Correspondence.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XI, Issue 668, 2 April 1859, Page 4

Correspondence.

?the tfaTivE Question. <• . To iheEditor"&f'the Lyttelton Times. . /"Sie,—ln your issue ofthe sth irat; is"an7extract; jirjariaan article- in the ' Southern Cross' '"upon, a tfcrttbn-'jbf the native question^that native (Question Being; thev^aomentous one of the best method of gdvernihg^r fellow-subjects of the Maori rac#— and. theahtroduction and furtherance amongithem~ of true; civilisattoivso as to raisethem religiously., and morally, to a full equality With ourselves of vflie European race, not overlooking the great desideratum, of equalising, peaceably and hoheafly, thei ownership of 'ihe land between the two. races according •to their respective require-, ments. I believe i that upon the best method; of effecting this latter object I shall not be found vfco agree altogether with, the editor of -the, 'Southern Cross;' and yet I am .weU aw^re *how cbmpeterit he w to: advocate th«wiew which he mayitakebf theiubject, and also.-of -'the great amounir of infer-: .which he possesses thereon. But it "is a party question in the island,1 and' the. talented editor has been one of those who find KttUv elie but mistakes and blunders in the governors of , flxs colony, and of those who have endeavoured to protect the rights of the Maories, as a portion of the:Queißn's subjectß, placed from ciroum^tanees in a disadvantageous position, anoV particularly in the .matter of alienating their -lands. Nor is the subject without difficulties. as among the white men themselves. The immense breadth of land claimed t»y grants, from-the .natives by old; white residents 3"a a st^pient proof of this point. la this, middleisland, taken' by itself, the ques-. is of 3ut very little importance. We nave liere &■ ver/^J[ew Maories who, decently clothed, : move About ajiaong us either on foot or on horsei -bsqlc, with now and then a Maori lady with side- • saddle and a round-about for riding habit, riding a slapping pace, with two or three cavalier attendants. .From these the settlers have little to expect -and nothing to fear. It is, however, not altogether ' vtha.saaie in the noriKern inland, where the Maori. population is'fully three times that of the European, arid 'where a..little mismanagement or an ■insult (probably not intentional^) given, may at once cause the spreadi^fifire .and murder among ihe;unsuspecting settlers. EeEhaps a.few words explanatory of the present" situatiaawof the Maoines «poh the northejsn, island; may hot 'bey-unacceptable 4o many-of your reade.FS^-and may at thetsame,time .•give some-insight'into onesart.of this saidmitive question. . ; ,:.■,.. • „ ■ I beg leave to premise that in whatever I. say I speak from my own self only- I have no interest wtheras a partisan' or oiiefwise in the question. :Kv. this, as on every other subject on which. I . <have comnaunicated with the pubiib througK your antl I may add through anyothercGlumns ',"', ~or pages, :€JiaVe ever spoken of what I had heard, , ■seen, experienced, «r reflected upon myself, and ! have intruded no scraps of tiecond hand: learning \ on my own for the furtherance of any cause whatever^ /First, I would say a word upon the physical leondition of the Maori, race as it has come under •my observation. Here it may be asked—^How did; :tl get any kiiowledgeof this race ?•• My ansAver is, •1 ' have, iivefl within a - short distance of several of their villages for .some years; I . have •dealt /with them-vvery frequently, I have eni-; -ployed many ©f 'them in: labour; I- have been slightly in pei'sonal conflict with' them; I have, bxtt.with great care, endeavoured to alleviate their fainsin sickness;'lhave fed them-; I have sometimes received tokens of gratitude for kindness bestowed upon them; I have ;frequently visited them in their villages; I have mastered enough of .their language to be able to converse with them on 'Commonly occurring subjects ; I have been 'tnisted 'by them-T—for-ron. a■■tihie when hostilities were rather expected among them many of their woniieri, chil-; Viren, and old men came upon tlsft land where I wa«,| under the idea that they would be in safety ihere ; : . in fact, 3I hold for a considerable time friendly rela-' tions ■with, them; arid they evinced their estimate of friendship in exact correspondence with tW notions of many of tlieir white-faced brtithren—by getting into debt and never paying. ■ . • : | • According to traditions among themselves, they i«ame to these islaaas f\-6m some of the "islands in

