REVIEW.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 233, 26 March 1866, Page 3

REVIEW.

TWENTT-EIVE TEAKS EXPEEIENCE IN NEW ZEALAND AND THE CHATHAM ISLANDS. (From the Canterbury Standard.) AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

By Frederick Htmt. Edited ly John Amery. In these days of much writing, when any man who sojourns for a few days in a foreign country, or rushes as fast as the means, of locomotion admit through a new colony, appears to deem it his duty to precipitate himself, blatant, into print, it is quite refreshing even to read the title page of this narrative. We really must repeat the strange pleasant phrase, just to enjoy it once more : — Twenty-five years experience 1 It is grateful as ice in summer, and almost as rare, especially as it relates to New Zealand, a country of wliich and its affairs those who have seen ,the least appear to imagine that they know the most, and we see the Cockney members of the Aborigines Protection Society, whose chief claim to acquaintance with the Maoris probably consists in havino* seen one or two in a show, deem themselves qualified to tender advice on Native affairs. The little volume under notice fully j realises the promise of its title page; except in one unimportant respect. It is by no means an autobiography, for it only relates to the latter half of the author's life ; he is not introduced to the reader till he has a wife and child ; in addition to which it is much too sketchy, incomplete, and superficial, to entitle it to the term. It is simply a narrative of the most important incidents in the last twenty -five years of an eventful life, and as such it is most interesting and we cordially recommend it to our readers for their perusal, especially as it affords some information respecting the Chatham Islands, which just now are attracting the attention of many parties in this province. What the author has to tell is plainly and straightforwardly told, and as the editor says in the preface, " events are related as they actually occurred ; " an assurance for which we are grateful, and the virtue of which in a book of adventures we can fully appreciate. The style in which the book is written possesses a certain ruggedness which, however, gives it vigour and is not unsuitable to the subject. This is a second edition, the first having been printed only for private circulation. Mr. Hunt with his wife and child, and an extensive domestic circle, together with several hundred other immigrants, landed at Port Nicholson towards the close of 1840. With commendable energy he speedily built a small house and cultivated a garden, the produce of which appears to have sold to some advantage : — " All were anxious to purchase my vegetables ; they would have them in fact at any price. The natives also were so eager to buy my" white Spanish onions, that they paid me one shilling each for them as they were growing, each native putting a small stick into the ground by the side of his chosen bulb." That style of trade beats three months' bills. But we suppose the onions did not last long for our author being in want of employment took service under the surveyors of New Zealand Company to cut the lines. After a fortnight's work he, and the party with which he was working, reached the Manawatu Eiver, where they were opposed and robbed by the natives under the celebrated Eauparaha, That wily chief $adjßg Mk\ $m% ef ■■•terof to to,

