NEW ZEALAND. 405 



They have a chapel at Pahia and one at Tipoona, but very few 

 persons attend ; their native and Sunday schools have also very few 

 scholars ; and they appear to be doing but little in making converts. 

 Most of the natives, however, have morning and evening prayers, 

 but their practices and characters show any thing but a reform in 

 their lives. The missionaries hold large tracts of land, and about 

 the Bay of Islands the Church Mission (Episcopal) may be said to 

 have the entire control of the property. At the missionary establish- 

 ment at Pahia they have a printing-press, and have printed some 

 parts of the Scriptures. They are now printing a New Zealand 

 grammar. In the native traditions, there appears to be some idea of 

 a creation, having a general resemblance to that of the other nations 

 of the Polynesian groups. The first god was Maui, who fished up 

 the earth out of the sun; afterwards a great flood came, which 

 covered the land, and then the waters were dried up by another god, 

 who set fire to the forest. From the accounts and observations of 

 all, it may be safely asserted that the natives have no religion ; some 

 few apparently follow the form of it, and call themselves professing 

 Christians ; but the majority or greater number of the natives have 

 none, either Christian or pagan. When undergoing tuition by the 

 missionaries, they are said frequently to stop and ask for a present 

 for having said their hymn, and it is said, I know not with what 

 truth, that the Catholic missionaries have been in the habit of giving 

 them some small token, in the shape of crosses, which the natives 

 look upon as a sort of compensation. 



At Kororarika, as has been stated, there is a Roman Catholic chapel, 

 and it is the residence now of the Bishop of the South Sea Catholic 

 Mission. Some singular anecdotes are related of the natives, of their 

 first joining one denomination and then another, receiving little 

 articles as presents from each ; indeed, it is said that there are few of 

 them but conceive they ought to be paid for saying their prayers, or 

 attending mass. At Hokianga there is also a Methodist or Wesleyan 

 Mission, which is generally considered the most active, and is doing 

 a great deal of good. 



The native pas are generally scenes of revelry and debauchery. 

 My crew soon got tired of their visits to that of Pomare, and com- 

 plained much of the dishonesty of the natives. Pomare and his 

 suite paid the ship a visit a few days after our arrival, for the purpose 

 of obtaining his quota of presents. I received him and all his retrmie 

 with kindness, and made him several presents, among which was a 



vol. 11. 107 



