MAORI MEMORIES.

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18930, 27 April 1933, Page 3

MAORI MEMORIES.

INTERESTING VIGNETTES. (Recorded by “J.H.S.**) PATAKA’S LONE "CHARGE.” Evidence of the rapid civilisation of the Maori Is given in the fact that not more than one in a thousand men Sr women of this generation has submitted to the art of Moko, or'vhi we know as tattoo. Of the fine la i «f the Maori contingtenta one only wae persuaded to undergo the painful operation. His father, a zealous Tohunga, Impressed him with the belief of his ancestors that the gross horror of the protruding tongue on his ohest would strike terror Into the enemy and oonfer uppn him the protection of Tapu. Thus equipped by hie anoestral fatalism and the enemy’s fear. Horl Pataka was brave u any man of a million fighters. Equally with our men, the Maori soldiers are discreetly silent concerning the unspeakable scenes whicn ■will mar their thought to the bitter end of life- Pataka was no exception to the rule; he never told his experiences. But his companion, under the balmy Influence of wine, gave us one episode whioh his nine companions said should have earned him a V.C. After a disaster Sergeant Pataka was detailed, with other shovellers, to dear an abandoned trenoh. So feverishly did they work in the gloom that an enemy company surprised them by way of a cross trenoh. Stripped to the waist, the tattooed ladthundered a command in guttural Maori, ending .with a hoarse, "Charge I” from which the Germans fled In terror.