1836 - Marshall, W. B. A Personal Narrative of Two Visits to New Zealand - [Pages 1-49]

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A PERSONAL NARRATIVE

OF TWO VISITS TO NEW ZEALAND

At half-past two, A.M. on the fifth day of March, 1834, the group of islands, called by their first European discoverer, the Three Kings; and constituting, in the traditionary legends of their country, the Tartarus of the New Zealanders; were first observed from his Majesty's ship Alligator, on her way to the Bay of Islands, that vessel having been detached from the squadron in the East Indies, for the purpose of visiting the Australasian colonies, and the Polynesia of the South Seas. On the following Lord's-day, the 9th, she fetched the Bay of Islands, having had to beat up from some distance to the southward of the entrance, which had been, either by mistake or accident,

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overlooked and passed. The circumstance affording us a striking view of Motukokuko, or the "Perforated Rock," as the word signifies, described by that accurate observer and able navigator, Captain Cook; it is a high, bold, and in one aspect, tabular rock, the base of which opens in the centre, to form a vast natural arch, the surface being covered with verdure, while the sides present nothing but a face of entire barrenness: a needle rock, a little separated from it, is called Tiki-Tiki, by the natives, every word in whose language, it may be premised at the beginning of this narrative, is figurative, and peculiarly descriptive of the things represented.

After an ineffectual attempt to reach Kororarika Bay, the more common resort of shipping, the Alligator was brought, to an anchor, in a small cove called Ranghi-ua, the appearance of the land forming which, is exceedingly picturesque; lofty promontories rising almost perpendicularly from the sea; and their sides and summits, as these recede from it, feathered over with woods and forests, occupy either side of this cove, and a chain of hills in the back ground sweeping round, and, as it were, defending a pleasant valley, through which a small rivulet glistens as it meanders, combine to please the eye with a picture of quiet loveliness, made more lovely from the relief afforded by it to the general sameness of marine scenery, on which "they that go down to the sea in ships" have most frequently to look.

Several canoes, fancifully carved and decorated,

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paddled alongside the frigate, before her anchor could be dropped, and immediately afterwards she was boarded by a number of natives, most of whom were men, the women remaining in their canoes, and exhibiting but too plainly, by the gross indelicacy of their gestures, how low a standard governed their morals: and it is to be feared, as unequivocally declaring how accustomed they are to find in their nautical visitors a race of men who, however different from them in the colour of their skin, and however superior to them in the arts of civilized life, yet testify by equal sensuality and wickedness, a common origin and a common nature, nor one whit less depraved.

The chiefs, Warepoaka and Waikato, were among the first on board, and as well as some other of their companions, shewed us faces highly and even beautifully tatooed; the former of these is the head of his tribe, and his name a barbarous compound of New Zealand and Anglo-New Zealand; Ware signifying poor, and Poaka, pig, being corrupted from our English Word pork. He is the inheritor of poor Duaterra's domains, and exercises sway over the miserable remnant of that interesting native's once populous tribe.

Our visitors were "at home" in our midst, and apparently in good humour with every body, and every thing around them. The majority were apparelled in their native costume, and chiefs and slaves mingled indiscriminately together, but "Poor Pig" was habited in an English dress, which added nothing to the effect of his personal appearance,

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although it evidently gave him consequence in his own esteem, and in that of his vassal throng. In some of their ears were large and heavy ear-drops, the Manatungha, or remembrancers, given them by their friends, or inherited from their fathers, and highly valued by the possessors. Some of these were a simple drop of Jade, others rudely carved and grotesque figures of men, with the tongue thrust out of the mouth, the New Zealander's least doubtful expression of contempt and scorn; and thrust through the bore in the ear of one or two, an English clay pipe showed that they know how to make the ornamental serve the purpose of the useful likewise. Others had these keepsakes hung round their necks, and, as will be seen hereafter, the presence of such ornaments on the person of any one, declares his freedom from the tapu, and fitness for communion with his kind and kin. The antiquity of such ornaments is very great, and only equalled by their universality among all nations. The first account of them occurs in the Mosaic history of Isaac, Genesis xxiv. at the 22d verse: the narrative proceeds thus: "the man (Abraham's servant,) took a golden ear-ring of half a shekel weight," &c. This was the propitiatory gift of a bridegroom to her whom he would make his bride; but the earliest notice with which I am acquainted, of such things being worn by men, is contained in the book of Judges, ch. viii; "And Gideon arose, - and slew Zebah and Zalmunna, and took away the ornaments that were on their camels' necks;" in the margin it reads, the ornament like the moon: "then the men of

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Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou and thy son, and thy son's son also; for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian. And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you: and Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that ye would give me every man the ear-rings of his prey, (for they had golden ear-rings, because they were Ish-maelites.)" Upon which it may be permitted me to observe, that amongst the manatunghas in my possession is one of a crescent shape, and I would submit whether, originally, the effeminate use of jewellery by men for the ornamenting their persons, was not considered a badge of disgrace, pertaining exclusively to the outcasts of the house of Ishmael, and whether the subsequent adoption of them into the dress of all nations, as ornaments to be valued and boasted of, be not a glorying in the shame which is common to all, and characteristic of all who are "without Christ," the ornament of His people, "being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and Atheist in the world," even those who are previously described as "dead in trespasses and sins," and walking therein according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worked in the children of disobedience, having their conversation in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the wills of the flesh and of the mind, and by nature the children of wrath. The Ishmaelites were the

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children of bondage, and they were furthermore enemies to God. The practice of boring the ears among the Jews was resorted to in cases of voluntary slavery, and in the persons of those who, though entitled to their freedom, refused to be set at liberty, from the love they bore their masters and their masters' service. And truly, if the bored ear, and the large ornament therein, be indicative of slavery to sin and enmity against God, the people of New Zealand furnish it melancholy illustration of the fact; but not more so than the spectacle of Christians with their bodies profusely decorated, in direct disobedience to the divine command, with gold, and silver, and precious stones.

Behind Ranghi-ua a plain English building was visible from the ship, and Warepoaka, who speaks our language a little, pointed it out to me as the residence of Mr. King, the oldest missionary on the island, remarking, at the same time, and of his own accord, "Mitter King very good man---very long time, here--teach piccaniny so high, so high, so high" gradually raising his hand from a level with his knee, to his own height, in order to convey an idea of the statures of the respective pupils of the individual he was eulogizing; "very good man indeed--very good man!" and as he spake, his countenance assumed a deepening cast of gravity. Being asked if he knew Mr. Marsden, he instantly recognized the name, and, as if solicitous to exhibit the extent of his acquaintance with that aged friend of his country, informed us of his

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friend's residing at Paramatta, having a good wife and "plenty of piccaninies." The mention of Mr. Marsden's name had touched a chord which responded to the touch with a note of joy; and it was easy to perceive that the memory of New Zealand's best earthly benefactor was carefully preserved in the mind of this chief.

While some of the officers were dining, and the quarter-deck was comparatively clear, the natives who had been admitted into the ship began dancing their country's war-dance, but were interrupted in the middle of it. From the regularity of their movements, and the uniformity of their action, in this terrific performance of their's, it is plain that, however irregular their general habits, and however little accustomed to act for any length of time, in concert with one another, they are a people not incapable of being drilled and disciplined into social and orderly behaviour.

