MAORIS AND HIGHLANDERS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 807, 25 July 1870, Page 2

MAORIS AND HIGHLANDERS.

[Wo do not in any way identify ourselves with the opinions cf correspondents. J

TO THE EDITOR OE THE HAWKE'S BAT TIMES. Sir, —In your last Monday’s issue appears a leader commenting on Sir Q-eorge Bowen’s favorite comparis m between the Scottish Highlanders and the Maoris. Sir Q-eorge has not unfrequently in his despatches favored the world with the remarkable similarity ha has discovered between the present position, manners, and attitude of the Maoris with those of the Highlanders of last century; and, judging from the frequent iteration of the comparison, is vastly pleased with the apposite nature of the discovery. Perhaps you will allow me, on the other hand, to jot down a few points of dissimilarity. In the first place, the Highlanders were not, like the Maoris of to-day, a race of heathen savages, only partially—and that within the memory of living men—brought under Christian influences: on the contrary, the li?ht of Christianity first introduced into Britain by St. Columba had permeated the Scottish Highlands, while the Scandinavian hordes of the Low Country were still practising the savage rites of Thor and Odin.

As regards the relative position of raoes: while the Maori belongs to a branch of the human family entirely distinct from the white-skinned Caucasian, the Scottish Celts (or Celto-Scandinavians, as they, from admixture with the Danish and Norse settlers in the Hebrides and western Beaboard, might with more propriety be termed) ave believed to be oognate with the various migratory tribes, who, emerging from Asia and the eastern extremities of Europe, subsequently, in successive waves of invasion, spread themselves over nearly the whole of Continental Europe and the British Isles ; they cannot theretore, at any period of history, be regarded quoad the Anglo-Saxons as an alien race.

The habits and customs of the Maoris and Highlanders present wide points of divergence. While the Maori is by choice a dweller on the low country skirting the coast, and subsists principally by rude agriculture and on shell-fish, the Highland er, as a denizen of the mountains, subsisted principally by the chase, and like all mountaineers, preferred independence and i freedom from arbitrary restraint, to the amenities arising from the cultivation of the peaceful arts. At the period which Sir George chooses for a comparison, the heads of the Scottish clans were generally gentlemen of liberal education and high cultivation: in proof of this I may merely mention the names of the Marquis of Argyle (Maculiamore), Lord of the clan Campbell j and Cameron of Lochiel, head of the clan Cameron.

In respect of the cause of rebellion against the dominant powers, there is no analogy whatever. While the ostensible object of the Maori revolt is, or is supposd to be, the setting up of some incomprehensible sort of pagan superstition termed Hauhauism, that of the Highlanders wawith the chivalrous though misguided purpose of re-establishing in power a dethroned and exiled monarch, whose sway they had acknowledged, and under the banners of whose ancestors their fathers had often fought. The only conceivable poinb of resemblance is, that while, as in nearly all savage communities, the tribal system prevails in New Zealand, in the Scottish Highlands the ancient feudal system —at one time nearly universal throughout Europe, and particularly in the Scottish Lowlands, — still remained in force; owing, no doubt, principally to the isolated position of the dwellers on the mountains, and their scanty intercourse with the inhabitants of the plains. As is well known, also, the system of clanship was at a comparatively recent period in full force amongst the people of the Borders, who, in turbulent spirit and in sanguinary family feuds, were in no whit behind their Highland brethren. In Governor Bowen's supposed similarity between the meeting of Colonel Whitmore with the Maori chiefs, and Macaulay's description of the conference of Viscounr Dundee with the heads of the clans, — whether the gallant Colonel or the great General (but remorseless butcher) is most complimented in the comparison, 1 shall not take upon me to determine. I would merely remark further that Macaulay's remarks on the Highlanders, although very pleasant reading, are by no means distinguished for truthfulness of description.—l am yours, &c, w.

We would again draw attention to the Napier Garrick Club per- . formance on Wednesday next. The Gourlay family may be expected to arrive per Lord Ashley from Auckland to-day. The next meeting of the Hawke's Bay Total Abstinence Society will take place to-morrow evening at halfpast 7. Cattle.—We gather from the Wairarapa Mercury thai Mr Fleming, of Napier, has been purchasing store cattle for a station in Hawke's Bay. He left Masterton for Napier on the 18th inst. with 58 head. Tt is said that the piice given averaged £3 10s a piece. Our contemporary of Tuesday criticises a circular printed at the office of this paper, alleging that it contains no imprint. The assertion, puerile as it is, is perfectly groundless—the names of the publishers appearing at the head of each page, 4 and the imprint of the office in a prominent position in the first page. In his report of the public meeting held on last Monday evening, our contemporary of Friday last says, " we reprint Mr Harding's speech as given in the Times, simply omitting such modest interpolations as * overwhelming applause, &c.'" None but the hopelessly obtuse or wilfully blind could have mistaken the " interpolation" quoted; which referred to the words of Mr Cracroft Wilson relative to the future history of New Zealand; and we fail to see that to note the applause with which the sentiments of an absent gentleman are greeted is inconsistent with " modesty."