Passing Maori Memories

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7103, 11 March 1933, Page 6

Passing Maori Memories

TUNA,

[Recorded by “ J.H.S.” for the Times. ]

The tribal licsne, particularly that of an inland location, was selected because of the eel supply. Tho fact that the eel spawns at sea has quite recently been discovered by our scientists —the Maori knew it for a thousand years. At about four years of age they go down in shoals to breed, and only the young ones return. There appear to be two or more varieties in our lakes and rivers, but each kind seems to be found in different localities. The Maori made a serious business of eel fishing, using many means to secure this great source of their food supply. Bone hooks and paua shell bait, a ‘bob’ made from the tough leg of a weka on a short line, the wonderful hinaki, a net of barrel-shape in which hundreds are trapped, or the pa-tuna where they are caught in thousands. Tho eel is a night prowler and is seldom seen by day. European boys showed the Maori a new way to catch them. They lit a fire on a dark night beside a stream or lake, the eels came to the surface and lay as if sleeping with their heads resting on the sand near the fire-light and warmth. A sharp blow with a piece of heavy hoop-iron on edge broke the back. An eel up to 251b5., six feet long, has been taken in this way. A rare and curious thing to see is the transit from one watering place to another of some hundreds of eels wriggling overland at night, when they make a whistling noise like that of an asthmatic patient.