CHAPTER VI
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CHAPTER VI.
Origin of the New Zealanders, as shown by their Traditions-- Their religious Observances--The "Tapu."
In discussing the deeply interesting question, what was the reason of a nation of common origin being divided into such numerous clans, opposing each other with so much hatred and envy, we might, perhaps, find the clue in events long passed by, and connected with the history of the earliest immigration of this race into the country. The little which can be gathered from their traditions, where the dim historical truth is almost hidden by the clouds of fable, and where human beings appear as demigods in the obscurity of the past, excites only regret that those Europeans who have lived so long in the country, and ought to be thoroughly versed in the language, have not taken more interest in the subject, and collected long ago materials for a history of this race, which in a very short period must be buried in oblivion. What the fossils are to the naturalist, in regard to the changes which have continually been going on in the animal and vegetable productions of these islands of the Pacific,
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TRADITIONS OF ORIGIN.
that should the traditions and language be to the historian as regards the changes of their inhabitants. Not being preserved to the world by monuments constructed of lasting materials, nor by the art of writing and printing, it is only in their evanescent tales, and in their songs, that a slender clue is offered by which to penetrate into their past history. Although these traditions have neither the literary nor historical value of those of the northern nations, the mythology of which is grander, and the events which they commemorate more striking, yet, in an inferior degree, that might be said of the traditions of the Polynesians which Tacitus has written of the ancient Germans: "Celebrant carminibus antiquis (quod unum apud illos memoriae et annalium genus est)," etc.
Now, these traditions have handed down to us the following facts: --
Before the arrival of the present inhabitants there were no men in the land, and it was covered with forest. Three canoes then came from a distant land, situated to the eastward, the names of which canoes were Arawa, Kotahi-nui, and Matatua. They contained Te-tupuna or Te-kau-matua (ancestors). In the Arawa were the ancestors of the Nga-pui and of the Rarewa, who sat at the head, the Nga-te-wakaua behind them, and the Nga-te-roinangi at the stern. It is a custom to the present day that those engaged in an important enterprise of any kind, whether in peace or war, are "tapu;"
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TRADITIONS.
they can neither smoke nor eat anything but the food indigenous to the country, nor can they have connexion with women. If these rules are transgressed, they are punished by the gods, who frustrate their object. Thus it happened in this case. In the middle of the canoe were the women, and a man whose name was Tamate-kapua: this latter was guilty of adultery with the wife of a Nga-pui. The canoe stopped, and only pursued its course after they had reconciled the divine anger by an imprecation and by the punishment of the offender. This imprecation is still preserved. The words "No te uru o te Arawa koe," meaning you belong to the Arawa--that is, you are a cheat and a liar--are proverbial. They arrived at New Zealand: the Nga-pui landed in the Bay of Islands; the Rarewa in Oruru, in Lauriston Bay; the Nga-te-wakaua and the Nga-te-roinangi at Muketu, in the Bay of Plenty, whence the former settled at Rotu-rua, and the latter went into the interior to the Taupo lake: these were the forefathers of their respective tribes. May not the incident above mentioned have sown the seed of the hostilities in which the inhabitants of the north and those of the south have been engaged from time immemorial?
The second canoe, Kotahi-nui, landed on the western coast in Kawia, and its crew were the ancestors of the numerous tribes of the Waikato. A piece of the canoe is asserted to be still preserved; that is to say, it became stone, and is to be seen near
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TRADITIONS.
the northern head of Kawia Harbour. It is a large piece of limestone rock, cropping out upright from the sandy downs which surround it. Limestone rock occurs in that harbour, but on the other side; and it is not impossible that the mass of stone was actually put here by them as a memorial of their arrival.
The third canoe, Matatua, brought the Nga-te-awa, who landed in Wakatane, on the eastern coast, and in the course of time a branch of them went to Taranaki.
Thus we are led to consider the numerous tribes in the island as in the first instance derived from five. When they spread farther, the founder of a new tribe gave his name to it, and it was called Nga (the genitive case plural of the article), adding te-tangata, the men of this or that chief.
Tradition says that these canoes came from the eastward, from the island of Hawaiki. The taro and the dogs were the only things they brought with them which were not before known on the island. It is expressly stated that the Kotahi-nui, which had to go to the western coast, doubled the North Cape.
According to another tale, the natives of Hawaiki had four eyes, but nothing else regarding them has been preserved.
