Reminiscences of Earliest Canterbury/Chapter 5
CHAPTER V.
The Bush.
It is a thousand pities that our native trees cannot be retained by planting; but bush cannot be restored in this way. Most of the native trees are of slow growth. An English oak, for example, will grow more in ten years than a totara will in fifty. There is a totara tree I have known for sixty years. It stands in a favoured spot on the bank of a stream, and at present is not two feet through at the ground, although a healthy, symmetrical tree.
In twenty years or more I feel sure that all our timber that can be easily got at will be gone, and it seems to me an imperative duty of the Government to conserve what is left for the benefit of future generations. The importation of Oregon pine should be encouraged, and the exportation of our native timber checked, in view of the fact that our supply is so small. Kahikatea, for instance, is rapidly disappearing, and when it is gone, what will supply wood for, say, our butter boxes?
Another matter of great importance is connected with the cutting of the trees. It seems to me that legislation should be passed prohibiting the felling of trees at any time save during the winter when the sap is down. I have had much practical experience with native timber. For example, the posts and rails for the first fence erected in Pigeon Bay in 1848, were cut in July. At the present day, sixty-four years afterwards, many of the posts are as sound as on the day they were put in, because they were cut when the sap was down.
When the forest is destroyed by fire, a sound tree will not burn, but should such a tree be killed when the sap is up, and the timber from it used for fencing, it will be found that in a few years dry rot shows just at the surface of the ground.
Now, were the Government to insist that the trees felled for railway sleepers should only be felled during May, June, and July, there would be a saving of several thousands of pounds annually to the country. We split all our totara for fencing from the green bush during the winter months. The posts are not only standing to-day, but many of them have been transferred to new fences, having been proved to be quite sound. Were our Parliamentary men to give a tithe of the attention to this matter, which they give to the drawing of their salaries, or to schemes for catching votes, the country would benefit, and expenditure would be kept down.
Another example I would like to give. The first timber house my father built was erected in 1846-7. Excepting the lower floor and the joists, it was all built of white pine, and roofed with totara shingles. It was in use for over thirty years before it was taken down, and it was then perfectly free from borers, and the timber was sound.
Our native timber, occupying such an enormous time to mature, cannot be replaced, except by foreign trees, and this being the case the greatest care should be taken to select only the most useful varieties, and to plant extensively; for, when the land is portioned out in small holdings, trees will take too much room, and be too slow in giving returns to the holder. If this is not done, and exportation stopped, the day will come when cremation will have to be universal, because there will be no timber available for building coffins.
The Government is doing good work in Rotorua, but unless great care is taken the labour of many years will be destroyed in as many hours. The danger will be from the fern unless it is kept well cleared in wide strips. In native bush the common fern cannot get a hold, but amongst deciduous trees the case is very different, for when the leaves fall sufficient light and air are admitted, and the dry dead fern will accumulate on the ground. Tussock ground is not so dangerous, for the trees will gradually kill the tussock. In all my travels I have come across no country which, in proportion to its size, has more barren land than New Zealand. It contains many millions of acres which can never have any other function than the carrying of snow. Our wheat-growing country is limited, and so is our pastoral land.
The land laws of New Zealand are, to my mind, most iniquitous, involving a deliberate breach of faith with the pioneers. The latter arriving here from, say, 1830 to 1860, were induced to buy land, and were encouraged to settle on it, with promises of security and clear title. Having done so, in most instances, by virtue of years of hard work, thrift, and self-denial, and having at last secured a home for themselves and their children, they now find themselves called upon to break it up for the benefit of immigrants brought hither under a system of “assisted passages,” and, mark the irony of it, the funds for those “assisted passages” were drawn from the very settlers who are now despoiled.
