a bush; and the last a plant like a nettle, which sows itself all
over. The fruit is nice.

Both the gardens and the clearings are subject to a horrible plague of
crickets. They are everywhere, and eat everything. But turkeys and ducks
fatten splendidly on them, acquiring a capital gamey flavour.
Cricket-fed turkey would shame any stubble-fed bird altogether, both as
to fatness and meatiness and flavour. We have hundreds of turkeys wild
about the place, which keep down the crickets a good deal. Although we
eat them freely, they increase very rapidly, like everything else here.
The worst of it is they will not leave the grapes alone, and if they
would the crickets won't, which is a difficulty in the way of
vine-growing. But notwithstanding that, some of us are convinced that
wine-making is the coming industry of the Kaipara. Then there is the
olive, and the mulberry for serici-culture. Both these things are to
come. Experiment has been made in growing them, but that is all as yet.
Tobacco, too, will have its place. It grows well; and the Maoris
sometimes smoke their own growth. We prefer the Virginian article. A man
at Papakura has done well with tobacco, we hear. Government has bonused
him, so it is said; and his manufactured product is to be had in all the
Auckland shops--strong, full-flavoured stuff; wants a little more care
in manufacture, perhaps.

Tobacco, like some other things we have tried--hops, castor-oil, spices,
drugs, and so on--needs cheap labour for picking. That is the _sine qua
non_ to success in these things. And for cheap labour we must wait, I
suppose, till we are able to marry, and to rear those very extensive
families of children, which are one of the special products of this
fruitful country, and which are also such aids to the pioneer in
getting on.

Take it altogether, we--the pioneers of Te Pahi--are of opinion that
pioneer-farming here is a decided success. We are satisfied that it
yields, and will yield, a fair return for the labour we have invested in
it. We think that we are in better case, on the whole, than we should
have been after eight years' work at other avocations in the old
country. Putting aside the question of the magnificent health we
enjoy--and that is no small thing--we are on the high road to a degree
of competence we might never have attained to in England. Not that we
wish to decry England; on the contrary, we would like to return there.
But for a visit, merely. Here is