1859 - Thomson, A. S. The Story of New Zealand [Vol.I] - Part II. History of the Discovery of New Zealand by Europeans - CHAPTER III. PIONEERS OF CIVILISATION.

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CHAP. III.

PIONEERS OF CIVILISATION.

BEFORE entering on the most important era in the history of New Zealand, it is necessary that a more minute account should be given of the pioneers of civilisation, and the introduction of Christianity and letters into the country. To the former of these subjects this chapter is devoted.

True progressive civilisation was planted by the crews of the early ships, and by the sealers, whalers, and Pakeha Maoris. These men sprung from various classes; many were sailors who preferred ruling savages to serving white men; several were runaway convicts, whose fear of the gallows overpowered the horror of cannibalism; some were liberated convicts, who dreaded returning to exasperated kindred, and others were men of obscure origin with the education and manners of gentlemen. A few were Frenchmen, but the majority were Englishmen and Americans.

It must not be supposed that these pioneers of civilisation led miserable lives in New Zealand; for many men have preferred savage independence to the artificial

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restraints of civilised society. Few savages brought into the society of civilised races ever wish to spend their lives among them, whereas thousands of civilised men have taken up their permanent abode among savages. Priscus found in Attila's camp a Greek who declared he lived more happily among the wild Scythians than under the Roman government; and "Omoo" and "Typee" describe in prose the peaceful happiness enjoyed by white men among the inhabitants of the solitary islands scattered over the South Seas, while poets clothe it with charm of verse:--

The early navigators were the first to arrive, and the whalers and traders followed in their track. From whatever motives these voyages were undertaken, all contributed information to the aborigines. Tasman taught them the existence of other races of men; Cook gave them various useful plants and animals; De Surville instructed them in the occasional treachery of navigators; and another Frenchman, whose name is forgotten, in their kindness and good faith. Marion's crew showed them the fatal effects of fire-arms, whaling-vessels commenced bartering European articles for pigs and potatoes, and traders developed a commerce in flax and spars.

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It is worthy of remark that few of the merchants who fitted out these vessels ever thought that in pursuing their own selfish ends they were engaged in advancing civilisation.

The sealers formed the next arrival. These men commenced their intercourse with the natives in the southern parts of the Middle Island about the beginning of the century, being landed from whale ships for the purpose of killing the seals then very numerous all round the coast. 2 Disputes at first arose between the sealers and the natives relative to property and women, and in such conflicts the sealers adopted the New Zealand war custom of slaying the first native they encountered; but both races soon became sensible of the benefits of peace, and the savages, to promote this great object, gave the strangers wives and Cod-fish Island as a residence. 3 Here they built houses and cultivated the soil; and when their numbers increased, they spread themselves round the coasts. Between 1816 and 1826 one hundred sealers were permanently settled in New Zealand, and in 1814 a vessel 150 tons burden was built by them at Dusky Bay. 4

Sealers in character resembled the whalers; and Stewart, who first discovered the insularity of the Southern Island, was a good specimen of the sealer class. By birth, he was a Scotch Jacobite, who had seen the world and drank Burgundy. After residing many years in New Zealand he returned to Scotland to see his forlorn wife; but she conceiving him dead, had

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long before wedded another, and now denied his personal identity.

Affected with this reception in the home of his fathers, he returned to New Zealand, took up his abode among the natives, and in 1851 died at the age of eighty-five years, in a destitute state, at Poverty Bay. To the day of his death, Stewart wore the tartan of his royal clan, and was occasionally seen sitting among natives, passing the pipe from mouth to mouth, and relating tales of his fishing adventures, which in length and variety resembled those of old Sinbad the Sailor.

After some years, killing seals grew an unproductive occupation, from the decreasing number of the animals; but the sealers found that a lucrative trade might be carried on by slaying female whales, during the months these animals resorted to the inlets and bays for the purpose of bringing forth their young.

