THE GREAT KINGITE MEETING.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1609, 10 April 1875, Page 2

THE GREAT KINGITE MEETING.

Further Account of the Country.

Interesting Notes

(FROM OUR SPECIAL CORRES-

PONDENT.)

TE KUITI

April 5, 1875. THE MEETING AT A STANDSTILL.

As THE great meeting has come to a standstill, wai'ing the arrival of Tawhaio from the ooa«t, fthe chiefs having sent for him,) T have thought it might be interesting to your readers and. the public generally to hear some further particulars o? this interesting, but unknown country. Every one here now makes it, as the natives say, "a walk about," and as I feel rather tired of doing nothing, I thought that perhaps a few more lines from your special correspondent might not be taken amiss.

ACACIA GROVES —KINGITE BURTAL

GROUNDS

Ido not think that I have previously mentioned the numbers of Acacia groves that are met with throughout the King's country. The nearest one to each settlement is generally chosen as their burial ground, and is therefore held sacred by the natives, and no white man dare put foot inside the fence without running a risk of his life. However there are very many which you can freely enter. When you see them from a short distance you are surprised at the clear and bright green appearance of the trees and the dull vegetation around. The flowering season has passed but what a sight it must be when the bright yellow flower is mingled with the green, and, I believe, the perfume is wafted by the winds for miles.

THE CROPS.—OUR CORRESPONDENT

WEIGHS THE YIKLD

With respect to their crops of wheat I may state that I was present at a half caste's threshiDg and took the weight of the wheat myself. Munga (Rewi) was there also with me for three whole days, it being the custom to help one another. Munga had threshed oat his corn before I arrived, and being at liberty he went with me. to the half caste's threshing ; though of course neither he nor your correspondent worked but looked on. Now the land the wheat was grown on was a little over an acre and when I added up the weight, I found that it yielded 46 bushels 32ib. of wheat. lam informed that about 23 bushels is the average yield for the province of Auckland, so that in this country it is double that of the rest of the province. About SO or 90 natives came quite needlessly to assist at the threshing, about half of them being in the way, but they are rot fond of work, and like a walk about, or a smoke at frequent interval?, according to their fancy. BKEAKFAST.—NATIVE COOKING. We get breakfast at seven o'clock, and perhaps it may be new to some to hear how it is cooked and eaten by the natives b<:re. All the whare's are made of raupo, but there is one devoted entirely to cooking, s^me distance from the sleeping whare. There are no windows in it, but openings are left in the raupo to let the smoke out. The fire is in the centre of the room, and the pots are hung by iron chains from a cross bar—a manuka rail, supported by two uprights, also of manuka. Then the wabine cuts up the pork, and together with fresh cabba«e, kumera, and unripe maize, is put into the stew pot The kettle is used for boiling water to make tea with. So much for the meat and trimmings, but where are the potatoes ? Going outside the kitchen, and at a safe and respectable distance from it, you will find the copper-m&ories at work. A round hole is dug in the ground about two feet deep, and then the wood is put in and set fire to ; it is then covered over with round stones, and covered up. When the fire has burnt down to ashes, the stones are very hot, and then the potatoes are put in on the top of the hot stones, and about a quart of water with them ; they are covered over with mats and bags and on the top of this, earth is put to prevent the steam escaping. The cook knows when the potatoes are ready by the steam working its way through the mats.and earth. It is then uncovered, and the potatoes are carried in Maori kits to the various groups of natives who have been summoned to their kaikai. Now commences a scramble for the best pieces and potatoes between the natives, dogs and pigs. The natives have no knives or fo ks (excepting thsir pocket-knife, which is used only for cutting up the native tobacco), so they go into it with both hands. Whenever a pig is killed, the liver is always found to be diseased, solely caused by the pigs swallowing potatoes very hot, just after leaving the copper - maori. Their bread is baked in a camp oven, and at the threshing, where I was three days with Munga they had to bake a hundredweight of bread a day. The camp ovens are common property, and one can see, as I have done, as many as eight or nine of these camp ovens at once, baking bread. There is a fire at each end of the row, and the ashes are put under and on the top of the oven until the bread is baked. Of course dinner and tea are exactly the same as I have breakfast, the only difference being that at the evening meal tea is served out in pannikins. MELOIvS, TOBACCO, ETC. During threshing time it is customary, at eleven o'clock in the morning, to have a feed of melons ; each person is supplied witfi a melon, so in this case there is no scrambling. They prefer the watermelon, but as I only eat rockmelon, a fine rockmelon was always brought to the pakeha. Their native tobacco is to be purchased at Is. 3d. alb., but as I do not smoke tobacco, cannot pretend to be a judge. I happened to bring a pound of good m merican tobacco which I gave to the European Moffatt as a preseitt, and before long, I assure you, it was all distributed. Munga got two plugs, and the King's brother-in-law one, I also took up some short clay pipes, and Moffatt regretted that he had not one left to give his wife when he got to Matatiruru, his own home.

