Excerpt from Old New Zealand: A Tale of the Good Old Times I shall not state the year in which I first saw the mountains of New Zealand appear above the sea; there is a false suspicion getting about that I am growing Old. This must be looked down, so I will at present avoid dates. I always held a theory that time was of no account in New Zealand, and I do believe I was right up to the time Of the arrival Of the first Governor. The natives hold this opinion still, especially those who are in debt: so I will just say it was in the good Old times, long ago, that, from the deck of a small trading schooner in which I had taken my passage from somewhere, I first cast eyes on Maori land. It was Maori land then; but alas what is it now? Success to you, O King of Waikato. May your mama never be less l - long may you hold at bay the demon of civilization, though fall at last 'i fear you must. Plutus with golden hoof is trampling on your landmarks. He mocks the war-song but should I see your fall, at least one Pakeha Maori shall raise the tcmgi and with flint and shell as of old shall the women lament you. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.