MISSIONARY INFLUENCE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 6, Issue 287, 27 March 1862, Page 4

MISSIONARY INFLUENCE.

• Missionary Influence ! What 'an <expression* this has now become? I. am haunted by it; In eVery newspaper it atatrSs tne in the ''face,- at every' fireside it is .hurled at me as the source'of all Colonial woes, and in every hotel and cafe it is a staple'topic on which to heap maledictions and execrations! There ■ must 'be some meaning in it, though to ime it has ever been' involved more or less . ra. mystery. 1 get into' conversation with my -friend the honorable member for Coalingsly (and an uncommonly good member he is), upon the all absorbing topic of the hour, and he in that crushing style of oratory that renders him so terribly feared as a political opponent, observes “ I tell you Sir that that bane, that curse, that has hovered over us from the infancy of the Colony, that has complicated every Land Purchase from these Natives, that has perplexed every Minister of the Crown, that has rendered negociations with these savages all but impossible, that now haunts the lobbies of our Government Offices, and the corridors of Government House, is Missionary Influence.” My honorable friend has by this time lashed himself into sui h a virtuous fury, that I forbear-asking him the meaning of the term, as indeed all the reply I am likely to get is a pitiful shrug of the- shoulders at my. contemptible ignorance. I take leave of; my honorable friend and enter the counting-house of my, .excellent agent Mr. Tret. After running over debtor and creditor .accounts for the last twelve month, we become friendly and fall into consideration of the affairs of the Country generally. I complain of the bad times, of the doubt and uncertainty that hangs, over the Colony, of the mismanagement of the war, the helplessness of the Commanders, the chapter of blunders that has marked the whole of the war policy of the Government,, and ask him for an. explanation., Why is it that Generals make,“saps” that cannot possibly entrap a foe that have always a back door open 1 Why is it‘that the NgatiWliat d’ye call ’ems are now fattening on the spoils of the ruined settlers and are allowed to buy and sell, and mtter their braggadocio to whom they please 1. and with .a score more questions of an equally perplexing and gloomy character I put the brains of my frier.d in s'teep, and pause for his reply. No sooner doji draw breath than my excellent friend’s visage assumes a fearful aspect. He turns violently purple, his eyes roll, in his head and he fetches hi 3 desk such, a thump with his fist as to set inkstands, pens, ruler and such small gear jumping and rolling over one another like a lot of harlequins, and vociferates “ Why Sir ? Do you ask me why 1 Shull I tell you 1 ” Rather alarmed .at his insane aspect I very modestly, reply “If you please 1” It is then that darting a glance of ferocity utterly indiscribable on paper but most uncomfortable to the sensations, he bangs the desk if possible more heavily than before and fairly shouts “Missionary Influence.” I put it candidly to any body whether they could expect any thing like a satisfactory explanation from a man in this state of mind. I therefore of course decline requesting it ; besides it not unfrequently occurs that the rise of markets so far as one is privately concerned, depends upon the graces good or bad that one is on with an agent, and we might differ. 1 have a run up in the back country, and I now purpose visiting it, for a change # I shall go the inland route, and as I like taking hooks to read on my travels, I shall'take “ Ang as’ Scenes of Savage .life,” and endeavour to find out what the normal state of the savages vras so..far as European knowledge extends.

• I''know very little; Tof the interior of this country or the Inhabitants thereof; I have invariably made my travelling by sea, ancl 'the smattering of Maori I have picked up has been about the towns. I meet many of my own country men on my road, in general men ■who have risen to moderate affluence from the lower ranks, and of course I fall into conversation with them. It is a surprising thing but so it is that every one anathematizes the Missionaries, and equally surprising that the reasons they assign invariably break down ; one man tells me “ that all parsons are alike, all bad together” and diverts into the subject of tithes in the old country, another says they fill the heads of the natives full of mischief, that they are “always up to some games,” and “he knows it.” Space would fail me to mention all the other reasons that are assighedffor the consignment of- the Missionaries to a place that shall be -nameless; but whither they are neve ilikely to go of their own accord., This horrid Missionary Influence becomes a perfect bugbear to me. I pursue my way through woods and wilds, barren of interest to me. Landscapes in all the primitive tints of nature, rude, rugged and undefined, relieved occasionally by an isolated station, shepherd’s hut or native settlement, at one time my track lies along cliffs; beneath me the waves of the South Pacific dash themselves recklessly in pieces against the sea worn rocks, as if disgusted with their dreary journey from the South Pole 6r some other region while a number of sentimental looking mutton birds gaze at the shattered billow with a most anxious visage, curious ho doubt to discover vyrbether- any confiding, oyster or cockle, .toting id. the .faithless wave 1 has' met ytith.the tate of dfla .bark,, and had his shell broken about Ids..- ears fox his ill* timed confidence.. 1 I descend into the flat country and pursue my why with , swamps and: frUsides of me; my companipns.snnd flies a-nd my own tlmughts j., ocoupied. too, jinnnb with them I; suddenly hid. I have lost my way, .and those who may * have . been in a similar predicament aredeffc tojudgn my ( feelings ‘ K I wander through;

