mode of salutation. It would be an exaggeration to call these people a
cleanly race, though the tribes that occupy the Hot Lake District
(whither we shall take the reader in another chapter) spend two thirds
of their time in the water. The half-breeds are generally of fine
physical appearance, the men especially being tall and well-developed;
indeed it would be difficult to find more admirable specimens of
physical manhood than exist among these Anglo-Maoris. As we have
elsewhere intimated, the daughters of some of the unions between whites
and natives are very pretty and intelligent, having received partial
education and acquired some pleasing accomplishments. But there are few
of these to be found among the tribes, and fewer still among the
whites.

Among these natives, as a rule, the laborious work is put upon the
women, while the men fill the role of idlers. It seems strange that
while they were thorough barbarians and cannibals they continued to
thrive,--certainly they did not largely decrease in numbers; but with
semi-civilization has come almost annual decimation. As we have seen was
the case of the aborigines in Tasmania, it is believed by many that the
same fate of final complete extinction is in store for the Maoris in the
near future.

The entire coast north of Wellington is extremely bold, tumbled together
in true volcanic confusion. In the neighborhood of the capital this
conformation begins to extend inland; thus the city has no near
background of available country for population, from which to draw a
certain amount of business,--no suburbs, so to speak. The town impressed
us as being a city of shops; and how so many persons can realize a fair
living from the amount of local business in Wellington is certainly a
mystery. Here the dwellings creep up the hills as we have so often
described the case elsewhere; and as the houses are mostly built of
wood, fires have proved especially destructive. We found the general
Post-Office in ruins by a recent fire, though it was a brick structure;
the lofty stuccoed walls were still standing. Some large new buildings
nearly finished were also observed to be of brick. For a number of years
at first the fear of serious earthquakes prevented the use of any other
material in building than wood. Even now there is a frequent
tremulousness of the earth, and rumblings as of distant thunder are
heard in the hills that run inland from the city toward the high
mountains,--all whi