The scenery of the Bay of Islands, from Ranghi-ua, is beautiful in the extreme. The wide extent of the Bay---the prolongation of its shores by the numerous indentations formed by many lesser bays--the undulating surface of the surrounding lands--the general wildness of the whole country -- the numerous rocks and isles strewed over the ample expanse of waters, and wooing the eye of the spectator to stop and gaze upon their varied forms and tints of loveliness, all contribute to produce a picture of uncommon brightness, a picture however for which the art and labour of man have hardly done any thing; yet one, notwithstanding, which

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serves to show what a paradise earth might have been but for the curse of barrenness under which it groans, and helping hope to conceive what this very earth may yet become, when, redeemed from that primaeval curse, it shall again yield its increase, and "God, even our own God, shall give us his blessing."

March 10. --Acting-Lieutenant Woore and myself landed at Tepuna, the name of the spot on which the missionary settlement is built, and interesting as the first place in New Zealand where the benevolent wish of Captain Cook, breathed on the ear of Christendom nearly half a century before, was granted, the work of an Evangelist commenced, the standard of the cross unfurled, and the glad tidings of great joy first proclaimed to the tribes and families of EAHEINOMAUI, that unto them was born "a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."

Messrs. King, Wilson, and Henry Williams, were on the beach, attempting to launch a boat for the purpose of visiting the ship, when we landed, but desisted on seeing us approach, and became our guides to the native village, to which they led the way over a steep hill, and through the Pa', or stronghold, occupying its summit. This Pa', from the feebleness of the tribe to which it belongs, whose numbers have very considerably decreased of late years, is in comparative disuse at present, and, consequently, out of repair. It covers the whole top of the hill, and is composed of a series of circles, surrounding one another, and mutually protecting the several inclosures, which they fence in by a

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high stockade, the stakes being about twelve feet from the ground. Each of these fences or stockades, requiring to be separately scaled, or the whole to be successively thrown down, before the capitol or inner circle could be gained by an enemy, who at every accessible point would be commanded by the defending party, and exposed to an increasing risk at every advance. On the other hand, however, this mountain fortress is itself commanded by the opposite heights, and must, therefore, with the introduction of artillery, prove nugatory as a place of defence. The descent into the valley which is covered by it, runs for some yards along the margin of a frightful precipice, overhanging the sea at high-water mark, from which when we looked down, being the time of ebb-tide, a sandy beach, spread over with huge fragments of black rock, and repelling the loud roaring breakers from its surface, alone met our view. This path has been purposely narrowed by scarping the land front of the rock, so that a struggle for passage, or mastery here, would, in all likelihood prove fatal to one or both of the conflicting parties. While gazing on the rocks and sands beneath, and almost at so great a depth as to make the head turn giddy at the sight, they were pointed to by one of our companions as the death bed of many a native; who, hurled from the Tarpeian rock where we were standing, by their masters, in the passion of the moment, or by their conquerors in the wrathful pride of victory, and during the first flush of triumph, have been dashed to pieces by the greatness

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of their fall. One of these cases was of a very affecting character; a little slave boy had provoked the displeasure of his owner, who caused him to be tied up in a basket, and rolled over the cliff; but first one, and then another, splinter of rock, jutting from the hill side, broke his fall, and, as if miraculously, he lighted on the sands but little injured, although, for a time, stunned. Recovering, he managed to eat. through the cords that bound him, and freeing himself from the basket, set off at full speed for Tepuna, hoping to gain the missionary compound, where, only, he could expect to be safe; but his escape had not passed unnoticed, and the unrelenting savages against whom he had offended, bent upon his destruction, despatched another lad with a merai in his hand to intercept the fugitive, and murder him before he could rain the place of refuge. He was overtaken in front of the mission house, and felled to the ground, and there butchered. Amid scenes of blood like this, and surrounded by habitations of cruelty like these, the men of God have had to labour, and have laboured and not fainted, through evil report and through good report--looking to the Most High for his blessing, and confiding in him for security.

A burial-place of the chiefs, tapu'd and inclosed, was also pointed out to us by our kindly attentive companions. It is placed immediately under the protection of the fort, On one of the highest parts of the hill, and from its situation, reminded us of a similar practice having held among our own ancestors, of which innumerable vestiges are re-

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maining at this day, every one of which has its own traditionary tale. Ben na Calleach affords a remarkable instance of the kind; rising above the waters of Coriatachan, in the Isle of Skye, its head is crowned with a cairn, the chieftain's uncarved monument, the origin of which as a place of sepulture is traced to the following incident: --A Lord of the Isles had wedded the daughter of a royal Dane, and she on her death-bed implored her husband to let her bones be deposited on the summit of that mountain, that, as she was not again to set eyes on her native land, the winds which blew from Denmark might, at least, breathe upon her body when dead. Whether the New Zealanders have any such legends attached to the places of their dead, I know not, nor is it an universal practice among them to bury their dead in such places, groves and thickets being in many instances preferred, but all alike sacred against intrusion. The flesh is generally stripped off the bones, and the skeleton alone preserved, this being, placed in a sitting posture, within a hut built exclusively for its reception. From all which the question naturally arises: --whence this care for the mortal remains of the departed? Amid the thick mist of native superstitions, glimmerings of light, though dun, and faint, and transient, are here and there visible; and among other truths, the difference between soul and body seems to have been discerned among the people, before the preachers of the Gospel had instructed them--and the separate existence of the soul after death appears to have been generally acknowledged also---may it be

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inferred from the preservation of the bodies, or rather bones, of deceased persons, that either they or their fathers retained any thing like the idea of a resurrection of the body; and indulged themselves in the expectation of the departed spirits being restored to their former clay tabernacles, and in them to their personal identity?

Having reached the valley, we soon lighted upon Warepoaka and a portion of his tribe, numbering from thirty to forty persons, none of whom seemed to have any occupation but idleness, unless, indeed, the women be excepted, every where the miserable drudges of society, except where the benign influence of Christianity has wrought out their emancipation from the galling yoke of abject servitude to the other sex. They were, for the most part, busied; some washing linen in a small pond, and others attending to the care of the pigs, which apparently constitute all the stock of a native farm. Among the group of women, the chief's wife was pointed out, dressed like her husband in English clothing, and very cleanly and neat in her appearance. In the course of the forenoon, several other females, similarly attired, were seen; and whatever doubt may be admitted as to the improvement or otherwise of the male figure when dressed up in the clothing of Europe, it cannot, I think, be questioned for a single moment, whether a plain English dress for females be not far more becoming to the eye of taste, as well as in the judgment of decency, than that commonly worn by the New Zealand women.

