An Appeal to the Maori People.

Korimako, Issue 31, 15 August 1884, Page 5 (Supplement)

An Appeal to the Maori People.

[TRANSLATION.]

In the Auckland newspaper called the "New Zealand Herald" I read the following statements of Pehi Hetau Turoa of Ngatokorua, who, asked by an English traveller to give the apparent reason for the rapid decay of the Maori race, said:—"ln former times we lived differently, each tribe had its own territory. We lived in pas, placed high upon the mountains. The men looked to war as their only occupation, and the women and young people cultivated the fields. We were a strong and healthy people then. When the Pakeha came everything began to die away, even the natural animals of the country. Formerly when we went into a forest we could not hear ourselves speak for the noise of the birds, every tree was full of them. Then we had pigeons and everything in plenty ; now many of the birds have died out. A few years ago there was the Kakapo in the

forests, now it is gone ; and many other things have gradually died away. Jn those times the fields were well tilled, there was plenty of provisions, and we wore few clothes, only our mats of feathers. Then the missionaries came, and took our children from the fields, and taught them to sing hymns; they changed their minds, and the fields went untilled. The children came home and quoted gospel on an ernpty stomach. Then came the war between the Maori and the Pakeha, that split up our homes, and caused one tribe to fight against another, and after the war came the Pakeha settlers, who took our lands, taught us to drink, and to smoke, and made us wear clothes that brought on diseases. What race could stand against all that % The Maori is passing away like the Kiwi, the lui, and many other things, and by-and-bye they will disappear just as the leaves of the trees, and nothing will remain to tell of them but the names of their mountains and rivers." When I read these statements of Pehi Hetau Turoa I was sad, because there is much truth in what he says. I have often heard these words before; viz. that the Maori race must decline before the European with his civilization, and many, both Maori and Pakeha look upon this as inevitable, that no power can prevent it. I say it grieves me exceedingly to hear men speak thus, and to think that such a race should fade away oil the face of the earth. But why is their decay inevitable ? Surely their decline can be stayed—surely the race can be saved—for the cause of their decline is no mystery, the reasons are evident and the causes are avoidable, if, by God's help, the Maori people will themselves grapple with them, and not make ivp their minds that as a race they are doomed. I shall

answer Pehi's question ""What race can stand before these evils ?" There are a great many Pakehas who say, " It is useless to appeal to the Maori people thus, they are too indolent, and the vices are too deeply implanted, for them to make an effort to reform, they will listen but will not act or strive to save themselves." There are others who hope and greatly desire to see the Maori people live and prosper, but they have not the power to stay the calamity spoken of, they are fighting against the evils and temptations by which they, and their fellows, are beset. Everywhere a continual warfare is being waged, the good against the evil ; the evil in our hearts is always fighting against the gcod, evil habits and institutions are ever opposed to the good. But the good is bound to overcome in the end; it is sure to win the fight; as Christ has overcome the Prince of evil, and will help all to overcome who trust in Him. It is true the European has introduced this great curse, drink, and other vices to New Zealand, which have done much harm to the Maori, but these vices also do harm to those Europeans who practise them; the Pakeha who desires'to prosper endeavours to avoid these vices, if not he must suffer the penalty. The chief men, and the good men of the Pakeha, try their utmost to help their weaker fellow men to avoid and resist the evils, they also make laws, and endeavour to prevent wicked men from hurting or injuring themselves and others, this help and these laws, effect much good, and so by God's blessing the people grow wiser, become more temperate, are better educated and thus become more intelligent, are bettei clothed, live in more comforable houses, use more wholesome food, are healthier, and, above all, learn how to rear their young children, and

treat their sick people ; and now succeeding generations find themselves better off than their forefathers. One reason why the Anglo-Saxons, or English speaking people, are increasing so rapidly all over the world, is because they have learnt how to take proper care of their children and sick people, old as well as young. It must not be thought that the Maori is dying off simply because he is a Maori; no such thing. It is idleness leading to dissipation, neglect, and disease, that is ravaging the Maori race, and those causes would just as surely destroy the Europeans if they, as nations, gave way to them, it may perhaps be doubted but it is the truth, and can easily be proved from the career of depraved Europeans in this country. Take, for instance, the man who has become a confirmed drunkard; he ceases to work regularly, his employers becoming disgusted with his dissipated and irregular habits discharge him, he becomes a loafer about the public houses, has no proper food to eac, by degrees his clothes wear out, and he has no money to buy more, what clothes he has are filthy, he becomes covered with vermin and falls sick, presently he is found by the police lying in the streets drunk and diseased, he is arrested, brought before the Magistrate as a vagrant, and is committed to gaol for six months; Then the tide turns with him. At the gaol he is made to wash himself every day—for cleanliness is the principal aid to health—warm clothes are given to him, and he has regular food to eat, and a certain amount of work to perform each day, and now Avhat is the result; why that the man who was admitted dirty, weak, and diseased, is discharged from gaol, at the end of the term, clean, healthy and strong. If he is wise he continues sober,

