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duplicity of his actions when in the presence of Maori, as opposed to his collecting habits when
unaccompanied. King makes much out of this set of contrasting images to reveal Reischek’s
supposedly immoral behaviour and falseness. However, as his interpretation relies on the image
of Reischek as a self-centred and unscrupulous character who only wanted to make a name for
himself and wealth to boot, rather than a self-styled ‘man of science’ who intended to portray
Maori culture as completely as possible in his collection intended for Hochstetter, which he had
hoped to sell to the Natural History Museum in Vienna upon his return, 126 not enough has been
done to give balance to this argument. 127 Kolig rightly puts more emphasis on the unbridled
scientific ethos of the nineteenth century, which was part and parcel of the ‘superior’ European
mentality, whereby indigenous concerns were superseded by the wishes of museum curators and
the like who would pay good money to possess rare and unique specimens for their collections,
especially those from a culture nearing extinction, which could then be proudly displayed for
European eyes; and Hochstetter and Reischek knew only too well the importance of such a task:
The starkly pessimistic views of the foremost Austrian authority provided the powerful ideological
matrix on which Reischek’s own views must have formed. In the case of disappearing species,
science assumed the duty to preserve their images for posterity. The vanishing present, one
thought, could be frozen for the benefit of future generations, in glass cabinets, between the pages
of folio volumes, and in the form of dead and stuffed skins. Written texts, pictures, and bones
would provide mankind with a lasting record of these unfortunate victims of evolution. Similarly,
the Maori culture, if not the Maori themselves, must die out, so it was believed, and should be
preserved in museums at any cost – even, and this is the crux of the matter, if this had to be
achieved in violation of Maori laws and beliefs. For these laws themselves are of no lasting
relevance and subject to the relentless greater law of evolution. Because the Maori were by and
large ignorant of their impending fate, it was left to science to assemble a neat record of their
culture to be gazed at with wonder and admiration in the future. Accomplishing this task was
considered by the scientist a responsibility larger than any obligation to honor the customs of the
vanishing “savages.” To ignore their protests and to override their quaint taboos was no more than
an act of scientific duty. 128
Reischek therefore saw it as his responsibility to obtain, or rather ‘save’, these rare treasures at all
costs not only for his patron and Austrian science, but also before they were lost forever or only
126 Reischek refers to his time in New Zealand as “die besten Mannesjahre, ferne von der Heimat, [wo ich] im
rastlosen, aufreibenden Dienste der Naturforschung zugebracht, um meinem Vaterlande eine Sammlung zu erringen,
die so vollständig nicht mehr zusammengebracht werden kann und sich neben alle Sammlungen dieser Art stellen
darf, getreu dem Wunsche meines leider verstorbenen, unvergesslichen Freundes und Gönners, des Herrn Hofrathes
Ferdinand v. Hochstetter” (Reischek, “Bergfahrten in den Neuseeländischen Alpen”, 51f.).
127 King even comes to the absurd conclusion, albeit in a footnote, that the fractured skull Reischek receives during
an expedition, which later requires several operations to remove all the bone fragments (SW, 233), “raises the
possibility that some of Reischek’s more outlandish and unstable behaviour in later years might to some extent have
been the product of brain damage (although there are ample manifestations of such behaviour – albeit milder ones –
prior to the accident)” (King, Collector, 69n).
128 Kolig, “Andreas Reischek and the Maori”, 69f.
251