Wouters.—Civilization of Southern Maoris. 127 
anxious inquirers, came to Ruapuke to see the new things and to ask for 
baptism. They had to stay here for a week or longer to be instructed and 
to see if they were sincere, and were then baptized. After that they 
sailed back to their homes, to be there a light among their neighbours. So 
it came to pass that in a short time there were earnest Christians in all the 
villages of the district. 
It was natural that, by and by, I should feel constrained to go and visit 
my spiritual children. I made, therefore, frequent voyages with Maoris in 
their boats. When I came to a village I stayed there for about a week to 
strengthen the faithful, to help up again the fallen, and to instruct fresh 
candidates for baptism. Then, when all was done, I went to another place 
to perform similar works. I mention this and the following to show the 
state of the Maoris at that time, both mental and bodily. 
The Maoris in most of the dispersed villages were very poor; their 
houses were not good. They were improvident with their food. It would 
happen during bad weather, when the sea was too rough to go out fishing, 
that for a whole week we had nothing to eat but potatoes, and nothing to 
drink but cold water. Add to this, that the hovels were overcrowded, for 
where I went others went. We had to sleep rather close on the hard clay 
floor. The smell of such sleeping company was not pleasant. 
A man in the strength of his life, and whose mind is in his work, can 
bear such hardship. Yet I was always glad when, after a poor Maori hos- 
pitality, I came to a place where Europeans lived, namely, some of the 
before-mentioned former whalers and sealers, who had remained here and 
taken Maori wives. In their houses I found a clean seat, not perhaps on a 
chair—chairs and tables were rare articles at that time in this part of the 
world—but on a seaman’s chest, drawn for me to the fire. Here also I was 
treated to pork and damper (unleavened bread baked in hot ashes). 
Cleanliness and better living were not the only pleasures I found in the 
houses of the Pakeha Maori families. (I prefer to use the term Pakeha, for 
that includes Americans, and these might object to being termed Euro- 
peans.) The Maoris had few children, and these had a dirty and dull look 
about them. On the other hand, in the Pakeha Maori families, I found 
Plenty of clean, lively, and healthy-looking half-caste children. Surely a 
friend of flowers wandering through a waste country, where only a few 
stunted plants were growing, and thinking to himself, there might be green 
leaves and bright flowers here, but there were none, and who then found a 
tosebush full of buds and roses just opening to the light of the sun, could feel 
no greater joy than a loving heart must feel at the sight of those lovely chil- 
dren. The houses were clean, and the parents and children were clean. 
They were all very simply but neatly dressed, May be this was not always 
