MAORI WAR TRUMPETS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15563, 21 March 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

MAORI WAR TRUMPETS.

BY AJICHDEACOX WALSH. In connection with the celebrations to be held at Orakau on the first of next month many people will be interested to learn that there is in the Auckland Museum an article which figured in the great fight that occurred at that place 50 years ago. This is the pukaea, or war-trumpet, which forms part of a collection of curios belonging to Mrs. C. Kinder, of Reoiuera. As was quite common in the case of Maori weapons, implements, etc., this instrument had a- proper name, and was known far and wide as " Uruhjna." It had been used at the Tumu, neaT Maketu, afterwards at Orakau/ where it was in the hands of the Urewera, and subsequently at Tauranga, Maketu, and Matata. The Ngaetai, of Tunapahore, had it from a , branch of their tribe, the Ngaetawharero at Taupo; arid in 1864 it was ,given by Aparere (Alfred), of Tunapahore, to the Rev. Carl S. Volkner, the missionary, who was killed by the Hauhaus, and who previous to his death had given it to the Rev. Dr. Kinder.

In the manufacture of the pukaea the Maoris displayed their usual ingenuity. Having no means of making a long bore they wrought a piece of straight-grained totara into the shape of the tube. This was then split down the middle, whew the halves were hollowed out, aDd then glued together with the resinous gum of the tarata. A mouthpiece was fixed to the small end, and! the other end was widened to a funnel shape by a number of neatly-fitted staves of hard wood, such as the black laminae, found in the trunk of the korau, or mamaku fern tree. All crevices were stopped with the resin when the shaft was tightly bound with finely-twisted flax cord, a lashing of split supplejack being generally used for the larger end At intervals in the binding a number of split hawks' feathers were sometimes inserted fur ornament and occasionally the monthpiece was elabor ately carved. The trumpets, a few of which have been preserved, are. from three or four to nine feet in length, that in the possession of Mrs. Kinder being about six feet.

The sound of th* pukaea is said to have carried for several miles. In the hands of a skilful buglfr it will yield !>.t least four clear notes, but it is impossible at the present time tc tell what sounds were produced by th-a Maoris. Forster, the natu-, ralist who accompanied Captain Cook to New Zealand, seems to be the only writer who heard on« played, and he says that " it made a very uncouth kind of braying for they always sounded the same note." It is hard to believe, however, that the Maoris, -who displayed such skill on the putorino and the koauau—the wooden and "bone fluteshould have failed to grasp the capabilities of the instrument, or that they should have taken such pai'ns in its manufacture if it.was only to afford one note. But though no description of the music of the pukaea has come down to us there is ample evidence*-to show that it was made to convey intelligible sounds of the most varied character. It was used to deliver a challenge, to assemble the fighting men, as well as to proclaim the news that an enemv was on the warpath ; and when a chief of high rank was, about to visit a pa he was able with the pukaea to notify his approach, and to state what food he wished to be provided for himself and party. Locke, in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute for 1882, gives an interesting account of a chief who announced himself in such an insulting manner that the announcement led to a devastating war. Possibly in this case the instrument may have been employed as a iking trumpet;, as it is difficult to conceive how the very definite remarks that are recorded could otherwise have been conveyed. In war time, in the old pre-muskft days, the pukaea was used by the Kaumatua, or senior chief of the tribe, who sat on a platform on the highest point of the pa, when its loud and piercing tones were supposed to strengthen the hearts of the combatants, a3 well as to drown the cries of the women and children which might have weakened their courage. ■ The pukaea is sometimes called the pui tarara, but that name is more properly applied to tho trumpet made of the conch,snell, gaothei) favourite instrument.