MAORI CUSTOMS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11058, 26 August 1907, Page 6

MAORI CUSTOMS.

TANG IS AND TO-HUNG AS.

(From our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. "I am convinced that nga tangi Maori are frequently fruitful sources of the spiead of infectious disease," reports Dr. DeLisle. Frequentl}' tho bodies of persons who have died from some virulent complaint are kept above ground for a month or more while the tangi is proceeding. The segregation of Maoris from all parts, some of whom are suffering from tuberculosis, and others suffering from one of the various infectious diseases, is fraught with danger to themselves and the members of the surrounding community. I am aware that it is a serious matter to interfere with the conventions of a people, but if the clerical missionary interferes for their moraj wellbeing, may not the medical" missionary interfere for their physical? -Surely, the keeping of a body above ground, though it be m coffins, might- be ■ prohibited. "A. stray tohunga, Wereta and Hikapuhi, shoot meteor-like across from the East Coast, but the light they shed is very, subdued and transient," reports Dr. Rangihiroa, m his remarks re Taranaki. "With the Maori it is a new form of amusement of which he* rapidly tires. The present-day aspirant to the tohunga's fame is only a sorry apology, seeking to attain the' cheap notoriety of an hour. The tohunga of tlie past was a man full of learning, skilled m the treatment of the ills extant m those days. He was an absolute necessity Jn the stage m which the race existed. The present day caricature, unskilled and .unlearned, oan only play upon the superstitions of _ minds m a transitional and unsettled state, whereby be brings disgrace upon the honored riame tohunga. However, like other forms, they manufacture their anti-toxin and their life is brief/ •