Title: The Southern Districts of New Zealand : a Journal, with Passing Notices of the Customs of the Aborigines

Author: Edward Shortland

Publication details: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1851, London

Part of:

• The New Zealand Provincial Histories Collection
• New Zealand Texts Collection

License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand Licence

Chapter III.

There are very few natives now residing about the shores of Otakou. The whalers say that they were formerly much more numerous, and account for their decrease by a great mortality, which befel them during an epidemic of measles, a few years ago, and by losses sustained in their wars with Te Rauparaha.

I cannot myself believe this to be true to the extent supposed. One cause, why a larger po- page 40 pulation was formerly noticed here, appears to have been overlooked. It was one of the first places in this part of the Island which was much frequented by Europeans. The natives flocked to, and assembled round, them, because they brought treasures as valuable and attractive, as the mines of California are to the present generation.

When the whales began to desert the harbour, the Europeans sought them in other localities, where it was not long before a native population also sprung up. Thus it happened that many natives left Otakou, in order to go to Waikouaiti, and other places where whaling stations had been formed; leaving behind only a remnant, consisting, probably, of those whose families had originally belonged to it.

Not only at this place, however, but in other parts of New Zealand, a notion prevails that the native population has been gradually on the decrease, since the Islands were first discovered by Captain Cook. The same opinion has latterly been more widely circulated, and the ultimate extinction of the Aboriginal race is now contemplated by many as a matter of certainty.

I believe this to be a fallacy likely to mislead the intending colonist, if he consider it a favourable circumstance—and, at the same time, to act disadvantageously on the native race, if it be thereby regarded as merely sojourning for a time on the earth, and not as comprising a number of highly intellectual human beings, who will eventually take their place side by side with the white man, as equals in civilization.

The period which must elapse before this is thoroughly accomplished will no doubt be a long one; but it is a consummation of events that should ever be kept in view by the colonist; for he has the two powerful motives of duty and interest to encourage him to use his endeavours to bring it about.

A great many circumstances have been mentioned as causes to account for this supposed decrease of the native population; but it is worthy of remark that the only one, that dates from a period subsequent to their intercourse with Europeans, to which much importance has been assigned, is the use of the blanket. With regard to the rest, granting them to be founded on correct observation, which, in many cases, page 42 they certainly are not, it will be allowed that most of them had much greater force in ancient times, long before any European ever visited New Zealand; and that, since the introduction of Christianity and civilization, they have gradually declined: so that, the cause of evil being weakened or removed, we ought now to expect an increase of population to be the consequence. For instance,—the fatal wars, which followed the first partial introduction of fire-arms, have for many years ceased, and can therefore be regarded only as having been a temporary check to population.

I cannot allow the idea, that “superstition forbad this people to give food to their sick, and so killed thousands,” to have been well founded. It was the custom, it is true, to leave the care of the sick very much to nature; because the New Zealander, having different ideas as to the origin of disease from ourselves, had no knowledge of drugs of any sort. But a small hut without the pa was built for the sick person, who was there supplied with food. Can it be believed that this practice was so very destructive to life?

Neither can polygamy be fairly assigned as a cause of the decrease of population. It must have existed while the population was increasing to its greatest amount. Besides, it has prevailed in some of the most populous parts of the world.

Suicide—infanticide—witchcraft—and such like practices, whatever might have once been their importance as causes destructive to life, are among those which have materially declined.

In a recent number of the Edinburgh Review,^* the decrease of the native population is treated as a well-known fact. The writer of the article referred to places his view of the case before the reader in a very striking and able manner; and, as he also says that he was several years resident in New Zealand, his opinions are on that account the more likely to be adopted by others. For this reason I shall notice some of the principal arguments by which he supports them.

The writer then makes this reflection:—“It should also be remembered that errors in censuses usually consist in omissions, and not additions. Thus, if the errors be assumed to be greater in 1838 than in 1848, the earlier number would probably have to be increased in a far greater ratio than the last; and the actual decrease will, consequently, have been greater than the figures which we have quoted represent.”

But as the numbers given for the amount of population, at these different epochs, were not censuses, but imaginary, it appears to me that this argument falls to the ground.

