The few who remain, are not likely to forsake the comforts of their home: belonging to various tribes and different dialects, particular districts do not present equal attractions to all. They have learned also to rear vegetables, and the greater number are said to be familiar with English customs. By the census, they are assigned to the Church of England; but the distinctions of theology are beyond their comprehension, and therefore their choice; and it is perhaps to be lamented, that from the period of their capture, they have not been placed entirely under the parental care of some religious communion. Those who think lightly of missionary institutions, will find here no ground for exultation in the disastrous surveillance of the civil government.
Englishmen, of whatever rank, cannot fail to survey the aboriginal youth, less in number than many a colonial household, with deep solicitude; or when estimating their claims, to remember the fortunes of their fathers. Or should their helplessness and dependence ever tempt a ruler to expose them to the corrupting influence of the lowest examples, and to assign them the meanest education, he may be recovered to some sense of justice by the following confession of a distinguished predecessor:--
"Undoubtedly, the being reduced to the necessity of driving a _simple but warlike, and, as_ IT NOW APPEARS, NOBLE MINDED RACE, from their native hunting grounds, is a measure in itself so distressing, that I am willing to make almost any prudent sacrifice that may tend to compensate for the injuries that government is unwillingly and unavoidably the instrument of inflicting."--GEORGE ARTHUR.[27]
+-----+---------+-----+--------+ |Date.|Captured.|Died.|Escaped.| +-----+---------+-----+--------+ |1831 | 54 | -- | -- | |1832 | 68 | 5 | -- | |1833 | 42 | 40 | 3 | |1834 | 20 | 14 | -- | |1835 | 17 | 14 | -- | | |---------+-----+--------+ | | 201 | 73 | 3 | +-----+---------+-----+--------+
The numbers were-- In 1836 In 1838 In 1847 ---- ---- ---- 123 82 45]
[Footnote 24: The Bishop of New Zealand has wisely protested against the blanketing process of depopulation. The ignorant natives, accustomed to lie down in their damp huts, were steamed into consumptions.]