THE NEW ZEALANDERS
"No hungry generations tread thee down."
Some 785,000 whites, browns, and yellows are now living in New
Zealand. Of these the browns are made up of about 37,000 Maoris and
5,800 half-castes. The Maoris seem slowly decreasing, the half-castes
increasing rather rapidly. 315,000 sheep, 30,000 cattle, many horses,
and much land, a little of which they cultivate, some of which they
let, support them comfortably enough. The yellows, some 3,500 Chinese,
are a true alien element. They do not marry--78 European and 14
Chinese wives are all they have, at any rate in the Colony. They are
not met in social intercourse or industrial partnership by any class
of colonists, but work apart as gold-diggers, market-gardeners,
and small shop-keepers, and are the same inscrutable, industrious,
insanitary race of gamblers and opium-smokers in New Zealand as
elsewhere. At one time they were twice as numerous. Then a poll-tax
of £10 was levied on all new-comers. Still, a few score came in every
year, paying the tax, or having it paid for them; and about as many
went home to China, usually with £200 or more about them. In 1895 the
tax was raised to £50, and this seems likely to bring the end quickly.
Despised, disliked, dwindling, the Chinese are bound soon to disappear
from the colony.
Of the 740,000 whites, more than half have been born in the country,
and many are the children, and a few even the grandchildren, of New
Zealand-born parents. An insular race is therefore in process of
forming. What are its characteristics? As the Scotch would say--what
like is it? Does it give any signs of qualities, physical or mental,
tending to distinguish it from Britons, Australians, or North
Americans? The answer is not easy. Nothing is more tempting, and at
the same time more risky, than to thus generalize and speculate too
soon. As was said at the outset, New Zealand has taken an almost
perverse delight in upsetting expectations. Nevertheless, certain
points are worth noting which may, at any rate, help readers to draw
conclusions of their own.
The New Zealanders are a British race in a sense in which the
inhabitants of the British Islands scarcely are. That is to say, they
consist of English, Scotch, and Irish, living together, meeting daily,
intermarrying, and having children whose blood with each generation
becomes more completely blended and mingled. The Celtic element is
larger than in England or in the Scottish lowlands. As against this
there is a certain, though small, infusion of Scandinavian and German
blood; very little indeed of any other foreign race. The Scotch muster
strongest in the south and the Irish in the mining districts. In
proportion to their numbers the Scotch are more prominent than other
races in politics, commerce, finance, sheep farming, and the work of
education. Among the seventy European members of the New Zealand House
of Representatives there is seldom more than one Smith, Brown, or
Jones, and hardly ever a single Robinson; but the usual number of
McKenzies is three. The Irish do not crowd into the towns, or attempt
to capture the municipal machinery, as in America, nor are they a
source of political unrest or corruption. Their Church's antagonism to
the National Education system has excluded many able Catholics from
public life. The Scandinavians and Germans very seldom figure there.
Some 1,700 Jews live in the towns, and seem more numerous and
prominent in the north than in the south. They belong to the
middle class; many are wealthy. These are often charitable and
public-spirited, and active in municipal rather than in parliamentary
life.
[Illustration: MAORIS CONVEYING GUESTS IN A CANOE
Photo by Beattie & Sanderson, Auckland.]
Among the Churches the Church of England claims 40 per cent. of the
people; the Presbyterians 23 per cent.; other Protestants, chiefly
Methodists, 17 per cent.; and Catholics 14. Methodists seem increasing
rather faster than any other denomination. Though the National School
system is secular, it is not anti-Christian. 11,000 persons teach
105,000 children in Sunday-schools. In the census returns about
two per cent. of the population object or neglect to specify their
religion; only about one per cent. style themselves as definitely
outside the Christian camp.
The average density of population throughout the Colony's 104,000
square miles is somewhat less than eight to the mile. Two-thirds of
the New Zealanders live in the country, in villages, or in towns
of less than 5,000 inhabitants. Even the larger towns cover, taken
together, about seventy square miles of ground--not very cramping
limits for a quarter of a million of people. Nor is there overcrowding
in houses; less than five persons to a house is the proportion. There
are very few spots in the towns where trees, flower gardens, and grass
are not close at hand, and even orchards and fields not far away. The
dwelling-houses, almost all of wood, seldom more than two storeys
high, commonly show by their shady verandahs and veiling creepers that
the New Zealand sun is warmer than the English. Bright, windy, and
full of the salt of the ocean, the air is perhaps the wholesomest on
earth, and the Island race naturally shows its influence. Bronzed
faces display on every side the power of sun and wind. Pallor is rare;
so also is the more delicate pink and white of certain English skins.
The rainier, softer skies of the western coasts have their result in
smoother skins and better complexions on that side of the Islands than
in the drier east. On the warm shores of Auckland there are signs of
a more slightly-built breed, but not in the interior, which almost
everywhere rises quickly into hill or plateau. Athletic records show
that the North Islanders hold their own well enough against Southern
rivals. More heavily built as a rule than the Australians, the New
Zealanders have darker hair and thicker eyebrows than is common with
the Anglo-Saxon of Northern England and Scotland. Tall and robust, the
men do not carry themselves as straight as the nations which have been
through the hands of the drill-sergeant. The women--who are still
somewhat less numerous than the males--are as tall, but not usually
as slight, as those of the English upper classes. To sum up, the
New Zealand race shows no sign of beating the best British, or
of producing an average equal to that best; but its average is
undoubtedly better than the general British average. The puny myriads
of the manufacturing towns have no counterpart in the Colony, and, if
humanitarian laws can prevent it, never should. The birth-rate and
death-rate are both strikingly low: the latter, 9.14 per 1,000, is the
lowest in the world. The birth-rate has fallen from 37.95 in 1881 to
25.96 in 1897. The yearly number of births has in effect remained the
same for sixteen years, though the population has grown thirty
per cent. larger in the period. The gain by immigration is still
appreciable, though not large.
