TE HAKARI.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13288, 17 May 1907, Page 7

TE HAKARI.

QUAINT .MAORI C'KItEMONY.

Only two Europeans were, present, at ii curious Maori ceremony which wound up t-ha proceedings in connection with the iuneral of the la.e -'prophet" Tolm at Parihaka. • One of them, who happened to visit Paiihaka by accident on the clay of the ceremony, gave a long account of it. anonymously, to the " Taranaki Herald.", lie says that, lie was a. stranger tin re, and did not understand Maori, yet he was verv kindly received and hospitably entertained. *A .stalwart" Maori, to uhom h-j spok;;. told him that ho was very lucky to have colrift that day. for a ven- interesting function was .to take place in "the afternoon.' The Maori, " whose clean shaven face be.okened leadership," took charge of the visitor, though a vi:itor himself, and a young fellow housed hiss bicycle for fear that "the boys would 1 id? the tail of it." Tliey seated themselves on the verandah of a- large house, and a wahine invited both in'to.-dinner: They sat for sometime chatting as well as they could with the pakeha in the " parlour," and then passed into a large kitchen living room to dinner. Here was a. longtable spread with a white, cloth, and dishes quite in European style, and the diners sat on bentwood chaii-s. There was an' abundance, of well-cooked food, quite a European dinner of boiled beef and three vege able< in tureens, and-a choice of beer and tea as beverages. The only .un-Eur-opean thing about the dinner .was that. the beer was •.placed on the-table in a billy, and those who preferred beer dipped' th?ir into the- billy. , The ceremony of the afternoon was the. presentation of git'.s by the family of Tolm, and the tribes who had vi-ited Parihaka for the tangi over Tohu. In a veiy cheerful mood —" all the same your Klissmas"—about 2200 peoi>le assembled m the square after early dinner ("all the same te race day'.' it- was explained), and waited there, -a" Maori, band from Patea enlivening the proce?dings, while parties of young men fetched from Tohu's housefour 10ft tables. These were placed' together and covered with damask table cloths, and then a procession of young men and women came from the house "club-swinging" bottles of whisky, and these. 240 of them, were carefully arranged like o. regiment of volunteers on the tables. Others rolled down four barrels of beer., and distinct parties brought along loads of wax vestas and tobacco —"large quantities of it;*—in cases. The cases weie opened and the contents unpacked and stacked on the tables. A big clothed horse had been put up of poles and scantling, and this was loaded with clothes of " all soits: shirts, coats. dungarees, shawls, pieces of print and flannel, and a, bolt of pink' flannel was festooned about the whole. The last of the gift-bearing parties consisted of two men and twenty women. Eleven of the women wore handsome Maori mats, which were stated to be worth £SO -.each, and the two men carried a .supplejack split at one end. and in the split was inserted a roll ; of bank notes of unascertained value. These were the most valuable presents and the bearers were most respectfully received. They walked round the tables several times and laid the.nioneyon the mats, upon the pile of stuff already made. Then began the speech'' making 'the offering of the presentto the chiefs of the visiting tribes ;>r-l the speeches of thanks. The narrator v:ifortunately had. to leave before the speechmaking ended, therefore he missed seeing the process of distributing, the gifts. The Tolm family had! clone their part; it was for the recipients to settle among themselves', how much or what each of them was entitlel to '