Die Martis, 1° Maii 1838.
Evidence on the present State of the Islands of New Zealand.
The Duke of Richmond in the Chair.
Mr.J.D. Tawell.
Mr. John Downing Tawell is called in, and further examined as follows:
Is there any thing further you wish to state to the Committee?
- There are One or Two Topics on which I should wish to offer a few Observations; one is relative to the Timber Trade which is carried on. Previous to this Trade being carried on to any considerable Extent the Attention of the Natives had been directed to a considerable Degree to the Cultivation of the Soil, the rearing of Pigs, and those Sort of Things; since this has occurred that has been in a great measure neglected, and that Trade with the Colony in New South Wales has almost entirely ceased; and in several Instances the Natives of the Northern Part of the Northern Island have had to be supplied from Cook's Straits and that Neighbourhood with actual Sustenance, such as Indian Corn and Potatoes, and so forth.
How do you account for that?
- They are all of them exceedingly addicted to the Use of Tobacco, and it has been the Custom and settled Habit with those who have dealt with them for Timber as much as possible to involve them in Debt; the Christian Part, and others too, have been exceedingly honourable; they have always been kept in the Back-ground, and the Arrangements with them have been so mystified; they have generally suffered exceedingly from that. The exhausting Nature of the Trade itself involving an immense Exertion of Animal Power, with the depressed Diet, consisting, instead of a Quantity of Animal Food, that is, Pork, almost entirely of Potatoes, has introduced a Disease which till this Trade occurred was completely unknown,— a general glandular Affection.
Do you conceive that that arises from the Forests being damp, or do you attribute it to the Diet?
- I attribute it to the extremely depressed Diet, in connexion with the increased Labour; this Affection has now become almost universal; I saw some Hundreds of Persons affected with it, both among the Heathens and the Christians.
Do the Women cultivate the Gardens at all?
- Not particularly; the Labour now principally falls upon them in Hokianga, to which my own Observation was principally directed. They just barely raise sufficient, and in some Instances not sufficient, for their own Support.
By what Means do they procure that from the Southern Part of the Island near Cook's Straits?
- It is procured principally through the Agency of Europeans.
They buy it?
- They buy it by labouring in the Timber Trade.
Do Europeans purchase it from the Natives at Cook's Straits?
- I presume so; I have only seen it arrive in the River.
Do you know whether there is more Land brought into Cultivation in the Neighbourhood of Cook's Straits than there was before, to meet this extra Demand?
- I have understood that the Timber Trade does not exist to the Southward at all, and that there the original Habit of the Natives prevails. I have derived my Information from Two or Three Individuals now in this Country,
