THE MAORI AND THE SHARK.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 45, 23 February 1927, Page 8

THE MAORI AND THE SHARK.

I'lie account recently published of a native entering the water to harpoon a si.ar, puts one in mind of a paper published by Mr. Colcnso in I*ol on the early Maori method of capturing the ninko. It should be intcre-ting to Rnv ~f Islands fi-hermen. and perhaps s,, :m . c f ,].,.„, might give the method a trial. It h.-.s sonic points of re-embl.-.nee to th.. hi-Ltii sporting method. '•This ti-b." -ays the writer, q-.iot innative sources of information which he deen - reliable, "was never taken, a- < th,: -harks were, with hook and lines: none of the native !i-hh<K.k----woulc! be strone enough to hidd it. When the canoe had been out '.-bing for a time, periiap- a mako would be seen coming lci-urclv along the surface of the water. The man who -aw it ■-. ■ ■ ;■.;,] shout to his companions in the cenoc. 'Haul up your land." taking cere not to nan.e the f.-li. When tiie mako was pretty near the can.--. al«.ut three yards oiT. a big tempting bait would be let down before it. and the mako. seeing the ban. would dive down it- head to sci7,e it. It- t... wouid be uprai-ed abo\e the water. A m.o-ed rope would be Hum. lasso-fashion, over it- t : ,,i and hauled tight. Away would s].eed the ran<>e to all points of the compass, the man who had no-.sed the ti-h holding ~n to the rope. At | :l -t. being exhausted, the mako died. It floated, and its head was cut off. Hence arose th" saving, 'herc-laniwha.* or 'monster-binding.' " The llesh ~f the mako was ne\e r eaten. It was too oily, but the body was hauled alongside the ca- • and the head cut off with a -aw made of the teeth of a smaller shark, the -latere.*' The body was then ea-t adrift. The teeth were greatly valued. The .Maori recognises eight teeth as peculiar to the mako—four very large teeth within the jaw. termed "all rei." or ear pendant-; and four smaller one- j„ |i,„ outer jaw. termed tnerelv "niho." ( r te< th.

The tarly Mam i- v>eie undoubtedly o-vpert mi all in ill tor.- pertaining to -hark-: tiiov had ti> I.e. lor tli,. -hark wa- a principal articb- of iliot. I'or example, ii i- ~„ n ,,„,i ,], a , at „ Inii, or l.iu!(|iint. at Ccmucia in tin- vear no fewer than SMIOti dried -hark- were ."ii-t i il.ut< -I t<, the guest*. There were at len-t nine mined vaiioties known t<, !!<■• native, ami n-ed a- fool. The practice ..f lawn- ground bail, and spearing fi-h in shallow ur:-r on a ri-ing tide, j- very common aim .._-t t!,.- native-, an- 1 , thev do not a|i|«>nr to !„• pai ti« nlarly afraid of tlio -hark. They do not ho-i;.itr to enter llio water aft<r him. though they arc careful to l,e fully dres-ed. and nrmed with a spear or harpoon: in "fact, it junite probable that the -hark- in New Z<-alat:d water-, at nil event-, are much 1 ■-- prone to iittitk hu-nan being- than i- gcn-raTy -ii] i.,.~ed. K.I). HEADS I WIN. I had the felicity to sit and see many charming young women on an excursion boat. Of the fifty-five I counted within ea-y raiiL'c not one was anything but beautiful. 1 heir costume* were daintily in keep-in;; with themselves and the incomparable climate in which they live. That, however, is not the point. The point is that not two hats 0 ;" the fifty-five young women were alike. The clinging pudding basin kind, admirably suited !.. Phyllis of the 10-t locks appear- to be gradually receding, and in many oases shadier headgear throws delieion- light's upon the work- of art b. low (and iixi.bnta.lv. •Hi the work of Wituioi. I sekciod foi tapld review the first fifty-live available men. Kxcepl for an eccentric person in .1 pith helmet (who. having lived in 1 lock ha tr.pt on lor years, found the Auckland climate trying) all the men had hats so alike that one thought of the universal mother of hats who brought forth the same pattern at every new gestation. What jov lo an observing per-,.n to behold fifty five men's heads each in a perfectly dilT. re-t' pattern of hat!

Tho allegation that a hat i- characteristic of the man who wears it i- ab-urd. Barring the dint-, attributable to his manipulation of it. vou cannot tell whether the owner is a Prime Minister or a [prime meat merchant. The felt hat of the same shape is a- universal as a green tint for grass. (inly one man in Auckland wears the old style slimmer straw hat. and iie wears it summer and winter a- an cxprc--ion of character. The beret which ha- sprung sullenly into far-from-univorsnl use in England is not seen, the French kepi is unknown: that comfortable fur roundabout made id' nice fur (and common m St. Petersburg) is never seen on Queen Street: but there is a a chi-s of man who remeniU-rs Queen Victoria, who have lately disinterred the hard round black hat without Which none warespectable when Gladstone was gladder than his -on is now. Eminem ohapeaii:_-i.iphi-l-. -triving for originality, have intrcMluced twenty-live not,— of coheir into old shades, and dukes at Deauville may be ob-er\ed spurning- the -and- tiled with green, purple and even vollow hats. Intellectual differences are indicated by the angles at winch these sartorial tributes t,i change arc Worn, but in dc-,gn a-nl maimfii. tired shape :hi\ -till conform to ihe convention we -evi unable to avoid. 11, re 111 tie new paper "Man." a periodical do-igncd to stir the emulation ~f male wearers of clothes, there i- pictured a bat which is to be a successor to the straw boater, to which, as I said, only one Auckland man i-addi'-ted. In shape it i- indist inpiii-hal.le from the felt he.! which i- Auckland's universal man'head covering, but it is woven in narrow -traw or fibre and looks so sensible that vet \ few Auckland men ale likely to wear it The inventor has thought of the nv<ra-?e man. aid ha- designed the new potae to bridge the gap between summer and winter. In fact, a man may wear one of these "eady" or "en-tor" all the year round Adept at painting be nay todav appear with his hat a pale green, and to-morrow of nn aristocratic puiple. By the pcriod'eal n-e of shellac or varni-h be may render hi- r .„.f waterproof He may turn the front K-if down in that thoughtful Coates c\pie--ion or up in the nonchalant, gay and debonnair oxpro-sion ~f a Minister of Education. He may have a blue band round a yellow hat ,>r may have a purple summit rising from a white circlet. And when it comes along he may have a i.irc chance of purchasing a really g«,od seven-ar.d-s-xpennv hat for two pounds. - ( 1... T.