It would, I apprehend, be more correct to say that the numbers of any population are most likely to be exaggerated, in proportion to our ignorance of their real amount; “omne ignotum pro magnifico” being a principle of human error, as true now, as in the days of Tacitus. And, a little farther on, the writer gives a very satisfactory proof of this, in the following quotation from page 46 Jarves's Hawaiian History:—“Cook's vague estimate in 1779 made the population of Hawaii 400,000. But 300,000 would have been nearer the mark.” Here we see an exaggeration to the extent of one third of the reduced number, made, too, by a cautious and accurate observer.

Hence it would appear, also, that Governor Grey does not coincide in the general impression, which the writer, as above stated, ascribes to the missionaries.

In the same page, it is suggested, that a “diminution in the population may be more safely inferred from the number of abandoned places of abode or ‘kaignas,’ throughout the country, and from the visible decline of those pahs or kaignas, which come under the traveller's observation after an interval of a few years, without any equivalent increase by migration elsewhere.”

The writer has here fallen into a very natural and prevalent error; as will appear, when the habits of the New Zealander, in reference to this point, are understood.

The inference, that the remains of a great number of “pas” bespeak the existence of a more numerous population in past times, rests on the idea that they were all, or the greater part of them, inhabited by natives alive at the same time. But in point of fact the inhabitants page 48 of these pas were never a stationary body, like those of a town or village in England.

In former days, when one tribe was at war with its neighbour, those families, who were more nearly connected with each other, associated together for mutual protection, and built a “pa” or fortification. These, being intended merely as places of defence, were readily abandoned, when the exhausted state of their neighbouring cultivation grounds, or other circumstances, rendered another locality more convenient. Often, what would appear to us trivial reasons, were to them sufficient for a removal; for instance,—the death of a chief, or of some of his family. Though the spot was thus abandoned, the party, who had once lived there, did not cease to consider it their own. Many of their dead lay buried in the neighbourhood, and no other persons, although of the same tribe, would think of selecting that place for a residence, without the invitation or consent of the descendants of those who had formerly occupied it.

Besides such voluntary removals, when a pa was taken by an enemy, as frequently happened, it was very seldom re-occupied. The victorious party, had they desired to do so, were unable to page 49 hold a place, situated in a country surrounded by enemies; and, having atoned for some old injury by the success they had met with, were anxious to make good their retreat before the alarm was spread. As to the vanquished, although, as generally happened, a considerable^* number of them escaped, they would prefer to divide themselves among their neighbours, or to build a new Pa elsewhere; indeed, the soil stained by the blood of their relations was “tapu” or sacred.^†

But there are other circumstances to be noticed, which tended still more to multiply these Pas.

At the present day, there are extensive tracts of debateable land in the North Island of New Zealand; and, although the adjoining tribes are not now at war with each other, still peace has not been so long and firmly established, but that, if the question of ownership were mooted, it might lead to fresh disputes. From mutual prudence, therefore, the land remains unoccupied by either tribe; so that the passing traveller, seeing the evident marks of former inhabitants, may easily be led to imagine that the owners of the land had all perished, and that consequently the population of the country had greatly decreased.

The opinion that, in the present day, “pahs and places of abode are frequently observed by the traveller to decline after a few years, without any corresponding increase elsewhere,” is one with which I cannot agree. It is not every traveller page 51 who takes the pains to inquire into the cause of the observed change, or is indeed sufficiently acquainted with the language of the country, to be capable of doing so satisfactorily. Whenever the abandonment of a Pa, or residence, has taken place, my observations induce me to believe that the inhabitants can be traced to have migrated to some other, it may be, very distant place. Within the last few years, for instance, great numbers of the Te Ati-awa tribe have removed from Waikanae to Taranaki.

The writer says, in support of his opinion, that “in the town of Wellington, the six or seven Pas which existed at the first setlement of Port Nicholson, have dwindled to two principal Pas, and a small knot of natives at the Pa Kumutoto.” But I believe that, if his investigations had been carried further, he would have ascertained that “Taringa-kuri” and his tribe had removed to the neighbourhood of Wairerapa; and that many other natives connected with Taranaki had removed to that place.

