"My Rangatira." -- The respective duties of the Pakeha and his
Rangatira. -- Public opinion. -- A "Pakeha Kino." -- Description
of my Rangatira. -- His exploits and misadventures. -- His moral
principles. -- Decline in the numbers of the natives. -- Proofs
of former large population. -- Ancient forts. -- Causes of
decrease.
When I purchased my land the payment was made on the ground, and
immediately divided and subdivided amongst the different sellers. Some
of them, who, according to their own representations formerly made to
me, were the sole and only owners of the land, received for their
share about the value of one shilling, and moreover, as I also
observed, did not appear at all disappointed.
One old _rangatira_, before whom a considerable portion of the payment
had been laid as his share of the spoil, gave it a slight shove with
his foot, expressive of refusal, and said, "I will not accept any of
the payment, I will have the pakeha." I saw some of the magnates
present seemed greatly disappointed at this, for I dare say they had
expected to have the pakeha as well as the payment. But the old
gentleman had regularly checkmated them by refusing to accept any
payment, and being also a person of great respectability, _i.e._, a
good fighting man, with twenty more at his back, he was allowed to
have his way, and thereby, in the opinion of all the natives present,
making a far better thing of the land sale than any of them, though he
had received no part of the payment.
I consequently was therefore a part, and by no means an inconsiderable
one, of the payment for my own land; but though now part and parcel of
the property of the old _rangatira_ aforementioned, a good deal of
liberty was allowed me. The fact of my having become his pakeha made
our respective relations and duties to each other about as follows:--
Firstly.--At all times, places, and companies my owner had the right
to call me "his pakeha."
Secondly.--He had the general privilege of "pot-luck" whenever he
chose to honour my establishment with a visit; said pot-luck to be
tumbled out to him on the ground before the house, he being far too
great a man to eat out of plates or dishes, or any degenerate
invention of that nature; as, if he did, they would all become _tapu_,
and of no use to any one but himself, nor indeed to himself either, as
he did not see the use of them.
Thirdly.--It was well understood that to avoid the unpleasant
appearance of paying "black mail," and to keep up general kindly
relations, my owner should from time to time make me small presents,
and that in return I should make him presents of five or six times the
value: all this to be done as if arising from mutual love and
kindness, and not the slightest allusion to be ever made to the
relative value of the gifts on either side (an important article).
Fourthly.--It was to be a _sine qua non_ that I must purchase
everything the chief or his family had to sell, whether I wanted them
or not, and give the highest market price, or rather more. (Another
very important article.)
Fifthly.--The chief's own particular pipe never to be allowed to
become extinguished for want of the needful supply of tobacco.
Sixthly.--All desirable jobs of work, and all advantages of all kinds,
to be offered first to the family of my _rangatira_ before letting any
one else have them; payment for same to be about 25 per cent. more
than to any one else, exclusive of a _douceur_ to the chief himself
because he did not work.
In return for these duties and customs, well and truly performed on my
part, the chief was understood to--
Firstly.--Stick up for me in a general way, and not let me be bullied
or imposed upon by any one but himself, as far as he was able to
prevent it.
Secondly.--In case of my being plundered or maltreated by any powerful
marauder, it was the duty of my chief to come in hot haste with all
his family, armed to the teeth, to my rescue, after all was over, and
when it was too late to be of any service. He was also bound on such
occasions to make a great noise, dance the war dance, and fire
muskets, (I finding the powder,) and to declare loudly what he would
have done had he only been in time. I, of course, on such occasions,
for my own dignity, and in consideration of the spirited conduct of my
friends, was bound to order two or three fat pigs to be killed, and
lots of potatoes to be served out to the "army," who were always
expected to be starving, as a general rule. A distribution of tobacco,
in the way of largess, was also a necessity of the case.
Thirdly.--In case of my losing anything of consequence by theft--a
thing which, as a veracious pakeha, I am bound to say, seldom
happened; the natives in those days being, as I have already
mentioned, a very law-observing people, (the law of muru,) had,
indeed, little occasion to steal, the above-named law answering their
purposes in a general way much better, and helping them pretty
certainly to any little matter they coveted; yet, as there are
exceptions to all rules, theft would sometimes be committed; and then,
as I was saying, it became the bounden duty of my _rangatira_ to get
the stolen article back if he was able, and keep it for himself for
his trouble, unless I gave him something of more value in lieu
thereof.
