TWO HUNDRED MILES IN A MAORI CANOE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1994, 12 May 1892, Page 33

TWO HUNDRED MILES IN A MAORI CANOE.

(By B Km.) ii. Daylight next morning saw us astir. A thick mist hung over the river bed, while the river itself still steamed. When we turned out the air had a balmy freshness, and all was still. As we dropped off to sleep the night air had resounded with the cry of the crickets, which were still keeping up their concert at early dawn when we awoke, but as daylight grew they one by one became silent, and I suppose betook themselves to the slumbers which they must have sorely needed. It was as yet too early for the cicada, or singing- locust, as the colonists often style him, to resume the labpurs of the day ; but I fear the phrase is an ill-advised one, for there can be no labour to him in keeping up the unceasing song with which our ears had been wearied on the preceding day, or else he would take a rest sometimes, and at least stop for meals. But no, from early morn so soon as the warmth of the sun's rays reached the valley uutil after the sun had set and the crickets began their nightly chorus did these cicadas- fill the air with their shrill unmelodio^us trilling cry. They used to be tolerably numerous in Otago five and twenty years ago before the starlings cleared them off, but never did' I hear such an unending din as that produced by the cicadas in the lower reaches of the Wanganui river. They pervaded the whole a}r all day long with their irritating trill. ' The Maoris call them parikarungarunga, which, being interpreted, means the cliff ; Jthat sings, a name appropriate enough, for they love a cliff or sunny bank above all places. Yet, unmelodious as was any Maori singing we heard, it was music itself compared to theunceasjng vibrating noise of the cicada. The Maori singing is either a tuneless croon or a bawling intonation, both equally unmusical to pakeha ears. We had by this time become better acquainted with our boatmen, even though neither of the Maoris could speak more than one or two words of English. The bow oar was Heketo, a youth of forbidding aspect, whose looks belied him, for, though he wore a sullen scowl when in repose, his face lighted up when in conversation with his mate Maharini, at whose jokes he laughed heartily, and he proved himself a hard-working good-natured fellow. Maharini was a man of about 50, though he looked barely 40, with a pleasant, Bmiling countenance. He was always talking and joking, and apparently an auditor was not necessary For his enjoyment of his quips, for he would often make remarks to which no one paid any heed, but which he would follow with a merry chuckling laugh that was so contageous that I would often find myself laughing in concert. Perhaps it was from this circumstance that he often seemed to address himself to me, and at first out of sheer politeness I would respond with some chaffing reply in English, which was as unintelligible to him as his remark had been to me, but eventually, with the aid of Anderson, I mastered the phrase, "Kahore au emohio te korero" (I don't understand what you say), which I used to fire off at intervals without much effect, for he would still persist in continuing the one-sided conversation to his own eminent satisfaction. But Maharini was no mere talker, he was a worker as well. His years were beginning to tell, and after a day's hard work on the canoe he would begin to look wearied and fagged, his conversation ceased, yet he was cheerful and smiling still ; and whenever the canoe touched the shore he was as active as any in the necessary work of preparing our meals or the camp for the night. Goodnatured, I might say amiable, active, and methodical, no one could wish for a better camp servant than Maharini. / The scenery as we proceeded up the river, was similar iv character to that of the previous day, but when we rounded the cleared point at Panekewhitu we had a more extensive view up the river than we had yet enjoyed. Here the much-winding river runs in a comparatively straight course for fully five miles, so that before us we saw range upon range of bush - clad hills, the most - distant having a fine, irregular, almost serrated outline. All the faces of the hills about this part of the river facing northwards are devoid of bush, while those looking towards the south are densely wooded. A curious-looking fence at the side of the river, running some yards into the water, attracted our notice, and we ascertained that it was a pa pikerau (or lamprey trap). The river is higher at the season when .they are caught, and the fence, which is strongly stayed, is filled with scrub, except certain openings through which the lampreys pass to their doom. We saw several of these erections farther up, but they are not so numerous as the pa tunas (or eel traps), which were met with at the head of nearly every rapid in one portion of the river, and which sometimes add a difficulty to the passage of these swiftly-flowing streams. The difference in the habits of lampreys and eels is shown by the

