COLONEL MUNDY, ON NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 765, 1 December 1852, Page 3

COLONEL MUNDY, ON NEW ZEALAND.

The following extracts are taken from a notice in the Sydney Morning Herald of a work, in 3 volumes, recently published by Lieutenant Colonel Mundy entitled, Our Antipodes^ or Residence and Rambles in the Australian Colonies. The Sydney Herald has made very copious extracts from the work, we have selected, those relating to New Zealand, which the author visited in the Inflexible, in December, 1847. Auckland — Christmas day. — Divine service at the little brick-built church of St. Paul's. The interior was prettily decorated, Christmas fashion, with the graceful fronds of the treefern, some of them eight and ten feet long entirely covering the windows. I perceived none of the aborigines among the congregation, nor do I know whether -they are encouraged or permitted to frequent the parish church, there belug separate houses of prayer devoted to their spiritual teaching apart from the white population. I observed, however, several bushy heads and wild tattooed faces peeping at times through

the windows during the service ; and towards its close two or three stole into the body, of the building, stared about them for a few minutes, and quietly withdrew. In my afternoon stroll I passed the door of the Maori chapel, a short way out of town, where a very attentive and crowded congregation were engaged in singing in excellent time and tune a well-known psalm in their own language. As a Chinese artizan, in working from a pattern, faithfully copies into a new garment all the holes and other defects observable in the old one, so the New Zealand Christian servilely imitates the English rural fashion of psalmody, enlisting the nose into the service as an important vocal organ— the national nga giving him a nasal superiority over his instructors. On the following day, which happened to be Sunday, as the Governor and myself were returning from a walk to the summit of Mount Eden, on turning one of the angles of the volcano, we carae suddenly upon a small hamlet, belonging probably to a party of natives employed permanently by Government in quarrying stone at the foot of the hill. Ido not remember "a more interesting and impressive scene than met our view as we looked down into the valley below us. About eighty or a hundred Maories of various age and sex were standing, sitting, or reclining among the low fern in front of their village, in such groups and attitudes as accident had thrown them into. In the midst, on a mound slightly elevated, stood a native teacher, deeply tattooed on the face, but dressed in decent black clothes of European fashion, who, with a Hible in his hands, was expounding the Gospel in their own tongue. Taking off our hats we approaced so as to become part of the congregation. No head turned towards vs — no curious eye or ears were at- | tracted by the arrival of the "strangers (as so often occurs in more civilized congregations,) ! although the Governor was one of them. Their calm and grave looks' were fixed on the preacher who, on his part, enforced his doctrine with a powerful and persuasive voice, and with a manner and gesture replete with energy and animation. The sermon was apparently extempore, but there was no poverty of wordß or dearth of matter. It was delivered with the utmost fluency, and with occasional rapid reference to and quotation from the scriptures. The wild locale of this outdoor worship (in the lap, as it were, of a mountain torn to pieces by its own convulsions — in the midst of heaped-up lava and scorise, with the fern and the flax waving in the gale) invested the scene with a peculiar solemnity. The rugged and sequestered position of the ceremony carried one back some centuries in the history of the world. It was necessary to rally one's thoughts, in order to recollect that the assembly into which we had stumbled was not composed of some proscribed, and persecuted sect, doomed to perform in secresy and in fear and trembling, under penalty of the torture and the stake, the rites of a forbidden creed. Near the spot where these " Mihonaries" were convened, we met a young Englishman, who proved to be the overseer of the native quarry-men, and who informed us that he had conducted sixty of them to church in the morning. * * * * At the request of some of the European spectators, a grand war-dance succeeded, in which nearly all the male natives present and a few of the females took part. I was told, however, by some of the military officers, who had seen it enacted under all the fierce zest of a preparative for deeds of blood, that this was a very tame representation of the national dance. The peace establishment war-dance was quite horrible enough for my taste. The grimaces were hideous beyond all conception — eyes upturned till nothing but the whites were visible, tongues protruded past all probable power of recal, diabolical grins, savage frowns, bitter smiles, hisses, groans, shudderings, audible as well as visible, fearful distortions and quiverings of body and limb, the whole accompanied by a recitative chant, ending with, a terrific and universal roar (like 10,000 bears among the bee-hives,) a stamp that shook the ground, a grand leap into the air, and a final relapse into quietude. The scene impressed me so disagreeably, that after gazing for a few minutes upon the fiendish faces of the performers, I strolled round their flank, to take a look at the women and children who were stationed behind; and, having satisfied my curiosity, and had two or three wives offered me, I was returning close along the rear of the four-deep line of bounding and yelling demons, when, at some secret signal, the whole troop performed the evolution of " right about turn " so suddenly and with so, stunning a shout, as nearly to tumble me backwards over a group of waihines and piccaninnies, who were sprawling on the turf, and who appeared highly amused at my momentary ruffiement of nerves. The most agreeable feature in this dance is the wonderfully correct measure in the eyes, limbs, and voices, without the assistance of fugleman, in so numerous a body. In other respects this Maori national dance is a degree more barbarous than the jig and the strathspey. An acquaintance of mine, who has travelled, much throughout these islands, saw a "war-* dance at Rotorua, performed by 350 natives, nearly all having fire-arms, who were about to avenge the death of two native teachers; The hollow earth of that country of hot springs and smothered volcanic fires resounded with their furious stampedo. j The most animated Maori dance I ever witnessed took place in the barrack-square of Paramatta', in New South Wales, where the head- quarters of the 58th were stationed., A certain number of the men, who had served a campaign in New Zealand, had so well picked up the peculiarities of the natives, in tone, gesture, and costume, that the ef/ect was really startling, when, suddenly called from the lighted ball-room at midnight, (for the officers were giving a ball,) the spectator's eye encountered the half naked and painted group of sham-savages, who, by the flare of torches, were engaged, at a discreet distance, in the evolutions of the war-dance. One man of the band was exceedingly successful in his representation of a chief making a war-speech — imitating the language, and running up and down the circle of his squatting and listening adherents, in a manner precisely like that I afterwards saw performed by old Te Rauperaha.. The war-dance and song is the Maori pi-

