THE WHIZZ TO THE MOON.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 29, 4 February 1928, Page 8

THE WHIZZ TO THE MOON.

Hone Horokai speaking: "I just come to town from Potae-mangumangu this morning. and a fellow lie tells me about that Tangata Wiwi who wants to go kokiri up to the moon in a big sky rocket. My Christmas, it'll be a taniwha of a sky rocket! My word, what a blimp for the poof old moon! Good idea, though! I'd like to send a letter l»y that fellow and maybe a kit of kumara and kainga. I got a restive up there, a tupuna, you know, an ancestor. By Krise, I have! What's her name? Why, you know, Rona. She belongs to my tribe, Ngati-noa-iho. She was going down to the creek one night to get a talia full of water for her boss and she stubs her big toe on a manuka butt and she curses Marama, the moon, for going behind a cloud and not giving her lipht, and by Krise, up she goes like a big bird to the moon, holding 011 to a ngaio tree. Marama just reached down for her and says, '\ou call me poko-kohua, did you? Up you come then!' And there she is now; you see her full-moon nights. "Now, I tell you this. That wahine, Rona, she came from my kainga, long ago, long before my great-grandfather was born. Oh. yes, I show you the creek and the place just where the tree stood. You can see the hole vet where it was pulled out by the roots. w "^ T ??\ the « , 1 want J' ou to tell that TanjrataWiwi Mister Peltene this-I want you to tell him if he sees an old, old wahine sitting there smoking her pipe under a ngaio tree when he gets to the moon why, she s my old tapuna, old Rona. Bv Krise, she 11 be a regular old Kuia now! And vou tell him to press noses with her when he gets out ° _ ? ? -T r °f and , give her my letter and Zl K/i And another thing. What about my land claims in the moon? My word, I think got a pretty good claim. Rona is our kai-whakahaere, our representative, vou know. And if she s dead, what about us putting m an application for succession order in the Native Land Court? By Christmas, I think I'll go and see the judge about it. "Only one thing. What if that Tangata-Wiwi just misses Marama and goes kokiri right paet< My word, a bit of a puzzle for them then. Wili he try Tawera next, or Parearau or Maahu Tonga—you know, the Southern Cross? B\ Christmas, another search expedition for th< Government airships, more hell from the news papers. Poor old Government!" ?■—TANGIWAL