CHAPTER XIX. HOW IT LOOKS TO-DAY.
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CHAPTER XIX.
HOW IT LOOKS TO-DAY.
IT has already been mentioned that some European men--sailors who had left the whaling ships--lived amongst the natives with Maori wives, and that in these mixed families there were some lovely children of the half-blood. In time the parents of such children died, and the poor orphans--especially those on Stewart Island--were brought to Ruapuke by the relations of the mother. For this reason we had a considerable number of children on our island. With the many and necessary manual labours which I had to perform, it was not possible to give them such instruction at school as was to be desired. Fortunately, our New Zealand Government came to the conclusion that it was their duty to supply the Maori youth with instruction in the English language. For as long as the Maori remained ignorant of the English language, and, therefore, had no access to English literature and the local newspapers, they would be obliged to remain a restless people, disassociated from the settlers. With difficulty a part of the small sum that was voted by our Parliament for Maori schools was obtained for this far south, where we had a small school fund of our own. A few years before the Government had bought the whole of Stewart Island from the local natives for the sum of £6,000, under the following conditions:--Two thousand pounds was at once divided amongst the local natives.
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Two thousand pounds was retained by the Government, that the money might not be squandered, and the interest annually paid to five high chiefs of the local nobility; the rest was retained to provide schools for the southern Maoris. The accumulated interest of the last sum now amounted to sufficient to build a school at Ruapuke, where most of the children were. The southerners had, therefore, an important claim under the new Education Act. The school was opened in 1868. Owing to the increase of orphans on Stewart Island, the number of scholars amounted, at the beginning, to 50. These left the school after one or two years, married, and established households. For that reason the number of scholars became considerably less, and with it the income of the teacher diminished, as the Government paid according to the average attendance. The first teacher left us after about two years, and I saw clearly that with our small income no good teacher would come to our island. Accordingly I offered to take the school myself, which was agreed to by the Government. It was no longer necessary, in order to encourage the Maoris to industry, that I myself should lead the way in manual labour. It was necessary, however, that I should work almost every day to earn my own living. As my income was now increased by the salary of my office, I would at last be free of toilsome manual labour. Still, I found later on that when the head is weary with the labour of the school, there is no better recreation for me than working in the fresh air; but this may not be the case with people who are not so much used to manual labour.
It is no easy matter to instruct the Maori youth in the English language. The sounds in the Maori language are simple in the highest degree, those of the English are most difficult. If in a simple village school in Germany, where the word grammar had never been heard, one were to begin instruction in Greek at once, in would present no greater difficulty than teaching the Maoris English does. And yet the difficulty may be overcome; but there is need of patience, and the labour is tiring to the teacher's head. When the first generation learns to speak the foreign language, but imperfectly, they can come to a very good
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understanding with the English settlers, and in the succeeding generation things go along better, and the difference of race is not so noticeable.
Our Maoris could now step into the ranks of civilized people. What a difference between formerly and now--between heathendom and Christianity. In heathen times the sick people were placed in isolation, that they might not interfere with the comfort of the living. A little roof was built over them, something to eat and water to drink was placed at their side, and they were then left to their comfortless end. Now, since the community has become Christian, and has acquired Christian customs, they can die in the blessed faith of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, and that, under the care and in the presence of their dear ones in their own dwellings. Verily Christianity makes men into men, fashioned after the likeness of God. Those resident in old Christendom should think of this when they say missions to the heathen are useless, and yet are not themselves devoid of noble human feelings.
The old Maoris died off one after another. They left but few children, and although these, under the improved conditions of life, grew to advantage, they had but little strength of constitution. Many died of consumption--some in childhood, others in early years of manhood. It was the effect of the sad, sunken state, into which the Maoris had fallen before they could be vivified anew by Christianity. The number of Maoris proper became smaller every year. With those of the mixed blood matters went the other way. It is true some of them fell victims to consumption inherited from their mother; still, on the whole, they possessed greater strength of constitution. They had inherited a spirit of enterprise from their fathers, which was wanting in the Maori proper, and were, therefore, better able to throw off despondency. When they grew up they married; sometimes among their own people, sometimes Maoris, sometimes Europeans. They were far more fruitful than the Maoris proper, but no so prolific as the Europeans who had settled here.
