EXTRACTS FROM THE BLUE BOOK. [Enclosure 4 in No. 46.] Otaki, December 26, 1850.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 725, 14 July 1852, Page 3

EXTRACTS FROM THE BLUE BOOK. [Enclosure 4 in No. 46.] Otaki, December 26, 1850.

Sir, — I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 24th instant, covering certain extracts from a letter of Dr. Dorset to the Secretary of the Colonies, in which he animadverts on the missionaries and natives of this place, and further, to forward to you, for the information of his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, certain observations which I have thought it necessary to make on his animadversions. It is not easy to ascertain what Dr. Dorset, and the persons whom he represents, are endeavouring to establish in the remarks they have made. It appears, however, to be, that the improvement and civilisation of the natives are more rapid when they are in contact with the settlers alone, than when they are under the influence of the Government and missionaries. I do not wish to misrepresent them, if this is not their meaning I am unable to say what it is. Assuming, then, that this is their meaning, I shall endeavour to shew that the statements contained in their letter are very little to their purpose, even though they can prove, what 1 , very much doubt, that the natives of Motueka are in a more improved and civilised state than those of Otaki. Besides, I think I shall be able to make it manifest that . their statements are not altogether correct ; in fact, that the writers have but very limited information on the subject on which they write. The writers say — " In examining, then, the relative success of the two experimental systems of native civilisation above described," &c. Here, then, they assume that two distinct systems have been pursued with a view to the civilisation of the natives. If a different system have really been pursued at Motueka from that at Otaki, it would be important to ascertain what that system was, and by whom carried on, for the word "system" must be meant to convey something more than the accidental coutact of the natives with the settlers. But I altogether deny the assumption, that a different system has been carried on there. The -writers seem to have wholly overlooked the fact, that the natives there have been under the guidance and influence of missionaries. Within a very few months after the establishment of the settlement at Nelson, a missionary of the Church Missionary Society, the Rev. C. L. Reay, was located there ; and he made it his constant practice to encourage the natives in the district in habits of industry. And during the last three years the Rev. T. L. Tudor has been residing in their immediate neighbourhood, and assisting them with his advice and encouragement. -They had also, previous to the arrival of sett tiers, been some years under the instruction of missionaries, though no missionary resided among them. Moreover, in reference to the very subject the writers of the letter have chosen as a test of civilisation — the cultivation of wheat — I have a distinct recollection that Mr. Reay, in a letter published some years ago at Nelson, but to which I have not now access, asserted that the natives of Motueka had been taught and encouraged to grow wheat by natives who went there from this district who had seen it grown here ; and lam able myself to mention the native who went from Waikanai, and who was their principal instructor in agriculture ; his name is Himiona te Weh'i. He was an excellent ploughman, having received his instruction on the Mission Farm at Waimate, near the Bay' of Islands. Therefore it is not a fact that two different systems have*been pursued, and consequently the great quantity of wheat grown at Motueka proves nothing in support of the proposition contended for in the letter. It was not the result of mere contact with settlers, however advantageous that may have been. As to the statements concerning Otaki, I can only say that some clerical error must exist in the official returns as to the wheat grown here, on which those statements seeni to be grounded. Five acres is mentioned as the quantity grown last year. But the fact that a watermill, with two pairs of stones, which has been erected at the cost of several hundred pounds by the natives, and that another is in progress, all the materials having been purchased, and being on the spot, must be sufficient to convince anybody that "five" acres is not the average annual amount of wheat cultivated at Otaki. But supposing the case, as stated in the letter, to be generally correct, are there no reasons why the natives of "Motueka may have grown more wheat than those of Otaki, without having* recourse to the imaginary ones therein advanced ? The writers, indeed, anticipate this

very obvious question, by saying, "-Your Lordship has two entire districts before you, similar in most respects, inhabited by natives of the very same tribes." I must here remark, in the j first place, that the country at Motueka is much more available for the plough than that at Otaki, where large stumps must be removed before a plough can be used at all. Did the writers not know this ? 