EARLY TUGS-OF-WAR

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 3 January 1931, Page 10

EARLY TUGS-OF-WAR

INTRODUCTION TO DOMINION

MAORI-PAKEHA MATCH

(:Bv “Physical Culturist.”) (All Rights Reserved.!

“'When Greek meets Greek then comes the tug-of-war.” Alore yeais a«o than I like to count 1. first- heaid the aforesaid remark when 1 was a hoy at a country school. For hundreds o years there have been tugs-01-wa . It was a favourite trial of strength m Victoria’s, day. One of the -first pH>| tm'es I saw of a. tug-ot-wai vas n . over 50 years: ago from photos of teams of Highlanders taken during a pulL at, Balmoral Castle at the time of one o Queen Victoria’s visits. this was* l pull on the turf between teams of ten men aside. , .1 think it was early m the 90 s thatnulling oa the battens was introduce cl, when a- wave of tug-of-war enthusiasm swept over the world, in 1901 it c-ui-rietl Australia by storm and from , Au f tralia. it extended to New Zealand, where in the larger centres—the cities —it was just as popular as the recent craze for wrestling. This writer was one of the unfortunate team which won the first tug-of-war held on battens on this, coast. Hie event took place between four teams of the Wanganui Garrison Volunteers in the winter of 1892. I have said the unfortunate team which won. At the time I did not look at .it in quite the same light, but as I look back over the years and think of the hour and a-4ua.rter during which we strained and tugged in the final pull, I feel again, my arms nearly pulled out ol their sockets, the bruises oil my liips and the skin off my body and arms where the rope sawed two and fro, while the crowd shouted itself hoarse, cheering us on. The two teams which. met in the final were the crack Alexandra Cavalry team and that of the Wanganui Rifles, of which I was a member. The captains of the respective corps skippered the teams —two the fate John P. Watt, act-i ing for the. rifles, and the late James' Watt for the cavalry. Noah. Garner, the latter team’s anchor man, felt as though he were breaking in half at the termination of the pull and was, 1 understand, for a week afterwards confined to his house. There were many tugs brought oil on the battens in Wanganui after that, but I never felt inclined to take a place in any of the teams. Neither do I think did Noah Garner. It was while talking of those early* days that, an old Manaia resident said : “Bid I ever tell you of the Manaia tug-of-war which Was won 'Ey the aid of a bottle of whisky*?” Of course, X said no; “let’s have the story,” which was. told something like this: .11 was Titokowaru’s Maori V.A.C.’s What should have been a. trial of strength between the above contestants to ole place in the early ’.Bo’s on the Manaia Domain. The tug-or-war was one of the events on the sports programme. There were no. hoards for the feet like the modern style, ,but every man stood naturally with his feet on the solid earth.

Let. me l say that the main contest was a hectic one. Picked men of the Armed Constabulary versus the big hefty Maoris of those days. Nearly all the Maoris belonged to Titokowa.ru’.s ■band of fighting men of the past Maori. War. Old Tito was present and stimulated his. men with orations to. conquer the pakeha pullers. The Waliines and kotiros barracked the loudest, with tongues protruding and facial grimaces exhorting their braves to do their utmost. By jo vo! It looked as if the pakeha was beaten, hut one of our barrackers with cannie Scotch canning saved the situation. Up and down the pullers lie went with a bottle of whisky in his hand and another in his coat pocket. “Tak a wee droppie; it will due ye guid.’’ And he would pour it into their open mouths. The rope they would not Jet go, hut just swallowed the liquor as they pulled. He was barman to both brown and white men. True to the race of his forbears, who no douibt used .strategy amongst tlie .glens and heather when outwitting their enemies, Scotch craft predominated. When the Maoris, with a tremendous heave, made things look “dicky” for the whites—.some of the Maoris were in bare feet and with their hard toes, driven into the long grass held on like opposums claws—the Scotch Bonaparte picked out a husky barefooted Maori and rushing to his side offered him a nip. The Maori took it with open mouth and sly Sandy came down whop on a hare loot with his hobnailed hoot. The Maori let out a yell. This enabled the A.C.’s to win, but there was a dickens of a row over it. Scotty averred someone pushed him and it was accidental, “but, Hutehy, mon, 1 hae ma doots.” I forgot to mention that the first rope used broke" when the Sampsons put the strain on; so Captain Gudgeon sent away to Manaia for a new Manila one.

Mentioning Titokowaru, reminds me of an incident which came under my notice, (about four days after the tug-of-war )in which Tito alone took part. It is worth recording just to show how astute and determined this old warrior was. He came into the bakery at. Manaia to order 500 large loaves of bread for a. tangi. With his. one eye ! and straggly long beard he looked a “good thing” for a deal to the baker. After bargaining about the price, Tito said: “Te Bohi, the bread good for the four-pound weight?” “Yes,” said the baker; “look. I weigh him.” mid lie put a. loaf on the scales and it went nearly four and three-quarters. Tito drew his sheath knife and cut the loaf in two. “Kalcino!” he said, “knkino te win (too much water). Igo to Hawera To Hawera lie went despite the baker’s explanations. He was a very determined and self-opinioned Maori, but the deni fell through been use the baker said the bread would make the Maoris strong for the next tug-of-war. I could, see this riled Tito very much.

The foregoing is vouched for l,y my informant a.« » true narrative of wliat took place. He. was an onlooker at i ou-of-war and was also present when, 1 1 to went to buy the bread from Hr Dugan, baker, of Mails*in, whom he was assisting a t the time.