The Story of New Zealand [Vol.I]

Arthur S. Thomson

First published by John Murray in 1859

Digitised and made available online by the University of Auckland Libraries and Learning Services.

Epub © 2013 Early New Zealand Books Collection

ISBN 978-1-927288-29-0

[FRONTISPIECE]

NEW ZEALAND

VOL. I.

LONDON

PRINTED BY SPOTTISWO0DE AND CO.

NEW-STREET SQUARE

[Inserted unpaginated illustration]

THE WAR DANCE

[TITLE PAGE]

THE STORY
OF
NEW ZEALAND:

PAST AND PRESENT-SAVAGE AND CIVILIZED.

BY ARTHUR S. THOMSON, M.D.,
SURGEON-MAJOR 58TH REGIMENT.

Interior of Pa. – Wooden Gong being struck.
Vol.I. page 132.

IN TWO VOLUMES. – VOL.I.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1859.

[Page ii is blank]

[PREFACE]

PREFACE.

MY reason for writing about a country concerning which, as may be seen in the bibliography appended, ninety volumes, two hundred pamphlets, and nearly a hundred-weight of parliamentary papers have been already printed is this.

On embarking to join the 58th Regiment, of which corps I have been surgeon for thirteen years, I could find no book containing a general history of the colony; and, at present, several professing to be accounts of New Zealand limit their information to one settlement and one race, while others are evidently written for political, colonising, or religions purposes, and not a few are flattering mercantile advertisements.

In the hope of filling up this literary gap, I occasionally amused my leisure hours in collecting materials for the present work, and my means for doing so were considerable. During eleven years' residence I saw much of the country; held intercourse with representative men; sojourned for months among the aborigines in the interior; was permitted by Dr. Sinclair, the late Colonial Secretary, to consult many unpublished official docu-

ments; and enjoyed the rare privilege of hearing the true manner in which New Zealanders talk over passing events among themselves, from my enlightened friend Wiremu Maihi te Rangikaheke. This man, who lived for several years in my house, was a chief among the turbulent warriors of Rotorua, and a valuable contributor to Governor Grey's "Traditions and Chaunts of the New Zealanders."

From personal observation, and materials culled from these sources, I have endeavoured to sketch the natural history of the country; to narrate the story of its people, their spiritual conquest, and the dawn of civilisation amongst them; to show how a few Anglo-Saxons planted and managed a colony in the midst of cannibals; and to describe their bygone dangers and difficulties, their present efforts to render a theoretical constitution practically useful, and the progress they have made in developing the resources of England's most distant colony.

Aldershot Camp,
November 10. 1859.

[CONTENTS]

CONTENTS

OF

THE FIRST VOLUME.

PART I.

THE COUNTRY AND ITS NATIVE INHABITANTS.

CHAPTER I.

GEOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY.

Area and shape. – Name of islands. – Physical description of North Island. – Description of Middle Island. – Stewart's Island. – Harbours. – Tides. – Earthquakes. – General rising of country. – Geological curiosities. – Flora of country. – Number of plants. – Description of Flora. – Use of Flora to natives. – Use of Flora to settlers. – Fauna of country. – Mammalia. – Dogs and rats not indigenous. – Birds. – Notes on birds. – Necessity for collecting birds. – Amphibia. – Fish. – Insects. – Shells. – Wingless birds supply the place of quadrupeds. – Resemblance between New Zealand and other islands with large wingless birds. – Decay of wingless birds..........Page 3

CHAP. II.

CLIMATE.

Remarks on temperature. – Solar rays. – Rain. – Moisture in air. – Winds. – Hot winds. – Atmospheric pressure. – Other elements. – Influence on vegetation. – The seasons. – Influence of climate on settlers. – Station for invalids from India........36

CHAP. III.

MIGRATION OF THE ABORIGINES TO NEW ZEALAND.

Two races on islands in Pacific Ocean. – Malay origin of Polynesians. – Polynesian ideas of geography. – Evidence of the Malay route to Polynesia. – Date of Malay migration to Polynesia. – Proof of Malay origin of New Zealanders. – New Zealanders migrated from Navigator's Islands through Rarotonga, &c. – History of migration. – Arrival in New Zealand. – Probability of traditions. – One migration to New Zealand. – Date of arrival in New Zealand. – Number of settlers from Hawaiki – – Value of traditions............Page 51

CHAP. IV.

PHYSICAL FORM, DISFIGURATIONS, LANGUAGE, MENTAL FACULTIES AND CHARACTERS OF NEW ZEALANDERS.

Physical form. – New Zealanders a mixed race. – Strength. – Deformities. – Disfigurations. – Tattooing. – Mode of tattooing. – Objects of. – Perforating the nose. – Depilation. – Cutting the flesh. – Muscular contortions. – Other disfigurations. – Language. – Mental faculties. – Imagination. – Reason and judgment. – Character..............69

CHAP. V.

DIVISIONS AMONG THE PEOPLE. – PROPERTY. – LAWS.

Divisions. – The nations. – The tribes. – Ranks in life. – Chiefs. – Property in land. – Mode of government. – Influence of oratory. – System of tapu. – Things sacred. – Effect of the tapu. – Punishments for violating the tapu. – Mode of removing the tapu. – Tapu unjustly decried. – Present state of tapu..............88

CHAP. VI.

MYTHOLOGY AND SUPERSTITIONS.

Origin of the world. – Origin of gods and men. – Prayers addressed to gods. – Not idolaters. – Origin of Hawaiki. – Deified men. – Religious belief. – Deified men revisit the earth as spirits. – Priesthood. – Sorcerers. – Ceremony of Iriiri. – Remarks on Mythology...................107

CHAP. VII.

CUSTOMS IN WAR. – CANNIBALISM. – SLAVERY.

Frequency of wars. – Causes of war. – Running a muck. – Gods consulted. – War parties. – Dutch courage. – Battle orations. – War-dance. – The conflict. – Human heads preserved. – Mode of preserving heads. – War pas. – Mode of attacking pas. – Canoe conflicts. – Canoe chants. – Peace preliminaries. – Weapons for distant conflicts. – Weapons for close conflicts. – Cannibalism. – Origin of cannibalism in New Zealand. – Prevalence of cannibalism. – Customs connected with the eating of human flesh. – Motives for cannibalism. – Human flesh not eaten for food. – Cannibalism extinct in New Zealand. – Slavery. – Present state of slavery.................Page 122

CHAP. VIII.

FOOD AND HUSBANDRY.

Ancient food. – Fish. – Fern root. – Birds. – Dogs and rats. – Seals, &c. – Sweet potatoes. – Other plants. – Introduced food. – Mode of cooking. – Mode of eating. – Peculiar taste....................152

CHAP. IX.

LITERATURE.

Remarks. – Laments. – Love songs. – Time chants. – War and jeering songs. – Stories. – Fables. – Proverbs....................162

CHAP. X.

DOMESTIC CEREMONIES AND FAMILIAR USAGES.

Marriage. – Punishments for infidelity. – Polygamy. – Legend of Hine Moa. – Ceremonies after death. – Hahunga. – Respect for the dead. – Hakari feast. – Amusements. – Talking. – Tobacco-smoking. – Reading and writing. – Chewing substances. – Singing. – Musical instruments. – Riddles. – Poi. – Maui. – Ti. – Other games. – Mode of reckoning time. – Mode of salutation. – Mode of carrying burthens. – Personal ornaments. – Fishing ceremonies. – Arithmetic. – Mechanical skill. – Catching birds. – Dress. – Flax mats. – Standard of measure. – Other customs. – Where ancient customs are still seen...........176

CHAP. XI.

THE DISEASES OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS. – THEIR CAUSES AND PREVENTION.

Remarks. – Fevers. – Consumption. – Bowel complaints. – Head affections. – Dropsies. – Rheumatism. – Abscesses and ulcers. – Scrofula. – Other diseases. – Leprosy. – Parturition. – Introduced diseases. – Native modes of curing disease..........Page 211

PART II.

HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF NEW ZEALAND BY EUROPEANS.

CHAPTER I.

FROM DISCOVERY OF NEW ZEALAND UNTIL 1810.

Claimants to discovery. – Similarity between Spanish and New Zealand words. – Tasman's discovery. – Cook's first visit. – De Surville's visit. – Marion's massacre – Native account of massacre. – Massacre caused by superstition. – Two natives taken to France. – Cook's second visit. – Cook's last visit. – Social state of natives in 1780. – New Zealand excites interest. – Terror of cannibalism. – Events which led to intercourse. – Natives kidnapped to Norfolk Island. – Intercourse with sealers and whalers. – First settler. – Effect of civilised customs on natives. – Social state of natives in 1808. – New Zealand harpooners. – Massacre of the Boyd. – Revenge taken for the Boyd...............225

CHAP. II.

NEW ZEALAND FROM 1810 TO 1838.

Evil effects of the massacre of the Boyd. – Life of Hongi. – Anxiety to get fire-arms produces commerce. – Increase of strife. – War checked by fire-arms. – Trade in human heads. – Rauparaha massacres natives. – Ideas of property. – Land purchasing commences. – Attempt to form a colony in 1825. – Rumour of a French colony in 1831. – British Resident appointed. – New Zealand flag. – First campaign in country. – De Thierry's declaration of sovereignty. – Declaration of independence. – Constitution of United Tribes. – Absurdity of consti-

tution. – Arrival of De Thierry. – Rumour of a French colony in 1836. – Sayings and doings of travelled natives. – State of New Zealand in 1838. – Rise of Kororareka. – Kororareka Association. – Consul recommended...............Page 252

CHAP. III.

PIONEERS OF CIVILISATION.

Origin of pioneers. – Influence of early ships. – The sealers. – The whalers. – Whalers' wives. – Social state of whalers. – Beneficial influence of whalers. – Accusations brought against whalers. – Pakeha Maoris. – At first useless. – Became valuable. – Decline of influence. – Number of Pakeha Maoris. – Specimen of Pakeha Maori. – Civilising effect of Pakeha Maoris...............289

CHAP. IV.

INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY.

South Sea Missions. – New Zealand Mission. – Reception of missionaries. – Maori tongue reduced to grammar. – Scriptures translated. – Rise and progress of Christianity. – Reasons of conversion. – Causes favourable for spread of Gospel. – Conviction not deep. – Hostilities between Christians and Heathens. – Awful fate of the Te Heu Heu. – Christians murdered. – Sectarian disputes among natives. – Disputes among missionaries. – Religious state of natives in 1850. – Native teachers. – Civilising influence of Christianity. – Personal influence of missionaries. – Marsden and Selwyn...............305

ERRATUM.
Page 48 line 19 for "cent.," read "thousand."

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE FIRST VOLUME.

WAR-DANCE, from a Sketch by Lance-Serjt. J. Williams, 58th Regt....frontispiece.

INTERIOR OF PA: Wooden Gong being struck, from a Sketch by Col. Bridge, 58th Regt......title page.

TERRACED MARBLE STEPS AND GLASS-LIKE BASINS FULL OF WARM WATER, extending from the Hot Lake to one of the boiling Geysers on the surrounding Hills, from a Sketch by the Rev. John Kinder, New Zealand .......to face page 13

MOA, WITH FEET LIKE AN ELEPHANT, from a Photograph by R. Fenton: height of skeleton, 5 feet 6 inches......32

MAP SHOWING THE ROUTE BY WHICH THE MALAYS MIGRATED TO NEW ZEALAND........51

NATIVE LITTER FOR THE CONVEYANCE OF THE SICK AND WOUNDED, from a Sketch by Lieut. Grant, 58th Regt............129

NATIVE VILLAGE, WITH SWING AND PA IN THE DISTANCE, from a Sketch by Col. Bridge..........209

WAIMATE MISSION STATION IN 1815, from a Sketch by Col. Bridge..........330

MAP OF NEW ZEALAND, WITH ITS SEVEN PROVINCES DEFINED........end of vol.

PART I.

THE COUNTRY AND ITS NATIVE INHABITANTS:

THEIR ORIGIN, MYTHOLOGY,
AND MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL.

[Page 2 is blank]

CHAPTER I. GEOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

GEOGRAPHY AND NATURAL HISTORY.

Area and shape. – Name of islands. – Physical description of North Island. – Description of Middle Island. – Stewart's Island. – Harbours. – Tides. – Earthquakes. – General rising of country. – Geological curiosities. – Flora of country. – Number of plants. – Description of Flora. – Use of Flora to natives. – Use of Flora to settlers. – Fauna of country. – Mammalia. – Dogs and rats not indigenous. – Birds. – Notes on birds. – Necessity for collecting birds. – Amphibia. – Fish. – Insects. – Shells. – Wingless birds supply the place of quadrupeds. – Resemblance between New Zealand and other islands with large wingless birds. – Decay of wingless birds.

GREAT BRITAIN is situated near the greatest extent of land in the globe, and New Zealand is placed almost in the midst of the greatest extent of ocean.

New Zealand consists of three islands stretching from 34 1/4 deg. to 47 1/2 deg. of south latitude in the South Pacific Ocean, about 1200 miles south-east of Australia.

The North Island is nearly 500 miles long, with a breadth varying from 5 to 300 miles. The Middle Island is 550 miles long, with an average breadth of 110 miles. The South Island has a triangular shape, and measures about 30 miles on each side.

The North Island contains 26,000,000 of acres, the Middle Island 38,000,000, and the South Island 1,000,000 of acres. United, the whole group has nearly the same

NAME OF ISLANDS.

area as Great Britain, and in its likeness to a boot on the map resembles Italy.

Cook's Strait separates the North Island, from the Middle Island, and Foveaux's Strait the Middle from the South Island. Cook's Strait at its narrowest part is 18 miles, and Foveaux's Strait 15 miles across.

The coast-line of the whole group measures 3120 miles.

Around the coasts of New Zealand are many islands, some of considerable extent; and among them Durville's Island, the Kauau, and the Great Barrier are celebrated for containing copper ore.

Of the three islands forming the Zealand group, Rakiura, or the small South Island, is the only one which possesses a native name. Since the days of Cook, the North Island has been named on old maps Eaheinomawe, and the Middle Island Tavai-poenammo. These names originated thus. When the great navigator asked the natives the name of the North Island, he was told that it was "a thing fished from the sea by Maui," – -He mea hi no Maui; and that the Middle Island was Te wahi pounamu, or "the place of the greenstone."

When New Zealand became a British colony, the first governor, who was an Irishman, proclaimed that the North, Middle, and South Islands were thenceforth to be denominated respectively New Ulster, New Munster, and New Leinster; and these names he selected for the colony because New Zealand, like Ireland, had no toads. This modern method of naming places by applying the epithet "New" to countries which are as old as the originals is not only incorrect, but possesses many disadvantages. The Constitution Act of 1852 discarded this unsuitable nomenclature, and the North,

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Middle, and Stewart's Islands are the names now invariably given to them by the settlers, and those by which they are familiar to seamen. The South Island was named in honour of the sealer who, in 1808, discovered its insularity.

Sentimental settlers designate New Zealand the Britain of the southern hemisphere, on the same principle that the Dutchman Tasman, who discovered the country, called it New Zealand.

It is difficult to give a description of a country, at once brief, minute, and intelligible, although a general idea may be derived from an outline. The centre of the North Island of New Zealand is occupied by broad and lofty mountains, which send off spurs in various directions to the sea coast; the valleys formed by these diverging mountain ranges are at first gullies which open out as they approach the coast into fertile districts, through the centres of which flow the rivers Waikato, Thames, Waipa, Mokau, Wanganui, Rangitikei, Tara Wera, and other streams. It is the abrupt configuration of these mountain chains which renders the land communication between Auckland, Taranaki, Wellington and Hawke's Bay so difficult. Ruapahu, the highest mountain in this central range, has an elevation of about 9000 feet, and its summit is covered with perpetual snow. Tongariro, one of Ruapahu's peaks, rising upwards of 6000 feet above the sea, is an active volcano, and discharges from its crater smoke and cinders. Primeval forests cover nearly the whole of these mountain ranges from their bases to their summits.

In the interior of the North Island are numerous freshwater lakes, which beautify the districts, and furnish easy means of communication and abundance of small

NORTH ISLAND.

delicate fish. One of these lakes, the largest, called Lake Taupo, is 30 miles long and 20 broad; another, named Rotomahana, is in parts boiling hot. Several of these lakes are of great depth, and the natives, seeing no outlet for the water, and ignorant of the powerful influence of evaporation, suppose it to be carried off by subterranean passages.

Three lines of volcanic craters, with high cones, stretch across the North Island; one occurs at the Bay of Islands, another at Auckland, and the third extends from Mount Egmont near Taranaki to White Island, an active volcano in the centre of the Bay of Plenty. Between these two last igneous points, the district abounds in lakes, boiling springs, solfataras, tufas, and other volcanic products.

Rivers and tidal creeks are the distinguishing features of the North Island, and with their aid the innermost districts are of easy access. The largest river, the Waikato, rises in the Taupo lake, runs a tortuous course of 200 miles, and pours into the sea on the west coast a large quantity of water with much pumice stone. Sudden rises of all the rivers in New Zealand occasionally occur. In the river Hutt, near Wellington, a disastrous flood in 1858 destroyed the lives of thirteen persons and much property.

The rocks in the North Island are primary, metamorphic, volcanic, trappean, and sedimentary. All the sedimentary rocks yet discovered afford in their embedded fossils undoubted evidence of their tertiary origin. The mountains are almost entirely composed of lower slate rocks, intersected with basaltic veins, scoria, slate, primary sandstone, and limestone. Embedded in the rocks are pumice stone, sulphur, copper, alum, manganese, iron, obsidian, silver, and gold. Around the

MIDDLE ISLAND.

coasts iron-sand abounds. The plains are composed of the detritus of the older rocks: clay, sand, and boulders, mixed with lignite, are frequently found in horizontal strata. Hot and cold springs of water, holding in solution sulphur, iron, and siliceous matter, are found over the island, although they abound most in volcanic regions. In limestone districts extensive picturesque caverns, formed by the action of water, occur.

The Middle Island is traversed by a mountain range, which commences at its northern extremity, and terminates in the south-west, after forming a sort of backbone to the island. The summit of this range is covered with perpetual snow, and as it reaches an elevation in some parts of 13,000 feet, that portion of it has been, called the Southern Alps.

On the west coast, this range of mountains sinks abruptly, leaving a narrow slip of fertile land between its base and the sea; and on the eastern coast, where it falls in the same abrupt manner, extensive and fertile plains intervene between the sea and its base. Through this eastern plain, upon which the settlements of Otago and Canterbury stand, flow rivers of considerable width, subject to sudden floods, occasioned by the melting of the mountain snow. At the northern and southern extremities of the island are hills covered with primeval forests; and between them plains of considerable extent, upon the northern of which the settlement of Nelson now stands.

In the centre of the Middle Island are table-lands and several extensive lakes; one, called Te Wai Pounamu, is said to be of a green colour, with greenstone rocks forming its banks.

There are no extinct craters in the Middle Island, and

STEWART'S ISLAND.

no evidences of any other but submarine volcanic action. The lower rocks are clay, and metamorphic schists, intersected by dykes of greenstone, with compact and amygdaloidal basalt. Obsidian and other volcanic products are intruded in some places. Granite has not been found; copper, iron, gold, and silver have. The plains are composed of loam clay, overgrown by ancient forests. Around the bases of the hills, alluvial deposits, the decomposition of the trachytic rocks, are found, and beds of coal and lignite occasionally crop out. 1 Stewart's Island, like most other parts of New Zealand, is of a mountainous character; the highest mountain attaining an elevation of 3000 feet. The whole island is well wooded and watered. Cook considered it a portion of the Middle Island, and this erroneous opinion continued among Europeans until the year 1808, when the sealer Stewart discovered its insularity. The coast line of the North Island measures nearly 1500 miles; its harbours are not numerous, the the best and greatest number lying between the North Cape and Cape Colville. In this district are found the magnificent harbours of Mongonui, the Bay of Islands, Wangarei, and Auckland. Within 200 miles south from Cape Colville there are only two safe anchorages; one of these is at Mercury Bay and the other at Tauranga, both difficult of access, and the former unfit for large vessels. From the East Cape to the excellent Wellington harbour, a distance of 350 miles, except Port Napier in Hawke's Bay which is safe with offshore winds, there is no secure harbour. On the west coast of the North Island they have all sandbars at their entrances. Manukau, Kaipara, and Hokianga,

HARBOURS.

when once inside, are spacious and adapted for large vessels; while Porirua, Wanganui, Manawatu, Rangitikei, Mokau, Kawhia, Whaingaroa, Aotea, Waitara, and several others, are fit for small vessels.

Most of the safe harbours in the Middle Island are at its northern extremity. From Cape Farewell to Cape Campbell there are numerous deep, extensive sounds and harbours, where excellent anchorages may be obtained; while along the whole of the eastern coast, from Cape Campbell to the Bluff harbour, an extent of nearly 500 miles, Akaroa, Port Victoria, and Otago are the only ones which offer shelter to the mariner. The Bluff and New River are the only harbours available in the south part of the island for large vessels, though both are occasionally difficult of entrance; and there are several safe ones in Stewart's Island to which vessels can run. On the south-west extremity of the island, as far as Milford Haven, a distance of 120 miles, there are thirteen deep sublimely picturesque inlets, surrounded by perpendicular precipitous mountains, some running inwards 20 miles; but as their depths generally exceed 100 fathoms, an anchorage can rarely be obtained, except at the head of some remote cove. Fifty miles from Milford Haven is Jackson's Bay, a safe anchorage with off-shore winds. From Jackson's Bay to Cape Farewell, a distance of 300 miles, the coast is open and exposed. 2

The iron-bound west coast of the Middle Island presents little inducement for anchorage, unless it be to the whaler or the mariner seeking refuge from the coming gale when he has not room to keep the sea, or the sealer in pursuit of his calling.

TIDES. – EARTHQUAKES.

The sea-worn features of the coasts in the northern and the extreme southern portions of the islands surprise all navigators; and settlers sailing round Cape Horn have remarked some resemblance between the features of this solitary promontory and parts of New Zealand.

Eight feet is the average rise of the tide around the eastern coasts; on the western coasts it rises higher than this, and at some other places the average rise is upwards of ten feet. So great is the rise at Nelson, that vessels of 500 tons burden have been beached and repaired. Extraordinary tides occur once in two or three years all round the coasts, covering lands which for years have been far above high water.

Ever since the arrival of the aborigines slight earthquakes have been occurring in the country between White Island and Banks's Peninsula; in other words, between latitude 37 deg. and 43 deg.. European evidence of the occurrence of these phenomena is abundant. In 1769 Captain Cook felt an earthquake in Queen Charlotte's Sound. In 1843 an earthquake was felt at Wanganui, but the Wairau massacre then engrossed all men's minds, and no notice was taken of it. Mr. Stephens registered fifty-five slight shocks at Nelson during the eleven years ending 1854. Judge Chapman recorded twenty-four at Wellington in 1846, and sixteen in 1847; and in 1848 and 1855 the city was shaken to its very foundation.

Cook's Strait is the centre of the earthquake region, and pieces of pure bitumen are washed on shore along the west coast after every severe shock. In that part of the North Island where extinct craters exist, earthquakes are almost unknown; nevertheless, extinct cra-

RISING OF LAND.

ters in fertile districts, where earthquakes have not occurred for ages, excite anxious forebodings, as volcanoes occasionally destroy in a moment the creation of years.

Earthquakes cannot occur without producing obvious physical alterations, and over the whole group of islands there is a general rising of the level, and ground formerly under the sea is becoming dry. The Canterbury and other plains owe their origin to this elevating movement. Thorndon and Te Aro flats, upon which Wellington now stands, are nothing but elevations of what was once the sea bottom, and the Wairarapa and the Thames valleys are merely arms of the sea emptied by this rising of the country. Proofs of each successive upheaval may be traced in the Hutt valley near Wellington by consecutive layers of pumice stone, and in the varying level of the banks of the Waikato river above Maungatautari; in the drying up of lakes, and in the alterations in the course of rivers since the arrival of the natives in the country; in the appearance of rocks in Cook's Strait since the advent of the Anglo-Saxon colonists, and in the undoubted rising of Port Nicholson to the extent of five feet since 1848.

Evidence is likewise given of the extent of this rising in the terraces of sea gravel which are now seen far above the ocean, and occasionally far inland. At Cape Palliser marine shells, chiefly petrified Terebratulae, are found 200 feet, at Mount Grey in the Middle Island 300 feet, at Long Point in Hawke's Bay 1180 feet, above the present level of the sea; and in the interior of the country at greater elevations than this.

At some distant geological period New Zealand was a portion of a large continent which now lies beneath

GEOLOGICAL CURIOSITIES.

the sea, and at a more modern geological age it consisted of a number of rocky islands, precipitous and barren, except in the mountain ravines. At this era the North Island consisted of three islands, since united, about the Bay of Islands, and in the neighbourhood of Auckland; and a large inlet of the sea extended nearly across the island in a line between White Island and Mount Egmont. The evidence upon which this rests is supplied by the numerous lakes in the district, around the margins of several of which the Pohutukaua tree is still to be seen growing; the only place where this tree has been observed flourishing away from the sea coast.

New Zealand is an admirable geological school: there travellers may see the form of Vesuvius, the dome-shaped summits of Auvergne, the elevated craters of the Caraccas, and the geysers of Iceland. Taupo, Tongariro, Rotomahana, Rotorua, and White Island are almost unrivalled geological curiosities. Above the entombed village of Te Rapa, on the border of the Taupo lake, basaltic rocks may be seen in the process of conversion into soft clay by heat and chemical action; where the Tongariro river falls into the lake, travellers may observe how rapidly pumice stone and other deposits are lessening the size of this inland sea. Grand and beautiful geysers, ejecting water two degrees above the boiling-point of pure water, and holding various silicates in solution, are found around the lakes of Rotomahana and Rotorua. This water on cooling incrusts every substance it comes in contact with, and birds thrown into it are brought out like pieces of flint. On looking down through the clear smooth water of the Te Tarata geyser on Lake Rotomahana, the siliceous

[Inserted unpaginated illustration]

TERRACED MARBLE STEPS, AND GLASS-LIKE BASINS FULL OF WARM WATER, EXTENDING FROM THE HOT LAKE TO ONE OF THE BOIL1NO GEYSERS ON TUB SURROUNDING HILLS
Vol. I., page 13.

GEOLOGICAL CURIOSITIES.

matter is observed deposited at the bottom like the hills on the eastern side of Lake Taupo, a formation which, when seen from a canoe on the lake, suggests to the eye waves of lava suddenly cooled. Near the geysers at Rotomahana, a noise is heard similar to the sound in a large steam-engine room. Adventurous travellers may sail on the lake on hot water, and luxurious ones swim in baths of various temperatures, the sides of which are lined with flint, white as snow and smooth as glass.

Between two smouldering bills at Rotomahana there is a quantity of mud having a temperature far above the boiling-point of water. In certain places this clay is cool on the surface and of a firm consistence, and here a number of liliputian mud volcanoes, several in a state of great activity, may be seen. Some of these mud cones are half a foot high, others six feet, and the bubbling spluttering hot mud is to be observed on looking down their craters. All these miniature volcanoes, like the giant Tongariro, have the lips of their craters lower on one side than the other. On this mud-flat, fissures may be seen in the surface, and dome-shaped cones caused by pressure from below. While contemplating this strange scene, an impression steals over the mind that it is all artificial, and the apparent ebullition the result of successful imitation; but the delusion is removed by the sad story of an infant's creeping into a circular hole pointed out by the natives, into which its sister also fell in endeavouring to extricate it; the poor children were both stewed alive in the molten clay.

At the village of Ohinemotu, on the Rotorua lake, the natives may be seen cooking their food at the hot

WHITE ISLAND.

springs, sleeping in huts placed for warmth over the hot soil, and smoking and gambling for hours in the hot baths. Geologists may speculate about the date of Tongariro's last grand eruption, from the pumice stone in several places over its surface not having yet collected sufficient soil for vegetation.

Wakari, or White Island, in the Bay of Plenty, is a sight full of interest to all navigators. The island is three miles round, and its highest point is 860 feet. Near the centre there is a boiling spring 100 yards in circumference, throwing off volumes of steam which rise to heaven like a white cloud, and give to the island its name. Around the edges of this boiling spring, which is probably a crater full of water, there are many small geysers expelling steam with such violence that stones pitched into their vortices are shot up into the air. No animal lives on the island, for it is hot all over, and covered with immense quantities of crystallised sulphur. Half a mile from White Island the sea is 2000 fathoms deep. 3

The geological curiosities of the Middle Island are yet unexplored, although the natives tell stories which almost seem fabulous, about the existence of a lake whose rocks are entirely composed of greenstone.

Not less curious than the geology of New Zealand is its Flora, the singularity of which has already drawn many botanists to the country, and has led the French and English governments to publish illustrations of its plants. Notwithstanding the attention bestowed on this subject, the record of the botany of New Zealand is yet imperfect, and every year is adding to the number of its known plants. Besides the elevation plants grow

FLORA.

above the level of the sea, their varieties and local distribution are still unsettled, and Mount Egmont and Mount Ruapahu's lofty peaks, much of the Southern Alps, and the banks of the solitary lakes in the Middle Island have not yet been trodden by the feet of botanists. New Zealand is luxuriantly clothed with vegetation, and the Flora of the country is characterised by the comparatively large number of trees and ferns, the paucity of herbaceous plants, and the almost total want of annuals. In England there are 40 indigenous trees, in New Zealand 120. 2000 species of plants have already been collected, and Dr. Hooker anticipates that 2000 more will yet be discovered. 507 species of flowering plants, or more than two thirds of that division of the vegetable kingdom found in New Zealand, are peculiar to it; of the remaining third

193 species are Australian.
87 " South American.
77 " common to the above.
60 " European.
50 " Antarctic, &c.

The botanical orders most numerous in species are as follows: –

The Filices

comprising

117 species.

Compositae

" "

90

Cyperaceae

"

66

Gramineae

" "

53

Scrophularineae

" "

40

Orchideae

" "

39

Rubiaceae

" "

26

Umbelliferae

" "

23

But the individuals of each species are often few, and, except the Filices, none of these orders forms a feature in the landscape. The Coniferae are the most conspicuous natural order, although with fewer species

FERNS

than any of those now enumerated. Out of the 117 ferns in New Zealand, only 42 are peculiar to the country, and it is probable some of those now reckoned peculiar will be found in the New Hebrides or New Caledonia, as several have been seen on the lofty mountains of Java and South America. Of New Zealand ferns 30 inhabit South America, and 61 Australia and Tasmania; 25 species are common to Australia, New Zealand, and South America; while 10 only are European, a small proportion apparently, although it is necessary to remember there are few species of ferns in the northern hemisphere in the latitude New Zealand occupies in the southern.

From this enumeration it will be seen that European travellers find themselves surrounded in New Zealand with a new vegetation; the landscape is not soft or gay, but grand and sombre. It presents to the eye a dark green colour, and, except in the tree-ferns, little that is striking. Unfortunately for the beauty of the floral scenery, the tree fern shuns observation, avoids the sun, lives in solitary places, and flourishes best in stagnant air. Almost all the New Zealand trees are evergreens; forests are consequently never leafless, and the change of seasons makes little difference in their appearance; in winter they are greener than in summer, and the luxuriance of the vegetation, the palmlike tree fern, the nikau, the cabbage tree (Dracaena australis), and the obscure green flowers of the cryptogamic ferns, give to them a somewhat tropical appearance. Indescribable is the charm of New Zealand forests for the lovers of nature. There generations of noble trees are seen decaying, and fresh generations rising up around the moss-covered trunks of fallen patriarchs.

CHARM OF FORESTS.

The profound silence which reigns in these regions produces a pleasing gloom on the mind, and the scene displays better than the most classic architecture the grandeur of repose. No sound is heard save the falling of trees, or the parrots' shrill screech, as birds which enliven the outskirts of forests are mute in their interior. Around the graves of past generations of trees the air is hushed into stillness, while the tops of the living generation are agitated with gales and breezes. At Christmas the Pohutukaua (Metrosideros) is covered with scarlet flowers, and is then the most gaudy of forest trees; and the Rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum) possesses a melancholy beauty and an indescribable grandeur. Few of the pines recal to the settler's eyes the same trees in England, and singular to relate, unlike their congeners, the majority of them grow intermixed with other trees. The celebrated and beautiful Kauri (Dammara australis) is the only pine bearing a cone, and the male and female cones are found on the same tree.

Travellers talk of the solitude of the forests, but there is society in trees which men miss on immense plains; it is on the prairie alone that the solitary traveller has a sensation of loneliness, feels that he is in the world and does not belong to it, that he is a solitary wanderer on a vast oceanless desert without landmarks.

On the coast plains in the North Island ferns and flax plants supply the place of grasses. The sight of an immense district covered with short fern fills the mind with an idea of sterility, while the long grass covering the Middle Island plains, and parts of the interior of the North Island, looks like hay.

There are few flowering plants in New Zealand.

FLOWERING PLANTS.

Great Britain contains upwards of 1400, and New Zealand possesses scarcely 750. To compensate for this want, some of New Zealand's flowers are very beautiful; and the starry clematis creeping from tree to tree, and hanging in festoons from the branches, makes, in certain seasons, her wild forests "blossom like the rose."

Travellers in one part of New Zealand become only partially acquainted with the whole Flora. The magnificent Kauri pine is limited in its growth to the country surrounding and to the north of Auckland, although a few stray trees are found near Kawhia, and pieces of Kauri gum have been dug out of the earth in the Middle Island. Formerly Kauri forests covered the land in the neighbourhood of Auckland, and no reasonable explanation has been given why new generations of trees have not risen up to supply their places. The Puriri {Vitex littoralis) and the Pohutukaua grow best in the warm north, while the Rimu, Totara (Podocarpus Totara), Matai (Podocarpus spicata), Mairi {Podocarpus sp.), and Rata {Metrosideros robusta), flourish in the southern parts of the colony. The Pohutukaua is rarely seen away from the sea coast, or the margins of lakes which were perhaps formerly once on the sea coast. One palm tree {Areca sapida) grows in New Zealand, the most southern representative of the order.

In the Kew Gardens are to be seen several New Zealand plants, carefully tended. Dr. Traill relates that a New Zealander laughed contemptuously on seeing a dwarfed flax plant in a flower-pot at Liverpool; and New Zealand settlers, on visiting Kew Gardens, feel that the New Zealand plants vegetating there, although beautiful, exhibit to the untravelled but a faint semblance of the beauty and grandeur of the same plants

USE OF FLORA TO NATIVES.

as they grow in their luxuriant native climate at the antipodes.

From the Flora of the country the aborigines formerly supplied many of their wants. Fern root furnished them with much food; twelve kinds of fungi, almost all the seaweeds, and many forest fruits were occasionally eaten, while epicures gloated over the tender shoots of the solitary palm. From the poisonous Tutu berries (Coriaria sarmentosa) a grateful and not intoxicating drink was expressed; from six plants a dark dye was extracted, and others were celebrated for medicinal virtues. Out of the large trunks of the Totara and Kauri pines canoes were scooped, and the tough Ti tree furnished paddles and spears. The flax plant was to the New Zealanders what the cocoa-nut tree is to the Hindoos; it was used for building and thatching huts, for sails, nets, fishing-tackle, plates, ropes, baskets, medicine, and for tying up anything requiring to be kept together. From the flax flowers a honey drink was extracted, and from the roots of the leaves an edible gum; sandals were made out of flax by the natives living in the Middle Island; and flax differently prepared furnished various mats and articles of clothing, some being as coarse as straw mats, while others rivalled the shawls of Cashmere in softness.

Already settlers draw from the Flora of New Zealand several valuable articles. The Kauri and Totara pines in size excel, and in durability equal, Baltic pine for houses and ship-building. One Totara tree, near Akaroa, measured 37 feet in circumference. Kauri trees are used for ships' masts, being often 90 feet long without a branch, and the large Kauri trees have often a girth of 40 feet. There are several admirable

USE OF FLORA TO SETTLERS.

woods for fencing, and barks suitable for tanning. The Puriri, which belongs to the same botanical order as the teak, rivals English oak in hardness, grows 20 feet without a branch, and has a girth of 20 feet. Valuable and beautiful furniture planks are sawn from the Rimu, Kakikatea, or white pine (Dacrydium excelsum), Matai, Mahi, and Manuka (Leptospermum scoparium). At the Great Exhibition of 1851, Tao Nui, a New Zealander, was awarded a prize for specimens of useful woods obtained from his native land. Cook obtained for his crew several useful articles, and Sir Joseph Banks discovered in the forest the finest indigenous fruit, the Kiekie (Freycinetia Banksii).

English settlers find native grass fattens flocks and herds, and London merchants have realised £80 a ton for Kauri gum. This curious substance has no commercial value when fresh, and, like gum copal, it is found buried in the earth on the site of ancient forests. Fresh gum, only found in modern Kauri forests, has a milky colour, and, like amber, turns yellow and transparent with age. Some obscurity hangs over the use Kauri gum is put to in the commercial world: in England it is said to be used for glazing calico, candles, and paper, and in the United States as a substitute for gum copal in varnish.

It is now necessary to describe the Fauna of New Zealand, and the subject is well worthy the attention of naturalists, because the country presents one of the best proofs in the world that every portion of the earth has its own peculiar forms of animal and vegetable life. 4

There are only two representatives of the land

FAUNA. – DOGS AND RATS.

Mammalia in New Zealand, and these are two small bats. 5

It is worthy of remark that several of Captain Cook's sailors related they saw in the neighbourhood of Queen Charlotte's Sound a four-footed mouse-coloured animal about the size of a cat with short legs; and Mr. W. Mantell found natives in the Middle Island who described an extinct terrestrial quadruped called Kaurrehe, which, according to their account, resembled a beaver, an otter, or a badger, 6 Careful inquiries were made by me on this subject, and I never met a New Zealander who had seen or heard of such an animal.

Thirteen sea Mammalia are found on the coasts of New Zealand; viz. eight whales, two dolphins, and three seals. All are now comparatively rare in the different bays where they once abounded; a result brought about by the ruthless destruction made among them by sealers and whalers during the breeding season of these animals.

Dogs and rats are enumerated among the indigenous Mammalia of New Zealand, although neither are so. It is true Cook found dogs and rats there in 1769, but both these animals were brought to the country by the New Zealanders, and curious enough both are now nearly extinct. The large Norway rat imported into the colony by the Anglo-Saxon settlers has destroyed the native rat, and the native dogs, formerly kept and propagated for food, have all been eaten or destroyed, no care having been taken by the New Zealanders, after the introduction of pigs, to preserve the race of dogs. Observant travellers may still occasionally see on the banks of Lake Taupo a few curs

BIRDS.

crosses between Maori and English dogs, with bushy tails, foxy-coloured hair, pricked-up ears, and having a howl in place of a bark, the only remnant of the breed of dogs brought by the natives to New Zealand. What are called native dogs by the Middle Island shepherds are English animals, free, not wild.

That the true native dog was introduced into New Zealand is proved by traditions, by the Maori term for dog being a true Polynesian word, and from the calcined bones of men, moas, and dogs having been found by Mr. Mantell on a sand flat near Taranaki, one of the earliest spots upon which the New Zealanders located themselves.

That the native rats, which were small and frugivorous, were also introduced is proved by the traditions of the people and the existence of similar rats all over Polynesia.

England has 273 species of Birds, New Zealand possesses only 83. This scarcity of the feathered race in the colony is rendered very obvious, as with two or three exceptions the individuals of no species are numerous, a result partly produced by the activity of owls and falcons. Land-birds are more numerous in species than sea-birds, but the individuals of each species of sea-birds are more numerous than land-birds. There is a great deficiency of active insectivorous birds, a peculiarity which has led farmers to propose the introduction of hedge-sparrows and crows. With a few exceptions, the plumage of the birds, like their country's foliage, is dull. The vocal powers of some of them have however obtained high praise; and at a quarter of a mile from the shore Captain Cook relates he was awoke by the singing of birds, which he compared to the sound of exquisitely hung bells. Town settlers

NAMES OF BIRDS.

have often doubted the accuracy of this remark, as the feathered songsters are only heard at dawn and at sunset, in the neighbourhood of clumps of trees or the outskirts of forests. Drawings of several of the birds of New Zealand have been given in Cook's illustrated voyages, in some books on Zoology, and in Gould's Australia. The valuable sketches made by the two Forsters are still to be found in the British Museum.

Many of the native names of the birds are derived from their cries: thus the pigeon is Kukupa, the brown parrot Kaka, and the owl Ru-ru, or Kou-Kou. The New Zealand birds are singularly ingenious in searching for food. The Korora, a sea-bird, carries up into the air living shell-fish, which it breaks by letting fall on hard rocks; or it drops a pebble between the open valves of shell-fish basking in shallow water, and so prevents their closing.

The nature of this work prevents me attempting to describe the birds: the following desultory observations may, however, prove interesting to unphilosophical observers.

Of the Falcon family, there are two species in New Zealand; one, called Kahu, is about the size of a pigeon, and the other, named Karewarewa, is a sparrow-hawk: both are the terror of all other birds and of poultry yards; the sparrow-hawk is the more active and daring of the two.

The Owl family has only one representative, and the cry of the bird, an hour before daybreak and an hour after sunset, resembles the words, "More pork;" from which circumstance, this bird is familiarly known among the settlers by the name of "More pork." The natives call the owl Kou-Kou or Ru-ru.

TUI, BELL-BIRD.

The Alcedinidae family has only one species, the Kotaretare or kingfisher. It builds its nest in holes, and possesses the habits of the English bird, although its plumage is not so bright.

There is one species of the Upupidae family. It is one of the most celebrated birds among the natives, and is called Huia. This bird is rarely seen in the northern half of the North Island; it has the colour and is about the size of a blackbird, with four long tail feathers tipped with white. The latter and the head of the bird are highly esteemed as head and ear ornaments.

Three species of the Honey-sucker family are found in New Zealand; one, well known among the settlers and the natives by the name of Tui, is the Parson or Mocking-bird of navigators; the former name is given to it from the two snow-white feathers which hang under the chin over its dark plumage like clergymen's bands, and the latter from the bird's imitative habits. The Tui feeds on berries and insects, is short-lived, and of such a delicate constitution, that few of the many Tuis taken from New Zealand have reached England alive. The Tui is one of the most numerous birds in the country.

That bird which has raised the reputation of the New Zealand birds as singers far above their merits is a honey-sucker. It is the Kokoromaka of the natives, and the Bell-bird of the settlers. It is about the size of a sparrow, with a long beak; and although it has only four notes, these create the strangest melody when repeated independently by hundreds of throats.

The Kotihe is a beautiful honey-bird about the size of a bullfinch.

The Certhidae}, or Creeper family of birds, possesses

PARROTS.

five species, none of which are very remarkable save the Pokokatea, a social bird not unlike the English finch in its habits.

The family Luscinidae has five species. The Matata, a small low-flying bird with a shrill cry, and the Riro or wren, the smallest bird in New Zealand, are the only species worthy of notice. The Matata has four long and four short tail feathers, similar in texture to those of the Kiwi.

The Turdidae family has only one species in the colony; the Piopio, a bird about the size of the thrush, which is supposed to be a visitor in the North Island from the south.

The Muscicapidae family has eight species in New Zealand, none of which are very remarkable or very numerous.

There is one species of the family of Crows, a sly, thievish, and timid bird, about half the size of an English crow.

The Sturnidae, or Starling family, has five species.

The Fringillidae, or Finch family, has two species; one of them, the Kataitai or ground-lark, is the most numerous bird in the country. It rarely sings unless its nest is approached, when it rises in the air a short distance and sings, evidently for the purpose of drawing off the danger.

The Parrot family is a very celebrated one in New Zealand, and has five species. Three are small green birds, about the size of thrushes, with different-coloured heads, all possessing the chattering and imitative habits of the species in other lands. The Kaka is a large brown parrot well known to bush travellers: before sunrise and at sunset these parrots assemble on trees

CUCKOOS, PIGEONS, QUAILS.

yielding them berries, and fly with discordant screams over the forest. At the sound of the Kaka's harsh cry native travellers commence their journey; and the saying of "The Kaka has cried" is synonymous with "It is time to get up," or "The cock has crowed." -The Kaka lays five white eggs in the holes of trees; it can be taught to imitate the human voice and to act as a decoy bird to ensnare its kindred. The most remarkable species known of the parrot family is the Kakapo or night parrot, now very scarce; it is about the size of a domestic fowl, with short wings, which it rarely uses. Only another species of this remarkable bird is known, and that one before extinction was restricted in its abode to Phillip's Island, a mere rock near Norfolk Island.

Two migratory Cuckoos visit New Zealand in summer from Australia and the southern islands, and depart in autumn. During the warm summer nights they sing sweetly. The Kohoperoa, one of these cuckoos, is about the size and colour of the sparrow-hawk; the Pipiwarauroa cuckoo is a much smaller and a more variegated-feathered bird.

There is only one species of the Pigeon family. The bird is large, singularly stupid, very numerous, and excellent eating.

The Quail is the only species of the Tetraonidae family in the colony: it was once numerous over the whole country, now it is chiefly met with on the Middle Island, and appears to shun the footsteps of civilisation. In 1848 Dr. Monro and Major Richmond shot forty-three brace of quails at a place near Nelson, where they are now rarely seen.

There are three species of the Struthionidae, or Runner

RUNNERS, RAILS.

family: these are the celebrated Kiwis of the natives and the Apteryx of naturalists. The largest is about the size of a turkey, the smallest is eighteen inches long, and the other species is of intermediate size. It was this strange family of wingless and tailless birds which first drew the attention of scientific men to the Fauna of New Zealand. Kiwis in their habits are nocturnal and burrowing, live in densely wooded districts, have hair-like feathers, and long beaks for searching out worms in mud and water.

Five Plovers are found in New Zealand.

Three of the Heron family live on the land. The Matuku, or bittern, has the cry of a bull. The Kotuku, or white crane, the noblest bird of this family, is abundant in the Middle Island, but is rarely seen north of Wanganui in the North Island.

Of the Scolopacidae there is one species, which is occasionally seen on the Taupo lake, with other sea-birds.

Three species of the Rail family are met with. One of them, the Weka, is about the size of a pheasant; it is called the Kiwi's friend, from associating with that bird, and resembling it in its habits. In the North Island Wekas are now scarce, in the Middle Island they are still numerous. The Pukeko, another rail, about the size of a pheasant, with long red legs, lives in swamps; it shows a tendency to domesticity, and traditions state the New Zealanders brought the bird with them into the country.

The Tatahe {Notornis Mantelli), a bird about the size of a turkey, with imperfect wings, was discovered in Dusky Bay, in the Middle Island, in 1850, by sealers.

Five species of Ducks inhabit the islands, some of

DECREASE OF SOME BIRDS.

which afford good sport. The Paradise Duck is limited to the Middle Island, and the southern part of the North Island.

One species of the Colymbidae is found in New Zealand.

Two Divers, the Korora and the Hoiho, are met with, the famous wingless penguins of sailors.

Six species of the Procellaridae are found on the sea-coasts. The Titi, or mutton bird, and the Toroa, or albatross, are the most celebrated birds of this family.

Four species of Gulls, although somewhat different from real gulls, and eight Pelicans, are found on the coast, and the Cape Pigeon occasionally visits New Zealand.

It is high time some good collections of the birds of New Zealand were made, as some species have entirely disappeared, and others are decreasing. The whole family of the large Moas have long ago ceased to live; a few specimens of the Notornis Mantelli have been discovered; the Kiwi is now only found in the most dense forests, and the Wekas cry is seldom heard in the North Island. Night parrots are almost extinct; pigeons are becoming scarce where they once abounded; and other birds are decreasing in numbers, although this diminution is unobserved by man. This decay may spring from Nature's laws; but the introduction of men, dogs, cats, rats, pigs, and sheep into the country, must have proved destructive to birds without wings, or to birds which fly with difficulty, and more particularly to birds not instinctively aware to such enemies. It is probable some birds may increase when wheat, barley, and other grains are more extensively cultivated.

LIZARDS, FROGS.

Neither serpents nor snakes inhabit New Zealand. There are six small harmless Lizards in the colony, which are held in terror by the natives, from a superstition that within their bodies the spirits of their deified ancestors revisit the earth. Green and yellow are the prevalent colours of these lizards; but their colours change according to the colour of the locality they live in. One guana, the Tuatara of the natives, is now only found on rocky islands, although it was formerly numerous on the mainland, until pigs, dogs, and cats almost extirpated it. In such terror do the New Zealanders hold all the above reptiles, that the very pronunciation of the word Ngarara, a general term for the whole race, makes the bravest warrior tremble. Now and then small turtles are driven on shore along the coasts; one was picked up at the island of Kauau in 1855. Earthworms are found all over the country; and the Taranaki district is celebrated among the natives for producing worms of great size.

Bory St. Vincent states that Frogs are not found in any of the volcanic islands of the great oceans. 7 As regards New Zealand this remark is incorrect; for in 1852 six small frogs were caught in the mountain streams flowing into the harbour of Coromandel, near Cape Colville in the North Island. 8 Since that period similar frogs have been seen in a lake near St. John's College, Auckland; and in 1858 a swamp near Coromandel contained several specimens of them. Considerable obscurity hangs over the former existence of these frogs in New Zealand, because the natives, accurate observers of all Nature's

FISH. – INSECTS.

works, were ignorant of their presence in the land until 1852, and there is no word in the native language signifying a frog.

One hundred different species of Fish have been described by naturalists as frequenting the coasts; and this list is apparently very imperfect, seeing that the natives have enumerated to me the names of many more they are in the habit of eating. Next to the shark, which renders bathing dangerous in the summer, the Hapuku is the largest New Zealand salt-water fish. One hundred pounds is no unusual weight for a hapuku. Immense shoals of fish visit the bays and inlets during summer, and various edible shell-fish abound in the sands along the beach. Flying-fish are frequently observed in close proximity to the coast.

In the lakes of New Zealand are a large number of delicate fish, not unlike white-bait, called Inanga; and in the rivers and lakes there are numerous eels, occasionally weighing fifty pounds. These are the only two kinds of fresh-water fish which can properly be said to form a part of the food of the natives. The lamprey, Pipiharau, is, properly speaking, a salt-water fish which enters the river to spawn. The fresh-water mussel and the crayfish are plentiful in some places.

Upwards of one hundred species of Insects have been found in New Zealand, one half of which belong to the order Coleoptera. Mosquitoes and other Diptera abound in the Northern Island in summer, and are occasionally very troublesome to strangers in the bush, they shun the smoke, and neighbourhood of towns. Spiders are likewise numerous, and two of them are poisonous: the one, found in the dry sea sand, has a bright red spot on its dark back; the other, found inland, is of a

NO QUADRUPEDS.

yellow colour. According to the natives, infants stung by the former of these spiders have died. A caterpillar three inches long, and producing a fungus four times its own length, is met with generally under the rata tree, and cicadae have been found in a similar diseased condition. The forests and fern brakes ring in summer with the loud and incessant grating sound of numerous cicadas; and grasshoppers two inches long are numerous. The crops on newly cultivated lands are now and then completely destroyed by swarms of caterpillars. Mr. Brodie, the settler who introduced pheasants, sent out, in 1859, 300 hedge-sparrows, for the purpose of keeping the caterpillars in check.

Several very beautiful sea shells are found on the coast, the finest of which are the Trochus Cookii, the Trochus imperialis, the Paper Nautilus, and the Haliotis iris mutton shell, from the shining interior of which glittering buttons are made. The ammonite-like Spirula is occasionally picked up on the coast. All the land shells are small, save the Helix Busbii and the Helix Hongi; and both of these, singular to relate, are local in their distribution, being hitherto only met with to the north of Auckland, and in greatest numbers about the Bay of Islands.

The absence of indigenous quadrupeds from New Zealand is the most remarkable feature in its Fauna, and a feeling allied to wonder steals over the mind when it is found that their places were supplied by a gigantic race of birds destitute of wings. The manner in which the former existence of these birds became known is a great triumph of mental reasoning, and exhibits in a very remarkable manner the value of scientific inquiry.

In the late Sir Robert Peel's gallery of modern

GIGANTIC WINGLESS BIRDS.

worthies at Drayton Manor hangs a portrait of Professor Richard Owen, holding the leg bone of one of those gigantic birds; an appropriate connexion, seeing the world is indebted to that philosopher for the first hint that such birds ever existed. The discovery was made in this manner. In 1839 Mr. Rule brought to England a portion of a thigh bone of a moa, from which specimen Mr. Owen drew up a wonderfully correct notice of the bird. The conclusions arrived at were so improbable that Mr. Owen's friends tried to suppress the publication of the paper, from an impression that it would shipwreck his scientific reputation. Since then Professor Owen has established, on the evidence of fossil remains sent to England by various settlers, the former existence of fourteen species of wingless birds 9 in New Zealand; and not the least curious objects to be seen in the mighty city of London, are the skeletons in the Royal College of Surgeons and the British Museum of two of New Zealand's feathered giants. The British Museum skeleton has only lately been discovered, and was built up by Professor Owen from bones sent from the Middle Island; it belongs to a species distinguished from all its gigantic kindred by having a foot resembling that of the elephant.

The New Zealanders denominate this gigantic race of birds Moas; they belong to the Struthious family, an order characterised by massive legs and short rudimentary wings; to which order the ostrich, cassowary, rhea, emu, mooruck, apteryx, and perhaps the dodo, belong. Moas' bones have been discovered in both islands of New Zealand, embedded in the sands of the

[Inserted unpaginated illustration]

MOA, WITH FEET LIKE AN ELEPHANT.
Vol.I. page 32.