1 will now refer to the official statistics for 1848 for the cultivation of wheat by the settlers of Wellington and Nelson respectively. It will be there seen that the former grew only 350 acres of wheat, while the latter grew 1,435 acres, the population of the former place being nearly double that of the latter, and the settlement two years older.' What inference would they draw from thi? ? That the people of Nelson were ten times as industrious as those of Wellington ? Absurd as this may appear, if they are accurate in their reasoning, they can arrive at no other conclusion. Why do the writers of this letter, who reside at Wellington, take no notice of the place in which they reside, and of which they might be presumed to know something, in order to institute a comparison between the natives of Otaki and those of Motueka ? How is it that they " knew of no other instance in which the juxtaposition of the two races, by intermixture of -lands and proximity of dwellings, in accordance with the plan originally devised by the New Zealand Company, has received any fair trial except in that locality," when the same trial has been made at Wellington, where the natives are in closer and more immediate contact with the settlers, and where the selections of their lands has been more "in accordance with the plan originally devised by the New Zealand Company," these having been thoroughly intermixed with those of the settlers, than at Motueka, which is 17 or 18 miles from Nelson, and where their land was judiciously selected for them, by a person not connected with the New Zealand Company, but an officer of the Government, in a continuous block, though they have some settlers in their neighbourhood. Are they really anxious to establish their own inferiority to the settlers at Nelson ? or have they selected Motueka because the wooded nature of the land near Wellington has been the same impediment in the use of the plough as it has at Otaki, and, therefore, would not have suited their purpose of misrepresentation ? On what principle of fairness can a comparison be instituted between agricultural progress in an open country and in a wooded district ? But in addition to what I have now stated, his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief will remember that there have been many reasons why the natives of this part should not have advanced so rapidly as those of Motueka, even supposing their inferiority in this respect. While war around them, with which they had no immediate connexion, disturbed the natives here, and discouraged them from extending their cultivations, the natives on the other side of the. Strait were living in security, and until the late road from Porirua to Wellington was made, the people of this place saw no prospect of conveying their wheat to Wellington with any certainty at a moderate cost ; now they can take it to Porirua in canoes, and have it carted at a small cost to that place. But there is an assumption in the endeavour to prove the superiority of the natives of Motueka to those of Otaki which I can- by no means allow to pass unnoticed, namely, that the cultivation of wheat is the chief or only test of progress in civilisation. It has already been shewn that this would be no test as to the relative prosperity of Wellington and Nelson. Apply the same test to New South Wales, a wool-growing colony, and would it be a fair criterion of its relative prosperity as a colony ? This assumption is grounded on a saying of Sir Fowel Buxton's. I do not feel inclined to gainsay that dictum, if interpreted as it doubtless was intended to be, that is, that habits of industry must accompany progress in Christianity. But to say literally that the "plough" must accompany it is an absurdity, and not what the author of the remark intended. This, however, is the way in which narrow-minded persons, unable to grasp a principle, ever mistake the sayings of great and wise men. It should be remembered, in considering this question, that agriculture is not the direct object of the missionary ; it is only an adjunct to his — in his opinion at least — far more important work, and that the operations of the two missionaries alluded to extend from Wellington to the upper part of the Manawatu river (a river from which I may mention, by the bye, there was last year exported £5,000 of produce in flour, timber, and flax) a distance of 120 or 130 miles, including at least 40 villages. The natives of Otaki probably know what suits their interest better than those who, with very little or no information beyond their own immediate spheres, presume to animadvert on their proceedings. If they find it more to their advantage to rear cattle and pigs, to grow maize and barley and oats, and to prepare flax, which is both shipped in the raw state and in wool-lashing from this place to Sydney, it would not be easy to show why they should abandon these for the purpose of growing 'wheat as extensively as the natives of Motueka. I have found it difficult to ascertain the drift of the paragraph beginning, " Indolence is the besetting vice," &c. Do the writers wish to assert that slothfulness" is encouraged by missionaries at Otaki ? Jf so, I can only give a peremptory denial to such an unfounded assertion, and say that whatever charges can be brought against the people of this place, the very last that could be brought against them by any one having the slightest knowledge of their habits, and the least regard for truth, would be that of indolence. I am not acquainted with half a dozen idle persons Again, what is intended by such a sentence as this : "We should entertain a better opinion and a better hope of a native who never entered a chapel, but had his two or three acres of wheat and a good barn, than we should of one who might attend the church service twice a- day, but spent the rest of his time in lounging in the sun, or galloping a broken-down mare about the country." If it proceeded from professing heathens, who knew nothing of Christianity and its effects, one might suppose that such a remark as this had been occasioned by some perverted account of it. Is there any antagonism between Christianity and agriculture ? or, if the writers please, between that Christianity "taught by missionaries and the cultivation of wheat ?

