MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 21 January 1933, Page 4

MAORI MEMORIES

(By J. 11. S. for “The Daily Times'") KIEKIE. In the course of a conversation with a Palmerston North resident who knows her language, a Maori lady fromAwahuri said:—“l cannot understand why your pakeha gardeners do not cultivate our native Kiekie in your public or private parks. The Maori cannot do it, because for a. thousand years he did not need to he a cultivator; everything he wanted grew without his help.” The wisdom, of the suggestion is surely beyond question. The edible flower of this unique plant has not been seen in recent years by one person in a thousand, yet it grows in damp situations among the native bush within ten miles of several cities, and is easily grown in a sheltered position. There is said to be nothing resembling its “fruit flower” in any other part of the world. Both petal and stamen are edible, and ripen in seasons six months apart. Cultivated in one garden, the Kiekie would be an attractive edible novelty. Its long narrow leaf has a fibre of great tensile strength and lasting qual-* itv far beyond that of'flax. Split in slips an eighth of an inch wide and three feet long, the Maori bleached it and plaited hats for sale to the Pakeha. They were, shapely, light and durable. These potae kiekie lasted for ten years or more.

The flowers or fruit attracted birds and rats, but the Maori and Pakeha children protected it by tying the long surrounding leaves tightly over it when green.