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MISSION
TO THE
ABORIGINES OF NEW ZEALAND:
A Lecture.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
I am deeply sensible of the honour conferred upon me by the Committee of this Association, in assigning to me one of the lectures of the season. It is, however, an honour which I would gladly have declined, and certainly should have done so, could I have settled the matter satisfactorily with my own conscience. It is from no motive but a sense of duty to this valuable Institution that I occupy my present position. The subject on which I am to address you is not one which I should have chosen, but one which has been suggested to me by others, for whose judgment I have great respect. It is supposed that many young men connected with this Christian Association, having lately arrived from England, are but partially informed upon the subject which is to occupy our attention, and that an almost sixteen years' residence in an isolated station among the natives, must necessarily have furnished me with many reminiscences which could scarcely fail to be interesting
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to an assembly like this; and perhaps it may be so. But within the compass of one lecture the difficulties are, to know where to commence, and having commenced, where and when to conclude. I feel that the subject, "Christianity among the Natives, its connection with the Colonization of the Country, and the benefits which have resulted therefrom," places me in somewhat delicate circumstances, in consequence of the present unhappy relations between the Government and the natives, and the rebellious and defiant attitude which the latter have assumed towards the former. If I should, in the course of this address, give expression to sentiments which are not supposed to be common among missionaries, I shall trust to the candour of this meeting to give me credit for uttering nothing which is not the deliberate, mature, and well-considered conviction of my own mind, often thought over in the fear of God, and for an earnest desire to express my sentiments and convictions in language which shall be entirely without offence to those who may honestly differ from me, amongst whom are some whom I love with a pure heart fervently.
As an old missionary, it may be reasonably concluded that I am the sincere uncompromising friend of the natives, but not more so than I am of the colonists, than whom, as a people, none have been more shamefully maligned.
I am not a half-caste, yet I fancy I am capable of taking a view on this subject as disinterested and unprejudiced as any gentleman who is a half-caste, or who pretends to be one. I am not the apologist of native evil doings, and have never had a spark of sympathy with them in their ingratitude and rebellion against what I will not call a paternal Government, because a paternal Government is one which respects itself, and has power to
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enforce respect from its subjects; but a patient, forbearing, conceding Government. But while I have no sympathy with the natives in their love of anarchy and rejection of British rule, and never expect to see any permanent good in this country until the present native organization is dissolved and the Queen's authority made paramount in every part of the land, neither have I the least sympathy with those who would charge the present troubles upon Christianity. The assertion that Christian missions in New Zealand have been a failure, that they have done as much harm as good, I deny and repudiate as ignorant, absurd, and false; and I hope to prove to your satisfaction that, the present troubles notwithstanding, Christianity has exerted a beneficial influence in New Zealand. We do not think it Christian to misrepresent, nor wise to conceal, the threatening danger. We admit that there is a wide-spread organization: that the natives intend to dispute with the Queen of England the sovereignty of a large portion of this island, and, if not checked in their infatuated career, eventually, I think, of the whole of it. South of Auckland, with a few individual exceptions, British rule has no friends. North of Auckland, there is amongst the natives much disaffection, and little reverence and respect. But we deny that Christianity is in any way responsible for this. It is the natural result of an infirm and inefficient Government, which has seldom been able to enforce its own laws. The Gospel was never intended to supersede civil government, and must be comparatively powerless unless it rests upon law. For lack of this, of late years Christianity has among the natives accomplished but little.
There was a time when the Government was regarded by the natives with awe, respect, and
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reverence, and if that feeling has been succeeded by disregard and contempt, the causes do not appear to me to be involved in much obscurity. If I were to attempt to point out any of these, I should, perhaps, be considered as travelling beyond my proper province in this address, and therefore I will only say that I hope and trust that the time will never come when the English Government will abdicate its right or decline its duty of controlling and governing these people. I hope I shall never see the day of extreme national degradation, when the young men in New Zealand, among whom are my own sons, will be indifferent to the honour of their Sovereign, or when they will not be prepared, at any sacrifice, to support the rights of a just and beneficent Government against the unrighteous domination of a people, who, with all their good qualities, and they are many, have always been inordinately attached to war, and have never respected any law but the strongest arm and the sharpest tomahawk; and if ever such a degenerate race of young men should arise in New Zealand, I hope the young women will inflict upon them a chastisement at the thought of which our sex appropriately tremble, nor ever smile upon them again until they assume a conduct more worthy of men and of British subjects. Having expressed my sentiments and convictions upon this matter, I shall now proceed to notice some of the beneficial effects which have followed missionary labours in New Zealand.
