NOTES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1412, 20 November 1886, Page 3

NOTES.

The virtue, or it might be more correct to say stoicism, under the infliction of pain, which Fennimore Cooper and Mayne Reid are so fond of attributing to the red man of the West—the North American Indian —is evidently not the exclusive characteristic of that picturesque, but not altogether pleasant people. Instances are not wanting of a phegmatic endurance by the palefaced Caucasian—“ played out ” though he is said to be—which could certainly not be excelled by any Indian who ever donned war paint, one such occurring only the other day at Wellington. It appears that a man named Andrews, while suffering from the effects of secret drinking, set fire by accident to his . shirt when undressing in his bedroom, and before he

could extinguish the flames was severely burnt about the lower part of ,the body. His wounds suppurated greatly, yet he went about his work for days as though nothing had happened, and hi 5 condition was only discovered by accident. He had borne his sufferings without a word of complaint, lest the fault which had led to the accident should be discovered, and must have gone through an amount of pain almost amounting to a martyrdom. Sent at last to the hospital, he died of the effects of his injuries, a j victim to a stoical endurance of which we know no parallel. Andrews was evidently possessed of the truest of “grit” as our Yankee friends phrase it, and it is a pity that a man with so stern determination in one direction was so manifestly weak in another, as he was surely made of the sort of stuff out of which Nature moulds her heroes. New Zealand is even geologically, as compared with other parts of the earth’s surface, an entirely new country having sprung from the bed of the ocean at a comparatively recent period, yet it is old enough to have been colonised by more than two distinct races of men ; our ptedecessors the Maories having been themselves colonists, while there was an older | race than they which witnessed the advent of the canoes which bore them hither. Probably even these may not have been the first arrivals on the shores of these islands, but if there was any race of people inhabiting New Zealand before the date of the Moriori, that race has left scarcely any record whatever of its existence in the country. We say hardly any, because there is not quite an entire absence of traces of some ancient people which at one time had its home here, though the memorials of that ancient people are very few and far between. Still ihere are memorials, as, for instance in the celebrated rock paintings at or near the Weka Pass. Writing of these the Press of yesterday, in giving an account of a recent railway excursion to the locality, says ; —“ The designs have been so fixed to the rock that only the influence of frost and the rude hands of Vandals have distorted them. Considerable interest has been excited as to the origin - and meaning of the symbols depicted under this rock shelter, savants having connected them with Tamil, pre-Christian, Indian symbolic and later Native characters. In them has been traced some semblance to Masonic tracery, while others have concluded they are of Buddhist origin. The figures of a bow and arrow, war conch, also a broad brimmed bat, and a serpent, with a few minor ones, still remain intact, though the bold outline which was shown a dozen years since is becoming more faint every year from the causes assigned.” We draw attention to these remarks of oTir Christchurch contemporary because we think it desirable that something should be done to preserve these interesting records of a primitive people from utter destruction. We possess so few antiquities that it is well worth while to take care of those we have, and at least it is surely possible to guard the Weka Pass paintings from the destroying hands of those Goths and Vandals whose delight is in defacing or attempting to carry away any object of interest. A custodian should be appointed who should live on the spot, and it might even be possible to fence off the locality, and, by making a small charge for the admission of visitors, to recoup the cost of the pay of the caretaker