NEW ZEALAND AT THE CENTENNIAL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XI, Issue 243, 10 November 1876, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND AT THE CENTENNIAL.

BY WILLIAM E. GRIFFITHS. '• Surely the isles shall wait for thee*' Fifty gears ago the New Zealanders were co busily engaged eating each Other up, that their two islands which face each other like two catp, both witb their Wks, and one with its tail v up," would have been picked clean, The Kilkenny combat would have repeated itself on a national scale. Incessant war, canuibalism, and female infanticide were already depopulating the islands before the white man came. What a change of diet ? What a metamorphosis ? Here in Main Hull is a miracle of divine providence in history. New Zealand startles us when the'glutton grub that to-day incessantly devours, to morrow soars in the sunshine a miracle of dazzling color and ethereal life. It is like the resurrection of the mulberry leaf into satin. Down in the Southern Pacific, at the antipodes, iv fact the very loot of the world, aod very properly shaped like a boot, hut of course upside down, lies New Z 'alao-t. It is about 10,000 miles from P-iiladelphia. The 40° parallel of south lutiiude, intersects it near New Plymouth, where the more modern " Pilgrim Fathers " first landed in 1841. Its area is about 100,000 square miles, nearly tbat of Great Britain and Ireland. The colonist here, 12,000 from Old England, sees at night not tbe familiar North Star and Great Bear, ihe Pleiades and Orion, but far fewer stars in strange constellations, amid great voids of black space. This at first chills his heart with a sense ot loneliness, until he becomes used to it, then he boasts that New Zealand is the finest spot of earth, and he would live nowhere else. Wonderful climate, plethoric"Bot!, marvellous possibilities of development belong to New Zealand. Bere God in geology carries on his marvels of creation. Processes long since finished in other lands muy here be studied in full activity. Oae hundred miles of snow-crowned mountains give sublimity to the lundscape, «nd silent blessing to the soil. These peaks snatch the moietuie irom the breezes of ocean 14,000 f-^et above its level. Dense forests clothe their flauks, colossal glaciers crawl down th-Mr sid-.-s giving birfh to rivers. The 1200 miles lineal measurement, with nearly tripe that of well- indented and accessible sea-coast ia bieewed by Cook's Straits, a natural caonl, which save ships a detour of over 1000 miles. The lace of the Southern Pacific is tatooed with islands, atolls, and young continents. Australia is as large as the United States. Some scholars believe tbat at the time of Christ's birth these were uoinhabited of man. Certainly the peopling of New Zealand is very recent, only a few years before the of America by Columbus. Even the names of their chiefs and the CBOoes tbey came in are preserved. They are most probably a Malay race from Sumatra. Sanskrit, Hindi, and otber continental words are found in ibeir degenerate Malay dialect. They call themselves Maoris. Tbey tattooed their faces and bodies, even to their lips and eyelids. A shipwrecked English sailor was given a chief's daugbier to wife, was rtiuoed by the imperious black-eyed beauty because he waa not . handsome, t. _„ not tattooed. The sailor thereupou submitted to be punctured with charcoal, until he rivalled a New Z aland dandy. He won his wife. Even the idoin are tatooed. The Maoris uspd weapons of stone; mad*their women beasts of burden, and lived ou a diet of fern roof, flour, sweet polutos.nts, eels, fish, sharks, and human B'rloiirs, c-bops, and cutlets. Tbey wen* nit always particular how it wns cooked. Tbey often aie it raw. Their codes of law or rather superstilionH ware often expressed -by the word *** Taboo," a word that has passed into our language. On these islands no quadrupeds but tfttß, ani few fauna of any kind existed except the hairy birds called "kiwi" and " moa." The moa stood ten feet b>*_h. One iv the* M*.in Hall, has taken off liis fle-h and uowstnods in hie bones, ns suits tbe hot weather. With full life dress, and with digestive engines at w*.