MUNICIPAL COMPOSTING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22826, 22 December 1948, Page 4

MUNICIPAL COMPOSTING

Sir.—While the members of the borough stall are studying the problem of composting town wastes they might consider a method of making compost practised by the Taranaki Maori of prc-Pakeha days. The resulting compost was used in the cultivation of the kumara.

The Compost Magazine of SeptombcrOctober, 1945, supplies the following details: “It was the custom of these people in bygone times, after a flood in the rivers, or a storm at sea, for the experts in agriculture to examine most carefully the deposit of sand and silt. If, in the opinion of the tohunga these deposits were suitable for the purpose, and the omens propitious, the people were at once assembled and what we may term a “kete brigade” (on the lines of the familiar bucket brigade) was (ormed and the sand and silt gathered in kotos or baskets, and passed from hand to hand tn a spot selected where it was mixed with vegetable matter, gathered in by other bands of workers. . .

“This deposit, when thoroughly mixed was carefully covered, and. after due religious ceremonies, was set apart and left to mature in readiness for the planting season, when it was opened up and apportioned out by the tohunga to the various family plots prepared for the growing of the kumara. The term applied to this mixture was whakaparapara a free translation of the meaning of which is to add or blend ingredients (into a compost) for the purpose of producing a vigorous growth.” Perhaps there is some evidence of one of these whakaparapnra heaps in Poverty Bay.

HUGH PATTERSON.