MAHOE LEAVES

Wellington Independent, Volume XVII, Issue 1821, 24 January 1863, Page 2

MAHOE LEAVES

In our columns of to-day appears the last of a series of sketches of native life and character, which fora few months past have been published in this journal- Our contributor tells us that the tree is at length barren, and will never more shed leaves again. Jeremi.ih is defunct, JVlalachi has vanished into thin air, and that model maori, the great unwieldy, lumbering, good hearied Parnapa, has made his farewell bow, to ourselves and our. readers, Be it so — we bid them all a kindly adieu, with the wish and hope that during the period they have nourished on the stage, the purpose of their creation may have been served.

Genial and racy though those sketches were, it was uotinerelya purpose of amusement they were intended to serve. ' The Maori was doubtless poitrayed in a humvmms light, and his religion, morals, manners pnd customs, faithfully delineated, but there was a more important object all along kepi in view. It was intended U> be shown that the native character has been somewhat too highly appreciated ; that Exeter Hall had elevated our durkskinned brethren into a

species of nnttue's nobility, aud that. tlie Maor was cast in a different mould and-' forn&ed of better clay, than any other semi.savape.natiop, whom the Anglo-Saxons have as yet encoufntereH. That thin is not so, dear bought experience ibjis already shown, and though we strenuously aßvp;* cate a policy founded on justice towards j.ttiis race, yet it will be impossible to do much; for their social ameloration, while the Utopian creed of the pstHido-pbil;inthro|>ist is adhered to. I Onr "contributor thinks tbey nmst be (au|f]Kt a severe lesson first before milder measures can be s?uccessfuUy, but that conclusion is doubtful both -in its expediency and results. We must wait a little longer still, ere. Sir GeorgeGjev's new policy has had a fair trial, and while we wait, • faint though they may be, tfiere are still hope*, of a peaceful solution of the difficulty. Every. thing just now in the political world is in a transition state ; the end of which no man can forsee.

The literary merit of those sketches is undoubtedly great — their pictures aie life like-:-, their satire keen and telling, while their humour in one or two instances is worthy of'Boz." It is true they are at times unequal, but that is a fault almost inseporable from the topic, and their auihir may at least claim the credit of having delineated the maori from au interesting point of view.