MAORI IN BUSINESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20074, 11 October 1928, Page 14

MAORI IN BUSINESS.

EARLY TRADE RELATIONS

ART OF DRIVING BARGAINS

[low the Maori, unversed in (lie ways of commerce, developed a shrewd head for busfhess under European tutelage and often outwitted the pakeha in the gentle art of driving a bargain, was tnld hy Mr. A. B. Chappell as an incidental part of an address at yesterday's fortnightly luncheon address of the Karangahape Road Business Promotion Society. It was the white man who brought trade to New Zealand, said the speaker. The journals of Tasman and of Cook showed tho Maori was ignorant of Ihe idea of exchange. 110 had tho word "utu" meaning compensation in tho sense of vengeance for a wrong, and (lie pakeha had virtually forced the Maori to turn that sacred word to secular use to denote .price. Ordinary currency was very raro in New Zealand, payment up to about 1830 being chiefly made hy barter. When money came into more frequent use tho currency intrigued tho native, because ho was just coming to tho stage of beginning to appreciate individual ov.-nership and money was easily hidden from inquiring friends. Medals and gilded farthings were often passed off on to the Maori, but the Maori quickly became shrewd to the spurious nature of that currency, and in time the native became so adept in business that ho occasionally gained the belter of the bargain with the European trader. Seals, whales, spars and (lax constituted the main items in New Zealand's foreign trade in the early part of last century. Most of the sealskins did not go direct to Europe, but to China, tho I trade being chiefly controlled by Sydney merchants. The Chinese wore adept in treating tho fur, which was in demand because of the vogue that set in about that time for felt hats. A propjieey was made in 1035 that (lax and timber, and nothing else, would be New Zealand's only exports. The falsification of that prediction in later days showed the dangc of prophecy. New Zealand's first secondary industry, Mr. Chappell asserted, was tho trade in Maori heads. These the Maoris kept for sentimental reasons, to keep green the memory of some great chief, but monetary inducements at last tempted them to "sell tho relics. In that connection New Zealand recently had an opportunity of purchasing 32 heads for £ISOO, but the offer had not been accepted.