In our community the half-castes were by far the most numerous. For the old Maoris the island of Ruapuke was an important place, for the younger generation, and especially for
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the half-castes, it had lost its importance. The young men grown up with the sound of the roaring sea singing in their ears, had little taste for agriculture and cattle raising, but they were so much the bolder sailors. After they had learnt English at school, they took service as sailors, saw something of the wide world and gained extended experience. Then they came back, married the young girls, and built little vessels. But now they came to the conclusion that the little island of Ruapuke, dear as it was to them, was not adapted for them, because it had no harbour and their vessels were, therefore, in constant danger of being wrecked. On the other hand, the island of Stewart Island, twenty miles distant, offered them the desired harbour. The young families, therefore, one after another left Ruapuke and settled in the beautiful harbours of Stewart Island. Many of them were born there. The Government, which had previously bought the whole island from the local natives, gave each of them a piece of land for their own. In this way there arose a beautiful settlement of half-castes. The blending of the European blood with the Maori (the latter is nearly white in the South) has produced a beautiful race with fine European features. They now have a good Government school, and my only daughter is married to the teacher, who is also preacher, and attends to the spiritual wants of the community, so that the old connection with the mission is thus continued. The men go with their decked vessels into the fishing business, the dredging of oysters, and the catching of seals, and occasionally, too, take cargo along the coast. They are thoroughly acquainted with the local seas, know all the tides, the whirlpools, and the havens of refuge into which they can run in case of a storm arising suddenly.
Through the emigration of the young healthy families to Stewart Island, our small island Ruapuke has become much depopulated. Those left behind are almost all old people, who have no enterprise and little spiritual life. The families of the high chiefs belong to it, who live in a state of proud poverty, and whose income and expenditure would have got into confusion if I had not exercised a kind of supervision over them. If they only had some enterprise, or if I were not too old to do it myself, they
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would clear the fruitful meadows of the island, the heights and flats, and places between the jutting rocks, of the wild growth, and sow them with clover and grass seed, leaving, however, the woods undisturbed, as they are useful. Then, instead of two thousand sheep, of which the flock at present consists, they could easily have six thousand or more. But they cannot be roused to such undertakings.
As I have again mentioned sheep, I am reminded that many readers would like to hear something about the interesting New Zealand sheep runs. When the enterprising immigrants from Europe became acquainted with the country of these southern parts, they found that in addition to the forests there were many open grassy places, which would answer admirably for sheep runs. The wild-growing cattle grasses were, it is true, too coarse for sheep to thrive on, but they could be burnt away, and the soil sown with good European grasses and clover. The soil also contained good indigenous grasses, different from the European ones, but related to them, that could not previously get through to the light. The Government, who had bought all the land from the natives, was now ready, as there was no peasant class, to lease such areas of land at very low prices. Thousands of acres were taken up under such leases. Lessees with money and brains were soon found, for both these qualities were necessary for such undertakings. They went to Australia, and brought large ships full of sheep back. At that time it took a great deal of money and labour to take the sheep to their destination after they were landed, but these difficulties were overcome. At first the flocks were only small, but they soon increased--(in Ruapuke they doubled every two years through the annual lambing)--so that the sheep were reckoned by thousands. The still empty wastes now served for the use of man, as a large quantity of wool was exported every year. The holders of such sheep runs, if they were clever, became rich. So far, all was well; but an evil arose, because the rich sheep owners became too conservative, and took it very ill when newly-arrived settlers came and purchased pieces of the land they had leased from the Government, with a view to settling on them. Many of the lessees who had money, or who
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could borrow it, purchased their previously leased lands in large areas. Now a wholesale land fever swallowed up the country. Other rich people came and bought large areas of land, so that it became difficult for a small peasant to acquire a suitable piece of land. The large landowners over all New Zealand obtained a powerful conservative influence in politics in opposition to the liberals, who wished a small peasantry to be the rule--everyone with his own farm--thus creating the same evil that exists in England, where soil and land belong to the rich, the farmers only being lessees, and the peasantry living in great poverty. Such evils the liberals in New Zealand wished to avoid.
