Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara Volume Iii Part 7

It is from food that a man's blood is made, and it is land which grows his food and sustains him. (Never part with your own land, and do not yield a fertile district.)

Persist in all as resolutely as you persist in eating.

Be firm as the surf-beaten rock in the ocean!

Another man's food you must eat little bits of; food won by your own labour you may eat plenty of, and satisfy your hunger well.

An axe, though very little, can do as much as a man in clearing away a forest.

A fish begins nibbling gently upwards before he bites, and you begin a steep ascent from the bottom (from trifling disputes fierce wars arise).

Not less conspicuous is the vigour displayed in the poetical conceptions of the Maori. There is in them a depth of sentiment, a vividness of imagery, which would almost make us doubtful of their true origin, if the original were not at hand to compare with.

Thus, for example, how beautifully do the following lines, borrowed from a dirge for the chief Te-Huhu, describe the wild anguish of a warlike people, mourning the loss of a beloved leader:--

DIRGE OF TE-HUHU.

Behold the glare of the lightning!

It seems as though it had cleft in twain the steep hills of Tuwhare.

Dropped from thy hand thy weapon, And thy spirit, it vanished Behind the lofty ridges of Raukawa!

The sun hid his face, and hasted away, As a woman hurries from the strife of battle!

The waves of ocean mourn as they rise and fall, And the hills of the south melt away!

For the spirit of the chieftain Was winging its way to the dwellings of Rona;[35]

Open, ye gates of heaven!

Tread thou the first heaven! tread thou the second heaven!

And when thou dost traverse the spirit land, And its dwellers shall ask thee, "What meaneth this?"

Tell that her wings were torn from this our world, When _he_ died, the strong one, Our leader in the roar of battle!

Atutahi and the stars of the morning Look pitifully down from their fastnesses, The earth reels to and fro, For the mightiest support of her children lies low!

O my friend! the dew of Hokianga Shall penetrate thy body; The waters of the brooks shall dry up, And the land become desolate: I see a cloud rising afar Above the head of Heke the renowned!

May he be annihilated, for ever Brought low to nothingness! so may the heart, Now mourning in its depths, ne'er think of evil more!

As deeply imbued with the spirit of true poetry is the following dirge of a mother, a heartfelt effusion of maternal affliction for the loss of an only daughter:--

A LAMENT FOR NGARO.

Slow wanes the evening star.[36] It disappears To rise again in more glorious skies, Where thousands hasten forward to welcome it.

All that is grand and beautiful has no more value to me, For thou wast my sole treasure! O my daughter!

When the sunbeams played above the waves, Or glinted through the waving palms, Secretly, but with joy, we marked thy sportive gambols By the sandy sh.o.r.es of Awapoka.

Oft in the dawning twilight I beheld thee, girt in thy simple robes, And accompanied by the daughters of thy people, Speed forth, to see gathered the fruit of the Main,[37]

While the maidens from Tikoro[38]

Sought for thee the mussels hid among the rocks, Braving the blinding surf, and caught for thee The callow brood of the screaming sea-fowl.

And when at even the tribes a.s.sembled for the repast, Beloved companions sought to have thee by their side, Eagerly contending who should bestow on thee dainties, That they might win a smile from thy lips;-- But where art thou now? Where now?

Thou stream which still dost ebb and flow, Flow and ebb no more, For she that did love thee is gone!

Well is it for the people, as of old, To a.s.semble at the feast of pleasure!

The canoe still cleaves the air, And dashes aside the foam of the heaving sea.

As of yore, hovering above the rocky cliffs, The sea-fowl in clouds obscure the sky!

But the beloved one comes not!

Not even a lock of thy waving tresses Is left us to mourn over!

