Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1894-07-12
A RACE DYING OFT
IT is PERIsHlNG or MELANcgos
AND HEARTBREAK. \


Zealand Chieftain-The Maori of IT,.
the Savage OF Yesterday, Polished .
Draped In English Finery.
A strange, pathetic swan song of
ing people, sung by its chief, is the r1..
made to the civilized world hv AMI.
Turupu Ngata, head Of the Maori ns,-
in series Of essays lately printed !.
New Zealand paper The chief is
educated man, a graduate Of colo,s
university, the equal in culture of the
class Of white people who occupy bis,
tive land But he is a native nc hear
Maori in feeling, sympathies and ar
rations, and all his taoughts are tbos.s
his people.
At the advent Of the white man inV.,
Zealand the Maoris, heroic race, hs
sole owners Of the country, were a num-.
GUS people. Twenty years ago, altbws
even then much diminished by disa,''
brought by their conquerors, they pumI.
ed l00,0 900. Today but few more h,.
40. 900 of the race remain. OutwardIvs
is much changed people, too, for it h,
adopted the white mans clothes, his on
toms, most of his vices and ostensiblv h
religion. But at heart the Maori is 81,
age yet.
In his series Of essays on his people II,
chief tells much that is interesting of tbs,
history, their ideas, their habits and tbf,
feelings, but ever and anon he comes baS
and dwells on the one theme that is ills,
his mind aud soaring his heart-the decaT
ing and approaching extinction of his rae.
His language is remarkably eloquent AM
full of lofty metaphor and svn-l Ism
and a sombelness overspreads all M
thoughts, and sorrow echoes in all he sav,
He writes bitterly, yet not vengefully n
the woes the white man has brought
his people, not alone of wrongs inflicted
but of the sufierings and defeats thatia
evitably must come of the contact of
weaker and Il stronger race. The Maons /
he says, are dying OF contact with III.
white man, and nothing but a miraclecaD
save them, and miracle there will moth
He gives an interesting account of Y.
impression made by Christianity on hs
Maoris. His countrymen, the chief say,
were attracted to the white mans creed
almost wholly because of the miraculou;
career ascribed to Christ. They have
great craving for the supernatural, and
the doings Of Christ took great hold On
their imaginations. But tine native priest,
taking advantage Of the lesson, have large
ly turned their people from even sem.
blance of adhesion to Christianity by feed.
ing their craving for the miraculous, and
in the lines of the old beliefs, or rather bv
formulating a new creed called Hanhau.
ism, which has spread greatly.
1.-The feelings and motives that Influence
the Maori's inner and more private lfe
today says Chief Apirana, "are the same
that influenced him ages ago, though
tanned and refined by conformity to Euro
pean customs, by contact with European
civilization and by the farreaching infu.
ence of Christianity. Your Maori of today
is but the savage of yesterday, polished
and draped in English finery. Within him
there are raging the fierce passions that
but awhile ago made him revel in slaugh.
| ter and cannibalism. His hands are bound
with the manacles of civilization and hu.
manity, but they are restless to grasp once
more the spear, the taiaha and mere. Out
wardly he accepts the truth of Christian
teaching and worships the Pakcha's god
most reverently, but his mind is goyernei
by superstition, and his secret longing
and natural tendencies are toward the to
hungas, the only visible monuments of hi:
old priestly regime"
The Maori, says the chief, hates the Pa
keha, the white man, and yet is irressti
bly, drawn TO his settlements and compel
ed to a degrading imitation of the worstO
his ways Of life, which eventually kill Of
the pure race and leave only the degener
ate, half caste people. against whom Chic
Apirana is specially bitter. 'Ilicit inter
course, vice and immortality have alreadl
| destroyed the purity of the race" he SAYS
have stunted race once famous for it
| physique, have rooted out whatever indus
| trial tendencies survived other perniciou
| influences and degraded the characters
tics it once possessed of hospitality. liber
ality, bravery and manliness. The onll
hope OF Improvement be sees is in the de
portation of all the lower whites, and thi
he himself declares to he impossible Ed
ucatiOn only renders the Maori unfit tt
take part in the struggle for life in which
his race is engaged. Taking away th,
outer show of their savagery, it takes away
at the same time their stamina. Notable
Maori men and women there have been
educated and enlightened to high degree
but in the majority of cases there bal
eventually been total relapse of the os
tensibly educated NIaoris into the wavs
their forefathers. And now this once pow
erful people is on the verge of extinction
Explanations TO account for the fadin.
out of existence of the Maoris are not harl
to find, and one seems to be near the trutl
that is, that the race is perishing of mel
aucholy and heartbreak. There is in al
the Polyncsian and Melanesian races
strange and strong liability to despair
Entire independence and unhampered i'm
agination seem essential to their vitality
and when these attributes are subduei
and cowed by the-obvious superiority O.
an lntruding race, as by the white man
they seem to give up the wish to live, L
lose even the capacity for living. Thh
hopelessness has been clearly traced in al
the Australian tribes and is akin to thai
felt by conscript soldiers engaged in ex
petitions for which they have had NJ
heart. 1t seems to have been especial!
strong in the Maoris, who in their print
were proud, imaginative people, full o.
the love of poetry and story and Of pridt
IN the achievements Of their tribes. Hope
lessness and heartbreak, one must con
elude from the remarkable essays by Chic
Apirana TurUpu Ngata, are the melan
choly explanation of the fading out Of ex
istence OF the once powerful and numerous
Maori race.-St. Louis Globe Democrat