THE TIME OE SIR G. E. BOWEN'S ARRIVAL.

7

A.—No. 4.

The Rev. Mr. Burrows, Church Missionary, once informed me that when residing at Kororareka, about the year 1840, he had 430 persons of that liapu alone upon his books as Church members. This table of population shows the lamentable deficiency in the number of children necessary for keeping up a progressively increasing people, and the numerical preponderance of the male over the female sex indicates that the producing section does not form a fair proportion of the whole, and that the weak are the first to succumb to the ravages of disease. I believe that one-half of the entire population rejDresented in this return are upwards of forty-five years of age, and one-third not less than sixty years; many attain very great age, and I should, say that individuals who have seen ninety years are not unfrequent. Of course much must bo left to conjecture in these cases, but I might cite as an instance Tamati Waka Nene, whom Mr. Kemp assures me he has known for fifty years, and must have been forty when he first saw him. The Bishop of Waiapu confirms this estimate, yet Waka's elder brother Patuone is still living, and several of their early contemporaries still exist. But the generation between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five years hare almost disappeared, and of the children, the majority are of such tender years, that they have not yet been submitted to the ordeal of mesenteric disease, which carries off a largo number of those between the ages of seven and twelve. Mr. Penton's (now Chief Judge of Native Lands Court) " Observations on the State of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of Now Zealand," so completely exhausts this topic, as in my opinion to leave no room for further remark, save that, whilst admitting its pernicious effects, I can hardly concur with that gentleman in attributing so large a portion of mischief to the use of kanga Tcopiro (steeped maize) as an article of diet. The Native feeling towards Europeans is entirely governed by their estimate of present advantages of mutual relationship, that is, where a Maori believes that a Pakeha is a decided advantage to him, he is friendly, but as a rule either dislikes, or regards with indifference, every one not subservient to his own interest. As a people they are imbued with envy at, and jealousy of, the superior wealth and material prosperity of the foreigner. They consider that the Colonists have made out of them, or by acquiring their lands, the property which they behold in the ships, the houses, the farms or stock, of the new comers. Some old Natives have admitted to me, that a desire to limit or curtail the power of the Colonists lias been the motive cause of all their disputes with us, hence Ileke's war in the North in 1845, partly directed against our establishment of Customs duties, hence the land league, to prevent our extension of territory, hence the aukati or line of demarcation, hence also hauhauism to separate themselves from us as Christians. But when mentioning Christianity, I must express my conviction that with very many Natives religion was never more than skin-deep. Any form of religion would have been readily adopted by a race, superstitious in the extreme, as were the Maoris, who dreaded whilst they disputed the powers of the tohunqa or priest, held most gloomy ideas of their atua or G-od, and used the tapu, nominally a consecration, as a device for entrapping any unwary adversary into committing some infraction of its many ramifications, and thus rendering, according to Native tihangci (etiquette), the transgressor obnoxious to claims for utu, payment, satisfaction, or revenge, I know little of Hauhauism, and am not aware that I ever saw a Hauhau, but in disturbed times previously new religions have been invented, as the Papahurihia superstition at Hokianga and Mangonui during Nopera's war, and again the rites of the Atua wera, during Heke's. I opine, from the decay of these fallacies, (contrived to infuse a spirit of fanaticism during hostilities), on the restoration of peace, that hauhauism will follow the same course whenever a thorough reconciliation between ourselves and the Natives is effected. Natives here were much divided on the subject of the war, the genuine Ngapuhi, with one slight exception, wished to form a contingent, and aid us in its prosecution; but a large proportion of the inhabitants of this district consists of the descendants of Waikato, Taranaki, and other Southern slaves, together with some few of the original captives, and these sympathise with the King party. The exception I have alluded to was the Ngaitawake hapu, of which Mangonui te Kerei is chief, and whose sister, Matire, was married to Kati, brother of Potatau (or Te Wherowhero) the first king: these people were ready to co-operate with the rebels, and attempted to supply them with ammunition. The king party offered to Maihi Paraone Kawiti, a chief of note here, and whose father, Kawiti, had acquired great fame in the '45 war, the governorship of the North, and second place in the kingdom as the price of his assistance. I obtained the letter conveying the offer. I think that the removal of the troops has had rather a beneficial effect, in showing the Natives that we can rely upon our own selves, and that they see it in that light. I fancy that they had an impression that as a people we were so unwarlikc, that we were obliged to maintain soldiers as protectors ; Ngapuhi, in olden time, have so overrun and ravaged all the Northern Island,, that they always speak in a disparaging way of other tribes, and consider that though the Pakeha would stand no chance in conflict with themselves, yet that they might be able to meet Waikato or any Southern tribes in the field, and look with indifference at our present casual encounters with them. I fear that much time will elapse ere a universal peace prevails, a system of guerilla warfare suits Maori habits and tastes, the country is eminently adapted for such tactics, and the opportunities thus afforded of acquiring a name amongst their countrymen is too tempting to be disregarded by aspiring savages. At the same time, I think that the leading men among the rebels will shortly agree rather to an indefinite suspension of hostilities than a definite peace, (they will not like to acknowledge the confiscation of their lands,) though occasional raids will be carried out by small bodies of unsettled Natives, covetous of plunder, and eager for revenge. Legislation, Native Lands. No doubt the Natives are pleased at knowing that they can dispose of their lands, after having submitted these to the process of the Lands Court; they would be still better pleased if the Act permitted them to re-sell as much as they could of the lands already sold by them in former days. I come to this conclusion from finding that of the claims preferred at the Paihia sittings of the Native

B.C.Earsto»,Esq. continued..