The Rev. Thos. Buddle on "The Aborigines of New Zealand." (Continued from our last.)

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 535, 31 May 1851, Page 3

The Rev. Thos. Buddle on " The Aborigines of New Zealand." (Continued from our last.)

Social and Domestic Condition (continued). Infanticide was practiced among them to a fearful extent. Parents weie in many instances without natural affection. The causes assigned by them for this unnatural practice were numerous War often led to it. "We shall have raruraitt (trouble) with this child in fleeing before our enemies; its cries will expose our reheat," a woman would say to her husband } " let us strangle it " " Very well do so," the inhuman father would coolly reply. Conjugal quarrels sometimes induced the mother to put away the child of her bosom as punishment to an offending husband. Illegitimate children were generally sacrificed, us they could not endure the epithet « poriro." Polygamy was a fruitful source of tbii horrible crime. Perhaps the wife leatt loved is the mother, and from disappointment and ill.requited affection she destroys her offspring. Perhaps the father and mother belonn to different tribes,— tribes which either are or h.ive been at taiiance; and the cruel mother will forget her sucking child and say, •• I will not rear successor! for such an one — hi* fathers ate mine." Perhaps old feuils between the tribes ba\e broken out a fresh, and the wife sympathize! wnh her friends, and kills her children. Such a castom of course told fearfully against the increase of population. And I fear it has not entirely ceased. Children were sadly neglected among them. Many hate peruhed for want of proper food and attention. The small proportion of children is very remaikable, and forms a great contrast to the European families. In some places it will be found that there is not an average of one child to every marriage couple. Ou one imall river where the censui w*s taken, there were found 280 adults and 80 children. Deduct say 80 at aged people, 200 are left, say 100 manied couplet: for these 100 couples you hare 80 children, a very small proportion— for< in^ upon us the mournful concluiion that their numbers must dwindle. On thii subject I may also r-maik, that by a census taken along the Eastern Coast, wheie population hai been considered most numerous, the proportion of men to vromea ii as five to three. Three females to five males. What but rapid decrease can result from men nroportiom ? , Education was totally neglected. Youth were allowed to stray where thry pleased, might be absent from home for dass or week* and no aniieiy felt. They did in most respects what wii right in their own e -es The only subject on which the least solicitude wasfelt wai to train them for war ; to foster the spirit of revenge; to keep up the remembrance of insult received or injuriei intticied by hostile tribes, to be .yenged at a fitting opportunity. How much then is education needed. In connec tion with the Gospel this is the only lever that will raise them to the position they are qualified by intel. iectual endowments to occupy among the uaiiiiui of the earth. And the efforti of the Government to supnlc'the neeessaiy agency, and aid existing establishm enU in ttiis work of philanthropy, are beyond all iH-aise.

f Slavery. All prisoners of war were comidered slaves, and all their children the property of the chiefi. Their position «ai one of degradation and insult, as they were exncctfd to work and supply the wants of their masters. Their condition, however, bore no resemblance to the slatery of what are called c.yil.zed nations It was not reduced to system. No grinding labour was exacted. They were not treated with cruelty. But any misdemeanour, «ny insult offered bv a sUve to his cbirf, would be visited with instant death • and the death of a slave would not be considered worthy of anybody'! notice. •• Oh ! he »u a taurekarcka, it matters not," would be a 1 the notice it receired. Slates generally have bern liberated and returned to their bomei.

GOVERNW«NT. On the subject of their Government I liave only time to remark, that it never wa. like that of the Sandwich Islands, TafcUi, and the Friendly Isles, monarchal, but divided among independent chief*. Was ihi« the result of the fint emigrants dividing, »nd locating in different and dutant diitriets ? Chieftainship is not always hereditary. It not unfrequently happens that one who had distinguished himself in battle, or mauifeste<l unusual sagacity in council, obtained influence which rank alone could not •i»e him. „ .* , • • The power of the chief* » very limited, consisting principally in deciding, directing, and controlling political subjects. They lmve no means of protecting: prorerty, or punishing crime, beyond those arising from the custom of tnpu. There were no equal laws forming a fence around their posse.sious or liberties or lires; no protective insu'utions ; consequently every m an was a robber or a victim of robbery, and univer6 at violence and depredation prevailed. This state of things some wiiters call a reign of absolute liberty : it ii the absolute libeity of the strong to tyrannize over the weak. . What a boon is conferred upon such » people in the establishment of British Jaw !