Their speech is that of communities who are seldom utterly illiterate,
and as seldom scholarly. I have listened in vain for any national
twang, drawl, or peculiar intonation. The young people, perhaps, speak
rather faster than English of the same age, that is all. On the other
hand, anything like picturesque, expressive language within the limits
of grammar is rarely found. Many good words in daily use in rural
England have been dropped in the Colony. Brook, village, moor,
heath, forest, dale, copse, meadow, glade are among them. Young New
Zealanders know what these mean because they find them in books, but
would no more think of employing them in speaking than of using "inn,"
"tavern," or "ale," when they can say "hotel," "public-house," or
"beer." Their place is taken by slang. Yet if a nation is known by its
slang, the New Zealanders must be held disposed to borrow rather
than to originate, for theirs is almost wholly a mixture of English,
American, and Australian. Most of the mining terms come from
California; most of the pastoral from Australia, though "flat" and
"creek" are, of course, American. "Ranche" and "gulch" have not
crossed the Pacific; their place is taken by "run" and "gulley." On
the other hand, "lagoon" has replaced the English "pond," except in
the case of artificial water. Pasture is "feed," herd and flock alike
become "mob." "Country" is used as a synonym for grazing; "good
country" means simply good grazing land. A man tramping in search of
work is a "swagman" or "swagger," from the "swag" or roll of blankets
he carries on his back. Very few words have been adopted from the
vigorous and expressive Maori. The convenient "mana," which covers
prestige, authority, and personal magnetism; "wharé," a rough hut;
"taihoa," equivalent to the Mexican _manana_; and "ka pai," "'tis
good," are exceptions. The South Island colonists mispronounce their
beautiful Maori place-names murderously. Even in the North Island the
average bushman will speak of the pukatea tree as "bucketeer," and
not to call the poro-poro shrub "bull-a-bull" would be considered
affectation. There is or was in the archives of the Taranaki Farmers'
Club a patriotic song which rises to the notable lines--
"And as for food, the land is full
Of that delicious bull-a-bull!"
In Canterbury you would be stared at if you called Timaru anything but
"Timmeroo." In Otago Lake Wakatipu becomes anything, from "Wokkertip"
to "Wackatipoo"; and I have heard a cultured man speak of Puke-tapu as
"Buck-a-tap."
The intellectual average is good. Thanks in great part to Gibbon
Wakefield's much-abused Company, New Zealand was fortunate in the
mental calibre of her pioneer settlers, and in their determined
efforts to save their children from degenerating into loutish,
half-educated provincials. Looking around in the Colony at the sons
of these pioneers, one finds them on all sides doing useful and
honourable work. They make upright civil servants, conscientious
clergymen, schoolmasters, lawyers, and journalists, pushing agents,
resourceful engineers, steady-going and often prosperous farmers,
and strong, quick, intelligent labourers. Of the "self-reverence,
self-knowledge, self-control" needful to make a sound race they have
an encouraging share. Of artistic, poetic, or scientific talent, of
wit, originality, or inventiveness, there is yet but little sign. In
writing they show facility often, distinction never; in speech fluency
and force of argument, and even, sometimes, lucidity, but not a flash
of the loftier eloquence. Nor has the time yet arrived for Young New
Zealand to secure the chief prizes of its own community--such posts
and distinctions as go commonly to men fairly advanced in years. No
native of the country has yet been its Prime Minister or sat amongst
its supreme court judges or bishops. A few colonial-born have held
subordinate Cabinet positions, but the dozen leading Members of
Parliament are just now all British-born. So are the leading doctors,
engineers, university professors, and preachers; the leading barrister
is a Shetlander. Two or three, and two or three only, of the
first-class positions in the civil service are filled by natives. On
the whole, Young New Zealand is, as yet, better known by collective
usefulness than by individual distinction.
The grazing of sheep and cattle, dairying, agriculture, and mining for
coal and gold, are the chief occupations. 47,000 holdings are under
cultivation. The manufactures grow steadily, and already employ 40,000
hands. A few figures will give some notion of the industrial and
commercial position. The number of the sheep is a little under
20,000,000; of cattle, 1,150,000; of horses, 250,000. The output of
the factories and workshops is between £10,000,000 and £11,000,000
sterling a year; the output of gold, about £1,000,000; that of coal,
about 900,000 tons. The export of wool is valued at £4,250,000. Among
the exports for 1897 were: 2,700,000 frozen sheep and lambs; 66,000
cwt. cheese, and 71,000 cwt butter; £433,000 worth of kauri gum;
£427,000 worth of grain. The exports and imports of the Colony for
the year 1897 were a little over £10,000,000 and £8,000,000 sterling
respectively. It would appear that, taking a series of years, about
three-quarters of the Colony's trade has been with the mother-country,
and nearly all the remainder with other parts of the Empire. The
public debt is about £44,000,000; the revenue, £5,000,000. The State
owns 2,061 miles of railway.
[Illustration: A RURAL STATE SCHOOL
Photo by BEATTIE & SANDERSON, Auckland.]
Socially the colonists are what might be expected from their
environment. Without an aristocracy, without anything that can be
called a plutocracy, without a solitary millionaire, New Zealand is
also virtually without that hopeless thing, the hereditary pauper
and begetter of paupers. It may be doubted whether she has a dozen
citizens with more than £10,000 a year apiece. On the other hand, the
average of wealth and income is among the highest in the world.
