OLD NEW ZEALAND.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIX, Issue 1784, 8 April 1863, Page 3

OLD NEW ZEALAND.

The following iuo extiauts fiom reviews in the Colonial piess of " Old New Zealand," by the Pnkeha Maori, printud nnd published at the office of the Daily Soui'Hr.iiN Cross:—s :—:—: — (PROM THE " HAWKJi's BAY HERALD.") New Zealand, for its age as a British colony, lms had more books published lespecting its climate, capabilities, &c, than any other Biitish dependanoy. The wiiteis have generally, however, followed the same hackneyed course, and their productions haveaeived littlo puipose other than to humbug the intending craigiont- or to extract a smile of ridicule fiom the experienced colonist. The work before ub is, however, as unique in its subject as it is inntiuetive and interesting in its detailn. It presents a life-like (poihaps a little exaggerated) picture of Maori life and character m days of old — written by one whom experience among the natives and gieat poweis of observation have eminently qualified him for the task. A work of this natuie is the more valuable inasmuch as the scenes it so n\cily and humorously depicts aie no longer to be witnessed — young New Zealand having sadly degenerated in many respects — and only live in the memories of a comparatively few caily settlers and missionaries. It is evidently from the vigorous pen of tho author of "The War in the North," and is equally deceiving of perusal — whether by those who take an interest in the manners and custoniH of tho ancient Maori, or by those who lead a book simply for the amusement it affoids. We havo inaiked for extiact several passages, but must confine ourselves in this issue to one or two. The fiist will give the reader of the present day Home idea of tho estimation in which a pakeha (now so much despised) was held in days that aie past :— [Exttact follows.] — The fifth chapter contains an inimitable description of tho author's first purchase of land fiom the natives, which we iiiseit for the amusement of ourreiuleis. The experience of many cf thu Hawke's Bay settlers will go far to confirm the truthfulness of the pictiue : [Extract]. Objection has been taken to one or two passages in this hiuhly intoiesting volume, such as the paragraph near the end. opening with "I belong to both parties and I don't caie a stiaw which wins." It must be remembered, however, that our friend the Pakeha Maori is writing hi character, and that sentiments such as those expiee«ed arc quite consistent with the pait he has assumed. " Old New Zealand ' is printed at the establishment of the Southkkn Cross, Auckland, and as a specimen of typography reflects the highest ciedit upon the press of the colony. Wo have "much pleasure in commending this little volume to the notice of the reading public. (fhom tut: " I\ TTEi/nHf Turrs.") ''Ah' those good old times'" Tho author of tho book befoio us bogms with a lament for the happy days that aiP no moip, ami sighs over the decay of Maori snpiemaey, as an oithodox old English Toiy might sigli ovei tho present state of political pat t«M and mourn for the days of Pitt and Fox. Our authoi complains that since the ai rival of Goveinois and Bishops, and othei uirses of civilization, the sun has not shone as bughtly and the woild has giown dull and sad. Breaking out now and then in quaint, amusing, half affected complaints of jvcent civilization, theie is an evident and jeal sympathy with the oldfashioned Maori vat nor and his lawless life. We do not mean sucli sympathy as would lead the PakehaMaon dthbeuitdy to jjiefei M.ioiidum to civilization, but a sympathy that enables him to uudei stand the people among whom he has lived so long, and to dcs eribo theii ways with appiecialion and Mijour. Theie aie few men who ha\e lived and tiaded among the Maoris for many yoais btfoie the countiy wasiegulaily settled, who could have written srn.li a book as this; and coming fiom Mich a souice these pages aie very valuable. We have no doubt that this will be a veiy pojMihu book, and that most of our leadeis will thank us for chawing attention to its merity. The author arrived on the coast of New Zealand at a time when it was important to a tube to have a 1 pakeha icsident among them. Indeed it was a matter of life and death. Accoiding to our notions, Maori dealings with the pakeha were not veiy straightforward, yet if he was ultimately satisfied any should we complain. The j following soliloquy of a chief who came on uoaid the authoi'sj ship just befoie he lauded conveys a veiy good idea of Maori reasoning on the subject of piopwty. ! [Extiact heie.] Our Pakeha has wandcisd up and down among his Maori recollections in such a way that it