Some Amusing Tales of the Maoris.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXV, Issue 13, 30 September 1905, Page 56

Some Amusing Tales of the Maoris.

(For Children.—From the Zealandia School Paper.) 1. Can you imagine what a boy would lie like who had never been outside his own yard? He would be very surprised when he first mixed with other children, and saw their lessons and games. The Maoris who lived in New Zealand when the white men first came here were just like such a boy. They had never been outside their own country, or far from their own pas or villages. Therefore, every new thing which was brought to them by the white men seemed to them very strange and wonderful indeed. 2. They were also like big boys and girls in this, that they always thought the new things which did not belong to them very much better than their own. And so their fingers itched for the white man’s things as soon as ever they saw them. 3. One of the first useful articles which the Maoris found that the white men had, and they themselves had not, was iron. To the natives of those times iron became what gold is to many foolish Europeans of to-day. They longed for it with a great longing, and they did not care much what they did to get it. Sometimes a ship would pass along the coast to fish for whales, and the Maoris would watch it eagerly, and wonder how much iron there was on board4. If the ship came to land, they would go right through their enemy's country, where there was great risk of being killed, in the hope of getting some of the much-loved iron. If they con'd not get it any other way, they would swarm on board the vessel, and slay all the crew. The captains of ships knew this, and. when they traded with the natives, nettings were put over the ships right up to the tops. Only five Maoris at the most were allowed on board at once, and all the sailors stood by with their knives and pistols ready in case of foul play. Afterwards the Maoris lost their love of iron, and wanted guns and powder, and, later still, they learned to like, tobacco and other luxuries of the white man. Now, if the natives were often very unfair in taking what did not belong to them, the Europeans fully made up for this by the way in which they sometimes cheated the Maoris. The natives. as we have seen, were very simple, ami some amusing stories are told of the way in which they were deceived. (>. One of the largest Maori pas in the South Island was that of Kaiapoi. The people of this pa had met white men, who sometimes came to Port Cooper in whaling ships or to get flax. Now, the people of Kaiapoi wanted very much to grow some tobacco for themselves, so that they could smoke as the sailors did. They told their wish to some traders, who promised for a large price to bring them some tobacco seed. 7. The traders, of course, knew of no place to get such seed from, and in any case tobacco will not grow well in New Zealand. So on their next visit they brought the simple Maoris a large

quantity of dock seed, which was planted and cultivated with great care. The Maoris did not know the difference, and doubtless they smoked the dock leaves, when these grew up, with great enjoyment8. Another time a Kaiapoi chief bought from some Europeans a large case of what he thought was a new kind of meat. A great crowd of his friends gathered round, eager to taste the new dainty, which they were sure must be very good. But as the supposed food had a very sharp taste, and all went to froth in their mouths, they wondered very much how the white men were able to swallow it. Many of them were made very sick, and they learned long afterwards that their new food was soap. 9. The only animals which the natives of North Canterbury had ever seen at this time were dogs and native rats. Great excitement was caused therefore when it became known one day that a certain chief had bought some new strange animals from the captain of a trailing ship. One day the pa was quite deserted, for it was known that this chief with his Strange purchase was only' a few miles off, and all the people, full of curiosity and excitement, had trooped out to meet him. 10. At length the chief appeared with two pigs driven before him, waddling from side to side and straining at. the flax ropes by which they were held.

Great was then the wonderment of the people of Kaiapoi. When the animals began to grunt they cried out, “Silent®, that we may listen to the voice of the pig.” And when they bad heard it, they exclaimed as with one voice, “Verily the voice and language of the pig are as strange as its appearance.”