OUR MAORIS.
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OUR MAORIS,
BY LADY MARTIN.
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION
APPOINTED BY THE
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. LONDON: SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,
NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, W. C.;
43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E. C.;
26, ST. GEORGE'S PLACE, HYDE PARK CORNER, S. W.
BRIGHTON: 135, NORTH STREET.
NEW YORK: E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO. 1884.
[PREFACE]
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PREFACE.
GREAT interest was excited in England in many quarters by the arrival, some little time ago, of three Maori Chiefs from New Zealand. They came over to present a petition to their Mother the Queen, and to bring presents of native workmanship to her. Those who entertained them found these men intelligent and well-mannered, and keenly interested in the welfare of their countrymen whom they represented. It may not, therefore, be an unfitting time to bring before the public some notice of the Maori people, gathered from diaries kept by the writer during a residence of thirty-four years in New Zealand. There are no adventures to relate, nor stirring events to record; only a faint but strictly faithful attempt to describe them as they
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were,--a people just emerging from barbarism, with many faults, but also with great capabilities. It is sometimes astounding in Christian England to hear the question asked, whether there have ever been any cases of true conversion among savages.
To doubt this is to doubt the power of the Gospel, which can raise barbarians now, as it once raised our forefathers, to the condition of Christian citizens.
