HINTS FOR THE MAORI PEOPLE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume VI, Issue 24, 30 November 1859, Page 1

HINTS FOR THE MAORI PEOPLE.

Chapter V. (Continued.) Milk is the other food which we spoke of as necessary for young children. In Ireland the people are very poor and often cannot buy flour or bread but they all get milk and the land swarms with children. They have milk with their potatoes, and milk with flour made of Indian corn. In some parts of ■ England, the poor cannot easily get milk and there low fever and other Maori diseases attack the children. We continually ask Maori men from one part or another—" Have you no cows?" and the answer generally is " Yes, plenty; but they are wildand in the bush." If we say " Why don't vou lame them ?" the answer is, "They would eat our wheat and potatoe crops. Bnt English people do tame cows and the cows don't eat up the crops." How is it to be done. It is quite true that the keeping of cows involves trouble and thought. But Maori men do not mind trouble and thought when it is to get money thereby. They knew nothing about the management of vessels: now every tribe has two or three

schooners or cutlers. They knew nothing about ploughing or the management of horses. They learnt quickly enough when they saw the way to get money by learning. They can learn to keep cows and to milk them if once they care to do it. The work is not a difficult one. Dairy work is difficult, that is the making of butter and cheese. Maori women must all be more clean in their hands and clothes, and learn to wash dishes and tubs thoroughly before they begin to make butler to sell". Dirt or carelessness will spoil all the butter. By and byo when you have learned to keep cows and io milk them regularly. Some of the people trained in the schools may make butter. At Otaki two or three Maori women can do it very well. At Turanga, formerly, the girls of the school made cheese. At St. John's College the boys mode cheese and butter. But it will be a long time before Maori folk in general will do that. It is the keeping of cows for milk thai we urge'upon your Chiefs and faihers. The first thing that must be done is to fence in a piece of ground and lay it down in grass; an old potatoe ground is the best possible lor the purpose, as the soil is light. The only cost will be the grass seed, for there is always wood enough near the pa or village to make a strong high (enc.e. It must be very strong • else the cows will break through and eai the crops, ii will be no hard work for the little boys and girls who lie idle all day in ■life; sun, to watch the eows when the crops are growing. For the first vear or two, the .grass swill-not come to much, after that there will be a good paddock in every little village, which will feed two or three cows. When the cow is dry she might be turned out into the bush. But this is a pity, as she will grow wild again after being tamed-. The best will be to have a large paddock or two small oneSj into which you may send the cow when dry and the calves when parted from

the dam. A couple of cows kept in a good field of grass would supply the whole village with milk. Tt wasisoat Rotorua some years ago. One Maori man kept the cows in a field belonging to the old Mission station. He milked and took care of them arid was paid lor his trouble by selling ihe milk. The women brought their pannikins or gourds for their milk day by day. They paid either in money or potatoes. " The man had a pint pannikin and kept an account on a slate of how much he sold to each. You must have a field fenced in, else the cows will be wild, and next they will eat up your own and your neighbours' crops. Is this too great a trouble to take for your children? Cows kept in this way are not wild, nor their calves either, because they are handled every day. We all know the difference between an old fierce bush pig and a little friendly one which the old women have carried about in ihrir arms like a baby. AH animals, such as horses, cows, sheep, pigs, can be lamed by kindness. Remember when you have a paddock you must not fill it with lean horses, else the grass will never grow and your cows will starve. Tn England we employ the young bovs and girls 10 milk; their hands are so much more pliable than older people's. The young Maori lads would soon learn 10 milk "also; but then they must be overlooked. If a cow is milked one day at six, another day at seven, another day at nine in the morning, she will soon go dry. The best time to milk a cow is lo milk her at six in the morning. But the great thing is always to doit about the same time. Every drop of milk should begot. The cow will"get tired and try to bold some back. But the last is the best of all, the last drops of milk are the richest, a fewthistles or wild cabbage given while milking will keep the cow quiet. The only other trouble is about the calf. The first two days it may suck the mother airaayl Then keep it away all night.

After you have milked the cow in the morning the calf may run with it all day, till evening. Then shut the calf up, or your babies will have no milk in the morning. When the calf is six weeks old, if it is a bull, bring it into town by canoe and sell ii to the butcher. Tt will sell for two or three pounds if fat. If you are far away from Auckland you had better kill and eat it, if a bull calf. If it is a heifer let it be with the mother all day, and away from her in the night. At the end of six months put it into another field, or send it away into the bush. It can feed itself. All these things need care and thought. You would do all this and more to get money. Do it for your great treasure—for your children.