CAUSES OF EXTINCTION.

sea-shore, in swamps, forests, river beds, and in limestone caves. 10 The largest bones belong to the birds naturalists have denominated Dinornis, the next in size to the Palapteryx, the next to the Aptornis, and the smallest to the Notornis. One living specimen of this last species of moa, the link between a living and a dead race, was caught alive by sealers in the year 1850; and several others have been seen since then in unfrequented parts of the Middle Island near Dusky Bay. Thirteen feet was the average height of the largest moas; none of them were able to fly, and, unlike all other birds, their leg bones were filled with marrow in place of air. According to native tradition, moas were decked out in a gaudy plumage; and the present New Zealanders describe a Cochin-China fowl as what they conceive to have been the shape and the appearance of moas. One rather perfect egg of this gigantic bird was found with a human skeleton. It was nine inches in diameter, twenty-seven in circumference, and twelve long; and numerous other portions of eggs have been discovered, sufficient to show that a man's hat would not have been a large enough cup for a moa's egg.

It is whispered in the colony that gigantic moas still live in the solitudes of the Middle Island, an idle story, as no large moas have been seen alive since 1650. From all accounts, the moas were extirpated by natural causes, and the arrival of the Aborigines in the country, who slaughtered them for their flesh, bones, and feathers; the flesh and eggs were eaten, the bones were converted into fishhooks, the skulls were used for holding tattooing-powder, and the feathers were celebrated as ornaments for the hair. The natural causes which hastened

THE MOA AND DODO.

the extinction of moas were the geological changes which ages had produced on the country; New Zealand was perhaps a great continent when the moas were first created, as it is difficult to conceive that such gigantic birds were ever hatched to live and die in the small portion of the globe now known by that name.

Naturalists infer, from the appearance of the bones and the traditions of the New Zealanders, that moas were stupid, fat, indolent birds; that they lived before extinction in forests, mountain fastnesses, and secluded caves; that their food was vegetable; that they swallowed stones to assist digestion; that they were in the habit of resting on one leg; and that their feet and toes were singularly well adapted for uprooting fern roots.

It is a curious that Mauritius, Madagascar, and New Zealand, the islands upon which large wingless birds once lived, are all situated in the Southern hemisphere, and that between Mauritius and New Zealand there is considerable resemblance in their natural history. Both islands are in the neighbourhood of large continents, and in genial climates; both have been recently peopled; both are destitute of quadrupeds, toads, and snakes; and in both islands the large birds once living upon them became extinct much about the same time. Bontius in 1658 saw the dodo alive in Mauritius, and it is inferred from traditions and other evidence, that several gigantic moas were living in New Zealand during the early part of the seventeenth century. One great difference, however, occurs in the history of the birds which formerly strode upon the two islands. There is written testimony of the existence of numerous dodos in Mauritius, but, singular to relate, the bones of the bird cannot now be found; whereas in New Zea-

DECAY OF WINGLESS BIRDS.

land the former existence of gigantic moas rests on a few traditions, while the bones of the bird are abundant, and supply evidence which none can doubt.

Two peculiarities are stamped on the whole race of birds with imperfect wings now living on the earth: one being an instinctive antipathy to the human race, for wherever men approach they disappear; the other peculiarity is that all are making rapid strides towards extinction. The ostrich selects his abode under burning suns and on sandy deserts, places where the human race live with difficulty; American rheas frequent secluded spots and are rarely seen, as their piercing eyes can penetrate far beyond the vision of men; the emu is fast disappearing before the Anglo-Saxon colonisation of Australia. The apteryx, notornis, kakapo, and weka, are only found in New Zealand's solitudes; cassowaries are now rare in the few islands where they were once indigenous; and the rarity of the mooruck, a large bird belonging to this family, may be inferred from the fact of its only having been discovered in the island of New Britain in 1857. It would seem that these strange animals, birds with imperfect wings, were created at a period long prior to the higher order of quadrupeds, as the footprints of gigantic birds have been traced in North America on the Connecticut sandstones of bygone geological ages. 11

1 Notes on the Geology of New Zealand, by C. Forbes, M.D., R.N.

2 The New Zealand Pilot.

3 Captain Drury.

4 Fauna of New Zealand, by Dr. J. E. Gray and Mr. Gray.

5 Annals of Natural History, vol. xx. 1857.

6 Mantell's Fossils of the British Museum.

7 Voyages aux Quatre Iles d'Afrique.

8 Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, 1853.

9 Transactions of the Zoological Society of London.

10 Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, 1854.

11 Transactions of the American Academy of Arts, 1848.

CHAPTER II. CLIMATE.

CHAP. II.

CLIMATE.

Remarks on temperature. – Solar rays. – Rain. – Moisture in air. – Winds. – Hot winds. – Atmospheric pressure. – Other elements. – Influence on vegetation. – The seasons. – Influence of climate on settlers. – Station for invalids from India.

MEN live by air as much as by bread, therefore the nature of the atmosphere of New Zealand is an important consideration to all settlers, although few persons have an exact idea of the great influence air and temperature exert on the human frame.

New Zealand has been rendered famous by its climate, but like other things in this world, the climate has been injured by injudicious praise. It has been styled delightful and pleasant, terms which convey the idea of an atmosphere rarely disturbed by wind or rain, whereas there are few countries on the globe where wind and rain are so frequent and so uncertain; they are, indeed, for pleasure-seekers, the two great faults of the climate.

From Table I. 12, and other meteorological observations, the coast climate of New Zealand from Stewart's Island to the North Cape may be described as the most changeable in the world, and at the same time the most strictly temperate. For between these two points, including a space of 800 miles in latitude, calms, rain

DIFFERS FROM ITALY.

and winds, clouds and sunshine, and heat varying between 40 and 70 degrees of Fahrenheit's scale are occasionally experienced in twenty-four hours. This singularity of the coast climate is produced by the shape and mountainous character of a great part of the country, and the immense sea encircling the islands.

Much importance has been attached to the mean annual temperature of countries, and New Zealand, in consequence of conclusions from this source, has been said to possess an Italian climate. But there are marked points of difference between the seasons of New Zealand and Italy. Thus, in Italy there is a sort of summer winter when cattle must be provided for indoors as in winter, and during which for several hours of the day all out-door work is interrupted by heat. 13 There is no similar summer winter in New Zealand, and it is the opinion of persons who have sojourned in different parts of the world, that the Anglo-Saxon race can work and expose themselves to the climate of New Zealand without injury, during more days in the year, and for more hours in the day, than in any other country.

In examining the appended meteorological observations, it is requisite to remember that, with the exception of those for Kaikohe, all were made on the sea coast. Even from this solitary set of observations on one of the narrowest parts of the North Island, it may be inferred that the climate of the interior is warmer in summer and colder in winter than around the coast.

The mean annual temperature of the North Island is 57 deg., that of the Middle Island 52 deg.

MEAN TEMPERATURE.

January and February, which months correspond to July and August in England, are the warmest months in New Zealand, and June and July, corresponding to December and January, are the coldest.

Rome, Montpellier, and Milan possess climates having nearly the same mean annual temperature as the North Island of New Zealand; and Jersey, one of the Channel Islands, in this respect resembles the Middle Island.

London is seven degrees colder than the North Island, and two degrees colder than the Middle Island.

In New Zealand the nights are about twelve degrees colder than the days.

The mean daily range of temperature is under twenty, and the extreme range is occasionally upwards of thirty degrees. Great variations of temperature are more common in the Middle Island than in the North.

The mean temperature of places in New Zealand is lower than that experienced in corresponding latitudes in Europe. Examples of this may be seen by comparing the mean annual temperature at Auckland with that at Gibraltar and Malta; that at Nelson and Wellington with Rome; that at Christchurch with Montpellier, and that at Otago with Milan. But the temperature in New Zealand is higher than that experienced in corresponding latitudes in America, as may be seen by comparing the mean temperature at Wellington and Nelson with that at New York, and the mean temperature at Otago with that at Quebec and Halifax in Nova Scotia.

No single locality in Europe has a temperature during the whole year like that experienced in New Zealand. The North Island, in short, possesses the summer heat, tempered with a sea breeze, of Paris, Brussels, and Am-

SUN'S RAYS.

sterdam, with the winter cold of Rome; while the Middle Island has a Jersey summer, and a winter in mildness resembling that at Montpellier.

The difference between the mean temperature of the coldest and warmest months in the year in New Zealand is about 20 degrees, at Rome it is 27, at Montpellier 33, at Milan 38, while New York and Quebec, placed in the same latitudes as Wellington and Otago, experience tropical heats in August and polar colds in January.

Snow seldom lies on the ground at the level of the sea in the North Island of New Zealand, and not very often in the Middle Island. But all round the year the summit of the highest mountain in the North Island, Ruapahu, 9000 feet above the level of the sea, and the great mountain chains in the Middle Island, are covered with snow. Ice is occasionally seen in winter from one extremity of New Zealand to the other, but frosts are comparatively slight to the north of Auckland, although the North Cape is occasionally covered with hoar frost.

An idea of the mildness of the temperature at Nelson and Canterbury in the Middle Island may be drawn from the fact of sheep frequently lambing in mid-winter with no greater loss than five or ten per cent.

During the summer months at Auckland the mean maximum temperature of the sun's rays is 101 deg. Fahr. On one cloudless calm day in February, on the banks of the Waikato river, in the interior of the North Island, a thermometer placed in the sun's rays on the ground rose to 126 deg.. The greatest intensity of the solar rays occurs from noon till half past two, when the sun is decreasing in altitude. But this stream of heat from the sun during the summer is not of daily occurrence, for even at Nel-

QUANTITY OF RAIN.

son, perhaps the most sunshiny part of New Zealand, there are about ten days in every summer month during which the sun is more or less veiled by clouds.

In consequence of the agitation of the air produced by the wind, and the moisture the air contains, the heat of the sun is not often hurtful to persons exposed to it. During upwards of ten years' residence in one of the warmest parts of the colony, I only met with one fatal case of coup de soleil, a malady not unusual in New South Wales.

According to the observations hitherto made, most rain falls at New Plymouth and the least at Otago, and more rain falls, and the number of rainy and showery days is greater, in the North Island than in the Middle Island. But great irregularity occurs all over New Zealand in the monthly and annual quantities of rain falling in different years and at different places, although most rain falls ia winter. There are, however, no proper wet and dry seasons in New Zealand; fourteen days seldom pass without rain, and rain rarely continues for three successive days. Heavy rains occasionally occur, although slight when compared with those experienced on the Australian continent. Upwards of three inches of rain fell in twenty-four hours at Auckland in March 1853, and three inches and a half once fell at Nelson in eight hours. The temperature of the rain is sometimes above and sometimes below that of the air.

From the observations hitherto made, it results that more rain falls in New Zealand than at London, but less than that which falls on the west coast of England.

There is more moisture in the atmosphere surrounding New Zealand than in that surrounding England.

WINDS FREQUENT.

Proofs of its presence are given in the luxuriance of the vegetation, the heavy night dews, and the mould which collects on unused shoes and wearing apparel. But it must not be confounded with raw dampness, for it produces an exquisite softness of the skin, and settlers rarely have that unpleasant glazed feeling of the skin so often experienced in dry climates.

This moisture is produced by the evaporation continually going on during dry weather from the South Sea, and it is only necessary to remember that New Zealand stands almost in the centre of the greatest expanse of ocean in the world, to perceive the powerful influence of this cause.

In probably no country in Europe is the atmosphere so frequently agitated by winds as in New Zealand. The mean pressure of the wind at Auckland is nearly a pound on the square foot, and the strongest wind yet registered at Auckland exerted a pressure of thirty-five pounds and a quarter on the square foot, equivalent to a velocity of eighty-four miles and a half per hour. A gale is indicated by a velocity of fifty miles an hour. The winds in New Zealand increase in force and frequency as we advance southwards from the North Cape. Cook's and Foveaux's Straits are celebrated for stiff breezes and gales.

At Nelson, standing at the bottom of Tasman's Bay, fourteen gales on an average of seven years occurred annually, and at Auckland eight. All round the coasts of New Zealand a sea breeze occasionally blows in summer.

We have only to remember that with every breath we cast out vast quantities of dead animal matter which is swept away by the wind, to perceive the influence

HOT WIND.

which a constant agitation in the atmosphere has on the health.

In several places on the eastern coast, and in the interior where there are mountain chains ascending about 3000 feet above the level of the sea, a hot dry wind is occasionally experienced in summer. This hot wind melts the snow on the summits of the mountains in the Middle Island, swells the rivers fed from these sources, and rushing down on the plains in different directions, according to the shape of the valleys, raisers the thermometer twenty or thirty degrees. Fortunately for vegetation, this hot wind is generally the precursor of rain.

Different theories have been propounded as to the cause of this wind. It is probably an elevated current of the hot wind from the Australian continent, which is interrupted and directed downwards on certain places by the high mountains, while the lower current of this Australian hot wind is generally, not always entirely, cooled by passing over the surface of the sea before reaching the western coast of New Zealand.

That this hot wind is not produced by the plains in New Zealand, is almost proved by the wind being as warm at the foot of the snowy range of mountains in the Canterbury plain as at the coast. 14

That the wind is derived from Australia is inferred from vessels sailing from New Zealand to Sydney having been kept back for days at a long distance from the Australian coast by hot winds, 15 and from the occasional occurrence of a wind of about 70 deg. being experienced at

OTHER ELEMENTS.

Auckland, and other places on the western coast of the North Island, when westerly winds with fine weather have been blowing for several successive days in summer.

According to the observations recorded, the air exerts a greater pressure over the North than over the Middle Island. During the prevalence of gales the barometer occasionally ranges from 30.66 to 28.80. The influence of the wind on the atmospheric pressure has been observed all round the coast. The winds in New Zealand, unless of considerable force, are so modified by the shape of the islands that they are nothing but eddies from the great polar and equatorial currents. Generally wind from the equator brings rain and depresses the thermometer, while southerly or polar winds, which are frequently accompanied with fine weather, raises it. In the neighbourhood of high mountains, for example the Kaikoras in the Middle Island, the barometer occasionally moves without any obvious atmospheric disturbance.

There occurred at Nelson during eleven years, two solar haloes, twenty lunar haloes, and five extraordinary tides, phenomena said to affect the climate of countries; and this may be taken as an average of the frequency of their occurrence for the whole of New Zealand. The atmosphere on the coast is not much disturbed by thunderstorms, but in the neighbourhood of high mountains these phenomena are more frequent. Eleven thunderstorms occurred every year at Nelson, and at New Plymouth seven.

Fogs are not frequent in the northern parts of New Zealand, but they increase in number and duration as we advance southwards. These fogs impede the action

INFLUENCE ON VEGETATION.

of the compass. Hail storms occur. The Aurora Australis is occasionally seen from the Middle Island. Shooting stars are not so frequent as in England, and the heaven is rarely lit up with meteors of any great brilliancy.

These are the elements of the climate of New Zealand, and under its fertilising influence every European plant grows in the colony, while the geranium, arum, fuschia, balsam, myrtle, heliotrope, and Cape bulbs live in the open air. Flowers blow quickly, but the fragrance of the lily and the rose are not equal to that exhaled from lilies and roses in England. Figs, peaches, grapes, nectarines, plums, and melons ripen in the open air side by side with apples and pears; but the temperature in summer is not sufficiently warm in the southern parts of the colony to bring these delicate fruits to high perfection. At Nelson, in the Middle Island, melons, grapes, and nectarines ripen better than in any other part of New Zealand.

Camphor, spices, and the luscious fruits of Oriental orchards do not ripen in any parts of New Zealand, although the taro and sweet potato, originally brought by the natives from the tropics, still survive, and are cultivated for food by the aborigines living north of Banks's Peninsula. Potatoes and maize ripen side by side on the North Island, a circumstance rarely observed in Europe. The aloe, which seeds in South America in four years, and in England with difficulty after a long series of years, seeds in the neighbourhood of Auckland in eleven years.

An idea of the seasons in New Zealand may be drawn from English strawberries being ripe in November, December, and January; cherries and gooseberries in

INFLUENCE ON SETTLERS.

January; apples, pears, plums, and peaches in February; and melons, figs, and grapes in March and April. Spring, in short, commences in September, summer in December, autumn in April, and winter in June. The summer mornings, even in the warmest parts of the colony, are sufficiently fresh to exhilarate without chilling, and the seasons glide imperceptibly into each other. The days are an hour shorter at each end of the day in summer, and an hour longer in winter, than in England. The beauty of the day is in the early morning, and at this hour, away from the settlements of men, a solemn stillness pervades the air, which is only broken by the shrill and tinkling voices of birds. Summer nights are often singularly beautiful and mild, and on such occasions the settlers are frequently enticed from their houses to wander about in the open air.

Happily the climate is as favourable to the health of the settlers as it is to vegetation and beauty. Captain Cook, ninety years ago, remarked the healthy state of his ship's crew while beating about the coasts of the colony, and subsequent experience has furnished convincing proofs that Anglo-Saxon settlers multiply fast by births, and die slowly from disease. Evidence of the fecundity of the settlers is furnished by the census return, but there are no materials among the civil population for proving their healthfulness, except the sickness and mortality among the soldiers stationed in the colony. Fortunately conclusions drawn from this source are admitted to be the best standard for measuring the salubrity of the climate of any colony, because soldiers in every British regiment of the line are about the same age, feed on the same quantity and quality of food, are exposed to the same injurious agents, and perform

HIGH SALUBRITY

nearly the same amount of labour, wherever they live. One fact it is requisite to remember, civilians invariably suffer less sickness than soldiers, because soldiers lead unnatural lives, sleep in crowded and ill-ventilated rooms, are deprived of much sleep, are insufficiently fed, and from the want of interesting mental occupation, and not having to provide for the hour of sickness, are more inconsiderate than civilians.

Notwithstanding these drawbacks, the soldiers stationed in New Zealand enjoyed better health than soldiers stationed in any other portion of Her Majesty's colonial possessions. During the five years ending March 1853, residence in New Zealand saved the lives of eight soldiers annually out of every thousand who would have died had the troops been quartered in the United Kingdom, 16 and it is now in my power to confirm this important conclusion by more extended inquiries.

From Tables II. and III. it will be seen:

1st. That 505 men out of every thousand were annually admitted into hospital in New Zealand, which is one half less than what occurs among infantry soldiers in the United Kingdom. 17

2nd. That five soldiers died annually out of every thousand in New Zealand from disease, which is two thirds less than the mortality among infantry soldiers stationed in the United Kingdom.

PROVED BY TROOPS.

This low mortality was not caused by sending sick men to England; for during the period over which the present observations extend very few men were invalided.

3rd. That twenty-two soldiers were constantly in hospital out of every thousand, whereas in England forty soldiers out of every thousand are constantly sick.

In addition to the above deaths from disease among the troops, during the six years enumerated, eleven men were drowned, four committed suicide, and three were accidentally killed.

Intemperance was the direct and indirect cause of the lamentable occurrence of so many suicides, and the frequency of deaths from drowning among the soldiers shows that the early settlers had some grounds for reckoning drowning among the natural modes of death in the colony.

Health conclusions drawn from the foregoing materials are applicable to the whole North Island, because during the years enumerated soldiers were quartered at the Bay of Islands, Auckland, New Plymouth, Napier, Wanganui, and Wellington, and no part of the force was engaged in actual hostilities.

It may be seen from Table IV., that the proportional number of persons attacked with almost any disease in New Zealand was less than what occurs in England; and according to Table V. the mortality by any disease, save one, is less in New Zealand than in England.

Diseases of the brain are more fatal among troops in New Zealand than in England; but most of the deaths under this head occurred from apoplexy, caused by

CONSUMPTION RARE.

drinking spirits to great excess: for example, one of the fatal cases was that of a man who dropped down dead after drinking off a pint of spirits at a draught.

The remarkably low mortality among the troops stationed in New Zealand is caused by the small number of deaths from fevers and diseases of the lungs. It is, however, the low mortality from the latter class of diseases which chiefly makes the climate so favourable for health; because in the United Kingdom ten men die annually out of every 1000 from diseases of the lungs, 18 whereas in New Zealand the mortality is only two and a half men per 1000, or five out of every 2000 men. Admissions into hospital and deaths from consumption are, in short, fewer in New Zealand than in the healthiest of the other foreign stations of the British army, as may be seen in Table VI.

It is worthy of remark that among the civil male population in England between twenty and forty years of age, 4-5 per cent, die annually from diseases of the lungs; 19 whereas among the troops in New Zealand the deaths were much below this.

It yet remains to be proved whether the duration of life will be extended among Anglo-Saxons resident in New Zealand. Without any statistical data it is inferred that it will be so, because the mortality among children and adults is low, and the climate gives to the aged an ease and comfort which neither wealth nor skill can produce in England.

No season can be reckoned unhealthy in New Zealand.

INDIAN INVALIDS.

Even the winter months, which within the temperate zone invariably cause most deaths, pass over the settlers almost unindicated by an increased mortality.

New Zealand will be found an invaluable residence for Europeans who have lost their health in India, China, or the warm districts of Australia. This is proved by the low mortality which occurs in New Zealand from fevers, liver complaints, and diseases of the stomach and bowels; maladies which drive Europeans from India and the tropics to search for health at the Cape of Good Hope, Egypt, Malta, and other countries. To "old Indians," who have suffered from no obvious organic disease, but whose minds and bodies are exhausted by the high temperature of the tropics, New Zealand will be found a peculiarly healthy residence. One fact maybe mentioned in proof of this. In 1847 Her Majesty's government sent out two battalions of enrolled pensioners for service in New Zealand. Those men were all old soldiers, and a large proportion of them had been invalided from the army for diseases contracted while serving in the East and West Indies. During the four years ending March 1853, the mortality among this force was sixteen men annually out of every thousand from disease,and nineteen from all causes; while the mortality among the enrolled pensioners in Great Britain and Ireland, like the New Zealand pensioners a selected class, was, during the eight years ending March 1852, twenty-two men annually out of every thousand.

It would be foreign to speculate here on the causes which produce this remarkable salubrity of the climate of New Zealand to Anglo-Saxons; but it probably arises

CAUSES OF SALUBRITY.

from the evenness of the temperature at all seasons, the constant agitation the wind produces in the atmosphere, and the circumstance that, from whatever quarter the wind blows, it passes over a wide expanse of ocean; in addition to which, the country contains few physical sources of disease.

12 See Appendix.

13 Notes of a Traveller. By G. S. Laing, Esq. Second edition: London, 1842.

14 Captain Drury, K.N., Observations on the Meteorology of New-Zealand.

15 Strzelecki's Physical History of New South Wales, 1845.

16 Further Papers laid before Parliament concerning New Zealand, 7th August, 1851. New Zealand General Government Gazette, December, 1853.

17 Statistical Reports on the Sickness and Mortality of the Troops in the United Kingdom, presented to both Houses of Parliament by Her Majesty's command, 1853.

18 If the Sanitary Commissioners' report were strictly enforced this sad amount of mortality from consumption would be much diminished.

19 Eighteenth Report of Registrar General. Census, April, 1851.

CHAPTER III. MIGRATION OF THE ABORIGINES TO NEW ZEALAND.

[Inserted unpaginated page with map]

MAP SHEWING THE ROUTE BY WHICH THE MALAYS MIGRATED FROM SUMATRA TO NEW ZEALAND.
Published by John Murray, Albemarle St. 1860. W.West lith.

CHAP. III.

MIGRATION OF THE ABORIGINES TO NEW ZEALAND.

Two races on islands in Pacific Ocean. – Malay origin of Polynesians. – Polynesian ideas of geography. – Evidence of the Malay route to Polynesia. – Date of Malay migration to Polynesia. – Proof of Malay origin of New Zealanders. – New Zealanders migrated from Navigators' Islands through Rarotonga, &c. – History of migration. – Arrival in New Zealand. – Probability of traditions. – One migration to New Zealand. – Date of arrival in New Zealand. – Number of settlers from Hawaiki. – Value of traditions.

THE first human inhabitants of New Zealand were the ancestors of the present aborigines, or the Maori, as they call themselves. Whence these men sprung, how and when they migrated to the country, it is now requisite to narrate.

Two races of human beings, a brown and a black-skinned, inhabit the islands scattered over the Pacific Ocean. The brown race occupy all the islands from the Sandwich group in the Northern hemisphere to New Zealand in the Southern, and from the Tonga group in the west to Easter Island in the east. The black race people the islands extending from the Fejees to New Guinea both inclusive.

Certain physical features distinguish each race. Those with brown complexions have generally lank hair and scanty beards, and speak essentially the same tongue, although divided into many dialects; while the black race, numbering several varieties of men and speaking several distinct languages, have frizzly but not woolly

POLYNESIANS.

hair, and abundant beards. French naturalists call the islands the black race occupy Melanesia, or the islands of black men, while Polynesia is applied to the islands peopled by the brown race. Intermixture has occurred between the black and brown races at their points of junction; 300 miles across the trade wind, from the Fejee Islands to the Tonga Islands, being a voyage of no difficulty to a maritime people.

The Polynesians, or brown-skinned race, have been again subdivided into Micronesians and Polynesians Proper. The former occupy the Pelew, Caroline, Marianne, and Tarawa Islands; and the latter the Sandwich, Navigators', Marquesas, Tonga, Society Islands, the Dangerous Archipelago, Easter Island, and New Zealand. The Micronesians are distinguished from the Polynesians Proper by their low stature, their language Mongolian conformation, and absence of the system of Tapu. Between the Micronesians and the Polynesians Proper there is as much difference as there is between Dutchmen and Englishmen.

Ethnologists have clearly established that the Polynesians Proper are sprung from the Malay family of the human race, 20 and Mr. Hale, the best authority on the migrations of the Polynesians, is of opinion that the Samoa or Navigators' Islands were first occupied, and that from them all the other Polynesian islands were peopled. 21

It is easy to comprehend how the Malays moved from one island in the Indian Archipelago to another, but

ABODE OF MALAYS.

their migration to the more distant Navigators' Islands appears beset with physical impediments, which difficulties vanish, however, on a close examination into the subject.

Sumatra was the birthplace of the Malays, and at present they are living everywhere on the islands in the Indian Archipelago, and seldom on the continent of Asia. The Malays are universally known as a bold, piratical, maritime, commercial, and partially industrious race. In A.D. 1160 they issued out of Sumatra and founded Singhapura, and a century afterwards Malacca. 22 These migrations were made in ships, as the Malays at an early period possessed extensive fleets. 23 For ages Malay fleets have habitually resorted to Australia, and at the present day 200 Malay proas, according to Captain King, annually frequent the northern coasts of that continent to fish. On these expeditions the Malays, accompanied by their wives and children, were prepared to take up their permanent or temporary abode on any favourable locality.

Let the mind wander to the tropical island of Sumatra, and imagine a hundred Malay proas setting out at the commencement of the westerly monsoon upon a fishing and migratory expedition. On board the fleet are women and children, food to eat during the voyage, and seed to plant in any country where the people may land. Dogs, man's constant companions in every part of the world, jump on board, and rats have taken up their habitation in the proas without leave. A few days' sail brings the fleet to Borneo or some part of Java. From Java to Timor on the northern coast

MALAY MIGRATION

of Australia the transition is easy; and from Timor to the Navigators' Islands the distance is 3000 miles in almost a due east direction, with several resting-places on the route.

It is now ascertained that the wind generally blows from the east in the Pacific; but the trade winds are so modified in the Southern hemisphere, that from October to April a north-west wind blows from the line to south lat. 15 deg., which wind occasionally extends into the Pacific Ocean. 24 Mr. Williams, a missionary, sailed 1600 miles due east to the Navigators' Islands in a few days, 25 consequently this north-west trade wind would be a fair breeze from Timor, through Torres Straits, to those islands.

As the Malays were ignorant of the very existence of the Navigators' Islands, the question naturally arises, what induced them to steer their fleet so far from land as to come into contact with that group? The explanation of this question is simple and probable. The Polynesians have an idea, which probably originated among their Malay ancestors while living in the Indian Archipelago, that the ocean is dotted over with islands; they therefore imagine they have nothing to do but launch their canoes, select a course, and steer boldly forward, to arrive at land; for, although ignorant of the compass, the Polynesians have names for the cardinal points, and steer by the stars. It was this grand principle of selecting a course which brought the Malay fleet to the Navigators' Islands; for grant that the proas took a due east course from the southern extremity of the island of Timor, placed in south latitude 10 deg., the

TO POLYNESIA.

island of Guinea would stop their progress. Finding it peopled, the fleet would coast along to its southern extremity, whence the proas would again resume their voyage in the same due east course upon which they started; steering on which line kept the fleet clear of the New Hebrides and Fejee Islands, and brought it direct on the Navigators' Islands.

This Polynesian custom of selecting a course before sailing is still adopted in the present day. Mr. John Williams searched in vain for the island of Rarotonga until he took his vessel to the native starting-point for Rarotonga in the island of Mauke; here he looked at the compass, when the natives called out, from observing the landmarks, the direction Rarotonga lay, and he found the course thus given as accurate as if it had been laid down by a skilful navigator.

From the Malay and Polynesian custom of giving new places similar names to those from which they came, evidence is furnished that the Malay route to Polynesia just given is the correct one. New South Wales and New Zealand derive their civilised names from a modification of this law. It will be observed that several places in the Indian Archipelago have analogous names to Samoa or Savii, the Polynesian name of the Navigators' Islands; Sama in Malay signifies "like as," Samoa "all together." Thus in close proximity to Timor, there is a small island called Samoa; the southern extremity of Timor is called Sammow, and there is a Sumbava, Sama, Java, and other names in the Archipelago resembling Samoa in sound. Even the birthplace of the Malays, Suma-tra, the derivation of which term is unknown, cannot fail to strike both the eye and the ear. The migration of the Polynesians from one island to

DATE OF MALAY MIGRATION.

the other in the Pacific Ocean, may be traced by their adherence to this custom of giving new places old familiar names.

The date of the migration of the Malays to Polynesia is not entirely buried in oblivion. From the remains of some Hindoo and Jewish customs among the New Zealand branch of the Polynesian race, and the entire absence of anything like Mahomedan customs, it is inferred that the Malay migration from the Indian Archipelago to Polynesia took place after the Hindoo influence began to prevail there, and before the arrival of the Mahomedan traders and settlers from Arabia. Indian colonies were established in Java in the first century after Christ. 26 According to Javanese annals, the first arrival of the Hindoos in the Indian Archipelago from Western India occurred about A.D. 800, 27 and the Mahomedan migration to the Archipelago began in A.D. 1278. The date of the last migration is probably correct, that of the Hindoos being more distant is uncertain. From these two great events, it is inferred that the Malay ancestors of the Polynesians left the Indian Archipelago soon after the commencement of the Christian era, and certainly before A.D. twelve hundred and seventy-eight.

The great difference between the Malay and the Polynesian languages would lead to an inference that a much longer separation than ten or twelve centuries had occurred; but the modern Malay dialect is very different from the ancient one, because the Mahomedans introduced among the Malays an Arabic alphabet and many new words. This introduction of an alphabet has

NEW ZEALANDERS MALAYS.

an important bearing on the subject, as the Malay settlers in Polynesia must have been entirely ignorant of it; for no Polynesian' race, judging of the past generations from the present, would have forgotten the art of writing had they ever possessed it. That the Malay emigrants to Polynesia were destitute of an alphabet is supported by the fact, that the highest antiquity assigned to any proper Malay literary work is the advent of the Mahomedans to the Archipelago; and Sir James Brooke found Malays in Borneo entirely destitute of an alphabet. The conversion of the Javanese to Mahomedanism took place in the thirteenth century, and the old religion was abolished in 1478. 28

There are still to be found in the language, customs, physical appearance, and character of the present generation of New Zealanders proofs of their Malay origin. Long separation from the parent stock, and the circumstances just related, have rendered their languages very different. But between the roots and structure of the Malay and New Zealand dialects resemblances can still be detected in words expressing the simplest states of life, such as relationship, numbers up to ten, sensations of taste, sight, pain, and the most obvious natural objects.

All over New Zealand, the aborigines state that their ancestors migrated to the country from a place called Hawaiki. "The seed of our coming is from Hawaiki, the seed of food, the seed of men." Allusion is also made by the natives, in their traditions on this subject, to a distant and larger Hawaiki, and a nearer or smaller Hawaiki. European-inquirers have differed in opinion as to the situation of this country, because there are several islands in the Pacific Ocean to which the term

MIGRATION FROM NAVIGATORS' ISLANDS

Hawaiki bears a strong resemblance. Thus there occur the names of Savii in the Navigators' Islands, Hawaii in the Sandwich Islands, Habai in the Tonga Islands, Atukaki in the Harvey group, and of Hevava and several somewhat similar names in the Marquesas and other groups.

A careful examination into this interesting question has led me to infer that the New Zealanders' Hawaiki is the Savii of the Navigators' Islands; a conclusion supported by a considerable amount of evidence. In one tradition of the New Zealanders it is related that Waerota, Rarotonga, Waeroti, Parima, and Manono are islands near Hawaiki. 29 New Zealanders of the present generation pronounce these names mechanically in reciting the tradition, and are ignorant of the geographical position of these places and of everything relating to them. It is therefore left for the curious to fill up this blank in traditional history; and, fortunately, there is not much ingenuity required in doing so. Rarotonga is one of the largest islands of Harvey's group, but it is not the New Zealanders' Hawaiki, because the inhabitants of Rarotonga state that their ancestors also came from Awaiki. 30 The situation of Waerota and Waeroti are unknown; but Parima and Manono are the native names of two islands in the Navigators' group, the inhabitants of which have no tradition like the New Zealanders and the Harvey islanders that their ancestors originally came from Hawaiki, although they admit having sprung from the neighbouring island of Savii. There are other proofs. The ancestors of the New

TO NEW ZEALAND.

Zealanders brought with them dogs and rats. In the island of Manono there are wild dogs 31 resembling the domestic dogs seen by Captain Cook on his arrival in New Zealand; and the almost extinct New Zealand rat is like the rats found in the Navigators' Islands and Rarotonga. In addition to which, the small finger-shaped sweet potato, the gourd, and the taro, the seeds of which the ancestors of the New Zealanders brought with them to New Zealand, are indigenous in the Navigators' Islands.

For these reasons it is inferred that the ancestors of the New Zealanders migrated from the Navigators' Islands through Rarotonga, because the latter island is still denominated the road to Hawaiki, and is described as lying on this side of it. In support of this opinion tradition states that some of the New Zealanders' canoes were built at Rarotonga, at which island the New Zealanders may have remained for some generations; because the natives of Rarotonga declare that their ancestors arrived from Hawaiki twenty-nine generations ago, 32 which is several generations longer than the New Zealanders have occupied New Zealand.

No light is thrown on the origin of the New Zealanders from the name Maori which they call themselves. This word rendered, by linguists "native," is used in contradistinction to pakeha, or stranger.

The motives which caused the New Zealanders to migrate from Hawaiki are not forgotten. There is a tradition that a civil war in Hawaiki caused a chief named Ngahue to flee from the country, who after a long voyage reached New Zealand, and returned to Hawaiki with pieces of greenstone, and the bones of a

EMIGRANT CANOES

gigantic moa slain near Tauranga in New Zealand. Received by his kindred as one risen from the dead, Ngahue was held in high estimation, and like other travellers he spread abroad glowing accounts of the fertility of the soil in New Zealand, the excellence of the fish in the sea, the immense size of the eels in the rivers, and the number of birds and plants suitable for food in the woods. Strife had not ceased when Ngahue returned to Hawaiki, and the weaker party, in order to save their lives, determined to migrate to this newly discovered land. 33 Other traditions make Kupe the Columbus of the country.

No sooner was the migration determined upon than canoes suitable for the voyage were built. By some traditions this was done at Rarotonga. All were double canoes, and were named the Arawa, Tainui, Matatua, Takitumu, Kurahaupo, Tokomaru, Matawhaorua, and Aotea, but there were six or seven other canoes whose names have not come down to us. Everything being ready, the emigrants put on board the canoes seeds of the sweet potato, karaka berries, gourds, taros, rats, parrots, pukekos, dogs, and a quantity of sacred red paint. All the fleet started together, and as the canoes were pushed off an old chief cried, "Depart in peace, and when you reach the place you are going to, do not follow after the deeds of Tu the god of war; depart and dwell in peace with all men, leave war and strife behind you." When night came, a storm arose, the fleet was scattered, and each canoe proceeded on its own course. Quarrels and incidents which occurred during the voyage in several of the

LANDING IN NEW ZEALAND.

canoes are still remembered. Most of those disputes originated about women, while discussions arose whether the canoe should be steered "towards the quarter in which the sun flares up, or proceed towards that quarter in the heavens where the sun sets." During the voyage some of the fleet sighted islands, where the canoes were dragged on shore, the old seam-lashings ripped out, and the vessels refitted.

The Hawaiki fleet reached New Zealand when the pohutukaua and rata trees were covered with blossoms. It was consequently summer, and the emigrants, like the survivors of a wreck, scattered themselves over the country. To appease the spirit of the land for their intrusion humiliating prayers were said; one uttered by a chief on this celebrated occasion is still preserved as a modern charm: –

"I arrive where an unknown earth is under my feet,
I arrive where a new sky is above me,
I arrive at this land
A resting-place for me.
O spirit of the earth! the stranger humbly offers his heart as food for thee."

Several families on board, captivated with the beauty and fertility of certain bays seen as the canoes coasted along, landed and settled before the great chiefs disembarked, and others went on shore to examine the country. There were then no human inhabitants on the islands; conflicts which occurred several centuries ago have been magnified by tradition into combats between the first emigrants and the original inhabitants of New Zealand; but there is no truth in these accounts. As the crews of all the canoes landed at different places, every tribe has its own ancestral story on this subject, and several of these legends are not destitute of interest.

TAINUI AND ARAWA CANOES

The Tainui canoe brought to New Zealand the ancestors of the now powerful Waikato and Thames nations. This vessel first touched land at Wangaparaoa, a peninsula in the Hauraki Gulf, near Auckland; it was paddled up the Tamaki river to Otahuhu, and thence it sailed round the North Cape, touching at Kaipara and Manukau on the west coast. The beautiful harbour of Kawhia at last tempted the commander to land, and here the canoe was dragged on shore. The names of twenty-three chiefs brought in the Tainui canoe from Hawaiki are still remembered, and the present generation resident at Kawhia point out a limestone rock as the remnant of this famous vessel. One tradition states the Tainui canoe was dragged across the portage at Otahuhu to the west coast.

The Arawa emigrant canoe was beached at Maketu, in the Bay of Plenty, and the spot where this was done is still sacred. The Arawa sighted New Zealand a little to the north of Auckland; it touched at the Great Barrier and Mercury Islands, and at Tauranga. Some of the emigrants in the Arawa settled at Maketu, others at Rotorua, and thence they extended to Wanganui. The natives sprung from this canoe have the character of possessing the thievish propensities of their ancestor, Tama te Kapua.

The Kurahaupo canoe first touched the East Cape, and was dragged on shore at Turanga. In this vessel arrived the ancestors of the Poverty Bay tribes, and the natives occupying the country around and to the north of the Bay of Islands.

The Matatua canoe was beached at Whakatane, in the Bay of Plenty, and from her crew sprung several of the east coast tribes. The descendants of this canoe have the reputation of keeping their words.

LEADERS OF EMIGRANTS.

The canoe named Aotea was commanded by the illustrious Turi, and it brought to New Zealand the ancestors of the Wanganui tribes. This canoe, after sighting the east coast of the North Island, rounded Cape Palliser, sailed through and touched at several places in Cook's Straits, coasted along the west coast, and was beached at Aotea, whence the settlers marched along the sea shore to Wanganui, and Turi made an excursion to Wairarapa, during which he named all the places he passed.

The Tokomaru canoe first made the Great Barrier, sailed round the North Cape, and coasted along, and entered the Waitara river near Taranaki. In this vessel the ancestors of the west coast Atiawas, or Ngatiawas,; came to the country. Tradition states that New Zealand was first discovered in this canoe by the barking of a dog on board.

It would serve no useful purpose to give the history of the other canoes. The North Island was first peopled, and as a proof of this, the South means up, and the North down. Every tribe remembers the names of the chiefs among the emigrants, and some of these men are deified. It is only necessary to mention the names of Tainui, Turi, Kupe, Manaia, Horturoa, Ngahue, and others, to perceive the high estimation in which these emigrant leaders from Hawaiki are still held in the hearts of the people.

These stories concerning the migration and advent of the natives of New Zealand, denuded as they are of their traditional absurdities, bear the stamp of truth, for the ancestors of the New Zealanders possessed greater knowledge of geography and navigation than the present generation. Tried by the test of probability there was nothing to prevent the Polynesians

PROBABILITY OF TRADITIONS.

migrating from the Navigators' Islands to New Zealand. Double canoes, admirable sea-boats now almost forgotten by the New Zealanders, were the means of transport. From Parima or Manono in the Navigators' Islands the voyage to Rarotonga could be easily accomplished, for between these islands there was formerly much intercourse. At Rarotonga, the emigrants evidently stopped, and probably several tribes settled on that island, as the Rarotonga and New Zealand dialects are wonderfully alike. Even if the traditions of Ngahue and Kupe having discovered New Zealand before the sailing of the emigrants were untrue, the Polynesian idea that the ocean is covered with islands would encourage a maritime people uncomfortably placed at home to migrate. The Middle Island of New Zealand, the Chatham Islands, and the Auckland Islands, owe part of their inhabitants to this cause. It is therefore probable that the canoes of the emigrants at Rarotonga were placed in the direction of New Zealand, to avoid the Tonga and Fejee Islands, the situation of which they knew, and to obtain the aid of the trade wind which always blows 30 deg. south of the line, and occasionally extends to New Zealand. Three thousand miles separate Rarotonga from New Zealand, a distance which might be easily sailed over in less than a month. When New Zealanders are asked where Hawaiki is, they point in the direction of Rarotonga; and that this is the true direction in which the island whence they last came lies, is confirmed by every emigrant canoe having first sighted the east coast of New Zealand.

Captain Beechy relates a modern instance of Polynesian migration which gives to the foregoing narrative the air of reality. When old Pomare, the king of Ta-

A CANOE VOYAGE.

hiti, one of the Society Islands, died, some of the natives of Anaa, an island 300 miles to the eastward, wished to pay, in the year 1824, a visit of congratulation to his son and successor. Three large double canoes were got ready for the voyage, and in each about fifty persons embarked, with provisions for three weeks. In only one canoe is the proportion of the sexes given, and in it there embarked twenty-three men, fifteen women, and ten children. On departing, the islanders assembled to bid them farewell. The canoes were placed with scrupulous exactness in the direction of Tahiti, and the bearings of the course were marked by certain stars. The wind was fair when they sailed; but unfortunately that year the monsoon began earlier than usual, and a storm arose which scattered them, and drove them, off their course. One battered canoe reached Barrow's Island, where thirteen months were spent in repairing it, and in drying fish for the completion of the voyage. On reembarking a westerly course was taken, but on reaching Byam Martin's Island the crew were again obliged to stop to repair the canoe, and here Captain Beechey saw them, eight months after their arrival. They then numbered forty souls, were living in huts, and the canoe was drawn on shore in good repair. Eight persons had already perished since starting, and the other two canoes were never heard of. This voyage shows the principle and spirit of Polynesian navigators, when on a long voyage. 34 Other European navigators have met Polynesian canoes, filled with both sexes, passing from island to island in the Pacific Ocean.

My own inquiries have led me to conclude that New

ONE MIGRATION TO NEW ZEALAND.

Zealand was peopled from one source and at one time; but the Rev. Mr. Maunsell thinks the New Zealanders have sprung from different islands, in consequence of three lingual peculiarities. 35 The Ngapuhi nation, living in the neighbourhood of the Bay of Islands, pronounce h as if it were sh, and Hongi is rendered by them Shongi. The Taranaki natives do not pronounce the h at all, but supply its place by a curious jerk in the voice; hei becomes ei, and hohoro, orra in their mouths. Some tribes in the Bay of Plenty do not give Ng the singular nasal sound of good-Maori linguists, and in its place use Na.

These and similar peculiarities of language are slight when contrasted with the manner in which English is spoken in different counties with us, and are not sufficient, in my opinion, to prove that the New Zealanders have sprung from different sources.

Mr. Hale 36 states that about the year 1740 a party of Polynesians arrived at the Bay of Islands from Hawaiki; and, if this were true, the inference is that the emigration to New Zealand from Polynesia has been going on until very lately. Careful personal inquiry, in the year 1850, on the spot where Mr. Hale received his information, enables me to state that he has been misinformed, for no modern migration from Polynesia to New Zealand has occurred. About the year 1830 a canoe-load of emigrants sailed from the Mayor Island in the Bay of Plenty for Hawaiki, and they have never since been heard of.

Time has blotted out from the mind of the New Zealanders the number of years which have elapsed

DATE OF ADVENT.

since the arrival of their ancestors, but information on this interesting subject has been obtained from an indirect source. It was the custom of the priests of several tribes to keep nominal lists of their hereditary chiefs, and for this purpose sticks were fashioned upon which a notch was made as each warrior died. These sticks were preserved by the priests and called Papatupuna, and it was the duty of these holy men to preserve this ancestral knowledge in the people's memories, in order to accomplish which they occasionally repeated before the assembled multitude the names of the tribe's dead chiefs.

From a careful examination of several of these genealogical trees, I conclude there have been about twenty generations of chiefs since the arrival of the first settlers from Hawaiki. Seeing that in England, from the days of William the Conqueror to William the Fourth, thirty-five sovereigns reigned in 771 years, it follows that including those who died of violent deaths, 22 1/35 years, was the average period of each reign. Giving to each New Zealand chief the same length of rule as the English sovereigns, it results that the Polynesians arrived in New Zealand 440 years ago, or about A.D. 1419, a date corresponding with that of the arrival of the gipsies in Europe.

Much confidence has been placed in this inquiry on two genealogical trees relating to tribes in the Bay of Plenty and Rotorua, called Ngaiterangi and Ngatiwhakaue, because the ancestral records of these two tribes were carefully investigated before the resident magistrate of Rotorua, in order to ascertain which had a right to the island of Motiti; and the statements of each party were carefully inquired into by the opposite as

NUMBER OF EMIGRANTS.

regards their accuracy. It requires an event like this to excite the New Zealanders to tax their memories about their ancestors. Delicacy, or a fear of saying what might produce mischief, makes them avoid the subject unless specially pressed upon them.

Traditionary evidence there is none regarding the number of immigrants which disembarked in New Zealand from Hawaiki. As the settlers arrived in ten or fifteen large canoes it is not difficult to estimate their probable numbers. If it be admitted that each canoe contained about fifty people, the number in the canoes which sailed from Anaa for Tahiti, then the early settlers would have been about 800 souls, and if they increased at the moderate rate of doubling themselves every fifty-five years, the population of New Zealand when Captain Cook landed in it would have been about 100,000, the number Dr. Forster then rated the people at. 37

It is requisite here to state that the traditions of the New Zealanders about most things are so vague and uncertain that it is often difficult to separate truth from error. There is, however, sufficient resemblance amongst the stories of different tribes on this subject to entitle them to credibility. Doubts about their historical truth are not, however, mentally derogatory to the New Zealanders, as true traditionary knowledge is rare among all races of men. Generation after generation has asked who built the Pyramids of Egypt, the Round Towers of Ireland, and the Ruins of Salisbury Plain. The Goths were more unacquainted with their migration from Scandinavia, and the European nations are more ignorant of the origin of the gipsies, than the New Zealanders are about the abode of their ancestors.

20 Humboldt's Dissertation on the Language of Java. Latham, Pritchard, Williams.

21 Ethnology and Physiology of the United States' Exploring Expedition from 1838 to 1842. By Horatio Hale. Philadelphia, 1840.

22 Life of Sir Stamford Baffles: Crawford's Indian Archipelago.

23 Marsden's History of Sumatra.

24 Captain King's Survey; Jukes's Voyage of the Fly.

25 Missionary Enterprise.

26 Wilson; Journal of the Asiatic Society, vol. v.

27 Memoirs of Sir Stamford Raffles, vol. i. p. 261.

28 Crawford's History of the Indian Archipelago; Low's Sarawak.

29 Ko te Hekenga Mai; Sir George Grey's Poems, Traditions, and Chaunts of the Maoris.

30 Williams's Missionary Enterprise.

31 Williams's Missionary Enterprise, p. 500.

32 Ibid.

33 Ko Poutini me Whaiapu, Sir George Grey's Traditions.

34 Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, &c. By Captain Beechey. London, 1831.

35 Grammar of the New Zealand Language, 1842.

36 Ethnology of the United States' Exploring Expedition.

37 Forster's Observations.

CHAPTER IV. PHYSICAL FORM, DISFIGURATIONS, LANGUAGE, MENTAL FACULTIES, AND CHARACTER OF NEW ZEALANDERS.

CHAP. IV.

PHYSICAL FORM, DISFIGURATIONS, LANGUAGE, MENTAL FACULTIES, AND CHARACTER OF NEW ZEALANDERS.

Physical form. – New Zealanders a mixed race. – Strength. – Deformities. – Disfigurations. – Tattooing. – Mode of tattooing. – Objects of. – Perforating the nose. – Depilation. – Cutting the flesh. – Muscular contortions. – Other disfigurations. – Language. – Mental faculties. – Imagination. – Reason and judgment. – Character.

THE physical form of the Polynesians, to whom the name of New Zealanders can now be given, is as follows. In stature they almost equal Englishmen, and they are taller than the inhabitants of the temperate countries of the continent of Europe, the average height of the male sex being five feet six inches and a quarter. Chiefs by birth are not taller than free born men, but they are taller and better developed than slaves. The tallest New Zealander who came under my observation was six feet five inches and a half. In bodily weight and girth of chest New Zealanders are equal to Englishmen; ten stone avoirdupois being their average weight without clothes. Their bodily shape is peculiar, and this peculiarity consists in having longer bodies and longer arms with shorter legs than Englishmen of similar stature. The lengthening of the arms occurs in the fore-arms, and the shortening of the legs in the bones below the knee; the leg bones of New

PHYSICAL FORM.

Zealanders are indeed an inch and a half shorter than these bones are in Englishmen. Their long bodies are produced by the size of the spinal bones and the cartilages between these bones.

Such physical peculiarities, although slight, cause a singular difference in the figure of the two races settled in the colony, and no person can behold New Zealanders clad in European apparel without at once detecting they are not Englishmen.

The inferior extremities of New Zealanders are stout, but in consequence of the shortening below the knee the calves of their legs look unusually high up; and in walking they turn in their toes, take shorter steps, and move in narrower paths than Englishmen.

The feet of the New Zealanders are short and broad, and the arch of the foot is often badly developed; their hands are small and tapering.

The head-hair is abundant and generally black, but some have hair with a rusty-red tinge. This red tinge, which is likewise found in the head-hair of other Polynesian races, has been ascribed to the use of alkaline washes, 38 but such is not the case among the New Zealanders. A few have lank head-hair, a few frizzly, but the majority have dark hair with a slight wave in it. The head-hair looks coarse, but when washed, oiled, and brushed, it assumes a raven darkness and a downy softness. Their beards and whiskers, since the custom of extracting the hair has fallen into disuse, are occasionally considerable; but on the trunk it is scanty, and they look with wonder at the hairy frames of Englishmen. Few New Zealanders become bald, although many are grey.

FACIAL EXPRESSION.

Like all people living in a simple state, the New Zealanders have good teeth. The nose is short and broad, with an imperfect bridge, but some have good noses, and many Rotorua natives possess a Jewish style of features.

The skin is of an olive-brown colour, not unlike a seasoned filbert, but it has many shades; some New Zealanders being so fair that blushes can be detected on their faces, while others are so dark that the tattoo marks are seen with difficulty.

The white parts of New Zealanders' eyes are less clear than those parts are in Englishmen; the pupil is dark and large, the iris is brown, never blue, even half-castes rarely have blue eyes, although the progeny of half-castes and Europeans have blue eyes frequently. The mouth is coarse, the face broad, and the upper lip long. The forehead is high, narrow, retreating, and pyramidal; the skin is cool, and the circulation of the blood is slower than in Englishmen.

The size and darkness of the eyes of New Zealanders give to their countenances an air of gravity. In youth the expression is generally open and happy; in middle age sleepy, morose, and thoughtful; while in the old this last expression almost amounts to sadness. From want of intellectual cultivation, there is not much individuality of features, and the soul's emotions are but slightly reflected in their faces.

Travellers have perceived a peculiar and distinctive odour among different races of men. Chinese houses are redolent of musk, Hindoo towns of garlic, and New Zealand huts are characterised by the smell of dried fish.

MIXTURE IN RACE.

The men clad in their native dress look like lions in the forest, in European clothing they are squat and vulgar.

The females are less handsome than the males, although the young are invariably pleasing. The women have very long eyelashes, and the habit girls have got of casting them, as if from lassitude, over their bright restless eyes, throws into their faces an indescribable mildness, while their soft voices give a peculiar sweetness to their language. There is, indeed, a pathos about their voices when speaking, a plaintive pathos when allusions are made to persons dear to them, and an indifference and ease of manner unknown among many other races, which are alike charming to hear and pleasant to see.

The New Zealanders are a mixed race, and may be divided into brown, reddish, and black. Out of a hundred persons eighty-seven have brown skins, with black, straight, and waving hair; ten have reddish brown skins, with short frizzly, or long straight hair, having a rusty red tinge in it; and three have black skins, with dark frizzly hair, which does not, however, spread over the head as in negroes, but grows in tufts, which if allowed to join twist round each other and form spiral ringlets.

Among some tribes the black and reddish men are more numerous than among others. Chiefs are generally brown-coloured, occasionally reddish, rarely black. Every tribe, however, comprises the three varieties, all speak the same language, and all arrived in New Zealand at the same time. Crozet 39 accounted for

STRENGTH. – DEFORMITIES.

this mixture of men, by supposing that New Zealand was formerly inhabited by a black race similar to the Australians, but there is not a tittle of evidence to support this opinion. Even among the Malays in Sumatra there are varieties slightly analogous to those now described among the New Zealanders, although the varieties have been increased among the latter from their having mixed with the Polynesian Micronesians, and the Melanesians, 40 before their arrival in New Zealand.

