1845 - Wakefield, E. J. Adventure in New Zealand [Vol.II.] - CHAPTER XVII

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CHAPTER XVII.

SINCE the fatal catastrophe at Wairau, the thoughts of the reasoning men among the settlers had been directed more seriously than ever to the apparently inevitable overthrow of the noble experiment in which they had come to take a part; namely, that of civilizing and Christianizing the aborigines on a comprehensive and statesmanlike system. At the Club, at each other's houses, while looking over the operations on a farm, or at any other place where they met and discussed their little politics, a sincere regret for this result was generally manifested, and its causes were traced with a view to a remedy if possible.

That the rough whalers and sealers were first the

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oppressors and brutalizers of the New Zealanders, is not to be denied. But they were also their first civilizers. They taught them many of the wants and luxuries of civilized life, and supplied those wants as they arose. They taught them to appreciate the comforts of cleanliness, of good houses, food, and clothing; they held out to their emulation the industry, the perseverance, and the energy, of the White man. They shadowed forth, with a rough and harsh pencil to be sure, the blessings of peace and commerce; and they first obtained the respect of the savage for the invincible courage and hardihood of our race. The frank hospitality and the elevation of the man of strong body and will above his fellows, characteristics common to the New Zealanders and the whalers, assisted much in their rapid amalgamation. Nearly the same qualities were necessary to a chief in either class; and it was thus easier for the less civilized and less artificial race to acquire the physical improvements introduced by the other, even while the vices of the refuse of civilization were insidiously destroying many of the moral virtues which the savages before possessed. The irregular colonizers were thus, without any intention on their part, except their own selfish enjoyment, becoming an instrument of change for some good and more evil upon the native race; and the very respect which the outcasts bore to a wild chieftainship similar to that which they themselves had established when retrograding from the refinements of civilized communities, secured the working of this instrument by a process analogous to the customs and prejudices of the natives, and therefore easy and gradual.

So a father, who had been exiled for some offence the most polished society, might, while careless

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and indifferent to the prospects of his growing son, teach him by mere example some of the knowledge and manners of the world and the outward appearance of a gentleman, while he also allowed him to acquire the immoral habits which had been his own ruin.

In 1815, the excellent Samuel Marsden introduced the blessings of missionary teaching, with a view to rescue the New Zealanders from the ruin which was impending over them, into the northern part of the island.

We are fortunate in possessing an authentic record of the first foundation of the Church Mission in the Bay of Islands. Mr. John Liddiard Nicholas, who volunteered to accompany the venerable founder in his expedition, wrote a very interesting work, which contains an account of all the proceedings, and must ever be placed among the most valuable archives of New Zealand. 1 Mr. Nicholas also gave evidence before the Committee of the House of Lords in April 1838. To him, then, I am indebted for the earlier part of this history.

The Reverend Samuel Marsden, Principal Chaplain of New South Wales, was already famous for the success of missions planted by him in Tahiti, when he formed the benevolent project of founding a mission in New Zealand. This project was then discouraged by almost all who heard of its formation. The captains and crews of whaling-ships and trading-vessels, who had been accustomed for twenty years to carry on a desultory warfare, as well as commerce, with the

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native inhabitants, gave the latter a character for treachery and savage ferocity, to which they themselves, perhaps, had a more legitimate claim. Their knowledge of the natives was bounded by an intercourse into which they never entered without the desire to revenge some signal and treacherous defeat, or the dread of retribution for some equally disgraceful victory. "His plan," says Mr. Nicholas, "was by most persons deemed wild and chimerical; and a sacrifice of the life of every one was foreboded who should venture to carry it into execution. The New Zealanders were represented at the colony (New South Wales) in the blackest colours; and any attempt to impress their mind with religion and morality was judged not only hopeless and impracticable, but rash, absurd, and extravagant."

Samuel Marsden, however, combined great firmness of purpose with the most extended benevolence. He first made himself thoroughly acquainted with the general character of the Maori, by carrying home with him from time to time, and taking under his roof, such individuals as were occasionally brought to Port Jackson by the different whalers; and when he had maturely formed his estimate of the disposition and capabilities of the race, he deliberately persevered in his intention.

In 1810, he proposed to the Church Missionary Society in England, that they should send out to New Zealand certain proper persons to form a mission. To this they readily assented, and engaged three persons with their families, Messrs. Hall, King, and Kendall; some of whom embarked with Mr. Marsden, while the others followed in the same ship which took Mr. Nicholas to New South Wales. Marsden, on his arrival in that colony, purchased a vessel for the ser-

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vice of the mission; and as soon as the newly-engaged missionaries had all arrived, sent two of them in the vessel, well armed, to the Bay of Islands, to make a trial of the disposition of the natives, and to bring any of the chiefs to New South Wales who might seem inclined to visit it and to forward their views.

On their return with an encouraging report of their reception, and three native chiefs who expressed themselves willing to concur in their projects, Marsden determined to accompany them on their final expedition, in order to superintend their labours and assist in the great work.

It is important to observe what were the objects aimed at by this model of a Christian missionary, and by what means he proposed to attain those objects. Mr. Nicholas seems to have been intimately acquainted with the character and thoughts of his companion, since he thoroughly appreciated his great talents, and claimed for his virtues that tribute which they undoubtedly deserved. He tells us that Marsden was desirous, "as an Englishman, of showing to this bold, highspirited, and inquisitive people, the proper character of his country; and as a Christian, of calling them from their gross idolatries to a knowledge of revealed religion, enlightening their minds, and humanizing their pursuits." His plan of operation is no less striking; and I therefore copy it from the words of Mr. Nicholas: --"Contrasting the genius and habits of this people with those of the other islanders in this immense ocean, he found them much more prepared for cultivation than the generality of savage tribes, and less tenacious of their own barbarous institutions. But he rightly conjectured that moral lectures and abstruse religious discourses, however proper at a subsequent period, when the mind became

