Maori Womanhood

New Zealand Illustrated Magazine, Volume V, Issue 6, 1 March 1902, Page 449

Maori Womanhood

I! T is generally supposed that the Native |1 race came to New Zealand six or seven n centuries ago ; but some Maoris claim a much higher antiquity in these islands, and scientific investigation tends to substantiate their assertions. Maori chiefs now living, learned in the traditionary lore which — as yet — has but scantily found expression in literature, trace their annals back to the very mists of historic time. To them our 55 B.C. seems but yesterday : long before the Roman eagle winged to Albion, before Lycurgus codified his laws, while yet the Iliad was newly sung, Maoris dwelt in Maoria — so some high-caste Maoris believe. They also believe that our New Zealand is but a relic of the old land — which stretched far to east and west and north and south of its present boundaries. There is abundant suggestion in Southern seas of conditions strangely diffei'ent from those which now prevail. Similarities of flora and fauna, and still more striking dissimilarities, evince a Vol. V.— No. 6.— SO.

mighty ebb and flow of terrestrial and climatic change. The monoliths of Home islands, tho trilifchous of others testify to ancient and innumerable inhabitants. Easter island, for instance, confronts us with insoluble mystery. That rarely-visited spot in the midst of ocean wastes contains avenues and groves of monuments carved in human form, The faces of these wonderful statues are placid and benign ; but they are said to excite no sentiment of any kind among the few savage inhabitants who now gain a rugged living there. We hear of rock inscriptions in various parts of New Zealand. It is to be hoped that btudents will arise able to decipher these, thus unlocking one of the secret chambers of the shadowy past. Comparative philology has scarcely begun to till the fields of the Maori language, and already there are bints that she will find rich harvest here.

The Maori "Ra" is the very same in form and meaning as fcho Egyptian "Ra;" the Maori " ika " seems reminiscent of the

Greek ichthus. But the very latest suggestion as to source and migrations was fonnd quite recently in an ornament described by Mr. Bennett — during his last visit to Auckland — as an exact representatiou of the Assyrian eagle-headed serpent.

It seems quite probable that with keener interest and better means of investigation* we shall yet discover much more than we now know of Maori origins Like his own tuatara, the Maori may possibly be found to link these later days with an incalculable past. But, whether or no he is to be ranked with the Elders of our race, he possesses qualities worthy of heroic times. In his eloquence and boastfulness, in his bravery and ferocity, he curiously resembles the warriors of Trojan fame. Hospitable and confiding, fond of action, loving display, he has the soul of an artist and the self control of a child. Revenge has been inculcated as a primary duty, to be fulfilled on the slightest pretext, and to be bequeathed from generation to generation.

This creed of hate, religiously held by a bi'ave people, in a country destitute of four-footed animals, naturally culminated in cannibalism. Quite as naturally infanticide (especially of girl babies) and suicide have been very frequently practised. Nothing could be more turbulent than the Maori life of pre-pakeha times : plotting and counterplotting, surprise, conflict the most frightful, conclusion the most revolting. And yet light-heartedness ran through the race, while some rare souls gi'asped the idea of unity, and told the tribes that gods of peace would give them truer happiness than could be bestowed by any gods of war.

Such a people — magnificent in its virtues atid in its possibilities — had, of eoui'se, a splendid womanhood. There were women chiefs as well as men chiefs, women tohungas as well as men toliungas. In the koreros of the tribe the women spoke as valorously and as eloquently as the men ; even in the councils of war they frequently delivered orations, although customarily silent on such oocasions, and in the atahu meetings every woman had the right of

initiative in expressing the language of the heart. Men and women alike deemed cowai'dice and idleness the cardinal sins. For them our more elaborate moral code had, of coarse, no existence. By their own lights they lived — as a rule — in truth and dignity. Their first Pakeha critic, Captain Cook, compared the Maori women most favourably with all the other women of the Pacific Isles.

A certain class of women fulfilled a terrible function. These were matrons who never had been mothers, and who cultivated the lusts of hate and revenge until they became mere fiends of fury. They accompanied expeditions of war. inciting the tribesmen to keener ferocity and more horrible retaliation, by recounting with hideous malignity of woi~d and gesture every incident which could serve such a purpose. But, just as they present the lowest and most frightful possibilities of our complex humanity, other Maori women have evinced a purity and continuity of devotion which entitle them to rank with the tenderest aud truest of their sex.