And first we claim as the undoubted fruit of the missionary enterprise the peaceful establishment of the British colony, and proclamation of the Queen's sovereign rights in and over New Zealand. In all probability, had it not been for Christian missions, the country would not have been colonized to the present day; or if it had, it
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would have been by the French, or the American, and not by the English Government. That the peaceful establishment of the English colony, and proclamation of the Queen's sovereignty, was the result of missionary labour, was acknowledged at the time by those best able to form a correct judgment on the matter. Captain Hobson, the first governor, in my hearing declared that such was the case, and expressed the same sentiment in a public despatch to the Secretary of State; and, Ladies and Gentlemen, to prove that it was so, we need but glance for a moment at the state of native society at the period when Christian missions amongst them commenced. At that time the natives were universal murderers and cannibals. No native could travel even a few miles from his own home without danger of being murdered. The state of native society at that time has been more graphically and truthfully described in a book called "Old New Zealand," than in any work which I have seen on the subject. The author of that book is a person well known to me. Though he has lived some thirty years or more with the natives, and though he calls himself a "Pakeha-Maori," he is a generous gentleman of courteous bearing, of whose open-handed hospitality I have frequently partaken. Those of you who have read his book, and I feel sure that must be a large majority of this meeting, will easily conceive that there are many things relating to the natives on which he and I should not agree. I can, however, testify that his book is singularly free from romance; that his narratives are not over coloured; that his tales, purposely told in a most ludicrous style, are but amusing descriptions of appalling and horrifying realities. In proof of this we call your attention to a few events which took place in this country a short time pre-
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viously to the commencement of Christian missions amongst the natives, which have now become matters of history. In the year 1809, a noble ship of five or six hundred tons, bound to England with seventy persons on board, called in at a harbour not very far from the Bay of Islands, for the purpose of procuring spars. The natives inveigled the captain, with two boats' crews, on shore, under the pretence of showing them appropriate trees, and having led them into the wood, fell upon them and murdered them all; and, elated with success, returned and took the ship, and murdered and ate all on board, with the exception of one woman and three children. Almost a quarter of a century ago I received a narration of the horrible event from a person who was concerned in it. About this time the brig Agnus, with six guns and fourteen men on board, was wrecked in Poverty Bay, and all on board, save John Rutherford, were murdered and eaten. A little after this, a whale-ship was cast ashore at Whanganui; all the crew were immediately killed and eaten, except one European and one negro. At that time this was the certain fate of shipwrecked mariners on the coast of New Zealand; and so great and general was the terror, that even vessels of war did not care to approach the country. Such was the state of native society when the apostolical Marsden, Colonial Chaplain in New South Wales, first visited Noav Zealand with the message of salvation. Mr. Marsden was a man of universal benevolence, and may be said to have been the father of both the Church and Wesleyan Missions in New Zealand; for it was through his representations that they were both commenced. Mr. Marsden, though a clergyman of the Church of England, had a heart large enough to embrace the agents of both societies. He evinced his affection for the early
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Wesleyan missionaries by many acts of personal kindness, and his memory is by them gratefully cherished to the present day. The early missionaries were exposed to many hardships and dangers. Some of them were no strangers to the hissing of a musket ball in very unpleasant contiguity to their persons, or the whizz of a tomahawk over their heads, and they frequently retired to rest at night in the midst of dangers which left very little probability that they would see the rising sun. Mr. Turner, now in New South Wales, had two of his ribs broken by a savage blow from a native, and he and Mr. Hobbs were burnt out, plundered of everything they possessed, and narrowly escaped with their lives. The precious remains of a child of one of the missionaries, which had been recently buried, were, on that occasion, torn out of the grave by the diabolical savages, and its bones scattered to the winds of heaven. In those days horrors were continually being perpetrated too satanic to be described to an assembly like this. By the blessing of God, a few years of patient and self-denying missionary labour produced a marvellous change; and in consequence of the greatly improved state of society, Europeans and Americans began to settle in the country in considerable numbers. Many of these were disorderly and lawless persons, and by desire of the native chiefs, representations were made to the government of New South Wales, and the English government was requested to take the country under its protection. The government of William the Fourth was not then in a colonizing mood, so they recognized the independency of the chiefs, gave them a national flag, and sent a gentleman to reside amongst them as the representative of the British government, to assist the chiefs to maintain order, more especially in cases where Englishmen were
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concerned. The residence of that gentleman in the Bay of Islands was a great boon to the natives, and productive of incalculable good to the country; but in consequence of the wonderful change which had taken place in the natives, Englishmen, Americans, and Frenchmen multiplied so rapidly that a strong government became absolutely imperative. The necessity for colonising the country was again pressed upon the attention of the English government, and as the New Zealand Company had already, in defiance of the Government, commenced colonizing operations at Wellington, and the British government about that time obtained certain information that the French were preparing an expedition to take possession of New Zealand, Captain Hobson was sent off in a great hurry, to treat with the natives for the sovereignty of the country. As soon as he arrived, the great meeting took place at the Bay of Islands, at which the celebrated treaty of Waitangi was signed. I was present on that occasion, and also at a meeting which took place subsequently on the same subject at Hokianga. There was a great deal of talk by the natives, principally on the subject of securing their proprietary right in the land, and their personal liberty. Everything else they were too happy to yield to the Queen, as they said repeatedly, because they knew they could only be saved from the rule of other nations by sitting under the shadow of the Queen of England. And in my hearing they said repeatedly, "Let us be one people. We had the Gospel from England, let us have the law from England." My impression at the time was, that the natives perfectly understood that by signing that treaty they became British subjects; and though I lived among them more than fifteen years after that event, and often conversed with them on the subject, I never saw the slightest
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reason to change my opinion. The natives were at that time in mortal fear of the French, and justly thought they had done a pretty good stroke of business when they had placed the British Lion between themselves and the French Eagle. We have heard indignation expressed at the way in which the natives were, in the treaty, overreached by the Government; and especially in the matter of securing to the Queen the right of pre-emption in the purchase of their lands. There is a native proverb which says, with reference to a man of great keenness and sagacity, "He was born with his teeth;" and in the matter of making bargains, the New Zealanders may be said to be a people who were born with their teeth. I believe it is a very long time since it was possible to overreach the natives much in a bargain. I know that that particular clause of the treaty was there by their own urgent request, and that it met the universal and unqualified approbation of the chiefs. They did not pretend to have either power or right to prevent the people from selling their own lands, and they embraced with exultation the proposal that the Queen should forbid her subjects from purchasing them. The figment of mana and tribal right, with reference to land, is probably of pakeha origin; at all events it was manufactured to serve a purpose, nearly twenty years after the signing the treaty of Waitangi. The colonization of the country was effected in perfect peace; the Queen's sovereignty was proclaimed throughout the length and breadth of the land, and was nowhere disputed by the natives, who generally felt it an honour to be thus connected with the missionary's Sovereign; and we claim the event as one of the beneficial effects of missionary labour in New Zealand. The old church missionaries, who have been ignorantly and viciously represented as opposed to colonization,
