XVIII. CONCLUSION
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CONCLUSION
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XVIII
THE New Zealand War lasted about ten years. It might well have lasted another seven, had it not been for the good sense of the Maori.
What can a civilized nation do with a race which considers the most extraordinary achievements easy and natural? We had about one hundred and twenty Maori imprisoned in a hulk anchored miles out of Wellington Harbour. These were men Colonel McDonnell had taken as prisoners. Amongst them was the one-legged hero of Kakaramea, whose story I told on a former occasion. One very stormy night a strong nor'-wester was blowing. The sea was washed into foam, and the waves were breaking over the old hulk as she lay at anchor. The military guard being for the most part comfortably asleep, the Maori slid one by one out of the porthole, and drifted with the wind to Nghauranga, swimming a distance of about four miles.
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Their chief was old and feeble, so their strongest men took it in turns to support him in the water. Some of their bravest were worn out and drowned in this heroic service. The whole of the prisoners, including the old chief and the one-legged hero of Kakaramea, with the exception of five who were drowned in the struggle to save their chief, landed in safety, and had so effectually disappeared by daylight that we never saw any more of them.
The Maori were never conquered. They might have been exterminated--conquered in a military sense, no. They realized that a Maori kingdom in which the White Man should be subject to the Maori had become an impossibility, and therefore ceased fighting.
As a race they had never despised or hated the White Man. They determined as a piece of statecraft to become one with the white people, and they have succeeded in every particular. The Maori never faltered with his self-respect. No single Maori ever betrayed his race.
The Maori made the best of his position, took all he could get, and yielded as little as possible. For all practical purposes we are one people and proud to remain so; and certainly neither in intellect, physique, nor morals
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can the Maori well be considered our inferiors. Unfortunately they are not our equals in sustained industry. If they fail to correct that deficiency, they must go under. We shall be the first to mourn their fall.
Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.
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