I have noticed already that at a subsequent period the Kumara was brought to them by E Pani from
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TRADITIONS.
the island of Tawai. E'Tiki, her husband, was a stranger to the New Zealanders, although of the same colour and language.
We cannot fail to recognise, in the names Hawaiki and Tawai, the Sandwich Islands, Hawaii and Tauai. One of the differences between the dialect of New Zealand and that of the Sandwich Islands is, that in the latter, as well as in the dialect of Tahiti, fewer consonants are used; the Arii of the Sandwich Islands becomes Ariki in New Zealand; Ranakira becomes Rangatira; Tanata becomes Tangata; and in the same manner Hawaii has become Hawaiki. The u and w are in all Polynesian languages of an equal value, the pronunciation being a sound intermediate between both, and there is no difference therefore in sound between Tauai and Tawai. But there is still better evidence for the assertion that the Sandwich Islanders must be regarded as the last stock from which the New Zealanders have sprung. There are traditions which lead us back to still more ancient times, when Maui and his brothers fished up the island of New Zealand. Maui is not a god; although tradition gives him supernatural powers, he is distinctly stated to be a man. There were four brothers-- Maui mua, Maui roto, Maui waho, Maui tiki tiki o te Rangi; which literally means--Maui (who was) formerly, Maui (who is) within, Maui (who is) without, Maui tiki tiki, from heaven.
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TRADITIONS.
Their parents are not known, nor the land whence they came. Maui mua is the Tuakana, or elder brother. He went out one day with the youngest of his brothers, Maui tiki tiki o te Rangi, or Kotiki, to fish; and as bait was wanting, the brother offered his ear, and both together they hauled up New Zealand. There is a mountain near the east coast, called Hiko rangi (literally, Heaven's Tail), which is said to be the fish-hook of Maui, and the island itself was the "begotten of Maui," "Te Ahi na Maui," which name is sometimes given to the northern island, although very little known amongst the natives themselves. This myth, which is perhaps a geological tradition, is very similar to one related regarding the Tonga or Friendly Islands, but the personages are named differently. At a time when nothing existed, says the narrative, but heaven and water, and the seat of the gods, the island of Bolotu, the god Tangaloa, to whom belong all inventions, and whose priests are always carpenters on the island of Tonga, went out fishing on a certain day, and threw his line and hook from the sky into the water. Suddenly he felt a strong resistance. Thinking that a great fish had taken the bait, he put forth his whole strength, and, behold! rocks appear above the water, which increase in number and extent as he draws in his line. His hook had seized on the rocky bottom of the sea, and had almost reached the surface of the water, when unfortunately the line broke, and the Tonga
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TRADITIONS.
Islands alone remained above the ocean. The rock which came first out of the depth is still shown in the island Hunga, with the hole in it which was made by the fish-hook of Tangaloa. The rocky island was soon covered with herbs and grasses, which were the same as in the habitation of the gods, Bolotu, only of an inferior kind, and given to decay and death.
There are other traditions respecting Maui, according to which he is more of a spiritual being, and is called the maker of heaven and earth; but it seems as if modern notions were here interwoven with native legends. According to another still more confused notion, earth and heaven are man and wife, and the island of New Zealand is their offspring, the birth of which was effected by the interference of Maui. But "rangi" has a more ample meaning than heaven: it is used for day, light, or the abstract principle of light as opposed to darkness. Is there a deeper meaning in this latter tale, and does it point to the mysterious trimurti of Asiatic religions?
However this may be, the same Maui, Mauwi, or Mawi, is the most important personage in all the mythical traditions of the true Polynesians, and especially in those of the Sandwich Islands, one of which groups, in fact, bears his name, and many are the songs to his praise.
If we further inquire whether we may trust to what the tradition tells us, that the New Zealanders
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THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.
in the last instance have come from the islands of Hawaii, and whether there is a natural possibility or probability for such a derivation, we encounter difficulties which it is probable will never be surmounted. All that we can do in the obscure history of the early migrations of these races is to group the different islands according to the relationship that exists between their inhabitants in regard to language and customs, and to see whether there is anything in the traditions of the people to confirm these signs of relationship. There is such affinity between the dialects of the natives of Hawaii and those of New Zealand, and to a far greater extent than that common tie which unites all Polynesians. Shrubs and trees of the same genus, although of different species, bear the same names in New Zealand and in the Sandwich Islands; the kawa (made from the Piper methysticum) is not drunk in New Zealand, but in the latter country the Piper excelsum bears the same name; the rata and aki are kinds of Metrosideros in New Zealand and in the Sandwich Islands; the ti is a Dracaena, or rather Cordyline, in both: the physical features of the natives are similar, as is also the character of their sculpture, manufactures, &c. According to the traditions current in New Zealand, their forefathers had a long voyage from the eastward before they arrived at that island. Can we trace in the natives of Easter Island, who, according to those navigators that have visited them, are more
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EASTER ISLAND.
