1838 - Polack, J. S. New Zealand [Vol.II] [Capper reprint, 1974] - Chapter XI

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CHAPTER XI.

Much has been said and written on the propriety of colonizing the islands of New Zealand.

Similar ideas of actively forming something of the kind appears to be coeval with the earliest. knowledge that could be relied on respecting the country and its inhabitants. The celebrated hydrographer, Mr. Dalrymple, aided by the advice of Captain Cook and the philosopher Franklin, in 1771, proposed certain plans,

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COLONIZATION.

whereby the New Zealanders might be advanced in comfort and civilization, and a beneficial intercourse opened between them and their more enlightened European visitors. The scheme is said to have failed, for want of pecuniary means to carry it into execution. One of the principal features of the plan was to put the natives in possession of various animals and vegetable productions hitherto unknown to the people, with the advantages of serviceable instruments of husbandry, &c, forgetting, that at that early period, the customs of the people were unknown. Had the proposed plan been entered into, it is certain, as early as their visitors departed, incessant wars would have ensued for the possession of such valued articles as might have been left by the latter; and if neither party claimed the victory, the animals would have been destroyed, either by the possessors, if their party was too weak to resist, or by one of the enemy who wished to encroach on the property. Hitherto the New Zealander has looked only for present sustenance; patriotic feelings have been entirely out of his line. So far from desiring the improvement of his country, he has hitherto fought and prayed for the extirpation, or at least, subjugation of his fellow countrymen.

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COLONIZATION.

The time has now arrived for enlightened Europeans to teach them a contrary conduct. The feelings of superstition that formerly adulated the native in all his actions have gradually given way from his collision with his more civilized visitor, during a period of nearly forty years. Even in the short space of three years back, I remember a war taking place, not far distant from Kaikohi, between Hokianga and the Bay of Islands, in consequence of a pig feeding on the luxurious vegetation of a native cemetery. At the present day, in the same place, a trifling acknowledgment would be received as payment. In 1833, I have observed, I had to pay full three hundred persons to obtain permission to build a house opposite to a Wai tapu, which had not been used for many years, after first carefully fencing it. In 1837, I was requested to pull down the fencing and build or do what I pleased, as the place was pakehatea'd, or Europeanized.

Had cattle been introduced into the country, previously to the present scrambling colonization, none of the animals could have escaped death, as a penalty for committing something that affected the innumerable superstitions of the people; and it may be easily supposed, when it is impossible for a native biped to steer clear of

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BARBARISM OF THE PEOPLE.

such follies, how much the more difficult for a foreign quadruped.

It is scarcely to be imagined where an European could have been found to take up his residence among a people so horribly cruel and sunk in barbarism as they were well known to be, long subsequently to the establishment of the Colony of New South Wales. To have taught the people the use of implements of husbandry was well enough, as a single lesson would have served to suffice the naturally intelligent native; but to have resided among them until the reaping of the crops! both parties would have been past patience, and the New Zealander is the most impatient being in creation.

I have stated the missionaries could not have established themselves in the country but for the previous establishment of the colony at Port Jackson, and consequent intercourse for upwards of twenty years antecedent to 1814, when the mission was established: it must also be added, that commercial persons could not have settled, in comparative quiet, among the rude inhabitants of the Bay of Islands, but for the previous efforts of the members of the Church Missionary Society, who have been, until within late years, few in number, and have had to work unceasingly, attended with many discouraging circum-

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COLONIZATION.

stances, their exertions having, in a great degree, been paralised by the reckless and immoral conduct of runaway prisoners from the Australian settlements and from casual European visitors, whose conduct has often been the very reverse to that on which a civilized man may take pride to himself over the illiterate aboriginal of the land. Many of the fears, troubles, and often dangers of the missionaries are to be attributed to the gross misconduct of their lawless countrymen, and the same imminent state of insecurity has been felt by every respectable settler who has sat down on the soil, and erected a homestead in this adopted country.

The Europeans, who first colonised the country, were principally young men sent from Port Jackson to reside among the natives and supply them amply in whatever they might want in return for flax, which underwent the operation of dressing with the muscle shell. To those people must be attributed the commencement of an imperfect system of civilization in New Zealand; they distributed, generally at fair prices, blankets, and clothing suitable to the seasons; the serviceable adze, axe, tomahawks, iron-pot, hoes, spades, and that summum bonum of desire in the eyes of a native, the musket, and its accompaniments of powder, lead, bullet, moulds, &c,

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STATE OF THE PEOPLE.

To those early traders it is also fair to attribute, in some degree, however trifling, a cessation of the horrid lust of cannibalism; and if the people did not forego altogether this dreadful propensity of feasting on the repulsive banquet, yet a feeling of shame, (and few people are more alive to the suffusion,) induced the native to murder his victim and subsequently to devour the body in secret, and silence. Though the fact is so glaring, that glutting themselves with human flesh is of common occurrence to the southward, even at this day, yet the younger native when owning that his parents and relatives all partake of this food, generally excludes himself from indulging in such vicious and unnatural tastes.

