avourable stages in the globe. Much--too much--of its wild and
singular beauty must be ruined in the process of settlement. But very
much is indestructible. The colonists are also awakening to the truth
that mere Vandalism is as stupid as it is brutal. Societies are being
established for the preservation of scenery. The Government has
undertaken to protect the more famous spots. Within recent years three
islands lying off different parts of the coast have been reserved as
asylums for native birds. Two years ago, too, the wild and virgin
mountains of the Urewera tribe were by Act of Parliament made
inalienable, so that, so long as the tribe lasts, their ferns, their
birds and their trees shall not vanish from the earth.

Chapter II

THE MAORI

"The moving finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on. Nor all your piety or wit
Can lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all your tears wash out a word of it."

The first colonists of New Zealand were brown men from the South Seas.
It was from Eastern Polynesia that the Maoris unquestionably came.
They are of the same race as the courteous, handsome people who
inhabit the South Sea Islands from Hawaii to Rarotonga, and who, in
Fiji, mingle their blood with the darker and inferior Melanesians
of the west. All the Polynesians speak dialects of the same musical
tongue. A glance at Tregear's Comparative Maori-Polynesian Dictionary
will satisfy any reader on that point. The Rarotongans call themselves
"Maori," and can understand the New Zealand speech; so, as a rule, can
the other South Sea tribes, even the distant Hawaiians. Language alone
is proverbially misleading as a guide to identity of race. But in
the case of the Polynesians we may add colour and features, customs,
legends, and disposition. All are well though rather heavily built,
active when they choose, and passionately fond of war and sport. The
New Zealanders are good riders and capital football players. The
Samoans are so fond of cricket that they will spend weeks in playing
gigantic matches, fifty a side. Bold as seamen and skilful as
fishermen, the Polynesians are, however, primarily cultivators of
the soil. They never rose high enough in the scale to be miners or
merchants. In the absence of mammals, wild and tame, in their islands,
they could be neither hunters nor herdsmen. Fierce and bloodthirsty in
war, and superstitious, they were good-natured and hospitable in peace
and affectionate in fa