REVIEW.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 382, 12 March 1863, Page 4

REVIEW.

Old New Zealand : a Tale of the Good Old Times. By a Pakeha Maori Auckland: Greighton and Scales —1863. ■ '

This is a most entertaining and at the same time a very remarkable book. Written by a man who has passed the best years of his life among the Native inhabitants of New Zealand, it gives an extraordinarily clear idea of the state of society before, as the writer expresses it, "Governors were invented, and law and justice and all that"—ia the «ood old times, which the -Pakeha Maori, in the true spirit of the laudator temporis acii, pathetically laments as gone never to return The reader who expects to find a regular tale will be disappointed, but we are greatly mistaken if he will not find the bonk infinitely more amusin" and fascinating than nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a thousand threeTolume novel 0, or even than the spiciest oi the sensation stories of the "Railway Library" school of fast literature. The writer calls himself a Pakeba Maori. By this term the

reader will plense not understand that the book is the production of a half-caste. , The phrase Fukeha Maori "'conveys ho such meaning. It simply signifies that tjie person so designated is a man of Kuropean birth, who 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, as not merely to have many sympathies in common with them, but even in a manner to be recognised as one of themselves. Thnt the writer of the little book before us is fully entitled to call himself a Pa'<eha Maori, the work itself is the best evidence. The 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 regard such amiable weaknesses among his Maori friends, as a fondness for man's flesh, the sly humor with which lie hints at the follies or faults of his white fellow countrymen, all attest the double nature of the man, who is at once Pakeha and Maori. This is, as we have said, no regular story, with plot, action and denouement. Still less is it a learned dissertation upon the history of colonisation in New Zealand, or upon the decline and fall of the Maori people. " Yet it is full ot quaint, curious, and we fully believe, accurate information, enough to set up any grave didactic litterateur wlio might wish to write j a book! 'But the author does not pretend to be grave or didactic. He is a humorist, and he indulges his humor. The book almost from beginning to end is ■written in a humorous vein, and the humor is of the richest and raciest kind. There is no apparent straining after effect. The author is never laboriously funny. His wit is always easy and natural, and at times is positively irresistible. We have said that the Pakeha Maori tells no connected story. The book begins with his first landing on the shores of New Zealand. It then tells how he was taken under the protection of a great rangatira or chief, and became " his pakeha;" how-he built a house, and settling down among the natives, became a Pakeha Maori. Here the personal narrative may be said to cease, 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 tragi-comical adventures, and with very clear and lucid, but at the same time amusing descriptions of some of the strange customs, and peculiar institutions of the Maori race. The description of the author's landing in New Zealand is a capital piece of light writing. He describes how the arrival of a vessel of any kind was in those early days, (which, as he scrupulously avoids giving dates, must be tnken to correspond with the " once upon a time" of the fairy tales,) an event of no small importance. From the deck of the little mchooner in which he arriv«d, he saw the nativescrowding in hundreds onjlhe shore, all armed, and as he quaintly expresses it, " looking as if they were speculating upon an immediate' change of diet." In these times, it must be remembered, the Maoris had not yet become so degenerate as to jgive up the ancient and amiable custom of etfnnibalism, and he being at the time a Pak-eha (a character, he says, which he has since learned heartily to despise), had prejudices against the notion of being eaten. H»'was not at the time aware that°in his capaffty of a rangatira Paleha he ■was far too valuable to be converted into butcher's meat. He afterwards became enlightened upon this and many other points, and found that the value of pakehas varied considerably., Well-to-do pakohas were to be cherished, caressed, and judiciously plucked, "so that the feathers might grow again." The Maori was too knowing to kill a goose that laid golden eggs. But those who had nothing might expect different treatment. The author cites a case in point. " Two men of this description (runaway sailors) were hospitably entertained one night by a chief, a Very particular friend of mine, who, to pay himself for his trouble and outlay, ate one of them next morning. Remember, good reader, I don't deal in fiction. My friend ate the pakeha sure enough, and killed him before he ate him, which was civil, for it was not always done. But then, certainly, the pakeha w ( as a tutiia ; a nobody, a fellow not worth a spike nail; no one knew him, he had no relations, no goods, no expectations, no anything; what could be made of him? Of what use on earth was he except to eat ?" But our friend was no tutua; he was a rangatira paheha, a chief among pakehas, and had lots of muskets, and fish hooks, and gunpowder. He was too good to eat. He might therefore have made his mind easy about landing, and need not have troubled himself to load his pistols, and put them into the pockets of his best coat, which, with a bell-topper, he put on to go ashore in to astonish the natives. But, alas, he was not destined to reach the land in this magnificent array. When the small boat approached the shore a fine young Maori waded out to bring the pakeha to land on his back. Our poor friend mounted his brawny shoulders, but he had not taken two steps before he slipped, and tell backwards with his precious burden into the deep water, and both had to swim to save themselves. The pakeha gets in a passion, and to the great amusement of the crowd, pitches into his clumsy porter ju the water, but has to give up the struggle and strike out for the shore. On terra firma the struggle is renewed, and .resolves itself into a wrestling match, in which the Maori gets the worst of it, and the victorious pakeha is welcomed to Maori land with the most uprorious demonstrations of joy, which are only damped by the chief giving his antagonist a tremendous blowing up for so roughly handling the new pakeha. , Once fairly landed, our friend is received in the house of another Englishman, who has ' already established himself with a store to trade with the tribe. After a while the author wishes to buy some land, and build a house for himself. His account of this land transaction shows that the " land difficulty" is no new thing.in New Zealand. The number of claimants to the piece of land he required was so great, that it was a wonder the purchase was ever completed. The whole story is so good that.we cannot refrain from quoting it:— " ";;',, I really can't tell to the present day who I purchased the .land from, for there were about fifty different claimants, every one of whom assured me that the other foity.nine, were " humbugs," and had no right whatever. The nature of the different titles of the different claimants were various. One man said bis anets<ors had killed off the first owners; another declared his ancestors had driven off the second party; another man, who stemed to be listened to with more respect than ordinary, declared that his ancestor had been the first possessor of all, and had never been ousted, and that this ancestor was a huge lizard, lhat lived in a cave on the land many ages ago, and sure enough there was the caye to prove it. Besides the principal claims there were an immense number cf secondary ones—a sort of latent equities - which had lain dormant until it was known tli.it the pakeha had his eye on the land. Some of them seemed to me at the time odd enough. One man required payment because bis ancestors, "as lie affirmed, had exercised the right of catching rats on it but which lie (the claimant).had never done, for the best of reasons, z. «., there were no rats to catch except indeed pakeha rats, which, were plenty enough, but this variety of rodent was not counted as game. Another claimed because his grandfather had been murdered on the land, and-- as I am a veracious pakeha another clnimed payment because his grandfather had committed the murder! Then half the country claimed payments of various value, from one fig of tobacco to a musket, on account ot a certain wahi tapu, or ancient burying-ground, which was on the land, and in which every.onealmost had Jisd relations or rather Ancestors flww, a-% they