Under the above regulations things went on pleasantly enough, the
chief being restrained, by public opinion and the danger of the pakeha
running away from pushing his prerogative to the utmost limit; and the
pakeha, on the other hand, making the commonalty pay for the indirect
taxation he was subjected to; so that in general, after ten or fifteen
years' residence, he would not be much poorer than when he arrived,
unless, indeed, some unlucky accident happened, such as pakehas were
liable to sometimes in the good old times.
Mentioning "public opinion" as a restraint on the chiefs'
acquisitiveness, I must explain that a chief possessing a pakeha was
much envied by his neighbours, who, in consequence, took every
opportunity of scandalizing him, and blaming him for any rough
plucking process he might submit the said pakeha to; and should he, by
any awkward handling of this sort, cause the pakeha at last to run for
it, the chief would never hear the end of it from his own family and
connections, pakehas being, in those glorious old times, considered to
be geese who laid golden eggs, and it would be held to be the very
extreme of foolishness and bad policy either to kill them, or, by too
rough handling, to cause them to fly away.
On the other hand, should the pakeha fail in a culpable manner in the
performance of his duties, though he would not, as a rule, be
subjected to any stated punishment, he would soon begin to find a most
unaccountable train of accidents and all sorts of unpleasant
occurrences happening, enough, in the aggregate, to drive Job himself
out of his wits; and, moreover, he would _get a bad name_, which,
though he removed, would follow him from one end of the island to the
other, and effectually prevent him having the slightest chance of
doing any good,--that is, holding his own in the country, as the
natives, wherever he went, would consider him a person out of whom the
most was to be made at once, as he was not to be depended on as a
source of permanent revenue. I have known several industrious, active,
and sober pakeha who never could do any good, and whose life, for a
long series of years, was a mere train of mishaps, till at last they
were reduced to extreme poverty, merely from having, in their first
dealings with the natives, got a bad name, in consequence of not
having been able to understand clearly the beauty of the set of
regulations I have just mentioned, and from an inability to make them
work smoothly. The bad name I have mentioned was short and expressive;
wherever they went, there would be sure to be some one who would
introduce them to their new acquaintances as "a pakeha _pakeke_"--a
hard pakeha; "a pakeha _taehae_"--a miser; or, to sum up all, "a
pakeha _kino_."
The chief who claimed me was a good specimen of the Maori _rangatira_.
He was a very old man, and had fought the French when Marion, the
French circumnavigator, was killed. He had killed a Frenchman himself,
and carried his thighs and legs many miles as a _bonne bouche_ for his
friends at home at the pa. This old gentleman was not head of his
tribe. He was a man of good family, related to several high chiefs. He
was head of a strong family, or _hapu_, which mustered a considerable
number of fighting men, all his near relations. He had been himself a
most celebrated fighting man, and a war chief; and was altogether a
highly respectable person, and of great weight in the councils of the
tribe. I may say I was fortunate in having been appropriated by this
old patrician. He gave me very little trouble; did not press his
rights and privileges too forcibly on my notice, and in fact behaved
in all respects towards me in so liberal and friendly a manner, that
before long I began to have a very sincere regard for him, and he to
take a sort of paternal interest in me, which was both gratifying to
observe, and also extremely comical sometimes, when he, out of real
anxiety to see me a perfectly accomplished _rangatira_, would lecture
on good manners, etiquette, and the use of the spear. He was, indeed,
a model of a _rangatira_, and well worth being described. He was a
little man, with a high massive head, and remarkably high square
forehead, on which the tattooer had exhausted his art. Though, as I
have said, of a great age, he was still nimble and active. He had
evidently been one of those tough, active men, who, though small in
stature, are a match for any one. There was in my old friend's eyes a
sort of dull fiery appearance, which, when anything excited him, or
when he recounted some of those numerous battles, onslaughts,
massacres, or stormings in which all the active part of his life had
been spent, actually seemed to blaze up and give forth real fire. His
breast was covered with spear-wounds, and he also had two very severe
spear-wounds on his head; but he boasted that no single man had ever
been able to touch him with the point of a spear. It was in grand
_melees_, where he would have sometimes six or eight antagonists, that
he had received these wounds. He was a great general, and I have
heard him criticize closely the order and conduct of every battle of
consequence which had been fought for fifty years before my arrival in
the country. On these occasions the old "martialist" would draw on the
sand the plan of the battle he was criticizing and describing; and in
the course of time I began to perceive that, before the introduction
of the musket, the art of war had been brought to great perfection by
the natives: and that, when large numbers were engaged in a pitched
battle, the order of battle resembled, in a most striking manner, some
of the most approved orders of battle of the ancients. Since the
introduction of firearms the natives have entirely altered their
tactics, and adopted a system better adapted to the new weapon and the
nature of the country.
