WHERE THE WHITE MAN TREADS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13146, 7 April 1906, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHERE THE WHITE MAN TREADS.

No. I. , " I) NT, MORE APPEAL. fur W. 11., 'IT. KCirt. 1 My, writing' table stands in front of a. window facing the north. ' I am on one sale of M valley down whose centre Hows a small river—the Manga pu. 1 cannot see the river, hut 1 know it is there because from between the close palisading of kahikatea pines which fringe its course brilliant Hashes of liuht like pieces of broken minor dropped in promiscuous spaciugs tell me it is water. Xalso know it is there, because 1 have wandered along its oanks where • the open spaces among the tree-boles permitted, and skirted where dense thickets of vines, with a 'great weight of tophamper, press forward to smi.tch glimpses of their relleetion in the stream below. My eyes follow this vley, and with the persistence of vision take ill both bides of the ample landscape which spreads in generous breadths of gentle undulations, rising curtly from the hem of the pines up the higher ridges. These are open fern-cover-ed knolls, but here and there furry tongues of bush taper to a point where they touch the pine fringe, as it they too would peep at the stream and drink. The sun is warming all with an abundant heat, and) where the masses of untouched forest receive its hemson light and shade alternate ; not in. violent harshness of contrasts, but with mellow blendings— are the meetings of wellrelished friendships. This is in the further distance; but just below me, on the nearer uplands, where • the übiquitous p'akeha has slain and uprooted Nature's beloved, and scarred her bosom with plough and trench-ant-toothed harrow, a hard, parched, yellow of shorn stubble pains the sight. Nevertheless even there it is good to let. the eyes

rest; ,for while I record' these "impressions iv symbol manifests its presence. It is the shadow of a' soaring majesty between earth and sun moving not rapidly, nor with the capillary- creep of ink mi a blotting pad, but cold, grand, and immense—a symbol oi the inexorable passing of Time! Presently the cloud passes, and the sun shines on a new generation! The Maori, like the proverbial poor, is always with us. His wants and disabilites are the same to-day as when we first invaded the privacy of this remarkable creature. I say remarkable advisedly, because of all aboriginal races upon earth the Maori stands pre-eminent for intelligence, adaptability, and every faculty which makes for advancement toward the higher ideals which the march of education opens to our mundane conceptions. And that this- is no vain adulation Lis proved by the fact that- in whatsoever line we have taken his hand to lead him he has-faithfully followed us. Trio view before me; suggests a question and its answer: In what way have we taken his hand to lead him? Here I put aside our high, school farce. . As far as eye can see lay thousands ; of unoccupied acres, once the home of a dense population, living their own lives, customs, superstitions, inherited faiths: rude and crude, but .-.satisfying a life system taught by their mother—Nature. Into* this we crashed blindly with our. to them, strange innovations'; and they, desirous to understand Ills while man's magic, spent long nights discussing ■ the stranger and his manifold complexities, asking for enlightenment, that they might also be wise, until, weary of asking and our gruff, unoourteous replies, they retired into themselves and went back to the codes of their fathers. And this answers the ques- . tiou.. . ...>-:-■' '.:;..«■•.'--- -■■ '*'$ -Yet never since the early missionary days —men who understood him, and who in a noble spirit of self-abnegation laid down their lives for the Maori the pakeha heart yearned to assist him as in, the last two years; and to yet further arouse the pakeha to a wider awakening one who has made a life study of his brown brother has laiid aside his own concerns that he might tell the world of his discoveries. And though he has found that the pakeha heart is growing tender, and watches the stewards whom he has appointed to supervise hi? benefactions with a jealous superintendence. | much has been adventured and but little i accomplished; and why? As I get older, a wider experience and knowledge of men warns me to be merciful, and to agree with the future historian when he shall write: — "Forgive them: they meant well, but,they set to. a task of 'which they knew: not the rudiments; they fell to a. trade to which they had served no apprenticeship ; and tin tools they handled felt strange to the .touch!" From this .-window,': looking north .oi few cattle dot the open expanses; all else if fern, gorse, manuka, untouched forest, and desolation; and. where at one time thousands pailpitated with life now broods a silence as of death! ; From, this.; window many inspirations have touched tie' chords of my heart—■ lightly when 1 thought of his 'past, but full and deep when I think of his present and future. 'fume, sitting here one day, came an acquaintainct l , and ii; a tone of great levity said: "Brooding ovei your savages? Surely life has other occupations than to root among the garbage of, a heathen's why and wherefore! Chuck it, man, chuck it !" This was rude, and thanks be I remembered my mother's knee, and tin brown chubby atoms there assembled, t< whom her sainted; person and teaching was a wonder-thing! ' And therefore I was enabled to answer a fool according to his folly. And to-da.y, as never before. I fee! that sin is with me, pointing down the valley when its perspective vanishes into a- distance oi which no one may say there the landscape endeth. For it docs not ; no more than hoi presence, which prompts me to say th< right words in their season, and which for her dear sake I will. For the Maori: is will us, and will not be ignored. We invadei his country, not, he ours. On our advent we promised hint protection, and continue! him in his privileges. We forced him. ti lay aside his outrageous customs aitid hi: savagery, and there we left him; and hay ing dominated him in all things, we sudden ly remembered the excuse that civilisatioi is but-Savagery refined, and promptly act-ins on that assumption, thing him on the sera}) heap! And the silence of our churches con dones the past and encourages further iniqui lies! And presently we shall build town and palaces around his pongai wbares. am lay electric tramlines past his wattled t-ar den, plot, his ragged presence, and his pover ly! And our labours shall resemble i luscious, toothsome fruit, fair Id tin 1 eye but with a eodlin maggot feeding at .it core!" It is well to pause and examine this aspec of the ease. To the,; town-dweller the in cubus'is. absent, because the Maori has re moved from his precincts; but to us in tin hackblocks, where he is at home and can not lie avoided, he is an entity to, be reckon , ed with. His ragged presence and pileoti j wail keep us awake at night pondering wha I to do with him. As he walks in our in ids j to-day hois not a companion to be prow ; of. And as time speeds the ornate pakeh; 'cottage may loathe for a- neighbour the low r smoke-stained ponga whore. But. be wil .' have in hear it and murmur not. It i : coining, and we know, but cannot preven i if. In our immediate district the hen i still brooding, but step out, of the train a. { Otorohanga and yon see the clutch batched ! Looking down the valley before me: On it j left-hand slope lies the apparently prosper ;ous village of dparuie—delightful, pictures ■• que Oparure,' through which the tourist rdn.i to the Waitomo Caves would long have gore had common,sense only dreamt'of il.Bu go closer to verify this prosperity; and lo ".Neglected Maori "stares at -■■: you ; will mournful distinctness! With the .will ii their hearts to do better*, but ignorance | ostracism, and poverty staying fchei i hands! So they hutch by the wayside witl ! watery eyes' and call: "We; are wailing 1 redeem- your promises : come over. pakeha ' give us. your hand ; help us to rise!" jAfte 1 live '■[ shillings - : spent, in : postage, and 3. months 1 patience and waiting, Oparure ha i a school atTaet!--'.But- since * then severu