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and as wishing to retain the country for themselves and children, gave to Captain Hobson the most zealous assistance. Some of those men were labouring among the savages of New Zealand when I was in my cradle. For nearly twenty-five years I have been intimately acquainted with several of them in this country, and have no hesitation in saying, that while they have been the true friends of the natives, they have been men of devoted loyalty to the British throne, and among the most valuable and best men who ever came to New Zealand. Another great effect produced by the Gospel, which must be regarded by Englishmen as an unmixed good, was the peaceful and complete abolition of slavery. When I came to this country, a very large number, perhaps six or eight per cent, of the entire population, were held in slavery the most abject and terrible; a slavery in which the property and person of the slaves were absolutely at the disposal of their savage masters. The life of a slave, either man or woman, was not secure for an hour. The chief had as much right to kill and eat his slave as you have to dispose of your pig, and they very frequently did it. I have known several instances in which a chief, because he was in an ill-humour, has dashed out the brains of his defenceless slave; and the only remark I ever heard made was "Kei aha, nana ano tana pononga." (What of it? his slave was his own.) By degrees, however, as Christianity advanced, a chiefs right to murder his slave began to be questioned. Many of the slaves were the first to learn to read, and became the instructors of their chiefs, and attained to influence in the church; and it was soon admitted that if a slave had been baptized, he belonged to Christ, and that his master must not murder him; if he did, the church would feel itself called upon to avenge his death. This tended greatly to
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the preservation of life, and to the improvement of the general circumstances of the slave. By and by, under the faithful preaching of the Gospel, the consciences of several of the chiefs became uneasy at the idea of holding their fellow-christians in bondage at all, and from love to them, gave them their liberty. Several slaves received their liberty in this way at the same time, in the neighbourhood in which I lived, with permission to return to Taranaki. Others, their friends and relatives, were very wishful to go with them, but their chiefs objected; and the subject was considered of sufficient importance to be brought under the attention of a public meeting assembled for the purpose. There was a large gathering of chiefs, some of them from distant places. The reasons, pro and con, were discussed for two or three whole days. The result was a conclusion, almost unanimous, that slavery and Christianity could not co-exist, and that the party who wished to return to Taranaki, who were present but took no part in the discussion, should be allowed to go free. I have a distinct recollection of several sentences of the last speech, uttered by an excellent Christian chief, now, I have no doubt, in heaven: "Ko to ra tenei," he said, "e hari ai Toko ngakau. Ko te tau tenei o te huperi." (This is the day in which my heart rejoices. This is the year of jubilee.) And turning to the slaves, he said, "Haere ra e te Whanau haere marie. Ko a te tamaiti e whakarangatera. Ka rangatira ratou." (Co, children, go in peace. Those whom the Son makes free, they are free indeed.) This meeting was the death-blow to slavery in that neighbourhood, and many old heathen chiefs, who never themselves embraced Christianity, in deference to that powerful public opinion which Christianity created, allowed their slaves to go free. It was
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Christianity which did it. Colonization and civilization had a tendency to rivet more firmly the chain of the slave, inasmuch as they created a ready market for native produce of every kind, and thus advanced the value of the slave to his master by a hundredfold. The complete abolition of slavery in New Zealand was a glorious effect of missionary labour, about which far too little has been thought and said, and which is entitled to occupy a prominent position in our estimate of the benefits which have resulted from the missionary enterprise in this country. I have been asked whether I or my family were ever in danger of personal violence from the natives? Never, I think, except on one occasion, and as that occurred in connexion with slavery, I will, with your permission, describe it here. When I had been in New Zealand about twelve months, an old chief woman came to my house accompanied by one of the lowest and most wretched kind of slaves--a man who had been oppressed and embruted by more than twenty years of slavery. He was almost in a state of nudity. When I asked her what she wanted, she directed my attention to the slave, and said, "I hear you want a servant; I am dying with love to my slave. He is so cold and naked, I want him to work for you for a blanket to keep him warm during the winter." I knew if I agreed to the old woman's request I must give him the blanket to commence with, and that the next day she would take it away from him, so I said, "No; it is true I am in great want of a servant, but we are tired of slaves, because as soon as we clothe and make them decent, you chiefs come and take away their clothes, and leave them as destitute as ever." Knowing that the natives had a great respect for a written agreement, "He pukapuka," I said, "If you will enter into a written agreement with me
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that the slave shall stay with me a year, that I shall pay him his wages once a month, giving half to you and half to him, I will take him and pay a month's wages in advance." O yes; that suited the old woman to a tittle. So I drew up the agreement in great form, made the old woman and the slave sign it with their mark, and another native who was present wrote his name as witness. Everything proceeded as we could desire for about two months, until the time of planting potatoes, when the old woman came and ordered the slave to go and plant her potatoes. He said, "What about the pukapuka that has been written by us?" "Oh, never you mind the pukapuka; you go when I tell you." But he said, "Kahore, ekore ahou ehaere." (No, I will not go.) This was probably the first time he had ever dared to disobey. The old woman came to me somewhat ruffled in temper, and said, "I have ordered that slave of mine to go and plant my potatoes, now the weather is fine; I suppose he can go?" I said, "Of course he cannot. How can he go, when you have tied him by a pukapuka?" "Oh, never mind the pukapuka: he will only be a week or two, and then he can return to you." I said, "No; you tied him by a written agreement, which is a sacred thing with pakehas, and I forbid his going." The old woman watched her opportunity, and when I was out, came and threatened that if he were not planting her potatoes in two days, she would kill him. When I returned, he told me this. I was alarmed for his safety, and said, "Don't you think you had better go?" "No, no," said he, "don't you consent to my going." I said, "But I am afraid she will kill you." "Perhaps she will," he said; "but far better to be killed. I had much rather be killed, than you should consent to my going." So I promised that I would not consent, and that I
