WELLERS IN THE FOREST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10230, 12 August 1911, Page 12

WELLERS IN THE FOREST.

A HILL TRIBESMAN OF TUHOELAND. PAITINI AND HIS COTTAGE. (By J. DRUMMOND, F.L.S., F.Z.S.) At Pvuataliuna, in the heart of the Urewera Country, there stands a little cottage built partly of canvas and partly of rough planks and shingles hewn oat of trees that grew close by. It is small, old and weather-beaten. Rose-trees sprawl along the uneven fence, honeysuckle climbs up one of the walls, a weeping willow and two semi-tropical toi trees grow in front, and behind, further up the slopes of the mountain, tnere are apple, plum and peach trees. A road that has opened up the fastnesses of this wild country of the Tuhoe tribesmen runs in front of tne cottage. Parallel with the road, at the bottom of the immense gorge, the Hei-pipi day and night sings a gentle song as iu trips over stumps and bouldors on its way to the sea on the east coast, where it takes the name of the Whakatane River. The mountains rise up on all sides, but on the north there is a dip, through which the sun strikes the tfK-o and lights up the windows and the vcholo front. It is in the heart of the'densest forests of New Zealand, and occasional notes, in many Leys, show that Wie trees shelter species of native birds. Telegraph arid telephone poles do not run in the district-; newspapers do not circulate, in iu; time does not count; and xlie hills do not send back even tli-3 faintest echo Jjutyi of hustling civilisation. Ihe little cottage, in fact, is m one of the most romantic places _ in the_ wicte world; and in it Paitini and his_ who Margaret live the simple/it or simple lives, and pass their declining days in peace and happiness, in a world _ of their own. They have few needs, which are easiiv supplied. In the shooting season, PaiLim* slings his gun over his shoulder and gees out into the forests to shoot pigeons, which Margaret cooks to perfection. At other times of the year they catch the native trout—the palatable liokopu—in the stream, with nets made bv ivf.ar caret's own bonds, on the pattern handed down by honoured ancestors. There arc also taw a and liinau berries, mashed and mixed with honey, fern-root cake, flavoured with the *-juice of the tutu plant, squeezed out of the poisonous berries; potatoes, wild strawberries, and the ilesli of vegetarian pigs. The frost was cn the ground, and overv little pool was a sheet of thick ice when Paitini led me out cf his cottape, into his immense forests, one day a few weeks ago, to show me the old methods of snaring birds, taught him long before seventy years had bent his "shoulders and bleached his hair and moustache. He wore a blue flannel shirt, blue dungaree trousers, a red scarf around his waist, and a red flannel jersey showed up on his chest where the shirt had been thrown open at the neck. He kicked off his boots and planted them in a clump of tea-tree, with the remark, " Too heavy." Barefooted and bare-headed, he led the way into the darkness of the forest, following tracks invisible to any eyes except his own. He is a member of the Tuhoe people, who belong to a large number of forest-dwelling sub-tribes, well versed in the lore of the forests and of all the creatures they shelter. Civilisation has taken longer to seize