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Returning to the mission-house, Mr. King led us round the foot of the hill, by a narrow footpath, on cither side of which the Toi-Toi, or high grass of the country, grew in great abundance; the use to which this has been often put, proves the truth of the Scripture declaration, that the habitations of men are full of cruelty. Not only is female infanticide a crime of frequent occurrence among the inhabitants of this country, but many times the unhappy mothers endeavour to procure the destruction of their offspring before they are born, and seldom fail to effect their purpose, by drinking freely of a strong decoction made of this grass; but failing in this way, they abandon not their design, and will sit exposed for hours over the hot steam of this tried and deadly poison, during the process of boiling. On surprise being expressed at the occurrence of such offences in a country where chastity is not esteemed a virtue in the unmarried female, and where also the doctrine of Malthus would, be treated with derision, every increase to the population being considered, and rightly, as an addition to the wealth of the nation; it was answered, that these are some of the many evil effects resulting from a state of society in which polygamy is sanctioned. One wife, jealous of another, and irritated, moreover, by the ill-treatment, whether supposed or actual it matters not, of her husband, works herself into a condition of frenzy, and in proof that a woman may forget her sucking child, and refuse mercy to the babe whom she carries in her womb, revenges herself

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at once upon her husband and his unborn progeny. The murder of the female infant after birth, is however often perpetrated by its own mother under a smarting sense of the indignities and suffering to which every female is exposed, long before she arrives at womanhood, and generally to the latest hour of her life. The whole creation does not furnish an example of a deeper and more abiding affection than the love of the mother for her child; it is not confined to the human race, but stands out as a very pleasing and prominent feature in the natural history of all animals: the birds of the air carry their young under their wings, and hide them in the clefts of the rocks, and among the branches of trees; the beasts of the field, even the lion and the bear, are furious with grief, when deprived of their whelps, and it is a law interwoven with the thread of woman's life, that the human mother shall not come behind the inferior animals in her love for her offspring; nor does she come behind them, but oppression may make the wise man mad, and the fortitude of woman, proof against every thing but man's neglect, may be overcome, until even natural affection cease to animate her, and the love of the mother be absorbed in the misery of the woman. A greater proof of the degraded estate of the female sex in New Zealand cannot exist, than that which their very crimes, as stated above, supply.

Several groups of natives were overtaken by us on the rood, but in only occasional instances were they armed with any weapons of war, and the

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most common of these was the merai, one of which its owner readily parted with for a pound of tobacco; it was made of the bone of a whale, the common substitute now, for the beautiful green jade of which it used to be manufactured. The numerous tribes and families into which the people of this island are divided and subdivided, have led to territorial divisions, each in itself a petty principality, and every one independent of one another; and from these causes their interests have been conflicting, and strifes have multiplied among them, until every adult male is become a warrior, and many even of the women serve as auxiliaries in the several wars by which their savage society is distracted, and their numerical population thinned. But it is greatly to be hoped, and may safely be believed, that the time is not only at hand, but already begun, when the natives of New Zealand shall study the art of war no more, at least for the purposes of intestine warfare, and, in the direct ratio of their evangelization, they may be expected to become civilized, and in proportion as they shall become civilized the risk of invasion from external foes, and the necessity of preparation for repelling such invasion, will be diminished. The general absence, of even defensive weapons among those natives whom we had seen at this our first visit, encourages the indulgence, and has led to the expression of this hope.

Having returned to the mission settlement, the high and strong stockades by which the premises are inclosed, indicated more expressively than

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words could have done, the insecurity in which the missionaries must once have lived, as well as the perils and dangers by which the first of their number, of whom Mr. King was one, were, so recently as twenty years since, surrounded and threatened. That a great, a very great change has come over the spirit of the people, is obvious; but the question obtrudes itself, --what present result has been gained by the labour of twenty years spent by Christian missionaries among the tribes at Tepuna? This question I put to Mr. King himself, asking him if there were any, and if any, what number of natives in his immediate neighbourhood of whom he might be able to affirm, that they are Christians indeed. The answer, at first, disappointed me, and, prime facie, is a discouraging one. "I know but one of whose real conversion to God not a doubt can be entertained, although there are several others of whom we have good hope that they have passed from death unto life; but these have not yet been admitted within the pale of the visible church by the rite of baptism, the administration of that sacrament being invariably postponed until the manifestation of some tolerably certain signs of a real and permanent change of heart having taken place in the candidate. In confessing my disappointment at receiving the above intelligence, I confess myself guilty of an error in judgment, and acknowledge, with shame, a deficiency in my personal charity to the souls of men, for the love of Jesus says, "rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was

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lost;" and in the judgment of Jesus it is meet that we should make merry and be glad, "for this our brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found." "Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance," and joy ought to be on earth though but one should be turned by the labour of a whole life from the error of his ways to serve the living God. There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth, and oh! how much more ought there to be joy in the church, which is the bride of Christ, when in any land, one, though only one, is found to yield himself unto God, as of those that are alive from the dead, and no longer yielding his members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but as instruments of righteousness unto God. A single individual turned from sin unto holiness, a single soul saved from sin and brought nigh unto God through the blood of his dear Son, is an achievement of the Almighty power, an exhibition of the Divine wisdom, and a manifestation of the Eternal's goodness, which those only will either despise or under-rate, who are ignorant in their own persons of the inestimable value of the soul of man, and who themselves know. not by what a costly and precious ransom it has been delivered from going down to destruction.

In the settlement, and consequently brought under the daily means of grace, there were ten girls, and ten men and boys. Mr. King superintends these, and, on the Sabbath days, visits the villages

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in the neighbourhood to impart religious instruction to the native inhabitants. His wife and daughter teach the girls.

At the table of Mr. Wilson, I partook, for the first time, of the kumera, or sweet potatoe of this country, a pleasant, enough vegetable, the flavour of which is a mixed one, resembling that of the common potato and the parsnip. And here it is but just to mention the considerate kindness of the two missionaries, King and Wilson. It had been told them that the sick men on board stood greatly in need of a little vegetable diet, upon which they procured from the natives what they did not possess themselves, namely, six baskets of potatoes at a reasonable price, and added as gifts from their own gardens a quantity of onions, all the pumpkins they had, and a liberal supply of cabbages.

An instance of native barbarity, on the one hand, and on the other, of native ingratitude, was related by Mrs. Wilson. She bad in her service a female slave belonging to the neighbouring tribe, whose redemption had only been effected the evening before an attempt was made to decoy her beyond the missionary inclosure, where an assassin lay in wait to kill her. The decoy failing, force was resorted to, and she was dragged to the very gate outside of which immediate death awaited her, when her shrieks alarmed the family, and her master gained the spot in time to save her life, by proving her right to freedom, regained possession of her, and thus ensured her preservation. She continued to live with the missionaries for some time after this; was married

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in their house to a fellow servant, and, by her conduct and conversation, encouraged the belief that she was not only redeemed from slavery and death, but also from iniquity; when to the astonishment and grief of her employers, her husband and herself eloped, and returned to live among the natives, taking the precaution, however, to remove to a far-off village, and have-not since been heard of. This, as the narrator feelingly remarked, is one of the trials peculiar to the missionary life, among a people like the New Zealanders. Neither is this a tale of other days, but as it were of yesterday, having occurred within the past twelvemonth.

