MAORI MEMORIES

Taranaki Daily News, 23 March 1935, Page 13 (Supplement)

MAORI MEMORIES

THE SIGN OF THE CROSS

(By

J.H.S.

.—Copyright).

The very ideas which belong to the contracts for transfer of land as private properly had been unknown to the Natives until 1814, when Mr. Marsden, innocently desirous of obtaining a site for the first missionary establishment according to the forms of European law, carried with him a technical deed of “feeffment” prepared by a Sydney lawyer. This instrument, when blanks for place names were filled in, was signed by the marks of certain chiefs in return for a trifling payment. This form became the model of a vast number of contracts for the sale of land to Europeans, into which Natives were induced to enter by the many whites who straggled in from Australia, from French, American and British ships, and even from England. Though the Natives were unconscious of the purport of the deeds which they executed, because they had not even conceived the idea of private property in land according to European nations, they nevertheless set great value upon the goods handed to them for simply putting a mark on the paper. This mode of acquiring land from innocent savages is now well known as “land sharking” a name that implies preying on the weakness of childish ignorance. Of these novel and highly valued commodities, muskets and gunpowder formed the principal items. During the residence of Hongi and Waikato in England their attention was steadily though secretly directed to the acquisition of firearms. Hongi no sooner returned , home with Mr. Kendal than he threw aside his mask of Christian meekness, armed his own tribe and their allies with the deadly weapons he had received as presents in England, and those they had exchanged for a “cross” here.

The wave of destruction to which Hongi’s muskets gave the first impulse passed over New Zealand for at least 700 miles. The Maori population of the North Island was thinned and scattered, and that of the South Island, excepting a miserable remnant, ruthlessly destroyed. Old Statistics.

In the year 1846, less than a century ago, among the districts being opened up by pioneers some thriving places were described in old letters. Karopi was shown on the map as having 24 sections of 100 acres each with stock numbering about 50 cows. A thriving industry was fbat of pit-sawing, building timber and cutting firewood which was conveyed to Wellington by one team of four bullocks.

Buildings were clustered near the residence of Chief Justice H. S. Chapman, whose good example of daily work was an incentive to gardening and other industries. It was. remarked that the struggle for existence contributed so greatly to health that among the whole population of 200 whites and innumerable Maoris there were no deaths during the year. The land was being resold in allotments of one acre >or more at the “very high price of £4O per acre.” Access by Tina Kore Valley was a mere mud track. The name of this locality is popularly supposed to have been given by a Maori worker on the road who had lost his kit, saying in broken English “No dinner;” but Mr. Duncan Fraser who arrived there in 1840 was told by the Chief Whare Pour! (house of mourning) that Tina Kore meant “without fear.”

Wairarapa statistics were minutely recorded, showing that 59 men, 14 women and 19 children occupied 18 whares and owned 73 horses, 1360 cattle and 13,000 sheep, with a total of 25 acres under cultivation. Maoris were employed as shepherds and domestics, all of them proving faithful and satisfactory. Great bodies of Maoris were in villages throughout the districts, and gave no trouble until some dishonest pakeha shamefully imposed upon them. Among these hardy pioneers whose names are still well known and honoured are Morrison, Bidwell, Clifford, Gillies, McMaster, Drummond, Fitzherbert, Russell, Pharazyn, Barton and others. The population of Kapiti Island was numerous then, several hundred whalers and as many thousand Maoris living in friendship together. Over 100 head of wild cattle roamed its mountain length of ten miles. What a boon their fresh meat was to the Maori men who had abandoned cannibalism, and to the women who had never been permitted to taste flesh! Hopu Tohora.

Maoris; bred and bom to generations of canoe builders and deep sea fishermen; were invaluable members of the whaleboat crews. Fearless and resourceful, inured to hardship and danger, they were sought by every whaler captain. Even to the men, whose years of experience in Arctic regions made them most successful, the silent example of these instinctive fishermen was a revelation of skill and ■ daring. So intrepid and unobtrusive was their bearing and their success that our most experienced oarsmen and harpooners naturally gave way to them without a thought of jealousy. Soon they learned from old whalers the various species and their relative values. Aided by unspoiled eyesight, at a mile or more they instantly named each whale as it came to the surface, sperm, humpback, fin back, pike head, large lip and right whale. Whaling was the most exciting, adventurous and dangerous, but no doubt the most profitable sport in the world. A boat’s crew of eight has been known to nett £lOOO in a week—and to “blow it out” hi a night. The hero of the boat’s crew was, of course, the harpooner, who was named the headsman. Because of his success this position was frequently yielded to the Maori. In other cases the steersman threw the barbed dart- On meeting two whalers one may say “I heads the Kangaroo,” and the other “I steers the Big George.” The average whale boat was 30 feet long, higher at. the sharp-nosed head and stern, standing well out of the water. The stern was planked level with the gunwale six feet forward. In its centre was an upright round block six inches through, used for checking the whale line. This" was known as the “loggerhead” or hence these opprobrious names applied by us to the dull scholar. In the bow decking was a hole for the harpooners leg to steady him when striking. The harpoon was a heavily barbed iron spear with a five-foot wooden handle attached to a strong light line 500 yards tong stowed in a tub amidships. Over this tub sat a trusty lad with a sharp hatchet to seyet the line in all emergency. Woe betide him and the crew if he missed a stroke—the boat and they would be full 40 fathoms deep before they gasped for on? tong breath.