My old friend had a great hatred for the musket. He said that in
battles fought with the musket there were never so many men killed as
when, in his young days, men fought hand to hand with the spear; when
a good warrior would kill six, eight, ten, or even twenty men in a
single fight; for when once the enemy broke and commenced to run, the
combatants being so close together, a fast runner would knock a dozen
on the head in a short time; and the great aim of these fast-running
warriors, of whom my old friend had been one, was to chase straight on
and never stop, only striking one blow at one man, so as to cripple
him, so that those behind should be sure to overtake and finish him.
It was not uncommon for one man, strong and swift of foot, when the
enemy were fairly routed, to stab with a light spear ten or a dozen
men in such a way as to ensure their being overtaken and killed. On
one occasion of this kind my old tutor had the misfortune to stab a
running man in the back. He did it, of course, scientifically, so as
to stop his running, and as he passed him by he perceived it was his
wife's brother. He was finished immediately by the men close behind. I
should have said the man was a brother of one of my friend's four
wives, which being the case, I dare say he had a sufficient number of
brothers-in-law to afford to kill one now and then. A worse mishap,
however, occurred to him on another occasion. He was returning from a
successful expedition from the south (in the course of which,
by-the-bye, he and his men killed and cooked several men of the enemy
in Shortland Crescent, and forced three others to jump over a cliff,
which is, I think, now called Soldier's Point), when off the Mahurangi
a smoke was seen rising from amongst the trees near the beach. They at
once concluded that it came from the fires of people belonging to that
part of the country, and who they considered as game. They therefore
waited till night, concealing their canoes behind some rocks, and when
it became dark landed; they then divided into two parties, took the
supposed enemy completely by surprise, attacked, rushing upon them
from two opposite directions at once. My _rangatira_, dashing
furiously among them, and, as I can well suppose, those eyes of his
flashing fire, had the happiness of once again killing the first man,
and being authorized to shout, "_Ki au te mataika!_" A few more blows,
the parties recognize each other: they are friends!--men of the same
tribe! Who is the last _mataika_ slain by this famous warrior? Quick,
bring a flaming brand; here he lies dead! Ha! It is his father!
Now an ancient knight of romance, under similar awkward circumstances,
would probably have retired from public life, sought out some forest
cave, where he would have hung up his armour, let his beard grow,
flogged himself twice a day "regular," and lived on "pulse," which, I
suppose, means pea-soup, for the rest of his life. But my old
_rangatira_ and his companions had not a morsel of that sort of
romance about them. The killing of my friend's father was looked upon
as a very clever exploit in itself, though a very unlucky one. So
after having scolded one another for some time, one party telling the
other they were served right for not keeping a better look out, and
the other answering that they should have been sure who they were
going to attack before making the onset, they all held a _tangi_ or
lamentation for the old warrior who had just received his _mittimus_;
and then killing a prisoner, who they had brought in the canoes for
fresh provisions, they had a good feast; after which they returned all
together to their own country, taking the body of their lamented
relative along with them. This happened many years before I came to
the country, and when my _rangatira_ was one of the most famous
fighting men in his tribe.
This Maori _rangatira_, who I am describing, had passed his whole
life, with but little intermission, in a scene of battle, murder, and
bloodthirsty atrocities of the most terrific description, mixed with
actions of the most heroic courage, self-sacrifice, and chivalric
daring, as leaves one perfectly astounded to find them the deeds of
one and the same people--one day doing acts which had they been
performed in ancient Greece would have immortalized the actors, and
the next committing barbarities too horrible for relation, and almost
incredible.
The effect of a life of this kind was observable, plainly enough, in
my friend. He was utterly devoid of what weak mortals call
"compassion." He seemed to have no more feeling for the pain,
tortures, or death of others than a stone. Should one of his family be
dying or wounded, he merely felt it as the loss of one fighting man.