Persons who delight in thinking that the human race degenerates physically after ages of civilisation, will be surprised to learn that the New Zealanders are not equal to the English in bodily strength. The extent of this inferiority may be put down at fifty pounds; for, on a trial of strength, New Zealand men raised on an average 367 pounds an inch from the ground, and Englishmen 422 pounds. Considering how remarkably similar both races are in stature and bodily weight, such a result would not have been expected, and is only to be accounted for by the fact that a large portion of the food of the New Zealanders is composed of potatoes, a diet which tends to develope the accumulation of fat in the system without adding strength to the muscles. 41 New Zealanders outstrip English settlers in running a hundred yards, but the latter leave the former far behind in a mile race.

Bodily deformities are as common among the New Zealanders as among the English. The most frequent is the

DISFIGURATIONS.

outward or inward turning of one or both feet. Supernumerary fingers and toes are seen; varicose veins in the legs are rare. Young children frequently have umbilical hernia, but this deformity, produced in the first instance by neglect, disappears in adults. Left-handed persons are rarely met with, and the same remark is applicable to deaf and dumb persons. Two-headed children, and other monstrosities, have been witnessed. Persons blind from disease and age are not unfrequent. Five albinoes have been seen, two of whom were half-castes. The unpleasant tongues of stammerers are heard in villages. Flat feet are common, a formation which is no impediment to long walking, although soldiers are rejected for it in the English army. Acute curvature of the spine, the result of disease, is common. Squinting occurs; and persons with stiff joints, unreduced dislocations, and badly united fractures giving rise to deformities, are met with in travelling through the country.

Most races of men have endeavoured to improve the human body by disfiguring it, in which art the New Zealanders have outstripped all others.

First among the New Zealand list of disfigurations is tattooing, a Polynesian word signifying a repetition of taps, but which term is unknown in the language of the New Zealanders; moko being the general term for the tattooing on the face, and whakairo for that on the body.

Tattooing is the most ancient personal disfiguration on record, and it is likewise the most universal. Dampier in 1691 brought to England the first tattooed South Sea islander, a man who was well known in London as the painted prince, at which place he died of smallpox.

TATTOOING.

According to tradition, the first settlers in New Zealand were not tattooed on their faces, but soon after their arrival the custom arose of blackening their faces in going to battle; and when wars became frequent, in order to be always ready, Rauru suggested the idea of rendering the lines permanent. The fact of the natives of Rarotonga and many other Polynesians not tattooing their faces gives to this tradition an air of probability; and, while Rauru only enjoys New Zealand fame, Mataroa, the originator of tattooing the body, has a Polynesian reputation.

The present generation of male New Zealanders tattoo their faces, hips, and thighs; and the women their lips, chins, eyelids, and occasionally straight lines, the offspring of each woman's fancy, are drawn on their bodies. Every line has a name, and among distant tribes the tattoo marks are alike, although the figures tattooed are not made up of the same number of lines.

It is supposed that the figures tattooed have been suggested by the direction of the muscular fibres underneath the skin. But this is not the case; a fish is the paragon of animals in New Zealand, and the tattoo marks are copied from the marks on their backs. It is a badge of royalty with the princes in India to carry among their trappings the emblem of a fish; and among the New Zealanders it is a mark of rank to have the streaks of a fish carefully cut on their bodies.

To tattoo elegantly is a difficult art, and good artists have a fame in New Zealand similar to that of portrait-painters in England. The implements required are, a slight stick, eighteen inches long, as a mallet; and an instrument not unlike a horse-lancet, which is pointed

MODE OF TATTOOING.

either with bone, hard wood, stone, shells, or iron; this instrument differs in shape, to suit the eyelids and other parts. The figure to be tattooed is first painted on the skin, and then the point of the lancet is dipped in a pigment, and driven with the mallet sharply through the skin; it is then withdrawn, wiped clean, and dipped again in the pigment for another insertion. The pigment used is charcoal obtained from various substances; that procured from kauri gum and that from the vegetable caterpillar are held in high estimation. Under the skin the black charcoal looks blue, and time renders the pigment less dark.

Tattooing is a painful process on the eyelids, lips, and face, and, as considerable inflammation follows, only a small portion of the body is, consequently, done at one time. The process is begun about puberty, but manhood or old age is the lot of many before the whole body is completely tattooed. Bodily decay alone destroys the marks, and preserved heads show tattooing entire. New Zealand tattooing is rough to the touch, and deep canals are made in the skin, but among some Polynesians tattooed skins are smooth. Since iron instruments have been adopted by the New Zealanders for tattooing, the scars produced are less rough. The priests were the principal tattooers in the land, and during the operation ancient songs were sung, to encourage, divert the attention, and increase the patience of the sufferers. The following is a specimen of one of these songs: –

"We are sitting eating together,
We are viewing the prints on eyebrows,
And on the nose of Tutetawha;
They are crooked as a lizard's leg;
Tattoo him with the point of Mataroa.

OBJECT OF TATTOOING.

Be not impatient to go to the girl
That gathers you sweet greens
In baskets of Kowhara.
Let every line be traced.
On the rich or great man's body
Let the figures be handsome;
On the man who has no payment to give
Make the lines crooked, leave them open.
Let our songs lull the pain,
And inspire thee with fortitude,
O Hiki Hangaroa! 0 Hiki Hangaroa!"

Tattooing was adopted to inspire terror, as a personal distinction, as an ornament, and to obscure the advance of years. For the last two objects it is now alone kept up, and there is no doubt it makes the young look old and the old young. To look terrible in battle made men formerly submit to the tattoo, but as conflicts are now carried on at a distance with fire-arms, this motive for tattooing has ceased, and fierce kinds of tattooing called moko kuri and moko papa have been discontinued. Tattooing the hips, called rapa, are marks of rank, and although slaves might have their bodies tattooed like chiefs, provided they could reward the artists to do it, yet terror of derision made slaves avoid distinctive marks to which they were not entitled.

During the early intercourse of the settlers with the New Zealanders, pictures of tattooed faces were sometimes marked on land-purchasing deeds in place of signatures, and ethnologists have pointed them out as a form of hieroglyphic writing; but the idea entirely originated with the settlers, although the natives occasionally conveyed information to distant tribes during war by marks on gourds.

Tattooing is now going out of fashion, partly from

CUTTING THE FLESH.

the influence of the missionaries, who described it as the Devil's art, but chiefly from the example of the settlers and the numerous personal ornaments commerce has placed within the reach of all the industrious.

Both sexes perforate the lobes of the ears, from which are suspended pieces of greenstone, sharks' teeth, deceased persons' teeth, birds' feathers, flowers, and various other articles.

The New Zealanders dislike, as much as Eastern nations glory in, hairy faces; and consequently the hair was eradicated from various parts of their bodies with the aid of shell pincers. Beards on tattooed faces are not picturesque, and the proverb of "no wife for the hairy man," made young men carefully pull out every indication of beard or whisker.

When persons died or events occurred which produced grief, the men, but more particularly the women, cut the skin of their faces, arms, and legs with shells, out of which wounds much blood occasionally flowed. This cutting of the flesh is analogous to a similar custom among the Jews. 42

The muscular contortions practised during the war dance, and when singing defiant songs, must be enumerated among the personal disfigurations of the people, for they possess power over muscles Englishmen can scarcely move. Thus the pupil, during the war dance, is at one time entirely concealed, and nothing seen but the white cornea, while at another the upper eyelid is drawn up and the lower eyelid down, so that the dark fixed pupil is beheld surrounded with white. The extent to which the tongue is protruded requires to be seen to be credited.

NEW ZEALAND LANGUAGE.

They also perforated the cartilage between the nostrils, through which, on important occasions, birds' feathers were inserted. Captain Cook only saw one native so disfigured, but many are similarly treated, although it is more common among women than men. The human face, with a feather across it, possesses an indescribable expression, and sailors happily describe this custom as "spritsail-yarding the nose."

Some tribes allowed the right thumb-nail to grow to an extreme length, although they all dread cutting their nails, lest the parings should fall into sorcerers' hands.

At feasts and funerals they disfigured their bodies with red and black pigments.

It has been already mentioned that the New Zealanders speak the Polynesian dialect, a tongue mutually intelligible to all the brown races of men in the Pacific, but not to the black. Identity of words and grammatical construction prove the Malay origin of the Polynesian language, although several writers who look at words more than structure deny this, and in reasoning on the subject forget that the modern Malay language is very different from the Malay spoken by the emigrants who colonised Singapore and Polynesia.

The antiquity and Eastern origin of the Polynesian language are likewise shadowed forth in the familiar use among the New Zealanders of several Sanscrit words: –

English. Sanscrit. New Zealand.
Eye, akshi, kanohi.
Dog, cucura, kuri.
City, puri, pa.
To eat, khana, kai.
Three, treya-tri, toru.
God, Dewa, Atua.

SANSCRIT WORDS IN DIALECT.

English.

Sanscrit,

New Zealand.

Sun,

durya, aryama,

ra, mamaru.

Moon,

ischam-drama,

marama.

Right,

rita,

tika.

To injure or strike,

tu,

tu,

Wine,

kasya

kawa.

To burn,

ka,

khan.

Chief,

raja,

ranga-tira.

Girl,

ghena,

hine.

Purify, Sacred,

pu,

ta-pu.

Fire,

aghni,

ahi.

Two,

dui,

rua.

The New Zealand alphabet consists of fourteen letters. These are A E H I K M N 0 P R T U W Ng. There is no B C D F G L Q S V X Y Z. Seven tolerably distinct varieties of the language are spoken in different parts, and, singular to relate, there is a language among the priesthood, which, like the Sanscrit and the religious language of the Parsees, is unintelligible to the people. This priestly language is fast becoming extinct, and contains many pure Sanscrit words.

The language has already incorporated several English words and sounds, and the English settlers have likewise taken into use a few Maori words. The New Zealand dialect is characterised by the simplicity of its grammatical forms, and the absence of distinctions in gender; declension and conjugation are effected as in English by particles, and superlatives are made by reduplication. Nothing like a dictionary of the language has been published.

The mental faculties of the men speaking this language have been variously described. By some they are said to be intelligent, cruel, and brave; by others weak, kind, and cowardly. One invariably

TWO CHARACTERS. – SIZE OF HEAD.

overlooked circumstance has led to these opposite opinions. New Zealanders of the present generation have two characters; one towards Europeans, which varies as Europeans are missionaries or traders, and another towards their own race. The former character is acquired, the latter is natural, and both characters are difficult to describe without referring to the higher faculties of the human mind.

It was ascertained, by weighing the quantity of millet seed skulls contained and by measurements with tapes and compasses, that New Zealanders' heads are smaller than the heads of Englishmen, consequently the New Zealanders are inferior to the English in mental capacity. This comparative smallness of the brain is produced by neglecting to exercise the higher faculties of the mind, for as muscles shrink from want of use, it is only natural that generations of mental indolence should lessen the size of brains. In support of this inference, intelligent travellers have already detected that the heads of the negro race in the United States are becoming more developed from the intellectual career they are now pursuing. 43

The New Zealanders hold the head extremely sacred, but they do not suppose it contains the sole intellectual organ; as joy, fear, and sorrow, spring, according to their notions, from the stomach and bowels.

In examining their mental faculties, it is requisite to remember that the human mind acquires knowledge by the evidence of testimony and the external organs of sense, and that the former was almost unknown while the latter were in perpetual activity among them. From this cause old men were the wisest among

MEMORY. – IMAGINATION.

the community, because they had seen and heard more than the young. Besides there is a mental education distinct from the literary, which they possessed in the tapu.

They are endowed with singular memories. Thus traditions and events which occurred years ago are related by them with great minuteness, while modern passing occurrences are forgotten. Ask a New Zealander how old he is, how long it is since a certain event occurred, how often the potatoes have ripened and the shark-catching season has come round since his father died, and he replies, "I do not know." a condition of the memory which is produced by neglecting to cultivate the voluntary faculties of association and reflection. When they narrate the names of twenty generations of ancestors, it is necessary to let them begin at the beginning of the list. They are ignorant how many have gone before or have followed after certain chiefs, and events which occurred twenty years ago are as vivid in their minds as those which occurred only ten. The memory they possess is the memory of boyhood; and their minds may be compared to mirrors, always ready to reflect the present, but incapable of retaining any trace of the past.

The faculty of imagination is not strongly developed among them, although they permitted it to run wild in believing absurd superstitions. Not one good example of invention, the highest function of this faculty, can be quoted from among their works; nor was the lowest function of imagination extensively diffused among the people, which is seen in the mental act of imagining ourselves in the situation of others, or "doing unto others

REASON. – JUDGMENT.

as we would that others should do unto us." No trace of the drama exists among them, but fables, an indigenous Indian composition, are in daily use. Considerable wit and humour, lower faculties of the imagination, are discovered in their conversations, traditions, and songs. Their eyes see objects distinctly, but the subject of a picture, or the blending of colours, is conceived with difficulty. There is no Maori word for blue. Their hearing is acute, and their perception of musical time accurate, but the simplest melodies are alone agreeable; delightful music falls upon their ears without exciting emotion, while a noisy drum keeping time gives pleasure. They eat food civilised men abhor from the disgusting associations its smell suggests to the imagination, and few of the impressions transmitted to their brains are ever fructified into beautiful ideas, inventions, or delightful combinations.

Reason and judgment, the noblest of all the intellectual faculties, were little cultivated by the New Zealanders previously to the advent of the pioneers of civilisation. It was from totally neglecting these faculties that they were frequently embroiled in war, ate each other, killed female children, were unable to estimate high numbers, believed absurd superstitions, devoured at a summer feast all their winter food, had property in common, forgot the art of steering canoes by the stars, and receded rather than advanced in civilisation. This sweeping censure will be denied by those who have described them as holding deliberative assemblies; but it is necessary to remember that the result of such deliberations was frequently destitute of reason and judgment. The New Zealanders tolerated strangers, learned to read and write, gave up

FEW IDEAS.

wars and cannibalism, and became Christians, not from reason and judgment, but from self-interest, imitation, terror, love of novelty, and strong superstitious feelings. Every quality and acquirement which constitutes a well regulated mind is wanting, and they are deficient in habits of steady and continuous attention, of association and mental industry. Most of their modern speeches are mere statements of facts, and orations are distinguished by the various ways one idea can be varied.

Thus,

"I am going to Auckland to-morrow,
The abode of the Pakehas,
The place tobacco and blankets are sold;
Where the governor and the soldiers live,
Where the prison stands,
Where the large ships lie,
The fire boats are seen,
Where men are hung;
To-morrow I shall go to Auckland."

The poverty of their minds is likewise seen in the repetition of the same ideas in their best ancient songs and laments. Even their language is inadequate to exhibit with accuracy the various processes of civilised intellects, or any ideas beyond the simple monotonous details of daily life. 44

This analysis shows that the New Zealanders have the minds of children and the passions of men. They respect ancient laws and customs, but are ready to embrace new opinions given out by men in authority. So constituted are their minds that it is impossible to decide how certain circumstances will affect them. Futurity is seldom looked into, although, like all mankind, they long for what is unknown, and remember with

CHARACTER.

regret what is lost. Without genius for discovery, and incapable of generalising, they are nevertheless apt at acquiring the rudiments of learning. Pleasure and pain are derived from the most varied sources, and they are confident in accomplishing whatever they undertake. Fondness of novelty is a passion, but it is almost impossible to excite wonder. In imitation they are strong, and from mimicry derive pleasure. Vanity, arrogance, and independence are universal, but they are more vain than proud. In all their actions they are alive to their own interest, and in seeking this are not overburdened with conscientiousness. Solomon said, "it is the glory of a man to pass by an offence," but the New Zealanders could not brook in word or deed an insult when witnessed by others. Wounded vanity caused much strife, and cruelty and cannibalism were occasionally produced by a love of notoriety. The caution they are endowed with made them cowards and haters of wars. It likewise was an excess of caution which rendered it necessary for them to work themselves into a state of madness with the war dance before rushing on their foes, or doing any act personally dangerous. They are deficient in that sort of moral courage which causes men to execute the commands of reason and conscience; and in conflicts with firearms they seldom expose themselves openly, but trust to avoid danger by agility and quickness. They value life, but die with indifference when death is inevitable. This is, however, no proof of courage, as almost every passion conquers the fear of death. They have little benevolence towards others; long absent friends are greeted with a profusion of tears, but, like children, this grief is destitute of impression. Hospitality to strangers is universal, and the traveller

MODE OF MANAGEMENT.

shared his host's food, and was sent away with gifts. Gratitude is unknown, and no word expressive of this feeling is found in their language. Love of country is ill-understood; but they like to die and be interred among their kindred. Theft is rare among themselves. Chiefs' words were rarely broken, and they never, like Highland chiefs, fulfilled promises to the ear and broke them to the sense. Revenge is their strongest passion, and this feeling is kept alive for generations. They are jealous of each other, and love to excite terror. When excited they derive pleasure from cruelty and bloodshed. Tried by the European standard their conversations are sensual and their ideas unclean. Secrets are kept with difficulty. Of their deeds they are boastful. They accost their equals without levity, and their superiors without awe, and it is reckoned disgraceful to give way to anger. Cheerfulness, more than laughter, predominates. They are liberal in giving presents, but presents are merely modes of trade, as returns are always expected. They possess a great flow of words, and are fond of eloquence and oratory. They are dirty and indolent. They are strong against the weak but weak against the strong. When mastered, either physically or mentally, they become as manageable as children; but this power must be exerted in the right way, for, like their own supple-jacks, they are more easily overcome by gentle and skilful management than by ill-directed force.

Seeing New Zealanders' heads are smaller than those of Englishmen, the force and power of all their faculties are consequently less; and as the human mind, like fermented liquors, ripens according to its strength, native boys at ten years of age are more intelligent than

CHARACTER DRAWN FROM OBSERVATION.

English boys; but, as a rule, few New Zealanders could be taught to equal Englishmen in their highest faculties, and none in the worst of their passions.

This character of the New Zealanders is less favourable than that usually given. It is, however, a sketch drawn up from the history of the people, and from personal observation among them in their days of happiness and sorrow, and in their hours of sickness and death.

38 Latham on the Varieties of Man, p. 263.

39 Nouveau Voyage a la Mer du Sud.

40 See Chapter III. p. 52.

41 Journal of the Statistical Society, 1853.

42 Leviticus, xix. 28; Kings, xviii. 28.

43 Sir Charles Lyell.

44 Maunsell's Grammar of the New Zealand Language, p. 121.

CHAPTER V. DIVISIONS AMONG THE PEOPLE. – PROPERTY. – LAWS.

CHAP. V.

DIVISIONS AMONG THE PEOPLE. – – PROPERTY. – LAWS.

Divisions. – The nations. – The tribes. – Ranks in life. – Chiefs. – Property in land. – Mode of government. – Influence of oratory. – System of tapu. – Things sacred. – Effect of the tapu. – Punishments for violating the tapu. – Mode of removing the tapu. – Tapu unjustly decried. – Present state of tapu.

THE New Zealanders are divided into nations and tribes, a patriarchal mode of classification which was brought by the first settlers from Polynesia. The chiefs of the canoes from Hawaiki were the first rulers, but as the settlers multiplied, new districts were successively occupied, and these offshoots grew into distinct nations. Thus it happened during the course of years that some New Zealand nations, like the illustrious families in Europe, or the clans in Scotland, grew powerful, while others decayed, and a few ceased to exist.

It is worthy of remark, that among the New Zealand nations there were wars, alliances, and disputes, similar to what occurred among the great European commonwealths.

Eighteen historical nations of New Zealanders occupy the country. At the north part of the North Island live the Rarewa nation, which numbers 2300 souls, having Kaitaia for its principal settlement. About the commencement of the present century the Rarewa conquered and enslaved a considerable nation called the Auipouri holding possessions in their immediate neighbourhood.

THE NATIONS.

Bordering on the Rarewa country live the Ngapuhi nation, now numbering 5400 souls. From the years 1810 to 1840, this powerful nation carried on extensive foreign and civil wars, during the former of which they were almost always victorious, because the Ngapuhi was the first nation in New Zealand which obtained firearms, and that mental development which savages invariably acquire from intercourse with civilised men.

Occupying the largest river in the country, possessing some of the finest districts for cultivation, numbering 9800 souls, and intimately connected with each other are the powerful Waikato and Ngatimaniopoto nations.

Enclosed between the Ngapuhi and Waikato nations, and mingled with the English settlers around Auckland, live the Ngatiwhatua, a brave, honest, and once powerful race, now reduced by constant forays from their hostile neighbours to 800 persons.

On the islands, and in the beautiful bays and rivers in the Houraki Gulf, and along the banks of that stream Cook dignified by the name of the River Thames, live the blood-connected Ngatipaoa and Ngatimaru nations. Together their numbers amount to 5000 souls. From the easy water communication these nations have with Auckland, they live on luxuries derived from the sale of fish and garden produce.

Along a portion of the sea coast of that fertile district Cook justly called the Bay of Plenty, on the banks of the Waitara river, near Taranaki, and on both sides of Cook's Strait, live the bold and adventurous Ngatiawa nation. Reckoning these widely scattered people as one, although they arrived in different canoes from Hawaiki, their numbers amount to 4000 souls. As an indication of the migratory spirit which actuates this

THE NATIONS.

race, it may be mentioned that in 1838 a portion of them paid an English trader to convey them from Port Nicholson to the Chatham Islands, the inhabitants of which group they conquered and enslaved.

At Maketu on the coast of the Bay of Plenty, and around the borders of the Rotorua, Tara Wera, and other lakes of that interesting geological district, live the Ngatiwhakaue nation, a people numbering 3200, and distinguished for having good noses and Jewish features. This nation, separated by forests, mountains, and rivers from the haunts of the Anglo-Saxon settlers, have lagged behind their countrymen in civilisation, although 200 adventurous spirits from among them have migrated to the neighbourhood of Auckland for the purpose of fishing and digging kauri gum. Among the Ngatiwhakaue still linger some of the ancient customs of the New Zealanders.

At Opotiki and Oheva, in the Bay of Plenty, live the Whakatowhea nation, an industrious people numbering 2600 souls, and possessing twenty vessels, each upwards of twenty tons' burden, in which they convey their produce to the Auckland market.

Around that cape which stretches far to the east, and is dreaded by local mariners, live the Ngatiporu nation, numbering 4000 souls, and celebrated for weaving kaitaka mats, the finest native manufacture in the country.

Connected with the above by blood, and occupying the east coast from Poverty Bay to Cape Palliser, live 4000 souls known as the Ngatikahungunu nation, formerly famous, like their neighbours the Ngatiporu, for weaving mats, but now known as extensive wool cultivators and flock-owners.

Around the margin of that inland sea called Lake

THE NATIONS.

Taupo are congregated 2000 souls of various origin, known by the general name of the Ngatituwharetoa. Among this nation the women still weave coarse mats, which are exchanged with the sea-coast natives for dried fish.

Westward from that elegant-shaped mountain which Cook named Egmont live 1500 souls, known over the land as the Taranaki nation, a name synonymous with slavery and cowardice, because from among them Ngapuhi and Waikato warriors captured slaves to hew wood and draw water.

Between Cape Egmont, and near unto where the Wanganui river falls into the sea, live the Ngatiruanui, a nation celebrated as worm-eaters, and numbering 2000 souls. This nation has not yet forgotten how their people were slaughtered by Commander Lambert in H.M.S. "Alligator" in 1834, and keep, as mementoes of their treatment, some of the shot thrown at them. They are the powerful practical supporters of the anti-landselling league.

Both banks of the Wanganui river, from its source at the base of Tongariro to its exit at the sea, are occupied by the Ngatihau nation, a people numbering 3000 souls, called by the Anglo-Saxon settlers the Wanganui tribes.

Between the Wanganui river and the island of Kapiti live the Ngatiraukaua, and different portions of several other nations. The whole population of the district has been estimated at 2500.

In the sheltered coves and sounds on both sides of Cook's Strait live the Ngatitoa nation; an intelligent and turbulent race, not numbering more than 1000 souls, but intimately connected with other nations by ancestry and marriage.

THE TRIBES.

Several tribes belonging to this nation migrated about 1820 from Kawhia and Maungatautari to Cook's Strait. The Ngatitoa, like the tribes scattered along the sea coast, are distinguished for an energy unknown to those living monotonous inland lives, and conflicts with a boisterous sea have strongly developed their physical and moral powers.

On the east coast of the Middle Island, from Cape Campbell to the neighbourhood of Otago, are scattered 1500 persons known by the names Ngaitahu and Rangitane. These nations, driven away from Cook's Strait by Rauparaha, sprang from the Ngatikahungunu, and migrated from the North to the Middle Island two centuries ago, in the hope of obtaining possession of the district in which the invaluable greenstone is found.

In several sheltered sounds of the iron-bound west coast of the Middle Island, and around the borders of the unexplored lakes in the interior, live a few scattered New Zealanders, rarely seen unless by whalers or sealers, who, like gipsies, wander about from place to place. These are the remnants of the Maori, whom the Rangitane nation almost extirpated on their arrival in the Middle Island, and are denominated the Ngatimamoe. This almost extinct nation was a colony from Wanganui.

These eighteen great nations are again subdivided into many tribes, and an idea of the extent to which this is carried may be drawn from the following return, showing the number of tribes among 3704 people of the Ngatikahungunu nation. 45

SUBDIVISION OF NATIONS.

Name of Sub-division, or Hapu.
1. Ngatirangirangi.
2. Ngatimoe.
3. Ngatiraiuri.
4. Ngatikurumokiki.
5. Ngatitu.
6. Ngatimawete.
7. Ngatihekawera.
8. Ngatimatepu.
9. Ngatihinepare.
10. Ngatihineura.
11. Ngatiparau.
12. Ngatihori.
13. Ngatirangikoraanake.
14. Ngatimatehaere.
15. Ngatipoporo.
16. Te Paneiri.
17. Ngaitekura.
18. Ngaitewatiuapiti.
19. Ngaitemawakawa.
20. Ngatingaweke.
21. Ngatikurukuru.
22. Ngatipahoro.
23. Ngatikahukuranui.
24. Ngatihamiti.
25. Ngatipohoi.
26. Ngaititu.
27. Ngatirongomaiaua.
28. Ngatituranga.
29. Ngatimahu.
30. Ngaiteao.
31. Ngatihinewaka.
32. Hamua.
33. Ngatimaru.
34. Te Matemahue.
35. Te Kirikowatu.
36. Ngatiruatapu.
37. Ngaitahu.
38. Te Parupuwa.
39. Ngatikaingaahi.
40. Te Matehau.
41. Ngatiwakarere.
42. Ngatikainoke.
43. Ngatiaomataura.
44. Ngatitutaiaroa.
45. Ngatimutwahi.

This census table shows there were forty-five subdivisions among 3704 persons, or on an average 82 persons in each tribe. Mr. Colenso states that he was unable to ascertain all the subdivisions among them, but he thinks there must have been at least fifty more than he has given.

Taking this valuable census as a specimen of the whole of the New Zealand nations, it is obvious a tribe was composed of several families, and a nation of a collection of tribes.

Each tribe acknowledged one man as its head, who with the tribe acknowledged the chief of the nation as their lawful lord.

That the New Zealand tribes were at first families is obvious from the prefix Ngati, which is applied to most of them, signifying offspring. Ngati therefore corresponds with the Irish 0 and the Scotch Mac.

RANKS IN LIFE.

Every nation contained six classes of persons: –

The Ariki, or priest and chief, corresponding to the king.

The Tana, or next in succession, corresponding to the royal family.

The Rangatira, or chieftains, corresponding to the nobility.

The Tutua, or middle classes.

The Ware, or lower classes.

The Taurakareka, or slaves.

These six ranks are not well defined, and are rarely distinguished unless by those who have carefully inquired into the subject. The name of king is placed opposite the term Ariki, but perhaps pope would be more applicable, as the Ariki possessed both spiritual and temporal power. The individuals composing these ranks rarely changed from one to another, although there was a movement among the first five; but this movement was generally downwards, rarely upwards.

The terms selected as translations of the different names of classes among the New Zealanders must not convey the idea that the king and royal family were distinguished and hedged round with regal splendour, for such was not the case. It is true slaves were easily distinguished, not from dress but from being noisy and talkative; while chiefs were known from possessing dignity of manners, and that noble feeling of self-respect which renders dishonour worse than death.

Chiefs were the eldest sons of the eldest branches of families, the direct descendants from the ancient leaders of the emigrants from Hawaiki. Primogeniture was therefore the law which conferred upon men the rank of chiefs, and chiefs alone possessed surnames: other

CHIEFS. – PRIMOGENITURE.

men had names given to them at childhood, which they retained through life. But chiefs had usually three names: the first, given to them by their mothers, were pet terms; the next were bestowed on them by the priests, and were assumed at manhood; while the last were taken at their fathers' death, and were family names.

In default of male issue the chieftainship of the nation went into the female branch. Occasionally the eldest son of a chief was incapacitated to succeed to the purple, from deficiency of ability or from having been a slave. Talented men in war or oratory, belonging to the third or Rangatira class, might obtain influence greater than the legal chiefs, which acquired power might be transmitted to their children; still the hereditary chief was not dethroned, for in anything connected with land he was the man of most influence. The office of chief and priest were often united. Chiefs by birth were recognised as holding office by divine right: they had civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and spiritual and temporal powers, but they could not declare peace or war, or do anything affecting the whole people, without the sanction of the majority of the clan.

The opinions of chiefs were held in more estimation than those of others, simply because they were believed to give utterance to the thoughts of deified men. No dazzling pageantry hedged them round, but their persons were sacred; they were, however, more feared than respected, for, indeed, there is no word in the language which expresses respect. Many of them believed themselves inspired; thus Te Heu Heu, the great Taupo chief and priest, shortly before he was swallowed up by

PROPERTY IN LAND.

a landslip, said to a European missionary: "Think not that I am a man, that my origin is of the earth. I come from the heavens; my ancestors are all there; they are gods, and I shall return to them."

Intimately connected with the office of chief are the rights of landed property, and Naboth was not more attached to his vineyard, the inheritance of his fathers, than the New Zealanders are to their lands. It is necessary to go back to the early settlers to explain how titles to landed property are regulated. On the arrival of the emigrants from Hawaiki in New Zealand each chief took possession of a district, which became his property and the property of all his followers. No outside boundary line was made, nor were there boundary marks defining each man's property. The chief had the first right to the whole district, then his eldest son, and then the second son; but all free persons, male and female, constituting the nation were proprietors of the soil. As the people increased the number of landed proprietors also increased, and the exact relationship each bore to the chief was forgotten. Notwithstanding this ignorance, all knew they had a legal right to the land, and no part of it could be given away without their sanction. The chiefs share of the land was admitted to be the largest, because he was nearest in descent to the chief who first took possession of it. Land descended to males in preference to females, in virtue of the law of primogeniture. Conquest and occupation gave titles to land. The right of fishing in rivers and in the sea belonged to the adjoining landed proprietors. Land lying between nations occupied by neither is the property of both, and boundary lines are always ill defined.

LAWS REGARDING LAND.

Amongst the families of each tribe there are also laws regarding landed property. Thus the cultivation of a portion of forest land renders it the property of those who cleared it, and this right descended from generation to generation. But this individual claim did not give the individual the right to dispose of it to Europeans. It was, however, illegal for one family to plant in another's clearing without permission; and an interesting dispute on this very point lately occurred at Tara Wera. Five generations ago two sisters had given to them, as a marriage portion, a piece of land, and the eldest sister's husband cultivated the whole clearing for several years. When potatoes were introduced into New Zealand the youngest sister's husband planted them in the ground, which spot of land her descendants had ever since cultivated. In 1852 the eldest sister's descendants wished to resume the land, but the youngest sister's progeny denied they had any right to it. War parties were collected, and the question in dispute would have led to a conflict had not Mr. T. Smith, the resident magistrate at Rotorua, settled it amicably, by dividing the land equally between the descendants of the two sisters.

Land was given by one tribe to another for cultivation, but land was never given away for ever. The English settlers consider the New Zealanders more as transient guests on the land than permanent proprietors, in consequence of the little change they have made on the earth's surface by cultivation; for, like ancient Germans, they rarely take two crops in succession out of the same spot.

Although landed property was universally recognised, the individualisation of movable property was unknown.

COMMUNITY OF PROPERTY.

Rolling stones gather no moss, consequently this custom proved a barrier to the acquisition of movable property. Conservatism, that principle of social progress, did not exist. Heaping up riches, unless to squander, was disgraceful; and warriors, in place of bequeathing their valuables to their children, had them placed along with their bones in sepulchres.

From the community of property among the New Zealanders no man could become rich, and no man poor. Schemers and speculators never reduced families to starvation, and in the whole country no unhappy individual ever died from starvation. Every one enjoyed a rude competence of the goods of the land, and a dread of the hard fare of the workhouse never crossed the minds of men.

The independence and social happiness of the people were chiefly caused by cultivating their own lands; consequently each independent tribe governed itself, and this was done in accordance with public opinion and the laws of the Tapu. The former was expressed at the assemblies of the people, the latter were well known and promulgated by the priests.

As all persons, male and female, possessed a right to express their opinions at the assemblies of the people gathered together for the administration of justice, it may be inferred favouritism was unknown. There were, however, certain well-defined principles acted upon on these occasions, which could not be avoided; thus, an injury done to one member of a tribe by an individual belonging to another tribe was resented as an injury to the whole tribe, while insults or injuries inflicted by members of the same tribe were only visited upon the actual offenders. The great principle of justice upon

MODE OF GOVERNMENT.

which the New Zealanders acted was an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and the object of all their punishments was to obtain compensation for injuries, not to prevent crimes. The recognised modes of obtaining redress between different tribes were unjust, innocent persons being made sufferers for others' faults. There were no public roads; foot-paths existed between villages, but none of these were made or kept in repair, they were merely foot-prints unintentionally made by travellers.

The New Zealanders were, therefore, democratic in respect to civil independence, but aristocratic in regard to birth. There is no word in the Asiatic language signifying "republic," but there are two words expressive of that meaning in the New Zealand tongue. Although the clannish divisions among them resembled the feudal system in Europe, there was no analogy between their respective governments, the former being a republic, the latter a despotism. The New Zealand mode of government bound the people strongly together, and friends were known in the hour of need. When strife prevailed among nations, connexions even to the most remote degree of propinquity were regarded, while honour and a means of future security kept benefits and injuries in remembrance.

As men must be compelled or persuaded to obey, the influence of oratory among the New Zealanders affords the best evidence of their republican government and universal freedom. The most effective harangues were made up of recitations from ancient poetry, and there was a regular mode of doing this. Orators at first selected quotations dimly shadowing forth their opinions. Such figurative language excited the curiosity and

INFLUENCE OF ORATORY.

ingenuity of the assembly to detect their intentions. Quotation after quotation made their meaning more clear, and when the speakers were influential men, and held opinions in unison with the majority of the people, each quotation as it developed their meaning was received with murmurs of applause. To prevent mistakes, orators, before they concluded, almost invariably made their wishes known in some quotation not to be misunderstood. Then the whole assembly applauded the orators for their poetic knowledge, and their oratorical art in making manifest under beautiful metaphors their real opinions.

During the above orations, the speakers walked between two points distant seven or eight paces, brandishing spears, meris, or tomahawks; one sentence was uttered in advancing, and silence observed in returning to the starting-point. The arguments used would have had little influence on an assembly of Englishmen, as everything was referred to some standard of right and wrong peculiar to themselves.

New Zealand orations, like epic poems, had certain fixed rules of construction. Speeches were prefaced by songs and poetic quotations, after which the first part of the oration was delivered in prose, then the speakers broke off into another series of poetic extracts, and then came the conclusion of the harangue.

It has been already mentioned that the New Zealanders, in addition to the laws of the people, were ruled by the laws of the Tapu. This code, placed far above human laws, formed their Commandments, and may be described as a code which derived its authority from superstition, fear, political motives, and common sense; but its origin is forgotten. The primary meaning

SYSTEM OF TAPU.

of the Maori word tapu is "sacred;" tabut is a Malay word, and is rendered "the Ark of the Covenant of God;" taboot is a Hindoo word signifying "a bier," "a coffin," or "the Ark of the Covenant;" ta is the Sanscrit word "to mark," and pu, to "purify." 46 Such a collection of words proves beyond a doubt that the system of the Tapu has sprung from a source too remote to be traced with certainty; but the Hebrew laws, the Brahminical institutes of Menu, and the Tapu among the New Zealanders possess features of resemblance indicating a common origin. The system is at present confined to the true Polynesian race in the South Seas; but they are not the inventors of the code. The Mahomedan laws and other agencies have completely obliterated every trace, save the word from among the modern Malays, and Christianity is fast doing the same among the New Zealanders.

According to the laws of the New Zealand Tapu, certain persons and things were always sacred. These were, – the bodies of chiefs and priests, and everything connected with these dignitaries, who had likewise the power of imposing the Tapu on others; human flesh; dead bodies, and everything which touched the dead; persons engaged in planting sweet potatoes; food and seed-houses; sick persons; the first sweet potatoes dug up, and the first fish caught in the season; slaves attending on sacred persons; the sticks upon which priests kept memorial records of their ancestors; war parties; persons weaving nets; fishing expeditions; the wood of old houses; and food which has touched anything tapu.

Various other things and persons were temporarily

THINGS SACRED.

tapued for certain objects; such as trees likely to make good canoes, rivers, roads, particular tracts of country, fishing grounds, places where mutton birds lay their eggs, and sands abounding in edible shells; in short it was in the power of the chiefs and priests to tapu anything. As a general rule, whatever related to chiefs and priests was sacred, whatever related to food and cooking was unclean.

There was no ceremony on the imposition of the tapu. Chiefs or priests simply denominated whatever they wanted to be sacred as their head or back-bone. Places always sacred were well known; those made so for a certain time were marked by a ridiculous wooden image of a man daubed over with red earth, or by tying to the tapued object a bunch of human hair or a piece of an old mat.

The imposition of the tapu affected persons and things thus. Neither chiefs nor priests were required to labour in the field, and whatever they touched became sacred. As it was unlawful for tapued persons to touch food with their fingers, chiefs were fed by slaves, and persons tapued who were not possessed of slaves had to eat their food like dogs. It was therefore a severe punishment for a poor man to become tapu. The blood of a chief spilt by accident rendered the ground or object upon which it fell sacred. It was unlawful to sail or fish on tapued rivers, or to cultivate or pass over tapued districts. Tapued persons entering houses made them sacred and unfit for use. Priests and chiefs were consequently excluded from holding social intercourse with the people. Food which was tapued, such as the first fish caught and the first sweet potatoes dug up, was set apart for the gods, and not eaten by men. The

EFFECT OF TAPU.

length of time a spot remained sacred, upon which a dead body had rested, depended on the rank of the deceased. Two years was no unusual period. Should a tapued person touch a basket of potatoes they were thrown away. Persons became tapu by touching sacred things, and until the tapu was removed out of them they were excluded from society. This prohibition of itself made men careful of touching sacred things.

Violators of the tapu were punished by the gods and also by men. The former sent sickness and death; the latter inflicted death, loss of property, and expulsion from society. It was a dread of the gods, more than of men, which upheld the tapu. Human eyes might be deceived, but the eyes of the gods could never be deceived. Chiefs and priests who violated their part, or allowed others to do so, were punished by the gods. Should one tribe desecrate another's sacred places, war ensued. Europeans occasionally lost their lives upon violating sacred places during the early days of their intercourse with these islands. Marion de Fresne's unhappy fate in New Zealand, and Cook's melancholy end at the Sandwich Islands, were produced by intruding on sacred places.

Persons who could impose the tapu possessed the power of removing it. The ceremonies on each occasion differed in different tribes. Among some, prayers were said and food cooked, part of which was set apart for the gods; among others, the tapued person eat food from children's hands, in which case the children were sacred for twenty-four hours; and amongst others, priests stood over tapued persons with branches of korokio trees in their hands, upon which they spat and touched the shoulders of the tapued with them, saying: –

REMOVAL OF TAPU.

"0 fearful and dreaded tapu, get you hence!
"Now thou art being put down and taken out of the way.
"Go to the streams and wade through them.
"These are the waters which the sun is to cross so that he may be free."

The priests and tapued persons after this ceremony returned to the place where food was cooking; and, taking leaves or bits of mat out of the ovens, they cast them over the roofs of houses and then leapt twice after the articles. Then the leaves or bits of mat were put back into the ovens from which they had been taken, and by this strange process the tapu was occasionally cast out of men.

Cooking food was invariably requisite for the proper eradication of the tapu. All prayers connected with its removal show that its imposition was an evil and its departure a blessing. For example: "The tapu is here; the tapu is being removed to a distant place, that tapu which held thee. Take away the dread, take away the power, take away the greatness, take away the fear; the tapu is being borne away, and the tapued person is free."

The system of Tapu has been universally described as a degrading superstition, by civilised men who contrast savages with themselves. But it is unjust to test the customs of the New Zealanders by the standard of the present day in England, although they who examine the code closely find several of the laws which the tapu enforced flourishing in England under different names. If a New Zealander were to write a history of England for the use of his countrymen, he would relate that, at certain seasons of the year, the fish in the rivers and

TAPU UNJUSTLY DECRIED.

the birds in the air were tapued; that land is held so sacred that persons walking over it are punished; that among Roman Catholic tribes animal flesh is forbidden for food at certain seasons; and that thousands of persons are shut up in prison, and cast into slavery, for violating the numerous tapues in England.

The New Zealand system of Tapu will bear comparison with the laws flourishing in England not a thousand years ago. Does there not exist occasionally in the present day a belief in the divine right of kings and of certain priests? Several laws enforced by the New Zealand tapu are in accordance with the seventh commandment. Tapuing seeds and fields are types of the English laws for protecting out-door property; women tapued to men is matrimony; tapuing sick persons is analogous to the quarantine orders against lepers, the plague and the yellow fever. Every tapu relating to the dead is a law against sacrilege, and tapuing rivers and lands to annoy enemies finds a parallel in the modern system of blockade.

For every local prohibition which the tapu permitted chiefs to impose there was some good reason. Occasionally it may have been imposed unjustly, but the feeling of a republican community soon had it removed. The New Zealanders could not have been governed without some code of laws analogous to the tapu. Warriors submitted to the supposed decrees of the gods who would have spurned with contempt the orders of men, and it was better the people should be ruled by superstition than by brute force.

The tapu still lingers among the New Zealanders, but in a very modified state. That part of the code referring to the dead continues to be respected. Belief in Chris-

PRESENT STATE OF TAPU.

tianity and the tapu are incompatible, although many good native Christians cannot obliterate from their minds every vestige of their old faith on this grave subject. One curious remnant has found its way into modern civilisation. A field of wheat is set aside or tapued for the purpose of purchasing a horse, a plough, or a ship, and no temptation will induce its owner to appropriate the money received from the sale of this wheat to any other purpose than that for which it was planted.

45 Compiled for a census made by the Rev. Mr. Colenso in 1849. Papers, Native Secretary's Office.

46 Sanscrit derivations of English words by Bellot. Longman, 1856.

CHAPTER VI. MYTHOLOGY AND SUPERSTITIONS.

CHAP. VI.

MYTHOLOGY AND SUPERSTITIONS.

Origin of the world. – Origin of gods and men. – Prayers addressed to gods. – Not idolaters. – Origin of Hawaiki. – Deified men. – Religious belief. – Deified men revisit the earth as spirits – Priesthood. – Sorcerers. – Ceremony of Iriiri. – Remarks on mythology.

THE New Zealanders worshipped no Supreme Being. According to them heaven and earth have individual existences, and their tradition about the creation of the world shows a degree of thought far above the present ideas of the people. It is as follows: –

"In the beginning was 'the Night,' The 'Night' begot the 'Light,'
The 'Light' begot the 'Light standing long,'
The 'Light long standing' begot 'Nothingness,'
The 'Nothingness' begot 'Nothingness the possessed,'
The 'Nothingness the possessed' begot 'Nothingness the made excellent,'
The 'Nothingness the made excellent' begot 'Nothingness the fast bound,'
The 'Nothingness the fast bound' begot 'Nothingness the first,'
The 'Nothingness the first' begot' Moisture,'
'Moisture' married 'the Strait, the vast, the clear,'
And their progeny were Rangi, the heaven, and Papa, the earth." 47

Rangi and Papa begot six children. These were Tumatauenga, the god and father of men and war: Haumiatikitiki, the god and father of the food of men

WAR AMONG GODS.

which springs without cultivation; Tangaroa, the god and father of fish and reptiles; Tawhiri-ma-tea, the god of winds and storms; Rongomatane, the god and father of the cultivated food of men; and Tane Mahuta, the god of forests and birds.

All these children, save the god of winds and storms, conspired against their parents and tore them asunder. Rangi, or heaven, was pushed upwards, and Papa, or the earth, downwards. Then the god of winds and storms declared war against his unnatural brothers for this act, and sent rain, hurricanes, and whirlwinds upon the earth. Tangaroa, the god of fish, fled to the sea; the gods of food buried themselves in the earth; the god of forests was torn up; and the god of men stood alone unconquered on the earth. Enraged at his brothers for deserting him in the day of battle, the god of men waged war against them, and after conquering them eat them. The only enemy the god of men had now left was the god of winds and storms, and that god still continues to wage war on the descendants of men, both on sea and land, down to the present day.

Heaven and Earth thus for ever separated by their undutiful children, still continue their mutual love for each other. The Earth sends up his love to Heaven in the mists which rise from the mountains and valleys; Heaven mourns through the long night her separation from her beloved Earth, and from her bosom trickle frequent tears, which men call dew-drops. 48

These unnatural brethren are the gods of the New Zealanders. Atua is the Maori word for these deities, a term which resembles the Sanscrit word Dewa and the

PRAYERS ADDRESSED TO GODS.

Hindostanee term Ullah. To these gods they addressed prayers. From Tane Mahuta they asked for abundance of forest birds, insects, and all things fashioned from wood; from Tangaroa they prayed for fish; from Rongomatane for fertile crops of sweet potatoes and all cultivated food; from Haumeatikitiki for fern root and all sorts of wild food: from Tumatauenga for success in war, and to him they offered the body of the first person slain in battle. To Tawhirimatea they prayed for favourable winds; to their mother Heaven, for fine weather, and to their father Earth for abundance. When the whale spouts, and fish leap out of the sea, they are said to be doing these feats in honour of their god Tangaroa. When men clear primeval forests for cultivation, they sing, "The children of Tane Mahuta are laid low."

But these gods were never worshipped in the shape of images, for the New Zealanders were not idolaters, although several Christian missionaries have asserted they were. The fact of there being no proper word for idol in the Maori language, and the adoption by the missionaries, in translating the Scriptures, of a word signifying a log of wood to express an idol, sufficiently refute the accusation.

The descendants of Tumatauenga, the god and father of men and war, multiplied on the earth until the birth of Maui. In this family were five sons, of whom the youngest, or Mauitikitiki o Taranga, was the hero, and to him is due the honour of fishing up with the aid of his brothers, the island of Hawaiki. His hook on this occasion was the jaw-bone of one of his ancestors, and he expended three months in accomplishing this great work. It is assertsd that a pigeon

ORIGIN OF HAWAIKI. – DEIFIED MEN.

into which Maui put his spirit, flew to heaven with a line in its beak and assisted in elevating the land above the water, and that Maui tied the sun to the earth with ropes, which have since become the sun's rays. Before achieving this great feat he travelled into the third division of the world. As Maui could not prevent the sun going down, he tied it to the moon, and from this cause it results that when the sun sets the moon is pulled up at the other side of the earth.

It is frequently stated from this legend that the land fished up from the sea by Maui was New Zealand, but the tradition refers to a period centuries before the New Zealanders migrated to the country.

Soon after Maui completed his work one of the gods set fire to Hawaiki, but Heaven poured down torrents of rain which extinguished the flame, and, the sparks taking refuge in certain trees, fire has ever since been obtained from their wood by friction.

Maui was squeezed to death in attempting to crawl through Hine Nui-te-po, the goddess of death. Had he accomplished this feat the human race would never have died. Maui left five sons, but all his descendants live at Hawaiki.

The New Zealanders believed that several high chiefs after death became deified, and that from them all punishments in this world for evil doings were sent. Each nation possessed its own deified men, and to them offerings were made and prayers addressed. These deified men were supposed to be intimately acquainted with every event passing among the people on the earth. But the deified ancestors of one nation never interfered in the affairs of other nations. Maui, Uenuku, and Tawhaki are, indeed, the only deified ancestors of

MAUI. – UENUKU. – TAWHAKI.

the New Zealanders whose names and attributes are familiar to the natives throughout the whole land. Maui is the most celebrated, and every tradition about him has a fairy-like character.

Uenuku sprang from one of the ancestors of the New Zealanders at Hawaiki. The thunder is his voice, and the rainbow his residence, and he is consulted in many important affairs. Should a rainbow appear in front or towards the left of a war party, this is a sign of Uenuku's displeasure, and the warriors return home; if, on the contrary, the rainbow spans the heavens on the right side of the army, then they hasten to give battle, as Uenuku has signified his approval of the expedition and success is sure to follow.

Tawhaki was famous when on earth for his courage and manly beauty. According to tradition, a maiden from heaven came down and lived with him, and on the birth of a child the woman fled with the infant back to heaven. Tawhaki ascended to heaven on a spider's web, in pursuit of his wife and child, where he still lives, and men worship him. During his ascent the following spell was chanted: –

"Ascend Tawhaki to the first heaven, let the fair sky consent.
Ascend " to the second heaven, "
Ascend " " third " "
Ascend " " fourth " "
Ascend " " fifth " "
Ascend " " sixth " "
Ascend " " seventh " "
Ascend " " eighth " "
Ascend " " . ninth " "
Ascend " " tenth " "
Cling, cling, like the lizard to the ceiling, stick, stick close to the side of heaven." 49

RELIGIOUS BELIEF.

In hours of depression and in days of battle the deified ancestors of the nation are believed to hover over the people, rousing the spirits of the faint and nerving the arms of the weak.

The religions belief of the New Zealanders was that which belongs to the infancy of a race. It was a religion dictated by wants and fears. To their gods they prayed for food, to their deified ancestors for the removal or the prevention of evils. They believed in a future state of existence, and that there was a spirit within their bodies which never died. There were two distinct abodes for departed spirits: one was in the sky, and called Rangi; the other, denominated the Reinga, was in the midst of the sea, and its entrance was through a cavern in a precipitous rock near Cape Maria Van Diemen. This celebrated spot was as sacred among the New Zealanders as Mecca is with Mahomedans or Jerusalem is among Jews; but pilgrimages were never made to its entrance.

They believed that their spirits after death fled to join their ancestors in one or other of these two abodes. In the future world under the sea there was only one division, but in the sky there were ten separate dwellings. The lowest was separated from the earth by a clear substance, and here the god of winds and storms resided; in the next divisions the spirits of men lived; and in the highest all the other gods.

At the death of chiefs several ceremonies were performed to conciliate Tawhaki, who was supposed to bear their spirits from the earth. In the next world all spirits do not live on an equality. Slaves on earth are slaves in the future state. In the Rangi and in the Reinga spirits occupied themselves as men do on earth.

SPIRITS REVISIT THE EARTH.

For this reason, on the death of chiefs, slaves were slain to do them menial service in the next world. Neither of the abodes of the departed was a place of punishment. There is no trace among the people of any idea of the resurrection of the body. Although they attempted to lift the veil which concealed the past, they had no great curiosity for the more awful future. Their evil deeds were punished in this world, not in the next. Sickness and personal injuries were the punishments inflicted on evil-doers, consequently death was a relief from misery. Unlike Christians, they had no dread of a prolonged existence of future agony. It was believed that during sleep the mind left the body, and that dreams are the objects seen during its wanderings.

The gods and deified ancestors of the New Zealanders had a priesthood on earth for communicating their wishes to men; and a land Lucifer called Whiro, sorcerers, and a sea monster called Taniwha, for punishing evil-doers.

Among chiefs virtue consisted in bravery, liberality, command of temper, upholding the tapu and the priestly office, revenging injuries and hereditary feuds, suffering torture without complaint, and in not insulting persons without cause; virtue in slaves consisted in obedience to their masters and respect for the tapu. Among married women fidelity was virtue. No prizes were given to those who did good; virtue was in fact its own reward.

The New Zealanders believed that the gods never visited the earth, but that the spirits of their deified ancestors did. The Pythagorean philosophy of the transmigration of souls was consequently one of their doctrines.

PRIESTHOOD.

In some instances the spirits of their deified ancestors entered the bodies of lizards, spiders, and birds; in other cases they became invisible human beings called Patupaiarehe. These spirits, which correspond to our fairies, imps, ghosts, and goblins, were supposed to have larger frames and fairer complexions than men, to live in villages situated on the summits of lofty mountains, and amuse themselves by singing and playing on flutes. In the morning and in foggy weather these Patupaiarehe were sometimes visible to mortal eyes, and the terror they inspired made people afraid to leave their huts after nightfall; yet from them men were said to have learned the arts of fishing and weaving nets. It is, however, in the bodies of lizards that the ancestors of the New Zealanders most frequently revisited the earth, and these reptiles were consequently held by all in the greatest dread. Maori warriors shudder when a lizard is mentioned, and flee in terror at the sight of these animals. When the spirits of the dead speak, their voices assumed a sort of whistle.