What a difference there is between those virile early settlers (in their capacity for work, in their true grit, and in their standard of morality) and the assisted immigrants content to remain “assisted” to this day, for the instances are very few in which they have discharged their obligations to the Canterbury Government. These latter, having broken their own pledges to pay up their passage money, and having no mind to work for themselves, but yet being full of the greed of possession, turned their envious eyes on the estates of the pioneers, and began to clamour that those estates should be burst up in order that they might acquire homes without the trouble of making them. Being in the majority they had no difficulty in sending members to Parliament pledged to break up the homes of the pioneers, and it is very evident that they were little disturbed by scruples. Whatever scruples they may have possessed on arrival were thrown away when they repudiated their own liability to refund the balance of the passage money that brought them out.
There is plenty of land in New Zealand now in the same condition as that which was brought into cultivation by the pioneers (to say nothing of the native lands requiring settlement), but, the truth is, the assisted settler had neither the courage nor the energy to carve out his own career. His cupidity and want of principle showed him how much easier it was to grab from those who had been energetic enough to overcome great difficulties, and confiding enough to think that their efforts were for the benefit of their own families. The early settlers then conquered Nature, not to make homes for themselves, but for the feeble-kneed parasites who, in the near future, were to overwhelm them. Would that some power of divination had lifted the veil from them in time to organise some protection.
The land laws, as at present constituted, enable Government to seize a farmer’s land at their own valuation, and at any time they choose, provided his acreage exceeds an arbitrary limit (shrinking as time goes on). There is no security for the large farmer. His enterprise is stultified, he has no inducement to forward improvement. He is robbed of ambition, and fives from day to day awaiting the mandate which shall take away his possessions and give them to another. Thus, in a British colony, is our boasted “British fair play” carried out. What does the prospect look like for the prosperity of a country, which chokes the prosperity of its most useful inhabitants? Where will our ablest and most enterprising young farmers go who have seen their fathers despoiled? The answer is obvious—almost anywhere beyond New Zealand where property is sacred. Their choice is a large one.
Now, the question may be asked:—“What was the nature of the inducements held out to the pioneers to buy land in New Zealand?” The inducements were a solemn compact with the Home Government whereby they were assured freehold possession for all time for the sum of £2 per acre; security being given them, as title, in the form of Crown grants. “Put not your trust in princes,” not even in such a boasted security as the Government of Great Britain, which permits one of her youngest colonies, by puerile and iniquitous legislation, to break with impunity her most solemn pledges to her own subjects.
The New Zealand farmer, besides all this, has to bear the burden of taxation. The business man is lightly taxed. There is no limit to the value of his possessions in town property. He may acquire this to the value of millions of pounds, and no one can say him nay. Surely the prosperity of a country depends largely on the farmers, and the large farmer requires more skill and administrative ability in working his large farm, than a small farmer requires in working his small one. If, then, this breaking up of farms in New Zealand goes on, we shall eventually have a state of affairs like that obtaining to-day in Italy, where the farmers are as poor as crows.
If the farmers of New Zealand do not wake up and combine for the protection of their own interests, their day will pass, and they will drop steadily behind, losing the power of assertion, and falling gradually to the level of agricultural labourers.
When the first four ships arrived, Mr. Godley was much disgusted to find five Scotch families already settled in Canterbury. Those families bought their land in Scotland, with authority to select it in Wellington, and they were brought to an impasse by the Maoris declining to permit a selection. After remaining in Wellington for three years, hoping for a settlement of the difficulty, they eventually appealed to Mr. Wakefield, in the presence of Sir George Grey, asking that their grants might be changed from the North to the South Island. This request having been acceded to, they arrived in Canterbury in the April of 1843, and chose their respective blocks, Sir George Grey sending down Mr. Carrington to carry out the survey for them. All this was completed, and the families settled before the historic arrival of the first four ships heralding the settlement of the Province of Canterbury. Mr. Godley was determined that Canterbury should be exclusively a Church of England Province, and he was more than annoyed to discover those Scotch settlers already in possession. He intimated to them that they must quit. This they all positively declined to do. The Deans Brothers sold Dalethorpe in order to raise funds to fight for retention of their home at Riccarton. My father immediately went to Wellington, and interviewed Sir George Grey, who at once assured him that he remembered the compact with Mr. Wakefield, and promised that if my father waited in Wellington for a fortnight he would give him Crown grants. This my father did, and returned armed with these documents, by which, when he examined them, he was gratified to find that Sir George Grey had given him an additional twenty acres to recoup him for the annoyance, trouble, and expense to which he had been put in the matter. On his return, my father met Mr. Godley in Christchurch, and, producing the Crown grants, said, “Now, Mr. Godley, put me out if you can.” This incident, as well as the knowledge that by the sale of Dalethorpe the Deans Brothers were prepared with funds to defend their claim, induced Mr. Godley to abandon his project. He arranged that the Messrs. Deans should give up their Maori claim to all the land around Christchurch except the 400 acres at Riccarton, granting them, in exchange, a right to depasture over the Home Bush property. During this trying time those Scottish pioneers found in Sir George Grey a staunch and loyal friend. Ultimately Mr. Godley also became friendly with them, and I can remember his staying repeatedly at my father’s house when on his way to and from Akaroa. I can remember, at his request, my mother hanging out a clean sheet at night. In the morning early, when the sheet was frozen, it fell to the lot of one of us boys to carry the sheet quickly up to Mr. Godley’s room. He rolled himself in it, and then rubbed himself briskly with a rough towel in lieu of a bath.