Education is universal. The lectures of the professors of the State
University--which is an examining body, with five affiliated colleges
in five different towns--are well attended by students of both sexes.
The examiners are English; the degrees may be taken by either sex
indifferently. Not two per cent. of the Colony's children go to the
secondary schools, though they are good and cheap. It is her primary
education that is the strength and pride of New Zealand. It is that
which makes the list of crimes light. Criminals and paupers are less
often produced than let in from the outside. The regulations relating
to the exclusion of the physically or mentally tainted are far too
lax, and will bring their own punishment. The colonists, honestly
anxious that their country shall in days to come show a fine and happy
race, are strangely blind to the laws of heredity. They carelessly
admit those whose children to the third and fourth generation must be
a degrading influence. On the other hand, the Colony gains greatly by
the regular and deliberate importation of English experts. Every year
a small but important number of these are engaged and brought out.
They vary from bishops and professors to skilled artizans and
drill-instructors; but whatever they are, their quality is good, and
they usually make New Zealand the home of their families.
With wealth diffused, and caste barriers unknown, a New Zealander,
when meeting a stranger, does not feel called upon to act as though in
dread of finding in the latter a sponge, toady, or swindler. Nor has
the colonist to consider how the making of chance acquaintances may
affect his own social standing. In his own small world his social
standing is a settled thing, and cannot be injured otherwise than by
his own folly or misconduct. Moreover, most of the Islanders are, or
have been, brought face to face with the solitude of nature, and many
of all classes have travelled. These things make them more sociable,
self-confident, and unsuspicious than the middle classes of older
countries. Such hospitality as they can show is to them a duty, a
custom, and a pleasure.
The Islanders are almost as fond of horses and athletics as their
Australian cousins. They are not nearly such good cricketers, but
play football better, are often good yachtsmen, and hold their own
in rowing, running, jumping, and throwing weights. Fox-hunting is a
forbidden luxury, as the fox may not be imported. But they have some
packs of harriers, and ride to them in a way which would not be
despised in the grass counties at Home. There are fair polo teams too.
They are just as fond of angling and shooting as the race elsewhere.
Capital trout-fishing, some good deer-shooting, and a fine supply of
rabbits, hares, and wild ducks help to console the sportsman for the
scarcity of dangerous game. As might be expected in an educated people
passionately fond of out-door exercises, well fed and clothed, and
with sun and sea air for tonics, drink is not their national vice.
Gambling, especially over horse races, has more claim to that bad
eminence. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why the land rings with
denunciations of drink, while comparatively little has until quite
lately been said against gambling.
Of colonial art there is not much to be said. Sculpture is represented
by an occasional statue brought from England. Architecture in its
higher form is an unknown quantity. Painting is beginning to struggle
towards the light, chiefly in the form of water-colour drawings.
Political satire finds expression in cartoons, for the most part
of that crude sort which depicts public men as horrific ogres and
malformed monsters of appalling disproportions. Music, reading, and
flower gardening are the three chief refining pastimes. The number
and size of the musical societies is worthy of note. So are the
booksellers' shops and free libraries. The books are the same as you
see in London shops. There is no colonial literature. As for flowers,
New Zealanders promise to be as fond of them as the Japanese. There is
a newspaper of some description in the Islands to about every 1,500
adults. Every locality may thus count upon every item of its local
news appearing in print. The Colonists who support this system may be
assumed to get what they want, though, of course, under it quality is
to some extent sacrificed to number. As a class the newspapers are
honest, decent, and energetic as purveyors of news. Every now and then
public opinion declares itself on one side, though the better known
newspapers are on the other. But on the average their influence is not
slight. There is no one leading journal. Of the four or five larger
morning newspapers, the _Otago Daily Times_ shows perhaps the most
practical knowledge of politics and grasp of public business. It is
partisan, but not ferociously so, except in dealing with some pet
aversion, like the present Minister of Lands. You may read in it,
too, now and then, what is a rarity indeed in colonial journalism--a
paragraph written in a spirit of pure, good-natured fun.
The working classes are better, the others more carelessly, dressed
than in England. The workpeople are at the same time more nomadic
and thriftier. Amongst the middle classes, industrious as they are,
unusual thrift is rare. Their hospitality and kindliness do not
prevent them from being hard bargainers in business.
Compared with the races from which they have sprung, the Islanders
seem at once less conventional, less on their guard, and more
neighbourly and sympathetic in minor matters. In politics they are
fonder of change and experiment, more venturesome, more empirical,
law-abiding, but readier to make and alter laws. Hypercritical and
eaten up by local and personal jealousies in public life, they are
less loyal to parties and leaders, and less capable of permanent
organization for a variety of objects. They can band themselves
together to work for one reform, but for the higher and more complex
organization which seeks to obtain a general advance along the line of
progress by honourable co-operation and wise compromise, they show no
great aptitude. In politics their pride is that they are practical,
and, indeed, they are perhaps less ready than Europeans to deify
theories and catchwords. They are just as suspicious of wit and humour
in public men, and just as prone to mistake dulness for solidity. To
their credit may be set down a useful impatience of grime, gloom,
injustice, and public discomfort and bungling.