like New Zealanders than any other Polynesians, the connecting link between the group of Hawaii and Ahi na Maui, or New Zealand? Easter Island is at the limits of the south-east trade-wind, and emigrants from Hawaii might arrive there without difficulty: the present inhabitants of this isle, a spot almost lost in the infinity of the ocean, seem to have retrograded in civilization; at least the high statues, cut out of a soft volcanic rock, which were seen there by Cook and La Peyrouse, were not ascribed to the then existing generation, but to their ancestors; and the strange shape of these sculptures reminds us more than anything else, of the grotesque wood-carvings of the natives of New Zealand. Is it not probable that the ancestors of both people, now so remote from each other, were the same ? We have, unfortunately, no means of comparing the dialect of Easter Island with that of New Zealand; and the outrages committed in modern times, by those who miscall themselves Christians, on the natives of that interesting spot, do not leave us much hope that our acquaintance will soon become more intimate. The native name of Easter Island is Waihu, and the same word is found as the native name of Coromandel Harbour, on the eastern coast of New Zealand.
The Sandwich Islands, it is true, are, of all the Polynesian Islands, the most distant from New Zealand, being situated in 24 deg. north lat. and 161 deg. 45' west long., while the most northern point of New
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POLYNESIAN MIGRATIONS.
Zealand is in 34 deg. 27' south lat. and 173 deg. 4' east long., thus embracing almost the extreme limits of the Polynesian Ocean, or of that part of it which is occupied by the true race of Oceanians. The reader, knowing how studded with islands is the intermediate space, many of them uninhabited, but producing fruits sufficient to serve as food for man, will perhaps say, "Is it not more likely that the Sandwich Islanders, if leaving purposely or by chance their former home, should have fallen in with one of those islands, and settled where the climate was mild and genial, instead of going where it is always variable, and often rigorous? I have no answer to this objection, and it is in vain to attempt to account for that endless mixture and separation, not only of different races, but of different divisions of one and the same race, which we find in the islands of the great ocean. The mere proximity of the islands, or even prevailing winds, explain nothing. In the Chatham Islands, for instance, which are nearly 300 miles to the south-east of New Zealand, live the remains of an aboriginal race, who in a short time will have disappeared before the intruding New Zealanders, and who, although Polynesians, have nothing in common with the latter. The New Zealanders knew nothing of that island before they came there in European ships.
The migration of man in the great ocean is not more mysterious than that of plants or animals;
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GEOLOGICAL SPECULATIONS.
the subject is very abstruse, but we need not, therefore, shun inquiry altogether. If a land-bird, which has no sustained power of flight, is met with in two island groups, the Chatham Islands and New Zealand; or if the Apterix australis, which has no power of flying whatever, is found in the small Barrier Island near the coast of New Zealand, and in New Zealand itself; are we not justified in looking to the geological structures for indications of a former connection of these islands with New Zealand, which assuredly is the centre of certain peculiar animals and plants? but it would be theorising too far were we to consider each of the little neighbouring islands as a similar centre, or to attribute to a miraculous accident the distribution of animals which, from their very configuration, are precluded from transmarine migration.
Is it not possible, nay, very probable, that a physical revolution has broken apart what was formerly connected, and that this event destroyed the path on which alone such migration was possible? I find no objection, either in the geological structure or in the plants or animals, to the theory that a chain of islands was formerly connected with New Zealand; and there is every probability that the continent of which New Zealand, Chatham Island, and Norfolk Island are the ruins and fragments, formerly occupied a very large space. According to the accounts of whalers, there is now very little depth of water between Chatham Island and New
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POLYNESIAN LANGUAGE.
Zealand, or between the latter place and Norfolk Island; and it is for that very reason that they make those places their whaling-grounds, although I am not aware that soundings have ever been taken. May not, therefore, the once vast continent have sunk into the abyss of the ocean? If we venture to speculate on the migrations of human races, may we not be allowed to say that the high road is broken by which he who is at present an islander formerly reached the place of his present dwelling? It is far more credible to me that such was the case than that the inhabitant of Chatham Island, for instance, reached that place in a frail canoe, through an always stormy and boisterous sea. Here, again, we are supported by tradition. There are dim recollections of important geological events amongst the natives of New Zealand: they say that the middle island was formerly connected with the northern. The geologist and the natural philosopher never despise such traditions, as they serve to lead them to new truths.