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susceptible of their importance, could do but little at first towards reclaiming a people so totally immersed in ignorance; therefore he resolved on a better plan, and paved the way for introducing the mechanic arts, by creating artificial wants to which they had never before been accustomed, and which he knew must act as the strongest excitement of their ingenuity. Accordingly, he did not apply to the Society for men only of scriptural attainments, but for experienced and useful mechanics, who could" instruct the natives in cultivating their ground, building their houses, and regulating the whole system of their internal and external economy. The choice made by the Society of the persons sent out for this purpose was judicious and correct. The two mechanics who had been selected by them were men of regular and religious habits, and indefatigable industry; the one an excellent carpenter, and the other a shoemaker, who had been previously instructed, at the expense of the Society, in the mode of dressing flax; a species of which plant abounds in the island, and is much valued by the inhabitants, but whose mode of preparing it is of course much inferior to that practised in Europe. Mr. Kendall, who acted as schoolmaster, an employment of much consequence to the success of the mission in this island, was a man every way qualified for his situation. He joined to mild and persuasive manners a stock of useful knowledge, which he had the happy art to impart without appearing rigorous or severe; and above all, was impressed with a strong sense of the importance of religion, the duties of which he strenuously endeavoured to inculcate in others, while, punctually observant, he always took care to discharge them himself. Such were the men whom

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the Society provided as the guides and instructors of this people. Mr. Marsden, rightly judging that supplying the wants of the natives gratuitously would be attended with an exorbitant expense to the Society, and rather retard than promote the grand object of civilization, purchased the vessel to excite a spirit of trade among them, and afford them continual opportunities of exchanging the valuable productions of their island for some of our commodities."

After much earnest importunity, Marsden obtained leave of absence from the Governor; who told him he did not think himself justified in granting him permission to venture his life in so dangerous an enterprise. At his instance, Governor Macquarie made Mr. Kendall a Magistrate in New Zealand, and conferred an authority of a like nature upon the two chiefs who were to accompany him.

On the 28th of November 1814, the brig Active, of 110 tons, left the heads of Sydney harbour, having on board, besides the ship's crew, Marsden, the three missionaries and their families, Mr. Nicholas, and eight New Zealanders. Strange to say, they were accompanied by three male convict servants; security for whose return to New South Wales in three years was given by Messrs. Marsden and Kendal. Two escaped convicts, who did not creep from their hiding-place until far from land, were also among the passengers, and escaped to the shore before the departure of the brig from New Zealand. Horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, poultry, goats, cats, and dogs, gave the small ship an ark-like appearance.

On the morning of the 16th of December, they sailed past the Three Kings and Cape Maria Van Diemen, and anchored on the coast some days after. Between this time and the latter end of February

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1815, they visited the coast in different places, and "explained to the chiefs the objects of the mission, and that the arts of civilization would be introduced among them, and their Condition bettered by being taught the culture of wheat and other grain;" 2 on which they expressed a great willingness to see such a state of things. A spot near the Bay of Islands was then selected, and bought of the natives to whom it belonged. Two parchment deeds, which had been prepared in Sydney, were filled up with the boundaries of the land in question, which consisted of about 200 acres, and for which twelve axes were given as payment. The moko, or fac-simile of the tattooing on the face of the vendors, was drawn upon the deeds, and, with the addition of the vendor's mark, served as the ratifying symbol of the agreement. The deeds were witnessed by Messrs. Kendall and Nicholas on the part of the purchasers, and by a native carpenter, who drew the moko of one of his cheeks, on the part of the natives. The native who had ratified the deed and his brother, to whom the land belonged, now declared the ground to be tapu to all but the White people; and the natives were not allowed to enter it without the concurrence of the missionaries. This most curious document, probably the first written contract of any kind that was ever made between a White man and a New Zealander, and certainly the first conveyance of land in New Zealand ever executed, is supposed to exist in the Missionary House in London. An exact copy is given by Mr. Nicholas, from whose pages I have transcribed it: --

"Know all men to whom these presents shall come, that I, Ahoodee O Gunna, King of Rangee Hoo, in

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the Island of New Zealand, have, in consideration of twelve axes to me in hand now paid and delivered by the Reverend Samuel Marsden, of Parramatta, in the territory of New South Wales, given, granted, bargained, and sold, and by this present instrument do give, grant, bargain, and sell unto the Committee of the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East, instituted in London, in the kingdom of Great Britain, and to their heirs and successors, all that piece and parcel of land situate in the district of Hoshee, in the Island of New Zealand, bounded on the south side by the Bay of Tippoona and the town of Ranghee Hoo, on the north side by a creek of fresh water, and on the west by a public road into the interior; together with all the rights, members, privileges, and appurtenances thereunto belonging: To have and to hold, to the aforesaid Committee of the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East, instituted in London, in the kingdom of Great Britain, their heirs, successors, and assigns for ever, clear and freed from all taxes, charges, impositions, and contributions whatsoever, as and for their own absolute and proper estate for ever:

"In testimony whereof, I have, to these presents thus done and given, set my hand, at Hoshee, in the Island of New Zealand, this twenty-fourth day of February, in the year of Christ One thousand eight hundred and fifteen.
Signatures to the grant,
THOMAS KENDALL.
J. L. NICHOLAS."

It is worthy of remark, that during this preliminary expedition, Marsden had to restrain the agricultural ardour of his subordinates. Nicholas says, "We walked over a large extent of level ground directly opposite

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the entrance of the harbour, and offering one of the most inviting situations of any that we had yet seen for building a town upon; and will, I doubt not, should the mission succeed, be eventually its principal settlement. The missionaries evinced a strong desire to fix themselves here in preference to Rangehoo, where the ground being so hilly and steep, the extent of their agricultural labours must necessarily be circumscribed, and confined to a few interjacent spots. But Mr. Marsden was averse to this measure; judging very properly, that they should rather consult their sphere of usefulness to others, than that circle which would be most advantageous to themselves."

On the 28th of February 1815, Marsden returned to New South Wales, having left the missionaries busy at their work.

Wise as he was good, his plans were not confined to the sole teaching of the Gospel, unaided by humanizing civilization or institutions compatible with the subordination of ranks, which tradition and long association had robed with respect in the simple mind of the New Zealander. We have seen that he procured the appointment of two high chiefs of the tribe among which the missionaries were to begin their labours, as Magistrates, together with the person who was to head the mission; and thus introduced the great change under provisions the most favourable for its continuance, and the most agreeable for its manner of operation. He combined great moral improvement with a preservation of political institutions. Moreover, he provided that persons skilful in agriculture and the mechanical arts should be attached to the mission: thus combining spiritual with social advancement. He foresaw that, without coincident civilization, Christianity would become to the savage but an empty mockery and form, a toy to te taken up and thrown away at leisure. This was the

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wise and comprehensive benevolence of a man who extends his charity to a starved pauper with the greatest care and circumspection; and who lays him in a warm bed, and brings cleanliness, repose, and comfort to his aid, rather than a too abundant supply of mere food, lest the sudden change should destroy instead of saving the object of his compassion. Under the constant superintendence of a Marsden, how beautiful must have been the results of such a system! how healthy, how contented, how grateful would have been the revived patient at the end of his well-fostered convalescence!

