NEW ZEALAND A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 254, 23 October 1920, Page 19

NEW ZEALAND A HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

MAORI LIFE AND CUSTOMS IN 1820,

(From the Journal of Major Richard A. Cruise, of the 84th Regiment Foot.) CHAPTER X. Spar-getting at the Kawakawa, Bay of Islands-Natives Give a Tree for an Axe— Taihoa Policy" of the Maori Bushmen Tries the Patience of the White Men—Walking Trip to the Waimate. kiJJSrw 1 3rd i IS2 °' <hC car P cntOT had be ™ Borne days up the KawarhS. J? f V tho nath ' eS in Z° mn S down tiie spars. The (hiets ,ho hart contracted to supply them, were, as already mentioned, It, * nd , W George. For each tree 'was given an axe, which was 2 , b * cxclusivcl >' the Property of the chiefs; and as a further lemuneratior, the carpenter was in the habit of distributing every second CTening articles nf minor value among the men and women who worked under them At. noon King George demanded the usual stipend for his people which the carpenter refused to give, telling him that the dav_ ™I, t- ? <oin P !ctcd - b «t that they should receive it at sunset; upon this King t.eorge grew excessively insolent, and in a few minutes surrounded the carpenter s tent with about 100 persons, threatening to kUI-a native of Bengal, who acted ns interpreter to the carpenter, and was in the tent with him. and behaving in other respects so outrageously that the unjust demand, from motives of prudence, was complied with. (See Note 11.) The natives then dispersed, and, with the exception of very abandoned their work altogether. During this affair Te Koki conducted himself extremely well, taking no part in the tumult, and telling ihe carpenter that so far from not being sufficiently paid, the people had already received too much for their labour. Things were in this state when the commander of the Dromedary arrived at the wood: and as nothincould he done at the moment. Te Koki and King George promised to come on board the next day and explain the motives of the disagreement. " THE TAIHOA POLICY. That there might be no misunderstanding, on the following mornin* a boat was sent to Te Puna for one of the missionaries, to interpret what Jung George had to say for himself; and in the course of the day Tc Koki and his fellow-chief arrived. King George had not been two minutes in the ship when he remarked that his conduct at the carpenter's tent was nangareka, or hoax; "that neither he nor his people meant any harm and their only object was to get as much as they could from the white men." Both he and Te Koki declared that they were amply paid, that they had no reason to be dissatisfied, and that they would again resume their labours. They urged in extenuation of" their not"performing their contract, that one of their relations had lately died, that many°of the tribe were gone to cry over him, that many more were obliged to attend the planting of the kumaras; but that they would all return at the end of the present moon, and that then the spars should be floated down the river. Notwithstanding this affected satisfaction they seemed sore and out of spirits, particularly King George, who did nothing but beg for one thing or the other from the time he came into the ship until he left it. The people of the Bay of Islands having a suspicion that the Dromedary might ultimately go to Whangaroa, took every opportunity of .pointing out to us the danger attendant upon a visit to "that harbour. Almost daily reports were made of the plots laid for our destruction, and this morning a. native, nicknamed George, who had lived as servant with the missionaries, and understood English pretty well, told us that he had it from unquestionable authority, that his namesake of Whangaroa had cut down two spars, which were drawn near the Water, and several others ■which were left more inland, as a snare to induce our .people to come, on shore, that they might be dealt with in the same manner as the crew of the Boyd. •

On the 6th, two or three spars having been floated down the river, the carpenters were employed in trimming them; and one of the natives, affecting to make himself particularly useful, took occasion, when the attention of the European workmen was turned to other objects, to seize an axe, and run away with it into a neighbouring wood as hard as he could; pursuit, of course, was useless. On the following day one of the officers of the ship having visited the missionaries' settlement at Te Puna, was presented with a human bone, curiously carved. The person who gave it to him, assured him that he had purchasedit from a chief of Whangaroa, who had set a high value upon it. from the circumstance of its being the rib of one of the crew of the Boyd. A STOP-WORK MEETING. The wind being southerly, the Prince Kegcnt schooner again sailed for Sydney. On the 9th, in goingXip the Kawakawa in the morning, we met the carpenter, who told us that the whole of Te Koki's and King George's people had abandoned their work, to attend the taking up of the bones of a deceased relative. This is one of the last funeral rites that is paid to the dead. After the body has remained sufficiently long in the ground for the flesh to decay, the friends take up the bones, scrape them clean, and deposit them in a basket, placing the skull at the top, in the burying ground of the family. These burying grounds are rigidly tabbooed, and a violation of them is never forgotten or forgiven. On~taking up the bones, the tribe perform the ceremony d_ crying and cutting themselves, which is followed by a grand feast. Soon jifter we had parted with the carpenter, we landed on the left bank of Ihe river, and walked to a village about half a mile distant. It was at first almost deserted, but in a short time several women came running into it, very much cut with the shell, and bleeding profusely from their faces and arms: they were followed by the native of Bengal, already mentioned, who hurried to his house, and seizing his musket, discharged it in the air. In the first hurry we could get no explanation of this extraordinary proceeding, but we were afterwards informed that a man of Te Koki's tribe, had just died in the neighbourhood; and that it was customary upon these occasions for every person having a musket to fire it, as a salute to the departed spirit. The women had been present when the man'expired, and had gone through the usual ceremonies of their country; but when they joined our party they were in the highest spirits, and though still bleeding, they continued to laugh and romp, until we parted from them at the water's edge, whither they had followed us. Previous to their departure, the natives, incensed at an objection made by the carpenter to a spar which they were about to launch, on account of its being under the regulated dimensions, laid it across the bed of the river, so as effectually to stop the passage of the rest that were to follow, and sfnking a canoe some distance lower down the stream, went to celebrate the obsequies of their relative. VISIT TO WAIMATE. On May 10th some of our party returned from an excursion into the interior. They had gone up the river Kerikeri, and after walking about twenty miles across the country, arrived at a small stream, called Ihe Waimate, which flows into the Waitangi, and gives its name to the neighbouring district, the property of Tareha, a chief of Hongi s tribe They found this man presiding at a general assembly of the people ot the Bay of Islands and the country adjacent, and they calculated thaX (here were nearly 3,000 persons on the ground. Being cautious in concealing the object of meetings of this kind, the Maoris said it originated in the presence of an Atua, or god, and directed the par y to ihe place where the divinity was to be found. Here they saw the head of one of their chiefs, who had been killed at Mercury Bay, dressed out with feathers, and placed upon an elevated platform. Near it were the bones of many,generations of the family; and the lamentations of the relatives who sat round it began at the rising and terminated at the settine of the sun. The appearance of this immense assemblage was represented as resembling a fair; and as all meetings, whether to grieve _r to rejoice, end in a feast, the quantities of kumaras and potatoes

