THE DECREASE OF THE MAORIES.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume I, Issue 13, 1 October 1861, Page 7

THE DECREASE OF THE MAORIES.

It is said that in bye-gone days, the Natives were many, that all the bays of the sea, and the valleys of the land were full of them: that the hills and plains were covered with liien, and thai the country was densely populated. Perhaps, that is correct, for we observe the desolated villages, the old pas Ciiipiy, the cultivations overgrown with weeds, and the kumara gardens in possession ol the lern. 'ihe hills are standing on wlneii uie pas were built, the fortifications siilJ are there, and the kumara stores are open, out as for man, where is lie? Let us calmly search out the reasons why ir.o. dories of ibis country are on the decrease, let it plainly come out, that we mav see the way by which they mav be nrescrved. * say that the Pakeha is the cause and iJiai; men have been killed by his foreign customs imported into this laud. W c do

not know thai it arises from tbe Pakeha. The Pakeha is but of to-day, but the fewness of the people is of former generations. The Pakeha was residing at his own place, after tbe majority of the Natives had been lost. And when the Pakeha finally arrived hither, the inhabitants had gone back, and become few. Is it lately, think you, thai the pas have fallen ? did the Pakeha destroy them? is it now, for the first lime, that the kaingas are deserted, and that the residence of man is thickened over with fern? On the contrary, it was in past times, in the time when the Maori alone inhabited the land, and when as yet, he had not seen a Pakeha. \. Now, one reason why men have decreased, is, the savage wars of former times. The Maori is a man of war: his food is anger: his grounds of anger are many, that is, cursing, witchcraft, tapu, women, land, an eel pa, a shark fishing, these are all grounds of quarrel. But according to the proverb the great causes are two: " men are destroyed because of women and land." But passing over tbe grounds of contention, it is the loss of men that we are searching after. From what we have heard, men have been (principally) destroyed by Maori slaughter. What can have destroyed the former owners of the pas which are still standing ahnut Manukau, YVaitemata and Otabuhu? It is reported that all these pas were formerly full of men. But where are they now, as the places are all wide open? Why are there no inhabitants for Taranaki? All its tribes are gone; entirely slain by Waikato and Ngapuhi, by this people and that: that was the great battle-field of New Zealand. And why have the many thousands of Waikatos disappeared. " There is fJongi liika, tbe importer of bullets, making an entire destruction of Waikato." And what has destroyed the men of Kaipara? The tides of that great sea are ever flowing, and the fish are ever coming, but there is no man to kill them: their thousands have been put to sleep by war. Hence (tbe proverb), " Koromiko (small bush) is the firewood, with which is roasted the Moa." Just so, the patu-maori was the implement whereby men were destroyed. And men •weep for their people who have disappeared by war, and say to us, Why did you not hasten hither during the lifetime of the inhabitants? if the word of God had come quickly, the thousands who have dwelt in the land would now have been alive." 2. Another reason, is the murder of children. We have heard that that practice

was groat, formerly. If the child born were a son, that prokibiv would be saved by the parents, that there might be men for the wars: but if a girl, it was strangled. The mother who loved her child, would not destroy it; but as for another (woman) she would strangle hers, without scruple, lest it should grow up a trouble to her. Three, four, five, six, seven, have been strangled by one mother: had she brought up her girls, they w T ould now have bpen probably alive as partners of some of those young men, who are unsuccessfully looking out for wives; and would be dwelling in the land, for the increase of its population. But, perhaps this sort of work has now ceased, men having seen the wrong of it. The! Gospel has taught ihem the heinousness of this offence, and so the children are now saved, whether boys or girls. It is good that the children should live, and that this bad practice should be entirely discontinued. 3. Another reason is the promiscuous intercourse of (he young girls. We know that this is a thing of shame (.to write about) but how can it be helped, when the Maori persists in it. Are we to hide this part, think you? It cannot be hidden. All men know that the Native girls make haste to this evil work; nor are they many years old before they adopt the practice, and either commit fornication, unrestrained, amongst the Maories, or else flee away to the Pakeha. But, the fault is with the parents, whoallow them all to sleep together, thus being collected the men, the women, the young men and the girls, ten or twenty of them in one house. This sin was practised much more, formerly, in the lo'iare-pani. The system of sleeping in the whare-puni is ended, but the promiscuous sleeping together is not ended: they still mix, and still fornicate. Now, when a young girl continences this evil work, and has many paramours, the end of it is disease. She is afflicted with many ailments which continually weaken the body : and when she grows up, and is married, very likely she has no children. This is one of the reasons why there are so many barren amongst the Maori women. 4. Another reason, is the overworking of the females. This has been the Maori system from bve-gonc djys, to throw upon the women all the heavy work, such as carrying firewood, food, and all kinds of heavy burdens. Ttie husband has no respect to his pregnar.'. wife, but casts all the weighty burdens upon her, and so brings on abortion, or the child is still-born. There is the spouse grumbling at his wile, because