Marsden revisited the mission in later times; and some of his letters, dated in August 1819, are produced by Mr. Coates before the House of Lords' Committee of 1838. These letters speak but little of the spiritual improvement of the natives up to that time. He says, "Their misery is extreme. The Prince of Darkness, god of this world, has full dominion over their bodies and souls. Under the influence of darkness and superstition many devote themselves to death; and the chiefs sacrifice their slaves as a satisfaction for the death of any of their friends; so great is the tyranny which Satan exercises over this people, a tyranny from which nothing but the Gospel can set them free." He adds, "We cannot hope for the Gospel having its full effect, according to the ordinary course of the Divine proceedings, without the united aid of the Christian world. Suitable means must be provided for the civilization and evangelization of the inhabitants of New Zealand; and if this be done, there can be little doubt that the important object will be attained."

The civilizing department of the mission had made considerable progress. Marsden says: "17th September 1819. I believe that there is ten times more land in cultivation at the present time, in the districts

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round the Bay of Islands, than there was in 1814, when the settlement was first formed. This improvement in cultivation is wholly owing to the tools of agriculture which have been sent out from time to time by the Society."

Even two years later, on the 10th October 1821, the Rev. R. Butler writes, that "the natives are a proud, savage, obstinate, and cruel race of cannibals; and therefore every missionary has a great deal of heavy labour to perform, and many privations to undergo, before he does anything according to the ideas of the religious world."

The worthy missionaries, however, persevered in their laudable efforts; and soon enlisted the great engine of civilization, printing, in their favour. In 1820, Mr. Kendall returned to England, taking with him the two chiefs Hongi and Waikato. They went together to Cambridge; where Professor Lee, from their pronunciation, reduced the Maori language into a written one, and composed a Grammar and Dictionary. This afforded the means of translating the Catechism, Prayer-book, and Bible, into the native language. The demand for these books gradually increased; and some years later, presses were introduced into the island.

In the meanwhile, the missionaries were steadily gaining a considerable influence over the minds of the natives; and this influence received some support against the lawless White adventurers who attempted to overthrow it, by the occasional appointment of a Magistrate among their body.

The following is an extract from the officially published voyage of the French ship "La Favorite," commanded by Captain Laplace, who touched at the Bay of Islands in 1830. I am sorry to remark, that while

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it proves that the influence of the missionaries was great, they would seem on this occasion to have exerted it to a somewhat uncharitable end: --

"The English missionaries at the Bay of Islands exhibit neither the charity which all the ministers of religion profess, nor the generosity for which their countrymen are remarkable towards strangers. My offers and my solicitudes to obtain from them refreshment for our sick were alike in vain; and I am convinced myself, that these preachers of the Gospel, suspecting me of political purposes, endeavoured to disturb the harmony that existed between me and the natives, by insinuating to them I meant to take possession of the bay, and revenge the massacre of Marion." 3 (A French Captain, massacred with many of his crew some years before.)

Various causes combined to nullify, to a considerable degree, the good effects of the venerable Marsden's plans. He was himself restricted by his duties in New South Wales to an occasional supervision only of the manner in which his principles were carried out. Some fearful instances occurred in which the most baneful examples were set to the natives by backsliders among the missionaries themselves. What an impression must have been produced among the pupils by the sight of drunkenness, in one of their head teachers, as great as in the ruffians whose conduct they came to discourage! How strong must be our disgust when we know that another head of the mission had to be expelled by the Society for still more dreadful crimes, which even those ruffians would have condemned! The selection of men to carry on the great work had evidently not been made with sufficient care.

The very provision, too, of men of mechanical and

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INDEPENDENCE OF NEW ZEALAND.

agricultural tastes as missionaries at length defeated its own object, when they were no longer under the careful supervision of a wise and disinterested director. These men, calculated to be excellent colonists, became enraptured with the fertile soil and productive climate; and selfishness of a pardonable nature began to mingle with their actions when they became private owners of land, in order to provide a maintenance for their large families of children. As these carpenters, shoemakers, and schoolmasters, too, were left alone without a man of superior intelligence to guide the working of their efforts on the social as well as the spiritual state of a nation, they gradually learned to neglect the respect due to the institution of chieftainship, and to rejoice, to an unchristian degree, in the influence and power which they had themselves acquired.

At length they proposed to found an independent state, of which they themselves should be the prime rulers and legislators. And their teaching, while it equalized all beneath the Book, gradually abandoned the coincident lessons of civilization. On the 16th of November 1831, the letter from thirteen chiefs of the Bay of Islands to King William the Fourth, to which I have before adverted, was transmitted by the Rev. W. Yate, then Chairman of the Mission, to Lord Goderich. It prayed for the protection of the British Crown against the neighbouring tribes, and against lawless British subjects. In answer to this letter, Mr. Busby was appointed as British Resident, and despatched to the Bay of Islands in 1833, by Sir Richard Bourke, then Governor of New South Wales. It appears, both from his own letters and from his instructions, that he was accredited to the missionaries; and he writes his opinion, that "unless a defined and specific share in the government of the country be allotted to the missionaries, the British Government

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have no right to expect that that influential body will give a hearty support to its representative."

The letter of the thirteen chiefs had doubtless been suggested by the missionaries; for the natives were incapable of conceiving its purport, and it was the missionaries who proceeded to bring about much stronger measures in November 1835. At that period, a formal declaration of independence was drawn out by Mr. Busby, apparently in consequence of the designs of Baron de Thierry, who had some wild notions of assuming the sovereignty of New Zealand to himself. A circular had been issued from the printing-press of the Church Mission, inviting the natives not to allow de Thierry to land; and the missionaries, as well as the Agent accredited by Great Britain to them, took an active share in procuring the execution of this declaration of independence. It was finally signed by 35 natives, calling themselves the hereditary chiefs and heads of tribes of the northern parts of New Zealand. The document was witnessed by Messrs. Williams and Clarke, of the Church Mission, and two resident traders, 4 and the copy and translation were certified by Mr. Busby, as British Resident. A petition was also brought round to various parties by Mr. Williams, praying for protection against irregular British settlers and Charles Baron de Thierry. This last paper, although signed by many of the Church Missionary body, was signed by them as individuals; and the Secretary of the Church Missionary Society protests, in his evidence before the House of Lords, against their signatures being considered of the same force when unaccompanied by the letters C. M. S.

