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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



patriotic of their nation, who "long but for one 

 battle more, the stain of their shame to efface." 



Religious fanaticism stimulates this hostile 

 spirit, and if there ever again are serious trou- 

 bles with the natives in New Zealand, we shall 

 hear more of the " Hau-haus," who have lapsed 

 from Christianity back to their original heathen- 

 ism, upon which they have engrafted some of the 

 darker rites and tenets to be found in the pages 

 of the Old Testament 



How far the missionaries have made any deep 

 or lasting impression upon the life and character 

 of the Polynesians, whom they so rapidly per- 

 suaded to accept the forms of Christianity, is a 

 point very difficult to decide. A strong reaction 

 from their influence and teaching has undoubt- 

 edly taken place in many parts of New Zealand, 

 where deserted mission-stations are pointed out 

 embowered amid choice fruit-trees, in situations 

 the amenity of which does the highest credit to 

 the taste of the reverend founders. In a remote 

 village of the interior there lies on the ground a 

 very large bell, too heavy to be swung in any 

 building of native construction. It is the only 

 visible token of Christianity, and bears a Maori 

 inscription to the effect that it is a gift, bestowed 

 in 1853 upon the believers of Tokanu by " cer- 

 tain good women of Kotirana," the nearest ap- 

 proach to the name of Scotland which the Maori 

 alphabet permits. A good woman of the locality, 

 on our asking what it all meant, replied with a 

 laugh and the Maori equivalent for " soft-saw- 

 der ! " The handsome gift is evidently not looked 

 upon with the respect due to its intrinsic value, 

 to the motives which actuated the donors, and to 

 the difficulties overcome in conveying it into the 

 heart of a country at that time entirely devoid of 

 roads. During the twenty years that have elapsed 

 since this great bell was rolled in a barrel over 

 the fern-clad hills around Lake Taupo, many con- 

 verts have either joined the Hau-haus or lapsed 

 into utter indifference, and are pagans so far as 

 any religious faith is concerned. But not the less 

 on that account have the Christian missionaries 

 deserved well of the natives. Throughout Poly- 

 nesia it is entirely due to them that the natives 

 are an educated people in the strictest sense of 

 the word, for it is difficult to find anywhere within 

 reach of mission influence a Polynesian, old or 

 young, who cannot read and write. 



The missionaries began by creating a written 

 language; simple as to orthography, and invariable 

 as-to pronunciation. Having reduced to writing 

 dialects which existed formerly as mere sounds, 

 they ere long succeeded in converting warlike 



and indolent savages into lettered scholars, al- 

 though many of their pupils had already attained 

 a mature age. An achievement such as this re- 

 flects credit upon teachers and pupils alike. 



It must be admitted that the missionaries 

 have been too severe in their condemnation of 

 native customs and amusements, and have there- 

 by overstrained their influence. The burdens 

 laid upon recent converts have been too heavy 

 for them to bear, and a certain amount of reac- 

 tion has necessarily followed. The " haka " and 

 the " hula-hula " are not perhaps the most elegant 

 or decorous of dances, but it would have been 

 wiser to reform than to prohibit, although some 

 Christian denominations can fairly boast of their 

 consistent opposition to dancing of any sort, and 

 may assert with some show of reason that waltzes 

 and reels are not greatly superior in decorum to 

 the native dances of Polynesia. The joyous na- 

 ture of the islanders is not easily suppressed, and 

 tbey are more likely to become hypocrites than 

 ascetics ; but the outburst in New Zealand of the 

 Pai Marire or Hau-hau religion, a few years ago, 

 proved that the stern theology of the Old Testa- 

 ment is not without attraction for the fiercer 

 spirits among them. In Hawaii the awe enter- 

 tained by the natives for the missionaries is en- 

 hanced by their influence with the government, 

 which has always been considerable. Even the 

 presence of a man-of-war "Pelekani" (British), 

 and the popularity of the officers, will not avail 

 to produce a "hula-hula" on Sunday in a Hawai- 

 ian village. The answer to all persuasions is, 

 " The missionaries and the police " — the latter 

 being in this merely the agents of the former. 

 Where missionaries have the ear of the authori- 

 ties, as in Polynesia, they need not expect to be 

 regarded as " protectors of the poor," a title 

 freely conceded to them in India, where many of 

 the unconverted natives regard them as their 

 best friends, able and willing to plead their cause 

 even in disputes with government officials. A 

 distinct antagonism usually exists, throughout 

 Polynesia, between the missionary and the casual 

 white settler, and the opinions of a stranger are 

 apt to be colored according to the class among 

 which he happens to be thrown. Speaking for 

 mvself, the good work of education appears to 

 cover the other failures of the missionaries, and to 

 compensate amply the islanders for all that they 

 have given up, whether in land, in pecuniary con- 

 tributions, or in amusement. Partly owing to a 

 diminished population, partly also to diminished 

 religious zeal, church accommodation is now in 

 excess of the requirements of the natives, more 