different site selected for the respective traps, for while the pikerau pa is always in shore, the eel pa is invariably placed well out in the river. This latter structure consists of two strong p*rallel fences running up the stream. Midway between them at the lower end is a stout stake, to which is, when in use, attached a net of flax stretched to the fences on either side, and a long, neatly constructed eel pot of basket work, the opening into which -is the only apparent escape from the pa to any eel travelling down the river. Passing the Native, settlements of Pongerehu and Pukerimu, whero there was a good deal of cleared land dotted with grazing sheep, and several neatlooking weatherboard houses, .we steered our course for Parikino. The white sandstone cliffs here attain a height of 300 ft or 400 ft, and opposite the village one of these cliffs rises abruptly from the river. Indeed, Parikino is the name of the cliff, and the proper, though but little used, name of the pa is Kaitangata. About this part of the river the banks are nearly entirely cleared, as are also the foothills and flats. That on which the village of Parikino stands is of very considerable extent, and is "not wholly cleared, but as the Natives are seemingly acquiring wealth in sheep and cattle, the clearings are becoming more extensive than they formerly required for their cultivations of maize and potatoes. At every settlement there were numerous canoes drawn up on the bank, and at Rongerehu we saw one lying which was over 70ft long, with a beading or low .gunwale lashed on in the old Maori fashion. We landed at Parikino and ascended the steep bank to the village to see the Maori at home. We were received by an active elderly dame with snowwhite hair, who had in her train a white boy of about six or seven years of age, clad in a ragged shirt et 2>r(etcrea nihil. He was some little unwelcome waif of humanity, picked up in Wanganui. As the old lady, after shaking hands solemnly with our party, retired to her avocations, the little white imp turned to us and showed us the tongue of defiance, which he thrust out down over his chin in true Maori fashion. It was sad to see a white child being reared mid such surroundings. The village consists of several neat weatherboard cottages with iron roofs and galvanised iron tanks, seVeral wkatas or food stores, a number of Maori whares, and a new and two older wharepunis or public meeting houses. We first visited the newest, which was smaller than the Maori house at the Dunedin Exhibition. The barge boards and other portious of the front were carved with the usual grotesque figures and elaborate scroll work. Inside the broad rafters were ornamented with the quaint scroll pattern generally adopted for the purpose, painted in white on a red ground ; but the curves were irregular and shaky and much inferior to the work we saw further up the river, and the materials used were manifestly pigments of European origin. The panels, which should have been filled with toitoi reeds, were formed of saw mill dressed timber ; a kerosene bracket lamp was attached to the centre post, and common iron hat pegs adorned the walls. Both the carving and the painting were indifferently done, and looked as though they had been the work of those who were paid by the piece and not of those who, with unwearied patience, strove to produce what was for them a work of the highest art, such as may be seen in the old carvings. This queer mixture of things new and old, things pakeha with things Maori, was observable in a greater or less degree as far as we went up the river, and produced at times an incongruous jumble which possessed elements both amusing and pathetic. We next visited the oldest and smallest wharepuni, where there was little carving, but which had the old-fashioned panels of reeds embellished with* a charred pattern. Here we found hat hooks also, and on^them was suspended the carved shaft of an old Maori weapon, a tewhatewha, to which had been affixed an iron axe-head! The third whare puni was very plain, but the structure of the panelling here evoked a smile, for it was composed of ribbed timber, such as was used in the small whata in the Dunedin Exhibition, to imitate the toitoi reeds, and which had been procured from the saw mills down country, where it is produced for the manufacture of "washing boards ! Several of the inhabitants were busy storing their seed potatoes, but one woman, who was arrayed in a dirty black skirt and shawl, was occupied in mourning a man, possibly her husband, who had been drowned in the river a few days before. To the European habiliments of woe she had added the Maori mourning, a wreath of green leaves, which, strange to say, were those of the poplar tree. We heard her long wailing croon issuing from a low whare, from which she shortly emerged to take a seat under a neighbouring quince tree, drawn