This book provides a description of Māori customs in the early nineteenth century. It was written by the missionary Richard Taylor to describe the country to readers in Britain and to explain the efforts of the Church Missionary Society in their attempts to convert Māori to Christianity.
Missionaries first arrived in New Zealand in 1814, forming stations primarily along the shores of the Bay of Islands in the North Island. Along with the Christian faith, missionaries hoped to teach Māori to speak English and to read and write, and many missionaries learned to speak te reo Māori (the Māori language) allowing for better communication between Māori and Europeans. Similar practices were followed as European settlement expanded into the South Island.
Taylor arrived in New Zealand in the 1830s and was present at the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. He took up the post of schoolmaster at the mission school at Te Waimate in the Bay of Islands before being posted to Whanganui in 1842. Taylor helped to build churches and travelled to Māori villages (pā) in the region, studying Māori culture and religious beliefs as well as the natural history and topography of New Zealand’s North Island.
The work conducted by missionaries such as Taylor was undertaken with a hope to convert Māori to Christianity and to force them to adopt European dress and customs. By the end of the nineteenth century, Europeans began to believe that Māori culture was becoming extinct and sought to preserve it in literature, in art and in museum collections. From the mid-twentieth century, Māori cultural practices have seen a revival among Māori and people of Māori heritage both within New Zealand and around the world.