Sir George Gipps, the Governor of New South

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Wales, in his Legislative Council, described this so-called declaration of independence, the recognition of the flag, and the other attendant measures, as a "concocted manoeuvre" of the missionaries and their accredited agent. I have elsewhere described it; but have recurred to it here because it forms so important a part of the history of the Church Mission in New Zealand.

Marsden writes with evident gratification of the progress made by the great institution which he had founded 23 years before, and which he enjoyed an opportunity of beholding in a last visit which he paid to the missions in 1837.

It was about this time that the missionaries, seeing the constant influx of settlers from New South Wales, and the probability of a British colony being founded ere long in the country, began to acquire large tracts of land in their private capacity, distinct from those farms which were purchased and cultivated for the purpose of maintaining the mission stations, and instructing the natives in agricultural operations. With scarcely any exception, they made use of their knowledge of the language and spiritual influence among the natives to make these purchases. We have ample testimony, which has been often before the public, both of the large extent of the possessions which they thus acquired, and of the fact that, by means of their thorough knowledge of the language and experience of the native customs, they succeeded in obtaining a more secure title to their land than could be obtained by the greater part of their secular competitors in this early land-market. 5 Mr. Flatt, one of themselves, says that they had begun to purchase about 1832, just after the

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letter of the thirteen chiefs to William the Fourth; and he was present at a monster land-purchase, 30 or 40 miles long, made by Mr. Fairburn, one of the catechists. He also tells us of land bought by Davis, Kemp, Baker, Clarke, King, and Henry Williams the Chairman of the Mission. The latter alone had purchased one tract of seven square miles.

Twenty-six members of the Church Mission actually claimed before the Land Claims Commissioners, in 1840, 185,233 6 acres of land, which were alleged to have been bought from the natives between 1832 and 1840. They received an award, in May 1843, of 45,179 acres. But the disallowance of one Land Claims Bill and the revival of the other rendered a revisal of the award necessary. Twenty out of the twenty-six cases were revised, and the twenty claimants received a final grant of 27,280 acres. The six not yet revised contained some of the largest claims, such as that of Mr. Fairburn for 40,000 acres, and that of the Rev. Richard Taylor (now of Wanganui), for 50,000 acres. Among these twenty-six claimants, the Rev. Henry Williams, the Chairman of the Church Mission, appears for nearly 11,000 acres, and Mr. George Clarke, now Chief Protector of the Aborigines, and lay Agent of the Society in New Zealand for 5500 acres. 7

With but few honourable exceptions, such as that of Mr. Hadfield, who does not, I believe, claim a

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square foot of land, scarcely one of the servants of the Church Missionary Society in New Zealand has been free from this blemish of self-interest. It seems difficult to imagine whence the funds were procured to pay adequately for these tracts, if the buyers acknowledged in the natives a complete right of property over their whole extent.

The progress of the Church of England missions up to this time may be seen from a table furnished by Mr. Coates to the House of Lords' Committee in 1838. From this it appears that the mission stations were 10, extending over that part of the North Island which lies between the North Cape and Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty; that they instructed 1431 scholars (of whom 94 were adults); gathered 2476 in congregations; and counted 178 communicants. The Wesleyan mission in New Zealand arose from a visit made to that country, in the year 1819, by Mr. Leigh, a missionary of the Society then stationed in New South Wales. He made the visit with a view to the benefit of his health, on the recommendation of Mr. Marsden. In consequence of the observations then made by him, on his return he recommended the formation of a mission in New Zealand; and the Society having adopted his views, he finally embarked at Sydney with his wife, on the 1st of January 1822, for that country. He remained at the Church Mission station in the Bay of Islands until the next year, when Messrs. Turner and White having arrived to assist him in his labours, they removed to Wangaroa, the place where the massacre of the Boyd had occurred, and formed a station there. From this date until the early part of 1827, these gentlemen, with their families, underwent very severe privations, hardships, and dangers. Their life, just like that of the first whaling settlers,

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was a continued struggle against the grasping disposition of the many turbulent characters belonging to the tribes of that neighbourhood. They were constantly threatened with the annihilation of themselves and families, by chiefs who said they wanted to receive presents of guns and powder and not to hear books read. On one or two occasions they were very roughly used; and they had made but little progress among these barbarians, when, early in 1827, the famous Hongi invaded the district, and brought with him all the attendant scenes of plunder and bloodshed. The mission-house was sacked by a foraging-party; and the missionaries' lives were only just saved by a providential rencontre with a well-disposed and powerful chieftain named Patuone, who escorted them in safety to the care of the Church missionaries at the Bay of Islands.

In October of the same year, Mr. Stack prepared to restore the Wesleyan mission at Hokianga; and in 1828, Mangungu, on that river, its present head-quarters, was fixed upon for an establishment. Up to 1830, so little progress was made, that the missionaries were under great fears lest the Society in England should determine to break up the mission.

Better days, however, were now near at hand. During the next seven years great success attended the continued efforts of these worthy men; who seem to have kept entirely aloof from the political affairs entered into by the Church Missionaries, and also to have refrained from any private purchases of land. One of their number, Mr. White, was, I believe, the only exception. But he was dismissed from the Society's employment on account of this and other infringements of their rules; and he made or completed the greater number of his purchases and

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speculations at a period subsequent to his dismissal. It should be borne in mind, however, that the success of his very extensive land-sharking was much promoted by the spiritual influence which he had attained as chairman of the Wesleyan mission.

A printing-press was also introduced, in 1836, into New Zealand by the Wesleyan mission. The Secretary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society reported to the House of Lords' Committee, in April 1838, that the number of communicants might be stated in round numbers at about 1000, exclusive of catechumens who only attend public worship, and also of children in the schools.

It was at this time that the New Zealand Association commenced its operations, and encountered the inveterate opposition of both the Missionary Societies. Although clergymen high in the Church were among the most active members of the Association; although their plan of colonization combined, on a scale grander than any yet attempted, "the civilization and evangelization of the New Zealanders" which the venerable Marsden had also looked forward to as the joint result of his system, the Secretaries of both the Missionary Societies had been implacable in their enmity to any art of colonization. The principles on which the Association proposed to save the people of New Zealand, a system of Native Reserves which should preserve the chief in his high station among his people, and those on which the intending colonists proposed to further this end by the institution of social alliances with the chiefs, and an amalgamation rendered sacred by the code of honour, were perhaps the wisest and most charitable devices for the gradual amelioration of a barbarous race by kindly and cherishing degrees, that have been known in the history of the world.

