CoLENSO. — On the Maori Baces of New Zealand. 419 



were the life of the New Zealauder. They were perhaps the three rotten 

 hoops round the old cask, but they kept the cask together. Slavery (though 

 an ugly word) might have been ameliorated in New Zealand, where its form 

 was mild compared with what it was in ancient Home, even as it was both 

 there and in Asia Minor by Paul. Polygamy might have been far better 

 dealt with, for the time, according to the lenient dealings of Grod with the 

 Jewish fathers, and with New Testament teaching, than according to 

 ecclesiastical dogmas. And much of the taboo might have been softened 

 and altered, and borne with too for a time, until a better and not altogether 

 distinct scheme, suited to uphold and expand the moral character of the 

 neophyte Maori Christian, had been got ready. An Eastern sage has said, 

 "In time the mulberry leaf becomes satin." The writer of this essay has 

 seen a chief, — a lineal descendant of ancient kings, — whose nod yesterday 

 was Hfe or death, who had several wives, many fine children, and a number of 

 slaves ; whose home was full of merry laughing faces, food, and hospitality ; 

 he has seen him afterwards a baptized man, without servants or helpers, with 

 little food and less clothing, ashamed and vexed at not having the means to be 

 hospitable ; with one weak wife (soon brought to be so through extra daily 

 labour) and three children, for whom he himself had daily to work very hard, 

 and yet could not procure for them the fish and birds and pork of former days ; 

 while any one of his late slaves was far better off than he. The writer has seen 

 with secret grief that man (and several such) more than once, and he has asked 

 Christianity, " Was there really a necessity for all this ? " Very likely, had 

 those notable Maori kings been only gradually altered, and not so suddenly 

 and rudely abolished, and had fitting short Christian services obtained 

 instead of wearisome long ones, the principal chiefs, heads of tribes, would 

 have kept their status, order would have prevailed, the rising generation 

 would have both known and kept their proper place, the decrease in their 

 numbers would have been considerably less, they would have confidence in 

 the Government, missionaries, and settlers, instead of suspicion ; in all 

 probability there would have been now no war with the Grovernment, and the 

 degrading fanaticism which now obtains would never have found support. 

 Fuit Ilium! Cook found the New Zealanders healthy, happy, and con- 

 tented in the midst of all their wars and poverty ; — are they so now ? 



YI. — The Etjture. 



65. Seeing but very little of a cheering nature in the late past and pre- 

 sent of the New Zealanders, the mind, ever hopeful, naturally looks forward 

 to the future. But where is the seer who can truly decipher the mysterious 

 signs of the times ; much less predict the state and position of the Maori 

 race at the end of another period of twenty years ? But why say twenty 