couH clearly make out, in old times, though no one had bron deposited in it for about two hundred years and the bones of others had been (as they s;iid) removed Jong ngo to a torrere in t' c mountains. It seemed an awkward circumstance that there was some difference of opinion as to where this same wahi tapu was situated, being, and lying, for in case of my bujing the hud it was stipulated that I should fence it found and make no use of it, although I had paid for it. (I. however, have put off fencing till the exact boundaries have been made out} and indeed I don't think I shall ever be c died on to do so, tlie fencing proviso having been made, as I how believe, to give a stronger look of reality to the existence of the sacred spot, it having been observed that I had some doubt* on the sub ect. No mention was ever made of it after the payments had been all mads, and so I think I may venture to affirm that the existence of the said walii tapu is of very doub'ful authenticity, though it certainly co>t me a round " lot of trade.") There was one old man wl o obstinately persisted in declaring that he, and he alone, was the Fole and rightful owner of the land ; he seemed also to have a " fixed idea1' about certain barrels of gunpowder ; but as he did not prove hi* claim to my satisfaction, and as he had no one to back him, I of course gave him nothing ; he nevertheless demanded the gunpowder about once a month for five-and-tweaty years, till at last he died of old age, and lam now a landed proprietor, clear of all claims and demands, and have an undeniable right to hold my estate as long as ever I am aWe. 'It took about three months' negotiation before the purchase of the' land could be made ; and, indeed, 1 at one time gave up the idea, as I found it quite impossible to decide who to piy. If I paid one party, the others vowed I should never have possession, and to pay all seemed impossible ; so At last I -let all parties know-that I had made up my mind .not to have the land. This, however, turned out to be the first step I had made in the right direction; for, thereupon, all the different claimants agreed amongst themselves to demand a certain'quantity of goods, and divide them amongst themselves afterwards. I was glad of this, for I wished to buy the land, as I thought, in case I should ever lake a trip to the " colonies," it would look well to be able to talk of "my estate in New Zetland." The day being now come on which I was to make the payment, ai,d all parties present, I then and there handed over to the assembled mob the price of the land, consisting of a great lot of blankets, musket?, tomahawks, to bacco, spades, axes, &c, &c, and received in return a very dirty piece of paper with all their marks on it, I having written the terms of transfer on it in English to my own perfect satisfaction. The cost per acre to me was, as near as can be, about five and a half times what the same qnantity of land would have cost me at the same time in Tasmania; but this was not of much importance, as the value of land in New Zealand then, and indeed now, being chiefly imaginary, one could just as easily suppose it to be of a very great value as a very small one; I therefore did not complain of the cost.

