ANEREAS REISCHEK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19785, 10 May 1926, Page 13

ANEREAS REISCHEK.

NEW ZEALAND EXPLORATIONS. BOOK OF REMINISCENCES. A GERMAN EDITION. (From Oca Own Cobhespondext.) LONDON, March 23. Few people of this generation will know a great deal about Andreas Rieschek, who arranged the Christchurch .Museum, and later those in Auckland and Wanganui. It was about 1877 that Sir Julian von llaast wrote to the famous Austrian geologist, Hochstetter, asking (he latter if he could find a capable and practical scientist for the work. Hochstetter at thrt time was superintendent of the Royal Natural History Museum at V ienna, and had got to know of Heischek’s exceptional abilities. The stipulated length of (he engagement was for two years, but it was only after 12 full years that Reiscliek returned to Austria. During these 12 years he not only carried out the work of arranging museums, but he made a thorough study of the fauna of New Zealand- He learned the. Maori language, and studied the natives very closely, and he explored the whole of New Zealand and the adjacent islands. In spite of alluring offers from foreign countries. Reischek, we are told, gave the whole work of his later life to his native land, which accepted the rich gift of the poor and voluntary giver without thanks or recognition. Ho died not many years ago, and with the object of saving his significant work from Austrian forgetfulness, his son lias now published a volume which gives an account of the scientist's life and work during the_ 1? years he spent in New Zealand. It is published in German, but through the courtesy of Mr 11. E. L. Friday, previously of Wanganui, wno is studying the German language in Berlin at the present time. I have been able to read the translation of six of the chapters. It is possible that, Mr Friday will find a publisher for an English edition of the work. MUMMIFIED BODIES. Although a good deal of the information contained in the book is now general knowledge amongst New Zealand scientists, there a.e chapters of some historic value, and In those portions dealing with the customs of the Maoris there are isolated facts which, perhaps, have never been been recorded until the present. hor instance, it it interesting to learn that in the State Natural History Museum at "Vienna _ there are at present two mummified bodies of Maoris. One of Reischek's ambitions was to obtain such a rarity, but it was only when .he got right into the heart of the King Country that he succeeded in finding what he had set his heart on. He thus tells the story : . "Two Maoris, who had already become sufficiently europeonised to be. willing to renounce their national and religious principles for gold, led me at night to a cave near Kawhia; there I found four mummies, of which two were in a slate of perfect preservation- The undertaking was a very dangerous one, for discovery would certainly have cost rne tny life. In the night I had the mummies removed from the spot and then well hidden; during the next night they were carried still further away, and so on until they had been brought safely over the boundaries of Maoriland. But even then 1 kept them cautiously hidden from sight right up to the time ol tny departure. Now both of these ancestors of tlie Maori adorn the ethnographical collection of the State Natural History Museum at Vienna.” The scientist’s tours were made chiefly for the purpose of collecting specimens of New Zealand birds, many of which, no doubt, found their way into the museums which he planned. He was a most careful observer, and his descriptions of the life habits of the rarer species and of some now extinct, are a valuable contribution to the Dominion's scientific literature. Probably, however, his observations were published at the time, and have formed the foundations of other works on the subject. CREATED A RANGATIRA. What is of particular interest is the description of a long and comprehensive tour of the King Country in 1882. when this part of New Zealand was very little known. A meeting of the chiefs seems to have been called, and talking and feasting continued for four days, the object of the meeting being fo decide whether this white man should be permitted to cross the boundary of the jealously guarded country. In the end he was permitted to enter, and he ingratiated himself so much with the King that he was presented with a huia tail and received an address from the King’s emissary. "I greet you as our friend! The King sends this token of his love for you. He sees that you are a friend of the Maori and not their enemy as he had at first supposed. From to-day forth you may go through his land as much as it pleases you; whoever., insults you also insults myLeif and the King. Let your name be from this day on: lhaka Reiheke. Te Kiwi, Kangotira fe Auturia ! A statement by the King when he eventually met th e explorer is interesting: 's‘\Ve love you because you are a man after our own heart. Were all whites like you then we shpuld never have lifted club or spear against them. For the past 20 vears we have completely closed our last tract of land against the white man- You are the first to whom w e allow entrance. May God Errant that the mind of the white man will change 1 .” Subsequent conversations with the King and other chiefs throw some light on the feelings of the Maoris towards the pakeTias in those days. Reischek ' wa= able to explore the country unhindered. One of the first feasts given in his honour was begun with horse-racing. Most of the jockevs rode good horses. The first one was clad only in a flax cloth, the second in European breeches and cap, and the third wore a Kotikoti round his waist and had decorated his hair with feathers. The fourth was distinguished with a long cloak, and the fifth was wearing a woman's jacket and a tea-cosy on his head. The Queen s dress on this occasion must also have been unique. She was enfolded in a calico dross on which all kinds of card games were printed in a strange manner A black top hat formed her head-dress. "In pleasant contrast to this tragic-comic caricature” writes Reischek, “was the King's second wife, whose comely figure and handsome features were in complete harmony with her Maori attire. AN EARLY PRINTING PRESS. It is nerbaps not generally known that quite early in the history of New Zealand settlement two eh:, -. \\ ireama Toitoi and Hcmera te Rerehau, took a trip to Vienna. They journeyed to Europe with the Austrian geologist, Hnchstetter_ in the frigate Novara. They were received at court and introduced to the Archduke Maxmillan. He asked them what he could do to please them, and Wireama Toitoi answered that he might present them with a printing press, so that they could publish a paper of their own when they f’ot back. They wore presented witn a handpress, and were taught the business of the compositor in the Koval State Printing Works. They took the press hack to New Zealand with them, and there issued a political paper, the Hokioi. The chief Patroa te Tui was editor and publisher. When the Maori war broke out they wrote r lutionarv articles against tlie Europeans, and when the Maoris were forced to retreat before the European troops they carried the press with them, putting it' in a canoe in order to bring it over the Waipa River. But the canoe turned turtle and the press sank.” SECRETS OF NATURE.

