IMPROVEMENT OF DOMESTIC CHARACTER. 241 
countrymen ; when they found that they were 
blacksmiths, or carpenters, or brick-makers ; and 
knew other simple arts, and could render essential 
assistance in erecting their houses, or in other- 
wise adding to their comforts ; they more readily 
received, as truth, the lessons which they taught 
of the religion of Jesus, and the descriptions they 
gave of what He did and suffered for the salva- 
tion of the world. 
A great change has been effected by the Gospel 
in the domestic character and conduct of those 
who have embraced it. All the effects of sin are 
perceptible enough to the eye and ear — the 
rags of lazy poverty ; the insubordination of the 
uneducated ; and the strife of tongues, in un- 
disciplined families Formerly, a parent would 
never correct a child for any thing it might do ; 
it was allowed to run riot in all that was vile, and 
to have its own way in every thing. The evil of 
this was palpable : in New Zealand, as in every 
other country, a spoiled child is a great plague ; 
but if the pest was in any one place more se- 
verely felt than in another, it was here. Brought 
up in evil, and without the restraint of law in 
tlieir youth, it could be no great wonder if, as 
men, they indulged in every vice, and gave the 
reins to all their licentious passions. — Another 
domestic improvement is the abolition of poly- 
gamy, in so far, that those who do not now possess 
more than one wife are determined not to seek for 
more ; nor to allow others to do so, those at least 
M 