Having returned on board at about two P.M., sail was shortly after made upon the ship, and the wind being fair, she was not long in crossing the bay to Kororarika, a safe and commodious anchorage abreast of a village once very populous, but now almost depopulated from the influx of European visitors, and the ruinous effects of prostitution and ardent spirits upon the health and lives of the natives. Kororarika is about ten miles from Tepuna, and three from Paihia, which it faces. It is agreeably situated at the base of a gradually sloping hill, on the side of which the native huts cluster together in small hives, while here and there a carefully cultivated kitchen garden, and the white front of an English cottage, indicate the residence of European settlers.

Among other persons who took a passage across the bay in the Alligator, was a Mr. Clindon, a settler and ship-owner, who has adopted New Zealand for

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his country, and to whom I was entrusted with letters. He gave me a very kind and pressing invitation to his house, and expressed himself as in no small degree pleased at meeting with an officer afloat, avowedly interested in missionary operations and solicitous for the salvation of the heathen. Inquiry being made of Mr. C. as to his knowledge of the missionaries, their conduct and characters, he said, "But for them, Sir, no Europeans could live in the land! My own place has been frequently surrounded and my personal safety threatened by a host of armed natives; at such times I have only had to send a message to 'the settlement' (at Paihia) to procure the attendance of a missionary, who, upon his arrival, would speak to the principal chiefs, and by his mediation never failed to rid me of the invaders, they being ashamed to perpetrate an outrage in the presence of a missionary!" At a subsequent part of our conversation together, he added to the foregoing testimony, the following emphatic declaration. "Let even their greatest enemies say what they may, all such are equally indebted with myself to the general respect felt for the missionaries, for the safety of their lives and properties in times past." Facts like these, witnessed too by a man like this, speak volumes, and supply a text, too intelligible to require any comment. They prove the moral influence of the missionaries beyond all possibility of doubt--they prove the beneficial purposes for which that influence is employed--and they prove too, that, but for the missionaries, no settlers could have fixed themselves in New Zealand,

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Commerce with it must have failed, and the trade in its produce have been abandoned.

March 12. --The anchor was weighed again this morning, and the ship removed to an inner harbour, at the confluence of the Waikadi and the Kaua-kaua rivers, it being deemed expedient to bring her broadside to bear upon the Pa of a Chief named Pomare, between whom and an English trader a dispute had arisen, the decision of which was referred by the latter to the British Resident; and the case in that gentleman's opinion being one of lawless rapine and unprovoked aggression on the part of the native, who, in all the wild spiritedness of a savage independence, laughed Mr. Busby to scorn, and set his authority at defiance, the intervention of Captain Lambert was sought, to obtain restitution of a large schooner rigged boat, which Pomare was said to withhold feloniously from its rightful owner. The crew of the Alligator were got under arms accordingly, the ship cleared for action, guns shotted, and the pinnace fitted with a small howitzer, to recover, if necessary, by force, what it was supposed had been procured by injustice. In order, however, if practicable, to avert hostilities, an application by letter, and verbally, was forwarded to the Rev. W. Williams, urging him to seek an interview with the chief, and endeavour to effect an amicable adjustment of the difference. The letter and message were no sooner delivered than complied with, and the Rev. W. Williams and W. Yate set off for The Pa, which, occupies a strong position on the top of a height at the extremity of the peninsula, whose

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rocky base is laved by the twin rivers, until they unite to empty their waters into the Bay of Islands, and in that vast basin wed themselves as one river to the waves of the great Pacific Ocean. After the lapse of about half an hour, a salute of two guns, with which he has been enabled to strengthen his abode, announced the setting off of the chief. A little longer, and he strode with the air (if a monarch along the quarter-deck of the frigate, a tall and athletic young man, his eye scarcely deigning a glance at "the pomp and circumstance of war," which met him there. Being invited below, he hesitated, but it was only for a moment; the next saw him descending into the cabin, with the same undaunted air, by which his previous bearing had been marked, and he remained there in close conference for nearly two hours, at the end of which Mr. Busby came on deck, apparently much pleased, and confessedly glad to have discovered that Pomare, who by his manners had prepossessed every one in bis favour, was not the aggressor, but the aggrieved. The facts of the case as now ascertained were these, he had sold to an European trader, a quantity of timber for exportation---the trader resold it before paying for it himself, and decamped in the New Zealander's debt, who, finding the timber removed, the original purchaser gone away, and the assignee of the purchase about to quit also, demanded payment of the latter, and being refused, retaliated by seizing on the schooner. An equitable adjustment has been the consequence, Pomare consenting to leave it with the missionaries to fix the amount due to him

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for his timber, and promising, on payment of that amount, to give up the boat. The sum proved to, be twenty pounds sterling, and the hero of the day took his departure, but not before he had stipulated for a complimentary salute similar to that with which he had greeted the British flag. The successful issue of this affair confirms the testimony of Mr. Clindon to the salutary influence possessed by the missionaries over the minds of the natives, and exhibits somewhat of the mode by which it has been acquired, viz. the due administration of justice between man and man, without respect of persons, in the cases submitted to their arbitration. And the circumstances under which Pomare consented to visit the ship when he did, illustrate very forcibly the strength of his confidence in the ministers of peace, and the greatness of his distrust in the good faith of those whom he was to meet on board: he could only be prevailed on to trust his person in the hands of the King's officers, by W. Williams offering; to make the mission families end property at Paihia, the guarantees of his safety, and placing them at the disposal of his tribe as hostages and security for the good faith he was to experience at our hands.

In the evening, escorted by his wife and several subordinate chiefs, Pomare again visited the ship, and requested permission to shew his followers round the decks, tendering, at the same time, for the use of the cabin, several baskets of potatoes as a present. During the time the party remained on board they behaved with the utmost propriety and decorum.

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And it was pleasing to observe that the Chief's wife was treated by him, she being enceinte, with the most tender preference. One of the sailors having offered to salute her with more familiarity than her husband deemed becoming, he interfered very promptly, and, thrusting the fellow aside, somewhat proudly as well as tartly reminded all present, that she was his wife. There was nothing remarkable in her appearance or attire; and certainly nothing attractive; the only mark of distinction was in her headdress, and consisted of a white feather plucked from the wing of the gannet.

The blast of a trumpet had announced the arrival of our visitors, and the same martial sound accompanied their departure. The New Zealanders have a variety of musical instruments in use among them, including the pan-pipes, the flute, the fife, the whistle, and the trumpet. One, which was made a present to me, consisted of a large conch shell, with a mouth-piece fitted to the spiral end, and ingeniously carved. The trumpet, whose flourish was made to do honour to Pomare and his body-guard, was upwards of six feet long, formed by several pieces, curiously sewed together by threads of cane, and elaborately carved; narrow strips of cane were also wound round the shaft to the mouth-piece. Whether the New Zealanders have any native airs or any national music, I could not learn. Whether the wind instruments of which mention has been already made, are imitations of others introduced among them by their more civilized visitors, or were common to the country before its discovery by

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Europeans, I had no means of ascertaining. If they have a music of their own, it is more than probable that some of them are poets, and in that case might not the search after their poetry reward the toil of searching, by leading to the discovery of some particulars in their history, and perhaps enabling the enquirer to ascertain from what family of mankind they have been broken off, to people these distant isles of the sea? Of course the poetry, if any, of a people whose language has been, until our day, an unwritten one, must necessarily be, like their history, oral and traditionary, but is the more likely, on that account, to be the depository of all that has been preserved of days gone by, and deeds well nigh forgotten. The subject is a curious one, and well deserves to be followed out. For, notwithstanding all that has hitherto been said and written concerning the sources from whence New Zealand and the other islands of the South Pacific Ocean have derived their population, and concerning the causes of their removal, and the modes of their decline into the condition of savages and cannibals, in which they have been found by us, much obscurity still involves the whole, and many more data require to be furnished us, than we at present possess, before we can pretend to solve the mystery in which all the past history of Polynesia is shrouded.

