he acquired great influence among the youth-great instinctive magnanimity of the Maori ful and enterprizing part of the community, race- and much to fifteen years of missionwhile more legitimate leaders either looked on ary training, which had converted war, from him with suspicion or used him for their own a mere display of animal ferocity to a game of ulterior purposes. "His longings took the even ultra-chivalrous loyalty. peculiar form of cutting down the British flag- It had, however, in no degree tamed their staff, which designing persons had taught him valor or abated their military skill. A series to regard as the symbol of Maori subjugation of partial military disasters to the British arms and slavery." Three times he and his turbu- followed, ending with the unfortunate day of lent followers cut down "Te Kara," "the co- the 30th of June, 1845, when Colonel Deslor" the last time in 1844, at Kororarika, pard, at the head of 400 British soldiers, was with great solemnity," after performing pray- repulsed with the loss of one-fourth of his men, ers with arms in their hands." Want of re- from Heke's strong 'pah' or stockade, at gular military-and natural aversion to the Waimate. It is not easy to calculate what alternative of committing settlers and savages might have been the results of a real and deto a desolating warfare-induced the local go-termined union against British Supremacy at vernment long to tolerate his outrages. At this juncture: but the Maoris were not unilast they sent for forces from New South Wales ted; many were on the British side - many -but on the very day when these left Syd- passively disapproved of the proceedings ney, 11th March, 1845, occurred the strange of the rebels. Heké evacuated his famous and disastrous sacking of Kororarika, by stronghold, which was burnt by the British; Heké and his comrades-much to the astonish- but at the very same time his ally, the veteran ment of the settlers and authorities. The de- chief Kawiti, was heard of, thirty or forty tails of the attack may be read in Col. Mun- miles distant, busily engaged in erecting the dy's work, and also in Bishop Selwyn's letter most formidable work ever attempted in New of April 1846 to the Society for the Propaga- Zeland, namely, the Rua-peka-peka, or the tion of the Gospel: for the Bishop was on the Bat's Nest.' spot, and busied throughout the fire in remov- The following is Colonel Mundy's descriping the wounded, the women and children, tion of this famous fortress, which he visited and after its cessation in burying the dead. two years later: He mixed without fear or molestation among the triumphant victors-who not only respected him, but listened patiently to his remonstrances, and abstained, on his reproof, from emptying the casks of liquor they had captured. They warred against the soldiers and the flag, they said, not against the missionaries or the settlers. In the afternoon, says the Bishop,

One of those circumstances occurred which mark, more than words can express, the confidence with which the old settlers live among the inhabitants of the country. I had gone about half-way to the Waimate, when I met a settler from Hokianga, riding quietly down to the bay, with one native on horseback behind him, to learn the particulars of the engagement. He had come thirty miles through the country from which Heke's forces were drawn, and was going to the scene of action; and I afterwards met him returning by the same route without the slightest apprehension of danger. The truth is, that there is something in the native character which disarms personal fears in those who live among them and are acquainted with their manners. All suspicion of treachery seems to be at variance with the openness and publicity of their proceedings. Heke published beforehand his determination to attack Kororarika, the day on which it was to be done, and even the particulars of his plan for the assault.

The height and solidity of the picquets composing the curtains, whereof there were two, distant some six feet apart, filled me with astonishment; nor was I less struck with the ingenuity displayed in the formation of the trenches and covered ways, between this double row of palisades and within both, from whence the defenders could take deadly aim along the glacis at the exposed stormers. Most of the loopholes for musketry were on the ground level, and, across the trenches in which the musketeers stood or crouched, were erected regular traverses, with narrow passages for one person, to guard against the ricochet of the British shot. The interior was, as has been said, subdivided into many compartments, so that the loss of one of them would not necessarily prevent the next from holding out.

How these savages had contrived in a few weeks, and without mechanical appliances, to prepare the massive materials of their stockade, and to place them in their proper positions, deeply sunk in the earth, and firmly bound together, is inconceivable,-to be sure, the timber and flax grew on the spot, and the laborers engaged in the work were working and preparing to fight for their native land and for liberty,-what more need be said? The pah was studded with subterranean cells, into which the more timid or prudent ran-like rabbits at the bark of a dogwhen they heard the whiz of a shell or a rocket, or had reason to expect a salvo from the guns,Mundy, vol. iii. p. 236.

