LOCAL MAXIMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20058, 22 September 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL MAXIMS.

PAKEHA AND MAORI. BY KOTAHB. In a recent English collection of proverbs, I notico that New Zealand is given tho credit for one that in past days may have been tho slogan of the Radical left wing, but is to-day a mere dead fact stranded on tho shores of the oblivious years. It is almost impossiblo to conceive tho time when it was applicable to New Zealand conditions. Gerald Massey was of tho opinion that "Where the Vanguard camps to-day. Tho Rear shall rest to-morrow. But here tho rear has advanced far beyond the farthest hopes of the most optimistic of yesterday's vanguard. Still if this is our only contribution to tlio proverbial wisdom of tho world we may quoto it as an interesting curiosity, and as a milestone on the march of progress. At least 't embodied a high aspiration when it was on tho lips of men. Well, here is tho phrase that has put us on tho m ap—I had almost written "mat." Eight hours work. Eight hours play. Eight hours sleep. Eight bob a day. That was familiar enough in my youth; but I had never assigned it a New Zealand origin. 3till a learned compiler gives us tho credit of it and presumably ho has made due investigation. It comes form tho halcyon days when we had some claim to lead tho world in social and industrial reform. By the way tho compiler writes the last line "eight shillings a day." I never heard it in that form, and I doubt whether it ever existed. 1 havo taken tho liberty to make the necessary alteration; the local form is much moro emphatic, keeps tho rhythm much better and sustains tho swift drive of vigorous monosyllables that gave effectiveness to the ancient slogan. Our Fauna. Tho kiwi is acclimatising itself to an American invironmont. 1 find it under tho barbarous disguise "keewee" in a recent comprehensive book on the American language: It is alleged to have entered America through tho association of the American Expeditionary Force with the Australians during the Great \Var. Another injustice to New Zealand. Apparently our keeweo has become a symbol for the man that loses what he does not use, or for any man that has qualities that lie uncultivated There may bo other expressions that havo suffered a similar violent transplantation and are thriving in their now environment. Locally wo havo raised tho moa to point a moral and adorn a tale. " Extinct as the moa," is a commonplace of New Zealand speech, and has almost ousted the English "extinct as the dodo." Instead of " from Dan to Beersheba/ or "from Land's End to John o'Groat's" wo naturally say "from North Capo to the Bluff." An Auckland College has appropriated the tuatara as a convenient symbol for tho student who bends upon his preceptors a steadfast gaze of profound admiration, who drinks in with too obvious delight the wisdom that flows from their lips, and who with an eye to the day of testing, seeks by other means than hard work to impress with his diligence and interest tlioso in whoso hands his fate lies. Certainly tho tuatara has proverbial possibilities beyond all t'/ie other beasts of tho field. Australia. Australia has done moro in this direction that wo have thought of attempting. Her fauna lends itself to proverbial adaption as our much moro limited resources cannot. So does her landscape, and tho Australian sense of nationalism. Tho grey rums l>y the lonely creek. The star-crowned height, The wind-swept plain, the dim blue peak. The cohl white light. The solitude spread near and fnr. Around the camp-fire's tiny slur. Tho horse bell's melody remote, Tho curlew's melancholy note, Across tho night. So Essex Evans. Conditions have mad* inevitable tho riso of a vigorous expressive Australian speech, atmospheric, vivid, racy of tho soil. Wo shall never achieve that. Wo aro so conscious of our smallness and remoteness that where tho Australian emphasises his determination to bo different from the ancestral type, wo arc chiefly concerned to perpetuate and emphasise our resemblances in speech, in charactci and in outlook. But Australian proverbs slay at homo. Their distinctive speech-forms do not travel. They come from a specialised environment,. and thero alono aro tlicy at home. Some of them aro vivid and strong. Tako this for example: "When your neighbour begins to quoto Scripture look carefully to your brands." Cynical, but rising no doubt out of much and bitter experience. The Maori. Maori proverbs aro full of poetry, but the mere collection of aphoristic wisdom has apparently not appealed to the genius of tho race. Until the, white man cut across tho old tradition and set tho Maori, formed through the centuries for one mode of life, to tho hurried acquisition ot another for which temperamentally and historically he was unfitted, tho sequence of great orators, of magic phrasemakers was unbroken. Old maxims were embedded in tho popular speech, but when thero were always present men that could clothe their emotions in words as trlowiner as forceful, and as apt as any ancestors in tho bravo days of old, there, was not tho inducement to canalise the broad winding stream of ancient wisdom Besides tho Maori outlook was not marred by that cynicism that has been the forcing ground of proverbs in most other Pe Somo ot their sayings relate to ancient heroes and battles long ago. They must bo unintelligible now to most ol their own race. Others link up unexpectedly with the common proverb heritage, of all mankind " Tho road to Hawaiki is cut off." We havo taken the decisive irrevocable step. Wo havo burned our boats. Wo have crossed tlio Rubicon. Our concern is with tho now land and its now tasks. "A chief dies, another takes his place" Tho king is dead; long live tho king Tho old order changeth, yield ing place to new. " The grub is small, but it destroys tho great tree." The little drops of water, tlio little grains of sand. Constant dropping wears away the stone. Tho lion and the mouse. Mony a pickle makes a muckle. Tho Maori lias his share of tho wisdom of all ages and all men. " Tho spear shaft can bo parried but not tho shaft of speech." That occurs in manv forms Tho Maori had a profound esteem for tlio wise talker; but tho tonguo of scandal was the meanest weapon in tho coward's armoury. '' He dieth not as tlio moon dies." "Tho moon will conic again, but when man dies tho placo of his habitation will know him 110 more." " Dio not as tho tarakihi but rather as tlio shark." Go down with flying colours. Fight through to tho last breath Don't let death have any victory ovei your spirit whatever ho may do to' your body. "A multitude of stars may bo shut out by a small cloud." "A warrior dies in battlo, a cragsman on a cliff, but a food-cultivator of old age." That might havo been the watchword of our Viking ancestors.