MAORI MEMORIES.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 June 1938, Page 9

MAORI MEMORIES.

INFLUENCE OF WHALERS. (Recorded by “J.H.S.” for “Times-Age”) Among the whalers in 1840, Tu Hawaiki, a noted chief, was the pattern of all excellence. He was the most intelligent Maori of those years. His integrity was such that the pioneers entrusted him with an unlimited supply of imported goods for barter. His sole difficulty in the custody of these coveted articles lay in protecting them against escaped convicts from New South Wales. The Maoris were never concerned in theft until we taught them. The whalers taught. their Maori wives to sew, cook, and keep clean in body and mind. Even the Missionaries recognised that the practical teaching by the whalers had more influence upon a character than theological learning. The profession of love or faith was quite unknown to them; their sole evidence of these lay in' service and silence. Devotion to their gods, like the mutual love of men and women, was Tapu, too sacred for words, hence the total absence of “profession,” for which there is no word in the Maori tongue. The missionaries blamed the whalers because they introduced drink, civil marriage, and the absence of Christian service. Whalers had little knowledge of the Maori language or the bible, and any such attempt at teaching theology would have brought ridicule. To our utter disgrace, the drink habit follows civilisation all over the world; the blame is upon us, not the whalers or the sailors.

In 1848 Bishop Selwyn alluded to the whalers in terms of praise. He said their evil doings, which were neither few nor small, were loudly proclaimed, but their many good deeds were not recorded.