Mourning for the Dead. The custom of mourning for the dead was iimilar to what hai prcrailcd among moit barbarous nations. Cannibalism greatly tends to destroy the natural repwgnance felt at handling the dead. Nature would bul y her dead out of her light, and religion foiters the feeling} but heatheniim and cannibalism familiarize men wilh scenes of blood and death ; and hence the New Zetlnnders, with other savage nations, had *uch .ingular customs connected with the dead. They were accustomed to dress the corpse, paint the face, decorate the head with feathers, and place it m a strung poiture to receive the last honours, and have the ceremony performed which wai to secure the hpnit a safe and speedy passage to the other world, len men were sent to catch «nd kill a certain b)rd which wu presented »• an offering te the gods ; a line of the grass called toitoi wai placed in the band of the corpse ; the

relative! all holding the other end, and each laying, " Climb to the first heaven i !" then " climb to the second." They were accustomed to preserve their heads that they might mourn over them, and frequently placed them before tiiitors and relative! for tbii purpose : but the ihamefu! practice introduced by tome European captains of making them an article of traffic, led to the discontinuance of the custom. This custom it referred to in the following lament. It wa» uttered with the bead of the deceased friend in view, placed on the " ata »»>«/' or n»ge erected for the purpose.

Lament of Tupaea for his Brother Korohiko, KILLED AT THE Pa OF TuMU, NEAR MaKETU. The morning stars appear, Meremere and Kopu twinkle abore me, Harbingers of returning day, Symbols of a brother beloved, Who comes again to comfort me. He was to me tt a celestial companion* Now I am left alone. Oar hearts were dark and gloomy When we parted on the mountain tide, And he passed the land* of Tahua. But he wept to carry forth vrut wrath; And nobly he stood in front of battle, Cueprinjy on to glorious victory The trembling hosts of Ngatitaha. Till, stretched on the ensanguined plain, By fire which demom kindled, And wrapt in flame by a powder from afar. Proverbs shall hand thy fame to generations. Alai ! my heart blerds, it breaks for t» e cWith the knife that tortures, tbou Wert slaughtered; by the lake of Kaituna Thy very flesh ran down like oil. Sit there my friend, upon the " ata mira." Speak my beloved, salute my ears again, Before the morning breaks, Or uijiht's shadows flee away. Let me bear thee to the home of our fathers, By the muddy shoals of Tuuranga, i On which we fished together. That thy children may see thee, And look on this side and on that, As by canoe they carry thee From place to place, That friends may mourn thy fate. Lsl me gnze upon thy features, From which the bloom of youth Hud not yet pasted away. That face marked so beautifully With the bone of albatroit, The great sea-bird from Karewa, The ocean rock.

The custom of the ancienti wailing over their departed friends, bo often referred to in scripture, pee«, vailed amongst them. It ua» considered In olden, timei a great discredit not to he wept. Job lay*, " His widows shall not weep." The Psalmist says of Hophni n nd Phineas, " the prieits fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation." Women nnd men made it a profession, and were hired for the purpoie among the Hebrews ; and the New Zealander planted Urge quantities of food, and called his friends' from distant places to come and weep with him o*er the departed. The weeping wui often without since* rity. I hate heard of instances where the weeping party have taken moss out of a swamp, and leaning ton < their spears presstd the water out of their moss to supply teats for the occaiion. In the case of near relatives, however, the grief was real, expressed by cutting the face and breast and body with a sharp stone till bathed >» blood—another relic of ancient tiroes. It was generally accompanied with poetry ; a dirge, in which the virtues and valor of the dead were net forth. It wa« 10 in days of old. "Jeremiah ! lamented for Jotiah, and all the singing men and ' singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations." David, too, composed a dirge on the dtath of Absalom, and one on the death of his friend Jonathan. A specimen or two will illustrate the subject.