The priesthood, the ambassadors of the gods on earth, were derived from the noblest families in the land, and in every nation there were several priests. The offices of chief and priest were generally united and hereditary. A sacred halo encircled the priesthood. Priests had their own peculiar prayers which they used in addressing the gods. These prayers were unknown to all but the priestly order, and the laity were carefully kept in total ignorance of their nature. In the dead of night, and in solitary places, they instilled into their children's minds the now unintelligible chants in which they addressed the gods. The very language used on such occasions, like the Sanscrit of the Brah-

PRIESTLY VISIONS.

minical priesthood, was unknown among the people. It was their duty to see the laws of the tapu strictly enforced, to heal the sick, to attend the death ceremonies and the birth of infants, to tattoo persons, and to instruct their children in the songs and traditions of the people. In war and in peace, in the day of plenty and of famine, they were invariably looked up to as advisers. They were not required to undergo physical labour, and their property, persons, and whatever they touched was sacred. They interpreted the wishes of the gods from the flight of birds, the falling of meteors, dreams, birds' cries, winds, rainbows, the brightness and position of stars, shadows in water, the direction in which sticks stuck in the ground were blown down, the quantity of earth adhering to pulled-up fern root, and in various other modes. Should priests differ in the interpretation of omens, the successful prophet gained, and the false prophet lost, reputation.

Some of the most amusing poems among the New Zealanders are those termed visions, in which the priest in a trance saw moving around him busy groups of spirits eagerly engaged in pursuits foreshadowing the events which were to happen on earth. As the spirits moved to and fro, immersed in their occupations, they chanted wild prophetic choruses; and these on awaking he taught the tribe, by whom they were sung as prophecies and revelations from the world of spirits.

The New Zealand priests were not rogues; they had a superstitious belief in their own powers, combined with a good deal of cunning, and ventriloquism was practised by them for professional purposes. When asked to foretell whether an expedition would prove success-

SORCERERS.

ful, they generally awarded victory to the strongest battalions. As they spent much of their time in intellectual exercise they were consequently the most intelligent body of men in the country, and, like the monks in the dark ages, they engrossed all the learning the people possessed. No dress or mark distinguished the priesthood from the laity; and it is singular that without temples, stated festivals, or sacred days, to strengthen their zeal and increase their learning by society, they could have maintained such a high reputation for wisdom. There is a tradition, however, that a sacred edifice stood in Hawaiki, called Whare Kura, literally "red house;" and it is worthy of remark that red is a colour still closely connected with the tapu and the religious matters of the New Zealanders; the houses of the dead are daubed with red, and the bones of the dead are wrapped in red-stained mats. Red is a sacred colour among the Hindoos also.

On earth, under the power of the gods, there was at least one man in each tribe who was reputed a sorcerer. Like the priesthood, the office was hereditary; fathers bequeathing to their sons certain incantations for calling up spirits, which could be transferred into the bodies of human beings, where they produced sickness and death by feeding on their vitals. Among some nations there were several sorcerers, which circumstance gave the whole a bad reputation. These nations lived in mountainous regions, the nursery of superstition in every quarter of the world. Sorcerers lived on the labour of others, and were dreaded by all.

To enable a sorcerer to bewitch a person properly, it was requisite for him to obtain a lock of the intended victim's hair, a portion of his nail-parings, a

ART AND MODE OF ACTION.

shred of his old mat, or a quantity of his saliva. The article was deposited in a hole in the earth, and incantations and prayers were chanted over it in a falsetto tone. The spirit thus conjured up was transferred into the owner of the hair, saliva, or mat, and then the sorcerer called down from heaven some such curse as this on his victim's head: "Thou shalt be held by the power of Runutunu, by the power of Kopare, and by the power of Whiwhiotaraue, and thou shalt be brought forth and hung upon a tree to dry: thou hast now a swelling in thy vitals. Oh! let my heart think of this." Spirits of dead infants were most dreaded, because from their short residence on earth they had acquired no attachment to mankind. Men were cursed for violating the tapu intentionally or unintentionally, disputing about land or women, illiberality, and unjust insults. Sorcerers cursing chiefs or persons of other tribes led to war.

It was superstition which made the sorcerer's art powerful. An evil-doer, or a man who had incurred the displeasure of a sorcerer not belonging to his own tribe, might be taken ill or imagine himself ill. Instantly it flashed through his mind that he was cursed for doing what he ought not to have done, and that a spirit was feeding on his vitals; he refused food, and lay prostrate in a state of apathy. Bereft of hope, the great sustainer of life, and worn down by want of food and a disease of the imagination, he died. Occasionally such persons were cured by having the evil spirit cast out of their bodies by counter-incantation, an act which was performed, with various ceremonies, by the priest belonging to his own tribe.

A SORCERER BEWITCHED.

It will be observed from this description that in the sorcerer's art in New Zealand there was a modification of the Pythagorean doctrine of metempsychosis, in which two living bodies were supposed to change souls with each other. Some of the most amusing stories the people relate are connected with this subject. Kiki, a celebrated sorcerer, lived on the Waikato river, and such was his power that under his shadow trees not protected from his influence withered, and men paddling in canoes on the river stiffened and died. The Waikato river was in consequence deserted, and thousands wished, but none dared, to kill him. News of Kiki's proceedings reached another powerful sorcerer, called Tamure, at Kawhia, who vowed he would visit and bewitch him unto death. Kiki, aware of Tamure's intended visit, cooked food for him, which, if Tamure tasted, he would instantly die. But Tamure bewitched the threshold and door of Kiki's hut through which he came out to welcome him, and, as Tamure refused to eat the Waikato sorcerer's banquet, he returned home uninjured, whereas Kiki sickened and died soon after Tamure's departure.

There is considerable difference between the witchcraft of the New Zealanders and the art in Europe; but there is sufficient resemblance in the machinery of the magic to show that the superstition is the same, and that it is produced by certain mental and physical phenomena which, when brought into operation, tend to produce similar results on all mankind.

Connected with the mythology of the New Zealanders there was a singular ceremony called Iriiri, or Rohi. Before a child was a month old, often before it was ten days, its head was adorned with feathers, all the family

NAMING INFANTS.

greenstones were hung about it, and it was rolled up in a mat and carried to the side of a stream. Here the mother delivered the child into the hands of the priest, who, raising it in his arms and looking steadily in its face, chanted –

"Wait till I pronounce your name.
What is your name?
Listen to your name.
This is your name:
Wai Kui Manecane."

Here a long list of names belonging to the child's ancestors was repeated by the priest, and when the child sneezed or cried, the name which was then being uttered was the one selected. Then, if it was a male child, the priest in a falsetto voice sung –

"Let this child be strong to grasp the battle-axe,
To grasp the spear,
Strong in strife,
Foremost in the charge,
First in the breach,
Strong to grapple with the foe,
To climb lofty mountains,
To contend with raging waves.
May he be industrious in cultivating the ground,
In building large houses,
In constructing canoes suited for war,
In netting nets!"

Whilst over a female child he said –

"May she be industrious in cultivating the ground,
In searching for shell-fish,
In weaving garments,
In weaving ornamental mats!
May she be strong to carry burdens!"

Then the priest sprinkled over the child water shaken out of the branches of trees, or he immersed it in

REMARKS ON MYTHOLOGY.

the river. Occasionally it was held before a notched stick, and if any event occurred during the time which could be construed into a good or bad omen, it was foretold whether the future man would turn out a warrior or a coward, or whether death would overtake the infant before it reached maturity. Priests received presents for performing this ceremony, and when it was over food was cooked for the gods and for the guests. The rite was celebrated differently among different nations. It was, however, only over the children of chiefs that Iriiri was carefully performed. But all new-born infants were sacred, and could not be banded about until the tapu was removed from them by cooking food.

Some ceremony analogous to Iriiri is found among the whole Polynesian race. Among the ancient Jews, ablutions were supposed to wash away some moral impurity; and among New Zealand chiefs, until infants had gone through the ceremony of Iriiri, mothers and children were tapu.

In the mythology of the New Zealanders classical readers may trace chaos; biblicists many texts in Genesis; and geologists forces which have given to the earth its present formation.

There are many who see in the fishing up of the land from the sea by Maui a type of the flood, detect a resemblance between the names of Noah and Maui, and a similarity between many Scriptural and Maori customs. In the transmigration of souls to certain animals, in the wooden images of the New Zealanders, and in some of the attributes of their gods, a faint indication is given, which becomes more clear when connected with other things, that the New Zealand race have had intercourse with men holding the Hindoo faith.

MAUI, MENES, MENU, ETC.

It is rather singular that Maui should be the name of the first great man in New Zealand, and that in universal history there should occur the names of Menes, Menu, Minos, Minyas, Mannus, Mens, Man, i. e. the first man.

47 Shortland's Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders.

48 Sir George Grey's Traditions of the New Zealanders.

49 Taylor.

CHAPTER VII. CUSTOMS IN WAR. – CANNIBALISM. – SLAVERY.

CHAP. VII.

CUSTOMS IN WAR. – CANNIBALISM. – SLAVERY.

Frequency of wars. – Causes of war. – Running a muck. – Gods consulted. – War parties. – Dutch courage. – Battle orations. – War-dance. – The conflict. – Human heads preserved. – Mode of preserving heads. – War Pas. – Mode of attacking Pas. – Canoe conflicts. – Canoe chants. – Peace preliminaries. – Weapons for distant conflicts. – Weapons for close conflicts. – Cannibalism. – Origin of cannibalism in New Zealand. – Prevalence of cannibalism. – Customs connected with the eating of human flesh. – Motives for cannibalism. – Human flesh not eaten for food. – Cannibalism extinct in New Zealand. – Slavery. – Present state of slavery.

PEOPLE in England imagine the New Zealanders fought with each other on the same principle that country gentlemen hunt foxes, or, in other words, for the pleasure they derived from it. This is not correct. The New Zealanders carried on war upon much the same principle as that on which English gentlemen formerly fought duels. They rushed into conflicts from possessing a nice sensibility of that species of honour which weighs insults rather than injuries.

Soon after their arrival from Hawaiki, the Kawhia settlers came across to Maketu in the Bay of Plenty, and burned the Arawa canoe. The motive for the perpetration of this act of incendiarism is obscure, but it gave rise to war, and was a cause of strife over the whole country during several subsequent generations.

All the great wars the New Zealanders of the present

CAUSES OF WAR.

generation know much about occurred not more than a hundred years ago. Vague traditions of numerous conflicts show that tribes, as regards strife, were like clans in the feudal ages of Europe. When Captain Cook arrived in New Zealand, he found the whole population living in fortified villages, and after the introduction of fire-arms, until the year 1840, the country was one large battle-field. Since that era there has been no civil war of any magnitude.

Every war had an apparent just cause. The motive may have been slight, but there was a lawfulness for it, looking at the question with the ideas of New Zealanders.

The principal causes of strife were violations of the rights of property, such as claiming lands, catching fish; killing rats, pigs, or birds in disputed districts; cursing or bewitching persons, adultery, marriage between individuals belonging to different nations, violating tapus, murders, personal injuries, and hereditary feuds. The last two causes were almost immortal, because in a country not fertile in events injuries were long brooded over, and the monotony of life was only broken by their discussion and remembrance. To wipe out stains on kinsmen was the inheritance of generations, and revenge became one of a chief's first duties.

Should an English yeoman say to another, "You be d – – – d," and a New Zealander belonging to a different tribe, say "You be eat," or "Your head be put into a pot," although both insults are analogous, yet very different results would follow. The Englishmen would fight it out with fists; the insulted New Zealander would rush to his tribe and relate the injury he had suffered, and if payment were refused for the evil words,

RUNNING A MUCK.

war might ensue. Blows given by proxy, or shots fired at the effigies of chiefs, were the same as if they had been actually done to the living individual: land and women were, however, the two great causes of strife.

But although the New Zealanders were not slow in seeing causes for strife, they shuddered at striking the first blow, and in every dispute mediators were gladly accepted until blood was actually shed. This dislike to war is likewise exhibited in their slowness to anger. They infinitely preferred settling disputes by talking than by fighting, and it was only when they saw that fighting was absolutely necessary to support their dignity that they did fight. They were cautious in rushing into wars which were fought to destroy and enslave, not to conquer.

Should payment for the cause of war be refused, a similar insult was immediately hurled at some member of the opposing tribe. Every offence but the destruction of life had some commercial equivalent. For murder no compensation was accepted but another life, and this was accomplished by "running a muck," an ancient Malay custom denominated by the New Zealanders the "fight for blood." This sanguinary act was thus performed. Several armed men proceeded secretly to the enemy's tribe, and without any warning slew the first persons they encountered. Innocent people were consequently almost invariably slain for the guilty. Running a muck is a phrase naturalised in the English language, and means "to run madly and attack all we meet;" 50 a very good description of the New Zealander's fight for blood.

Before the army took the field the chiefs of the host,

WAR PARTIES, DUTCH COURAGE.

in order to infuse confidence, asked the gods to foretell whether the expedition would prove successful. This divine opinion was obtained through the priests in various ways. Sometimes sticks representing the combatants were stuck in the ground, over which the priests performed certain ceremonies. Then food was cooked for the gods and the army. After partaking of this the priests returned with the people to the place where the sticks were placed; and should the sticks representing the enemy have fallen down, the gods were supposed to announce success, if otherwise, defeat: in which last case the expedition was postponed to a future occasion.

When victory was promised by the gods the war party took the field. A New Zealand army consisted of all the male persons in a nation capable of bearing arms. No individual was forced to join the ranks, but all were morally obliged to do so. Several women and slaves accompanied the troops to carry potatoes, cook food, and act as a commissariat. The warriors were tapued. Hereditary chiefs were generally the leaders of the expedition, but not always, as men were chosen for this high office on account of their well-established reputation for bravery. It was absolutely necessary to have a man of energy and vigour at the head of a war party, the troops expecting to be led on, not ordered on, and the army fought by example more than counsel.

When a conflict was inevitable the New Zealanders did not flinch from it, although they actually fought under the influence of what is called by Englishmen "Dutch courage." This species of bravery was not drawn from imbibing spirits, or swallowing or smoking

BATTLE ORATIONS.

stimulants, but from the excitement of oratory and the war dance. It was quick, fierce, and impetuous, more suitable for attacking than defending posts, and under its impulse, campaigns were generally settled by one battle. Influenced by passion more than prudence, they advanced in fits of temporary madness and fled, if victory was not won before the depression which invariably follows.

When both armies were alike confident of success a pitched battle resulted. They approached close to each other, and chiefs and warriors advanced in front of their respective legions and delivered exciting harangues. In these orations every subject was mentioned capable of goading them to fury; allusions were made to the tribe's former greatness, the favour of the gods, the bravery of their ancestors, and that the blood of their fathers formerly shed was not yet avenged. On such occasions, and trifles show men's characters, no reference was made to their present imminent danger. The master of an English pirate ship, about to engage one of Her Britannic Majesty's cruisers, would steel the hearts of his crew to desperation by telling them they fought with ropes round their necks; but the New Zealanders, in cases not dissimilar, only looked at the bright side of the picture.

As the orators proceeded with inflammatory addresses, the war parties threw off their mats, daubed their bodies with red ochre and charcoal, twisted their long head-hair into lumps, adorned it with feathers, and roused their blood to greater fervour by the war dance.

It is impossible to describe this extraordinary dance. The whole army, after running about twenty yards,

THE WAR-DANCE.

arranged itself in lines, five, ten, twenty, or even forty feet deep, and then all squatted down in a sitting posture. Suddenly, at a signal given by the leader, all started to their feet, having weapons in their right hands. With the regularity of a regiment at drill, each man elevated the right leg and right side of the body, then the left leg and left side; and then, like a flash of lightning, jumped two feet from the ground, brandishing and cleaving the air with his weapon, and yelling a loud chorus, which terminated with a long, deep, expressive sigh, and was accompanied with gaping mouths, inflated nostrils, distorted faces, out-hanging tongues, and fixed starting eyes, in which nothing was seen but the dark pupil surrounded with white. Every muscle quivered. Again and again these movements were enacted; and time was marked by striking their thighs with their open left hands so as to produce one sound, and by old naked women daubed over with red ochre acting as fuglers in front of the dancers. Songs were likewise chanted to preserve order in the host. The following, of reputed antiquity, has the metre marked, to give some idea of the way in which it was sung: –

"Hug close,
Au, Au,
Fling out (meaning the arms and legs),
Au, Au,
That may flee
Away the
Seal
To a distance,
In order to gaze
This way.
Yes, yes, yes." 51

THE CONFLICT.

At the words "that may flee." the movements of the dancers became furious.

The men in both armies, now excited to desperation, cast off every part of their apparel. Distinguished warriors rushed out and challenged others by name from the enemy's ranks. Abusive epithets and insulting attitudes were bandied between the combatants. The Ngatiraukaua and Ngatitoa shouted on these occasions the following song to the enemy: –

"When will your valour begin to rage?
When will your valour be strong?
Ah! when the tide murmurs.
Ah! when the tide roars.
Bid farewell
To your children,
For what else can you do?
You see how the brave,
Like the lofty exulting peaks of the mountains,
Are coming on.
They yield. They yield. 0 fame!" 52

Both parties, maddened with anger, hatred, and malice, hurled their spears, and rushed madly, with loud-screaming yells, to grapple in deadly conflict. Each warrior selected his foeman, and the battle consisted in a series of personal combats. These duels did not last a minute before one party gave way, fled, and was pursued by the conquerors howling like hounds in sight. That army which killed the first man, or charged with most energy or with the loudest yells, often proved victorious by producing a panic; and, as the warriors poured their whole souls into the onset, rallying was an impossible manoeuvre. Repulses were defeats, and defeats were frequently destruction.

[Inserted unpaginated illustration]

NATIVE LITTER FOR THE CONVEYANCE OF THE SICK AND WOUNDED.
Vol. I., page 129.

AFTER THE BATTLE.

The victors, after a short pursuit, returned to the battle-field to enjoy their triumph. They first collected in high honour their own dead, marking the spots where warriors fell with spears, and carefully examining whether their hands were clenched, a sure proof the vital spark fled while their bodies were struggling for victory. The wounded victors were gently borne from the field in litters made by tying together two poles parallel to each other. The enemy's dead were cooked and eaten; but the first man slain was set aside for the gods, and called the holy fish. Their wounded were insulted and slain; and chiefs, before receiving the deadly blow, were tortured by having lacerated wounds made in sensitive parts with saws of jagged shark's teeth, or by applying blazing kauri gum to their skins, or by cooking them alive. Young men who had fought for the first time, were asked by the priests if they had slain any of the enemy.

Half a century has nearly elapsed since a conflict such as the above has occurred. Most modern contests consist in distant discharges of fire-arms, and it has been found easier to raise the courage of the New Zealanders to distant than to close encounters. History, indeed, shows that few men can be brought up calmly to the deadly grapple, and the New Zealanders invariably shun danger if possible, and never charge unless they have an apparent advantage.

Such a battle as the one now described generally terminated a campaign. Those of the enemy who escaped slavery or death fled to impregnable fortifications in mountains and forests. The victors after gorging themselves like serpents for several days with the flesh of their dead foes, returned, bearing in honour the

PRESERVING HEADS.

sacred heads of their dead chiefs, and with insulting triumph poised on spears the heads of their foes. The women left at home rushed out to meet the conquerors, and if their husbands or relatives were slain they were permitted to murder slaves in revenge. The tapu was then removed from the warriors, and the head-hair or the ear of the first enemy slain was preserved for this ceremony. Portions of either were tied to the stems of long toetoe reeds, and the warriors, each bearing one in his hand, were drawn up as if for a war-dance. Then the priest chanted a song to which the warriors kept time; after which food was cooked and the tapu was removed.

The heads of fallen chiefs were carefully preserved from decay by an ingenious process, and deposited with their ancestors' bones, to be brought forth on future occasions to excite men to revenge their deaths. The bloody heads of the enemy were stuck round the fences of the village, for the purpose of being insulted. "What!" said a chief to one of these trunkless heads, "you wanted to run away, did you? but my meri overtook you, and after you were cooked you were made food for my mouth. And where is your father? he is cooked! and where is your brother? he is eaten! and where is your wife? there she sits, a wife for me! and where are your children? here they are with loads on their backs carrying food as slaves."

The way in which heads were preserved for these insults was as follows: – On the battle-field the dead were decapitated, the brain, tongue, and eyes scooped out, and their cavities filled with fern or flax. The heads were then thrown into boiling water until the thick skin could be easily torn off, next plunged into cold water, and afterwards placed in a native oven, such

WARFARE AGAINST PAS.

as that used for cooking, where they were left until the oven cooled. They were then exposed on stages to the wind and sun, or hung in smoke. Should heads exhibit signs of decay after the first cooking, they were put through the same process again. During this steaming the muscles shrank, but the hair, the tattoo marks, and the features were uninjured. Near the East Cape some tribes preserved the whole body; in which case the viscera were extracted, the cavities filled with fern, and then the body was exposed on a stage to the sun and wind.

From the admirable manner in which heads were preserved by the above process, a French writer 53 has given to the New Zealanders the credit of knowing the antiseptic properties of pyroligneous acid. But this is a fiction. All they knew of chemistry was that wind, heat, and smoke prevented animal matter from decaying, a process frequently resorted to by them in preserving winter food.

It was not, however, in pitched battles that the New Zealanders displayed their genius for war, but in building, attacking, and defending stockades. This species of warfare was thus conducted: – One party made an inroad into the enemy's country, laid siege to a stronghold, and endeavoured to kill the defenders or capture the fort. On such occasions the besiegers erected stockades in close proximity to the enemy's pa, and after killing several men returned home; the besieged, in revenge, then advanced and attacked their former assailants. This style of warfare continued for several years without much loss of life.

CONSTRUCTION OF WAR PAS.

The construction of the war pas built on these occasions exhibits the inventive faculty of the New Zealanders better than any other of their works. Such strongholds stood on the banks of rivers, the borders of lakes, on headlands jutting into the sea, on mountains, and in forests. Water was the only indispensable requisite in their construction.

Their shape and size depended much on the nature of the ground and the strength of the tribe. They had double rows of fences, on all unprotected sides; the inner fence, twenty to thirty feet high, was formed of poles stuck in the ground, and lightly bound together with supple-jack withes and torotoro creepers. The outer fence, from six to eight feet high, was constructed of lighter materials. Between the two there was a dry ditch. The only openings in the outer fence were small holes; in the inner fence there were sliding bars. Stuck in the fences were exaggerated wooden figures of men with gaping mouths and out-hanging tongues. At every corner were stages for sentinels, and in the centre scaffolds, twenty feet high, forty feet long, and six broad, from which men discharged darts at the enemy. Suspended by cords from an elevated stage hung a wooden gong twelve feet long, not unlike a canoe in shape, which, when struck with a wooden mallet, emitted a sound heard in still weather twenty miles off. Previously to a siege the women and children were sent away to places of safety.

Fire-arms have completely changed the construction of the above strongholds. Formerly the ditch, twenty-four feet deep, was dug to obstruct the enemy; now ditches are only five feet deep, and are used as rifle-pits

PAS TAKEN BY STRATAGEM.

to fire out from. Loopholes and flanking angles have been introduced, and bells supply the place of gongs.

In besieging fortifications New Zealanders held that wisdom was better than weapons of war, and never attempted open assaults. Occasionally red-hot stones were thrown from slings, in the hope of setting pas on fire, and advances were made close up to the walls by underground approaches, or by parties protected from the enemies' spears by shields of flax and reeds. But pas were rarely taken by such means, although sieges occasionally lasted six months. Treachery, stratagem, starvation, and panics were the chief instruments besiegers trusted in for success.

The massacre at Te Toka in 1841 is an excellent example of a treacherous assault upon an enemy inside a pa. 54 The following is a specimen of a successful attack by stratagem. During the Rotorua war of 1836 two fortifications belonging to the same party stood in the Bay of Plenty, thirteen miles apart. One was at Tauranga, the other at Tumu. The Tauranga pa was besieged, and the neighbouring missionaries heard the gong and the war conch roaring during the night, and the sentinels upbraiding the enemy for inactivity by shouting: –

"Are you coming to the contest?
Are ye approaching the battle?
Oh, get you hence,
For even the drowsy ones
Await your attack."

One morning the missionaries missed the besiegers and thought they had fled, but before their surprise

WAHAROA'S STRATAGEM.

had subsided, a number of men, women, and children, with blood-stained bodies and exhausted frames, were seen rushing wildly for shelter to the Tauranga pa. The truth was now apparent. The sentinels in the Tumu pa, no longer dreading attack, slept every night in their blankets, and the gong was unstruck. This was told to the Tauranga besiegers, who surprised Tumu a little before daylight, and killed nearly three hundred souls. 55 In the confusion of the assault a remnant escaped to Tauranga.

The following is another instance of the sort of stratagem practised during warfare. In 1830, Waharoa's pa at Matamata on the River Thames was invested. Waharoa ordered his people to cook two days' provisions, put out every fire, tie up the dogs in a wood behind the pa, and occupy the ditch, on the weakest side of the stockade. The besiegers, who concluded Waharoa had fled, and had tied up the dogs to prevent discovery by their barking, lost no time in advancing to occupy the stronghold. As they approached close to the outer fence, Waharoa's people rose out of the ditch, and poured into them a close volley of musketry. The besiegers, panic-struck at this unexpected reception, fled, and were pursued with slaughter until they reached their canoes in the Thames.

In besieging pas, the besieged were occasionally drawn out into ambushes by an apparent retreat. In such ambushes the parties were not crowded together, but stood some distance apart, as the proverb says, "about the distance of the Taniwha's teeth."

Forts have been captured by starvation. In such

WAR CANOES.

cases they were regularly invested by encircling them with stockades.

Panics occasionally led to victory. Many of Hongi's successes were produced by this cause, the most remarkable being the fall of Matakitaki on the Waipa river in 1823.

Night attacks were never made. The early dawn was the favourite hour for a surprise.

In war New Zealanders shrank from no labour to insure success. Thirty years ago the Awaroa river was dammed up to prevent the warriors from the Bay of Islands dragging their canoes from the Manukau into the Waikato river.

Conflicts in canoes occasionally occurred on lakes, rivers, and creeks.

War canoes for sea navigation are eighty feet long, four feet broad, and four feet deep. Fifty paddlers sit on each side, and three fuglemen stand in the centre of the canoe, exciting the paddlers to exertion by their songs and actions. They have elegantly carved stern-posts, fifteen feet high, ornamented with feathers and dyed flax, and shorter posts at their stems similarly adorned. In the south part of the island they are made of totara wood, and in the north of kauri. Both are painted red.

The crew on board war canoes kneel two and two along the bottom, sit on their heels, and wield paddles from four to five feet long; the steersman, sitting in the stern, has a paddle nine feet long. Over tempestuous seas war canoes ride like sea-fowl. Should a wave throw a canoe on its side, and endanger its upsetting, the paddlers to windward lean over the gunwale, thrust their paddles deep into the wave, and by a curious action force

CANOE WARFARE.

the water under the canoe. This makes the vessel regain her equilibrium, and gives her a vigorous impulse forward. Even when a canoe is upset, the crew can bale her out, and put her right in the water.

Naval engagements were exceedingly rare, as they were alike dangerous to both parties. War canoes were chiefly useful in transporting armies to the scene of action; but when they did meet in strife, the combatants on board discharged their spears, drove their canoes against each other, and then a hand-to-hand fight ensued. The great object in canoe conflicts was to upset the canoes, and kill the warriors helplessly struggling in the water.

War canoes were distinguished by well-known names, and when not required they were dragged inland, and carefully preserved in covered sheds. Launching war canoes into the ocean was heavy work, and there were several chants for the purpose of enabling warriors thus occupied to exert simultaneous efforts. These songs had various measures, adapted either for pulling heavy or pulling light. For up-hill work there were long-syllabled words in the chants, each of which seemed to issue from the pullers' mouths with the same difficulty as the canoe advanced. But when the hill was crowned, a succession of one-syllable words composed the chant.

The first five lines of the following chant was sung by one voice, to give notice for all to prepare for pulling. Afterwards, when the pullers had arranged themselves along the gunwales of the canoe, one line was chanted by a single voice while the pullers breathed, and the response was shouted by all who at the same time pulled together.

DRAGGING CANOES.

CHANT USED WHEN DRAGGING A CANOE OVERLAND.

Pull, Tainui, pull the Arawa,
To launch them on the ocean.
Surely glanced the bolt of
Thunder, falling hitherward
On my sacred day.

1 Voice. The Kiwi 56 cries.
All. 57 Kiwi.
1 Voice. The Moho 58 cries.
All. Moho.
1 Voice. The Tieke cries.
All. Tieke.
1 Voice. A belly only.
All. 59 Fork it out, fork it out.
1 Voice. Keep in the path.
All. 60Fork it out.
1 Voice. It's the second year to-day.
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. It's the man catcher.
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Give this way and carry it.
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. But whither carry it?
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Ah! to the root.
All. 61 Root of Tu.
1 Voice. 0 wind!
All. 62 Pull away.
1 Voice. Raging wind.
All. Pull away.
1 Voice. Pull onwards the root.
All. Root of Tu.

(A halt and then a fresh start.}

1 Voice. That's it! go along, Rimu. 63
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Go along, Totara. 64
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Go along, Pukatea. 65
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Give way, firmness.
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Give way, strength.
AU. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Brace up.
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. My belly.
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Hi hie. 66
All. Hahae. 67
1 Voice. Pipie. 68
All. Tatae. 69
1 Voice. Join.
All. 70 Ha!
1 Voice. Join.
All. Ha!
1 Voice. The sling.
All Ha!
1 Voice. And the spear.
All. Ah! and the pohue forth.
1 Voice. Ah! and the child of flint.
All. 71 And the child of the Manuka paddle.

CANOE FUGLEMAN'S SONG.

(A halt and afresh start.)

1 Voice. It's I. It's I.
All. A long pull.
1 Voice. The thing is dead.
All. A long pull.
1 Voice. Jog along, jog along.
All. 72 Slip along, slip along.
1 Voice. Brandish the hatchet.
All. Cheerily, men!
1 Voice. Draw it out.
All. That's it.
1 Voice. It's a cock.
All. It's a taraho. 73
1 Voice. It's a duck. 74
All. Quack, quack, quack, quack.
1 Voice. It's a duck.
All. Quack, quack, quack, quack.

The songs with which fuglemen in war canoes excited paddlers to keep time and to exert themselves were not unlike the above. These men sung verses alternately and marked time by brandishing warlike weapons.

Good singers frequently enlivened the chants with extemporaneous jokes suitable to the occasion.

SONG FOR A WAR CANOE.

Now pull.
Now press.
Now give the time.
Now dip it in.
Now hold on.
Now be firm.
Pull, pull away.
Upwards, upwards, away.
To Waipa away.
Now pull.
The feathers of his canoe are not worth looking at.
The quick stroke.
The quick stroke. Pull.
Pull away.
Stick it (the paddle; in.
Strike up a song.
A shove.
Stab it (the water).
Let it be deep.
A long pull.
Yes, yes.
A shove.
Now stick it in.
Shove along, hard work though it be.
An old man is kicking out there.
Look alive.
Is kicking out there.
Go along.
A bend (in the river).
Make it your own.
A point of land.
Leave it behind.
Pull away.
Pull away.

PEACE-MAKING – WEAPONS OF WAR.

(Then all the paddlers join.)

Go, firewood.
We shall have flesh to eat at Maketu.
The tide is ebbing,
To help us to a bellyful of raw flesh.
Pull away. 75

Peace was made among the New Zealanders when both the combatants were tired of war, and when the debtor and creditor account kept told them that their losses were nearly equal. Neutral parties, who passed unmolested through both camps, made known the general feeling for peace. A herald was then sent from one tribe. He was generally an old man, and the qualifications for the appointment were eloquence and relationship with both parties. The emblem of his office was the branch of a tree. On arriving at the enemy's camp, all assembled to hear his propositions, which were assented to after a long discussion. A feast was then given and peace restored.

Before the introduction of fire-arms, the New Zealanders possessed several weapons, but no very deadly one, for distant warfare. The pere was a sling for throwing spears and slinging stones hot or cold. It was like a whip. The handle was four feet long, and the whip part made of flax was two feet long. The projectiles were slight javelins, sharp and jagged at their points, from four to six feet long. Occasionally they were pointed with bone, or the barb of the stingaree. These projectiles were discharged with the pere from elevated platforms. They were tied with a sliding knot to the end of the whip, and by a sudden jerk thrown several hundred yards with considerable force and precision. Slings are now completely disused.

THE MERI.

Their spears were made of white pine hardened by fire, from four to fourteen feet long, and sharp at both ends. These weapons were discharged from short distances, and although brandished over the head to excite terror were thrown from a level with the hip.

The hoeroa, a projectile made out of the rib of a whale, was four feet long and two inches broad. Being a scarce projectile, a rope was fastened to one end of it, so as to pull it back. The hoeroa was occasionally used as a club, and from being curved blows from it were with difficulty warded.

Bows and arrows were not unknown, although never used in war.

To protect the body from these projectiles chiefs wore a defensive armour over the chest and loins made of closely woven flax.

For personal conflicts the New Zealanders had several deadly weapons, and, like all races ignorant of iron, they used hard minerals for making keen-edged ones.

Of these the greenstone meri was the most esteemed. It weighs six pounds, is thirteen inches long, and in shape resembles a soda-water bottle flattened. In its handle is a hole for a loop of flax, which is twisted round the wrist. Meris are carried occasionally in the girdle like Malay knives. In conflicts the left hand grasped the enemy's hair, and one blow from the meri on the head produced death. The greenstone composing these implements of war is called nephrite by mineralogists, and is found in the Middle Island of New Zealand, in the Hartz, Corsica, China, and Egypt. The most valuable kind is clear as glass, with a slight green tinge. Meris are also made of jade, serpentine, jasper, dark grey stone, whalebone, and wood. All have

CANNIBALISM.

different names; but none are held in any estimation in comparison with greenstone meris.

The patu was a wooden weapon not unlike a violin, and a little larger than the meri.

The toki, or adze, was a favourite weapon. Its handle was made of wood two feet long, and the adze of greenstone, jade, jasper, or granite. In conflicts adzes were used like meris, and in peace for breaking wood and scooping out canoes.

The New Zealanders had five sorts of wooden clubs, which were occasionally highly carved and ornamented with feathers and dyed flax. The hani is the best known of the clubs, and all were used for giving or warding off blows.

Neither swords nor bayonets have been adopted by them for close conflicts.

Connected with war was the custom of eating human flesh. "Tell me what a man eats, and I will tell you what he is," seems peculiarly applicable to this ancient custom. Starvation, superstition, revenge, hatred, and other motives, may in the first instance have excited men to eat each other; but when cannibalism is found common among races of men, sensual love of human flesh invariably influenced the continuance of the custom. The New Zealanders have obtained a disagreeable notoriety for this vice; and so much so that few persons can think of New Zealanders without thinking of cannibalism, or of cannibalism without thinking of the New Zealanders.

There is great obscurity about the origin of the now familiar term cannibal. It was first used to designate a man-eater in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; and it is the custom of the age to derive cannibal from

ORIGIN OF CANNIBALISM.

Latin, "propter rabiem caninam anthropophagorum gentis;" as in French, appetit de chien: but Humboldt thinks it is a corruption of Caribalis, a form under which Columbus designates the Caribs or Caribas. Cannibal, in Hakluyt's Voyages, is spelt with a single n.

In speculating on the origin of cannibalism in New Zealand, it is requisite to remember that it is a Malay and Polynesian custom, and according to the mythology of the New Zealanders the god of war commenced the practice by eating his brothers. The first man who made his stomach a tomb among the ancestors of the New Zealanders was Manaia, and he did so by eating the flesh of a man for debauching his wife. The curse Manaia gave his spouse on this celebrated occasion is still remembered: – "Accursed be your head. If you dare to do the like again I'll serve the flesh of your brother in the same way; it shall frizzle on the red-hot stones of Waikorora."

Tradition states that the New Zealanders were not cannibals for some generations after their arrival in the country, and there are different accounts as to the motives which instigated them to renew this horrible ancestral custom.

One Waikato story relates that cannibalism began thus in New Zealand. Tuhetia and Tahinga, two brothers-in-law, went out to fish. Being unable, when done, to draw up the stone which anchored the canoe, Tuhetia dived to the bottom for a shell to cut the rope, and Tahinga, when he was under the water, cut the rope with a concealed shell, and paddled off, leaving his brother-in-law to certain death. When the drowned man's son grew up to manhood, he made war on the son

PREVALENCE OF CANNIBALISM.

of his father's murderer, and killed and ate him, which act gave rise to other instances of murder and cannibalism.

Another Waikato story on this subject relates that a whale was stranded, containing the spirit of the deified man Tutunui. The animal was consequently sacred. A man named Kae ate a portion of this whale, which sacrilegious act was equivalent to eating the body of Tutunui. In revenge, the descendants of Tutunui killed and ate Kae. Kae's friends in return ate one of Tutunui's descendants, and thus commenced cannibalism, and a cause was given for its continuance.

Both these stories indicate that revenge was the motive which led the New Zealanders to renew the custom of cannibalism. There are, however, other traditions on this subject, but none have any claim to historical accuracy. Even the same traditions are told in different ways, and by some the circumstances now related are said to have occurred, not in New Zealand, but in Hawaiki.

Whether or not cannibalism commenced immediately after the advent of the New Zealanders from Hawaiki, it is nevertheless certain that one of Tasman's sailors was eaten in 1642; that Captain Cook had a boat's crew eaten in 1774; that Marion de Fresne, and many other navigators, met this horrible end; and that the pioneers of civilisation, and successive missionaries, have all borne testimony to the universal prevalence of cannibalism in New Zealand up to the year 1840. It is impossible to state how many New Zealanders were annually devoured; that the number was not small may be inferred from two facts authenticated by European witnesses. In 1822, Hongi's army ate three hundred persons after the

CANNIBAL BANQUET.

capture of Totara, on the river Thames; 76 and in 1836, during the Rotorua war, sixty human beings were cooked and eaten in two days. 77 The persons eaten were enemies slain in battle, and men, women, and children taken prisoners. The bodies of the last two were seldom eaten, and cannibalism was rarely practised during peace. When slaves were eaten in peaceful times by chiefs, political motives were the secret causes of this unusual occurrence. There are few New Zealanders above forty years of age who have not partaken of human flesh, a sure proof of the former prevalence of cannibalism in the country.

The customs connected with cooking and eating human flesh were these: – After a battle the enemy's dead were collected, and their bodies were cut into pieces. One corpse was set aside as a trophy sacred to the god of war, and its hair and right ear were kept for the purpose of removing the tapu from the war party. Cooking-ovens were now dug in the earth in two long rows, and the flesh in one oven was set apart for the gods. This sacred oven had a wreath of fern round its edge, and two pointed sticks, stuck on the top, upon one of which there was a potato and on the other a lock of human hair. The flesh was often kept in the ovens for twenty-four hours. The chief commenced the feast, and this was occasionally done by swallowing the uncooked brain and eyes of some fallen warrior. If the chief's sons were present, they partook next; and then the whole army, with bloody hands and passions maddened by fighting, singing, and dancing, gorged themselves like boa constrictors. Men have died after such

WOMEN NOT CANNIBALS.

banquets. The whole body was devoured with the exception of the lungs, stomach, intestines, and other parts. When the warriors were surfeited, the remains were collected and packed in baskets. Portions were then sent round to tribes not actually engaged, to ascertain their feelings. Should these presents be received and eaten, the conquerors might depend on the support of those who did this, in resisting future attacks from the vanquished.

Should the son of a chief engaged in war not be present at the feast, a basket of human flesh was sent expressly to him. The Rev. A. N. Brown visited a battlefield two days after the conflict, and saw quantities of human bones picked clean of flesh, long bones broken as if to extract the marrow, and bloody heads stuck about on poles. Should the war party reach home before all the flesh is eaten, the remnant was thrown away, not brought into the village, as such proceedings would have rendered the habitations sacred. Women were not permitted to eat human flesh. They may have done so by stealth, but human flesh was forbidden food to females. Women were, however, allowed to become cannibals when the chief had no male issue, in which case the flesh sent from the battle-field was eaten by his eldest daughter, or by his nearest relative male or female. This custom was dictated by the law of primogeniture, and was done to transmit in an unbroken line the honours of chiefs to their descendants.

Human flesh was eaten by the New Zealanders from motives of revenge and hatred, to cast disgrace on the persons eaten, and to strike terror. Hatred and revenge are their strongest passions, and these were strengthened by cultivation and use.

MOTIVES FOR CANNIBALISM.

It was such a disgrace for a New Zealander to have his body eaten, that if crews of Englishmen and New Zealanders, all friends, were dying of starvation in separate ships, the English might resort to cannibalism, but the New Zealanders never would. To hint to a New Zealander that his father has been eaten is an insult unequalled in the English language. All their insulting speeches had reference to cannibalism. The following song, sung by men or women, is an excellent specimen of such compositions.

"0 my little son, are you crying, are you screaming for your food? Here it is for you: the flesh of Hekemanu and Werata. Although I am surfeited with the soft brains of Putu Rikiriki and Raukauri, yet such is my hatred that I will fill myself fuller with those of Pau, of Ngaraunga, of Pipi, and with my most dainty morsel the flesh of the hated Te ao. Leave as food for me, the flesh of my enemy Tikoko. I will shake with greedy teeth the bodies of Huhikahu and of Ueheka. My throat gapes for the brains not yet taken from the skull of Potukeka. In my great hatred I will swallow raw the stinking brains of Taratikitiki. Fill up my distended stomach with the flesh of Tiawha and Tutonga. Is the head of Ruakerepo, indeed, considered sacred? Why it shall be given to me, as a pot for boiling shell-fish at Kauau."

To strike terror was one of the motives of cannibalism. Civilised warriors on entering battle only dreaded death, but New Zealanders were tortured with the idea of their bodies being eaten. Chiefs were proud of having great cannibal reputations, and such names as "eaters of chiefs" were borne by some warriors. In the hour of battle the presence of a well-known cannibal nerved his followers arms and cooled the courage of his opponents.

HUMAN FLESH NEVER EATEN AS FOOD.

It is erroneous to suppose that cannibalism was practised under the conviction that the strength and courage of the person eaten passed into the body of the eater. No man ever coveted the qualities of those he hated. This English idea arose from chiefs having sucked living blood from flowing veins, and from the brains and heart being prized above all other parts of the human body.

Human flesh was never eaten by the New Zealanders as food. Cook and other navigators have asserted that the absence of quadrupeds suitable for food drove the people to cannibalism, and Professor Owen hints that when the gigantic moas were all eaten the New Zealanders commenced devouring each other. In no instance which has come under my notice were they ever driven from want of food to the dire necessity of eating human flesh; and the fact of human flesh having been sacred, and forbidden food to women, one half of the population, is a strong argument against human flesh having been used as a substitute for animal flesh.

Nevertheless, they had a strong liking for it, and all admit that its smell and taste were grateful. A proverb says, "the flesh of man surpasses that of all other animals in flavour." In 1852, at a Missionary Meeting at Tauperi, a native teacher said, "Although I am not an old man, I have eaten human flesh; it was sweet." Several men have told me that human flesh tastes like fresh pork, and others that it has the flavour of veal. When New Zealanders devoured their fellow-men they were almost invariably intoxicated with excitement. No men but sacred chiefs could partake of human flesh without becoming tapu, in which state they could not

CANNIBALISM EXTINCT.

return to their usual occupations without having the tapu removed from their bodies. This decree may have been dictated to prevent human flesh being used as food; as all cannibal races, except the Battas in Sumatra, 78 have pronounced it disgraceful for men to have their bodies eaten by men.

This narrative must have excited disgust. It is therefore pleasing to record that few of the rising generation were ever partakers of a human banquet. The last authentic instance of cannibalism occurred in 1843. During the late war, the bodies of an English soldier and two officers were mutilated, but not eaten. In 1852 I visited a pa near Tara Wera, one of the most distant places from the English settlements, a few days after a conflict. The spots where the warriors fell and the graves in which they were interred were shown me, but no human flesh was eaten on the occasion. This extinction of an ancient custom cannot be attributed to the introduction of animals suitable for food, as pigs abounded in New Zealand years before cannibalism ceased. It is Christianity which has driven this revolting custom out of the land, and, to the credit of the present generation of New Zealanders be it said, few willingly admit to strangers that they ever shared in a cannibal feast.

Prisoners not slain after conflicts were portioned out by their conquerors among the free men of the tribe as slaves, chiefs always reserving for themselves the largest number. Sometimes whole tribes became nominally slaves, although permitted to live at their usual places of residence, on the condition of catching eels and preparing food for their conquerors at certain seasons.

SLAVERY.

Before the year 1830 one tenth of the New Zealanders were living in a state of slavery, and Domesday Book shows that the bulk of the English people were once in a similar condition.

The people who were slaves in New Zealand were men, women, and children captured in war, and their descendants for ever. Children borne by slave women to free men were tainted with their mother's curse; children of free women and slave men were not slaves. No law or public opinion existed relative to the treatment of slaves; the word of their masters was law, and a refusal to obey death. It was likewise death for a slave to try to escape. There was no minor punishment. The people never defended the cause of slaves, and their mode of reasoning was this: the lives of slaves were sacrificed when captured; they have, therefore, no just cause of complaint in being slain at any future period.

Slaves were occasionally exchanged, as European powers exchange prisoners of war, but manumitted slaves never regained their former position in the tribe. Slaves were sold to other tribes, and given in payment for injuries. Harsh words from chiefs to slaves were as nothing, but similar offences from slaves to chiefs were never forgotten.

Nevertheless, slaves were not ill-treated as long as they did what was required of them. They slept in huts, eat the same kind of food as their master, although off separate dishes, and shared in all his amusements. Neither the bearing nor language of slaves was that of lacqueys. Cruelty was the exception, kindness to them the general rule. There was, however, a dark side to this picture; slaves were slain at the death of chiefs,

DISGRACE OF SLAVERY.

for the purpose of attending on them in the next world. They were occasionally killed and eaten by chiefs during peace, for political purposes. They were neglected during illness, and their bodies were contemptuously treated after death.

Slaves were employed in cooking food, drawing water, and hewing wood. In such occupations they were not assisted by free men. They accompanied their lords on fighting and fishing expeditions, but rarely rose to influence. They were marked by no external badge, although generally deficient in tattooing. In the presence of Europeans, strangers to the language and customs of the country, slaves were often blusterers. Free children knew from their earliest youth that their playmates were slaves, and knew the gulf which separated them from each other. Slavery was a taint never wiped out; chiefs taken in war might be spared, wives given them from among the daughters of the conquerors, children might be born unto them, but they were still slaves. The influence of the greatest warrior was destroyed by slavery; a circumstance which rendered death a relief, and their lives more agreeable with their conquerors than with their own tribe.

On Englishmen's ears the term slave grates harshly; but slavery was an easy physical burthen in New Zealand. This ancient custom, the lot of a large portion of mankind, is now nearly extinct in the colony. Christianity, the establishment of the British Government, and the civilising influence of commerce, have been chiefly instrumental in destroying the property of man in man. Among some remote tribes slaves are still found; but a large proportion have returned to the homes of their ancestors. A few, from attach-

SLAVERY EXTINCT.

ment to their masters, live as free men among the tribes with whom they were formerly slaves. The disuse of slavery has extinguished one of the causes which made New Zealand wars so ferocious. Battles are now conflicts for victory and revenge, not for slaves.

50 Johnson's Dictionary.

51 Shortland's Traditions of the New Zealanders.

52 Shortland's Traditions of the New Zealanders.

53 Dict. Clas. Hist. Nat. art. Homme.

54 See Part II., Chapter IV., on the Introduction of Christianity.

55 MSS. Account of the Rotorua war, by the Rev. Mr. Morgan.

56 Names of birds.

57 A short pull.

58 Names of birds.

59 A sustained pull.

60 A brisk pull.

61 A long pull.

62 A long pull.

63 Names of trees used in building canoes.

64 Names of trees used in building canoes.

65 Names of trees used in building canoes.

66 Words of three syllables untranslatable, but denoting a long and strong pull.

67 Words of three syllables untranslatable, but denoting a long and strong pull.

68 Words of three syllables untranslatable, but denoting a long and strong pull.

69 Words of three syllables untranslatable, but denoting a long and strong pull.

70 A short quick pull.

71 Walking away with the canoe.[?? Check original.]

72 Briskly.

73 Name of a bird.

74 The canoe touches the water.

75 Shortland's Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders.

76 Evidence before House of Lords, 1838.

77 The Rev. A. N. Brown, Missionary Reports.

78 Leyden, Asiatic Researches, vol. x.

CHAPTER VIII. FOOD AND HUSBANDRY.

CHAP. VIII.

FOOD AND HUSBANDRY.

Ancient food. – Fish. – Fern root. – Birds. – Dogs and rats. – Seals, &c. – Sweet potatoes. – Other plants. – Introduced food. – Mode of cooking. – Mode of eating. – Peculiar taste.

FROM a glance at the undermentioned substances used by the New Zealanders as food before the advent of Captain Cook, it must be apparent they could never, unless from indolence or wastefulness, have suffered from starvation, such as occasionally occurs in all countries where every family depends for support on its own patch of cultivation: –

Fish. Whales. Mosses.
Fern root. Reptiles. Fungi.
Birds. Worms. Sweet potatoes.
Rats. Insects. Taro.
Dogs. Chrysalises. Gourds.
Bats. Vegetable caterpillars. Hinau berries.
Seals. Sea weeds.
And various roots, fruits, flowers, shoots, and piths.

Fish, fern root, sweet potatoes, birds, dogs, rats, taro, karaka, and hinau berries were the staple articles of life; the other substances were used as adjuncts.

Every fish found in the surrounding sea is eaten by the natives, except the shark, from which teeth are obtained for ornament; portions of the stingaree; and one or two red-coloured fish, which are said to be poisonous.

Fresh-water eels, frequently of great size, and small

PRESERVING FISH.

fish suitable for food, are numerous in the rivers and lakes.

Fish are eaten after being stewed, roasted, or dried. Crayfish and several small fish are eaten alive; a custom settlers have pointed out as a remnant of cannibalism, all the time forgetting that swallowing an uncooked oyster is an analogous act.

Eels, dogfish, snapper, mackarel, and several other fish, are preserved in various ways for winter food. In effecting this the entrails are sometimes extracted, and the fish are dipped frequently in sea-water and dried in the sun. At other times the fish are half-cooked, then dried in the sun, or exposed to a slow smoky fire for several days. In this last process the fat does not escape, and the flavour of the fish is not lost. Preserved fish keep good for several months.

Shell-fish also furnished much food. The pipi and cockle were the most esteemed, and at certain seasons places where shell-fish abounded were tapued. Shellfish were preserved for winter food in the same way as other fish, and kept on strings.

The intimate knowledge the New Zealanders possess of the habits of fish, and their success in fishing, are indirect proofs that much of the ancient food of the people was derived from this source. The largest villages are on the sea coast, and all the settlements in the interior are within easy access of some productive lake, eel weir, or arm of the sea. Like the Saxons, the New Zealanders reckoned eels the finest of all fish.

Fern root was one of their principal articles of food. It was the bread-fruit of the country. All over the North Island fern abounds, but the productive edible variety is the Pteris esculenta. This food is celebrated

FERN ROOT.

in song, and the young women, in laying before travellers baskets of cooked fern root, chant: – "What shall be our food? Shell-fish and fern root. That is the root of the earth; that is the food to satisfy a man; the tongues grow rough by reason of the licking, as if it were the tongue of a dog."

Edible fern comes to perfection only in good soils, and here the plant is ten feet high. Three-year-old plants furnish the best fern root, and such is an inch in circumference. The deeper the root is found in the ground, the richer it is. In the month of November fern root is dug up, cut in pieces nine inches long, and is then placed in stacks carefully protected from rain, but through which a free current of air blows. Fresh fern root is not good; that which has been about a year above ground is most esteemed.

Fern root is only eaten after it is roasted; and before it is cooked it is steeped in water and dried in the sun. The whole root is chewed and the woody fibre is spit out. The flour is loosened from the woody fibre by beating it on a stone; and seventy per cent of flour has been obtained from good fern root. The present generation of natives only use fern root as a relish, although they have still fern root feasts. In taste it resembles ship biscuits. The pioneers of civilisation found a Hindoo domesticated among the New Zealanders who preferred fern root to rice; and the native stolen away from the Bay of Islands by De Surville wept on his death-bed for the want of fern root.

With the exception of one or two birds supposed to contain the spirits of deified ancestors, every sea and land bird is eaten by the natives. Old shags and albatross are not much esteemed, and the bittern is

RATS. – DOGS. – WHALES.

described as tooth-breaking and bitter. Tuis and mutton birds are preserved in their own oil for winter food, and kept in bags made of sea-weed. All other birds are cooked and eaten fresh.

Forty years ago New Zealand swarmed with rats, and these animals, highly relished as food, were caught in traps and pits. The introduced Norway rat, which assisted in extirpating the native rat, is not eaten.

The flesh of native dogs was highly relished. These animals were domesticated, and shared their masters' meals. Some of the males were castrated, to increase their size and improve the flavour of their flesh. Killing a dog in a village was an important event, and portions of the flesh were sent round as presents. European dogs are rarely eaten.

Seals, now only found in the southern parts of the Middle Island, were highly relished as food. Whales are invariably eaten, and a stranded animal is a harvest. None of the true lizards were eaten, but a guana eighteen inches long was. Land worms two feet long were eaten cooked. Several insects were swallowed alive. The chrysalis of a large butterfly tastes like marrow. Vegetable caterpillars were roasted, and they tasted like fern root. Several mosses, fungi, lichens, and sea-weeds are edible. One of the latter, with the juice of tutuberries, is converted into a jelly.