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would give him all the protection in my power. Things continued very quiet for two or three days, when the old woman waylaid him at the brook whence he was accustomed to fetch water. I happened to be in the garden at the time, at the bottom of which ran the brook; my attention was attracted by a strange murmuring noise, and going round the corner to ascertain what it was, I came quite upon the old woman and the slave. He was standing stock-still, with his arms hanging down by his side, not offering the slightest resistance, or attempting in any way to defend himself; and she was hammering his face with her bent fist, until the blood was standing in a pool at his feet. I was under the impression that she was chopping him with a tomahawk, and, in the excitement of the moment, seized the old woman by the shoulder, and not calculating to a nicety the propelling force applied, the old woman fell over into the brook, a depth, I suppose, of five or six feet down into the water, which was not very deep. She quickly gathered herself up, and walked out on the other side, which was her way home, declaring, in no measured terms, that she was mortally injured, and should probably die before she reached her house. I knew that the old woman could have received no injury. Things had now, however, assumed a very serious aspect, and I was distressed beyond expression to see that my own indiscretion had really endangered the life of the slave. Several natives, during the afternoon, like the friends of Job, came to comfort me with the intelligence that a taua was being assembled, who would be down upon us in the evening, and that the slave would certainly be killed. The slave, poor fellow, was quite aware of the gathering storm, and had disappeared. I learned just before the taua came that he had fled into our bed-room, barricaded the door with every
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heavy article that he could procure, and concealed himself under the bed. Just at sunset a company of about thirty men came rushing up the path in front of the house, like so many roaring lions, headed by the old woman, with her tongue protruded to the utmost extent, and her eyes as if they were standing upon her cheek-bones, calling the slave by name at the top of her voice. When she was somewhat exhausted by excitement, she addressed herself to me somewhat more mildly, and said, "I am come for my slave to take him home." I said, "I have not seen your slave since you did." "You have concealed him in your house, and if you do not turn him out, I will break in and drag him out, or burn the house down." "I have not concealed him, nor told him to conceal himself in my house, nor seen him since you did. If he be in my house I will never turn him out. If I were to turn him out for you to kill him, I should be his murderer; so if you are determined to burn down the house, you can do it, and burn me and my wife and child in it, for we intend neither to turn out the slave nor go out ourselves." The natives kept up this state of excitement for several hours. Twice they procured firebrands with which to burn down the house, but were prevented by one or two of the more moderate of the party. Towards morning two or three of the more violent of the party shouted --"Murua - murua - murua," plunder, plunder, plunder-- "Tomokia--tomokia," enter, rush in. The outer door had been open all the time, and we, together with two or three native women, who appeared greatly concerned for my wife and child, kept our post just inside. One fellow did rush in, with his uplifted hatchet, shouting-- "Ka haua te tatau o te wharemoenga e ahau." (I will smash the door of the bedroom.) We placed ourselves, with the infant between us, before the door; and I said
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"Ko matou ki mua." (Chop us first.) I had not the least apprehension that he would do this; but I did think we should be pushed from the door, and that the slave would be chopped to pieces before our eyes. The native, however, stopped short in the middle of the room, and, finding he was not supported, after a moments pause, said calmly-- "Ka he ahau." (I am wrong.) "Ekara e tai e mata ka mate ahau i te whakama, mo taku kino kia korua." (I am oppressed with a sense of shame for my evil conduct to you.) He walked out and sat down sulkily, and for a few moments there was complete silence. He then sprang to his legs in great apparent anger, and addressed the old woman in language to the following effect-- "You have brought us into a pretty plight, have you not? You are the root of bitterness, spoken of in the Scriptures, as springing up to trouble the people. "Ko hatana pu koe." You are Satan, the woman of the large mouth and unruly tongue. When you are dead we may hope for a little peace and quietude, but never before. Did we not all promise that if we could only get a missionary we would give up our Maori habits? --and did we not especially promise that we would never shed blood on the mission station? --the very thing which you have done. I say, Satan, the pakeha did quite right, when you were desecrating the holy place with blood, to throw you into the river. You were not hurt at all: and if you had been killed, who do you think would have cried? 'Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.'" The old woman received this address in perfect silence. The women inside saw that the tide was turning, and suggested to my wife the propriety of offering to settle the matter, and redeem the life and liberty of the slave by payment. She was too happy to embrace the proposal, so they brought out a con-
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siderable quantity of property, --blankets, pieces of print and calico, and several axes, which were the currency of those days, to the value of about ten pounds. This was a capital stroke of policy, for it excited the cupidity of the natives, who, if a bargain could be effected, would of course take the property as payment for having espoused the old woman's cause. They affected, for a time, to take little notice of the property. Presently one of them said, "Mo te aha te taonga nei?" (What means that property.) "That property," said I, "is what I am willing to pay for the settlement of this disagreeable matter, and that I conceive is the only way in which it can be settled now. You can't kill a man who has fled to the church for safety, and I am willing to give all that property for the life of the slave, that henceforth he be my servant instead of yours." Several of them, no doubt having an eye to the appropriation of the property to themselves, declared that mine were the sayings of a wise man, which could not be gainsayed, and told the old woman that since the slave had got pakeha notions, and was for ever ruined, and would never be any further use to her, and since they had fully vindicated her honour in making a taua upon me, rushing into my house and threatening to burn it down, that she had better take the goods and let me have the slave. The old woman, probably bearing in mind that a very small portion of the goods would fall to her share, was not quite so ready to come into this arrangement; so she made another convulsive effort to carry her point, and worked herself into a most tremendous fury. Ladies and Gentlemen, if you had seen the capers which the old lady cut on that occasion, you would never have desired to see another war dance. The gymnastics being nearly concluded, the old woman commenced her korero:
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"So, you want me to sell him? Is that the Gospel? Whoever heard of an English lady selling the man that she loved? Have not I loved him dearly? Did I not run after him and catch him when he was not longer than my arm, when we killed and ate his father and mother, on the Waikato? Did I not bring him part of the way home on my own sacred back? and ever since whenever I fed my pig, did I not always throw him a potato at the same time? And now I am asked to sell him! No never--never! Mate roa --I'll die first." The natives knew that this was the old woman's last effort, and that the thing was virtually settled. A mild and excellent old chief, who was the last speaker, after singing a few lines of an extemporaneous love song, in which he complimented the old lady on her surpassing beauty, and called to her recollection the many conquests which she had made among the native gentlemen, though he confessed that was many years ago, proceeded to remark, in words the meaning of which was intended to be exactly the contrary of the sounds --"Madam, you are a great lady, and you have been hardly used in this matter; you never made a written agreement with the pakeha: you were not the aggressor in this matter: you did not come and shed blood in the missionary's garden: you were much hurt in falling into the river, and if you had been an ordinary woman, would have been killed; but you are a priestess, and full of the Atua Maori, (native god), so there is no killing you. All that you have said of your great love to the slave is perfectly true. We know that when you fed your pig you threw the slave a potato, but it was generally after the pig would eat no more; and we know that when you had got the pig nice and fat, you did not object to sell him for a blanket.
