1840.] MISSIONARY INFLUENCE. 301 



bat the supply has recently been cut off, in consequence of 

 the absolute prohibition of the sale of them by the British 

 authorities. 



Comparatively few of the vices usually witnessed among a 

 savage people, are observed here. Cannibalism and infant- 

 icide were formerly very common, and they are now practiced 

 in those districts remote from the white settlements, though 

 they are gradually decreasing. The New Zealand chiefs, 

 and many of the common people, are polygamists, yet always 

 having one favorite wife. They are very jealous of their 

 marital rights, and adultery is punished by the death of the 

 offending parties, and often of their friends. The effects of 

 dissipation are plainly visible among those natives who have 

 adopted the habits and imitated the practices of the abandoned 

 whites. Since 1815, missionaries have been laboring among 

 them with considerable success. In 1843, there were a bishop 

 and twelve clergymen of the established church, and about 

 seventy ministers of the Roman Catholic, Church Missionary, 

 Wesley an and Scotch Churches. Wherever the influence 

 of the missionaries has extended, though their labors have 

 not been as practically directed as they might have been, a 

 marked change is observable. As the natives have been so 

 much accustomed to receiving presents, they sometimes ex- 

 pect to be paid for their good conduct, and their zeal in at- 

 tending to their devotional duties. Gifts and proselytes are 

 often made at the same time. But all those who have em- 

 braced Christianity, or regularly attend church services, are 

 much more virtuous and happy than the other natives ; the 

 men are more industrious, and more ready to share the 

 burdens of their wives, while the latter are better-looking and 

 lighter of heart, and no longer seek to check the jocund 

 sprightliness of their daughters, by pointing them to a sad 

 destiny — a dark future of misery and care. 



In intellectual endowments they are by no means deficient. 

 They possess a great deal of mechanical skill and ingenuity, 

 though exhibiting it, hitherto, rather in the construction of 

 their richly carved and ornamented canoes, and their fine and 