The small finger-shaped sweet potato, brought by the New Zealanders from Hawaiki, furnished much food. The edible part is several inches long. Sweet potatoes are planted in November and are ripe in March. Light sandy soils suit them best, and the warmer the climate the better. In the Middle Island they grow with difficulty. After being dug up they are carefully preserved

SWEET POTATO. – TARO.

in houses built for their reception, and are eaten either cooked or raw, or after being steeped in the sea and dried in the sun.

The culture of sweet potatoes has been much neglected since the introduction of a large species from America. But an idea of the high estimation in which they were formerly held, may be drawn from the care bestowed upon them. The men engaged in preparing the ground ornamented their hair and spades with feathers. The seed was planted in hillocks perfectly straight, and each potato was placed in the ground with the seed end towards the rising sun. The labourers so occupied moved along in rows chanting songs to propitiate the god of cultivated food. Some of them were tapu; and no sick persons, or women recently confined, were permitted to plant sweet potatoes. The labourers, on giving up working for the day, washed their hands and held them over a tapued fire before eating. A small wooden image daubed with red ochre was stuck in each field to show it was tapu. The plantations were carefully weeded, and it was the duty of every one to plant a certain quantity of sweet potatoes every year. If the soil was not good, artificial soil was placed under the seed.

Next in importance to the original sweet potato was the taro (Caladium esculentum). The edible part is the bulbous root, which weighs from ten to sixteen ounces. This plant grows best in damp soils, but its cultivation is now much neglected. Gourds (Lagenaria vulgaris) were brought from Hawaiki. The inner part is eaten, and the rind forms calabashes. The pith of the stem of the fern-tree (Cyathea medullaris), the fruit of the hinau, and karaka are eaten. The hinau berries are generally steeped for several days in a running

INTRODUCED FOOD.

stream; by this means the stone is separated from the farinaceous part, which is then baked into cakes and roasted. Hinau cakes are much esteemed. "When you awake," says a proverb, "be it to eat the berries of the hinau."

The karaka fruit is about the size of an acorn. The pulp is eaten raw; the kernel is cooked in the oven for ten days, and then steeped for several weeks in a running stream before it is fit for use. Karaka berries for winter use are dried in the sun. The kernel is poisonous uncooked. The seed of the karaka was brought from Hawaiki. In the flower of the flax plant a large quantity of sweet water collects, which is used as a refreshing beverage by travellers. The tap-roots of the ti or whanake (Cordyline australis) are eaten for the sugar they contain. In spring the sweet inner leaves of the flower of the tawhero are eaten, and in winter the luscious ripe fruit. The tender shoots and pith of the palm-tree, and also the roots of the raupo, are eaten cooked and raw. Cape gooseberries are found all over New Zealand. There is a clay called kotou, with an alkaline taste and an unctuous feel, which was eaten by the New Zealanders when pressed by hunger.

The articles of food introduced by Captain Cook and his successors were –

Pigs. Potatoes. Water melons.
Sheep. Maize. Onions.
Goats. Wheat. Turnips.
Cows. Large sweet potatoes. Honey.
Fowls. Cabbage. &c. &c.

Captain Cook's endeavours to introduce pigs into New Zealand proved successful. The whole country is now overrun with them; and in the deep recesses of the

PIGS. – POTATOES. – MAIZE.

forests they have lost the appearance of domestic pigs, and have acquired the habits and the colour of wild animals. The flesh of pigs fed on fern root is preferred by the natives to all other food. The sheep left by Cook all died, but in 1815 the Church Missionaries introduced this animal at the Bay of Islands. Goats were left by Cook, and cows were introduced by some of the early navigators. Rutherford mentions that, in 1817, there were a few cattle in the forests. Cats have run wild, and their flesh is occasionally eaten. Fowls, introduced by Cook, are now found both wild and domestic; and geese, turkeys, and guinea-fowl are common. Honey-bees were introduced in 1840 at the Bay of Islands, and numerous wild hives are now scattered over the country north of the Waikato river.

Potatoes were given by Cook to several tribes. Taniwha, an aged chief who died in 1853, related that Cook gave his tribe two handfuls, that for three years they planted the produce without using any for food, and that on the fourth year a feast was held to celebrate the arrival of this productive plant. Potatoes are now the staple article of consumption, and they have driven out of cultivation several ancient sorts of nutritious food. Potatoes are cooked in the usual manner, or kept in a stream until putrid, in which state they are cooked, and the dish is called mahi.

Maize was introduced by Governor King from Norfolk Island, in 1793, and it is frequently eaten, like potatoes, putrid; in which state the dish smells like excrement, and tastes like Parmesan cheese. This disgusting mode of preparing food is Polynesian. Wheat was introduced by Governor King and the Rev. Mr. Marsden; the latter relates that the New Zea-

SCIENCE OF COOKERY.

landers grew impatient for the produce, and tore the green stalks up from the ground in the expectation of finding the grain at the roots. Turnips were introduced at an early period, for in 1817 they were dried and used as winter food. The large sweet potato called kai-pakeha, to distinguish it from the kai Maori or finger-shaped sweet potato, was introduced by an American whaler in 1819. Every English plant suitable for food is now cultivated by the natives, but water-melons, cabbages, vegetable marrow, onions, carrots, peaches, apples, cherries, and grapes are the most esteemed.

The science of cookery was in a primitive state among the New Zealanders, for being destitute of vessels capable of resisting fire, the cookery of the whole race, except those living near the boiling springs at Rotorua and Taupo, was limited to steaming and roasting. The former was done in an oven, made by digging a hole in the ground, according to the size of the banquet, into which burning firewood, and stones about the size of an orange, were put, and then covered lightly over. When the stones were red-hot, one half were taken out, food put in, water sprinkled on the hot stones to generate steam, and the whole covered with fresh leaves, hot stones, and earth.

Roasting was effected by placing the articles near fire, but the New Zealanders despised this mode of cooking, and called it a make-shift, a dinner for slaves or men in a hurry.

Natives living in the neighbourhood of boiling springs boiled their food in the water. Here pigs were tossed in alive, and dragged out properly cooked in an incredibly short space of time.

MODE OF EATING.

The New Zealanders, although destitute of vessels in which to boil water, had an ingenious way of heating water to the boiling point, for the purpose of making shell-fish open. This was done by putting red-hot stones into wooden vessels full of water.

Civilisation is rapidly driving the ancient mode of preparing food out of fashion. Cooking-pots, kettles, and frying-pans are seen in every village, and, although the people still insist that steaming food gives meat a better flavour than boiling it, yet the black pot is more frequently seen at work by travellers than the ancient oven.

The New Zealanders, like all men who frequently suffer from hunger, eat ravenously, and the sight of food affects them as it does wild beasts.

Food was served up in small flax baskets made for the purpose, which were only once used, and to every five persons there was one of these plates. The fingers of the right hand conveyed the food to the mouth, and, like the Hindoos, never the left. Each party sat in a circle on the ground round the food. Women did not eat with men, nor slaves with their masters. Eating was performed in silence and with great rapidity; and after every meal, rarely during the meal, a large quantity of pure water was gulped down out of calabashes. There were two meals in twenty-four hours, one at nine or ten, and the other in the afternoon; if, however, food was abundant, they eat oftener, as their capacity was great, and quantity more than quality was the chief desideratum. Sixty pounds of fresh pork have been devoured by one man in twenty-four hours. When food is scarce, New Zealanders live on a diet Stoics might envy; when it is abundant, they indulge in vo-

SIMPLE TASTES. – USE SALT.

racious eating. Like animals of prey, their stomachs are inured to sustain the extremes of hunger and gluttony.

They were in the habit of eating disgusting sorts of food, but they nevertheless possessed children's tastes, and disliked anything salt, sour, bitter, or acrid. From the unfortunate Marion they refused wine and spirits, and pitched salt junk into the sea after the iniquitous massacre of the crew of the ship Boyd. Sugar was the only condiment agreeable to them, and no narcotic or stimulating article was eaten. Within the last few years the people have acquired a taste for salt and spirituous liquors, but untravelled New Zealanders still dislike mustard, sauces, vinegar, and spices. Pure water was their universal beverage, and in summer juice pressed from the clustering tutu berries was used to sweeten it. Drinks were always used cold.

The New Zealanders have been quoted as a race of men living without eating salt. This is an error. It is true the people disliked food in which salt predominated, but they used large quantities of dried fish prepared by frequent steeping in the sea. After living myself for ten days without salt, one of these fish tasted to me quite salt. All the tribes inland possessing property on the sea coast annually resorted to it for the purpose of drying fish; and tribes around Taupo, who had no land on the sea coast, exchanged mats for dried sea fish. Thus it was that they unconsciously used salt, a condiment absolutely necessary for health, although little relished by persons living solely on vegetables.

CHAPTER IX. LITERATURE.

CHAP. IX.

LITERATURE.

Remarks. – Laments. – Love songs. – Time chants. – War and Jeering songs. – Stories. – Fables. – Proverbs.

THE missionaries, soon after their arrival in New Zealand, became aware of the existence among the people of a traditional literature, which assumed the form of laments, songs, stories, fables, and proverbs. Portions of this literature are modern, but much of it has been recited and sung for many generations.

As many of the laments, songs, and stories referred to love, war, and superstition, several influential missionaries tried to bury them in oblivion, by describing them as heathenish compositions incompatible with Christianity. Fortunately this was impossible, for although a majority of the songs are sensual and trifling, yet in a philosophical point of view the whole literature is a valuable addition to the history of the race.

Charlemagne collected the songs recited by the Germans, some of which are as old as Tacitus. Sir George Grey, Dr. Shortland, the Rev. Mr. Taylor, Mr. C. 0. Davis, and others, have done the same for the New Zealanders.

On the whole, the natives are more a singing than a poetical people, and none of their songs are epic or dramatic. Much of their poetry is lyrical, and consists

REMARKS ON POETRY.

of laboured metaphors and rapturous allusions to striking objects in nature. In it there is no reflection, no nice development of character, and little sustained tenderness or moral emotion. The terminations of the verses do not form rhymes. Each sentence is metrically arranged, and for the sake of preserving the measure words are divided. There are songs applicable to every subject, and many of them are accompanied with action, which is often a pantomimic display suited to the words. Thus in songs about the upsetting of canoes, the bodily accompaniment represents the violent action of the waves, and the means taken to keep the canoe afloat and to bail her out. In war songs the eyes glisten, the clothes are torn off, weapons are grasped, and blows struck at imaginary foes. In songs celebrating cannibal orgies the teeth are fixed in the arm. In jeering songs the tongue is protruded; laments are accompanied with tears, and love songs with sensual attitudes. Even the words of songs are made applicable to the subject, and in them we hear the swaying of trees, the whine of wrongs, the pattering of rain, and the gush of waters. The air of the tune is likewise suited to the song, being harsh in warlike songs, and doleful and plaintive in laments and love songs.

The art of narration is ill understood, and although many songs are full of imperfect hints, none contain a regular account of anything.

Passing events are described by extemporaneous songs, which are preserved, when good, after the incidents they commemorate have lost their interest. Ancient songs are often much mutilated, and the meaning of many allusions and words contained in them is forgotten. Even modern songs are translated with difficulty, from

LAMENTS.

the metaphorical language of the people. For example, the daily mode of salutation, "the good-day," or the "how do you do" of the New Zealanders is tena ra ko koe, literally, "let the sun shine on thee," or "the day is thine."

The poetry of the people may be divided into laments, love songs, war or jeering songs, and time chants.

Laments contain the highest order of the people's poetry, and the singing of such compositions resembles cathedral chanting. One or two good voices commence, but all join in the chant. Laments aim at expressing overflowing emotion, and awakening similar feelings in listeners. Iwikau's lament for his brother Te Heuheu, who was buried alive; Rangihaeta's lament for Rauparaha his chief's capture; Ruhe's lament for his son, who was hung at Auckland; and the lament for the death of Te Heu Heu, given in other parts of this work, are good specimens of a style of composition which aims at expressing the noblest species of grief. The following lament gives utterance to sorrow of a less elevated but more natural kind: –

LAMENT

COMPOSED BY A YOUNG WOMAN CAPTURED AT THE ISLAND OF TUHUA, AND CARRIED AWAY TO A HIGH HILL NEAR ROTORUA, FROM WHICH SHE COULD SEE HER NATIVE PLACE. 79

"My regret is not to be expressed. Tears, like a spring, gush from my eyes. I wonder what ever is Te Kaiuku 80 doing: he who deserted me. Now I climb upon the ridge of Mount Parahaki, whence is clear the view of the island of Tuhua. I see with regret the lofty Taumo, where dwells Tangiteruru. 81 If I were there the shark's

REMARKS ON LAMENTS.

tooth would hang from my ear. How fine, how beautiful should I look! But see, whose ship is that tacking? Is it yours, O Hu, you husband of Pohiwa, 82 sailing away on the tide to Europe?

"O Toru, 83 pray give me some of your fine things: for beautiful are the clothes of the sea god.

"Enough of this, I must return to my rags, and to my nothing at all."

LAMENT
OF A BETROTHED WOMAN FOR ANOTHER MAN.

"The tears gush from my eyes,
My eyelashes are wet with tears.
But stay my tears within,
Lest you should be called mine.
Alas! I am betrothed.
It is for Te Maunu
That my love devours me.
But I may weep indeed,
Beloved one, for thee.
Like Tinirau's lament
For his favourite pet Tutunui,
Which was slain by Ngae.
Alas!"

84

It will be observed from this, and the other laments referred to, which are purposely drawn from various sources, and not from my own collection, how frequently the same idea is produced, and how often men and women are compared to stars, the sun, moon, clouds, mountains, famous landing-places, birds, winds, rocks, fish, seas, tides, ancestors, Hawaiki, trees, gods, canoes, and all the more obvious objects in nature. The metre of laments is simple and short, and without any rule for rhythmical cadence but the poet's ear. The following is the captured woman's song at Tuhua in the native language: –

LOVE AND WAR SONGS.

"Kaore te aroha
Ewhaki ake nei. Puna
Te roimata
Ka hua i aku kamo. Aha
Te Kaiuku,
Nana ra waiho mai. Tahi
Eke nei au
Te hiwi ki Parahaki marama te titiro
Te motu ki Tuhua, Tahi
Au ka aroha
Te hiwi ki Taumo ki a
Tangi-te-ruru;
Kia wakakai au maka o Tanawha,
Ka pai au, ka purotu. Wai
Te Kaipuke
E waihape atu ra? Nou
Na, e Te Hu,
He tau na Pohiwa. E rere ana ia
Te tai ki Europi. Homai e Toru,
Tetehi ki a au. Ahumehume tahi
Te kahu a te Tipua. Kati
Au ka hoki
Ki aku pepepora,
Ki aku kore noa iho."

Love songs were generally sensual in spirit, although several simply beautiful ideas are contained in them; but the singing of all was accompanied with indelicate attitudes. One specimen, with a description of the accompaniment, is given. 85

During the war dance, and on warlike occasions, songs were sung breathing a spirit of defiance and insult. War songs were always sung standing, but jeering songs occasionally in a sitting attitude, and invariably accompanied with the outstretched tongue. As

JEERING SONGS. – TIME CHANTS.

specimens of both species have been already given, 86 I will only add one verse of a jeering song: –

"1 Voice. My children, here's strength.
Chorus. Ha! ha!
1 Voice. My children, here's firmness.
Chorus. Ha! ha!
Behold a proof of unflinching strength,
The head of Te Kawai-ta-taki,
Which I grasp in my hand.
Chorus. Ha! ha!"

Whenever men worked together, appropriate airs were sung, and although these compositions have not much meaning, they invariably produced regularity and cheerfulness. Trees were dragged out of the forests, pas were built, food was planted, and paddlers dipped their paddles together, under the influence of spirit-stirring chants. Some of these songs resemble the chants shouted by palanquin bearers in India. Two excellent specimens of this species of poetry have been given. 87

During wet weather, and in long winter nights, the New Zealanders amused themselves with stories. Some were of great length and took days to narrate, from the minute circumstances detailed. In spirit and style these compositions resemble children's tales. The historical legend of Hine Moa is one of the best New Zealand stories, but the following are equally characteristic, although much condensed from the original: –

STORY OF WAIHUKA AND TUTEAMOAMO.

There were two brothers, and they had neither father nor mother, nor tribe nor place.

STORY OF WAIHUKA.

The younger was named Waihuka, the elder Tuteamoamo. When the former married Hineitekakara, a very beautiful woman, the elder brother the moment he saw her was struck with love, and he made up his mind to destroy Waihuka, to obtain possession of his wife.

One day Tuteamoamo took Waihuka a long distance out to sea to fish, and after catching one hundred fish, the elder brother said to the younger, Haul up the anchor of our canoe; but being unable to do so, he was prevailed on to dive for it. While under the water his brother cut the rope and paddled to a distance. When Waihuka came to the surface he cried to his brother to come and take him on board, but Tuteamoamo sailed away after throwing into the sea Waihuka's mat, fishing line, and paddle, which he told him to use as a canoe.

Waihuka now prayed to the birds to carry him to land, but none came to his assistance; he then called on the fish, and the whale hearing his supplications carried him ashore on its back.

When Tuteamoamo reached the land he rushed home, and told Hineitekakara that her husband was on board his canoe, but she immediately suspected he was drowned, and fell a weeping.

In the evening Tuteamoamo went to Hineitekakara's house and cried, "Draw back the slide of the door," and she replied,

"0 let me weep,
Let me utter now the lamentation
For thy younger brother Waihuka!
Lo the year is long, 0 Tuteamoamo,
And this long year is thine."

While uttering these words she dug a hole in the

LEGEND OF ROTORUA.

floor of the hut, before Tuteamoamo broke open the door, and escaped to the beach to search for her husband's body. Here she asked various birds, without obtaining any information, but a whale pointed out where Waihuka was to be found alive.

When Waihuka and Hineitekakara had ceased weeping they returned quietly home. In the eventide Tuteamoamo again visited the house and asked Hineitekakara to draw the slide of the door, which she did, and as he entered Waihuka sprang forward and slew him.

LEGEND OF THE KILLING OF THE MONSTER HOTUPUKU.

This is an account of the brave deeds of the men of Rotorua in the olden time.

Travellers between Rotorua and Taupo were frequently lost, and their friends invariably supposed they fell in with a war party, until one traveller escaped and reported that they were slain by a beast armed with scales and spikes, like a sea monster, living in a cave on the road.

This news quickly spread, and 340 Rotorua warriors took up arms to slay the monster. The party first travelled to the plain of Kapenga, where they plaited ropes and made snares with cabbage-palm leaves; and when they had finished, chiefs stood up and recounted tales of their ancestors' bravery, to animate each other's courage for the coming struggle.

It was then arranged the party should not approach too close to the monster, but wait until the wind blew

LEGEND OF ROTORUA.

towards them; "for should it blow from us towards him he will scent us, and then we shall be prevented from making our preparations by his coming upon us before we are ready for him." Parties were told off to be in readiness with the snares, and others to entice him out of the cave.

These arrangements were scarcely completed when the monster, scenting the approach of men, rushed out of his den. Long before he was seen, a rumbling noise like thunder was heard, and the monster flew at the warriors with an open mouth and a flaming tongue. They fled, and in their retreat "cunningly drew him into the snare, where his fore-legs and head were caught." Here he struggled hard for life; but after frequent attacks from the warriors on different parts of his body, he stretched himself out like a dying grub and expired.

Next day the warriors cut open their enemy. He was as large as a black whale, and in shape like a tuatara. In his stomach were found bodies of men, women, and children, some whole, others mutilated, and large quantities of warlike weapons and mats. The dead inside the monster were carefully buried; and after preserving his fat in calabashes and eating portions of his flesh in revenge for his deeds, the warriors returned in triumph to Rotorua.

This story is not unlike that of St. George and the Dragon; but there is nothing European in it, for the dragon is the emblem of the Chinese, and all Malays hold in terror animals resembling dragons.

Fables, like stories, furnished amusement to the people. Every fable possessed a moral, which is, how-

CHAP. IX.]

FABLES.

ever, often obscure. From the following specimens it will be seen that the New Zealand fables are apologues not parables.: –

THE EEL AND THE CODFISH.

"Which is your best part?" said the codfish to the eel. "I am good," replied the eel, "from my tail to my middle. But which is your good part?" The codfish answered, "My tail and fins." Then the codfish asked the eel which was his fattest part; and he replied by looking at his tail and referring a similar question to the cod, who by opening his eyes signified his head was the fattest part of his body.

This fable teaches us the best part of these fish.

THE GUANA AND THE ROCK COD.

A guana said to rock cod, "Let us go inland." And he replied, "No; go yourself." But the guana urged the cod to go, lest man should destroy him. The rock cod answered, "It is you, not me, men will destroy." To which insinuation the guana replied, "I will set up my spines, stick out my claws, and men will run from me."

THE RAT AND THE GREEN PARROT.

"Let us climb this tree," said the green parrot to the rat. "What shall we do there?" asked the rat. "Eat fruit," answered the parrot. "My friend," said the rat, "both our tribes are diminishing by the arts of man: he twists your neck and snares me."

This fable inculcates man's power over the lower animals.

PROVERBS.

THE KAURI TREE AND THE WHALE.

"Come to the sea," said the whale to the kauri. "No," replied the tree, "I prefer the land." "Then," said the whale, "let us change skins, for you are in danger of being cut down by man and made into a canoe."

THE RAT AND THE LIZARD.

"Lizard (in a tree). 0 Rat!
Rat. What.
Lizard. Come up hither to me.
Rat. What are we do there?
Lizard. Gather the fruits of the trees.
Rat. 0 son, our place is here below, we only know how to burrow in the earth."

This fable shows each man has his proper sphere on earth.

Proverbs are numerous among the New Zealanders, and are often the wise or witty sayings of ancestors. Some are pointed and elegant, while others are destitute of wit and sense to a European, although highly relished among themselves.

Proverbs are used to support arguments, to excite men to exertion, and to produce amusement. The introduction of an applicable proverb in a speech often carries more weight than any other sort of argument. Every proverb inculcated some principle. The following instilled into men's minds the necessity of cultivating food: –

Whoever trusts to another man's labour for his food will be disappointed, but he who labours with his own hands will have enough and to spare.

PROVERBS.

Fuel is only sought for against winter, but food is cultivated the whole year.

A person who has several cultivations is safe, though one should fail.

The man who gets up to work will be satisfied, but he who sits idle will want food.

He who is valiant in fight is apt to stumble, but he who is valiant in cultivating food will die of old age.

Food given tickles the throat, but food gained by one's labour is the food which satisfies.

Idle fellows are taunted with such proverbs as the following: –

Where were you when the fuchsia came into leaf that you did not plant food?

He works little, but his throat is deep.

You are forward to eat, but not to work.

You keep away at planting time, but stick close in harvest.

Potaka was a lazy fellow, who commenced working when others were leaving off.

"Industry," says the proverb, "should be rewarded, lest idleness get the advantage."

"This tribe will become extinct like the moa," is a proverb used to announce the extinction of a race.

The hidden thoughts of men are thus indicated: –

The spider is not seen when hid in his web, so men's real intentions are concealed in their hearts.

The slightest movement of the reed is seen, but not that of the heart.

We can search every corner of a house, but the corner of the heart we cannot.

PROVERBS.

Passing clouds can be seen, but passing thoughts cannot.

Perseverance is inculcated in the saying, "If a man yawns while fishing he will catch no fish."

Men are urged not to despise insignificant enemies for "small and insignificant as the grub is, yet he eats hard trees."

A diminutive man is not to be despised, because "though small he is like the tough tea-tree."

The story of the mountain in labour, is well brought out by the proverb, "Though long hidden it will be small when it appears."

That sons should step into their fathers' shoes is thus expressed, "When the seine is worn out with age, the new net encircles the fish."

Constant talkers are silenced by the saying, "Bail the water out of your mouth, as from a canoe in a storm."

Ill-bred English guests look at their watches when kept waiting for dinner, but New Zealand guests on similar occasions ask each other, "When will the sound of splitting fire-wood be heard?"

"Go to Kati-kati for cockles" is used in the same sense as the phrase "Don't you wish you may get it?" Kati-kati was then debateable ground.

"When he sees a mealy potato he saves it for his own eating, but when he meets with a fibre of fern root, he throws it aside " is a proverb applied to persons who pick dainty bits of food out of dishes.

Human life is compared to the sun, "rising to its zenith and then declining;" and man is called the "slave of two growths, shooting up and sinking down," in other words, infancy and old age.

PROVERBS.

There are few proverbs connected with the religious customs of the people, but "In the procession the priest goes before and the multitude follow after."

Prosperity is promised to "those who give as well as take."

People who ask for advice which they do not follow are compared to "dogs, snatching food from their masters' hands and running away."

No man is a prophet in his own country has an equivalent in the proverb, "A mussel at home, a parrot abroad."

Greedy fellows are compared to rats, and the "rat has a double stomach."

The early bird gets the worm, is less pointedly expressed in the proverb, "He who goes before gathers treasures, but he who follows looks for them in vain."

79 Shortland.

80 Her lover.

81 The name of a chief at Tuhua.

82 Pohiwa's husband was in Europe, and she, having plenty of fine clothes, was the admiration of her countrymen.

83 Another name for Pohiwa.

84 The Rev. Mr. Taylor.

85 See Chapter X. Part I.

86 Chapter VII.

87 See Chapter VII.

CHAPTER X. DOMESTIC CEREMONIES AND FAMILIAR USAGES.

CHAP. X.

DOMESTIC CEREMONIES AND FAMILIAR USAGES.

Marriage. – Punishments for infidelity. – Polygamy. – Legend of Hine Moa. – Ceremonies after Death. – Hahunga. – Respect for the dead. – Hakari feast. – Amusements. – Talking. – Tobacco-smoking. – Reading and writing. – Chewing substances. – Singing. – Musical instruments. – Riddles. – Poi. – Maui. – Ti. – Other games. – Mode of reckoning time. – Mode of salutation. – Mode of carrying burthens. – Personal ornaments. – Fishing ceremonies. – Arithmetic. – Mechanical skill. – Catching birds. – Dress. – Flax mats. – Standard of measure. – Other customs. – Where ancient customs are still seen.

MARRIAGE among the New Zealanders was a purely civil act. The tapu was occasionally employed to prevent infidelity, but there were no religious ceremonies connected with marriage; it was not even an indissoluble tie, as women occasionally changed husbands. In many instances, women had little choice in the selection of their first lords.

Men generally took wives from among the daughters of the nation, but sometimes from other nations. In the latter case, the permission of both nations was required, and neglecting this observance has led to war. Men marrying women out of their own nation might live with their wife's kindred. Chiefs married slaves, but it was disgraceful for chiefs' daughters to wed slaves. Women elevated their husbands, men did not elevate their wives. Girls were occasionally betrothed or tapued to men during infancy.

GIRLS BETROTHED.

Should a man set his eye on a fair girl not betrothed to another, and her friends object to the union, he frequently carried her away by force. During these half friendly contests the girl was often severely injured, and death has ensued. After the man had borne his wife away, a stripping party visited the couple. The husband feasted them with food, the marriage was talked over, and perhaps another wrestling match for the girl took place; after which the stripping party returned home laden with presents, and thenceforth the man was permitted to live in peace with his wife. Women have committed suicide to avoid living with persons they disliked.

Girls not betrothed in childhood were allowed, on growing up, to bestow their favours on whom they pleased. The more suitors they had, the more valuable were they reckoned. Should a girl have a preference for one of her suitors, and particularly on becoming enceinte, she went home with him, and they lived as man and wife. 88

Between unmarried persons of both sexes there is much delicacy of intercourse in the presence of others. This is singular, because the songs, dances, and conversation of the people are occasionally indelicate. Whole sentences are expressed in the large, brilliant, restless eyes of New Zealand women, and a slight squeeze of the hand, difficult to detect, is a secret token of regard. In concubinage men steal to the women's huts, whereas in marriage men take the women to their own houses. The brothers of maidens are the persons whose consent to the marriage it is most necessary to obtain. Unions between near relations are not unfrequent.

PUNISHMENT FOR INFIDELITY.

Maidens enjoy more than European freedom, but married women have much Asiatic restraint. When women are well treated, and have children, infidelity is rare; when the reverse is the case virtue is far from common. Should husbands prove unfaithful, wives revenged themselves by committing adultery; when wives were the first to err they were punished by a divorce, a severe beating, or death. When the paramour was a free man, the regular mode of proceeding was for the husband to go armed with a light spear, accompanied by several friends, to the offender's residence, who, having had notice of his coming, awaited him similarly supported and armed. It was then decided whether satisfaction or compensation was to be given. If the former, the husband commenced the attack by rushing at the paramour's breast with his spear, who received the thrust in a position between sitting and standing, holding an erect spear in front by both hands, prepared to ward off the thrust. If this is parried, the injured husband thrusts again and again. After the third thrust the debt is paid, the paramour springs on his feet, and both fight on even terms. The first wound, if slight, ends the combat; if mortal, some relative seeks satisfaction; a general quarrel ensues, ceasing only when one party is beaten.

Men were considered to have divorced their wives when they turned them out of doors, after which it was lawful for others to marry them. Widows were not permitted to marry until their dead husband's bones were taken to their final resting-place. Chiefs' widows retained their husbands' rank. Fathers' wives descended to their sons, and dead brothers' wives to their surviving

POLYGAMY.

brothers. Women occasionally committed suicide on the death of their husbands.

Chiefs and free men were permitted to have several wives. The mother of the first-born was the head wife, and the others were little better than slaves. Each wife had her own house. To have several wives was a mark of dignity and greatness. Jealousy, discord, domestic misery, and child murder were often produced by polygamy. The elder wives were jealous of the younger ones, and stories of each other's infidelity were frequently invented. Polygamy has unjustly proved a barrier to the admission of several excellent chiefs into the Christian Church; although the missionaries, in refusing chiefs baptism on this plea, have been unable to point out where it is laid down in Scripture that a layman should have only one wife.

Courtships were rare, and short when they did occur. There are, however, several love stories among the people possessing an Eastern character, and not destitute of beauty. The following legend of Hine Moa conveys a good idea of their domestic customs. 89

There is a high island in the centre of the Rotorua lake, called Mokoia. Many years ago there lived on this island a family of five sons and one daughter. Tutanekai was the name of the youngest son save one, and he was said to be an illegitimate child. In the village of Owhato, on the mainland, exactly opposite to where the family resided, lived a maiden of high rank and great beauty called Hine Moa. Tutanekai had contracted a friendship with a young man named Tiki,

LEGEND OF HINE MOA.

and both being fond of music, often played on the flute and the trumpet. In the still summer evenings, the sounds from their instruments were wafted across the lake to the ears of Hine Moa, and she said to herself: "Ah! that is the music of Tutanekai that I can hear." For although Hine Moa was so prized by her family that they would not betroth her to any chief, nevertheless she and Tutanekai had seen each other on those occasions when the people of Rotorua met together. In these great assemblies Hine Moa and Tutanekai glanced at each other, and to the heart of each of them the other appeared pleasing, so that in the breast of each there grew up a secret passion for the other. Nevertheless, Tutanekai could not tell whether he might venture to salute Hine Moa, "Because," said he, "perhaps I may be by no means pleasing to her." On the other hand, Hine Moa's heart said to her, "If I send one of my female friends to tell him of my love, perchance he will not be pleased with me." However, after they had thus met for many days, and had fondly glanced at each other, Tutanekai sent a message to Hine Moa to tell of his love, and when Hine Moa had seen the messenger, she said, "Eh! ha! have we then each loved alike?"

Some time after this Tutanekai and the rest of the family returned to their own village. One evening, when all together, the elder brothers of Tutanekai said: "Which of us has by signs, or by pressing the hand, received proofs of the love of Hine Moa." One said, "It is I who have," and another said, "No, it is I." They asked Tutanekai on the subject, and he said: "I have pressed the hand of Hine Moa, and she pressed mine in return." Then his elder brothers said, "No such thing. Do you think she would take any notice of such a low-born

LEGEND OF HINE MOA.

fellow as you are?" Then he told his reputed father Whakaue to remember what he had told him, because he really had received proofs of Hine Moa's love, and they had actually arranged the time at which she should come to him. The maiden had indeed asked, "What shall be the sign by which I shall know that I should run to you?" and Tutanekai had replied, "A trumpet will be heard sounding every night, it will be I who sound it, beloved; paddle then your canoe to that place." So Whakaue treasured up in his mind this love-confession of Tutanekai.

Now, always about the middle of the night, Tutanekai and his friend Tiki played on the flute and the trumpet. Hine Moa heard them and desired vastly to paddle in her canoe to Tutanekai; but her friends, suspecting something, carefully dragged on shore all the canoes every night. At last she reflected, saying: "How can I then contrive to cross the lake to the island of Mokoia? It can quite plainly be seen that my friends suspect what I am going to do." So she sat down on the ground to rest there, and then there reached her the sounds of Tutanekai's trumpet, and she felt as if an earthquake shook her to make her go to the beloved of her heart. But then arose the thought that there was no canoe. At last she thought, "Perhaps I might be able to swim across." So she took six large dry empty gourds as floats, lest she should sink in the water, three of them for each side; and she went out upon a rock, and thence to the edge of the water, and there she threw off her clothes and cast herself into the water. She reached a post which had been placed in the lake by her father, and she clung to it with her hands and rested to take breath. When the weariness of her

LEGEND OF HINE MOA.

shoulders had a little ceased she swam on again; and when she was exhausted she floated on the waters of the lake, supported by the gourds; and when had ceased her weariness she swam on again. In consequence of the darkness of the night she could not see in which direction she should swim, and her only guide was the sound of Tutanekai's trumpet.

At last she landed on the island, at a place where there is a hot spring separated from the lake by a narrow ledge of rocks. Hine Moa got into this to warm herself, for she was trembling all over, partly from the cold, and partly also from modesty at the thought of meeting Tutanekai. Whilst the maiden was thus warming herself in the hot spring, Tutanekai happened to feel thirsty, and said to his servant, "Bring me a little water." So his servant went to fetch water for him, and drew it from the lake in a calabash close to the spot where Hine Moa was sitting. The maiden, who was frightened, called out to him in a gruff voice like that of a man, "Who is that water for?" He replied, "It is for Tutanekai?" "Give it here then," said Hine Moa; and he gave her the water and she drank, and having finished drinking purposely threw down the calabash and broke it. Then the servant said to her, "What business had you to break the calabash of Tutanekai?" But Hine Moa did not say a word in answer. The servant then went back, and Tutanekai said to him, "Where is the water I told you to bring me?" So he answered, "Your calabash is broken." His master asked him who broke it, and he answered, "The man who is in the bath." Tutanekai said, "Go back again and fetch me some water." He therefore took a second calabash from the lake. And Hine Moa

LEGEND OF HINE MOA.

said to him, "Who is that water for?" So the slave answered as before, "For Tutanekai." And the maiden again said, "Give it to me, for I am thirsty." And the slave gave it to her, and she drank, and again purposely threw down the calabash and broke it. At last the slave went back to Tutanekai, who said to him, "Where then is the water for me?" And his servant answered, "It is all gone; your calabashes have been broken." "By whom?" said his master. "Did not I tell you there is a man in the bath?" answered his servant. "Who is the fellow?" said Tutanekai. "How can I tell?" replied the slave: "why he is a stranger." "Didn't he know the water was for me?" said Tutanekai. "What made the fellow dare to break my calabashes?"

Then Tutanekai threw on some clothes, and caught hold of his club, and away he went to the bath, and called out, "Who's that fellow broke my calabashes?" And Hine Moa knew the voice, that the sound of it was the voice of her beloved, and she hid herself under the overhanging rocks of the hot spring; but her hiding was hardly a real one, but only a concealing of herself from Tutanekai that he might not find her at once, but only after trouble and searching. So he went feeling about the banks of the hot spring, searching everywhere, whilst she lay coyly hid under the ledges of the rock, peeping out and wondering when she should be found. At last he caught hold of her hand and cried out, "Halo! who's this?" And Hine Moa answered, "It is I, Tutanekai." And he said, "But who are you? Who's I?" Then she spoke louder, and said, "It's I; 'tis Hine Moa." And he said, "Oh! oh! oh! Can, in truth, such be the case? Let us two then go

LEGEND OF HINE MOA.

to my house." And she answered, "Yes." She rose up in the water as beautiful as the wild white hawk, and stepped on the ledge of the bath as graceful as the shy white crane; and he threw her garments over her, and took her, and proceeded to his house and reposed there; and thenceforth, according to the ancient laws of the Maoris, they were man and wife.

When morning dawned all the people in the village went forth from their houses to cook their breakfasts, and they all ate, but Tutanekai tarried in his house; so Whakaue said: "This is the first morning that Tutanekai has slept in this way; perhaps the lad is ill; bring him here; rouse him up." When the man who was to fetch him went and drew back the sliding wooden window of the house, and peeping in saw four feet, oh! he was greatly amazed, and said to himself: "Who can this companion be?" However he had seen quite enough; and turning about hurried back as fast as he could to Whakaue, and said to him, "Why, there are four feet; I saw them in the house." Whakaue answered, "Who's his companion? Then make haste back and see." So back he went to the house and peeped in at them, and then for the first time saw it was Hine Moa. Then he shouted out in his amazement, "Oh! here's Hine Moa, here's Hine Moa, in the house of Tutanekai!" And all the village heard him; and then arose cries on every side, "Oh! here's Hine Moa; here's Hine Moa with Tutanekai!" His elder brothers heard the shouting, and they said: "It is false," for they were jealous indeed. But Tutanekai then appeared coming out from his house and Hine Moa following him, and his elder brothers saw it was indeed Hine Moa, and they said: "It's true; it's quite true."

DISPOSAL OF DEAD.

After these things, Tiki thought within himself Tutanekai has married Hine Moa, she whom he loved, but as for me, alas! I have no wife, and he became sorrowful, and returned to his own village. And Tutanekai was grieved for Tiki, and he said to Whakaue, "I am quite ill for grief for my friend Tiki," and Whakaue said, "What do you mean?" and Tutanekai replied, "I refer to my young sister Tupa, let her be given as a wife to my beloved friend Tiki," and his reputed father Whakaue consented to this; so his young sister Tupa was given to Tiki, and she became his wife.

The descendants of Hine Moa and Tutanekai are at this day dwelling on the Lake of Rotorua, and never yet have the lips of the offspring of Hine Moa forgotten to repeat tales of the great beauty, and of the swimming here of their renowned ancestress Hine Moa, and thence too have they this song, this very song, –

"Am not I also descended from the great ancestress who swam hither, From Hine Moa, whom I resemble from having also crossed the seas."

From this pleasing narrative we turn to the dead, – a subject among all races of men of the highest interest. Curious to relate, Captain Cook recorded that the New Zealanders concealed everything from him as to the disposal of their dead, and it is only in modern times that the world has been enlightened on this question.

It is now known that the dead bodies of slaves were thrown into holes or into the sea, or buried under the poles supporting houses; but the dead bodies of free persons were ever held in high respect. It was only, however, at the death of chiefs that the funeral rites of the people were celebrated. A chief on his death-bed was surrounded by most of his relatives, his last words were treasured up, and the resignation with which the

DEAD SAT IN STATE.

dying man submitted to his fate suggested to the mind that he died of his own will. The moment the vital spark fled its departure was bewailed with doleful cries; abundance of water was shed in the form of tears; and the spectators groaned, sighed, and seemed inconsolable. But all was hollow, except in the immediate relatives of the deceased, and a specimen of the talent of the New Zealanders for dissimulation. Men, women, and children cut themselves with shells, and slaves were slain to attend on the dead in the next world, and in revenge for his death. Since the introduction of fire-arms, guns are fired off at the death of chiefs.

Twenty-four hours after death the body was washed, and beaten with flax-leaves to drive away evil spirits. Priests then dressed the corpse. The legs were bent, the body placed in a sitting attitude, the hair tied in a lump on the crown of the head, and ornamented with albatross feathers; garlands of flowers were wound round the temples; tufts of white down from a sea-bird's breast were stuck in the ears; the face was smeared with red ochre and oil; and the whole body save the head enveloped in a fine mat. In this condition, surrounded with his weapons of war, the bones and preserved heads of his ancestors, the dead chief sat in state; and, as the complexion of the skins of the natives alters little after death, there was a life-like appearance in the whole scene. Certain birds were sacrificed to the gods. Tribes from a distance visited the dead. Lines of the long toitoi grass placed in the dead warrior's hands were grasped by friends, and flattering laments, of which the following is a good specimen, were sung in his honour: –

BODIES PLACED ON STAGES, TREES, ETC.

LAMENT FOR A CHIEF.

"Behold the lightning's glare,
It seems to cut asunder
Tuwhara's rugged mountains.
From thy hand the weapon dropped:
And thy bright spirit disappeared
Beyond the heights of Raukawa.
The sun grows dim and hastes away,
As a woman from the scene of battle.
The tides of the ocean weep as they ebb and flow,
And the mountains of the South melt away:
For the spirit of the chieftain
Is taking its flight to Rona.
Open ye the gates of the heavens.
Enter the first heaven, then enter the second heaven,
And when thou shalt travel the land of spirits,
And they shall say to thee, 'What meaneth this?'
Say the winds of this our world
Have been torn from it, in the death of the brave one,
The leader of our battles.
Atutahi and the stars of the morning
Look down from the sky,
The earth reels to and fro,
For the great prop of the tribes lies low.
Ah! my friend, the dews of Hokianga
Will penetrate thy body.
The waters of the rivers will ebb out
And the land be desolate."

90

Dead chiefs sat in state until they gave out an ill odour. Then their bodies were wrapped in mats, put into canoe-shaped boxes along with their meris, and deposited on stages nine feet high, or suspended from trees in the neighbourhood of villages, or interred within the houses where they died. Here, after daylight, for many weeks, the nearest relatives regularly bewailed their death with mournful cries. Persons tapued from touching the dead were now made clean; carved wooden

DISPOSAL OF BODIES.

ornaments or rude human images twenty or forty feet high, not unlike Hindoo idols, were erected on the spots where the bodies were deposited. Mourning head-dresses made of dark feathers were worn; some mourners clipped half their head-hair short, and people talked of the dead as if they were alive.

Dead bodies were permitted to remain about a year on stages or in the earth, after which the bones were scraped clean, placed in boxes or mats, and secretly deposited by priests in sepulchres on hill tops, in forests, or in caves. The meris and valuable property of chiefs were now received by their heirs. To witness this ceremony of the removal of the bones neighbouring tribes were invited to feasts called the hahunga, and for several successive years afterwards hahungas were given in honour of the dead, on which occasions skulls and preserved heads of chiefs were brought from sepulchres, and adorned with mats, flowers, and feathers. Speeches and laments delivered at hahungas kept chiefs' memories alive, and stimulated the living to imitate the dead.

"With weeping and with laughter
Still is the story told,
How well Horatius kept the bridge
In the brave days of old."

Celebrated chiefs had five or six hahungas before their bones were deposited for ever in their ancestral cemeteries. The bones of chiefs not famous in life were only once exposed, and the orations delivered over them had the shortness of monumental inscriptions. Thus it was that the glory of the New Zealanders in this world did not always terminate with their lives. The bones of the dead were sometimes burned.

A FEAST.

It has been supposed that cannibals have little respect for dead bodies, but the ceremonies just described, and the fact of everything connected with the dead being sacred, contradict this idea. One of the greatest misfortunes which could befall tribes was to have their tombs desecrated, and nothing excited anger so much. In 1849, a European sailor joined me travelling to Rotorua. In ignorance he took a greenstone image from the neck of a wooden monument on the road. Its loss, detected by the first New Zealander passing, was communicated to fifty others going to honour a dead chief at Puhirua. The natives violently excited, and assuming at once that a European had committed the sacrilege, rushed on us with spears, and had the culprit not instantly returned the image our lives might have been sacrificed. Christianity has produced a revolution in funeral customs, and as burying bodies in the earth gives little trouble to the living, the old ceremonies over the dead are now nearly abandoned.

The New Zealanders had another feast, called the hakari, very different from the hahunga. The hakari was a banquet given by nations to each other, for the purpose of making peace, honouring chiefs, talking over important affairs, or in return for a similar feast. Twelve months before the festival food was planted, and preparations made for it. Previously to the arrival of the guests the food was piled either on the ground or on wooden scaffolds. Such erections were square pyramidal towers having an elevation of fifty feet, or ranges of six feet high, extending from half a mile to two miles. There were several compartments in these receptacles for food; each being filled up with sweet potatoes, taros, maize, fern root, potted birds, dried fish, karaka berries,

QUANTITY OF FOOD.

and other things. But there were feasts where nothing was served but fern root.

When the banquet was given in return for another, the quantity of food was expected to be greater than that at the original feast. Taunts of illiberality were cast upon tribes not following this custom. On the day of the hakari, in the presence of the assembled guests, the chief host called out each tribe by name and pointed out its share of the food, and the guests carried away what they were unable to eat. At several modern banquets the surplus food has been sold to European traders present on the occasion. Six thousand guests have been counted at such banquets: like battles, they were remembered for years, particularly when the entertainment was sumptuous. The wood of the banquet building was used by the guests to cook their food.

Every pastime of the people was celebrated at hakari. There was dancing, singing, talking, wrestling, racing, throwing spears, crying, climbing, swimming, flying kites, playing at ti, tossing the poi ball, and the commercial amusements of buying and selling, which were carried on in giving and receiving presents. Since the year 1840, firing guns, playing cards, draughts, and horse-racing have been introduced. Thirty years ago at these banquets travelled New Zealanders sketched, for the information of their untravelled countrymen, rude pictures of things seen at Sydney, Tasmania, and England; and in pantomime displayed, amidst shouts of laughter, how Englishmen got drunk, quarrelled, and fought. In 1836 there was a celebrated hakari at Matamata on the Thames. Here a European counted 8000 baskets of potatoes, 500,000 eels, 800 pigs, and 15 casks of tobacco. Tukerau, a Poverty Bay chief,

IDEAS OF WEALTH.

distributed at one feast 300 Kaitaka mats, each of which was to him as valuable as a cashmere shawl is to an English lady. At the Matamata feast in 1836, a curious scene occurred. Many of the hosts were clad in European dresses, which apparel they sold to their guests for the very tobacco they had given to them out of hospitality.

Like Indians who fell trees to gather the fruit, the New Zealanders at these banquets overlooked the future for the present. Such feasts are highly characteristic of the people, and were often given to have their liberality noised abroad. To gain this end tribes worked hard, and endured hunger for months without repining. But the settlers must not judge of these feasts by their own ideas. Englishmen respect men for possessing wealth, New Zealanders for the wealth they give away. The former leads to hoarding, the latter to poverty; selfishness characterises an Englishman's idea of wealth, liberality a New Zealander's. Magnificence is displayed by savage races in high piles of food, and by civilised races in banquets where the grand feature is elegance more than abundance.

The New Zealanders are ignorant that industry is the road to happiness; but, although they have much unoccupied time on their hands, they never suffer from ennui. This exemption of the people from the bane of idle civilised men is caused by the trifles pleasing to them, as the following enumeration will show, in which they are arranged according to the frequency with which they are resorted to.

All men destitute of a written language are great talkers, and the New Zealanders even among other unlettered races would be reckoned loquacious. Conver-

TALKING, SMOKING, READING, WRITING,

sation beguiles the time while walking, labouring in the field, and basking in the sun. Trivial events are related in showers of words, and a traveller returns home with talking materials for weeks. In recounting what passed on the journey, he states when he started, what he did, whom he saw, what he talked about, how often he lit his pipe, sat down, slept, &c. Travellers having no news invent news to render themselves welcome guests. When New Zealanders have nothing to talk about, long stories like fairy-tales are told. Brevity of speech is unknown. Their talking is made up of short periods but long paragraphs. Playful wit and good-humoured bantering characterise most of their conversations. Speech-making, accompanied with grave ceremony, is a species of talking which whiles away many hours. Singular to relate, garrulity often ceases in old age.

Tobacco-smoking was one of the earliest customs introduced by Europeans. Even before the advent of the British Government in 1840 smoking tobacco was almost universal. Natives without their pipes are uncomfortable, they never leave home without them, and rarely squat without lighting them; they do not smoke much at one time, but they often light their pipes, and rarely shake the ashes out. Women smoke as much as men. Snuffing tobacco is unknown, but chewing tobacco is common among some seafaring New Zealanders.

Reading and writing are introduced customs which afford much amusement, and it is to be regretted that few books containing useful and pleasing information have been translated into the Maori language.

Chewing acrid or narcotic substances to produce excitement, stupor, and a flow of saliva are Polynesian, Malay, and Hindoo customs. Polynesians resident in tropical

CHEWING. – SINGING-CHORUS.

islands extract from the kava root, by chewing, a narcotic drink, and Hindoos and northern Melanesians chew the acrid areca nut, but the New Zealanders do not chew either of these substances, although they chew hardened sowthistle juice, kauri gum, and a dark substance driven on shore on the west coast of the North Island. These articles simply excite the salivary organs, none are narcotic. The most esteemed of these substances is the last mentioned; it is called He mimiha, He kauri tawhiti, and He wako mo te kekeno, and is said to be the nest of young seals. It is, however, pure bitumen, and is probably derived from bituminous springs under the sea near Taranaki. It is singular the New Zealanders should have forgotten the art of extracting an intoxicating beverage from the kava root, 91 seeing this plant grows abundantly in the country.

Singing, or the Haka, was the amusement of village maidens and young lads on fine evenings. For this purpose they assembled with flowers and feathers in their hair, and red paint, charcoal, and petals of flowers on their faces. Most songs were accompanied with action. The singers first arranged themselves in a row, in a sitting attitude, on a conspicuous place; the best voices commenced and finished each verse, then all joined in the chorus, which consisted of a peculiar noise caused by repeated expirations and inspirations, slapping one hand on the breast, raising the other aloft and making it vibrate with great rapidity, and moving the body in indelicate attitudes. Sensual words were generally sung, at other times the idea was simple and beau-

SONGS.

tiful. The following song was sung by one or two voices, the chorus by all with gestures: –

Song.
"Your body is at Waitemata,
But your spirit came hither
And roused me from my sleep.

Chorus.
Ha-ah-ha ah-ha-ah.

Song.
Tawera is the bright star
Of the morning.
Not less beautiful is the
Jewel of my heart.

Chorus.
Ha ah-ha ah-ha-ah.

Song.
Who will marry a man
Too lazy to till the ground for food?
The sun is the food for
The skin of such an one.

Chorus.
Ha ah-ha ah-ha-ah.

Song.
Who will marry the woman
Too lazy to weave garments?
Tongariro is the food for the skin of such a one.

Chorus.
Ha-ah-ha ah-ha-ah."

92

When the haka was sung by grown men, the singers stood in rows or in squares. The action of the legs and body was graceful, but the uplifted hands vibrating in the air during the chorus, and the forced expirations and inspirations produced a singular wildness. The action is a mimic war dance, and the songs are either glees or war songs. Good voices sung the verses, and all joined in the chorus.

Song. "Kumara one, two, three,
Kumara two, three, four.
Now carry out your plan,
Pounce, pounce upon them.

Chorus.
Ha-ah-ha ah-ha ha.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

Song.
Rehearse your incantations,
So ye may be strengthened in the strife.
Oh, let your plots ripen into action.

Chorus.
Ah-ha-ah ha-ah ah.

Singers adorned their hair profusely with feathers, and fastened their mats round their waists. As men sung in the open air in the evening, and as maidens assembled to hear the singing, and also to behold the finest-shaped men, there were frequently intrigues on these occasions.

Much care was taken to preserve uncontaminated the airs of ancient songs, for although ignorant of complicated music, many New Zealanders have correct ears for time and tunes.

They have only two kinds of musical instruments, – the flute and the trumpet. The flute, varying in length from two feet to three inches, is open at both ends, and has either two or five holes. Anciently flutes were occasionally formed out of the hollow bones of murderers, now they are constructed of wood. They are played by blowing into one of the holes, or into one of the ends; the best instrument can only produce five simple notes.

The trumpet was made of wood; it was seven feet long, and one or two notes were obtained from it. The instrument was used more frequently for rousing men to war than in times of peace.

Riddles form a common amusement among the young of both sexes when sailing in canoes down rivers, or before the wind, and the ambiguity of some sets all guessing and laughing. The riddles have little merit, and consist of a play on the meaning or pronunciation of words.

POI. – MAUI. – TI.

Poi is a game played with variegated balls, about the size of large oranges, to which strings are attached. The string is held in one hand and the ball is struck with the other. The hand holding the string is often changed, the string is shortened and lengthened, and the ball is struck from under the arms, and in a variety of ways. Poi is played in a sitting posture, and players sing songs applicable to the time. Much practice is requisite to play the poi ball properly, and when well played, with a handsome ball, and a good song, the effect is beautiful.

Maui is a game played exactly like what in England children call cat's cradle. Two parties play at it, and in the shapes assumed by the strings the players detect houses, canoes, and men. Maui is mentioned in ancient songs, and was invented by the deified man whose name it bears.

Two games are known by the name of Ti. The most common is that played with the fingers by two persons. The object of the game is to hold up certain fingers on the repetition of certain words, the selection of the words being at the option of one player, and ten is the highest number counted. Good players look at the mouth of the player crying out the words more than at the fingers, as the words are observed on the lips before they are formed by the fingers.

The other game called Ti is played with sticks three feet long, which are thrown by one party and caught by another. There are twenty players on each side, and the game is accompanied with songs.

Tutukai is an amusement corresponding to the English game of odd or even. Some article is put into one hand, and on the repetition of certain words, after the

OTHER GAMES. – MOSTLY SEDENTARY.

manner of conjurors, the spectators are asked to point out in which hand the thing is.

Porotiti, or Pirori, is played with an oval piece of wood, or a hoop, which is thrown by one party and beaten back by another standing opposite. If the hoop is not completely driven back the game is won by the party throwing it, as the result proves the projector the stronger.