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My advice is, that you should do the same with reference to this slave. Shall I take possession of this property for you? What say you," said the old chief, standing before the old woman, and leaning down his ear to listen. "Ae? Ae. Ae? Ae. Ae? Ae!" The property was packed up, the natives departed, and the man was no longer a slave. I am afraid you will think this a long and somewhat tedious story. I have told it to illustrate the state of the natives twenty-four years ago. We did not know all the danger which we had escaped till afterwards. We noticed that about half a score strong men sat near the door, and took no part on either side. We learned afterwards, that each of them had a hatchet under his blanket, and that they were there, by order of the leading chief of the district, for our protection, with instructions, if the natives attempted to break into my house, or to set it on fire, to commence upon them, and chop away without mercy; so that we were then on the very verge of a slaughter, in which we should very likely have perished. I asked the two or three young women afterwards, how it was that they kept so close to us in the house all the time. "Our motive," said they, "was this. We thought the natives would set fire to the house, and knowing the obstinacy and courage of the pakeha (an opinion somewhat altered since those days) we thought you would not come out, so we intended, as soon as the natives set light to the house, to snatch up the baby and run away with it, knowing that the mother would run after the baby, and that you would run after her." The old woman obtained a very small portion of the property, it being considered all due to the gallant men who had so nobly vindicated her cause. Two or three days after the event, the old woman came to take leave of and cry over the slave, when I told her that I thought
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she had acted like a great lady in allowing the matter to be settled so amicably, and that whenever she came to my house she should always be welcome, and meet with the treatment to which her distinguished rank entitled her. The old lady declared that I had made ample and generous payment for the slave, that I was incomparably the greatest gentleman she had ever known, and, as proof of her respect and admiration, offered to rub noses with me, an honour which I could not of course in courtesy decline. We parted amidst compliments and congratulations, and remained fast friends to the day of the old lady's death. The peaceful establishment of the colony, and the abolition of slavery, were among the beneficial effects of missionary labour; and so was the termination of infanticide. Before the introduction of Christianity, native mothers were so far destitute of natural affection, that the murder of infants was a circumstance of common occurrence, and mothers frequently destroyed their infants to save themselves the trouble of nursing them; and more frequently still out of spite and revenge to their fathers. A native woman, in consequence of a quarrel with her husband, would frequently, in a fit of passion, say, "Ka romia taku tamaiti e au," and would place her hand over the mouth and nostrils of her child, nor move it until the infant's struggles ceased in death. The horrid custom was considered disreputable by the time I came to the country; but more than one penitent mother has confessed the crime to me, and lamented that she had not heard the Gospel sufficiently early to prevent the perpetration of the dreadful deed. Such has been the meliorating and elevating influence of Christianity, that infant murder would now be regarded by the natives with no less horror than by ourselves. Another great benefit resulting from missionary
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labour is the ceasing of suicide, a custom most awfully prevalent for some years after the introduction of Christianity. It was quite common for a man, when he lost his wife, to shoot himself; and for women, when they lost their husbands, to hang themselves; and in fact it was considered disgraceful not to do it. These terrible circumstances were continually coming under the notice of the missionaries. Instances might be given in almost any number. We only refer to two or three:-- Some little time before I came to the country, the son of Patuone died of consumption near the Mission Station in Hokianga. His two wives, both very young women, fearing, if they lived, to be reproached for want of affection to their husband, immediately hanged themselves. Mr. Hobbs visited the village, and saw the corpses of the young women sitting in state on each side of the dead husband, preparatory to being all buried together. Mr. Hobbs reasoned with the natives on the folly and crime of such proceedings. The answer was, "With the pakeha, who are a people of little love for their dead, the thing may be evil; with the Maoris it is a good and a right thing." Several instances of the same kind have come under my own notice. I was once at a village where a young chief had died just before my arrival, and while I was in the whare where the father and other relatives were crying over the corpse, word was brought that his wife, quite a young girl, had shot herself; the only remark was from the father of the young man, and evidently expressed great satisfaction, "Kapai." While I was in Auckland attending the district meeting, two mothers living near our station each lost her only child. One mother was a Christian, the other a heathen: the Christian mother came to weep and pray with my wife, who had lately
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lost a child: the heathen mother went and hanged herself. Christianity has brought the practice of suicide to an end: it is not now more common among the natives than it is amongst ourselves. Surely, ladies and gentlemen, the establishment of the British colony, and peaceful proclamation of the Queen's sovereignty over New Zealand; the abolition of slavery; the putting a period to the horrors of infanticide and suicide; are benefits and blessings worthy of grateful consideration. But there are many excellent persons who, while they are ready to admit the great collateral advantages which have resulted from mission labour, doubt the existence of vital Christianity among the natives. I have frequently, in Auckland, been asked whether I had ever known among the natives a really religious and spiritual man--whether I had ever witnessed among the natives a case of what we Wesleyans call conversion to God. I have known a good many such cases, cases in which natives have been converted from the degradation, and vileness, and ferocity of the savage, to the meekness and gentleness, and integrity, and spirituality of the Christian character; who have evidenced the genuineness of their conversion by many years of consistent conduct, and died in the triumph of Christian faith. I will give you one instance of this, and I choose this example because the man was immeasurably the worst native I ever knew, and I assure you that is saying a great deal. He was such a compound of arrogance and meanness, such an arrant liar, and such an incorrigible thief, such a tangata kino, wakaharahara, that even the natives did not respect him. He took the lead in a cannibal feast which was held near the place on which the station was formed only a little time before I went there, and pointed out to me, with a horrid laugh of satisfaction that would have well become the devil himself,
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the skulls of the persons they had eaten, sticking up on poles, and the teeth which they had in derision driven into the trees. This man was for some time a most terrible nuisance to us, who then knew nothing of the language or customs of the people. He would march into the house and take the butter from our table, and anoint his head with it, and appropriate anything which he desired to have, at the same time pretending to be our patron and friend. He attended worship, for some time, I think, because it gave him consequence to be considered the protector of the pakeha. By degrees, however, he came under the influence of divine truth, became greatly distressed on account of his wickedness, and found the pardoning mercy of God in Christ. Though he could not be far from fifty years of age, he soon learned to read the Word of God. He was for several years a consistent Christian man; endured his last affliction, which was severe and protracted, with the most exemplary patience; and I saw him die full of peace and joy, and committed his remains to the grave in sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection. May my last end be like his. The salvation of this poor degraded cannibal is to me ample recompense for all that I have been called to do or suffer during my missionary life in New Zealand. Ten years ago, many natives in that part of New Zealand were walking in the fear of God and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost, and understood and could give expression to the hallowing enjoyments of a spiritual life, as well as their English fellow-christians. I will mention one or two simple circumstances which occurred just before I left the natives, as illustrative of the thoughts and feelings of their minds upon these important matters. One of them occurred just after public religious service, on the morning of Christmas day. The congre-
