The Maori Contingent.

Hastings Standard, Issue 422, 10 September 1897, Page 4

The Maori Contingent.

(N.Z. Times.)

Conversation vith the Native members of the contingent is instructive and not a little amusing. At the first word one appreciates what an education the Home experience has been to thom. Even tbe rank and file speak with what might be called a superior English intonation, though the Maori idiom still adds to the quaint attractiveness of their speech. They hardly seem to realise all they have passed through yet. " It was grand, it was magnificent that procession," said one of them in response to a question by our representative. " For 15 miles the people crowded the houses from the bottom to the top, and it was nothing but ha ! ha ! ha ! ha ! ha ! ha ! ha ! ha I all the way." " England the place fme," exclaimed another. "Ah Englishmen, that the fine people. Like us here, only different; too kind. Sometimes he insult us. You can't go into a place for drink with a friend, unless Englishman nod to the girl behind the counter and say ' That's mine ! ' before you can put your hand in your pocket. England wonderful place; trains up above, trains underground, going all the time. My word, England a big, wonderful place. I sorry to come away, but I glad to get back." " Prince of Wales present us these medals," volunteered another. "He say our captain : ' One time your men fight against us. Now you are part of our great Empire you fight with us all the time. Now we all together we fight for* the Queen and for England.' We say yes, and (emphatically) lam going to keep to it." " Yes, and I am too," added another, convincingly. "We are the English now." " One night I have a game of billiards at the Savage Club," said Kuku Karaitian? J( with the air of a man sensible of a high honor. "I go there to have dinner. Afterwards we play billiards, and I beat a man." " Who did you play with? " queried our representative. " Oh," his arm in an enthusiastic manner, " I play with a toff, and I beat him. Then I play on, and make aSO break. Then I give him 20 in 100, and make two break —one 50, one GO. Three games I won. Then he say, ' You the best player in New Zealand ? ' I say, ' No, my brother Albert. I mean the Maori player, not the European.' " In general conversation one gathers that the Maoris are in love with England and Englishmen and profoundly impressed with her institutions, her resources, her vastness and the character of her civilisation, ancl that proximity has deepened rather than abated their reverence for "the Majesty the Queen." Only at the camp fire and the kaianga, however, .it is clear, would a correct idea of the positive impressions made on the Native mind by the recent celebrations become obtainable.