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Taken on the whole, then, notwithstanding the cultivations of the Maoris, we 

 may treat these islands as having been a virgin country, but little modified by 

 the hand of man until the arrival of the European settlers. 



Let us then enquire into the changes which have already been effected, 

 and into the probable further changes which will in time be effected as the 

 result of our colonization. This subject is necessarily twofold in its bearing, 

 firstly, as regards the effect of colonization upon the native race, and secondly 

 as regards its effect upon the indigenous fauna and flora. 



In considering this subject I am tempted to draw your attention to the 

 difference in the character of ancient and modern colonization, for it must not 

 be supposed that the art of colonization is of purely modern invention, although, 

 as you will find, the mode in which it is now carried out differs greatly from 

 that which was practised by older civilized nations. 



It has been urged by some political writers, that although the great 

 nations of Europe have, within the last three centuries, sent colonies into 

 almost every part of the habitable world, and have by this means subjected 

 countries infinitely surpassing in extent those they have left, yet that we cannot 

 compare the colonies of the ancients with those of the moderns, without being 

 at once impressed with the conviction that the former renewed the human race, 

 tempering it afresh, and beginning existence with all the advantages of youth, 

 whilst the latter are born old, with all the jealousies, all the troubles, and 

 many of the vices of the States from which they spring. That the colonies of 

 the ancients, in every point of civilization, constantly rose above those who 

 had given birth to them, whilst ours as constantly tend to fall below their 

 founders ; that the European colonies already large, are destined to become 

 larger, but that in vain will be sought for in them, the virtues, the patriotism 

 and the vigour which belonged to the first age of the world. They urge that 

 the Greeks, and before them the Egyptians, founded a colony that it might be 

 complete in itself, whilst we (speaking of existing European nations) design it 

 to become part of another empire. They had constantly in view the welfare 

 of the colonists ; we, the advantage of the mother country. They wished the 

 colony to depend upon itself with respect to its subsistence, defence, internal 

 government, and all the principles of its development ; we wish it to be 

 dependent in every way, to subsist by commerce, and that this commerce 

 should enrich the mother country ; that it should be obedient to her orders, 

 governed by her lieutenants, and that its citizens should receive even their 

 education, in its highest branches, from their elder brothers. It is added, 

 moreover, that whilst the colonies of the Egyptians, of the Phoenicians, of 

 the Greeks, and even of the Romans, brought benefits to the people in whose 

 countries they were established, ours bring calamities. That the first, by their 

 contact, civilized the barbarians, whilst the modern Europeans have, wherever 

 they have settled, barbarised the races they call barbarous, and in turn have 

 become barbarised themselves. And it is urged, with much force and truth, 

 that in their transactions with the aborigines, recent colonists have frequently 

 sullied themselves by deceit and by abuse of force ; that they go back in their 

 agriculture and other arts, and that the general level of intelligence descends 

 instead of rising. 



Such writers further show that the first care of the ancient colonists was 

 the choice of a site to build their city, for it was in cities they wished to live ; 

 and it was by means of cities that they spread the arts of the life of towns or 

 civilization, and that the colonists, usually few in number as compared with 

 the aborigines, and completely abandoned to themselves (for the mother 

 country did not think of defending them), took care to build all their houses 

 within the enclosure of the city, from which they went forth daily to cultivate 

 the fields in their vicinity. Of course, the progress of such colonies in wealth 



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