Mr. Taylor tells in Te Ika a-Mauiof two sisters, princesses of the Nga Pulii, who were brought, according to the custom of the race of the time, to the then Governor. They were courteously declined, and one of them disappears from record, The younger girl elected to remain with an English officer, and the Maori marriage was consummated. For a time the bridal pair were very happy; then the regiment to which the officer belonged was ordered to the South. "Nga Huia could not enduve the separation. She summoned her tribe, and announced her determination to rejoin her husband. Her father, Pomare, was at the time prisoner of war on board the " North Star," anchored in the bay ; but all the other chiefs tried to dissuade her from journeying four hundred miles through bush and fern, river and swamp, past lakes and volcanoes, and over lofty ranges.

Nga Huia simply mounted her horse next morning, to ride from Whangaroa to Whanganui — the very first person who ever

attempted such an exploit. Each tribe she reached showered hospitality upon her, and escorted her to the next tribe on her way. At Otaki, sixty young chiefs formed a cavalcade to ride with her into Whanganui. Again she was happy with her husband and with the singularly fair daughter that was born to them. But news of an inheritance came from England, and Elwes left her that he might claim it. He promised to send for her, but she never received even a letter from him, and at last she remounted her horse, and with her little Nota (named for the North Star) she rode all the way back to Auckland. She rested in this town for awhile ; but she refused to see the friends who called on her. Finally she reached her own kainga, where her poor father said to her : — "Your heitiki (greenstone ornament) is now an aitua (ill omen) : you will die." She secluded herself within her own house until she passed. Poraare was broken hearted, and died immediately afterwards. Mr. White, in that most interesting book, " Te Rou," tells of a girl who was prevented from marrying the youth she loved by the interference of relatives. The young man joined a war party, and flung his life away. His head was preserved, and brought back to the kainga. The girl possessed herself of it, and lived with it in constant and exclusive companionship until she was a very old woman. She displayed no interest in anything but the love of her youth — the love of her whole existence — represented by the tattooed head she was for ever communing with. In " Te Rou " also we read of a beautiful widow whose husband had been slain by the party that were carrying her off as a slave with, other slaves. She stood up in the canoe, her large black eyes glowing, her long hair falling over the infant boy she was tightly embracing. " Wait !" she commanded, "my voice must be heard by you men ! Was he not brave, my beautiful bird ? You take their young from the tui, and keep them to teach them your words. But

did you ever see them die? You put a poria on their logs t > prevent thorn from taking a flight of freedom. Did you ever think the ring round the bird's lotf oan only keep its body? You call the bird your property. But death is the god of life ; ho takes the life away, and then what is the worth of your bird ? The body is only good when it has life.

" Sleep, 0 ray son, there is no futhor to protect thee now ! They will call thoe the son of the dead ; for who will givo thee a name? We are the property of a man. Sleep, son of my soul, my only life ! Oh, that

I could open my heart, and let thee live there forjever ! Then we should he one, and I should keep thee from the tumults of those who will call thee si aye !

" 0 poke ! you said we were to sing a song of farewellj; yes, and we will sing a eong of love. Yea ; I say that she who loveß as I loved from the time when I was a little girl, can alone feel the great pain of death. Lovejalone can make a song tell the fall power ofjajdead heart. I will sing and you can listen. Lot all of you listen, and say he was worthy of the lovo I feel for

him, and that I ought to sing my own words to the world for him. lam a slave in body, but my spirit is not a slave that it cannot make a song to keep his name sweet to the world !" Then, standing erect, she chanted in sweet though quavei'ing tones : " Spirits are flitting across my sight ! Days of weeping are now past and gone — Come not near me ; From you I am severed for ever. My mind shall be drowned ! My memory shall die ! Let thoughts arise and urge to useless action ! Oh, who shall say I can forget ? Madness sits beneath the whole !" Her streaming tears awoke her infant. "0 my child!" she said, " do not stop me in my song for thy father ; it is all I have to give him !" She hushed the infant, and, wiping her piteous face with her hair, again she sang : " O Mothers ! Nurslings of love must all die now — Cherish not affectionate acts of yore, Nor cluster round expiring thoughts. Perhaps some of these are now passing through tho minds of those listening here. 0 me ! sorrow, regret, and grief expire ! Despair is dead !" With a wild scream she plunged into the river. A feeble note of horror mingled with her last utterance, as the baby — for one moment — awoke. A ripple, a few air bubbles, and all was over ! Heta and Aramita, as Mr. White names a hero and heroine he describes, had a brighter fate. Heta had long sought Ai'amita, but he was denied by the hapuOne night he paced in front of his whai'e' and cried : " Heai'ken, all ye winds of heaven t Listen all ye stars, and the moon, and ye clouds that sweep over the Whakatere Mountains ! Ye must carry my words to those who are not here to hear my voice. Listen, 0 chiefs, and ye priests ! listen, ye women, and even your children ! I shall not mention her name, for you all know it. 1 did not ask her to be mine unknown to any of you, and now I ask your consent.

