OLD MAORI LIFE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1745, 16 August 1905, Page 13

OLD MAORI LIFE.

LECTURE BY MR A. HAMILTON. TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO. Mr A. Hamilton, curator of the Colonial Museum, gav© a very interesting address at the Newtown Library last Wednesday evening on the life of the New Zealand natives before they were at all influenced by contact with whites. The lecturer began by drawing a mental picture of such a pa—more sanitary than the European cities of the time—as one might have found anywhere in the North Island, say two hundred years ago, before any trace of civilisation had reached this land. Many of the great pas must have held from one to two thousand people, and a great population must have worked at the ditches and trenches of the hill forts, while ten times the present population of the neighbourhood would have been necessary to defend them. Every part of the island was claimed by some section of tribe of the Maori race, and every boundary was well known, and defined by name, while every stream, hill, and natural feature also had its designation. Skill in the arts and crafts won renown as well as success in war. In the sleeping-houses the natives had their special positions according to their rank, the highest occupying the post of honour just inside the door on the right-hand side, under the window, and the others lying next, to him in order of rank. The wharepuni was kept warm by small charcoal fires. One of the great labours of the ancient Maoris was the annual gravelling of the kumara grounds, the gravel being carried up from the river-beds by the women.

Amongst the articles of diet the be ivies of the karaka, tawa, amd liinau were important. The kernel® of the two first-named were dried and kept for a considerable time if necessary; while part of the hinau berry was ground down into flour, from which a species of coarse cake was made. Fern-root also was a staple article, and the grounds where it grew to‘ perfection were greatly prized by the chiefs, and were often the cause of tribal fight®. The interior stem of the nikau palm was eaten as also was the pollen of the raupo. On the Elast Coast of the North Island a kind of red seaweed was found, which was made into a savoury jelly, and frequently carried some distances into the interior. One of the most irksome duties that a slave could be set to> perform was the gathering of the minute berries of the totara, matai, and rimu, all of which were' prized as food. From their youth the chiefs were taught to excel in the arts of peace as well as in those of war, many of the Maori proverbs indicating that labour held an honoured place in the economy of the Maori. Unlike some of the Polynesian races, the Maoris had no seats of any kind; the hosts differed from those of Europe in the fact that they generally received their guests sitting or squatting. The European gesture of assent was a nod of the head. . With the Maoris it was an upward jerk of the head. It had often been held as a reproach against the modern Maoris that thein language contained no word expressive of thank®, though some of the more ceremonious races of the W T estern world had such a word. They had a dread of whistling, because it was con-

sidered that any kind of whistling was the utterance of an atua, or spirit. Even to-day it was not considered courteous to ask the name of anyone, probably because to do so supported the inference that he was unknown. At the conclusion of the lecture, which was listened to very attentively, a vote of thanks, moved by Councillor! McLaren, was accorded to the lecturer., Mr R. C. Harding presided.