LAST MONOPOLY OF THE MAORIS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22355, 19 March 1938, Page 21

LAST MONOPOLY OF THE MAORIS

(SPECIALLY WRITTEN EOE THE PRESS.)

[By OTAKOU.]

WHEN you sell a hen you also sell the eggs it lays,” the Government in 1864 told the chiefs

parent birds travel far along the coast of the mainland searching for shrimps, jellyfish, and small fish for their young; the mollymawk and the gulls are on short rations then, for the -mutton birds can outpace them on the wing and under the water.

from Colac Bay to Kaiapoi when the Maoris made the discovery that, with the sale to the State of Stewart Island for £6OOO, they had failed to preserve their rights to hunt the titis—now labelled mutton birds as, brown and oozing fat, they lie on the poulterer’s marble slab. From earliest times the Maoris had packed their canoes and paddled to the rugged, lonely blocks of rock and scrubby trees off the bushclad shores of Stewart Island in search of the titis, which, after tahuing and packing in kelp bags, were bartered for mats with the northern tribes; and with the sale of the island they were deprived of one of their most important means of livelihood and of commerce.

On April 1 the Maoris wait till the mothers are away before starting the hunt. With adzes they dig holes a .foot away from the burrows and mine through to the nest. They lift out the vociferously protesting bundles of down, whose merry pipings are silenced by gentle pressure on their heads. Apparently the Maoris have no high opinion of the intelligence of the mothers, as they believe that if they plug the hole the adult bird will not know that her home has been disturbed. Near April 26 the young birds leave their burrows to shake off the down, the first part of the course of training for their long flight with the parents to the hibernation lands far over the seas. It is then that the Maoris hunt the birds at night with torches, the kills being known in the trade as “torch birds.” Windy nights provide the best bags, as the birds come out in great numbers to spread their wings in the gales which at that season lash the isles. As the torches flash in the darkness and the birds are seized, the Maoris make certain that no old birds are killed. A fine of £SO is provided for the killing of parent birds and, although more than 200,000 titis are killed every thousands more are allowed to go free to build up the stock. For about 300 Maoris, the monopoly of mutton-birding is a profitable seasonal occupation—and a holiday. For nearly 10 weeks most of them are on the islands living in huts and thatch-roofed shacks. It is a confined life, exciting only when the supply ship is due to call. And there' have been times when the storms have been so severe that the

In all the kiangas in the South Island there was consternation; but in 1868 the Government at last bowed to the moral claims of the Maoris and legislation was passed giving the named chiefs and their descendants the right in perpetuity to go mutton-birding on the specified islands, and the owners of the mutton birds were again determined in 1914 by a commission, of which Judge Palmer, of the Native Land Court, was the chairman. The monopoly of mutton-birding is the last industry operated by the Maoris, who this week left their homes on the mainland for the Titi Islands to prepare for the opening of the season on April 1, by which time the new season’s birds are plump enough for the trypot. The migration of the mutton birds and their habits are engrossing enigmas for ornithologists, scientists, and Maoris alike. On May 25—with chronometer certainty—the adult birds leave the islands for destinations unknown. They have been seen later, on the coast of South America, and others have been observed in Siberia. Yet no one has found definitely where they spend the winter. Their return to New Zealand is no less a fascinating problem, as flocks of the birds have been seen flying back past the Snares.

Unlike any other bird in New Zealand, the titis make their nests in burrows in the hard ground under the wild-growing tupri trees and panuui plant on the little islands. The most remarkable of their habits is that the birds return uherringly to the same burrows year after year; which suggests that their maternal instincts are decidedly primitive, because nearly all of their chicks are killed by the Maoris, who hunt them with adze and torch. On their, return to the rabbit-like burrows in October the titis have a late spring-cleaning of their homes, and from October 20 to October 25 they lay their eggs, which are hatched about Christmas. While the sooty black, downy chicks rest in the burrpws and squeal in a minor key, suggesting tuning-in by a learner on a set of bagpipes, the

Mutton-Birding on Southern Islands

birders have had to live on a diet of mutton birds, which is the only meat eaten from the day the season opens. Men, women, and children all give a hand in the preparation of the birds for the market. The kills are dipped in hot water and the down is gleaned off. The birds are then hung out to dry for a day or two to set, and the wings, head, and legs are cut off. Then the body is dropped into a pot sizzling at an even temperature with fat from the inside of the young birds. This is the tabuing process: the other is dry salting, the birds being packed in casks for three or four days. After tabuing the cooked bird keeps for years in kelp bags, the making of which is an art with the hunters, one of whom once made a bag to hold 140 birds, a catch worth £3 13s 4d to him.

The best hunting grounds are the isles off the East Cape and the South Cape. Approaching Stewart Island, the first of the Titi Islands is the Fancy group, imposing, rough piles of rock and scrub in Foveatts Strait; and the others, with their English, names, are Horomamea (Owen), Te Wharepauitaha, Kaihnuka, Pohotuatua, and Te Pomatekiarehua (Breaksea Islands). Tia (Entrance Island, at the mouth of Port Adventure), Tuakihapa (Long Island, off the South Cape), Moki-iti (Moggy Islands), Timone (Boat Group), Herewhakaupoho (North Island), Huirapa (south of Hidden Island and north of Long Island), Pohonawaxtai and Te Mautamioka (Wedge Islands), Poutama (Evening Island, to the east of Long Island), and Kaimohu (north of Long Island). From these far-scattered and picturesquely rugged isles the tifis will migrate on May 25, and as the days go by this season’s birds who have been spared will shake off the remaining down on their hardened wings and take flight, intuitively, in the direction in which their mothers 'have flown.