>rk, he seems quite able to digest a missionary. Tasman, the hold Dutch sailor, whose monument is in the name Tasmania, ili st saw the Miori country. Like a true Hollander he nam^i it New Zualand, just as an Irish Governor afierW;u ds divi. led it into Ulster, Connaught, &c. Ihat ♦•* beat lhe Dutch." Captain Cook, on his expedition to observe the traust of Venus, arrived in Poveriy B*y in 1769, and afterwards visited the Islands three times. Our Banjamin Frabklin was so interested iv Cook's aocoun*, that he proposed a 9cheme for their colonization. Cook, amoug other good thit-gs, introduced a few hogs, which increased with marvellous rapidity. In 1839, when colonization began, tbere was at band a providen ial eupply of surplus food for them. Here, in Main Hall we fiad soap, candies, oil, lard, hams, sausages, lootfues, etc., tbe centennial fruit of Cook's benevolence. When the NewZealauders fiist saw soap they baked it in tht-ir ovens aDd ate it. The (--fleet may be imagined. Now, tbe New Zealander makes the detetgeot himself. There is a profound signifi conce iv a heathen making soap and using it. China, for instance, is sadly iv national need of this wholesome article. Tbe wholo heathen world Deeds it. Long before colonists came,

the missionary was on the ground. In 1814, the Rev Samuel Marsden visited the islands, and witb others established a mission under the auspices of " The Church Missionary Society," Earnestly they began to teach, preach and translate the Bible into Maori. Gradually the work spread and other missionaries joined the labor, until iv 1860 the entire native population were nominally Christianised, and thousands lived pure lives of faith and good practice. The introduction ol firearms — at first the cause of frightful slaughter — finally 'ended to abolish the intertribal wars. Even when the Maoris and whites met each other in bloody battle, as was sometimes the case, the Christian Maori did not renounce his faith. Many a native with a bullet in hie body -h&s been found with the New Testament in bis bosom. Yet far Jess fighting, proportionally, was done in New Zealand, than in tbe United States during itß early colonisation. Now whites and Maoris dwell peaceably side by side Years ago tbe natives disinterred the bonea of the slaughtered whites, and, as a proof that their feud was over, built a memorial church over them,, There are now many congregations of Maoris, wiih their native pastors. Men who have <?aten at a hundred cannibal feasts, now partake of tbe symbols of a Saviour's love. The converted mau, with a changed heart, but ineffaceable tattoo, follows the plough and tills the soil for his family, who clean and welldressed, welcome him round a family altar. Maoris also hold offices of government, sit in. the legislature, teach, carry on business, and labor to elevate the mass of their fellow Maoris, j Thus in eixjy years, a nation has been rescued from cannibalism and impending extinction, and Christianised, In thirty-six years a powerful, free Christian state has sprung up in the Pacific. Th^ere is now in New Zealand, a population of nearly 400,000 souls, of whom 40,000 are Maoris and 5000 Chinese, (who are to be found all over the Pacific island?). The Americans number 575. Ot the total, 123,000 were born in lhe colony — an item which proves that New Zealand is a permanent home, and not a wild venture. There are over 250 miles of railroad in operation, 630 miles being built, and 1648 miles authorised, besides roads, watercourses, splendid cities and buildings, paved Btreets and rich stores with plate glass fronts There rich farms, herds of cattle, mines of gold and other metals, aud telegraphs connecting the chief iow-qp. Schools, colleges, a university, museums, mechanics', institutes, and book clubs under a free Government diffuse education nnd information. Churches are found in every town. Newspapers alrea^ number scores. These are results grander even than the wonderful crops pf grain, flUx, woolj timber, livestock, metals or the 30,00D,000d0l of goid represented by giidad shaft in Main Hill. ! Let the visitor study the photographs j of scenery, cities aad natives, tbe statistics, the Maori weapons and utensils, and see how the world is moving on— -even at the antipodes. Here nre great lumps of kauri gum. Unce Ihe infuriate cannibal pierced his vanquished enemy with red-hot ram-rods and poured the boiling, blazing gum into his wounds. To-day Philadelphia refineries make carriage varnish of it. From timber of the mujestic kauriforests the same Maoris, now regenerated men, build their temples for the worship of God in Christ. Out of a Chrietian civilisation bas sprung this new empire under the Southern Cross. By ihn power of thegofpel has the tattooed cannibal savuge become a man, a brother aod a son of God. When " tbe broken arches of London Bridge," and " the ruins of St Paul/ and the forgotten writiogs of tha brilliant Macaulay, have alike passed into oblivion, the labors and their fruits of the Christian mislonariea in New Zealand, will shine in nmetnberance as "the stars in tie firmament for ever and ever."