Passing Maori Memories

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7185, 17 June 1933, Page 6

Passing Maori Memories

139

HE WAIIENE, HE WHENUA Woman and 'the Land. [ Recorded by “J.H.S.” for the Times. ] Woman and land. These two, from the Maori view-point, are to he considered together, one being the exact and sole equivalent of the other. As the Maori prized the land above all other material possessions, he thus paid a high compliment to his women. With the Pakeha, “wine and women” v/ere the causes of all his troubles. But the Maori said the land and the women were the only two tilings worth fighting about and dying for. There were no less than eight classes of irrevocable titles to land, and from his manner of coupling land and women in his splendid review, I am sure my friend Hare Hongi will not object to my claim that all his eight titles to land apply equally to women. No. 1, “Mana,” moral force; 2, “Kite hou,” discovery; 3, “Raupatu,” conquest; 4. “Kinga toa,” strong hand; 5, Ahi ka roa,” continuous use; 6, “Tuku,” cession; 7, “Koha,” marriage gift; or “Pa Kewha,” adoption; 8, “Take Tupuna,’’ ancestral rights. Having no written laws, rules, or constitution to be amended, broken, or obeyed, they had no lawyers and no difficulties among their own people regarding occupation, tenacy and inheritance or marriage rights. Bight and custom were the sole arbiters. Some inherent instinct told them that these two greatest of all domestic requirements, women and land, could be controlled in the same simple manner as the home life of a peaceful and happy family. It is still a matter of the utmost surprise to every Maori and to the few Pakehas who follow tlieir simple principles that not a single European Institution dares to attempt the Maori’s happy and effective “Buie by Agreement.” Friends do not need laws—-enemies will not obey them.