STRENGTH OF THE NATIVE POSI

TION.

With respect to the question whether the natives are now in a stronger position than they were previously, I thnk I may safely say that they are There does not appear to be any lack of either powder or arms ; but as to the actual reserve, I do not know nor is it likely, they would tell any European, no matter what con6dence they might put in him. If ever there is another war, the Europeans will find that they have to face a very differently equipped enemy to what they have had to encounter in all former wars. Now it is well known, and may be seen in Dr Thomson's second volume of his work on New Zealand, page 254, that in ths year 1857, by a New Zealand Gazette, for reasons known only to the Native Office, the hitherto very stringent restrictions for preventing Europeans selling arms and ammunition to natives was rescinded. Gazette of the year 1857. The Melbourne and Sydney merchants, it is well known, as published by Dr Thomson, availed themselves of the withdrawal n[ this restriction, and sold to the natives thousands of arms, and a very large quantity of ammunition, so much so that the Native Office got frightened and again prohibited the sale of such articles to the ratives. Even when liberty was given to sell to natives, it was only under certain conditions. Now, I ask, why was the prohibition ever withdrawn ? Was it to prop up the tottering Native Office? If the natives had no

arms or ammunition, what excuse had they fornot cleating them off the land at the close off i the war. Borne long-headed man in the Na- Iffci tive Office sees this, and, to keep the Native f V Office alive, he natnrally says: '* We must *• allow the Europeans to sell arms and ammuid- .vg j tion to the natives tinder certain restrictions, fW and after we think they have got enough to %*, mjike themselves an enemy to be respected, N <*' we can prohibit the sale again, which waa actually what took place." CAUSE OF ARTHMA AMONG NATIVES. I think that I have discovered the reasoa why so many natives suffer from asthma. ■ You may see them lying down in the; cook-house, smoking' for hoars, and suddenly get up from this over-heated room, and- rush out in the chilly air, with nothing on them, but a loose blanket. Thia is, I believe, the real cause of the prevalence of so much asthma amongst them. You do not find that they are subject to many complaints like Europeans, and the reason is that they live more natural, whilst ■ the Europeans life, especially in large towns, is all artificial. Look, for instance, at the teeth of a Maori, and then on the yellow, half-decayed ones of a European. They are well aware of the Native Volunteers on the Thames, and express surprise that Sir Donald this year should himself order what he would not sanction last. They ask whether they are intended as an escort for him when at any future time he might pay a visit to the King ?

CANNEL COAL. In 3 former letter I believe that I mentioned that a valuable cannel coal seam had been recently discoverftd. The seam was discovered by Moffatt. It is at a place distant from here about three hours' journey on horseback. The natives now carry it in sacks or pack-horses to Moffatfc's smithy at Te Kuiti, so that he now uses coal instead of wood at his forge. Where the coal is, there appears rather recently to have been a landslip," which has exposed the seam to view. The seam is about thirteen feet deep, and it is supposed to extend throughout the entire length of the range of hills in which it is found.

