374 Essays. 



MgL. artificial civilization, where everything natural is studiously concealed, 

 and common matters, Avhich may not be openly mentioned, are freely talked 

 o£ secretly, the more copiously, perhaps, in accordance with the well-known 

 law of our nature, from the fact of restraint being laid upon them. With 

 the New Zealander all was open and unconcealed from his birth ; so that a 

 host of common things of every day occurrence, any one of w^hich to a highly 

 civilized European might be a cause of distress and unpleasantness, or to 

 another of evil thoughts and desires, was not so to him. Many such sights, 

 sayings, and doings were to the New Zealander as if they were not ; simply 

 from being always used to them. It was just that kind of difference which 

 exists between the aged grave-digger in the old church-yard, the old pro- 

 fessor in the dissecting room, the phrenological philosopher in his study, — 

 and the highly civilized but uninitiated gentleman. New Zealand men often 

 went naked, without any breach of modesty or decorum, but a New Zealand 

 woman never did so. Keeping in mind the " well-known law " above 

 alluded to, and remembering that the New Zealander kept no secrets — with 

 him everything was known — there is good reason for believing that their 

 immorality was really less through the promiscuous dwelling and sleeping 

 together of the sexes in one house, than if they had been made to dwell and 

 sleep separately. Adult brothers and sisters slept together, as they had 

 always done from their birth, not only without sin, but without thought of 

 it. Incest and other high crimes were scarcely known, even by name ; nor 

 was it likely to be by a race among whom the marriage of first-cousins has 

 always and justly been viewed with great disgust, as " weakening the shoot." 

 Whatever the New Zealand girl might be before marriage, after marriage 

 she was faithful ; and even before marriage, the betrothal, when made, sup- 

 ported by the tapu, in the majority of cases, kept her from going astray. 

 Adultery on the part of the wives, generally punished with death, was by 

 no means common among the same sub-tribe or village. In fact, such could 

 not be among the suspicious, revengeful New Zealanders. A chief going 

 anywhere confidingly left his wife or wives behind in his brothers' or 

 relatives' charge ; generally sj)eaking, such a thought as their faithlessness 

 during his absence never entered his head. Of course, the writer, in thus 

 giving his firm belief as to the immorality of the New Zealanders, wishes to 

 be understood as speaking of it as practised by a race among themselves. 

 The grosser and more frequent immoralities, which have been caused by the 

 arrival of the " superior" man among them, is no more to be charged as a 

 vice to their account as a race, than is that of their selling an estate for a 

 musket or a Jew's harp, or a large pig for a stick of tobacco. There is still 

 one more glaring vice of theirs to be noticed, namely, ingratitude. This, it 

 must be confessed, did everywhere exist, and that to an extent almost 



