MAORI FISH SUPPLIES.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17922, 16 November 1923, Page 13

MAORI FISH SUPPLIES.

METHODS, OF CATCHING. An interesting description of tFie manner in which the Maoris caught their fresh-water fish supplies in early days was given hv Dr. P. H. Buck, in an address delivered under the auspices of the Anthropological section of the Auckland Institute. . It was difficult for people to realise, in these well-fed days, how very important to the Maoris of olden times were the sources of the native food supply, said Dr. Buck. Tho small fish of New Zealand lakes and rivers were thus valued far moro highly than they are now. The Maoris, like all Polynesians, were very iond of fish, and tho lakes and rivers, as well as the seashore, played an important part in the prevision of sustenance. One of wi© most important of the fresh water fish was the tuna, or eel, which was esteemed a great delicacy. The favourite method of catching t it was to. set baskets on an eel-weir at the time the fish were migrating to the sea, immense quantities thus being obtained. The" eels were dried, and need not only for food, but as a medium of, exchange with other tribes. After the eel, came the whitebait, or manga, which were caught in a net of finely-woven rushes. Tho whitebait of the inland lakes was of a different variety from that caught in tho rivers, one interesting species being the kaoro, which issued from the depths of subterranean rivers of tho Taupe district into Lake Botoaira. s The blcktimo method of catching the small fry was something akin to that of the early whalers, added the lecturer, a sentfy" being posted on the small hills round about the lake to observe the shoaling of the fish. "When ho gave tho signal, the Maori fishermen set off in their canoes with muffled noddles, the fish being caught in a kmd of scoop net. What was not eaten at once was dried fop future use, being also used, like the eel, for purposes of exchange. Another fish belonging to the whitebait family was tbe mountain front, which, unlike the whitebait, did not go out to the sea to spawn. It was a voracious fish, and was usually eautfht with a worm strung on a thread. The Maoris never wasted hooks on those small fry, saving #(em for the more important salt water catches. Other fish -mentioned were the smelt and the grayling. The latter, although now very scarce, was very good to, eat, lacking the muddv taste associated with so many fresh-water fish.