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ildet”. 61 Those who have nothing better to do, as appears to be the case without exception
among the Maori, often bathe at least three times a day: straight after waking up, in the evening
during sunset, before going to bed around midnight, as well as during the early hours of the
morning when one cannot sleep. 62 The second scene occurs during a canoe voyage, in which the
bickering, excitement and indecisiveness of his guides almost cause disaster:
Kurz eine Gefahr nach der anderen drohte aus der Unentschlossenheit und Aufgeregtheit des
braunen Piratengesindels, dem wir in die Hände gefallen waren. Ihre ganzen Navigationskünste,
von denen die Neuseeländischen Reisehandbücher viel Rühmliches zu berichten wissen, äusserten
sich mehr in einem ewigen wüsten Geschrei, einem ewigen rathlosen Hin- und Herfackeln, als in
einer zweckmässigen ernsten Thätigkeit. Und zu alle dem waren die Kerls noch schmälich faul,
ruhten gemächlich aus oder frugen uns durch Geberden, ob wir nicht auch einmal rudern
wollten. 63
Thus, his real life experiences seem to dispel one fallacy, only to replace it with further
stereotypes.
The next visitor to be examined has often been referred to as the “father of modern kinematics”.
Franz Reuleaux, a professor of mechanical engineering, became Director of the Royal Industrial
Academy in Berlin between 1868 and 1879, before acting as German Commissioner to both
Australian international exhibitions in Sydney (1879-80) and Melbourne (1880-81). 64 As the
second exhibition was coming to an end, he and Georg Seelhorst, Secretary to the German
Commission in Melbourne, set about organising a short trip to New Zealand with ethnological 65
and geological pursuits in mind. 66 The two of them left Sydney on the Ringarooma on 28 April
1881 and arrived in Auckland in the early hours of 4 May after a stopover in Russell on the night
61 Ibid., 129.
62 Ibid., 129f.
63 Ibid., 151.
64 See, for example, Wolfhard Weber, “Reuleaux, Franz, Maschinenbauingenieur, Begründer der Kinematik”, in:
NDB 21, 453f.; Hans-Joachim Braun, “Franz Reuleaux”, in: Berlinische Lebensbilder. Bd. 6 – Techniker. Eds. W.
Treue and W. König. Berlin: Colloquium Verlag, 1990, 279-92; Hans Zopke, “Professor Franz Reuleaux: A
Biographical Sketch”, in: Cassier’s Magazine 11:2 Dec (1896): 133-39; R. F. Keam, Tarawera: The Volcanic
Eruption of 10 June 1886. Auckland: Author, 1988, 1-7.
65 Reuleaux, “Ausflug nach Neuseeland”, 67f., 72, 550.
66 Seelhorst even attempted to climb Mt Tarawera with the part-Maori guide, Kate Middlemass, in search of a crater
from a suspected meteor landing, but he did not succeed. As it turned out, however, he had reportedly visited a part
of the mountain which had not been climbed before (Georg Seelhorst, Australien in seinen Weltausstellungsjahren
1879-81. Augsburg: Reichel, 1882, 297-302). Reuleaux later speaks of the catastrophic destruction from the
Tarawera eruption on 10 June 1886 which affected this very same area (Franz Reuleaux, “Die vulkanischen
Ausbrüche in Neuseeland”, in: WIDM 61:361 (1886): 143f.).
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