“NOT TAIHOA”

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 91, 5 July 1930, Page 7

“NOT TAIHOA”

MAORI CHARACTERISTICS. LIFE OP HARD WORK. The characteristics of the Maoris, both ancient and modern, were dealt with by Bishop Williams, of Waiapu, in an address delivered at the Wellington Rotary Club’s luncheon on Tuesday. “I think I had better start off by asking you what is the main characteristic of the Maori race,” he said. Various replies were given, but Bishop Williams said that nobody had given the one he expected. When he asked that question regarding the Native characteristics, he said, he usually received the reply, “Taihoa.” - T used to hear it frequently,” he continued, “but I can assure you it is not true. There certainly may be lazy Maoris just as there are lazy white people. There are good and bad Maoris just as there may be good and bad Rotarians.” In the days before the coming of the white man the Maori had anything but an easy life. He was never still. He had to do everything for himself. The Maori worked really hard. Had he not done so he could not have lived. There--1 fore he had little lime for , laziness, and “Taihoa” was certainly not one of his characteristics. For all that he found time for amusements, the Maori of old was probably not so genial as he was to-day. The old Maori seldom laughed, although he could frequently indulge in a sardonic grin. He also had a sense of humour. One of the main characteristics of the Maori, said Bishop Williams, was the way in which he played the game when fighting. During the Maori Wars there were several instances when the Natives not only gave warning of intended attacks, but went so far as to help the white neople to get their women and children away to safety before commencing hostilities. On one occasion they let a British ammunition wagon go past without attacking it, their explanation being that they knew the British were running short of ammunition, and if they did not get any more then there would be no fighting the following day. Bishop Williams was of opinion that the Maori had not made a really good sheep farmer. Many had failed, this being due to the fact that the Maori could not carry his mind along far enough. Fie did not mind doing anyI thing such as shearing, when he could work hard for a few weeks and then sit, back for a time, but he frequently disliked anything really permanent unless he could be shown some definite result of liis labours at the end of each month, “I don’t think that we have always given the Mtori a fair run,” concluded the speaker. “Whereas we have centuries of commercial experience behind us. the Maori has been in touch with it only 100 years.”