Where the white man treads / by W.B., Te Kuiti.

  • Baucke, William, 1848-1931.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Where the white man treads / by W.B., Te Kuiti. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INTRODUCTORY. These articles are in nowise to be considered a history of the Maori. To be exact: having no written language of his own, he cannot be said to have a history ; it is only by sifting his legends, and deleting the improbable, that we have constructed one for him. This has been accomplished by abler hands than mine ; yet even this does not satisfy the scientific historian. In fact, he treats it with very perfunctory courtesy mdeed. To form an accurate conception of an aboriginal people such as the Maori, many details must be acquired ; an intimate knowledge of their country, their immediate surroundings, mode of life and thought, foods, language, customs, and further back, their traditions. To include all these and treat them in a comprehensive, reliable manner would demand that the compiler—specially prepared by education—should spend a long life in direct contact with them. Even then he must either devote undivided attention thereto, or leave his labours incomplete. Many a large-hearted soul has adventured on the task, and because of the obstacles just mentioned, the result has been fragmentary ; and the surprise is ever present, that they have done so much and done it so well. Many, again, have lived and reared families among them, with unrivalled opportunities—both in the companionship of their native wives and a constant intercourse with their own and contiguous tribes—to study the innermost side of their lives. But these—if we except giants like Judge Manning—have either not possessed the literary skill, or were too occupied with the daily toil of life to concern themselves with the inquisitiveness of posterity ; or record such items as would facilitate the work of the student and historian. This is greatly to be regretted, as we have had here an invaluable source of information closed to us. It is to be regretted, because a new era has begun ; the Maori “ stands with trembling feet, where the brook and river meet.” Is he to be absorbed into and amalgamated with the mighty stream 1 Or is he to quarry out a meagre winter drain by its side, to presently evaporate, and then his course know him no morel I hope not; and to be able to direct his flow we must know the strength of his flood pulse. It is the intention of the present w'riter to enter into the inner life of the Maori, and coincidently entertain his readers with a series of incidents, impressions, and word pictures, painted with A