A Chapter on Pai-Marire.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 345, 29 January 1866, Page 1

A Chapter on Pai-Marire.

THE NEW RELIGION OF THE MAORIS. (Prom Eraser’s Magazine, for October.) Concluded.

The only attempt to repress Pai Marire fanaticism has been by mean of a proclamation, which appeared in the Government Gazette. In that proclamation the Governor denounces them as rebels, and threatens them with all the penalties of the law; but the attempt made to enforce those penalties iu the case of the Opotiki murderers, signally failed. The steady flow of the Atlantic was not arrested by Mrs Partington’s broom; the rapid progress of fanaticism will not be stayed by proclamations, which, of our weakness, all history proves that the employment of force in the repression of religious errors serves only to aggravate the evil and prolong its existence. If the Maori commits crimes under the cloak of religion, those crimes should be punished ; but he has an unquestionable right to adopt any funn of religious belief he chooses, so long as he is guilty of the violation of the law. It is highly creditable to the missionary body in New Zealand that they have displayed a magnanimity in their adversity which they failed to exhibit in the hour of their prosperity. They have unquestionably suffered more from the recent change than any other class. They have been driven from the homes which they set up in the wilderness by those to whose spiritual welfare they had devoted their whole lives; they have seen the churches where they preached the sublime morality of the Great Master desecrated and profaned by the foul orgies and coarse licentiousness of the new faith; the edifice which they reared with so many prayers and such earnest toil has been swept away by a sudden outbreak of fierce fanaticism ; the confidence and affection with which they were once regarded have given place to feellings of distrust and hatred; one of their number has earned the martyr’s crown by a death of torture; Their temple hath not loft a stone. And mockery sits on Salem's throne. If we had occasion to blame them in the hour of their prosperity, we offer them the tribute of our sincere admiration for the magnanimous spii’it they have shown under their recent trials and sufferings. There has been po fierce outcry for vengeance disguised under religious phraseology, or couched in the language of prayer ; uo attempt to widen the gulf which separates the two races, or to fan the flame of hatred which burns in their hearts. No, while the tears of sorrow were flowing from their eyes for a martyred brother they spoke not, they thought not of vengeance; their only prayer was ; “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Such conduct may seem pusillanimous to those who cannot appreciate the motives from which they act; but the time will come when those who blame them most will he the first to confess their error. Sweet are the uses of adversity, and the missionaries of New Zealand have experienced them to be so. There is uo man in the colony whom wo admire more than Bishop Solwyn; he may be safely accepted as the exponent of missionary feeling and principle, and wo have much pleasure in reproducing part of the charge which he recently delivered to his clergy at Canterbury. “ Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil ? It is of his wisdom that we meet now in sorrow rather than in joy. It is good for us that we have been afflicted. The w r ar, which seemed to have come to an end, was renewed by the perversity of a few misguided men. Mixed with the new element of the confiscation of land, it acquired a bitterness unknown before. The missionary clergy were believed to be the agents of the Government in a deep-laid plot for the subjagation of the native people. Our congregations melted away ; our advice was disregarded. Exasperated by continued defeat and loss of friends and relations, many became reckless. The feeling grew among them that they would abandon the religion of their enemies, and set up one of their own. An imposter from Taranaki placed himself at the head of the movement. Pretended miracles, unknown tongues, inspiration from heaven, messengers from angels were alleged

