How The Maori Adapted Pakeha Tools

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 136, 5 March 1938, Page 3 (Supplement)

How The Maori Adapted Pakeha Tools

When Europeans came to settle among the Maoris they introduced many entirely new articles, and m the course of time they found new uses for those articles. There sprang up quite a demand for short axes or tomahawks, plane irons and the large spike nails which were used for fastening heavy timbers, such as planking for whares and bridges. The Maoris found the tomahawk an excellent weapon for his hand-to-hand fighting, and used it to great advantage in his own intertribal warfare and also against the pakeha soldiers. He saw the superiority of the steel weapon over his own stone adze and adapted the patiti to his style he discarded the straight handle and hafted the head to a curved one and decorated it with carving. He bored a hole at the grip and attached a loop of dressed flax that he might keep a good hold in close fighting, lhe short-handled weapon was carried in the belt ready for use. It was found advantageous to fix a handle of about four feet long, for it gave him a much longer reach. Many of the weapons were hafted on whale bone handles and decorated with carving and inlaid with paua shell. When Captain Cook took pity on some Maoris and presented them with hatchets he little dreamed that they would be used to slay his fellow men. . When the Maoris had acquired numbers of the steel hatchets they introduced a new style of drill wherein the new weapon could be used to advantage. Realising the use of the new weapon, the Natives set about copying it in stone, and they made some excellent- copies, but these were hafted differently from the steel article, being lashed to the handle. An excellent specimen of the stone hatchet was found near Blimmerton some years ago. Blane irons were much sought after by the Maori, for he found them superior to his tiki in working wood. He was able to haft them to his own curved handle and produced good results with their use. They required less sharpening and were lighter. He used the spike nails in place of some of his carving tools. A cutting edge was easily produced by a little rubbing on the hoanga, or sharpening stone.— “H. Maynard” (Wellington). WrestlingWrestling in the Cumberland style was a favourite sport amongst young men in the early days. On Sunday afternoons they would meet at a settler’s house or a bush whare, and spreading blankets on an open space, would soon be in holds. Some of the Maoris were no mean exponents of the art, in fact two of the best wrestlers in Taranaki were members of the native race One of these was matched against a Bakeha for a small purse, and the bout took place in a paddock on the Waimate plains, attracting crowds from everywhere. Buggies traps and an odd bullock dray were used as ringside seats. Though the Bakeha started favourite the Maori got the verdict, obtaining two falls out of three.—A.B.H. (Feilding). Pre-Tasman Voyager ? Among the various claimants put forward as predecessors of Tasman in discovering New Zealand, a Frenchman seems to have one of the best titles. The Sieur de Gonneville, a Norman, is said in 1503, after a stormy passage in the Indian Ocean, to have stumbled upon an unknown land in the south. Here he was kindly received by the people, and made a stay of six months. When he returned to France he took with him one of the natives, who later married into his family and became the ancestor of a certain Abbe Baulinier, who, in 1643, wrote down the story of his ancestor’s voyage. The _ descriptions given of the natives coincide in many respects with those we usually expect of the Maori. However, we are told that the people of this new land used earthenware vessels for cooking, but these were unknown to the Maori of old. Another early visitor to these shores whose deeds are forgotten was Henrick Brouwer. This Dutchman arrived here three months after Tasman, and found the land which had hitherto been regarded as part of a continent was in fact a group of islands. Tasman, who had made the original error, called his discovery Staten Land, after the Staten-General, the legislature of the Netherlands. It was not until after Brouwer’s visit that the name New Zealand was applied.— J.W. (Lyall Bay). First Municipal Election. The note in “Old Colonial Days”, recently concerning the first municipal election in October, 1842, recalls several facts which are quite interesting. Firstly, Governor Hobson proclaimed Wellington a borough on August 4, 1842, mainly in an effort to give the district some measure of local government. The elections were duly held, and the 12 councillors took office, but after they had been in control about a year, word was received that the Colonial Office in London had refused to allow the ordinance creating the borough. Therefore the whole affair was illegal and the council proceeded to wind up its affairs, the final meeting being held on December 4, 1843. For the next 20 years the control of Wellington was vested in the Provincial and General Governments, till in 1863 it was formed into a Town District.

A peculiar fact in connection with this 1843 election is that while a burgess roll containing 152 names is in existence, no other list has ever been found, though it is obvious that at least 253 people must have voted, for 3028 votes were cast, and each elector had 12 votes to record. It is assumed that only the the 152 names were actually printed, the others being probably merely written down. It is thought probable that 350 electors were registered in all, as the only revenue of this early borough was the £350 received for the registration of electors, the charge being £1 each. No rates were levied. — A.H.C. (Tawa Flat).