Many statements have been put forth by persons averse to the colonization of New Zealand; the principal of these dogmatists insist, if the European once establishes himself in the country, the native population will wholly disappear in a few years. Of course, all precedents have been arrayed in support of this side of the question, the annihilation of the ancient Mexicans, and Caribbean tribes by the Spaniards; the disappearance of North American Indian tribes, by the colonial hordes from France, Spain, Holland, Great Britain, and even

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COLONIZATION.

Sweden, though Christina's colony was perhaps least offensive of any, the Dutch in Java, the Moluccas and south Africa, the Portuguese in India, and the Brazils, the Russians among the Kamptscadales, and nearer home to our colonial sins, the utter expatriation of the small remnant of the tribes of Van Dieman's land, to Great Island in Bass' Straight, and the continued decrease of the natives of New Holland. It is impossible to deny the truth of all these enormities, that have been said to have been perpetrated long since, or what is actually being committed at the present day, whether the Spaniards imported invoices of gridirons in Peru, to canonise their neophytes a la St. Lawrence, or another nation less antique, colonising Poland, (East Prussia I should say) with Germans; but it must be distinctly averred that the people now treated of, are unlike any of the aboriginal tribes alluded to above, whether their territory has been colonised by art or force; and I scarcely believe that any one person who has visited New Zealand, and spoken his feelings unbiassed by interest, and knowing the tenacious character of the people, ever felt the slightest fear of their welfare being affected by colonization being introduced in the liberal views by which the parliamentary proceedings are at the present day so justly distinguished.

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ANCIENT BRITONS.

The New Zealander can be compared only to the ancient Briton--the former less influenced by his native tohunga, than the latter by his Druid; if I have compared the country in another place to "aunciente Albione," in vain may we search through antiquity for a nation more similar in customs and habits to these people than the Britons were in the days of Julius Caesar. What the Briton was to the author of the immortal "Commentaries," so is this antipodal barbarian to us; and the resemblances that can be instituted in many minor matters, such as painting, carving ornaments, &c. are too numerous to particularize.

Far from declining before the advance of civilization, these people join with us hand in hand. No cultivated nation, in any quarter of the globe, have a more rooted passion for commercial pursuits than these people. All strangers who have had any dealings with them, must be assured of this fact. The native will not scruple to dispose of his landed possessions, his slaves; even his veneration for the burying places of his ancestors will give way for an utu or payment, and doubtless many a village pastor would be had at a bien bon marche, if his kindly flock had the power of disposing of him, perfectly inclined as the native often is to sell that which does

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COLONIZATION.

not appertain to him. He will often fall into the opposite extreme by actually disposing of himself and services, for a certain period, for, as Trapbois terms it, "a consideration," previously assured that his purchaser for the time being, has no similar gout for anthropophagy.

It will be demanded, after these people dispose of their land to the colonists, what will be their ultimate fate? I would say, no uncivilized nation would sooner amalgamate with a superior people; let their lands, especially such as lie dormant to them, be fairly and justly purchased; not as the North American Indians have been treated, sacrificed to the subordinate agents of the government of the United States, as is practiced at the present day, and from which has arisen the Seminole war yet raging in the wildernesses of Florida. The chiefs should be paid for their property so as to receive comfortable annuities, whereby they would be enabled to provide for their children, also in letting their slaves as farm servants, or as sailors, as is their common wont at present, which would enable the latter to purchase their freedom after a certain term of servitude. Many natives of the various classes of the country would attach themselves from a bias towards the pursuit of the nautical profession; some hundreds are at present employed

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STATE OF THE PEOPLE.

in the British and American whale fishery, and are regarded by liberal minded men, equal in their duties to Europeans, as effective in ability and strength, while dieting on similar nourishing provisions.

A New Zealander, a native of Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, who has adopted the English patronymic of Baily, has risen from cabin boy to the situation of chief officer, having passed through all the intermediate grades, and has fulfilled that office for some years past, on board the British whaling bark, "Earl Stanhope," of London; but being a foreigner, he is debarred having the command of a ship, otherwise he is able to fill such an appointment. He is tattoed. His pecuniary allowance or share of the oil procured, is equal to that bestowed on that class of officers sailing out of Port Jackson he regrets much the degraded state of his countrymen, and feels assured of yet seeing their political regeneration from barbarism.

The bulk of the people would decidedly take to farming, in which they would be found most useful to the colonist; their own plantations have ever been cultivated with a degree of neatness unsurpassed by the generality of Europeans, and their defects in the art of farming, as relates to a diminution of labour, does not de-

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DECRESCENCE OF TRIBES.

teriorate from the general neatness of their farms. The example that would be set before these people of British industry and activity; the aids they would receive by the plough and cattle, would, in a very short time, wholly eradicate from the inactive but stirring mind of the New Zealander, those gloomy thoughts that now dispose him, to war alike against his nearest kindred, or his enemy, and which so materially tends to the declension of this people.

A still greater cause towards the decrescence of the tribes, requires next to be mentioned. It is evident, to any continued resident observer in the country, how many natives die annually without leaving survivors of their own body. This decrease is caused by the gross superstition, of the tapu on a person being taken ill, whereby he is prevented from taking any sustenance, the atua in the form of a lizard being supposed to feed on the entrails of the dying person; and no sooner is the simple native unable to account for his illness, or that of his friends, than he or they sink into a state of despondency, visited by religious compunctions, which will not permit them to resist the progress of the disease. Thousands of these unhappy victims to superstition have been thus hurried to a premature grave, whereas a trifling portion of attention at the commence-

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EFFECTS OF SUPERSTITION.

ment of the attack might have added tens of years to the lives of the sufferers. All sustenance is denied them at a later period after the first attack, and many have been literally starved to death. On retrospection, how many do I remember who have been my companions in travel--friends and servants at home, thus self-immolated to these gross superstitions.