It is also worthy of reflection that, when the first settlers went to Port Nicholson, the fact of their being the only large body of Europeans in page 52 that part of the country made them the centre of general attraction, because they had brought to the country plenty of everything the New Zealanders most desired. As other settlements arose along the coasts, and as the Europeans gradually spread themselves over the country, as keepers of stock, or cultivators of the land, Wellington ceased to be the only point of attraction. This circumstance has doubtless tended to draw away and disperse many of those, who in former days found it more profitable to seat themselves nearer the town.

It is easy to say that “the natives are themselves well aware of the falling off of the population.” But who has ever found that any reliance could be placed on accounts derived from natives of the ancient numerical force of their tribe? Speaking of their “taua” or military force, which went out to fight in olden times, they will tell you that it was “he mano,” a thousand, or “he tini noa iho,” a great many. But these statements always appeared to be the exaggeration of ignorance or vanity: much the same as the vague idea that our ancestors were larger and stronger men than ourselves.

The next point to be considered is, whether or not there is an undue excess of males in New Zealand; that is, such an excess as might reasonably be supposed to cause a falling off of the population. The writer says that, “even to superficial observers, the most striking peculiarity in the population of New Zealand, is the small number of women in proportion to men.” But, before we admit this to its full extent, we should reflect that superficial observers will probably judge from what they see near the European settlements, where there are always a great many males, who have come from a distance, in order to exchange their labour for clothes and other commodities.

In the absence of more complete information, the writer relies principally on the evidence of returns of the population of Wellington, and of five places between it and Taranaki, which is included. From these the following proportions are deduced:— We are informed, however, in a note, that a more page 54 careful census of the Wanganui tribes,^* taken in 1846, gave for result—

I may be allowed to add to the above the proportion obtained from a census, made by myself in 1844, of the inhabitants of six places^† in the Middle Island, by writing down the name of every individual, and distinguishing the sex:—

Without, however, pretending to determine what may actually be the relative proportions of the sexes, and agreeing fully with the writer that an undue excess of males, for the reasons he mentions, tends to produce an effect disadvantageous to the fecundity of a population, it is contended that we have no reason to suppose that the disproportion, whatever it may be, is such as to account for the alleged falling off of population, or, in fact, that any alteration has taken place in the relative proportions of the two sexes generally, within the period during which the decrease of population is supposed to have been going on. The proportion which the males bear to the females is the same, for all we know to the contrary, as it was, while the numbers of the New Zealanders were increasing to their present amount from an inconsiderable body.

On reference to the published tables of the Registrar General,^* it appears that, at the time of

^* Ninth Annual Report, 1848, p. 176, et seq.

page 56 the census of 1841, the numbers and proportions of the two sexes in England were—

In the same tables, it is to be remarked, that several instances occur of counties^* or towns in which the males were more numerous than the females. For instance,—the following was then the proportion of the two sexes in Tavistock and Okehampton, two towns in the central part of Devon, in peculiarly healthy localities, where there would seem to be no natural impediment to the increase of population:—

Further conclusions, unfavourable to the increase of population in New Zealand, are drawn by the writer from the small number of children in proportion to that of adults, as shewn by the tables already referred to, and by comparing these numbers with numbers given by other statistical tables for Ireland and the United States.

It will, doubtless, be granted that any comparison of statistical tables, unless known to be constructed on an uniform plan, is very likely to lead to error. The returns relating to New Zealand, from which the small number of children is inferred, divide the population into four classes—men, women, boys, girls—which are indefinite terms. The numbers they give are, therefore, of no value for comparison with numbers taken from other statistical tables, unless we know what age was taken to fix the limit between the adult and the child. As it would be impossible to ascertain with accuracy the age of a New Zealander, the missionaries or others, who framed the tables, page 58 were no doubt guided by external appearance. I think, therefore, it will be allowed, that no argument can be based on their authority, except so far as regards the actual numbers of males and females of all ages.

As a supposed cause of deficiency in the numbers of females, the writer insists much on the degraded state in which they are held in New Zealand.