In social life they are more sober and more moral, yet more
indifferent to the opinion of any society or set. Not that they run
after mere eccentrics; they have a wholesome reserve of contempt for
such. British in their dislike to take advice, their humbler position
among the nations makes them more ready to study and learn from
foreign example. Though there is no division into two races as in
London, it would be absurd to pretend that social distinctions are
unknown. Each town with its rural district has its own "society." The
best that can be said for this institution is that it is not, as a
rule, dictated to by mere money. It is made up of people with incomes
mostly ranging from £500 to £2,000, with a sprinkling of bachelors of
even more modest means. Ladies and gentlemen too poor to entertain
others will nevertheless be asked everywhere if they have either
brightness or intellect, or have won creditable positions. You see
little social arrogance, no attempt at display. Picnics, garden
parties, and outings in boats and yachts are amongst the pleasanter
functions. A yacht in New Zealand means a cutter able to sail well,
but quite without any luxury in her fittings. The indoor gatherings
are smaller, more kindly, less formal, less glittering copies of
similar affairs in the mother country.
Brilliant talkers there are none. But any London visitor who might
imagine that he was about to find himself in a company of clownish
provincials would be much mistaken. A very large proportion of
colonists have travelled and even lived in more lands than one. They
have encountered vicissitudes and seen much that is odd and varied in
nature and human nature. In consequence they are often pleasant
and interesting talkers, refreshingly free from mannerism or
self-consciousness.
They both gain and lose by being without a leisured class; it narrows
their horizon, but saves them from a vast deal of hysterical nonsense,
social mischief and blatant self-advertising. Though great readers of
English newspapers and magazines, and much influenced thereby in their
social, ethical, and literary views, their interest in English and
European politics is not very keen. A cherished article of their faith
is that Russia is England's irreconcileable foe, and that war between
the two is certain. Both their geographical isolation and their
constitution debar them from having any foreign policy. In this they
contentedly acquiesce. Loyal to the mother country, resolved not to be
absorbed in Australia, they are torpid concerning Imperial Federation.
Their own local and general politics absorb any interest and leisure
not claimed by business and pastimes. Their isolation is, no doubt,
partly the cause of this. It takes their steamers from four to six
days to reach Australia, and nearly as long to travel from one end
of their own land to the other. Most of them can hardly hope to see
Europe, or even Asia or America, or any civilized race but their own.
This is perhaps the greatest of their disadvantages. Speedier passage
across the oceans which divide them from the rest of the human race
must always be in the forefront of their aims as a nation.
Industrious, moral, strong, it is far too soon to complain of this
race because it has not in half a century produced a genius from
amongst its scanty numbers. Its mission has not been to do that, but
to lay the foundations of a true civilization in two wild and lonely,
though beautiful, islands. This has been a work calling for solid
rather than brilliant qualities--for a people morally and physically
sound and wholesome, and gifted with "grit" and concentration. There
is such a thing as collective ability. The men who will carve statues,
paint pictures, and write books will come, no doubt, in good time. The
business of the pioneer generations has been to turn a bloodstained or
silent wilderness into a busy and interesting, a happy, if not yet a
splendid, state.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books about New Zealand are numerous enough. A critic need not be
fastidious to regret that most of them are not better written, useful
and interesting as they are in the mass. Every sort of information
about the country is to be got from them, but not always with pleasure
or ease. To get it you must do a good deal of the curst hard reading
which comes from easy writing. And even then, for the most part, it is
left to your own imaginative power to see--
"The beauty, and the wonder, and the power,
The shapes of things, their colours, lights, and shades,
Changes, surprises."
The undoubted and agreeable exceptions, too, require in you some
knowledge of the Islands, if they are to be enjoyed. How is that
knowledge to be obtained? A hard-headed student with a hearty appetite
for facts might, of course, start with F.J. Moss's careful and
accurate school history and the latest Government Year Book in his
hand, and would soon be well on his way. Those who like easier paths
to knowledge may try Edward Wakefield's "New Zealand After Fifty
Years," or Gisborne's "Colony of New Zealand." When one comes to
periods, districts, or special subjects, the choice is much wider.
To begin at the beginning; "Tasman's Log" is little but dry bones; of
Cook and Crozet I have written elsewhere. Of the writers who tell of
Alsatian days, none is worth naming in the same breath with Maning.
Personally I like Polack and Savage the best of them, despite the
lumbering pretentiousness and doubtful veracity of the former. Earle
and Major Cruise are more truthful than readable--conditions which
are exactly reversed in the case of Rutherford. If, as is said, Lord
Brougham helped to write Rutherford's narrative, he did his work
very well; but after the exposure of its "facts" by Archdeacon W.L.
Williams, it can only be read as the yarn of a runaway sailor, who had
reasons for not telling the whole truth, and a capacity and knowledge
of local colour which would have made him a capital romance-writer,
had he been an educated man. As a picture of the times, Rutherford's
story in the "Library of Entertaining Knowledge" will always, however,
be worth reading.
The missionaries have not been as fortunate in their chroniclers as
they deserve. The tumid cant of Nicholas is grotesque enough to
be more amusing than the tract-and-water style of Yate and Barret
Marshall, or the childishness of Richard Taylor. Much better in every
way are Buller's (Wesleyan) "Forty Years In New Zealand," and Tucker's
"Life and Episcopate of George Augustus Selwyn."
Among the descriptions of the country as it was when the colonists
found it, Edward Shortland's account of the whalers and Maoris of
the South Island, Jerningham Wakefield's of the founding of the New
Zealand Company's settlements, Dieffenbach's travels, and Bidwill's
unpretending little pamphlet telling of his tramp to the volcanoes and
hot lakes in 1842, seem to me at once to tell most and be easiest to
read.
