s:--

L s. d.
To a new steam-pipe 0 10 0
To fine and costs 3 12 6
To damages awarded to Mrs. ---- by the Court 5 0 0
To doctor's fees for attendance on Mrs. ---- 4 0 0

On the whole, Pirate Tom did not take much by his economy on that
occasion. But the lesson was not of any lasting use. He will go on in
his old way, and will take his chance of accidents.

The defects of the _Lily_ do not cause us any annoyance, on this
occasion of our first voyage aboard of her. She is on her best
behaviour, for a wonder, and neither breaks down, nor bursts up, nor
runs away. We steam over a great stretch of the harbour, noticing here
that strange effect, when the distant land seems to be lifted above the
horizon, and to have a belt of sky between it and the water.

Then we pass into river after river, proceeding up each some miles, to
the townships, or stations, where we have to call, then descending into
the harbour again, only to go on to the entrance of yet another river.
The scenery is very varied, and there is much in it to attract our
regard. Sometimes we pass below lofty bluffs, by wild rocky shores and
islets, sometimes along great stretches of mud-bank or mangrove swamp.

The land on all sides is a primitive wilderness for the most part. Range
after range sweeps and rolls away, while ravines and gullies and basins
open upon the rivers, with tumbling creeks or graceful cascades pouring
through them. One might suppose that some giant of yore had ploughed out
this country and left it. A newly-ploughed field must seem, to an ant's
vision, something like the contour of this to ours.

The land is richly wooded. Here and there we see the heavy bush, mammoth
trees soaring up, overhung with creepers and ferns; but the heavy bush
is chiefly at some distance from the waterside. What we see most of here
is the light bush; dense thickets of shrubs, and smaller trees,
resembling our remembrance of the denes and copses of England, or Epping
and the New Forest.

To us new-chums it seems absurd to call this bush "light," but we can
see that it is so by comparison with the primeval forest, where the
tree-trunks run from ten to forty feet in girth. Once upon a time, when
they numbered millions, the Maoris inhabited these shores pretty
thickly. They preferred to be near the water, as settlers do now, for