PROFESSOR BALDWIN IN NEW ZEALAND.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1776, 29 October 1879, Page 2

PROFESSOR BALDWIN IN NEW ZEALAND.

The following it portion of a letter written by Professor 8. S. Baldwin, who recently made a spiritualistic splash in Christchurch to an American paper. There is of course a trifle of exaggeration about his observations, but that will doubtless render them all the more amusing:— June 23rd—I have been quite ill and I was unable to finish, this letter in time for the June steamer, so I will try and write now. I am in the thriving city of Christchurch. It is about as large as Terre Haute, and is a very flourishing place. We opened here June 21st on about as bad a night as is usually seen in this part of the world, and much to my great surprise we had in about S3OO or sixty pounds sterling in British coin. I send you reports of the papers. It is very likely that Mrs Baldwin and I will never live to reach Terre Haute. The natives here are called Maoris. They are a fierce and warlike tribe of people. Lately they have been kicking up an awful row with the whites, and there is a great danger of a Maori war. The Government has called for volunteers and every day it is expected that war will commence. The Maoris are much influenced by an old chief named Te White. He works upon their superstitions, says if they go to war under his guidance they will be sure to be under divine protection and cannot fail, etc., etc. The Maoris are extremely superstitious and have much faith in the old scoundrel's promises. A few days ago, my wife, who is a bright genius, conceived the idea of having the spirit of an old Maori chief appear at the cabinet window while the spirits (?) were materialising a la Anna Stewart With her (my wife, not Anna Stewart) to plan means to produce, so that night, much to my surprise and that of the audience, a Maori's face came up and muttered a few sentences in the Native tongue. There were several half-civilised Maoris in the audience and they were stupified with wonder, and the next night several dozen came and wanted to see this old chief. The chief was obliging and came up at their request. The white people saw how the Maoris were affected, and some smart individual remembering how Robert Houdin was sent to Algeria by the French Government to counteract the influence of the Arab Sheiks, suggested that it might be a good plan if the New Zealand Government sent Mrs Baldwin and me up to the Maori country, to have the Maori ghost produced by Mrs Baldwin to counteract old Te White's works.

The Cabinet Ministers are now trying to negotiate to have us go inward about 200 miles to come of tie Maori villages and give the Natives some advice through, our ghost, that if they go to war it will be bad for them, and that Te White is a humbug. It so happens, however, that old Te White has about three thousand warriors with b:g clubs and spears and poisoned arrows, with here and there a Snider or Winchester repeating rifle, and the New Zealand army in that section is about eighty or ninety irea only, and I don't like savages with clubs, and Mrs B. says she never did look well with spears and arrows shot through her. And old Te-White, in days gone by, did occasionally dino on a nice roast missionary, and I am not as tender as I was when I was young. My show friends say it will be a great honor and I will be almost as celebrated as Stanley or Livingstone, but I never did care much about being celebrated, and I don't think my ears will look well on Te-White's watch chain, and I can't persuade myself that I was cut out for missionary work, and it would make me bashful to Bee so many naked imps, and half of them women, too, but Mxa B. says she thinks I could manage to get over that. I don't go, however j that is, I don't think I will at present. I think I will visit Terre Haute flret. The Government statistics are just out. According to it there is an enormous amount of liquor drank in New Zealand. It averages about 25 dollars each per year for every man, woman, and child on the islands, yet these people call themselves temperate. I may be able to learn to like the ways of New Zealand hotel keepers, but I don't think so at present. A few nights ago it was awfully cold, and we) had not enough bed covering, so the night porter (he is called " boots" here), after muoh rummaging around, brought us a couple of horse blankets. S. S. Baldwin.