March 13. --The Rev. W. Yate visited the ship, and persuaded me to land with him at Paihia, where, after accompanying him to the spot at which a boat waited to convey him across the Waitangi,

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or "River of Tears," on his homeward way to Waimate, I spent the remainder of this and part of the following day. I had previously become acquainted with this clergyman in New South Wales, early in 1833, when he was superintending, at Sydney, the printing of the Book of Common Prayer, a collection of Hymns, and portions of the Old and New Testaments, in the New Zealand tongue, for the use of the natives, and saw enough of him at that time to interest me deeply in the Success of his labours, and in his own personal well-being. But it was necessary that we should meet in the very field of his labours, to enable me fully to appreciate the spirit in which he acts, and I pay but a deserved tribute to this dear brother in the Lord, when stating that the interest awakened by his public preaching and private conversation, during our first interview, has been ripened by our later intercourse into abiding and brotherly love.

Returning alone to Paihia, I was greeted, on reaching that settlement, by the Rev. W. Williams, with a warm and affectionate welcome; and, as though the sweetest pleasures of memory were to be mixed up with the grateful associations which tended to make my visit at this station one of sincere delight, I found in him a college companion of another much-loved brother in Jesus, the Rev. Richard Bingham, Junior, of Gosport, from whose lips I first learned the exceeding blessedness of a preached Gospel, and from whose life, during an intimate and prolonged and never interrupted friendship, drew in wisdom as dew is drawn in

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by the tender grass, and imbibed instruction in righteousness as a thirsty and barren land drinks in the refreshing showers of heavenly rain.

At the house of my friend's friend, I had the happiness to meet no less than eight of the little missionary band, who have come forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty, even to this the antipodes of the earth. The welcome of "one" was the welcome of all, and the more cheering to me, as being vouchsafed to an individual in none-other-way known to any of them than as a very humble and far-off follower of the same Lord Jesus, whose approved and honoured servants they all are.

The monthly prayer-meeting of the mission-families was held at Paihia this evening, and numbered about twenty persons, the majority of whom were the sons and daughters of the missionaries. It was to me, from its novelty, from its sacredness, and from the place in which it was held, a peculiarly affecting and solemn meeting. The occasion, and the circumstances concomitant thereon, were equally calculated to kindle emotions of the liveliest gratitude in the bosom of any Christian, at finding himself worshipping the God of his fathers in the midst of so large a company of his own countryfolk, met in perfect peace and in assured safety, there, on the identical spot where, within a quarter of a century, the men of the land were as wild beasts, literally devouring and devoured of one another; and on an island at the uttermost end of the earth, which, within the same brief period of time, was, through the length and the breadth of

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it, as literally and as truly "without hope and without God in the world."

Besides this monthly meeting, there is also, on the evening of the last day in every week, a weekly prayer-meeting, and while these services are strictly social, family, and English services, at which, consequently, none of the natives are present, yet these imitate their teachers, and have in their own families and among themselves, similar meetings for mutual and reciprocal prayer.

The following morning, March 14, the sound of the chapel bell ringing to matins, gave notice of a service in the sanctuary, of which I was not aware before, and I only gained the spot in time to witness the assembly of the people dispersing, and to hear the last peal of the organ proclaiming the close of morning prayers, which are held daily in the chapel, the good old practice of our church being revived and adhered to in New Zealand, while neglected and forsaken in England. The first half hour of every day being wisely set apart thus for the whole church at Paihia to assemble together before the mercy-seat of the Most High, then and there, in the presence of men and angels, to acknowledge and confess their manifold sins and wickedness before God, to render thanks for the great benefits that they have received at His hands, to set forth His most worthy praise, to hear His most holy word, and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary, as well for the body as the soul. And this they do in that form of sound words provided for the use of

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the faithful in the ritual of the English Church, which is become the language of devotion throughout New Zealand, having been translated into the dialect of the natives, and extensively circulated among them.

On this occasion there were about a hundred natives present, of both sexes and of all ages. The greater number dispersed to their own homes immediately, leaving the remainder, amounting to thirty-four, to muster at the adult school, which opens at half-past six, A.M., and closes at eight o'clock. This school was held in the open square which has been fenced in, in front of the chapel. The scholars formed into three classes, and stood in the same number of circles between the gate of the chapel yard and the door of the house of prayer. Of the persons present, three only were females, and two or three mere lads. The women being married, and receiving instruction in the same class with their own husbands. The number assembled was stated to be unusually small, from the absence of two boats' crews, one being away with the Rev. H. Williams on a coasting expedition to the north-ward, and the other having been borrowed by some traveller the previous evening, to take him to the head of an adjoining river. The system pursued in the school is that of circulating classes, each monitor being a baptized Christian, and a native. The necessity of insisting upon habits of industry, while inculcating the truths of Christianity, and imparting the rudiments of useful knowledge, is self-evident, and the missionaries

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acting upon this as a recognized principle, bold the adult male school in the morning, and the adult female school in the afternoon, this last meeting from two to four o'clock, P.M. and the small space of time thus allotted to instruction, by the men and women, is found enough to admit of them acquiring the first three branches of an useful education, and for this very sufficient reason, that the desire to learn is as intense in each individual as it is general throughout the whole community.

They are taught to read, write, and cypher, and those whom I had now an opportunity of hearing, read well, that is distinctly, intelligibly, and correctly; while the hand-writing (upon slates) of several, would not be deemed unworthy any seminary for boys in England. For the present, it would be obviously a work of supererogation to attempt leading on the natives in arithmetic beyond the simpler rules, seeing that their commercial existence can only be said to be in its infancy at present; and inasmuch as they have no circulating medium, no currency, and no employment for the counting house. Some of the young men have, notwithstanding, advanced as far as compound division, and the missionaries unhesitatingly declare it as their opinion, that the capacity of the New Zealander's mind is large enough to admit of any and every kind of knowledge.

The sight was truly novel, but not more novel than it was beautiful, and gratifying to behold these wide-spread circles of attentive learners, fathers and mothers as docile as children, husbands and wives,

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parents and their offspring, masters and their servants, gathered together from among a people who delight in blood and occupy themselves with cruelties under the open canopy of heaven, directly in front of the house of prayer, at the base of one of their native mountains, and within hearing of the waves that first brought to their shore the men whose feet were shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and in whose hands was the bread of life, to break unto those that were previously perishing for lack of knowledge. If the luxury of seeing good done be so great as that which I now experienced, how great must be the luxury of doing good!

