FISHING LORE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 245, 16 October 1928, Page 11

FISHING LORE.

OLD MAORI TRADITIONS.

MANY INTERESTING CUSTOMS.

Much interesting matter concerning old Maori fishing lore and customs was contained in a paper read by Mr. George Graham last evening at a meeting of the Anthropology and Maori Race section of the Auckland Institute. The meeting, which was the final one of the session, was presided over by Professor SperrinJohnson. Mr. Graham said research showed that the Maori had spent much of his time in fishing. Tribal wars very often arose out of quarrels relating to the possession and boundaries of fishing grounds. It was only to be expected that the Maori would have an appropriate mythology connected with the sea and the inland waters. There was a fishing god and there were many subsidiary gods. The fishing world itself had been divided into a number of departments, each presided over by a deity and a number of subsidiary deities. The Maori had a great mass of legend connected with his fishing, which laid down how and when fish might be caught for food and eaten. The tribal fishing grounds were governed by religious ceremonies. They had a legend that, all fish life originated from a midocean cavern in the Pacific; No doubt the Maoris in their wanderings had actually found some such breeding area. There, were reasons why certain kinds of fish might not be sought as, if they were, all the fish might desert the fishing ground. There were also closed seasons. An area might also be closed to fishing if a chief °or a number of people had been drowned in the vicinity. It had been a gross offence and a cause for war to fish in the grounds belonging to another people. The Maori had diffe'rent'typcs of hooks for the different types of. fish. They made hooks from wood and from bone, the human jaw bone being sometimes used. When iron was introduced into New Zealand the Maori at once adapted it to their uses. There was, in the Auckland Museum, one historic iron hook which had belonged to a Hauraki chief and had been got from Captain Cook's ship while it was at Mercury Bay. Net making also had its ceremonies. Those making nets were tapu, and all trespassers were slain and their deaths could not be avenged. Some of the nets were of great size, each family contributing a section. When a net became too old for use it was not destroyed, as that would have been an act against the fishing god. The Maori had also numerous smaller nets, crates, traps, etc. Nobody might gather "fisTi. with face to the sea. A fish might not touch a stone sinker else the fish would desert the fishing ground. Fishers had to fast the previous evening and might not speak.ol .their intention of going fishing. It was not permitted to- break' or eat 6hell'fish*while gathering them below the high water mark. In answer to a question Mr. Graham said that as far as he knew the Maori had not devoted any activity to the catching of the swordfish.