Hill. — On the Maoris To-day and To-morrow. 159 



can be indefinitely postponed. Adaptation to the modified 

 environment is the remedy, and this is possible under a proper 

 organization that admits of internal growth and expansion. 

 The Maoris possess all the qualities that go to make a great 

 people, but their contact with new conditions of living have 

 modified their own ways and thoughts, and the two conditions 

 are antagonistic. The savage and the civilised cannot dwell 

 together. There will be a disappearance of the one or a 

 merging in the direction of the stronger force, and this is what 

 must take place in New Zealand. The trials through which 

 the natives have passed since they have been in contact with a 

 newer and a higher civilisation have in some measure prepared 

 them for modification in their own mode of living. Organiza- 

 tion is to them a necessity, and that organization must 

 embrace what will bring about new aspirations and new hopes 

 among the leaders as among the separate members of the 

 native race. The martial spirit of the Maori is dead. It has 

 been destroyed by the spread of the white people among them ; 

 and something is wanted in its place, so as to arouse the 

 people to new activities and new aspirations. The sugges- 

 tions which are given below are the result of long obser- 

 vation among the Maoris and a full consideration as to the 

 best means of creating among them a national spirit different 

 from that of old, but adapted to the new environment. The 

 decadence of ambition, purpose, and influence is bringing 

 about the destruction of the race. With a view to counteract 

 this tendency, it is necessary to institute something which will 

 arouse emulation by the presentation of ideals — moral, social, 

 and mental — such as it is possible and desirable for the 

 native race to strive to obtain. Let the natives be taught to 

 realise that there is a prospect of social advancement in com- 

 petition with their own people under a form of government 

 suited to their present condition, and emulation will soon be 

 aroused and progress assured. The natives need not vanish 

 before the progressive ways of the white man if the latter 

 chooses to assist the former in the work of preservation 

 and development, and the following scheme suggests a 

 way in which the thing can be done. The proposals may 

 be thus summarised : First, the establishment of a system 

 of government ; second, the opening of cottage hospitals 

 for nursing the sick in various centres, where native girls 

 could be trained in the art of nursing and healing; third, the 

 scheme of native education amended, and so arranged that 

 pupil-teachers and assistants may be selected from among the 

 native race ; and fourth, a system of scholarships established 

 to enable the young men and women to proceed to the techni- 

 cal schools or the university for the specialisation of their 

 studies with a view to work among their own people. 



