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Maori actions in battle to their beliefs and customs, whereas no excuse exists for Europeans. The
issue of cannibalism has likewise been modified to include a religious angle, as he introduces the
concept of ‘tapu’, and rectifies Forster’s ignorance of Maori religion.
Furthermore, Dieffenbach adds a new and important theme to the German perception of
the Maori, namely the influence of ‘fatal impact’ theory. While he questioned the applicability of
this belief, he, nevertheless, identified various negative influences that had started to take their
toll in that direction. He also harboured reservations over the influence of civilisation and the way
in which colonisation had been implemented in the country, which, it seems, had additionally
brought Maori into contact with the vices of disease, corruption, materialism and idleness
(although he gives various instances of hardworking Maori), and made them at times less trusting
and friendly towards foreigners. The actions of missionaries in their capacity as educators were
especially singled out as a cause of divisions among Maori and excessive Christian behaviour
which saw them refuse hospitality to travellers on Sundays. At the heart of their decline was their
altered lifestyle which had left them somewhere in between Maori and European culture, without
being wholly one or the other. As he recognised that colonisation was inevitable, he
characteristically viewed the Maori with deep-felt empathy, and went to great lengths to outline
the current problems facing Maori and what should be done to prevent, if not limit, the causes of
their reported demise, as opposed to other commentators who at most bemoaned the loss, viewed
it as unpreventable and offered no concrete solutions. Dieffenbach argued that it was the moral
obligation of every European resident to do all in one’s power to prevent their disappearance, and
even if it was part of Providence’s grand design, there was no excuse for simple inaction or
hastening this decline through maltreatment at the hands of settlers and the Government. The
Maori deserved instead their respect and to be viewed with greater equality through careful
legislation in order to guarantee their welfare, or at least contain their apparent demise. If this did
not happen and land quarrels persisted, he feared that interracial violence could put the future of
the colony in jeopardy.
While critics often place greater attention on Hochstetter’s later monograph,
Dieffenbach’s role should not be forgotten, as it was he who laid the foundations for the next
generation of German-speaking scholars, as did Forster before him, particularly in his pro-Maori
standpoint, his continued interest in their rights as a people, the causes of Maori decay and the
British treatment of Maori. Importantly, Dieffenbach also established the German naturalist’s
viewpoint on the effects of colonisation on New Zealand’s natural landscape, which would prove
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