At this period the Maori bush tracks were quite a maze to travellers, and when a “cooee” was heard at night we boys had to go off with a lantern to find the travellers, and bring them home, and whilst we were so occupied, my mother would be preparing a meal for them that they might have it on arrival. At the openings of several of those tracks we were accustomed to keep bottle lanterns with candles, or totara bark torches (wrapped round dried supple-jacks to make them last longer) concealed to be ready for emergency. It was not until the middle of the “fifties” that proper tracks were made enabling travellers to find their way easily.
I wish to make reference to some of our timber, and shall begin with Kauri. This fine timber only grows in the North of Auckland, and is the most useful of New Zealand woods, although not adapted for fencing, or for piles, or ground work. It is principally used in house-building, especially for windows, doors, and flooring. The kauri tree grows to an immense height, and attains an enormous girth. It is very sound, and a log is rarely found to have a “shake” in it. It is our best timber for building boats and oil launches, etc. The kauri gum is derived from this tree, and the digging for it forms a big industry in the northern part of the Auckland Province.
Totara is our next best tree. It grows all over New Zealand, and being soft and light the Maoris used it for their canoes, for all carrying work, and for palisades in their fortified pas. For durability it surpasses the Kauri, and is excellent for fencing and house-building, lasting well in the ground. I know five varieties of Totara.
(a) A mountain variety, producing white wood, which, though very tough, is not durable. This was occasionally used for the ribs of small boats, because of its lightness and toughness, but it could only be preserved by frequent painting.
(b) Another mountain variety produced a blood-red wood, so interlocked in the grain that it could rarely be split. A useful and durable timber, and one of the best of the varieties of Totara.
(c) Another mountain variety with red wood, and having very little sap. This timber is heavy, and is the strongest of all the Totara family.
(d) The best and most generally useful of all the Totaras has a good deal of sap, a very thick bark, and pinkish coloured wood. This tree was generally straight in the grain, and could be split like a match. It was useful, therefore, amongst other things, for roofing shingles.
(e) The “pipey” or “honeycomb” variety, which could only be used for fencing.
I have known Totara posts to be in the ground for sixty years, and were then so sound that they were shifted into other fences.
It is a dangerous wood for firewood, because of its tendency to spark.
Matai, or Black Pine, is another useful wood. It is capital for house-building, being very hard, durable, and close in the grain. It is a heavy timber, but will not last in the ground except in wet places. It is excellent for firewood, burning clearly and slowly, producing great heat and not sparking.
Kahikatea, or White Pine, generally grows on wet land. The timber is not suitable for house-building, as it is too subject to the “borer.” It is light and tough, whitish in colour, and is best adapted for butter and cheese boxes, for which it is admirably suited. It is not good firewood.
