THE CHATHAM ISLANDS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 15180, 18 December 1909, Page 2

THE CHATHAM ISLANDS.

AN INTERESTING VISIT. THE MORIORI CARVINGS. OLD TIMES AMONGST THE NATIVES. Mr W. E. Spencer, editor of the "School Journal/' who returned yesterday frc-m a visit to the Chatham Islands, is a student of ethnology, and is interested in everything connected with the lives of the Morioris, the first inhabitants of the islands. In the olden days, the Morioris had the Chathams for their empire, as the Maoris had New Zealand. They lived there and followed the devices of their own hearts, tribe warring against tribe, and one man occasionally eating another. Within historical times, during the whaling era in fact, an old Wellington Maori chief named Pomare swept down on the Chathams with some scores of his fierce warriors, slaughtered the Morioris with superior weapons, and completely conquered the little country. Since that time, the Moriori has been going down hill, and it is believed that he must die out with the present generation. The conquering Maoris mixed with the Morioris, and to-day there are very few pure-blooded Morioris alive. During his recent visit to the islands Mr Spencer obtained several photographs of old Morioris, and also one of a young fellow named Solomon, who, in the ordinary course of things, will be the last of his race. There was no pureblooded Moriori woman whom he could marry. His children will be only half-caste Morioris, and his island race, which has many interesting traditions and legends, will die with him. The old inhabitants of the islands, like barbarous races in many parts of the world, occupied some of their spare time by carving crude and grotesque figures. Most of these ancient carvings at the Chathams are on trees. The bark was cut into fairly deeply, and an outline of a figure was made. One of the best of these was seen by Mr Spencer on Mr Blackiston's farm. The tree is a large one, but it is now in a state of decay, and Mr Spencer says that if steps are not taken to preserve it, this crude specimen, of men's attempt at art will disappear. , The visitor was also shown some rock-carv-ings in a cave, the only sample of this kind of work discovered on the islands. These carvings cover a space of several feet. The figures are so grotesque that it is almost impossible to say what was in the mind of the savage artist. The principal figure might, with some stretch of imagination, be taken to represent a bird or a fish, but the work has not been done with any regard for faithful reproduction. Mr Spencer met a very interesting old gentleman, Mr J. G. Engst, who has lived on the islandjs for many years, and whose mind is full of the Natives' lore. Mr Engst is ninety-one years of age. He is a German missionary, and, with four other men who had also decided to devote their lives to good works, left Berlin for this remote part of the world. All of them learnt trades. Mr Engst is a worker in wood; another member of the party did coopering and work of that description ; another was a blacksmith and worked generally in iron; another was a painter; and the fifth was a schoolmaster and music-teacher. They

intended to start their mission at Nelson. When they reached New Zealand, however, they found that Nelson had been provded for. It was suggested that they should go to fresh fields at the Chathams. They landed on the islands sixty-sis .years ago. Mr Engst made his home there, and there he has lived all that time, helping the Natives and doing his best to improve their conditions. Cannibalism, once a recognised national custom, had practically died out when he arrived, but he saw signs of it. The last great cannibal feast probably was held the year before his arrival. He found evidence of this at Ocean Ray, where a Moriori chief, who had been a notorious cannibal, had his headquarters. There was living with the chief at-the time an escaped convict from Australia, or " New Holland," as Mr Engst likes still to call the huge Commonwealth continent. Mr Engst saw some fresh skeletons near a small creek, and the convict explained that a short time previously the old chief had decided to give the islands a sample of his hospitality. He went out amongst the Moriori slaves, with an axe in hand, killed nine, instructed other slaves to prepare the ovens, and sent out pieces of the flesh to his friends and fellow chiefs. The Gospel had been preached on the islands before the arrival of Mr Engst and his comrades, but he found that the Morioris welcomed the missionaries not so much on account of their teachings as for the material gifts they brought with them and the benefits they conferred upon the natives. The missionaries found that it was necessary to show the natives that the new ideas of life were better, not only ethically and morally, but also practically. Maori and Moriori alike, in fact, showed that they were of a very practical turn of mind, and were shrewd enough to see which way their material advantage lay. The decline of the Moriori had already set in when Mr Engst went to them in 1848. He states that at that time there were between 12,000 and 15,000 natives on the islands, and only about 150 were Morioris. One of the remarkable incidents in the animal life of the Chathams is the increase of the black swan there. The first pair of black swans was introduced about twenty-five years ago. Hundreds of them, are destroyed every year, and thousands of their eggs are collected, but they increase prodigiously. The eggs form the staple food of the natives. A father and son recently went to one of the smaller islands, and came back with no fewer than two hundred eggs. Even when preserved, Mr Spencer says, the swan's eggs make a good dish, especially when fried. They are much more palatable than ducks' eggs, and he could hardly distinguish them from hens' eggs. The native ducks are reported to be dying out. A strange explanation, which represents the principle of the survival of the fittest, is offered to account for this. The swans, with their long, pliant necks, are much more effective on the feeding-grounds than the short-necked ducks} which are being driven away. In the lagoons on the Chathams, evidently, long necks are better than short necks.