124 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



dread them. Especially dreaded were old forsaken houses, old fences, or 

 anything which had once been occupied by faniilies of the higher chiefs now 

 dead. 



In former times, while they lived and moved in the feelings of their 

 ancient religion ; while the poetical ideas of their gods occupied their 

 minds, and they felt themselves above grovelling animalism : they could be 

 healthy, live and thrive as other heathens do, though their morals and 

 civilization do not come up by far to that of the Christians. But when those 

 higher ideas did no longer occupy their mind, when they were in constant 

 dread of offending against the tajni, when their physical constitutions were 

 no longer healthy, when they saw but few children were born and many of 

 the young people died : then they lost heart, and felt themselves sinking. 



Yet there is something in the human mind, also in the mind of the 

 miserable savage, which, through all the dulness, inward and outward, 

 longs for something higher, for something heavenly, divine. When, there- 

 fore, the Maoris in the north of New Zealand at last comprehended the 

 teaching of the missionaries, when the spirit of Christianity was brought 

 near their heart, then they felt that that was the very thing which gave 

 them relief in their inward groaning. Some were converted ; others followed. 

 They were sincere. They became cleanly, enlightened, good, and loving. 

 Others saw it, — it infected them. Then Christianity spread from place to 

 place — a most powerful spiritual movement vibrated through the race. 



Y/ith Christianity the missionaries in the north had also introduced the 

 arts of reading and writing. This was a marvel to the Maoris, who, by 

 nature, are endowed with a fair intellect. That the new things, called 

 books, could talk to them ; yea, that they could put their talk on paper and 

 send it to distant friends, there to be understood : that was to them a 

 miracle, which confirmed their faith in Christianity. They felt at once 

 their minds lifted high above the old dulness, and that explains the great 

 spiritual movement which vibrated through the whole race. Yet it was not 

 the mechanical art of reading and writing which changed their minds from 

 wolves to lambs, but the spiritual ideas in Christianity. Murder, cannibalism, 

 and other sins, as far as they had light and understanding, were at once 

 abolished. Also wars ceased, so long as the spirit of gentleness and for- 

 bearance of Christianity dwelt in their simple minds. That there should 

 come some reactions, that the inherited wildness in a generation grown up 

 since then should have broken out here and there, was no more than might 

 be expected. 



Now, that great spiritual movement from the north had akeady reached 

 this far south, chiefly through native agencies, when I arrived here. It 

 was, therefore, quite safe for me to live among the Maoris. The New 



