162 Transactions. 



board or split paling, often unlined and without paper or scrim. 

 There is, perhaps, a chimney of slabs or galvanized iron ; but no 

 body of heat can be maintained, and the only effect of the fire 

 is to draw in the cold air from the hills or the malaria from the 

 marshy ground. Moreover, the Maori generally lives from hand 

 to mouth, and has barely sufficient for present necessities. On a 

 cold night, when a crowd of visitors come to put up with him — 

 and his native hospitality forbids him turning any away — he has 

 to share his scanty supply of bedding among them as far as it 

 will go ; and when he conies in out of the wet he rarely troubles 

 to change his clothes, if, indeed, he have another suit to change 

 into, but simply takes off his coat and boots, wraps himself in a 

 blanket, and steams until he is dry. What wonder, therefore, 

 that even when a Maori is possessed of a European house he 

 often lives in it as little as possible, and prefers to squat by a 

 fire in an open shed ? It is the nearest he can get to the old 

 Native system — the system that suits him best. 



The adoption of European methods of cultivation was, of 

 course, inevitable ; and the Rev. Samuel Marsden. the founder 

 of the mission to the Maoris, thought that when they were pro- 

 vided with ploughs and bullock-teams they would enter on a 

 new era of progress. The new era certainly dawned, but it was 

 not the era expected by that great humanitarian ; or, to be 

 more correct, the new era did not fulfil its early promise. In 

 the pre-European days every kind of work was organized and 

 regulated. Whether it was the breaking-up of land, or the 

 planting or taking-up of the crop, the people worked in gangs 

 under the direction of a leader, who marked the time with a 

 song, to which the workers answered with a chorus. Each class 

 of work had its appointed season, determined by recognised 

 signs and portents, as the age of the moon or the blooming of 

 a certain tree or flower, while in cases of doubt or uncertainty 

 the time would be fixed by the tohunga and the regulation 

 enforced by the chief. Growing crops were under strict tapu, 

 and it was believed that any breach or neglect of the tapu would 

 involve serious disaster. In this way punctuality was secured, 

 the labour was greatly lightened, and the work done with cheer- 

 fulness and hope. All hands worked together like a well-ordered 

 team, and each bore his full share of the common burden. For 

 a time the new system seemed to promise very well, and as 

 long as something of the old tribal spirit was kept up large 

 quantities of wheat, maize, potatoes, &c, were grown, with the 

 assistance of European implements, all over the country. But 

 as the authority of the chief declined, the co-operative spirit 

 passed away, while the mere fact that the work was easier in- 

 duced an element of failure. The fatal indolence and procrasti- 



