HINTS TO THE MAORI PEOPLE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume VI, Issue 21, 15 October 1859, Page 1

HINTS TO THE MAORI PEOPLE.

Chapter IV. There is another cause of sickness and death among the Maori people on which we must dwell. It may seem to some a small root of evil, but it shoots up into many branches. We mean the petty wars which are continually going on about land, in all parts of New Zealand. They are not, it is true, as bad as the old wars of which we have spoken formerly. There are no massacres of men, women, and children, as at Matakitaki or at Tamaki, or many more such fights. Nor is there any war now which goes on year after year as the old Rolorua war did, till not less than 500 people were killed. But such fighting as has been going onatTaranaki, at Tarawera, at VVakatane, at Tauranga, and i other places, brings evils on the whole dis-! irict which are felt long after the war itself fas ceased. • ••

We all know that the first and great evil is the revival of hatred and malice among your tribes, and of the murderous thoughts and evil practices which belonged to the old heathenism. But as that is an evil that affects men's souls we do not go on to speak further of it here, for our discourse now is only of the causes of sickness and death to men's bodies. Nor must we either speak here of the grievous way in which, it unsettles you and checks all improvement in the tribes that...are at war. ■". \ '...,■':, The poiat .we wish to dwell on is, that where there is war there never can be plenty. It was- one .of the promises of God to the Jews that they should be at peace: that they should beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears into pruning hooks; that is, into knives for pruning the olive tree and the vine. You follow the very opposite rule; you cease to buy ploughs and horses, and seed, and spend your money on guns, and powder, and lead. '.■«••'■■ '■■'.• We all know that w!ien war begins cultivations cease. It is true, indeed, that generally a truce is made at planting time. But then only just enough potatoes are planted ' to. keep the two parties from starving. W,ho can find time amidst the confusion of .fibhslant skirmishes to prepare kumara plan-, jatiqus, or /to make fences for the young .plant?, or; to grow >vheat, or pumpkins, or * l . a T o *' /Webave only to look at the old news- ., papers at the time of the Tarariaki war to .s£e how' little, wheat was grown by the natives': •' Yet worse, we shall see that the wheat '■6t the year before which had been slacked iu : llhaia's pa' was burnt by the besiegers on /entering it. The food which God in his 'goodness had given out of the fruitfulness of ihe earth was wasted by the badness of 'Jnian. ■•■*>;■'..■.• flow, the worst of all is, the punUhmcnt

falls or. the innocent as well as on the guilty, —more than on them indeed. Men squabble arid fight about a boundary line, asdogsfigbt for a bone, but. the suffering does not come chiefly on them. Men like the excitement of. .war, and the risk is not very great now as it was in the old time, when chiefs fought with clubs. Then, only the brave pushed themselves forward. Now, the young reckless boys of the tribe are the first to go out \yith their muskeis: :they like the fun of popping at their enemies from behind a bush. . ; • The loss of life is not commonly great in ohe of your wars. When it is over you reckon up on your fingers, so many killed on one side, so many as payment on the other side. -They are but a dozen or two altogether, and thus the war is counted a very little thing. The reason of this is, you look only at the mischief done under your own eyes. But, does it stop there? ..The war is only the root, as.we said, let us look at the fruits, and bitter ones they are, which it bears in the.next yearortwo. Who can. count the mischief done to the women, to the babies, to the little children, to the young boys, who are growing fast and need plenty, of food to make them strong, to the invalids, to the old; men and women ? These are the hundreds that are slain up and down New Zealand, by the wars that constantly go on. No wojnder , that every year that the Maori lace dwindle? away. This is no mere' talk. Let any one ask the Njgatirangitihi and the Tuhourangi tribes at Tarawera, and the Ngalipikiao'at Te Kotoili, how many people, old and young, died among them from the effects of bad and insufficient food after the war. Food was scarce and bad. The fighting men had the best share of what there was; and month after month the women sat huddled up by their fires, half starved. Their poor babies

wailed and died; the little -children wasted away of low fever and other'-diseases*;--the boys and girls; instead of running about j full oriifev sat thin, sharp-faced, and pale. They; had no; sfrength left for growing, and so; as they grew, there came'bad swellings j h e*eck or in the legs, of which many died.* The invalids had no good food to comfort and restore them, arid lay wasting away with none to help them. And this in a land so fruitful that in every village there might be : .enough and to The few acres of land which are gained or lost'by the two war parties are dust in the balancecompared withutie human lives destroyed by hunger 'and diseased These very acres; of half of them,' plaited with kumarai and i wheat, would have fed the young of both tribestp their full. These are the fruits of We wonder the women do not cohlplairi at this evil, which falls chiefly: upon them < and on their, children. 1 Some take it as a j thing that must be; others are so foolish and so wicked as to encourage their sons and husbands' and brothers to fight. Tbey forget that wbnien Were made to be ihdn's helpmeet-that is, to aid him in all that is Not to tempt him, as Satan does, to murder and slaughter.' Woman's work is topiay the men to sit at peace, that the lanaVroay be blessed; > She should 'pour water*oh;tbe'fireOf man's Wrath »to extingmsh it; not pour oil oh it to make It blaze up.' In-war, as in other things j the sins of the parents fall on their children. '■>' 'r. We write to the magistrates, to the old men* t6 the chiefs.' How are these wars to cease? ■■ They must And a remedy. Above all, they must not say, the New-Zealanders are wasting away by God's will, as lon£ as thoughtlessness* covetousness, lack of law and of order are killing them by hundreds eveiyjear, - < ';/■-"■ •' ■';:•:-•

The following letter from one of our Maori correspondents expresses views in which we ftjlly concur and will probably interest some of oujv.readers, *Out ; of debt out of : danger is a motto which we strongly recommend to our Maori friends. Whitireia. -My friends, the Governor, the authorities of the tovvn,;and those Pakehas who take an interest in us. ~ Salutations to you all in the love of our Lord^Jesus Christ; - ..: . ...• ;. : k 'Friends, Hearken to my words.- Iconi-

wend the love you manifest towards us in leaching us how to act rightly and in shewing where we do wrong. I mean with respect to contracting debts. 'We have talked the- matter over, of the: Maories ceasing to take and' of the Pakehas ceasing to give goods upon credit; the best plan h always to purchase. When the Maori Messenger arrived I saw. what was said about fixing a- certain day for the payment of- a debt, but my word to you is,— Let the credit system cease altogether, and let the Pakehas; give no goods to the Maories upon credit. The credit system may be all very well for the Pakehas: let them follow their own old road. The system pursued by us in former times with respect to persons getting goods from others, which was much the same as taking credit, was this.—lf a man got property from another, and, instead of paying him, used what should have been the payment for some other pmpose," he was bewitched and would die in consequence. Now with regard to taking credit, it is bad to delay the payment, it is also bad to fix a future day for paying. The only good plan is to pay at once, for if payment is delayed, or the time appointed for payment is suffered to elapse, in either case resource is had to a court of law to compel payment. Your proverb in this Karere Maori is a very true one, " Out of debt out of danger." I know it well, for I have been in the habit of going in debt <nyself. It is all very well while you are getting the things, but afterwards there is nothing but sadiiess, and you are ashamed to meet your creditors. When the debt is paid the heart is light. From your friend in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, Nepe Ngakau.