THESE "SAVAGES."

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 15, 18 January 1930, Page 1 (Supplement)

THESE "SAVAGES."

EUROPEANS AND MAORIS.

OLD COMPLACENCY CRITICISED.

VIRTUES OF THE NATIVE.

(By BART SUTHERLAND.)

In one of the many articlea which. Have appeared lately in connection -with #he centenary of the mission settlement at Waimate, there is a quotation from $ report in "which attempts at experimental agriculture wefe justifiedj for, ■ 4 1f the natives saw somewhat of the blessings of civilisation and the effects pf industry, they -would themselves become civilised and industrious, and, see- ' Jng what their land was capable of producing they would go and do likewise." I am not seeking to detract from the work and ideals of the missionary pioneers, but it seems to me that this statement is typical of much complacent English comment on native questions, from the days of Captain Cook ;fco our own times, when benevolent townspeople want the young Maori to so back to the land. "The natives," one is to believe sympathetic observers such as Maning, or scientific investigators, Buch as Elsdon Best, were tivili'sed and industrious, until white men of the wrong type chanced upon New Zealand. Bad European Influences. Maning, discussing the ominous decrease in. the numbers' of the Maoris since his own advent. in New Zealand attributes it in a great measure to the change in the ways of life caused by their acquiring muskets. This led in the first place to the abandonment of Jill ,forts, because, the ■ old methods of [Warfare were out-of-<Jate. The Maoris then itook to living in the lower, swampy j*nds—in an unhealthy atmosphere, and ■eti to working themselves to the fingerJones, as the saying is, scraping the flax which traders demanded for muskets. In the fierce wars of Hongi's time it was t matter of life and death to each man be supplied with one of'these weapons. ]tf«ning says that/ the price of one musket in the early days was a ton of (leaned flax, and the work of scraping this morsel by morsel with a shell-was • interminable. The men of the tribe were thus fully occupied to the detri- ; Blent of food cultivation, and ' over- ' worked, underfed and working in ipramps, they sank into the diseases — > particularly consumption, to which they i Jrere prone. , That missionary statement would read ; better something like this: "To make , amends for the degeneration in native 5 life and character caused by the visits ; of unscrupulous traders of our own race, j #nd to restore to the natives their > V lormer healthful ways of living we pro- . l - pose to divert their attention once more ' ' jo agriculture." * The Maori Viewpoint. j To give Marsden his due, he did realise .. the corruption caused by the whalers; r that waa. one reason, we are told, for his • ••• founding; an-inland mission- away from 1 ' distractions and vice of Korarareka. 1 Both - *Captain iCook> and Major Cruise, •; jof the Dromedary; ;% are rather moral j *■■ / about , the >petty ; thieving which went oh 'a chief and'his retinue paid a } pall on board. But if weread Manihg's • Witty explanation of the laws, of muru 1 [(legalised plunder) we begin to see some- ■ . i thing of the workings 'of the' native , mind. After all, we ourselves exact har- , hour dues from visitors, and Cruise ad- , mits that, although the Maori were i pretty nimble-fingered When they were ' <out visiting, the property of the English 1 was inviolate' when they paid a return I kail, owing to the satisfactory working of J the much misunderstood law of tapu. ( Believe me, if my life depended on steals , ing a musket, Chicago May would be an ; angel beside me. 1 I should perhaps not make too much of the idea that Cook and others were always superior in their attitude. Summarising the qualities of the Maori Cook J reports, inter alia; "They are as modest * and reserved! in their behaviour and convenation as the most polite nations of (Europe." Cruise records that the great * > Hongi Ika was aristocratic in his manners, and that h e would not enter the • .cabin of the Dromedary without an in- ( .iritation. ' , ; • i f > . ; Intellectual Snobbery. 1 ; for a superior feeling mi the -j )way of customs and manners; but there Is a piece of intellectual snobbery in ( Angas' Journal which I find it hard to forgive. George Angas, the English, \ artist, travelled extensively in the North v Island in 1844. He seems to have been 1 a patient observer, and one generally r , with an eye for the truth. Here is his c offending passage: He is viewing Tonga- r riro in the sunset light, and after rhap- c sodising, artist like, over the roseate hues r of the setting sun on the snow-streaked * ; crater, and' using the terms "majestic and "sublime," he ends: "And I wished * there had been other than savages to have gazed with me upon its glories. {i This of a race whose waiata and legends betray above everything a love of appreciation of the beauties of their land, k Mountains especially were sacred to c them; did not the beloved, yet feared I patupaiarehe (fairies), dwell on their ( peaks? Legends as delicate as morning »- • mist adorn Pirongia, Colville, Ngongotaha c and Kakepuku. . r Gilbert Mair, in his "Reminiscences, . .gives us the lament of Wetea, a young ... man of high rank, taken captive by Hongi in his attack on the Totara Pa, Thames, t in 1821. He was to be killed and eaten, f according to the laws of war; but e r : > asked first to be allowed to smg a fare- j well "to my people, the land, and the World." It cannot be quoted at length, jbut this, I think, is rather moving: c , - • • '■ . ' - s 0 peaceful, spreading calm, So beautifully fair, Stretching far o'er sea, .., ; " v No stormy clouds are, there, v Beclouding the sky > • •: n - Mine eyesore dimmed with misty tears. t 1 cannot' See ■' '■> * ; ' The towering peaks , . t Of mighty Moehau (Colville). j, Ah! speed my spirit hence ..; . Through ocean depths y «• And caverns wreathed ' ■ 8 With waving weeds, 1< To that far shore. n Farewell to this,sad world. It'is not bad for an untutored savage, iMany Englishmen might, feel the same, f j but most would, say tersely, in a- llke f scene, "I'm done," or "Give, me a Wood t