The first of these land whaling stations in New Zealand was established in 1827 at Preservation, near the south end of the Middle Island, and in a few years there were twelve stations between that place and Banks's Peninsula. In Queen Charlotte's Sound, in Cloudy Bay, on the Island of Kapiti, and at other places in Cook's Strait, were large whaling establishments. On the North Island there were whaling stations, in Poverty Bay, in the Bay of Plenty, and at Taranaki. These whalers were living in the country years before the missionary ever visited the districts, and they purchased from the natives the exclusive right of fishing along a certain line of coast. Sydney merchants generally made the first outlay in forming stations, and

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whalers received a certain percentage of the profits. At twelve stations south of Banks's Peninsula, during the thirteen years preceding 1843, seventy whales were killed on an average annually, 5 and thirty-nine whale ships were counted in Cloudy Bay at one time. Three hundred whalers were settled in New Zealand in 1840, and such men must not be confounded with whaling sailors landed from ships to enjoy riotous living for a few days after long voyages. Killing whales being an exciting and dangerous occupation, whalers were held in high estimation by the natives, who gloried in accompanying them in their daily avocations.

Most whalers possessed native wives selected from the best families; for a New Zealand girl considered an alliance with a whaler as a capital match, and her relations looked upon it as a good connection. Before marriage a regular agreement was made; the girl promised fidelity, to rise before the sun and prepare food for the whaler to take with him in the boat, to wash the house, mend the clothes, dispense hospitality in his absence, and have supper ready on his return. For these services the whaler engaged to dress his wife in a "round about," treat her kindly, give a portion of all he realised to her relations, and support in word and deed the interest of her father's tribe, a stipulation which has arrayed whalers against their own race. From a tact peculiar to native women, whaler's wives generally obtained strong influence over their husbands; they often acted as mediators in drunken quarrels, promoted good feeling between the two races, and occasionally turned the tippler into a sober man.

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Whalers, in their intercourse with each other, were guided by well-defined laws and customs; and intercourse between the races was conducted in a piebald language called Whaler's Maori, which was English embroidered with native words.

Whaling stations varied in size. Te Awa-iti in Queen Charlotte's Sound had, in 1839, thirty houses; 6 the village of Aparima, in 1843, a population of twenty white men, one white woman, thirteen native women, two white children, and thirteen half-caste children; 7 and Waikouaiti, near Otago, contained, in 1843, eleven native women, and fourteen half-caste children. These two villages are given as samples of the whole. In 1850 one hundred and seven Europeans were resident in Stewart's Island and in Foveaux's Strait, most of whom were married to native women, and their grown-up daughters were also wives of Europeans. 8

Whalers' houses were built of reeds and rushes over wooden frames, with two square holes furnished with shutters for windows. One side of the hut was provided with a huge chimney, and the other with sleeping-bunks. In the centre of the room stood a deal table with long benches; from the rafters hung coils of ropes, oars, masts, sails, lances, harpoons, and a tin oil lamp. Piled up in the corners were casks of meat and tobacco; suspended against the wall were muskets and pistols; in the chimney hung hams, fish, and bacon; on the dresser stood tin dishes, crockery, and bottles; around the fire lay dogs, half-caste children, and natives, relatives of the whaler's wife.

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From May until October whalers were busily occupied in killing whales and preserving the oil; the remainder of the year, the summer season in the Southern Hemisphere, was squandered away in dreamy idleness. When the whaling stations were first established, Rauparaha was waging war against the Middle Island natives, and the whalers had more than once to fight for their lives. Tragic scenes occasionally occurred between the two races; but the whalers were ever able to hold their own, from their usefulness to the natives, the influence of their wives, and their well-established reputation for courage.