feips have broken the row of its blight, in-ifclligenl.-.faces',:,-and my sob mingle;-; with {that of the mourners: () Lord, how long? : f An unknown friend writing 'to 'a- Wellington paper says of . me:—" 1 pity poor Mr. To Knit i; lie hm been -muling, all his life the . most pessimistic philosophers in the world .... and they have made him one of the most gloomy pessimists in New Zealand." . His;>'. remarks 'concern,.■ another matter; but reading between the lines bis rebuke includes my denunciation of our neglect of the Maori, ii so, I. plead with hint, and my race, to be lenient ; and pessimist or not come ye to where the oufpiekets and sappers and miners, are preparing the. way for. the main army, and inspect the. conditions of their labours-, and see if the pessimist's cry be not eircum-accurately justi- | fied ! But come in winter when banked tip I backwaU'is tied nufordable streams eke imi passable roads, and iwvaken (be wonder whe- | ther' lite be .worth living: when the Maori : huddles in his ponga hovel, and his children lev in the seeds of consumption, and the : dread; reaper tuts wide swaths', and : wail and lament echo from village to village! From ■ my; coign of vantage at ah.' head of the valley landscape and mental view answer many questions; therefore I tell my discoveries, that my race may remember it hiw duties, Bible ■ maxims, and professions to redeem !

Yes, conic in wintei ; not summer, when the winding bridle-path is easier to travel than the metalled road and the ride through the. hush am civ high : fern is cool and benign and the air tremors with chirping cicadas, blended with the tui's song of thanksgiving; when the blues and purples of near and distant ranges lie in wait around headlands and over ridges to make drunken the soul with unending surprises; when flower and scented shrub exude elixirs for old age, to quicken the blood of townjaded wastrels and expand the heart of youth until the wide world is too small to contain it. Yes; come in winter, and imbibe backwoods realities. Then, and not till then, will the meteorically careering State servants' banquet bunting cease, because of many discomforts ; and learn that these junketers are highway brigands, road metal'robbers, and bridge timber thieves. But they will not come in winter; it is easier to" travel by special train, and preach at champagne suppers,-than with knapsack and staff, journey as did our nation-build-ing stout fat hers.*' So alter a rollicking summer's jaunt they return to tell a gaping world their wonder what the pioneer and his brown neighbour have; to complain of! Truly the Psalmist reasoned with knowledge when he wailed that ail men are liars!;

Many letters have come, to me inquiring the why of my long silence. This has troubled me ; it is not good to deliberately cut friendships, and those I have made ate very dear to me. So T turn over my notes, "and find that the subject which brought us together - has still a solid untouched core, which I have decided to exhibit for our mutual pleasure. This 1 judge to be very desirable: the time, is hasting when the history of our brown friend will become a distant memory. Therefore upon those whose gift lieth that way Beth ailso the sacred, labour to collect that which will keep bis memory green.