On the Maoris, their myths, legends, origin, manners, and customs,
William Colenso is admittedly the chief living authority. For
his views it is necessary to go to pamphlets, and to search the
Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, where much other good
material will also reward the seeker. To John White's ill-jointed
but invaluable compilation "The Ancient History of the Maori," every
student henceforth will have to turn. The selections therein from the
papers of Stack on the South Island Maoris, from Travers' "Life of Te
Rauparaha," and Wilson's "Story of Te Waharoa," are less stony than
the more genealogical portions. Sir George Grey's collection of
the historical and legendary traditions of the race has not been
superseded. Messrs. Percy Smith and Edward Tregear edit the valuable
journal of the Polynesian Association; the former has made a special
study of the origin and wanderings of the Maori race, the latter has
produced the Comparative Maori-Polynesian Dictionary. General Robley
has written the book on Maori tattooing; Mr. Hamilton is bringing out
in parts what promises to be a very complete and worthily illustrated
account of Maori art.
As narratives of the first twenty years of the Colony two books
stand out from among many: Thomson's "Story of New Zealand," and
Attorney--General Swainson's "New Zealand and its Colonization." It
would not be easy to find a completer contrast than the gossipy style
of the chatty army medico and the dry, official manner of the precise
lawyer, formerly and for upwards of fifteen years Her Majesty's
Attorney-General for New Zealand, as he is at pains to tell you on his
title-page. But Swainson's is the fairest and most careful account of
the time from the official, philo-Maori and anti-Company side, and may
be taken as a safe antidote to Jerningham Wakefield, Sir W.T. Power,
Hursthouse, and others. A comparison with Rusden, when the two are on
the same ground, shows Swainson to be the better writer all round. Of
Rusden's "History of New Zealand" no one doubts the honest intent. The
author, believing the Maori to be a noble, valiant, and persecuted
race, befriended by the missionaries and those who took missionary
advice, and robbed and cheated by almost all others, says so in three
long, vehement, sincere, but not fascinating volumes, largely composed
of extracts from public papers and speeches. Sweeping condemnation of
the Public Works policy, of Radical reforms, and recent Socialistic
experiments, complete his tale. The volumes have their use, but are
not a history of New Zealand.
Of early days in the pastoral provinces we get contemporary sketches
by Samuel Butler, L.J. Kennaway, Lady Barker, and Archdeacon Paul.
Butler's is the best done picture of the country, Kennaway's the
exactest of the settlers' every-day rough-and-tumble haps and mishaps,
and Lady Barker's the brightest. One of the volumes of General Mundy's
"Our Antipodes" gives a nice, light sketch of things as they were in
the North Island in the first years of Governor Grey. Dr. Hocken's
recent book has at once become the recognised authority on the first
years of Otago, and also has interesting chapters on the South Island
before settlement. Fitzgerald's selections from Godley's writings and
speeches is made more valuable by the excellent biographical sketch
with which it opens. Dr. Richard Garnett's admirable "Life of Gibbon
Wakefield" is the event of this year's literature from the point of
view of New Zealanders.
Of the books on the Eleven Years' War from 1860 to 1871, Sir William
Fox's easily carries away the palm for vigour of purpose and
performance. Sir William was in hot indignation when he wrote it, and
some of his warmth glows in its pages. It is a pity that he only
dealt with the years 1863-65. Generals Carey and Alexander supply the
narrative of the doings of the regulars; Lieutenant Gudgeon that of
the militia's achievements. General Carey handles the pen well enough;
not so his gallant brother-soldier. Of Gudgeon's two books I much
prefer the Reminiscences, which on the whole tell more about the war
than any other volume one can name. Sir John Gorst describes the King
Movement and his own experiences in the King's country. Swainson takes
up his parable against the Waitara purchase.
Gisborne's "Rulers and Statesmen of New Zealand," though not a
connected history, is written with such undoubted fairness and
personal knowledge, and in so workmanlike, albeit good--natured, a
way, as to have a permanent interest. Most of the many portraits which
are reproduced in its pages are correct likenesses, but it is the pen
pictures which give the book its value.
Of volumes by travellers who devote more or less space to New Zealand,
the most noteworthy are Dilke's brilliant "Greater Britain," the
volumes of Anthony Trollope, and Michael Davitt, and Froude's
thoughtful, interesting, but curiously inaccurate "Oceana." Mennell's
serviceable "Dictionary of Australasian Biography" gives useful
details concerning the pioneer colonists.
Scientific students may be referred to the Works of Hooker and
Dieffenbach, to Von Haast's "Geology of Canterbury and Westland,"
Kirk's "New Zealand Forest Flora," Sir Walter Buller's "Birds of New
Zealand," Hudson's "New Zealand Entomology," and to the papers of
Hector, Hutton and Thompson.
Dr. Murray Moore has written, and written well, for those who may wish
to use the country as a health resort.
Mountaineers and lovers of scenery should read Green's "High Alps of
New Zealand," and T. Mackenzie's papers on West Coast Exploration.
Mannering Fitzgerald and Harper are writers on the same topic.
Murray's guide book will, of course, be the tourist's main stay.
Delisle Hay's Brighter Britain deals in lively fashion with a
settler's life in the bush north of Auckland and in the Thames
goldfields. Reid and Preshaw have written of the Westland
gold-seekers; Pyke of the Otago diggings. Domett's "Ranolf and Amohia"
is not only the solitary New Zealand poem which has achieved any sort
of distinction, but is also an interesting picture of Maori life and
character.
