"TAIHOA!"

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 201, 26 August 1930, Page 16

"TAIHOA!"

MAORI WHO FOUND GUM.

SURPRISE FOR HIS MATES.

(By a Travelling Correspondent.)

The gum find made by the Maoris at Tapu is turning out better than expected. Already about £300 worth of gum ha 6 been scraped and bagged. It is considered that; there is at least another £100 worth to be taken out.

Three Maoris were out pig hunting. They got a pig. Two of them cleaned the pig while the other one went for a look round. He was looking at a pigeon in a tree, and not watching his steps, when he slipped on what looked like a moss-covered boulder. His foot displaced some of the moss and disclosed a lump of gum about 601b weight. Stripping the moss off what looked like several other boulders he found that they were all gum, coated in moss. He eoon got a good heap together. His mates cooktd some of the pig and called him to dinner.

His reply was "Taihoa." After about a couple of hours his mates went down to see what all the "taihoa" was about. They found him with a little mountain of gum.

Addressing his mates, the discoverer said: "This I think the fair way. I take this heap. You two work until dark, and all you get is yours. To-morrow we will work together and each share alike."

The Maoris are quit© jubilant over their find, and intend investing the money in a fishing launch.