Page:Some Account of New Zealand.pdf/76

Rh ing to your demand one small basket at a time, of the value of which they endeavour to convince you they are perfectly aware; and in some instances they will trick you out of a basket or two in handing them on board, with all the dexterity of a Jewish or Christian dealer.

I believe they usually have two crops in the year, and I have not heard that they ever fail from accidental causes.

The potatoe is the only vegetable cultivated by the natives; they have had the seed of several others, but as they are found ill calculated for trade, they have been neglected.

The diffusion of cabbage seed has been so general over this part, that you would suppose it an indigenous plant of the country.

Nature has spared them the trouble of cultivating their favorite haddawai, or fern, as it is found every where in great abundance.

The next art I shall speak of, as subservient to the purposes of existence, is