But surely we may go farther, and attri- With infinite labor and perseverance the bute much to what Cof. Mundy terms the British guns were dragged through the imper

6

vious forest which surrounded the Bat's Nest, in December, 1845, and brought at last to bear on it; but

In November, 1845, while the war was yet raging, Sir George Grey assumed the command of the colony and of the strong military force which had been brought to defend it. The settlers were everywhere in dismay, and in some parts in serious danger: the relations between the races broken and hostile. Never was man called to the performance of a less promising task; for while the war (to use the language of Lord Grey in his work already cited) would have been controverted into a mortal struggle between the European and Maori races by the slightest error of judgment on his part, and by his failing to unite with the most cautious prudence equal firmness and decision,' at the same time the angry disap

The actual capture of the Rua-peka-peka occurred somewhat fortuitously. The Mihonari, or Christian portion of the garrison, had assembled for their karakia, or church service, on the outside of the rear face of the fortress, under cover of some rising ground. A party of loyal natives, wide-awake to the customs of their countrymen, approached under command of Wiremu Waka, brother of Tomati; and reconnoitred the breaches. Discovering the employment of the defenders, a message was sent back to the English, reporting this most righteous and laudable act of religion, but most unpardonable breach of military tactics, on the part of their hostile compa-pointment of the settlers, and the intricate aftriots. And who shall say that this neglect of

man's ordinances and observance of God's in the

fairs of the New Zeland Company, were even time of their trouble, did not bring with them a of uneasiness from the natives. How he dealt more urgent and distracting than the causes providential and merciful result? It led doubtless to their almost instantaneous defeat; but it with these former it is no part of our present saved them and the English from the tenfold car- business to show; but his management of the nage which a more vigilant and disciplined resis- great native population under his government tance from within their walls would have infalli- has been successful to a degree which no obbly caused. An officer or two with a small party server would have dared to anticipate; and of soldiers and seamen stole quietly into the al- the two volumes of Parliamentary Papers, most deserted pah, and further reinforcements which we have quoted at the head of this ar followed quickly from the trenches. The Maoris, ticle, will furnish to those who sift them for too late discovering their error and the move- the purpose invaluable records of his great ments of their foes, rushed tumultuously back into the work, and made a fierce but futile attempt to ability, his consummate patience, his Christian retake it. Hand to hand, and unfavored by po- humanity. Already familiar with a far lower - the natives of Aussition, they had no chance against the British and more despised race bayonet and cutlass. Baffled and overpowered, tralia, to whose hearts he was the first and althey fled by the rear of the stockade, and the most the only Englishman who ever found the Bat's Nest was ours. way-he now applied all his energies to masThus terminated a war in which British character, and acquiring the habit of constant tering the Maori language and the Maori energy and perseverance obtained at last the personal superintendence of their affairs. Inusual success, but against resistance of no com- stead of holding aloof from their former teachmon order. It is satisfactory to observe that ers, he threw himself into immediate and hearty the best judges concur in the opinion shared communication with the missionaries; and no by Colonel Mundy with the governor, that' no one has borne more decisive evidence than he, probability exists of any extensive rebellion ever breaking out again in the country: but it is most important not to be misled either into over-security against the recurrence of such a calamity, or over-confidence in our means for its immediate suppression. As late as December, 1852, there were serious threatenings of armed collision between native tribes near the Bay of Islands, on some land question: suppressed, according to the Rev. Mr. Strachan, by missionary influence. And should found that the Maoris have lost nothing of their such a misfortune recur, it will probably be courage or tactics. According to the governor, in his remarkable despatch of July, 1849, cited at length in Lord Grey's Colonial Policy,' they have learnt the weakness of their old system of fortification against the shell: they will construct no more pahs,' but trust to the natural strength of the country, and their own skill with the musket.

throughout the despatches before us, to the character of their services, in preparing the natives for British government and civilization, and assisting him afterwards in diffusing their benefits: in his own words

Converting, educating, and training, by hourly, unremitting watchfulness and care (continued often by the same individual through long years of devotedness), winning the idolatrous barbarian to Christianity, making him a Christian in fact to him, not only to fulfil his duty as a citizen of and in daily practice, and fitting him, by the knowledge of the arts of civilized life imparted a Christian state, but to rejoice in the change which had forced him to abandon barbarism and to adopt the customs of civilization.

