MAORI AXEMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 March 1926, Page 2

MAORI AXEMEN

MASTERS OF FORESTCRAFT. The request made by General Sir George Richardson for the services oi two Maori .bushmen. to teach the Samoan natives the best methods of tree-felling is a compliment quite justified by our native New Zealanders’ skill in timber working (writes “Tangiwai,” in the Auckland “Star”). Samoa is thickly wooded in its higher parts, but the islanders have never been great foresters ; their cultivations have, for the most part, been near the beach ; and, though there are some large trees, the Samoan has never attacked with the axe such great trees us the Maoris’ kauri or totara or red and white pine. I have not heard or read of any native race which has tackled such mighty trees as those which our natives felled of old for making war-canoes and for stockades. From the earliest days of pakeha contact with them the Maoris have been famous as timber-men. We know what capital hands they are to-day in bush-felling, and in all the details of milling timber. The records of other days, are full of references to the native axemen. Sir John Logan Campbell has left us an animated picture of this spar-squaring

and hauling labour on Waiheke Island, in the pages of his book “Poenamo. ” An example of the good work performed by the natives of the Hauraki in providing timber ships with their cargoes—especially large spars for the British Navy—is given in the newspaper ‘‘Southern Cross” oi date October 22, 1847. “The barque Hope,” the report reads,- “left this port on her homeward voyage on Wednesday evening (October 18), having on board a cargo of contract spars of the finest description. Nothing can better illustrate the advantages which result from an intelligent aboriginal population than the fact that this cargo and many others have been felled, squared, and dragged out entirely by natives, who as axemen stand unrivalled, even by Jonathan himself. The Hope carries home 84 spars and pieces of timber; of these, one spar measures 102 feet in length, and of contract dimensions ; two ■ spars are 92ft. ; twelve spars above 80ft. and twenty-six spars above 70ft. ; making the cargo contain 41 spars 70ft. and upwards, all of which , had to be dragged nearly two miles by the natives from the forest to the salt water.” No doubt General Richardson has in his mind also the excellent display of timber working science given by the Maoris of the young generation in France during the Great War. In April, 1916, very soon after the Pioneer Battalion had arrived in France, sixty of the Maoris, under Lieutenant McLean, were sent to La IXlotte, in the Foret de Nieppe, for tree-felling work under the official forest control. They remained there for about a week and did excellent work, even outdoing the Frenchmen in work ior which the French foresters have always been noted. All the trees cut down were felled in the French style. No standing butt W’as left; the tree was cut level with the ground and the top of the stump showing was carefully trimmed so as to leave a rounded surface which would not liold water. The . forest was composed of oaks, elms and beeches. Only beeches were being felled at this time.

After the Pioneers had had a week’s work with the axe a tree-chopping competition was held between them and the French foresters, six men a side. Each team had to fell twelve trees in the French style. The Maoris won by three minutes, a very good performance indeed considering that the men had to master new methods of bush-felling. The French way, of course, is more* economical than the old New Zealand method. We have to curb our extravagance in forest work, and the huge butts left standing after a tree has been felled will not be seen under a system such as that which the Pioneers learned in France.