MAORI ADDRESS TO THE QUEEN.

Colonist, Volume VI, Issue 554, 13 February 1863, Page 4

MAORI ADDRESS TO THE QUEEN.

The Colonial Office does not often receive poetical despatches. No one would think of looking into the pigeon-boles of this business' like department for fragments of inspiration, lender laments, wild but deep utterances, and ihe sacred-sympathies and emotions of romantic nature. It lias a very different class of cornmu'nicatious to deal with. Our readers, however, will see iv another column a composition which our Coionial Secretary has just delivered to her Mujesty, and which is as true a piece of native poetry as ever came from Scandinavian or Welsh or Ossianic bard—an address of sympathy from a bod)1 of Maori chiefs to the Queen upon the death of the late Prince Coneort. This affectionate tribute from tribes of simple aborigines will excite many reflections. We hope there is no irreverence in saying that the style will remind many of the poetry of various parts of the Bible, The vividness and simplicity of the illustrations, taken from those natural objects with which they are acquainted, betoken the first dawn of a nation's poetry, when the bard only aims at expressing fresh and strong feeling by the first means which present themselves—short, sharp sentences, and isolated exclamations. The earliest form of poetry is necessarily thus fragmentary, because the primitive mind has not yet learnt the restraint and the oheck which go along with the rush and flow of mature poetry. The civilised poet keeps his first fresh conception a long time in his mind {before he throws it into the shape of a poetical composition, and has to revive its first fieshuess a hundred times before, by acts of thought, he finds the fitting place for it; the aboriginal poet is eager to utter his thought at once, before its freshness is gone. This produces the ■wild and scattered form of early poetry; but ihe Maori composition which we have now before us vies in vividness, genuineness, and natural tenderness with some of the best examples of aboriginal poetic art.

But we may observe in this Maori address of sympathy signs of native character and intelligence which are as important as the marks of poetry. The deep mystery of death has in all ages called forth the strong emotions of the human mind, and stirred its pity, its contemplation, its curiosity, and its wonder. Man in his rudest and simplest state has as deep an awe of an unknown world, and can ask as eager questions about if, as man in his highest state of civilisation. But this address shows more thau a sense of the mystery of death—a perception of the beauties and graces of life, of family life. It enters with discernment into the relation of husband and wife as it ex'sts in its highest form, when the husband is not only the support and defence of the wife, but her perpetual companion, adviser, consoler. It is pleasing to see so civilised an image of the conjugal state in the. minds of these rude native chieftains as thir address shows—to see that they recognise the intimate companionship and society and inner life of the married pair. Such a conception of this condition is a symptom either of a very gentle and refined form of (he savage, or of the dawn of a civilised state. And this conception underlies the whole of this address of Maori sympathy, which appreciates most tenderly and intelligently the beautiful and intimate nature of that union which death has dissolved. The Maori poet speaks with delicate discernment, and as if he quite entered into and understood the domestic relations of the Queen and her Consort. There is besides this a great appreciation of the political position of the Prince Consort, bis influence in society, and the authority he exercised in public matters. The illustrations are borrowed, indeed, in this as in other parts of the composition, from every-day Maori life, but they do not imply on that account the less ical appreciation of the Prince's position. ' Oh, my beloved, you used (o stand in the very prow of the war-canoe.' That ia a world old, primitive, aboriginal type of influence and position. The Maori bard is alive to the place of a great man in society, and can picture to himself what the Prince Consort was in England, and can understand what he hears said about him by Englishmen in the colonies, though he clothes it all in the language of primitive poetry.