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gation had dispersed, and I was sitting under a tree, near the door of my house, reading, when an old native, who had been stone blind for twenty years, came walking up the serpentine path which led from the chapel to the house. I was interested in my book, and did not discover myself to the old man. He listened for a moment at the window, and, hearing no one, was turning to depart, when the staff with which he was walking came in contact with a vine which grew by the wall. This attracted the old man's attention, and stooping down he felt the vine, carried his hand along the stock to the first branch, and then along the branch to a bunch of young grapes near the end of it. He stood and meditated for a moment, and then, beginning at the bunch of grapes, he carried his hand along to the stock, and then he said in a low voice, but quite loud enough for me to hear, "Ano ti tika o nga hupu wohariti o te kawenotu ko ahou te waina ko kotou nga manga." [Ano te tika o nga kupu whakarite o te kawenata, ko ahau te waina ko koutou nga manga.] How appropriate are the parables of scripture. 'I am the vine, ye are the branches.'" "Me he mea ka piri ahau kia te karaiti me te manga e piri ana ki te waina nei ka ora ahau ka whaihua." "If I were united to Christ as the branch is to this vine, I should be alive and fruitful." And then the old man walked down the path, praying earnestly to Christ to take him into intimate and vital union with himself. I had known this old man a degraded heathen, as blind in mind as in body, and I believe as totally ignorant of God as an ox. He had, however, for several years previously to this, given perfect satisfaction to me of the genuineness of his Christianity. Another case occurred about the same time equally simple and equally illustrative of the natives' view of experimental Christianity. I had returned with my native companion from a journey: we had reached the river near
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home: the weather was exceedingly hot, and while I was preparing the horse to be swum across the stream, the native went down to drink and to plunge his head into the cooling water, which, when he had done, he called out to me, "E Pa, e mea ana ahau, e rite ana tenei awa ki te aroha o te Karaite." Father, I think this water much like the love of Christ. "Indeed," I said; "why?" "Why," said he, "because I have been drinking out of it all my life, and my father before me, and yet it has not diminished, and my children and children's children will drink out of it after I am dead; yet it will remain as large as it is now until Jesus comes. So I say, it is like the love of Christ which can never be exhausted." Who will say that this was not a Scriptural view, or that a man would be likely to be occupied with such thoughts as these who had not an experimental acquaintance with the love of Christ. Not long since I received a beautiful letter from a native, giving me an account of the peaceful and triumphant death of his wife. She was a person with whom we had a most intimate acquaintance: she had, for ten or twelve years, under my own eye, charge of a class of native females, over whose spiritual interests she watched with the tenderness and zeal of a mother in Israel. She was an affectionate and faithful wife, a tender and a careful mother, and, making a just allowance for want of civilization and refinement, I never saw or heard of anything in her inconsistent with a very high state of Christian experience; and I and my wife, who is now present, have often expressed our opinion to each other that she was one of the best women we had ever known. I trust these statements will be regarded by you as affording satisfactory evidence that there is Christianity amongst the natives. It is supposed by some that if Christianity and religion had existed among the
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natives, they would have done more for its support, and not have been so long dependent upon the funds of British Christians. Ladies and gentlemen, have patience while I say a word or two on behalf of the natives on this point. It is admitted that in the native character there is a strong element of selfishness, so strong that there is no feature in their character in which they more nearly resemble ourselves. It is not, however, true to say that the natives have done nothing in support of the gospel. The chapels have been generally built by the natives, with little assistance from the Missionary Society. A single native has been known to give as much as twenty-five pounds as a subscription to a chapel. The original mission houses were built by the natives for very small remuneration. They have done something for the support of the missionaries on almost all the stations. On one station in this district they are now raising one hundred pounds a year towards the support of their minister; and but for the political delusion relative to a Maori king, which for the last seven years has cursed the land, the natives would, I am persuaded, by this time have been contributing largely to the support of the work. There was a strong feeling on this subject in England ten years ago, and the Rev. R. Young, who came here as a deputation from the parent society, was instructed to enquire into the subject. The subject was seriously considered in the district meeting, and the missionaries returned to their homes determined to press the matter upon the attention of their people. I called a public meeting of my natives, and addressed them on the subject, using every argument from Scripture and custom which I could press into the service. I told them that they who preached the Gospel were to live of the Gospel. That the labourer was worthy of his hire, and that as I was
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there to supply them with spiritual instruction, it was their duty to support me. I told them that not only in England was this done, but that in Auckland the church supported Mr. Buddle, without assistance from the Missionary Society; and I flattered myself, for a time, that the deep attention paid was proof that I had made an impression, and that increased contributions would be the effect. After a few moments' silence, the chief of the place rose to speak. He was a man of extraordinary eloquence and power as a speaker, and could generally carry a meeting with him, whatever might be the subject. Turning and addressing himself to me, he said, "Sir, you are a father in Israel. We are only children. It is your duty to speak, and ours to listen. We have been listening to you, and we have never before heard you make a speech like the present, in my opinion, most absurd and unscriptural. You say, search the Scriptures on this point: so we do, and there we find that the fathers are to lay up for the children, and not the children for the fathers. It is only to-day that we have heard that the Gospel is a thing of trade, to be paid for with money. What saith the Scriptures? 'Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come buy wine and milk, without money and without price.' He aha he mea ai, kia utua te rongo pai ki te money e mea ana ahau, he rawarawa." (I say this is heresy.) And having to his satisfaction disposed of the scriptural argument, he proceeded to notice the custom of the pakeha. "You say," said he, "that Mr. Buddle's congregation in Auckland support him. That they each give him just as much money as they keep for themselves." I did not say that of course, but I allowed the old chief to have it so. "Now," said he, "we are prepared to do the same. You lock up that wooden house of yours, and come