Multitudes fall by the equally lamentable folly of the makutu or bewitching. This supposed curse has slain its thousands. The death of the victim to this "vox et preterea nihil," entails an exterminating war on any tribes obnoxious to the village priest. Yet the superstitions above alluded to are of minor importance, notwithstanding how destructive their effects are felt in depopulating New Zealand, in comparison with the numberless children destroyed by their unnatural mothers. To enumerate the many thus disposed of within the pale of families I was acquainted with, I fear me, the account would be criticised with as unsparing a hand as lashed Bruce, on his describing the Abyssinian method of devouring cattle alive, without the amusement and talent of that celebrated traveller. (See note 13).

The mild precepts of a sacred dispensation will do away with the above unnatural habits and

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PRESENT STATE OF

customs, after the lapse of some years, but the moral force of good example, with equal privileges enjoyed by the civilised man, and wholesome laws, which from their impartial justice would encourage these hitherto lawless people, to be improved solely by systematic colonization, can alone speedily change, and for a certainty, a remorseless criminal conduct, which has been insisted on and followed up from their earliest history, and of which their mythology furnishes abundant examples.

Another cause for the further decrease of the present population, is the degraded state in which woman has been regarded by these people. To the latest hour of her existence she is doomed to work hard for her imperious helpmate; but the direful effects of this hard labour for life is principally developed by the brief term of the procreative powers, the drudgery she undergoes causing premature age; this impediment to an increase of population would be wholly removed by the force of European example, and would equally extend its good effects on the present baneful practice of polygamy among these anti-monogamists, which at present restrains under the penalty of death, a number of young women from conjugal intercourse.

The continual suicides committed through

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THE NEW ZEALANDERS.

misdirected pride and obstinacy, wearied of a life without spiritual hope, immolating themselves to the manes of a departed husband or cruel master; the sacrifices of slaves to attend chiefs of either sex in a future existence; all these causes can only be done away by an active and well-directed employment of both the mind and body of these people. The last cause to which I shall allude, is the incessant hostile dissensions and aggressions taking place between the many chiefs and tribes caused from their incongruous system of polity, which gives rise to so many unappeasable feelings of hatred for real or supposed injuries. The petty chiefs are the principal occasion of these quarrels, generally the sole result of a wish for precedence. Had this country originally possessed a similar monarchical government as has even been established at all the islands of Oceanica, such furious rencontres would never have taken place, caused as they have been by no greater cause of offence, than perhaps a passing frown. (Note 15.)

Vancouver tells us that Tameamea, King of Hawaii, (Owhyhee) had diplomatic work enough to preserve peace even among his adherents, and that his valuable time was divided to preserve his acquired ascendancy over his brother kings of the neighbouring islands and restricting his

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PRESENT STATE 0F

nobles from acts of mutual aggression, retaliation, and injustice. The present form of government, if it may be called so where all is injustice and the law of might alone is in practice, among the New Zealanders, which has been handed down to them from the earliest occupants of the country, perhaps originally arose from many separate settlements made in the country by the inhabitants of several islands, originally co-relative and speaking one common language, but whose forms of policy might differ in many instances; however, whatever the original cause may have been, under any other form of government, the country and people would have exhibited a decidedly more flourishing appearance than it presents to the European at the present day. In addition to the professions I have stated the natives would embrace, on the colonization of their country, many of the young men would be found exceedingly clever as apprentices to shipwrights, general carpenters, joiners, turners, blacksmiths, and other branches including all the mechanical and useful arts. "Man," says Buffon, "is the most imitative animal in existence," and the savant is borne out in his assertion as far as these people may be included in this truism. Often has the able native joiner, employed and originally taught by the catechists of the Church Missionary

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THE. ISLANDERS.

Society, derided the clumsy fittings of a European, inferior in the craft; the native youth feeling confident of his own superiority, and taking pride to himself accordingly. At the present day, such young men are looked upon with great respect by their less capable relatives; but yet little service can accrue to the body of the people, from a small society of persons giving them employment for their own few and peculiar wants; the abilities of these promising people can only be tested and brought forth as highly serviceable to themselves, by a well-conducted, civilised population settling among them, and adopting the country and its aborigines as their own home and brethren.