Lastly, he brought the whole subject of native government, and the relations between the races, within the comprehensive embrace of a few distinct measures, partly having force

The measures which have been recently carried out for the advancement of the natives are

-prohibiting the sale of arms and gunpowder, and the repair of arms; prohibiting the sale of spirituous liquors; the enactment of an ordinance which provides the means of educating a large and increasing number of native children; the providing a tolerably efficient means of medical attendance in the most populous native districts; the employment of a native constabulary force, thus acquainting them with our laws; the enactment of laws for the adjustment of disputes between natives and Europeans; the employment of natives upon public works, where they are trained in various kinds of skilled labor and in the use of European tools and implements; and the providing employment generally for from 1200 to 1400 natives on the public works.

The

of law, partly rules for the conduct of the ex-inconvenient consequences which followed the ecutive: few in number, but based on calcula- universal adoption of Christianity was the retion and forethought, and adhered to, through laxation of the tie between chief and vassal, good and evil report, with characteristic tena- master and slave. It would be a great miscity. But here again we must allow the gov- take to judge of the general character of these ernor to speak for himself:feudal institutions merely by their abuses, monstrous as these have doubtless been. chiefs feel as I do,' says the Governor in a despatch of April, 1848, that the Maori laws, which compelled subordination and restrained the violence of the evil-disposed multitude, are being rapidly swept away, whilst the local government find it difficult. if not impossible, to spread their administration of the European law into the interior of the country so rapidly as the Maori law disappears.' And he subjoins a very interesting letter from the chief Tamati Ngapora, pointing out the mischiefs arising from this deficiency, and arguing, with no small shrewdness, from Scriptural premises the necessity of a subordination of ranks. The resident magistrates' ordinance' seems exactly to have met the evil. They were whites, and therefore impartial; their courts followed To these must be added, perhaps as the Maori usage as interpreted to them, and were most important safeguard of the whole, the therefore popular. The papers before us are rigid maintenance of the law by which all sales full of instances in which chiefs and people of land by native tribes, as of common owner- combined to repudiate their ancient mode of ship, except to Government, are absolutely dealing with injuries, and resort to these triprohibited; the local executive thus stepping bunals for redress. Now indeed, in accordin with constant and effectual vigilance be-ance with the eagerness and love of novelty tween the native and the landjobber. To no which so curiously characterize them, their single measure does New Zealand owe its re- passion for the new amusement of litigation cent exemption from international discontent amounts to a public inconvenience. They and hostility so peculiarly as to this; and in have the same attraction towards British proportion to its obvious utility is its unpo- courts and law as the country people who flock pularity with that class of white citizens whose to one of our remote assize towns. And odd object is to impose at once on the simplicity enough are the mixed questions which someor eagerness of the savage, and on the weak- times arise out of the adaptation of Coke and ness of local officials against pressure.' Their Blackstone to antipodean requirements; as for great object throughout has been to devise instance, whether à chief is debarred from the evasions of the law, and then to proclaim it truly British remedy of civil damages for coninefficient by reason of its liability to evasion; jugal infidelity, where the seducer has robbed but hitherto with little success. And the mat-him of the affection of one wife only out of ter is now become of less importance; for the several a point which evidently affords law has nearly accomplished its purpose. A abundant scope for the advocate's ingenuity.* very large proportion of the available land has passed from the ownership of the tribes to that of the Government: those tribes which still hold out are thoroughly alive to the value of their possession, and can match either Government or squatter in driving a bargain; and the general diffusion of the notion of individual property among the natives is rapidly superseding that old principle of tribunal ownership or dominion, the definition of which perplexed so greatly, a few years ago, the wits of colonial jurists and politicians.

The establishment of resident magistrates all over the country, to decide in a summary way on disputes between natives, was a measure which had its special object, besides its obvious advantages of a general kind. One of the

a

An institution of a very unobtrusive kind, namely the establishment of hospitals in all the populous parts (chiefly supported out of funds derived from the sale of land), has had perhaps even more beneficial effects. Its direct advantages have been very great: it has relieved

This subject of polygamy has proved an embarrassing one, in New Zealand, in more important tends to its abolition: but it is a knotty question ways. The adoption of Christianity, of course, for casuists, whether a native is to be required to

abandon it before admission into the church. Be

sides the arguments which Milton might have put forward against exacting such a condition, the more obvious one occurs at once: What is to become of the matter seriously discussed in a recent paper in the poor repudiated women? The reader will find the Colonial Chronicle for January, 1854.