and industrious, but if l le j foolish he reverts to his old ind o . lent drunken ways, with the sure result that in. a short time he will sink into a worse state of degradation than he was in formerly and the end of that man will be wretched, he will die like a doer in a ditch. Thus it is seen that the same influences that are killing the Maori, also kill the European; and let me again urge the Maori to be wise in time; the thing is in their own hands. .Now, let the chiefs, the good men, the leaders of the Maori people, bestir themselves. Following the example of the good men of the Pakeha let them do their utmost to help their people to avoid, to resist continually and perseveringly the temptation of strong drink, and the evils of idleness that are destroying them, and by force of example and influence, by the establishing of sanitary regulations in the villages, and "by every reasonable means, teach them to be cleanly, virtuous, temperate, and industrious; to cultivate their fields better, and grow more abundant and regular supplies of food ; to build larger houses, on elevated ground, to drain round about their houses, and to remove all filth and refuse to a distance from them, to build chimneys in them, and to divide the houses into apartments or divisions so that the youngfemales may have apartments separate from the others; to avoid lying about in wet clothes, and cease from alloving their little children to smoke tobacco, and especially to take gi eater care of their children and young people, then they will be healthy and strong, and their children robust. Then will the Maori be able to hold his own with the best of the European?; and the two races amalgamating will found a nation here '$ New Zealand that will be the admiration of the world.

These reforms cannot be accomplished in a day or a year, but, as with the Pakeha whose progress in civilization has been slow and has occupied many generations, they can be accomplished gradually and surely : the Maori has the advantage of examples before him to imitate, and therefore can make much quicker progress than those nations who have not these examples near then?.. It is reported that Bishop Selwyn, many years ago, said, that history had no record of any uncivilized race having become civilized in less than five generations ; and that the Maori people have shown greater powers of receptivity than any other lace known, excepting, perhaps, the Japanese. 1 The advance of civilization in New Zealand and elsewhere is inevitable, hence the necessity there is for the Maori and all other native races to adapt themselves to the new mode of livinoit brings with it. Two great European travellers who have visited different parts of the world, tell us, that in all their travels they have found that only\ those races who use milk as an article of food, survive contact with Europeans and civilization ; this means, not simply that they use milk for food, but that they conform to the inevitable advance of civilization by adopting a settled agricultural life, keeping cattle and living the more regular life which the daily use of milk necessitates. There is no doubt that an agricultural occupation is the one most suited to the Maori, and the one they can most readily adapt themselves to, there are many other occupations they can engage IJ i, such as shipbuilding, carpentering, gum digging, gold-mining, a nd a seafaring life; but tilling the soil and keeping stock (cattle, sheep, pigs, &c.) naturally

suits the bulk of the people. There are many crops they conld grow with advantage both as articles of food and also for the markets, but these crops, and also cattle and sheep, to be managed successfully require some knowledge constant care and attention, for no good can be done without diligent application and. perseverance to attain the desired results. Are you willing, 0 chiefs! and leaders of the Maori people, to awaken from your dreams, to be temperate and industrious yourselves, and :o resolutely set yourselves to learn, as did Peter the Great the Emperor of Bussia who, long ago, left his throne and visited England to learn the industrial arts, so that he might teach his barbarous and ignorant people. Are you too, willing to learn and to instruct your people in agriculture and other industrial occupations, and to cultivate some of the good foods and other things Providence has brought to your country by the hands of the Pakeha, so that you and all your people may become prosperous, and may leave the days of hunger and sickness (from want of food) far behind. Are you willing to save your people from " the threatening decline we hear this chief Pehi Hetau Turoa and others speak of; if so you will change the advent of the Pakeha which some of you look upon as a curse, into a great blessing, and history will repeat itself, for the British people once looked upon the invasion of the Boman legions as a calamity, but after they had learnt their useful arts they thought otherwise. Pehi says the advent of the Pakeha is the cause of all the evils he names. It may be so, but has not the Pakeha also brought thousands of good things ? If the rat, the tui, the kiwi, the kakapo, and other birds are disappearing, has he not