Of all existing languages that of the Polynesians appears to me the most primeval and ancient in its structure. In many of the islands we find the native a happy child-like being, simple and innocent, and living upon the free gifts of nature; he is aware of the existence of a great Spirit, but it strikes him with awe, and he has not yet speculated on it. It is in a great degree a pure abstract belief, resulting from instinct, as we should expect it to have been
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THE "TAPU."
implanted in man at the beginning of his existence. These singular characteristics lead us to believe that the islands of the great ocean were peopled in periods long passed away. On the other hand, we are led to suppose that the primitive stock from which all these islanders have sprung was possessed of a certain degree of civilization, of which we now see only the remains.
The first discoverers found a certain form of society in the more populous islands; it was divided into castes, and the rigorous law of the "tapu" was imposed upon it, and kept up by a priest caste. The traditions and legends, and even a common legislator; the names of the highest being, Atua, and of the inferior deities; their agriculture, their architecture, their art of weaving and carving, --all these seem to confirm the belief that the New Zealanders, as well as the other Polynesians, are descended from a common stock, which was, it is true, in a state of infancy, yet was civilized, and understood the art of navigation in a higher degree than they do now. The traditions of Tahiti, Hawaii, and New Zealand point out that the inhabitants formerly made distant voyages, which they would now be unable to accomplish. Indeed, we might in this case dispense with the theory above advanced, and say that when their migration took place they had better means of traversing the sea. But where is the early cradle, where the original dwelling-place of this ancient people, with which
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ANTIQUARIAN QUESTIONS.
we only became acquainted after it had exchanged its primitive seat for the Indian and oceanic islands, and had sunk into comparative barbarism? Was it Java, or the continent of Asia itself, that fertile birth-place of nations? Or must we look to the east, to which direction, indeed, their traditions point? and is America the true seat of a once mighty civilization, which has been broken up by some cause or other, and the people scattered abroad? No clue remains to solve this problem, as we now only see many nations which stand in co-ordination, but not in subordination, to each other, and of which, although they are in very different degrees of civilization, none can claim absolute antiquity. On all these points a field is open for a combination of labour, and an arduous investigation of language, carried from island to island. Nations rapidly undergo an entire change; and where the art of writing does not exist, the history of their ancestors and origin soon falls into oblivion, and language, which in nations separated from each other is most stationary, must be almost our only guide. Even during the short period of sixty years that Europeans have been acquainted with the New Zealanders, their knowledge of navigation has diminished, and with it that bold adventurous spirit which made them brave the dangers of long coasting voyages. For instance, Captain Cook found them possessed of double canoes, which are now nowhere met with.
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THE POLYNESIAN RACE.
The tradition, which I found to be universal in New Zealand, is, that they came from the eastward, and not from the westward, as was asserted to sustain the theory of their uninterrupted migrations from Asia. This tradition gives rise to very interesting considerations: the true Polynesian race is separated from Asia by the Austral negroes and the Malayans--races which, being inferior both in physical strength and mental capabilities to the Polynesians, cannot be believed to have pushed them to the eastward. I am by no means anxious to broach a new theory; but thus much seems evident, if we are guided by tradition, by language, and by the geographical distribution of the true Polynesians--that, if they actually came from the Malayan peninsula, or from Java or Borneo, this emigration must have taken place in very primitive times, when the mother tongue of the Malayan and Polynesian languages had not yet undergone any alteration; that they cannot have gradually made their way through the chain of islands which stretches from Java to the Viti islands, as in that case we should find many of these islands inhabited by the Polynesian race, and not by the Austral negro. On the other hand, the fine and regular cast of countenance of the New Zealanders, the Jewish expression of their features, the very light colour of their skin, and the whole of their customs, remind us greatly of that primitive Asiatico-African civilization which attained its greatest height under the empires of the Phenicians
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THE MALAYANS.
Syrians, and Carthaginians, and confirm the relation of the Polynesians in a closer degree to nations whose birth-place is Asia, but from whom they are now separated by black tribes. The native baptism, the laws of the "tapu," the monotheistical cast of religious ideas, all remind us strongly of these Asiatic nations.
