OLD NEW ZEALAND.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 1, 12 May 1863, Page 3

OLD NEW ZEALAND.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

.prom the Canterbury Pi ess,March 28 and 30.) We do not know that our opinion is forth much on the subject of a New Zeaand book. We regard with, so great favour any book written, by -a New Zealand nisD, printed in a New Zealand office, and jji every way a genuine production of New tfealan'd, that we should probably form a (fgher estimate of iis literary worth than (really deserved. Nevertheless we think that •« Old New Zealand" is a work which, had it issued with the name of a fashionble London publisher, would have been one of the most successful books of the season. It not only professes to be, but actually is, by a real Pakeha Maori. On a first perusal we should not have thought so : even now we are inclined to doubt it. It is strange how a man who was living jmongst the Maoris in 1820, or therejbouts, and who in youth had consented to iccept the conditions of savage life, can in |g&2, be writing a book in the style and Kith the twang of a hack contributor to I'Fraser's" or " Macmillan's." The book bas a twofold phase ; for whilst we are inclined to doubt whether the light chaffing style of the composition can possibly be be production of a man who has lived so ong secluded from civilised life, unused to the current small change of liftht literature ; on the other hand there is a reality and originality in the descriptions ol cenery and. incident which could hardly have been assumed by one whose only acquaintance with the life of the Pakeha jlaori had been second hand. ' The era of the Pakeha Maori was prior 10 that of the regular colonisation of New Zealand. He died out with civilisation as [he Saurians are vuljrularly said to have disappeared with the deluge. But he was ' a representative man." He was typical if the earlier stage of the relations between civilisation and savage life. There sas one feature of his relation with the Maori which was very peculiar. There can be no doubt but that, as a free born Briton, he considered himself immeasurably juperior to the Maori in every point of view. He looked down from a height with an air of placid content upon the cannibals amongst whom he lived. He despised their superstitions, their diit, their savagery of all kinds. But, on the other hand, the savage equally despised him— looked on him as a sort of speculation — kept him and fostered him as a medim for getting powder, and guns, and blankets, and tobacco. I The old chief kept him on his staff, as it were, as a useful dependent, but, as a man, rather despised him than otherwise. For ■ example, read the Pakeha Maori's own account of his relation to his owner. [Extract from the book follows.] The bond of mutual contempt and mutual benefit was the strange one which anited the Pakeha Maori to the native. There was usually another tie, of which the author of this book says little enough. but to which a living witness remains in he half-caste race, which is by no means nnmerically insignificant. 1 It would, however, be a great mistake io suppose that the Pakeha Maori was eenerally such an one as could have written this book. The author was not a type of his class, but rather an accident in it. He was to the Pakeha Maori class ivhat Boswell was to Johnson— a poet sent iy Providence to sing of the days of the ;iants. Let us take another illustration of the riew taken by the Maori Chief of the 'akeha. The author on arriving in harlour goes on shore. The chief who had sarked him for his own, remains on board U!i vessel peering into the goods of the lew arrival, so as 10 estimate what his aarket value as a Pakeha was likely to be. Here is his soliloquy. [The soliloquy of he chief whilst examining the Paueha Maori's effects on board the vessel is here nserted in the Press. \ Again — on landing the Pakeha gats a lucking, and has a wrestling match, all in ;ood part, with a native named "The Eater of Melons," whom he throws. The ihief hearing of the row returns from the hip, and then we hf.ve his speech :— "Pretty work this." he bagan, ''■good jork ; killing my pakeha; look at him! here a flourish in my direction with the uere. ) I won't stand this ; not at all ! not it all ! not at all! (the last sentence took hree jumps, a step, and a turn-round, to eep correct time^ Who killed the lakeha ? it was Melons. You are a nke nan, are you not 2 (this with a sneer.) tilling my pakeha! (in a voice like hunder, and rushing savagely mere in land, at poor Melons, but turning exactly t the end of the ten steps and coming ack again.) It will be heard of all over he country ; we shall be called the pakeha killers ;' I shall be sick with hame ; the pakeha will run away nd take all his taonga along witli iim ; and if you bad killed him !ead, or 'broken his bones, his relations fould be coming across the sea for vtu. Great sensation, and I try to look as liough 1 would say 'of course they would.') Vhat did I build this pah close to the sea or ?— was it not to trade with the paheka \ -and here you are killing the second that las come to stop with me. (Here poor ilelons burst out crying like an infant.) Where is the hat ;— where the kotiroa ? — he shoes \ — (Boots were shoes in those ays/) The paheka is robbed ; he is murlered ! ( Here a howl from Melons, and I ;o over and sit down by him, clap him on he bare back, and shake his hand.) Look it that — the paheka does not bear malice ; would kill you if he asked me ; you are i bad people, killers of pahekas ; be off dth you, away V Now, we have given the above passages lecause they seem to set before us more learly than anything else we have ever come leross, what was the original view taken if the Englishman by the Maori, and subaitted to by the Englishman for his own nds. It would be as well if we someimes remembered that when we are inlinvd to fall into the heroics, and theßri-ons-never-sball-be-lsaves style of thinking nd talking. " In those days the value of a pakeha to i tribe was enormous." " A pakeha trader iva? therefore of a value, say about times lisown weight in muskets," which is decribed as " what what we mean in Engand when we talk of the sum of the lational debt." And now let us catch a glimpse of what ort of a man these pakehas sometimes ivere, and what they were doing in the tonntry. Trading, of course. In what? Thirty or forty years ago a tatooed New Zealander's head was a very common addition to a travelling exhibition or show. ft r e well remember being sadly alarmed nrhen a quite a child, by a ghastly warior's head grinning from out of his tatooed ind shri veiled skin.. The following racy description throws some light on the sub-

jeefc :— [Extract follows introducing the head merchant.) We shall £jive a few more extracts from this remarkable volume, rather to whet the reader's appetite for more than to satisfy it ; for we can assure him that the whole book from end to end is as well worthy perusal as those passages we quote. Amongst the matters in which the Maoris have come in contact with the European, paramount in importance in that of land purchasing-. We therefore extract in full the experience of e l'aheka Maori in the purchase of land. There is much suggested by the narrative ; but our readers must not imagine that land purchasing is quite the same thing now that it was in the olden time. In those days there was abundant disposition to sell land, combined with a very limited conception of what selling involved. Now there exists a very good idea of what rights and obligations are implied by a sale, but a very great hesitation in taking advantage of them. At all events the picture here given presents to our minds the foundation on which all the superstructure has been . raised, and is worth attentive consideration." A lengthened extract follows these remarks, which concludes the notice- The Southern papers, especially those of Wellington, continue to give extracts from «• Old New Zealand."