If she is not to be mine, then J. will have death for ray wife ; and I tell you that she will soon come to me, to where you must all follow, and then we shall know who are the men and women of great heart. I shall say no more; let those who wish to speak say their words, my word is spoken. It shall stand as firm as the mountains around this pa." Many orations from men and from women followed the address of Heta, and then a girl called on all the old men of the pa to listen to her. " What evil have I done?" she demanded. " You, 0 fathers, have seen me ever since I was born. Was I a child of evil omen ? Did those who gave me life curse me, before I came, by giving me to the son of some chief unknowu to me ? Am I a puhi that I am so long kept from being given to him for whom my love is ever burning ? Why do my own kindred say no ? If I am a puhi, and am to be given to some one — the son of an enemy — to gain peace because of your constant dread of surprise and mui'der, tell me, and I shall be able to bear the thought of his not being mine whom I have loved since we were boy and girl playing together. lam not afraid of you. Do you think that I cannot do as I like ? Remember what you all thought and felt when you were as many summers old as I. am. When you saw one you loved, would you not have gone over the high mountains, crossed the deep rivers ? Yes. I can do the same, and I would do it if I knew that I alone would suffer. If you like to kill me, do so, and I will not return the blow ; but, remember, if you even touch him I love, you die by my hand. Ido not say the words of madness, but truth ; I never shall be the wife of any one else, but of him, my only love." Days and weeks passed, yet these appeals remained unanswered. Oue evening Aramita walked out of her house and said : " Listen, 0 people I every one of you ; I shall speak to the whole world. 1 have spoken, and no one was bold enough to say I might have that which I have loved from

my girlhood. 0 father! I did say that I would be ray own master. /am Ms wife. I made a promise, and have kept it. I said that I would please myself, and have dove so. If there is any evil to come because of my act I will stand and die. You, 0 people, can act just as you like ; mine he is now, and mine he shall be for ever. Of two deaths I have chosen the least bitter ; 1 feel shame in telling you that I have not been i'jven by you all to him, but that I stole him, and did not tell you until I had committed the theft. This is an evil. But if I bad found that I was not to call him mine. I should have hung myself; and after my death some one else would have called him hers ; this would have been a double death. I can die now that he is mine. I do not want my ears filled with the noise of your talk ; if you act, do so soon, but do not talk. lam now going to sit by him. My words are ended." The young men hurried to and fro, and the young women whispered together. At midnight these folks left the kainga, and met in a forest rendezvous. In the morning they suddenly returned, saluting the village with a liaka. A very angry and jealous youth headed the war dance, brandishing his spear, and making horrible faces at the onlookers. Then a girl of the party danced more vigorously yet, thrusting out her tongue, rolling her eyes, and twisting her body like some demon. Another girl called out : " You may try to hide her, but she shall not be pi^otected. Send her out, and let me beat her, that she may know she ought not to take a husband until we have all spoken ou the matter." Other and wilder dances and speeches were made by disappointed suitors of both sexes ; then an old woman jumped up from amidst the people, thrust her tongue at the yelling invaders, and made a long speech in favour of Aramita : " What evil has my daughter Ara done to you ?" she concluded. " She told you at Ota that she would die or have him. I admire a girl who does not tell a lie. You

