WoHLEES, — Civilization of Southern Maoris. 127 



anxious inquirers, came to Euapuke to see the new things and to ask for 

 baptism. They had to stay here for a week or longer to be instructed and 

 to see if they were sincere, and were then baptized. After that they 

 sailed back to their homes, to be there a light among their neighbours. So 

 it came to pass that in a short time there were earnest Christians in all the 

 villages of the district. 



It was natural that, by and by, I should feel constrained to go and visit 

 my spiritual children. I made, therefore, frequent voyages with Maoris in 

 their boats. When I came to a village I stayed there for about a week to 

 strengthen the faithful, to help up again the fallen, and to instruct fresh 

 candidates for baptism. Then, when all was done, I went to another place 

 to perform similar works. I mention this and the following to show the 

 state of the Maoris at that time, both mental and bodily. 



The Maoris in most of the dispersed villages were very poor ; their 

 houses were not good. They were improvident with their food. It would 

 happen during bad weather, when the sea was too rough to go out fishing, 

 that for a whole week we had nothing to eat but potatoes, and nothing to 

 drink but cold water. Add to this, that the hovels were overcrowded, for 

 where I went others went. We had to sleep rather close on the hard clay 

 floor. The smell of such sleeping company was not pleasant. 



A man in the strength of his life, and whose mind is in his work, can 

 bear such hardship. Yet I was always glad when, after a poor Maori hos- 

 pitality, I came to a place where Europeans lived, namely, some of the 

 before-mentioned former whalers and sealers, who had remained here and 

 taken Maori wives. In their houses I found a clean seat, not perhaps on a 

 chair — chairs and tables were rare articles at that time in this part of the 

 world — but on a seaman's chest, drawn for me to the fire. Here also I was 

 treated to pork and damper (unleavened bread baked in hot ashes). 



Cleanliness and better living were not the only pleasures I found in the 

 houses of the Pakeha Maori families. (I prefer to use the term Pakeha, for 

 that includes Americans, and these might object to being termed Euro- 

 peans.) The Maoris had few children, and these had a dirty and dull look 

 about them. On the other hand, in the Pakeha Maori families, I found 

 plenty of clean, lively, and healthy-looking half-caste children. Surely a 

 friend of flowers wandering through a waste country, where only a few 

 stunted plants were growing, and thinking to himself, there might be green 

 leaves and bright flowers here, but there were none, and who then found a 

 rosebush full of buds and roses just opening to the light of the sun, could feel 

 no greater joy than a loving heart must feel at the sight of those lovely chil- 

 dren. The houses were clean, and the parents and children were clean. 

 They were all very simply but neatly dressed. May be this was not always 