The British nation, from their peculiarly commercial and settling habits, are the only people that could readily amalgamate with the New Zealanders, whose earliest knowledge of foreigners has been derived through this nation. The chastisement inflicted by the people under Crozet for the massacre of the unfortunate Marion du Fresne and his companions is not yet forgotten in the Bay of Islands; whereas Cook, whose humanity exceeded that of his contemporary, Surville, is still affectionately remembered to the southward. The trade of this people has

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338 PREDILECTION OF THE NATIVES

been wholly with the British. Their atrocities committed in various cases similar to the cutting off the ship "Boyd," having hitherto past unheeded, except in the case of the "Harriet," lost off the S.W. of Taranaki, in 1834, the people are fully aware has not resulted from want of power on the part of the nation of those they have so indignantly and always cruelly ill-used. Independently of the above, and much as we may deplore the original connexion, which not-withstanding its not-to-be defended immorality, I has lessened the crime of infanticide in a great degree, the numerous offspring, or Anglo-Zealanders, are so many perpetual ties, daily presented before their relations and tribes, on whom much marked kindness is invariably shewn by European visitors in the shape of presents to the parents and children; also the decided personal and, it will be hoped, moral, improvements of this mixed race, caused by the inter-marriage of British and native parents, through the medium of the missionaries.. The English language is also spoken and much more understood by many of the present generation, who emulously study it by every chance presented to them; nor must we forget the powerful hold, however silent, that the missionaries have over these people,

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TOWARDS THE ENGLISH.

whose quiet method in carrying on their domestic affairs, and the retiring modesty and irreproachable conduct of their married females attached to this invaluable body, would render the domination of any other European power than that of the British, very repugnant to these people.

The yearnings of affection which the New Zealanders possess for their more enlightened visitors and now tenants of the same soil, lie deeper in their hearts than those people will generally admit, or even than they themselves have any knowledge of. They not only entreat for presents, but endeavour to procure them by every artifice they are capable of putting in practice: they will work on the fears of their intended victim to obtain their darling wishes; should this fail, they will annoy him by every means in their power, form cabals, use the most biting sarcasms, especially should the person attacked have any personal defect, even war upon him and commit real injuries, if thwarted and their wishes remain ungranted; but no sooner has this oppressed man quitted the country, than his good actions are well remembered, and the conscience-struck savage calls to remembrance a thousand little kindnesses that had been shewn to him in vain, and cause him to lament, with bitterness and tears, his own precipitate folly, admitting, too late,

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CRIMINAL CONDUCT OF

that a contrary conduct would have been more beneficial to him.

The people have expressed much alarm, at various periods, on the proposed introduction of soldiery into the country. These feelings have been initiated into them, or at least augmented, by the well founded fears of the runaway prisoner from the adjacent Australian colonies. In vain has the arrival and subsequent felonious conduct of these ruffians been made known to the colonial authorities at Port Jackson; so far from any instructions being given to commanders of ships of war to apprehend these men, that, at least, they might undergo their original sentence of condemnation, they have been allowed to trade on board these said ships in his majesty's service, and known at the same time as felons. (Note 14.) In vain has Mr. Busby, the government resident, made representations to the colonial authorities in Sydney, (I have his word for it,) of the deplorable state of anarchy and confusion caused by the excesses of these reprobates; equally vain have been the repeated information conveyed by the two missions to their respective societies; nothing has been done, though it is impossible to carry on missionary labours with any ultimate

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RUNAWAY PRISONERS.

good effect, unless these excesses are vigorously and effectually put a stop to. What power, it may be asked, can missionary labourers possess over the mind or even outward conduct of the natives, when placed in competition with the lawless runaway prisoner, and often seamen, either breaking through every engagement by escaping from their employers, or ejected from ships for guilty conduct, and are thus found on every part of the coast, an incubus on the people, contaminating by crimes hitherto unknown, to the imitative islanders. The influenced of a refined society cannot, at present, be felt by the native surrounded by his own primitive habits in his country. The civilized man cannot urge the claims due to an enlightened taste and elegant education or manners; the native understands them not. He requires muskets, powder, blankets, and he, who will dispose of these articles at the cheapest rate, is apparently the best friend. Thus the influence of the missionary and respectable resident are alike paralized by the criminal runaway prisoners, who, from the reckless manner they obtain property, give it away as carelessly, and he gains additional advantages by cohabiting with native females, for trivial payments.

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STATE OF THE NATIVES

It has often been advanced, that the colonial government of Sydney possessed sufficient control to apprehend their own runaway prisoners, and cause them to undergo their original sentence; --they have never made use of such power, which they assuredly possess. The most degraded methods are made use of to procure illicit livelihoods, endeavouring to insinuate themselves into the graces of sailors, for the purpose of robbing them of their money, and often clothing. There are no wholesome laws to restrain them in their vicious conduct; and it is an acknowledged fact, that the natives resident opposite the longest established stations of the mission, have made the most rapid progress in vice under the tuition of these infamous prisoners, who have entirely neutralised the good effects that had formerly been felt by their instruction. It may be asked, as we find it impossible to prevent the country from being colonised in its present unsystematic manner, neutralising every good that has been attempted in vain for the natives hitherto, and which must ultimately lead to their utter extinction, what is to prevent a more systematic settlement of valuable colonists, whose benefit, either in a moral and pecuniary sense, must be enhanced by following

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AT THE PRESENT DAY.

a totally different conduct to that heretofore pursued by the major part of the Europeans towards the tribes, under the patronage and protection of the British government, accompanied by laws, both moral and social, peculiar to Great Britain, which laudably protects alike all classes and religious denominations?

The opinion that has hitherto been formed of the entire population of this vast tract of country, at the present day, taking the entire surface from the northern to its southern extremity, does not perhaps consist of more than three persons to every two square miles, or about one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, which will afford the best answer whether there is sufficient space for an European colony, beside the aboriginal inhabitants.