One of the most conspicuous of the monitors in this school is Rawiri, or David, whose native appellation was Taiwangi; once a bold and warlike chief, whom William Williams, on first landing in New Zealand, found quarrelling with his wife, on account as he alleged of her provoking temper. She was lying prostrate in her own blood upon the ground, having been knocked down and wounded by her exasperated and inhuman husband. Some time after Taiwangi proposed marrying another, and younger, and in his conceit, handsomer woman as a second wife, when it was intimated to him, that, if he did so, he must bid good bye to Paihia, as the missionaries could not sanction his marrying a second wife while his first was yet alive. The haughty chieftain was highly indignant, at this interference with his domestic privileges and freedom, and expressed his determination to marry and remove to

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Kororarika. He was admonished to beware of acting rashly, and recommended to wait till the following day, before deciding. The day came, and its dawn beheld Taiwangi preparing to depart, and stowing away all his little property in the canoe that waited to convey him across to the opposite shore, where no law prevailed to forbid his marrying as many wives as he chose. He floated his canoe, and with his foot on the gunwale, was about to spring on board and shove off, when, by one of those mysterious movements of the soul which overturn all plans, set aside every previous arrangement, and suddenly decide for a man the whole course and fortune of his future life, the heart of the wanderer sunk within him, his mind misgave him that he could not be happy if he quitted the settlement: a brief pause sufficing for a moment's reflection and forethought, he decided to deny himself, and remain with the missionaries. His heart at a subsequent period melted under the continual preaching of the "good news"---he became reconciled to God--his character underwent an entire change, and he and his once abhorred wife live happily together. She too has become a Christian, and unites with him in adorning the gospel of God our Saviour. He no longer complains of her bad temper, and she has no more occasion to scream under the anguish inflicted by his blows. He is baptised---a communicant--has left off going to war--is moreover an indefatigable teacher of others, and goes forth every Lord's day, a faithful and zealous home missionary, and dili-

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gent preacher of that gospel, which he has long experienced to be the wisdom of God, and the power of God unto the salvation of every one that believeth. What hath God wrought!

Another of the monitors, Patu, was brought up in the settlement from his childhood, until he was fifteen years of age, when the military ardour characteristic of his countrymen, found an echo in his own breast, on occasion of an expected campaign in the adjacent country. He eloped from Paihia to take part in a battle at Kororarika, and, on his return, at the close of the engagement, his lips and face were completely black with gunpowder, the effect of the zeal with which he had used bis musket. He had distinguished himself very greatly in the fight, but reflection restored him to bis senses, and sobered his enthusiasm. He was soon to engage in a holier warfare, and a more momentous strife; the Spirit of God striving with his spirit, reproved it of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and having subdued it to the obedience of faith, now witnesses with it that he is a child of God by adoption and regeneration. His Christian name is James, and his industry as a monitor is spoken of with great praise. "Thou art fairer than the children of men, grace is poured into thy lips, therefore God hath blessed thee for ever. Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty! with thy glory and thy majesty, and in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness: and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things, thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's

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enemies; the people fall under thee. Thy throne, O God! is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre."

Two of the scholars also, deeply interested me by the simplicity of their manners and the modesty of their behaviour. Neither of them has yet been baptized--though both are candidates for baptism, and, together with their child, an infant still in arms, are shortly to be received into the visible communion of the saints, having afforded satisfactory evidence that they already enjoy the fellowship of the Holy Ghost. Their heathen names are Keno and Wera. She had been one of the wretched race of native prostitutes, who earn for themselves disease, misery, and an untimely death, while letting out their bodies for hire, at the bidding of their covetous masters, who appropriate the wages acquired by the prostitution of their slaves. From so degraded a condition she was emancipated at a very tender age, by marriage. Shortly after her marriage, Wera's husband went on a far journey with his tribe to attack the possessions of another tribe with whom they were at war, and left her to pine for his return, -without venturing to hope that he would ever return. She was made wretched, moreover, by the constant anticipation of his dying. During the season of suspense and anxiety, Keno saw and loved her -- and she had added to her sorrow, a deep concern for the salvation of her soul. Her husband fell as he had forboded, in battle, and she saw him no more. And Keno, after waiting the gradual subsidence of her grief, declared his hitherto secret

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passion. They were afterwards, with the free consent of the missionaries, married: and now, living together in love, help one another, and look forward to spend the remainder of their lives with their offspring, in the free service of the Most High, and at the same time in full enjoyment of the glorious liberty of the sons of God.

After joining the family of Mr. Williams at prayers in their own house, and breakfasting with them, I was taken to visit some invalids. One of these, a very young man, named Raupo, was a man of war from his youth up. And, on account of his bravery, and other accomplishments of the successful warrior, had been greatly admired and courted by all his tribe. But, on his ceasing to contend with man in battle, and humbling himself to wrestle with God in prayer, they as utterly derided and rejected him. In answer to an enquiry which had been made by one of ourselves, he described himself as "always thinking about Jesus;" and as not only waiting but longing for his dear Lord's time to come and fetch him away to his rest. Portions of holy writ were read to him by his own desire, and when we arose to depart, he noticed me as he thought looking at the smoke upon the roof of his neat little rush cottage, upon which he drew a comparison between the dilapidated state of his hovel, and the diseased condition of his "mortal body," both of which, he observed, were in somewhat similar circumstances, both hastening rapidly to decay, and both shortly to be taken to pieces. Spake he this in the spirit of prophecy, which occasionally visits a

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man in "the hour of death?" That same afternoon, the disembodied spirit of Raupo departed to the saints' sweet rest on the bosom of a Saviour-- God. There was hope in his death. What may become of his house, none need enquire--of what will become of his body, he, being dead, may yet be suffered to speak. "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though, after my skin, worms destroy this body; yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another." Jesus, his Lord and his God! about whom he was always thinking, had not been unmindful of his servant. Jesus, the everlasting Father! and the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother! for whose return he was waiting, had not been longed for in vain, but had sent his angels to minister unto him in the dark valley and shadow of death, and to escort him to "his place" when dead. Let me die the death of the righteous ---and let my latter end be like his!

We afterwards visited David at his home, which is built of plank, and the work of his own hands, he having acquired the trade of a carpenter during the time he submitted to be taught the first principles of the truth as it is in Jesus--reputed to be "the carpenter's son." Here the chief was discharging the duties of hospitality to a stranger from the southward, who had met with an accident, by which the knee joint was a good deal injured; and whom David was lodging in his own bouse, and succouring with part of his own substance. In the

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course of conversation with this stranger he was reminded that the first use he would be expected to make of his knee, when it might be restored to soundness, is to bend it in prayer and thanksgiving unto Almighty God, for his mercy and goodness; and Mr. W. asking him what were his thoughts about Christ, and whether he ever thought of him at all? he said he had such thoughts, for his whole tribe thought about the Son of God! on which David took up the conversation, and informed his guest that religion is an affair between man and his Maker, and that it must therefore be treated as a personal concern by every man; that to him it would be of no consequence, what his tribe either thought or said or did, but that, if be would be saved, he must think for himself, believe for himself, and act for himself. After this he expressed himself curious to know why I was not a missionary, and became importunately urgent for me to tarry in the land, and labour for the spread of Christianity among his people. Why does he not stay with you? Will he not stay? why will he not stay with you? were his repeated interrogatories to my companion, as though incapable of conceiving any occupation worthy of a Christian man, but that of declaring the Lord's glory among the heathen, and his marvellous works among all nations. Nearly so, also, must have thought the incomparable Milton, when his pen was inscribing these words: "There is no employment more honourable, more worthy to take up a great spirit, more requiring a generous and free nature, than to be the messenger and

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herald of heavenly truth from God to man; and, by the faithful work of holy doctrine, to procreate a number of faithful men, making a kind of creation like to God's, by infusing his Spirit and likeness into them, to their salvation, as God did unto him; -- arising, to what climate soever be turn him, like that Sun of Righteousness that sent him, with healing in his wings, and new light, to break in upon the chill and gloomy hearts of his hearers, raising out of darksome barrenness a delicious and fragant spring of saving knowledge and good works."