There is nn intimac-v about the Austrian's description of his experiences in the King Country which brings that neriocl of Maori history very near indeed He seldom philosopiiises. but at the end of the chapters on the King Country there is a single lapse. "Before these Maoris,” lie writes, “1 experienced that sense of shame which surely any sensitive pers m must feel who, after footing himself like a demigod, puffed up with false arrogance, and filled with the darkness of the * hools. at last receives an insight into the secrets and truths of Nature. For as soon as he feels the influence of these secrets steal upon him his boasted knowledge dwindles to nought, and he is left only with deep respect for the eternal truths of Nature ami nothing but contempt for the folly of a spiritual drift which boastfully thinks in its pride that it ‘ indeed knows much, but would like to know all.' "That Enropeanism which has cononcrod the whole world, and which calls the native races uhicli tire so near to God ‘wild,’ I felt as a disease from which these 1 wild ’ men and the ‘ wild ’ animals wanted to heal me. I felt myself also guilty of the great crime that Europe bad done these ‘ wild ’ people, who were really the better men, when their land was taken from them, their customs, _ and their freedom. 1 heard the sounds of the saw# in Uia kauri forests, which in a

single hour cut down the giant tree which had withstood the storms of the ages: I saw a vision, in the mind's eye, of this las, fiee Maoriland falling under the machine of Europe. What cannibalism could not in centuries destroy European civilisation had almost succeeded in destroyin'' in a single generation. . . . Hard was it for me, very hard, to say good-bye to these' simple folk. All the inhabitants of the villa-e sat around me in n cir.-lr acd c- -(. It was a real, not a conventional tangi.” The German edition of the book is very well printed by F. A. Brockhaug, of Leipzig. It is entitled “Stcrbende Welt’’ i"A Dyiii" World”). It 1'« 94 illustrations, many of which have probably not been seen before, and the cover and interior binding are artistically decorated with Maori designs.