As for the death of a woman or any non-combatant, he did not feel it
at all, though the person might have suffered horrid tortures; indeed
I have seen him scolding severely a fine young man, his near relative,
when actually expiring, for being such a fool as to blow himself up by
accident, and deprive his family of a fighting man. The last words the
dying man heard were these:--"It serves you right. There you are,
looking very like a burnt stick! It serves you right--a burnt stick!
Serves you right!" It really _was_ vexatious. A fine stout young
fellow to be wasted in that way. As for fear, I saw one or two
instances to prove he knew very little about it; and, indeed, to be
killed in battle, seemed to him a natural death, and he was always
grumbling that the young men thought of nothing but trading: and
whenever he proposed to them to take him where he might have a final
battle (_he riri wakamutunga_), where he might escape dying of old
age, they always kept saying, "Wait till we get more muskets," or
"more gunpowder," or more something or another, "as if men could not
be killed without muskets!" He was not cruel either; he was only
unfeeling. He had been guilty, it is true, in his time, of what we
would call terrific atrocities to his prisoners, which he calmly and
calculatingly perpetrated as _utu_ or retaliation for similar
barbarities committed by them or their tribe. And here I must retract
the word guilty, which I see I have written inadvertently, for
according to the morals and principles of the people of whom he was
one, and of the time to which he belonged, and the training he had
received, so far from being guilty, he did a praiseworthy, glorious,
and public-spirited action when he opened the jugular vein of a bound
captive and sucked huge draughts of his blood. To say the truth he was
a very nice old man, and I liked him very much. It would not, however,
be advisable to put him in a passion; not much good would be likely to
arise from it, as indeed I could show by one or two very striking
instances which came under my notice, though to say the truth he was
not easily put out of temper. He had one great moral rule,--it was
indeed his rule of life,--he held that every man had a right to do
everything and anything he chose, provided he was able and willing to
stand the consequences, though he thought some men fools for trying
to do things which they could not carry out pleasantly, and which
ended in getting them baked. I once hinted to him that, should every
one reduce these principles to practice, he himself might find it
awkward, particularly as he had so many mortal enemies. To which he
replied, with a look which seemed to pity my ignorance, that every one
_did_ practise this rule to the best of their abilities, but that some
were not so able as others; and that as for his enemies, he should
take care they never surprised _him_; a surprise being, indeed, the
only thing he seemed to have any fear at all of. In truth he had
occasion to look out sharp; he never was known to sleep more than
three or four nights in the same place, and often, when there were ill
omens, he would not sleep in a house at all, or two nights following
in one place, for a month together, and I never saw him without both
spear and tomahawk, and ready to defend himself at a second's notice,
a state of preparation perfectly necessary, for though in his own
country and surrounded by his tribe, his death would have been such a
triumph for hundreds, not of distant enemies, but of people within a
day's journey, that none could tell at what moment some stout young
fellow in search of _utu_ and a "_ingoa toa_" (a warlike reputation)
might rush upon him, determined to have his head or leave his own. The
old buck himself had, indeed, performed several exploits of this
nature, the last of which occurred just at the time I came into the
country, but before I had the advantage of his acquaintance. His
tribe were at war with some people at the distance of about a day's
journey. One of their villages was on the border of a dense forest. My
_rangatira_, then a very old man, started off alone, and without
saying a word to any one, took his way through the forest which
extended the whole way between his village and the enemy, crept like a
lizard into the enemy's village, and then, shouting his war cry,
dashed amongst a number of people he saw sitting together on the
ground, and who little expected such a salute. In a minute he had run
three men and one woman through the body, received five dangerous
spear-wounds himself, and escaped to the forest, and finally got safe
home to his own country and people. Truly my old _rangatira_ was a man
of a thousand,--a model _rangatira_. This exploit, if possible, added
to his reputation, and every one said his _mana_ would never decline.
The enemy had been panic-stricken, thinking a whole tribe were upon
them, and fled like a flock of sheep, except the three men who were
killed. They all attacked my old chief at once, and were all disposed
of in less than a minute, after, as I have said, giving him five
desperate wounds. The woman was just "stuck," as a matter of course,
as she came in his way.