introduced the pig, cattle, sheep, the horse, fowls, the potato, maize, wheat, barley, oats, and many other articles of food; also the plough, harrow, spade, axe, and hoe, all of which make the work of the Maori far less labourious than formerly; and let me here say that, if the Maori people were as diligent as in the past, they would now be even wealthy, instead of" poor, half-starved, sickly, and dying, as so many are during our winter season. Ask yourselves is not indolence your great sin ? and have not your people adopted many of the evil habits the Pakeha has introduced, and but few of the good ones ? If you persist in these things then my answer to Pehi is—no race can stand before them. But will you still sit in your canoes drifting down the river, towards the rapids, and over the great fall, without making an effort to save yourselves, will you not take to your paddles and pull for the shore while you can, while the stream can yet be stemmed ? Kei wareware tatou e Tama ma kite whakatauki tuarangi, "He huarahi ano tera e-tika ana ki ta te tangata titiro iho : tona mutunga ia ko nga huarahi kite mate." Pehi also says, " The missionaries came and took the children from the fields and taught them to sing hymns, this changed their minds, and the fields went untilled. The children came home and quoted gospel ou an empty stomach." I ask, Is it rig-lit that the children should work in the fields ? Ought not the men to do this work, and should not the children go to the schools, where available '( There are no tribal wars now to occupy the time of the men, therefore they ought to do much work for the support of themselves, their wives, children, and aged people, instead of wasting their lives in idleness, as so many are now doing.

And was it not very desirable the children's minds should be changed ? Would Pehi have them grow up in darkness, superstition, and ignorance, without any knowledge of the God who made them and the Saviour who redeems them; with their minds filled with thoughts of hatred and revenge for real or imaginary wrongs done to their fathers and thus perpetuate evil and strife ? Let Pehi look back forty-five years ago, and see the mission flags flying every Sunday morning, and hear the bells ringing to call the Maoris to worship, indeed so earnest were the people then that, if they could not buy a bell, they would hang up the go-ashore and ring that to gather the worshipers together ; let him tell us of] the great prosperity to be seen in those days around every mission station. At Mongonui, Whangaroa, Hokianga, Xaitaia, Tohoranui, Te Puna, Oihi, Tangitu, Waimate, Paihia, Whangarei; at the Manukau settlements; at Kauwaeranga ; also at the mission stations on the Waikato river, and along the coast to Whanganui; at ftotorua, Tauranga, and Waiapu; the Maoris had food in abundance, enough to export to Port Jackson and other places; they had also flour-mills, cattle,

horses, and agricultural implements ; they were industrious and prosperous; was not all this the result of the teaching of the missionaries ? Have the Maoris any better friends now, than the missionaries were in those days ? I think not. The communistic habits of the Maori people, with whom practically no separate rights of property exist, is perhaps the greatest discouragement to many who are disposed to be industrious, to acquire property, and have a good home around them. -A way from the influence of his own people the Maori can be quite as diligent as the European, indeed, many years ago, in Sydney and Melbourne Maoris were considered to be rather better and more steady workmen than the European labourers. In the old days the law of muru prevented any one from gathering around him anything of value, for at any moment his goods might be taken from him as utu by his frienps and relations, for perhaps no fault of his own ; but the law of muru is almost forgotten, a man may now work and gather together goods without fear, but for these communistic habits I speak of; for no sooner

does he adopt a European mode of living, and get his house i n t 0 than his more indolent acquaintances crowd to his pl ace and stay there until thev have eaten up all he has. They put their horses into his paddocks or borrow his horse and saddle his boat, and it may be big clothes and money, and leave him as poor as themselves who are too idle to work. Cases such as this have often occurred, and so it is almost hopeless for a Maori to endeavour by industry and thrift to provide for Limself and family a comfortable home and its surroundings while your customs will allow his less painstaking friends to visit him, and without scruple eat up his food and beg or borrow his property for their own use. Against this custom you must make your own laws, foi it leads to idleness and idleness to intemperance, and intemperance to decay and death. There are some other points in the statements of Pehi which I can refer to at some future time. From Edward Champtaloup.