MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 September 1938, Page 8

MAORI MEMORIES

HOBSON’S HANDICAP. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) The difficulties experienced by Governor Hobsori’on his arrival were without parallel in our history. The Maoris, far more numerous than the whites, were exasperated by the unscrupulous behaviour of the European people, who were described as being “absolutely lawless and the scum of the earth, mainly convicts who had escaped from the brutalities of the New South Wales penal settlement.” The British Government were in total ignorance of the situation. Their instructions to the Agent were altogether inapplicable, and demanded that he should do impossible things, more especially when his fellow countrymen were beyond discipline or control. Considering the hopeless paralysis of the limbs which seized him shorfly after his arrival in New Zealand, together with the fixed belief of his Maori subjects that all physical suffering is a sin and a disgrace, one can only ■ feel surprised that his mentality and judgment survived. He passed away in 1842, Lieutenant Hobson succeeding for a short period, during which the Wairau massacre cast a thrill of horror over this colony and the people of Great Britain. This, like every other difficulty with the Maori people, was due to our ignorance of their life, laws and language. Even the Maori chiefs understood and appreciated the difficulties under which Governor Hobson laboured. One old Rangatira, when told that, the Queen was to be asked to appoint a new Governor, said: “Let him be a good man, like the Governor who has just died.”