Their position, it is true, will not bear comparison with that generally enjoyed by the weaker sex in more civilized countries; but it never appeared to me to be nearly so bad as described in the following sentence:—“The most severe and painful labour falls on them. They bear heavy weights, and do nearly all the field-work, besides all the work in doors. They are literally treated as beasts of burden. It is to be feared that the misionaries, having for the most part been struck with the enormity of those grosser practices, which they demed peculiarly sinful, have, in their teaching, neglected other no less essential moralities.”

No one, I feel certain, would have recorded such an opinion, who had ever seen the New Zealanders page 59 dragging their large canoes from the woods, where they were built, a distance often of many miles, to the nearest river, or felling and burning timber, in order to prepare ground for cultivation. Such work is the peculiar province of the males. It is the duty of the female to prepare baskets for the crop, and, when packed, to assist in carrying it home; but his latter work is chiefly performed by slaves of both sexes; for New Zealand has its privileged clas of females, who are principally occupied in weaving mats, in domestic cares, and other sorts of employments more suited their sex.

There are powerful motives^* which forbid a New Zealand gentleman to allow a basket of food to come in contact with his back; and for that reason the women and slaves are most frequently seen carrying potatos for sale about the European settlements. But view him under other circumstances, stript, and prepared to exert his strength in felling the trees of the forest, and you will acknowledge that he does his share of labour manfully.

It has not, I apprehend, been sufficiently considered, that time, and altered circumstances, will alone avail to eradicate many of those bad habits and practices, which have acquired strength from the instructions and example of ages.

It would be interesting to inquire, how many immoralities, now in practice among the various nations of Europe, are to be traced to old habits of their heathen ancestors, which have been re- page 61 tained, notwithstanding that Christianity has been the professed religion for so many centuries.

The following passage completes the writer's picture of the wretched condition of the New Zealand female. I place it before the reader, and, at the same time, what I hope will be considered satisfactory proof that he has, at any rate in one instance, been deceived as to the grounds on which he appears to have formed his opinion.

“Nor is it,” he says, “by hard labour alone that the Polynesian woman suffers. For small faults, real or pretended, they are often cruelly beaten, and, for grave offences, killed. For example,—about the middle or latter end of June, 1843, one of the wives of a native chief at Kaweranga-on-the-Thames (New Zealand), for some alleged offence, was hung up by the heels, naked, and exposed to the view of the whole tribe. In that state, she was most barbarously beaten. This treatment had such an effect upon her, that she got hold of a musket loaded with ball, placed the muzzle towards her body, and fired it by placing her toe against the trigger. The ball passed through her lungs, and lodged page 62 in her spine. She languished for eight or ten days, and then expired.”

We are not informed, on what authority this statement rests. But, if my recollection does not deceive me, the same tale, or something like it, appeared in a local newspaper, where simple facts were frequently to be found similarly distorted.

It so happened that I visited Kauaeranga shortly after the event took place, and, as it was my duty to do, made inquiry on the spot into the circumstances of the case. I copy the following account of it from the Report made by me at the time to the proper authorities:— “Auckland, 13th July, 1843.

“On my return to the Mission Station, I heard that a very sad case of suicide had occurred during my absence, at a little settlement below Mr. Preece's^* house.

“Mr. Preece, who saw her soon after, informed me that the ball passed by the side of the windpipe, and could be felt in the muscles at the back part of the shoulder, just about the upper edge of the scapula. “Having lingered seven days, she died. During this time she spoke but little, replying to Mr. Preece's inquiries, that she and her lover had agreed that, if discovered, they would shoot themselves. The young man threatens to kill one of Kaheke's slaves as a payment. This person was for several years a missionary, and lived, when a lad, in the service of the Rev. A. Browne, of Tauranga. So firmly rooted are the habits and superstitious feelings which have grown up in minds through many generations.”

The offence, then, instead of being of a trivial nature, such as to be characterised by the term “some alleged offence,” was a very grave one. The female was not, as stated, “hung up by the heels, naked, and exposed, &c.,” a mode of punishing a female which I have never heard of as having ever occurred in New Zealand. Her husband was not present; and the observation, that she was one of his wives, appears to be gratuitous. The tale, on which the writer has relied, has, no doubt, misled others as well as himself; for it is dressed up in a style admirably suited to make an impression on the minds of European settlers anything but favourable to the Aborigines.

