NEW ZEALAND. 277 



under-rated. The enthusiastic c missionary smitten' visitor 

 has entered a picked village, and boldly proclaimed them a 

 noble people, equal to the highest career : the ' anti-aborigines' 

 visitor has entered another village, and denounced them as 

 greedy savages, fit only for extirpation. The good qualities 

 of the Maori have however, been far more over-rated than 

 under-rated. Captivated by his bravery, we have forgotten 

 his ferocity ; charmed with his missionary conversion, we have 

 excused his mercenary cunning ; and dazzled with his aptitude 

 for civilization, have not cared to. see his lingering inherent 

 fondness for barbarism. Towards him it has not been 

 ' nothing extenuate or ought set down in malice,' but ' be to 

 his virtues very kind, and to his failings very blind.' 



' ' In their present state of semi-civilization (but assuming 

 that further civilization will educe more good than bad 

 qualities) I should call the Maori race artful, over-reaching, 

 suspicious, and designing; singularly mercenary and un- 

 grateful ; and still somewhat passionate, capricious, and 

 revengeful ; but not dishonest, generally merry and good- 

 humoured, high-spirited, and (to each other) neither un- 

 generous nor unkind ; sensitive of ridicule, but fond of a joke, 

 inquisitive, and so femininely communicative as to be incapable 

 of keeping even a life secret. 



In natural intellect they are undoubtedly ^equal to any 

 European race. Indeed, I think (with a good teacher) a 

 Maori child would learn to read and write more quickly than 

 an English child ; and if an average Maori boy and an average 

 English boy of fifteen were apprenticed to a carpenter, both 

 having equally good masters, and both equally fond of their 

 pursuit, I think the young New Zealancler would turn out his 

 sash or his panel-door sooner than the young Anglo-Saxon. 

 The missionary ^schools in the settlements, and the branch 

 native-conducted schools in the interior, have been very 

 successful in teaching the rudiments of knowledge. The 