.country tfre roughesi.oLrtlietrough,. uWi 5 only-top glad;to. espy ia the idistance smoke curling through the trees.; What idoubts I might have had respecting its being a , huniah-'habitation are speedily cleared up, for I hear that diabolical whooping and yelling, which has been dignified by some Maori enthusiasts into the term “ song;’'-and which Mr. Heaphy I: think made the remarkable “ were very musical,’ \ I makemy. way thither , and along'” with a' pack of the! most miserable, mongrel - curs that 'come snarling and yelling, about my horses heels, comes an old man, .who in years as well as limbs seems to be “ dwindled to the shortest span,” who salutes me with uplifted eyebrows-It 'is a picturesque spot by the edge of a river, flanked by a noble pine bush, the. most, poble of all the New Zealand forests, there are just enough huts to make a. pleasant feature in the landscape, and the few peach trees laden with blossom that are dotted about the small palisaded courtyard give a freshness of foliage, contrasting with the sombre hue of the surrounding trees. - The graceful ko-whai (Edwardsia Microphylla) droops over the banks of a small creek that, forms one of the boundaries of the little plot, intermingled with the koromiko (Veronica) in full flower, .and the. fresh leaved mahoe (Melicytus ramiflorus).. The low eared huts with their deep gables smeared with kpkowai (red ochre) and curiously i attoed with hieroglyphics that may tell the root ot manv a geneologieai tree ; taken collectively with the extreme wildness of. the adjacent country, in sympathy wherewith the denizens of this little oasis personally appear, tend to impress me more with the picture of maori life in its normal state than I can well describe. “ Whatdo you call this place”. I ask the old man, whose name I discover to be Jeremiah, “TJpoko toto” (bloody heqd). “And that spot yonder” “Kaihoro karu” (to eat heads greedily.) - Pleasant names very ! In the mean time I tether out'my horse, and as my friend Jeremiah sets to work to nib out a, few cobs of Indian corn for a feed for him, T accept the pilotage, of a dirty little child, who conducts me in safety through, the pack of mangy curs and I proceed to make .the. acquaintance of my hosts. I discoyer a counterpart of proves to be his brother Ezekiel sitting under a verandah in a great state of dishabille and perspiration, engaged in manufacturing a fish hook out of ail old horse shoe ; judging from the state of his file, I should say he had been thus engaged for some years, and is just as likely to be engaged for as many more. This is the man I am led to understand in whose honour the latter locality derived its name. How many human heads he devoured on the occasion referred to, I do . not. learn.',. It appears, however that he suffered from some stomachic disarrangement for some months afterwards. lam regaled with some potatoes and a bit of fish admirably cooked in a native oven, which I find is made by buxniiig,a q l ua».tity of fire in a hole, at the beitoras of which are a few large stones and the- fire being then removed, the fish is then wrapped up in several layers of leaves and deposited in the hole, and covered up with the hot ashes, a layer of earth, being put over the surface. I make my meal taken alfcogetherwith considerable ghsto, and though no epicure I may cursorily remark that if any body wishes to eat fish cooked to perfection, let them pay a visit to, thevillage of 'TJpoko toto and' make the acquaintance of my old friend Jeremiah, The great objection to native hospitality is that they are not scrupulously clean in either their persons or apartments, and in addition to. affording comfortable lodgings. for a colony of fleas- of the most nivoroiis propensi|ies | bj a habit; they have of burning fires on the floor iff their, houses, it is impossible to -avoid any position but a recumbent of squatting one. I consequently request; a mat to lay my blankets on, and wrapping myself up,, Jeremiah further supplies me with a'Paua shell full of fat in which a piece of old rag is floating, and by the light of this apology for a lamp, I at. once plunge into Mr. A.rigas and his “ Scenes of Savage Life.” The specimens of humanity I have about mie agree in outward appearance almost entirely with his descriptipn, for there is very little European about them. As I glance from the, page to the grotesque figures squatting about the fire, I draw inferences very far from complimentary to my hosts. “Am I here peacefully lying,” I mentally exclaim, “ among a group of individuals who within the last quarter of a century.hr little more thought of little save war'and cannibalism* and have I -here the identical individual who feasted upon the heads of goodness knows how many victims in the. shape of my indefatigable friend of the horse, shoe.! Should I not. rather (ancy that his inventive faculties were at present concentrated on the manufacture of a spear head or some other rude weapon, than a peaceful fish hook ? ” and in fact posing myself with a score of similar queries, I eventually arrive at the serious question as to why am I here aliyp at all. Why was J not despatched an. hour ago by Jeremiah, and a portion of that part of my anatomy that is the offspring, of these reflections, now undergoing the process of digestion within the internals of the gluttonous Ezekiel 1 "What has caused this serious change in their sentiments % Has it been the society of whaling stations and escaped convicts 1 Perhaps “ Missionary infliience”!/. Lost in this fie)d of reflection I knock the, ashes oqt of ray. pipe and prepare for rest.. just',aS I din dozing off, T patch the reniaik, that awakens mo with a sudden start “ Is the (pakeha) whiip man asleep Jexclaitris the voice of a young' woman . close to my' ear." I feign sleep, so' successfully that, the; paua' shell is passed across, my face, and the light throjwn dbWm ofi |meVwithout .my shewing eignß' of

