"MAORIOLATRY."

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 13, Issue 678, 3 May 1869, Page 3

"MAORIOLATRY."

Under the above lieading, the following admirable letter appears in the New Zealand Herald of the 28th inst, : Sib,—l observe by late Southern intelligence that a number of Native Chiefs and their wives were present at the ball given in honor of H.B.H. tho Duke of Edinburgh at Wellington, and that they were moreover dressed in evening costume, and generally got up regardless of expense. Such a paragraph republished in the English papers, will give an idea of Maori civilization about as wide of the mark as anything can be. I remember a vice regal ball given not so very long ago in Auckland, at which a somewhat similar circumstance took place, and duly recorded in the Auckland journals. " Well," thought I, on reading the paragraph, " there is hope for Jack Maori yet." That sir, was in the days of my virgin simplicity—they can't come over me that way now. By-and-bye I ascertained a fact which enlongated my visage considerably, viz., that all this toggery was supplied "by order" to the " great unwashed," and for which the over-burdened Colonial taxpayer had to pay the piper. The little bill of a wellknown draper, (duly vouched for, I suppose, by the Native Office, and honored at the Treasury), contains tho following morceau—"To Miss H wini, chemise, 1 crinoline, kiu gloves, cambric handkerchief, eau de Colonge " (to take the chill off the shark oil, I presume); while quite a quantity qf handkerchiefs, kid gloves, scents, &c, appear further on to have been bestowed upon a number of Maoris of various genders. I had been deluded into looking upon the matter as the homage of of barbarism to civilization—as the latest evidence of Maori aptitule for imitation when all the time the Maori Pocahontas had been displaying her ample charms at my expense, as a Colonial taxpayer — thanks to the good offices of a department whose range of duty seems to embrace everything from administrating " milk punch" to Native Chiefs (see Parliamentary Blue Book) down to catering for underclothing to Maori nymphs ! I am not, I hope, a malignant individual, but if we are to have a ball in honor of H.E.H., in Auckland, and the " irrepressible Maori " is brought again upon the stage, I trust that "Miss H wini," will make an effort to obtain her outfit on the self-re-liant principle. So when we read of Maori chiefs and their dusky spouses being in evening costume at the Wellington ball, viewed in the light of the episode just related, the announcement imparts moro of regret than pleasure. But there is another item recorded in the Southern intelligence, viz., that a party of some three hundred " friendly" Maons s after being kept at Wellington for a week, at the expense of the Government, declined to perform a war-dance for the gratification of the Prince unless £2OO was paid to them; ultimately, in a fit of wild generosity, they announced that they were prepared to exhibit themselves for the low sum of £6O! The offer was gratefully accepted. Such a sight may be a luxury to a Wellington Government, but considering that it can be seen gratuitously at the Maori market every day in the week, our Keception Committee will, I should hope, refrain from rashly investing in the amusement. The Wellington journals denounced the so-called wardance, in honor of the Prince, as " a sham," and I can well believe it. In all probability it was got up in the usual Btyle—a few old women waving shawls

with cries of " Haere mai!"—a number of adults making insane grimaces, and causing sad haroc to what is left of their body garments, while the rag-tag-and-bobtail wound up the general uproar. And it is for such a sight i hat £6O was paid I If tho Prince is to witness the genuine article (and there are those amongst us who will do their best to have it done) he will see that which his royal parent would scarcely thank the colonists for providing. I have had the good or ill-fortune in " the good old times," to witness the war-dance proper. Some men look lovingly upon what they regard as the poetry of savage life; the only impression the war-dance gave me was that of some three hundred men simultaneously committing a breach of a certain clause and a sub section of the Municipal Police Act. Fancy some two or three hundred Maoris, as naked as tho day they were born, letting out the most diabolical yells ever heard beyond the regions of the lost—their eyes inverted until nothing but the whites could be seon, while the tongue protruded to any extent, say from three inches to a foot-rule. Add to tWs a sprinkling of women—ugh! women, did I say? —as ugly as sin, warming up to their work, with each succeeding haJca t until casting to the winds at once their fears and their clothes, a paueity of skirt and amplitude of limb combined to leave but little mystery. Is that the sight to offer to the son of our Sovereign? If he sees the sham the sight is not worth a brass penny, and will give him about as good an idea of a Maori war-dance as'' >ix my Dolly" would of the " Old Hundredth "; if ho sees the genuine avticle, such as the unfathomable savagery of the Maori nature can alone make it, then ho will see that which no Christian or civilized Government should tolerate, far les3 sanction. Provided wo cannot show anything to the Duke which would betoken Maori civilization and industry, we need not go out of our way to arouse the savage instincts, not yet dormant, and publish to the world their shame and ours. Is tho war-dance the Maori's "trumpcard" after nearly thirty years of British rule, and almost half a century of missionary teaching ? Old colonists who know a thing or two, are not easily startled out of their propriety, but Sir George Bowen when he went North a year ago to atone for the absence of the Duke, must have been the least bit staggered at what he witnessed during the war-dance at "Waitangi; on that occasion, he saw more of the native " subject" in one short quarter of an hour, than he is likely to do during the balance of his administration, in the ordinary way. For the life of me, I cannot understand the Maoriolatry which prevails, and in a country, too, whose contemporaneous history is being written in tears and blood by the Maori; there are noble exceptions I grant —just the one swallow that makes the Philo-Maori summer ! Why still further inflate the vanity of a race to whose pride that of Lucifer is meek humility ? Are these men demigods, that Englishmen should speak with bated breath in their presence, and feel thankful to approaeh their Prince by clinging to the Maori's skirts ? Just as we have managed and trained them in matters political, so have they been trained by their "shepherds" in matters religious—led to regard themselves as much better than their European brethren—as the " salt of the earth," and much more than that. Even Te Kooti, who knows just enough of Scripture to misquote, impiously shows how Jehovah's power was manifested in the slaughter of the helpless and the innocent, and asserts his claims to Paradise with a modesty only exceeded by that of the Federal contrabands, who were in the habit of singing at their camp meetings—- «• Walk in darkies, troo de gate,' Hark! der colorsd angels lioller I ' Go way white folks, yu's too late, We's de winning color, wait Till de trumpet blows to foller!'" —I am, &c, A Colonial Taxpayeb. pg,—With reference to the project of paddling the Prince over to the Lake in a canoe, your correspondent " Civis" has some practical and apposite remarks: " Sitting behind about a hundred Maoris would not be such a treat as proposed, especially if they got rather warm, which they would be sure to do on the occasion.'* If we imagine, in addition, the wind to be dead on end, then all I can say is, that in such a contingency, the Duke has strong claima upon the sympathy and compassion of every loyal colonist.