Hocken. — On Literature in Neiv Zealand. 475 



Hebrew, but also of Oriental languages, Arabic, Persian, and 

 Tamil. Accident brought him under the notice of the Church 

 Missionary Society, who sent him to the university, where 

 his success was signal. After taking his degree he was 

 ordained, and speedily became Professor of Arabic. In this 

 eminent position he rendered constant and valuable service in 

 translating the Holy Scriptures into the various languages of 

 those for whose welfare the society laboured. With extra- 

 ordinary capacity he unravelled the structure of every tongue, 

 and thus it was that in a very short time the previously 

 obscure language of the savage Hongi was reduced to law 

 and order — was " fixed." The part that Kendall undertook 

 in the task was probably not much more than that of inter- 

 preter. The result was the publication in 1820 of the valuable 

 " Grammar and Vocabulary of the Language of New Zealand," 

 in 8vo, of 230 pages. It contains phrases, dialogues, trans- 

 lations, and some native songs. The edition consisted of 

 500 copies, now, of course, very rare. Some were printed on 

 coarse, strong paper for the use of the natives. 



A final word may here be said of Kendall. Like two or 

 three others of the early missionaries, he fell from his high 

 estate, and in 1823 was consequently dismissed from the 

 mission. He behaved treacherously to the society, was guilty 

 of trading with the natives in guns and powder, and sinned 

 against morality. After his departure from New Zealand he 

 traded in spars and other products of the country with Val- 

 paraiso and New South Wales. His schooner was, I believe, 

 wrecked at sea when entering the Sydney Heads, and he was 

 then drowned. This would be about the early thirties. 



This system of " fixing " the language was not free from 

 certain disadvantages, one of which may be shortly touched 

 upon. Perhaps it was unavoidable, because much of the 

 phonesis, or tone-sounding, of some languages is not accu- 

 rately represented by the values given to the vowels and 

 consonants of a syllable even when proper accent is added. 

 It was this fact that explains some of the various spellings 

 and pronunciations of which examples have been given. 

 Every one, both Maori and English, nowadays says' ; Hau- 

 raki," " Hokianga," " Hongi," — the pronunciation is ''fixed "; 

 but he who seventy years ago said "Shouraki," "Shukianga," 

 " Shongi," as above given, was nearer the bottom of that well 

 where truth lives. At the bottom he would have uttered a 

 rather indescribable sh sound, something like a suppressed 

 sneeze, a mixture of weak sibilant and strong aspirate — ■ 

 yhou, yhong. Take, again, the word so well known to us 

 as " kauri," and nothing else. Its liquid r was so lightly 

 sounded that it might have been taken for I or cl, and thus it 

 was frequently written ; nay, indeed, sometimes its presence 



