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John Rutherford, the White Chief By: George Lillie Craik (1798-1866) |
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A Story of Adventure in New Zealand Edited by JAMES DRUMMOND, F.L.S., F.Z.S. [Illustration: John Rutherford. From an original drawing taken in
1828.]
CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XIII.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
John Rutherford A Maori's shoulder mat Short striking weapons (clubs) used by the Maoris Kororareka Beach, in the Bay of Islands, where some of
Rutherford's adventures are supposed to have taken place A door lintel, showing Maori carving "Moko" on a man's face and on a woman's lips and chin Two Maori Chiefs Te Puni, or "Greedy," and Wharepouri,
or "Dark House" Scene in a New Zealand Forest Flute of bone A waist mat Stone implements used by Maoris for cutting hair Carved boxes Greenstone axes, with carved wooden bandies, and ornamented
with dogs' hair and birds' feathers Long striking and thrusting weapons used by the Maoris A Maori war canoe
INTRODUCTION.
Eighty years ago, when the story told in these pages was first
published, "forecastle yarns" were more thrilling than they are now. In
these days we look for information in regard to a new land's
capabilities for pastoral, agricultural, and commercial pursuits; in
those days it was customary, with a large portion of the British public,
at any rate, to expect sailors to tell stories Of the cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders, and to relate other particulars likely to arrest the attention and
excite the imagination. Men then sailed to unknown lands, peopled by
unknown barbarians, and their adventures in strange and mysterious
countries were clothed in a romance which has been almost completely
dispelled by the telegraph, the newspaper press, cheap books, and rapid
transit, and by the utilitarian ideas which have swept over the world. It was largely to meet the public taste for something wonderful and
striking that John Rutherford's story of adventures in New Zealand saw
the light of publicity. In fairness to the original editor and the
publisher, however, it should be stated that the story was given also as
a means of supplying interesting information in regard to a country and
a race of which very little was then known. It was embodied in a book of
400 pages, entitled "The New Zealanders," published in 1830, for the
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, by the famous publisher,
Charles Knight. He was a versatile, talented, and ambitious man; but all his ambitions
ran in the direction of the public good. From the time of his early
manhood, he wished to become a public instructor. At first he tried to
achieve his end by means of journalism, which he entered in 1812, by
reporting Parliamentary debates for "The Globe" and "The British Press,"
two London journals. Later on he started a publishing business in
London. Dealing only with instructive subjects, he established "Knight's
Quarterly Magazine," and other periodicals, to which he was one of the
prominent contributors. He was not a business man, and in 1828 he was overwhelmed by financial
difficulties. In the meantime he had become acquainted with the
brilliant but erratic Lord Brougham, who had completed arrangements for
putting into operation one of his great enterprises for educating the
masses. This was the establishment of the Society for the Diffusion of
Useful Knowledge. It began a series of publications under the title of
"The Library of Entertaining Knowledge," which Knight published. The
first volume, written by Knight himself, was "The Menageries"; the
second was "The New Zealanders." Other publications were issued by the
society until it was dissolved in 1846. Knight continued to send works
out of the press nearly to the end of his useful life, in March, 1873... Continue reading book >>
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