TO THE MEN OF WAIKATO.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 1, Issue 15, 19 July 1849, Page 2

TO THE MEN OF WAIKATO.

Letter No. IV. My Friends,I am now about to write a letter to you, to the sentiments of which I would earnestly and anxiously direct your best and most thoughtful attention, for I am certain tlmt nothing lias yet been said or written to you, which more forcibly endangers your happiness and prosperity, or will prove a greater • stumbling block' to your advancement in civilization, than the evil, which 1 shall now point out to you—an evil which, as it more particularly relates to the women, I more particularly address to them—the Women of Waikalo Woman and lleii Station. Ever since the beginning of the world, now more than 4,000 years ago, when God Almighty lirat created man and woman—indeed from the very beginning of creation, when Adam and live alone tenanted tlio earth—in his wise benevolence, in his infinite foresight, he designed, and apportioned, and particularly defined, n distinct station and position to inch, —man, fashioned and formed in his own image, He willed should be pre-eminent and Jlnt in all Creation, —woman, in l/ic same scale of excellence, was made only second to man, to be an • help-meet,' and friend, and companion to him, as we read of in the !?nd chaptei 1 of Genesis and the ISth verse, and to which, my friends I will ask you to refer, for then you will perceive that what I say is true. In tlie creation of man and woman God Alnu'ghly well foreknew that each would prove | eijua'ly essential ami necessary lo the other—yet, however, toman be station, —and had man continued in his primitive innocence and simplicity, woman never would have interfered with it, or would have thought to bavc questioned it. And well, indeed, would it have been for all creation if , tins design of llis Allwiic God had never been frustrated; but no sooner was sin entailed upon our common race than < >ic of thovoiy first manifestations of its evil influence becumo apparent when woman, departing from her I'.'gitiniato end proper station, would assume the just prerogative of man—an assumption which hits, perhaps, entailed more misery upon the children of men than any oilier event in tlie whole history of mankind. If we turn ; to the book 3 written in former times —if wo refer to the best of books, the Bible itself—wo i aluill see and rend of example upon example of i the confusion—of the wickedness—of the strife ] —of the battles —of the murders that have i had their oritjin, only just because woman ha 3 i

not been contented to remain, where God willed her, as an auxiliary to man, but, by an opposite course, recklessly infringing a law of God, has done so at tlie sacrifice, more or l«»s. of the peace of the whole ■world. And in our own times, 111 the midst of civilized life, in the midst frequently of plenly and of every happiness which we can will enjoy, this "demon of contention," this battle between man and woman for supremacy, has frustrated all hope, )ms converted good men into bad men, and bad women into worse ones still. Indeed it would not be difficult to shew that, either directly or indirectly, this is tho one, if not tho only sourca of much of the wickedness which afflicts humanity. It having been represented to me then, my Maori friends, —and I myself having been witness during my last summer's visit to your villages,—that this, the banc of civilized life, lias exteuded itself even to you as a people, that is to say, that the good intentions of the men are frequently overruled and altogether put aside, because of the ill-tempered and mischievous interference of their wives in many matters with which tlicy can have no sort of concern. I do, therefore, most earnestly and anxiously, and, indeed, most affectionately warn the women—l appeal to their good sense, for I know that most of them possess it, when I point out to them, and would impress upon them (he truth of what I wav—how painfully injurious this samo error has ever proved itself from the beginning of all time, in the history of all countries. I warn the women, I say, to remember that if what God designs is frustrated, that is, if what we call a Law of Nature is broken, the consequences must ever prove, sooner or later, most disastrous. Do not, therefore, break your husbands spirits, and cripple their energy, and make them almost ashamed to look their fellow-men in the face, from the feeling of humiliation they would experience at the thought that their wives rule and domineer over them. Remember then these my sayings, Maori women, and when you shall feel disposed to step from this path of rectitude, he very much ashamed. We say that man is made of courser and harder material than woman, but he has a heart inside quite as soft, and quite as susceptible of kindness and of love ; and if you would like to rule him and make him do as you wish, nothing is easier, if you do it by kindness and by love, and as well by means imperceptible; you will ahvay3 win him then and most effectually command him. But if you make him afraid of you, just as I saw one poor fellow in a village up the Waikuto, nearly, I should think, six feet high, tremble and shako before a little bit of A woman, bis wife—depend upon it lie will despise you in his heart, he will prove a bad husband, a bnd father, a useless neighbour, and an unprofitable companion, and instead of prospering and succeeding in life as you ought to do, you will always be in contention aud a burden to each other. Listen to me, then, and remember my advice, and these are my maxims—- " A woman in her proper station is lovely ; out of it, quite the reverse." "A good woman makes a good son, a bad woman a bad son." * " Remember my story of a poor fellow, six feet high, trembling before a little wife." Your friend, Matthew Carter, M.D. Auckland, July 12, 101-9. [Well aware of the benevolence of Dr. Carter's feelings towards our Maori friends, we cannot, nevertheless, but think he lias fallen into error in supposing their wives to be family dictatresses. We incline to believe the very opposite to be ilia fact: and, al- ' though the worthy Doctor may have beheld one six-foot Maori under feminine dominion, we must still consider him to be an exception . to an all-prevalent rule. Wo have but to regard the Maori women in general—to contemplate the loads they carry, the toil they endure, mid to feel assured that they are the tasked not the taskmasters,]