Possible results of the Movement. 137 



considered tliem as good fricnds^^both to himself and the 

 Government, and therefore left them to act as they saw best 

 without farther pledge, for he felt fully assured, if the chief 

 (who had addressed him) should go to this gathering he might 

 feel as if his own right hand were there, and everytliing there- 

 fore would result entirely as he could wish." Unhappily these 

 anticipations were not realized, but on the contrary a war 

 burst forth out of the long-despised movement, of such dimen- 

 sions, and of such terrible cruelty, that the results of the 

 civilization of the last twenty years have been seriously im- 

 perilled, and the original Maori, divesting himself of the 

 whitewash of superficial Christianity, has become suddenly 

 visible in all liis savage thirst for blood. We do not indeed 

 believe that the whole race have been seized with this much- 

 to-be-lamented proclivity towards their old barbarism, nor 

 that the application of the proverb (parodied from the cele- 

 brated mot of Napoleon), '^Scratch the Maori and you will 

 find the savage beneath," receives its full illustration here ; 

 but neither, on the other hand, can we resist the conviction 

 that a long continuance of hostilities will foster old customs, 

 and that a war waged with ever-increasing animosity must 

 ultimately result in the decay and extinction of the New 

 Zealand aborigines. 



Independently of this, there was visible, even during the 

 former days of peace and tranquillity, so marked a falling off 

 of the Maori population, that the Colonial Government felt 



