THE MAORIS AND CIVILISATION.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 33, 18 May 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE MAORIS AND CIVILISATION.

(F*om the Tnverccuyitl ito, 12th May.)

The story of British colonization is s ne of unnumbered successes. In svery part of the world the AngloSaxon race has raised never-dying mfljluments to its own constancy and lupremacy. Accommodating itself in a narvellous degree toa variety ofcliinates, t >seems to flourish equally as well imN'dst the snows of a North-American rinter, as under the scorching sun of ropical Australia. The Englishman las the proud satisfaction of knowing hat in a hundred lands the languageof iis country is naturalised, and, from its ffide dissemination, bids fair to live hrough all time. The picture is a prand one, but it is not without dark hadows, which detract from its enno- i iling beauty. Proud us we well may be £ British colonization, it nevertheless fears the impress of something deplor- j ible and degrading. The Anglo-Saxon jolonist has everywhere carried with lim a religious belief the most elevating iver presented to humanity, and side >y side with the altar of his faith he has j aised the altar of liberty. Alas ! j leithar the one or the other has rescued iim from too often becoming adestroy--1 ng angel in the land of his adoption. * t is a humiliating fact that the advent * f the white man, instead of heralding he dawn of a brighter day to the I avage, has generally been the precursor 6if his tribe's decay and extinction. i Throughout the whole of the North * American continent the work of destrue- ? ion has silently progressed, and the 3 ivilising influence oft wo hundred years if European colonization has resulted in is he total extinction of avast proportion of g he Indian tribes, and the complete dei ;radation of those of them whose for--13 one it is to survive to the present day. j g> t is a remarkable fact that amaln amation of the two races has never <| aken place in any appreciable det»ree, although there are families 'nit the present day in the States — Mich and prosperous families — who '* oast that they trace their descent •j ti one side from an Indian source. .»■ Australia affords us another instance of 5( he blasting effect that colonisation has e- ad on the ancient possessors of the er jil. Twenty, or even ten yeaTs ago, e "lTvas no uncommon sight in Victoria, ; c j> meet fifty or sixty " blackfellows," Q Jnd occasionally far larger numbers, u limped or travelling together ; in the ujresent day, you may go the length nßnd breadth of the land and perhaps hfot one will cross your solitary path J °iirough the bush. They have perished, B Jnd the few miserable wretches whom t-Jou may perchance meet, are, with {iarcely an exception, suffering from j haiseases Unknown before the colonist i t his foot in the land. In Tasmania j si ie work is fully accomplished, and the • (original tribes are already extinct. '* 'hat does the past history of the . 0 , [aori tribes, since New Zealand coloia ization began, lead us to expect for gl ieir future ? Are they to share the *!] !.e of the North American Indian, ft the blacks of Australia and TasJi ania ? Is it a part of the inevitable e j w of Nature that the savage should oli ie in the presence of a civilisation inoduced by a race whose motto should oli s " Peace and good will towards ?H en/' or is it, on the other hand, pos--OJt die that by grasping that civilization, id eventually by amalgamating with a^ i introducers, the savage may be ved from the destruction which it f° sms certain must otheiwise overtake nm. It is scarcely necessary for us to •Jj lude to the decrease in the Maori ( ipulation within the last few years ; ! na ery one knows that the same causes, *| d they are many, which have operated other lands to the destruction of > ( i aboriginal race, are at work in coi iw Zealand. The process is silently !d t surely going on ; the Maori seems °Ql uned, and, more than that, he is om ginning to have a glimmering of the ent t without fully understanding the £?' lses. His intelligence, higher than w usually found in an aboriginal race, 1h s led him to that conclusion ; and m courage, equal to that of 8^ t Anglo-Saxon with whom he i $ contending, urges him to resist ■wi the utmost anything which out pears to tend to such a consumma■i- o. To those who. like ourselves, J? * raestly hoped the Maori race might oc^ preserved from extinction, not by the md session of a nationality altogether atu larate from the European, but by .gradual blending of races, the fc tj snts of the last few years have a a i ange and disheartening gloominess. >i** hough the decrease in the Native */jr mlation was very apparent for a long )t \ ile previous to the outbreak, still it was t; 1 lught by many, ourselves amongst 11 -I i number, that the gradual introducJ^S n °f the good as well as the evils of *°: ilization would take place without jb< '■ destruction of the race ; that he ** aid survive the change, and that, & ?/gh weakened in numbers for a e, the Maoris would eventually be sed in the social scale, and mingling ' n \ ir blood with that of the Anglo- » *] ron, become by that means the 3? o , jders of a great nation. The King te i ivement distressed no class more jinf a the well-wishers of the Maori, for * n y knew that it was a retrogression, I that if it could have been allowed re * other grounds, the Natives themj ei res would be the losers. And then l #" %.;he exploits of Colonel Gold, and so-called triumph of General Pratt, » g hopes of a settlement were again he# srtained, destined, however, to be ab* itrated by the last news from the led rtn » — aD( * s0 matter rests. The :ntti oris are unsubdued; they discard :V < f fellowship with the European; but "M y can never again revert to their g h New Zealand " existence. There n a# >ut one chance for them, and that is c Bi speedy subjection to English law. ■ stand still ib to them death. They

have tasted the bitterest fruits of civilization ; they have become acquainted with the vices and follies of the AngloSaxon ; they have: left off, to a great extent, their old habits and ways of living, before they have thoroughly adopted those of the white man ; they are, in short, in nearly the same state that has preceded the destruction of other aboriginal tribes. If they perish, it will not be without guilt to the white man, for whilst civilizing he has cor* rupted them.