120
Minutes of Evidence Before Select Committee on
- who have been in the habit of trading to a considerable Extent with our Australian Colonies. At one Time New Zealand was our principal Supply for Potatoes; now we obtain hardly any from them. It is a settled Habit with those who have Dealings with them in Timber to endeavour to get them into Debt if possible, and then to harass and teaze them; and they not understanding our System of Accounts, that is easily done.
Who are in the habit of endeavouring to get them into Debt, and then harassing and teazing them?
- The Europeans in this River especially; they are all English; those that deal with them for the Thorn Stuff are principally freed Convicts, and they pay the Heathen Natives principally in Grog; the Christians will not drink it; they receive principally Tobacco and Blankets; they have been depreciated physically very much ever since the Timber Trade has been in the Island: if they had been supplied with Flour, or something of an absolutely supporting Character, it would have been different.
Have their Transactions with Europeans appeared to be guided by honest and fair Principle?
- Thoroughly; all the Europeans admitted that themselves; I made a point of questioning those that did Business with them to any Extent as to their Mode of Payment and the Amount of Remuneration.
You conceive they have not been treated in the same way?
- No; they have been continually imposed upon.
Is there any other Circumstance which occurs to you?
- The Extent of Coast occupied by the Wesleyan Missions is from the River Hokianga to Cook's Straits,— the Western Coast. I would wish to state that I have seen 700 Natives at the principal Station, and I have seen nearly the whole of them receive the Sacrament of the Communion from the Wesleyan Missionaries: by Arrangement with the Church Missionary Society, the Western Coast has been given up to the Wesleyans, the Church Missionary Society retaining the Eastern Coast.
Did you examine any Schools?
- Not beyond going into the School while they have been assembled; I observed the general Routine.
Have you seen many Children under a Course of Instruction?
- Not so many as I should have been induced to suppose from the general Number of Christians; in the minor Morals, such as Cleanliness and common Attention to Order, they have not been able to succeed to the Extent that it would have been very desirable they should have done; they cannot altogether induce them to shake off their old Habits. I would desire also to notice the complete Abstraction from all worldly Business on the Sunday; from many of the most distant Points upon the River, Twenty-five Miles one Way and upwards of Twenty Miles another, they are in the habit of coming to the principal Station on the Saturday, cooking their Food on that Day, remaining the entire Sunday, and then returning on the Monday Morning, without any Attempt at doing any thing on the Sabbath, but entire Absorption in their Religious Duties. I have never seen a Canoe belonging to the Christian Natives, or any thing at all, about on that Day.
Were you in the Bay of Islands?
- No; my Health was not very good while I was there, and it is a very troublesome Journey across; a Person must walk, and it is upwards of Twenty-five Miles across.
Is there any further Information with which you can favour the Committee?
- I would mention the Desire which appears to exist among the Natives for the Interference of this Country in some way or other for their Protection from themselves and our own Countrymen.
Do you know whether the Missionaries you saw there are of the same Opinion and had the same Desire?
- I think I may say generally that they have the same Desire.
Do