These men exerted a beneficial influence on the aborigines, by creating new wants and introducing new customs. Everything used by them was coveted by the natives, and pigs, flax, labour, and land were readily given in exchange for tea, sugar, tobacco, blankets, and dresses. Several natives shipped themselves on board whale ships, and a few settled on islands in the Pacific, where their superior energy, compared with that of tropical Polynesians, raised them to influence: 9 others visited Sydney, and a few acquired a tolerable knowledge of English. Canoes were superseded by whale boats, in the management of which the natives developed skill and boldness. Chimneys, beds, and glass windows were introduced in native huts. Whalers being distinguished by a manly love of fair play imbued an imitative race with the more prominent features of their own characters. Tuhawaiki, an influential chief, was both the patron and the pupil of the whalers; and was referred to by them as an evidence of what they had done in civilising the aborigines. He was undoubtedly the most intel-

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ligent native in the country in 1840, and his reputation for honesty was such, that Europeans trusted him with large quantities of goods. The whalers taught their wives to sew, cook, and keep themselves clean; and they, in turn, invariably took a laudable pride in decking themselves out for their husbands' admiration. Impartial witnesses, in 1840, admitted the civilisation introduced by these men to be more practically useful than that around the missionary stations. The whaler natives could not read and write, but they knew more English, were better clad, and were more industrious, than Christian natives. 10 To the whalers and the sealers we are chiefly indebted for our first knowledge of the available harbours of the coast.

The missionaries accused the whalers of introducing among the natives a love of spirit-drinking, of living with women without the sanction of the church, and of making no attempt to christianise them. Intemperance has so often followed in the footsteps of civilisation that it is not just to bring it against the whalers. Their marriage by civil compact with natives did good, and not evil; had such an amalgamation not taken place there would have arisen a war of races. Neither their education nor their knowledge of Maori qualified them for the office of missionaries, but they opened the native mind to the existence of the true God in this way. Civilised men adhere to youthful impressions when living in solitude among savages; the Sunday was therefore invariably observed, if not religiously, yet as a day of rest; and differed from other days in some external arrangement of dress, food, or amusement. This produced an

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impression on the inquiring and superstitious minds of the natives, and when they ascertained that white men had a God of their own, they looked upon them with superstition and awe.

The seed did not fall in barren ground. Bishop Selwyn states that his most thoughtful travelling native companion had spent his early life among the whalers; and in 1839, when some teachers of Christianity visited the whaling stations in the Middle Island, the natives rapidly became converts. In 1840 an old sealer paid a Wesleyan missionary to reside at Waikouaiti; and Bishop Selwyn, in his visitation tour of 1848, makes a charitable allusion to the whalers, and states that it is not the first time that he has had to make the same remark of this "much abused" class of men. The truth is, their evil doings, which were neither few nor small, were loudly proclaimed, while their good deeds were unrecorded. The New Zealand Company insinuated that they would become a nation of buccaneers if the country were not colonised, so that not only were their sins of omission and commission brought up against them, but also the sins they might be guilty of. Let any man be weighed in such a balance.

Sprung from the same class of men as the whalers were the Pakeha Maoris, a term which being interpreted signifies "strangers turned into natives." They were the next pioneers of civilisation, arid their influence was exerted on the natives living in the North Island. The Pakeha Maori must not be confounded with the idlers and beach-combers who loitered about Kororareka, nor with the sawyers hewing down the giant kauri trees in the Hokianga forests, as few of these men spoke Maori or had intercourse with natives in the interior.

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Pakeha Maoris lived among the New Zealanders years before the advent of the missionaries, and they were spread over the country when the missionaries were congregated at the Bay of Islands. In 1804 a European lived in the neighbourhood of Kororareka, of whom the natives spoke well; 11 and not long after George Bruce, whose unhappy fate has already been related. In 1812 an American sailor and four other white men lived among the natives, and were well treated. These men were known all over the country, and their physical conformation and customs afforded endless matter for conversation.

