W hat I believe to be genuine and authentic the collected publications of William Colenso

§ VI.—The Future.

1. Preparatory.

2. “Ended well”: is to have done so leaving a real salutary impression on the native; that come what will, he will never go to war again with the Government.

3. Their work done, the military must be all withdrawn from New Zealand.

4. The suspicions of the native must be removed; this will be a work of time.

5. The Colonial Government must have the Government of the Maories wholly in their own hands.

6. Individuals, especially those in authority, must for the common good, at once and for ever cease their fruitlessly teasing the native with their fine-spun theories, and their secretly writing to powers and parties at home against the New Zealand Government and the colonists: or, if not, the Government of the day must gird up their loins to the task, and put such persons down with a strong hand; and, if necessary, make a public example of them. Above all, pensionaries on the public purse must be taught a useful lesson.

7. All Bishops and other Ecclesiastics, should cheerfully and zealously, openly and privately support the Government; remembering Paul’s teaching,—“The powers that be, are ordained of God.”

8. The Governor, the Government, and the various Ecclesiastical bodies, and settlers generally, must unite, and be as one in these matters: the Maories should be able to see this.

2. Real: Active.

10. The present objectionable system of bribing Maories (derided among themselves) with gifts and with salaries for work never performed, must be wholly thrown aside. It is directly opposed to the genius of the people, as it is to their advancement, and is the cause of much bad feeling and jealousy. Until this is done their suspicions and distrust will never be really less. [74]

11. One strict, equal, but lenient law for them as for Europeans, in the one court in all European districts.

12. Good, useful, zealous, loving men, to be stationed as Resident Magistrates in purely native districts; men, whom the natives could love, obey, respect, and work with. Such to be obtained from England, if not to be found in the Colony.

13. Such Magistrates to itinerate throughout their districts; (say) 4 times a year, to hold their simple courts at the principal villages of the sub-tribes; to act in co-operation with the head, or heads, of the tribe. (Not, as now, with assuming inferior chiefs and pert loquacious youngsters.) And to get reparation for almost all Maori offences, by fines judiciously inflicted. Such a mode of proceeding falls in with the genius of the people, is just and Christian, and is not costly. Their errors among themselves, should be dealt gently with; a spirit of love and forgiveness (alas! foreign to our laws) should be inculcated. Insult not their prejudices. {Note 38}

14. The authority of the oldest head chief of a tribe, or sub-tribe, should be firmly but steadily supported.

15. Maori views—modes of reparation, fines, forfeitures, semi-banishment from the village and tribe, etc., etc., should be supported, and acted on, where proper and just;—and not our unsuited Draconian laws. A celebrated author, says—“Humanity is one of the best fruits of refinement. It is only with increasing civilization, that the legislator studies to economise human suffering, even for the guilty; to devise penalties, not so much by way of punishment for the past, as of reformation for the future.”¹⁸⁷

16. Young persons, of both sexes, should on no account be allowed to be enticed away from their tribe, by Europeans; on their being so enticed away, and complaint made, the authorities should interfere, and cause them to be restored, and the abductors severely punished.

17. Good, useful, plain, married schoolmasters should be stationed in the various Maori districts; such to be had also from home, through the various Christian and Philanthropic Societies.

18. Zealous, loving, self-denying European Ministers to be placed among them; men contented to serve their Great Master in humility. Also to be had from home through the various Christian Societies. No hireling, no mere observer of rites and ceremonies. The Maories have had enough of muttered charms and incantations. The young New Zealand Samson is not to be surely bound with green withes.

19. In populous, wholly Maori districts, a religious physician, or surgeon should be stationed; to be also obtained from home.

20. Anglo-Maori books should be written and printed for their use; and a really useful Anglo-Maori weekly paper should be established and circulated.

21. Once a year the Governor should meet the assembled chiefs at some principal Maori place to be fixed by them; and once in two years they should be assembled at the Seat of Government to see the Governor.

22. The sons of the head chiefs, and of others, who may show an [75] aptness to learn, should be sent to England to be educated at Government expense; but they should not be foolishly and flatteringly educated there as “gentlemen,” rather in a plain sound Christian way; they should also be taught useful arts and trades. Remember Peter the Great.

23. Occasionally one or more of the chiefs of the highest rank and most deserving should be taken to England, to see the sons of the chiefs there being educated, and to be presented to her Majesty.

24. European gentlemen visiting Maori districts and villages, should be careful to demean themselves as such. They should act there as they would in a village at home, or on the Continent.

25. Spirituous liquors should be kept out of all purely Maori districts and villages.

Cook found the Maories happy:—are they happy now? Let us endeavour to make them so.

Conclusion.

—–“De duro est ultima ferro.—

See music & copy.

“Of this tune they continue to sing the two first bars till the words of their song are at an end, and then they close with the last. Sometimes they also sing an underpart, which is a third lower, except the two last notes, which are unisons.”