A Lament for a Chief of Ncatimaniapoto. By his Wife. Sorrow bites keen within me For my beloved. Thou hast left thy noble friendi; The great assembly of chiefs Thou hat forsaken. Thy tribes, the thoiumdi of Timani Have lost their friend. Go. Pang", by the path that* free from storm. Thou wert dear as my life. War was thy food, Sought where the south. wind blovri* Thy eloquence was music, A» rare as talking birds, When great men met for rouncil. Thy movements on the battle field Were graceful ai a hovering bird. Enfold my beloved in attire Brauteous as the setting tun. Let him be enshrouded In a garment bright n* flame. Let my beautiful Toi* Be suspended from his ear, By Rewa his friend. My bird that sang so sweetly Has fallen over the cliff. The ronk of our defence, Tint broke the force of ocean waves, Has taken hit departure to theheaveni. Come to me in the visions of the night; Stand again on the prow of thy canue, And listen to the sound of the tides That flow on Waikato's banks, That come in booming wnvei When the north winds blow. Where, Njjoi, is the power of thy prayer ? Let it inipite kirn, That he may arrive as one triumphant, Since he has laid him in the dust, And to Ihii world is for ever lost. Other subjects might be introduced, but our time is gone, an>l we must draw to a conclusion— which is ihis. that the New Zealander needed Christianity and the bleciinga of civilization. The idea has sometimes been entertained that savage life supplies greater happiness than civilized. But doe« a candid investlga. tion of tbc facts establish this conclusion ? To draw _ a popular picture of savage life is one thing; to see tne savage in his *piritual darkness am« social misery j, another. It were easy to speak of roaming or cr woods and mountains, free as beasti or winds, | n , happy communion with natuie, now bathing in the lake, or skimming over the sea, or wandenn|} it) shady grovts, and at evening joining in the village dance and song. This is the poetry of savage life, but , it has a reality. As we have viewed it, it present! man in the lowest wretchedness, worse than brutified. It is unnatural: God never intended man to exist a savage j be formed him a social being, for intelligent and social joys. And to rescue him from barbarism » the Gospel'i design. It has often been asserted that little has been ef,fecUd among thu Nrw Zealanders ; but we demur to this. Let calm and unprejudiced enquiry be made, comparing their condition thirty years ago with their

* An eardrop ot green stone.

present state, and the conclusion must be, that a mighty change has taken place. It was not to be expected that the land would emerge from barbarism to a high state of civilization in a day. To change a nation's lawi, and uproot a nation's customs, and banish established prejudices m a work of time. The Goipel, followed bv the schoolmaster and the ineful arts, will do its work. We bare but to do our duty — to Christianize and educste — to show by our conversation nnd eiample the value of our religion and our laws; and the remnant of these tribe* may grow witli us side by tide, worshipping the God we worship, and honoring his truth, by ol>eyii)£ its precepts; acknowledging the Sovereign we delight to honor, yielding obedience to the lawi of our glorious constitution, and mingling in our commercial pursuits with equal success. The old system ii pissing away ; the country'i regeneration is in progress ; and ire nmy adopt the senti-ments-of Cowper, tnd express his wish— ">Th»t heavenward a'l things tend. For all were once Perfect, mid all must he at length restored. So God hath greatly purposed ; who would else In hit dishonoured works himself endure Dishonour, and be wronged without redress. Haste, then, and wheel away a shattered world, Ye sloir revolving seasons ! We wou'd see A sight to which our~eyes are strangers yef — A world that does not hate nrd dread His laws, And suffer for its crime ; would learn how fair Tut creature U that God pronounces good, How pleasant in itself what pleases Him."