broch. It stimulates to a sufficient degree of , ferocity for bloody deeds a people who, when unexcited, have a good deal of what Lamb calls " animal tranquillity." The venerable Te Whero-Whero delivered himself of a mild but grave' rebuke on its being introduced, in mockery, on this occasion. " Such things are finished now, let them be forgotten," safd the noble old leader of 10,000 Waikato warriors. Our war- dance -broke up with a flourish of hanis in the air ; and all the distorted countenances relaxed without effort into broad good humour, — for the next, and,* (as far as the na* tives were concerned,) the closing act in celebration of the New Year, was a feast of bread and jam to the whole party assembled,, perhaps 1000 Maories. There is nothing to be said about it, except that a few shillings or pounds more would have been well laid out in the business ; for, as it was, the slices of bread looked as if they liad first been jammed, and then well scraped, so slight was the fruity discoloration of the staff of life. Fortunately the guests had never heard of Dotheboy's Hall ! " I have not much to say in praise of Auckland as a town. Ninety-nine out of a hundred of the houses are built of wood and are of unsubstantial appearance. Lucifer matches are cheap, fifteen out of twenty nights are boisterously windy, and, if the natives were bent on a bonfire, nothing could be more readily effected than a conflagration of the capital. But no, the New 'Zealander -has no enmity "against the European, unless he appears in arms against him.' He is gradually learning the value of property. _ He is taking to mills and to coasting vessels, to cattle and to horses. And this* is a great step towards the subjugation of the country. As an enemy, the Maori will be more vulnerable when he has something to lose ; the mere savage has nothing to lose but his life. As an ally and subject the richer he is the better. Governor Grey's policy tends to foster this growing taste for English customs. His intimacy with the chiefs, and his general treatment of them, — whether in giving encouragement and reward to the well-disposed, or in unmasking and punishing the treacherous and rebellions — together with his steady perseverance in the Csesar-like mode of conquest, road-making ; — will, I believe, if anything can, bring about the eventual comfortable colonization of the country, without the usual accompaniment of the extirpation of the Aborigines; The same fate appears to attend the wild man, whether he submits and conforms to the habits of the civilized man, resents and resists his usurpation, or suddenly retires from the borders of civilization. •' As surely as day dispels night, as eternity swallows up time," says the author of-Hoche-laga, '* so does the white man sweep away the black ! " "Will his theory prove void in the instance of the Maori ? If with any savage, it may with the New Zealander. It is Colonel Munday's opinion that there is no great probability of any further outbreak among the Maoris. January 24th. — Wellington. — On this day was held, for the 22nd, the anniversary f&e of this settlement. I was fortunate in the opportunity of assisting thereat, inasmuch as the assembly, on this occasion, of great numbers of the Aborigines, and their commixture, at least for a_ time, with the white inhabitants, afforded an instructive view of two races so distinct in character and customs, whom Providence has thrown together under such peculiar circumstances, and who have at this juncture arrived at an epoch in their intercommunion which may probably decide whether the Maori and AngloSaxon are henceforth to work together for good, side by side, in a country and a climate as favourable to one as to the other ; or, by a second, and to the natives a-surely fatal appeal to arms, break up perhaps for ever the brittle bonds that the spread of a common faith and the ties of worldly interest are but now casting around them. I think that the majority of opinions expressed in my hearing at this time was in favour of the Maoris again betaking themselves to revolt. Some of the war-prophets unquestionably argued as they wished ; for there are not a few whose interests, — at least as much as their inclinations, — bias them towards war, (with all its concomitants of increased naval and military and commissariat expenditure, and ready markets and high prices for stores and produce,) no t to mention the comparative and, to some persons, not unpleasing relaxation of the laws and of morals that a state of warfare usually brings in its train. For myself, I embrace the belief that there will be no more fighting on a large scale in New Zealand. The old Pagan chiefs, whose feudal power is gradually falling away from them under the influences of Christianity, civilization, and commerce, are for the most part superannuated and dying off, — giving promotion to a totally different class. There will succeed them young chiefs, wild and unruly perhaps, and prompt to take offence, who will squabble among themselves, and who, looking upon furious excitement as a necessary of life, will, like the " Wi-wis " of Young France, indulge occasionally in what that volatile people_sty_le "revolutions intestines /" Others the*elwil£be steady and respectable, — perhaps fanatics in their new faith, who have become, and will remain, ..attached to the Missionaries : and numbers shrewd, active, and avaricious — willing and able to struggle with the Europeans in the race for gold. I do not know that the Maori is by nature rapacious ; but the " spirit of the till," that so powerfully rules the actions of the greater part I of the colonists, — especially the huckstering inhabitants of the townships, — is rapidly infusing i itself into the native character and dealings. The Hon. Arthur Petre, who has travelled much in the country, told me that on one occasion, on remonstrating with a" Maori who charged him £1 for ferrying him across a river, ! the native replied that before the English Government came they never asked for payment. Now they only imitated the whites, their superiors, in so doing. "I go to Arekana," said he " I see blankets and tomahawks in the shops. Do the shopmen give them to me without purchase ? I see the dealings of the Pakehas amongst themselves. Are there any gifts ? No : all is buying and selling I " Why there was no Sketch of Wellington . — X was particularly anxious to get a sketch of the settlement and harbour from some commanding point : and one afternoon when the sun was shooting his rays precisely at the angle