“... notice (was also taken) of a kind of dirge-like melancholy song, relating to the death of Tupaya. This song was chiefly practised by the inhabitants round Tolaga Bay, on the northern island, where the people seem to have had a high regard for that Taheitian. There is an extreme simplicity in the words, though they seem to be metrically arranged in such a manner, as to express the feelings of the mourners, by their slow movement.”

Copy music

Ake, mate awhe Tupaeia.

“They descend at the close from c to the octave below in a fall, resembling the sliding of a finger along the finger-board on the violin. I shall now dismiss this subject with the following observation, that the taste for music of the New Zeelanders, and their superiority in this respect to other nations in the South Seas, are to me stronger proofs, in favour of their heart, than all the idle eloquence of the philosophers in their cabinets can invalidate. They have violent passions; but it would be absurd to assert that these only lead them to inhuman excesses.”

The appx. to Sir G. Grey’s “Polyn. Mythology,” contains a learned paper on the nat. songs of N.I. by a comp. musician Mr. J.H. Davies Esq.—with specimens of the music of the N.Zers.

“During a stay of ten months in New Zealand a constant intercourse took place between the people of the ship and the natives; and that distant excursions were made by different individuals into the interior and along the coast, without any unfortunate consequences. From personal experience, it is but justice to the New Zealanders to add a particular testimony to their character. Two officers of the detachment of the 84th regiment being provided with a private boat, rowed by two soldiers, and having, as already observed, fewer avocations to detain them on board than the generality of persons belonging to the Dromedary, went on various shooting or other excursions into the country, which brought them in daily contact with the natives, whose assistance was always at their command. When badness of weather or other circumstances obliged us to seek food or shelter among them, an appeal to their hospitality was never made in vain. Perpetually at their mercy, if they chose to misuse us, not a single insult was ever offered to one of our little party; the most trifling article was never stolen, and we often experienced acts of generosity and disinterestedness from them which would have done honour to a civilised people.”²⁰³―

The writer recollects a middle-aged chief, several years back, sitting down on a low fence dressed in a large loose mat, at his work carving a small image, when suddenly he fell to the ground in a fit,—(to which,—epilepsy—he was subject,) on his recovering, the first question he asked the writer, was, whether in his fall he had exposed himself to the other natives of the place, mostly women; and although he was assured he had not, he burst into tears, crying bitterly for a long while, and would not be comforted.—

Dr. Forster says:— “The principles of chastity we found in many families, exceedingly well understood and practised, to the great satisfaction of all those Europeans in whose hearts lewdness had not yet effaced every notion of purity and morality. I have with transport seen many fine women, who with a modesty mixed with politeness, which would have graced the most exalted character of our polite nations, refuse the greatest and most tempting offers made them by our forward youths. But it is necessary to observe, that a nation still enjoying that just and noble simplicity of manners, & living in large houses with several families together, in the midst of their children, cannot conceal certain actions, which none of our Europeans, who have feelings and breeding, wished to commit in so great companies.... Virtuous women hear a joke without emotion, which amongst us might put some men to the blush. Neither austerity and anger, nor joy and ecstasy is the consequence, but sometimes a modest, dignified, serene smile spreads itself over their faces, and seems gently to rebuke the uncouth jester.”²⁰⁷

Note 22, Par. 29. “In New Zealand the fathers and nearest relations were used to sell the favours of their females to those of our ship’s company, who were irresistibly attracted by their charms; and often were these victims of brutality dragged by the fathers into the dark recesses of the ship, and there left to the beastly appetite of their paramours, who did not disdain them, though the poor victim stood trembling before them, and was dissolved in a flood of tears.”²⁰⁸

“The favors of the women did not depend upon their own inclination, but the men, as absolute masters, were always to be consulted upon the occasion, and won with a spike-nail, or a shirt, or a similar present.... Some among the women however submitted with reluctance to this vile prostitution; and but for the authority and menaces of the men, would not have complied with the desires of a set of people who could, with unconcern, behold their tears and hear their complaints. Encouraged by the lucrative nature of this infamous commerce, the New Zealanders went through the whole vessel, offering their daughters and sisters promiscuously, in exchange for our iron tools, which they knew could not be purchased at an easier rate. It does not appear that their married women were ever suffered to have this intercourse with our people.... We doubt, however, whether the New Zealanders ever debased themselves so much as to make a trade of their women, before we created new wants by shewing them iron tools.... Whether the members of a civilised society, who could act such a brutal part, or the barbarians who could force their own women to submit to such indignity, deserve the greatest abhorrence, is a question not easily to be decided.”²⁰⁹

“It may therefore be alledged, that as the New Zealanders place no value on the continence of their unmarried women, the arrival of Europeans among them, did not injure their moral characters in this respect; but we doubt that they ever debased themselves so much as to make a trade of their women, before we created new wants by shewing them iron-tools.”²¹⁰

