§ 18. A Few Remarks on the New Zealand Language, and the Characters or Alphabet used in this Edition of the New Testament.

When Professor Lee of Cambridge in 1820, supervised and methodically arranged the MSS. of the New Zealand language,—that "had for the most part been previously collected by Mr. Kendall, who had for several years resided as a settler in New Zealand under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society: and who, on his return to England, took two Native page 24 Chiefs with him, Hongi and Waikato;"^* Professor Lee (or Mr Kendall) gave the five vowels (still retained and in common use) and twenty consonants; so making the New Zealand Alphabet to consist of 25 letters or characters,—much the same in fact as the old and common English one, with the sole exception of the letter C; and yet one essential sound or character was not provided for. In course of time, however, this long alphabet wag found to be not required; and no less than eleven consonants were discarded,^† and the alphabet correspondingly simplified.

On my leaving London in 1834, for my sphere of labour in New Zealand, I applied at the Church Missionary House for a copy of Lee's "Grammar and Vocabulary," published by them; and I was informed that I had better not study one on my way out as it was in many places incorrect: so I came away withal a copy. On arriving in New Zealand, I found the language had been lately settled by the resident Missionaries; (as, also, recently used by them in some portions of Holy Scripture, prayers, and hymns, that were printed at Sydney for the Mission in 1833;) and this orthography was further adopted in the printing of the New Testament, and other early books and papers.

Still, there were grave objections to the combination of the two English consonants n and g, to represent the nasal sound, or ng, (as given by Kendall and Lee,) such being complex and unwieldy, when a new and much more simple character (say half of the n and half of the g) would serve, and in writing be more quickly made; this objection, however, was overruled, on its being shown, that some of the New Zealand tribes, particularly the Ngatiawa, only used the n, dropping the g sound altogether!

I was not very long in the Country before I discerned, that one more character or letter, was absolutely necessary to make the New Zealand alphabet perfect; this was early made very apparent to me while conducting the adult Maori school, as I saw from the want of it the Maoris themselves often made both ludicrous and grave mistakes in their reading in class the Sydney printed books; where the consonant w was made to stand and do duty both for its own simple sound of w, and for the more complex one of wh.

In course of time I wrote a long letter on the subject to the Committee of Missionaries, showing the need of the wanting character being supplied, and also how it might better be formed, from several printed examples in large and small letters, as, w′, wh f, and v. To my letter an official reply came from the Secretary, informing me, that the Committee of Missionaries did not see the necessity of any alteration or addition to the Maori alphabet.^*

And so the New Testament was printed according to the then established orthography.

Notwithstanding, my expressed opinion grew, and was supported by several, and among others by the Wesleyan Missionaries on the West Coast, who adopted the wh to represent the sound not already provided for. I had certainly preferred the more simple form of v, (so easily written,) which, together with f, had been also used by some of the Missionaries in the South Sea Islands to represent that common Polynesian sound. Subsequently, the Rev. W. Williams, and the Rev. R. Maunsell, agreed with me in this. .

In 1842, the Bishop of New Zealand, Dr. Selwyn, arrived in New Zealand, accompanied by his Chaplain, Rev. W. C. Cotton and others; and in the following year (1843), a Printer having arrived at Paihia from the Society in England to take charge of the Mission Press, I went to reside with them at St. John's College, Te Waimate. They had seen the letter I had previously written to the Committee of Missionaries, and agreed with it; and as the Bishop had a very small printing-press and type of his own, at which small notices, bills, leaflets, and single pages, were frequently printed in Maori, (though not by me,) Mr. Cotton adopted the w with an apostrophe (thus, 'w,) to indicate the wanting character for that particular sound, and a type was struck at Home at Mr Cotton's expense, to represent it, and in course of time used there at the Bishop's press. For my part, however, I never cordially approved of it, as it was not so simple as the v, and not quickly written, the accent like apostrophe might be easily broken off, and it was opposed to all established Poynesian alphabets. In subsequent years that new character Was abandoned and the wh adopted, which has long ago become general and fixed, as we now have it.

Unfortunately, however, similar errors still continue here among us! notwithstanding their settled, plain, written, and printed tongue.—

I have often been struck, some 40-45 years ago with the close phonetic rendering of many Maori names of Birds, Fishes, &c., by the two Forsters (father and son), and with the large amount of patient toil they must have experienced in taking them down; albeit their orthography, at first sight, abound in harsh double consonants, looks very barbarous, and is anything but tempting: also, with those of Lesson and other) Naturalists belonging to the French Discovery Expeditions of 50-60 years ago. Of course their orthography varies much from the far simpler one adopted in rendering the Maori tongue into writing; still it is such that I could have beneficially used in my early enquiries among the Maoris, which is more than can page 27 be said of many (so-called) Maori names more recently written and published too in this country! A few of those old Maori names of Birds I will give here from Forster, as a curiosity. It will be seen that he, in many instances, adds the indefinite article (he=a) to the name of the Bird, and uses g and gh, hard for k:—

English Name.	Maori Name.	Maori Name from Forster.
Sparrow-hawk	Karearea	Kari-area.
Owl	Ruru	Herooroo.
Kingfisher	Kotare	Ghotarre.
Parson-bird	Tuii	Toi.
Bell-bird	Kopara	Heghòbarra.
Thrush	Koropio	Golobieo.
Fantail Flycatcher	Piwakawaka	Diggowaghwagh: (Piouakouaka, Less.)
Robin	Toi toi	Ghatoitoi.
Pigeon	Kereru	Hagarrèroo.
Plover	Tuturuwatu	Doodooroo-attoo
Blue Heron	Matuku	Matook: (Matoucou, Less.)
Paradise Dućk	Putangitangi	Pooadugghiedugghie.
Duck	Parera	He-Parerra.