NEW ZEALAND. 



277 



under-rated. The enthusiastic 6 missionary smitten * visitor 

 has entered a picked village, and boldly proclaimed them a 

 noble people, equal to the highest career : the ' anti-aborigines' 

 visitor has entered another village, and denounced them as 

 greedy savages, fit only for extirpation, The good qualities 

 of the Maori have however, been far more over-rated than 

 under-rated. Captivated by his bravery, we have forgotten 

 his ferocity ; charmed with his missionary conversion, we have 

 excused his mercenary cunning ; and dazzled with his aptitude 

 for civilization, have not cared to see his lingering inherent 

 fondness for barbarism. Towards him it has not been 

 nothing extenuate or ought set down in malice,' but 1 be to 

 his virtues very kind, and to his failings very blind.' 



■ ' In their present state of semi-civilization (but assuming 

 that farther civilization will educe more good than bad 

 qualities) I should call the Maori race artful, over-reaching, 

 suspicious, and designing; singularly mercenary and un- 

 grateful ; and still somewhat passionate, capricious, and 

 revengeful ; but not dishonest, generally merry and good- 

 humoured, high-spirited, and (to each other) neither un- 

 generous nor unkind ; sensitive of ridicule, but fond of a joke, 

 inquisitive, and so femininely communicative as to be incapable 

 of keeping even a life secret. 



In natural intellect they are undoubtedly 'equal to any 

 European race. Indeed, I think (with a good teacher) a 

 Maori child would learn to read and write more quickly than 

 an English child ; and if an average Maori boy and an average 

 English boy of fifteen were apprenticed to a carpenter, both 

 having equally good masters, and both equally fond of their 

 pursuit, I think the young New Zealander would turn out his 

 sash or his panel-door sooner than the young Anglo-Saxon. 

 The missionary "schools in the settlements, and the branch 

 native-conducted schools in the interior, have been very 

 successful in teaching the rudiments of knowledge. The 



