he South the very
lofty range of mountains known as the Southern Alps, which attains a
height of 13,000 feet in Mount Cook. The scenery on the South-west
coast, from Milford Sound downwards, where the sea runs up many
miles into the land, and the steamer passes through narrow straits
between perpendicular walls of rock, has often been compared to that
of the wilder fiords of Norway. It is little more than forty years
since New Zealand was colonized by Europeans, but already shoals of
books have been written about it. The Maoris, as is well known, are
not the original inhabitants. Their traditions relate--and they are
confirmed by independent investigations--that they came about 400
years ago from the South Sea Islands, and drove out or exterminated
the natives. As a fact the Maoris are immeasurably superior to the
Australian natives. Captain Cook, in describing his landing in 1769,
says, "one of the natives raised his spear, as if to dart it at the
boat; the coxswain fired, and shot him dead,"--a melancholy omen of
the future relations between the natives and the strangers. The
Maori wars have cost us many lives, but, of course, have always had
the same ending. The natives have gradually been straitened in room,
and their numbers have steadily declined. It is true that the census
of 1881 shows a rather larger number of natives (44,000 odd) than in
1858, but in the latter year it was probably not so accurately made,
and there is little doubt that they are now rapidly diminishing.
They are nearly all in the North Island, in the neighbourhood of the
Hot Lake district. The portion specially alloted to them is called
the King Country, and no European may enter this without permission.
Thus they have prevented the ascent of Mount Tongariro, which is
_tapu_, or sacred. They are now much better treated than formerly,
and send four members to Parliament. In their language there is no
_s_ or _f_, vowels are very numerous, and every word ends with a
vowel. The sound of the words, therefore, is easy and flowing, and
the native names are far more euphonious than those of Australia.

There is already a good deal of literature about the Maoris, their
habits and customs and religious ideas. No doubt they are of the
widely-spread Malay race, which has over-run the South Pacific. The
religious notions of the most different races in a certain stage of
civilization much resemble one another. We know, for instance, that
the Greeks of Homer