There is at the present moment a migration going on of the Malayans from their peninsula towards New Guinea and Australia--the seats of the true Polynesians; we find among them the most enterprising merchants of the Pacific, who have established forts and settlements on the northern coast of Australia, and of New Guinea and several other islands, gradually extending their dominion over the Austral negroes. This migration has, however, nothing to do with the ancient peopling of the Polynesian islands, from whose inhabitants the Malayans are still separated by the dark race, and it is only on the western and northern coasts of the islands that they are found. It is a modern migration, which might be easily traced by the historian and geographer.
I doubt whether much more than what I have stated can be gleaned from these native traditions. If a system of mythology existed in the country from which the stock of the New Zealanders is derived, it does not appear to have been transplanted with them in its completeness, but to have been retained only in fragmentary and confused notions and
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INFERENCES OF A
superstitions after their immigration into the new country. But still there remain traces of the more ancient maternal creed, which had come to some sort of perfection in the Sandwich Islands. There the traditions and religious observances were in the hands of a priest caste, and the same is the case in New Zealand, although it is difficult to define what is a New Zealand "tohunga;" for here the word means merely "a wise man;" it is not significative of a class separated from the rest by certain distinctions of rank, nor are its prerogatives merely confined to the men: a tohunga is sometimes the ariki, or hereditary chief, sometimes a rangatira, or even a slave, or an old woman, who possesses a knowledge of the popular traditions, and has the power to consecrate or to bewitch, to drive out evil spirits by karakia, or prayers, to heal sick people by these means, and to pronounce the "tapu"--a well-known custom, which in its sacred and rigorous character has the double meaning in New Zealand of religious worship and civil law. Ridiculous as this custom of the "tapu" has appeared to some, and as many of its applications really are, it was, notwithstanding, a wholesome restraint, and, in many cases, almost the only one that could have been imposed; the heavy penalties attached to the violation of its laws serving in one tribe, or in several not in actual hostility with each other, as moral and legal commandments. It was undoubtedly the ordinance of a wise legislator. The kumara-field, pro-
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NEW ZEALAND ORIGIN.
perty contained in a house left uninhabited by its proprietor, a house containing seeds, a canoe left unprotected on the beach, a tree selected for being worked into a canoe at a future period--are "tapu." What is this but a command not to steal? A burying-place, the utensils and clothes used in interments, are strictly consecrated, as is the house in which the deceased lived. And this custom arose from a feeling deeply rooted in all the human family, and the more so the higher they advance in civilization, namely, respect to the memory of departed friends or relations. What is this but a law against sacrilege? They also "tapu" the canoe in which a person has been drowned, or the musket with which he committed suicide. These are no longer used, but are either left untouched, or are broken up and the pieces placed upright at the spot where the accident happened. If any blood of a chief has been spilt, however innocent the occasion and slight the loss, the instrument which inflicted the wound becomes "tapu," and the chief takes it as his property. A meeting was to take place at the Taupo lake: Te Heu-Heu, the principal man of the tribes, was requested to be present, and a new and highly ornamented canoe was sent to fetch him over. When he stepped into it a splinter penetrated the skin of his foot: every one left the canoe immediately, it was hauled up, and the proprietor did not think of remonstrating against Te Heu-Heu laying his "tapu" on it, and regarding it as his property-
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THE "TAPU."
It was the custom! Another canoe was launched, in which they proceeded to the place of rendezvous. A canoe found adrift is "tapu:" but here this word has a somewhat different meaning; it is u tapu" (i. e. belongs) to him who saves it. A canoe with a party in it, when saved from being lost, stands in the same predicament, and becomes forfeited to those who came to its relief. In these instances we easily recognise the primary principles of our own laws relating to deodands, royal droits, and the claims of salvors. Sick persons, with the house they dwell in, and all utensils they use, are "tapu;" but in general this is the case only with persons of consequence. A married woman and a girl promised in marriage are inviolably "tapu."
No one will deny that many of these customs are agreeable to common sense, although others are absurd, and often very annoying to the traveller. I must, however, bear testimony to the natives, that, if treated with a little tact, they are not very obstinate with a stranger in regard to these ordinances, and that, with the hand in the pocket, he may, as in other more civilized communities, free himself from most of them.
A woman had been murdered by some people of a neighbouring tribe, on the road between Rotu-rua and Tauranga, shortly before my arrival at the former place. The road had been laid under a strict "tapu;" but the principal natives, although they are perfectly of the old school, and heathens, did not
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THE "TAPU."
prevent us, or the Christian natives who were with us, from breaking that "tapu," and walking on the road.
