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coasts, and who have become converts to Christianity” (I:361). 109 The agricultural exploits and
progress of the Maori in certain areas of the country, who have reached their potential as
industrious labourers, is welcomed by Dieffenbach, with “the most advanced in the arts of
civilization” being the Te Rarawa who go about their tasks in ‘British’ workmanlike fashion: 110
The traveller does not meet here with that begging and grasping behaviour which renders the
natives on the coast so importunate; on the contrary, they are a quiet hard-working people, and
they have, for a very small payment, cut a road thirty-two miles long through the primitive forest,
between Kaitaia and Waimate, in the neighbourhood of the Bay of Islands; they have also cut
roads in the neighbourhood of their own village. During my stay I saw them reap wheat and
plough several acres of land, and the missionaries encourage them to exchange their former
unwholesome food of decayed maize and potatoes for bread. Several of the natives have one or
two head of cattle and horses; and I have every reason to believe that here at least the missionaries
will encourage their acquiring them, in order to dispose of the increase of their own stock.
(I:217f.)
On the wrong side of conversion, however, are the Waikato tribes, “which have most preserved
their original vigour, and, I may add, original virtues, notwithstanding that their customs have
been softened down by the influence of missionaries and other Europeans” (II:76f.), and the
warlike Maori from Rotorua, known for their raiding and acts of cannibalism, who were “the
most primitive tribe in New Zealand, and still resist the inroads of European manners” (I:386). 111
Added to these should also be the much inferior Maori who “hover about the settlements of
Europeans” and are “not only more unhealthy, but also become an ill-conditioned compound of
the dandy, beggar, and labourer” (II:147).
During his travels he witnesses the influences, or lack thereof, of missionaries and
European goods on the formerly savage characters of the Maori, of which the aged Matangi,
“who, with white hair and beard, but with a frame still erect and powerful, formed a link between
the warriors and cannibals of former times and the present generation, who, emerging from
barbarism, were beginning to turn their minds to peaceful pursuits, and to embrace the tenets of
Christianity” (I:93). The converts appear calm, well-mannered, refined and noble in character and
109 One reason for this is the warm lakes in the nearby volcanic zone which are popular bathing places for local tribes.
Other Maori uses for the warm springs and sulphurous baths include healing disorders (I:246), a source of heating “in
the place of fires, as they jumped in as often as they felt cold, and this mode of treatment did not seem to do them any
harm, as they looked remarkably healthy” (I:385), and, in one instance, “a natural kitchen for boiling their food”
(I:389)
110 Cf. I:214, 217, 220, 226, 261, 267, 400, 413.
111 The result of an encounter with these “very noisy fellows” en route to Rotorua is that both Dieffenbach and his
companion, Captain Symonds, each find themselves missing a shoe, “which our guides had probably pilfered; but we
got them again for a salvage, as they said that they had found them” (I:387).
94