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and live in the middle of my village; and though I am the chief, I will build you a better house than I live in. My daughter shall make you a mat, larger and finer than I wear. You and your wife and children shall have abundance of food, such as I eat, ready cooked, and all free of expense. And what do Mr. Buddle's congregation more than that?" I assure you, ladies and gentlemen, before the old man had finished his speech, I was, to the perfect satisfaction of that assembly, very sufficiently floored. It is, in my opinion, unreasonable to expect the present generation of New Zealanders to support an English ministry. It would be quite as rational to expect the inhabitants of a few country villages in England to support the dignity and state of an English bishop; and as it would be highly undesirable that the Ministry should sink down into the social state of the natives, it is on this subject the undoubted duty of English Christians to supply the natives' lack of service. I shall probably be considered as not having discharged my duty as your lecturer, if I do not say a few words on the present unhappy state of the country. The natives are at war with us, and have been for more than three years. They have maintained an armed resistance to British authority, which is, of course, war. Lately they have made an aggressive movement in the Waikato, by demanding and extorting contributions from British subjects in support of Maori sovereignty, and by expelling the Queen's subjects from their homes, so that if the Government were to invade the Waikato to-morrow with 5,000 men, it would be a purely defensive movement. The object of the natives is to appoint a Maori sovereign, and to endow him with a kingdom taken from the dominions of our Queen. Of course, if they can do this, they will have the same right which sustains
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most earthly kingdoms -- the right of conquest. The Duke of Newcastle has, so far as he is concerned, in his late dispatch, given up the Queen's sovereignty over New Zealand. At least he has said, all that can be reasonably expected from the natives is nominal allegiance, and the Colonial Government is to say how far the Queen's sovereignty is to extend in New Zealand. With all respect for the noble Duke, and deference for the office with which the Queen has entrusted him, we doubt his right to dismember the British Empire, or to dispose of any part of his Sovereign's dominions, and we believe that right will be indignantly repudiated by the Queen's subjects, both British and Colonial. The Duke of Newcastle ought to have known by this time that the New Zealanders are a people too ambitious and turbulent to yield nominal allegiance, and that, if they are not made really subject, will continue to be the troublesome and dangerous enemies of the Government, and that there can never be permanent peace with the New Zealanders till the temptation to be master is entirely removed. From the speech of a gentleman whose brilliant abilities have not preserved him from making himself supremely ridiculous in this country by his insufferable egotism and profound ignorance of a subject on which he has spoken and written so much, the duke has quoted to prove the great advance which the natives have made in civilization, the credit of which, to a considerable extent, he claims for the Government. The Duke ought to be told, that for want of a government which could control them, the natives have, during the past five years, made no progress in education, civilization, or religion. That they have overwhelmed the missionaries and their friends with grief and consternation, by the length and rapidity of the strides
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by which they are retracing their steps to barbarism. That no subject has now any charm for a native, but that of preventing the enlargement of the colony, humbling the Government of the Queen, and establishing a savage independency. That many of the natives are growing up without acquiring the knowledge even to read their own language, and that during the last two years they have been nursed by the Government into a state of almost universal revolt. I believe the way in which British supremacy could be most speedily established, and with least loss of life, would be at once to declare a district of country already gone for ever to the Queen in consequence of native rebellion; and a proclamation that Maori sovereignty would be unhesitatingly put down, and that all natives found in arms after a certain date would be declared the Queen's enemies, and to have forfeited all right and title to land. Some will say, that would be to exterminate the natives; because it is well known that such is their attachment to the land, that they will die to a man in defence of it. We deny that this is well known, and we assert the contrary of this. No doubt the natives are exceedingly covetous about land, and this is the reason why they have been continually fighting about it. That they will to any extent die in defence of land, is utterly contrary to the history of the Maori people.
I have seen many quarrels about land, and some rather severe contests. Both parties have invariably made the same assertions--that the land was theirs; that they wanted it as an inheritance for their children after them; that life was of no consequence to them unless they could possess that particular piece of land; that they had come prepared to die, --and if they could not have the land, would at least die upon it. One party has, of course, always had the best of the contest. The
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weaker party, like wise men, have invariadly retired and left the conquerors in possession of the land; and immediately they ascertained that they could not possess it, have given up all idea of dying upon it. The New Zealanders are an ambitious and courageous people; but they are also an intelligent people, --and no people on earth ever knew better how to be beaten, or to submit gracefully to a superior power. It will be said, perhaps, that the natives may submit, and yield up land to each other in this way, but would never yield land to the pakeha. A person who will make this assertion must be ignorant of New Zealand, and of what has already transpired in the country. The first war in which we were involved with the natives, was forced upon the Government by the turbulent proceedings of a Ngapuhi chief, Honi Heke. Heke was a chief equal in rank to any of the men taking part in the first rebellion, and probably superior to any of them in education and general information. Heke had no ill-will to the colonists, as was proved by many acts of generosity during the war. But he had the common infirmity: he was a restless, ambitious man, who had a thirst for military glory, and wished to measure his strength with the English force then in New Zealand -- I believe about twenty-five men. So he cut down what he regarded as the emblem of British sovereignty, the signal flag-staff in the Bay of Islands. The staff was re-erected, and cut down by Heke in defiance of the Government, if I mistake not, three different times. The people of the town of Kororareka became involved in the quarrel, and the township was taken by the natives, sacked, and laid in ashes --an event which I personally witnessed. Things were, of course, now become serious. Troops were brought from Sydney, and a large body of allies,
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under Tamati Waka and Moses Tawhai, joined the Government for the purpose of punishing Heke for his rebellion. In a short time Heke, in an engagement with Waka, was severely wounded, and narrowly escaped falling into the hands of his enemy. Heke proved no exception to the general rule. As soon as defeat and adversity came, Heke's courage and ambition evaporated, and he wrote to Governor Fitzroy confessing his error, acknowledging his defeat, begging for peace, and offering land to the Queen as the price of peace. Governor Fitzroy immediately answered Heke's letter, pointing out certain places to be ceded to the Queen, as an atonement for his rebellion. Heke was perfectly satisfied, and considered himself liberally dealt with, and wondered that the Government had not taken more land. Kawiti, however, Heke's ally, who had shut himself up in a pa at the Ruapekapeka, out of which he believed the English could not drive him, was opposed to giving up any land, and wrote an insolent and defiant letter to the Governor, declaring, in the true style of an old New Zealand warrior, that the Governor should never have his land while he lived. That he would die in its defence. There was, therefore, no alternative but for the Government to attack Kawiti, and Governor Fitzroy was making preparations to do this when he was superseded by Governor Grey, whose first act was to meet the native alles--tamati Waka, on that occasion, addressing Governor Grey, said (I quote from official translation in despatches to Lord Stanley), "I wish to say to you that there is no chance of making peace, unless Kawiti and Heke agree to give the land mentioned in the terms proposed by Governor Fitzroy. Unless they did so, peace would not remain. What I say now are not my thoughts only, but the thoughts