The Official Year-Book is a mass of well-arranged information, and the
economic enquirer may be further referred to Cumin's "Index of the
Laws of New Zealand," and to the numerous separate annual reports of
the Government offices and departments. Historical students must,
of course, dive pretty deeply into the parliamentary debates and
appendices to the journals of the House of Representatives, into the
bulky reports and correspondence relating to New Zealand published in
London by the Imperial authorities, and into the files of the larger
newspapers The weekly newspapers of the Colony are especially well
worth consulting. For the rest, Collier's New Zealand Bibliography
(Wellington), and the library catalogues of the N.Z. Parliament and of
the Royal Colonial Institute, London, are the best lists of the books
and pamphlets on New Zealand.
[Illustration: Map showing
TRIBAL BOUNDARIES OF THE MAORI]
[Illustration: (map of) NEW ZEALAND]
INDEX
Aborigines' Protection Society, 291.
Absentee Tax, 374.
Adoption of children, 381.
Advances to Settlers Act, 376.
Agriculture of the Maori, 42.
Akaroa and the French, 192.
_Alligator_ brig at Taranaki, 160.
Alps of New Zealand, 29.
Annexation, 170, 179, 180.
Annexation proposals, 157, 163-165.
Arawa and Tainui, 37.
Arbitration, Court of, 387, 389.
Architecture of the Maori, 44.
Artistic development, 405, 409.
Athletic development, 402, 408.
Atkinson, Sir Harry, 272, 274, 286, 329, 342-344, 346, 351.
Auckland chosen as capital, 193.
Ballance, John, 341, 345, 361, 369-371, 377, 378.
Barrett the Whaler, 126, 142.
Bird-snaring, 43.
Borrowing, Prevalence of, 331.
Bowen, Charles, 340.
_Boyd_ massacre, 104, 105.
Browne, Governor, 260, 264.
recalled, 275.
Busby as British Resident, 158-162.
Busby's Federation Scheme, 161.
Cameron, General, 278-283, 290, 292.
Cannibalism, 41.
Canterbury settled, 234.
Cargill, Captain, 232, 233.
Cattle introduced, 15.
Canoes of Polynesians, 35.
Characteristics of Maoris, 34, 53-59.
Characteristics of New Zealanders, 399-414.
Chatham Islands Escape, 299.
Cheap Money Scheme, 396.
Chinese element, 398.
Christchurch founded, 235.
Church endowment in the South, 247.
Church Missionary Society, 114, 119, 172.
Church statistics, 400.
Chute, General, 292.
Civilization and the Maori, 55, 59.
Clean Shirt Ministry, 253.
Cliff scenery, 25, 26.
Climate, 11.
Clutha and Prohibition, 365.
Colenso's New Testament, 120.
Colonising companies, 157.
Commissioners and New Zealand Company, 197.
Conciliation Boards, 386, 387-390.
Confiscation of native land, 289.
Continuous ministry, 335, 336.
Contractors, 382.
Contrasts in scenery, 13.
Conveyance of land, 115.
Convicts and Maori, 98.
Coal Mines Act, 391.
Cook, Captain, 79-81.
Co-operative Contract System, 393.
Coromandel goldfields, 318.
Costume of the Maori, 45.
Creation of man, 67.
Crime, Absence of, 241.
Crozet, 87-91.
Cruelty of traders, 102-104.
Customs duties, 208, 343, 352.
Dairy produce exports, 343.
Dark side of Maori life, 52.
Darwin on New Zealand, 118.
Death and future existence, 61.
Death customs and beliefs, 72.
Debts, private, 332.
Defeat at Puke-te-kauere, 273.
Depreciation of land, 375.
Despard repulsed by Heké, 215.
De Surville at the Bay of Islands, 86, 87.
Discovery, 3.
Domett ("Waring"), 47.
Drink, 409.
Dunedin, 232, 311.
Education, 340, 383, 407.
Egmont volcano, 28.
Eloquence of the Maori, 51.
Employers' Liability Act, 382.
_Endeavour_ visited by the Maori, 84.
Episcopal Church in New Zealand, 226.
Escapes of Maori prisoners, 298.
Export development, 335, 343.
statistics, 406.
Factories Act, 382, 383.
Financial changes, 331-334, 351.
Fitzgerald first premier, 253.
Fitzroy, Governor, 204, 206-209.
Floods, 23.
Flood myth, 67.
Flora and fauna, 5, 16.
Forest scenery, 6-9.
Fox, Sir William, 336, 419.
Franchise reforms, 378.
French attempts at colonisation, 163, 192.
French and English in New Zealand, 86.
Frozen meat, 343.
Gambling, 409.
Gaols, primitive, 233.
Garnett, Dr. Richard, 234, 419.
General Assembly founded, 250.
Gisborne's book, 420.
Glaciers and snow, 31.
Gladstone and annexation, 172.
Godley as Administrator, 236.
Gold discovered in Otago, 310.
Gorst, Sir John, 276, 277.
Grazing, 406.
Grey's achievements, 227.
Grey and Atkinson, 341, 345, 346.
Grey, Earl, 231, 245.
Grey, Sir George, 199, 217-230, 291, 339.
attacks Weraroa, 291.
leaves New Zealand, 251.
recalled, 323.
second command, 275.
Gum-digging, 319.
Gun-selling, 264.
Hadfield, the Missionary, 153.
Hall and Atkinson, 337, 342-344, 345.
Half-castes, 398.
Hau-Hau defeat at Moutua, 287.
outrages, 286, 295, 301.
Hau-Haus finally crushed, 303.
Hawaiki, 37.
_Hawes_ outrage, 105, 106.
Head-trading, 97, 98.
Heaven and Earth separated, 65, 66.
Heaven and the Underworld, 62.
