Folio 24: A list of men who have received wounds or hurts during the period of the...

Folio 24: A list of men who have received wounds or hurts during the period of the journal: Folio 24: William Coleman, aged 35; able seaman; received a deep incised wound on the under surface of the right foot by treading on a broken shell. Pension not granted. Put on the sick list 8 April 1853, discharged 20 April 1853 to duty. Folio 24: Robert Lawson, aged 20; ordinary seaman; received a sever contusion of the right hand and thumb. Pension not granted. Put on the sick list 25 Nov 1853, discharged 6 Dec 1853 to duty. Folio 24: Thomas Bilton, aged 34; quarter master; while assisting in extinguishing a house on fire, fell into a hole and severely sprained the right knee and muscles of the leg. Pension not granted. Put on the sick list 26 Dec 1853.

Folios 24-28: Surgeon's general remarks. On 4 Jan 1853, the Pandora sailed from Auckland to Waiheke Island where the ship could more easily procure both wood and water. On the 14th, after returning first to Auckland, the ship sailed to Kawau Island which, though very hilly and situated upon clay soil covered with fern and brush wood, was very valuable for the copper and manganese mines which it contains. These copper mines had been very extensively worked but in consequence of legal difficulties the operations were then suspended and the mine was full of water. The ship, then employed to survey the North Cape until 5 Feb 1853, entered the Mannkaw Harbour on the west coast directly opposite Auckland. The entrance of this harbour was generally considered difficult and even dangerous from the shoals and sand banks at its mouth. This ship, however, entered with the greatest ease but, after getting safely inside, struck on a sand bank and remained until the returning tide floated her off again. Luckily, this afforded an excellent opportunity of cleaning the copper on the ship's bottom which in many places was covered with large mussels and barnacles. The Mannkan harbour was a large inlet of the sea of many miles in extent, having numerous arms and creeks winding into the surrounding country in all directions. It was separated from the east coast and Auckland Harbour by a narrow neck of land six or seven miles across but the creeks and rivers from both harbours met in some places within a quarter of a mile of each other and might, by means of canals, be easily made available for boats and vessels to pass from one harbour to another. In this respect, the surgeon suggests that a few canals could connect many hundreds of miles of rivers running inland and be made useful for bringing to Auckland the produce of the extensive agricultural districts and native villages situated on their banks and on the 'fine valleys through which they run'. The surgeon claims that 'no doubt some years hence when the population has much increased, all this will be accomplished, as from the mountainous nature of the country and the numerous rivers running through it, water will be always the cheapest and easiest means of communication in New Zealand'. At the north side of the Mannkan were some fine forests abounding in magnificent [Kanis?] pines and other useful timber trees and, due to the forest's proximity to Auckland, it had a large number of sawyers and wood cutters residing in it where the men formed a large community in New Zealand, scattered about in small numbers over the whole country. These men lead an unsettled and uncomfortable kind of life; nearly all had Maori wives and their temporary abodes were more wretched in most instances than those of the natives themselves. This was not the result of poverty but of being so much in the bush away from civilised society and 'they degenerate into far worse savages than the Maori themselves, indulging in drunkenness and all the vices of Europeans without possessing any of the virtues of the native race; they are a great hindrance to the advancement of civilisation of the natives and are loudly complained of by the missionaries for the injury they do to the Maori by the immoral and general bad example they set them'. The surgeon goes on to describe the pensioner settlements of Onehunga, situated on the shores of the Mannkan, as flourishing townships, well laid out into broad streets containing about one thousand pensioners, each with their own cottage and an acre of ground which they cultivated according t their own taste as the land was good allowing vegetation to grow rapidly. He states, 'It is astonishing, the quantity of food even an acre of ground will produce if properly managed' and quite a few were able to save money working as labourers though many spent all they earned on drink, this having been the greatest source of sickness and death amongst them. According to the medical returns collected by Dr Thompson, the senior military surgeon at Auckland, that, by their removal to the 'salubrious climate' of New Zealand, old soldiers, having been worn out from disease or long services in various unhealthy parts of the world, had added many years to their lives. He makes the comparison that, in England twenty-two out of every one hundred pensioners between the ages of forty and fifty die annually, mostly of disease of the lungs while, in New Zealand, that number is reduced to only seventeen though this is due mostly to disease of the brain usually caused by drink. However, the surgeon claims that, ignoring the heavy drinking that was taking place, he considered New Zealand, with its favourable climate and the ease by which people could obtain prosperity and domestic comforts, 'the best colony under the crown for the poor of all classes to emigrate to for what more can be expected then health and prosperity?' The next stop on the ship's survey brought the Pandora to Nelson, situated on the north end of the Middle Island at the western extremity of Cook's [Straits?], the anchorage in front of the town having been protected by a natural breakwater formed by a broad reef of stones. The town itself was wedged into a small valley surrounded on all sides, but that which faced the sea, by high steep mountains intersected by deep valleys and streams. It was laid out with broad streets crossing each other at right angles with the houses being constructed mostly of wood and surrounded by gardens which, from a height, gave it more the appearance of 'a scattered English village than a town'. The Nelson province at the time of this visit contained nearly 5,000 white inhabitants was extremely peaceful with no criminal for the judge to try during his periodical visitations in the previous two years. With even the lower-classes seeming remarkable well-to-do, the settlers of this town all seemed to be thriving, several already having become wealthy with sheep farming being the most lucrative employment due to the native grasses that grew in abundance in that area and the fine quality of their wool fetching large prices in England. The surgeon then compares the weather of this region to that of the more northern islands and finds it to be cooler but with less rain and stormy weather. He also states that there were copper mines in the area that had yet to be worked, an abundance of [?] and plenty of iron ore. On 1 September, after waiting through the winter months in Auckland, the ship then sailed for Norfolk Island which the surgeon describes as being 'hilly and exceedingly picturesque' with fertile soil producing many tropical and most European fruits and vegetables including limes, lemons, and guavas in great abundance whereas coffee, cinnamon and arrow root were cultivated in the gardens. While the common potato did not flourish here, the sweet potato did and formed one of the chief articles of food for the inhabitants. The highest parts of this island were covered with grass and with trees, amongst which the Norfolk Island pine was the most conspicuous and ornamental.