Towai, or Birch, is a large family, comprising many varieties. The red and black are the best, and are much in request for fencing and for covering wharfs and bridges. This timber cracks so much that it is not suitable for house-building, though heavy and strong. The red variety splits well, and is greatly used for post and rail fencing. White birch grows on poor land, and at a high altitude. It used to be much in demand for round rafters for station huts and wool sheds. It makes excellent firewood, and burns green. It is of no use for ground purposes.
Rimu or Red Pine—A handsome tree with feathery, drooping foliage It is widely distributed over New Zealand, more so, perhaps, than any other variety, and is the favourite timber for house-building, but it must be kept from the damp, it is of no use for ground purposes. It makes very fine furniture.
Manuka is one of our hardest and strongest timbers, being capable of bearing a very heavy strain. Although useless in the ground, it stands well in either fresh or salt water. It grows on poor clay soil, and is about the best firewood we have. There are several varieties, including the ubiquitous “ti-tree,” which is a flowering shrub, aromatic, and having a pleasant perfume.
Titoki is a handsome tree with fine green foliage, and bearing a curious berry like a raspberry, from which protrudes a glossy black kernel. The berry has a very astringent flavour. The timber is chiefly used for firewood. The wood is white, but in the larger trees (two to three feet in diameter) the centre is of a reddish colour, hard, and tough, making excellent mauls, and being well adapted for the turning lathe.
Matipo is an ornamental tree, not attaining any large growth. The timber is only useful for firewood. There are several varieties. It is much in request for hedges, and as an ornamental shrub on lawns, etc.
Mako never grows more than six to eight inches through. Has a fine flower, and plentiful berries growing, like black currants. The wood is very fight and tough, making good clogs.
Hoheria, or Ribbonwood, ranks among the finest flowering shrubs. The bark splits into innumerable layers, and is useful to gardeners in tying up plants. One variety is a fair-sized tree, and as it splits well, it was at one time used for rafters. Nowadays the wood is not used.
Rewa-rewa, or Honeysuckle, grows only in the North Island, and the timber being marked like oak (only with a larger and more regular pattern), is much used for ornamental work (imitation basket work), and gives a striking and handsome effect when polished. It is seldom used in house-work, does not attain a great size, and is of no use in the ground.
Kotuku-tuku or Fuchsia—The native fuchsia is very widely distributed throughout the bush. The berry is edible, having a sweet taste. The native name for the berry is konini, and it is the staple diet of the wild pigeon. The tree grows up to three feet in diameter, but with a short barrel. It is very gnarled and twisted, and cannot be split. It will last in the ground for many years. The wood is generally white, but much of it is mottled in the grain, making beautiful furniture (especially picture-frames and fancy boxes). It is soft, and capable of a fine polish.
Ake-ake, a large family of flowering shrubs. The yellow and black varieties never attain a greater size than two feet in diameter. The timber is exceedingly hard and durable (somewhat like box). The Maoris make most of their war instruments from this wood. Ake-ake lasts well in the ground, and makes good firewood.
Kowhai—Akin to the laburnum. A leguminous tree with large, handsome flowers in drooping branches, of a yellow colour (there are scarlet varieties in the North Island), flowering in the South Island from July to September, and later in the North. The native birds (tuhi, makomako, etc.), feed largely on the flowers, dipping their long tongues into the nectaries. The timber is very hard and very useful, although the tree is seldom more than three feet through. In olden days the whalers used it for making casks for whale oil, and the early settlers used it for dairy utensils. Kowhai splits well and lasts well in the ground or in water. The wood is very durable and hard, and possesses a natural oil, which protects it from decay. It cannot be surpassed for making bul ock yokes.
Many of the varieties of Kowhai are simply shrubs. The young Kowhai presents a very grotesque appearance, throwing off its branches at so wide an angle that it spreads out into a tangled network.
Maire, Black and White, grows only in the North Island, reaching about two feet in diameter. White Maire is of very little use, but the black variety is very hard and heavy, and good for fencing. When green, this timber is attacked by a grub which, however, does not appear to injure the wood.
