WHERE THE WHITE MAN TREADS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13396, 26 January 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHERE THE WHITE MAN TREADS.

A PRELUDE. ivy W.li . TK Kill I

1 am not si careless writer, bin by some mistake a sentence at the conclusion of my previous article conveys the impression that f wish to demonstrate by si, history the wrongs we are inflicting on the descendants of Maori wives and European husbands. This is not quite so; what I wished to illustrate by this history is tic pain and sorrow a wanton disregard of moral decency, imposed upon Maori women by Europeans professing love and fealty, while at heart they were but stone-cold libertines, amusing themselves and trifling with the sacred emo- j lions of si race to whom the white stranger | came as a stupendous revelation, and thus ; east a stigma of illegitimacy and reproach I on our hi-blooded relations: also to cm- ', phasise the fact that wnen the Maori woI man married—as she thought—a pakehsi ! husband from affection, she surrendered to I his dominion without reservation, and with | an abandon so human that, it at once moves ; her to that superior plane where love be- ! conies a sacrament and skin-shade a mete incident in the general field of emotional creation, and that if he reciprocated her attachment, she was loyal, industrious, and amenable; and that, provided his demands that she. should sever her connections with her own people and customs we'" i ...!.,ate, she cheerfully yielded to his exactions. In line, that in all wifely duties her white sister had little to teach her. In letters from several unknown correspondents I am asked to sketch an old-time pakeha- Maori home and homelife, and locause it introduces what, is to follow later, I will endeavour to comply, and devote this article to such a sketch. But first, I hotly protest against the loose application of the term " p.ikeha-Maori'' to Europeans with Maori wives. " Pakeha-M'aori" in its proper significance means a pakeha living the life of a Maori. And to alter this definition is a monstrous slur upon those, estimable' Europeans, who, for ! reasons which concern no one but thenii selves. thought it no degradation to ! take to their hearts and return the affec- ; tions of a Maori woman. If proof were reI quisite that we are in the throes of national I moral decay, we. have it in the insufferable display of si courtesy below that of the i creations of a common Creator, whom, because He coloured them with si brown skin- ! tint, we so cruelly affront and shut out of I our pretended humanities. There is more j to be said, and just here the opportunity to i say it : but thanks be it will keep; and I ! return to my querists : Let it be understood then that my de- ' ' scription shall not apply to the pakeha liv- | ing the life of the Maori, but rather to the I wanderer in search of what the dissipations ' and artificialities of unsatisfying conven- ; tions could not supply. There' were such ; (I have met them) wiiose manner and speech I told of training anil birth. Some, whose , ■ best girl had thrown them over for si larger i ! banking account, and who revenged them- j '■ selves on the world by hiding irom it ; satislied to love a barbarian's daughter and be i j worshipped in return. Or the trader, of no high ideals and education may I.e. but seeing that it conduced to his prosperity and I comfort to ally himself with a native wife, j so allied himself. Or, the " unlucky" whaler, tired of sea life, who here met his j fate, albeit clad in a brown skin, tattooed chin, and smile of resistless subjugation; a man of no ambitions but to eat unsalted meat and drink unftetid water; of a generous sailor heart, but inexpressible improvidence. To any of these exuibits my description will apply. If then lie were of the j requisite affluence to afford a board house, i lie built one, on a plot which the. chief j i pointed out as the property of his wife, and i | for which no "goodwill' was exacted. Built not of imported timber, but bush-sawn by j I amateur vers, and carpentered by mediani ics of like ' talent : a shack of four walls. Til • high and 16 by 12 square, whose axe-squared I studs sunk into the ground,and.surmounted | by an inverted V thatched roof, presented I a combination of architecture and finish at once primitive, substantial, and ugly. Two j | small four-paned windows, two batten door.-, i whose dressed surface in certain lights showed clipped and blunt plane stria;; a cone of stones stacked hollow, from whose wooden continuation issuing smoke denotj ed that its function was si chimney ; an unI even floor of ungrooved boards; one end I partitioned off for a bed and storeroom —if a I trader; a toe toe, rush, or bark covered roof the inside walls linedfor decoration —with I boards covered again with kstkaka. (dry fern j j stalks), or kakaho (Arunda conspicia) stalks I affixed with ingenious white and black " herring bone plait-work, the work of his wife relations; a rude- table, settee, cupboard, bedstead, several three-legged stools; such was the tiouse and its furniture, and there you were. warm, cosy, and satisfied. And proud was the wahine who presided over j this mansion when visitors arrived, or friends , called for an exchange- of soul-tilling gossip; • and which his busy wife, anxious to be i worthy of her pakeha husband, swept witn I a rush or manuka broom. Here she cooked ' his meals of pork or tish and kumera, pota- : toes or other garden stuff in their season, j planted and tended with scrupulous exactitude from seeds brought for her by whalers | from the outside world, to be grown on I shares; or presented to her husband by a ! whaling friend. These she cooked and servI cd on his table as he had taught her, but at i which nothing would induce her to sit with ' him. lest she become blenchfaoed should a ', friend suddenly call and detect her in this j gross affectation! Her realm is the spaci- ! oiis floor, and its adjunct ease and comfort, I j If he were a trader she would sit in the j 1 idle hour and con the goods laden shelves, j j and maybe not" some irregularity of disposition", and at once arise to methodically dust and restack them; soil out the bed j for her friend customers, and keep si watchj ful eye on his.memory licit all were served J according to their estate, and if he were absent cover all with an adamantine-super-vision, so that when he returned both the trivial and important might be detailed to their ultimate attenuation. If she had served customers, no matter how many or various their purchases, he could enter up his book at her dictation, coned . complete in sequence, quantity, and person, iutrepidant but that every lie,die will find itself duly recorded. In" the. planting, weeding, and digging season she was first out and last in, disdaining his assistance in her own proper sphere, but inordinately gratified if he stood by, hands in pocket, to note her activities; and if in his generous appreciation of her excellences he should scatter random crumbs of admiration, as: " Koia kei st koe!" (we'll done, von!); or better still, praise her to others "(which they would repeat), then she could deny him nothing, .and her life was full of sweet content, and above all other women blessed. For know all men that this dusky daughter of a warrior race, once she held'our her neck for adjustment of the yoke, and it was affixed, her life became oik- arduous toil and motherhood. Even in winter when nature bids her children lay up strength for the work of spring and summer, when the spirits of decay shriek stud howl in homeless desolation, and the male creatures eat and sing and sleep, then this dame of restless, nimble, fingers set up her warp-poles, and unrolled the web of korowai kailaka. or other precious mat-kind, and' while her white lord lolled or smoked away the rainy day wove a gorgeous eoi.ntHipane to decorate hi.? bed; and dy/tly meshed woof yarn after woo yarn, singly-— hundreds of them -each with its double weft varus and sharply interlocking click. And as she wove she softly crooned a, waiata or legend of her doughty fathers, whose wives and mothers also loved, and wove- and sail" until the white man came and roar- ■ ed:"" Whaf-ho, here; this is savagery, but that was not yet. Or if she has borne fun children— I am tempted to pause here. What were her • thoughts when instead of the brown of ages she suddenly beheld this yellow miracle. And in awesome consternation whispered: . "He aitua." (an omen}. " But of good or ; ill the gods car. only say. . let such is the legend still extant of a native mothe. a wonderm- exclamation when the saw the colour

