THE PROGRESS OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS IN CIVILIZATION.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 2, Issue 42, 1 August 1850, Page 3

THE PROGRESS OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS IN CIVILIZATION.

To the Editor of the Nelson Examiner. Sir,— Having, in July and August of last year, made an overland journey from Auckland to Wanganui, by the Waikato and Waipa rivers, thence to Kawhia, and afterwards by the coast line along the Taranaki district, "I send you a few Notes of observations in the course of my journey, principally relative to the progress made by the Natives in civilizat'on. The notes are entirely made memory, having kept no journal on the vidy. They are intended to present to the public the progress made by the natives in civilization, as exhibited in the following features —in the state of agriculture, the mechanical arts, and use of furniture in the native houses, the use of European clothing, attention to cleanliness, care in cases of sickness, wounds, or distress, the condition of the female part of the community, and last though not least, the state of education amongst the natives. The growth of wheat, and its conversion into Dour by native labour, has within the last yrars been a subject of interest tn thoe attentive to the progress made by the natives in useful occupations. The quantities of reaping hooks and steel hand-mills bought by the Maories in the stores in Auckland, would be sufficient to show a resident in the capital that the Maories in that quarter are rapidly advancing in the cultivation of wheat, and also in the conversion of wheat into flour. The substitution of Hour for potatoes, in part, as an article of native diet, i* best known to

those frequenting the pas; and we had an opportunity in our journey of noticing this change in the diet of the New Zealander. The first pa that I slopped at was Kaitotahe, after three days' paddling up the "Waikato from lhal part of the river near its mouih, where the natives have their landing-place for transporting produce overland to Auckland, Rnd for starling up the river on their return from the town. This pa is under the superintendence of Mr. Ashwell, Church missionary. Iliad been accompanied from Auckland by a party of natives belonging to the settlement, and one of them was to travel onwards with me to Wanganui. Two horses belonging to natives were brought by our party to the pa from Auckland. At Kaitotahe soma wheat had been sown this year, though not to the extent it was last, the natives being principally engaged in the erection of a water-power wheat-mill, which will cost £ 330. It is built upon the Arnericr.n principle, having a horizontal water - wheel driving a pair of French burrs. Leather belts are used instead of cog-wheels, and the meal is passed from the stones into a small shule, from whiih it is caught by tin receivers attached to a revolving belt, and passed by them at once into the dressing-machine, and there converted into first, seconds, and thirds, flour. The machinery noted above is placed in the second story of a wooden building. On the ground-flit there are a pair of fanner', and a smut-machine, both, if I remember rightly, also driven by the water wheel, through the agency of belts. Wire sieves are used in the mill. The payment is mostly made by the sale of pigs in Auckland. The work has been performed by an American millwright, assisted by an Englishman, who, as we were informed, had not learned the trade, nor even that of a ca'penter. I saw a sample of the flour produced on a trial which had been made, and thought it a fair production; The lead was nude by native labour; but the dam had burst on" the morning of my visit, after a day's heavy rain ; bping led along the side of a bill, a fall of earth had lodg-d in part of the lead. Should Ihi mill answer properly, and he kept in good repair, it will give an importance to Kaitotahe pa, it being well situated f»r receiving grain grown on the Waikato and Wuipi. ".There is a water-mill also at Itam;iahca, further up the river, and the Governor has been so pleased with the progress made there, that he has presented tha inhabitants with a harrows, ajid two horses, and sent u European to instruct the Maories in their us?. On the first day of my stay at Kaitotahe, the people were busy grinding wheat in steel hand-mills, as they expected the arrival of a number of natives, bound to a great liui, at Ihe Waikato h-ads, and they intendid to liast them by the wav. There was a great rousting of eels and making kils for potatoes at the same time. The flour was manufactured into doeboys, one small canoe full of which formed one portion of the food set out ou Ihe day of

j the feast. Before 1 lefl the p», one of the natives, an inferior chief, got Ms w iff to hake I for me in a camp oven two round l loaves, which I found excellent food to use in j travelling. He alio presented me a teaspoon, | a sin ill hason, nnd some pork fit in a bottle, and lent me a frying pan to use on the p'isstge lup the rivers. This said chief frequently used food made of Hour during my stay at the pn. j After leaving KaitoUhc, I went a<<ont a week's journey up the Waikato nnd Waipn in a small canoe. I cannot say whether a large or small quantity of wheat had been s-iwn this year close to the rivers, as (lie banks, though not high, are generally abrupt, so that fio:n the canoe I had not a good view of the land stretching from the banks of the river'. Probably most of the crops are grown at a distance from the rivers, as is the case on the coast-line traversed by me, the cultivations belonging to the pas on the coast being generally on woody land soma distance in-land. The best index I could see of what had been done by tha natives in this line, was the wheat of last year piled un in sticks at almost erery farm we saw—say at the distance of hnlf a mile from each other on the Waipt. The stockt were of a sire that I suppose it would take upwards of a dozen of them to make n good-sized Scotch farm stack of wheat. We also observed slacks of wheat at various settlements on the rivers between Kawhia and Taranaki. At the head of the Waipn, after wo had left the canoe to wal'; to the Kawhia, I saw a law plain of some extent sown with wheat; it belonged to a Maori, who had a»ked myself and the Maories with me to come and have breakfast at his linus?. 1 observed on the sideboard of his hut something which I look to bo damper. I enquired if he had any limn in the house. lie replied in the affirmative, and immediately went into an adjoining wnrrie and brought out some good-sized dampers—three of which I bought for a shilling. Some of the natives were engaged in baking il»ur cakes for us, and they soon brought out a kit of potatoes with flour cakes laid on the top of them. Our host also presented us with a few of the said cakes to be eaten on the road. All that they wanted was silt. Ano her incident I will mention with respect to native tn ulu bread. At Marokopo \vt wero out of this artiolp, and as the natives had wheat there, and a steed mill, nnd we were detained by the title, I spoke to the natives ahoul my wants. They got out their mill and a big post to slick in the ground, to which we fixed the niill, (/ot some wheat ground in it, and rou»h as the unsieved meal was, we had soma bread and tlocboys baked of it (cost one shilling), which was an agreeable change from potatoes. It would certainly be plensanler if the hinds that made the food, and the articles used in ils manufacture, were cleaner. To the south of Taranaki we were not so sucresslul in oh-