'the Pacific ocean, not by one particular migration; ■hut at various periods, the first arrival being some .centuries back, and the last not riiore than two. 'They have a tradition that th 6 first immigrants .' landed sevnowhew in or \>y Cook's Straits, and that one of their first acts was to kill and eat a moa. .Although to all intents and purposes they are now ' one people, yet three distinct varieties mayberecog- ' .nltsecl aitiong them. One, to which ail the princi,prtr chiefs that I have seen, belong, are distinfuished by features approaching in form to the lurbpean, ra«any of them possessing wally fine and (commiuidiiig1 eouutenaDces, distinguished however

very oftoniby sometlungtftf .the Jewish type of nose. Theirlips iuufull ; but .not Jhick after the Negro fashion. ..Their hair is black andtstraight, arid they are generally rather tall. Seme of the women of this variety would be *v.cry good looking Jbad fihoy the red and white of the Circivssians. Many of the hereditary, freemen Jbelong to 'this v variety, and are frequently s.quave-built,.of tlie Jolin Bull style, or of his brother >iihe Welshman's. A second variety have hair of a brownish or reddish tinge, with thin lips: the upper are generally very long, so as to be apparently pushed upwands <when the mouth is shut.; Their countenances Tare thinner than the others, and from what I have seen of them, I consider them to bo rather a*s*nal3er variety than the ofehei's. They appear to be of the-class of smaller chiefs, or of freemen. <I- have >feeen none of these among the few Maories that ll have seen in this province, lihey are jiot ihanflsome; the skins of i some of, them ho.wevor <&o not appear to be darker than the skins of v«ome of ,the half-castes. The third variety appear to belong to a lower class among them and were in fact hereditary slaves, generally now however emancipated, or in course of being so, at least in the vicinity of European > settlements. These have generally* thick lips | approaching to the Negro type, with noses inclined to be flat; their hair .also :has ia i instances a tendency to the tufty growth met with in the Negroes generally. The individuals of this variety are seldom tall. ; There ; appears to be no distinction made between the two first varieties among themselves, but the slaves, have always been very cheap, so far.as their life or .their property was concerned. Indeed they were entirely, together, i with all their property, their masters' possession. I have paid money for labour to a Maori who was the/slav.elof aichief,..aifid the chief immediately took; itirom'him-arid' laid'it. put for himself,, and this is by no means a solitary instance which has come to" my knowledge. Besides the hereditary slaves there were however a considerable number of men who had been taken in war, or rather, I should say,providentially saved from the massacre made by the victorious party. These, since the spread of Christianity, together vwiih the ..peaceful intercourse which has ;of late years been held among the ; various -taribeß,-have many of them ,-been freed ancl have returned to their native tribes, arid-sbmeof them .have again returned--^but as freemen^-to the tribe of, their captors. There was but -little difference: in the mere eating drinking and lodging particulars between the slaves and the freemen or even the chiefs in their original state. But the chiefs had power over the slaves to bind and to loose, to kill and to keep alive. The women and female children taken in their forays became the wives and the property, of their captors, and were adopted,.into their tribes, cultivating the lands but very slightly for the.growth of taro, and,;since the days of Captain Cook, of the potato. The .Maories depended upon the natural productioas .of the land • and the^water- for