MAORI MEMORIES

Taranaki Daily News, 21 January 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

MAORI MEMORIES

FIDELITY TO MATE

(By

J.H.S.)

Though the Maori chose his life’s mate in summary fashion, often by force and without consent, always without ceremony, infidelity was rare indeed. Sudden death by the hand of his next of kin was the recognised penalty. Acts of cruelty to the wife were almost unknown. When next you hear that popular All Black football chorus, just think of its origin—“Tenei te Tangata puhuru huru. Nana te whakawhiti te ra, para te ra,. Upane, upane, upane, para te ra, whiti te ra” (This is the man all covered with hair, who maketh the sun to shine or to be obscured. I arise, arise, arise!) Its originator was Te Rauparaha, the warrior chief of kawhia. Disgraced and pursued, by. kinsmen who sought his death, for being unfaithful to his wahine,, he took refuge with a hairy old warrior who. hid him in the dark recesses of his kumara pit. When the pursuers had passed,. the one-time military . hero. of Kawhia expressed his gratitude in that dramatic fashion. But he never regained his lost mana, for he was untrue to his informal marriage tie. J When the Maori people first- heard of divorce in, New Zealand their only remark was, “And which one is to die?” Death.

Having no tradition of future punishment,' the Maori was singularly free from’ the fear of death.' Te Reinga, his spirit world, was rather a' fairy land. On the other hand,' where abounding health ruled because of the' enforced fastipgs and the activity entailed in the daily search for food, sickness, even in old. age, .was not looked upon with favour. . The. sick were placed apart in an outer whare, and when death defiled it the house was burned.

Assisted perhaps by this aloofness and his desire to reach the fairy land of his life’s dreams Te Reinga, the old-time Maori could actually die at will, and of this many proofs are given. This seeming miracle is not known to civilised man," and is often denied, but from personal experience I am convinced of its reality. With this in mind, a medical missioner 70 years ago wrote of the Maori: “He eats when he’s hungry; he drinks when he’s thirsty; he sleeps when he’s sleepy; and knows when to die.”

Illustrative of this attitude, a wellknown aphorism was literally believed and naturally afforded, much comfort to those in the face of death—“Ka hou kite wlienua; Ka puta’ kite. Rangi he Pepe” (Sink into the earth a chrysalis; emerge therefrom to the. sky above as a butterfly). Maori Ethics.

On witnessing the first execution of a young Maori murderer by hanging the Maori chiefs' told Sir George Gray that it was inhuman and unchristian thus to kill a man’s soul before the body died. By hitting him on the back of the head without premonition, the Maori method rendered the body unconscious and left the soul to rest iri blissful peace.

The Maori says: “The directors of the N.Z. Land Company got drunk on a theory, leaving the headache to • the Maori and the early settler. Now, the children of those sufferers from broken pledges can only , tell how the company saved New Zealand from becoming a French colony.” Away back in 1835, after eight years’ residence among the Maori people, a British medical man, reported to the Prime Minister that, “We Englishmen seem to respect, men for what they get, but the Maori gives honour only to those who give away.” ■ The Maori law of utu was a spiritual obligation laid upon all men to recompense the tribe or family by making a reprisal for every wrong inflicted upon them, even though it might have occurred in a past generation. Until we began to realise this, as part of an . inborn religion we seriously misjudged the Maori. . Quite .frequently he carefully guarded the secret of an injury inflicted upon himself in order to protect his enemy from this sacred law. A Simple • Language. An' Oxford professor of languages who had never heard a Maori word became secretary to a blind advocate in the Native Land Court. Slowly at first, but from . shorthand notes, he produced at 80 words a .minute type-written copies of Maori evidence' without a single' error. A resident of Palmerston North presented to the Turnbull Library at Wellington the first manuscript transcription of the Maori language by Professor Samuel Lee, of Cambridge, signed and dated December 8, 1820. ■ It was presented- to the donor’s grandfather, and is in the form of a manuscript book of 230 pages, 'in which there is not a single error or erasure. The professor therein attempted-to , make Use of our-27 letters, but subsequently found that every sound could be produced, as now, by 14 letters. > In'lBsB the New Zealand Government spent £7OOO a year to teach English to the Maoris, but not one penny to teach Maori to the English. Now the mission school at Otaki is actually teaching the Maori-boys to speak Maori! ■ The Maori boys attending our primary schools converse with their parents at the pa in English. For centuries they depended upon memory and vocal expression, and had no recourse to written records. Those two faculties were therefore cultivated Jo a degree quite unknown to us. To those few Pakeha who have made an intimate study of Maori and to all old Maori men and women the neglect of the beautiful tongue is an irreparable loss. Poaka.

Imagine how the Maori enjoyed his first taste of pork, even salt junk as it was. Moreover, it was ’ the first time they had tasted flesh except in ceremonial cannibal rites, or boiled food, except, near the hot . springs. Captain Cook gave the too insistent ship’s Maori Visitors a loin of pork and a three-legged pot, saying, “Go ashore,” which thus became their name for a pot, “Kohua.” Those of us who have caught and eaten wild pork fed exclusively on fernr.oot will understand how the. Maori thrived upon that introduced nourishment.. Pigs so fed often exceeded 5001 b. Think of a man this size weighing over 35 stone! The Maori marvelled that any nation on earth' should eschew so delectable a food. as pork. In 1840 .when Wellington had but 1000 whites, there were about the same number of wild pigs in the bush nearby. An enterprising butcher advertised “British beef 1/6, Scottish mutton 1/-, Maori pork 3d, Palestine mutton 6d.”

With the introduction of overseas pigs fed upon, flesh offal, and the Maori’s first indulgence in pork, his health be-' gan to decline. This fact was quoted by the Jewish authorities as an evidence of. 7 their wisdom in abstaining from its use. Soon, however, pigs ran'freer, and fed upon roots and grass, so that the illeffects of their use as food disappeared.