The truly paternal interest and attention bestowed by the Government on the destinies of the New Zealanders, and on the means being adopted to raise them morally and materially, as also the repeated a.s.severations of loyalty, fidelity, and grat.i.tude towards the British nation, which were constantly in the mouth of the New Zealanders (the Gascons of the South, as an English author nicknames them), gave no reason to antic.i.p.ate that the colony was about to become the scene of a war, which can hardly have any other result than the total extinction of the small remnant of the Maori; for although the English troops have hitherto encountered a severe and protracted resistance, and the Maori, intrenched in their _Pahs_, required Armstrong guns, bombs, and heavy artillery to be brought against them ere they yielded, yet to the impartial observer the issue of the contest cannot be for a moment doubtful. This unhappy contest originated in the sale of some land in the province of Taranaki, or New Plymouth, on the S.W. sh.o.r.es of the Northern Island. A native, named Te Teira (John Taylor), had sold to Government, under the provisions of the treaty of Waitangi, a small piece of land adjoining New Plymouth. Rangitaki, or as he is better known by his Christian name, Wiremu Kingi (William King), a resolute and powerful chief of the Ngatiawa tribe, opposed the sale, on the ground that Te Teira had in fact no right to dispose of this land without his consent, and obstructed the surveyors sent by Government to measure the piece of ground. On their being reinforced somewhat later, Kingi took up arms to resist them, and intrenched himself on the property in dispute. How little the Colonial Government intended to encroach upon the Maori privileges, is best shown by the circ.u.mstance that the Ngatiawa tribe, and their allies of the Taranaki, are but 3000 in number, men, women, and children all told, who claim as their property districts covering an area of 2,000,000 acres, and during the last twenty years have only cultivated some small patches along the coast. The white settlers also number about 3000, and with the consent of Government have, during that period, purchased 40,000 acres, of which hardly one-fourth part is devoted to agricultural purposes. On 17th March, 1860, Kingi was at last attacked by the English troops under Colonel Gold. This was the commencement of a series of sanguinary combats, carried on with the most desperate obstinacy,[39] and the more serious, as it stands out in singularly bold relief, that the majority of the missionaries, Bishop Selwyn and Archdeacon Hadfield at their head, take part with the Maories, and that the learned justice, Dr. Martin, endeavours to prove that the war has broken out entirely in consequence of a breach of the rights of property by the Colonial Government, and therefore that the conduct of the recusant chief, so far from being a rebellion, was a bare vindication of right! Nay, it has even been openly stated (and it throws an interesting light upon certain political complications in Europe) that the Protestant missionaries and certain former _proteges_ of the Government are chiefly to blame for the difficulties now existing between the English and the natives. Amongst these adversaries a certain Mr. Davis, formerly official translator and interpreter, a highly-educated but calculating man, who once sung the praises of Sir George Grey, and among other works has published the Maori Mementos,[40] so interesting in a historical point of view, hit upon the clever notion, in company with a Maori named William Thompson, or "The King-maker," of instigating the natives to rebellion.

With this object in view, they organized far in the interior, among the tribes. .h.i.therto but little civilized, immense popular gatherings, at which in long speeches they always contrived to come back to the a.s.sertion that the Maories and not the English were the real lords of the soil, and that they therefore were ent.i.tled to be governed by a king selected from among themselves. Thompson, thoroughly versant in the foibles and vanities of his countrymen, and supported by ambitious, crafty, intriguing foreigners, was speedily master of the situation, and it is much less matter of surprise that in 1858 a king was chosen in the person of Potatau[41]-te-Whero-Whero, one of the most renowned of the Waikato tribe, than that the Government, from the year 1854, suffered this conduct to go unpunished, and with cool indifference beheld the movement grow in proportion without taking the slightest precautionary measures!

Only by such indulgence, not to say negligence, did it become possible for the native league against the sale of land, and the accompanying King movement, to have attained their present importance, the number engaged in them having risen to a total of 15,000 able-bodied warriors. Since the restrictions recently placed on the importation of weapons and ammunition, there have been imported during the last three years fire-arms, powder, lead, and caps to the value of 50,000, so that we may estimate their present supply of gunpowder at 100,000 lbs. at the least, and the fire-arms, exclusive of those imported at the time of Hongi, at about 20,000 stand.

