CAPTAIN COOK

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 156, 17 May 1909, Page 5

CAPTAIN COOK

By W. 8.. Tc Kuiti.

No. I. How many of our Maoriland born youth bot have not heard of Captain Cook. And how many more, but have heard of that immortal navigator to forget. Yet by every patriot of this, or the land be sprung from, bis memory should be kept green with pride of race and affection. When in 1780 France and Spain united their fleets to sweep England's navy from the four seas, strict orders w<*re issued to their captains should meet with Captain Cook and bis ships to in no wise molest them. Which, though he was dead a year, of which Europe did not know. bespeaks for him a respect even race animosity and the hatreds of war would not suppress. For he was not only the greatest discoverer of bis or previous times, bot of all times to come. The rabble of later voyagers 'only depeloped and confirmed his charts, bis m»>Tidians. his ocean currents, and his directions. That is ail. When he laid down the bearings of an island rock in midocean. later navigators simply followed his course and sailed dead on to the spot. When he annotated: "A shoal here at 15J fathoms;" l»i fathoms were found. When he warned: "Allow 8 miles dor ing a watch for tide currents." the lax ship captain either missed his destination or pot his ship on the rocks. When he delivered a judgment upon the characteristics and capabilities of the varied aboriginal races he met with, over a hundred years of later and closer intimacy could add nothing thereto, bot a list of the vices our civilisation has brought and taught them. Before he landed his invariable instructions to his officers and crew were to treat the inhabitants with conciliation and respect: nor to deride, nor scoff at their strange customs; rather, if they be of proper intent, to conform thereto without halt or disgust. When I the friends he made among the Polynesian chiefs presented their nose in salute, as was their custom collaterally with the Maori, he whipped off his cocked hat and touched nose with nose promptly and genially, upon which nothing would satisfy until he exchanged names with them, and thus compacted the friendship for ever. When he appeared preoccupied or careworn, at once they solicited the wherefor: was the belly band slack? A band would be inserted to investigate, and if upon judgment this was the cause, forthwith menials were ordered to kill a fat hog and bake it in thicr haani. because these simple children of Nature knew of no distresses but the satisfaction of bodily craving. When bis over welling natural kindness exuded in jokes and Merry Andrew plays, they beamed with unbounded satisfaction, and insisted upon being taught the English equivalents in words, that they might express likewise emotions. When his chieftain friend* sent him off a fat porker and canoe load of island fruits for a gift of personal esteem. they ordered the bearers to accept no gift in exchange, but when he returned he visit, and brought its equivalents, why. what woold you: were these not courtesies from lord to lord and therefore received without thanks or com- \ ment and evened up all ridges? But - the Polynesian was a nation of thieves: blank palpable thieves who thought it j neither disgrace nor abasement to be caught red handed; nor to covet and surreptitiously annex the wonder things tbey thus saw the first tjmp. That is how the great man construed the pro- ' tensity. They stole so barefacedly, an dso shamelessly, that it became an agony to took stern: and after rebuke | and restitution he must hurriedly re- ! tire to enjoy in secret the merriment discipline demanded should indicate remorseless displeasure. But this applied only to the low man. the "too too.' or the "totoa" of our Maoris—the ordinary citizen: also, maybe, a lesser cheif: bot the "Arikis." or nobles disdained to pollute their dignity with thefts which peradventure might be discoverable. And so on: the theme is too prolific with interest, bot too magnificent to j be dealt justly by a desultory descrip- j titn a* this. The dear man laments j that he is no adept at fine writing: bot i nothing in present day literature com* pares to his easy perspicuous, comprc- \ hensive. erudite language: especially j when he sums up impressions and describes what he saw in simple sonorous eloquence, which most be read again ! and yet again to acquire its full flav©or; every sentence, replete with just j the right words and no more: and dwarfs into puerile trash the Nat | Gootd. Hall Caine. Marie Corel li, and other popular literary garbage so avidly read by this go-ahead, up-to- r date age.