MAORI MEMORIES

Taranaki Daily News, 28 January 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

MAORI MEMORIES

MOA RECONSTRUCTION

(By

J.H.S.)

From a single leg bone Professor Owen, with wondrous accuracy, reproduced the giant wingless bird, almost exactly as subsequent discoveries have proved it to be. The Maori memories transmitted for eight generations since its extinction. were also confirmed. The professor’s family and scientific associates were certain that their old friend had crossed the border line betwixt genius and insanity, and sought earnestly but vainly to suppress publication of his conclusions. Punch was about the only paper to disagree with them. Unlike those of other birds, moa bones were filled with nutritious marrow. What a feast for those hungry hunters! I have seen only one unbroken moa egg. It was 12ins. long and 27ins. round the centre. A bowler hat size. -7J was too small to be used as an egg cup for it. Authentic Maori memory places the last living moa as 1650. Among the plant names in which the habits of this unique bird are sought to be traced by one writer is Tatara Moa (the bramble) from which name he believes this plant to have been the sleeping mat of the moa. The food of this wingless giant bird of the world is said by the Maoris to have been the leaves of trees such as the mahoe. The average reach of the moa is known to have been well over 10ft. His kick was more powerful than that of a horse. Kai.

The staple food of the Maori was aruhe (fernroot) and ika (fish), the health-giving properties of which were contributed to in a great degree by the daily exercise of getting enough to eat. An. authority on hygiene declares that the tannin of the aruhe destroyed the germs of disease, but the Maori accounted for his abounding health by the actual scarcity of food supply and the long intervals for digestion and elimination. The kiore, a vegetarian rat, the only four-legged animal in New Zealand, was a delicacy. The kuri, an island dog, came later.

A well-known Maori proverb was “Kia iti te kai, Kia ora tonu te tangata” (Little food gives enduring health). They drank much water and, like our horses and cattle, only in intervals between meals. A curious feature of their otherwise scrupulously clean habits of eating and living was that when maize was introduced to this country they preferred it in the form of kanga pirau (rotted corn) made by steeping it in water until it was “high.” Fish dried in the sun and smoked for winter supply was provided in enormous quantities. Tinihanga.

As writing was unknown to the Maori, he developed a phenomenal memory, which also applied to music. He soon became an expert with the Jew’s harp, and the tin whistle, the first of our musical instruments imported. In 1843 a Maori band played upon these tuneful instruments as a welcome to Governor Fitzroy, “The King of the Cannibal Islands.”

The Maoris heartily appreciated the report of Sydney Smith’s humorous farewell to Bishop Selwyn when leaving for New Zealand. That wit warned Selwyn that a cannibal Maori lawyer with “6/8” tattooed all over his face, was then in London. He also advised His Lordship to' keep a supply of cold pickled curate of roast clergyman on the sideboard; but if, in spite of this prudent provision, they preferred some fresh boiled bishop he sincerely hoped his Lordship would heartily disagree with them. ' Much use of this new form of humour was made by Maori w '. They were appreciative of all humour, and highly imitative. . When they appeared in the foie of amateur actors on the Pakeha stage it was impossible to confine them to the text, and their impromptu variations from classic plays were irresistible to any audience whose laughter could not be controlled. , Whenua.

When Sir George Grey pleaded with the rebel Maoris to permit the construction of roads through Native lands, their chief said, “The land is a living thing. Men are but mortal.” War followed, and the embargo continued for years. The claim of having purchased many hundred thousand acres for a few blankets, axes and beads by some of our religious leaders were happily disposed of a Royal Commission. The London Times said: “Among the honoured names of those who resisted the worldly temptation were Hadfield, Maunsell, Ashwell, Chapman, Morgan and Colenso.” Punch said: “Our early missionary land purchasers were, like the butcher’s dog, left to protect the basket. Finding he could not keep off'the pack of hungry ones he said, I may as well have a share tof the meat, so fell to it with a will." The Maori mana was inseparable from his ancestral lands, even more markedly than the hereditary titles of the British aristocracy from their castles, domains and deer forests. We may therefore imagine the fierce fervour with which the Maori defended this spiritual and material possession of his beloved Whenua against our incursion. A Sermon.

Under the beneficent rule of Sir George Grey the captured rebel Maoris who were sick or wounded were healed and nourished side by side with their Pakeha opponents, and returned to their people clothed and restored to health. In subsequent communications with the teachers, traders and missionaries who went. among them, they admitted that such treatment was so new and attrac-tive-an experience that it made more impression upon them than many long sermons. Whole tribes laid down their arms and refused to fight against those who had thus befriended their brothers. Gratitude is an outstanding characteristic of the Maori, but, strangely enough, is always unexpressed, lest its mana may be impaired. Next to that silent gratitude, the pioneer who treated the Maori as an equal found that their hospitality, fidelity and service covered all sins.

A thoughtful Maori declared to Bishop Redwood that it would be just as useless to preach the denial of a future life to a Pakeha congregation as to ask the Maori to abandon his fixed belief in the law of Utu. Only a Maori can realise the mind and spirit of the Maori. Tempered by his Christian teaching, and Maori tradition, Bishop Bennett’s practical methods may yet work miracles among his people.

Among the tramps who have passed through one provincial casual ward recently were a mining engineer who spoke eight languages, a man who had been sales, manager to a London firm, and an ex-civil servant unemployed through staff reductions.