A MAORI EEL FARM.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13489, 10 January 1908, Page 7

A MAORI EEL FARM.

liorderlng the railway, to the 1101 th of Utorohaiiga. .says the Auckland "Herald," is +lj ■ Kn wa Swamp, of about 3000 acres, nioiv' ur'less. Mr Wal.-li has leased from the Maoris a block of SCOO acres, and other 011 wcrs hold 30CO acres. A drainage board is being formed, and active operations would have been commenced some time ago, but for a curious difficulty. The Maoris were willing enough to lease the swamp, hut when it came to draining, it was found that they held the outlet as au eel fishing ground, and refused the lessees permission to carry a ditch through their ground unless compensation was paid. The area of ground at the swamp outlet is übout 15 arcers, and tlie Maoris demanded, it is said, £SOOO for this small section, but a compromise 'is being arrived, at, which puts the value at about £IOOO. This seems a lot of money for 15 acres of unimproved land, and it might appear as if the Maori owners had got a squeeze on the pakeha, but in fairness to the Maori it should be said that the outlet of the Kawa Swamp lias for many generations been a source of revenue because of the enormous quantities of eels caught there. llhe old owners of this outlet had lines of fisli wt ; iirs erected, so as to catch the eels as they migrated from the swamp at the beginning of summer. This migration usually took place during the Christmas rains, and was due, no doubt, to" the habit of these creatures going annually to the esa. Mr J. Ormsby, of Otorolianga, who possess a wide knowledge of Maori loie, states that Kawa eels were traded among the coastal natives for sea fisli, and among the inland tribes for preserved pigeons, or other food material. The Maoris' had several methods of preserving these eels; the sunniest one was to keep them alive. This was done by placing them, when caught, in large woven baskets sunk in the water. Thus they were available at any tiime. There were two methods of drying eels, the tuna kope and the tuna kawii. When the eels were coming down from the swamp in shoals, it was impossible to deal with them day by day, so relays of men were told off to deal with the weir baskets. These were regularly emptied night and day, and the livecontents placed in dry pits. Under the tuna kope method, the eels, when dead, were spitted on still' fern stems, and in this form were leaned in great rows against manuka bais; a long fire was made between the rows, and the embers were gradually raked close to the fish, which were slowly grilled, and turned in the grilling by the flax stem. The fish were exposed to the fire until the fat came to the surface of their bodies, and then they were cooled off, and stored away in some dry places. In the tuna kawaii method the eels were lashed together by the head between two sticks; :i long fire was made, and then covered with green scrub, and the bundles of eels were placed on the scrub and submitted for a time to smoke and steam and heat. When the green scrub caught .fire the eels were singed, and then taken away to ba hung in rows under the thatch of openuided sheds. These bundles of dried eels really represented money, and formed a well-recognised currency, which could buy almost anything. The possessors of such an eel fishery as that at the Kawa outlet were looked upon as rich, for they had a regular and large income. It amounted to thousands of ' pounds (of eels) yearly, so no wonder a big value is put on that 15 acres which forms their patuna ground. Of course, in these days, the eel currency has depreciated considerably, still, even now, dried eels are marketable, and a fat pair, threaded on fern stems and cooked in their wrapper of tender raurekau leaves, is a delicacy to win the heart, of a rival chief. Tlie Kawa swamp will be drained, and will in quite a short time yield a big crop of flax, worth, of course, many thousands of pounds more than the eel fisheries ever yielded. And when flax-grow-ing ceases the land iio doubt: will be turned dairy farms.