their daily food; and excepting the pipis and cockles upon the beach, neither the land nor; the water yielded abundantly, fern root being the staple article, of sustenance. These islands have never had more than a very scanty population, but, few as the people were, they had considerable difficulty with their desultory industry in procuring a sufficiency of food, and on the land a large breadth was required to roam over to find a sufficiency, 3Trom this fact the land became an object of great value among them, and most of their wars appear to ; have, originated in quarrels about the ownership of the soil, which, once set on foot, were embittered by their cannibal; propensities and their desire to acquire women as wives, and slaves; The boundaries of their several properties were, distinctly markedly the ridges of the.hills and other marks, and I have seen ancient posts and stripped trees marking a long line which Maori tradition held to be a bounSary line settled between contend-? ing chiefs or tribes, marking. how far each-might come to catch rats, or gather karaka or other fruits on the laridj or- tocatcn eels in the^ rjocks. Hence also have arisen among; :then£) lawi and: customs relatahg to the land and its' tenure almost as abstruse and apparently :as incomprehensible as thoa© of England. Thus a jnan may have the property of the timber growing «a the soil, but no property whatever in the sou itself* The soil of a district appears usually to be the property of the tribe'for usebut the. fee appears to be in the chiefs. These have the power of selUrig, or rather of giving a titler-^but it must be with the consent of the freemen.-.pf thef tribe, who divide the proceeds of the sale; these freemen having, it would appear, an-express'right to till so much of the land as they may require for tluir own purpose, and for,so long as they may please, but when abandoned it becomes again a portion of the common lot. The chiefs are entitled to a certain quantity of labour from each man of the tribe, in putting in and taking up their crops upon [the common soil. A very few steps farther and we should have the tenure of copyhold. The people, however, both chiefs and freemen, .have occasionally land in fee which they can sell or do aB they please with. . But the freeman may require the support of a chief to protect him from encroachment. Here we may, with little help from the imagination, perceive the incipient feudal retainer .and hin lord. Besides these incidents of • their landed, property, it appears that they have ■ some things that may be likened to abeyance and remainder;?.' A woman who is by kin a chieftainess marry a ireeman, and, in some cases at least,, loses ;her power of governing, although still treated wrfch.-eonsidsrable respect by the members of the tribe.. fiufr'vUer son, when he becomes capable, assumes power "in *the tribe and is-obeyed. Whether lie c^?* annul proceedings or sales that have taken place in his nonage or not, 9L am not at all able positively.to say; t:?t..froin whatl'know of Maori feelings,-I am inclined '^o .think that he would hirteAWriykt to, annul tliL'igs dor^e contrary to his intefests'if h'eM'(Vthe>6Mi1c/ <. : "tha MaOries . are also acquainted with'the system of; letting Land on lease—r-the'rent is usually.-very small, but it is to all intents and purposes a rent. Tins is practised to friendly individuals not of the tribe to which the land belongs, besides all thes9 (joinplications many portions of the country are held by the right of conquest, where, as in all similar circumstances, the conquered, havirfg never in any way acquiesced in the occupation, they have a just right, if they become powerful-enough,;to drive out the usurpers, and to take possessionof 'their own again; and this right wasrecOvnisedatTaranaki.