is dfflicult 01 rather impossible to follow the thread of his story. But his 'yams ' aio all the more enjoyable that they have not been written inn'la Mincna. Had we but space we should much like to give at length a vivid description of the ai rival of a war pat ty composed of doubtful friends, and the prepaiations to leceive them eithei m the capacity of friends or foes. But we must lefiain from this as well as fiom an explanation — with examples — of the gieat institution of ' mum.' As foi that of ' tupv. ' we have only loom for one stoiy Theie aie some foims of tapu that aie much moiesciious than otheis ; such for instance as tho tupu of those who handle the dead. [Extract from chapter on tiqm follows.] Theie were drawbacks even to the liappines of living on teims of intimacy with a Maori tribe. It i8 curious to maik in what widely distant ages and countries the same custom or idea makes its appearance under a du'eient form and name. In some instances the Maori fri/w is almost identical with the Jewish ' imcleanness,' while the ambiguous piophecies of the tnhunija ate as to style strictty in accoidance with thcrecorded utteiauces of the Delphic Oiacle. A chief is absent fora lontj time fiom hisfriends; theygiowanxious and consult the oiacle or toJiunga. Tha answer comes thiough the instrumentality of the priest ; but even lie can make nothing of it. The spirit compels him to say "Ho will return, and yet not retmn." No Pytlna could have been more safely oracular. And tho tribe though not satisfied aa to the meaning of the answer knew that it would turn out Uue. Six months aftciwards the chief was bi ought home a corpse. Then the meaning of the oracle w as apparent. The old chief behaved \e»y well on tho whole to the author. He had been a mighty man of \alor in his youth, and his maim was still e;ieat among the tribes. But he was not exactly an amiable man. The death of this chief was as edifying tig his life, and his last words conveyed a solemn lebuke to the degpiieiate rising generation. "How sweet is human flesh l " We must close our lengthened extracts by giving the authoi 's theory as to the oause of decrease among the Maon population. We have had many theories of late, but none moio plausible than this. Before the arrival of Euiopeans the deciease was occasioned by incessant wais and disease arising from the destruction of food and the foiced neglect of cultivation. Since the ai rival of Euiopeans the wntei attributes the lapid deciease to tho introduction of fiieaims. Not because the musket increased the slaughter in battle ; on the contiaiy, whtic both sidci had muskets, the slaughter was not as gieat as in hand to hand fights. Old Luaid Skin, theanthoi's Raugatira, once complained pathetically enough thnt '* in battles fought with the musket theie were never so many men killed as when, in hia young day, men fought hand to hand with the spear ; when a good wairior would kill six, eight, ten, or even twenty men in a single fight." But as .soon as some tribes had obtained muskets, it became a matter of IMb and death foi all to obtain them. Their tactics changed. Instead of living in hill-pas, and descending armed during the daytime to their cultivations; they altogether desei ted tho now comparatively useless hill fort, and lived squalidly in the flax swamps and close fco their cultivations. " These cultivations themselves wcie neglected to out and piepaio the flax that was the price of muskets in the aid days. One ton of ptcpaied flax was the price fixed for one or two muskets. Ammunition cost as much moie. Unhealthy dwellings, want of sufficient food, over exertion and exposure, brought on malignant diseases that killed one-tlmd of the population in the districts known to the author of of this book. Competition among traders gradually choipened the price of muskets and iron tools, and the decay was gradually stayed. But theie aio no signs of providence, economy, or steady industiy, and it is to be feared that the improvement will not be lasting. But to do justice to our Pakeha — this lavdator temporis actl does not often givo way to weak hankerings after Maori civilization. The following passage is more to the purpose. After describing in Ossian-like strains a gallant descent on " bare Motitu," in which the invadets wcieall slain — the chief himself making his exit with striking originality — tho author contrasts tho modern Maori with the wartiois that aie gone. He concludes, however, by intimating that in the minds of Maoris might is t till right. Justice is on the side of those who can hold their own. Unless the white man can maintain his right by force, it is useless to talk about his English law. (prom the "otago daily