344 The National Geographic Magazine 



worse, vested rates — free from the un- 

 fulfilled seductions of power a subject 

 race. 



Never was there a race with the 

 strength of mind and the strength of 

 body like that which British colonists 

 found in New Zealand waiting for them. 

 Of the strength of mind of the Maori you 

 may judge by a remark made to me by 

 one of them, who said, " They came to 

 teach us to pray to God, and as our eyes 

 were uplifted in prayer they stole our 

 land from under our feet." The larger 

 parties of Maori on the warpath found 

 their enemy famished for the want of 

 food, helpless from weakness ; they did 

 not fall upon him and exterminate him 

 as his brothers in all Christian countries 

 would do. They proclaimed a truce and 

 sent- their enemy a full half of the finest 

 provender in their larder. This was not 

 from any motives of magnanimity, but 

 because they, first of all, wanted a good, 

 square, stand-up fight, and wanted to 

 fight well in order that they might rest 

 well. 



This strength of the Maori arises from 

 a peculiar situation in the conditions of 

 New Zealand. Although theirs was 

 this exquisite country, perfect in soil 

 and perfect in climate, although it was 

 a beautiful house when the first Maori 

 lived there, it was an unfurnished house. 

 The Maori had to fight so hard for their 

 living that they acquired the vigor 

 that enabled them to struggle with equal 

 ardor and equal strength for their rights. 

 And hence it is that in this splendid 

 new country it is their work which has 

 counted in raising to such height its 

 social and legal rights ; and in these they 

 are thoroughly recognized as factors — 

 you see the Maori policeman walking 

 right by the side of the English police- 

 man, equally respected, equally feared. 

 The Maori shares the same benefits in 

 the land laws and in the other institu- 

 tions of the country. There are two 

 Maori sitting in Parliament, and since 

 I was there a Maori gentleman, a real 



gentleman, has been called by the gov- 

 ernment into the cabinet and now sits 

 beside the premier, one of the magis- 

 trates to hear and decide upon questions 

 of the country. 



This perfect land that I have described 

 to you is inhabited today by the most 

 perfect Anglo-Saxon people to be found 

 in the population of the world ; English 

 principally, then Scotch, and just that 

 touch of Irish which is needed to give 

 perfection ; and this population consti- 

 tutes today the most homogeneous, the 

 most compact, the most energetic, and 

 the most manageable democracy' in the 

 world. And in tracing some of their 

 recent achievements, bear in mind that 

 New Zealand was not settled by exiles, 

 patriots driven from home, nor by mar- 

 tyrs seeking freedom of religion, nor by 

 social enthusiasts seeking to found a new 

 and perfect state. Not at all. New 

 Zealand was settled by middle-class 

 capitalists, almost all of whom were 

 merely seeking to better their condi- 

 tion. The English gentleman left the 

 social question behind him when he 

 went there. He took with him polit- 

 ical questions, probably because he was 

 an Englishman ; and it came to be that 

 by 1890, when only 50 3'ears old, New 

 Zealand, the youngest of the nations, 

 found itself the oldest in economic in- 

 iquity and sin. 



The people found themselves caught 

 in the strongest grip of the modern so- 

 cial problem. There was the land mo- 

 nopoly, almost worse than that of Ire- 

 land, because it was not only a monopoly 

 of absentees, but the absentees were cor- 

 rupt, and there was not in New Zealand, 

 as there was in Ireland, the alleviation 

 of representation in the Imperial Parlia- 

 ment — an alleviation for the Irish, not 

 for the Imperial Parliament. 



There was also the money monopoly, 

 which in the country and in the cities 

 was in the hands of a few men who had 

 learned how to combine and keep the 

 screws twisted about the necks of the 