Even after all this fuss the poor man was not allowed to enjoy his dear-bought purchase in peace, for some years after he was ordered before certain persons, called " land commissioners," " who were part and parcel of the new inventions, which had come up soon after the arrival of the first governor, and which are still a trouble in the land ," and he had to prove his title on pain of forfeiture. In illustration of the fierce wars -which raged among different tribes, our author gives us a splendid account of the return of a war party from an expedition to the south, and who brought with them a' good stock of heads of enemies killed in battle. The conquering heroes had an old feud with the tribe to which ( our friend was attached, and their retuqji flushed with victory caused no little consignation. Fortunately their visit was a p<pjj(fieable one, but he takes care to let. us Jjnow that the peacefulness was in no small^Jfegree due to the bold front that his frietuts were able to present, and to the number of muskets they could boast. Apropos of the heads, he tell 3us that they were all set up on sticks, with cloaks so . arranged as to convey the idea of the bodies being there, in a sitting posture, and that he walked up to the group and saluted them under the impression that they were a grave assemblage of cfiiefs. His horror and astonishment at discovering that they were only a collection of' dried heads are weildescribed. He had hardly recovered his equanimity when he was accosted by'a, cockney Englishman, who politely began to -give him- some information about " 'eds " as an article of commerce, telling him that they had been getting scarce lately, and that the tribe had been obliged, for the purpose it is to be presumed of executing an order for a regular customer, to tattoo a slave, but that the slave, with a lamentable want of principle, had run away just as his head, on which his kind masters has bestowed so much pains, was nearly ready, that is to say as the time approached for him to be killed, that his head might be dried for sale. This reminds us of the story of an old chief, who, greatly coveting au axe that be-' longed to a missionary, offered his own handsomely tattooed head for the wished-for treasure. On the missionary objecting to 'kill Him for his head, the knowing old chief explained that he could not be expected to live long, and he meant only to make over his head after he was dead! An exposition of Maori law and Maori morality is given in a very humorous style, but at the same time with evident truthfulness. The morality of savage nations has in all ages been somewhat similar, being founded on the principle that might is right. The old chief who claimed the author as " his pakeha" had a very simple maxim upon which ne conscientiously acted, "that every man had a perfect right to do what he chose provided he was prepared to take the consequences." But although the principle was pretty generally acted upon by the Maories among whom our friend's lot was cast they were yet it seems always desirous of showing that their conduct was correct, according to some recognised custom; and certainly some of these customs afforded license for enough of violence and of violation of the laws of meum and luum as' recognised among civilized peoples Every one will remember the anecdote of the sea captain who, having instructions to note carefully the manners and customs of the inhabitants of the different islands he visited, wrote against the name of one of them—"Manners, none; customs, unfit to be described'" -

. The same phrase would not be exactly applicable to the New Zealanders of former days, but it must be admitted that a. person given to generalize rashly might- well be tempted to adopt it. One of these delectable customs was known as the law'of muru, which, plainly translated, means robbery or plunder, but, as interpreted'by our'author, damages. Thus damages might; be enforced for anything almost. On thissubject we make the lollowing extract:— ' .