them than to seize any other section of the Maori race. Old customs are still treasured there, and old ideas are lingering in the minds of men and women who, in their younger days, believed that the white men could bt thrust back into the sea, and that New Zealand would be left in the hands of the Maori again. With Paitini, and, no doubt, with many other Tuhoe. tribesmen, Tano is still god of the forests, and all the trees., birds and insect:; are his children; Tangaroa is lord of the waters; Rangi and Papa are the heavens and the earth ; and Maui nearly succeeded in giving men immortality; and in Tuhoeland,- where the. ll ? and other atuas hold sway, it is advisable not to foolishly offend them by neglecting: nncient rites and practices. Paitini does not spr-ak the English language. His snirit is proud, and he belongs to a stiff-necked generation, and ncrhaps on that account he hns refused to relinquish the lano-nr"* taught to him in his childhood. In spite of a very seedy appenranee, and a humble residence, he likes to display his. independence and his contempt for many things that are loved by the white men whom he once hated and fought. Before we started on our tramp through the forest, he swept the sky-line with his hand and said. " All land; tonsands acre!" T asked this strange and picturesque overlord of thousands of the best broad acres in New Zealand why ho did not make some use of them. He said thai he would gladly sell them if the Government would allow him to do so, but as for using the land for cattle or sheep, or cultivating it. he was too old and too oontented with his lot to contemplate incurring responsibilities and worries of that description. When the mists began to creep down the - mountains and purplv shadows were cast on the distant slopes, and Tane's giant chi'dren assumed gaunt and unnatural shapes, we returned to the cottaee near the road., where Margaret had prepared a bush dinner of wood pigeon and potatoes, set out on a tiny table, covered with a snowwhite tablecloth. Margaret's kitchen is about ten feet by six. The fireplace occupies nearly one side of the room. For a few feet it is built up of clay and rubbfe. On the top of that there is a chimney of galvanised iron, with boards on the weather side. Chains, hanging from a heavy crossbar, support kettle and pots over the burning firewood., and on each side there are immense hobs. The other walls of the room are furnished with shelves and racks, containing rows of plates, cups and saucers. It is a compact little kitchen, and it is as scrupulously clean and tidy as if old Margaret kept a whole regiment of domestic helps to attend to her household work. Most of her cooking is done in that kitchen, with such modern appliances as bush life affords, but outside in a slab lean-to she has an oven designed on the "hangi" lines, adopted long before pots and pans were thought of in New Zealand, and there she usually cooks all her potatoes, steaming them on hot stones. After dinner, Paitini, Margaret and three little girls they have adopted gathered together in the. room allotted to the visitor. It is a box somewhat smaller than the kitchen, and is used as a bedroom and a sitting-room. It has an interest to all friends of the Maoris and all lovers of the forest on account of the fact that it was for some years the residence of Mr Elsdon Best, who wrote in it some cf his graphic and stirring notes on the tribesmen's forest lore. The furniture consists of a low bed, a small table, a stool, shelves, and matting on the floor. A great tawa * snarked in the spacious firepla nd fitfully lighted the room and the races of its occupants. Paitini, tired with his day's tramp up and down the forest-clad hills, reclined at full length, on the floor in front of the fire, and announced through the oldest girl, Himaema—in English. Jemima—a bright Maori maiden of sixteen, who has been well educated at St Joseph's Catholic College at Napier, and who is a very able interpreter, that he was ready.to tell stories of the .old days. When he was twentytwo years of age his sympathies were strongly with the Maori chiefs who raised the flag of rebellion, and he and eome other men from Tuhoe joined the Waik.itos under Rewi Maniopoto. Paitini was armed with a rifle, and as he had a steady aim and was active and courageous, he was welcomed as a valuable"''toa." His story of Rewi's defeat at the Orakau pa in April, 1864, where the chief shouted a defiant refusal to surrender, is brief and clear. " The soldiers," he said, " came up to the pa while the fortifications were being made and before the pa was ready. The Maoris beat them. The soldiers came again and the Maoris beat them again. In the night the soldiers came close up to the pa, but the Maoris could not see them. In the the soldiers dug under the ground, and one day the hole they dug almost reached the pa. They came up by the hole, but the Maoris killed them again. Then the soldiers brought up a great big gun, whfSi made a terrific noise. The Maoris could not stand ngainst it. So they left the pa, and all rushed out. I was running down tho hill to get away, when I was shot through the left leg. I saw two soldiers in front of me, and I shot them, and then fell to the ground. All the soldiers ran oil after the Maoris who were not shot. I crept into the raupo, and hid there. There were ten of us. The soldiers came back from chasing the Maoris, but went into the pa and did net see us. So we got away in the night, and three of us, Pomare, Horo and I, came back to Ruatalvuna, because the fighting was over and there was nothing more to bo done. That was the end of it." Four years later he had joined To Kooti's Hauhaus, and was again under arms against tho white men. He was present at the affair at Mchaka, near Napier, where Europeans and Maoris wore killed, but immediately afterwards he left the rebels and returned once more to Ruatahmia, to come forth a third time when the Tuhoes tried to stop the advance of tho soldiers at Tatalioa, where Margaret was also present. Paitini describes Rewi Maniopoto as a fine man. but his great hero, some people will be surprised to learn, was Te Kooti. " I was sorry for him and for the way lie. had been treated," ho said. "and that is why I joined him." Evidently a close personal friendship sprang up between tho two men. Europeans who saw T'e Kooti both before and after he escaped from the Chatham Islands describe him as an undersized, ugly, ill-favoured and insignificant man, with a mean presence and a demeanour that was not at all prepossessing. Both Paitini and Margaret, however, agree that he was an exceptionally tall man, and they say that ho was handsome, and was generous to his followers, hi a wooden trunk Paitini kc-eps a black cloth overcoat, given to him by hi.i chief, the only personal memento, it is stated. To Kooti ever rrave. The coat lias never been much worn. It seems to be quite new, and when Paitini put it on and buttoned it up it was clear that it had been made for a man of large proportions. Paitini insisted that Te Kooti was a good man, and wished to do something for the Maoris. After he escaped from the Chathams, Paitini added. To Kooti's intention was to mske his way to the Urewcra Country, and there live in peace amongst his people. Ho did not wish to fight or to seek revenge, and would not have created trouble if ho had been left alone. According to Paitini lie had two other names, Te Turuki and Rikirangi, and he was by nature, if not by birth, a real rangatira. "But enough of Jhis," the old man said, as ho folded up the coat and placed it in its box again, "we will now talk of other things," and he chanted in Maori several sayings and songs relating to birds. They were written in Maori bv his interpreter, at his dictation, and were afterwards translated for me by Mr Best. One is the song of tho parasitical shining