The appearance of the country, in various parts, is thus described by the Reverend Messrs. H. and W. Williams, &c, whose observations are founded on personal travel in their missionary tours among the natives. Those gentlemen possess enlarged and scientific minds, and have heretofore been engaged in active service in the cause of their country, in whose naval annals they are noticed with eclat.

"At Mangawai, (Thames,) there were many pretty places up here, and marks of former settlements, but the people had been swept away

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DECREASE OF THE NATIVES.

as with the besom of destruction. Former residences of tribes, now no more, are continually pointed out to us." "The case and circumstance of the natives are lamentable; many of them have died of sickness and disease, while a greater number have been cut down in the field of battle; in fact, they bid fair for annihilation, for the island is at this time, (1832,) in a very turbulent state. A respectable settler, going to reside on the Thames, states that, for five years past the natives of that most beautiful spot had not been allowed to cultivate, except here and there in secluded vallies; those of Wangari making continual attacks upon them, and were so driven about, that they were living on fern, root, and fish, in a continual state of dreadful alarm. The coast between Katikati and Tauranga forms an island, very level, and from the number of deserted pa's, was doubtless formerly thickly inhabited, but now in a most desolate state from the effect of war." At another place, "The country appeared well-wooded, but no inhabitants, though marks of former people; no sooner do strangers meet than fear is expressed." "In Wangari, (in 1833,) we saw the wreck of an Englishman's house, but not a creature; when last we where here (1832) there was a large party at the pa, and several Euro-

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DESOLATION OF THE COUNTRY.

peans were in various places around; but all are gone, shewing the distressing effects of war. No inhabitant hitherto seen -- all desolation. How melancholy is the reflection that once those hills and vallies were peopled with savage hordes, but of late years they have been hunted as the deer, until few remain, and they are driven into the interior! In what a wretched state are these people sitting! In the darkness and shadow of death, destitute of every hope, either in this world or the world to come, not knowing who are friends or foes, but daily dreading an attack from some unknown quarter; many have expressed to me, during our present expedition, how gladly would they receive a party of soldiers amongst them to preserve peace in the land. "The island, on which we were, was large, and abundance of ground for many families: the rocks were covered with oysters, and pipis were on the mud banks, which run out for a long distance, and the sea full of fish of all kinds; it was melancholy to look around; all was perfect stillness, except here and there a bird: --no bustle of active life, no vessels, boats or canoes, moving on either hand, over the surface of these waters, which spread like magnificent rivers, among the numerous islands. The hills in the rear are clothed with timber,

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NEW TRIBE DISCOVERED.

without rendering service to any. Traces of former towns and settlements were visible, as we came along, and wherever we turned; but all were either destroyed, or the inhabitants taken captive or fled.

"At Mokoia in the Thames, the country around appeared very level to a great extent, and the general report of the natives is, that it is of the same quality with that here; but it cannot be occupied by Europeans for a length of time, as there is no timber near the place. The river on which this place stands, runs up a long distance to within half a mile of Manukau which empties itself on the western coast; it passes through Waikato."

At Mercury bay, some time since a tribe of natives were discovered, who belonged to the plains inland, supposed to be uninhabited, and who, it was said, never visited the coast before. In the Island of Victoria, doubtless when communication is formed within that island, various remnants of tribes will be discovered, the descendants of those people, who have fled from the devouring tyranny of other tribes stronger in numerical force, and who have instilled into their progeny, superstitious fears, to prevent their future commigration. Reports are extant among the natives, that such people have been seen in

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EMIGRATION OF TRIBES.

the fortresses of that island; but similar to native reports, they are invested with such supernatural absurdities, as to be difficult of credence.

Many of the chiefs are tired of war, and though they would feel puzzled in choosing a dictator among themselves, for their commonwealth, yet I am fully inclined to think, that they would readily submit to the government of a person representing British authority. Any other description of government than that connected with the crown, might alienate the affections of these people, as the most fostered passion in a New Zealander is pride, and the name of the possessor of the crown is alone regarded as a "tower of strength." From the extracts of missionary correspondence above given, it will be readily perceived that even in the north or most populous island, whole districts of many square miles in extent are wholly vacated and unoccupied. These remarks were written some few years back, between which period and the present, continual wars have been carried over the whole country. The extirpation of whole tribes has been so rapid, that in 1835, about five hundred natives, inhabitants of Port Nicholson or Wanganui atera, employed the master of a colonial brig, to take them from their own district to the Chatham Islands. They were

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EMIGRATION OF TRIBES.

conveyed in two trips, and as soon as they arrived in the islands, which are valuable in an agricultural point of view, they took the simple inhabitants for slaves, murdering and devouring numbers. The heartless fellow who carried the tribes to the islands, was disappointed in his expectation of flax, which was to be his payment, and was allowed to go at large unpunished, (similar to the cases of the two Stewarts) by the colonial government. The natives on these small islands were originally descended from the New Zealanders; but had deteriorated much from their neighbours with whom they were conterraneous; since that period, other tribes have attempted to capture two colonial vessels, for the same purpose, to be conveyed to Sunday Island, the largest of the Curtis's Group. (See Note 6).