It is satisfactory, however, in their defence, to be able to appeal to the testimony of so impartial and accurate an observer as Captain Cook, who does not appear to have noticed the wretched condition of the females in New Zealand. On the contrary, he tells us that “the disposition both of the men and women seemed to be mild and gentle,” and that “they treated each other with the tenderest affection.”^*

The state of health of the New Zealander next comes under the consideration of the writer, as having had an effect on their numbers; and his conclusion is that “their constitution is what we should call unsound.”

That phthisis is a disease of which a great many of the natives die annually is a fact too well established to admit dispute; but it seems doubtful if strumous complaints are so prevalent with them, as in our own country; and I am certainly not disposed to agree with him in considering a strumous habit of body, by any means, “universal” among them.

How far the dress and dwellings of the New Zealanders asimilated with those of their more tropical brethren, every one may determine for himself, after reading the accounts given on the subject by Captain Cook^* and other travellers. I cannot, however, imagine that their health can have been prejudiced by the habit of not wearing hats or shoes;^† nor can I admit that the climate of New Zealand can be fairly described as “an Irish or Channel Islands’ climate.” We have very good authority for concluding that the mean annual temperature, in the extreme north of New Zealand, is about 59° Fahr.; and, in the extreme south, about 53° Fahr.; in other words, that the climate of New Zealand, from north to south, varies only between that of Naples and of Jersey, with the great advantage of being much more equable than that of either of those places.^‡

They ate the flesh only of the slain of other tribes, who were their enemies; and when they did so, their conduct was regulated by certain forms. In order to allow the reader the better to arrive at a just conclusion on this subject, the following explanation is offered of what were generally the circumstances which led to, and attended, the eating of human flesh.

On their return home they were not allowed to enter their habitations, or to hold any direct communication with their families who had remained there, till they were made “noa.” Before, however, this ceremony took place, whatever remained of the human flesh which they had lately been devouring, was thrown away; for, being “kai tapu” or sacred food, it should only be touched by persons who were “tapu” or sacred; in fact, the very touching it was sufficient to make any one “tapu.”

One female alone, the “wahine ariki” or elder female of the elder branch of the family, from which the members of the tribe were descended, was permitted to touch this “kai tapu.” In order to perfect the ceremony of making the war party “noa,” it was her duty to eat the ear of the first-slain, set apart as before mentioned.

No other female ever presumed to taste human flesh. It was believed that the transgression of page 70 this law would be followed by “aitua” or evil omen, and that the tribe would meet with some great reverse on their next encounter with the enemy.

I once told a chief, who had only a short while before killed and feasted on some of his enemies’ tribe, that many persons in England believed that his countrymen had learnt to eat human flesh, because they had not enough of other animal food within their reach, dogs and rats being their only animals before Captain Cook visited them. The idea was evidently quite new to him, and not very agreeable. He at first began to enumerate the various “kai rangatira” or gentlemen's food, which his forefathers had, in order to prove that they had always plenty to eat. There was the “mango” or shark, the “koura” or cray fish, “huahua” or potted birds, besides preserved eels, and a variety of other dainties. His vanity being piqued, he was anxious to convince me, and so proceeded, with the assistance of those who sat near him, to give an inventory of their different descriptions of food.

All at once he thought of an argument, to him quite conclusive. This was, that human flesh was page 71 “kai tapu wakaharahara” or food very exceedingly sacred, which women were never allowed to taste. He insisted that, if his ancestors had been driven to eat it by necessity, the females would have eaten of it, as well as the males.