cuckoo and long-tailed cuckoo, which place their eggs in the nests of tho whitehead and 'other small native birds and leave them to hatch the young The words are: " 0 son, who sleepest there, awake and ariso 1 When strangers ask. 'Whoso child is this?' swift In your answer. ' I am the offspring of the shining cuckoo, of tho long-tailed cuckoo, left for the whitehead to cherish." Another song, in the form of a lament, wa<* composed by an old woman named Mihi-Ki-te-Kapna, when her children were scattered and she was left plo v :e and friendless. Into it she introduced a reference to the belief, still shared by Paitini, that the kiwi lays its eggs in holes under the roots of the tawai or fagus tiee, covers them with leaves, and allows them to hatch out, a process which takes so long that the roots sometimes grow pn largo that they block the entrance to iho hole. The o'd woman, in expressing the deep feelings of her heart, cnnmired her children to the black petrel, tho Maori titi, and herself to the Idwi's egg. " The wailing titi fiies or.ward and alights in pairs, but I. 0 bird, am like tho kiwi egg left under a tawai tree, which, when hatched, will be my only offspring." A favourite amusement of the ancient Maoris was to teach captive tuis to repeat sayinsrs, especially when visitors arrived at the settlements, the words " Welcome, welcome, O distinguished guest," being frequently used. Ha chanted several of these, and his intemrster repeated them in the soft and silvery tones noticeable in tho speech of the Tuhoe girls and women.

The old mail then announced that the time to sleep had come. He dismissed his womenfolk with a word and a wave of his hand. As they opened the cottage door to go to their own detached compartment, some twenty yards away, I heard them cry cut loudly to frighten off the evil spirits who still come about on dark night", in Tnhceland, and I heard them rim for their lives lest they should' bo caught. Paitini then took off his coat and made a pillow of it, wrapped himself in a fourfold blanket, curled up on the hard floor in front of tho fire, and soon snored loudly. On turning down the blankets on the bed I saw on a white pillow-case, don© r>os.tly 'ii ii?°' l ! n, .vork, tho words " B Moe Kia Kaha," an invitation to " Sleen Strongly," which was not wasted. My sound sleep was broken only once, shortly after midnight, when I awoke to find Paitini piling wood on the fi r e. The drawback to the ordinary fnv, he explained, mostly by signs, is that while it roasts one side of a man the other side might be quite frozen, and he suggested that it would be a good tb'ng to have a fire " hich would keep both sides warm at the same time. He had hardly concluded this wise remark before he was fast asleep again.