But these Pakeha Maoris were of little use to the natives at this era, being merely kept and fed on much the same principle that curious animals are kept in England. When, however, the novelty of keeping a white man had passed away, the New Zealanders treated them as slaves. Thus, in 1815, two convicts, who had deserted from a vessel under the idea that they could live in idle ease among the natives, surrendered themselves to chains in Botany Bay rather than lead the lives they did; 12 and in 1821 a missionary rescued two convicts a chief was about to execute because they would not work like slaves. 13 John Rutherford, who resided among the natives from 1816 to 1826, hailed with joy an opportunity to escape from them; and all his companions had been murdered, a sure proof of the small estimation white men were held in about this period.

After the year 1824 Pakeha Maoris became valuable articles with the New Zealanders, a change brought

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about by the commercial spirit which spread among the natives, and the universal anxiety to procure fire-arms. Their importance sprang up thus. From the coasting traders several Europeans proceeded into the interior to procure flax, and as they frequently lived in the country for several weeks until the cargo was ready, they provided themselves with wives. These dark-eyed women twined themselves round the rough hearts of these men, who, when the flax was ready, tore themselves away to the sea with regret; some, not having sufficient energy for this separation, remained in the country under an engagement with the traders to have cargoes of flax ready at certain periods. Europeans, who were treated as slaves in 1820, were considered chiefs in 1830, and every inducement was held out to white men to settle in the country; houses were built for them, land was given them, they were allowed to select wives from among the daughters of chiefs, and were not required to hew wood or draw water. In return for these royal privileges Pakeha Maoris were required to barter pigs, potatoes, and flax, for guns, blankets, tobacco, and other articles.

Some Pakeha Maoris of observation conducted this trade with great success, and in strict accordance with native custom. They took into the interior large quantities of "trade," which was distributed among the tribe for nothing; when the proper season arrived, they asked their chiefs for flax, which was given without payment; and by this plan more flax was obtained than if article had been placed against article.

Maketu in the Bay of Plenty was the seaport to which many of them resorted for the purpose of exchanging native produce for European articles. Here they feasted and got drunk with wine and joy on again

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listening to the language of their youth. Surrounded by numerous retainers, they felt like Highland chiefs in the midst of their clans, and laughed at the whimsical freaks of fortune which had elevated them to be kings among savages. The return of the white men after these expeditions, followed by slaves groaning under burdens of tobacco, blankets, and fire-arms, were to their tribes events similar to the arrival of the Indian fleet in London two centuries ago. After 1830, tribes without Pakeha Maoris were stricken with poverty, and a good one was an article above all price. These pedlers of the wilderness were considered the property of their tribes, and chiefs disputed with each other on the merits of their respective white men.

This golden age of the Pakeha Maoris, did not last long. When the English settlements of Wellington, Auckland, and Taranaki were formed, the natives visiting these places detected that many of their white men were an inferior class to the settlers, and that they could now sell their produce as advantageously as the Pakeha Maoris. These discoveries, and the appearance of European traders travelling about the country, proved a death-blow to the royal privileges of the Pakeha Maoris. Many of them, in consequence, left their native habitations, and took up their abode in the English settlements. Women with half-caste children accompanied their lords; childless women returned to their own race; as most of the Pakeha Maoris after this revolution were more destitute than the aborigines. One unemployed tattooed Pakeha Maori visited England, and acted the part of a New Zealand savage in several provincial theatres. Here he married an Englishwoman who accompanied him to New Zealand, but she eloped with a Yankee sailor,

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because the tattooed actor's old Maori wife met him and obtained an influence over him the white woman could not combat.

