The majority of the colonists are emigrants from Great Britain, only a small fraction coming from the continent.[50] A large Irish population lives in the neighbourhood of Auckland, while the Scotch cling together about Taranaki and the southern parts of the island. The European population was 52,155 in 1857, and 73,343 in 1859, the proportion of sexes in the latter year being 42,452 males, and 30,891 females.
While most of the naturalists of the _Novara_ staff went on the invitation of Government to examine the coal-beds lately discovered in Drury district, others made frequent excursions in the environs of Auckland, three of which deserve special mention.
The first was to the picturesque Judges and Oraki Bays, the latter formed by the ruins of a crater. Here for the first time we beheld what is called the New Zealand Christmas tree, _Metrosideros Tormentosa_, which at the festive season comes forth pranked in all its gay blossoms, and is extensively used in decorating churches and dwelling-houses. Its large deep-red, umbellate blossoms are visible from afar gleaming among the green vegetation along the coast. The natives call this tree the Pohútu-Káwua; it is most extensively found on the slopes along the coast. The wild pepper, Kawa-kawa (_Piper excelsum_), is very common in the country round Auckland, but is not brewed into an intoxicating drink like the _Piper methysticum_ of the Southern Ocean. The natives indeed are exceedingly temperate, and, unlike other half-civilized races, are very little addicted to drink; this however may be partly due to the wise precautions of the Government, which under a heavy pecuniary penalty forbids all tavern-keepers throughout the province from selling the Maori any drink except beer. Two species of grass eminently characteristic of the country, which often overrun vast tracts of land, and are used by the natives for thatching their huts, are the Toi-toi (_Lepidosperma elatior_) and the Kekaho (_Arundo Australis_). There are also the Puka-puka, or paper-seed (_Brachyglottis repanda_), an object which, where it is found, imparts a peculiar aspect to the landscape, like the silver poplars on the flanks of Table Mountain at the Cape. The name of the plant is derived from the under side of the leaves being as white as paper.