472 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Art. LIX. — Some Account of the Beginnings of Literature 

 in New Zealand: Part I., the Maori Section. 



By Dr. T. M. Hocken, F.L.S. 



[Bead before the Otacjo Institute, llth September, 1900.) 



In 1894 I read a paper before this Institute entitled " Some 

 Account of the Earliest Literature and Maps relating to New- 

 Zealand,"* bringing the subject down to the beginning of this 

 expiring century, when Dr. Savage, in 1807, published his 

 short work. The contributors to this literature were those 

 who, sojourning here for a short time, described the newly 

 discovered country, and gave us their impressions of its pro- 

 ducts and people. On this occasion I propose to speak of the 

 beginnings of a literature that has sprung up amongst our- 

 selves, and which has developed into that which may be cha- 

 racterized at least as something very extensive indeed. The 

 subject is plainly divisible into two sections, that connected 

 with the Maori language — first, of course, in point of time — 

 and that when English newspapers, pamphlets, and other 

 publications inevitably followed in the train of our colonisa- 

 tion. The subject is as interesting as it is extensive, and 

 requires much better treatment than it can possibly receive 

 in the short time properly allotted to our Institute meetings. 

 I must thus promise to resume it at a future period, and on 

 this occasion shall confine myself to laying before you a sketch 

 of the Maori or first division, illustrating the same by various 

 exhibits. 



The earliest of our countrymen to take up their permanent! 

 dwelling in New Zealand were the " lay missionaries," or 

 "lay settlers," as they were called, and in referring to them 

 I shall go over no old ground beyond that requisite for the 

 purposes of illustration. Amongst them sprang up the first 

 germ of our literature. Wherever the British race has spread 

 the translation of the Scriptures and of other religious pub- 

 lications has always been viewed as most important, not only 

 from a philological point of view, but as a duty incumbent 

 upon the British people when brought into contact with those 

 of an inferior race. It was in 1815 that Samuel Marsden, 

 ever to be honoured as the Apostle of New Zealand, stationed 

 at the Bay of Islands three simple, pious men — Kendall, 

 Hall, and King ; and later on a fourth joined them — James 

 Kemp. In accordance with Mr. Marsden's excellent theory 

 their duties were to instruct the natives at one and the same 



* See Trans. N.Z. Inst., xxvii., p. 616. 