I have'dwelt long- upon this question of the: ownership of. land, as I believe it to have! much to do with the question of direct purchase from the: natives >by individuals, and to show the wisdom-of the supreme Government in keeping the matter in .their own handa. , , , . . :

.The material condition of'the Maories has undoubtedly been on the whole very much improved by their connection with the English, but that improvement has progressed at very different rates in different parts of the northern island. Generally speaking; they have progressed the most in material comforts in the neighbourhood of the principal towns, hut not there exclusively, for in the districts bordering on the Waikato and the AVaipa, rivers, -substantial improvements appear to be (/(•eater thsun anywhere else. : -Here the Maoi'ies have ploughs, harrows, threshing machines and other agricultural implements in considerable abundanoe, and they occasionally "employ white men as labourers. They send a very considerable amount of produce by the Awaroa rivulet to a portage to Waiuku and thence by Onehunga and a portage to Auckland, consisting of wheat, maize* pign, (to., and have ti project to divert this current

of tniffio up a tributary of the Wwltato to a portage to join.ithe ttibutary of '■'. tlie Thames, and thence by coasting <ve8s«l8 direct to Auckland. They had same time .ago1 bought a vessel for £400, and were about to purchase another to establish this line of 1 communication. But many tribes -and portions of the Maories have made but little advance beyond the growth of potatoes^ peaches and pigs, and are entirely unable >to enter uponthe contemplation of a combined operation like..the- one /above -named. These rlatter live in the old iwtiarti, sleep upon the ground, and, although at times decked out with some necessary clothing and i some finery, are often reduced to. the, blanket mat only. The Waikato natives caun^t be induced to sell their • laud, but somojof the unimproved might, without : protection from the Government, be induced by the charms of the rum bottle to part with their land, afterwards to starve find perish, if not admitted by the other llljaories to squat on their soil. In speak-, irig of the. mafcerial condition of these people, I may.add that they are fond of a little pork (living principally upon ai, vegetable diet) aud rear a great many pigs. All are passionately fond of horses, and .will.if possible attain to the ownership of one, if it be only ; to have a ride on its back ono after another upon a few yards-,of level land. They are however hard and fearless, but not good riders. '„ Cattle of bo^h sexes they are ; very much afraid of, until long,, acquainted with them. Milk, they seldom or never, use. Sheep they eschew, and none of the Christians will eat mutton if they know it, and appear tp.consider it to be impious to kill a sheep or lamb, from the passages which they have read in the New Testament, in which the lamb forms a principal type of our Saviour. ,

In.some things the morality of the Maorieg 3aas been much improved by the introduction of christi-: anity. The abolition of cannibalism among them is one proof of this, although some <of them are of opinion, that should any obstinate war arise among themselves, it would be again resorted to to a certain* 'extent as an expression of'revenue. It is to be feared that the destruction of their infant children was carried onr t6a considerable extent in former times, and more particularly of the female children, and the present excess of the male population would countenance this supposition. Maori.women have told-me that their women would hereafter have as large families as English women, from which I understood that formerly, means were used to prevent such being the case." ;lii the districts with which I have been acquainted, the Maories princicipally professed Christianity, but conversion went on among them through catecnistsi as the visits of Missionaries were very few and very far. between among them. I.am not however able to isay of my own knowledge that conversion improved their obedience to the eighth commandment, but, so far as I experienced, just the contrary. This however in no • way detracts from the' necessity for their conversion, as their 'deterioration in reverence for the principle of mine and thine follows not from that, but from their very often associating with those who have been contaminated by their acquaintance with fhe towns and the lower classes of white men, and this connection operates in no way perhaps to so great an extent as in disregard for truthfulness, as there are but-., top." many who make-deceit their amusement, and lying their fun. It >is a great pity> but it is a' universal *fact,-that the Maori has a mad fondness "for strong drink;, for which he (or she) will part with everything. Yet even here lie is less bad than his instructors, for hie never becomes quarrelsome , a or does he ever' murder his friend in his cups. ~ Still the care of the Government to prevent ""the sale of spirits among the Maories is most praiseworthy, and although it cannot: entirely remove the evil yet it does in a great many ways restrict it. It has been said that in dealing, where he uuderstands the article, to. be bought or sold, a Maori is equal to a Scotchman or a Jew; yet let him but taste the.rum bottle arid all! his wariness is gone arid with it goes'; his land or anythingjeke that he has^ '.^Mach hasb^eii=4^|J ottte. immoraHtyofjbhe female; "portion, of the M^ries."^Bu^'%f6re.weVjudge'too harshly we .must" ask what are their opinions upon this: .question, , They do: not. among themselves attach much importancetofemalevirtuebefore marriage,but if the married woman transgress against her husband, he has, in what may be called Jtheiv law, the power to kill her for it. His only restraining consideration being whether the woman has strong connections who may revenge upon the husband tlie disgrace that he" has brought upon them. It is considered to be wrong.for a widow to marry again. The practical effect^ of. these customs is that the married women are' to; the full as true to• their nuptial bonds as the women of any other country —what their younger females are* alas] some cf ourtowris too painfully exhibit. 1 I may here add.ijhat the Maories are a brave people.and pridei themselves upon their successes in thfe war of 1846, holding soldiers as generally trained in rip ffear, and pensioners in utter derision. But they have a wholespme fear of sailors and armed active settlers. .-■•■',.■ ■ . . ■

