EAST CAPE DISTRICT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8096, 10 November 1887, Page 6

EAST CAPE DISTRICT.

ftROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] '_ J WAiiPU. November 1. A NEW MAORI INDUSTRY. The present season inaugurates a new branch of industry amongst the Ngatiporu tribe here. In former years they flocked in great numbsrs to Poverty Bay to reap the grass seed there, and be paid at so much per bushel for their reaping and cleaning. That occupation for them is, however, almost entirely gone, aa labour-saving machines will for the future, where the crop is regular, do the work. The lands of the fertile Waiapu Valley teem with grass, and, were It not for the numerous pigs that infest them—tame pigs— and which form a formidable "native difficulty," debarring sooial progress, the straths here would present as fine a sward as any to be found in the better preserved paddocks of those more civilised settlers ninety miles further south. Therefore, our Maoris have bethought themselves that, as they have a mine of wealth at their very doors, they will even utilise it. They are literally, therefore, fenoing in the whole country. Miles of fencing have gone up during the past two months. In fact, it is with difficulty one can get about the country, for even surveyed roads are not held sacred from the inroads of pott and rail. It is pitiable to see the poor cows and horses pioking up a scanty meal on the roads and lanes, after having barely survived a very severe winter; and now to see these poor creatures— most of them but bags of bones—looking wistfully at the fine pastures which in former springs they revelled in, but which shall know them no more, involves something nearly approaching to a breach of " Martin's Act."

A COSTLY TANGI. But the poor Maori, although to a certain exteut progressive, would seem to be like those ancient mariners who are said to have been in the habit of " earning their money like horses and spending it like asses." Already, even last week, some £500 have been squandered at one of those hideous, demoralising assemblages which are bo frequent in Maori social life. The occasion was a tangi, or wake, over the body of a highly estimable chief who died at Kawakawti on the 19th Ootober. Hone Mokena was in the prime of life, and was held in high esteem by both races, not merely sb a chief of the highest rank, but as a cheerful, honourable, and useful member of society. He was a son of the Honourable Mokena Kohere, who only lately, ou account of in-, creasing years, resigned his seat in the Legislative Council of the colony. The body was carried overland in a litter to Waikaka, at the mouth of the Waiapu River, at which place the funeral obsequies wore held. Probably, 1000 visitors did honour to Hone's memory, aud all these, of course, were amply regaled at the cost of the relatives of the deceased. The funeral was put off from day to day till a week after the death, when, after a good deal of unseemly wrangling as to the place of sepulture, it was committed to earth in a new burial place, which was forthwith fenced in securely with post and twelve close wires, a method for the security of the dead which has become universal in this district. BURNED TO DEATH. No sooner was all over with poor Hone Mokena than a new horror shocked the sensibilities of the neighbourhood. At Te Horo, just across the river, and only about four miles away, a Maori woman was burned to death with her house. Almost all the neighbours were away at Hone's tangi, and the woman in question, who was one of the two " wives" of a chief called Tiruoti, preferred to stop at home to going with the other two persons of her housetiold. The house was a small whata, or hut on stakes, and the door was very small. It is probable that the poor woman, who was possessed of some literary attainments, was writing a letter by candlelight, and that she fell asleep without extinguishing the candle. The lighted candle must have fallen against the dry raupo walls, and, let us hope, that life was ended by suffocation, and not by the flames. Early in the morning an outsider was attracted by the burning house, and reached it only in time to see the house and the poor woman's dead body fall to the ground. A BURSTING CHARGE.

Ye* another startling event must be added. On the 22nd, as the body of Hone Mokena reached Waiapu, the local Maoris, wishing to do honour and pay respeot to the event, put an immense charge of from 41b to 81b of gunpowder into an old eighteenpounder gan, which has long done duty on snob occasions. To make the report louder, they rammed the charge home with a sod of earth. The consequence was that the thing burst into many fragments, some of which bolted right out to sea, while some flew inland over the heads of the assembled people, who all, most providentially, escaped scatheless* COMING FESTIVITIES.

An immense display of hospitality is to take place at Waiapa in March next. The well-known*, chief, Major Kopata Wahawaha, who did such loyal service for the Queen in our Maori wars, has issued invitations to all Maoris in Now Zealand to come and "assist" at the oper-iug of his new carved house at W atomatatini. This honourable chief, whom the late Government promoted to the legislative dignity which his relative, Mokena Kohere, had laid down, has already advertised his invitation to all who choose to attend in the Septomber number of the Maori newspaper, the Korimako. I have not yet seen the bill of fare, but European visitors will be made most welcome as well as Maoris. Two sessions at Bellamy's will initiate the honourable Major into the intricacies of the pakeha cuisine. It is pleasant to observe that the use of intoxicating liquor is well nigh discarded by the natives on the East Coast. MORMON MISSIONARIES AT WORK. A good many Mormon missionaries from Utah are doing all they can to make Maori converts here. They flatter the simple that they are part of God's ohoßen people, being, with the Red Indian and Pacific Islander, the remnant of the tribe of Kphraim spoken of in the Book of Mormon. Mormonism. besides being a sensual religion, degrades the Deity to the level of humanity, and clothes the Eternal with flesh and blood and human, sensual passions, without which, they say, He could not "lova" us. When you tell them that our Saviour emancipated woman-anil raised her to a level with man as regards religious rights and privileges, they rejoin that Christ, when on earth, was fond of many women, and not of one only I The strange thing is that, while these tares are being sown, none of the missionary bodies which have done so much for the Maoris will send a crusading missioner to preach down these debasing and blasphemous lessons. The Mormons ignore all other seots, and are Ritualists of the severest type. Why ! apostolic succession is nothing to their pretensions. Every Christian, say they, died out in the time of, or at the death of, St. Paul, and thereafter there was no Church of Christ on earth, and no one had authority to preach the Gospel until the year 1829, when Joseph Smith received from an angel of God the plates from which he wrote the Book of Mormon ! They further say that the aforesaid Joseph received Divine authority for himself and successors to promulgate fresh doctrines and rules of life without being required to deduce or prove them from either the Bible or the Book of Mormon. So their religion is a progressive religion, and, no doubt, when they find the Bible too stiff for them, they will ignore it or " amend" it. The above is only a faint outline of the sayings and doings of these people, but, in conversation with their Maori followers, I have discovered that their principal recommendation is that thsy do not pray for the Queen.