The natives are unanimous in affirming that they were much more
numerous in former times than they are now, and I am convinced that
such was the case, for the following reasons. The old hill forts are
many of them so large that an amount of labour must have been
expended in trenching, terracing, and fencing them, and all without
iron tools, which increased the difficulty a hundred-fold, which must
have required a vastly greater population to accomplish than can be
now found in the surrounding districts. These forts were also of such
an extent that, taking into consideration the system of attack and
defence used necessarily in those times, they would have been utterly
untenable unless held by at least ten times the number of men the
whole surrounding districts, for two or three days' journey, can
produce; and yet, when we remember that in those times of constant
war, being the two centuries preceding the arrival of the Europeans,
the natives always, as a rule, slept in these hill forts with closed
gates, bridges over trenches removed, and ladders of terraces drawn
up, we must come to the conclusion that the inhabitants of the fort,
though so numerous, were merely the population of the country in the
close vicinity. Now from the top of one of these pointed, trenched,
and terraced hills, I have counted twenty others, all of equally large
dimensions, and all within a distance, in every direction, of fifteen
to twenty miles; and native tradition affirms that each of these hills
was the stronghold of a separate _hapu_ or clan, bearing its
distinctive name. There is also the most unmistakeable evidence that
vast tracts of country, which have lain wild time out of mind, were
once fully cultivated. The ditches for draining the land are still
traceable, and large pits are to be seen in hundreds, on the tops of
the dry hills, all over the northern part of the North Island, in
which the _kumera_ were once stored; and these pits are, in the
greatest number, found in the centre of great open tracts of
uncultivated country, where a rat in the present day would hardly find
subsistence. The old drains, and the peculiar growth of the timber,
mark clearly the extent of these ancient cultivations. It is also very
observable that large tracts of very inferior land have been in
cultivation, which would lead to the inference that either the
population was pretty nearly proportioned to the extent of available
land, or that the tracts of inferior land were cultivated merely
because they were not too far removed from the fort; for the shape of
the hill, and its capability of defence and facility of fortification,
was of more consequence than the fertility of the surrounding country.
These _kumera_ pits, being dug generally in the stiff clay on the hill
tops, have, in most cases, retained their shape perfectly, and many
seem as fresh and new as if they had been dug but a few years. They
are oblong in shape, with the sides regularly sloped. Many collections
of these provision stores have outlived Maori tradition, and the
natives can only conjecture who they belonged to. Out of the centre of
one of them which I have seen, there is now growing a kauri tree one
hundred and twenty feet high, and out of another a large totara. The
outline of these pits is as perfect as the day they were dug, and the
sides have not fallen in in the slightest degree, from which perhaps
they have been preserved by the absence of frost, as well as by a
beautiful coating of moss, by which they are everywhere covered. The
pit in which the kauri grew, had been partially filled up by the
scaling off of the bark of the tree, which falling off in patches, as
it is constantly doing, had raised a mound of decaying bark round the
root of the tree.
Another evidence of a very large number of people having once
inhabited these hill forts is the number of houses they contained.
Every native house, it appears, in former times as in the present, had
a fire-place composed of four flat stones or flags sunk on their edges
into the ground, so as to form an oblong case or trunk, in which at
night a fire to heat the house was made. Now, in two of the largest
hill forts I have examined, though for ages no vestige of a house had
been seen, there remained the fire-places--the four stones projecting
like an oblong box slightly over the ground--and from their position
and number denoting clearly that, large as the circumference of the
huge volcanic hill was which formed the fortress, the number of
families inhabiting it necessitated the strictest economy of room. The
houses had been arranged in streets, or double rows, with a path
between them, except in places where there had been only room on a
terrace for a single row. The distances between the fire-places proved
that the houses in the rows must have been as close together as it was
possible to build them, and every spot, from the foot to the hill top,
not required and specially planned for defensive purposes, had been
built on in this regular manner. Even the small flat top, sixty yards
long by forty wide,--the citadel,--on which the greatest care and
labour had been bestowed to render it difficult of access, had been as
full of houses as it could hold, leaving a small space all round the
precipitous bank for the defenders to stand on.
These little fire-places, and the scarped and terraced conical hills,
are the only marks the Maori of ancient times have left of their
existence. And I have reasons for believing that this country has been
inhabited from a more remote period by far than is generally supposed.
These reasons I found upon the dialect of the Maori language spoken by
the Maori of New Zealand, as well as on many other circumstances.
We may easily imagine that a hill of this kind, covered from bottom to
top with houses thatched and built of reeds, rushes, and raupo, would
be a mere mass of combustible matter, and such indeed was the case.
