Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlvi. (1902), No. \%. 19 



have seized the crew and compelled the captain, b}- fair 

 means or foul, to take them to the island of their desire, 

 whither, in two trips, about 900 Maoris were transported, 

 and let loose upon the unfortunate inhabitants, already 

 decimated by some virulent disease. Those who are fond 

 of extolling the virtues of the Maori race would do well to 

 study impartially the history of their occupation of Chat- 

 ham Island. At the time of the invasion the Morioris are 

 supposed to have numbered some two thousand, and had 

 they attacked the new-comers on their first arrival, when 

 too weak from the results of the voyage to offer effective 

 resistance, they might have exterminated them with little 

 trouble and prolonged for an indefinite period the life of 

 their own race. Unfortunately for themselves, however, 

 they had lost the art of self-defence. Owing to the 

 absence of competition they had, in this respect at any 

 rate, undergone degeneration. Killing was actually for- 

 bidden by their laws and peace had reigned too long and 

 too securely to give place at once to war when the 

 emergency arose. Just as the wingless birds have more 

 or less completely disappeared before the advance of intro- 

 duced carnivores, so the Morioris, their happy isolation 

 once broken, fell an easy prey to the more virile New 

 Zealanders. The latter proceeded to parcel out the 

 conquered country amongst themselves, claiming not only 

 the land but also the inhabitants thereof, who were 

 speedily reduced to the condition of slaves, and put to 

 hard labour for their brutal masters. 



Mr. Shand tells us how " Te Wharekura, of Te Raki, 

 " with his Jiapu, killed and roasted 50 Morioris, in one 

 " oven, — it might have been more than one, — for no reason 

 "whatever that could be assigned," while at Waitangi 

 one Tikaokao and others massacred men, women and 

 children of the conquered race, and laid them out on the 



