The Types of the People.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVI, Issue XXV, 22 June 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

The Types of the People.

in this great marae are a deeply interesting study. Every tribe, from the Aopouri in the Far North to the Ngaitahu who dwell in the cold “waipounamu,” are here, and the differences in the facial and physical types would give much food for speculation to an ethnologist. The wiry, alert-looking Ngatiporou from the East Cape stand up to haka side by side with the big, jolly-faced, but somewhat soft-looking Ngatikahungunu sheep-owncra from Hawke's

Bay and the Wairarapa, and the quick-eyed, small-built men of the Whanganui River exchange laughing salutations with their old Hauhau enemies from Opotiki and Whakatane, the active dancers of Whakatohea and Ngatiawa. One of these Whanganuis has an almost Mongo? -lian cast of eountepa<**v- Here aM< one eatenes a glimpse of a trtfe J44kisb type of nose; that tall, curly- ' haired man with the Semitic cast of countenance is a Ngaiterangi from down Tauranga way. A curious type is the “urukehu,” or fair-haired, pureblooded Maori; the reddish tinge in the luxuriant tresses of the “urukehu” women is a relic of a very ancient aboriginal strain, whose source is lost in mystery. When it conies to “action front,” and the men strip for the dances of rehearsal for the Duke, or for the daily welcomes to visitors, one sees what fine physique the Maori race can show. The Whanganui and Ngatiapa inen are on the small side, but exceedingly well-de-veloped, and as active as deer; the Ngatikahungunu on the other hand are more dignified and slow in their movements, but show magnificent torsos. Maori women do not display so much of their charms as do their cousins, the belles of the South Sea ■lslands; so we must confine ourselves to the faces, which are even more varied in their local distinctiveness than the men’s. Some faces (especially those of the young half-caste girls) are as finely moulded as those of the high-born “taupos” of Samoa; others have the. flat nose and thick lips inclining to the Papuan. Some real beauties there are amongst the. younger girls; large-eyed, oval-faced creatures, with their shawls draped round their heads like pictures of Spanish ladies in their mantillas, but all, young and old, swinging along with that peculiar swaggering roll of the hips which is characteristic of the wahine Maori—born perhaps of generations of training in .the movements of the haka. The ladies of rank bear themselves like duchesses, conscious of their long ancestral lines, and they sail majestically along with something like haughty scorn expressed in the curl of their liberal lips and the tilt of their blue tattooed chins. Many of the highest chiefs in the land are here. There is the young Te Heuheu, high-chieftain of the Lake Taupo people, a handsome, wellbuilt man of thirty-five, whose flashing eye and proud bearing proclaim him a “tino rangatira.” a chief indeed. Te Heuheu is an excellent type of the best men of the modern Maori; intelligent, educated, and combining with his European knowledge a deep pride in his noble pedigree and the records of his illustrious ancestors. For the Heuheu can rehearse his genealogical table back forty generations—a thousand years—away into the hazy mists of the past, when his “tupunas” dwelt in the warm summer isles of the Great Ocean of Kiwa. He has demi-gods on his family tree; he has even a family guardian-atua, or god, by name Rongomai. whose outward form is that of a shootingstar. The proverb of his tribe, the Ngatituwharetoa. has it: “Rongomai is the God; Te Heuheu is the Man.” And again, in the symbolical phraseology of the Lake men: “Tongariro is the Mountain: Taupo is the Sea; Te Heuheu is the Man.” These highsounding sayings were applied to Heuheu’s famous grandfather, Te Heuheu the Great, who was a maneating warrior of dread renown, who figures in Angas’ rare sketches secured nearly sixty years ago, and who perished with fifty of his tribe in the landslip at Te Rapa, Taupo, in 1846. Amongst the other prominent chiefs one sees here in the broad camp-square are A. T. Ngata, Rev. Mohi Turei, R. Kohere, and Te lloukainau, of the East Cape district’; Taouui and Eketone, from the Rohepotae, once the “King Country”; Ru Reweti, a descendant of the famous Northern chief Pomare (with his dis-tinguished-looking wife, Victoria Kemp); old Topia Turon, from Whanganui; Pene Taui, from Kaikohe, in the Far North; the veteran Ruatarn. a son of the celebrated and benevolent man of that name, uuder whose

protection the first New Zealand mi*■ionary, the Rev. Mr Maradeu, planted his misaiou station at the Bay of ]>■ lauds in 1814; burly and prosperouelooking Aporo te Kumeroa, Tamahaw Mahupuku, and other big men of the Wairarapa; old Hori Ngatal, from the Tauranga side, and many another! < man of rank with pedigrees which gq into the dark ages. ;