392 Essays. * 
proverbs, and fables, was ever to him an exhaustless mine of wealth; for the 
New Zealander, both speaker and hearer, never tired of frequent repeti- 
tion, if pregnant and pointed. All the people well knew the power of 
persuasion, particularly of that done in the open air, before the multitude. 
Hence, before anything of importance was undertaken, there were repeated 
large open-air meetings, free to all, where the tribe, or confederates, were 
brought into one way of thinking and acting by the sole power of the orator. 
Their auditories applauded and encouraged with their voice, in an orderly 
manner, as with us. Not unfrequently has the writer sat for hours (some 
twenty or thirty years ago) listening with admiration to skilled New Zealand 
speakers arousing or repressing the passions of their countrymen; scarcely 
deciding which to admire the most—their suitable fluent diction, their choice 
of natural images, their impassioned appeals, or their graceful action. No 
young New Zealander of tlie present generation knows anything practically 
of natural Maori eloquence ; arising not so much from colonization and its 
many new things and ideas, as from a real deficiency in his knowledge of the 
past, and of the New Zealand language. : 
. 48. Several Europeans now speak the New Zealand language: few, how- 
ever, correctly ; still fewer idiomatically ; and scarcely any in such a way as 
- to be wholly grateful (reka) to a native's ear. The reason is, their ideas, 
language, and gesture, if any, are altogether foreign. They have never 
thought, or cared to think, in Maori ; hence, while many of them are ready 
to speak of the meagreness of the New Zealand „tongue, the leanness is 
entirely on their own side. There are not a few Europeans who have grown 
grey in service in New Zealand, and who have been speaking, in their way, 
the language every day of their lives, who neither speak it correctly nor 
clearly understand it. Some Europeans have even ventured to write 
" learnedly" upon it, using, without acknowledgment, the material obtained 
by others, and racking and distorting by turns Hebrew, Sanscrit, Arabic, 
Greek, Coptie, Spanish, and many others; never once suspecting their own 
ignorance of that of New Zealand. It is surprising how few words, and 
those of the common everyday sort, suffice to talk daily with natives (or 
ourselves), especially when that intercourse is mainly of one kind. It is 
also remarkable how very soon natives get to know the true mental calibre 
of a white man; to gauge, as it were, his knowledge of their language and 
of themselves, and to say and act accordingly ; setting wholly aside for the 
time, with him, their own true grammar, pronunciation, and idiom, to suit 
and accommodate him, while he does not perceive or suspect it. Not a few 
of our old missionaries, officials, and settlers, are thus continually being 
politely treated by them, from the old native ‘woman down to her little 
_ teddling grandchild. Tt is also to be regretted, that not unfrequently the 
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