Maori dogs running about in a wild state.” Dr. Monro also tells how he and Mr. Deans, Junr., dropped down the stream in a canoe to a lagoon near the sea, the haunt of “an immense number of water birds,” and did some shooting.
On April 11, Mr. Tuckett proceeded in the “Deborah” on his voyage southwards, which resulted in the selection of the present site of Dunedin as the capital of the Scottish Settlement.
Dr. Monro’s summary of the advantages and disadvantages of Port Cooper as a site for settlement ran as follows:—
“In the first place as regards the harbour, much cannot be said in favour of Port Cooper. It is, in fact, more a deep bay than a harbour, and when the wind blows from the northward, a heavy swell sets in, as we experienced while lying there. One or two little nooks are well sheltered; the principal of these is the bay in which Mr. Greenwood is settled” (Purau). “For small vessels this will be found a perfectly land-locked harbour, but the water is shallow—between three and four fathoms. At the upper end of Port Cooper the water is very shallow, leaving, at low water, an extensive mudflat. There is no convenient site for a town. Mr. Greenwood’s bay offers 200 or 300 acres, which might be built upon, but it would be a work of much difficulty and expense to connect this by means of a road with the agricultural district. At the head of the harbour, there is ample room for a town, but vessels could not approach within at least two miles. Besides these places, the shores of Port Cooper are either steep banks or rocky cliffs, and to carry a road along its W. side in the manner suggested by Messrs. Duppa and Danniell, appears to me a work that might be executed by a Napoleon or a King of Egypt, but hardly by the New Zealand Company. The productive resources of the district I regard as very considerable. The soil of the Peninsula has every
