On landing at Kororareka, one finds that what from
a distance appear neat and comfortable cottages lose
much by close inspection. The township consists
of about thirty small wooden houses, mixed up with
many native hovels. It extends along the shore
of a small bay, with a shingly beach in front and
a swamp behind. The number of houses was formerly
much greater, most of those now existing having been
built since May 1845, when the greater part of the
town was burnt down by the natives. Even now
it supports two public houses, and several general
stores, where necessaries may be procured at double
the Sydney prices. At one time much trade was
done here, before the duties imposed on the occasion
of New Zealand becoming a British colony drove away
the whalers which used to resort in great numbers
to the Bay of Islands to refit; at present, besides
the Rattlesnake, the only vessel here is a brig from
Hobart, bound to California, which put in to this
place to get a new rudder. Livestock is plentiful
and the prices are moderate.
There are many natives living in the settlement.
They afford a striking contrast to the wretched specimens
of Australian aborigines one occasionally sees in
the streets of Sydney. Many of the men are athletic
and well made, and in their gait and expression exhibit
much manliness of character. The faces of some
of the principal people present good specimens of
elaborate tattooing. The women appear strange
figures from their ungainly modern dress, consisting
merely of a loose smock of calico, fastened at the
neck and wrists. Some were tolerably handsome
(according to our notions of female beauty) and among
them were several halfcastes. Their fashion of
dressing the hair is curious—in front it
is cut short in a line across the forehead, but is
allowed to grow long behind. We met Waka Nene,
a Maori chief, possessing considerable influence,
especially in the neighbouring district of Hokianga,
who, by siding with the English during the war, rendered
such important services that the Government rewarded
him with a pension of 100 pounds per annum, and a
house in Kororareka. Besides this he owns a small
vessel or two employed in the coasting trade.
I peeped into the hut of one of his people. A
small entrance served the combined purposes of door,
window, and chimney, the roof was so low as to preclude
one from standing upright inside, a small fire was
burning in the centre of the earthen floor, and a
heap of mats and blankets in one corner pointed out
a sleeping-place.
Behind Kororareka one of a series of hills overlooking
the town is memorable as the site of the flagstaff,
the cutting down of which by Heke was one of the first
incidents of the Maori war. On March 11th, 1845,
an attack was made upon the place before daylight,
by three of the disaffected chiefs. Kawiti with
one division entered the town from the southward by
a pass between two hills, and after a short conflict
forced a party of marines and seaman from H.M.S.
