THE PAI MARIRE FAITH.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 6, Issue 296, 10 August 1865, Page 1

THE PAI MARIRE FAITH.

[Communicated to tUe Otago Daily Times.] The Pai Marire superstition, in its first movements so apparently insignificant, has assumed such proportions, and has been dealt with by the Governor in such a manner, as to render its frequent discussion in the coming meeting of the Assembly inevitable. It is no doubt discouraging, after all the efforts that hare been made to wean the Maoris from their idolatries, and to rescue them from barbarism, to find them relapsing suddenly into a fanaticism which threatens to revive iu them the most revolting features of cannibalism. The disappointment must be deeply felt by Bishop Selwyn, and those devoted men, the best years of whose lives have been devoted to an endeavour to convert the natives to Christianity, and through its power to humanise and civilise them. But the fact is significant. That much has been effected through missionary agency cannot be denied, fur, notwithstanding this sudden falling off in many particulars, the Maoris are a changed and improved race. Why greater and more enduring results have not followed, should be the subject of a severe and searching inquiry. It may perhaps be found that the experiment has been conducted in defiance of well ascertained principles of the human mind. Perhaps, that the mental distance between the savage and the refine i and cultivated English pastor, is too wide for the effectual teaching of the Maori. Neither can comprehend the other. The one, accustomed to the abstract and ideal, whose aspirations are after intellectual and spiritual perfection, is so far raised above the other, that he can scarcely realise the vagueness of comprehension and feebleness of grasp of everything not made palpable to the senses. That there are many exceptions to this picture, that several of the natives taught in the mission schools have given evidence of a capacity for attaining respectable intellectual cultivation, is not disputed ; but all history proves that a long period must elapse before the leaven permeates the masses.

A recent philosophic writer, in a remarkable work on the “ Intelletual Development of Europe,” maintains that nations and tribes, like individuals, in their onward progress pass through four stages of development —credulity, inquiry, faith, and reason. Starting with the Greeks and other nations, ancient and modern, famous for their civilisation and attainments in art and science, he traces their progress through each of these successive phases, and shows that without exception, this has been the rule of advancement from barbarism to civilization. Without adopting his theory in its entirety, there is at least a degree of plausibility in it. It seems possible that the influence of abstract teaching is slight and evanescent upon the untutored mind. The material illustrations the Maoris employ to signify the full purport and intention of their orations and agreements, find their counterpart in the early customs of our own forefethers, and of other nations which have long passed through the several degress of intellectual progress. It was necessary that there should be something palpable, having form and substance, to give significance to the spiritual and intellectual idea. The mind could perceive, the judgment deliberate upon, and the memory retain the impression of that which was seen or felt. In fact, no mattei how advanced or cultivated the mind, the ideal is best understood by contemplation of a picture, or a plan, or a model. -But a faint conception could be formed, by description, of the forms of those gigantic monsters that walked the earth before the advent of' the present geologic period; but let the comparative anatomist reconstruct the skeleton, and the artist clothe it with its appropriate covering of muscles, skin, and color, and the mammoth, the mastodon, and the megatherium stand revealed in their colossal might and proportions. The Hau-hau superstition, then, seems the more likely to spread, because there has been in the native mind a craving after something to be seen and done. It commends itstelf to them as more adapted to their condition and feelings than a pure aud

abstract faith. It combines the wild and visionary with the traditional usages of the country, and, on that account, too, it is more in consonance with their habits of thought. The Maoris are in the first stage of progress —the era of credulity—and although, on account of their immediate contact with a highly civilised and polished race, the probationary periods through which they will have to pass should they escape extinction, may be shortened, fresh habits, new wants, and higher aims must be induced before their progress can be marked and permanent. The chief difficulty connected with the Pai Marire fanaticism is its union of the political with the theological element. Regarded iu the light of a superstition, apart from its advent of blood and proselytism of terror, it might be left to die out as knowledge and civilization advance. Active persecution only tends to thin the ranks of the converts to any faith, of the lukewarm and timid; but unites the rest in a bond cemented firmly by a common suffering and a common danger. But when one leading thought, apparently inextricably interwoven with the Pai Marire dogmas, is the expulsion of the colonists and the extermination of the clergy, it assumes a political and seditious aspect which renders the intervention of the law , imperative. Whether or not the language of Sir George Grey’s proclamation, announcing bis determination to suppress Hau-hauism, was the wisest that could have been adopted, is open to question. As a rule, law deals with actions, not with theories; the first may be punished or haply prevented, but the dissemination of thought, whether for good or evil, is beyond the reach of the magistrate; and all past history shows that the more repression is attempted, the wider the pernicious doctrine spreads. It is a difficult matter to deal with, and one that requires nicely handling, in order that justice may be done iu such a manner as to commend itself to the Maori mind us justice.