times.") This is a most en tei tain ing and at the same time a very lemarkable book. Written by a man who has passed the best years of his life among the native inhabitants of New Zealand, it gives an extraordinary dear idea of the state of society before, as the writer oxpretses it, " Governors were invented, and law and justice and all that " — in the good old times, which the Pakeha Maori, in the true spirit of tho landator ternporis acli, pathetioally laments as gone, never to return. The reader who expects to find a regular tale will be disappointed, but wo are greatly mistaken if ho will not find the book infinitely more amusing And fascinating than nine hundred and ninety-nine oilt of a thousand three-volume novels, or even than fcUe spiciest of the sensation stories of the " Kail way Library " sohool of fast literature. The writer calls himself a Pakeha M&w|, By thto term tho reader will plow not under.-

stand that tho book is the production of a lmlf-ca»to. The phrase Pakeha Maoii convoyß no tuth meaning. It simply signifies that the person so designated in a man of Kuropeau birth, \Vho by long residence among, and intimate acquaintance with, the native race, has become so familiar with their manners and customs, and so far identified with them, n» not merely to have many sympathies in common with them, but even in a manner to be recognised ns one of themselves. That tho writer of the little book before us is fully entitled to call himself a Pakeha Maoii, the work itself is the best evidence. 'Die facility with which he places himself in the position of the Maori or of the European alternately, the leniency with which he is able to ipgaid such amiable weaknesses among his Maori fliends, as a fondnpss for man's flesh, the sly humour with which ho hints at the follies or faults of hit white fellow countrymen, all attest the double nature of the man, who 'is at once Pakeha and Maori, This i», as wo have said, no regular story, with plot, action and denouement. Still lest in it a learned dissertation ufion the "history of colonisation in New Zealand, 01 upon the decline and fall of tho Maori people. Vet it is full of quaint, curious, and we fully believe, accmnte information, enough to set up any gmve didactic litterateur who might wish to wiite a book. But tho author does not pretend to be grave oi didactic. Ho is a humourist, and he indulges his humour. The book almost from beginning to end is wi itten in a humorous vein, and the humour is of the richest and raciest kind. Theie is no apparent straining after effect. The author is never laboriously funny. His wit is always easy and nattunl, and at times is positively mesistiblc. We have said that the Pakeha Maoii tells us 110 connected story. The book begins with his first landing on the shoies of New Zealand. It then tells how he was taken under the protection of a great rangntira or chief, and became "his pakeha;" how he built n house, and settling dowu among tho natives, became a Pakeha Maoii. Here the personal narrative may be said to CPasp, and the rest of the volume is taken up with graphic sketches of Maori life in the good old times, with accounts of fierce wars or tiagi-comical adventures and with very clear and lucid, but at the inme time amusing denciiptions of some of tho strange customs, and peculiar institutions of the Maori race. The description of tho nut hoi ' 3 landing in New Zealand is a capital piece of light wilting. He desciibes how the anival of a vessel of any kind was in those oaily dajs, (which, as he scrupulously avoids giving dates, must be taken to cm respond with the ' ' once upon a time " of the faiiy tales,) an event of no small impoitance. Fiom the deck of the little schooner in which he tu rived, he caw the natives crowding in hundieds on the <=hore, all aimed, and as he quaintly e\ pi esses it, "looking as if they were speculating upon an immediate 'change of diet." In these time« f it must be leinembeicl, the Maoris had not yut become so degenerate as to give up tho ancient and amiable custom of cannibalism, and he being at the time a Pakeha (a chaiacter, lie says, which ho has since learned heaitily to despise), hail pujudiccs against the notion of being eaten. He was not at tho time awaie that in his capacity of a ianr/alna Palcha he \i,n far too valuable^ to he converted into butchei's meat. He aftoiwaids became enlightened upon this and many other points, and found that the value of prvkehas vaiiid consideiably Wtll-to do pakelms wie to be choiished, caiessed, and judiciously plucked, ''so that thu feathcM might gioiv again." The Maoii was too Knowing to kill a gonse that laid golden enrs But those who had nothing might expect difleient ticatment. The