CHAPTER LXXXII. NEW ZEALAND--_Continued_. FOOD AND COOKERY. HOSPITALITY OF THE NEW ZEALANDERS -- EFFECTS OF CIVILIZATION -- THE CHURLISH HOSTS AND THEIR REWARD -- A NEW ZEALAND FEAST -- THE WALL OF PROVISIONS -- FOOD-BASKETS -- THE KUMARA OR SWEET POTATO -- WASHING AND COOKING VEGETABLES -- THE CABBAGE PALM AND FERN ROOT -- A NATIVE LEGEND -- THE PAWA SHELL -- THE MUSSEL AND OYSTER -- FISHING -- THE NET, THE TRAP, THE HOOK, AND THE SPEAR -- BIRD-CATCHING -- CAPTURING THE KIWI-KIWI AND PARROT -- PIG-CATCHING AND COOKING -- CANNIBALISM, ITS SIGNIFICATION AND EXTENT -- EATING HUMAN FLESH A SUPERSTITIOUS CUSTOM -- ANECDOTES OF CANNIBALISM. The New Zealanders are the most hospitable and generous of people; a stranger, whether native or European, is welcomed into the villages, is furnished with shelter, and provided at once with food. Should the visitor be a relative, or even an intimate friend, they hold all their property in common, and will divide with him everything that they possess. Even if a Maori has earned by long labor some article of property which he was very anxious to possess, he will give it to a relation or friend who meets him after a long separation. This generosity of disposition has unfortunately been much checked by contact with the white man, and those natives who have much to do with the white settlers have lost much of their politeness as well as their hospitality. Instead of welcoming the traveller, housing him in their best hut, providing him with their choicest food, and tending him as if he were a near relation, they have become covetous and suspicious, and instead of offering aid gratuitously will sometimes refuse it altogether, and at the best demand a high rate of payment for their assistance. The native converts to Christianity have deteriorated greatly in this respect through the misjudged zeal of the missionaries, who have taught their pupils to refuse food and shelter to, or to perform any kind of work for, a traveller who happens to arrive at their houses on a Sunday--a circumstance which must continually occur in a country where the travellers are entirely dependent on the natives. Dr. Dieffenbach, who always speaks in the highest terms of the zeal and self-denial of the missionaries, writes as follows on this subject: “Highly as I appreciate the merits of the missionaries, I must say that they have omitted to teach their converts some most important social, and therefore moral, duties, which they will only acquire by a more intimate intercourse with civilized Europeans.