can get some of the other young men of tho tribe. What evil is thore in taking him after saying that she would do so ? All tho world knew that she would. And if you want a feast we can have one." "No," retorted one of Hani's party. " Let me kill him ! Why should ho prevent others from asking hoi if she does not love some one else better ? If our ancontors have followed the custom of holding a council when young men may choose thoir wives, and young women their husbands, why should he be allowed to do as he has done? Send him out, and let me spear him ! " Then stepped forward a champion, poising his spear, and saying : " You can take revenge for Hetaon me !" The duel was as splendidly fought as any in classic story. When Hani's man received a blow, the people commanded him to sit down. Forth stepped another pair, one warrior offensive, one defensive, as before. After a while they, too, retired. Heta and Aramita had been within their houso meanwhile. Now Heta arose, saying to his wife : " Do not fear, I shall not bo killed ! " " Hani will seek to kill you," she said. " I have refused him many times. But if you die, I die with yon." Aramita walked with every appearance of unconcern to her mother's side, and sat down with her. Hani was hectoring at a great rate, dancing and making faces, when Heta fronted him, saying : "My spear is in my hand. lam not a dog, to bark and run away. I have broken a custom of our fathers, and you can kill me." The girls whispered to each other : " Heta is so beautiful ! That ugly Hani cannot hurt him ! " Hani was furious; Heta was calm. Tall and erect, with deep, flashing eyes that revealed the utmost determination and the finest self - respect, Heta stood perfectly still while Hani raised his spear to nlay. Then parry followed thrust, and fiercer and wilder grew the attack ; until, in warding

off a ferocious attempt upon his chest, Heta put his spear through the fleshy part of Hani's arm. " You can sit down," he politely remarked, "and pull it out." Hani returned to his party, with the spear protruding on bcth sides of his arm. As he pulled it out, he said : v He is brave, and can keep her." He had provided himself with a beautiful mat in which to drape himself, when he should pace to and fro, making a grand speech after having disposed of Heta. Now he sat beneath it, nursing his arm, his head bowed to the dust. The girls jeered him, and one snatched his mat, draped herself with it, and told Heta that she was no coward, though she wore the mat once owned by a coward. "You are a brave man," she said, "and your wife is as brave as you are. You did right ; you took the one you loved ; I will do the same. I never proposed to you, but your body looked like the body of a chief when that coward was trying to kill you. There (throwing the mat to him), take that as a gift on account of your true heart. A coward has no right to wear such a mat ! " All the women of Hani's party called out: "Ea tika, ka tika, c Heta!" Keep the mat as from all of us. We now know the truth. You did right to take Ara; she did right to have you. You are both of you brave ! " Hani got up, and, without a word, walked to his own house, and shut himself in. The girls called after him : " He goes to have a chat in the dark with Eango " (the eavesdropper, the god of revenge). Such thoroughly authenticated episodes belong to a very recent Past, but a Past which can never be lived again. Therefore we owe a gi'eat deal to the pakehas who sympathetically observed and truthfully described the Maoris of sixty or seventy years gone by : Sir George Grey, John White, Judge Maning, and other gifted men. We have also to be grateful to the poet-philosopher whose genius was fired by the beauties and the wonders of this island,

by its traditions and its mythology, and by the character and the charm of the native race. Alfred Domett has bequeathed to the world a truly great poem, as loving a? it is faithful in its pen pictures of the natural and the almost supernatural graces and grandeurs of Te Ika a Maui, a masterly interweaving of idyllic story with the "obstinate questionings" of our most highly-cultured humanity; and a presentment of Maori Womanhood which splendidly ranges Amohia with Ellen Douglas and with Minnehaha. Inevitably the Maoris have changed under civilisation. They have quitted the hill tops, which suited their old methods of

Cobb, A Charming Trio. Photo. warfare, for low-lying locations that are much less healthy. They drink, and suffer accordingly. They smoke, and hurt the i*ace by tobacco more than by any other means. The men might perhaps smoke immoderately without injuring any but themselves, bat the women have no such exemption. The habit vitiates their offspring to a really alarming extent — more especially when vei*y babies are encouraged to use the filthy pipe. Other mistakes are made in food, clothing, and hygiene, which

telljdisastrously within a short period. Our old pioneer settlers conti'ast the average Maori of to-day with the magnificently tall and stately natives whom they have known. They say thei'e are no such Maoris now — in physique or in character. True, we have raised the natives above cannibalism, and other appalling ferocities. We have increased their possibilities of comfort, and in recognition of their rights and their innate grandeur, we have extended to them legislative powers and scholastic opportunities. The Young Maori Party is already giving noble evidence that it merits these and further privileges. It has the intellect and the heart to be aware that any real and permanent uplifting of the race must be absolutely impossible unless the girls — the future mothers — receive due education. Very little — almost nothiug — has been done for them so far. Some rich and high-caste girls have had certain advantages, but nothing suitable, nothing adequate has been attempted. The effort now being made to institute schools for Maori girls ought to have our heartiest co-operation. In this direction we must work if we wish to save a glorious people from threatened decay. But let our schemes of education have appi-opiiate basis. Let us carefully consider the kind and the method of instruction to be imparted. Do we mean to give those girls a schooling patterned on the ordinary system ? We could better engage their talents and their time. Shall we cram our seven standards of grammatical pedaatry, the lists of dates and of badly eminent persons, which are so often termed history, the endless jumble of names to which geography is frequently reduced, the really cruel perplexities of so - called arithmetic, " problems," as useless as they are cruel — shall we cram (there is no other word) this pernicious stuff into the fresh young Maori minds as we seek to cram it into the unfortunate children of our own race ? We shall have similar but miserably intensified results if we do. Young people by the hundred applying for any kind of clerical