•if her child. A personal knowledge permits j rue to assure my leaders that its skin-shade j did add to her proprietary pride. And if I she. owned slaves one was especially set | apart for the service of her rarity. And as J the Maori had few treasures for mischief- I loving fingers to destroy, it followed that i Maori cluldlii'e was the grubbiest, happiest: in creation. Her,- were no. " Don't do this, and "Don't touch that!" It followed also that the .mother, knowing nothing of the white man's system of making child-life wretched with intricate restrictions, permitted her yellow darling to chum with its relations, and they grew up together with this difference, that the Maori child was brown and the pakeha's a mellow chrome: but both the happiest the world will ever ' see again. : The Maori, with his phenomenal astute- j ness, seldom meddled with his pakeha's i domestic concerns. The man might be a > brute to his wife, and in a drunken orgy j beat- her. hut the Maori also sometimes bill- ; ' lied and heat a sheep-hearted wife, to stop ! f which barbarity no one might intervene: j site was his property, and provided he did ; not kill her it was no one's privilege to stay j his hands. She could leave him. and she did —sometimes; but to desert her pakeha i husband was a matter of greater import. As I I write I can call to mind only two instances j when.- a Maori wife deserted her pakeiia ; husband. One was for persistent unfaith- j fulness ; and the other, where a human moil- j ster, in a drunken frenzy, tied her to a j fence ami belted Iter with the buckle end ' upon her naked back. But she had her 1 revenge, for at- the second stroke she freed herself, and snatching up a. live tire-brand | stubbed it in his face : then stepping back J .took a tiefty sweep and made a drome; 1 -*., , of his nose. tint even this d: loot satisfy j her. so she brought out all her own tilings, j stuck the firebrand into the thatch and went j back to her people. The Maori woman ! might lack endurance in the expenditure of I main force, but in a first ousel, when her j blood was heated, her strength was enor- | inous and her skill to apply it most admit- i able to see. But this aggregation of passionate ('motions was very human, and if the erring penitent, possessed qualities which in her i estimation balanced his transgressions, her obduracy melted, and the sin was manumit- j ted. I think my querists are now fairly answered, and the next article may include minor matters; but will be principally devoted to history.