In the course of our walks through the village, we entered a small inclosure adjoining the chapel, and paid a visit to more than one of the huts which are built therein. They were all low roofed, and of small dimensions, consisting in most instances of only a single apartment. In one of these huts sat an aged grey-haired chief named Aka, a cripple by reason of length of days. This veteran has of late been very diligent in his attendance on all the services of the sanctuary, and though unable to stir of himself, is conveyed to and fro for that purpose in a small hand-cart. After a hasty salutation, he complained with some little vehemence of manner, that the leg of his horse was broken, and he no longer able to ride to church, and what was he to do, he further expostulated, seeing that he was an old man, and had not long to live, now that he could not go to hear the good word preached. Meaning neither more nor less than that the wheel of his cart had met with an accident, and unless it were repaired he would be precluded from attending

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to the public ministrations of the missionaries. A promise that it should be mended, restored him at once to his good humour, when, according to the custom of his country, a custom common to all societies of men in a state of ignorance and demi-barbarism, he spent a considerable time in laughing at the stranger; and on Mr. W. smiling with him, after he had laughed himself to weariness, he expressed his surprise to be great, that while they two were making a laughing stock of me, I was not ashamed. Perhaps I might have joined in and helped to increase it, had I known who was the occasion of his innocent merriment.

Passing from this hut into another, where two young women were manufacturing the beautiful flaxen mats worn by their countrymen, an opportunity offered of witnessing the process. They were both working at one mat, upon the same frame; one standing at one end and the other at the other, and one working left-handed and the other right-handed. Each took four threads of flax from the upper part of the frame, between two fingers, and round these passed other two taken from the side of the frame, each horizontal thread being turned alternately before and behind every two perpendicular or hanging threads, the two horizontals thus crossing each other between every four hangers, which they in this way fasten in pairs and unite together by a continuous band, through the whole breadth of the mat. They use neither mesh nor needle, judging of distances by the eye alone, and trusting to the skill at their fingers ends for preserving the

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regularity of their net-work. This description, however, only applies to the plain centre of the mat, and as I did not see them at work on the border, I cannot tell how they contrive to make those beautiful vandykes and lozenge-shaped figures which so richly ornament their work; nor how they manage to introduce so many varieties of colours without the introduction of a seam in any part of it. As I have before remarked of the practice of wearing ornaments in the ears, it may here be said also of "broidered apparel," that it is a custom of high antiquity. There are numerous traces of it in Holy Writ, one of the most remarkable being the directions prescribed by the Divine Essence, for the manufacture of the high priest's garments of consecration, at the commencement of the Jewish Theocracy, Exodus, ch. xxviii. v.31. "Thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all blue, and there shall be a hole in the top of it, in the midst thereof: it shall have a binding of woven work round about the hole of it, as it were the hole of an habergeon, that it be not rent, and upon the skirts of it, thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and purple, and scarlet, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about: a golden bell and a pomegranate upon the hem of the robe round about." And it is expressly stated that Bezaleel was "filled with the spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship," &c. and that he and Aholiah were "filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the engraver, and of the cunning workman, and

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of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet and in fine linen; and of the weaver, even of them that do any work and of those that devise cunning work." Exod. chap. xxxv. ver.31 and 35. Embroidery thus anciently consecrated to the service of the temple, and wrought by men chosen for the purpose, and divinely inspired with the skill requisite for the perfection of their work, has in our own day been rendered tributary chiefly to the pomps and vanities of courts and camps, while, as if in melancholy burlesque of its former application to a sacred use, Europe in the nineteenth century has witnessed one of her kings embroidering a petticoat for a graven image! And, alas! how seldom does even the most extraordinary skill in any manner of work lead men, while admiring the triumphs of art, to ascribe the wisdom and the glory to that Being, by whom the one was bestowed and to whom alone the other is due. Neither was the sacred embroidery of the Hebrews designed for the purposes of ostentatious display, but for those of spiritual instruction by figurative representation. The Jewish dispensation being a dispensation of types and figures, and every type being designed to shadow forth Jesus, God our Saviour, and every device being intended to image out something pertaining to the will and ways of Emmanuel, God with us, the very broidered work on the priest's garments was part of a language legible to the initiated, and testified of Christ to the whole of those, and of the will of God in Christ concerning all mankind, that for us men and for our salvation he was to die; and

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that "in him we have redemption, through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." But, as in language, words do not always represent things, so in the varied works of that wisdom with which God has filled the hearts of many a cunning workman, and skilful artificer, the things that ought to be represented by all the multifarious operations of handicraft, have come to be never once thought of. The one producing only sounds without meaning, and the other presenting only flowers without fragrance, and fruit without sweetness.

Having trespassed upon my reader's attention with the above reflections, which, though they flow out of the consideration of the object spoken of in the due order of narration, may not be thought to bear immediately upon any practice of the New Zealanders, I hope to atone, at least to my Christian readers for the fault, if any, of thus digressing, by adding a beautiful passage from President Edwards' masterly "Treatise concerning Religious Affections," as practical for the increase of us all in personal holiness, as it is illustrative of the idea I have ventured to hazard, that all the works of art in the era of Hebraism, and while the Israelites were content to be under the immediate government and teaching of an All-wise God, were vehicles of instruction and expressions of the Divine will, and ought to be so still among all who name the name of Jesus, and desire to obey the command of God by departing from iniquity. "The constant and indissoluble connection that there is between a Christian principle and profession in the true saints, and the fruit of

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holy practice in their lives, was typified of old in the frame of the golden candlestick in the temple. It is beyond doubt that that golden candlestick, with its seven branches and seven lamps, was a type of the Church of Christ. The Holy Ghost himself has been pleased to put that matter out of doubt, by representing his church by such a golden candlestick, with seven lamps, in the fourth chapter of Zechariah, and representing the seven churches of Asia by seven golden candlesticks, in the first chapter of the Revelation. That golden candlestick in the temple was every where, throughout its whole frame, made with knops and flowers," Exodus xxv. 31, to the end, and chap, xxvii. 17-24. The word translated knop, in the original signifies apple or pomegranate. There was a knop and a flower, a knop and a flower: wherever there was a flower, there was an apple or pomegranate with it; the flower and the fruit were constantly connected, without fail. "The flower contained the principles of the fruit, and a beautiful promising appearance of it; and it never was a deceitful appearance; the principle or show of fruit had evermore real fruit attending it or succeeding it. So it is in the church of Christ: there is the principle of fruit in grace in the heart; and there is an amiable profession, signified by the open flowers of the candlestick; and there is answerable fruit, in holy practice, constantly attending this principle and profession. Every branch of the golden candlestick, thus composed of golden apples and flowers, was crowned with a burning, shining lamp on the top of it. For it is