This

numbers of sufferers whom native practice | culture, fishing, spearing birds, making or rewould have either abandoned as incurable or pairing canoes, weaving mats (now seldom sought to relieve only by superstitious quack-practised), ornamental carving, Divine servieries it has mitigated, at least, that terrible ces, religious and political discussions, and the evil which no care can wholly ward off, the general news of the day.' spread of new diseases and mortality wherever But with all this advance in the use of their natives and Europeans are brought in contact. own language, they appear as yet to have But, indirectly, it has proved a great assistant done very little towards acquiring that of their to civilization. The natives, with their ready conquerors. It was, as we have observed on appreciation of everything useful to them- a former occasion, a fixed rule of missionary selves, are ready and eager to avail themselves discipline all over the Pacific to convey inof these places of refuge: they have learned struction in the native tongues; and the systo connect the ideas of relief, comfort, and good tem thus begun on the authority of the teachtreatment with that of government; and no- ers has acquired additional strength through thing can contribute so directly towards the the intense nationality of the Maori race. No last and most difficult result of all, amalgama- European can obtain real influence among tion of races; for when side by side on the them without acquiring facility in their speech; bed of sickness, even Saxon and Maori are while they will themselves employ that of the apt to remember only their common human-settlers no further than the absolute necessiity. ties of commercial intercourse require. In this important respect, even the great remains, to our minds, one of the most quesagent of all, general education, has perhaps tionable features in the present picture of New proved in New Zealand a less unqualified ad- Zealand. Certainly, so long as this marked vantage. Here Governor Grey found the distinction remains and the present course way already made straight before his arrival. of education tends to perpetuate it—there The zealous exertions of missionaries of three may possibly be harmony and co-operation bedenominations had not been in vain. The tween the races, but amalgamation in the elements of instruction are widely spread proper sense of the word is impossible. among the Maoris. The Governor has avail- For the present, however, such consideraed himself of existing powers instead of en- tions are out of place. All other tendencies deavoring to create new ones- - he has placed seem for the time superseded among this enthe fund which he felt himself entitled to de- ergetic people by the desire to advance in mavote to this purpose, in due proportions, in terial prosperity. They are adopting with the hands of the English and Roman Catholic eagerness the arts, and especially the gainful Bishop and of the Wesleyan Superintendent. arts, of the settlers. All over the Northern We may deeply regret the necessity of such Island, but chiefly in the neighborhood of the a distribution, but the strongest secularist can settlements, they are vying with the most achardly disapprove of it. The Governor's own tive of the latter in productive industry. The favorite establishments, the 'industrial schools,' lower classes are engaged in road-making, counted, in 1851, 434 Anglican, 215 Wesleyan, whale-fishing, building, tending cattle, and tilland 53 Roman Catholic students (natives), ing the soil; the chiefs becoming landed proprobably representing with fairness the rela-prietors, millers (a particularly favorite protive proportion of the sects throughout the fession), ship-builders, and ship-owners. colony. Education among the natives in gen- the coasting craft,' says Mr. Swainson, which eral has now advanced a long way beyond el- trade between Auckland and the Bay of ementary or merely Scriptural instruction. Islands, the most regular, clean, and orderly, Not to speak of more solid acquirements, they and that which is commonly preferred by the have a strong taste for literature after their public for the conveyance of passengers, is a fashion chiefly legendary and poetical. vessel wholly owned and navigated by the na'Robinson Crusoe' was translated by Mr. tives of the country. With the usual passion Kemp into Maori in 1851, and became a great of savages for newly-acquired equestrian purand general favorite: the Pilgrim's Progress' suits, they have become expert horse-breeders was to follow. They have, as we observed be- and riders; and these islands, which possessed fore of Polynesians in general, a passion for not one single specimen of the mammalia until words a propensity to empty and unmean- Captain Cook brought them the pig and the ing fluency. Religious, political, and commer-rat, will soon furnish as pretty an irregular cial subjects are discussed with an endless cavalry as ever turned out for war or the amount of talk. Chiefs will sit up whole nights chase. To cite a late report of the Surveyorcompiling endless letters to each other on tri- general of the colony :fling or imaginary subjects. Their employments' (quaintly says Dr. Rees, in a report to "While they yield a ready obedience to the the Governor on the medical topography of laws of the Europeans, and, when questioned, the Wanganui district) are, gardening, agri- admit them to be just and good, they seem to

