TO THE MEN OF WAIKATO.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 1, Issue 14, 5 July 1849, Page 2

TO THE MEN OF WAIKATO.

Letter 111. My Friends, It is some time ago since I last wrote to you. Many occupations have obliged me to delay my third letter until now. If you remember, 1 promised you» lliat the next thing 1 wrote, slioulil be about " and a conversation I lintl with " Mokoroa," but 1 think I can more, profitably occupy the place of this Ir-uer with other, anil more important matter. ... In my earnest desiro to see you occupying n place ii) civilization, for which, as 1 have already told you, you nre so very well qualified) I have designed, anil have mauo it, and shall continue ta make if, my study, to notice find to observe, all those ways which von have—wavs wiiieli, although belonging to you ns Maori*men. and in which you have been reared and brought up, are yet so much the enemy of civilization, and ot what conduces towards- civilized life,-that unless you will heuccfohli- lorcgo thcni, and apply and adapt yourselves to the sys'ems, and to the rules, which shall he pointed out for y°"r learning—the shadow ol the dail; cloud will still l-cst .upon yon, and hide from your minds the .knowledge—which the light of 'rejson would inculcate, I entertain, the anxious hope, then, that each of my letters for the tututc—if von like" that I~should still write them to vou—shall contain some practical exposition of any error or fallacy under which 1 think you may labour; and I hope 1 may be sufficiently clear and explicit in pointing out to you the injurious tendency of any such error or fallacy,'so that yoii may have the courage to chase away the " black cloud, and lat tho , sun shine upon you, and warm you into knowledge. I The Value of Time. There is no error, perhaps, more conspicuous and more to be deplored, in your native I character than the very little value you attach \ l ° a Maori man would think nothing of driv- ' ing a pig lv-o days' join nci/, aud then selling ! it perhaps for three dollars. ' , 1 If you know how to calculate and value time, yon would soon see how groat a waste of it this was. In England we say—J* that a waste' of. time is a waste of money ; and to. indeed it truly is. See now—lf .you once knew the value of time, instead of wasting <iio whole div/s in a long and tiresome journev, just to sell only one pig—if, instead of doiin' this, you had applied the wasted time j towards rearing, and feuding, and fattening a I dozen other pigs, or even half that number, ; yon nitty have connived to have taken them all for sale at the same lime, and then ' you i would receive, not one single three dollars, I but the price of each of the other pigs bei sides; you could then return to your village, ' and not having again to leave it so soon as ' you would have to do to sell one mora pig, 'you would have time on your.hands to aii tend to all those duties which would enable ' you more profitably to iiegociatc with the

white men,and thus you would acquire money tor the " Savings' Bank"—nnd you would have time to go oil working for mora anil more; but if you waste nnd misuse time, at the end of the "year you will find yourself ns poor a man ns you were at the bpgintiing, and you would still have to toil and toil on, all your life through. I am very sorry to have to tell you, that many—many of our own country while people, who ought to know better, and for whom I can make no. excuse, do not understand, any more than you do, the value of time, and so they waste'it away, and are. unhappy and 'miserable nil their lives through; arid their suflVriligS afe very great; many of them die eaVly from disease nnd wretchedness, frequently acquired from the want of the "common necessaries'of life ; 'whi!*volhcrs become lunatic, nnd imbecile, and childish, a living disgrace to themselves, and to everybody who have the misfortune to be connected with them, nH brnught on ' because, like you, (only, they should hmc "known better, for they were taughij bettor, 6iU..you iicver wore,) they would take two ilaj/s to do •what might' be done in less lime. On the other hand, in England, those who have been industrious," nnd frugal, and liave never nllotvcd •themselves to wrisle liny lime, but Lave made the most of every moment, will be l'ound surrounded with all the joy, and coinfort, and happiness, which (his world can afford. AH this will he just the same with you. ■ Remember these words then ; nnd also remember these maxims. " Time is the fame as money." "Time lost can never be recovered." " Life is short: it takes our whole life time to d» our duty," Think of the pig, and the two days' journey." . . Your friend, _ . . ftl axtiiew CAHTER, SLD. Auckland, June lSth, ls<l9.