author citcf, a case in point. "Two men of this description (i unaway sailou.) were hospitably entertained one night by a chief, a veiy piuticnl.ir fiiend of mind, who, to pay himself foi hi-> ttoiiblc and outlay, atu one of them next morning Itember, good le.ider, 1 don't deal in fiction. My fiiend ate the pakeha sure enough, and killed him before he ate him, which was civil, for it was not always done. But then, eeiUinly the pakeha was a tntiut, u. nobody, a fellow not woith a spike nail ; no one knew him, he had no lelations, no goods, no cv pect.Uions, no anything ; what could be made of him ? Of what use on eaith was he except to ent r ' But our fiiend was no (k/im ■ he was a i nttyttt h a pttlrha, a chief among pakehas, and had lots of miwkets, and fish hooks, and gunpowder. He \vns> too good to eat. He might theiefoie have made his mind easy about landing, and need not have tiouhled himself to load his pistols, and put them into the pockets of his best coat, which, with a bull topper, he put on to go ashoie in to astonish the natives. But, ala«, ho was not destined to reach the Kind in this magnificent mi ay. When the small boat appioached the shoie, a fine young Maou waded out to biing the pakeha to land on his back. Our poor friend mounted his btawny shoulder*, but he had not taken two steps before lie "lipped, and fell backwards with his precious bin den into the deep water, and both had to swim to save themselves. The pakeha gets in a passion, and to the gieat amusement of thociowd, pitches in to his clumsy potter in tin water, but has to give up the struggle, and strike out for the shoic. On term jh ma the struggle is renewed, ami resolves itself into a vviostling match, in which the Maori gets tho worst of it, and the victorious pakeha is welcomed -to Maoii land with the most uproaiious denionstiations of joy, which ate onty damped by the chief giving his antagonist a tiemcu dous Mowing up for fo longhly handling the new pakeha. Once faiily landed our fiiend is received in the house of another Englishman, who has already established himself with a stoic to trade with the tribe After a while the author wishes to buy some Kind, and build a house for hiuifculf. His account of thii land transaction shows that the " land difficulty '" is no new thing iv New Zealand The number of claimants to the piece of hind he leqniied was so great, that it was a wonder the pmchnse s\as ever completed. The whole story is so good that we cannot lcfiain from quoting it. [Evtiact hero]. Even after all this fuss the poor man was not allowed to enjoy his dear-bought purchase in peace, for some yeais after he was 01 doled befoie certain peison«, called "land commis«ii)neif.,"' '• who weie p.ut and paicel of the new inventions, which .had come up soon after the ariiv.il of the fii't governor, and which aio still a tumble in the land,"' and ho had to piove his title on p.iin of foiftituie! In illustration of the fierce wais which raged among difteient tiibes, our author gives us a splendid account of the letnin of a war paity fiom an expedition to the south, and who brought with them a good stock of heads of enemies killed in battle. The conqueimg heioes had an old feud with the tiibe to which our fiiend was attached, and their letmn flushed wiih victory caused no little consternation, Fortunately thuir visit was a peaceable one, but ho takes caie to let us know that the pencefulneos was in no snnll degiee duo to the bold fioi.t that his friends woic able to piesent, and to tho number of muskets they could boast. Apmpni of the heads, ho tells us that they weic all set up on stioks, with clonks so auanged as to convoy the idea of the bodies being lheii», in a sitting posture, and that ho walked up to the gioup ami saluted them under the impulsion that they v\eie a giave assemblage of chiefs. His horror and astonish ment at discovering that they were only n collection of dried heads aie well desciibed. He had hardly rerovcied his equanimity when he was accosted by a cockney Englishman, who politely began to give him wrao information about " 'eds " as an aiticle of commeice, telling him that, they had been getting scaice lately, and that the tiibe had been obliged, for the purpose it is to be piesnmed of executing an older for a regular customer, to tattoo a slave, bnt that the slave, with a lamentable want of principle, had inn away just as his head, on which his kind mastei s hail bestowed so much p.iins, was nearly ready, that is to say as the time approached for him to bo killed, that his head might be dried for sale. This reminds us of tho story of an old chief, who, greatly coveting an a\o that belonged to a missionary, offeied his own