Already, at Christmas, 1858, when the staff of our Expedition were pa.s.sing a week or two in Auckland, there was a noticeable amount of political agitation in various parts of the interior, and we ourselves witnessed some chiefs, friendly to the Government, who before starting for a great Maori meeting near Drury offered to the Governor their good services, and asked his orders. The Maori chiefs, whom Colonel Browne received in his study, could only be distinguished from white men by the wonderfully copious tattooing on their faces, and were in all other respects attired exactly like Europeans. Some wore black round hats and blouses, others wore caps. Only in the flaps of their ears they carried small pieces of green nephrite, while suspended round the neck by a thick chord was the inevitable club-shaped _meri-meri_, that renowned stone weapon which descends as an heir-loom in families, and is so highly prized that a New Zealander will pay as high as 100 for one. The chiefs candidly remarked that at this gathering the selection of a Maori king would come up for decision, and they therefore wished, as loyal and true subjects of the Queen of England, which they said they always had been and wished to continue, to know from the lips of her representative how they ought to act in such a case. Colonel Browne, who like most of the British settlers in New Zealand seemed to attach but little importance to the whole Maori movement, or, if so, did not like to make it known, simply thanked the chiefs for this renewed expression of their loyal sentiments, adding in the spirit of Maori oratory that "he had already considered them as good friends both to himself and the Government, and therefore left them to act as they saw best without further pledge, for he felt fully a.s.sured, if the chief (who had addressed him) should go to this gathering he might feel as if his own right hand were there, and everything therefore would result entirely as he could wish." Unhappily these antic.i.p.ations were not realized, but on the contrary a war burst forth out of the long-despised movement, of such dimensions, and of such terrible cruelty, that the results of the civilization of the last twenty years have been seriously imperilled, and the original Maori, divesting himself of the whitewash of superficial Christianity, has become suddenly visible in all his savage thirst for blood. We do not indeed believe that the whole race have been seized with this much-to-be-lamented proclivity towards their old barbarism, nor that the application of the proverb (parodied from the celebrated _mot_ of Napoleon), "Scratch the Maori and you will find the savage beneath," receives its full ill.u.s.tration here; but neither, on the other hand, can we resist the conviction that a long continuance of hostilities will foster old customs, and that a war waged with ever-increasing animosity must ultimately result in the decay and extinction of the New Zealand aborigines.

Independently of this, there was visible, even during the former days of peace and tranquillity, so marked a falling off of the Maori population, that the Colonial Government felt called upon to inst.i.tute most minute inquiries as to the supposed causes of this lamentable feature. In a very exhaustive work upon this subject, by Mr. F. D. Fenton,[42] we find for example that the proportion of births and deaths among the entire population--the former of which in England is 1 : 59, and the latter 1 : 34, and among the white settlers of New Zealand is 1 : 136 and 1 : 25--gives among the aborigines the following startling results,--deaths 1 : 33.04, births 1 : 67.13. The cause of this appalling decay of the Maori race, which has been steadily going on since 1830, is not alone due to the contact of the natives with civilization, but chiefly to the sanguinary wars between the various races, of which New Zealand was the theatre for a series of years, and the natural results of those wars. For it was not merely that in their constant battles the flower of their respective tribes lost their lives,[43] but the mothers, to facilitate their own escape, put to death most of the female infants at the breast. Upon this followed, apparently in consequence of the great privations of their wandering life, through hard work and want of nutritious food, a serious sterility among the female s.e.x. Whereas, according to Muret, out of 487 women only 20 (or 1 in 24) are barren on the average, the proportion among the Maori amounts to 155 in every 444, or 1 in 2.86.

The want of nutritious and wholesome food, their diet consisting mainly of salt-fish, roots, and fruits, the absence of clothing, or any care for the body, their wretched abodes, and exposure to the weather, all these causes must greatly contribute to the diminution of the race, as affecting the conditions of sound health of the present generation, and tending to produce those forms of disease, such as scrofula, pulmonia, phthisis, &c., by which the Maories and their offspring are at present decimated. Dr.