forth I should have said by curiosity to see the pakehas but that her cry was broken at irregular intervals by sobs which sounded like the voice of real and deep sorrow. The pa was subdivided by several fences with stiles in ,the pathways, designed, apparently, to keep the little pigs and children of different owners in their own domains. The former were the more numerous, although there was a fair number of bright-eyed children, who stopped in their play with tiny canoes, fashioned from the koradi, or flax stem, to gaze at the passing strangers. The eyes and teeth are' the best features in the Maori countenance. The former are often large and lustrous ; the latter generally white and regular— indicating that we are wrong when we blame the country for the rapid decay of the teeth of the young colonists. We saw here the best looking Maori young woman we saw on the river. She had rather good features, and fine large, somewhat sad eyes, but was disfigured by having her lips and chin tatooed. It is strange that this custom has quite disappeared among the men, only some of the very oldest of them having the mako ; while nearly all the women, some of them but girls, have the lips aud often the chin tatooed. From Parikino we walked along the river bank about a couple of miles to Wakahuruawaka, a deserted settlement, near which we pitched our camp. An old well-nigh collapsed whare puni and a weatherboard schoolhouse, erected by the Government in days gone by, and which has been unused as a school for 10 years, are almost the only records of the settlement. The schoolhouse has been utilised by the Maoris as a woolshed in which to shear the flocks depastured on the neighbouring flats and partially burnt ridges. Some inscriptions— relics, I suppose, of its former occupancy— were still upon the walls inside. One of them in large white letters, was " God Save the Queen," in English, with its Maori translation immediately below, " E tc Atua J£iaora ate Kuini," which looked as though the implanting of loyalty in the infant breast of the Maori had been not the least important of the duties of the former pedagogues. As we expected to have our party augmented by a friend from Wauganui, we resolved to remain in camp here for a day, which wo employed in scrambling in the bush and exploring the neighbourhood, and in yarning with our Maoris, through Anderson as interpreter. In reply to an inquiry as to whether there were any taniwhas iv these parts, we- were told that there were plenty in the Wanganui river, and also a long, rather

pointless, story about one farther up the river which had »außed the death of several men, which was verified by the fact that a curiously shaped stone and a totara log, beneath which were the monster's favourite hiding places, were in the river to this day. One story of a taniwha is, however, worth repeating. This taniwha, though it used to take trips to Taranaki and elsewhere along the coast, had its headquarters at Potiki, a native village opposite Wauganui, which was then, as well as the site of. Wanganui itself, submerged by the sea. It was known by the name of Tutaiporoporo, and had the inconvenient habit of smashing up the oanoes that came within its reach and eating the crew. It had followed this objectionable practice for some time, when an old man, a resident of Waitara, Aokehu by name, resolved to overcome the taniwha or perish in the attempt. He accordingly journeyed to the river, and having provided himself with the tooth of a big fish called tuatini, which he notched like a saw, he made a kind of a box, into which he got, and therein drifted down the river to Potiki. As soon as the box reached the haunts of the taniwha, the monster, doubtless smelling the man inside, opened his capacious jaws and swallowed both the box and its contents. When comfortably settled inside the taniwha old Aokehu emerged from the box, and with his fish's tooth proceeded to make a large opening in the beast, fish, or saurian, whichever it was, where nature had not intended that any opening should be, with the results that the man regained daylight and the taniwha died, and the further, and rather inconsequential result, that the sea receded to its present limits, leaving the sites of Potiki and Wanganui dry land. Just to see what the reply would be, I asked when this happened, and was somewhat surprised by the answer, which was "Long ago, when Christ was a little baby." I am glad to say that there are no descendants of Tutaiporoporo at large in the river at the present day. Passing a second night in the same camp, we next morning started down the river to a point a few miles below Parikino where a track comes over the hills from Kennedy's, from which the distance is about four miles by the track, while it is fully 15 by the river. Here we hoped to pick up our friend from Wanganui, and as we were before the appointed hour we climbed the steep track which zigzags to the summit. Since we passed two days before we found