WITH TAWHAIO AND THE KINGITES.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 218, 20 August 1878, Page 3

WITH TAWHAIO AND THE KINGITES.

(Continued from No. 212.)

We paid a visit to Tamati Ngapara, rfather-in-law to Tawhaio. On arriving •at the whare, we appreciated the diffi--culties that attended our entrance. This ;fine old chief maintains old customs, so far as the pattern of his doorway is concerned ; to see him, therefore, we had to ■crawl through the entrance on hands and knees. The house was unpleasantly, "most unwholesomely warm, the heat thereof being carefully maintained by small heaps of hot embers, collected near th_ entry. When one's eyes had become accustomed to the dimness of the murky interior, we saw the venerable chief sitting close to the wall, in company with several other old men, their fine faces tattooed in the most elaborate manner. "This council of sages, most gravely polite in demeanour, seemed pleased with the visit; when any man spoke, it was in low tones. After a few civilities had been exchanged, we gladly retired, owing to the almost unbearable heat. We paid several other visits to family groups ; when there happened to be present any very venerable persons, Sir George Grey took advantage of the opportunity, and made careful enquiries as to their knowledge of the Moa. None professed to have seen it; some stated that in their youth they had heard old people speak of it as a living thing ;■ one ancient man could hand down the locality •of its haunts, namely Turunga, in Poverty Bay—not to be confounded with Tauranga, farther to the North. As we returned to our tents, we passed numbers of families camped amongst the fallen trees of the clearing. One old -dame's salutation was outspoken, " Ten a koe Kcrei, tena koe, thou who drove us to the hilltops." Towards the top of the village is the monument to Ta Kerci te rau, surrounded with a neat fence ; this liberalminded native endowed a school in the Waikato with a thousand acres, of land, he was amongst the number of those ■chiefs who lost the whole of their posses•sions by the Waikato' confiscation. His widow was often seated beside the grave, wearing a mourning -head-dress, like a •close-fitting or skull-cap, made from the bases of leaves of a sedge plant, dyed black. Everywhere one notices the enormous waste of food which takes place day after day, it would be held as contrary to the canons of good manners were it •otherwise. Etiquette requires a lavish, a super-abundant supply on the occasions of ceremony, such as these days of great meetings, however threatening may be the aspect of the after consequences of such prodigality. In the -clearing below the broad terrace, some fifteen feet beneath our tents, is a tai--kawa, on which is thrown the unused food from the kauta of our little camp, together with the empty kie-kie baskets. There, may be seen plethoric pigs, breathing stentorously, till, after a prolonged doze, the appetite of some vigorous individual may be so far whetted, as to enable it to toy with a potato, before it again' sinks to peaceful slumber. Tawhaio's police are ever vigilant. For the first day or so, if one strolled in the hush, there was a young fellow near at hand to look after you ; in the night, he himself visited the sentries placed at the barriers of the terrace, to see that his men were on duty. Everything is done quietly, without noise or hubbub; the good discipline maintained at Hikurangi is most remarkable, no drinking or quarrelling, everything is conducted in the most good humored manner. Whilst one saw so much in the habits of these people that Was commendable, it was unfair to pass over without mention, the carelessness and want of attention to certain details in sanitary matters ; from the absence of any provision for cloacine arrangements, the immediate neighborhood of this large camp became very offensive, and contrasted most unfavorably with European ideas on the subject of cleanliness. Children, generally speaking, are but thinly clad, yet are most kindly treated. Out of the hundreds present, we never saw one punished, slapped, or beaten ; a women might be heard saying to her unruly offspring " If you don't take care, I shall have to speak to you again." Maoris are early risers, children running about soon after dawn, usually ■with something to eat in their hands ;

girls and boys here take their share of childish sports, they may be seen skipping, playing at dibs with small potatoes instead of knuckle bones, shooting with popguns made from the wood of the tutu (coriarea) ti cmi, the swing on the branch was a never failing source of amusement; in the clearing below our tents lay a huge rata tree, with forked top, one of the limbs stretching out afar made an excellent-swing, it was occupied by clusters of children throughout the day, they seemed not to weary of swinging the end of the long branch for the pleasure of their playmates, then taking their swing in turn. Boys and young men, besides the more athletic sports, indulged in games of dexterity—such as throwing at a small bit of stick fixed in a potato, the missiles used were of dried supplejack in pieces of about fifteen inches in length ; a successful throw called forth loud acclamations from the line of onlookers. In another game on level ground, a small square of about eighteen inches was marked out, the centre divided into three compartments, the player stood about five yards from the square, and tried to pitch a match into one of the compartments, each of which bore a certain value, payable in matches to a sucessful player. Sparring, wrestling, standing or running long or high jumps, were amongst the favorite athletics. The high jumping was especially good. But all these pastimes had to yield the palm to the hop-step-and-jump, which seemed to be constantly practised. Within the camp you could count twenty groups where this game was being blayed; it excited a very lively interest amongst the spectators. After food to-day the great Korero commenced ; at the sound of the pahu a great proportion of the inmates of the camp began to move towards Hikurangi, each with a handful of bracken for a -seat. Soon the space in front of Hikurangi was crowded with an expectant audience seated in due order according to their respective hapus. It was said that some four thousand people were present, but the number was probably over-estimated. I saw but one lame and one deformed person amongst this gathering. It is very easy to observe that among the Kingite chiefs very different notions prevail regarding dress ; Whitiora and Te Ngakau may be cited as furnishing types of those who put theii trust in a Spartan simplicity of costume ; these influential chiefs are evidently above petty considerations of mere personal appearance ; their, clothes ars of the dingiest and most shabby character. On the other hand, Tawhaio and his very handsome son Tv Tawhaio are always dressed in a neat, even gentlemanly, style, usually a dark suit of serge or tweed surmounted with a broad-leafed hat. Patara Tc Tuhi, well clad, follows the earlier customs with regard to head gear, as on state occasions he wears a

headdress composed of the skins of the much-prized huia. A few, very few, headdresses were made of kiwi feathers ; one ancient woman bore on her head black plumes of the male ostrich. Huia feathers seemed greatly prized as ornaments for the hair, many of the old people of both sexes wearing them. Ear-ornaments, kahurangi mako, gannet feathers, were most usually worn ; rarer the ornament was a tuft of huai feathers. Blankets, ngeris, shawls, mats of dressed flax, robes of piupiu, korowai, or of dogskin, contributed a great variety of costume. In looking round the meeting, one could not but be struck with the English look of the half-castes, most of them big, stalwart, people, that one might imagine bore close resemblance to the finely grown offspring of the mutineers of the Bounty. Of the pure natives, one remarks their prodigious muscular development, both in body and limb ; Raimat te Whakaete (the chief with the whalebone mere mere always handy) permitted me to measure his chest, which gave a girth of forty-five inches as he was sitting down ; had he been stending erect, even this measurement would probably have been exceeded. The swell of the leg is very large compared with that of Europeans ; their lower limbs are short in proportion to their bodies, in some individuals this peculiarity is remarkable. From amongst the gathering it would have been an easy matter to have collected quite a crowd of men six feet and upwards in height The hongi, a method of salutation by rubbing noses together we saw frequently peformed ; this ceremonious greeting lasts but a short time, and is gone through with the most serious demeanour (To be continued.)