After the sheep runs, especially here in the south, had made successful progress for years, quite an unexpected misfortune befel them. You read in ancient histories that rabbits have destroyed countries (the weak little creatures), and that may well be true. As there was so little game in New Zealand, only birds, a few lovers of the chase decided on importing rabbits. These were let loose in a lonely place, and the people were prayed and threatened not to disturb them till they had become numerous. And they increased beyond all expectation. No river, no mountain could keep them back. Fortunately they could not cross the sea, and our island Ruapuke was spared the plague. On many once green sheep runs is now not a blade of grass to be seen. All is eaten by the rabbits, and the sheep must starve. They try to exterminate them with poison, with dogs, with every imaginable weapon. You read that here 10,000, there 20,000 were killed without making any appreciable difference. Still this land plague affects only the great sheep runs where there are but few people. In the neighbourhood of towns and villages they are easily kept under. These towns, villages, and sheep runs are only of recent date. In the earlier years of my residence here these districts were pathless wildernesses. The European settlers of the south of New Zealand are mostly Scotchmen belonging to the Presbyterian Church. They have brought with them their historic God-fearing and pious way of life, and as our Maoris were converted to Christianity long before their arrival, and had already made considerable advance in civilization, they lived in a beautiful unity with the settlers
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both in social intercourse and religion. It did my heart good to see it. Here in Ruapuke we are separated from the new towns and villages by twelve miles of sea, but many of the scattered members of my community, especially those on the mainland, have them in their immediate neighbourhood. In addition to the good that the settlers have brought with them there are the public houses which the Europeans will always have--a temptation, but still no greater temptation than the public houses in Germany are. Now a young community just risen from heathendom should be taken as great care of as a virgin whom one would wish to protect from the temptations of the world.
As soon as the settlers in any place are at all numerous, a church is built out of their own means. There are no church tithes here, and the community must support their own pastor. The blessing of God rests on this active and heartfelt piety, for "They work in quiet peace, and their outward condition endures." "Righteousness exalteth a people, but sin is their undoing. Godliness is profitable for all things, having the promise of the life that now is and that which is to come."
The Government has charge of the schools. They are unsectarian, and now, to please the Catholics and the Freethinkers, are without the Bible. This want is supplied by the Sunday schools, to which all children, rich and poor, are attracted. They are held in different schools, and pious teachers read the Bible in classes with their scholars, and present its contents with a warmth of heart such as could not be done in the day schools, where so much has to be learnt. The teachers meet once a week for conversation, edification, and preparation for the next Sunday. I write this from my own observation, and because, as a visitor, I have often had an opportunity to be present at it all. Once every Summer the Sunday schools have an outing, as it is called here. They gather in the church, and then march under the leading of the teachers out of the town into some beautiful, roomy, open place. Here they are regaled with cakes and tea, and they amuse them- selves with innocent games. Their parents and grown-up brothers and sisters attend (the labours of the day being over), and they form a large party of men, women, and children. It is a beautiful
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treat, and without intoxicating liquor of any kind. What an army of children you see here! The number of the children in villages in Europe in proportion to the grown-up people bears no relation to that which is the rule in New Zealand. God's blessing, "Be fruitful and multiply," applies very fully to the European immigrants.
Our North German Missionary Society, in the beginning of their labours among the heathen, acted in their New Zealand mission in accordance with the words of Christ, under the guidance of God, it is true, and without their knowing it--"Let not thy right hand know what thy left hand doeth." That means doing good without looking for thanks in a selfish way. A missionary society may well rejoice at the development of their community from heathendom, and may then consider it as theirs, even though it no longer needs their guidance.
But how goes it now with our New Zealand community, gathered by Riemenschneider in Otago, and by me in the south, and the adjoining province? With the help of God, the raw, stinking heathen have become changed into civilized Christians, who in no respect are inferior to ordinary Christians in old Christendom, and they considerably surpass the converted natives of the North Island.
Now, however, they are surrounded by numerous European settlers, who, in their social affairs, have formed themselves into Christian communities. It would be an error if barriers of sectarian differences were erected here. Our Maoris are, therefore, incorporated into these Protestant communities, which we submit to with great pleasure. Under these circumstances the mission of our North German Missionary Society can have no future. They decline, therefore, with pleasure the task of building permanent communities. They have brought souls to Christ without requiring self-seeking thanks. They will have their reward in heaven. Hundreds of souls have become believers who would otherwise have died in comfortless, hopeless heathendom, and have departed with the consolation of eternal life. They will thank their mission friends in heaven--all of them who helped in the mission by prayer,
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gifts, labours, and counsel. What is written in a German hymn will be fulfilled--
There him will I grateful thank
Who pointed out the heavenly way,
And a million times still thank
Him that he showed it me.
