EXTINCTION OF THE MAORI RACE.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6851, 6 May 1884, Page 4

EXTINCTION OF THE MAORI RACE.

Sir, — The subject of your very interesting leader iv to-day's issue on the threatened or probable future extinction of the Maori race has called forth the following train of thought, which, if considered worthy of note, please favor with insertion in your open column, and the writer will feel honored.

The term "Philo-Maori" ia not always applied to those many admirers and lovers of our aboriginal Maori race unaccompanied with feelings of contemptuous derision. Perhaps such signification of contumely is a main cause why so limited a number among our old and worthy settlers in New Zealand have come prominently forward to espouse the cause of the Maori, to study the vital interests of the race in all its /nany complicated phases and aspects, and with the devoted aim to copo with and avert the causes which are unmistakably and manifestly leading to his final extinction. That his final extinction is shown to be a future probability, no one can doubt. Let the white settler of New Zealand ponder well and consider if there had been so manifest a " dying out," and so fatalistic a listlessness among the Maoris of to-day, if fifty or sixty years ago there had been no tampering and interfering with many of their national institutions, customs, and observances on the part of those Christian missionaries despatched out here to evangelise and Christianise the Maori. Those national institutions, customs, and observances (let it be strictly understood), which, retained amongst them, would not have led to their diminution in number, or degeneracy as arace. With the exception of their bloodthirsty and anthropophagous customs, which had hardly developed into established institutions, to the impartial and humane mind there should have remained but little to alter or interfere with amongst them ; not even those important customs and institutions of the tipu, or of polygamy. The total abolition by the Christian missionaries of the last two rites 6ounded the death knell of tbe Maori. There was much to admire and commend in the practice of the first-named rite, and the second bears the seal and approbation of a natural law of life, apparently, from its being found almost invariably prim o3 vail y established among aboriginal races in almost all quarters of the globe. No prohibition or objection to the rite can be cited from the New Testament Scriptures, while it receives the express sanction and tacit consent from the ordinances of the Old. The charge, "Let the Bishop be the husband of one wife," was uttered and made to check the many unseemly excesses and irregularities marring the progress of the early Church, and can scarcely, without stretch of authority, be quoted as an express prohibition of the rite of polygamy. In point of fact, our own observance of monogamy has taken its rise from that of ancient heathen Rome — an observance there, be it remembered, which, from the existing facilities for divorce, developed into one that might justly be termed consecutive polygamy. The pakeha should be careful how he boasts of improving the Maori with the much-vaunted benefits of his civilisation ; and take thought how the mischief, once begun while this century was still in it? teens, enn be best dealt with and averted by allowing, encouraging, and legalising to the Maori a return to all that was commendable and desirable in their primitive and natural state. It is possible to improve a primitive race of£ the face of the earth by civilisation. Should the much expressed regret on all hands upon the impending extinction of the Maori prove to be not merely empty sentiment and luke-warm sympathy with our darker brethren, but indicate a real desire for the future continuance and permanent welfare of the race, let it take the shape of a scientifico philanthropic association, based upon a more enlightened philosophy and polity than tha weak and futile ons of the old and well-meaning Aborigines Protection Society, and, under the sanction of Parlia* ment, founded to inquire into and study the inner life sentiments and aspirations, the general moral, physical, and social condition and surroundings of this noble, generous-hearted, and interesting people. Let a more general and perfect knowledge of tbe Maori mind be fostered and encouraged through the medium of their simple and euphonious language, a desideratum without, which no nation or tribe can ever expect to be properly and justly understood by another and alien one. An ignorance of natural man and his modes of expression has been a prolific cause of unhappy misunderstandings between the whita and the colored races; and from their earliest contact have led to long and sanguinary wars and the most remorseless reprisals on the part of both sides ; the whites, notably in the early settlement of North America, even resorting to the acts of cruelty in warfare practised by their savage foes. Such practices can never be said to have stained and darkened the pakehas' exploits against the Maoris during the unhappy wars and disturbances that have afflicted this colony in its intercourse with the aboriginal inhabitants. On the contrary, Maori rebels, of deep blood guiltiness in some instances, have been treated by the whites with unmerited clemency and mercy.

Should any of the ideas suggested above towards the amelioration and contentment of the Maori race be deemed by some Eutopian or impracticable, let the subjeot be well debated throughout our colony, and if our fellow-colonists ultimately consider the Maori as a being, worthy of perpetuation to untold generations and to survive for ages shoulder to shoulder in amity with his pakeha brother, there will not be long wanting the philanthropical associations at the call of the time amongst us, to hold out the right hand of fellowship, good will, and disinterested effort in the good and noble work. — I am, &c, T.S.C. Napier, 2nd May, 1884.