THE MAORIS 80 YEARS AGO

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 27, 25 February 1909, Page 4

THE MAORIS 80 YEARS AGO

At the big native gathering held last week at Taiporoheuui (Uawera), Hon Pukehika, Sanitary Inspector of the Wanganui district, remarked : ' To-day I met a white man who told me that the present generation of Maoris had degenerated, that we of today are nothing but thieves. In ancient days, he said, the Maoris were noble, their word was their bond. Now they are not to be depended upon. I agreed with the pakeha. Our fathers,' 1 re- ■ pcatcd, were honest men, their words were their bonds. But, I said, you pakelia at that time and in this have always been thieves, and now that you [ have civilised the present generation of Maoris they have also become thieves. They but emulate your example. There are those who, observing the Maori to-day, decline to believe that he ever possesed the lissom, muscular figure and fine features they have heard about. We have before us, however, a new edition of a book, entitled " Nine Months' Residence in New Zealand in 1827," writing by Augustus Earle, a widelytravelled and observant artist, endowed with "a love of roaming and adventure." This book has just been issued by Wliiteombe and Tomb*. 'Earle's narrative," says the introduction, " is interesting because it conveys a realistic description of the Maori before their national customs and habits bad undergone any .material change through association with white settlers. From this presumably impartial record we gain confirmation of the statement that "the Maoris were noble, their word was their bond." Earle emphatically shows in many passages that through all his exiwrienees of the Maoris be never knew them guilty of treachery towards the white . men in their midst, and he found them persistently 'honest and hospitable. On one occasion he writes: As we were very hungry after our fatiguing walk, we soon unpacked our baggage, and in doing so made an unavoidable display of many valuable and glittering objects, which aroused the attention of our savage spectators, and caused them,'on the unfolding of every fresh object, to make loud and long exlamations of wonder and amazement. . . •. .1 felt alarmed at their shouts.

.... but when I suspected 1. wronged them ; for after admiring everything we had brought with us, they begged a little tobacco . , . and then left us In take our supper uninterrupted ; after which they placed all our baggage in the hut, that we might be assured of its safety. That is one from many passages of similar import, in another jilakf hei ! says : I feel confident that the conduct of these islanders will be found superior to that of any other nation in the South Seas. If we ; take the whole catalogue of dreadful massacres they have been charged with, and allow them to be carefully examined, it will be found that we have invariably been the aggressors; and when we have given serious cause of offence, can we be so irrational as to express astonishment that a savage should seek revenge '! It is interesting to read that in those days the -Maoris, so far from being addicted to strong drink, not only did not partake of it himself, but expressed surprise that the pakeha should consume it. That the Maori has degenerated physically is apparent from such passages as the following :

The natives . . are cast in beauty's perfect mould ;" the children are so line and perfectly made that each might MTve as a model for a, statue of "the Infant Hercules ;" nothing can exceed the graceful a-.ul Athletic forms of the men, or the rounded limbs of their young women. These possess eyes beautiful and eloquent, and a profusion of long, silky, curling hair ; while the intellects of both sexes seem of a superior order ; all aopear 'eager for improvement, full of energy, and indefatigably industrious." It is very commonly supposed that consumption among the Maoris is a modern development brought about by their changed mode of living. This is a fallacy. Bade writes on the subject:

I was very much astonished and shocked at seeing several very beautiful young women, whom I had left only a few weeks back in perfect health and strength, now reduced to mere "living skeletons," and also to hear of the death of others by consumption. This disease seems to be the scourage of the young; and when they are once seized with its symptoms they arc very speedily brought to the grave. The natives say, "It is Atua, the Great Spirit, coming into them, and eating up their inside ; for the patient can feel those partii gradually go away, then they become weaker and weaker till no more is left; after which the Spirit .sends them to the Happy Land,"

They did not strive against the fatal disease : they simply said :—" If Atua wiihcd it, so it must be ; they could not strive with the Great Spirit." jit will thus be seen that consumption is not one of the evils for which the pakeha. is responsible. On the subject of the general moral degeneracy of the race in his indictment llori Pukehika, did not say the last and only word. History shows that conquered races white or colored—that is races which are conquered apparently beyond national resuscitation—have always degenerated, and their degeneracy has not come merely through adopting Hie vices of their conpuerers : it has come as the natural demoralisation which national vanquishment and disintegration entail. —llawera Star. '