We may observe in this address, too, what it is very important and interesting to observe, a sense in the Maori chieftains and their tribes of the honor ot a connexion with England. They do not speak as a subjugated people ashamed of the loss of a rude and wild independence, but as a people who have imbibed new notions, have enlarged their conceptions of this world and its inhabitants, and see in their new rulers not enemies to resist, but a friendly higher race, the connexion with which is an ennobling and proud thing which they dwell upon with gladnes3. This is the higher form of the savage mind. There is the proud, head-stroug savage, who will not admit any fresh light into liia soul, because he is proud of himself as he is, hugs himself in his own barbarism, and desperately shuts himself up in malignant defiance of all higher influence; and there is the yielding, intelligent savage, who has vague perceptions of something ip the world higher than himself, and entertains a dim vision of change and elevation by means of the white visitant from the other side of the globe. The gentle and melancholy Montezuma stood alone in his admiration of the European character and intellect, in opposition to the fanatio and bigoted barbarism of his whole race; but we may congratulate ourcelves that the Maori race has a better understanding of the European and higher aspirations for itself.— Times.

The London Spectator has the following notice of the Maori • elegy' on the late Prince CoDSdrt:—•• The New Zealand chiefs have rivalled the Poet Laureate in an elegy on the death of the Prince Consort. Their poetry is not quite of the same kind, but even in the English version it is pathetic and melodious, as well as quaint. The lament begins with an address to the Queen. •We have just heard the crash of the huge-headed forest tree which has untimely fallen ere it attained its full growth of greatness. Oh, good lady, pray look with fuvor on our love. Although we may have been perverse children, we have ever loved you.' Then the Maori muse glides into the inner personality of the Queen, and utters her desoant from that centre. She bewails the Prince who had sbeltered her from the sorrows and ills of life, the 1 pet bird' whose sweet voice welcomed her glad guests; the ' pet bird caught in the forest 3of Kapatna;' the pillar that did support her palace, and that is now transplanted to the skies; the noble form that stood in the prow of the warcanoe, inciting others to noble deeds. She j ends with reproaching the helpless physicians "whose remedies; and the helpless priests whose prayers, could not avert tho blow, 'for I have lost my love; no more can be revisit this world.'

The poem expresses at once the dependance of the desolate woman and the pride of the powerful Queen. Even in the mid-stream of grief the Maori poet never forgets that the Prince was in rank the inferior of his mourning wife— 1 the pet bird caught for her in the forests of Rapatna ' —thus proviog, perhaps, that civilisatiou rather subdues than enhances that keen sense of princely diguity which is so strongly engraven on all savage tribes.'

The following is the address to which the Times, the Spectator, and other London papers have given such prominence:—

Oh Victoria, our Mother!—We greet you! You who are all that now remains to recall to our recollection Albeit, the Prince Consort, who can never again be gazed upon by the people. We, your Maori children, are now sighing in sorrow together with you, even with a sorrow liko to yours. All we can now do is to weep together with you. Oh, our good mother, who hast nourished us, your ignorant children of this island, even to this day!

We have just heard the crash of the huge-headed forest tree which has untimely fallen, ere it had at. tainod its full growth of greatness. Oh, good lady, pray look with favor on our love. Although we may have been perverse children, we have ever loved you. This is our lament:—

Great is the pain which preys on me for the loss of my beloved. Ah, you will now lie buried among the other departed Kings! They will leave you with the other departed heroes of the land, With the dead of the tribes of the multitude of 'Ti Mani.

Go fearless then, 0 Panga, my beloved, iv the path of death; for no evil slanders can follow you. Oil my very heart! Thou didst shelter me from the sorrows and ills of life.

Oh my pet bird, whose sweet voice welcomed my glad guests! Oh my,noble pet bird, caught in the forests of Rapaura! Let, then, the body of my beloved be covered with Royal purple robes!

Let it be covered with all-rare robes! The great Rewa, my beloved, shall himself bind these round thee.

And my ear-ring of precious jasper shall be hung in thy ear. For, oh! my most precious jewel, thou art now lost to me.

Yes, thou, the pillar that didst support my palace, hast been borne to the skies.

Oh, my beloved! you used to stand in the very prow of the war-canoe, inciting all others to noble deeds. Yes, in thy lifetime thou was great.

And now thou hast departed to the place where even all the mighty must at last go.

Where, oh physicians, was the power of your remedies ? What, oh priests, availed your prayers ? For I have lost my love ; no more can he revisit this world.

plere follow the names of twenty Maori chiefs.] The address was forwarded by Governor Sir George Grey to the Duke of Newcastle for transmission to her Majesty.