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The Secretaries of the Missionary Societies were probably unable to conceive or appreciate so provident and truly great a philanthropy. For they refused to accept the assistance in their holy task of a complete Christian and civilized community, with its ministers, its colleges, its churches, its benevolent and highly educated fathers of families, its settlers of high honour and warm heart, its humanizing institutions of all sorts; and, above all, its very minute and anxious provisions for the smooth gliding of these benefits into the very nature and disposition of the savages, so that no harsh innovation or rude shock of change should shatter the rough marble while it was being moulded by a delicate hand into the perfect forms of life and beauty.

The unaided efforts of the missionaries were acknowledged on all hands to be insufficient for the salvation of the New Zealanders, while irregular colonization could go on under the so-called independent government of the chiefs, the missionaries, and their powerless Resident; which, indeed, extended little further south, even by reputation, than the present site of Auckland. Colonization, under the truly great and humane system of the Association, promised all the benefits of Marsden's plans on a larger scale, joined to a power of restraining the lawless obstructors of Christianizing improvement by a powerful and acknowledged Government. Accordingly the Association unfolded all its views to the Missionary Societies, with a perfect right to hope for their cordial concurrence.

In June 1837, a deputation from the New Zealand Association, consisting of Captain Wellesley, R. N., my late uncle Captain Arthur Wakefield, and Dr. Evans, waited upon Mr, Dandeson Coates, the Secretary, on the subject of co-operating with the Church of England Missionary Society. They received the

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following concise and memorable reply: "That he had no doubt of the respectability of the gentlemen composing the Association, or the purity of their intentions; but that he was opposed to the colonization of New Zealand upon any plan, and would thwart them by all the means in his power."

And most truly did Mr. Coates fulfil his threat. He immediately wrote a pamphlet, charging the members of the Association, notwithstanding the above words, with motives the furthest removed from respectability and purity; and, though defeated in his literary endeavours by the published replies of the Rev. Samuel Hinds, D. D., and of my father, Mr. E. G. Wakefield, both members of the Association, and by that of Mr. F. Baring in Parliament, he set actively to work in other ways.

Mr. Beecham, the Secretary of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, concurred most cordially in Mr. Coates's views. He adduced similar reasons, before the Select Committee of the House of Lords in 1838, for opposing the Colonization of New Zealand. He followed the example of Mr. Dandeson Coates in writing pamphlets against the Association and its objects, and proved himself to be similarly determined "to thwart them by every means in his power."

The Committees of the two Societies passed strong resolutions, declaratory of their enmity to the promoters and supporters of the proposal to send many thousand missionaries of civilization and Christianity among the heathen.

I will view this violent opposition in none but the most charitable light, though many more selfish motives might have conduced to its origin.

It partook much of the paltry vanity with which a comparatively weak horseman, manifestly unable to persuade a young and half-broken steed, poorly fed

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and worse groomed, to pass quietly over a yawning and dangerous chasm in the road, should refuse the assistance of a more skilful and able rider, who had carefully studied the progressive means necessary for profiting by the docile temper of the animal, in order to render him as steady and willing as other horses, and as complete in all his paces. The more intelligent man proposes to break the colt in, and to lunge him gently through his paces before even placing a rider on his back; to keep him in good health and generous condition; and points out the means for filling up the chasm so that the road may be smooth. The other would wish to see the chasm filled up, he hardly knows how; but he obstinately rejects the offer of having the colt broken in and cared for before he is ridden, and determines rather to ride him at it, although ignorant of the right way to lift his legs, with a light bit and a weak rein which he can break from at his pleasure. To so much amounts the objection to civilized colonization, as a means of overcoming its irregular predecessor and as a necessary step to Christianity.

The New Zealand Company persevered in the intentions of the Association, from whose ashes they had sprung. The two Missionary Societies, with their extensive ramifications and their joint income of 200,000l. a-year, persevered in the fulfilment of their declarations of hostility.

The expenditure of the two Missionary Societies in New Zealand alone amounted, in the year 1840-41, to 18,118l. 5s. 6d., of which the Wesleyan mission expended nearly 4000l.

From the first period of our arrival in Cook's Strait, we had met with but too many instances of this hostility, apparently delegated with care to the greater

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number of the local missionaries, and by them carried out with earnestness during four years, in that part of the country where they only began to preach when we began to colonize. Its prevalence threw a repulsive shade over the whole course of missionary proceedings; for some of the arguments used against the colonists were as unprincipled as they were uncharitable, and as devoid of Christian spirit as they were wanting in manly honour. Apart from this dark stain, the results of the purely missionary system were by no means satisfactory. Besides that the very extensive instruction for which the missionaries really deserve credit was merely religious and in the native language, the chieftainship was destroyed among the missionary tribes, and the political as well as the physical condition of their scholars had clearly retrograded.

I must, of course, except the labours of Mr. Hadfield from these remarks; but even he had steadily objected to their instruction in the English language. And even he was not free from another grave omission made by the missionaries, the Government officers, and the Protectors of Aborigines. Although they professed such warm philanthropy towards the natives, they carried this philanthropy into their social relations with them to a far less degree than the unassuming colonists. The principal teachers under the missionaries are generally their house-servants at the same time; black their shoes, clean their windows, make their beds, groom their horses, and cook their dinner. The missionaries do not admit their most industrious pupils, or the proteges to whom they are most attached, to dine with them at the same table, or to walk when they like into their sitting-room, and hold converse on terms of equality and mutual familiarity. I never saw a missionary or a Go-

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vernment officer who treated a native as his brother so entirely as I did E Kuru or Wahine iti, as Colonel Wakefield did E Puni, or as many other "devils" did the chief to whom they had become especially attached.

The uncharitable and intolerant rivalry between the two sects, almost threatening a religious war between actual brothers, was an equally repulsive feature in the view.

Generally, the missionary converts might be likened to a family of poor labourers, to whom their landlords should have extended the routine charity of tracts, encouraging the children to scorn the authority of their parents if they could more quickly learn the contents by rote. To crown all, the miserable paupers, in this state of domestic anarchy, with their memories full of texts from the Bible while their stomachs are craving for food, and their limbs shivering, undefended by filthy rags from the weather which penetrates through their ruinous hut, are then only admitted to the companionship of their scanty benefactor as menials.

Such was the narrow benevolence which the missionaries maintained against one which provided more amply for the whole necessities of the case.

Next to be considered is the system adopted by the local Government towards the natives. Although it could hardly be called a system at all, it leaned rather towards the missionary principles than towards a more enlarged philanthropy.