There are numerous other pastimes. Men and women walk on stilts, boys stand on their heads in rows, moving their legs in the air; kites, fashioned of reeds, in the shape of birds, are flown in windy weather. When bathing, there is a game which consists in seeing who can keep longest under water. Men wrestle, and jump from high poles into deep water, and this game is called koriri: the leapers, before jumping, sing, "This is the precipice over which I cast myself, even to Toreakura (a place in the world of spirits), and am thus separated from the beloved one – spring!" Swinging over chasms by ropes attached to poles is another amusement. Spears are discharged at objects from slings, people and canoes race, trees are climbed, and mimickry, ventriloquism, and playing on cards are practised as pastimes. Since the advent of Europeans, several new games, with modifications, have been adopted; card-playing is the most esteemed, and draughts are tolerably well played. Like gipsies, the New Zealanders are fond of horse-racing.

The games and amusements of the New Zealanders are chiefly sedentary, and in this their Oriental origin is well indicated. They cannot conceive why two Europeans prefer walking about talking to sitting down, and fully carry out in other things the Hindoo proverb, that

MODE OF RECKONING TIME.

it is better to sit down than stand up. Ti resembles the Italian game of morro, or micare digitis, and the Chinese game of tsoey-moey; while the haka bears some analogy to the Indian nautch.

Life, measured by the succession of ideas, is short among the New Zealanders. When asked how many years have elapsed since the occurrence of certain events, the answer will either be, "I do not know," or "It occurred many years ago." No definite time can be stated by the most intelligent, and years pass over their heads unrecorded. The man of forty knows he is older than the man of thirty, but both are ignorant of the number of years they have sojourned in the world.

"Great men die and are forgotten.
Wise men speak, their words of wisdom
Perish in the ears that hear them;
Do not reach the generations
That as yet unborn are waiting
In the great mysterious darkness
Of the speechless days that shall be."

93

But although time passes away among them like a shadow, the unrecorded year is divided into thirteen moons, and each moon is distinguished by the rising of stars, the flowering of plants, and the arrival of two migratory birds. June is the first month in the year, and it is recognised by the appearance of the Puanga star in the morning. July is marked by the stars Kopu and Tautori, and the flowering of the karaka tree. August is distinguished by the stars Mangere and Wakaau. September by the rising of the Oetahi star and the flowering of the kowai, rangiora, and kotukutuku trees. It is in this month that ku-

HOW THE MONTHS WERE KNOWN.

maras are planted. October, or the fifth month, ia known by the flowering of certain plants: during this mouth the ground is got ready for potatoes. November is characterised by the flowering of the rata and rewa-rewa trees. December is known by the rising of the Rehua star, the ripening of the karaka berries, and in the south part of the island by the arrival of two cuckoos. January is distinguished by the Rehua star, the appearance of the Uruao star, and the departure of the cuckoos. In February the Rehua star still shines, and the Matiti star appears; it is the dry month of the year. March is known by the ripening of the kumaras; and in April they are dug up. May, or the twelfth month, often passes unnoticed. The thirteenth month is distinguished by the Puanga star, the harbinger of the New Year.

Each month was divided into twenty-nine nights, and each night possessed a fixed name, which was regulated by the moon's shape and age. The sun was the people's clock by day and the moon by night.

Since the introduction of Christianity the Julian year has been adopted, and the English names of the months have been converted into Maori. But the natives still consult the stars and their old heavenly signs before digging or planting. All the English week-days have likewise been Maorised except Sunday, which is known as the Ratapu, or sacred day.

The New Zealand year was an imperfect mode of reckoning time, as there could never have been always thirteen moons between the appearance of the Puanga star of one year and that of another. It is therefore obvious the stars and the flowering of plants were the

MODE OF SALUTATION.

true records, otherwise winter would have soon been summer. All nations who adopt the lunar year put in an additional month every three years, but the New Zealanders were ignorant of this arrangement.

Emotion characterised the meeting of New Zealanders, but parting was generally unattended by any outward display. At meeting men and women pressed their noses together, during which, in a low lachrymose whine, they repeated amidst showers of tears circumstances which had occurred mutually interesting since they last met. Silent grief is unknown among them. When the parties meeting are near relatives and have been long absent, the pressing of noses and crying were continued for half an hour; when the meeting was between accidental acquaintances, it was merely nose to nose and away. This salutation is called hongi, and is defined as a smelling. Like the Eastern custom of eating salt, it destroyed the hostility between enemies. During the hongi the lips never met, there was no kissing.

No race of men salute each other in this mode. The ancient Greeks pressed their chins together, the Turks join their foreheads and eyes, the Moors kiss beards, the Arabs the eyes, and Joab saluted Amasa by holding his beard and kissing. The modern salutation of shaking hands is fast superseding the ancient hongi among the New Zealanders.

Distinguished strangers on arriving at villages are received with the waving of mats, and some such song as this –

"Welcome, O stranger, from beyond the sky.
My darling child hath brought thee thence,
From the uttermost part of the heaven hath he dragged thee.
Welcome. 0 welcome."

POLITENESS. – THE HEITIKI.

In the chief courtyard the guests and the host meet, and here both hongi for several minutes, after which food is served. Etiquette prevents hosts eating with their guests on these occasions.

It is worthy of notice that, after saluting visitors, the polite Eastern custom of not addressing strangers until they have become familiarised with the appearance of the persons around is carefully observed by the New Zealanders.

Burthens are carried by the New Zealanders on their backs; and this subject is mentioned because the balance beam used all over Polynesia is not used in New Zealand. The only reason which can be assigned for this disuse of an ancient custom is the unsuitableness of the country for it, because levers are used in carrying weights requiring the power of several men.

The New Zealanders endured without murmuring painful and tedious operations to have good tattooed faces, and highly prized a few commercially worthless ornaments. The heitiki, the most valued of all their ornaments, was a curious image representing a human being with an enormous face and badly shaped legs of disproportionate size. The image is not unlike a Hindoo idol. Some heitikis were about the size of shillings, others were as large as plates, and most of them were made of greenstone. This ornament was suspended round the neck and handed down from father to son. When a long absent relative arrived at a village, the heitiki was taken from his neck and wept over for the sake of those who formerly wore it. Heitikis were deposited with the bones of the dead, until they were removed to their final resting-place. Every tradition regarding this image is forgotten, but it is evi-

EAR ORNAMENTS. – FISHING CEREMONIES.

dently connected with their mythology. Haumia tiki tiki is the god of cultivated food among the New Zealanders, and tiki in various South Sea islands is the name of an image.

Suspended from the perforated ears of both sexes are ornaments of greenstone, jade, and serpentine, tiger-sharks' teeth, flowers, white down from the breasts of the albatross and gannet, wings of dead birds, and teeth of husbands and valued friends. The present generation, in addition to the above, have gun swivels, rings, coins, medals, and small bottles, dangling from their ears.

As an ornament women allow their beautiful and profuse hair to grow long, but girls cut it on a level with their eyebrows. Men tied their hair in a knot on the crown of their heads, and retained it in this position with carved wooden combs.

In the lowest states of civilisation the sagacity of man is displayed in fishing, and it is curious to find how the means for obtaining this end resemble each other in widely scattered races.

The New Zealanders never commenced fishing without religious ceremonies. The first fish caught was given back to the scapegoat for others, and on returning home from a fishing-expedition, fish were cooked in three ovens, one for the gods, one for the priest, and one for all. Fish were caught with hooks, nets, baskets, weirs, spears, and the hands. Formerly hooks were made of moas and other birds' bones, shells, and hard woods, to which bait, or shining sea shells or birds' feathers, were attached. Nets were made of flax, and the size of the meshes was regulated by the fish to be caught. Some fishing-nets were 1000 yards long, and required 500 people to draw them pro-

ARITHMETIC. – MECHANICAL SKILL.

perly. Weirs are constructed across rivers; eels and other fish are caught with the hand by baiting baskets, or are speared at night with the aid of torchlight. Dexterous divers pick up large crayfish from among rocks.

The New Zealanders, although dull in comprehending numbers and destitute of ciphers, used the Malay numerals up to ten, and had terms for hundreds and thousands. Any number above the latter was expressed by the indefinite term of a great many. Twenty is "two tens," and the mode of forming the intermediate terms consists in simply affixing digits; thus, twelve is "ten and two," twenty-two is "two tens and two." This mode of computation is one of the strongest proofs of the Malay origin of the New Zealanders.

In reckoning they also used the binary scale, as one pair, two pairs, three pairs, eight pairs, or as they expressed it, "there are eight baskets of potatoes twice told." In counting the memory was assisted by the fingers, pebbles, or notches on sticks.

Few specimens of mechanical skill are furnished by the natives, the highest example being the fashioning of hard greenstone into meris and ornaments; this is done by friction with flint and wet sand. Captain Cook could not ascertain how holes were bored in the handles of greenstone meris, as he saw no instrument sufficiently hard for that purpose. It is now known that these holes are drilled with a sharp wooden stick ten inches long, to the centre of which two stones are attached, so as to exert pressure and perform the office of a fly-wheel. The requisite rotatory motion is given to the stick by two strings pulled alternately.

Weaving mats, carving wood, and making canoes, are

CATCHING BIRDS. – NATIVE DRESS.

the only other instances of mechanical skill among the people. Trees for making canoes were felled, and much of the scooping out was accomplished by fire The best specimens of wood-carving are found on feather boxes, canoe stern-posts, and monuments. The figures carved are obscure and indelicate. The best artists were found among the priesthood. Bone and stone were the tools by which carving was done.

As the New Zealanders had no good projectile, their ingenuity was exerted to catch birds for food, and this was accomplished with snares, nets, and dogs. The large brown kaka was caught in great numbers in the following manner: – A person sat in a hidden place in the forest with a tame decoy parrot which he caused to scream. In his hand he bad a long stick, the other end of which rested on the branch of a tree. Down this pole the wild parrots moved to destruction to look at their screaming captive brother.

The titi, or mutton birds, were caught in immense numbers during their nightly inland trips, by selecting a spot on the verge of a precipice. Here fires were lit, behind which, concealed, sat men armed with long sticks, who knocked down the birds attracted to the spot by the light.

Kiwis are drawn out of their caves at night by closely imitating their calls. Torches were carried concealed, and as the birds approached they were struck motionless by throwing the glare into their eyes.

The most indispensable part of a New Zealander's dress was a short petticoat, not unlike a kilt, used by both sexes for covering the loins. This article of dress, which corresponds to the Malay sarung, was fastened round the waist. Next in usefulness to it was a mat

FLAX, DOG-SKIN, AND FEATHER MATS.

fastened, in males on the right, and in females on the left, shoulder. The former mode gave freedom to the right arm. The natives of the North Island had no covering for their heads or feet, but a few tribes in the Middle Island wore flax sandals. Flax belts were worn round the waists of men, from which were suspended meris and tomahawks. Children ran about naked until they were ten years of age. Strangers have difficulty in detecting men and women from the similarity of their apparel. The dress of the people was ill-suited for labour, and they invariably stripped themselves to work or to fight. Winter and summer made little alteration in their apparel. Chiefs wore more valuable mats than common people.

Flax mats, dog skins, and the feathers of sea and land birds were the materials of which the New Zealanders' dresses were made. Ten dogs' skins were occasionally found in one mat, but mats made with kiwis feathers were the most valuable. Never did the people change their fashion in dress until the present generation.

Twelve different mats were made out of flax. That kind called the kaitaka was the softest and most esteemed; it varied in size, the largest were twelve feet long and seven broad. They were made of close parallel lines of flax, having transverse cords at the distance of an inch with black and white borders nearly a foot broad. To weave a kaitaka mat occupied one person eight months, and the inhabitants of the East Cape were the most expert manufacturers of this mat.

Korowai is the name of a flax mat six feet square, smooth inside, but having outside a number of black strings seven inches long dangling from it. This mat like the kaitaka has a very open texture.

MAT-MAKING, WOMAN'S WORK.

The mat called taupo is made of flax leaves seven inches long and three quarters of an inch broad, attached to a smooth coarse mat. Every third leaf is dyed yellow and the rest black. This mat, perfectly impervious, is of various sizes. The pikerangi mat is the korowai with a red border, and without black strings.

The pureki mat is made of roughly prepared flax fibres eight inches long attached by one end to a coarse mat. This dress is impervious to rain, and was formerly in universal use. Its colour is dirty brown, so that men squatting covered with it look like blocks of stone. It differs from the taupo mat in the flax being more scraped and not dyed.

The toi mat is made of flax leaves dyed black, seven inches long and three quarters of an inch broad, twisted and torn so as to leave some green fibres.

The kupara mat is the kaitaka without the border, and is generally dyed black. It is very rare.

The kotikoti is made of flax leaves seven inches long, twisted into hard pipes by exposure to fire, and dyed yellow and light brown. This mat rattles when the wearer walks.

The pukupuku is a mat made of closely woven flax, and is used as a kind of armour against spears.

Mat-making was entirely woman's work, and a few pegs were all the machinery requisite for the manufacture. Each tribe was celebrated for some particular mat, and each mat, according to the New Zealanders, was fabricated from different kinds of flax. But as there is only one species and two varieties in the island, the difference must have been produced by cultivation. Careful scraping, washing, and exposure to the sun clears the fibre of its gum and vegetable

STANDARD OF MEASURE. – VILLAGES.

matter, and well prepared flax almost equals silk in softness. Flax is dyed black and brown by first steeping it in mud and then in a solution of hinau bark (Dicera dentata). According to the strength of the solution the article is dyed brown or black. A yellow colour is given to it by holding the fresh leaves over fire. The manufacturers of Leeds and Manchester have almost put an end to the weaving of mats among the New Zealanders, and it is only in remote places where this ancient custom is continued.

Man measured things in the earliest days of the world by employing his own person as a standard. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at if the New Zealanders' standard of measure corresponds to the ancient cubit and the fathom. The former is the length from the bend of the arm to the top of the middle finger; the latter is the space between both arms stretched out horizontally. These modes of measurement are not modern introductions, for in the language of the people whatianga is a cubit, and kumi and maro is a fathom. Measurement by feet and paces, like scales and weights, was unknown, but flax baskets measured the quantities of whatever they valued.

New Zealanders dislike solitude and live together for protection and society. Their villages are situated in sheltered bays on the sea coast, on the banks of rivers, and the borders of lakes. Each family has its own house, surrounded by a fence, slight when compared with that surrounding the whole village. Their cultivated grounds are at a short distance from their villages. The huts are constructed of coarse grass or rushes, with roofs of the same material, on wooden frames, painted red. The ridgepole is supported by a post in the middle of the house, the

SIZE OF HUTS. – BED-ROOMS.

bottom of which was often a carved human figure. Immediately before it is the fire-place, a small pit formed by four slab stones sunk in the ground. There are two openings in each hut, both of which are shut by a sliding piece of wood. The floor is earth, covered with mats or fern. A few feather boxes and weapons of war constitute the furniture. The centre is the lowest part of the floor. There is a verandah, three feet in breadth, in front of the huts, made of slabs and reeds. In fine huts, the verandah supports are adorned with carved human figures.

The following is the measurement of an average-sized hut: –

Breadth inside .... 13 feet
Length .... 15 [feet]
Height from the ground to ridge-pole ..... 6 [feet]
Height of sides .... 4 [feet]
Door 2 1/2 feet high and 2 feet broad.
Window 30 inches by 30.

In such an apartment as the above five persons sleep; but there are other huts, excavated a foot below the ground, for sleeping in during cold weather, the grand principle in the construction of which is the exclusion of air. In both these huts, in winter, fires are lit, and after the wood has become cinders, the doors and windows are shut, and the people smoke tobacco until overtaken by sleep. On these occasions the hut becomes an oven, and the atmosphere inside is loaded with human effluvia. Inside the temperature is 90 deg. Fahr., outside 55 deg., and consequently the people respire an atmosphere worse than in the poorest and worst ventilated houses in England.

More than six months out of the year, during times of peace, were spent by New Zealanders in lounging

[Inserted unpaginated illustration]

NATIVE VILLAGE, WITH SWING AND PA IN THE DISTANCE.
Vol. I., page 209.

DOMESTIC HABITS.

about their villages, or basking on the sunny side of their huts. Go into a hut, night or day, and men and women are to be seen asleep and awake. In no village are the senses of sight or smell offended by ordure; but intimate friends are seen performing acts of kindness in the manner practised by Tartars, who, according to Hakluyt, "cleanse one another's heads, and ever as thei take an animal do eate her." 94

People at a distance carry on conversation by signs. In signals for those some way off to come near the arm is waved in an exactly opposite direction to that adopted by Englishmen for similar purposes, and the natives, in giving silent assent to anything, elevate the head and chin in place of nodding acquiescence.

Infants are not rocked asleep in cradles, and an idea of the domestic harmony the people live in may be drawn from the circumstance of their using the terms sister and brother where no such relationship exists. Children are not chastised, and are encouraged to join in the conversation of their elders.

There is no division of labour among the New Zealanders but that existing between the sexes. The tree for the canoe is felled and dragged out of the forest; the wood for cooking is cut and brought to the village; canoes are dragged into the sea; and all really heavy work is done by the men. New Zealand women are employed in several very laborious occupations, but they are not worse treated than many women are in Great Britain and Ireland.

He who visits New Zealand in order to see men in a natural state must now depart in disappointment, as most of the aborigines have acquired some of the

WHERE ANCIENT CUSTOMS ARE SEEN.

manners and customs of the settlers. Should he, however, wish to ascertain what still remains of nature among natives, he will not find it in the neighbourhood of English settlements, but on the banks of the Mokau and Tara Wera rivers, and on the borders of the Taupo and Rotorua lakes. There the paddles of canoes still keep time to ancient songs, and customs are practised which have faded away from among other tribes. The ancient manners may likewise be seen by settlers who are privileged to mix among the people in times of affliction and joy, in the night of sickness and the hour of death.

88 The Britons bad very similar customs.

89 Sir George Grey's Traditions, Poems, and Chaunts of the Maoris; Ko te kauwhau tenei 0 te kauhoenga atu o Hine Moa ki Mokoia.

90 Maori Mementos, by C. 0. Davis.

91 Piper methysticum.

92 Shortland's Traditions.

93 Song of Hiawatha. Longfellow.

94 Selection of Curious and Rare Voyages. VOL. I.

CHAPTER XI. THE DISEASES OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS...

CHAP. XI.

THE DISEASES OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS. – THEIR CAUSES AND PREVENTION.

Remarks. – Fevers. – Consumption. – Bowel Complaints. – Head Affections. – Dropsies. – Rheumatism. – Abscesses and Ulcers. – Scrofula. – Other Diseases. – Leprosy. – Parturition. – Introduced Diseases. – Native Modes of curing Disease.

INTIMATELY connected with the history of a people are the diseases which kill them, for although all mankind are born to die, the diseases which produce this result are dissimilar in different races.

With the view of conveying a definite idea of the frequency of certain classes of diseases among the New Zealanders, Table VII. is given in the Appendix. Professional men must remember that all the diseases enumerated are classed from symptoms, as the natives still hold human dissection in abhorrence. One remarkable instance of this was witnessed by myself. In 1854 a chief was slain by a settler in the streets of Auckland, and there being no external marks of violence on the body sufficient to account for death, justice required that a post-mortem examination should be made. For hours this was refused, and reluctantly conceded on condition that several aged chiefs witnessed the ceremony. When the scalp was torn from the dead man's head, the natives present shuddered; when the

FEVERS AND CONSUMPTION FREQUENT.

saw was produced to open the skull, they turned their heads away; and when the grating sound of the instrument was heard on the bone, they withdrew in horror from the room. Such singular delicacy would not have been expected among cannibals.

It will be seen that febrile diseases, generally of a low continued form, are three times more frequent among the New Zealanders than among the English, a result attributable to their ill-ventilated sleeping-huts, their poor diet, and insufficient clothing, consequently many of the attacks might be prevented. Few of the sufferers die, but the fever lays the foundation of other maladies. Ague and remittent fevers are almost unknown. Smallpox has not yet appeared in the colony; but the intensity of the vaccine vesicle, and the fatality of smallpox among other Polynesian races, leads to the inference that the New Zealanders are strongly predisposed to the disease; fortunately two thirds of the natives have been vaccinated. Measles, an introduced disease, appeared at Otago in 1838, and did not then spread to the North Island; but in 1854 it broke out there, and proved fatal to 4000 natives. Scarlet fever appeared at Auckland in 1848 among the settlers, and did not spread among the natives; but in 1854, during the prevalence of measles, several cases of scarlet fever occurred amongst them.

Diseases of the lungs are more frequent than among the English. Consumption is the most prevalent form of this class of diseases; and spitting of blood, one of its earliest symptoms, is looked on as a harbinger of death. Asthma occasionally occurs. Consumption is produced by the poor diet, ill-ventilated huts, and insufficient clothing of the natives, causes of consumption which

TROPICAL RACES IN TEMPERATE ZONES.

act with much virulence on the constitutions of men originally formed to live within the tropics.

There is not indeed on record an instance, save that of the New Zealanders, of the aborigines of the tropics having suddenly migrated to the temperate zone without becoming extinct. Negroes decay in the cold northern provinces of the United States. A body of Indians captured in the St Augustine war of 1702 in South America, and sent to New England, all died of consumption; while African troops quartered in Gibraltar died in large numbers from the same cause. The Hindoo soldiers sent to Egypt to resist Napoleon the First's invasion, died nine times faster than in the plains of Hindustan; and during the Affghan campaign Hindoo soldiers were driven into hospital with diseases unknown to them in their native country.

Diseases of the stomach and bowels are more frequent than among the English. Most of the attacks are of diarrhoea and indigestion, and rarely produce death; although both assist in the development of scrofula and consumption, and are caused by the use of bad food.

Diseases of the brain are much less frequent than among the English, and the headaches of civilised men are unknown. Apoplexy is a rare disease, although men have died suddenly during cannibal feasts from gluttony and excitement, but the immediate cause of death in such cases may have been aneurism, not apoplexy. Sudden deaths are, however, much less frequent among the natives than among the settlers. Paralytic persons are rarely seen. No native affected with St. Vitus's dance applied at any of the hospitals, and only one case of delirium tremens occurred. Temporary fits

FREEDOM FROM BRAIN DISEASES.

of insanity, the result of acute and chronic disease of the brain, and melancholy leading to suicide and produced by superstition, are not unfrequent. True insanity is rare. Out of 4565 natives at Poverty Bay and Turanga, in 1849, there were only two idiots and one insane person; 95 whereas, among Quakers in England, 1 out of every 333 persons is insane. 96 Epilepsy is unknown.

This comparative exemption from all diseases of the brain may be attributed to sobriety, sedate habits, and vegetable diet. Constitutional causes may Likewise have some influence in producing this result, for New Zealanders are less sensible of shocks to the system than Englishmen, while the slightest drain from the body, such as a few ounces of blood, a watery diarrhoea, or a copious discharge from an abscess, is often attended with serious consequences.

Dropsies are rarely seen, an exemption attributable to abstinence from spirits; and beriberi, a dropsical malady common among the Ceylon Malays, is unknown.

Rheumatic affections are more frequent than among the English, a result attributable, among other causes, to careless exposure to the weather without suitable clothing; few of the attacks produce disease of the heart, but sometimes local palsy.

The venereal disease is more frequent than among the English, a result filth materially tends to produce. This class of maladies is said to have been introduced by the early navigators. The disease is generally mild,

SCROFULA UNIVERSAL.

and yields to cleanliness and medicine; men without noses are rarely seen, although secondary symptoms occasionally produce death. Stricture and hernia humoralis are rare diseases.

Abscesses and ulcers are as frequent as among the English; but the parts affected in the two races differ. Englishmen's legs are most frequently the seat of these diseases, and New Zealanders' bodies. The reason why ulcerated legs are most frequent among the English is that their legs are longer than New Zealanders' legs, a peculiarity in bodily shape to which may likewise be attributed the exemption of the latter from varicose veins.

Wounds and injuries are not common, because there is no machinery, no building of high houses, no personal combats with fists, and little intemperance.

Diseases of the eyes of a scrofulous character frequently occur, and sometimes terminate in partial or complete blindness. Cataract occurs in the aged, and several cases of amaurosis have been seen.

Diseases of the skin are frequent, and from want of personal cleanliness the maladies are often inveterate. Scaldhead and ringworm occur; herpes zoster, or the shingles, is unknown. Dirty mats convey skin diseases from the sick to the healthy.

Scrofula is the curse of the New Zealand race. In some districts twenty per cent., and in others ten per cent., of the population bear on their bodies the mark of the king's evil, although all scrofulous persons have not this outward sign of scrofula. Scrofula is the predisposing and remote cause of much of the sickness among the New Zealanders; in childhood it causes marasmus, fevers,

CAUSE AND PREVENTION OF SCROFULA.

and bowel complaints; in manhood, consumption, spinal disease, ulcers, and various other maladies.

The remote cause of scrofula is the constitutional tendency which the people inherit from having originally migrated from the tropics; the immediate cause is using potato diet for three hundred days in every year, intermarrying with scrofulous persons, and living in huts worse than dog-kennels.

As Captain Cook saw no New Zealander with the slightest external mark of disease, it is, therefore, inferred that scrofula in its present extent is a new malady. This unhappy change has been brought about by the natives having lived since Cook's days on potatoes, the lowest species of human food, and much less nutritious than their ancient diet. It is impossible to explain this briefly, but one pound of taro contains nutriment equivalent to two pounds of potatoes; one pound of fern root is nearly equal to three pounds of potatoes; and gluten and albumen are more abundant in the ancient sweet potato than in the European potatoes. Besides, the use of putrid food became more common after the introduction of maize and potatoes; while, for various reasons, pig's flesh was rarely eaten, and fish was less used after the introduction of potatoes than before it.

It is my opinion that the former healthy condition of the New Zealanders might be restored, were they to eat a pound of wheaten flour and a pound of animal food every day, sleep in better-ventilated houses, and clothe themselves in more suitable apparel. Peace, trade, and progressive civilisation, now silently at work, are slowly bringing about these desirable objects. It is only necessary to see a Maori child after a month's residence in the house of a European, to have an indication of

HYDROPHOBIA AND CANCER UNKNOWN.

the magic influence better diet would have on the whole race. The puny limbs of the young savage grow stout, the protuberant belly disappears, and traces of red blood can be seen through the nut-coloured skin of his infant face.

Diseases of the heart are not frequent. Erysipelas is rare. Scurvy is almost unknown. Elephantiasis has not been seen at any hospital, but I have met with two men afflicted with the disease in the interior of the country. Hernia is common, and occasionally fatal. Cancer of the female breast is unknown, a circumstance which supports the opinion that this dreadful malady results from a high state of civilisation. Goitre, night blindness, cretinism, and hydrophobia are unknown. No case of stone in the bladder has been seen. Infants die from neglected colds and bowel complaints, and the seeds of many diseases are sown in infancy. Dentition is rarely accompanied by convulsions. Intestinal worms are frequent. Croup occurs. Hysteria and chlorosis are uncommon; and, like cancer, these maladies may result from civilisation.

Lepra gangrenosa, a strange species of leprosy, occasionally occurs among the New Zealanders. It is called Ngere ngere, or Tu Whenua, and commences with a scabby eruption over the skin; imperceptibly the eyelashes and beard fall off, not the hair on other parts; the skin assumes a pale colour, the eyeballs become prominent, the voice alters its tone, and the face swells. Although the sufferer eats and sleeps well, his friends soon detect the nature of the malady which afflicts him, from the horrid expression the face assumes. In about a year from the appearance of the eruption, a dry crack appears on the flexure of the last joint of some of

STRANGE KIND OF LEPROSY.

the fingers or toes, the soft parts ulcerate by a dry process, the joint falls off, and the part heals. Each revolving year carries off by a similar process one or more joints. Nature conducts her amputations without pain, as if anxious to avoid aggravating the mental agony such a disease must produce; and death, the poor man's friend, comes to the sufferer's relief before all the fingers and toes have fallen off. It may be supposed that men beholding themselves, not figuratively but literally, dying by inches, would be miserable; but all the sufferers I have seen were cheerful and happy. The gift of a pipe or a fig of tobacco diffused a horrid expression of joy and thankfulness over their idiotic and satyr-like faces.

This dreadful malady, which was more prevalent twenty years ago than at present, is caused by a deficiency of proper nutriment, by filth, and a low social state. Commerce and civilisation have already introduced among the most remote tribes, where this leprosy is chiefly seen, a considerable amount of mental and bodily activity, and the use of shirts and other European articles of apparel has led to greater cleanliness; the consequence is, that this strange disease is now becoming rare, probably in twenty years more it will have become extinct.

"In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children" is a holy mandate aggravated by civilisation; for little suffering have New Zealand women during parturition, and they enter upon their usual occupations twenty-four hours after delivery, often immediately after the child is born. Puerperal convulsions rarely occur, and death seldom overtakes parturient women, although infants often perish.

THEORY OF DISEASE.

The New Zealanders, like all the South Sea islanders, have suffered from sickness during their first intercourse with Europeans; and sexual diseases, according to native testimony, were introduced by them. About 1790 a fatal epidemic, of a dysenteric character, broke out on the arrival of an English ship in Mercury Bay; and five years afterwards another disease, called tingara, fatal often after a few days' illness, commenced at the Bay of Islands, and spread like fire among flax. So fatal was this epidemic, that the living with difficulty disposed of the dead. Early in the century scrofula became prevalent, in 1844 influenza, in 1847 hooping-cough, in 1851 mumps, and in 1854 measles and scarlet fever.

The native mode of healing diseases was peculiar. According to the New Zealand school of medicine the remote causes of all diseases were violation of the tapu and witchcraft; and the immediate cause, residence in the body of spirits gnawing at the vitals. Prayers and physic were the antidotes for the diseases the gods inflicted, and incantations destroyed the maladies inflicted by witchcraft.

When a person got sick, the priest, who held the office also of physician, was sent for to cure the disease or divine its cause. Should any doubt exist as to the origin of the malady, the patient often professed having been bewitched by a person whose spirit he sees hovering round his bed, and with whom he has had a quarrel. Then the priest consulted the gods as to the termination of the disease. There were several ways of doing this; the most common was to pluck a piece of fern root out of the ground; if it came up free from earth a favourable prognosis was given, if otherwise, an opposite

CHANTS FOE CURING DISEASES.

opinion. When the disease was chronic and serious, the afflicted person was conveyed to the bush, and left there in a hut which was tapued. Priests cured the sick by casting out the evil spirit with incantations. Several settlers have submitted to this mode of treating diseases, and want of success is invariably attributed to want of faith. An idea of the nature of these compositions may be drawn from the following specimens: –

INCANTATION OR PRAYER FOR THE CURE OF DISEASE OF THE HEART.

"It is in my heart, on it is my breath, and in thy breath it is, in thy heart, and my heart, in the heart that is strenuous. Let it be overpowered inside; 97 let it be thrust back inside."

PRAYER FOR THE CURE OF A SPRAINED BACK.

"Close up your bones;
Close up your blood;
Close up your joints.
The sky will assist thee to close,
And the earth will become bones for thee."

Removal from one part of the country to another was an esteemed remedy for certain diseases, not for change of climate, but to avoid the power of evil spirits. The New Zealanders have great faith in European medicines, and the more nauseous the better, as they expel the evil spirit from sheer disgust. Pressure on the body by heavy bags of stone or earth cured diseases by squeezing the spirit out. I have known this remedy prove fatal.

Even after death priests were sent for to divine the cause of it, and they had several ways of getting this

NATIVE SURGERY.

information without resorting to post-mortem examinations. If a pointed spear thrown at the corpse, dressed out for the occasion, struck the dress, the fatal event arose from natural causes; if the forehead, from witchcraft. Should the person who had done this evil prove a slave, he was destroyed without ceremony; if a chief, he was secretly bewitched.

For the cure of external and surgical diseases the people had no confidence in prayers and incantations. Splints made from the bark of trees and flax bandages were applied to broken bones; hot poultices of leaves and roots were applied to boils, and their cure was hastened by opening them with a thorn or a shell long before the formation of pus; clay plasters were applied and retained on fresh wounds until they healed. Punctured wounds were violently squeezed to excite bleeding, and then held over smoke. Cobwebs were used to check haemorrhage. Bathing in the hot sulphur and siliceous baths of Rotorua, Taupo, and elsewhere, was reckoned useful in cutaneous diseases.

Rheumatism was treated by scarification, pigeon's oil frictions, and blisters; the latter were produced by the application of irritating leaves. Lumbago was treated by rolling heated stones over the loins; bleeding from a vein was never resorted to. Vapour and warm baths were used. The former was made after the manner of a cooking-oven, the latter by throwing red-hot stones into water. Persons suffering from suspended animation from submersion, were hung heels upwards over a wood fire, in order that the smoke might enter the lungs and produce irritation; should the person sneeze or show signs of life, he was laid

CURIOUS EMETIC.

before a fire and hot water poured down his throat. Vomiting, in cases of poisoning, was produced by mechanical distension of the stomach; and this was effected by keeping the patient under water until his body was filled with it. The sufferer was afterwards rolled about on the ground, pressure being at the same time made over the stomach. 98

95 Communicated by Archdeacon William Williams of Waiapu.

96 Statistical Account of the British Empire.

97 This refers to the evil spirit, the cause of the disease.

98 British and Foreign Medico-Chirurgical Review, 1854.

PART II.

PART II.

HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF NEW ZEALAND BY EUROPEANS.

CIVILISATION AND CHRISTIANISATION OF THE NATIVES, COLONISATION OF THE ISLANDS,

AND

THE EVENTS WHICH HAVE SINCE OCCURRED AMONG BOTH RACES.

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CHAPTER I. FROM DISCOVERY OF NEW ZEALAND UNTIL 1810.

CHAPTER I.

FROM DISCOVERY OF NEW ZEALAND UNTIL 1810.

Claimants to Discovery. – Similarity between Spanish and New Zealand Words. – Tasman's Discovery. – Cook's first Visit. – De Surville's Visit. – Marion's Massacre. – Native Account of Massacre. – Massacre caused by Superstition. – Two Natives taken to France. – Cook's second Visit. – Cook's last Visit. – Social State of Natives in 1780. – New Zealand excites Interest – Terror of Cannibalism. – Events which led to Intercourse. – Natives kidnapped to Norfolk Island. – Intercourse with Sealers and Whalers. – First Settler. – Effect of civilised Customs on Natives. – Social State of Natives in 1808. – New Zealand Harpooners. – Massacre of the Boyd. – Revenge taken for the Boyd.

HAVING described the history and customs of the New Zealanders, we now proceed to relate in what manner, and at what time, they appeared on the stage of the civilised world.

Three European nations claim for their navigators the honour of discovering New Zealand. Frenchmen assert that Binot Paulmier de Gonneville, of Harfleur in Normandy, visited the country in 1504. 99 He sailed from Havre in 1503, and reached a country supposed to be New Zealand where he remained six months, at anchor in a river about the size of the Orne near Caen. De Gonneville brought a native of the country to France,

CLAIMS TO DISCOVERY.

who married one of his relatives; and this man's grandson wrote an account of De Gonneville's voyage, as the navigator's papers were destroyed by an English cruiser. F. P. D. C. tried unsuccessfully to fulfil the promise of De Gonneville to visit the country of his ancestors for the purpose of christianising them. The manners and customs of the islanders where De Gonneville anchored, according to the description given, correspond wonderfully with the habits of the New Zealanders.

Spaniards claim for Juan Fernandez the credit of the discovery, because that navigator states that he left the west coast of South America in 1576, and after sailing for about a month towards the south-west, reached a fertile and pleasant land inhabited by brown men clad in woven cloth garments. This country is supposed to have been New Zealand; an improbable conjecture, seeing that 7000 miles separate that portion of South America from New Zealand, and no sailing vessel in modern times, far less three centuries ago, ever completed such a voyage in thirty days. Quiros was ninety-two days from Callao to Pitcairn's Island, a distance of 4000 miles; and the United States Exploring Expedition of 1839 was thirty days between Callao and the island of Clermont de Tonnere, a distance of 3000 miles.

As an indirect support of Fernandez's claim, it is asserted that after Magellan's discovery of a western passage to India, Spanish ships touched at New Zealand, during their voyages between Manilla and South America, and introduced dogs and pigs into the country. In proof of this it is said, in the New Zealand language, that these animals, as well as ships, have Spanish names. For example: –

SPANISH AND MAORI WORDS.

English.

Spanish.

New Zealand.

Dog

pero

pero.

Pig

pouca

poaka.

Dog

chacurra 1

kuri. 2

Ship

buku

kaipuke.

1   Basque Provinces.

2   This is the most common word for dog in Maori.

Had the inquiry been extended, many other words of apparent Spanish origin might have been found in the language. Thus: –

English.

Spanish.

New Zealand.

To eat

kham

kai.

Three

iru

toru.

Water

ahwa

awa.

Such verbal resemblances come, however, from a widely different source; they are remnants of the Sanscrit language, from which the Celtic, Gothic, and Sclavonic, like the Polynesian, originally sprang; and from which a few words have floated for ages unchanged in he New Zealand tongue, as well as in the Celtic, Gothic, and Sclavonic.

Had the Spaniards frequented these coasts, traces of their presence would have been still discovered in other things than words; but I have looked among the natives in various parts of the country for better evidence of intercourse than that just given, – some vestiges which the followers of Mendana and Quiros might have left behind; but no foot-prints are to be found.

The honour of discovering New Zealand is, therefore, justly bestowed on Tasman. This Dutch navigator left Batavia with two ships, and on the 18th September, 1642, anchored in a bay in the Middle Island of New Zealand, next to that in which the beautiful English

DISCOVERY BY TASMAN.

settlement of Nelson now stands. Two canoes paddled towards the ships, and a native in one of them blew an instrument which sounded like a Moorish trumpet. Next day a canoe with thirteen men on board approached within a stone's throw of one vessel; but neither food, clothing, nor curiosities could tempt any of them to venture on board: immediately, however, on reaching the shore seven other canoes came off, and several New Zealanders, with fear depicted on their faces, climbed on board the Heemskirk. Tasman, dreading danger, sent a boat with seven men to warn the crew of the Heemskirk to be on their guard. The moment the natives saw this boat in the water they shouted and signalled with their paddles to those at a distance, and several canoes rushed against the boat, and killed three men and mortally wounded a fourth. A precipitate retreat was then made by the natives, who carried off one of the slain.

Tasman, having now no hope of getting refreshment at this place, hoisted in the ships' anchors, and cursed the spot by calling it Massacre Bay. When his ships were under sail, twenty-two canoes put off from the shore; one man in the foremost canoe bore what Tasman thought-was a flag of truce, but which we now know was an ornamented spear. A broadside was discharged at the fleet; one shot struck down the man with the white flag, and other shots splashed the water around the canoes. Thunderstruck at this to them awful phenomenon, the natives hastily paddled their canoes to the shore; and thus ended Tasman's first and last intercourse with the aborigines of the land he discovered.

From the Middle Island Tasman sailed along the

SUPPOSED TO BE A CONTINENT.

west coast, rounded the North Cape, and named it Maria van Diemen; sighted islands he called the Three Kings, and made preparations to land on one of them. But as the ships approached, Tasman was terrified at beholding "thirty-five natives of very large size, taking prodigious long strides, with clubs in their hands." This sight was enough for his alarmed imagination, and without landing he steered his ships away to the island of Cocos for refreshment. 100

On arriving in Europe Tasman named the land where four of his crew were slain New Zealand; and geographers were then of opinion that it was a portion of the great southern continent. Tasman described the aborigines as a blood-thirsty race, and stated that they commenced hostilities without provocation. He, however, who weighs Tasman's history for the sake of truth, must not forget that only one side of the narrative has come down to us. 101

Fire-arms were unknown to the New Zealanders at Tasman's era.

Maori tradition states that a European vessel, commanded by a man called Rongotute, visited the southern part of the North Island of New Zealand about the year 1740, and that from some cause the natives killed the crew and plundered the vessel.

Upwards of a century had rolled away after Tasman's

COOK'S FIRST VISIT.

visit, before a literary navigator touched at the island; when in the year 1769 Cook rendered his name famous in the annals of New Zealand as the first European who landed upon its shores. This was done during his voyage in the Southern hemisphere to observe the transit of Venus over the sun. Four generations of New Zealanders had lived and died since Tasman's era, and no tradition commemorated that event. Turanga, an inlet on the east coast of the North Island, in the province of Auckland, is still celebrated as the spot where Cook first landed; and from this fertile district, unjustly denominated by him Poverty Bay, he took his departure for Tolago Bay, the Houraki Gulf, the River Thames, and the Bay of Islands. He then sailed round Cape Maria van Diemen, coasted along the western shores of the North Island, and sighted and named the picturesque snow-capped mountain at the base of which the English settlement of Taranaki now stands, Mount Egmont. He then touched at Queen Charlotte's Sound, Hawke's Bay, and Cape Palliser; and discovered the passage between the two large islands which now bears his illustrious name.

During these explorations Cook had much intercourse with the natives, both on shore and on shipboard. Sometimes they were honest and friendly, at other times hostile and thievish. Men will pardon the New Zealanders these failings, when they reflect on the provocation and temptations they had to dishonesty and violence. Fire-arms were then unknown among the natives. Captain Cook on several occasions unjustly suspected them of evil, while they almost invariably reposed confidence in him. Without measuring the past by the present standard, the savage New Zea-

NATIVE SHOT BY LIEUTENANT GORE.

landers on several occasions acted like civilised men, and the Christians like savages. For example, Captain Cook left the country without having had one of his crew killed or wounded by the natives; while they had to mourn the loss of ten men killed, and many others wounded, by the English during this visit.

Cook's mode of action and the New Zealanders' style of reasoning are strikingly developed in the following melancholy event. The English part of the story is found in Dr. Hawkesworth's "Narrative of Cook's Voyages;" the native part was furnished by Te Taniwha, a contemporary of Cook's, who died in 1853: – Lieut. Gore fired from the ship's deck at a New Zealander in a canoe, who had defrauded him of a piece of calico. In the excitement of paddling to escape, the injury done by the musket was not noticed by the natives in the canoe, although detected by Mr. Gore from the ship's deck, as Maru-tu-ahu, the man shot, scarcely altered his position. When the canoe reached the shore, the natives found their comrade sitting dead on the stolen calico, which was stained with his life's blood, the ball having entered his back. Several chiefs investigated into the affair, and declared Maru-tu-ahu deserved his fate; that he stole, and was killed for so doing; and that his life-blood should not be revenged on the strangers. Seeing, however, Maru-tu-ahu paid for the calico with his life, it was not taken away from him, but was wrapped round his body as a winding-sheet. Singular to relate, Captain Cook landed soon after the murder, and traded as if nothing had occurred. Would Cook's ship's crew have acted thus if one of them had been so slain?

Important results were obtained for England, science,

DE SURVILLE'S VISIT.

and New Zealand by this memorable visit. Possession was taken of the country for King George the Third, the transit of the planet Mercury over the sun was observed in Mercury Bay, Cook's Strait was discovered, the geographical fallacy that New Zealand was a portion of a continent was entirely dispelled, and the natives received several valuable additions to their food, and acquired much civilising information.

De Surville was the next navigator who visited New Zealand. When Cook's ship, the Endeavour, was working out of Doubtless Bay in the North Island, De Surville's vessel, the St. Jean Baptiste, from India, was sailing in, and neither navigator was aware of the other's vicinity.

What led to this Frenchman's visit was a rumour, widely circulated and universally believed, that the English had discovered an island of gold in the Southern Ocean. De Surville anchored his ship in Doubtless Bay in December 1769, and immediately landed at Mongonui, where he was received by crowds of natives, who were delighted and surprised at the confidence reposed in them, and in return they supplied the strangers with food and water. One day a storm arose as a party of invalids were endeavouring to reach the ship from the shore. Being driven back, the sick were detained by the inclemency of the weather for two days in the house of a chief named Naginoui, and by his people they were fed and carefully attended without remuneration. When the storm subsided, one of the ship's boats was missing, and De Surville, without any evidence for so doing, believed that the New Zealanders had stolen it. Under the guise of friendship, he invited Naginoui on board, accused him of the theft, and put him in irons. Not

MARION'S VISIT.

satisfied with this treacherous revenge, he burned the village where his sick had found an asylum in the hour of need, and carried the chief away a prisoner from his native land.

Naginoui did not survive his capture long; he pined for fern root, wept that he would never again behold his children, and died of a broken heart eighty days after his seizure.

Men's evil deeds are occasionally punished in this world, and so were De Surville's, for eleven days after Naginoui's death he was drowned in the surf when landing at Callao in Peru. 102

Among all nations crime begets crime, and retaliation, not forgiveness, is the ruling principle in the human breast. Three years after Naginoui's capture, and not far from the scene of it, Marion du Fresne landed in New Zealand. It was on the 11th of May, 1772, this unfortunate man anchored his two ships between Te Wai-iti Whais Island and the Motu Arohia (the Motu-aro of navigators), in the Bay of Islands. The former island is small, and Taranui was the chief of the village which stood upon it; the latter island had then a considerable population, but is now uninhabited: next day the sick were landed on Te Wai-iti, not on Motu Arohia, as stated by Crozet. The New Zealanders brought the ship's crews abundance of fish, and the French in return loaded them with presents. Intimacy, friendship, and confidence rapidly sprung up; the French often slept on shore, and the natives on shipboard. Marion, whose authority over all was soon perceived, was the object of universal attention, and he placed in the aborigines

MARION MASSACRED.

such unbounded confidence, that on several occasions, Crozet, the second in command of the expedition, took the liberty of pointing out to him the imprudence of his conduct.

In this happy state, Marion and his crew passed away their lives at the Bay of Islands, until the 8th of June. On that day Marion landed, and after the natives had decorated his head with four long white feathers, he returned to the ship, more delighted than ever with his new friends. But it was then remarked that the natives had ceased to visit the ships, and one girl on leaving gave signs of sorrow which none could explain.

On the 12th of June, Marion went on shore at the request of a friendly chief, with sixteen officers and men, to enjoy a day's fishing in Manawaoroa Bay, a place still celebrated among the British soldiers stationed at the Bay of Islands as capital fishing ground. When evening came, it caused some surprise on board the ships' that Marion did not return, although no evil was suspected. Early next morning the boat of the ship Marquis de Castries, with twelve men, was sent for food and water to Orokawa. Four hours after its departure, one of the sailors from this boat swam off to the vessel almost dead with terror, and related that the boats' crew on landing were received by the natives in the usual friendly manner, but while dispersed collecting fire-wood, each man was suddenly attacked by six New Zealanders, and all were killed save himself. From a concealed thicket he beheld his comrades' bodies cut into pieces, and divided among their murderers, who immediately left the spot with the flesh.

Great anxiety was now felt for Marion and all on shore, and the Mascarin's long boat was immediately

REVENGE TAKEN BY THE FRENCH.

launched with a strongly-armed crew. As it approached the land, Marion's boat was seen surrounded by natives, near the bottom of Manawaoroa Bay. It was not thought advisable to inquire for Marion, but to go and warn Crozet, who with sixty men were felling a kauri tree two miles inland. Crozet, on hearing what had happened, ordered the men to collect their tools, and march to the beach. Part of the cut-down tree and the road made to drag it along still remain, and was pointed out to me as the "road of Marion." Crozet did not communicate to his party the bloody transactions which had occurred, lest they might endanger their safety by an unseasonable revenge.

During the progress of Crozet's party to the beach, they were met and followed by crowds of natives, who shouted that Tacouri had killed and eaten Marion. On reaching the strand, Crozet seized a musket, drew a line on the sand, and cried that he would shoot the first native who crossed it. This bold bearing enabled his party to embark safely in the boats, and then came the hour for vengeance. Volley after volley of musketry was fired among the solid body of New Zealanders on the beach, who, stupified by terror, stood like sheep to be slaughtered. That night the sick were embarked on board the ships, and next day a party, sent for wood and water, destroyed the village on Motu Arohia, and killed many of the inhabitants. Some days afterwards several natives were seen dressed in the murdered sailors' clothes, and were shot. A party sent to ascertain Marion's fate, found Tacouri's village deserted, and saw that chief decamp covered with Marion's mantle. In one house several pieces of human flesh were seen in baskets; after setting this and another village on fire, the ships weighed

NATIVE ACCOUNT OF MASSACRE.

anchor, and stood out of the Bay of Islands, which they named the Bay of Treachery.

Crozet in his narrative repeatedly states that the French gave no cause of offence, that up to the fatal day nothing could exceed the apparent harmony in which both races lived; "they treated us," says Crozet, "with every show of friendship for thirty-three days, with the intention of eating us on the thirty-fourth."

Such is the French account of Marion's massacre; the native version of the affair I accidentally heard on a singular occasion. During the winter quarter of 1851, the French corvette L'Alcmene, thirty-two guns, Commander Count D'Harcourt, was totally wrecked, and ten lives lost on the west coast of New Zealand, the opposite side of the island, but only fifty miles distant from the place of Marion's massacre. As several men were severely wounded when the ship foundered, the Governor requested me to go and assist their transit across the country to Auckland. When so employed, I awoke one night, and saw a crowd of New Zealanders talking earnestly round a fire. There were then upwards of a hundred French sailors, and nearly two hundred natives, plunged in sleep in the open air all about. Hearing the name of Marion mentioned, I pretended sleep, and listened to the conversation. From many words, I gathered that long ago two vessels commanded by Marion, belonging to the same nation as the shipwrecked sailors, visited the Bay of Islands, and that a strong friendship sprang up between both races; and that they planted the garlic which flavours the milk, butter, and flesh of cows fed in that district. Before the Wewis, as the French are now called, departed, they violated sacred places, cooked food with

MASSACRE CAUSED BY SUPERSTITION.

tapued wood, and put two chiefs in irons; that, in revenge, their ancestors killed Marion and several of his crew, and in the same spirit the French burned villages and shot many New Zealanders.

From inquiries made on the spot in 1853, the above narrative and the reason assigned for Marion's murder are, I believe, correct. No man was then alive at the Bay of Islands who had witnessed the affair, and only two old men were acquainted with the particulars of it, although his name was familiar to all. According to the native story, the French, not they, were the aggressors. "We treated Marion's party," the New Zealanders may say, "with every kindness for thirty days; and on the thirty-first they put two of our chiefs in irons, and burned our sacred places."

Civilised men who judge savage races by civil laws, may deem the native cause assigned for Marion's massacre frivolous; but those acquainted with the ancient customs of the New Zealanders must admit that violating sacred places and enslaving sacred chiefs are ample provocations for strife. The circumstance related of the natives having ceased visiting the ships before Marion's massacre, was a sure indication of hostility. It also affords an indirect proof that the whole tale is not told, and that Crozet's narrative is garbled.

Put the affair in this light. Suppose a French vessel visited Japan, that the Japanese treated the crew with kindness, and that after a month's residence the French commenced collecting wood for the prosecution of the voyage, and to save trouble carried off decayed but sacred monuments for fire-wood – would the Japanese allow their religion to be insulted by strangers they had treated as friends? The wood of every deserted

COOK'S SECOND VISIT.

New Zealand dwelling is sacred; to cook food with a portion of it was in the eyes of the Natives, in Marion's day, a greater sacrilege than the destruction of a piece of the true Cross was in the days of the Crusaders. If they did not revenge insults on their sacred places, their gods, they believed, would shower down evil upon them in this world. It was a dread of vengeance from the gods which caused Marion's massacre in New Zealand, and Captain Cook's death in the Sandwich Islands.

Slaughtering the Huguenots in Paris in 1572, and the Highlanders in Glencoe in 1692, were treacherous deeds; the massacre of the French in the Bay of Islands in 1772 resulted from superstition.

Historians have omitted to record the visit of another French vessel to New Zealand about this period; but natives living near the spot have not forgotten the event, and the tradition runs thus: – Shortly after Cook's departure from the Houraki Gulf, a vessel entered the river Thames, and shipped a number of wooden spars. When sailing away, she fell in with a fishing-canoe which had been driven out to sea, took the two young natives in it on board, and conveyed them to France. They were brought back in two years; and the commander of the vessel gave the natives pigs and potatoes, with instructions how to preserve the former and cultivate the latter. 103 While the names of these good men are forgotten by the New Zealanders, those of Cook, De Surville, and Marion live in their traditions.

Cook, when searching for a southern continent in 1774, again visited New Zealand, and spent several months at Dusky Bay and Queen Charlotte's Sound. On

CONFLICT WITH CANNIBALISM.

this occasion he placed confidence in the natives, and landed with trifling presents in place of fire-arms; the consequence was that the natives were more friendly in their manner, and more honest in their dealings.

Unhappily this second visit, like the former, was disgraced by bloodshed: – A boat was sent by the commander of the Adventure, with nine men, to gather wild greens in Queen Charlotte's Sound. When on shore, a New Zealander offered to sell a stone hatchet to a sailor, who, after examining it, would neither return it nor give payment for it; whereupon the native snatched a quantity of bread and fish from where the sailors were eating. This was resisted; a quarrel ensued, and two natives were shot; but before the marines could reload their muskets the whole boat's crew were slaughtered.

As Cook admitted the accuracy of the above narrative, it is evident that the English were the first to act dishonestly, and the first to commit murder. Mr. Burney, afterwards the historian of the discoveries in the south seas, was sent by Captain Furneaux from the ship to ascertain what detained the boat, and in revenge shot many more natives than there were sailors slain, and destroyed several valuable canoes. Before returning to the ship Mr. Burney saw sufficient to convince him that the bodies of the men composing the boat's crew had been eaten.

