Tara or Irirangi, Principal Chief of the Nga Ti Tai Tribe

Angas's description:

"PLATE XXXIV.

TARA.

TARA is chief of a small tribe residing in the vicinity of Auckland, called Nga-ti-tai. Besides Ngeungeu, the widow of the late Mr. Maxwell, whose portrait was given in plate III., he has several sons who are grown up: they are remarkably tall, good looking young men; the youngest was for some time under the tuition of His Lordship, the Bishop of New Zealand, and had made considerable progress in his studies.

Tara is a frequent visitant at Auckland for the purposes of trade: he bears an excellent character, and is quiet and inoffensive in his disposition. He has not rendered himself particularly conspicuous by any remarkable feat, but is known and respected as the friend of Europeans, and a loyal adherent to the government.

Tara has a fine intellectual head: the New Zealanders, though inferior to many civilized nations in the enjoyment of mere sense, are, however, possessed of reasoning and reflecting powers, equal, if not superior even to those of Europeans. No civilized people can more carefully, patiently, and deliberately consider the merit of a subject or given line of conduct, than the New Zealanders, every action of whose life is almost the result of reflection. The New Zealander is to all intents and purposes an intellectual being, who might well stand the comparison with our own countrymen."

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