When an enemy attacked one of these places a common practice was to
shower red-hot stones from slings into the place, which, sinking into
the dry thatch of the houses, would cause a general conflagration.
Should this once occur the place was sure to be taken, and this mode
of attack was much feared; all hands not engaged at the outer
defences, and all women and non-combatants, were employed guarding
against this danger, and pouring water out of calabashes on every
smoke that appeared. The natives also practised both mining and
escalade in attacking a hill fort.
The natives attribute their decrease in numbers, before the arrival
of the Europeans, to war and sickness, disease possibly arising from
the destruction of food and the forced neglect of cultivation caused
by the constant and furious wars which devastated the country for a
long period before the arrival of the Europeans, in such a manner that
the natives at last believed that a constant state of warfare was the
natural condition of life, and their sentiments, feelings, and maxims
became gradually formed on this belief. Nothing was so valuable or
respectable as strength and courage, and to acquire property by war
and plunder was more honourable and also more desirable than by
labour. Cannibalism was glorious. The island was a pandemonium.
A rugged wight, the worst of brutes, was man;
On his own wretched kind he ruthless prey'd.
The strongest then the weakest overran,
In every country mighty robbers sway'd,
And guile and ruffian force was all their trade.
Since the arrival of the Europeans the decrease of the natives has
also been rapid. In that part of the country where I have had means of
accurate observation, they have decreased in number since my arrival
rather more than one-third. I have, however, observed that this
decrease has for the last ten years been very considerably checked,
though I do not believe this improvement is general through the
country, or even permanent where I have observed it.
The first grand cause of the decrease of the natives since the arrival
of the Europeans is the musket. The nature of the ancient Maori
weapons prompted them to seek out vantage ground, and to take up
positions on precipitous hill tops, and make those high, dry, airy
situations their regular fixed residences. Their ordinary course of
life, when not engaged in warfare, was regular, and not necessarily
unhealthy. Their labour, though constant in one shape or other, and
compelled by necessity, was not too heavy. In the morning, but not
early, they descended from the hill pa to the cultivations in the low
ground; they went in a body, armed like men going to battle, the spear
or club in one hand, and the agricultural instrument in the other. The
women followed. Long before night (it was counted unlucky to work till
dark) they returned to the hill with a reversed order, the women now,
and slaves, and lads, bearing fuel and water for the night, in front;
they also bore probably heavy loads of _kumera_ or other provisions.
In the time of year when the crops did not call for their attention,
when they were planted and growing, then the whole tribe would remove
to some fortified hill, at the side of some river, or on the coast,
where they would pass months fishing, making nets, clubs, spears, and
implements of various descriptions; the women, in all spare time,
making mats for clothing, or baskets to carry the crop of _kumera_ in,
when fit to dig. There was very little idleness; and to be called
"lazy" was a great reproach. It is to be observed that for several
months the crops could be left thus unguarded with perfect safety, for
the Maori, as a general rule, never destroyed growing crops or
attacked their owners in a regular manner until the crops were nearly
at full perfection, so that they might afford subsistence to the
invaders, and consequently the end of the summer all over the country
was a time of universal preparation for battle, either offensive or
defensive, the crops then being near maturity.
Now when the natives became generally armed with the musket they at
once abandoned the hills, and, to save themselves the great labour and
inconvenience occasioned by the necessity of continually carrying
provisions, fuel, and water to these precipitous hill-castles--which
would be also, as a matter of necessity, at some inconvenient distance
from at least some part of the extensive cultivations--descended to
the low lands, and there, in the centre of the cultivations, erected a
new kind of fortification adapted to the capabilities of the new
weapon. _This_ was their destruction. There in mere swamps they built
their oven-like houses, where the water even in summer sprung with the
pressure of the foot, and where in winter the houses were often
completely flooded. There, lying on the spongy soil, on beds of rushes
which rotted under them--in little, low dens of houses, or kennels,
heated like ovens at night and dripping with damp in the day--full of
noxious exhalations from the damp soil, and impossible to
ventilate--they were cut off by disease in a manner absolutely
frightful. No advice would they take; they could not _see_ the enemy
which killed them, and therefore could not believe the Europeans who
pointed out the cause of their destruction.
