MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 19 July 1934, Page 5

MAORI MEMORIES

(By J.H.S. for “The Daily Times.’’) TAMARIKI MAORIThe love for their children, if there, is shown quite in a different way to ours. They are treated with kindness and forbearance, and but rarely corrected. Mothers show none of that doting fondness toward their boys and girls, which are the dearest memories of our lives. Maori mothers do not use the many little arts of amusing their little ones which are a feature of our homes. Their boys and girls do not need it. From infancy they seem to have that quiet contentment which is a feature in the lives of their men and women. If not treated with such open affection, they are ever the objects of consideration.

Boys are the special care of their fathers, who talk with them as if they were men. In an assembly of Chiefs, children listen quietly, ask questions, and are answered as if they were grown up. The nature and the treatment of children make them independent and precocious, mentally and physically. Children of four years may be seen paddling and steering a canoe in their play skilfully. Little girls will coolly ask a stranger if he is hmarried, and if soh, how many wives, if not is he not longing for a mate? The regard for children seems to be due to the kindness of their own nature rather than to mother love. In the early days at Pipitea and Te Aro pahs, mothers were often seen fondling and suckling a puppy or a piglet with as much affection as shown to thenown children! Records of lineal descent Avere wonderfully preserved by memorising, though' rendered difficult by the trick of naming children after some feature or circumstance. Common names were thus Te Whero Whero (red one), Te Tangi (the crier), Kopu nui (swollen stomach), I te Ata (in the morning). Though universally healthy, they had few children, two was about the average. In such generous sunshine whero plant life multiplied, and flocks of sheep produced one-third more lambs than in any other country this is difficult to explain, especially when pioneers’ families were counted by the dozen.

The blend of the races, especially from selected partnerships, produced marvellous results in a progeny, whose mental and physical attainments were not equalled by any nation on earth. Petty prejudice alone thus prevented the developmet j of a. race of godlike men and angelic women.