The Early Maoris

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 113, 6 February 1937, Page 19

The Early Maoris

On their arrival in New Zealand, the earliest Maoris had many difficulties to overcome before they could settle down. Fish being one of the main articles in their diet, they built their pas and villages close to the sea or on the edge of a river or lake. They planted the seeds and kumaras they had brought with them, digging the ground with long-bladed wooden spades, they penetrated the dense bush and found what berries and birds were suitable for eating. As the paper mulberry trees they had brought with them did not flourish In the new land, they were forced to find some other plant capable of providing material for clothes. They soon found that from the fibre of the flax plant they could weave garments warmer and more suitable than those made from the light tapa cloth they had brought with them. Later they became very skilful in ornamenting their clothing with the feathers of the kaka, the tui. and the kiwi. Tor fowling they made long slender spears from the light wood of the tawa tree, and with dexterous hands made lish nets, often a mile in length, from the fibre of the flax plant. They also contrived cunning snares for birds and weirs for the taking of eels. Unaided, except for a few stone tools,' they succeeded irt making articles of a quality that even to-day, with modern machines, it has been found impossible to improve upon. —M.P. (Paraparaumu).