Heké craves peace, 219.
Heké's bold acts, 211.
Hobson and Auckland, 193.
and Colonel Wakefield, 189.
and the land-sharks, 181.
character, 194, 195.
Hochstetter Fall, 31.
Hocken, Dr., 419.
Hongi, chief of the Ngapuhi, 130-136.
at Rotorua, 135.
and the missionaries, 153.
in England, 131.
Hongi storms Mataki-taki, 134.
his treachery at Totara, 133.
Hot Springs, 21.
Hokitika founded, 315.
Hospitals and the State, 368.
Houses, 401.
Huka waterfall, 22.
Imperialism, 227.
Imperial troops withdrawn, 292.
Income Tax, 373.
Industrial Schools, 381.
Infants' Life Protection Act, 381.
Insurance Department, 337.
Irish riots in Hokitika, 317.
settlers, 2.
Jade, or greenstone, 36.
Jewish element, 400.
Joint-Stock companies, 375.
Kaiapoi attacked, 149.
falls before Rauparaha, 151.
Kaikouras, 28.
Kauri gum, 319-322.
pines, 320.
Kelly's escape, 108, 109.
Kemp, 292-294.
Kepa, _see_ Kemp.
King-maker, 262.
King movement, 263.
Kingi, _see_ Wiremu, pp. 264, 265, 273.
Kororáreka an Alsatia, 154, 155
burnt, 213.
Labour Department, 392.
laws, 381, 382.
Labour members, 347.
party, 369.
problems, 367-372.
Lakes, 21.
Land Commissioners' Strictures, 198.
difficulties, 187, 188.
law reforms and dissensions, 353-360.
laws of Grey, 248.
Minister of, 354.
purchase, 164.
purchase regulations of Fitzroy, 209.
questions, 246.
Tax, 373.
tenure in early Maori days, 39.
Transfer Law, 339.
leasehold question, 357.
Lee, Professor, 119, 131.
Legislative Council, 250, 376.
Literature, 409.
on New Zealand, 415-422.
Liquor questions, 362-366.
Local administration, 330.
Lodging regulations, 384.
Lower House, 347.
Lunatic asylums, 368.
Lynch law at Kororáreka, 155.
Macquarie appoints magistrates, 156.
Maning, the Pakeha Maori, 100, 199, 416.
Maori ailments, 54.
before the mast, 111.
bravery, 281.
codes of observances, 69.
Maori, decrease of, 398.
fishing, 40, 43.
language written, 119.
lore and legend, 68.
Members of Parliament, 348.
place names, 51.
trading, 262.
voyages, 35.
Marion du Fresne, 87-91.
Marsden, 129.
as missionary, 111-117.
Martin, Sir William, 224.
Mata-ora, 62.
Maui, 45.
the God-hero, 67.
McDonnell, Colonel, 297, 298.
defeats Te Kooti, 304.
McKenzie, John, 344, 359, 362, 370.
McLean, Sir Donald, 307, 308.
Migration of the Maori, 36.
Mining Acts, 391.
Missionaries, 198, 199, 306.
Missionary efforts, 111-120.
reforms, 97.
Mountains, 27.
Mountain scenery, 10.
Moko, or tattooing, 45-48.
Municipal shortcomings, 329.
Murray at Waireka, 270.
Muri Whenua, the Land's End, 61.
Muru, Law of, 56.
Mythology of the Maori, 60-74.
Native Department, 260.
Nature and the Maori, 50, 51.
Nene, 221.
Nene at Okaihau, 214.
honoured by Grey, 219.
New Plymouth under martial law, 268.
Newspapers, 410.
New Zealand Association, 171.
Company, 231.
Company wound up, 246.
Land Company, 173.
Ngapuhi finally checked, 139.
Ngatapa captured, 303.
Ngutu-o-te-manu retreat, 298.
_Niger_ bluejackets at Waireka, 271, 272.
Notable whalers, 127.
Occupation of New Zealanders, 406.
Ohaeawai attacked by Despard, 215.
Old Identities, 233.
Omaranui victory, 297.
Orakau besieged, 281.
Otago _Daily Times_, 410.
goldfields, 312, 313.
settled, 231.
Otira Gorge, 29.
Overtime, 383.
Pakeha Maori, 100.
Maori, _see_ Maning.
Papa, 25.
Paper money issued by Fitzroy, 209.
Parihaka, 308.
Parliament, account of, 347-350.
established, 250.
Parties in Parliament, 258, 259.
Pa, or fortified village, 48.
Pastoral developments, 242, 243.
restrictions, 356.
Pasture land, 14.
Payment of Members, 347.
Pests, animal and vegetable, 18, 19.
Physical features, 5, 10.
Pohutu-Kawa, 61.
Polynesian origin of Maoris, 33.
Poll-tax on Chinese, 398.
Population, 401, 402.
Postal difficulties, 239.
Poverty Bay massacre, 301.
Pratt, General, 273, 274.
Presbyterians, 231.
Preservation of scenery, 32.
Priests as instructors, 68.
Printing, first attempts, 120.
press established, 119.
Prohibition movement, 363.
Property Tax, 372.
Protectionist policy, 352.
Provincial Councils established, 250.
system, 256, 324.
Provincialism abolished, 328.
Public debt, 406.
Trustee Office, 337, 338.
Works policy, 325, 330.
Quartz mining, 319.
Railways, 326, 367, 406.
Rata, 8.
Rangi, 60, 62, 65.
Rangihaeata, 219.
kills Captain Wakefield, 201.
Rangitiri, fight at, 280.