constituted him His Pakeha-Maori and kept him in captivity, but treated him with kindness. At length making his escape by stratagem, he returned to "Wellington, only to find " everything very dear, and everybody very poor," and " ejnployment out of the question." Paying a short visit to the Chatham Islands he liked the look of the country, and resolved to take his wife and family and settle there. Arrived at Wharekauri, the largest of the Chatham Islands, twice did our persevering colonist erect dwellings, and clear and fence land, each time only to be driven from his home by the dissensions of the Natives. But he is of a hopeful disposition, and not easily discouraged, so removing to Pitt's Island, he once more in defiance of any diflieulties, created himself a home in the wilderness ; cutting from iron hooping the nails required for building his house. Here affairs prospered with him, and now in addition to his farm of two hundred acres, fenced in and seeded down, the island is covered with his stock — sheep, pigs, horses, and cows. The book contains a most interesting chapter on the aborigines — the Mouori — and their Maori conquerors, who it appears formerly used them very badly. We have felt very much inclined to make numerous extracts from this and many other chapters, but have restrained, as the book is to be obtained at the book- ■ sellers in this-, and most of the other towns in this colony, and our readers cannot do better than obtain and pursue it for themselves. Here, however, is one as a sample. It is a sad but true tale of Maori life. "In the sequestered glades of Ohoua dwelt poor Meinui and his wife, as contented and happy in their little hut as our first parents in the garden of Eden. She had been a Maori belle, sighed for by many a dusky swain; for her they would scale the topmost branches of the karaka and pluck the largest and brightest berries ; for her they would range the outskirts of the bush and bring back the dark flowing tutu • and at her feet would be laid the treasures of the deep, the finest pawa or the fattest tarakia ; but all their blandishments were of no avail. Meinui was the man ; like Imperial Caesar, 'He came, saw, and conquered.' So she became his bride ; and in a little hut they "lived and loved together," until an infant boy smiled upon a happy union : but in an evil hour the destroyer came. One of the white ruffians who infested the island, a deserter from an American whale-ship, looking upon this woman with unhallowed feelings, determined to possess himself of her, even at the price of blood.' One night armed with musket and cutlass he. watched her dwelling, and in the early dawn of morning : — ' A figure, enveloped in a shaggy fiax mat, usually worn by Maoris, was seen to emerge from the doorway, and crouch before the fire. This was the time ; the click of a lock was followed by a sharp report, and without sigh, groan, or struggle, two human souls passed from life to death — a mother and her infant child." * * # " The poor woman had put on her husband's mat, and with her infant before her was stooping down in the act of rekindling the fire, and had thus been mistaken for Meinui." * * * . " Toor Meinui laid his murdered wife and child in a hollow and gloomy cavern • indeed, within a very few years the sad remains of mortality were quite perfect — a woman's skeleton with a child in its bony embrace. Eor some time the bereaved husband wandered around his desolate home like a troubled spirit. At last he carved rude figures of his wife and child upon the bark of a karaka tree, which sheltered the spot, and finally left the island for the Main, where he died very soon after. The figures carved by Meinui having grown with the growth of the tree, now stand out in a bold relief, and I confess I can never view it without a melancholy interest." Mr. Hunt appears to entertain a high opinion of the ogricultural capabilities of the Chathams, though on this, and several other points to which we will presently allude, he writes rsther vaguely and with not sufficient details. He says : — " The Chatham Islands, is a most desirable locality for working men who wish to earn a comfortable livelihood by honest labor, and a few such settlers would be really an acquisition." The great want of the book, and one that we trust will qe supplied in the next, edition, is the lack of information, which the author must be well qualified to supply, on various important subjects* such as the physical geography of the country, its hills, plains, and forests; lakes, rivers, and harbors — the character of its climate ; the nature of its soil, its vegetable and mineral productions ; and the terms on which land is to be obtained ; on all of which he is silent, or tells us next to nothing. Por example, this is che only description that we find of Pitt's Island, and we really fail to derive much information, especially from the latter part of the sentence, which strikes us as decidedly Hibernian : — "It is a long and in some places narrow island, and some where about thirty miles in circumference ; it is covered wiih bush, scrub, and open grassy plains." On Maori matters we consider Mr. Hunt particularly well qualified to give an opinion, ahd therefore transcribe his very sensible and just remarks on them, which we recommend to the serious consideration of all who are interested in or may have dealings with the Maoris : — "And now a word or , two regarding my old friends the Maoris ; they are an interesting race. Of all the inhabitants of the South Pacific, . they have enlisted the largest share of our sympathies ; their independent bearing and indomitable courage, their fixed tenacity of purpose, and their eager thirst for "knowledge, have been well appreciated by the AngloSaxon race ; and the romantic heroism of their warriors, who have defended their native fortresses against overwhelming numbers, has excited, even in their foes, a chivalrous feeling j but it cannot be denied tl^t great vices aye joiogled witli tieir

virtues; they are cunning, treacherous, avaricious and cruel: nevertheless, they have all the characteristics of the noble savage, and they have been so praised eulogised, caressed, and petted, that they have never realised their real position ; and here, in my humble opinion, a great mistake has been made ; our policy has been visionary in the extreme : we have presumed to interfere with the laws of nature, and it has been an unfortunate failure : we have endeavoured to blend the savage with the civilised race, not by a long course of judicious training and salutary discipline, but by immediate transformation. To effect this, tempting allurements have been held out, and the most intractable savage has been bribed into submission ; in fact, the sop has invariably fallen into the mouth of the noisiest demagogue. For a time the experiment looked promising; the blanket was discarded, the spear and tomahawk were flung aside ; they came forth arrayed in fatdtless paletot and florid trousers — were invested with magisterial honours, and offices for which they were totally unfit — and became so elated and self-important, that the relative position of Pakehaand Maori became entirely reversed ; they began to assume airs of superiority, dictate to the Government, and finally threaten and strike. Now, I most respectfully submit, that had a less temporising policy been shown, and a determination not to be trifled with boldly carried out, many of the recent calamities might have been avoided. During an intercourse of many years, it has been my constant rule to deal with them honestly and fairly; indeed, I can truly say, in no matter of business did I ever seek to deceive them. In return they have been generally honest and punctual ; but whenever a noisy brawler would seek to intimidate, I have met him nith a bold front, face to face, and eye to eye, and the ebulition never failed to subside very quietly," Would that all our settlers, and those % placed in authority over the natives, had acted in the same upright and manly way ; we should then in all probability have experienced but little trouble with the vexed "native question !" The closing sentences, of the book are worthy of all publicity, and many young men who loiter away their time in our . towns will do well to consider them, and act upon the advice tendered : — "And now a few parting words of advice to those young fellow-labourers who may have left their native soil to become the pioneers of their own fortune. Do not linger around the outskirts of society, or allow yourselves to become contaminated and enervated by the vices around you ; but boldly hew out a path for yourselves. Be not discouraged by temporary difficulties ; but, when they come, face them with manful resolution. Above all, deal openly and honestly with, your fellow-men of every caste or color, and, with God's help, you cannot fail of success." Although incomplete as we have endeavoured to point out, not by ... way of finding fault, or in a captious spirit, shut in the hope of one day seeing the defects remedied — the book is of the right class, and of thekind that we, and, we beleive, the public, are ever ready to welcome ; and we are glad that Mr. Hunt was persuaded to give it to the. world. We beleive that by taking the necessary steps to publish the book in England, it would be well received and meet with large sale there.