MAORI FOOTBALLERS IN AUSTRALIA.

Manawatu Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 7998, 20 June 1904, Page 4

MAORI FOOTBALLERS IN AUSTRALIA.

To the Sydney public the Te Aute College football team was just like a string of new and rare animals at the Zoo. The "Te Orts" as the schoolboys called them, opened their Australian tour by defeating St. Joseph's College by 23 to 3. The public crowded to see the match as if the Maoris were not men at all, but something altogether-different, and new and strange. St. Joseph's boys stood in a bunch' on the .field and cheered the visitors with a dignified and whole-hearted cheer. .Not so the Maoris. Pini led his team on to the field in Indian file, the lineumpire, Tahiwi, following with a taiaha in his hand in place of a flag. The team marched solemnly to the goal they were going to defend, and then suddenly the air was split by the cries and invocations of the dusky braves, asking for strength and courage to overcome their opponents. The haka struck the Daily Telegraph as a weird thing altogether. " Ono second their arms were extended, their eyes dilated, their feet were stamping the earth as they fiercely invoked the spirits; the next they were down on .their knees performing evolutions that are common to the Ethiopian shuffler." There were seven or eight thousand spectators, and they unanimously declared the prelude to be interesting and original. The game was of the same nature. "The natives exhibited all that cleverness and iustinotive knowledge which seems peculiar to the Maorilander, irrespective of colour, and convincingly showed that they were the better players." The fifteen people played one game, instead of fifteen games, as football teams frequently do play. " The Alaoris roamed about; the football universe in heaps. If a vigorous collegian succeeded in dodging several or the enemy there was still always a host of members of the Ngatikahungunu, Ngatiporou, Waikato, Ngatiraukawa, and Whakatohia tribes to bar the way." The Maoris had a trifle the worst of the first spell, but by-and-bye their forwards woke up and made the game fast and furious, try after try being compiled. When the Maoris had won tho match, they further startled the spectators by performing a war-danco before they left the field. " Tahiwi," we are told, " squirmed aud wriggled and yelled in front of the band of victorious football warriors in a most excited fashion. 'Ka mate! Ka mate !' ho shrieked. • Kahore! Kahoro! : the team respond; d. And so the fairies were thanked." The diction and tho import of the words are both wrong, but we can quite believe the Telegraph, when it says that the game was fought by the Maoris in a remarkably gentle spirit, that they played good football and showed fine combination.