84 
OUR RACE AND ITS ORIGIN. 
advantages in one part which are possessed in another, still 
the outward form, however variously fashioned, is a casket 
containing a spirit which is alike capable of enlargement in 
all. This is seen in the early history of the coloured race, 
which is generally regarded as being so greatly inferior to 
the white. 
It appears difficult at first to assign a sufficient reason for 
that strong feeling of aversion which the white entertains for 
the colored races. It does not seem that this feeling alto- 
gether depends upon color, but upon other circumstances 
as well. In the case of the Maori, many are scarcely a shade 
darker than some Europeans, still this repugnance exists; it 
may, perhaps, be in some measure owing to the Maori being 
naturally as highly endowed as ourselves, and from this 
natural strength of mind not being counterbalanced by a 
corresponding social position. Thus, whilst the first leads 
him to regard himself as the European's equal, the second 
causes the European to disallow the claim; he sees in the 
Maori a savage who does not pay that regard to outward 
appearances which he does, or one who does not possess the 
comforts or conveniences of life which belong to the lowest 
European ; and, therefore, he will not allow him to be his 
equal, any more than he would a wandering gipsy in his 
native land to be of equal rank with himself, however great 
his natural abilities may be, so long as he only held an 
inferior position and appearance. 
When the unfortunate war commenced in New Zealand, 
both soldiers and sailors looked with contempt upon the 
^niggers," as they called the Maori; but when they beheld 
the calm and undaunted way with which they resisted 
superior European force, armed with infinitely better 
weapons, and unlimited supplies of food and ammunition, 
and at the same time witnessed the skill with which the 
Maori laid his plans and raised his means of defence, so as to 
equalize as much as possible his inferior position and means 
of resistance to those brought against him, then their best and 
natural feelings were drawn out, they forgot the half- clad 
savage in the brave and skilful warrior ; and even when he 