Rauparaha, 140, 143-151, 187.
and Captain Wakefield, 200.
at Akaroa, 148.
taken by Grey, 220.
Rauparaha's treachery toward the Ngaitahu, 146.
Reeves, Hon. W.P., 395.
Reform, 354.
Rehua, 60.
Rent of Government land, 359.
Revenue, 406.
Rewi, 282.
Rivers and streams, 22-24.
Robe, the Charon of the Maori, 62.
Rolleston, 344.
Rona of the Moon, 64.
Ropata at Ngatapa, 302, 303.
Ropata Te Wahawaha, 294-296.
Ruapehu volcano, 28.
Rua-peka-peka taken, 218.
Ruatara, 112-115.
Rusden's History, 418.
Schools in Otago, 232.
public, 340.
Scots settlers, 232.
Scriptures translated into Maori, 119.
Seddon, Rt. Hon. R.J., 362, 370, 393.
Self-reliance policy, 290.
Selwyn, Bishop, 212, 225, 261.
Sentry Hill repulse, 287.
Servants' registry regulations, 386.
Settlement by Polynesians, 33.
Settlers among the Maori, 99.
difficulties, 238.
sent to Port Nicholson, 177.
Sheep-lifting by Mackenzie, 241.
Shipping and Seamen's Act, 390.
Shop Acts, 384, 385.
Assistants Act, 395, 396.
Shortland as Acting Governor, 196.
Shortland's financial troubles, 202, 203.
Slang, 403, 404.
Smith, Percy, 417.
Social life, 412.
Socialism, 396, 397.
South Island a later settlement, 191.
South Sea tribes, 33.
Speech of New Zealand, 403.
Spelling of Maori words, 121.
Spirits' Leap, 61.
Stafford and Fox, 256.
State institutions, 367.
Land Board, 358.
socialism, 396, 397.
Stewart arrested, 149.
assists Rauparaha, 147.
Stout, Sir Robert, 345, 362, 364.
Strikes, 388.
Sugar-Loaves pa attacked by Te Whero Whero, 141.
Sunday schools, 401.
Swainson as Speaker, 254.
Swainson's book, 418.
ordinances, 224.
Tainui stories, 38.
Tai Porutu killed, 274.
Tané and Tu, 65, 66.
Taniwha's account of Captain Cook, 83.
Tapu, Law of, 46.
(taboo) Customs 70-73.
Taranaki devastated, 143, 267.
crippled by Fitzroy, 208.
settlers' grievances, 261.
Tasman sights New Zealand, 75.
refused a landing, 76.
reaches North Cape, 77.
Tattooed heads, 157.
heads for sale, 97.
Tattooing, 45-48.
Tauranga defeat, 283.
tribe attacked, 282.
Tawhaki, 63.
Tawhiri-Matea, the god of storms, 66.
Taxation difficulties, 342, 343.
Te Heu Heu opposes annexation, 180.
Te Kooti a fugitive, 304.
at Mohaka, 304.
pardoned, 305.
Te Kooti's escape from the Chathams, 300.
revenge, 301.
Te Pihoihoi Mokemoke, 277.
Te Rangi engagement, 283.
Te Waharoa, 136-140.
Te Whero Whero, 140-142, 221, 263.
Te Whiti, 308.
Thames goldfields, 318.
Thierry, Baron de, 162.
Thompson, William, 139, 262, 278, 285.
Titokowaru leads the insurgents, 297.
Torere, or Maori cemeteries, 73.
Trade statistics, 406.
Union disputes, 386.
Unionism, 369, 385, 388, 389.
Trading with the Maori, 96.
Treasury deficits, 203.
Tregear, Edward, 418.
Tribal customs, 41, 42, 57.
Truck Act, 382.
Tuapeka goldfields, 311.
Tutari killed by Hau-Hau, 302.
University, State, 407.
Upper Chamber, 376.
Vancouver, 95.
Victorian assistance, 268.
Vogel, Sir Julius, 325-330.
Vogel's reforms, 337-339.
Volcanoes, 20.
Volckner murdered, 295.
Wages, 382.
Waiapu victory, 296.
Waikato defeated at Koheroa, 278.
land invaded, 278.
river, 22.
troubles, 264.
Wairau fiasco, 200, 201.
Waitangi, Treaty of, 180.
Waitara massacre, 140.
Wakefield, Arthur, 199, 200.
Wakefield, Arthur, surrenders to Rauparaha, 201.
murdered, 201.
Wakefield, Colonel, 172-176.
Wakefield, Gibbon, 166-172.
and Canterbury, 234.
in Parliament, 254.
Wakefield's land schemes, 169.
Wakefield system, 247, 257, 327, 328.
War, a game, 49.
customs, 48, 49.
with Maori, beginning of, 200.
begun by Heké, 211.
outbreak in 1860, 265.
at an end, 305.
statistics, 306.
Weld, Sir Frederick, 289, 290.
Wellington, 127.
as capital, 194.
Duke of, 157, 158.
Weraroa captured, 292.
Wesleyan missionaries, 153.
Westland goldfields, 314.
Whalers approach New Zealand, 122.
and their Maori wives, 125.
at Kororáreka, 154.
Whaling stations erected, 123.
Whitaker, Sir Fredk., 337, 343, 344, 345.
Whitmore, Colonel, 297, 298, 300, 301, 305.
Williams, Henry, 116, 193, 212.
Wiremu Tamihana, _see_ Thompson, William.
Wool-growing, 244, 245.
Women and the franchise, 378-381.
Women-fighters, 282.
Work hours, 383.
Wynyard as Viceroy, 252, 253.