they have no living children, not recollecting the reason whv no living child is born to thorn, viz., the overworking of his wife, whilst in a state of pregnancy. This weakens the person of the wife, and induces disease. 5. Another reason, is the intermarry in fj of the wcmen with the males of the same sub-tribe. In one case, the father sleeps with the widow of his son; in another case, the son sleeps with the widow of his father (stepmother). But, passing over these works of madness, every tribe is eager to retain its own girls as wives for its own young men. Instead of marrying the daughters into other tribes, and sending away their sons to look for wives amongst other people. This is one ground why the Maori has become weak, and his children few, viz., the intermarriage of ne. r relations with each other. 6. Another reason is bad food. It is said that formerly the food of the Maori was good, viz., the kuniara, fern root, pohne, birds, rats, eels, salt fish: and it is said that man was stronger during that period. At the present time, the fern root and the pohue have been left off, the rats have disappeared, the birds have diminished, the kiunaras have almost ceased to be cultivated —and men have turned to putrid corn. Great indeed is the badness of that exceedingly bad food : for the doctors say that one portion of the putrid mass passes off into the blood, and so creates disease: that it comes forth as akiaki, hori, mahake, koiangi, and sickness generally. The mother eats it as she is suckling her child; the child swallows it in the milk of its mother, and so it devours death. And hence it is that so many children die, because of the badness of the food. Rather let it be cow's milk, and bread, and wheat, and pork, and mutton, and beef, with salt to the potatoes, that the children may grow up lustily, and that strength may be given to both male and female. Another kind of bad food which is injuring 'the Maories, is Tobacco. Those who understand it say that it creates disease in those who indulge in it largely; that it dries up the juices ol the body, weakens the stomach, affects the mouth, causes the blood to ascend and compress the brain, and reduces the individual into a state or complete weakness. It is opposed to the pregnancy of the wife: not that it will altogether prevent it, but it is said that the woman who indulges greatly in that food, gradually decreases in strength. Is not this perhaps one reason why so many ehildren die? Just look at this: be-

fore the child is strong enough to walk upright, he has tasted the pipe, his father has taught him to fetch a cinder for his pipe,! and the child has sucked it as he went.! And pray what was he sucking? He was sucking in disease for himself. Many are the children who have been affected by this food. 7. Here are other reasons, the badness of the houses, and the clothing, and the filth of the person. Cold is a ground of disease. Look at the houses of the Maori, are they warm houses? does not the wind wail within, and the rain enter?—is there no warm vapour rising up from the earth? This kind of house is the murdering of men. Bad clothing is a cause of illness. Can a man be healthy in a blanket, when he uses it as a garment for both day and niglu? When he gees a journey, his blanket is his robe; when he goes to work, the blanket is the same;—when he lies down to sleep, that is it, whether wet or dry: and so on, right away, until it is 100 thin and broken, and devoid of all warmth and goodness. I-iave we still to look for the cause of man's decrease, and why the majority are taken away ? The uncleanness of the body is a cause of disease, but the Maori dwells in filth: he leaves the dirt to cleave to his skin, and to shut up those pores whence the perspiration and evil fluids might issue. Do you still look for the rrasons why the greater number of the children disappear? Is il a thing not to be understood? Not at all : it lies on the surface all disclosed. Bad J'ood, bad houses, insufficient clothing, and filth. These are the murderers. 8. This is also another thought, the evil of our work towards God. We remember that of the various nations who persevered in illdoing, not one escaped; viz., the men in the days of Noah, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Canaaniies, and ihe men of Babylon, of lNincveh, of Tyre, of Sidon, and ail the rest. This is ihe plan cf *iod, of the Creator and Governor of ali the earth, and of the Judge of men, according to the Prophet Isaiah (ch. 60r—1*2), " For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall peiish: yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted." Hence we say, on the decrease of any people that God is the chief cause—seeking satisfaction for wrongs committed. ile destroys the people who turn away from his word, and will not listen to his servants; but as for those who obey him, and submit to his -laws, these he will pre serve as salt for the earth.