Natives are daily emigrating from New Zealand in the many whaling vessels, that are continually touching all over the coast, nor are their services refused, for a more apt people do not exist in Europe, to learn and accommodate themselves to the habits of their visitors, and to perform with readiness the tasks assigned to them. Many large burthensome ships, containing cargoes, &c, worth thirty thousand pounds and upwards, are steered on the tractless ocean

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FICKLENESS OF NATIVES.

by the unenlightened New Zealander. The natives have frequently invited missionaries to reside in their districts, adding, "we will war no more; if you had settled among us formerly, such and such a tribe would not have been cut off." In many parts, the society have formed stations in the most populous places that could be selected, and when their presence has been especially requested, the mission have often found their presence has been principally desired for the sake of the little trade they might be obliged to expend in necessary provisions for themselves and school. Thus at Puriri a central and well chosen station at the Thames estuary, many heads of tribes requested the missionaries to establish themselves among them; and after oft repeated invitations the request was complied with. Messrs Fairburn and Stack, two efficient persons, well versed in the habits of the people, from a long residence among them, settled themselves among these tribes, and were treated disgracefully as early as they arrived; threats of every kind were held forth by the misguided mob, who cavilled at the prices paid for fencing houses and other matters, which they had not the slightest occasion to do. They said, "Let all the Europeans go home; who asked them to come here? We never visited them; they came

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FICKLENESS OF

of their own accord. We only want those who sell muskets and powder." The insults a native will give to a European, require a patience scarcely to be acquired otherwise, than in a prolonged residence in the country. At another period, in consequence of a servant making off with a counterpane, at Puriri, which one of the brethren went after to recover, not for its value, but for the precedent it would cause among the natives around to rob them, on requesting the man to return it as it was stolen, the fellow rose up with a large knife in his hand, and approached the missionary in a menacing attitude; the attendant chief interfered, the ruffian struggling in their grasp in vain, who when deprived of thus wreaking his insane passion, seized an iron pot and dashed it in pieces. Early the next day the Missionaries perceived a number of chiefs arming for war, and on enquiry, found they were preparing themselves to chastise the friends of the man, whose bad conduct had caused this quarrel, and they had loaded their muskets for the purpose. The brethren entreated them to desist from such folly; that they had settled among them as messengers of peace, not of war. The chiefs trembled with passionate anger, but agreed to have a komiti (committee) on the subject, as they were all relatives. They began wrestling with each

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THE NATIVES.

other, according to custom, but with good humour. The usual lengthy speeches were made, which for prosiness and soporific effects, equal certain financial declamations in certain Houses of assembly; the fellow, who was the disturber of the peace got severely censured, and at the finale it was requested, that the mission be not removed, as the people would become a bye word around, and they would die with shame and vexation. Payment was tendered for the loss of the iron pot, and great alacrity was shewn by the people to regain the good graces they had lost. This was the behaviour of the natives at the extreme south station at that time. At Kaitaia, on the river Rangounu, the most northern settlement, the importunities for resident missionaries, by the different tribes, were equalled only by their countrymen at Puriri. The land purchased for the use of the mission was to be paid for. The trade was produced, that was to be the payment, and was for some time agreeably divided, until some impatient fellows made a rush, to appropriate to themselves a larger share than they were entitled to; many of course felt dissatisfied, and instantly scrambled over the fences that had been erected around the house of the mission, in order to strip it; others immediately followed to protect it and the property; so that

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PURCHASE OF WAIMATE.

all was uproar and confusion--naked savages plying about in every direction, armed with billets of wood, hatchets and stakes. After the first ebullitions of the tumult had subsided, they met and commenced a haka, and these singular folks all melted into feelings of regret and affection at their hasty conduct. Peace was restored and the chiefs spoke favorably for the mission; the head of them was determined, he said to protect the Europeans to the utmost of his power. The disgraceful conduct of the above transaction, is pleasingly reversed, we find, in the purchase of the Waimate settlement. At this place, the natives assembled, and anxiously awaited the arrival of the brethren, to receive the payment for their land. They expressed satisfaction at what each received, and willingly put their signatures to the deeds which were to convey over to the new comers, the land that had descended to them for many generations. This purchase was remarkable, as being the first inland settlement purchased by Europeans. At the conclusion, the chief's people discharged a round of artillery. One of the principal chiefs then made a speech to his friends, and said, "Be gentle to the Missionaries, for they are gentle with you; do not steal from them, for they do not steal from you; let them sit in peace on the ground which they have

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LAND PURCHASES.

bought and let us listen to their advice, and come to their prayers; though there are many of us, missionaries and native men, let us all be one, all be one." The report states, that eight hundred acres of most excellent land were bought, bounded by a beautiful river, and having many smaller streams intersecting it. The quantity of land purchased for the church missionary at Kaitaia is upwards of one thousand acres, six hundred of which is fine alluvial soil. The chiefs of whom we purchased the land manifested great satisfaction at seeing the payment, one of whom made an excellent speech on the occasion, in which he showed the nature of European bargains, telling them that the land which they had sold was a weighty article and the right of possession would never return to them; it was for ever gone.