For myself I ask no recognition, because so much has to be deducted for many failures and sins in my labours, that I should occupy but a poor position. It is enough for me that I have been an unprofitable servant, who desired to do what he ought to have done, but did not do it. In Jesus' words, relative to unprofitable servants, there is the meaning that from servants--and in comparison with our heavenly Lord we are miserable servants--only labourers' work can be expected, and that their labours would have no result if God did not always put them right and repair their errors. In my own case this saying is a true one.
"For by grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast."
As I have lived so long amongst the natives of New Zealand (36 years), and have carefully studied their way of life from the time of their savage heathendom, and through their development into civilized Christianity, I must say something about their dying out. It cannot be denied that they are dying out (my experiences extend only to the south of New Zealand), whilst their kindred of the mixed blood--the result of the union of European whaling sailors and New Zealand mothers--live on and increase in number.
What is the cause of this dying out of the Maori, whilst the Europeans who have emigrated to New Zealand are remarkably vigorous and fruitful, and the above-mentioned half-castes live and increase? I cannot agree with the saying that a weaker race of men must die when it comes into contact with a stronger one. It is contrary to my experience, and I doubt, therefore, whether it is the case in other parts of the world where the natives die out. When I arrived amongst the Maoris in 1844 I found the death rate so high that there was only one birth to three or four deaths. At that time, in comparison with the Maori population,
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there were only a few sailors who had been left behind by European and American whalers. These had only been here a few years, and lived scattered amongst the Maoris; they could, therefore, have no effect on their health.
The Maori physique was that of a strong, well-grown, bodily stature, and yet it died out. The race resembled a young person dying of consumption. As such a person, even in Europe, no matter how well grown he may be, goes to an early grave, without any other reason, just so was the Maori race dying out here. The whole race, of which the individuals died in the bloom of their early years, was dying of consumption. This cannot always have been the case. There must have been a time, even if centuries ago, when they lived in New Zealand, and when their bodily powers strongly developed themselves in the fresh air, and when they were healthy and fruitful, and increased in number. I am inclined to put their extinction down to two causes. In the first place their forefathers came from tropical countries, where the Summer is always warm. In New Zealand they had, with very healthy air, to withstand a great deal of rough weather. They might have been able to bear this if they had not been, secondly morally in a sunken state. When the old heathen religion, with its sublime ideas, fell more and more out of sight, and could no longer influence them to lead a virtuous life; when the chiefs, in spite of all their vices, both when alive and after death, took the place of the gods; when the vicious tapu (by means of which men and things on which it was laid became sacred, so that if a common person touched them it was punished with death) was more and more used to extend the power of the chiefs, cowardly fear took the place of noble human feeling. Their morals then sank, their methods of life became brutish and most unclean, and that was the case with the common people as well as the chiefs. The abominable cannibalism became more and more common. Without the smallest feeling of disgust they could eat a stinking corpse. Such a method of life is inhuman and unnatural, and must lead to ruin.
The air of New Zealand is of that kind that it strengthens the healthy who lead a reasonable life, but the occasional rough
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weather weakens those who are weakly and impure. The Maoris, being sunk in impurity and inertia, caught frequent colds which ended in consumption. Still, it is to be noted that the time of their dying out joins in with the arrival of the superior foreigners. I maintain that God, "who has decided beforehand how far and wide a people shall dwell," arranges matters thus in accordance with His wise and orderly government of the world. In our time it is the fashion, especially amongst the followers of worldly-wise people, not to admit that the dear God governs the world; still at the back of all the subtleties of the highest wisdom there is an unexplained power, as the deeper thinkers in philosophy confess. Yes, an eternal God governs, who takes part in divine goodness in the course of events, not only in large matters, but also in small ones. When a people is about to die out, He permits a stronger one to take its place, and that in order that those who henceforth shall possess their land may sweeten their last days, and well is it with the successors if they recognise and do this.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