most favourable for light and shade, I set my face resolutely against the slope of the Tinakori range, and soon reached a spot on its chine, from which the crystal bay in its bronze frame of rugged hills, the shipping on its surface lying calmly at their anchors or scudding along with white wings; the long wood-built town curving round the horns of the haven of creeping like ivy up the spurs of the mountains behind, and the grand back ground of the snowy Sierra of Tararua, formed coup d' ceil worthy of the trouble of a scramble and sketch. Having performed the first, I must account for failing in the second, whereby my readers have lost the view of Wellington which ought to have been here inserted. I had reached some patches of rude cultivation near the summit, had recovered my breath by steadfast contemplation of the scenery, had gotten out my paper and pencil, and with a discouraging feeling of the difficulty of my subject, had selected what appeared a favourable spot for a seat. My eye, moreover had fallen upon placently on a herd of kine that came browsing towards my station, and which were destined to perform the part of animated nature in the fore-ground, when I suddenly remembered having been warned against wild- and wicked, cattle in this neighbourhood. A brief consultation of the bovine countenances before me so satisfied me of their pacific temper, that I continued to advance up the hill, and had left the whole herd behind me, as I thought, when suddenly from behind a detached thicket appeared a wild black head, with a pair of fiery 'eyes, and with remarkably sharp horns. There was a fierce bellow, a flash of the eyes, a "swirl," as Burns has it, of a long black tail, — (truly, such tails, horns, and eyes, might have well become the Principle of Evil !) — 'and ere one " could say it lightens !" a long-legged cow dashed through the bushes and made right at me ! Waterton would have been upon her back in the twinkling of a tough story, and have ridden her into subjection, as he did the alligator ; Guy Earl of Warwick, would have reduced her to a state of beef-hood, carried her home ready spitted on his spear, turned her into a done cow v before a good fire, and eaten her whole for iiis supper. As for degenerate me, a three-railed fence stood at my left hand, and I hailed it as a friend in need. Invoking Mater Etona and her memories, Charvey Ditch, my Dame's pailings, and other classic jumps of my boyhood, my left fingers grasped the top bar, as the right horn of the beast touched my skirts ; — one spring and I was safe — ingloriously but indisputably safe ! The evolution was executed, indeed, in some confusion ; but the result was happy, and, on subsequent reflection, I became satisfied that in a military point of view it was both correct and skilful. Overmatched by brute strength the laws of strategy required that the weaker belligerent should fall back upon a stronger position, where the enemy might lose the advantage of superior force. This manoeuvre being effected with but trifling loss to the rear-guard, my superiority of position enabled me to assume the offensive. A heavy fire (of stones) was poured upon the enemy's front and flank ; in vain she exausted herself in successive attacks on my timber breastwork ; and, with a roar of rage and despair, she was finally driven in confusion from the field ! Another such victory might have been my ruin ; and my pencil being among the " missing," (my dignity, I must confess, was in the list of " slightly wounded,") the sketch was unavoidably, and as it happened, permanently postponed.

