Correspondence.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIV, Issue 1030, 12 May 1857, Page 3

Correspondence.

•»* Our correspondence columns being impartially open, we are not to be indentified with any opinion expressed therein. To tfu Editor of th* Southern Cross. Jfej—Jn jour journal of the 22nd August, 1856, u a letter, by '<SUvanu*/' 09 the. abore subject, in which

he says — "For a quarter of a century 1 have lived in the centre of one of the most populous native di^rieta. Th» present race of native! I may say have grown up under ray eyes. 1 have acquired the Maori languuge, and almost forgotten my own. I have for yean had pretty extensive business relatiohs with a great part of the population of the district in which. I reside, and at the present moment hove hundreds in my employ. I am. in fact, as much a Maori, when I choose, w any taUooed fellow of them all." ♦•Silvanus'' says,— "l know their good qualities, and also their faults. It is true they are possessed of considerable natural ability, and have made a respectable progress in that sort of knowledge which they think conducive to their present temporal interests ; but they remain still As a people utterly barbarous at heart — unprincipled, finished hypocrites— rapacious as the tea — without religion— their mental capacity making thtm only more dangerous— their property in arms, hones, cattle, and provisions making them doubly so." This is a sad picture, rendered indeed lamentable by the fact that hundreds, if not thousands, of thousands of pounds have been spent on their education. _ That fact, and its results, condemns the system of missionary teachings, and the sooner it is changed the better _ for the natives themselves and for the European population. They hare gotten from the Government, through the agency of missionaries, implements of husbandryhorses, cattle, and provisions ; while, according to •'Silvanus," they are "without religion, barbarous at heart, rapacious as the sea, unprincipled, finished hypocrites." Weshyans I— stand upon "Mount Wesley" and blush. The 'Southern Cross' of 23rd September last contains * letter by "An Old Settler," under the head of "Native Atrocities." Hehad seen "Silvanus' " letter, corroborates his statement, and adds the following as a "fearful comment on the text of that letter" :— " To proceed to a narration of the atrocity above referred to : This was a barbarous and unprovoked murder of a very aged and infirm Maori couple, whom I have known for many years, and whom certainly their age, if nothing else, put beyond the possibility of doing mischief. One of the minor chiefs of this place (Whaingaroa), accompanied by a young man in daily intercourse with us all, and whom all believed to be particularly mild and inoffensive, on suspicion of witchcraft enteied the hut of the old couple, and having first half strangled them by ropes attached to their necks finished them with kicks, and afterwards burnt their bodies, which indeed are now burning in a native oven. It may be said that, in taking life for witchcraft they did no worse than people in England a century or two back. However, the following cases which occurred within two years, or nearly, can certainly not be attributed to any such hallucination. I believe I take them in the order in which they happened, to the exclusion of many minor but sufficiently atrocious acts which, , in all cases it must be borne in mind, go unpimished. The individuals who commit such crimes not losing caste, or falling in the least in the estimation of the rest. A young man, the son of one of the greatest chiefs, namely, Te Pakaru (baptized Newton), residing <n Kawhia, dispatched a woman by beating her over the head. A father and a mother took their child, about 6even years old, and within hail of a white man's house tore it limb from limb, and one or two others sharing in the feast ate it raw. The details of this dase are too shocking for publication. This occurred at Aotea, about kixteen miles from this, In Kawhia, four miles further on, a man was put to death very recently, also on »uspicion of witchcraft. " Excesses of this kind, occurring from time to time, bring into strong light the inherent ferocity, and deeply seated and unchanged barbarism of this people." Whaingaroa, Kawhia, and Aotea are, I believe, three Wesleyau missionary stations. Wesleyans ! — What «ay you to these things ? Yours truly, G. Vaii* May 4, 1857. [We believe that the teaching, in some instances, might have been more effective, but do not believe it to be so utterly without result as our correspondent holds it to be. Neither do we lay so much of the responsibility on the Wesleyan teachers at the above named stations, although we believe that a greater amount of good might have been effected.— Ed.]