There is also a large
assortment of spiders. We have, too, one of the ugliest-looking
creatures that I have ever seen. It is called "weta," and is of tawny
scorpion-like colour with long antennae and great eyes, and nasty
squashy-looking body, with (I think) six legs. It is a kind of animal
which no one would wish to touch: if touched, it will bite sharply,
some say venomously. It is very common, but not often seen, and lives
chiefly among dead wood and under stones. In the North Island, I am
told that it grows to the length of three or four inches. Here I never
saw it longer than an inch and a half. The principal reptile is an
almost ubiquitous lizard.
Summing up, then, the whole of the vegetable and animal productions of
this settlement, I think that it is not too much to say that they are
decidedly inferior in beauty and interest to those of the old world.
You will think that I have a prejudice against the natural history of
Canterbury. I assure you I have no such thing; and I believe that
anyone, on arriving here, would receive a similar impression with
myself.
CHAPTER X
Choice of a Run - Boundaries - Maoris - Wages - Servants - Drunkenness -
Cooking - Wethers - Choice of Homestead - Watchfulness required - Burning
the Country - Yards for Sheep - Ewes and Lambs - Lambing Season - Wool
Sheds - Sheep Washing - Putting up a Hut - Gardens - Farewell.
In looking for a run, some distance must be traversed; the country near
Christ Church is already stocked. The waste lands are, indeed, said to
be wholly taken up throughout the colony, wherever they are capable of
supporting sheep. It may, however, be a matter of some satisfaction to
a new settler to examine this point for himself, and to consider what he
requires in the probable event of having to purchase the goodwill of a
run, with the improvements upon it, which can hardly be obtained under
150 pounds per 1000 acres.
A river boundary is most desirable; the point above or below the
confluence of two rivers is still better, as there are then only two
sides to guard. Stony ground must not be considered as an impediment;
grass grows between the stones, and a dray can travel upon it. England
must have been a most impracticable country to traverse before metalled
roads were made. Here the surface is almost everywhere a compact mass
of shingle; it is for the most part only near the sea that the shingle
is covered with soil. Forest and swamp are much greater impediments to
a journey than a far greater distance of hard ground would prove. A
river such as the Cam or Ouse would be far more difficult to cross
without bridges than the Rakaia or Rangitata, notwithstanding their
volume and rapidity; the former are deep in mud, and rarely have
convenient places at which to get in or out; while the latter abound in
them, and have a stony bed on which the wheels of your dray make no
impression. The stony ground will carry a sheep to each acre and a half
or two acres. Such diseases as foot-rot are unknown, owing probably to
the generally dry surface of the land.
There are few Maoris here; they inhabit the north island, and are only
in small numbers, and degenerate in this, so may be passed over
unnoticed. The only effectual policy in dealing with them is to show a
bold front, and, at the same time, do them a good turn whenever you can
be quite certain that your kindness will not be misunderstood as a
symptom of fear. There are no wild animals that will molest your sheep.
In Australia they have to watch the flocks night and day because of the
wild dogs. The yards, of course, are not proof against dogs, and the
Australian shepherd's hut is built close against the yard; here this is
unnecessary.
Having settled that you will take up your country or purchase the lease
of it, you must consider next how to get a dray on to it. Horses are
not to be thought of except for riding; you must buy a dray and
bullocks. The rivers here are not navigable.
Wages are high. People do not leave England and go to live at the
antipodes to work for the same wages which they had at home. They want
to better themselves as well as you do, and, the supply being limited,
they will ask and get from 1 pound to 30s. a week besides their board
and billet.
You must remember you will have a rough life at first; there will be a
good deal of cold and exposure; a good deal of tent work; possibly a
fever or two; to say nothing of the seeds of rheumatism which will give
you something to meditate upon hereafter.
You and your men will have to be on rather a different footing from that
on which you stood in England. There, if your servant were in any
respect what you did not wish, you were certain of getting plenty of
others to take his place. Here, if a man does not find you quite what
he wishes, he is certain of getting plenty of others to employ him. In
fact, he is at a premium, and soon finds this out. On really good men
this produces no other effect than a demand for high wages. They will
be respectful and civil, though there will be a slight but quite
unobjectionable difference in their manner toward you. Bad men assume
an air of defiance which renders their immediate dismissal a matter of
necessity. When you have good men, however, you must recognise the
different position in which you stand toward them as compared with that
which subsisted at home.
