ct, where now a modern hotel and marble
baths have taken the place of Maori whares and mud-holes, it is not for
me to say.

While at Tauranga I became acquainted with the method then in vogue of
settling people on the land in New Zealand. A retired officer, who had
himself migrated thither, and had secured a holding not far from the
township of Tauranga, obtained from the Government a large area of land,
north of Tauranga, on the road towards Grahamstown and the Thames
Goldfield. It was reported at the time that the price he had paid the
Government was ten shillings per acre, right out. This tract of country
was completely covered with bracken, and bracken is a difficult growth to
get rid of. Proceeding to England, he induced a good many of his friends
to try their fortune on the other side of the world, offering them land
at an upset price of two pounds per acre--good land, beautiful climate,
great possibilities. It was a very tempting offer to those who knew no
better, and he succeeded in practically disposing of the land on these
terms. The greater number of these would-be pioneers were retired
officers, an ex-bishop or two, retired clergymen, and others of a similar
walk in life, who, one would naturally think, were the least qualified to
battle at their time of life with the problems of cultivating unknown
lands in far-distant colonies. The promoter, if report is correct,
chartered two sailing vessels, and into these endless furniture, pianos,
household goods, belonging to the settlers, were duly packed. Yet,
remember, all that they were to find on their arrival was bracken--no
houses, no fences, no roads, nothing but bracken. Not one of them knew
which portion of the bracken was to be his own. Part of the contract was
that, during the voyage out, the settlers were to draw lots for the
allotment of positions, the value of which they could only judge from a
map hung up in the saloon of the ship.

I rode through this settlement about one year after the arrival of the
settlers. There were a certain number of huts, intended finally to be
homesteads, in the course of being built. A few tracks formed the
so-called roads. Some of the bracken was disappearing. But the ready
money which the settlers, or some of them, had brought out with them had
been spent, and the outlook was anything but cheerful. Further, the
necessary conditions for the survey of the allotments--as required by the
Government--had not been fulfilled. C