In order to obtain a government at all, the first Governor threw himself unreservedly into the hands of the Reverend Henry Williams and the other missionaries at the Bay of Islands. They were, without a doubt, the authors and interpreters of the Treaty of Waitangi, on which are founded all the relations between the Government and the natives, and which

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distinctly follows out the same views as the string of measures described as a "concocted manoeuvre" by Sir George Gipps. It treads closely on the heels of the letter of the 13 chiefs, the so-called Declaration of Independence by 35 chiefs, and the recognition of the national flag. It still seems to consider the small peninsula north of the isthmus between Auckland and Manukau as New Zealand to the world, just as it had been New Zealand to the missionaries for 26 years.

The translation of this famous Treaty, which is given officially to the world, is as follows: --

"Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, regarding with her royal favour the native chiefs and tribes of New Zealand, and anxious to protect their just rights and property, and to secure to them the enjoyment of peace and good order, has deemed it necessary, in consequence of the great number of her Majesty's subjects who have already settled in New Zealand, and the rapid extension of emigration both from Europe and Australia which is still in progress, to constitute and appoint a functionary properly authorized to treat with the aborigines of New Zealand for the recognition of her Majesty's sovereign authority over the whole or any part of those islands. Her Majesty, therefore, being desirous to establish a settled form of civil government, with a view to avert the evil consequences which must result from the absence of the necessary laws and institutions, alike to the native population and to her subjects, has been graciously pleased to empower and authorize me, William Hobson, a Captain in her Majesty's Royal Navy, Consul and Lieutenant-Governor of such parts of New Zealand as may be, or hereafter shall be, ceded to her Majesty, to invite the confede-

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rated and independent chiefs of New Zealand to concur in the following articles and conditions.

"Article 1. The chiefs of the confederation of the united tribes of New Zealand, and the separate and independent chiefs who have not become members of the confederation, cede to her Majesty the Queen of England, absolutely and without reservation, all the rights and powers of sovereignty which the said confederation or individual chiefs respectively exercise or possess, or may be supposed to exercise or to possess over their respective territories as the sole sovereigns thereof.

"Article 2. Her Majesty the Queen of England confirms and guarantees to the chiefs and tribes of New Zealand, and to the respective families and individuals thereof, the full, exclusive, and undisturbed possession of their lands and estates, forests, fisheries, and other properties which they may collectively or individually possess, so long as it is their wish and desire to retain the same in their possession; but the chiefs of the united tribes and the individual chiefs yield to her Majesty the exclusive right of pre-emption over such lands as the proprietors thereof may be disposed to alienate, at such prices as may be agreed upon between the respective proprietors and persons appointed by her Majesty to treat with them on that behalf.

"Article 3. In consideration thereof, her Majesty the Queen of England extends to the natives of New Zealand her royal protection, and imparts to them all the rights and privileges of British subjects." "(Signed) W. HOBSON, Lieutenant-Governor.

"Now, therefore, we, the chiefs of the confederation of the united tribes of New Zealand, being assembled in congress at Victoria in Waitangi, and

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we, the separate and independent chiefs of New Zealand, claiming authority over the tribes and territories which are specified after our respective names, having been made fully to understand the provisions of the foregoing Treaty, accept and enter into the same in the full spirit and meaning thereof. In witness of which we have attached our signatures or marks at the places and dates respectively specified.

"Done at Waitangi this 6th day of February in the year of our Lord 1840."
(512 signatures.)

The greater part of these complicated and formal expressions could not be translated into Maori, which had no words to express them. Here follows an exact and literal translation of the Maori version which is also published officially: --

"Here's Victoria the Queen of England, in her gracious remembrance towards the Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand, and in her desire that their Chieftainships and their lands should be secured to them, and that obedience also should be held by them, and the peaceful state also, has considered it as a just thing to send here some Chief to be a person to arrange with the native men of New Zealand, that the Governorship of the Queen may be assented to I by the native Chiefs in all places of the land and of I the islands. Because, too, many together are the men of her tribe who have sat down in this land and are coming hither.

"Now, it is the Queen who desires that the Governorship may be arranged that evils may not I come to the native man, to the White who dwells lawless.

"There! Now the Queen has been good that I

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should be sent, William Hobson, a Captain in the Royal Navy, a Governor for all the places in New Zealand that are yielded now or hereafter to the Queen; she says to the Chiefs of the Assemblage of the Tribes of New Zealand and other Chiefs besides, these laws which shall be spoken now.

"Here's the first. --Here's the Chiefs of the Assemblage and all the Chiefs also who have not joined the Assemblage mentioned cede to the utmost to the Queen of England for ever continually to the utmost the whole Governorship of their lands.

"Here's the second. --Here's the Queen of England arranges and confirms to the Chiefs, to all the men of New Zealand, the entire Chieftainship of their lands, their villages, and all their property. But here's the Chiefs of the Assemblage, and all the Chiefs besides, yield to the Queen the buying of those places of land, where the man whose the land is shall be good to the arrangement of the payment which the buyer shall arrange to them who is told by the Queen to buy for her.

"Here's the third. --This, too, is an arrangement in return for the assent to the Governorship of the Queen. The Queen of England will protect all the native men of New Zealand. She yields to them all the rights one and the same as her doings to the men of England.

"(Signed) W. HOBSON, Lieutenant-Governor.

"Now, here's we, here's the Chiefs of the Assemblage of the Tribes of New Zealand, who are congregated at Waitangi; here's we, too, here's the Chiefs of New Zealand who see the meaning of these words, we accept, we entirely agree to all. Truly, we do mark our names and marks.

"This is done at Waitangi, on the six of the days

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of February, in the year One thousand eight hundred and four-tens of our Lord."

Even to express this more simple agreement in the simple tongue of the savages, the writer of the Maori version had to coin several words, such as have been coined by the missionaries in the translation of the Bible. They are words which were before unknown to the native, and therefore not existing in his language. A native, in reading them, would, as nearly as is possible to him, approach to an English pronunciation of the English words; but his appreciation of their meaning would depend entirely upon the explanation made to him at the time of the English word which he had thus attempted to pronounce. Thus,
Wikitoria stands in the treaty for Victoria;
Kuini " " " " Queen;
Ingarani,, " " England;
Nu Tirani " " " " New Zealand;
Wiremu Hopihona " " " " William Hobson;
Kapitana " " " " Captain;
Roiara Nawi " " " " Royal Navy;
Kawana " " " " Governor; and
Pepuere " " " " February.