Fenton also adduces the intermarriage of near relations among the New Zealanders as one prominent cause of their disease and physical degeneracy. These near alliances, however, at least among the lower cla.s.ses, do not seem so frequent as Dr. Fenton imagined, as is apparent from the surprising diversity of physiognomy and colour of skin. The chiefs indeed of the tribes, who migrated from the north some four centuries since, may indeed have so frequently intermarried that they now const.i.tute little other than a large family connection, but the populace have most undoubtedly made frequent alliances with the inhabitants of the adjoining island groups, as they are to this day accustomed to do with the whites, from which latter cross results the unhappy b.a.s.t.a.r.d race Paketa-Maori, which, like the quadroons of Louisiana and the mulattoes of Hayti, or the mestizoes of the Indian races of South America, despising the pure blacks and looked down upon by the whites, are the sworn foes of both.

It seems to us too hazardous a speculation to go into minute investigations as to the decay of the Maori race, and the most suitable means of averting that disaster, at the very moment when their foreign conquerors, in order to strengthen their power, are actually engaged in a war of annihilation with the aborigines.[44] It is much more important, and will better repay our time, to enumerate the advantages which must accrue to European, especially German, immigrants into a country where the natives have played out their part.

As already remarked, there are few countries beyond the limits of Europe which are so favoured as regards climate, fertility of soil, natural wealth, and geographical situation,[45] or hold out such excellent prospects of ultimate comfort and prosperity, as New Zealand. The mean temperature of the whole islands for the year is 56 Fahr., and is 5 less at the south, and in the north about 4 higher, so that, for example, Auckland possesses the same temperature as Florence, Rome, Ma.r.s.eilles, or Toulon.[46] Gales are frequent along the coast, and the damp south winds known as "bursters" are exceedingly disagreeable and oppressive, but they do not on the whole affect the health of the inhabitants. According to Dr.

Thomson's observations, it would seem that of every 1000 soldiers in the various British military stations 8.25 die in New Zealand, 14 in Great Britain, 18 in Malta, 20 in Canada.[47]

Of the superficial area of New Zealand, which, if we include Stewart's and Chatham Islands, may be estimated at 75,000,000 acres, one-third consists of forest and bush capable of being reclaimed for agricultural purposes, one-third of meadow, gra.s.s-pasture, and valley, well adapted for cultivation, and the remaining one-third of barren rock, or sandy desert, besides lakes and rivers.

The amount of land, in various holdings, reclaimed and made fruitful throughout New Zealand for the year 1857 was 190,000 acres, of which 121,648 were arable land, sown with esculents (chiefly wheat, oats, potatoes, and gra.s.s for fodder) and fruit. Of late years the annual increase of land reclaimed has been 40 per cent. It is calculated that each new arrival from Europe is equivalent to the cultivation of four acres of land, and the breeding of 30 cattle. The cost of clearing amounts in New Zealand to from 2 to 5 per acre.

Hence it is that the Colonial Government are straining every nerve, by holding out certain material advantages and inducements, to attract land-purchasers and handicraftsmen to a country, which, inhabited at present by not more than 130,000 human beings, is quite capable of supporting 30,000,000. The "Auckland Waste Land Act," besides giving every necessary information as to the unreclaimed districts (where land is sold at ten s.h.i.+llings per acre), also contains certain arrangements, by virtue of which intending emigrants of the labouring cla.s.ses, who shall come out at their own expense, receive some a.s.sistance to enable them to settle on certain proportions of the land which the Government presents to them by way of indemnification for the expenses of their voyage, in the proportion of 40 acres to each person above 40 years of age, and 20 acres to all between 5 and 17 years.[48] The sole condition attached by the Government to this land-indemnity is that the emigrant bind himself to remain five years in the province; which period once elapsed, he may dispose of the land at his pleasure. In order to encourage persons accustomed to tuition to settle in Auckland, all persons who are fitted to instruct children in elementary knowledge and English grammar, on their having discharged such duties for five years to the satisfaction of Government, are ent.i.tled to a grant of 80 acres of land.

The most important products and articles grown for export are, all sorts of cereals, wool, and s.h.i.+p-timber. A marked increase has taken place in potato cultivation, of which in 1857 there were exported 4430 tons, value 23,328, and in 1858, 6116 tons, value 33,056. Of building timber of all sorts there were exported in 1857 12,205, and in 1859 34,376 in value.

