The Examiner. Thursday, November 26, 1857. "PUBLIC GOOD." ABOUT MAORIES.

Auckland Examiner, Volume 1, Issue 50, 26 November 1857, Page 2

The Examiner. Thursday, November 26, 1857. "PUBLIC GOOD." ABOUT MAORIES.

In course of his examination by a House of Commons Select Committee, lately appointed to Report on New Zealand affairs, Herman Merivale, Permanent Undersecretary to the Colonies, said :—

I consider that they (the Home Government) have a very great interest in anything which will remove causes of difficulty between Natives and Europeans ; whether the arrangement proposed will do so or not, is a matter for the Committee’s consideration. The Home Government has a direct interest, inasmuch as a considerable military force is maintained in New Zealand simply for the purpose of keeping peace between the Europeans and the Natives. To this statement we ask the reader’s attention. It is a statement of immense importance. Assuming it to be true, the question naturally arises—How does it happen that after so much has been done to refine, elevate, and evangelize the Natives, we .ire unable to live at peace with them if unhelped by “ a considerable military force.” Opinion is divided on this most serious matter.

All agree that to keep the peace between Natives and Europeans “ a considerable military force” is necessary; but why Natives must still be either coerced or cowed into “ keeping the peace” with us, has not. been made quite clear. On Friday a letter subscribed Silvanus appeared in the Cross. Who Silvanus is we know not; but his letter could scarcely have been written by any one unacquaint -d with Native habits as well as u the outs and ins” of Native character. Another of our contemporary’s correspondents who subscribes himself Z Church Missionary, appears to have deeply studied the grammar of Maori nature. Both these gentlemen have lived long in the Colony ; both have passed much time with Maories; and both are declared by the editor of the Cross “ tho-

roughly masters of their subject,” and to be “ depended upon for facts.” Now, with the controversy of these competent disputants we have no business to interfere, and certainly we have no desire to do so ; but their differences touching matters of fact as well as matters of opinion are marvellous. They may be appealed to as indisputable evidence that thoughtful, observant, men may live half an average life-time among Maories, and yet be innocent as child unborn of what should be done with those “ amiable savages,” or why in this year 1857, “a considerable military force” is necessary to prevent them “ breaking the peace,” and perhaps knocking us Pakehas most unamiably on the head. Let us hear A Church Missionary first, rather because of his having thrown down the gauntlet to Silvanus than because of bis cloth, or because he professes not to care a rush what “ Silvanus or Mr. Vaile may think” of Church Missionary labors, and “ smiles at the logic” of every body who is stupid enough to differ with him, This experienced person who, we are told, is “thoroughly master of his subject,” and can be “ depended upon for facts,” in a letter published in the Cross of Sept. 25, delivers himself as follows :— The erv that missionary work has failed in its is one, now so old, that no one interested in these labours need take it much to heart when it is raised in this island. I give full credit to the sincerity of those gentlemen who'have made this discovery in New Zealand, —a trader who only sees in the Maori a hard dealer, that will cheat him full as readily as his fellow Englishman, if he can get an opportunity, and whose character is more open and undisguised ; a bnsbman who has taken a Native wife, in Native fashion, and who is smarting from the many evils which his first false step has brought upon him ; a man who has only seen the Maori when frequenting the towns, or pandering to some evil passion of the white man, —these will very probably re-echo the cry that the missionary labors in this island have been a failure. How strange that men Jiving in profound peace amongst a people who were once blood-thirsty cannibals, should now say that missionary operations were a failure I What do they mean by a failure? Let them remember that the very same charge that they bring against the thirty men (most of them weakly and aged) who are labouring in this island, mav be brought, with ten fold force, against the upwards of thirty thousand ministers who are labouring in England alone. To prove e. negative is not easy ; and yet those gentlemen hesitate not to say that there is no good in a Maori, and that Christianity has done no good for him. What then has become of their cannibalism ? Is infanticide now regarded as an act at which people may laugh I Can no instance be recorded of forgiveness of injury, of forbearance under provocation, and of most astonishing victories gained over the master passion of a Maori—revenge ? Are there no instances oh record of stolen property restored ? Is the obligation of the marriage vow as weak as it was before the introduction of Christianity ? Is the standard of moralitj as low now as it was then ? Which form the majority in our.gaols, the Maori or the white man ? Have no large and very valuable blocks of land been given in various parts of the island by Maories for school and church purposes? Have no valuable places of worship been erected by them ? Why do they so honor and respect their teachers ? Why out of their poverty do they contribute such large sums of money for the cause of the Gospel ? Why has the power of the Maori priest been so much impaired ? Has no poor soul in its dying agonies been cherished by the consolations of the Gospel! And are there no cases on record of bereaved relations exhibiting the meekness and submission of the Christian ?