Captain Cook's last visit was made in 1777, when searching for a passage from the Pacific into the Atlantic Ocean: on this occasion he spent thirteen days in Queen Charlotte's Sound, and his advent struck terror into the hearts of the natives in that neighbourhood, from the idea that he had returned to take another revenge for the Adventure's boat's crew. Kindness entirely dissi-

SOCIAL STATE OF NATIVES IN 1780.

pated alarm, and two natives embarked with him for the purpose of visiting England. These men, contemplating from the deck their receding native land, became overwhelmed with grief, and when the ship arrived at the Society Islands they begged to be landed. Here the aborigines who understood their language received them as friends, but neither ever again saw New Zealand, both dying a few years afterwards.

Five times had Cook now visited New Zealand, and at each visit introduced several useful plants and animals; several of both died, but pigs, potatoes, turnips, cabbages, and fowls survived and multiplied in the land.

The social state of New Zealand in 1780 resembled that of Britain when first invaded by the Romans. Perpetual warfare was the lot of all; yet the civilisation of the natives at this era was superior to that of the Britons when first known to the Tyrian mariners; and, with the exception of cannibalism, their condition will bear comparison with that of the Scotch Highlanders in 1700. 104

Dr. Forster, the companion of Cook, estimated the population in 1770 at one hundred thousand, and no other data have been furnished from which an inference can be drawn that the people were more numerous. The Bay of Plenty, the East Coast, and the Bay of Islands were then as now the most populous districts. In Cook's Straits the population was scanty; four hundred were the estimated number of natives in Queen Charlotte's Sound, a few huts stood in Admiralty Bay, and the Middle Island was almost uninhabited.

Captain Cook was informed of conflicts between tribes during his first and second visits, and New Zealanders

FRANKLIN'S PROPOSAL.

taken on board at Poverty Bay were terrified at the prospect of being landed a few miles up the coast, because it was their enemies' country. Villages slandered their neighbours, and requested Cook's assistance to destroy them; and the navigator states that, had he acted on the advice of all his pretended friends, he would have extirpated the whole race. In 1780 the New Zealanders were destitute of money, the universal incitement to human industry, and of iron its most powerful instrument.

Crozet and Cook made New Zealand known all over Europe; and men of the highest and lowest intellects read their narratives with intense interest. The existence of an undoubted race of cannibals furnished seasoned food for vulgar minds, while the intelligence of the New Zealanders, their anxiety for iron nails and fish-hooks, and their contempt for beads and baubles, attracted the attention of the learned and philanthropic. Dr. Franklin, then in the zenith of his fame, proposed that a ship should be filled with various useful articles, and sent to trade with them; a proposition indicative of the accurate judgment the philosopher had formed of the character of the people. 105

New Zealand was at this time likewise proposed in the House of Commons as an eligible field for convicts; but the cannibal propensities of the aborigines overpowered every argument in favour of the scheme. The islands were, however, included in the royal commission of 1787 as a part of the British dominions, in virtue of the sovereignty established by Cook.

It is difficult to convey an idea of the terror in which the New Zealanders were held about this period.

TERROR OF NATIVES.

Sailors groaning under scurvy, and in sight of a country covered with vegetables, the specific for that dire disease, preferred toothless gums to contact with cannibals. As the deer dreads the tiger, so do all men dread the eaters of men; and this is apparently a law of nature, for even the conquerors of Peru, men not to be daunted by trifles, fled to their ships at the sight of roasted human flesh. In 1791, Captain Vancouver anchored at Dusky Bay, in the Middle Island, on his voyage round the world; but no vessel entered any of the northern harbours during that year; and an idea of the dread in which the natives were held even by educated travellers may be drawn from the following incident. Admiral D'Entrecasteaux, when searching for La Perouse, arrived off New Zealand in 1793. His naturalist represented the importance of obtaining several flax plants, but the admiral refused, out of terror, to approach too near to the coast, although the natives were friendly, and paddled in their canoes to the ship to barter mats and weapons of war for iron and fish-hooks.

Terror of cannibalism, that barrier to intercourse, was ultimately overcome, and New Zealand and the civilised world were drawn together towards the end of the eighteenth century by the extension of the South-Sea whale fishery to the New Zealand coasts, the establishment in 1788 of a penal settlement in Australia, the formation of a colony in Norfolk Island in 1789, and the anxiety of commercial men to obtain New Zealand flax.

It was the silk-like softness of the New Zealand flax mats which made the manufacturers so anxious to procure the plant producing this fabric; and navigators were then under the impression that none of the plants

KIDNAPPED TO NORFOLK ISLAND.

hitherto obtained was the right variety. When, however, Norfolk Island was colonised, the settlers were surprised and gratified to find it grew there in wild luxuriance; but they failed in fashioning cloth out of its coarse fibre like that manufactured by the New Zealanders. Mortified to find that savages surpassed them in ingenuity, they were nevertheless anxious to get one to instruct them in the mystery of mat-making; and there being no fair way of procuring such a person, the Government fell upon a foul one.

In 1793 a vessel was sent to cruise about the New Zealand coast with the avowed purpose of kidnapping one of the aborigines. When it arrived off the Bay of Islands, two men were enticed on board, and the captain immediately trimmed the ship's sails away for Norfolk Island. Unluckily one of the captives was a chief and the other a priest, and neither would admit they knew anything about dressing flax; – an occupation which they contemptuously termed woman's work. After a six months' detention at Norfolk Island, these men were conveyed to their native land by the governor, Captain King, where they were received with joy and astonishment. To their assembled tribe they related their story, and stated that they had come in three days from the island where they were living. This last announcement being discredited, one of them ran and brought from the ship's poop a fresh cabbage, an evidence alike productive of surprise and conviction.

Captain King recompensed them for their unjust capture and imprisonment by giving them several useful plants, with ten young sows and two boars: to him the New Zealanders are also indebted for maize, as the seeds of this productive corn left by Cook had perished. The

INTERCOURSE WITH WHALERS.

kindness the natives received at Norfolk Island was never forgotten by them, and in the fulness of their hearts they spread abroad curious accounts of the manners and customs of the English. Captain King described the New Zealanders as a people between whom and the English a good understanding might be easily cultivated; 106 and in 1819 "Good Governor King" was still remembered in the Bay of Islands. 107

After this event several whale-ships hovering round the coasts anchored in different parts for refreshment, and their crews traded with cautious friendship among the natives. It was then ascertained that the coasts abounded in seals, and that numerous whales annually visited Cook's Strait and other inlets during the winter season, for the purpose of bringing forth their young. Queen Charlotte's Sound, Dusky Bay, Banks's Peninsula, Cook's Strait, Poverty and Hawke's Bays, the Bay of Plenty, and the Bay of Islands, were the chief places resorted to by whalers. The scanty population of the Middle Island received the whalers with open arms, the aborigines in the north with suspicion. Several, from a love of novelty, visited New South Wales, and others shipped themselves on board whalers 108 A few European sailors, fascinated by the dark restless-eyed women, and a love of freedom, left their ships and took up their abode among the natives.

One of the first of this afterwards important class of settlers was George Bruce. This sailor lad had bestowed kind attention on a sick chief named Te Pahi during: his trip from Sydney to the Bay of Islands, in the year 1804, and was begged by him to stop in the country.

FATE OF FIRST SETTLER.

Fascinated with the offer of Te Pahi's youngest daughter, and a large piece of land, Bruce left his ship and settled at the Bay of Islands. To gain his wife's affections, a girl whose pleasing beauty is still remembered by some old men, Bruce submitted to be tattooed; his gentle manners and usefulness as an interpreter between the whalers and the natives, caused the tribe to respect and value him. One unfortunate day the General Wellesley, an English vessel, arrived off the coast, and Captain Dalrymple begged Bruce and his wife to come on board to assist him in searching for gold near the North Cape. Distrusting Dalrymple's simple word, Bruce extracted a solemn promise that both would be safely landed at the place where they had embarked.

Disappointed at not finding gold, Captain Dalrymple broke his promise and carried Bruce and his wife away from New Zealand. At Malacca Dalrymple left Bruce on shore, carrying off his wife to Penang, where he sold her to the master of another ship. Here Bruce, who followed in pursuit, found her, and with the governor's aid got her back, and a passage for both to Calcutta, in the hope of meeting there with a vessel bound for Sydney. 109 But neither Bruce nor his wife ever returned to the Bay of Islands. Rewa, a chief who gave me this information, was much surprised at my inquiring about an event and a man long forgotten; and he told me Te Pahi died under the impression that Bruce carried away his favourite daughter by force. Two natives, contemporaries of Bruce, who had listened to this conversation were much excited on hearing from me the true cause why their early friend had never returned, his melancholy history and unknown end.

INFLUENCE OF CIVILISED CUSTOMS.

Civilised manners and customs produced strange impressions on the minds of Te Pahi and other travelled New Zealanders. The operation of shaving transfixed them with wonder; the reflection of their faces in a mirror filled them with delight: but the ease with which ropes were made at the Sydney rope-walk gave them the most durable satisfaction. These travellers soon ascertained that Sydney was nothing to London, and a desire to visit England seized upon several.

In 1805, Mr. Savage, an English surgeon, took the first New Zealander to Great Britain. His name was Mohanger, and he was introduced to the civilised world as a chief, although in reality a slave. What principally attracted his attention in London was the size of St. Paul's, London Bridge, the number of ships, how the London people were fed, the mode in which houses were supplied with water by means of pipes, and that George III. was an old man, and not a vigorous warrior. 110 Mohanger returned to his native land laden with carpenter's tools, and afterwards lamented that he had not asked for fire-arms in place of them.

Matara, a son of Te Pahi, visited England in 1807, and like Mohanger was introduced to the royal family. During Matara's residence in London, he contracted a cold which terminated in consumption, of which disease he died shortly after his return.

Ruatara was, however, the most intelligent traveller of this era. In 1805, when a mere lad, he shipped on board a whaler, and after many adventures reached London in 1809. He returned to Australia with the Rev. Mr. Marsden, and resided a year with that gentleman learning agriculture. From Sydney he proceeded

STATE OF NATIVES IN 1808.

to New Zealand, which he reached after a long detention at Norfolk Island. In 1814, Ruatara again visited Sydney accompanied by Hongi, returned with Mr. Marsden and the missionaries to New Zealand, and died suddenly a few days afterwards. Ruatara was the first native who cultivated wheat, and was very instrumental in introducing Christianity and letters among his countrymen. 111

Travelled New Zealanders spread and magnified England's power and greatness among their countrymen, and the people soon became aware of the advantage of keeping on friendly terms with Englishmen.

Meanwhile the people at large were advancing in civilisation, and in 1808 they were living more peaceably than they were in 1780. Trade and the industry commerce brings in her train were now producing a visible effect among them. Several Europeans had taken up their abode in the Middle Island, and whale ships annually resorted to the North Island for the purpose of exchanging blankets, axes, fish-hooks and other articles, for pigs, potatoes, spars, and flax. Neither tobacco smoking, nor much anxiety to possess fire-arms, had yet arisen among them. The desire for such articles was the result of a more advanced civilisation. Wherever New Zealanders travelled they produced favourable impressions on the minds of civilised men. Those shipped on board whale ships were often selected as harpooners, from their contempt of the dangers of the sea, and stories of their deeds are still related by old settlers, and on the forecastle of South-sea whalers. Here is a specimen of these tales: –

NEW ZEALAND HARPOONER.

One morning a lone whale was seen on the placid Pacific; the boat was pulled up to it, and the New Zealander, balancing himself on the gunwale, darted the harpoon at the fish and missed. After several hours chase under a tropical sun, the whale was approached a second time, and the New Zealander darted two harpoons at him but again missed. Then the bitterest disappointment arose among the tired boat's crew, which they expressed in curses deep and loud. These taunts maddened the Maori; and no sooner was the boat again pulled up to the whale, than he bounded on the animal's back, and for one dizzy second was seen there. The next, all was foam and fury, and both were out of sight. The men in the boat shoved off, flung over line as fast as they could, while ahead nothing was seen but a red whirlpool of blood and brine. Presently a dark object swam out, the line began to straighten, then smoke round the logger-head, and the boat sped like an arrow through the water. They were fast, and the whale was running. But where was the New Zealander? His brown hand was on the boat's gunwale, and he was hauled aboard in the very midst of the mad bubbles that burst under the bows. 112

This growing confidence between Europeans and New Zealanders was interrupted by the massacre of the crew and passengers of the ship Boyd, in the year 1809. This vessel started from Sydney for England, with the intention of touching at Wangaroa for spars. She carried seventy Europeans and five New Zealanders, who were shipped to work their passages to their own country. Tarra, or George, one of the New Zealanders, was the son of a Wangaroa chief. During the voyage

MASSACRE OF THE BOYD.

George refused to work, because he was sick, for which conduct the captain stopped his food, and twice flogged him at the gangway with much severity. When the vessel arrived at Wangaroa, George exhibited his scarified back to his father's tribe, and they unanimously resolved to revenge the starvation and stripes their chief's son had suffered.

This was accomplished by treachery. The captain and a considerable number of the crew were allured on shore, murdered, and eaten; and all left on board, save one woman, two children, and a cabin boy, shared a similar fate. The lad was saved by George, in gratitude for a trifling kindness, and the woman and children preserved themselves by concealment. These Europeans were rescued from the natives by Te Pahi and Mr. Berrey, the supercargo of a ship then at the Bay of Islands. 113

Scenes occurred at this massacre painful to think upon. Sailors who rarely used God's name, unless to swear by, fled in terror to George, and prostrating themselves before him, cried, "My God! My God! save me!" These humiliating supplications were, however, disregarded by the savage, who struck the petitioners dead one by one with his own arm.

It is impossible to offer a single word in mitigation of such butchery, although Mr. Nicholas, who visited Wangaroa in 1814, reported that the New Zealanders had received strong provocation for the massacre; 114 and it is a New Zealand law, that injury to one man of a tribe shall be resented by all. Major Cruise, who landed at Wangaroa in 1820, states George was then

REVENGE TAKEN BY WHALERS.

detested by his own people; his hatred to Europeans, like the stripes on his back, was never eradicated, and on his deathbed he urged his tribe to drive the Wesleyan missionaries away from Wangaroa.

Events of the gravest nature are soon forgotten in new colonies, but the massacre of the Boyd is still spoken of with horror by the Wangaroa settlers. Part of the ship is occasionally seen in the harbour at ebb tides, and strangers are told that within the sunken hull there are several boxes of silver and gold.

It was scarcely to be expected that such a massacre would pass without revenge, but unhappily the blow fell on the innocent, not the guilty; and it came on Te Pahi's people, who had taken no part in the massacre. It is true Te Pahi went from the Bay of Islands to Wangaroa on hearing of the affair, and, although indirectly instrumental in saving several lives, he nevertheless ate the flesh of the murdered English.

The revenge was managed thus. Five whaling ships met in the outer harbour at the Bay of Islands soon after the massacre. Here their crews, maddened by reading an account of it, and confident in their numbers, were falsely told that Te Pahi was the sole instigator of the bloody transaction. This chief had a village on an island in the Bay, very accessible and without any stockade, where he and his people were then living in the security of peaceful innocence. Secretly the whalers fell upon Te Pahi's village, killed young and old, sick and healthy, males and females, to the number of thirty, and then burned whatever stood or grew on the soil. Te Pahi escaped severely wounded, and was slain soon afterwards in a conflict with the Wangaroa tribes which

TE PAHI'S MISFORTUNES.

originated in his having attempted to save some of the crew of the Boyd.

Misfortune was Te Pahi's lot from the day he became acquainted with the English. His youngest daughter was stolen away from him by Europeans; his favourite son died from a disease contracted in England; his generous attempt to save life connected his name with an affair which brought extinction upon his tribe, partly from his own race and partly from the English, the heaviest blow coming from the European side, a quarter from which he least expected or deserved such a reward.

99 Memoires touchant l'Etablissement d'une Mission Chretienne dans la Terre Australe. By F. P. D. C, Pretre Indien. Paris, 1663. Cramoisy.

100 Burney's South Seas. Thevenot's Voyages.

101 Tasman's Journal was written in Dutch, and an extract from it was inserted by Thevenot in the supplement to his Collection of Voyages. There was a French translation of Tasman's Journal published at Amsterdam, by Bernard, in 1722, 12mo. In the Town-House at Amsterdam the Dutch East India Company have deposited a chart of Tasman's discoveries. Sir Joseph Banks had Tasman's narrative translated into English.

102 Abbe Rochon's Voyages, 1791.

103 Evidence of Te Taniwha, who died in 1853.

104 Macaulay's History of England.

105 Dodsley's Annual Register.

106 Captain King's Account. Collins's History of New South Wales.

107 Marsden's Narrative.

108 Evidence of C. Enderby, Esq., Committee, House of Lords, 1838.

109 Turnbull's "Voyage round the World.

110 Savage's Account of New Zealand, 1807.

111 Marsden's Life of Ruatara, vol. v. Proceedings of Church Missionary Society.

112 Omoo. Adventures in South Seas.

113 Berrey's Narrative, vol. iv. Constable's Miscellany. – Sydney Herald.

114 Evidence before the House of Lords, 1838.

CHAPTER II. NEW ZEALAND FROM 1810 TO 1838.

CHAP. II.

NEW ZEALAND FROM 1810 TO 1838.

Evil effects of the massacre of the Boyd. – Life of Hongi. – Anxiety to get fire-arms produces commerce. – Increase of strife. – War checked by fire-arms. – Trade in human heads. – Rauparaha massacres natives. – Ideas of property. – Land purchasing commences. – Attempt to form a colony in 1825. – Rumour of a French colony in 1831. – British Resident appointed. – New Zealand flag. – First campaign in country. – De Thierry's declaration of sovereignty. – Declaration of independence. – Constitution of United Tribes. – Absurdity of constitution. – Arrival of De Thierry. – Rumour of a French colony in 1836. – Sayings and doings of travelled natives. – State of New Zealand in 1838. – Rise of Kororareka. – Kororareka Association. – Consul recommended.

THE evil effects of the massacre of the crew and passengers of the Boyd did not terminate with the murder of Te Pahi's people. It prevented for five years the introduction of Christianity into the country, caused the natives to be denominated the enemies of mankind, and justified in the minds of certain men the cruelties and murders committed by the masters of trading vessels. 115 Several of these actions are so atrocious as, for human nature's sake, to excite a hope they are untrue, or exaggerated. It is related that a European gave a chief corrosive sublimate to poison his foes at a feast held to commemorate peace; 116 that a European

WAR OF RACES.

trader enticed New Zealanders on board his ship, and landed them in the midst of their enemies; and that whalers often forcibly kidnapped natives of both sexes. 117

In 1814, the government of New South Wales tried to suppress these outrages, by appointing Mr. Thomas Kendall, and the chiefs Ruatara, Hongi, and Koro Koro, magistrates for the Bay of Islands' territory. 118 A useless and illegal edict, not confirmed by his Majesty, because New Zealand had already been recognised as an independent state in an act to punish offences committed in places beyond the king's dominions. 119

At this era every vessel approaching the coast had boarding nets, and during the three years ending 1817 one hundred New Zealanders were slain by Europeans in the immediate vicinity of the Bay of Islands. 120 Such murders did not pass unavenged, although the blows given fell on the wrong parties. The brig Agnes of six guns, with fourteen men on board, stranded at Poverty Bay in 1816, and all the crew save John Rutherford were killed and eaten. 121 A whale ship was cast ashore at Wanganui in 1820, and all the crew were killed and eaten but one European and one negro. 122 Personal inquiry along the east and west coasts has likewise convinced me that at this period the capture of European vessels was a trade among them. The idea of extirpating a race of cannibals stimulated Europeans to shoot New Zealanders; revenge and covetousness stimulated New Zealanders to slaughter Europeans. In 1823 Parliament

LIFE OF HONGI.

tried to stop these inhuman scenes by passing an act giving to the Supreme Courts of Australia and Tasmania jurisdiction over British subjects in New Zealand. 123

How long this war of races would have continued to rage it is impossible to conjecture, had not a change in the mode of conducting native strife rendered fire-arms and gunpowder absolutely necessary for victory.

To New Zealand was now given, for a great purpose, one of those men who produce revolutions and brighten up the page of history. About the year 1777 was born, near the Bay of Islands, Hongi Hika, a scion of the illustrious Ngapuhi nation. In early manhood he distinguished himself in battle; and although influential from his birth, he soon became more so by his deeds. After rendering his name famous in his country's annals, he accompanied Ruatara to Sydney in 1814, lived in the Rev. Mr. Marsden's house, and returned to New Zealand the patron and protector of Christianity and letters. These offices, however, did not restrain him from plunging into war and ravaging the Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Wangaroa, and Hokianga; when, having subdued every foe he could safely reach, he grew restless from idleness, and announced his intention of visiting England "to see King George and bring back missionaries, carpenters, blacksmiths, Europeans, and twenty soldiers."

In 1820, Hongi and Waikato embarked for England, accompanied by Mr. Kendall, a missionary; and on arriving at London were of great assistance to Professor Lee of Cambridge in the construction of a vocabulary and grammar of the New Zealand language. George IV. gave Hongi an audience, and dismissed him

VISITS ENGLAND.

with a suit of armour and many presents. While in England, Hongi derived most pleasure from beholding the household troops, the military stores in the Tower, and the great elephant; and in listening to stories of Napoleon's sieges and battles. At this time the talk of the country was the queen's trial, and he was told that "a hated woman, when she is married, is a thing the earth cannot bear," and "that a bad wife is as rottenness to his bones." But Hongi was unable to comprehend why a great man like King George could not manage one wife without calling in the assistance of all his lords, seeing that he himself ruled without difficulty over five.

After a month's residence in England, during which he charmed the religious world by acting the part of a devout Christian, he returned to Sydney. There a New Zealander informed him that during his absence his son-in-law had fallen in battle on the banks of the river Thames. From the grief this news produced he soon recovered, and immediately commenced collecting guns and powder. All the valuable presents brought from England, excepting the coat of mail, were sold to purchase 300 muskets; and with this supply he returned home to revenge his son-in-law's blood.

Early in 1822 Hongi embarked in his war canoes at the Bay of Islands, with 1000 followers, steered up the Houraki gulf, and entered the river Thames. Totara, a fortification standing on its left bank, was taken by stratagem, 500 of the enemy slain, and 300 eaten. He then directed his canoes to a stronghold on the Tamaki river, in the centre of the present pensioner village of Panmure, which place also fell with considerable slaughter. The fugitives from these two forts

WAR WITH FIRE ARMS.

sought safety in Matakitaki, a stronghold on the Waipa river. Thither Hongi pursued them, and slew 1400 out of a garrison of 4000. Rauparaha, who lived at Kawhia, terrified at his deeds, fled southwards. One portion of the army, under Thomas Walker Nene, advanced on Taranaki, and Hongi returned home from the greatest of his campaigns with crowds of slaves. A missionary witnessed the conqueror's disembarkation at the Bay of Islands. The women, who remained at home, rushed out to meet the warriors, and those who had relatives slain during the expedition gave vent to their passions by murdering unarmed and unresisting slaves. During this campaign the enemy were without firearms, while Hongi's warriors mustered upwards of 300 stand of arms. In 1826 he fought a pitched battle at Kaipara, where his favourite son was slain; and, in revenge, he scooped out and swallowed the eyes of several of the prostrate wounded on the battle-field. At this engagement he wore the suit of armour King George had given him, as a protection from the guns the enemy had now obtained. 124 His last and fatal expedition was made in 1827 against his old foes at Wangaroa. During an early part of the conflict a bullet passed close to his ear, and whispered death was at hand: subsequently one penetrated his lungs, for he wore upon this occasion his helmet but not his breastplate, and the wound never healed, although he recovered so far as occasionally to entertain his friends by making the air whistle through the hole in his back. Fifteen months after receiving this wound he died from its effects, aged

CHARACTER OF HONGI.

fifty-five years. On his death-bed, which was decked out with instruments of war, he exhorted his followers to be courageous, to protect the missionaries, and not allow these holy men to leave the country; "For," said he, "they have done good and have done no harm." Hongi left a son who lives without a name, and will probably die without posterity.

Hongi was a man of small stature, but he had a large, broad, and high forehead, with quick piercing eyes. Ambition, energy, and revenge, were the three great features in his character; and he was endowed with an undaunted constancy of purpose, neither baffled by disappointments nor wearied out by impediments. Such qualities are rare among his countrymen; and some things he judged with the acuteness of a critic and the spirit of a philosopher. He never became a Christian, although he educated his children at the mission schools. He had a high sense of honour and a tender heart: grief for the loss of two brothers made him attempt suicide; and no insult ever provoked him to take the life of a European. The Rev. Mr. Turner and other missionaries, who measure savages by themselves, have held him up to the world as a bloody tyrant, even among cannibals, and have unjustly accused him of driving away the Wesleyan mission from Wangaroa in 1827; but Hongi, on his death-bed, deeply regretted his followers' conduct on that occasion, which he could not prevent. No New Zealander ever destroyed more of his countrymen than he, but none ever did them more good; his evil deeds are confined to a few of one generation, while his good deeds will descend to thousands. 125

WAR OF RACES CHECKED.

Hongi's expedition in 1822, showed the whole New Zealand race that the possession of guns and powder were absolutely necessary for self-preservation, that their old weapons were no match against the new, and that a small body of cowards with fire-arms were stronger than numerous bands of brave warriors wielding meris and tomahawks. Every adult male tried to obtain a gun, and European traders were besought to bring arms and powder. Money and industry were now indispensable for success in war. Tribes ceased retaliating on Europeans, and natives living in the interior of the country were obliged to make peace with those living near the sea coast, so as to get access to the ships.

This sudden demand for fire-arms, and the high commercial value of flax, caused several vessels to be fitted out at Sydney for the New Zealand trade. The governor of that colony dreading bloodshed tried to prevent all traffic: finding this impossible, he endeavoured to keep the trade in the hands of government, by chartering several vessels in the year 1824; but as it was soon found that free trade could not be prevented, the attempt ceased.

The result was that in 1830, vessels amounting to 5888 tons cleared out of Sydney for New Zealand; and twenty-six vessels, having an average burden of one hundred tons, arrived there from the latter country laden with flax. 126

From table 8 in the appendix, it will be seen that 135,486l worth of whale oil, wood, flax, pigs, and potatoes, was exported from New Zealand in 1829; and

TRADE IN FIRE-ARMS.

30,000l worth of goods was on an average annually imported into New Zealand during the fourteen years ending 1839. But these exports and imports are only a part of the traffic at this period. South-Sea whalers, who kept no statistical returns, now frequented New Zealand in preference to all other islands in the Pacific, and carried on an active trade with the natives.

In 1834, a few muskets purchased from the natives a small ship load of flax: a blanket the best pig in the country, and a fig of tobacco sixty pounds of potatoes. 127 But after this date they began to know the true commercial value of goods. Previously to the year 1840, the munitions of war were almost solely in demand; after this period a market arose for tobacco, blankets, pipes, shirts, cooking-pots, trowsers, gowns, cottons, hoes and spades.

As commerce increased, numbers of Europeans took up their abode among the New Zealanders, acquired their language, and managed the trade between the two races. These men were the pioneers of civilisation, and must not be confounded with the lawless band of Europeans congregated at Kororareka in the Bay of Islands. In a subsequent chapter an account is given of the rise and fall of the influence of the former among the natives. Trade, European dresses, and the almost universal habit of tobacco-smoking, soon began to work important changes on the customs and habits of the natives.

There is, however, no good without an alloy of evil. That very commerce which led to peace between the New Zealanders and their foreign foes rendered war for some time more frequent among themselves; and at no former period in the country's annals were conflicts so

CIVIL WARS INCREASED

general as they were during the twenty years preceding the establishment of British rule. The example of Hongi, the novelty of fire-arms, the ambition of Rauparaha and Te Whero Whero, produced these results. In 1824, Rauparaha, having purchased a large stock of powder and muskets from the Cook's Strait whalers, commenced his depopulating wars among the natives residing on the east and west coasts of the North and Middle Islands. No security was felt within a hundred miles of his head-quarters. Portions of the Ngatiawa nation fled from New Zealand, to get from him, in the English brig Rodney, to the Chatham Islands in 1838, and Europeans with half-caste families left the country to avoid his extortionate demands.

During the ten years ending 1840, the Waikato nation waged war against that of Taranaki. At first the Taranaki nation defended themselves valiantly, aided by three English sailors, who worked two ship's guns, and poured British spirit into the war councils of the natives; but when these men ceased fighting under their banners the Taranaki forces were invariably defeated, and at Pukerangiora, in 1834, Te Whero Whero slew with his own arm 200 prisoners. Most of them who escaped from this pa fled to the south, although a few concealed themselves in the caverns around the base of Mount Egmont.

In order to check the overbearing ambition of Te Whero Whero, the warriors of the Bay of Islands, under the leadership of Pomare and Kawiti, deeming themselves invincible, even after the death of Hongi, attacked the Waikato nation. Unfortunately for them, previous success made them despise their enemy, and 300 chosen Ngapuhi warriors were drawn into an ambuscade high

AT FIRST BY FIRE-ARMS.

up the Waipa river, far away from their own supports, and routed. Only ten men escaped, and Pomare's preserved head was kept for years by the Waikato people as a trophy of victory.

In 1830, a battle was fought near Matamata between the Thames and Waikato tribes. During the same year 100 natives were slain in a conflict on the Kororareka beach between two sub-divisions of the Ngapuhi nation. Skirmishes were carried on for three years ending 1832, between the natives of the Bay of Islands and those of Tauranga. From 1835 to 1841 war existed, and occasional combats occurred between the Waikato and Rotorua nations. During the same years wars prevailed among the people living in the Bay of Plenty and Poverty Bay, and at Taupo and Wanganui. In 1837 a native civil war at the Bay of Islands brought Captain Hobson, in H.M.S. Rattlesnake, from Sydney, to protect the European settlement at Kororareka; but not a white man's life was endangered, as the combatants, by mutual consent, moved the scene of action to a distance, lest a settler should even be accidentally injured. 128

Twenty thousand lives were sacrificed directly and indirectly during those twenty years of strife in New Zealand. By the principle of retaliation upon which the natives acted, the rude idea of natural justice, the breach between the combatants was daily widened; new deaths involved distant connections, tribe after tribe became partners in the conflict, truces without alliances occurred, and peace, or rather an intermission of murders, was only produced by exhaustion.

FIRE-ARMS PROMOTE PEACE.

It may appear a paradox, but it is nevertheless true, that the cause which generated this universal strife ultimately produced harmony. The darkest hour often precedes the dawn. Fire-arms, in the first instance, led to war; but after the whole population had obtained them battles became less frequent and less fatal. Men's passions are less excited in distant than in close conflict. Formerly warriors were maddened by the deadly struggle of man with man, now actions are commenced and maintained at a distance; and while men skilful in fence in ancient fights frequently saved their lives by dexterity, it has now become a proverb among the people that "the blow from a bullet, like a curse, strikes unseen and cannot be warded off." In battles where the combatants were armed with meris and tomahawks, men were almost invariably slain or enslaved; few were wounded. In conflicts with fire-arms, the wounded outnumbered the slain; and these cripples, limping about villages and suffering excruciating agony from unextracted bullets, were sad living spectacles of the calamities of war, and furnished materials which led men to reflect, when their blood was cool, on the the superiority of industry and peace over idleness and strife.

The introduction of European weapons was a blessing, not a curse, to the people, and although evil arose from a knowledge of fire-arms outstripping education in the arts of peace, we must nevertheless enumerate bullets, guns and powder as important aids to their civilisation.

Commercial intercourse could not continue between Europeans and New Zealanders, two races so opposite in their manners and customs, without occasional evil, and two events occurred in 1830 which exhibits the low

COMMERCE IN PRESERVED HEADS.

morality of some of the Europeans engaged in this trade.

Preserved native heads were then in high estimation in European museums, and flax-traders purchased these articles for this market. According to the laws of commerce, the supply increased with the demand. Formerly the head of a chief was preserved as a matter of honour; but when it was found a gun could be got for one, a custom arose of preserving those of enemies for sale, and of killing slaves for the sake of their heads. 129

It is impossible to conjecture to what extent this trade might have been carried, had not the following circumstance rendered it illegal and disgraceful. The people of the Bay of Islands were defeated with considerable loss at Tauranga in the year 1830, and the conquerors dried the heads of the slain and sold them to the master of a schooner called the "Prince of Denmark," bound for Sydney, but intending to touch at the Bay of Islands. On the arrival of the vessel at the latter place a number of natives came on board to trade. The master of the ship, in a state of tipsy jollity, brought up a sack containing twelve heads, and rolled them out on the deck. Some of the New Zealanders on board recognised their fathers' heads, others those of their brothers, and friends. Appalling weeping and lamentations rent the air, and the natives fled precipitately from the ship. The master, seeing his dangerous position, put to sea before the news of his cargo spread on shore. Fortunately the scene now described was reported to Governor Darling of New South Wales, who issued a proclamation against this degrading trade, 130 and

MASSACRE AT BANKS'S PENINSULA.

called upon all who had brought heads from the Prince of Denmark to deliver them up, for the purpose of having them restored to the relatives of the deceased parties "to whom those heads belonged."

Governor Darling, after earnestly pointing out the dreadful consequences produced by this inhuman traffic, imposed a fine of forty pounds with the publication of the names of persons detected in such a disgraceful occupation. Public feeling, however, more than the dread of punishment, so completely stopped this trade, that a preserved head was seldom afterwards seen in the country. The United States Exploring Expedition visited New Zealand in 1840, and, after much searching, obtained two heads from the steward of a missionary brig in the Bay of Islands, the very last place, Commodore Wilks observes, he could have expected to find such articles. 131

This commerce in preserved heads indirectly promoted bloodshed, the following sort of traffic did so directly. In 1829 Te Pahi, a chief, of whom an account is subsequently given, was murdered by the natives living about Banks's Peninsula during a friendly visit that travelled warrior made to barter muskets for greenstone. No satisfaction was deemed sufficient for such a man but the head of Tamaiharanui the chief of the tribe, and it devolved on Rauparaha and Rangihaeata, his nearest relatives, to avenge his death. For this purpose Captain Stewart, on the promise of a cargo of flax; conveyed Rauparaha and eighty warriors, in the brig Elizabeth from Kapiti in Cook's Strait to Banks's Peninsula in the Middle Island. When the ship cast anchor, Rauparaha's party hid below, while Stewart falsely represented himself to those who came on board as a flax trader.

STEWART ASSISTS RAUPARAHA.

Unsuspicious of treachery from white men, the natives told Stewart that their chief was living in the Wainui valley a short day's journey from Akaroa. Stewart invited him to visit the ship, and three days afterwards Tamaiharanui, his wife, son, daughter, and several of his tribe came on board. Descending into the cabin, Tamaiharanui met Rauparaha face to face; Te Pahi's son drew up the upper lip of Tamaiharanui and cried, "These are the teeth which eat my father." A massacre ensued and all were slain, save Tamaiharanui, his wife, and his daughter who were kept to grace the victors' return. Then Rauparaha's warriors landed, and slew every native they met.

Captain Stewart immediately afterwards returned to the island of Kapiti. During the voyage, human flesh brought on board in baskets was frequently devoured amidst singing and war-dancing, the violence of which shook the ship. Tamaiharanui, his wife and daughter, a girl aged sixteen named Nga Roimata or the Tears, witnessed these cannibal orgies over the flesh of their relatives and friends. The chief, bound hand and foot, allowed no sign of sorrow to steal over his tattooed face; but the mother, who was not manacled, strangled her daughter by her husband's orders. Rauparaha enraged that this beautiful and high-born maiden should thus be lost, sucked Tamaiharanui's blood, being a murderer, from a flowing vein, ran a red-hot ramrod through his body, and aggravated the anguish of the poor man's awful situation by his bitter jests; but Tamaiharanui died in extreme mental and bodily agony, without affording his tormentor the satisfaction of seeing on his countenance an indication of either. His wife was afterwards killed at Otaki. The instrument which slew

LAND PURCHASING COMMENCED

Tamaiharanui was shown to me in 1849, stained with the chiefs blood, by the Englishman who acted as interpreter to the expedition. Captain Stewart never got the promised flax freight from Rauparaha; he was tried before the Supreme Court of New South Wales for the part he acted in the massacre, and only escaped punishment from want of evidence. Like that of De Surville, Stewart's death was sudden and violent, and occurred not long after his murderous cruise to Akaroa; he dropped dead on the deck of the Elizabeth rounding the iceberg promontory of Cape Horn, and his body, reeking of rum, was pitched overboard by his own crew with little ceremony and no regret. 132

It is a mental relief to turn from the above horrible affair to mercantile transactions, which were, nevertheless, not altogether right, considering some of the parties engaged in the trade. In 1814 emissaries from the Church Missionary Society introduced Christianity and letters into New Zealand. The history of that great work is related in a subsequent chapter. In 1844 a committee of the House of Commons reported that these missionaries first instructed the natives in the rights of landed property; 133 but this statement is not altogether correct, for long before the advent of the missionaries they had fought and bled for their lands. Women and land were in their eyes treasures which last for ever, seeing that women produce children and land food. Every tribe, even in Cook's time, could point out certain districts where they alone could plant and reap, kill birds, snare rats, and dig fern root: and waste lands were to them more valuable than hunting-grounds were to feudal lords; because to deprive a baron of his moor

BY MISSIONARIES AND OTHERS.

only cut off an amusement, while to deprive the New Zealanders of their waste lands cut off an important means of subsistence.

But although the missionaries did not teach them the rights of property in land, they taught them that land was a commodity Europeans highly valued, by giving twelve axes for two hundred acres upon which to erect a mission station. The nature of this transaction was not rightly understood by the New Zealanders, as some of them thought they were getting the axes, not for the land, but for the hieroglyphics or signatures attached to the purchase-deed. Tribes occasionally exchanged pieces of land with each other long before this missionary transaction; in doing so, however, they never relinquished the sovereignty over it, and this exchanged land could not be disposed of to a third party without the consent of the original owner. The wisest of them had never before imagined that white men would value an article thus restricted, and which they could not take away with them on leaving the country; and for several years after this period, the natives, in disposing of their lands to white men, did not believe they were relinquishing all right to the soil for ever.

The seed thus planted by the missionaries soon ripened. 134 In 1821 Mr. William Fairburn, a Church Missionary Catechist, purchased 400 acres of land for ten pound's worth of merchandise. In 1822 Baron de Thierry bought, through Mr. Kendall of the Mission Society, 40,000 acres of land on the Hokianga river for thirty-six axes. This purchaser is styled in the deed Baron Charles Hippolytus de Thierry, in the county of Somerset, England, and of Queen's College,

QUANTITY OF LAND PURCHASED.

Cambridge. One million of acres were purchased between the years 1825 and 1829 by settlers and merchants in Sydney. Twenty-five thousand acres were bought during the five years ending 1835 at Kaitaia, the Bay of Islands, and Hokianga; 17,000 acres of which, or twenty-seven square miles, were purchased by missionaries.

Curious to relate the missionaries, after this transaction, grew terrified; unscrupulous Europeans would buy up the whole country and reduce the natives to beggary. To prevent this misfortune, the Rev. Henry Williams forwarded, in December 1835, "a deed of trust of land belonging to natives," to the governor of New South Wales, and to the secretary of the Church Missionary Society, requesting that the missionaries at the Bay of Islands should be appointed trustees for lands which the New Zealanders wished them to preserve "from the intrigues of designing men." Some surprise was expressed at the quarter from which this proposition came, and neither the governor nor the Church Missionary Society would sanction such a singular arrangement. 135 Before the year 1839, 20,000,000 acres of land were claimed as having been purchased by white men.

Hongi's visit to England, the flax plant, Major Cruise's ten months' residence, Dr. Shaw's drawing of a kiwi, one of the island's wingless birds, and the above-mentioned land purchases, drew the attention of Englishmen to New Zealand as an eligible place for a colony, during the emigration movement created by Mr. Wilmot Horton. Several paragraphs to that effect appeared in the papers, and two or three projects were started and abandoned, chiefly on account of that great stumbling-block – the cannibal propensities of the

ENGLISH COLONY IN 1825.

natives, and the total indifference about colonisation in England at this period.

With much difficulty one scheme surmounted these impediments, and in the speculative and suffering year of 1825 a company was formed in London of highly influential men, among whom was Lord Durham, to colonise New Zealand. Mr. Huskisson, the President of the Board of Trade, approved of the project. A vessel was fitted out, sixty settlers embarked, and late in the year 1826 they arrived in New Zealand. The place chosen for the settlement was near the mouth of the Hokianga river; and here Captain Herd, the company's agent, purchased a quantity of land, since found to be only one square mile, and two islands in the Houraki gulf. Unluckily for the success of the colony, the Hokianga natives were at war with those of the Bay of Islands when the settlers disembarked; and the sight of a war dance, and alarming reports of battles won and lost in the neighbourhood, so terrified the colonists that most of them left the country after a short residence. Twenty thousand pounds were squandered on this ill-managed affair, and its failure was described by some persons as a death blow to the colonisation of New Zealand; while others, who had acquired land in the country, prophesied that the formation of a British colony was only deferred, not abandoned.

These purchasers of land, in order to promote their own ends, stated that the French were about to form a colony in the country, and several circumstances gave support to such a rumour. Marion's melancholy fate had linked New Zealand and France together by a mysterious chain, the consequence was that few French vessels of war ever visited the Pacific without

FRENCH COLONY OF 1831.

touching there. Numerous whaling vessels belonging to that nation hovered round the islands, and in 1827 Captain D'Urville, of the French navy, spent two months in the Astrolabe, surveying the coasts of the Middle Island. It is therefore not surprising that when in 1831, the French ship of war La Favorite anchored in the Bay of Islands, it was next day gravely announced that the French government was about to take possession of the country, which rumour spread to England. La Rochefoucauld Liancourt, the author of this project, died, otherwise the design might have been carried into execution.

The New Zealanders at the Bay of Islands, who have distrusted the French ever since Marion's days, consulted their friends the missionaries on the subject of the French occupation of the country, and these men fanned the flame, for thirteen Ngapuhi chiefs, styling themselves "the chiefs of the natives of New Zealand," prayed King William the Fourth to protect them from the "tribe of Marion," and prevent strangers from depriving them of their lands. 136

Much about the same time as this memorial was transmitted to the "Gracious Chief of England," the governor of New South Wales suggested to the Secretary of State that a British Resident should be appointed to live at the Bay of Islands, for the purpose of protecting the Europeans and natives from each others' evil ways, of acquiring information, and obtaining influence over the natives.

To meet the wishes of both parties, Mr. James Busby, a well-known settler in Australia, was appointed by his Majesty's ministers to proceed to New Zealand as British

BRITISH RESIDENT APPOINTED.

Resident, an officer the East India government have living at all native courts; he was likewise the bearer of a royal answer to the memorial of the chiefs. 137 In that letter, the Secretary of State, in the king's name, expresses sorrow that the New Zealanders should have suffered injury from any of his subjects, announces his determination to prevent similar outrages, and bespeaks for the resident the zealous support of all chiefs.

Mr. Busby arrived at the Bay of Islands in May 1833, and at an assembly of natives presented the Minister of State's letter, and delivered the presents with which he was entrusted. The aborigines received the Resident with respect, but the English settlers characteristically denominated him a man of war without guns; and the governor of New South Wales appears to have formed a similar opinion of his powers, for he warns Mr. Busby of his anomalous position, impresses on him that he must be careful of bringing offenders to justice, that if a murder occurred he should send competent witnesses of the deed to Sydney, and if the evidence was sufficient, a bench warrant for the murderer's arrest would be transmitted. The truth was, Mr. Busby was not a Resident, only a government agent with a salary of 500l. a year, and 200l. for annual distribution in presents among the natives; and his real duty was to promote peace, watch the proceedings of other European powers in the country, furnish returns of New Zealand's progress, and support the missionaries with his countenance. 138

The performance of these duties were not sufficient to occupy the Resident's active mind, and Mr. Busby with more imagination than judgment, originated a scheme to

NEW ZEALAND FLAG.

magnify the importance of his office. Cortez was the first man who employed a sovereign as a tool for the government of his own kingdom, and Mr. Busby was the first who proposed ruling the New Zealanders by a parliament of chiefs. As a step towards this object he suggested to the Governor of New South Wales, that New Zealand should have a national flag, and that ships owned by New Zealanders should be registered.

His Excellency Sir Richard Bourke, a soldier more than a diplomatist, readily fell into the snare, and ordered his Majesty's ship Alligator to the Bay of Islands with three pattern flags for the chiefs to select one from. Prompted by some Yankee whaler these warriors chose an ensign adorned with stars and stripes, which flag afterwards altered was inaugurated with a royal salute from the Alligator's guns. An account of this ridiculous farce was transmitted to the Colonial Secretary of State who approved of it in the king's name, and the Lords of the Admiralty instructed their officers to acknowledge and respect New Zealand's national flag. 139

The twenty-four pounders which inaugurated this standard were soon afterwards turned against the people. In April 1834 the bark Harriet, J. Guard, master, bound for Cloudy Bay, was wrecked at Taranaki, near to the spot where the English settlement now stands. For six days the shipwrecked mariners were treated as friends; but from some unexplained cause a quarrel arose in which twelve sailors and twenty-five natives were slain, and Mr. Guard, two children, and ten seamen were made prisoners. Guard and several sailors were allowed to depart, on promising to return with powder as a ransom for the others.

FIRST BRITISH CAMPAIGN.

In consequence of Guard's personal representations, the government of New South Wales sent his Majesty's ship Alligator, Captain Lambert, and a company of the 50th Regiment, to rescue the prisoners. On the arrival of the force at Taranaki, the captured sailors were delivered up, and the two interpreters who were sent on shore promised that a payment should be made when the woman and children were released. The soldiers were then landed, and as they formed in battle array on the beach, two unarmed and unattended natives came down to meet them. One introduced himself as the chief who had got the woman and children, rubbed noses with Guard in token of ancient friendship, and told him that Mrs. Guard and the children were well, and that they would be surrendered on the natives receiving the promised payment. The officer in charge of the boat attributing evil motives to this man, seized him, dragged him into the boat, and stabbed him with a bayonet.

A few days afterwards, Mrs. Guard and one child were released, and the wounded chief was restored to his friends. The other child was subsequently brought down to the strand on the shoulder of the chief who had fed it, and he requested to be allowed to take the child on board ship in order to receive the promised ransom. When told none would be given, he turned away; but before getting many yards he was shot, and the infant was taken from the agonising clutch of the dying man, to whom it clung as to a friend. The dead man's head was then cut off, and kicked about the sand; and Mrs. Guard afterwards identified it as the head of their best friend. In consequence of a shot discharged, by whom and at whom none knew, the ship's guns and the soldiers commenced firing, and after destroying two villages

CONDUCT OF THE EXPEDITION.

and several canoes, and killing many natives, the troops reembarked and the expedition returned to Sydney.

The government of New South Wales then urged on his Majesty's government the necessity of supporting the British Resident with an armed force, as that officer was placed in a position neither creditable to himself nor to the English he represented.

It would have been well for the honour of the English name had the government of New South Wales been, like the Resident in New Zealand, powerless; for the Taranaki campaign resembled the operations of insulted buccaneers more than an expedition of his Majesty's forces. A committee of the British Parliament expressed its disapprobation of this affair; pointed out that the New Zealanders fulfilled, while the English broke, their original contract; and stated that this opinion was drawn even from the one-sided evidence of the culpable parties, the chief witness being Guard, an old convict, who said a musket ball for every New Zealander was the best mode of civilising the country. 140

There were royalists who now that New Zealand possessed a recognised national flag deemed it worthy of a king. None of the adventurous Europeans in the numerous islands in the Pacific aspired to the throne, because they knew the adoption of a flag by the people was a delusion. In Europe, however, Baron de Thierry, the son of a French emigrant resident in England, grasped at the sceptre, and thought the present a favourable opportunity for clothing his family in purple. This nobleman met Hongi at Cambridge in 1820, and

BARON DE THIERRY'S PROCLAMATION.

with that chiefs approval – according to his own account – he gave Mr. Kendall a thousand pounds worth of merchandise to purchase all New Zealand north of the isthmus upon which Auckland now stands, but he only bought for him forty thousand acres. 141

Baron de Thierry was by birth and education a gentleman. In early life he was attached to a Portuguese embassy, and at the Congress of Vienna, established a high reputation as an amateur musician. Subsequently he obtained a commission in an English regiment of horse, but finding life in a cavalry regiment stationed in England ill suited to scanty means, he turned his attention to his New Zealand estates, the title deeds of which, signed by three chiefs, he held in his possession. Disliking to disembark in the island in the usual humble way of an emigrant, the Baron informed the British Resident, in the year 1835, of his intention of establishing, in his own person, an independent sovereignty in the country; and announced that he had already declared his intentions to their Majesties the kings of Great Britain and France and to the President of the United States.

This declaration was dated from the island of Tahiti, where, according to the proclamation, "Charles, Baron de Thierry, Sovereign Chief of New Zealand, and King of Nuhuheva," – one of the Marquesas Islands, – "was awaiting the arrival of an armed ship from Panama to enable him to proceed to the Bay of Islands with strength to maintain his authority, 142 To the settlers and the missionaries King de Thierry was graciously pleased to forward an elaborate exposition of his in-

DECLARATION OF UNITED TRIBES.

tended system of government, signed with a crown seal; and promised salaries to those missionaries who would act under his authority as magistrates. The whole production resembles the vagaries of those unfortunate beings who are confined in asylums, and labour under the delusion that they are kings and emperors.

The British Resident, although evidently confounded at the Baron's proclamation, lost no time in appealing to the loyalty and good sense of the English settlers against what he denominated the "schemes of an adventurer;" and announced his intention of assembling the natives to inform them of this attempt on their independence; and to instruct them in what should be done to demonstrate its utter hopelessness.

Mr. Busby saw this was a good opportunity for advancing another step towards establishing an independent native government under the British Resident; and in October 1835, with the Resident's sanction, thirty-five hereditary chiefs and heads of tribes in the northern part of New Zealand declared their independence, under the designation of the "United Tribes of New Zealand;" and proclaimed that they would meet annually in congress to pass laws for the dispensation of justice and the preservation of peace. Southern chiefs were invited to join the confederacy, and this aboriginal parliament begged the King of England to be their patron and protector. 143

The United Tribes of New Zealand in congress assembled approved of the following constitution. All sovereign power and authority within the New Zealand islands, was to reside in the hereditary chiefs and heads of tribes in their collective capacity. A provisional

PROPOSED NATIVE CONSTITUTION.

government was to be established, which was to be presided over by the British Resident, and one half of the council were to be aboriginal inhabitants. Justice was to be administered by European and native judges, and English and native laws were to be amalgamated. An ecclesiastical establishment was to be supported from funds derived from the sale of lands. Financial arrangements were to be vested in congress, but a money advance was to be obtained from the British Government. A military force of Europeans and natives was to be maintained for protection and obedience. Lands not occupied by natives, or sold to Europeans, were to be declared, by a resolution of congress, public property. New Zealand was to be divided into districts, to be presided over by a chief and a European high sheriff. Towns with a thousand inhabitants were to have charters. The country was to be divided into counties with charters, to be managed by councils composed of Europeans and natives elected by the people.

This provisional government was to continue in force twenty-one years; afterwards, each incorporated county and town was to send deputies to form a House of Assembly, to make laws for the future government of New Zealand. 144

No person who has lived in New Zealand can peruse the United Tribes' Declaration of Independence, and the above complicated constitution, without being at once struck with the absurdity of the whole affair, and the boldness of the European who manufactured the charter. The very idea of the southern tribes associating with the northern to make laws for the preservation of peace

DE THIERRY'S PROCEEDINGS.

at this period was an unparalleled tax on the credulity of the Colonial Office, De Thierry's assumption of sovereignty was a sort of monomania; and Mr. Busby's Declaration of Independence and the subsequent events which occurred, were described by Sir George Gipps, the governor of New South Wales, as "a silly and unauthorised act, a paper pellet fired off at Baron de Thierry."

Unfortunately for Mr. Busby's military fame, the sovereign chief of New Zealand did not arrive at the Bay of Islands in his armed vessel; but in March 1837, Baron de Thierry issued another address to the white inhabitants of New Zealand, dated from Sydney, in which, while announcing his intention, of visiting the country in a peaceable attitude, he moderated his claim to sovereignty.

Colonists who have the pleasure of knowing the baron may probably think the above an exaggerated account of his early career, but it is not. Every ship which touched at the Bay of Islands after his declaration, was expected to have him and his fillibusters on board; and the arrival of Captain Fitzroy in his armed surveying vessel threw the whole settlement into a panic. Early in 1838, Baron de Thierry landed in his dominions at Hokianga, with ninety-three Europeans, the majority being men picked up in the streets of Sydney. Here he unfurled a silken banner, ordered his subjects to back out of his presence, and offered to create the master of the ship which conveyed him to his kingdom an admiral. In the midst of his greatness King de Thierry was startled with the intelligence that the thirty-six axes given by Mr. Kendall to the natives for the land did not purchase it, but were merely a

RUMOUR OF A FRENCH COLONY IN 1836.

deposit. He commenced cutting a carriage-road to the Bay of Islands, but his exchequer being soon exhausted, his subjects threw off their allegiance, and took up their abode in Kororareka. The natives, pitying a king without subjects or dominions, allowed him to squat on a piece of ground, for which he promised to give them some blankets at a future day.

In 1839, a visitor at Hokianga found the baron living in a humble way for a sovereign prince. His harp and musical instruments were the only emblems of his better days, and he had no retainers to obey his command but his own family. 145 When war broke out in the north part of New Zealand in 1844, it was announced in a London journal that, Baron de Thierry had been killed and eaten by his own subjects; an untrue statement, as he has gone through many adventures on Pitcairn's Island and the Sandwich Islands since then, and still lives at Auckland, usefully employed in trying to discover a mode of cleaning the flax fibre of its gum.