Two important words, Rangatiratanga and Kawanatanga, also require some explanation. The termination tanga and some variations of it are used in the Maori language to produce the abstract notion of any noun or verb to which they are added; thus answering to our ing, ness, ship, hood, &c. For example, hoko is Maori for "to buy"--hokonga, for "buying; " toa, "brave"--toanga, "bravery;" haere, "to go" --haerenga, "going" or "journey;" tamariki, "child"-- tamarikitanga, "childhood;" mate, "sick"--matenga, "sickness." Rangatira is Maori for "Chief," and Rangatiratanga is therefore truly rendered 'Chief-

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tainship." Kawanatanga is an adaptation of the same rule to the word Kawana, which had itself been coined from the English "Governor;" and therefore it is truly rendered by "Governorship." But the natives could have had, at the time of the Treaty, only very vague ideas as to the meaning of the English word "Governor" which they nearly pronounced. In the Treaty itself, they were told that Hopihona was a Kawana. Without very full explanation, Kawanatanga must therefore have represented to their ideas neither more nor less than "Hobsonness." Even to this day, in Cook's Strait, where the Governor has rarely been seen, the natives invariably call every Police Magistrate and the Land Commissioner, Kawana; and the Protectors of Aborigines, Kawanas for the Maori.

Fully to understand the value of this contract, the circumstances under which it was procured must be kept in view. Captain Hobson's commission was read at Kororareka, in the Bay of Islands, on the 30th of January, the day of his arrival. On the 5th of February, he presented the Treaty to an assembly of the natives of the Bay of Islands; and on the 6th it was signed by 46 chiefs. On the 12th, he met the natives of the Hokianga; and 56 more chiefs signed the treaty. In March, Mr. Shortland, Captain Symonds, and four missionaries, were appointed to secure the adherence of the chiefs of the northern islands to the treaty. One of the missionaries deputed his colleague, Mr. Chapman, and the master of a coasting trader, named Fedarb, to obtain signatures. Copies of the Treaty were thus dispersed about the Northern Island. Some of the chiefs refused to sign it; but at last, between the 6th of February and the 3rd of September, 512 signatures

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were obtained. Of these signatures, upwards of 200 were those of the chiefs inhabiting the peninsula north of the harbour of Manukau and the estuary of the Thames; leaving only 300 to represent the inhabitants of more than three-fourths of the North Island. There is no evidence whatever that the assent of the powerful and warlike tribes of the interior, in the upper valleys of the Waipa and Waikato, around Lake Taupo and the Rotorua lakes, was ever asked; certainly it was never obtained. The greater part of the signatures were obtained at flying visits, and after one or at most two interviews. Presents of blankets and tobacco were made to the chiefs who signed; and there cannot exist a doubt that to obtain these presents was with many the motive for signing.

Having not even the name of Governor or Government in their language, it may be supposed that the natives had no very precise or definite ideas of government; a thing unknown in fact to their institutions. Having no collective name for their own country, it may be supposed that they had no distinct idea of different countries, of national distinctions, and therefore none of foreign relations. There is no evidence that adequate means were taken to explain those large and novel ideas to them, so necessary to the proper understanding, not only of any treaty, but even of what a treaty is. Captain Symonds had been only a few months in New Zealand, knew but little of the language, and had not the benefit of the assistance as interpreter of the missionary at Manukau, who was absent; and it may be doubted whether Mr. Fedarb, the master of the trading-vessel (who from his name appears not to have been an Englishman), was capable of understanding the treaty,

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much less of explaining it to the natives. It was obvious, from these considerations, that the framers of the Treaty purposed to bind the natives to conditions which there were not even the words to convey. And, on the other hand, they accepted of signatures from those who could not know to what they were putting their hands, and professed to the White settlers to have procured a valid adhesion to the compact.

The Treaty, thus obtained, was overridden by the Governor and his deputy before it was completed. On the 25th of April, Captain Hobson despatched Major Bunbury, in the Queen's ship Herald, "to such places as you may deem most desirable for establishing her Majesty's authority throughout these islands-- namely, that which is called Stewart's Island, Middle Island, (marked on the charts Tavai Poenamoo,) and such part of the Northern Islands as may not already have been ceded to the Queen." Major Bunbury soon dispensed with the preliminary form of obtaining signatures to the treaty. He landed in a harbour of the Southern Island, on the 4th of June; and not meeting with any inhabitants there, he on the 5th, "in the probability of not meeting any natives, deemed it advisable the same day to proclaim the Queen's authority over the islands; for which purpose, a party of marines were landed from the ship, and the usual forms complied with." The declaration of sovereignty attributes the title of the Crown to Captain Cook's discovery. Subsequently, Major Bunbury obtained the signatures of a very few chiefs, not head chiefs, on the Middle Island; and on the 17th of June he proclaimed the British sovereignty. It is true, the official declaration bears the words "having been ceded in sovereignty by the

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several independent chiefs:" but this being a simple untruth, it has passed for nothing; and in fact it is admitted on all hands that the Treaty of Waitangi has no application to the Middle Island. But that is not all. Governor Hobson did not wait till he had obtained his 512 signatures, to proclaim the Queen's sovereignty over New Zealand. On the 21st of May, when Governor Hobson had only obtained the signatures of the chiefs of the Bay of Islands, Hokianga, Kaitaia, and Manukau, (if indeed he had then received the signatures from the last-named,) he proclaimed the Queen's sovereignty over the North Island.

The Treaty of Waitangi has been truly described by the House of Commons' Committee of last year as "little more than a legal fiction."

The succeeding acts of the Government towards the native population were akin to this first step in imbecility. Still guided by the all-powerful missionaries in the person of Mr. Clarke, they had insisted upon the interpretation of that part of the Treaty which related to the lands of the natives, according to the complicated and intricate rights of property which prevail in the oldest and most civilized state, although these were surely more incomprehensible to the natives than are even their vague ideas on the subject to ourselves. But they had constantly remained in doubt as to the bearing and effect of that clause which related to the subjection of the natives to the sovereign dominion of Great Britain. Vacillating, feeble, and uncertain, guided by no sound or consistent principle, and unassisted by a single man of really enlarged and unshackled mind, the Government had now enforced the Treaty with the utmost rigour in one or two instances; in others had only vainly threatened to do so; and in some had even

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denied its own right to take any such course. Without making exceptional laws in favour of the natives, according to a wise suggestion of the New Zealand Association, contained in Mr. Baring's Bill of 1838, the Government, had preferred to allow individuals among them to become, as it suited their own pleasure, exceptions to the laws actually in existence, to which they were falsely supposed to be yielding obedience. And from the first riots in the Bay of Islands in 1840 to the Wairau massacre, and to the recent stamping on the constables in Pipitea pa, there had been numerous proofs of the nonentity of the Treaty in this respect, whether by the connivance, the timidity, or the sheer incapacity of the Government by whom it had been originated.