Rata is a very fine flowering shrub or small tree, and has many varieties. It is a kind of myrtle, having a beautiful bright scarlet flower, and when in bloom (say on the West Coast, where it grows plentifully), the hillsides are a blaze of scarlet. There is a pink and a white variety, occasionally seen interspersed with the scarlet, but they are very rare. Rata is scarcely ever sawn into timber, but it makes excellent firewood. There is a variety in the North Island which begins as a vine, and, embracing another tree, acts like a false parasite, eventually crushing the life out of its host, which it replaces, growing into a fine forest tree.
Hinau is a fairly large tree, but is not plentiful. The bark furnished the best dyes to the Maoris for their scraped flax garments, baskets and mats. The timber is light-coloured, and is but little used, save by shoemakers for cutting their leather on. I have seen good, serviceable chairs made from it. It is useless in the ground.
Pukatea, Broadleaf.—Unfortunately this tree has no bole to speak of. It branches close to the ground, throwing out three or four large branches, sometimes three to four feet in diameter. Its habitat is mostly on the tops of the hills. It is most useful for fencing, lasting in the ground indefinitely. It is also much in request for firewood. The timber is twisty, but notwithstanding it splits easily. Its berries are a favourite food for pigeons.
Tarata, New Zealand Oak, is a very handsome tree, really a variety of matipo, having a pleasant, aromatic odour. The timber is white, and though hard, is of no use except for firewood. It quickly rots when lying on the ground.
Ngaio grows, as a rule, near the sea, but does not grow large. It is usually very symmetrical, having a fine rounded outline. It is not long-lived, say, from fifty to seventy years. It is widely distributed over both North and South Islands.
The Ngaio and the Karaka are supposed to have been brought over to New Zealand by the Maoris, the former for medicine and the latter for food. The Ngaio leaves were used by the Natives chiefly as a dressing for cuts or sores. I have seen the Ngaio, Black Ake-ake, and Kowhai on the Sandwich Islands, the leaves of each being slightly modified. Cattle feed on the Ngaio trees, but if they feed too much on them, or for too long a period, they develop staggers (as from ergot), which in many cases, proves fatal.
Tawa is a North Island tree, chiefly used for firewood, having the advantage of burning green. It soon rots in the ground.
Whitewood is a small tree bearing bunches of beautiful blue berries. Cattle are very fond of the Whitewood leaves, and, next to Karaka, they furnish the best food for milk and beef. The wood, when dry, is very light, and was much in request by the Maoris for firewood in the olden days. It was light and easy to collect and carry, but its chief merit was that, although it did not blaze, it gave out considerable heat by a slow smouldering combustion—a piece about two feet would keep alight all night. When moving away the Maoris picked out a piece of Whitewood from the fire, and carried it with them. It burned for many hours, and when another fire became necessary all that was required was to shake the stick, when it would blaze up sufficiently to start it.
Karaka is a handsome tree growing in the northern part of the South Island and in the North Island. It is found near the sea, and was planted by the Maoris in their settlements as a food supply. It bears large yellowish berries. The leaves of the Karaka are the best food for cattle alike for milk and beef. Cattle get very fat on Karaka leaves.
Puriri only grows in the North Island, north of Gisborne on the East Coast, and north of Taranaki on the West Coast. It is only to be found near the sea. It is a handsome tree with dark green leaves bearing flower and berry at the same time. Puriri timber is regarded as the best in New Zealand for fencing purposes, as it keeps sound in the ground for an indefinite period. The timber is also used for furniture and fancy work, taking on a good polish, and somewhat resembling walnut. Puriri does not grow like Kauri or Totara, being often short in the bole, and inclined to branch. It splits well, and is used for railway sleepers. Puriri will soon be all used up.
Miro is a fairly large tree resembling Black Pine. It is more plentiful in the North Island than in the South.
There were at one time only three Miro trees in Pigeon Bay, and one of them still survives. In Port Levy there were more than in all the rest of the Peninsula. The fruit is a large red berry, which, ripening early in the autumn, enabled the pigeons to commence to fatten before the other berries matured. The foliage of the Miro is very handsome, but the timber is practically useless.
Rumaruma, or Ironwood, is a small tree growing very hard and heavy timber useful for rails in fencing, and also for firewood.
