King Edward's realm: Story of the making of the Empire

by C. S. Dawe

(11) MUTUAL ADVANTAGE OF MOTHERLAND AND COLONY

(New Zealand).

1. Of all the colonies, with the exception of Tasmania perhaps, New Zealand most resembles the mother-country both in climate and scenery. At the same time it is wholly unlike Australia. If a long-sleeping Briton could be set down among the Otago hills, and, on awaking, be told that he was travelling in Galway or the west of Scotland, he might be easily deceived, though he knew those countries well; but he would feel at once that he was being hoaxed, if he were told in any part of Australia that he was travelling among Irish or British scenery.

2. Everything English seems to flourish here. The only quadrupeds seen are those imported from Europe. The complaint is that many of our English animals and plants thrive only too well. Hosts of pigs run wild; rabbits also spread over the country in battalions, and do great damage to the crops. Gorse and sweet-briar, brought by the early settlers from "home" are with difficulty kept in check. Even the English grasses are displacing those of native origin. Our house-sparrow is now the most common bird in New Zealand, and our house-fly seems likely to be as often seen there as here.

HER MAJESTY QUEEN ALEXANDRA.

3. In colonising Australia little account had to be taken of the natives, who were both few and feeble. It was otherwise with the natives of New Zealand. The Maoris, as they called themselves, were a fierce, warlike race, strong and brave, who were not content with killing their enemies, but fed upon their flesh afterwards. They were not, however, mere naked savages. They wove mats and clothing from flax, and cloaks of great value from the dressed skins of dogs. In the narrative of the wars between the Maoris and the colonists, one is constantly reminded of the war between the ancient Britons and the Romans; in both cases the natives were brave and skilled in war, and owed their final defeat to their own divisions and to the superior arms of their enemies.

4. The first settlement was made here in 1840 after a friendly treaty had been made with the Maoris. By this treaty they took Queen Victoria for their sovereign, but on the express understanding that their lands should remain at their own disposal. "The shadow of our lands," said an old chief, "will go to the queen, but the substance will remain in our own hands." Emigrants began to pour in and to purchase lands at a low price. At the end of twenty years the Maoris began to awake to the fact that the settlers were increasing very rapidly, and now outnumbered themselves, whilst their lands were continually passing out of their hands. A movement, accordingly, soon took place among themselves for the purpose of stopping the sale of land to the stranger.

5. The war that ensued lasted, off and on, for ten years. Aided by British troops, the colonists at last convinced the Maoris that their cause was hopeless. They consented to live at peace on the terms offered, and have ever since been as good as their word. All, except a few of the older people, call themselves Christians. They have become to a certain extent educated and civilised; many of them have farms and ships. But with the change in their habits has come a change in their spirit. They seem to feel themselves a doomed race. "As the white man's rat," they say, "has extirpated our rat, as the European fly is driving out our fly, as the foreign clover is killing our ferns, so the Maori himself will disappear before the white man."