Of course, this tangled web of imbecility clashed violently with the efforts of the Company and of the colonists to adopt a more extended philanthropy. As the Colonial Office was prompted by the influential Missionary Societies at home in its unreasonable war upon the Company, so the missionaries and the Government officers in the colony were leagued against the Agents of the Company and the settlers who had come out under its auspices. The noble system of Reserves was smothered in its birth, and a schoolboy son of Mr. Clarke sent to protect the natives from the wild projects of their would-be benefactors. And then the effects were laughed at, and held up to scorn as the results of the system of the Company and their settlers. This was but a poor apology for the total want of such provisions in the settlements of the Government.

If a chieftain was favourable to the plans of the colonists, like Warepori or E Puni, he was degraded by the neglect of the authorities, and his claim to land or chieftainship was considered little or none. But if,

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like Wero Wero or Rauperaha, he seemed likely to become a thorn in the side of the young colony, and shone forth as one of those turbulent spirits whom, under the proposed institutions, the united races would have branded with shame and dishonour, and excluded ignominiously from the homage due to worth and excellence, he was straightway exalted as a king, and let loose from all law or subordination upon the "disappointed settlers" of Cook's Strait.

Disappointed they were, indeed, when all their bright visions of sharing a happy home with the grateful objects of an overflowing benevolence faded into one fearful nightmare, in which the unhappy native, taught to believe that he was robbed, cheated, and oppressed, proposed to dispute every inch of a soil which he had only just learned to consider as of inordinate value, against what rankled in his poisoned mind as the intrusion of a ruthless invader.

It was matter of notoriety, that every one of the agents in thus corrupting the gratitude of the natives into jealousy and suspicion towards the honest colonists, had a personal interest in the success of the experimental metropolis in the north, and therefore a corresponding leaning to injure and deteriorate the settlements of Cook's Strait.

The unfortunate native appeared at his last gasp, and as though it would be almost impossible to save him from utter disorganization of body and mind, as attendant on the conflicting effects of these contradictory and rival systems and caprices. He became like a child of ten years old, who should be tormented by the canvassing of three or four candidates of different shades of political opinion, all completely above his understanding, to vote for them at a Parliamentary election. One might recommend the Thirty-nine Articles, and

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the Latin protest of Mr. Ward against the decision of the Convocation, to his undivided attention; a second should talk to him of currency and railway legislation; a third of the agricultural and commercial interests, reciprocity duties and the sliding-scale; another of Poor-law Bastilles, vote by ballot, annual Parliaments, and universal suffrage; and some preposterous preserver of pheasants should preach of the promotion of the national weal by the prosecution of poachers! Would not the poor child take them all for madmen or knaves; and rush from the squabbling candidates with a determination not even to learn his ABC, but to stick to his old rocking-horse and humming-top?

It was clear that the Saxon blood of the settlers would not forbear many years longer under the grievances endured by them through this misnamed protection of the aborigines. Under such a system of acrimonious and cankering jealousy fostered between the races, it was certain that at least the sturdy White children, who were daily taunted on the outskirts of the pas by their dark playmates with the weakness and cowardice of their fathers, would grow up with a confirmed hatred of their puny tormentors, instead of a generous eagerness to befriend and cherish them as feeble brothers. And the leading settlers, who had fondly hoped to afford real protection to the inferior race, shuddered lest even in their day the law respecting forbearance of the Englishmen should be exhausted, and the mutual distrust of the races should break forth into a general warfare; which could only end in the more or less speedy extermination of the natives, crushed like a wasp in the iron gauntlet of armed civilization.

Sanguine as ever, they based their hopes in the appointment of some master-mind as the new Governor.

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A truly great man, with unusual moral courage, and extraordinary powers of reasoning, with a wide-spreading benevolence and a resolution too firm to be shackled or controlled by any sinister influence, could alone cope with the difficulties which had accumulated under his predecessor, and during an interregnum which only increased them by its more childish tampering with the question.

Some faint conjectures were thrown out that a man of note as a statesman might be intrusted with the responsible task. But the small amount of the salary and the inferior grade of the office were pointed out as obstacles to such an arrangement. The infant colonies of Great Britain, in whose commencement more talent is required than in their management as more established communities, are placed under the charge of a petty officer with low salary. Yet it would seem a very reasonable proposal that the task of drawing the plans and laying the foundations of the building should be intrusted to a well-paid and experienced architect, while the subsequent filling up of the frame might be confided to a master-bricklayer, who should require less salary and have less onerous duties of calculation to perform.

In former times, great men, such as Lord Baltimore and Penn, were found willing to undertake the charge of infant colonies. Those chartered colonies carried out all the elements of self-government, and the Governor, although poorly paid in money, retained his place by the respect and affection of his subjects; so that a noble ambition was called forth, and those who excelled among the colonists were proud to be, as it were, their patriarchs. But under the present system of Crown Colonies, it is hardly to be expected that men of mark should aspire to an ill-paid office,

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which they are to hold not on the good will of those governed but on the caprice of an irresponsible bureau at a distance of 16,000 miles.

The list of likely men for the appointment was eagerly discussed. It was hoped that some man like Captain Grey, the Governor of South Australia, who had published to the world an admirable Essay on the true humanity to be observed in bringing savage nations under British law, might be selected. Although the details of Captain Grey's proposed system are adapted only to the less-nurtured savage of Australia, in its leading principles the Essay is a most statesmanlike view of the necessary course to be pursued with any variety of savage tribe. 8

With a Governor mildly yet firmly gathering the whole native population under the undoubted pale of British law by such a system; with a well-regulated church of high-minded missionaries like Mr. Hadfield, whose main object should be to unite the two races in one flock as under one law; and with a full, vigorous, and unimpeded revival of the system of Native Reserves and honour to the fading chieftainship; it seemed just possible that the union of all classes of White men in a wisely organized and strenuous effort might yet save the aboriginal population.

Captain Fitzroy's name was sometimes mentioned. But that officer was known to be so thoroughly prejudiced in favour of the narrow philanthropy of the

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pure missionary system, unmingled with the concurrent benefits of civilization, that such an appointment was looked upon as probably subversive of the last hope for the natives. I remember one morning hearing several of the best and bravest settlers, collected in Colonel Wakefield's house, agree, "that when they heard Fitzroy was Governor, it would be time to pack up their things and go."