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of all. There is no chance of peace until the lands are given up to the Queen." Kawiti was soon driven out of his pa, and reduced to great straits for want of food. He saw that his enemy was too powerful for him, so he forgot what he had said about dying for his land, and came and humbled himself to Waka, and begged him to act as mediator, and take his unconditional submission to the Governor, and to say that he was now willing not only to give up the lands demanded by Governor Fitzroy, but also any additional lands which Governor Grey might think proper to take, if he would make peace with him and pardon his rebellion Is this confirmatory of the idea that the natives, as a people, would contend to the death for the mere barren pride of ownership of land, which they well know will never be of any earthly use to them? --or is it not rather contradictory of any such irrational and unphilosophical conclusion? On reception of Kawiti's submission, the Governor immediately proclaimed peace, and a free pardon to all the rebels, without taking an inch of their land, supposing that so generous a proceeding would for ever attach the natives in gratitude to the Government. Events have shown how much he was mistaken. Even the flagstaff was not erected, but was, seven years after, when I left the Bay of Islands, lying in the humiliating position to which Heke had consigned it, and a native has pointed out to me the dishonoured staff which bore the flag that for a thousand years has
Braved the battle and the breeze,
with the following sentence, not very euphonious in the ears of a loyal subject of the greatest sovereign in the world:-- "Ko Wikitoria tena, e moe ana i te puehu, i roto i te wahi i turakina ai ia e Hone Heke." (There is Victoria sleeping in the
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dust, in the place into which she was thrown by Johnny Heke.) Waka, when his advice was not taken, like a loyal subject offered no opposition. But he has never changed his opinion relative to the absolute necessity of taking land from natives who rebel against the Queen. His sentiment with reference to native resistance against British rule is--
Gently, softly touch a nettle,
And it stings you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains.
When history pronounces its verdict upon the Governments and Governors of New Zealand, it will pass a severe censure upon Governor Fitzroy for his weakness in giving back to the natives at Taranaki land which had been righteously acquired by the Government, by which he laid the foundation of future troubles; and we hope it will not lose sight of the fact that he subsequently, by his energy and courage, reduced to the condition of a suppliant for peace the most ambitious and dangerous chief in New Zealand, and in demanding land for the Queen, as an atonement for his rebellion, furnished an antidote which, if it had been applied, would for ever have ended those troubles.
We are now told that the natives meditate an attack upon the city of Auckland. They would like to do it, if they dared; and, as the affair must now be settled by a struggle, an attack by the natives in force upon Auckland is an event which we have no doubt would settle the matter for ever. If two or three thousand natives, without artillery, without cavalry, and without a commissariat, can take Auckland, I will not say they deserve to have it, but I will say you richly deserve to lose it.
Gentlemen--I have had frequent opportunities of
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addressing you from the pulpit, where I do not think it right to refer to this subject. To-night I address you as a patriot, a brother, a husband, a father, and a man. If the foe which now threatens Auckland were successful, they would spare neither age nor sex. In the name of wives, daughters, and sisters, and those females who have no such endearing relations, in whose defence it would be disgraceful to our manhood not to be prepared to bleed and die, --in the name of the infirm, the aged, the sick, and the little children of our community, --I address you, men of Auckland. Hear! he that hath no sword, let him sell his coat and buy one; and, in the name of his Sovereign, his country, and his Maker, stand by to defend the right; and "let him trust in God and keep his powder dry."
As soon as the natives submit, I would treat them not only with justice and mercy, but with kindness and generosity; but I would take care that I had first trodden the last breath out of the body of Maori sovereignty, and that I held what Nicholas of Russia called a material guarantee that there should be no resurrection.
Ladies and Gentlemen, --I am not a man of war, I am a man of peace. I know that had we even a much larger force in the country than we have, it would not follow as a matter of certainty that we should succeed, because the disposal is in the hand of Providence, and the race is not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong; still I deny that, in the present state of this country, I am at all inconsistent with my character as a Christian man, or with my position as a Christian minister, when I say that I am looking for the settlement of the present troubles to the blessing of God upon the wise head, and brave heart, and good sword of General Cameron, and my firm belief is, that if
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he is supported by the courage and patriotism of the colonists, before next autumn wars between the two races will be numbered among the things that are passed, never to recur. And then you will have a duty, plain and clear, and easy to be understood, and that will be the restoration of the Mission stations, and the extension of education and Christianity among the natives. The first thing the natives will desire after a general peace, will be the return of the missionaries; but many of the stations will be in a state of dilapidation. Whence is the money to come for their restoration? From England? I say no; but from the Anglo-New Zealand churches. And it is high time that you relieved the English churches from any claim for the support of Christianity among the natives. I have no hesitation in saying that the colonial churches have failed most seriously in their duty to their native brethren. I will give you a piece of information, a fact, perhaps, which you little expect to hear, and that is, that the establishment of British Christian churches have been a great disadvantage to the spread of Christianity amongst the natives. Several years ago, retrenchments were made by the Wesleyan Mission Society in England, in the annual grant for New Zealand, which had a most prejudicial and crippling effect upon our operations among the natives, which retrenchments I am sure would not have been made had not the country become a British colony, and had not the parent society felt relieved from a large amount of responsibility by the existence of churches on the spot, which they not unreasonably supposed would at least, to a certain extent, care for the work of God among the natives of the country in which they lived. I see in this hall many men of different Protestant churches, who have no missionary
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machinery among the natives. I hope they will come up to the assistance of those churches who have agents in the native work, and that thus the mission will be maintained with increasing vigour. And I have no doubt, notwithstanding the dark clouds through which we are at present passing, that the day is not distant when British supremacy shall have been vindicated, and the misguided natives shall no longer consider it a dishonour to be subjects of the Queen, and when the pakeha shall no more envy the native, nor the native vex the pakeha; when the divine description of a happy and prosperous state shall be applicable to New Zealand as a whole: "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell 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 garment. As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore."
CREIGHTON AND SCALES, PRINTERS, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND.
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