Series 03: Joseph Banks - Endeavour journal, 25 August 1768 - 12 July 1771 (vol. 2) - No. 0192
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[Page 192]
188.
Some account of New Zealand
stones from the rest, in the middle of which they can make a fire round this the sides of the house are thick layd with straw on which they sleep; as for furniture they are not much troubled with it one chest commonly contains all their riches, consisting of Tools, Cloaths, arms, & a few feathers to stick into their hair; their gourds or Baskets made of Bark which serve them to keep fresh water, provision baskets & the hammers with which they beat their fern roots, are generaly left without the door.
Mean & low as these houses are they most perfectly resist all inclemencies of the weather & answer consequently the purposes of mere shelter as well as larger would do the people I beleive spend little of the day in them (except may be in winter) the porch seems to be the place for work & those who have not room there must set upon a stone or the ground in its neighbourhood
Some few of the better sort have kind of Court Yards the walls of which are made of poles & hay 10 or 12 feet high which as their families are large incloses 3 or 4 houses but I must not forget the ruins or rather frame of a house (for it had never been finishd) which I saw at Tolaga as it was so much superior in size to any thing of the kind we have met with in any other part of the land it was