Disappointed in the Natives

Te Ao Hou, August 1957, Page 55

Disappointed in the Natives ‘Jemmy Button’. Benjamin Subercaseaux. Translated from the original Spanish by Mary and Fred del Villar. W. H. Allen. 1955. Benjamin Subercaseaux is a celebrated Chilean novelist, who has been writing and publishing in Spanish since 1927. His latest novel, ‘Jemmy Button’, is based upon the story of Commander Robert Fitzroy of the British Royal Navy, who in 1830, as captain of H.M.S. Beagle, charted the southernmost tip of South America. On leaving Tierra del Fuego, Captain Fitzroy takes aboard four young Indian natives, three boys and a girl, and ships them back to England to be educated. His ‘children’ settle down surprisingly well in an English country vicarage where they are taught to dress, eat, and conduct themselves generally like civilised beings. Unfortunately, one of the boys soon dies of a ‘civilised’ disease, but Fitzroy's pangs of remorse are relieved when he and his charges are honoured by a Royal Audience. However, before long, even the infatuated Fitzroy is forced to realise that the morals and ethics of civilisation mean less to the Indians than their fashionable finery. Jemmy Button, apple of the Captain's eye, proves himself to be an ‘ungrateful and mercenary youth’, and when a ‘sinful and disgusting’ relationship is found to exist between the girl and the other boy, Fitzroy decides to return them to their homeland as soon as possible, and he leaves them a saddened and bitterly disillusioned man. He later became Governor of New Zealand, and committed suicide in 1865. Twenty-six years after Fitzroy parted with Jemmy, eight Anglican missionaries were murdered by the natives, the attack being led by the Captain's favourite boy. This is a first-class adventure story of sailing-ships and unchartered seas, Indians and mysterious lands, love and violence and sudden death. But it is also a searching and disturbing examination of what can happen when ‘civilisation’ and ‘primitives’ meet. Fitzroy, would-be saviour of the savage, rejects what he cannot change, and breaks his heart sourly when the Indians remain what they have every right to be, themselves. This was a new and barely recognised problem of the last century. It is an old and unsolved problem today. It is many years too late to follow Benjamin Subercaseaux's advice, to let well alone, but at least we can avoid repeating Fitzroy's mistakes. * * * A Maori meeting was held last March at Otorohanga College to find ways of reviving Maori traditions and language among the people of the district. Mr W. Eketone was elected chairman of a body formed for this purpose, and Miss G. Koroheke secretary. Mr Rangitaawa, a language and carving expert, will conduct evening classes at the college. Older people and leaders aim to pass their knowledge on to the younger generation and instruct pupils of the college Maori club. * * * Seven mural paintings in oil by the well-known Maori artist Oriwa Haddon have been hung in the Utiku hall. One depicts Utiku Potaka, ancestor of the hapu, and the others post-European subjects.