Page:Some Account of New Zealand.pdf/75

56 with European regularity, but they are productive, and do no discredit to their owners.

Though the natives are exceedingly fond of this root they eat them but sparingly, on account of their great value in procuring iron by barter from European ships that touch at this part of the coast. The utility of this metal is found to be so great, that they would suffer almost any privation, or inconvenience, for the possession of it; particularly when wrought into axes, adzes, or small hatchets: the potatoes are consequently preserved with the greatest care against the arrival of a vessel. Their mode of preserving them is upon a platform, erected upon a single post, about ten feet in height.

The mode of bringing potatoes to the ship is in small baskets, made of the green native flax, and of various sizes, containing from eight to thirty pounds weight. In dealing for this article the natives make as good a bargain as they possibly can, add-