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Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 4, Issue 63, 22 May 1851, Page 2

Never, in all probability, was there a more striking testimony, to the inappreciable blessings of Christian Missions, vouchsafed, than that which it has been the peculiar privilege of the natives of the New Zealand Islands to afford. Sunk in the depths of a ferocious and sanguinary barbarism, a terror to each other, and a bye word of horror to the world at large; in little more than a quarter of a cenlury> through the untiring zeal of their Christian Missionaries, barbarism has rapidly disappeared, the light and love of the gospel has been shed upon their hearts, —deeds of blood bave given place to desires of mutual love and charity, the agricultural nnd commercial industry, taught them by their British fellow subjects, has opened a brighter and a better field for their intelligence, the crimes and the curse of the •savage have fled before the genius of civilization, and the inestimable fruits of religion implanted in the heart, are constantly discernible in the remarkable examples, furnished by this iemarkable people, of their extraordinary advancement in moral and social progress. Of these cheering facts we furnished two most praiseworthy instances in the last number of the " Maori Messenger." These were the estimation in which they themselves hold Gospel Missions and the benefits they confer, evidenced by the report of one of the Native Meetings, and the amount ot Native fund 9 subscribed to extend those benefits to neighbouring pagan islands. The other was the_ gratifying statement of their exertions in rescuing the crew and cargo of the schooner "John Whiteley," recently wrecked o!F Taranaki. We can perfectly remember when the mariner, sufficiently enterprising to adventure in the trade from the neighbouring colonics to New Zealand, incurred fearful risks ; —not so much from shipwreck, as from the treachery of the tribes ever on the alert to surprize, massacre, and plunder the incautious or the unfortunate. Five and twenty years since, such massacres wero as common to New Zealand, as now they are to New Caledonia and the Fijiis. Can, therefore, n more singular proof of the docility and innate goodness of the New Zealander's disposition be offered than that which the fait of so great, bo humane, and so blessed a conversion afTords? If we consider the unenviable reputalion of the British wreckers, even of the present day, we may well be tempted to inquire which is the civilized, which the sa*age ? In five and twenty years of Christian instruction the New Zea'antler avoids, at inhuman, that which the most severe laws have hitherto been unable totally to repress even in great and highly civilized England. Wre; kers still watch the English coasts to plunder the uiiiortu*

nate vessels driven by winds and waves to their destruction ; and, on such occasions, there are still unhappily ioo ninny miscreants —when unuivrd by superior force —to strip lliose whom it would be, we rejoice to know, the pride of the New Zealanders to save. For tlie information of our native readeis, \vc shall transcribe a few brief examples of the practices of ancient and modern nations with respect to shipwrecked mariners and their property, and of the dreadful severities by which it was atte/npted to put a stop to sm h inhuman atrocities. The early Greeks and Romans regarded strangers and enemies in the same point ol view—therefore, those that were shipwrecked were, in most instances, either put to death or sold as slaves. However, as fhey became more civ lightened, the Roman law punished with death those who destroyed shipwrecked persons, and '-veil the stealing of a plank from a vessel shipwrecked or in distress rendered ihe thief liable for the whole ship and cargo. In other countries, pilots in order to ingratiate themselves with their lords did, liku faithless and treacherous villains, sometimes willingly run the *hip upon the rocks, for which oflance they were punished as thieves and robbers. The doom of the lord was still more severe. He was apprehended, his goods confiscated and sold, and he himself was fastened to a post or stake in the midst of his own house, which was set on fire at the f'lir corners, and burnt to the ground. The wa'ls »vere demolished, the stones pulled down, and the site converted into a market place for swine. In case of shipwrecked mariners being attacked or robbed by the people, a law wa< passed commanding that they should be pumged into the sea until they w ere half dead, nnd then to be drawn forth and stoned to death. In England, at the present day, there are vety few instances of murder being inflicted upon shipwrecked mariners, but too many, we regret to say, of the robbery of ship and cargo. The wrei-k of a ship is looked upon, by mi pi incip'c:l men, nearly all the world over, as a chance t>ift which everv one has aright to scramble tor as lie < an, and, for the acquisition of property so bavelv, there are those who will risk life and liberty, setting at defiance every la>v human and divine. Into the subsequent number of the "Messenger," we shall copy the account given in the London " Times" of the wreck of the "Mary Florence" 011 the Arabian coast In perusing the details of the inhumanities inflicted by the Arabs upon the defenceless sutlerers it will, we are sure, afford our native renders an h nest pleasure to contrast the kind and honourable conduit displaced by their countrymen to the unfortunate people of the "John Whitelev." Such examples, we rejoice to say, are by no means ra>'e ; and we sliou'd be unjust, did we not upon sucli an occasion recall'to mind the persevering exertions of four native women at the East Cape 011 the 9tli of September, 1848. By their intrepidity, Captain Clarke of the Ilobart Town brig " Sisteis" was rescued from a watery grave, his boat having swamped, tlnee lives having been lost, and lie himself having become so exhnustcd and benumbed that but for these poor women, who swam to his aid, »e must have sunk. We might cite lhanv such noble examples ; hut we have done enough, we imagine to encourage our native friends to perseverance in good works, and to show to strangers of other distant lands, the hnppy and humanizing influences of moral and religious civilization upon the hearts of the intelligent New Zealanders.