Pahautea, or Silver Pine, grows only on the West Coast of the South Island, and in a few parts of the North. It is unknown on the Peninsula. Silver Pine is not a large tree, seldom attaining three feet in diameter. It grows on wet land, and furnishes one of our most durable timbers for ground work, being largely in request for telegraph poles and railway sleepers. The leaf of the Pahautea differs from that of any other New Zealand tree. The timber is comparatively soft, is yellowish white in colour, and is knotty and mottled in the grain, so that when polished it makes beautifully marked furniture. There is very little sap in the tree, but it is rich in oil, which protects it from decay and from the attacks of the borer, which never infests it. It is so durable in the ground that saplings six to eight inches through will stand in the ground for thirty to forty years. It is not used for housebuilding on account of its small size. Silver pine is rapidly being exhausted.
SHRUBS.
Koromiko (Veronica) represents the largest family of flowering shrubs in New Zealand. One variety is actually a tree from two to three feet in diameter, but its timber is worthless. Some of the smaller kinds make good firewood. Old settlers know the value of koromiko for boiling a billy because of the heat produced.
Tu-tu is widely distributed over New Zealand. There are many varieties, all of which are poisonous. The poison lurks in the seeds of the berries, which hang in drooping clusters from the plant. The berries themselves are non-poisonous, and the juice expressed through a cloth is a pleasant and refreshing drink. The Maoris used to gather the berries and strain off the seeds, and allow the liquor to ferment, producing quite a good wine. A peculiar circumstance in connection with Tu-tu is that, although poisonous to man, to cattle, sheep, and even pigs, it does not affect birds, for pigeons, tuhis, and mako-makos feed on the berries with impunity.
Clematis.—There are many varieties of this climbing shrub. Some have large, handsome white flowers growing in great profusion, and spreading out over the tops of some of the highest forest trees. Amongst the smaller varieties are some having a fine perfume. The sweetest perfume comes from a small yellow species.
Passion-fruit.—There is a native passiflora bearing a fruit which grows in long strings. The fruit is a favourite food for birds, but is not in request by man. The Maoris were wont to paint their faces with the pulp of the fruit, which is a little larger than a cherry, and of a delicate yellowish red colour.
There are many small trees and shrubs which have not been referred to, though some of them are very beautiful (as for example the Pohutukawa, and many other flowering trees and shrubs), as they are chiefly sought by horticulturists for ornamental purposes.
FERNS.
New Zealand is rich in ferns, producing about thirty-six families, and about 250 varieties.
As exotics many of our ferns, shrubs, and ornamental plants are sought after. I can recollect, in 1883, seeing a fine collection of our flowering shrubs in San Francisco.
FLAX.
Is profitable as an export. There are, I believe, as many as seventy varieties. That most used by the Maoris for fine work grew on the hil sides. The fibre was very strong, and the leaves shorter than other species, and of a yellowish tinge.
In concluding the brief reference I have made to New Zealand timber and flora generally, I would like to indicate the bearing plants have in revealing the quality of the soil.
In looking for good bush land, if the intending purchaser finds Ngaio, Whitewood, Konini, and Mako mingling with the larger forest trees, he cannot go far wrong in his selection, for such land must be good.
FAUNA.
The Moa.—I only want to make a passing allusion to the Moa in reference to Banks Peninsula. At one time the Moa must have been prevalent all over this locality. In clearing the bush I have come upon Moa bones frequently lying on the surface, principally leg bones. The largest of these was some three feet in length. The Maoris said that the Moa was very plentiful on the northern aspect of the Peninsula (Pigeon Bay and Okain’s Bay), where there was more open land. In sinking a well many years ago in a small bight called Scrubby Bay (between Pigeon Bay Heads and McIntosh Bay) we found on reaching a depth of 25 feet the bones and crop stones of a Moa, and, strangely enough, mingled with the bones were portions of charred Totara bark. On reaching 35 feet the bones of another Moa, as also the crop stones, were found. The former were much decayed and crumbled away when touched.