The following return will convey some definite idea of the number of Pakeha Maoris resident in New Zealand, with their periods of prosperity and decay:--

Before 1814 there were in New Zealand 6 Pakeha Maoris.
In 1827 " " 15 "
1830 " " 50 "
1835 " " 100 "
1840 " " 150 "
1845 " " 50 "
1850 " " 15 "
1853 " " 10 "

This statement shows that every tribe of any size possessed a white man in the year 1840, and traces of their residence are still found in remote places. On the island in the centre of the Rotorua lake four white men once lived. High up the Wanganui river a copy of Shakespear, a classical dictionary, and a stone for grinding maize were shown to me by a chief, as the property of his former Pakeha Maori. On the banks of the Mokau river I stood upon the grave of one of these men, was shown a tattered English Prayer-book, the only property he left, and a half-caste girl gambolling in the river, the poor man's only child.

In 1852, when travelling to Taupo with Major Hume and Captain Cooper of the 58th, we encountered a good specimen of this almost extinct class. His residence resembled a whaler's hut, and stood on the bank of a beautiful river, in the midst of a peach orchard. He welcomed us into his house, and told his native wife to prepare food for us. After we had finished our repast, he called five half-caste children forward, and to each

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gave a portion of the food remaining. When night closed in, we all sat round the fire, and the Pakeha Maori grew talkative under the influence of a glass of grog we had given him. We found he had been a sailor, once a man-of-war's man, and was wrecked in 1828 at the mouth of the Waikato river. All hands but himself on board the vessel, which was a Sydney trader, perished. With dread he approached a village, and lingered on its outskirts until hunger conquered his terror of being eaten. Here food and kindness were bestowed on him, and the villagers requested him to stay among them. Having no alternative he consented. A wife was given him from the house of a chief, food was regularly prepared for his sustenance, and he was only required to conduct the tribe's foreign trade. Fire-arms were then in great demand, and conflicts frequently occurred from which he kept aloof. The want of salt was his greatest misery, and he heard of the missionaries in the north years before any of them visited the neighbourhood.

Soon after the foundation of Auckland, his power and influence ceased, and he was obliged to cultivate food with his own hands for the support of his family. In 1838 his first wife died, leaving him three boys and a girl; but he soon got another, the wife at his side, the mother of the five youngest children. He now lived by purchasing flax, rearing pigs, and curing bacon, which his son took to the Auckland market. He had no wish to change his life, as the savage world had treated him better than the civilised. Like many Pakeha Maoris, he had no curiosity in passing events, was indifferent about the future, and the sensual employments of eating and sleeping had obtained that ascendency they invariably do over those who have no mental

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occupation. Next day we left the old man's house, and gladdened his wife's heart by giving each child a present. As our canoe was paddled up the river, the Pakeha Maori stood staring at us, and Major Hume said, when a bend of the river shut him out from our view, it was a painful thing to see a civilised man turned into a savage.

Pakeha Maoris, under the haze of pious exaggeration, were denominated devil's missionaries; and like the whalers were described as having exerted an injurious influence on the natives. It is true the Pakeha Maoris made no attempt to instruct the natives in Christianity; but it is requisite to recollect that the Puritans, although burning with religious zeal, did little for the conversion of the American Indians. The good the Pakeha Maoris did, far outbalanced their misdeeds; they taught the natives to trust white men, and encouraged industry, the promoter of peace and civilisation, by opening up a steady market for flax and potatoes; their half-caste children were hostages for good behaviour, and stepping-stones to health and progress. The Pakeha might have been a Norfolk Island convict, but the circumstance of his selecting a life of solitude is a proof that he was not radically bad. Those acquainted with the workings of the heart know that the best men love retirement, and the worst shun the gnawing of their consciences by living in the whirl of crowded cities; and there are London magistrates who have thought better of human nature after tracking it through its most perverse courses.

Many creditable actions of Pakeha Maoris have come to my knowledge: one is sufficient. A missionary's only son, a favourite child, died far away from the

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haunts of white men; several Pakeha Maoris, hearing of the poor man's misfortune, made a coffin for the boy's remains, and asked permission to bear the body to the grave, for which service all remuneration was refused. This Christian proceeding the missionary records as an act of delicate attention in a quarter from which "he could hardly have expected it." 14