The large prices demanded for land will sufficiently tend to prove, that the natives are not such illiterate people as some philosophers insist upon. In purchasing, the north bank and right of the waterfall at the head of the boat navigation in the Waitangi river, a missionary gentleman had applied, unknown to me, for the place, previously to its being offered to me. After much annoyance, during which I had frequently requested Kamura, the chief to let the former gentle-

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VALUE OF LANDED

man become the purchaser, as early as I knew of his intentions, it was finally agreed, that each party should possess either bank of the river, the chief observing that his tribe wanted missionaries, but also were at a loss for commercial persons, as his people required to sell their agricultural productions; counting on his fingers the many edibles they would plant, if they could but meet with a purchaser. In demanding payment for the land, he bade me bear in mind, that the property had descended to him from a remote ancestry, who, as well as himself, had belonged to the sacerdotal class; that in purchasing the land, I necessarily became incorporated among the tribe, the actual interest constituting me a "tamaiti no na Nu Tilani," a child of New Zealanders. I hinted at my complexion; but Kamura assured me that made no difference as I should pass muster well enough. That the utu must be very great, at least such was expected, and pointing to the river, said, as that river flows up many little creeks and crevices, so must the payment be equally sufficient; that each claimant of the property may be refreshed, for the land remained to me for ever; that no sooner vegetable seeds were planted in the soil, but they returned the original expence cast in the first instance; and if I planted fruit trees, the young cuttings would become large trees; that the

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PROPERTY DEFINED.

payment he and his people would receive, must soon dwindle away and be forgotten; the musket would early become sick or dead, (mate) the blanket would fall to rags and decay, and tobacco, or money laid out in that article, would be quickly smoked away, and the other articles would become broken or stolen.

Observing certain lively appearances in the blanket worn by my friend, I hinted that this latter article was also likely to produce a crop, as well as his land, and pointed to some travellers, who were comfortably ensconced within the wool; he laughed, and decorously hid them from my sight by placing them within his mouth, exclaiming, "Katai ku pakeha ta hangareka, e tihi ano" or my white man jokes with me, and is a thief into the bargain. These circumstances are mentioned to show that, at times, the people are tenacious in their proceedings, where their interests are concerned, and are at other periods actuated by fickleness; --this conduct is evidently the effect of an uncultivated intellect.

I have mentioned elsewhere, on striking a native, that a smile has changed his anger, when a frown would have enraged him beyond the bounds of reason. The fickleness of disposition in the New Zealanders renders it painful to have any

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DISPOSITION OF

dealings whatever with them in their present state. This unpleasant conduct is not felt by the missionaries in so great a degree, as by the traders. The wily native is aware, if he insults a single member of the former body, he draws down the indignation of the whole; but he knows that a feeling of unworthy rivalry exists among commercial men, and if he cannot get his price from one store-keeper, he can from the next neighbour. The most venerable sage is as unstable as a feather: the slightest supposed affront will arouse his bitterest passions, which oftentimes nothing less than blood will satiate, and a paltry trifling present, or even a jest will restore his equanimity; this latter feeling is as strong within him, as the former, for a native will sometimes stake his life in defence of the object that pleases him at the moment.

These people, with minds suitably cultivated, are capable of the most exalted actions. Since the establishment of the missions, and respectable commercial settlers, many former practices, which savoured of their wild barbarous state, have disappeared. Slaves are no longer sacrificed at the decease of chiefs to the northward of the river Thames, but yet we find but little diminution of wars among the people. In 1837

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THE PEOPLE.

the whole of the tribes inhabiting the banks of the Hokianga were at war one with the other; several were killed on either side, and the Bay of Island was tempestuously divided between two parties. During the continued period these dissensions were carried on, we find no European power of sufficient influence to stay such offensive proceedings. By the use of fire-arms, in lieu of the old accoutrements, much less loss of life has ensued; but colonization alone, whereby European interests will interweave themselves with those of the natives, can prevent this people from steadily pursuing their determination of exterminating each other, though it must be fully admitted, that the missionaries are improving a few of the natives in their general conduct, at least outwardly to strangers. This is matter of surprise, when their exertions are paralyzed by the misconduct of vicious Europeans; yet the national rancour of these people can only be stayed by the residence of a superior moral and physical force together with impartial laws, that will recognise the two people as one family.

New Zealand, once systematically colonized, will be regarded in a very few years by Great Britain, among the first in value of her colonies,

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VALUE OF THE ISLANDS

without any of those attendant expenses that have hitherto been inseparable in the formation of these adjuncts to her greatness. The country is destined to become the granary, as well as from her peculiar locality the safeguard of the many rising colonies now established on the four coasts of New Holland.

