NOTICES AND ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Waka Maori, Volume 10, Issue 9, 5 May 1874, Page 105

NOTICES AND ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Subscriptions received:- £ s. d. From R.W. Woon, Esq., Whanganui, for 1874. —Reihana Terekuku, of Kai Iwi, and Anaru Patapu, of Koriniti (both No. 8), Poari Wharehuia, Haribona, Te Koroneho, IhakaTe Iringa, Hakaraia Koi-ako, Tabana Turoa, Topia Turoa, and Wirihana Puna, all of Whanganui 5 0 0 „ From lE. W. Bishop, Esq., of Native Hostelry, for Wiremu Kingi Tutepakihirangi, of Wairarapa (No. 8.) 010 0 ~ Tamibana Aperahama, of Kaipara, Auckland 0 10 0 £6 0 0

"We beg to inform the undermentioned parties, of the Whanganui District, that their names have been struck off our list of subscribers, they having refused to pay their subscriptions as promised, namely:—Te Watene of Ngatiapa, Paurini Te Bangiwhakaruru, Eihari "VVunu of Ngarauru, Hohepa Poke, Puketehe Te Raeke, and Mahirini of Tapapa, Upper Whanganui. Of all our numerous subscribers in the Whanganui district, the above-named are the only defaulters ; every one of the others have honourably paid their subscriptions as regularly as the Pakehas do for their newspapers. There are others also, in other districts, whose names we purpose to expunge from our list if they do not fulfil their engagements. "We take this opportunity of expressing our appreciation of the active assistance B. W. Woon, Esq., R.M. at Wanganui, has rendered in promoting the circulation of the WaJca amongst the Natives in his district. Te Wehi, a Maori watchmaker, - residing at "Waikouaiti, Otago, thinks it a great pity that so much good land in New Zealand should lie waste, producing nothing but scrub and weeds, when there are so many Pakehas able to turn it to account, and make it produce food for man and beast. He thinks the Natives should allow their waste lands to pass into the hands of the Pakeha, the people whose money and active industrious habits would enable them to make good use of it. He says, "What great work can the Maoris accomplish? None whatever. All they can do is to hold on to the land, make a great fuss and talk about it, and do nothing. This is a very unsatisfactory state of things. They are not even able to make use of the reserves returned to them by the Government. The quantity of land cultivated by a Maori in a year

is very small indeed in comparison with that of a Pakeha.' He urges these facts upon the consideration of his own tribe at Taranaki—the Ngatiruanui and others. He says, "No tribes enjoyed more advantages than the Taranaki people did in times past ; they had numbers of cattle, and horses, and pigs; they had carts, ploughs, and other agricultural implements ; they had cultivations of wheat, and they had flour mills, and money was becoming abundant among them. But they were not satisfied, and, by engaging in war, they lost everything; and now they have to go back to the beginning and make a fresh start. Will they succeed, or not ? It is doubtful, because the (Native) race is dwindling away." Te Wehi then launches out into a panegyric on the Ngaitahu, the South Island Natives. "They are very industrious and prosperous; they have numbers of sheep, cattle, and horses; abundance of wheat, oats, and barley ; they are skilful shearers, they can shear 120 sheep per man in a day ; and they do not drink rum ; they ar9 a fine race ; their women are all pretty, and their children healthy. If they advance in the future as they have done in the past, they will become a great people, and worthy to take a position by the side of the Pakehas." Hare Takerei Kapara informs us that the Rev. Mr. Grace has visited the Native contingent at Te Niho-o-te-Kiore, and conducted Divine Service there. He expresses his pleasure at this, and hopes they may not be neglected in future by the Ministers of the Gospel, as, before the arrival of Mr. G-race, they had not heard the Word of God preached for a long time. We have received Hamiora's letter expressing his gratification at the visit of His Excellency the Governor to Tauranga, and his expression of good will towards the Native people residing in that district. _ Henare Kingi Tipuaki, of Torere, Opotiki, says three women died in one day at that place last March, and that parties coming to cry and lament over the dead poured into the settlement day after day, in such numbers that they eat up all the pigs and everything eatable in the place. The inhabitants got deeply into the Pakeha's books for grog wherewith to supply the visitors; and after the ceremonies were over and the visitors gone, they grumbled about the consumption of their stores of food, and wondered how they could pay the Pakeha for his grog. Henare thinks this system of visitors coming in numbers to lament over the dead should be abolished, that none but the immediate relations of the dead person should attend, and he asks us to denounce the system in the WaJca. We have before written on this subject, and what more can we say ? It is an old Native custom which, in due time, will disappear, like other old customs. When the people become more enlightened, and better understand the value of money and property, they will not be so ready to throw it away upon parties whose desire to fill their bellies is greater than their grief for the departed. The motto of such persons is, " The more deaths the more feasts." The subscriptions of Apiata Te Hame and Kerehona Piwaka, of Whangara, Poverty Bay, were acknowledged in the WaJca of 7th April, and papers from No. 5 were duly posted, to their address as given by Mr. Wallace. Hare Takerei Kapara, of te Niho-o-te-Kiore, Taupo, complains of the practice of Maori women taking Pakeha partners. He is in doubt whether the parents or their daughters are most to blame, but he is inclined to think the parents are most deserving of censure. The Pakehas, he says, never enter into a connection of this sort with an intention of continuing it; they merely take the Maori women for a time, and the end is desertion. It matters not if there be children; they are deserted, together with the mother. He protests especially against the custom of allowing girls of tender age to enter into connections of this sort, and he says the conduct both of the parents and the Pakeha in such cases is reprehensible in the extreme.