. So salubrious is the climate, and so abundant and easy of access is everything in the way of comfort and enjoyment, that several of the wealthy Australian families spend the summer months in the locality.

I soon removed from the city to visit my son Manfred in the valley of Papatoetoe, 20 miles south. The Great South Road continues to the banks of the noble Waikato river, and for 25 miles this road is equal to any English turnpike.

On December 14th we were attacked in the bush by two wild boars. One of them was shot by Manfred, and the other turned and ran away. We dragged home the one we had killed, scalded and dressed him by the light of a bright moon, and having hung him up, retired to rest.

The next day we engaged a small party of Maoris to fell bush. They brought all their piccaninnies, dogs horses, carts, and kai kai. They then built themselves a whare, and borrowed all they could from the “pakeha,” as they call the English. If you are too generous they will laugh at you for being soft. Their horses are worth from £30 to £60 each. But for their best they refused £80, which I offered, their price being £100.

Oh! what awful plagues the mosquitoes and sandflies are! All my exposed skin was swelled and itching dreadfully from their bites. Felling and burning timber in the bush with sandflies, mosquitoes, spiders, centipedes, black stinking wood-bugs biting voraciously, are decidedly unpleasant to “new chums.”

One of Manfred's steers ate three window curtains, a cotton dress, and a pair of cotton stockings; and a calico sheet was half-way down its throat when we caught it in the act, and pulled the sheet back.

A farmer near Papakura who followed the trade of a brickmaker while in England, made all his cheeses of the size, and in the shape, of bricks. He sold those readily which he had made of new milk, but his skim-milk ones were so bored full of holes by tasters that they resembled perforated bricks, and became altogether unsaleable. He, therefore, as he was an ingenious and economical person, built a house with his unsaleable skim-milk cheese, and placed beer barrels one upon the other for a chimney. He contrives to reach his sleeping apartment by means of a waggon wheel in lieu of stairs. When any guests honour him with their presence he never fails to introduce new dishes and plates. This he does by marking with his hatchet on the trunk of a kauri tree the shape and quantity required; and when the bark is peeled away he has a new clean spacious and respectable dinner service. His drinking cups are always new-made, and very tastefully, from flax leaves.

On Christmas Day, which is mid-summer in New Zealand, I rode 20 miles to dine at Auckland. After dinner I was invited to witness a Maori entertainment, on the north shore of the Waitemata, given by Paora Tuhara and his followers to welcome and honour the commander, officers and members of the scientific expedition sent out in the ship Novara, under the instructions of the Government of Austria, to collect geological specimens, and report on the topographical position, take water-colour sketches, maps, and photographic views, under the direction of Dr. Hochsetter and others.

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On New Year's Day I rode 20 miles to the Auckland racecourse. The event was well-attended and well-conducted. Visitors, both men and women, came on horseback. There was no difference in style or management from our races in England.

By this time I had become accustomed to the sandflies, and never felt their bites. I am sure I killed 2,000 fleas in six weeks, and I accordingly got pretty free of these back-biters.

The daylight in New Zealand is two hours longer in winter, and two hours shorter in summer, than in England. Although the heat of the sun is 12 degrees stronger than in England, we never felt too warm.

The climate will grow figs, oranges, peaches, melons, etc. Peaches are so plentiful that the pigs are fed on them. A very nice fruit is cape-gooseberry. The cattle are very fond of it, and devour it whenever it falls in their way. Unfortunately large flies blow woollen goods, such as clothing and blankets. Unless great care is exercised, these things become filled with thousands of maggots. The Great South Road is being covered with scoria. To effect this most desirable improvement, the landowners tax themselves one shilling an acre to raise half the funds, and the Government furnishes the other half.

I attended the courthouse to listen to a trial. A Maori had stolen two fine horses and sold them to a farmer. A reward of £20 was offered for their restoration. The Maori then went and stole them from the farmer, and restored them to the advertiser as having been found by him, and received the £20. He was, however, found out and brought to trial.

The increased value of land about three miles from Auckland will appear from the following:—At the sale of Mr. Williamson's property, the corner bit, which was fenced-in only four months ago, at the junction of the roads leading to Onehunga and Otahuhu, sold at the rate of £2,000 an acre.

Every time I visited Auckland I was surprised and delighted with the vast improvements going on. It is at present a thriving city, but the extent of its future prosperity no one can calculate. It promises to be a centre of no small importance and influence.