The offences for which people were plundered were sometimes of a nature which, to a mere pakeha, would seem curious. A man's child fell in the fire and was almost burnt to death. The father was im-mediately-plundered to, an extent that almost left him without the means of subsistence : fishing nets, canoes, pigs, provisions—alj went. : His canoe upset, and he anil all Ms family narrowly escaped drowning - -some were, perhaps; drowned. He was immediately robbed, and'well pummelled with a club into the bargain, if he was not good at the science of selfdefence—the club part.of the ceremony being always fairly administered : one against one, and after a fair warning given to defend'himself! He might be clearing some land for pptatoes, J.urniDg off the fern, and the fire spreads farther than he intendtd, and' gets into a wahi tapu or burial-ground. No matter whether anyone has been.buried in it or bo for the last hundred years, he is tremendously robbed ■'• In fact for ten thousand different causes a man might be robbsd ; and I can really jmagine a case in which • a man for scratching his own head might_be legally robbed. Now as the enforcers of this law were .also, the parties who receivedthe damages, as well as the judges of the amount, which in many cases (such as that of the burnt child) would be. everything they could by any means lay hands on, it ii easy to perceive that under such a system personal property was an evanescent Eort of thing'altogether. :Tliese executions or distraints were never_resisted., Indeed in many cases, as I shall explain by and; bye, it wouldhave been felt as a slight, and even an insult, not to be, robbed; the sacking of a man's establishment being oft«n taken as a Wjh wppliment, especially if

his hea-3 was broken into the bargain ; and to resist the execution would not. only have been looked upon as mean and dburaceful in the highest degree, but it would have debarred the contemptible individual from the privilege if robbing his neighbours, which: was the compensating expedient I lmve alluded to. The law of tapu or tuboo, as it is sometimes, called, by which particular things and persons become sacred, is also explained at length. As this is more generally known than the others we refrain from making any extract with reference to it. We may mention, however, that the custom was far more stringent than is generally supposed, and that the superstition oi the natives attached the most serious penalties to its infraction, even in some cases amounting to death itself. .The author tells of one instance in particular, where a hungry native incautiously eating the remnant of a chiefs dinner, which by being touched by the great man had become tapu, wa«, on being told of his transgression, so frightened as actually to expire. The writer himself once became tapu by touching a dead body, the tapu in this case corresponding to the " uncleanness" of the Jewish ceremonial law—and being deserted by everybody, he wa.s in a wretched plight until at length an old priest or' medicine man undertook his • purification. We could with pleasure follow the auth.r through the further mysteries of the tapu and of the oracles, for the Maori also had his oracles and " spirit med'umV which, like the "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 te JEcaida Romanos vincereposse" of the Delphic Python* 83. But space does not permit us to dwell upon these points, and we must reftr the inquisitive reader 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 labor endured by the Maories in their efforts to produce flax to purchase the weapons, the possession of '.vhich soon became with them a matter of life and death, since those who had no firearms were sure to fall a prey to the more fortunate neighboring 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 in unhealthy swamps ; 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 approach of civilization. Yet so it is, and without designing it the white man has really been doing what a dying chief imputed to him as an intention, exterminating the Maori. ' In bringing this notice to a conclusion, we' are painfully . conscious that we have done the ■ author" but scant justice, at the same, time: we may^say that }»c have not done him the injury of anticipating all the interest of his book. Even £fliere -we may have been able in a few words > to set forth his facts, we have failed to convey any idea of the style hi which they, are told, the racy beauty of which is all his own.