position, girls underbidding boys to the detriment of everyone concerned ; a gonernl sharpening of the intellect without any corresponding unfoldrnent of the higher nature. Nor shall we improve matters by carrying on such girls as struggle through the primary process to a secondary misunderstanding of the very word, education. Of what, avail is it to have Homo superficial acquaintance with mathematics, oi' with languages that havo not been spoken for centuries ? The mathematical genius will seek to find development in spite of every obstacle, and mathematics in itself will not suttice for any ardent impressionable naturo. Of recent mathematicians two women rank with the very highest ; but the tastes of Mary Somerville were obnoxious to her relations, a::d she studied in .secret solitude, afterwards gaining the almost reverential esteem of her greatest contemporaries by the abstruse works she continuously gavo to the world until she was ninety-two yearn old ; while Souia Kovalski — less than a decade ago — died of a broken heart whilst holding a professorship of mathematics that commanded the admiration of Europe. It is not essential to be familiar with the narrations that again and again miily the classic page — suggestions manifold and details elaborate that never should be presented to immaturity, though the real lover of ancionh excellence will always patiently delve amid any kind of ruins if ho may thereby excavate some gems to delight himself and others. Good translations abound, and they may be made incomparably more helpful to the generality than the years of wearisome toil that frequently result in a speedy forgetfulness of all that was so laboriously achieved.* * To faulty and antiquated methods of teaching we may safely attribute much of that ill success in life of which we hear such just complaints. . . The future of England hangs not only on the recognition of physical scieace, but far more upon the creation of a high ideal of teaching, und the total abolition of that senseless ingurgitation of compendious statements which have usurped its place in the national consciousness. — Professor Sonnenschein (Professor of Classics) in the course of an addms in Mason College, Birmingham.

Such chances as have so far been placed before Maori girlhood already illustrate themselves in their consequences. I know of a charming trio who have passed all their standards with credit, and who have gained the love of their teachers and companions. But there is no scope for them at home, and no employment elsewhere, and they are simply sent back to school to idle their time away. I have seen a beautiful half caste girl of seventeen greeted most affectionately by her maternal relations. She responded fairly well, but at the firsfc subsequent opportunity sho expressed disdain of everything Maori. Shall we

blindly pursue a system that recks so little of life's marvellous meaning?

What is it that we desire to do for a race so gifted in poetry, in music, in colour, in manipulative skill ? Their eloquence is Homeric. Their instrumental bands, which Aye have taught them to manage, are equal to any of our own ; their Church singing, which they have taught themselves to harmonise, is superior to anything heard in the other chui-ches of this country. The picturesque hues in which they array themselves ; their work in flax, wood, and stone — marvellous on its own merits, almost magical in regard to the tools employed; their liking for and exj perhiess with the most up-to-date machinery — all indicate extraordi-

nary capacity. Ought not this to be specially recognised? Ought not such latency to be developed by judicious technical training ? At Wakapuaka, near Nelson, Princess Julia — as she is styled by the settlers — has lived for half a century. She is the Gi'ace Darling of the Southern Hemisphere, as heroic and as modest as her British sister. She is a great chief tainesis — a most devoted wife — and, herself childless, the adoptive mother of all the children of the Jcainga. Her portrait has been painted by Lindauer, and hangs with other works of that master in thesuperb and unique gallery of our high-spirited fellow colonist, Mr. H. E. Partridge, of Auckland. Can we gaze upon her noble presentment

and feel that we dare to neglect the future mothers of a race which produces such a woman?

Or, looking there, shall we devise plans to lift other possible Julias from their present sphere, and render them unfit for any better ?