De Thierry's French name and his continental and obscure origin, revived in 1836 the rumour that the French were about to form a colony in New Zealand. It was indeed whispered that Louis-Philippe supported the baron's pretensions; and the appointment of a French nobleman as Roman Catholic Bishop of New Zealand, by the Pope in 1836, converted the rumour, according to the Protestant missionaries, into a fact. Some of these holy men, dreading the approach of a Roman mission, and anxious, probably on account of their lands, that the country should remain under England's protection, transmitted in 1836 a petition

SAYINGS AND DOINGS

"from the British settlers in New Zealand" to King William the Fourth, praying for the crown's protection, as British subjects. This memorial was laid before parliament, and the missionaries were accused of meddling in politics. The Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, in explanation, stated that the missionaries signed the petition not as missionaries, but as private individuals. The charge was frivolous, but the defence was one more suited to a college of Jesuits than to a Protestant mission. 146

Intercourse with civilised men induced New Zealanders to travel abroad. Between 1810 and 1838 many Maori men visited Sydney, Europe, and America; but no New Zealand woman had yet seen the civilised world. These men, on returning home, were like published books of travels circulating in the country, for while sailing round the world they had not neglected looking into it. They were sages in their respective districts, and several of them, like Job, preferred learning to pearls. Some of their sayings and doings promoted civilisation, and all afford indications of the mental history of the race.

Tooi and Te Tere, from the Bay of Islands, visited England in 1818, and on leaving this country addressed to their friends farewell letters lavishly filled with scriptural quotations and the phraseology of piety. This must not be adduced as evidences of hypocrisy, but as proofs of scholarship, as they inserted Scripture in their letters in the same spirit in which young collegians quote Greek and Latin. Both Tooi and Te Tere plunged with delight into wars and cannibalism on their

OF TRAVELLED NATIVES.

return, although they attended the evening prayers of the missionaries. 147 Both died soon after.

Te Pehi, the chief, whose murder caused Rauparaha's bloody expedition to Akaroa, visited England in 1826, to obtain fire-arms. He procured a passage to Liverpool by secreting himself on board a whaler until the vessel got out to sea. An attack of measles in England, made him acquainted with Dr. Traill. 148 Everything connected with smith's work and agriculture interested him; steam machinery was beyond his comprehension, but the propulsion of a water-mill he readily comprehended. A bow and arrow gave him pleasure, a man on horseback surprise, and he seemed confounded when the man dismounted. A regiment of dragoons excited his admiration, a small New Zealand flax plant recalled his native land to his memory, and he laughed at seeing it cultivated in a flower-pot. He was gratified at the crowds who flocked around him in the streets of Liverpool; things useful he valued more than things ornamental. Next to fire-arms he wished for agricultural implements. Dr. Traill gave him many presents, but he leaped with joy when presented with some old muskets and a musketoon. He knew nothing about Christianity. When his likeness was taken he insisted that the tattoo marks should be carefully copied. He wept over Dr. Traill's children, because they reminded him of his own. Te Pehi's son, Hiko o te rangi, or "the Lightning of Heaven," became a great leader in Cook's Strait; he carefully treasured up a few relics of his father's visit to England, and highly valued a volume

A NATIVE PRINCE IN LONDON.

of the Library of Useful Knowledge which contained his parent's portrait. 149

The crowds which followed Te Pehi in the streets of Liverpool caused an English showman to bring two tattooed New Zealanders to England as a commercial speculation. In 1830 they were exhibited in different parts of the country, and terrified and instructed the numerous spectators who flocked to see them by war dances, and by displaying how their countrymen got fire out of wood. During an attack of measles their showman deserted them; but the contributions of the benevolent enabled them to return to New Zealand in good health.

Two Cook's Strait natives, named Jacky and Nayti, worked their passages to Havre in 1837, in a French whaler, to see Louis-Philippe. From France the agents of the New Zealand Company brought them to England. Jacky died in London of consumption; and Nayti, who assumed the rank of a prince, lived with Mr. E. Gibbon Wakefield for two years. His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex invited him to his assemblies, he rode in the park, skated on the Serpentine, paid visits, attended church, had troops of friends, and gave evidence about his native country before the committee of the House of Lords. Nayti was laden with presents on his departure from England, and accompanied Colonel Wakefield in 1839 to New Zealand. Here he was soon discovered to be no prince, but a mere whaler's boy from Cloudy Bay. Laughed at for his vanity, he was stripped by his countrymen of his presents, and died of consumption in a pure native condition in 1842. Poor Nayti experienced

STATE OF COUNTRY IN 1838.

vicissitudes which few men have done in this world – the rough treatment of Cloudy Bay whalers and attention from the royal family of England. 150

The manifold circumstances related in this chapter drew much attention to New Zealand, and two committees of the House of Commons reported the islands a noble field for a colony. In 1837 an association was formed to collect information about the state of the country; and the Church Missionary Society, in opposition to the House of Commons, urged the English government to protect the natives from the influx of Europeans, whom they described as undoing all the good their missionaries had done: this representation caused the House of Lords in 1838 to appoint a select committee to inquire into the state of New Zealand, and the expediency of regulating the settlement of British subjects in the country. The evidence collected and printed covers three hundred and sixty-seven folio pages. Twenty witnesses were examined, six of whom had resided in New Zealand for a short time, and two for several years; the result was that the committee suggested that his Majesty's ministers should assist the New Zealanders in their rapidly advancing civilisation, but no prohibition against the settlement of Europeans unconnected with the missionaries was recommended.

The evil deeds of some of the Kororareka settlers in the Bay of Islands were the chief causes of this missionary opposition to the immigration of Europeans. Ever since the commencement of the century, whale ships frequenting the northern island touched at the Bay of Islands in preference to all other places, in con-

RISE OF KORORAREKA:

sequence of the excellence of its harbours, the abundance of pigs and potatoes, and the numerous native population living on the banks of the many rivers falling into the bay. In 1825 a few Europeans had peaceably located themselves in the bay, and in 1830 Mr. Benjamin Turner opened the first grog-shop. In these days the settlers lived apart in remote inlets, until experience taught them that the most convenient place for erecting huts was around the deep-water beach at Kororareka, in close proximity to the native village.

In these beautiful inlets the freetrading flax schooners and whalers rode out gales in safety, and their crews, although leading a piratical sort of lives themselves, objected to all intruders. One morning, in 1827, a Sydney vessel anchored in the bay with eighty men on board. An old New Zealand trader, named Duke, invited the captain on board, and discovered that he and his crew were convicts who had overpowered the guard, and seized the vessel, during their voyage from Sydney to Norfolk Island. Duke hoisted two guns out of the hold, and with the aid of several Maori war canoes he commanded the convicts to surrender; this being refused, an engagement ensued, which ended, after considerable loss to the convicts, in Duke's victory. The vessel was taken back to Sydney, where nine of the mutineers were hung, and the others again shipped to Norfolk Island. 151

In 1832 there were one hundred white settlers permanently located in Kororareka, and the place was then described as the Cyprus of the Southern Ocean, in which life was one unceasing revel. Chiefs in the neighbourhood lived in affluence by pimping for the crews of whale

PROSPERITY OF – REVELRY IN.

ships, and Pomare kept a harem of ninety-six slave girls for this pandemonium. The missionaries in the immediate vicinity of Kororareka magnified and widely circulated glowing accounts of the scenes which daily occurred; and stated that the Resident, although he had the British flag flying over his house, had no power to put down the floating brothels which polluted the bay under its protection.

Meanwhile Kororareka prospered. In 1838 it was the most frequented resort for whalers in all the South Sea Islands; and its European population, although fluctuating, was then estimated at a thousand souls. It had a church, five hotels, numberless grog-shops, a theatre, several billiard tables, skittle alleys, finishes, and hells. For six successive years a hundred whale ships anchored in the bay, and land facing the beach sold at three pounds a foot. Thirty-six large whale ships were anchored at Kororareka at one time in 1836; 152 and in 1838 fifty-six American vessels entered the bay, twenty-three English, twenty-one French, one Bremen, twenty-four from New South Wales, and six from the coast.

It was impossible that a community composed of sailors of different nations, runaway and liberated convicts, traders, beach-combers, sawyers, and New Zealanders could live together, either drunk or sober, without quarrelling, more particularly when revelry and brawling are what British sailors come on shore to enjoy. Disputes between white men and natives were often settled by the missionaries; quarrels confined to white men generally ended in combats which occasionally terminated in bloodshed. There was no authority to grapple

KORORAREKA ASSOCIATION.

with these disturbances, although George Doyle was executed at Sydney in 1837 for a breach of the peace at the Bay of Islands; but this human sacrifice was made at too great a distance from the spot where the crime was committed to have any beneficial effect.

One day after an unusually serious brawl on the Kororareka beach, the want of some sort of law nearer than Sydney was felt even by bad men to be a public calamity,and a meeting of the inhabitants was convened to form some plan for the administration of justice and the protection of property. The result was the formation in June 1838 of the Kororareka Association, which was governed by a president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer, with a committee of management elected by the inhabitants. These united officers formed a judicial, legislative, and executive council. The Association's jurisdiction was a well defined portion of the Bay of Islands. Cases were heard on evidence before several members of the committee of management, whose decision was final. Trifling offences were punished by money fines; grave misdemeanours, including the refusal to pay just debts, involved expulsion from the settlement; and aggravated offenders were further disgraced and tortured by being tarred and feathered. One of their laws recognised the power of the British Resident to punish men found guilty by the committee of management; but Mr. Busby, who was estranged from the settlers by his haughty manners and caustic wit, having refused all recognition of the association, the executive council reserved to itself the power of punishing culprits. The British Resident failed to perceive how this new power might be engrafted on his own scheme for governing New Zealand. There were fifteen laws in the

OFFENDER TARRED AND FEATHERED.

code all partaking of the character of Lynch law; and an indication of the spirit of the whole proceeding may be drawn from the thirteenth rule, which commanded every member to provide himself with a good musket, a bayonet, a brace of pistols, a cutlass, and twenty rounds of ball cartridge. 153

The Kororareka Association, which was in the spirit of the United Tribes' declaration of independence, committed a few unjust acts; but it did more good than evil, as the worst law is better than none. On two occasions offenders were tarred and feathered; and a description of this extreme punishment was given to me by a New Zealander who witnessed it, and he frequently burst into fits of laughter at the very remembrance of the exhibition. The culprit, a white man, already nearly suffocated from being secured all night in a sea-chest, was first denuded of his garments, then smeared thickly over with tar, and covered with the white feathery flowers of the Raupo plant, for want of true feathers. He was then marched along the beach, preceded by a fife and drum playing the Rogue's March, and accompanied by drunken white men and astonished natives to its termination: then the criminal was put into a canoe with the musicians, and landed on the opposite side of the bay, beyond the Association's jurisdiction, with an assurance that his re-appearance in the settlement would be followed by another tarring and feathering. As tarring and feathering was no comedy to the principal character, it is not remarkable no man ever sustained it twice.

His Majesty's ministers were startled on hearing of this new declaration of independence in New Zealand,

APPOINTMENT OF CONSUL SUGGESTED.

and the Secretary of State now saw that British authority must henceforth be established, to prevent the Kororareka Association growing into a republic, and perhaps ultimately governing the country through the fictitious aid of the United Tribes. In December 1838 Lord Glenelg suggested that a British consul should be sent out; but no steps were taken towards the appointment of that officer until the New Zealand Company's expedition had actually sailed for the purpose of laying the foundation of a republican settlement in Cook's Strait. Then Captain Hobson, an officer of the Royal Navy, was ordered to New Zealand as a consul with a lieutenant-governor's commission in his possession. 154

115 Nicholas.

116 Evidence of the Rev. Mr. Yate before House of Lords, 1838.

117 Evidence, House of Lords, 1838.

118 Proclamation, Gov. Gazette, Sydney, 1814.

119 Act 57 Geo. III. cap. 53.

120 Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society, vol. v.

121 Library of Useful Knowledge.

122 Personal inquiry.

123 Act 4 Geo. IV. cap. 97.

124 This armour is now scattered about the country. In 1849 I found the breast-plate in the possession of a chief living near the source of the Waipa river, and in 1853 Waikato, the chief who accompanied Hongi to England, told me he had buried the helmet with his son's bones a few weeks before my visit to him at the Bay of Islands.

125 The data for this sketch is culled from personal inquiry of Waikato, and other natives, from Yate's New Zealand, Life of the Rev. Mr. Turner, &c.

126 Authentic Information relative to New Zealand, by J. Busby, Esq. 1832.

127 Important Information relative to New Zealand, 1839.

128 Parl. Papers, 1838, No. 122.

129 The Rev. Mr. Yate. Parl. Papers, 1838.

130 Sydney Gov. Gazette, April 16, 1831.

131 Narrative of the Expedition

132 Personal Inquiry.

133 Parl. Papers, 1844.

134 Parl. Papers, 1838.

135 Parl. Papers, 1838.

136 Parl. Papers, 1838.

137 Parl. Papers, 1840.

138 Instructions to British Resident, Parl. Papers, 1840.

139 Parl. Papers, 1840. Lord Aberdeen's Letter.

140 Report of Select Committee, House of Commons, on Aborigines, 1837. Parl. Papers, 1S35, No. 585. Marshall's Account.

141 See page 267, chap. ii. part 2.

142 Parl. Papers, 1838.

143 Parl. Papers, 1838.

144 Condensed from a parchment document in the Native Secretary's office, New Zealand.

145 Dr. Martin's New Zealand.

146 Parl. Papers, 1838.

147 Missionary Register, 1828.

148 Library of Useful Knowledge.

149 Tupai Cupai is the name given to him in the Library of Useful Knowledge.

150 Wakefield's Adventures in New Zealand.

151 Auckland Register, 1853.

152 Important Information relative to New Zealand, 1839.

153 Mr. B. Turner's account of it. Southern Cross Newspaper, Auckland, 1855.

154 Parl. Papers, 1840

CHAPTER III. PIONEERS OF CIVILISATION.

CHAP. III.

PIONEERS OF CIVILISATION.

Origin of pioneers. – Influence of early ships. – The sealers. – The whalers. – Whalers' wives. – Social state of whalers. – Beneficial influence of whalers. – Accusations against whalers. – Pakeha Maoris. – At first useless. – Became valuable. – Decline of influence. – Number of Paheka Maoris. – Specimen of Pakeha Maori. – Civilising effect of Pakeha Maoris.

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

SAVAGE LIFE. – EARLY NAVIGATORS.

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: –

"There, methinks, would be enjoyment more than in this march of mind,
In the steam-ship, in the railway, in the thoughts that shake mankind.
There the passions cramp'd no longer shall have scope and breathing space;
I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my dusky race.
Iron-jointed, supple-sinew'd, they shall dive, and they shall run,
Catch the wild goat by the hair, and hurl their lances in the sun;
Whistle back the parrot's call, and leap the rainbows of the brooks,
Not with blinded eyesight poring over miserable books."

155

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.

THE SEALERS.

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. 156 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. 157 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. 158

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

THE WHALERS.

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

"Danger, long travel, want, and wo,
Soon change the form that best we know." – Marmion.

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

WHALERS' WIVES.

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, 159 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.

SOCIAL STATE OF WHALERS.

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; 160 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; 161 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. 162

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.

BENEFICIAL INFLUENCE OF WHALERS.

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: 163 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-

ACCUSATIONS AGAINST WHALERS.

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. 164 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

PAKEHA MAORIS.

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.

AT FIRST USELESS.

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; 165 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; 166 and in 1821 a missionary rescued two convicts a chief was about to execute because they would not work like slaves. 167 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

BECAME VALUABLE.

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

DECLINE OF INFLUENCE.

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,

NUMBER OF PAKEHA MAORIS.

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

SPECIMEN OF PAKEHA MAORI.

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

INFLUENCE OF PAKEHA MAORIS.

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

A CHRISTIAN ACT.

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." 168

155 Poems by Alfred Tennyson. Murray, 1856.

156 The animals were often slain by a bludgeon stroke on the head.

157 MSS. Reports. Native Secretary's office, Auckland.

158 Parl. Papers, 1838. Mr. Enderby.

159 Shortland's Southern Settlements.

160 Wakefield's Adventures.

161 Shortland's Southern Districts.

162 Parl. Papers, 1851. Captain Stokes's report.

163 Mr. Hugh Carleton's Private Journal of a Cruise in the Pacific.

164 Missionary Reports. The Church in the Colonies.

165 Savage's Account of New Zealand.

166 Parl. Papers, 1838. Mr. Nicholas's evidence.

167 Parl. Papers, 1838. Mr. Butler's evidence.

168 Brief Memorials of an Only Son, printed but not published, by Archdeacon Brown. Tauranga. The pamphlet was, however, translated into Maori, and circulated among the natives.

CHAPTER IV. INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY.

CHAP. IV.

INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY.

South Sea Missions. – New Zealand Mission. – Reception of missionaries. – Maori tongue reduced to grammar. – Scriptures translated. – Rise and progress of Christianity. – Reasons of conversion. – Causes favourable for spread of Gospel. – Conviction not deep. – Hostilities between Christians and Heathens. – Awful fate of Te Heu Heu. – Christians murdered. – Sectarian disputes among natives. – Disputes among missionaries. – Religious state of natives in 1850. – Native teachers. – Civilising influence of Christianity. – Personal influence of missionaries.

THE spiritual conquest of the New Zealanders was accomplished by pioneers, who were actuated with widely different motives from the men whose history has just been related. A narrative of this sublime event it is difficult to condense.

It was towards the end of the eighteenth century that the physical and moral condition of the South Sea islanders first attracted the attention of the people of Great Britain, and it was in 1795 that a missionary society was founded in England, to send forth the word of life.

"Send it to where expanded wide,
The South Sea rolls its farthest tide;
To every island's distant shore
Make known the Saviour's grace and power."

The year 1796 will be ever memorable in the annals of our faith, as that in which the Duff sailed out of the river Thames with thirty missionaries, for the purpose of converting the people of Tahiti, the Marque-

NEW ZEALAND MISSION.

sas, and the Tonga or Friendly Islands, to Christianity. These places were chosen from among the numerous islands in the Pacific, as the first field for missionary operations, because the aborigines were reputed kind to strangers. No allusion was then made to New Zealand. A proposal to send convicts there, guarded by soldiers, was about this period scouted as refined cruelty; and the idea of landing unarmed missionaries was never contemplated, until the Rev. Samuel Marsden, originally a Yorkshire blacksmith, senior chaplain of the colony of New South Wales, drew attention to the country.

Gregory the Great was induced to send men to convert our forefathers by the fair complexions and blooming countenances of some Anglo-Saxon youths he saw in the market-place at Rome. Mr. Marsden was led to suggest the formation of a settlement in New Zealand for the civil and religious improvement of the people, by the noble appearance of several chiefs he accidentally saw in the streets of Sydney. This proposal was carefully considered by the Church Missionary Society, and in 1810, twenty-five persons left Great Britain for the conversion of the New Zealanders. 169 Unfortunately, news reached Sydney before their arrival of the massacre of the crew and passengers of the ship Boyd; and the Governor of New South Wales was more inclined to send a ship of war to slaughter the natives, than a body of missionaries to preach peace. No vessel could be hired to convey them to their destination, but as they were mostly laymen, they readily found secular employment in New South Wales.

ARRIVAL OF MISSIONARIES.

The idea of Christianising the New Zealanders was now considered hopeless by all, save Marsden. To his mind the day was only delayed, and he spared neither labour nor money to accomplish the favourite scheme of his life. Early in 1814, an event occurred which hastened it. Hongi, the Napoleon of New Zealand, accompanied his cousin Ruatara to Sydney, and both chiefs resided with the colonial chaplain. Mr. Marsden soon discovered that Hongi was endowed with a reflective mind, and, although he knew him to be a notorious cannibal, he determined to make his influence useful. He saw that even Hongi's seared conscience had a tender spot, and acting on it by kindness, he obtained from the cannibal hero a declaration that he would protect all missionaries; in virtue of which promise Mr. Marsden, accompanied by Messrs. Kendall, Hall, and King, their wives, several mechanics, Hongi and Ruatara, and a few sheep and cattle, embarked for New Zealand in November 1814, in a brig navigated by convicts.

On arriving at the Bay of Islands they were received by the natives as Hongi's friends, and for twelve axes they purchased 200 acres of land at Rangihu, a place near that chief's residence, upon which to form a station. Here a white flag was hoisted, on which were painted a cross, a dove, an olive branch, and the word "Rongo-pai," or "good tidings;" and the missionaries commenced building houses, studying the language, educating children, and preaching.

When it became known in England that several of these good men had actually taken up their residence in New Zealand, more Christian pioneers were sent to this heathen out-post, and new settlements were estab-

WESLEYAN AND ROMISH MISSIONS.

lished in the country. In 1819, a station was formed at the Kerikeri. In 1822, the Rev. Mr. Leigh, from the Wesleyan Missionary Society, and two clergymen, established themselves at Wangaroa on the east coast, among the tribe rendered infamous by the massacre of the Boyd. 170 Mission stations were formed at Paihia in the Bay of Islands in 1823; at Waimate in 1830; and at Kaitaia in 1834. In 1827, the Wesleyan missionaries fled from Wangaroa in terror of their lives, and, on the entreaty of Patuone, settled at Hokianga. In 1832, the Church mission station was moved from Rangihu to Te Puna.

As all these settlements were in the northern part of the North Island, the people in England, who furnished the funds for the conversion of the heathen, suggested to the missionaries the propriety of spreading themselves over the land; and, in accordance with this request, stations were formed in 1834 on the Thames and Waipa rivers; in 1835 at Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty, at Rotorua in the interior, and at Kawhia and Whaingaroa on the west coast. From this date the missionaries, like Saxon bishops and Protestants in the early days of the Reformation, made expeditions into the country, and preached the Gospel far away from their stations. In 1839, they penetrated to Cook's Straits and the Middle Island.

In the year 1836, Pope Gregory XVI. appointed J. B. F. Pompallier Roman Catholic bishop of New Zealand, and the Lyons Association for the Propagation of the Faith furnished him with money. In 1838 he arrived, with several priests, and took up his abode in

RECEPTION GIVEN MISSIONARIES.

Kororareka; and since that period stations have been formed all over the islands, by the three missionary bodies.

Previously to the year 1830, twelve missionaries resided in the country, after this date their numbers were increased. In 1838, the Church Missionary Society supported five ordained clergymen, twenty catechists, one farmer, one surgeon, one superintendent, one printer, one wheelwright, one stone-mason, and two assistant teachers. The Wesleyan mission in the same year had five ordained clergymen in the country and several on their voyage out. The Roman Catholic mission had one bishop and twenty priests.

When the war broke out between the settlers and the natives in 1844, the above missionary establishment was reduced; but in 1855 there were twenty-two missionaries from the English Church, fifteen from the Wesleyan, and twelve from the Roman Catholic Church.

Most of the early missionaries sprang from a poorer class than the clergy occupying English parsonages, and comparatively few were deeply read in classics or theology. But honour to them all! They voluntarily exiled themselves from society and civilisation; they often fasted, from want of food, on days which were not fast days in the Church; and wore out their lives in a lonely island, half-forgotten by their kindred, entirely unknown to fame, and only cheered by the consideration of their high calling.

They were well received. At first, this was owing to Hongi's patronage, afterwards to their giving axes, blankets, shirts, and various other articles, for the food and labour they received from the natives. Such conduct produced respect, and rendered their residence in the

MAORI REDUCED TO GRAMMAR.

country an obvious worldly advantage. The French missionaries in Canada adopted an exactly opposite system, and by becoming dependent on the aborigines, were frequently despised by them. Occasionally slight misunderstandings arose from mutual ignorance of each other's words and ways, but when they became better acquainted intercourse went on happily. When Hongi was in London, King George the Fourth requested him to protect the missionaries, and this royal request elevated them in the eyes of the heathen.

The Wesleyan missionaries at Wangaroa lost all but their lives in 1827, at the hands of the natives; and in 1836 the Church missionaries were similarly treated at Tauranga and Rotorua. The anxiety and dangers these Christian pioneers then underwent are detailed in the characteristic phraseology of missionary journals; but the wars which caused these misfortunes were not directed against them; they were merely sufferers from the calamities of the country, for the blood of no European connected with the missions has yet been spilt.

As no people were ever converted but by preaching to them in their own tongue, one of the first duties of the missionaries was the settlement of the orthography of the language, and its reduction to the rules of grammar. This was a difficult task to men unused to literature, and advantage was therefore taken of the visit of Hongi and Waikato to England in 1820 to refer the work to a scholar. Both these chiefs were taken to Cambridge by Mr. Kendall, where they remained two months, and had frequent intercourse with Professor Lee, who shortly afterwards published a grammar and vocabulary of the New Zealand language. Since then additions and improvements have been made to that

SCRIPTURES TRANSLATED.

work, and the missionaries who managed this thought it necessary to coin new words, because many New Zealanders did not pronounce B, C, D, F, G, L, Q, S, V, X, Y, Z, thus, kororia stands for "glory;" puka puka for "book;" pouaka for "box;" hipi for "sheep;" and kawana for "governor."

Instruction would have overcome this lingual peculiarity, as several of the whaler natives pronounce English words with singular accuracy. Had it been surmounted, glory, book, box, sheep, governor, and a hundred other English words scarcely recognised under native spelling, would now have been in daily use. But the early missionaries were not sufficiently alive to the importance of teaching the natives English, even after the country had become a British colony.

To translate the Bible was the second duty of the missionaries, and this great work was commenced with much zeal. In 1830, selections from the liturgy, catechisms, and spelling-books, were translated and printed in New South Wales. In 1835, the Rev. Mr. Yate carried through the press several portions of the New Testament, and in 1837 the entire work was completed by Bishop William Williams. Subsequently other portions of the Bible and Psalms were translated by the Wesleyan, Roman Catholic, and Church missionaries; and in 1858 the whole of the scriptures were completed, chiefly by the exertions of the Rev. Robert Maunsell, T. C. D., of Waikato, and sent to England to be printed. 171

In 1835, a printer and printing-press were added to the Church mission; and at Paihia, where the press was

RISE AND PROGRESS

erected, the natives were struck with awe on beholding a white sheet of paper impressed as if by magic with black letters. To God, and not the devil, they ascribed this wonderful art. Printing-presses were also erected by the Wesleyan and Roman Catholic missions, from which various religious books were issued.

The British and Foreign Bible Society printed 60,000 copies of the New Testament, 2,000 Testaments and Psalms, and 10,000 works consisting of selections from the Old Testament, 80,000 of which Maori publications were given to the Church and Wesleyan missionaries for distribution.

As some evil-disposed Europeans read the word of God to the natives upside down when it interfered with their own pursuits, Bishop Pompallier was led to report that the Bible in the hands of the New Zealanders had proved a two-edged sword. 172

No miraculous success attended the rise of Christianity in New Zealand. For fifteen years the missionaries were like men crying in the wilderness, and they frequently said they were casting their seed on a rock. Six years after their arrival they had not made a single convert. 173 In 1825, the Rev. Henry Williams stated that the natives were "as insensible to the necessity of redemption as brutes," and in 1829 the Wesleyan mission contemplated withdrawing their establishment from want of success.

When Christianity did take root it grew rapidly, and soon after 1830 the scattered seed began to sprout. Churches were filled after this date by attentive audiences, who listened with respect to that grotesque

OF CHRISTIANITY.

phraseology which men always use who think in one language and speak in another; schools were filled with children and adults, many of whom taught each other to read and write; the Sabbath was observed as a day of rest, a number of persons were baptized, a few were permitted to partake of the holy sacrament, and clergymen proclaimed over the dead who professed to die in the Lord, those sublime words which promise to faith in this world a glorious heavenly triumph in that which is to come. Bibles rose in value, and as there were few copies in the country, natives who could write transcribed and carried home such portions as they could thus obtain.

Exultation now gave place to despondency in the breasts of the missionaries, a feeling which blazed forth in different ways. The liturgy in the Maori dialect is singularly beautiful, and the effect of a large congregation uttering the responses indescribably impressive: the men who had laid the foundation of this great work attempted to describe the feelings they experienced on such occasions, and in the fulness of their hearts injudiciously published ridiculous letters from native Christians interlarded with pious phraseology and scriptural quotations.

In 1838, the Church Missionary Society had 54 schools, attended by 1431 scholars; 2476 persons attended church, and 178 were communicants: and as the Wesleyan missionaries had 1000 scholars and church-goers, the Christians at this era numbered 4000 souls. 174 A poor result, it may be said, for twenty years' labour, and an expenditure of two hundred thousand pounds.

STATISTICS GIVE NO IDEA OF PROGRESS.

But such numerical returns convey an imperfect idea of the progress Christianity had made at this period. Before 1838, two-thirds of the natives had never seen a missionary's face, although all had heard of them. Natives living around the base of Tongariro, at Poverty Bay, and on the banks of the Mokau, and Wanganui rivers, all knew that a small body of unarmed men had taken up their abode in Hongi's territory. New Zealanders, who went to and from the north, brought with them occasionally religious books, and always news of the sayings and doings of the missionaries. Masters of whalers reported that the aborigines far away from the mission stations prayed night and morning in nasal psalmody, and chanted Christian psalms to heathen tunes. It passed from hamlet to hamlet that the missionaries were a different class from the whalers and the Pakeha Maoris, that they kept schools, and instructed persons to write on paper words which others seeing comprehended, gave books for nothing, performed a ceremony called baptism, opposed war, promoted peace, cultivated new sorts of food, preached against cannibalism, and of a God who did good and not evil. Rauparaha's son and Rangihaeata's nephew, hearing in Cook's Strait of the reformation now at work, passed through hostile tribes to the Bay of Islands in 1839, and prevailed on the Rev. Mr. Hadfield to return with them to Otaki to teach God's word to their kindred and clan; and after some time Rauparaha's son visited the Middle Island, preaching the gospel of peace to men who had suffered from his father's wars.

This extensive nominal conversion produced surprise among civilised men, and various reasons were assigned for the result. As the Sandwich islanders professed

REASONS OF CONVERSION.

Christianity in 1819 at the request of their chiefs, without scepticism and without an examination of the evidence upon which it rested, Professor Lee ascribed the conversion of the South Sea islanders to what may be called the civil influence. But the New Zealanders were not Christianised by the civil power, as Hongi died in his father's creed, and many chiefs were at first fierce opponents of Christianity. The true cause of the diffusion of Christianity in New Zealand was divine influence and superstition, the schools, worldly motives, and the zeal of the early converts.

It is impossible to separate divine influence from superstition, and presumptuous to attempt to explain the Almighty's ways on earth, still it is a curious fact, that when the missionaries commenced preaching, the natives consulted their ancient gods about Christianity, and Jesus Christ was invariably described as the true God. 175

The schools spread the Gospel in this way. New Zealanders were surprised to find that children educated at the mission schools acquired the art of writing words which similarly educated children could comprehend; and to possess this to them necromantic power, men and women crowded to school, where Christianity was unfolded to their minds by learning to read from religious books.

It may seem uncharitable to ascribe worldly motives as one of the causes of the diffusion of the Gospel, yet it is not unjust. The New Zealanders frequently adopted new gods supposed to be influential in worldly matters, and the comfortable condition of the missionaries led the

CAUSES FAVOURABLE

people to conclude that the God of the missionaries was a better god than their gods, because He gave them bread, clothes, and good houses, 176 and it was upon this principle that Heke prayed to the true and false gods before going down to battle. On the same principle, a Rotorua chief observing, during a visit to the Bay of Islands, that the missionaries had temporal as well as spiritual benefits to bestow, begged and obtained a missionary to reside with his tribe. This chief did not embrace Christianity himself, but many of the tribe did, and all looked upon the missionary and his effects as their own property. It has likewise been observed that Roman Catholic missionaries have converted natives abandoned by the Protestants as hopeless, by the distribution of blankets, crosses, and figures. 177

The zeal of the early converts materially assisted in spreading the Gospel, as many of these proselytes were captured slaves who were allowed to return home to their heathen kindred. The Germans were converted to Christianity by the serfs brought from the Roman Empire, and the diffusion of Christ's cross in New Zealand was materially assisted by manumitted slaves.

These are the external causes which spread Christianity over the land. He who, for the purpose of converting other heathen races, searches out the secret motives which produced this result, must bear in mind that the New Zealanders were very favourably situated to receive the true faith. Their priesthood were a weak body for resistance; they had no discipline, no idols, and no temples where their zeal and devotion could be kindled by a common worship. The accidental circum-

FOR CONVERSION.

stance of birth determined their sacred rank; and it is universally admitted that worshippers of numerous gods have little regard for any of them; true bigotry among such men is unknown. The New Zealanders recognised God's hand in all nature's works, and carried in their breasts a passionate instinctive love of novelty; they did not profess, like the Hindoos, Mahomedans, and Buddhists, an incompatible religion which it was first requisite to eradicate from their minds, but one, on the contrary, which readily admitted of the engraftment of Christianity. Between the two creeds there were also some remote resemblances: the New Zealanders believed in many gods, Christianity had one; the missionaries preached of heaven and hell, the New Zealand creed contained something similar; Christianity inculcated that men had souls which survived bodily dissolution, and the New Zealanders believed that the spirits of their dead lived after them, and frequently revisited the earth; the missionaries spoke of baptism, and the natives related a peculiar custom they had in naming children. Here, however, the analogy ends: Christians look to a future life for happiness, the New Zealander to this.

It must also be borne in mind that among Hindoos, Mahomedans, and Buddhists, to embrace Christianity is to become an outcast, but among the New Zealanders to become a Christian involved no degradation.

It may be inferred from this narrative, that the faith of a native Christian is not lively. The growth of a day dies in a day, and nothing is lasting in the material world but what is of slow formation. Sudden conversions have, in consequence, always been regarded with suspicion, but there is no reason to suspect the New Zealanders. The Christianity of many of them is,

CONVICTION NOT DEEP.

however, a rude mixture of paganism and the cross, an adoption strengthened by superstition more than a conversion. Missionaries will deny this: but Christian natives, suffering under sickness, frequently appeal to their old gods for health; and healthy Christians dread violating the tapu, lest the gods who watch over that code should punish them with sickness. When spoken to on the subject, they disclaim any belief in heathen deities, but some of their actions show that a portion of the old leaven still remains.

Half a century may extinguish this superstition, but in most professing Christians above forty years of age it will only die with themselves. Not that the truths of Christianity are doubted, not that Tumatauenga, the god of men, is thought more powerful than Christ; but they cannot shake off every shred of the old creed, or abjure the gods of their infancy. The simple and sublime idea of a Supreme Being, the lofty philosophy and refined morality of Christianity, escapes the conceptions of many; and they cannot comprehend a spiritual and solitary God not to be propitiated by human sacrifices. The doubts which unhinge men's minds in Europe concerning the next world seldom occur, and no religious lunatic has yet appeared among them. The Christianity of the multitude is more in outward form than inward sincerity; still, this is an immense step, as no great mental change ever occurs among nations without preparatory causes.

This spiritual revolution did not pass over the land without bloodshed. Native priests perceived that the new creed ruined them, and several chiefs opposed it because it levelled all distinction between them and slaves; even Christian chiefs complained that their power

HEATHENS AND CHRISTIANS.

over their converted tribe was like a rope of sand, and that the foundation of all law and order was destroyed. Toleration was, however, almost universal; without any law to prevent persecution, converts, with more zeal than discretion, occasionally got into verbal quarrels with heathens, and on two occasions religious disputes indirectly led to bloodshed. Both events possess a painful interest.

Two native teachers were deputed from Waitotara, a tribe professing Christianity near Wanganui, to convert their ancient enemies at Taupo. Te Heu Heu, the Taupo chief, a zealous supporter of the hereditary faith of his race, and an opponent of the new creed, ordered these teachers out of his dominions, with an intimation that if they returned on the same errand, he would "eat their heads and make cartridge-paper of their hymn-books." This unholy treatment of Christ's Apostles caused a quarrel between the Waitotara tribes and their neighbours the Patutokutu, who were heathens and allies of Te Heu Heu. The Christians insulted the Patutokutu chief with foul words, and in revenge 140 picked infidels invaded their territory in the year 1841. The inhabitants fled to Taranaki, and returned with reinforcements. During their absence the heathen army laid the country waste, and on the return of the Christians fled to an impregnable fort called Te Toka. This stronghold the Christians blockaded, and Mr. Matthews, a European missionary, attempted to mediate between the combatants. When the besieged had exhausted their food and ammunition, a parley was agreed to, and it was arranged that the besiegers were to be allowed to enter the fort, shake hands with the infidels according to the new custom of salutation

AWFUL FATE OF TE HEU HEU.

common among Christians, and then the infidels were to be permitted to depart in peace for Wanganui. Mr. Matthews was present when the following scene occurred. The infidels advanced with outstretched right hands to receive the arranged greeting; these the Christians seized with their left hands, and then assaulted their helpless foes with concealed tomahawks. A frightful carnage ensued; those who escaped fled down the hill, and many of them were shot by parties in ambush. Out of 140 men, only forty reached Wanganui alone, and one of the slain was a blood-relation of Te Heu Heu. 178

The calamities of the infidels did not terminate with the massacre at Te Toka. Te Heu Heu was buried alive with his six wives and fifty-four persons, which awful catastrophe was looked upon by the Christians as a judgment from heaven for his conduct to the disciples of Christ; and this event happened thus.

The village of Te Rapa, where Te Heu Heu and his tribe abode, stood on the south-west end of the great Taupo lake, in a narrow valley hemmed in by lofty mountains. The hill immediately behind the settlement was covered with springs pouring out boiling water, and bubbling hot mud, volcanic vents emitting sulphur, sulphurous water, vapours and gases, and fissures from which issued jets of steam hotter than the hottest water. These chemical phenomena indicated the internal fire which had completely destroyed the basaltic rock; and the whole mountain was soft, loose, hot, and friable. 179 On the night of the 7th of May, 1846, after a heavy rain, an immense mass of the mountain loosened and overwhelmed the village; all within it perished save

LAMENT FOE TE HEU HEU.

a young man and a horse. A Protestant missionary, passing soon after the event, read the burial service over the entombed village, and improved the occasion by describing the land-slip as an interposition of the Almighty in the worldly affairs of New Zealand.

Te Heu Heu's successor in the chiefship composed the following lament for the fate of his brother: –

"See o'er the heights of dark Tauhara's mount
The infant morning wakes. Perhaps my friend
Returns to me, clothed in that lightsome cloud! –
Alas! I toil alone, in this lone world.

"Yes, thou art gone!
Go, thou mighty! go, thou dignified!
Go, thou who wert a spreading tree to shade
Thy people when evil hovered round!
And what strange god has caused so dread a death
To thee, and thy companions?

"Sleep on, O Chief, in that dark damp abode!
And hold within thy grasp that weapon rare,
Bequeathed to thee by thy renowned ancestor,
Ngahue, when he left the world.

"Turn yet this once thy bold athletic frame!
And let me see thy skin carved o'er with lines
Of blue; and let me see thy face so
Beautifully chiselled into varied forms; –
Ah! the people now are comfortless and sad!

"The stars are faintly shining in the heavens!
For 'Atutahi' and 'Rehua-kai-tangata'
Have disappeared; and that fair star that shone
Beside the Milky Way. Emblems these
Of thee, 0 friend beloved!

"The mount of Tongariro rises lonely
In the South; while the rich feathers that
Adorned the great canoe 'Arawa'
Float upon the wave! and women from the
West, look on, and weep!

"Why hast thou left behind th'valued treasures
Of thy famed ancestor Rongomaihuia,
And wrapped thyself in night?

PROTESTANT MARTYRS OF TAUPO.

"Cease thy slumbers, 0 thou son of Rangi!
Wake up! and take thy battle-axe, and tell
Thy people of the coming signs; and what
Will now befall them. How the foe, tumultuous
As the waves, will rush with spears uplifted;
And how thy people will avenge their wrongs.
Nor shrink at danger. But let the warriors
Breathe awhile, nor madly covet death!

"Lo, thou art fallen; and the earth receives
Thee as its prey! But thy wond'rous fame
Shall soar on high, resounding o'er the heavens!"

The Waitotara Christians, conceiving that these awful punishments from man and God must have softened the hearts of the infidels, again deputed two teachers of Christianity to visit Taupo in 1847, for the avowed purpose of converting Te Heu Heu's successor and those living around that inland sea. During the journey, one of them dreamed his spirit visited the Reinga, where he saw several of his dead friends, and he was told by them he would soon be with them. The dream turned out true, as both were murdered at Taupo, partly to make good the great Te Heu Heu's words, but chiefly to revenge the massacre of Te Toka. The murdered men, whose names were Manihera and Kereopa, are now denominated the Protestant Martyrs of Taupo. 180

These disputes between heathen and Christian natives were trifling compared with the bad feeling occasionally displayed between the converts to the English, Wesleyan, and Roman Catholic churches. Some of these men, upholding the ecclesiastical maxim that uniformity of religion was essential to the repose of society, arrayed themselves in the missionary garb of a black coat, a white neckcloth, and an umbrella, and traversed the

DISPUTES BETWEEN CONVERTED NATIVES.

country, preaching the Gospel, and endeavouring to gain converts to that particular branch of Christianity to which they belonged. This proselyting raised up schisms among the inhabitants of many settlements; 181 and the rivalry between the different congregations might easily be detected when the people were called to prayers by the loud and obstinate din which issued from iron pots, the common substitutes for bells. Tribes hereditarily hostile adopted through jealousy different modes of faith; and, like men in several other countries, these converted New Zealanders were ready to abuse each other for religious creeds they did not understand, and the precepts of which they daily disregarded; and to dispute about points of doctrine which have puzzled wise churchmen in all ages. Such disputes never came to blows or bloodshed, but generated estrangement between friends and relatives.

Europeans were now occasionally asked to confess their religious belief before receiving hospitality. On one occasion a traveller arrived at a pa, in which one religious denomination disputing with another had got possession of the gate, which to his astonishment he found shut; and the first question asked of him was, "To what church do you belong?" The traveller, seeing at once that his supper and night's lodging entirely depended upon his answer, after some hesitation replied, "To the true church;" which of course satisfied both parties, and the gate was instantly opened, and a feast prepared for himself and followers. 182

Over the Roman-catholic church door at Ohinemotu,

MISSIONARY ACCUSED OF PUSEYISM.

on the banks of the Rotorua lake, are inscribed in Maori, "This is the house of the only true God;" and Heke, the leader of the insurrection at the Bay of Islands, wrote to Queen Victoria that his countrymen were perplexed with the number of religious creeds; that when the missionaries first came they were told the Church of England was the only true church, but there were now three true churches. 183 Luckily, Quakers, Baptists, and other Christian sects have not been introduced; but one missionary of the English church was charged with Puseyism by a native convert. The accuser was Rauparaha's son, who visited England in 1850, and had his head turned by kissing the queen's hand, attending Exeter Hall meetings, and writing his own life. 184 On returning home from these courtly and civilised occupations, he mysteriously whispered that the cross over the Otaki church was now reckoned in England an emblem of Puseyism, a horrible heresy all good Protestants looked upon as a stepping-stone to Popery. The words of the travelled sage sunk into the people's hearts, and they talked about the heresy in whispers until it reached the missionaries' ears. Then the archdeacon assembled his flock to discuss the question, and although young Rauparaha bespoke from the audience applause for his harangue, the complaint against the cross over the church was declared frivolous and vexatious. These sectarian disputes were not confined to the half-christianised natives, but grew into factions among the missionaries, and furnished matter for conversation at religious tea-parties in England. 185

MISSIONARY FEUDS.

On the arrival of Bishop Selwyn, of the English church, a feud sprung up between the Church of England and Wesleyan missions, the cause of which was this. It had been arranged by the early missionaries from these two churches, that the New Zealand islands were to be divided into two districts, for the purpose of preventing anything like sectarian strife. Bishop Selwyn, who knew not then the charity which fourteen years' residence among barbaric races afterwards instilled into his heart, 186 being bound by no such arrangement, visited every part of his diocese, during which peregrinations he stood aloof from the Wesleyan missionaries, whom he styled schismatics, and characterised their baptisms as mere acts of laymen. The Wesleyan converts, although they whispered that he was more suited for a warrior than a priest, soon became aware, from his lordship's mental qualifications, that he was one of the heads of a greater church than the one to which they belonged. The Rev. Mr. Turton, one of the Wesleyan missionaries, felt it his duty to address the bishop on the subject, and stated that his lordship's conduct in New Zealand was depreciating the Wesleyan church in the eyes of its flock, and engendering contention; that in the district of Taranaki, where he resided, religious strife had now run so high, that one set of Christians had erected a fence and lined it thickly with fern, so that the other might not see them. 187 The bishop replied to these accusations; but men burning with religious zeal are seldom tolerant, and charity is rarely united with enthusiasm.

MISSIONARY FEUDS.

This bickering was not limited to the Wesleyan and Church of England missionaries. When the Roman Catholics commenced labouring in New Zealand, the Protestants, dreading a church that consigns to eternal perdition all other Christians, and the dazzling influence of an eloquence which appeals to the imagination more than to the reason, held public controversies with the priests, a body of men whose continence produced a strange impression on the minds of the natives. Verbal conflicts were hotly maintained on both sides, and victory was occasionally won by the best linguist, or he who brought a native proverb to bear on the question. At one of these controversies the Romanists said the Church of England clergy stole from them the Scriptures which God had deposited in their hands, and that they were consequently thieves. Archdeacon Henry Williams, of the English Church, a man capable of martyrdom, took a calabash of water from a running stream, which he compared to the Scriptures, and asked the assembly if one who did this could be accused of stealing water. The multitude called out "No!" Then the archdeacon cried with stentorian voice, "This is what the founders of the Church of England have done."

That this spirit is not dead may be inferred from the circumstance that in the year 1852 a Church of England missionary characterised the Roman-catholic doctrine as "anti-christian." 188 The Romish Church, of which exclusiveness is the principle, must be judged by her own standard; but that Protestants cannot preach salvation to the New Zealanders without instilling into their minds the profitless controversies about Hahi,

RELIGIOUS STATE OF NATIVES IN 1850.

Weteri, and Pikopo, the Maori names given to the English, Wesleyan, and Roman Catholic churches, is melancholy and degrading.

It is the custom in the present day to reckon all the New Zealanders as converts to Christianity. This is a mistake. According to a census made in 1850 of the natives in the neighbourhood of Cook's Strait, by Mr. Tacy Kemp, 189 out of every hundred –

48 belonged to the English church.
13 " Wesleyan church.
3 " Roman Catholic church.
36 " No church.

And this proportion agrees with the replies received by Governor Grey in 1848 from various missionaries. 190 Thus Archdeacon William Williams returned 30 per cent. of the natives near the East Cape as unbaptized; Mr. James Kemp, at the Bay of Islands, reckoned the unbaptized at 27 per cent.; Father Pezant of Rangiawhia stated the unbaptized at 15 per cent.; the Rev. James Hamlin returned 31 per cent, of the East Cape natives as unbaptized; Father Reignier of Ohinemotu numbered the unbaptized at 30 per cent.; and the Rev. Mr. Creed calculated that one-third of the native population in the Middle Island were unbaptized. It therefore results that about one-fourth of the New Zealanders have not undergone baptism; still it does not follow that these men are heathens in the true sense of that word, for many of them regularly resort to church.

The work of Christianity in New Zealand is only begun. The Israelitish slaves Moses led out of Egypt were not converted in one generation, even under God's

NATIVE TEACHERS.

tuition. The dread of the tapu, which restrained the evil passions of the people, is broken, while many have but imperfectly learned that sublime creed applicable to this as well as the next world. It is not therefore just, as was suggested at Exeter Hall last May, and is now to be acted on to a certain extent, to trust the diffusion of Christianity solely to native teachers, or ordained native priests; because the best of these men expound the Scriptures in a manner little calculated to elevate its doctrine. The description of a Pharisee by Mr. Hone Hake, a native teacher, in a sermon preached before Lieut.-Governor Wynyard on the Waikato river, in February 1855, will explain this. "A Pharisee," said he, "is like a bag tied half way down. The bag is open at the top, but anything put into it would not reach the bottom: so it is with the Pharisee; when he prays, he opens wide his mouth, but keeps his heart close shut; he asks with his lips for things which his heart cares not for. Besides, he always talks for effect; for even if God were to grant him the things he asks for, it would only be a waste of good gifts, for they could not get to the bottom; his pride, like the string that is tied round the bag, preventing them, they would therefore do him no good, as they would reach no further than his throat." 191

The civilising influence and blessings which Christianity has conferred on New Zealand cannot be weighed in the scales of the market. Like musk in a room, it has communicated a portion of its fragrance to everything in the country. It has broken the theocratic principle of the tapu and other superstitions; it has put an end to cannibalism, and has assisted in eradicating

CREDIT DUE TO MISSIONARIES.

slavery; it has proved a bond of union between the races, the native Christian and the settler feeling themselves members of one federation; it has led the way to intellectual development, industry, peace, contentment, regard for the rights of every class, and progressive civilisation. It is unjust to judge the Christianity of the uneducated New Zealanders by a severe test; even the civilised and highly educated Greeks, when they passed from the heathen temple to the Christian church, did not exhibit in their lives the sublime influence of their new faith.

The missionaries who brought about this reformation deserve the highest praise. Before the establishment of British rule these men on many occasions prevented bloodshed, and they are now as useful in promoting peace behind the wave of civilisation, as they formerly were before it. Several who commenced working under intense spiritual zeal became apathetic and worldly when the excitement wore off, and lost heart when experience convinced them that Christianity was not to be driven into the human soul like a nail into a log. These men were anxious to do good, but were destitute of the application requisite to command success; they were capable of making great personal sacrifices when their blood was warm and the public eye rested upon them, but incapable of laborious perseverance in obscure virtues. Such men are found in all callings, and unjustly cast discredit on the whole body.

Casual visitors to settlements in a state of progress from heathenism to Christianity have complained that the missionaries, pretending to much knowledge of heaven and little of earth, destroy cheerfulness, and substitute apathy; that they turn villages into monasteries,

MISSIONARIES' WIVES.

and people into priests. At mission stations, where the Cross is thought to be independent of the plough, the spade, and the hoe, in promoting civilisation, a few aboriginal converts may be seen, who, secure of their food and released from struggles against hostile tribes, have acquired a melancholy expression of features from the torpor of their faculties, and a mildness of character which belong to repose. Happily most of the New Zealand missionaries have followed in the footsteps of Elliot, Williams, and Livingstone, who showed that savages cannot be civilised with the Bible alone. In 1835 Mr. Darwin saw, at the Church Mission station of Waimate, a well-stocked farm-yard and fields of corn, a threshing-barn, a winnowing-machine, a blacksmith's forge, a water-mill, and plough-shares. Some of the houses at the station had been built, the windows framed, the fields ploughed, and the trees grafted, by natives. At the mill a New Zealander was seen white with flour like his brother miller in England; and several were working on the farm dressed in shirts and trowsers. 192

In the English and Wesleyan churches, where the missionary was not deprived of the consolation of a wife, it is necessary to remember that these women contributed no trifling aid to the rise and progress of Christianity. Some of these females were Ruth-like in appearance; but several were young girls with sparkling eyes, who left English homes to encounter difficulties from which British soldiers would have shrunk.

Seven times did the planter of Christianity in New Zealand revisit the country, to see how the tree grew; and in 1820 he landed at Coromandel, and travelled

[Inserted unpaginated illustration]

WAIMATE MISSION STATION IN 1845.
Vol. I., page 330

MARSDEN AND SELWYN.

overland to the Bay of Islands. His name and personal appearance still live among the natives in the north, although his last visit was made to the country in 1837, and he died in 1838, aged 72 years, after having been forty-four years chaplain of the colony of New South Wales. Marsden has left a name which all admire, but few can hope to rival; and was rewarded by one of the greatest felicities which God vouchsafes to man on earth, – the realisation of his own idea.

As the conquest of Britain reflects less glory, according to the religious world, on the name of Caesar than on that of Gregory, so among the same class will the memory of Cook be ever held in less estimation in New Zealand than that of Marsden.

Dr. Selwyn, treading in the footsteps of Marsden, visits annually in his vessel, the "Southern Cross," various islands in the South Seas. From these places his Lordship brings away heathen youths; and at Auckland he and the Rev. Mr. Patteson, his zealous and able assistant, instruct them in Christianity and letters; the lads are then taken back to their homes, and exhorted to spread abroad among their countrymen what they have learned. New Zealand, once the abode of cannibals, is thus becoming the Iona of the southern hemisphere.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

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169 Missionary Gazetteer, 1820, by C. Williams.

170 Incidents in the Life of the Rev. Mr. Leigh.

171 Report of the Maori Bible Translation Finance Committee, 1858.

172 Letter to Journal des Debats, 1845.

173 Ten Months' Residence in the Country.

174 Parl. Papers, 1838.

175 Shorthand's Traditions of the Maoris.

176 Parl. Papers, 1838. Missionary Reports.

177 Martin's New Zealand, p. 53.

178 Personal Inquiry. Wakefield's Adventures in New Zealand.

179 Personal Observation.

180 Church Missionary Society's Report for 1853.

181 MSS. Reports, Native Secretary's Office, New Zealand.

182 Journal of an Overland Expedition from Auckland to Taranaki, by Governor Grey, 1851.

183 Parl. Papers, 1850.

184 Church Missionary Gleaner.

185 Alton Locke, the Tailor and the Poet.

186 The Work of Christ in the World. 3rd Edition. Cambridge, 1855. Page 60.

187 Local papers. Brown's New Zealand, 1845. Church in the Colonies, No. 20,1849.

188 Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society for 1852, 1853, page 167.

189 Census given in Appendix, Table XXIV.

190 Circulars, signed C. Dillon, MSS. papers, Native Secretary's Office, Auckland.

191 Original translation; Maori Messenger, April 1855.

192 Darwin's Voyages of a Naturalist.

MAP OF NEW ZEALAND

MAP OF NEW ZEALAND

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