REVIEW.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4419, 19 May 1875, Page 2

REVIEW.

TE ROU : OR THE MAORI AT HOME.* This is another contribution to New Zealand literature, which deserves honorable mention, for very many reasons. It is true to Nature ; —a, picture of the old New Zealander, “exhibiting (as the title page informs us) the social life, manners, habits, and customs of the Maori race in New Zealand - prior to the introduction of civilisation among them.” And such a picture ! What Mr. Wilson, in his “Ena,” has done for the romantic side of ancient Maori character, Mr. John White, the author of “Teßou,” has done for its reality. While reading “ Ena,” one is apt to imagine oneself among the amiable Red Men, who owe so very much to the pen of Wm. Fenuimore Cooper. Their excesses are mere accidents of the situation, the basis of their character being a spirit of chivalrous generosity tempered by hunger, under the influence of which they certainly satisfied their appetites with the 1 spoils of their enemies, to wit, as Mr. White might phrase it, the bodies of those that fell in battle. Butin “Teßou” there is no thin varnish to coat the savage. There he stands erect, before his contact with “ civilisation and its demoralising influences,” fresh from his Maker’s hands, as the Westminster Review cynically remarks of the Bosjesman and Andaman islander, a monster of lust, cruelty, and revenge. The “ Story of Te Wakaroa,” by our friend, Mr. J. A. Wilson, who has since then turned his attention to the starry hosts and the forces of the universe, by way of expiation, we suppose, was bloody enough in all conscience ; but “Te Ron” excels it, not so much in incidents of carnage as in minuteness of detail, introducing us to the amiable savage at prayers and supper, and making us unpleasantly familiar with Maori customs. In “Old New Zealand,” one can admire “ Lemons,” and even “ The Eater of his own Relations” is not so very repulsive, as he is an excellent hand at fortification, is very communicative to “ The Pakeha Maori,” and above all, dines with the members of his own family —at least, as many of them as the exigencies of his larder permits to survive ; but in “Te Rou” we have a succession of cannibal feasts, described with truthful fidelity no doubt, • but exceedingly repulsive nevertheless. We should prefer, all things considered, to be bidden to a banquet of the gods, incurring all the risk of sublimation before dressing for dinner, to occupying a chief place at a feast with Te Rou aud his clansmen. English critics, we find, fight shy of “Te Rou.” They have nibbled' at it; aud we understand one or two of the more resolute among them got well through the book, but chapter xv., on “cooking a dead slave,” and what followed thereupon, was too much for their stomachs. They gave it up in disgust, aud “Te Rou” remains uureviewed aud unknown to the sensation-loving readers of the British Isles. More’s the pity, say we ; for in “Te Rou ” they would have an entirely new sensation ;—something so out of the common run of sensations that it only requires to be well advertised to have an unexampled success. To that end, we suggest an arrangement with Mi - . Reynolds—whose “Miscellany” is read by hundreds of thousands, and is filled with stories of the improbable, extravagant, and “bloodthirsty” kind—to review it, and make copious extracts, illustrative of the freedom from restraint and general superiority of the savage over the civilised man. If the kid-gloved fraternity of reviewers will not touch “Te Rou,” better try the “homyhanded,” as Mr. Holloway designates his peers of labor, and see whether it will not become a favorite with the English people. Otherwise, we fear it will hardly pay the author, as the published price of 10s. must limit its sale in the colony. Having said thus much, however, we must in justice to Mr. White, say something more. The task he has undertaken, of preserving memorials of the Maori race, in a truthful narrative illustrative of their social condition, morals, and general polity, before the abrading influences of civilisation had rounded their angularities of character, is not a pleasant one, by reason of the debased condition of the New Zealanders ; but it is one which he is well qualified to perform. He is at home in a Maori pa. The son of an early missionary, a man of a naturally keen perception, brought up almost from childhood amongst the Maori people, his opportunities for observing their habits and character could not be bettered. Employed, moreover, as he has been for many years in the service of the Government as

* Te [Jou, or the Maori at Home ; A tale exhibiting the social life, manners, habits, and customs of tile Maori race in New Zealand prior to the introduction of civilisation among them. By John White, Native Interpreter, Auckland, and formerly Resident Magistrate at Wanganui, and Native Land Purchase Commissioner. London: Sampson, Low, and Co., Fleet-street. Auckland: E. Wayte.

Native Interpreter, Resident Magistrate, and Land Purchase Commissioner, he has had ample opportunities of contrasting his past observations with the present state of the Maori people, and thus, by reflection and accurate knowledge of their social and moral cofl,* - dition, he is certain to produce a book free, feme exaggeration on any point. Mr. Wlrte, iji . “Te Eon,” does not exaggerate in the least. His tale leads us through the lights and shades of Maori life with a kindly but unfaltering step. There is no moralising, exc-pt Maori moralising; no sentiment, except Maori sentiment ; and how unlike these are to anything which a civilised man would recognise as at all akin to a feeling of generous emulation or self-sacrifice ; —of patriotism, or even love of kindred! Ancient Maori sentiment and Maori morals were altogether selfish and cruel. Cunning and cowardice; avarice and revenge, allied with an unnatural and depraved taste for human flesh ; —filth of body, filth of mind, unbridled license to the passions : such is the picture of Maori life and manners presented in “ Te Ron.” And it was to this race Samuel Marsden and his brother missionaries preached the gospel of self-sacrifice : it was this race they succeeded in elevating to a relatively high moral platform ■ indeed. All honor to these men. They have home obloquy long enough. It is full time to give them credit for what they have accomplished. Let any impartial man read “Te Ron”—every incident in which is true, several of the actors in the bloody drama being still alive—and contrast the social and moral condition of tho Maori race today with what it was in 1830, which is somewhat near the date of the events recorded by Mr. White, and he must admit that the work of evangelising the New Zealanders is one of the most remarkable facts in the history of Christian missions. In conclusion, we congratulate Mr. White upon having succeeded in publishing his book. We had the privilege of perusingit in manuscript several years ago, and we felt then, as we feel now, that it is a work which will be referred to by the future historian of New Zealand, who may desire to analyse the character of that singular race known to civilisation as Maoris, but to the discoverers and early adventurers simply as New Zealanders. He is not an adept at composition. He might have constructed “the plot of his story” with more skill; but this would have been a blemish. The actions of the Maori race, at the time his tale opens, were so entirely regulated by impulse that anything like continuity of design would be foreign to their nature. It was a life of surprises. A savage and a sad life ; one of those realities which throws doubt on the innocence we have been taught to associate with the nakedness, and consumption of garden fruit by our first parents. Be that as it may, however, the New Zealanders to whom Mr. White introduces his readers were in that intermediate . stage when, according to the record, innocence disappeared with the introduction of pinafores. They were not altogether ignorant of the use of clothing, hut they had a proper repugnance to its restraints ; and they were certainly as wicked, from choice, as men could well be. Mr. White promises to continue his tales illustrative of Old New Zealand customs. We shall not say “don’t”; but we would just hint that a little of this style of literature goes a long way. If he could introduce a male seducer under a saintly guise, and a female poisoner who is at the head of every useful and charitable movement, and if, instead of killing and eating them off-hand, by way of executing summary justice, they were loaded with honors and petted and pampered by Maori society, his books would have a chance of selling. But if he confines himself to the garbage of an ancient Maori pa —well, we fear he will not make money as an author. Young New Zealand will not thank him for exposing the peculiar institutions of their progenitors ; and Old New Zealand, at least the few that survive, would only be filled with vain regrets, if-they had translated to them, in their own language, the minute details of an ancient Maori feast.