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by this means that the saints shine as lights in the world, by making a fair and good profession of religion, and having their profession evermore joined with answerable fruit in practice: agreeable to that of our Saviour. "Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick,, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven." A fair and beautiful profession, and golden fruits accompanying one another, are the amiable ornaments of the true church of Christ. Therefore we find that apples and flowers were not only the ornaments of the candlestick in the temple, but of the temple itself, which is a type of the church; which the apostle tells us "is the temple of the living God." "And the cedar of the house within was carved with knops and open flowers." The ornaments and crown of the pillars, at the entrance of the temple, were of the same sort: they were lilies and pomegranates, or flowers and fruits mixed together, 1 Kings vii. 18,19. So it is with all those that are "as pillars in the temple of God, who shall go no more out."

Much the same thing seems to be signified by the ornaments on the skirt of the ephod, the garment of Aaron the high-priest, which were golden bells and pomegranates. That these skirts of Aaron's garment represent the church, or the saints (that are, as it were, the garment of Christ) is manifest. for they are evidently so spoken of--"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell

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together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments." That ephod of Aaron signified the same with the seamless coat of Christ our great High Priest. As Christ's coat had no seams, but was woven from the top throughout, so it was with the ephod, Exod. xxiv. 22. --As God took care in his providence, that Christ's coat should not be rent; so God took special care that the ephod should not be rent. Exod. xxviii. 32 and xxxix. 23. The golden bells on this ephod, by their precious matter and pleasant sound, do well represent the good profession that the saints make; and the pomegranates the fruit they bring forth. And as the hem of the ephod, bells and pomegranates, were constantly connected, as is once and again observed, there was a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, Exodus xxviii. 34. xxxix, 26; so it is in the true saints, their good profession and their good fruit, do constantly accompany one another: the fruit they bring forth in life, evermore answers the pleasant sound of their profession."-- pp. 543, 4, 5, 6. Glasgow Edition. 1825.

Paihia is the second in order of time of the church missionary stations in New Zealand; and, as it were, the centre of communication for the whole, and the medium of intercourse between the mission in general and the parent and auxiliary societies in England and New South Wales. At the period of my visit there were resident in the settlement between 90 and 100 natives, who assemble daily to morning prayers,

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and are instructed in their separate schools, according to sex and age. Of the adult schools for men and women, mention has been already made: there is also a very promising infant school, the average number of native children in which is 19. At the time of my inspecting it, there were 27 infants present, of whom 17 were native born, and three of these Anglo-New Zealanders, ten belonging to the missionaries. The school was yet, however, in an immature state only, from the want of translations of the Infant School lessons, and the comparative inexperience of the teacher in the somewhat difficult science of infant education. But the sight of these little ones, sheltered together from the contagion of an evil example, and learning together as members of one family, to perfect the praises of God almost as soon as they are able to articulate sounds, was exceedingly pleasing. At present, they are merely taught in English, which they learn rapidly, and it was in that language they unitedly sang that fine morning hymn of Bishop Kenn, beginning

Having, when in England, acquainted myself with the machinery of the Infant School system, and experienced renewed pleasure by a renewal of visits to different institutions where it was adopted, I took the liberty of suggesting several alterations in the school at Paihia, and was flattered by having my recommendations attended to in every particular, and with the utmost cheerfulness, by every indi-

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vidual concerned in its management; and had the happiness to procure a translation of most of the lessons, the joint labour of Mrs. W. Williams and Mrs. Brown, two of the female missionaries, who worked at their voluntary task by night and by day to get it completed in readiness for me to take to Sydney, where T. C. Harington, Esq. and other friends, enabled me to get them printed without expense to the mission; and at a subsequent visit to the Bay of Islands, it gave me great satisfaction to hear that they were in general use, and considered to be very accurate.

The infants are clothed at the cost of the Society, and through the liberality of individuals who take an especial interest in the New Zealand mission. A sister of Mrs. Williams is the teacher, and apparently anxious to render her school as efficient as possible. The introduction of this modern discovery, perhaps the greatest discovery ever made in education, among a people of predatory and unsettled habits, like the New Zealanders, forms an era in the history of the mission, and is calculated, under the divine blessing, to effect a thorough revolution of thought and feeling, throughout all the land, if not in the present, yet, certainly, in the rising and next generations of natives, and may be expected to occasion a complete change in the moral aspect of New Zealand society, every where, even although that entire renovation of heart and mind which theologians term conversion and regeneration, shall only occur as at present in individual and particular cases. But infant schools are a very curious and complex

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piece of mechanism, requiring no less skill in the use than wisdom in the application. Capable of turning instrumentally an entire generation to God, they are also liable, if perverted, to degenerate into machines for the putting up with pride and presumption, a whole world. The perfection of the system is its fitness for the case of children, the aptness with which its lessons are taught, and the tendency of those lessons to inform the mind, enlighten the understanding, and improve the heart at the same tune. And in order to bring its principles to bear with all their force and energy, upon the infant race of New Zealanders, it is indispensable that some one should have the general superintendence of the infant schools in that country in charge, and in order to this it will be necessary that some one should be sent from home to undertake that charge, who, in England, may have had a practical acquaintance with all the machinery of the system, both collectively and in detail. And, if I may be permitted to throw out an additional hint as to the mode of increasing the efficiency of this interesting and prosperous mission, and preparing it to become the parent of other missions to the neighbouring Island, I would recommend the establishment of a Christian institution, similar to that at Cotta in the island of Ceylon, of which a brief account will be appended, in a note at the end of this narrative.

Besides these schools for the instruction of the natives, Paihia contains two seminaries for the children of the missionaries who have attained to a certain age; that for boys being under the care

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of Mr. Chapman, while the girls are taught by Mrs. W. Williams. At present these schools embrace only the children of the missionaries, and I believe it may be doubted whether even the children of any missionaries of another communion would be admissible to a share of the instructions they afford. But I would ask in the sincerest affection, and from an earnest desire to see all the features of the mission perfect, whether in the present condition of New Zealand, with settlers from England and her colonies residing there with their families, and retarding or accelerating the progress of missionary labour among the tribes, according as they and their offspring set those tribes a good or an evil example; and whether, in the subsisting relations between the Wesleyan missionaries and the natives to the westward, and in the close affinity that exists between the doctrines and practices of the Episcopalian and the Methodist churches, it might not be practicable, without interfering with the conduct, or infringing upon the duties of the mission, to extend the benefits of these English schools to the children of the resident settlers, and of the Wesleyan missionaries, upon such terms, and under such regulations, as might tend to draw closer the bonds of mutual charity and good will, between all the three classes of Europeans in New Zealand, and to avert the consequences of any petty jealousy, and unchristian rivalry, which otherwise might arise, among those who are fellow countrymen, (and if Christians in