Not at all daunted by these confidentlooking opinions of A Church Missionary, the Cross Silvanus also, be it remembered, “ thoroughly master of his subject,” and “ to be depended upon for facts, in the letter before noted thus replies to his clerical antagonist:— The “ Church Missionary” has said in his letter that in England, where the gospel has been preached for more than a thousand years, and where, as he states, there are thirty thousand ministers, the progress made equals only one-tenth of what has been made in New Zealand, by thirtv men in about forty years. This being the case, I fear there is little Christianity on the earth anywhere. The writer of the letter I now answer exclaims, “ how strange that men Jiving in profound peace, amongst a people who were once ‘ blood thirsty cannibals,’ should now say that missionary labours are a failure.” It is to be remarked that the missionary allows that the natives were once blood thirsty cannibals, and it is I think also to be noticed that at the peiiod when cannibalism and murder were common occurrences, I and many others lived amongst the natives in just as “ profound peace”, as we do now, and felt quite secure ; that, so far from injuring us, these blood-thirsty cannibals, as my friend of the mission calls them, would have risked their lives, if need were, to protect us both in person and property ; but I never saw in what way the mission contributed to our safety. We were protected and treated well by the natives, because they saw they could gain more by that particular line of conduct than Any other, —in fact they were too clever to “ kill the goose which laid the golden eggs," and so, therefore, if we still live in “ profound peace,” we do not think there is any particular need to be very grateful to the Church Mission, one of whom I have not seen in any part of the district for twenty years. To hear my friend of the mission talk, one would think there was no living in New Zealand without him. I remember once, in the “ profound peace” times, not so long ago, a man’s brains were knocked out in my flower garden, and he was left there “ all among the roses.” 1 ordered him to be buried. I overheard the young men who were taking him away saying—” What waste of good meat. If it were not for our Pakeha, we would bake him.” Again, but this was in the “ blood thirsty cannibal” times long ago, a chief had some people employed dragging out a spar for a ship. He brought a sla’ i e to be killed, to feed the people who were at work. The slave was going to be killed, when some one remarked that probably the Europeans would not purchase the piece of timber, if the man was killed, and so the chief got a couple of pigs instead. This is what has become of their cannibalism. They have given it ud, because the despised “ bushman” and condemned “trader’ ’ will not suffer it. Let not, then, my friend the “ Church Missionary” think himself the onlv civiliser: “ trader” and “bnshmnn” have also their mission. The “ Missionary” calls revenge the “ master passion of the Maori.” I state positively that a marked want of revengefulness is one of the most striking peculiarities of the Maori character. I have heard this remarked by many an old pettier, and it will not do to tell us the contrary. An injury, for which an Indian, a Spaniard, or an Italian would stab you, a Maori will make up for some trilling payment, and when that has been given him, there is an end to the affair. This people have but little revengefulness or gratitude in their dispositions. I am required to state which of the two races have the majority in our gaols. I should saj the Europeans certainly, native offenders being so hard to catch ; but, if we could only catch them, it would take exactly all the churches in New Zealand to hold them.

X am sorry tho “Cimrob Missionary” should speak so contemptuously of the " trader” and “ bushman” of New Zealand. He should remember the homely saying- that, “It takes all sorts of people Io make a woi-1 and that Wo cannot all be Church Missionaries. I know “ bushmtn” now who have many natives in full and profitable employment, by which they earn much money and enjoy many comforts, otherwise beyond their reach : and what is far better, they are acquiring at the same time steady habits of industry, which will eventually dispose them to submit to the salutary restraints of regular government. Most of these men can read and write their own language, and understand arithmetic sufficiently well. They havo ■no missionary teaching. There has not been a “ Church Missionary” seen near them for perhaps twenty years—l do not believe, indeed ever. They, in fact, have nothing to do with any mission—do not pretend to know any thing about religion at all—but they are no longer “ blood-thirsty cannibals.” They are well behaved, and passing honest. They are daily becoming more and more civilised, both in appearance and reality. The “ trader,” the “ bushman,” and the enlightened merchant point to these men, and say, this is our work ; we also have a mission ; bushmen though wo be, our work has not ALL failed ; one step has at least been taken, and though a small one, a very small one, yet it is on the right road. Bolingbroke, the philosopher and statesman, said there were men who reasoned falsely from true facts and men who reasoned truly from false facts. We profess not to quote with exactitude his very words as it is more than a dozen years since we read them ; but our paraphrase (if it be one) expresses with sufficient clearness the idea he intended to convey. That idea receives ample illustration in the conflicting statements of Silvanus and A Church Missionary. One of them must belong to one or other of the two sets of blundering reasoners referred to by Bolingbroke. Perhaps both have erred either from assuming false to be true facts, or from inability to derive correct conclusions from sound premises. Passages quoted contain the pith of their respective judgments concerning Native character and Christian Missionary influence upon that character. No judgments can be more clearly adverse. Strange spectacle 1 Here are two volunteer controversial foemen, worthy of each other's pen, and declared competent disputants by competent authority, at direct variance with regard to matters of fact as well as matters of opinion. Convinced that there is wisdom in the lines — They who in quarrels interpose, May chance to get a damag’d nose, We decline to interpose between A Church Missionary and Silvanus. But, as we have many times condemned the mode in which successive Governments have “ managed” Maories; as the flour and sugar system cannot last, or the policy of palaver longer impose upon any one ; and as Pakehas have been invited to choose between bonds of love with Natives and being washed from the island by Natives, we feel that this is j ust the time to tell a few wholesome truths. The policy of deceit has too long been tolerated. Our firm conviction is that the “ Native purposes” £7OOO per annum turned to honest account would soon relieve us from ail dread of Native antagonism. Hitherto that “snugpicking” has found its way into the political bread basket of such double doctnnizing, and double distilled, hypocrites as Interpreter Davis. We believe that the sum annually squandered for “ Native purposes” turned to honest account would not “ evangelize” the Native race; but it would amply suffice to make them well behaved citizens. Thanks to the figs of tobaccoblankets - flour - sugar - and-palaver-system they rise in their demands upon us. They are simply what we months ago declared them — spoiled savages — very amiable, no doubt, in their own fashion, but still spoiled. If, from the first, they had been dealt with honestly ; if, from the first, they had been systematically taught English; if, from the first, they had been systematically untaught their silly superstitions, and left free to choose their own religious faith after systematic development of their moral nature, we should not now require “ a considerable military force” to protect us from their violence.