MAORI MISSIONS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3065, 8 March 1892, Page 2

MAORI MISSIONS.

to the editor. Sir, —"The sum total of my knowledge is that most of the Maoris have returned to heathenism." Such was the terse and candid manner in which Bishop Julius expressed himself at the lat3 meeting of the General Synod during the discussion on Maori missions, and I think all who have devoted any thought to the subject will agree that the Bishop has considerable data for his deductions; for what at one time gave exceptional promise as a mission field has proved to be a " thorny " soil, and— from a missioner's point of view, at least —the last state of the Maoris is worse than their first. The cause of this state of affairs can readily be traced. When the Church first undertook to reclaim our " noble savages," it threw itself into tho work with an energy worthy of—l wao going to say " a bettor cause," but that would hardly do —and the missioners made a good impression npon the unsophisticated Maori mind. The natives gave their teachers every encouragement, building them mission houses and comfortable C"ttapes in the moet picturesque spots, and contributing as far as lay in their power, everything calculated to make life wirth living, and the early missioner's lot was not by any means a bad one. In those halcyon days the Church was in dead earnest, and the natives readily influenced. But a change came over the spirit of the dream. The natives, naturally observant, were not slow in concluding that the Europeans generally did not piactise what the missioners preached, for, not being aware of the intrinsic value of their commodities, they discovered that they had been victimised by unscrupulous traders, who had induced them to part with large areas of land for a trifling recompense. Tho missioners themselves can hardly be exonerated from this charge, for the historian states that they purchased two hundi-ed acres of land, whereon to build their first station, for twelve axes! and to preclude the possibility of the Maoris "going back on their bargain" tho deed of conveyance was properly drafted in Sydney. The impression left upon the Maori mind in this connection was well described by Tawhiao during his visit to England, who when he was asked if the missioners had not done a great deal of good for the native race, replied : " Yes ; they directed our eyes up to Heaven, and when we looked down our land was gone !" Having been forced to the conclusion that they had been '"had," the natives resolved that they would not part with any more land. Our " Christian " Government, however, determined that if they could not get it by fair means they would by foul, and gave the native owners to understand so. This did not "fit in" with Maori logic, so recourse was had to another "Christianising" factor—namely, gunpowder. They had hud enough of our "evidences of Christianity," and determined to drive the British with their institutions into the sea. There are many in New Zealand who have good cause to deplore the terrible times which followed, and how the mißsioners were compelled to leave their cottages and peach groves and " scoot" for dear life are matters of history which need no recapitulation here. After the wars the native mind was found to have undergone a great change; they were then as suspicious and cunning as they had preriounly been frank and candid. They eschewed Christianity and other European innovations, and embraced Hau-Hauism. The Church, finding that it had now great difficulties to contend with, went to work in a very half-hearted manner to surmount them, and ultimately, metaphorically speaking, went to sleep. There are now signs that it is waking up, and, liko Rip Van Winkle, its first exclamation is "I vonder vere I vas !" but, unlike Rip, instead of finding it has advanced 20 years, it has gone back SO. Ido not wish to iufer that the early missioners did no good, as I am fully alive to the fact that had it not been for the heroic and self-denying labours of Bishop Selwyn and others the Taranaki and Waikato wars would have been even more terrible and bloody than they were ; but I think the lesson taught by these struggles should be that the Church should first impress upon Europeans the necessity of practising Christianity more and professing it less, before attempting to "convert " the Maoris. Had our dealings with the natives been based upon the golden precept of doing unto others as we would they should do unto us, I think I am justified in saying those terrible wars would never have taken place, and we as a nation would not have bad to mourn the loss of so many valuable lives in an unholy struggle of might against right. Truly cant has much to answer for. —I am, etc., ZaJIZUMIIIM.