392 JEasays. 



proverbs, and fables, was ever to bim an exbaustless mine of wealtb ; for the 

 New Zealander, botb speaker and bearer, never tired of frequent repeti- 

 tion, if pregnant and pointed. All tbe people well knew tbe power of 

 persuasion, particularly of tbat done in tbe open air, before tbe multitude. 

 Hence, before anything of importance was undertaken, tbere w^ere repeated 

 large open-air meetings, free to all, -where tbe tribe, or confederates, were 

 brought into one way of thinking and acting by the sole power of the orator. 

 Their auditories applauded and encouraged wdth their voice, in an orderly 

 mariner, 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 the present generation knows anything practically 

 of natural Maori eloquence ; arising not so much from colonization and ita 

 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 (reJca) 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, Coptic, 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 w'oman down to her little 

 toddling grandchild. It is also to be regretted, that not unfrequently the 



