4» ADVENTURE IN NEW ZEALAND. Chap. II. 
both sexes and all ages lay thus huddled together, 
like dormice in a nest. Without a great reform in this 
particular no one, however well-disposed to do so, could 
hope to effect a change in their morals, or to raise them 
up to the level of White people. In order that they 
should be better and more decently clothed, it was 
necessary that an improved process of agriculture 
should enable them to produce more than they con- 
sumed, without taking all their time ; so that they 
might set aside some hours for the cultivation of their 
intellect and their religious education. 
It was hoped that these preliminary changes, abso- 
lutely necessary to their effectual civilization, and yet 
mere steps towards that end, might be in a great mea- 
sure assisted by means of dispersing their residences 
and their cultivations among those of the superior 
race, because the constant example before their eyes, 
and consequent emulation to attain the same results, 
would naturally lead the inferior race, by an easy 
ascent^ to a capacity for acquiring the knowledge, 
habits, desires, and comforts, of their civilized neigh- 
bours. 
This was what many sincere well-wishers to the 
natives had contemplated in their opinion, expressed 
in England before we left, that civilization should go 
hand in hand with, and in some degree precede 
Christianity among savage tribes. Perhaps the most 
interesting part of our undertaking was our acquies- 
cence in this principle, and the interest which we felt 
in calculating on its expediency from what we observed 
of the natives while in their wildest state. 
Dicky Barrett, who was an excellent whaler, but no 
political economist, did not see the whole bearing on 
our theory of the system of native reserves ; but he 
agreed that it was a noble and just provision against 
