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Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume VI, Issue 24, 31 December 1859, Page 1

We are come once more to the close of a year. It is good for each of us to pause awhile and look back and see what we have been doing throughout it. Whether good habits have grown upon us, whether bad habits have been struggled against, whether we have learnel anything new which is worth knowing, whether we have been idle or industrious, and the like. Now, if this is good for us to do each one, so is it not less good for us as a people. The boy grows up out of childhood into youth, then to ripe years. In like manner nations grow up out of childhood into manhood. The New Zealanders have grown very rapidly in the last few years. They have put away childish things; they have the fire and energy of youth. They have yet much to learn and to do before they have the forethought and wisdom of manhood. The first step from ignorant childhood was

when they turned from heathenism—from belief in withcraft and evil spirits— to the belief in one true God. The little one then began to speak and to say "Our Father." Another step towards manhood is the increasing desire after law and self goverment. The child kicks and struggles and rebels because it is ignorant. The grown man obeys because he is become wise. We are not like animals to be led only by bit and bridle or by fear of the whip. God has put into all our hearts a sense of the blessing of order and peace. The thing desired by the wisest among us is an an understanding heart. The meetings at Taupiri, Piako, and elsewhere, are all steps in the right direction. It is, then, lack of laws which lead to more than half the petty wars iu New Zealand. Men are killed; women and children starved; the whole district suffer; cultivations cease. A small squabble begins about an offence or a boundary or a trespass. No one has a right to interfere. After a deal of wrangling, half a dozen innocent people are often killed: and thus new causes of bloodshed arise. We can only grieve that the movement for law and order in the northern part of this island has been checked by the ignorant prejudices and evil practices of some who professed to adopt the new laws. AH thoughtful Maories must see the benefit the English get by being under law. They are much the same as themselves on many points. Some are good, some bad, some drunken, some sober, some honest, some thievish. But all bad and good alike must obey the law. Our forefathers were engaged in constant squabbles; the land was full of blood. Widows and orphans were left desolate. Even the injured party did not get satisfaction always, though much blood was shed. But now the weakest among us goes to the judge or the magistrate and gets redress. We rejoice to hear that the war at Tauranga has ceased, and that there is hope of peace being made at Whakaiane. Year after year after year as law becomes generally administered and obeyed in every district, we believe tbat these evil wars will die out'. All will feel that it is better to pay a fine than to kill or be killed in a shameful quarrel.

Another sign of growth is the unceasing desire for education. Besides the number of children trained at Otawhao, Taupiri, Kohanga, Three Kings, and elsewhere, there are several schools kept by Maori schoolmasters. These have in most cases beeu trained themselves in English schools. At Orakei no less than thirty children are daily taught. Some come from a distance and board in the village. They learn to read and write, and they learn to sing and to read English. These native schools are the things to depend on for the future. The English teachers may fail at any time. Most of them, however, have been working for years. There may be none found likeminded to take their plan. But these native masters and mistresses give good hope that education will not fail in the land. It is a sign of growing forethought that their parents begin to pay for their children. But this is not cemmon. We hope this year all will come forward like men who care for the next generation, that they may not grow up ignorant and untaught. The stone church at Mangari has been finished in the last year. For this purpose money has been collected year after year. Great efforts have been made and partially continued. The peopleon thegronndneglected their own crops that God's house might be finished. It stands now a model both for Euglish and Maories to imitate in their villages. We mnst not conclude, however, without speaking of the childishness of many of the Maori tribes about growing wheat. They have been disappointed because prices fell, and have in consequence left off growing, or only sent up very small quantities to Auckland ; 12000 J. have been spent at Melbourne, Sydney, South America, and elsewhere, in the purchase of wheat. Much of this went out of the country in gold, which might have been in the pockets of the New Zealand wheat growers. A few years ago we sold 5000/. worth of flour to other colonies, j

Now we spend 4200(K. in buying flour from them. And ibis in New Zealand, wilb its great tracts of good land and large native population ! There is no manly forethought in conduct like this. Prices will rise and fall. If we are children enough to grumble and lose heart, we must be content to see our profits go into other bands. A new source of wealth is opening to all who have patience and perseverance: the qualities of men, not boys. At Taupo and its neighbourhood, some of the chiefs have killed off the native dogs and begun to keep sheep. The sale of the wool will soon convince them that it is worth to lay land down in grass, and to have sheep-runs". If it pays Englishmen to keep sheep, who must have shepherds to look after them, much more will it pay where the idle youths in every village may be set to watch and to shear ihem. A fair trial of this will be a good work for the coming year.