The first duty which we owe to them, as to all young people, is to give them help in building up pure and noble character. Let us draw out — educat e — their faculties of body and of mind so that they shall know themselves and value themselves with lofty reverence. Let us help them to understand surrounding Nature, so that such comprehension as the human mind may attain to shall be

grafted on the profound religiousness of the native race. Let them, from good models, acquire our language — destined to be the world language — learning as infants learn : by everyday imitation, postponing the study of a few simple rales till they have become proficient in practice. There is not one bad writer in St. Stephen's School for Maori boys — and that cannot be said of many schools — so that we may be sure that well-taught Maori girls will also quickly acquire bold legible penmanship. Decimal arithmetic is the only arithmetic worth the name, and the pupils of the proposed school for Maori girls could readily be made a shining example to the belated British world in the rational use of our ten dfgits. Their own splendid possibilities in executive skill, in colour, music and oratory ought to be specially cultivated. Who can tell what message the Maori people may yet deliver to mankind ; what mechanicians, what artists, what apostles, they may contribute

to the grand progression of tho wholo human family?

But we shall do worse -than nothing if we take our Maori Bisters from their present surroundings without a clear realisation of our purpose regarding them. Why shall we seek to alter their environment ? That we may bring them into lino with ourselves in the pursuit of gold and the worship of Mammon ? That they may learn more of our petty aims and our paltry distinctions ; that they may fall int) our many mistakes ; that, possibly, after having been overlaid with a veneer of our civilisation, they may relapse into a condition worse than this civilisation and their own savagery combined ? Instances are not wanting to illustrate this last contingency. There have beeu Maori girls trained in all the accomplishments of tho ordinary young lady, and petted as beautiful and gifted playthings, who have gone down into a debasement unspeakably harmful.

No ; other aims be ours. Let us consider those maidens as the Maori Womanhood of a few years hence, and let us remember that '' education " literally means a process of thawing or leading out. Recognising its amazing ductility and nobility, let us seek to draw out the finest and the strongest constituents of the Maori nature, refining its finest and strengthening its strongest until the Maori girls of to-day shall know themselves to be responsible for the whole future destiny of the race. In this preliminary stage of the great uplifting that is to be effected, there are, most naturally, misapprehensions on the Maori side. One vei^y important objection has already aiisen on the score of caste. The high-born Maori cannot brook the thought of equal association with the lowborn. The feeling must be very delicately surmounted. Unfortunately, we shall have to advance by precept rather than by example ; for our own demarcations ai"e more despicable than those of any primitive people. It is true that our public schools have the merit of being open to all alike, but while the ideals of selfishness continue to dominate them, the general result must necessarily bo a levelling down rather than the levelling up, which is the ceaseless prayer of all who have learnt to rejoice in One Universal Brotherhood. The melancholy acquiescence which, previous to last census, tinged all kindly thought of the Native race, has given place to brighter feelings. Figures may or may not be fallacious — and, in any case, it is the quality and not the number of its people that makes a nation great — but it is now widely supposed that, instead of fading as before a pestilence, the Maoris are evincing adaptability to their altered circumstances, and that they may finally blend with the other inhabitants of New Zealand. The Eurasian is — as a rule — very low in the scale of being. Olive Schi'einer describes

the Eurafrican of Cape Colony as miserably debased. But we need fear no such analogies. Not comparisons but glorious contrasts will our beautiful country afford, if this present generation avails itself of its unique opportunity to prepare a richly endowed and most sensitive maidenhood to become a matronhood that understands its own incomparable privileges. Whether the two streams flow side by side, or whether, by scarcely perceptible degrees they intermingle in one mighty river, the value of the current will depend absolutely on the womanhood, which is its source. As the mothei'S, so must the children be. It is more than wonderful that this truth has not yet engrained itself in the core of evei'y system which calls itself educational. The merely external is overvalued ; the internal, the actual being, is allowed to grow up in ignorance — and from such ignorance arise all the evils which afflict the world to-day. Let us have self knowledge, then we shall have reverence for ourselves and for all other living things, we shall begin to understand the scheme of Infinitude. Kindei'garten methods of instruction are gradually but surely gaining favour with educationists. They bring the young into direct contact with Nature ; they enforce the use of individual faculty. Hygienic training in food, clothing, and exercise is also becoming recognised as a factor of prime importance in school existence. Botany is taking its place as a study — beautiful and elevating in itself, and leading to an easy assimilation of the still more beautiful and elevating facts of physiology, and, thereafter, to the sublime domain of psychology. By such means it is found practicable to give to young people the habit of bodily and spiritual health. By such and kindred means the race, which has already furnished to the narrator a Julia and a Nga Huia, and to the idealist an Amohia, will yet enrich the world with a magnificent evolution of

Maori -wo:M:.A.:i>raoo:D.