gi a a nC al a ae 
Wouters.—Civilization of Southern Maoris. 188 
taken out of the houses to some distance, so that their sickness and dying 
might not offend the living. A rude shelter was made over the sick person. 
Sometimes someone might sit with him, but more often he was left quite 
alone, with some cooked cold potatoes and some cold water within his 
reach. So he was left to die without comfort, without consolation. Now, 
since the Maoris have been converted to Christianity, the sick ones are 
nursed in their houses by their loved ones, they are supplied with bodily 
comforts and die with Christian consolation. 
The wheat culture, which flourished under the excitement of the conver- 
sion and the commencement of civilization, did not last many years. This was 
not due so much to a reaction in industry, as to trade finding its level. The 
Maoris here could catch and preserve in airtight kelp bags a great quantity of 
a kind of young fat seabirds, commonly called mutton-birds. They abound 
in the south, but not further north than Foyeaux Straits. All the Maoris 
are very fond of them, and if our Maoris could have sent the preserved 
birds to the north, they would have received good value in return. But it 
was too dangerous to sail with heavily loaded boats. This was changed 
when settlers came to Otago and Southland, and shipping came with them. 
Then our Maoris found that if they took their preserved birds to a merchant 
in their neighbourhood, they could depend upon their being forwarded to a 
port near which those Maories resided to whom they were addressed. They 
then received flour and sugar in return. Thus they found that this was an 
easier way and better to their liking, than to grow the wheat in the field 
and to grind it in hand-mills. 
I have said before, that with civilization, through cleanliness, better food, 
better clothing and housing, the health of our Maoris improved. This was 
as if a person in decline is patched up for a while through some change. 
The inherent sickness of the Maoris, consumption, brought on and intensi- 
fied by their unhealthy ways of living, could not be entirely cured. When 
the old Maoris dropped off, they left but few children and young persons 
behind them, and these had more or less the old disease in them, which 
Some overcame through the new spirit of life and civilization. A small 
remnant of the Maoris would have been left here, but for the half-caste 
children, of whom I have spoken before. These grew up and intermarried 
With the remnant of the real Maoris. Therefore, the present Maori popula- 
tion here, has strong European features, and one sees only a very few real 
ris among them. 
_ The Island of Ruapuke, which, lying between two coasts, was formerly, 
im the time of Maori dominion, an important centreing-place, is now, since 
colonial shipping has superseded the canoe and boat voyages, an insig- 
nificant spot, with a small population. The Maori young men grown up 
