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gentlemen”, as are Roman Catholic Maori in the eyes of Protestant converts (I:369). 119 As if this
is not enough, whenever he came across a frosty reception by Christian Maori on his travels, he
“always found the cause something connected with missionary, I will not say Christian,
observances”, in which the “misunderstanding generally arose from some exaggerated idea of
what was required of them by the missionaries, a fault very usual among new and zealous
converts” (I:372). 120
Perhaps the most important contribution Dieffenbach makes to the early study of Maori is
the negative impact of European contact on the indigenous population, in which there “is every
reason to believe that in a short time the character of the New Zealanders will be entirely
changed, and any one who wishes to see what they were formerly must study them in the interior,
where they are still little influenced by intercourse with us, which I must repeat, has been little
advantageous to them” (II:111). Despite the perceived values and advantages of the influence of
civilisation on the ‘savage life’, it does not, in his opinion, always lead to an improved state,
which in turn leads him to pose the question as to whose best interests colonisation is really
serving:
The naïveté of manners, the childlike expression of joy, innate to people in a state of nature,
vanishes before the formalities of our civilization: the hospitable savage is changed into a
reckoning and deliberating merchant; the incumbrance of our clothing in a warm climate makes
him stiff and helpless; 121 and our complicated food soon renders him unhealthy. Is he the gainer or
loser by this change? (I:263)
In truth, he supported colonisation when it was inevitable and introduced the positives of
civilisation, but not to the detriment of the indigenous population, leading to such moments when
it seems almost better to leave them alone than colonise their country as not all advantages
outweigh the disadvantages.
119 Dieffenbach sarcastically remarks: “It is very fortunate for the New Zealanders that a third estate has been
established in their country by the introduction of Her Majesty’s Government, of which missionaries, soldiers, and
devils are equally beloved children, owing to it equal obedience, and enjoying equal rights” (I:370). However, he
later notes that what the Maori “find the most difficulty in understanding are the different grades into which our
society is divided, and the poverty and misery under which some of our classes labour, while others seem to lead a
life of abundance and idleness” (II:72).
120 The main example given is the kind welcome and treatment he receives at a Christian ‘pa’ until the Sunday, where
Dieffenbach and company are refused food because the Maori had recently become missionaries, and “had been told
it was the greatest sin to kill a pig or to cook on Sunday” (I:326), even though it was requested the day before and
“there was no commandment [in the Bible] to refuse a hungry wanderer food on a Sunday” (I:330). Another example
is his not being allowed to stay in a church as the present Maori had also lately become missionaries, and it was
therefore forbidden (I:372).
121 An example of this point is Nahiti, the Maori who accompanied Dieffenbach on the Tory, who “cut a pitiful
figure” despite the “best Bond-street style” (I:61).
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