I never attached much credit to the idea that the practice in question was to be attributed to the “want of a meal;” for, as this chief said, his ancestors could never have found it difficult to supply themselves with food in abundance. Besides, many other nations who have been maneaters could not have been supposed to be prompted to taste human flesh by a similar necessity. For instance,—in Africa, where animals so abound, it is well known that the same practice has prevailed to a great extent.^*

“Kai was the cause of the beginning of eating human flesh. He ate part of the whale ‘tutunui.’ The daughters of Tinirau regarding this, and talking it over, Kai was killed. Tinirau killed him, and ate him. Sometime after this, Tuhuruhuru was killed as a payment for Kai. So the payment for Kai's death was complete. Tuhuruhuru was paid for by the death of Mangopare, and of Mangawaho. Wakatau killed them, and then, regarding how matters stood, he burnt the house of Tini-o-manono. From that time, the practice grew among succeeding generations; I mean the practice of eating men. It was after that the page 73 canoes, Arawa, Tainui, Te Matatua,^* and the rest had crossed over the sea to this island that the eating of man began.”^†

Returning to the subject more particularly under consideration, it would appear, from what has been said, that of those causes, which have been generally supposed most active in destroying the native population, some have latterly either ceased to exist, or, at any rate, have materially decreased in importance, and that others never existed at all. It is therefore contended, that, there are sufficient grounds for believing that, whatever checks it might have received from wars, or other temporary causes, in former times, for the last ten years, at least, it has tended to increase.

I own that, at first, I adopted the more favourite hypothesis; but after five years’ residence in the country, during a great part of which time page 75 I was in constant intercourse with the Aborigines, in different parts of the Islands, I was so far from recognizing any visible signs of a decreasing population, that I began to doubt its correctness.

On reading Captain Cook's account of his visit to New Zealand, it is observable that he never speaks of the existence of a numerous population. The Bay of Plenty, and the east coast about Poverty Bay, appear to have been then, as now, with the exception of the banks of the river Waikato, of which he had no opportunity of judging, the most populous districts.

The natives about the “Waihou” or Thames,^* he remarks, did not appear to be numerous.

At Queen Charlotte's Sound^† he estimated the inhabitants of the whole neighbourhood scarcely to exceed four hundred. And at Admiralty Bay^‡ he found only some huts, which seemed to have been long deserted; but saw no inhabitants.

With regard to the rest of the Middle Island, he says, that its population appeared to be trifling, and that a great part of it was destitute of inhabitants.

How, then, is it that the notion has become so prevalent that, when Europeans first visited New Zealand, they found so much larger a population than at present exists?

The following considerations appear to point to a probable source of error.

The natives, during the period of our early intercourse with them, were mostly found congregated together in large bodies, for mutual protection, in fortified Pas, or else about the bays and streams in their immediate neighbourhood. The sites of these Pas were necessarily adjacent to rivers and harbours, the best positions for fishing. These also were the places most likely to be visited by Europeans. It is also to be borne in mind that the native population of a district would be sure to flock to any place which became resorted to by traders, from a desire to obtain possession of European goods.

It seems probable, therefore, that an overestimate of the population may have been made, from generalizing on what was observed at these places.

Since, however, the introduction of Christianity, and more extensive trading operations with Euro- page 77 peans have given a new direction to their thoughts and energies, their ancient animosities have lost much of their former force, and the prosecution of feuds, handed down through ages, has been generally abandoned. Hence the necessity of living together in large bodies has become less urgent. In the present day (1845), small parties, the union of two or three families, sometimes single families, are often found in detached localities, wherever the soil is richest, or the neighbourhood of a stream, or other natural circumstance is most attractive. To a superficial observer, therefore, the population may well appear to have diminished, while it is in fact only more scattered.

There is then, it is believed, no sufficient reason to anticipate the extinction of the Maori race, except by the possible means of its becoming blended with the European stock. This, too, is an event, the accomplishment of which must be very remote under any circumstances. The number of half-cast children is, as yet, very trifling; probably little more than three hundred. The Celts of Wales, our close neighbours, still, to a great extent, preserve their language, and much page 78 of their national peculiarities, though they have for centuries been incorporated with the English.

In a future day, something similar may be observed in New Zealand. The long line of coast between Tauranga and Cape Palliser is, without doubt, its least eligible district for colonization; both because, having no good harbours, it is less accessible; and because the country^* in connexion with it contains the largest aboriginal population. It may therefore be regarded as the last retreat of the Maori race; and we may contemplate the possibility of its eventually occupying, with respect to the rest of New Zealand, the same relation which Wales now does to England.