Page:Some Account of New Zealand.pdf/12

 PREFACE.

IT will undoubtedly be expected that the author should give his reasons for submitting the following pages to the perusal of the public.

During his stay at New Zealand, he made some observations respecting the country, and its inhabitants, which were committed to paper; he also brought a native of the island to England, who supplied him with much information upon those subjects.

He found that many of the islands of the Pacific Ocean, had been described by successive navigators, but New Zealand, an island, as to extent and population, far superior to any of them, had not been spoken of by a