that the fern and flax had been fired, but the ground was so steep that we should hardly have thought it worth while to sow it with grass. As we approached the top we found numbers of large grasshoppers, fully 2in in length— not hopping, but flying about like locusts amongst the burnt fern ; but, though very plentiful from about half-way to the very top of the bare side of the razor-backed range, not one of them crossed it to the other side, which was wooded to the very crest of the ridge, except where fires had invaded the bush a little way in places. The view from the top, looking up the river, is very fine. The slope is so steep that it looks as though it would require no great effort to jump down the 600 ft or more into the river below, whose winding reaches glittering in the sun, we could see extending away back into the hills to the northward. On the other side the prospect is also a fair one. Looking down a wooded gully we caught a glimpse of the river, with the level country behind Wanganui lying beyond, while the little white church and cluster of cottages at Makirikiri nestled under the grassy hills where the little valley down which we looked joined the wide one of the Wanganui. While waiting here we found the curious fruit of the Alectryon excelsum— sometimes styled the New Zealand ash, to which tree the foliage bears some resemblance. Our Maoris called it the topetope, but the recognised Native name is the titoki, Or tokitoki, an instance of the varying names in different districts. The fruit resembles a small nut nearly half an inch long, which when ripe bursts, throws off an irregularshaped capsule, and reveals a granulated fleshy coral-like berry of the brightest scarlet, from which protrudes a round surfaced seed, black and shining as polished jet. We waited here till the trysting hour was past, and seeing nothing of our rear column we retraced our steps to the canoe and resumed our voyage up the river. On our way up we passed many canoes travelling down, and as we had left our baggage on a large snag in the river opposite our last camping place we had some fears as to its safety ; but Anderson assured us it would be quite safe, as in his experience he had found the Maoris honest. They are, he informed us, untruthful, but, he added, they despise a thief. We found our baggage as we had left it, and taking it on board continued our upward way. We were surprised by the amount of traffic on the river, which, however, is the only highway for all those living on its banks for upwards of a hundred miles. Every day, as far as Pipiriki, we met canoes — in one day as many as 18 at least, sometimes singly, but more frequently in little fleets of three or more. To the occupants of one canoe we entrusted some letters to be posted in Wanganui, which duly reached their destination, and the only recompense given was the purchase of sixpenny worth of apples from the cargo, which were tumbled into our canoe with a liberal hand. A favourable breeze sprang up in the afternoon, and we hoisted the sail, to the delight of the Maoris, who obtained a short respite from their labours, and who in their glee apostrophized the wind, calling it tamariri, which means an active, pushing fellow. We went spinning along at a good pace for a short time, '•all same the Wairere" 'the name of the steamboat), as Hekito expressed it for the benefit of the pakehas, but unfortunately the breeze died away, and the slower and more arduous mode of progression had to be resumed. We passed several settlements. At Ohui we saw what we also observed elsewhere, a reaped wheat field with the grain gathered into two or three curiously pointed stacks. Close by Atene (the modern Athens), the river's course has at some distant period cut through a narrow neck of land, and by making a new course of about 100 yds has saved a detour of two miles, leaving an isolated hill called Te Mata o Maui, or Maui's eye. The hills were now wooded on both banks, pierced by a few steep gullies their bushy slopes being interspersed with many a precipitous, rocky face, while there was less low-lying land at their bases. The green of the woods was brightened by the crimson-scarlet flowers of a climbing species of rata, which, late as it was in the season, was just coming into bloom. A favourite camping ground opposite the Ahuahu stream, where grew that best of bedding, manuka scrub, having been reached, we sought quarters for the night. Manuka scrub certainly makes a comfortable bed, but it has the disadvantage of being most prolific in insect life. Insects were never wanting, from the moths attracted by our candle to spiders and all sorts of caterpillars and creeping things ; but when manuka scrub was used the assortment was larger and more varied, generally including a few walkiDg-stick insects, and the tent would have proved a happy hunting ground for an entomologist. We turned out a few of the most formidable looking, and those that remained interfered not with our slumbers.