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Waka Maori, Volume 10, Issue 7, 7 April 1874, Page 90

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European correspondents who have a knowledge of Maori are . requested to be good enough to forward their communications in both, languages. To the Editor of the Waka Maori. Wellington, 3rd April, 1874. Sir,—"Will you kindly insert in the Walca the following letter, addressed to the Maori people generally. In a former letter I recommended you, my Maori friends, to cherish and honor your women, as a means of raising and improving, your character as a people. But that alone is not sufficient. There is another very important duty devolving upon you, namely the care and education of your children. I admit that if the position of the women be elevated, the effect will be, in a great measure, to improve the character of the children. Permit me to offer a few remarks and suggestions which, if attended to, .will be for their advantage. A man can have no more valuable a gift than children; aud if your children be well cared for when young and properly reared, you will, in your old age and declining years, have some one to tend and nurse you. How many parents have lost tfyeir children through neglect and want of proper attention to their health, and have died with none to occupy their lands and bear their names after them—the memory of them is forgotton in the world. The Maori chiefs are well aware o£ this, and are greatly concerned on account of the diminishing numbers of their children.

As a means of preventing this decrease you must, while your children are young, see that they have food suitable for them, and that proper attention is paid to keeping them clean. You have already received advice in the Waha on the subject of cleanliness. Do not say, ''We possess schools now; the teachers can look after the children." No; it is your duty to advise and direct them. It is during the period of childhood, when the child is under its mother s immediate care, that its mind is most susceptible of outward impressions, whether for good or evil; and impressions then received cling to it through all its school days, and up to manhood's estate. Itis for the mother to implant the good seed which in after life bears fruit. If the mother fail in her duty, the child, as a natural consequence, suffers; and 'if, in addition to this, its education be neglected, and it be allowed to follow the bent of its own inclination, it grows up in ignorance, and eventually turns out bad. A child is naturally susceptible of outward impressions, and if it be surrounded by honest and virtuous companions, it will most likely become an honest and virtuous man. Now the model almost always present to a child is its mother, and it is from the example and precepts of the mother that the child's after life is modelled. George Herbert (an English poet and divine, born in 1593), said " One good mother is worth a hundred schoolmasters." Example is better than precept. Children are not fools ; they are good judges of what is right and of what is wrong; and the word of the parent who tells them one thing and does another, is not regarded by them. Early impressions have been compared to letters cut in the bark of a young tree, which grow and widen with age. A mother's love for her children is very great. It begins with the child's birth, and never ceases till her death. The child instinctively flies to its mother for comfort and consolation in all its childhood's troubles and pains, as well as in those of more mature age. The memory of a good mother's loving deeds are never forgotten, and her children " rise up and call her blessed." "It is quite true, and cannot be questioned, that the happiness and misery, the enlightenment and ignorance, the civilization and barbarism of the world depend, in a very high degree, upon the exercise of a woman's power within the special kingdom of her home." Mothers, you have a sacred duty to perform! The future prosperity of your race depends, in a great measure, upon yourselves, upon the manner in which you perform your duty to your children. "What the child will be depends on the influence brought to bear upon it by its earliest and best loved teacher, its mother—" Mother ! the sweetest name on earth." Exert yourselves, therefore, to make your children good, honest, and true men, and you will receive your reward in the elevation and position to which they will attain. Erom G-.D., A Ebiend op the Maobis.