One of the most valuable trees of the New Zealand forests is the Kauri pine (_Dammara Australis_). This elegant tree, 80 to 120 feet in height, furnishes the English s.h.i.+p-building yards with a large number annually of rounded logs, 74 to 84 feet in length, of better quality as well as more lasting than those of the Norwegian or American pines.[49] The Kauri or yellow pine also produces the kind of rosin so well known as Dammara rosin, of which this valuable tree produces such quant.i.ties, that in those districts where the Kauri tree has long since yielded to the axe of civilization, it has been found in immense ma.s.ses on the soil, in a high-dried state. The Kauri rosin of commerce is not therefore procured, as with us, by making an incision in the tree, but is actually dug out of the earth, into which to the despair of the farmer it has often percolated for several feet, rendering the soil barren. During our excursions we came repeatedly upon whole tracts of rosin-fields, which were covered several feet thick with this substance. The Dammara pine only grows on the northernmost island, and chiefly in the northern parts.

In Auckland we saw several pieces of Kauri rosin weighing 100 lbs. In 1857, 2521 tons, worth 35,250, of this substance were exported, chiefly for its valuable properties as a varnish, and for "fixing" certain colours used in the calico manufacture. It has also of late been extensively used in the manufacture of candles.

The cultivation of the Harakeke, or indigenous flax (_Phormium tenax_), might be made to conduce greatly to the wealth of the country, if some mechanical process could be invented which should without too much expense liberate the fibres from their hard envelope, which is the only obstacle in the way of its competing successfully with Russian flax. Impressed with the importance of developing the cultivation of _Phormium tenax_, the Colonial Government has offered a reward of 1500 for the invention of such a machine as shall bark the native flax, and prepare it for and make it saleable in the European market. At present no more than 50 or 60 cwt.

of the flax, worth about 800, is exported from Auckland. The New Zealand flax surpa.s.ses almost every known plant in the strength and toughness of its fibres, its ratio as compared with the fibres of European plants of the same species standing as high as 27:7. For Great Britain the cultivation of this flax is not alone of great interest in an economic point of view, but is even politically of importance, as the amount of flax annually imported from Russia for her industrial energies averages 3,000,000.

Sheep-farming has of late years made an enormous advance in New Zealand, the export for 1857 being 2,648,716 lbs., value 176,581, that for 1859, 5,096,751 lbs., value 339,779, averaging 1_s._ 4_d._ per lb. The list of articles suitable for export must continually increase with immigration, and the consequent spread of population through the interior.

The entire commerce of New Zealand, both import and export, is at present about 2,000,000, the value of imports having risen from 597,827 in 1853 to 1,551,030 in 1859, while the exports, which in the former year were only 331,282, had risen in 1859 to 551,484. The last-mentioned year employed 836 s.h.i.+ps, of which 438, representing 136,580 tons and 7594 of crew, were engaged in the import, and 398 of 120,392 tons and 6483 of crew, were employed in the export trade. The net revenue of the Government for the same period was 459,648.

The majority of the colonists are emigrants from Great Britain, only a small fraction coming from the continent.[50] A large Irish population lives in the neighbourhood of Auckland, while the Scotch cling together about Taranaki and the southern parts of the island. The European population was 52,155 in 1857, and 73,343 in 1859, the proportion of s.e.xes in the latter year being 42,452 males, and 30,891 females.

While most of the naturalists of the _Novara_ staff went on the invitation of Government to examine the coal-beds lately discovered in Drury district, others made frequent excursions in the environs of Auckland, three of which deserve special mention.

The first was to the picturesque Judges and Oraki Bays, the latter formed by the ruins of a crater. Here for the first time we beheld what is called the New Zealand Christmas tree, _Metrosideros Tormentosa_, which at the festive season comes forth pranked in all its gay blossoms, and is extensively used in decorating churches and dwelling-houses. Its large deep-red, umbellate blossoms are visible from afar gleaming among the green vegetation along the coast. The natives call this tree the Pohutu-Kawua; it is most extensively found on the slopes along the coast.