“...I fear that hitherto our intercourse has been wholly disadvantageous to the nations of the South Seas; and that those communities have been the least injured, who have always kept aloof from us....”²¹¹

(other business there ———— in the Plates”²¹³

1. the Sandwich islands to the N., being the longest & most civilized, & under one chief or king:

1. The population of the Sandwich Islands was stated by Cook to be 400,000:—but, according to Hopkins, “200,000 would be probably the more correct computation—of the Sandwich Islanders in 1778–9 (time of Cook’s visits). Even then it seems likely to have been on the decrease, & that good old times had preceded that age—times in wh. a more numerous people covd. the islands, & left traces of their strength & abundance in roads, walls, temples, & other works. From Cook’s time to the present, the decay of the pop. has been continuous & rapid. At the time of Mr. Ellis’ visit (1823) the no. on the whole of the island was estimated at from 130,000 to 150.000 souls. In 1849, the population had fallen (by census) to 80,000. In 1853, the total no. (by census) 71,619. In (by the census) 1860 the total no. was 67,084.—Taking the lowest est. of the pop. at the time of Cook’s discovery of the islands, the Sandwich Islanders have diminished to one third in the last 80 years. ²²⁴

2. The popul. of the Samoan groupe was believed by Mr. Williams (C.M.) to amount to 160,000 in 1830, but probably this was an overestimate. In 1839, according to Com. Wilkes, the total pop. of the group. was 56,600 [p.190.v.i]. In 1845, the “Samoa Reporter” (printed by the Miss. in the island) speaks of it as between 50,000 & 60,000; & it is now [1853] toly. well ascertained that the whole nos. do not exceed 38,000. There can indeed be but little doubt that a consid. decrease is gradually taking place,²²⁵ and Turner, in the most recent work already cited, p.220, also says— “Among a people destitute of statistics or records of any kind, it is difficult to speak correctly of an earlier date than some 25 yrs. ago; since that time howr. the pop. has been on the decrease.”

3. Speaking of Easter Island, Forster says, “When it was discovd. in 1722, by Roggeveen it contd. many thousands of inhabitants. The Spaniards found in 1770 about 3000 people on it, and we, (Cook,) in 1774 scarcely 900.²²⁶ La Perouse, who visited the island in 1785, & who seemed to have had better means of ascertaing. than Forster or Cook, (owing perhaps to Cook’s remembered hiccups) speaks of having “seen about 1200 inhabitants;” and that he “believed the popul. without exaggeration then to be 2000.”—Modern visitors have spoken of them as being “about 300,”—while the last account of their informants say their companions had been all carried off by Peruvian ships to work on the neighbg. Chincha islands.

But it is neither only, nor principally from the sad picture of their numerical decrease that the writer contemplates the steady decline of a race. The Polynesians seem have been retrograding for a long time—perhaps centuries; as “the temples, roads, & walls,” in the Samoan Islds., & the colossal figures in Easter Island, silently intimate.

The New Zealanders appear to have been in quite as advanced a state when Tasman discovd. them (1643), as they were when Cook visited them, 126 years after,²²⁷ and historically it is certain that for the last 40 years they have been generally and gradually retrograde in their every national & prized manufactures and acts. All steady application to any thing, whether of for. or dom. origin, seems lost: their whole char. is sadly changed in their respect for the work. Man, like the tide, if not advancing in knowledge; indeed the Polynesians seem for years of natural decline to have had little or no power beyond imitation hence they constantly repeated the same idea without a shadow of alteration or improvement: indeed, among the New Zealanders to invent any thing new, go out of the old track, was looked upon as faulty innovation, & was thus open to condemnation. Is it too much here to adduce their own opinion on that steady & certain decline mournfully & mysteriously shadowed for them in the gradual extinction of other animals (& plants) around them? In N.Z. all the quadrupeds—the dog, the rat, the guana, the strange shadowy Kaurehe of Mantell:²²⁸ of birds the quail, ground parrot, the notornis, the var. sp. of Apteryx, the huia, & scores of other birds now unknown; as the cat parrot of Philip Island, and the Dodo-like Pigeon (Didunculus) of the Samoan groupe, while in the other Polynesian islands, endemic species of birds, formerly plentiful, are becomg. a novelty & nearly extinct.

The writer in closing these notes, would add the following mod. testy. (which he has only seen since this essay was written,)—in part explanation of what has been addressed in Par. 65. §18,—and as concerning the genius of the Polynesian race:— “The kind of preaching which takes in Samoa, is the illustrative. A plain statement of abstract truth to a people who hardly ever open their mouth but in a figure, is dry & uninteresting. The successful p. in Samoa [as in N.Z.,] whether native or European, must search heaven & Earth & sea, & bring forth also from every age of the history of his fellow-men w. wh. he is acqd., facts illustrative of the great truths wh. he preaches. The man who thinks that “anything” will do for such a people, will find that his preaching is vain & valueless. He will neither gain the respect of the people, nor save souls.”²²⁹