TO MAORI MOTHERS

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 3, Issue 75, 6 November 1851, Page 2

TO MAORI MOTHERS

My Friends, —How are you proceeding in the manufacture of your straw hats and bonnets? have you any ready for use? if not you will wish you had as the summer approaches, and you begin to feel in your daily work, the ill effects of the scorching sun. Do not neglect any tiling which is adapted to protect you from pain and sickness. If you are not in good health, your spirits will fail, langour increase, and you will he quite unable to carry out those plans, which |.crh,ip«, you have wisely marked out in your own mind. Your friends not only wish you to enjoy the fruits of your own labour, but that you may from the very commencement, make that labour, as easy, and pleasant as possible. If you were in I'.ngland, and could watch the movements of her labouring classes, especially among the fanners, you would see a striking difference in them. Some seem to make a pleasure of all their toil. The men go out to their work discharging their various duties, with the utmost diligence and ease, while the women are taking charge of house and family preparing food, and making all clean and ready for their return. Whenever you enter their dwelling, you find all peaceful and happy , but never indulging in indolence mid sloth ; although fully alive to their best worldly interests, they by no means forget from whence all their blessings (low, for they evidently acknowledge God in all things; indeed there is but little doubt, that in this lies the great secret of their happy history, for it cannot well be accounted for in any other way. Others are very different, both in character and conduct; but little regarding the duty they owe to God, to themselves, or to their fellow creatures, an I you would soon perceive as great a difference in the performance and results of all their labour. If you make up your minds to imitate the English people, let it be the best of them, the best of their works, and their best methods of performing them, and for such imitation you will never have cause to regret. liut as to the straw work, one great reason why you should turn your attention to this is, that it will afford constant employment for your vouiij,' people- Fill up their time well and they will soon scorn the use of tobacco and pipe :—the money formerly so spent, will help to provide soap, or articles of useful clothing

Kndeayonr to choose some sheltered pleasant spot, on which you may sit together and carry it on with as little interruption as possible. Make it a practice to let one of the company lead while the rest are at wtfrk. If questions arise out of what is' read satisfy the inquirer a3 well as you can. If you wish for belter information than you are able to give, write your question on your slate or paper, and when your Missionary visits you, ask him not only to answer it, but also to tell you whether the question is putin a proper form'. If you will accustom yourselves to do this from time to time, you will by and by have a little volume worth perusing, serviceable tothe young people, who generally like instruction by ques-i lion and answer. Your friend is anxious to set you thinking, for if you think much on stilus worthy of thought, there will be but litreroom in heart or head for that which is vain or loolish. Do you, my fiiends preserve the Maor Messenger, or do you, as soon 33 you have looked over its contents, suffer it to be lorn up to serve your pipes 1 he advised lo sew them together. Let each twelve months form a volume, thrre arc many remarks there, which will he as applicable in years to come, as now, especially those which apply lo the management of your caltlc and agriculture in its various branches. There is not much in print on such subjects in your own language, you hail belter be careful of the Messenger. Your decendmts in days to come —when New Zealand bc:irs a.much more agreeable aspect — will be pleased to learn from reading it, how you advanced step by slep, partly by bringing into practice the hints there given as you found opportunity, and no doubt they will continue to improve upon them, for knowledge is sure to increase : it must be so if well applied. Think of these words from your friend and well wisher, ak English Mother. Auckland, Oc'., 29th, 1851.