New Zealand possesses in either island alone, a greater number of valuable harbours, than are to be found around the circumference of coast that girts New Holland. The climate is unequalled, the land is nearly situated antipodal to our own, with the advantage of being nearer to the temperate zone; the value of the soil, its fertility, the rivers, fresh water creeks intersecting the surrounding lands in every direction, and forming easy and convenient outlets for the marketable productions of the farmer, give this splendid country so obvious a superiority over the most favoured colony in New Holland, as must cause, at no far distant day, a depreciation of the unnaturally forced prices of land in those colonies, and New Zealand will be raised in proportionate value, as it must be the depot and mart for the various productions of the different islands in the entire vast Pacific ocean. These remarks are not the hazardous results of hasty con-

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FOR COLONIZATION.

jecture, but resulting from a residence in the islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans of above eleven years. In a word, the occupation of New Zealand, as a colony, is of primary importance to the British Government, in a political point of view. In the event of a rupture taking place with the most northern power of Europe, at such a period, the real value of the indigenous staples of the country would be apparent, as ample supplies of the phormium or flax, and ship timber, would be made available to any extent, the former staple admitting being cultivated in such marshy lands, as are least useful to the farmer's agricultural purposes. This new article of hitherto foreign commerce, would throw into the hands of Englishmen the important sums that now serve to enrich the foreigner, and open a new field of exertion, hitherto but little known to the British Colonial grower, the home manufacturer, mechanic, and capitalist. Secondly, in case of a rupture with any foreign power of Europe or America, this country, unoccupied by the British, would be the resort of hostile ships,; that must wholly destroy the entire commerce of all the colonies in New Holland, and in the present negligent and inefficient state of their defences, leave them open to the first invader; for

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VALUE OF THE ISLANDS

it is a notorious fact, that the oldest settlement on the coast (Port Jackson) at the present moment, could be laid under contribution by a single ship of war, the more surprising as it possesses every local advantage for forts and other defences. Thirdly, As a mart for British enterprise in the lucrative investment of capital, assured by certain and regular changes of season, unlike the occasional depressing droughts of five and seven years' duration, that afflict the senior colony of New Holland and this country, is equally free from the distressing epidemics of the above mentioned colony, such as dysentery, measles, consumption, diarrhoea, &c.

In the civilization of the natives, it must not be forgotten, the great impulse that will be given to our manufacturers at home, the employment that will be afforded to thousands of the poor and honest classes of our own industrious countrymen. Fourthly, From the locality of the country, whose position north and south, admits equally of the growth of valuable tropical and European productions; thus the grape, sugar cane, &c. find a congenial climate to the north, so also the southward is equally favourable to the plants indigenous to the north of Europe. Fifthly, The views of future colonists have only been alluded

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WHEN COLONISED.

to above; but the manifest improvement that will take place, bodily and mentally in the present lord of the soil, under the mild effects of European religious instruction, will have a different result, from the marked horrors of the native mythology; no longer will suicide be an every day occurrence, nor will the superstitious native be cut off in early years, by the devouring appetite of false phantoms; the wife will no longer immolate herself on the native suttee, nor the death of a chief be notated by a profuse sacrifice of slaves; the mild laws of a European people, will stay the mother's unnatural hand from the destruction of her offspring; the causes that have hitherto occasioned the pollution of abortion will cease, and the present wretched menial, slave no more, crouching in continual fears from the unseen blow, shall no longer serve the cannibal propensities of his master; the baleful thoughts of vindictive and unappeaseable revenge will give place to wishes and exertions to vie with the farmer, the mechanic and the seaman; the native woman, no longer doomed to bow beneath the weight of a loathed existence, will, in a very few years, present a totally different appearance to the present race; the man possessing least physical force, who dare not

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VALUE OF THE

wear the glittering toy, as his life would be sacrificed by his hardier brother, to possess the tempting ornament, will be bound by equal laws; the native's mind will expand, his abominable superstitions vanish, he will regard his now miserable helpmate as the best boon given to erring man, by an all bounteous Creator. Such will be the effects of a resident European intercourse under the salutary laws of a mild government, upholding religious institutions, without which all social existence is poisoned at its source.

The colonization of New Zealand will be the signal for the innumerable islands in the vast south Pacific ocean, to rise; which they must do, in value and importance, teeming as they now do, with valuable indigenous productions, in an uncultivated state, such as the sugar cane, ginger, turmeric, indigo, and other staple articles of consumption, that require but the pruning hand of the European to render more valuable than those beautiful islands, that are likely within a very few years to fall to total decay, in the Caribbean sea. The islands of Oceanica possess a soil, rich beyond comparison. No epidemic malarias or jungle fevers decrease the family of man in those gems of the ocean, nor are their productions

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OCEANIC ISLANDS.

stunted, if not wholly destroyed, by destructive hurricanes. New Caledonia, an extensive island, lies within a few days' sail of New Zealand; its position is N.W. 1/2 W. and S.E. S.; 1/2 S. it is bounded by extensive reefs, and has but few ports, though sufficiently extensive to afford shelter land locked for such vessels that may at any period navigate these seas; its extreme length is about 260 miles, and extends from 19 deg. 37' to 22 deg. 30' S. latitude, 163 deg. 37' to 167 deg. 14' E. longitude. In addition to New Caledonia the many islands comprised under the name of New Hebrides, New Britain, New Ireland, Solomon, Archipelago, the Louisiades, &c. and many other groups will, in a very few years, open new channels for British capital, industry, and manufactures.

It is now in the power of the British Government to bestow the blessings of morality, religion, and good example, among these hitherto benighted people; and every philanthropic mind must wish, that the erring New Zealander may spontaneously feel inclined to praise our eternal Father, when viewing his wondrous works--that the towering mountain heights, the overwhelming torrents of his country, shall no longer be regarded, only as

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obstacles to his paths; but that even the most humble of flowrets shall form an attraction to his mind, as emanating from an all merciful and bounteous Creator.