which were seen were enormoits. Thotigb many ol' ibe people might have collected to celebrate the rites of the Atua, it was afterwards ascertained that the chief object of the meeting was lo concert measures to avenge the death of one of Hongi's brothers, who had been billed twelve years before in an unsuccessful expedition on the western coast. Our rarty afterwards went to a place called Taiamai, where they saw some.' hot sulphurous springs, and collected some specimens of erystalised sulphur. They were attended on their return by Kaitara. the chief of the place. He had been particularly civil to them, and seemed lo he one of the few who had improved by a visit to Sydney; having several acres of ground fenced in, and cultivated, and a house of a description very superior to those of the other Maoris.

BIG-GUN PRACTICE. On May 11th, two casks having been anchored right and left, of the ship, the great, guns were exercised. There were many canoes full of people assembled to witness the spectacle; and as the progress of the shot upon the water was very visible, tho natives seemed greatly surprised. at the extent of its range. Korokoro being among the spectators, remarked, at the end of the firing, ''that the entertainment was over because the powder was all gone"; but that he thought the captain of the ship would have acted much more wisely in giving it to him, as he would have amply supplied the vessel with provisions in return. Another chief, named Perehiko, who sat by" replied, "that it was very well to fire at a cask at New Zealand, but that he was confident whenever the Dromedary returned to England, King George would be very angry with her commander for wasting his powder." On the 13th some of the Dromedary's crew made an excursion np the River Waikare; and on approaching Titore's village, he tired two muskets as a salute, but as there were no arms in the boat, he asked ns, when we landed, why the compliment had not been returned? and seemed displeased until a satisfactory explanation was given. He then led us to his hut, where he had just completed the stock of a musket, and considering the few miserable tools he possessed, it was done with much ingenuity, the place for the barrel had been hollowed out by fire, and the excavation for the lock, though made with an old knife and a wretched chisel, was singularly accurate. Whenever Titore came on board the Dromedary, he took his station either at the carpenter's or the armourer's bench, where he watched with unremitting attention whatever was going on; and he showed remarkable quickness and sagacity in learning everything mechanical that came under his observation. In the evening, the carperiter returned from the Kawakawa, where he had been the whole of the week, with ten sailors, and reported that for the last three days he had scarcely received any assistance from the natives; the greater part of them having gone to a funeral in the neighbourhood; and that it was impossible to say when they would return. The labour had now become very hard, the trees were felled in a swamp, which the late rains had flooded, and the men employed in dragging them to the river were often up to their waists in water. On the following day the working party was doubled. One of the midshipmen having gone on shore near where the ship lay, a native, who spoke English, told him that Te Tuhi had formed ai plot to take the Dromedary, and that a night attack was to be made upon her three Sundays afterwards with 200 men. (To be Continued.> Note 11. A native of Bengal. This man had left an East Indiaman that touched at the Bay of Islands ten years before, and married a woman of the tribe subject to Te Koki, whom he considered his chief. Though quite a Maori in his dress and habits, his diminutixe person and dark complexion made him appear to great disadvantage among the handsome and athletic people among whom he had settled. He remembered scarcely a word of English, but as well as he was able to make himself understood, he frequently cautioned the carpenter during the tumult round the tent, ''not to appear alarmed." The same advice has frequently been given to us by the missionaries. They found that the firm and undaunted demeanour of a white man will keep many natives at bay, but if he once shows symptoms of fear, or attempts to retreat, he is no longer in safety.