handsomely-tattooed head for the wished-for tieaMite. On the inissionaiy objecting to kill him for his head, the knowing old chief explained that he could not be expected to live long, and ho meant only to make over his head after he was dead ' Au exposition of Maoi i law and Maoii morality is given in a very luunorons style, but at the same time with evident truthfulness. The moiality of savage nations has in all ages been somewhat similar, being founded on the principle that might is right. The old chief who claimed tho author as '"his pakeha," had a very simple maxim upon which he conscientiously acted, "that every man had a pei feet right to do what he chose, provided he was prepared to take the consequences." Brt although the principle was pretty geneially acted upon by the Maoris among whom our friend's lot wa« cast, they were yet it seems always desirous of showing that their conduct was correct, according to some recognised custom; and ceitainly some of these customs afforded licence for enough of violence and of vi jlation of the laws of mcum nnd tunni as recognised Among civilised peoples. Every one will remember the anecdote of the •ea captain, who, having instructions to note carefully the manners and customs of tho inhabitants of the different islands ho visited, wrote against the name of one of them, "Manners, none; customs, unfit to be dosoiibod." Tho same phrase would not be exactly Applicable to tho New Zealanders of foi mer days, but it must be admitted that a person given to generalize rashly might avoll bo tempted to adopt it. One of these delectable customs was known ns the law of mum, which, plainly translated, means robbery or plunder, bnt, as interpreted by our author, damages. Tims damages might ba enforced for anything almost. [Extract here.] thp law of tanu ov tafao, as it it <K>wttnw (jailed,

by which parfcioulai 1 things and persons become sacied, is also explained at length. Ay tins' 3s more generally known thau the others, we refrain from making any extract with reference to it. We may mention, however, that the custom was far moro stringent than was generally supposed, and that the superstition of the native* attached the most, terious penalties to its infraction, even in some cases amounting to death itself. The author tells of one instance in particular, where a hungiy native incautiously eating the remnant of a chief's dinner, which, by being touched by the gicat man bad become lapu, was, on being told of his tiaimgressiou, so frightened as actually Jo exphe. The wiiter himself once became tapn by touching a dead body, the tapn in this case corresponding to the " uncleanneas" of the Jewish ceremonial law— and being deserted by everybody, ho was in a \m etched plight, until n't length an old priest or medicine man undertook his purification. We could with pleasure follow the author thiough the further mysteries of the tapu and of the oracles, for the Maoi i also had his oracles and "spirit mediums," which, like th<? "juggling fiends" in "Macbeth," "paltered with him in a double sense," delivering ambiguous utterances as safe to come true, in either event, as the "Aio le JEcmda Romano* rmcere posw" of the Delphic Pythoness. But space doe&notpennit us todwellupon these points, and we must refer the inquisitive 1 cadcr to the book itself. For the same reason we must reluctantly avoid entering upon the interesting topic of the decrease of the Maori race, which the author attributes not so much to the actual execution done by the musket, as to the excessive labour endured by the Maoris in thciv efforts to pioduce flax to pui chase the weapons, the possession of which soou became with them a matter of life or death, since those who had no fire arms were sure to fall a prey to the moro fortunate neighbouring tribes who possessed them. To produce this flax they had not only to work very hard, but to neglect their crops, and to take up their abode iv unhealthy hwamps ; and all these causes combined, as is well shown, to rapidly thin the ranks of the people. It is melancholy to think that the savage races should so invariably melt away before the appioach of civilisation. Yet so it is, and without designing it the white man has leally been doing what a dying chief imputed to him as an intention, exterminating the iMaoii. In bunging this notice to a conclusion, wo are painfully conscious that we have done the author hut scant justice, at the same time we may say that we have not done him the injury of anticipating all the interest of his book. Even where we may have been able in a few wouls to set foith his facts, we have failed to convoy any idea of the style in which they me told, the incy beauty of which is all his own.