The wild pepper, Kawa-kawa (_Piper excelsum_), is very common in the country round Auckland, but is not brewed into an intoxicating drink like the _Piper methystic.u.m_ of the Southern Ocean. The natives indeed are exceedingly temperate, and, unlike other half-civilized races, are very little addicted to drink; this however may be partly due to the wise precautions of the Government, which under a heavy pecuniary penalty forbids all tavern-keepers throughout the province from selling the Maori any drink except beer. Two species of gra.s.s eminently characteristic of the country, which often overrun vast tracts of land, and are used by the natives for thatching their huts, are the Toi-toi (_Lepidosperma elatior_) and the Kekaho (_Arundo Australis_). There are also the Puka-puka, or paper-seed (_Brachyglottis repanda_), an object which, where it is found, imparts a peculiar aspect to the landscape, like the silver poplars on the flanks of Table Mountain at the Cape. The name of the plant is derived from the under side of the leaves being as white as paper.

We also during this excursion saw great quant.i.ties of Raorao or Aruhe (_Pteris esculenta_), and were told that the roots (_roi_) of this fern, baked and ground, were highly prized by the Maories as a specific against sea-sickness. No native makes a sea-voyage, at least to any distance, without carrying with him a piece of this root, using it when baked as an antidote against that most depressing of maladies, from which even primitive races are not exempt. The efficacy of this remedy is however rather reputed than actual, the experience of Europeans, who have availed themselves of its supposed virtues, tending to show that it is absolutely worthless.

While at Oraki Bay we also visited the Maori village of Oraki. Here we found some 80 natives, men, women, and children, who had encamped on a hill outside the village. They were clothed partly in European style, partly in clothes made of native flax. The diversity of feature was most remarkable, as was also the great difference in the hair of the head. Some had thin black, others crisp, hair; many had it of a dark brown colour, while yet others had regular fox-coloured locks. The elder men had their faces and hands beautifully tattooed; the women on the lip only, and the younger generation were not tattooed at all. After the customary salutation of "Tenakoe, Tenakoe" (which in fact means literally nothing more than "Here you are," or "I recognize you"), they were little communicative, and showed little disposition to enter into closer conversation with the foreigners, although some of our companions spoke their language fluently. As our instructions were to s.h.i.+p on board the _Novara_ any handsomely tattooed natives who should of their own free will wish to enter our marine, we let slip no opportunity, and accordingly endeavoured to induce some of the natives we now saw to s.h.i.+p with us.

However, they could not be persuaded to make a cruise with us to see other lands and nations, as they could not comprehend what motive Austrian voyagers could have in inviting the natives of such a distant quarter of the globe to join them on such favourable terms. Their chief hesitation arose in the idea which they, the offspring of cannibals, firmly believed, that we wished to take some of their companions with us instead of fresh provisions, with the ultimate intent, so soon as we ran out of victuals, to put them to death, and banquet on Maori fles.h.!.+ Thereupon we showed them some Caffres who had been 15 months on board, and were perfectly well treated. "Who knows," replied one of the most cautious of the Maori, "very possibly the Caffres have only been spared because the necessary moment has not yet come!" We returned to Oraki, our efforts vain to induce any Maori volunteer to make a cruise.

A not less interesting excursion was made to the Kauri forest in t.i.tarangi, among the Manukau hills, to which we were conveyed in a couple of dog-carts. It was an exquisitely beautiful sunny morning. The air was so invigorating yet so mild that we immediately felt how well Sir Humphrey Davy's celebrated remark about Nice, "mere existence here is luxury," may also be applied to Auckland. After a drive of three hours through charming fields and meadows, we entered upon the forest at a spot where an Irishman named Smith has erected a block-house and a saw-mill, which seemed to do an excellent business. The whole appearance of the farm and its residents made a most favourable impression. Old Smith accompanied us in person to the forest, which consisted princ.i.p.ally of the lofty, slender, broad-leaved Kauri pine. These have much more the look of chestnut trees than fir. The whole forest displayed a luxuriance and beauty of vegetation such as we had not antic.i.p.ated in these lat.i.tudes. Creepers, parasites, and tree-ferns, gave it quite a tropical character. There were a charm and a voluptuousness about this green garb of nature, as displayed in New Zealand, such as the virgin forests of even the Nicobars or Java could hardly surpa.s.s in grace and majesty.