This cartoon appeared in Taranaki Punch on 13 February 1861. It was fairly typical of the paper's offensive anti-Māori humour. In this case it was commenting on Archdeacon Govett’s decision to bury four Māori chiefs in the garden of St Mary's vicarage in New Plymouth. The chiefs had been killed during the battle at Māhoetahi on 6 November 1860. In the next issue, published two weeks later, it was noted that:
we have heard that several people have positively tasted, perhaps it might be called an essence of Maori, existing in their wells, and it is not at all an uncommon thing to see people making wry faces after drinking, no doubt resulting from the peculiar sensation imparted to the roof of the mouth. Ugh! Horrible idea! Drinking infusion of Maori! ugh! decoction of nigger! If grubs turn the colour of what they eat, why should not children turn the colour of what they drink?
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