ANCIENT MAORI KITES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 128, 2 June 1931, Page 6

ANCIENT MAORI KITES.

Reference to a kite which evidently broke from the cord grasp of its owner at Devonport and reached terra firma at Little Barrier Island is a reminder that in ancient times the Maoris, young and old, were expert kite-flyers, a pastime that seems to have originated from the East. The New Zealand natives went further than to use kites merely for passing enjoyment. The fluttering forms assumed certain divinistic significance referred to in ritual and in songs, the method of transmitting messages up to the kitehead by means of the holding cord being regarded with superstitious moment. So expert did the Maori people become that they were able to employ kites for the purposes of warfare. Using the wind, they would fly a kite, to which a fire-slumbering torch would be attached, to land on a pa that was to be attacked. Several communal villages were captured in this manner, warriors launching an attack when the missive from the air had set fire to the homes of enemies. It is on record that a well-known chief, Paoa of Piako, was an inveterate kite-flyer. Oue of his most prized kites on one occasion got out of hand and drifted across the gulf towards Coromandel. The rangatira followed in a canoe, and, after a desperate search over the ranges, located the object at Mercury Bay. The place; therefore, became known as "Whenua-kite," but that is only an abbreviation, the full name being Te Whenua-Kite-o-te-Manu-Aute-o-Paoa-Taringa-Ra-hirahi, meaning the land where was found the "aute" (the material) kite of Paoa of the Big Eare. (The word "kite" in Maori means "to find.") A hapu, or section, of that chief's descendants were called Ngati-te-Aute-o-Paoa because, at the time of this successful search for his kite, Paoa named a newly-born eon Aute. Evidence of I ancient Maori skill in the making of kites is to be seen at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. One of the mo.st elaborate, ar.d probably the best specimen extant, belongs to the Sir George Grey collection. It is about five feet across from i wing to wag. —TA2JJB.