Near Manukao I once lighted the fern; the fire ran rapidly towards the hills, where, unknown to me, was the burial-ground of a large tribe of Waikato. Before I approached the village some men passed me running towards the fire, which was about fifteen miles distant, in order to extinguish it. In the village there was great crying and distress about the conflagration. I pleaded my ignorance, acknowledged my error, and settled the affair with a fine of three shirts. The fire was extinguished before the remains of their dead were consumed; and we have ever since been the best friends.
A very strict "tapu" prevented my ascending the principal cone of the Tongariro, a volcano in the centre of the island, it being considered, symbolically I presume, to be the backbone of their greatest ancestor, and having a head as white as that of the present chief, who was absent on a war party to Cook's Straits. After much negotiation, however, they would have allowed me to break the "tapu" on paying four sovereigns; but I had not the money with me, and I in vain offered merchandise instead.
A strict "tapu" forbids the use of the remains of an old house for cooking, and makes it unlawful to eat food that has been cooked with such fuel. Travellers often disregard this custom; but, although the natives do not always quarrel about it, they be-
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THE "TAPU."
come sulky, and never touch the food, even though they may have become Christians.
The head, or rather the hair, of the New Zealander is the part most strictly "tapu" of his body. It must not be touched by another, nor must anything be carried over the head. The cutting of the hair of a chief is a process always accompanied by solemnities. The dissevered hair is collected and buried, or hung up on a tree. This sanctity extends even to the wooden bust of a great man. In one of the houses of Te Puai, the head chief of the Waikato, I saw a bust, made by himself, with all the serpentine lines of the moko, or tattooing. I asked him to give it to me; but it was only after much pressing that he parted with it. I had to go to his house to fetch it myself, as none of his tribe could legally touch it; and he licked it all over before he gave it to me, whether to take the " tapu" off, or to make it still more strictly sacred, I do not know. He particularly engaged me not to put it into the provision-bag, nor to let it see the natives at Rotu-rua, whither I was going, or he would certainly die in consequence. Payment for the bust he would not take; but had no objection to my making him a present of my own free will, which I accordingly did, presenting him and his wife with a shirt each.
If men or women are "tapu," they are not allowed to touch their food or drink, but are fed by others until the "tapu" is taken off, which is done by the
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THE "TAPU."
priest or priestess with some simple ceremonies and prayers. Also a child or a grandchild can take the "tapu" off. The man subject to the "tapu" touches the child, and takes drink or food from its hands: the "tapu" is thus removed, but the child is in its turn "tapu" during the day of the ceremony. The breaking of the "tapu," if the crime does not become known, is, they believe, punished by the Atua, who inflicts disease upon the criminal; if discovered, it is punished by him whom it regards, and often becomes the cause of war.
I have dwelt thus long on this singular custom to show under how many various forms it appears. It comprises, indeed, everything that we would call law, custom, etiquette, prejudice, and superstition; and has, therefore, its good as well as its bad effects.
From intimate acquaintance with the savage I am led to believe that, as long as he lives by himself, he possesses more virtues than vices, at least as regards his own tribe. Adultery and theft are uncommon: the latter is punished by exercising the lex talionis. To discover a thief I have seen them resort to the ordeal of drawing lots. After the experience of some time I still continue to regard the New Zealanders as a very honest people, far more so than the lower classes of the European colonists.
The tribes in their relation to each other, as long as they are at peace, have certain established customs, which are legal with them. A slave who runs away to his own or to another tribe is invariably
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SENSE OF JUSTICE.
brought back. A woman in Mata-mata, in the valley of the Thames, had left her husband, and lived with another very influential man in a pa near the Waipa. In this pa there were two parties: one wished to allow the woman to remain, and were willing to defend her; but the other, by far the more numerous, were for giving her up to the husband, and thus avoid a war, which would certainly have ensued. This was done: the woman was brought back, and her husband shot her!
Those natives who have adopted the Christian laws adhere most strictly to them, as they do also in the case of our civil laws, which are indeed based upon the former. There is a high natural sense of justice amongst them; and it is from us that they have learnt that many forbidden things can be done with impunity, if they can only be kept secret. With the art of keeping a secret, however, the New Zealander ia little acquainted, although he possesses in many other respects great self-control; the secret must come out, even if his death should be the immediate consequence.