Or does it necessarily follow that, because a man attends the church service twice a-day, he must be idle during the rest of it ? If the writers bad any, knowledge of this place, they would be aware that there are here many na- | tives who " attend the church service twice aday," and, notwithstanding, have "two or three acres of wheat and a good barn." , But the remark is contemptible for the ignorance which it manifests on more points than one. Does food grow spontaneously here ? Have the natives of this country nothing to do in order to obtain subsistence, that they can afford to lounge in the sun " all day ?" Is not the life of both men and women a life of toil ? By what figure of speech, then, can these laborious people be said to pass the " day in lounging in the sun ?" Is not such language as this the index of some other- feeling than anxiety for the improvement of the natives ? Does it not evince such hostility to their real welfare as must throw discredit on the motives which actuate v the writers ? The natives of this place, actuated by higher motives than their maligners can appreciate, or, perhaps, even conceive, have, oa removing to their new village, and providing themselves with hastily-built houses,, devoted I themselves in the first place to the erection of a church — a building whicli gives evidence of something more than mere outward profession, of religion — a building, the- labour bestowed on which is estimated by the Government surveyor, a gentleman who, being a Romanist,^ can have no object in exaggeration, at what he considered the lowest rate, £2,500, Is such a work as this a confirmation of the truth of the remark, "So long as slothfulness in business continues the prominent feature of their character, but little reliance is to be placed in the assurances of the fervency of spirit to which their well-meaning, but too often not very judicious, patrons are in the habit of appealing as evidence of ihe success of their tutelage r" But the charge of indolence could never have been brought against the natives of Otaki, except by persons utterly ignorant of them 3 and the fact of their having raised their crops by manual labour without a plough, if it be a proof of their want of civilisation (and if so, it must prove the same against nearly all the settlers in the vicinity of Wellington who have forest land to contend with), is at least no proof of their " indolence and slothfulness." There are some other remarks contained in. the letter to which I must briefly allude. Otaki is described as a "Government village," and and under " Government influence." It is difficult to deal with these very vague statements. I am not aware that there has been any Government influence exerted here that has not been exerted elsewhere ; indeed I am quite at a loss to know to what allusion is n)ade. A grant was indeed made last year in aid of the school ; but I cannot conceive that that can be supposed to have had any connection with the amount of wheat sown the previous season. Besides this, three or four chiefs of this place, in common with others elsewhere, received a few presents from the Government some years ago for slight services rendered during the war. It is stated that a "ground survey of a village or town has been effected by the Government;" but did not those who made this statement know that the same has been done for several other places, and that Motueka is included among them ? Motueka is nearer to " Government influence," being only 17 or 18 miles from Nelson, than Otaki, which is 50 miles from Wellington, although there is a Resident Magistrate 12 miles distant, at Waikanai. What meaning, then, is to be attached to the expression, " Government influence," and " Government village ?" Surely those who use such expressions must be under some misapprehension : they could not have intended a wilful mi srepresentation . There is now only one subject remaining on which I deem it necessary to say a few words more. As an instance of the slight advance made in "civilisation, it is said, "The fence which surrounds the pa at Waikanai continues to this day ornamented (if it may be so called) with a series of gigantic figures of the most obscene design, within a mile or so of the missionary's house, within 100 yards of the church, and not 500 yards from the habitation of the Resident Magistrate." From this language it would hardly be believed that the missionary's house is 12 miles from the pa; that the pa has long since been deserted, and the church likewise (it being their intention to remove the' latter, and reconstruct it), three-fourths of the natives having gone to Tdranaki, and the remaining fourth having removed to a place two miles distant. The only pa inhabited which at all answers the description given is a small one belonging to a man who is the most extensive grower of wheat on this side of the Strait, but who unfortunately does not attend the church services " twice aday," or at all. The hideous figures alluded to were erected in time of war, when it was the object of the inhabitants to express significantly " to their opponents, those in rebellion against the Government, that they, notwithstanding they were Christians, were serious in their intention of fighting, if compelled by the conduct of their opponents to do so. Never having myself noticed these figures, "which 'were erected at a time when neither of the missionaries nowengaged in this district were here, I am unable to say how far the description given of them is accurate. I beg, in conclusion, to acknowledge the courtesy of his Excellency the Governor- in- Chief in affording me an" opportunity of , answering "the statements concerning Otaki contained in the jetter on which I have been commenting. I have, &c, (Signed) * Octavtus Hadfiet,d, Archdeacon of Kapiti. The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Wellington.