The Cunning of the Ant Lion. — Tbe an* lions form another interesting group of Neuropterous insects, and, although not indigenous to this country, merit attention from the singularity of their hahits. In their perfect state the ant-lion very closely resembles a dragon fly, and like it, is eminently predaceous, ils excursions being principally confined to tbe evening, for during tbe day-time it conceals itself amongst the leaves of trees and plants, in which situation it is so securely hidden, that its capture is not easy to accomplish. It is in its larva condition, however, that it principally requires our attention. In this state it has not the slightest resemblance to the adult animal, its whole construction being made subservient to its singular mode of life. Its body forms a large oval mass, something like that of a spider, to which tbe bead is attached by the interposition of a very moveable neck ; its jaws are considerably longer than the head, and in their shape might be compared to a strong pair of callipers, toothed along the inner margin of each blade, so that they constitute a very efficient pair of forceps. The larva ant-lion will only feed upon such game as he catches himself ; nevertheless he is perfectly unable to hunt even tbe slowest paced insects ; for not only are his movements excessively tardy, but when he does walk, from the position of his legs, and the uses to which they are adapted, he is only able to move backwards ; nevertheless, he manages to live luxuriously, by employing a stratagem, the effect of which is that the game positively falls into his jaws, which he has nothing to do but to open and receive. Selecting a sandy soil, and choosing a situation beneath the shelter of some wall or tree, so as to be protected as much as possible from rain, the ant-hon proceeds to excavate a conical pit, which be accomplishes by throwing out the sand with his long jaws as he continually walks backwards round and round until a deep conical excavation is formed in the loose sand, at the bottom or apex of which the creature buries himself, and "remains quietly concealed, with the exception of his jaws, which are kept half open and ready for action. Thus ensconced, woe betide any imprudent insect that unhappily passes too near the margin of his pitfall ; no sooner does it apprcach tbe fated brink than the loose sides giving way beneath its feet, the unfortunate traveller is precipitated to the bottom of the ant-lion's den, and falls at once into the jaws of ils destroyer. Its fall, however, is not always so headlong as to preclude all attempts at escape ; the insect, sometimes perceiving the danger, tries to lay bold npon the grains of sand at tbe border of the dreadful gulf; some yield beneath its feet, and it sinks lower and lower still ; at last, with desperate efforts, it succeeds in getting v hold of some piece of earth more stable than the rest, whereby it holds, or even attempts to regain "the top of the dangerous steep ; but the bandit has still a resource to enable him to secure bis escaping piey ; with the top of his flattened head, which he uses as a

shovel, be throws up a deluge of sand that, falling in showers upon the miserable victim already exhausted with its futile efforts, soon brings it to the bottom, there to become an easy prey to the ruthless savage. On the other band, being entirely dependent for food on such d precarious supply, the ant-lion must not only 1 necessarily exercise great patience, but be able to put up with very prolonged fasts, and accordingly, as has been proved by experiment, he can occasionally pass months without eating, and still remain io apparent health ; indeed, M. Poupart was almost led to believe that they only eat for amusement, seeing that some which he kept, after fasting for a great length of time, underwent their metamorphoses as usual ; but, doubtless, these had nearly left off eating of their own accord, preparatory to their change at the time when he imprisoned them. When about to assume the pupa-condition, the ant-lion digs deeper down into the sand at the bottom of its pit fall, and there, by means of a silken thread spun through a tubular spinnaret situated near its tail, it envelopes itself in a spherical-cocoon, almost resembling that of a silkworm, wherein to pass its helpless and quiescent state. In affecting this, however, it has a serious difficulty to encounter : to spin a silken cocoon in the open air might seem a sufficiently difficult task, but in the case before us the cocoon has to be manufactured while the insect is closely packed in loose dry sand, the particles of which must of course, press it closely on all sides, and yet, in order to construct its puna-case, it must necessarily laave room to run round and round freely as the work advances. The mode of its procedute is as follows. It first spins a silken web above its body, with which the sand is matted together into a sort of hemispherical roof, which keeps the loose earth from tailing upon it, and then beneath the shelter of this tent, excavating by little and little. As its work proceeds downwards, it manages to form a subteraneart cavern, in which to await its final change. On emerging from its retreat, it presents itself as an insect not unlike the dragon-iy, both in appearance as well as in its tyrannical habits, and although possessed of feebler powers of flight, scarcely less destructive to the insect race. — Jones' Lectures.