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Europeanised and the rare birdlife was gradually disappearing in the face of European intrusion. It
was both these factors which motivated his decision “in das Innere des Landes vorzudringen und
die Wildnis aufzusuchen, um die Wilden in ihrem Urzustande studieren, eine ethnographische
Sammlung anlegen zu können, seltene Vögel zu erbeuten und deren Lebensweise
kennenzulernen”. 154 The notion of ‘savages’ living as ‘savages’, or for that matter Maori living as
Maori, in a state beyond the reaches of civilisation had long been a firmly entrenched stereotype
in the minds of Europeans. The difference between this philosophical mindset, which emphasises
the ‘unchanging’ conditions of the environment, and Reischek’s is that while the text in Sterbende
Welt conforms more strongly to these parameters, Reischek senior did in fact observe European
influences, as is clear from his ethnological collection and also, for instance, in the young men
and women he witnessed who had a Maori mother and European father, but were brought up
among full-blooded Maori in the King Country and now only spoke Maori. 155 In other words,
judging from Reischek senior’s unpublished manuscript, as no definitive account of his King
Country travels was ever published, it seems likely that Reischek junior is more responsible for
the Romantic turn of phrases 156 and a greater emphasis on the seemingly ‘untouched’ Maori
living in this unspoiled “stille Paradies” (212) than his father. 157
The premise is based on two erroneous facts: the first is the claim that Reischek was the
first European to enter the King Country (made only by his son), 158 and the second is the general
154 Reischek, “Zwölf Jahre auf Neu-Seeland”, 71.
155 Andreas Reischek, “Ueber Neu-Seeland und seine Bewohner”, in: MAGW 20 (1890): 96.
156 Kolig, Umstrittene Würde, 12, 68; cf. Roger Paulin, “Die Erfahrung des Fremden: Andreas Reischeks Sterbende
Welt”, in: Schnittpunkt Romantik: Text- und Quellenstudien zur Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts. Eds. Wolfgang
Bunzel, Konrad Feilchfeldt and Walter Schmitz. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1997, 341-49.
157 Again King characteristically attributes this to the long list of ‘exaggerations’ by Reischek senior: “He did not
want to recognise or record manifestations of Westernisation or technology in Maori life. He wanted to create a
strong impression for his European audience and potential buyers of his collection that he had encountered the last of
the ‘old-time’, neolithic Maoris, living as they had done for centuries before the coming of the white man to New
Zealand” (King, Collector, 62f.).
158 See 147, 190, 202; Kolig, Umstrittene Würde, 92. In spite of these assertions, a small number of Europeans did in
fact cross the ‘aukati’ line, or boundary, of the King Country, as the bordering settlement of Pirongia served as “a
neutral gateway through which people could pass in both directions across an ostensibly closed border” in order to
“sell produce and to attend European race meetings, agricultural shows and Maori huis”, while some also lived
among Maori kin beyond the border – seven alone in Te Kuiti in 1875 (King, Collector, 72f.). Entrance was at first
regulated and boundaries were tightened and relaxed as Tawhiao and his council of advisors saw fit throughout its
isolation between 1864 and 1883, and those who were allowed to enter were always escorted. Government officials,
such as the Native Minister and Premier, were also invited into the territory for official ‘huis’, despite being a safe
haven for Maori ‘rebels’ and ‘murderers’, which was worsened by the fact that many Ngati Maniapoto endorsed the
killing of unauthorised Europeans, mostly surveyors, who crossed the border (Kirkwood, Tawhiao, 71, 121-37;
Cowan, NZ Wars, II:468-74). Reischek himself states in his unpublished manuscript that he was told by Tawhiao that
he was the first white person to be allowed to remain there and explore the territory, not the first or only European to
enter: “Du bist der erste [W]eisse dem wir erlauben hier zu bleiben und durch unser Land zu gehen” (unpublished
manuscript, II:456). While King automatically labels Reischek a liar, several points have been overlooked. For one,
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