This change of residence was universal and everywhere followed by the
same consequences, more or less marked; the strongest men were cut off
and but few children were reared. And even now, after the dreadful
experience they have had, and all the continual remonstrances of their
pakeha friends, they take but very little more precaution in choosing
sites for their houses than at first; and when a native village or a
native house happens to be in a dry, healthy situation, it is often
more the effect of accident than design.
Twenty years ago a _hapu_, in number just forty persons, removed their
_kainga_ from a dry, healthy position, to the edge of a _raupo_ swamp.
I happened to be at the place a short time after the removal, and with
me there was a medical gentleman who was travelling through the
country. In creeping into one of the houses (the chief's) through the
low door, I was obliged to put both my hands to the ground; they both
sunk into the swampy soil, making holes which immediately filled with
water. The chief and his family were lying on the ground on rushes,
and a fire was burning, which made the little den, not in the highest
place more than five feet high, feel like an oven. I called the
attention of my friend to the state of this place called a "house." He
merely said, "_men_ cannot live here." Eight years from that day the
whole _hapu_ were extinct; but, as I remember, two persons were shot
for bewitching them and causing their deaths.
Many other causes combined at the same time to work the destruction
of the natives. Next to the change of residence from the high and
healthy hill forts to the low grounds, was the hardship, over-labour,
exposure, and half-starvation, to which they submitted
themselves--firstly, to procure these very muskets which enabled them
to make the fatal change of residence, and afterwards to procure the
highly and justly valued iron implements of the Europeans. When we
reflect that a ton of cleaned flax was the price paid for two muskets,
and at an earlier date for one musket, we can see at once the dreadful
exertion necessary to obtain it. But supposing a man to get a musket
for half a ton of flax, another half ton would be required for
ammunition; and in consequence, as every man in a native _hapu_, of
say a hundred men, was absolutely forced on pain of death to procure a
musket and ammunition at any cost, and at the earliest possible moment
(for if they did not procure them extermination was their doom by the
hands of those of their countrymen who had), the effect was that this
small _hapu_, or clan, had to manufacture, spurred by the penalty of
death, in the shortest possible time, one hundred tons of flax,
scraped by hand with a shell, bit by bit, morsel by morsel,
half-quarter of an ounce at a time. Now as the natives, when
undisturbed and labouring regularly at their cultivations, were never
far removed from necessity or scarcity of food, we may easily imagine
the distress and hardship caused by this enormous imposition of extra
labour. They were obliged to neglect their crops in a very serious
degree, and for many months in the year were in a half-starving
condition, working hard all the time in the flax swamps. The
insufficient food, over-exertion, and unwholesome locality, killed
them fast. As for the young children, they almost all died; and this
state of things continued for many years: for it was long after being
supplied with arms and ammunition before the natives could purchase,
by similar exertion, the various agricultural implements, and other
iron tools so necessary to them; and it must always be remembered, if
we wish to understand the difficulties and over-labour the natives
were subjected to, that while undergoing this immense extra toil, they
were at the same time obliged to maintain themselves by cultivating
the ground with sharpened sticks, not being able to afford to purchase
iron implements in any useful quantity, till first the great,
pressing, paramount want of muskets and gunpowder had been supplied.
Thus continual excitement, over-work, and insufficient food, exposure,
and unhealthy places of residence, together with a general breaking up
of old habits of life, thinned their numbers. European diseases also
assisted, but not to any very serious degree; till in the part of the
country in which, as I have before stated, I have had means to observe
with exactitude, the natives have decreased in numbers over one-third
since I first saw them. That this rapid decrease has been checked in
some districts, I am sure, and the cause is not a mystery. The influx
of Europeans has caused a competition in trading, which enables them
to get the highest value for the produce of their labour, and at the
same time opened to them a hundred new lines of industry, and also
afforded them other opportunities of becoming possessed of property.
They have not at all improved these advantages as they might have
done; but are, nevertheless, as it were in spite of themselves, on the
whole, richer--_i.e._, better clothed, fed, and in some degree lodged,
than in past years; and I see the plough now running where I once saw
the rude pointed stick poking the ground. I do not, however, believe
that this improvement exists in more than one or two districts in any
remarkable degree, nor do I think it will be permanent where it does
exist, insomuch as I have said that the improvement is not the result
of providence, economy, or industry, but of a train of temporary
circumstances favourable to the natives; but which, if unimproved, as
they most probably will be, will end in no permanent good result.