as usual in support of the imposture. The delusion spread and reached the East Coast, New tribes were to be startled and overawed. A leader of inferior rank demanded of the people of Opotiki the sacrifice of their own missionary. No other life was touched of the many white men who fell into their hands. It was a murder of fanaticism, you have all read the details of the outward workings of this mystery of iniquity. Join with me in recognizing the finger of God working in hidden wisdom, yet evidently in love. 4 The fierceness of man shall turn to his praise.’ ” God has granted to our native church an audience like those in the days of old. Our first martyr died at peace with his enemies, and with prayer for his murderers. A modern writer, iu a poem called Boniface , has supplied me with words so applicable to Sir Volkner’s death that I make no excuse for quoting them:— This ia the Trill of God, and let us meet It, As man who know the body may he kiUed, Hut the soul lives for ever. Sure am I That this shall be no hindrance to the faith. The blood of martyrs makes the good seed grow. Have we not read how, after Stephen’s death, The Gospel spread more widely f Let us wait, To this sentiment every believer in revealed religion, every friend of humanfty, will cordially say Amen. Pai Marirism is a revival of the old heathenism, with a slight admixture of Judaism; it would make the Maori what he was some half-century ago—, a ferocious savage, delighting in bloodshed, feasting on his fellow-men Tike a beast of prey. It is a religion of anarchy, the offspring of despair; it sprung from temporary causes and can only have a temporary existence. We must not suppose that the missionaries have labored in vain, because the Maoris have cast away their cords and broken their bonds asunder. They may not always have sown the best seed; there may have been an undue proportion of Jewish tares mingled with their Christian wheat; they may base dealt too largely in what Carlyle emphatically calls 44 Hebrew old clothes but they have done good work in their days, and it would be ungenerous to dwell too much on their shortcomings in the hour of their adversity. Their labor has not been Ipst; their lessons have not been altogether forgotten: the little leaven of divine truth that still remains has produced deeds of generous self-denial and Samaritan-like kindness to our wounded, such as reflect honor not only on the Maori race, but on humanity itself. We unhesitatingly affirm that the conception even of such deeds could never have penetrated the Maori intellect had it not been for the teaching of the missionaries; and if such deeds are exhibited iu the time of war. what may we now expect on the return of peace ? The old heathenism was not entirely displaced by Christianity ; and Christianity has not been altogether displaced by Pai Marirism. When this miserable war is once over, and peace re-established be tween the Maori and pakeha, Pai Marirism will speedily disappear, and the influence of the missionaries be greater than ever. They have sown in tears and they will reap iu joy. The revival of their influence will not save the Maoris from their doom ; their final and speedy extinction is the result of powerful operating causes over which the missionaries have no control; hut there is some comfort in the thought that their last hours, as individuals and as a nation, will be soothed by the presence and teaching of those who are their natural protectors and have proved themselves their best friends. They will take their stand, like him of old, between the living and the dying, acting the part of mediators between the Anglo-Saxon, full of unscrupulous energy and unbounded ambition, and the Maori, conscious of his doom, and ever retreating before the pakeha, till he has disappeared from the face of the earth. As we write we learn that William Thompson; Potatau, the Maori King; Rewi, the great warrior of the Waikato ; and five other leading chiefs of the insurgents, have given iu their submission and taken the oath of allegiance, so that the war may now be regarded as at an end. We are heartily glad of it. We sincerely trust it will be tiie last war between the pakeha and the Maori. If the colonists will but exercise a.little patience the whole of New Zealand will soon pass into their hands, and the will live only iu like the Moa. The cessa-

tion of hostilities may prolong his existence for a time, but cannot avert his fate. We may say of him as the Czar Nicholas said of the Turk : Vinvalide est iris malade; let us not now show our sympathy by knocking him on the head. If vve cannot save him, let us leave him to his fate, so as that when he passes away, we may enter in and take possession without being haunted by the remembrance of a great crime. The establishment of peace will be the death-blow of the Pai Marire superstition; it may linger for a time among the half-savage tribes in the interior, but even there it will speedily disappear. The missionaries will return to their quiet homes in the wilderness; their churches, purified from Pai Marire pollution, will he thrown open for Christian worship ; their former flocks will gather around them: Yolkner will be the first and last martyr in New Zealand; and this short-lived fanaticism will only be remembered among the many delusions to which the human life is subject. The same post which announces the surrender of the Maori King makes known to us the significant fact that hundreds of the natives are crowding to the churches, not to celebrate the foul rites of heathenism, but to worship as they were wont to worship before they were given over to a delusion and to believe in a lie. This is the small cloud in the horizon, the harbinger of the triumph of the Christain faith among a doomed and dying race. We shudder as we think of Volkuer’s death of torture ; we are comforted by the thought that he has not died in vain.

The hlooil of martyrs makes, the good seed grow. Have we not read how, after Stephen’s death, The Gospel spread more widely ? Let us wait. P. C. B.