([lining bread, aliliotigh we had occasion.illy stirabout, and the taro, an excellent food, which was not obtained by us frequently In the north of Taranaki. There are two wheat mills driven by water-power in the district of Ngataranni, south of the Taranaki district. They were out of repair when I passed that way, and it is to be feared that the mills recently erected will not answer the purpose designed, unless they aie superintended by Europeans —being kept partly as a kind of showy plaything by tile Maori, au'l, like the first watch a boy pets, they run a great chance of being damaged. At the settlements of T.va:iaki and Wanganui, the natives sell the wheat to liuropcans, and it is ground into flour by them. At New Plymouth there are three good water-mills, and the wheat grown on the Wanganui river is ground at the Nelson mill and returned to Wanganui in the shape of flour. The Maoiies are beginning to purchase horned c.ittle and horses, and possess turkeys, geese, and poultry in abundance. They grow excellent peaches and other kinds of fruit. At their pas on the W.rka'.o and Wa'pa there are generally patches of ground planted with fruit trees. At one place we saw a good on haul, containing about an acre, surrounded with an excellent fence. Air. Turner, a white man, who is married to a Maori woman, and pDssesiCs a family often or twelve half-caste children, has u splendid orchard and a good ga'deu. with be.-hives adjoining- his home on the Waijia. Peaches may be bought at Auckland, in summer, for sixpence a kit, and New Zealand grown apples are plentiful. At Wanganui, where European farming had, until l.itely, been broken up on account of the war, t'e settlers hive got gardens well eludded with fruit trees. It may he with truth affirmed, that the natives are an agricultural people, and as they are curious about, and ready to plant any kind of seed n.-w to thtm, it would be well for those possessing plants and seeds of a rare kind, to present the nitivc3 with portions of th>'i". Their labour is, however, yet but cottier husbuv.lry, and it is to be hoprd that improvement in agrirul- - by the ire of the plough, &e , "ill soon be adopted by them.

lii tho mechanical arts, the Natives liave not made so much progress as in agricultuio. Most of the Maories are more or less agriculturists, raisins; by spade labour sufficient food upon their superabundant land for themselves, and somi: to spare in exchange for blankets, tobacco, &c. Thus there are few left to depend upon oilier callings for a mean* of subsistence. So there is little improvement in the buildings and other constructions at the Native farms, In other words, division of labour is not adopted by the New Zealanders to any great extent. Yel the habits of imitation, so strongly developed in the Natives, have led some of them to make improvements in their abodes. Doors, with their hinges, are taking the place of the sliding pieces of wood fitting into the holes, by which they were wont to go into, and come out of their warries. The houses lately erected are higher in the roof than those formerly built. In some few instances we have seen rude sidetables and bedsteads in the Maori abodes. With the exception of these, and a few stools and a table or two, I saw no appearance of furniture in iny journey* Chimnies arc seldom added to the houses -, and I think thai from tho Maories' love of sitting round the fire for a korero, they will be long of taking to chimney-buildiig. About fllercury Bay, I believe chimnies are erected by the Natives. If they had small chimnies in the roofs of their houses, and an iron range in the middle of the rooms, I think this style would-be more congenial to Native habits than the chimney at the end of the house, where the Natives could not ait comfortably round the fire. Such a plan would be the means of escape to much of the smoke so disagreeable to Europeans, and what must tend to give the bloodshot appearance ; and cause weakness to the eyes of the Native. I can remember seeing the fire place, an immense iron range, in the centre of a farmhouse kitchen in Scotland. The chimney was through the roof, and forms for seats were ranged round the sides, and were occupied by the ploughmen after the labours of the day. Family prayers were held there by one of the members of the family. In their places of worship, the Natives show most skill and taste, the raupo buildings being large, substantially built, with strong upright posts and joints, and the lacing by which the raupo is tied to the frame, neatly worked, to

give the inside the appearance of basket-work. The houses in Taianaki arethemoat improved of any I noticed. The Natives have constructed no roads on the route I came. In places, the fern and toi-toi are kept clear from the foot-paths. In others, they grow Tight over, causing much pain to any traveller -who may be so unfortunate as to lose his shoes Could not the Maori be induced by an aunual present of a plough, a steel-mill or other prized implement, to keep the foot-paths in good order until roads fit for Europeans are constructed in the country r European clothing is fast taking the place Zealand, blue shirts and trowsers are beof the native kakahus. -All over the New coming quite fashionable. The Maories will find these articles of clothing better adapted to their active, industrious habits, which they must more and more practice if their existence as a people is to be perpetuated. At a Native feast, given by his Excellency the Governor, on thobiith-day of her Majesty, out of several hundred Natives assembled, there were not as many dozen who wore blankets, und in the neighbourhood of the other white settlements the dress of the white man is becoming prevalent. When we take the circumstances before stated into account, with the use of European culinary articles, and the purchase of coasting vessels, it may he safely said that the New Zealander is an improved being. Much remains yet to be done to break down the prejudices existing between the two races, and some of these will be found existing in the want of those civilized habits noted in the commencement of this letter, and upon which I hope to.enttrinto detail in a subsequent communication. lam, sir, yours, &c, Georcb Tayloii. "Wanganui, January, 1850