"liefeTW h&t'ideaspaMod through*my "mmilj, _ .the isolation of the /pot, the probability ■ of my being murdered .for the *ake of; what 11 had about- me, the improbability of in that case my fate being ever known,; and I confess to a shudder as I run these ideas through my piind. In such circumstances I feeLresistance would be useless, ajud 1 ,lay„ s|till and watch the proceedings from the corners of my eyes. The hut'rapidly fill§,with the remainder of the inhabitants of' this little village, - and they quietly- seats round ' the lamp. 4i»d now to keep the reader r, no longer in shspenser, iliVhat were they about to doff‘Toplot or scheme for my t demolition or what I •. The fact was they .. were" simply about, to, go; ; through, a.fonn * they have been in the habit’ of doing, I . subsequently findalmost morning and , night for the-last twenty years, layers . —lt is nothing to me . their Rubric , is deficient, that they, adopt a squatting • , posture of devotion not essentially ortho T , dox. I do. not .pause to enquire why they. happen, to :be reading the Athanasian Creed, for .the Evening Service, mor do I. , stop io speculate ,pa , the , provable idea* that my o&i friends Jeremiali may have respiting the damnatory clause* in it. \ It is sufficient for mete find Christianity in any shape existing.in .thr* . out of the way spot, and' among..,such parently unpromising disciples.. I close my eyes to ponder ori the change from what I hare been reading, 'and in spite of all my arguments, pro and coa. as to. the sincerity of the religious profession of these semi barbarians, and-the> probability of its permanency ; its probable causes of- ~ force of habit, aupprstition and. what not, I invariably come.back tp the.heading: of this article “ Missionary Influence,”, and' , arriving at no satis factory .conclusion on , , the point I ultimately drop off. sleep* ( with the figure of olsl Ezekiel, rasping away at the old, horse shoe* Whether: his energies and faculties , were* * thus employed- tliip, whole; night I cannot' say,' but as I awoke at the., break, .of 'day I, still found him at; the old. pw t, and to. all ap-„ pearance bis work justfas far. oh, tp.a , satisfactory sis' it had been the • night, before. Had this been a. Ragan age I should; have . been disposed; ~to imagine", rthat i for- fiome; sin.-against thp ( v gedsi at Kalkorpj* . karu) he had, bpeh doomed to’this task, for - an indefinite period of years, ’as -one of tlie brotherhood of Sisyphus, Tantaihs and ; • ;Co. I take myleaveofhim and.the rest of His family, and Jeremiah having put me in my track, I , reward him for his hospitality with a few figs of tobacco,, and "I pursue my way northward. r\ , To be e week. .