CART BUILT BY MOFFATT. A curious v^^g to be seen hsie is Moffatt's cart ■*,> ;<rere are no roads. It appears t" nO^- 1D g l as t year, he found the remain's of what appeared to have been a ~ waggon. All the wood-work had decayed with sge and exposure, but he found the tires of the four wheels embeddep a good depth in the ground. He had them dug out, but on examining them found that they were deeply eaten away with rust, however, he welded two together and made two wheels out of the four. He then makes the woodwork of the cart, and there it is in a country where there are no roads to use it on as natural as can be, but a very straDge object as you may suppose, SNAKE STORY. The natives tell me that up the Pirongia Mountain may be seen the skin of a snake. JSowwevery well know that there are no snakes in New Zealand. But I fully believe a skin is there, but not of a snake. "Whenl was living in Canterbury at a place called Milford I was told that an immense eel eleven years old had been caught by some natives in the deep creek which runs by the village. It took several men to drag it out of the water. They said it weighed 491bs. and had a beard on it like a man. It was exhibited to the public at Timaru. Now I firmly believe that the skin on the Pirongia belongs to one of these monster eels, and that it has been carried up the mountain by some of the natives. SHEWING ONE'S LOVE. There are some peculiar notions amongst the Maoris which I have never before found amongst any natives in all my travels abroad. Let me mention one, it is what they call . "shewing their love for you." A native makes you a present, which, he says " shews his love for you," but in return, sooner or later, he expects to be presented with goods or cattle about ten times the value of what he gave you. I will illustrate what I mean by a case in point. Alexander Thompson (poor Thompson again before the public, it's too bad of your '' special "), the half-caste at Kopua, some few years back, accepted & present of a horse from a certain native, j^ome short time after, this same native came on a visit to Thomoson, and admired one or two of Thompson's choicest things which he had in his whare, Thompson bearing in mind the present of the horse is reluctantly compelled to give him them. But that is not all, some short time ago Thompson went to assist a neighbour to get in his harvest, or at all events, to help him with his work whatever it was, the aforesaid native comes to Thompson's place during his absence, brings some others with him, and they carry away between twenty and thirty maori kits of Thompson's potatoes, as they think Thompson is rather dilatory in returning" his love to them, so they help themselves, Thompson now sees that it would have been much cheaper in the end if he had paid for the horse. Supposing you have a good coloured meerscham pipe, a native sees it, admires it and wants it, you do not refuse him as Europeans do to each other but you tell him that up to the present time you have not seen his " love for you," and so you get out of the difficulty.

SALE OF TOBACCO.-GROG-SHOP AT

TE KUITI.—A MOA SEEN.

Fortunately for them, their land will produce good tobacco, as they all smoke—men, women, and even small children. The tobacco is rolled up and pressed, similar to what is known among Europeans as Barrett's twist; it is sold in the King's country at Is 3d per lb. A chief called •• Coolie," and . who keeps a grog shop at Te Kuiti, told me that about ten or eleven years ago, he saw a Moa up the Pirongia mountain. I said " Why did you not shoot it?" He replied that it was too far off, and in trying to follow it up it soon got out of his sight. He has not seen any since, and believing from what he could judge this bird must have been ten feet high. Now whether this is true or not, I cannot tell, but many moa bones are constantly seen up this mountain and in the gulleys. It is therefore not to be considered a very extraordinary thing for one to have been seen alive eleven years ago. TE KOGTI BEE-HUNTING Te Kooti and many others have gone up the Piranga Mountain honey-seeking. Te Kooti is acknowledged to be the best beehunter in the colony. They will be away about a a week or ten days, and if each man does not return with a hundredweight of honey on his pack-horse for winter use, he will consider that he has been very unsuccessful. DIFFICULTY OF COMMUNICATION. I think that for the present I have written enough, and hope to be able to send you reports of each chief's speech when business is again resumed, which will be as soon as the King has arrived. But during the truce the meeting is going on with business, the difficulty is to get a native to leave it and take my letter to Alexandra. It i» quite possible I may give it to one who will promise to go, and will also perform it, but time is no object with him, so if I see him leave here with it, lam not certain but he may visit the various settlements on the way down, and thus delay my despatch for at least *■ week. However, I will do my best, and you may depend that your "special" will not leave a stone unturned to gain his object. You are aware that I have some influence in the highest quarter, so I hope I may get over the difficulty which I see looming in the distance. It is easy enough to get them to go for a bottle or two of rum, now there is no business doing at the meeting.