Of

value those the most of all that enforce payment | jar more on our perceptions now, in these of debts and demands. All speculative theories days of their civilization and worldliness, than are thrown aside, and they seem to have started in the freshness of their first conversion. with an energy quite surprising in the pursuit of But their teachers complain, as might naturally gain, bidding fair to outstrip many of their early be expected, of increasing deadness and lack European instructors. They have now dispensed of zeal. with the formerly all-important European character, once so indispensable among them, and to

"The state of the people," say the Church

be seen in every village, "the native trader." Missionaries, in their Report of 1852, "is, in He has been for the last three or four years un-fact, too much assimilated to that of nominal known among them, being unable to make a Christians at home." "Their spiritual does profit by his trading transactions. They have not keep pace with their temporal prosperity," all obtained some knowledge of arithmetic, and writes the Wesleyan, Mr. Woon, in the same delight in exhibiting their skill.... They have year (Life of Leigh, p. 496). "They have now wise men among themselves to calculate the not yet learnt the Scriptural lesson that "it is cubic contents of a heap of firewood, the area of a plot of ground, so as to sow two bushels of more blessed to give than to receive." They wheat to the acre, the live weight of a pig, and now eat the finest wheat; many are dressed the value at 3d. a-pound, sinking one-fifth as with comfortable clothing, and ride on horses, offal. They esteem themselves first-rate horse-like gentlemen; while they ride, the missionary breakers, and I heard more than one lecturing walks." Meanwhile, whatever may be the case on the mysteries of the turf to an admiring as to religious proficiency, controversy flouraudience. Every recently arrived traveller, if ishes in this congenial soil. The disputes behe comes from any of the settlements, is closely tween "Weteri, Haha, and Pikopo Wesquestioned as to the price of pork, wheat, flour, ley, Church, and Bishop, i. e. Romanist — are and flax. The old persons may be seen in carried on with native volubility throughout groups round the evening fire, chatting about the the length and breadth of the land. Even in appearance of the crops, and all subjects relating the wild region, beaten with constant rain, and to them; the women being busily employed in indented with rock-bound friths, like the Normaking baskets to carry grain and potatoes, or in plaiting leg-ropes for driving their pigs to wegian coast, which extends along the western the last corner market. All other pursuits seem merged into shore of the Middle Island habits of thrift; and the most engrossing subject of this Polynesian world which wealth and that can be broached is the relative merits of two population will probably reach- Mr. Brunmill sites, over or under shot wheels, and the best ner, the only explorer who has described its means of raising 2001. or 300l. for the purpose of solitudes, found the same dissensions prebuilding a mill which shall grind more than one vailing: erected by a rival tribe. Such is the excitement on this particular topic, that they have in their haste to commence the undertaking, employed "There are only ninety-seven natives, adults in some instances very unprincipled or very un- and children," he says, "living on the west coast, skilful workmen, and have lost considerable out-north of lat. 44 deg.; all of whom profess some lay. Upon first starting from our settlements, and after leaving the last farmhouse behind, one is apt to suppose that there ends the exertions of man to subdue the wild expanse of nature lying before him; but such is not the case. tives present in their vast numbers a power, if well directed, of accomplishing much towards it, and are at this moment one of the most important features connected with the colonization of this country."- Report to Governor, April 1852.

The na

How has this sudden burst of prosperity affected the religious character of the now Christianized people? Much, apparently, as similar causes have acted on other communities

form of Christianity; twenty-nine of them are members of the Church, and sixty-eight Wesleyans. I am much astonished to find among the natives in these distant parts so much attention paid to their forms of religion, which are the Church and Wesleyan. Much animosity appears to exist between them; and, although in some places there are only six or seven natives, yet they have separate places of worship, two schools, and are always quarrelling about religion, each party asserting its own to be the proper service to God."-Parl. Papers, Jan. 1850, p. 44

Surely the force of the reductio ad absurdum can go no farther. The Church of Rome, of which exclusiveness is the principle, must be producing good tempered with evil. The judged by her own standard. But that ProtesMaoris present no exception to the general tants cannot combine to redeem these miseramaxim of the Psalmist and the great Greek ble denizens of the uttermost corners of the moralist, that prosperous men are usually ob- earth, without instilling, along with the comservant of outward religion. There is much mon truth, their profitless controversies about apparent devotion among them, and much "Weteri" and "Haha," is a fact so melanshow of attachment to their various persua- choly, as almost to tempt the ordinary reader sions: no lack also of real faith and earnest- to lay down the volumes of missionary records ness, though the Puritan phraseology and turn in despair. With whomsoever the fault may be, of thought in which they have been educated the originators and fosterers of such feuds