In religion, our missionaries have to : a certain extent been eminently successful, but there appears to be a stand in thg^moral and religious progress of the people. Christianity, say wt at we will, is the religion of civilization; and therefore it is our duty to further civilization—the handmaid of true religion—among these Maories. Here the mother country has a dutyijto perform. She, took these islands under hex protection, made, them a, part and parcel of her dominion, and the aboriginal inhabitants the subjects of. oar gracious Queen. "And why ? Because this was a pleasant land 5 because it'was so placed as to extend her powder; because it kept out a strong rival power that might have been a trouble to her extensive Australian colonies ; because, in. fact, she believed it to tend *to tejvhonour and her glory and her security to do so. • But she took at least 80,000 people under her empire at once-; -and had she,no duties to perform to'these people in return ? does it not become her »»-is she Hot. in common honesty absolutely bound— to attend to the well-being of these people materially, moraiiy and religiously? If the answer to this question be affirmative, and it must be so,> it becomes her ditty to attend to the wants of her Maori subjects in air these1 points. It is not my business "here to say how this can be best done, bat no difficulty can remove the onus to do it. But possibly . the mother country may acknowledge the duty, but may shift the burden to other shoulders.' She may .say--when;l took.those inlands under my protection,''!'." contracted certain obligations which ought 'to 'be fn]fUkd,,but I 'have parted with1 the' indans from' whfah-tlio; expenses: of fulfilling these, duties sn*>uM be met. The lands of" the ' country , arp '.<.; sufficiently.; ample :,to' pay for all these things;-;'but tuese'have been given up to the provinces.. These buy the lap&at a small price of the Maories, whose it is, and derive a larger profit by its' resale. :. What is done with" the' profit ?' We need follow this riolfurther. • -: ; ;

Tribes tfise and fall in numbers and consequence? and become extinct. I have known three or four' trißes consisting of leas than; 12 persons each on the average- These annihilations -of tribes* are frequently the result of war, and,of devastating inroads made upon-them'.by stronger tribes for plunder, revenge,; or other objects. 'But besides this great cause they appear, soino of them, to wear out from some imperceptible cause, and when a tribe becomes weak, some of iik. tftrongei1 neighbours move in upon its lands arid'callthein. their own.'

But tribes are' al^o formed anew. A few outcasts, perhaps driven , from their own tribo. for misconduct, perhaps the remains of a weak tribe driven but by stronger neighbours, and some of

them stragglers from no particular cause, settle with leave upon some out-of-the-way portion of a strong tribe, upon whom they rely' for protection, and whom they are expected to assist if needed in return. A'constant aggregation of stragglers goes on, and like all other new things the tribe increases in size as it increases in years. Some one, in all cases I believe of chieftain birth, assumes Home authority, or is quickly invested with it for the people's good. In time a name is assumed^ and they become a tribe, to.flourish and acquire independence, and then probably to wane and be extinguished. I have witnessed the earlier processes of formation here described. .... ;

i It has been questioned whether the aboriginal I; race will long continue in the Jand either to give trouble or strength, to the colony. That they have ; diminished very considerably of late years there can be no doubt. War, change of clothing, and various other causes may very well account for this. ■, But i probably the taking possession of the*island by . England has in no way hastened this depopulation" j ° as, before that time their internal wars were fast clearing, off^ the people, and driving some into the 'woods to live a solitary and entirely savage life. Our possession has arrested these wars—but has it had sufficient effect; to turn the scale ? lam aware that '] many missionaries and" others having good opportunities of knowing are of opinion that it has not. I will merely speak of the result of my own observations. I took the trouble some years ago to :take the census of seven small Maori villages having an aggregate population something under 200., I endeavoured as well as I ■ could ; to. estimate the ages of. the several persons, but it is; very difficult to come at a Maori's age. They know nothing of the matter themselves, and the marking of the faces of the men renders it very difficult, to judge how old they are. The males on the whole were the more numerous iti the proportion of about three to two females. Among the few old persons, however, the sexes appeared to be about ejual. There appeared to be strange gaps in the progressiveness of their ages; from the old to those in the middle age with families there appeared to be few or none: then there were comparatively few of either sex between about 12: and the married couples, and it was here that the females were wanted: the youth below 12 were about equal in sex and about as many as probably would be found in the same number of families elsewhere. Prom this result, which is similar to that of other inquiries and observations, I am inclined to believe that the depopulation may have come to a stop to be followed by an increase hereafter. .

. I have said so much that I must reserve what remarks I may have to make.upon the article in the ■* Southern Cross 7 till another day, and to subscribe myself now . Tours, &c., > ANEW CHUM.