PAKEHA AND MAORI.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14836, 29 November 1913, Page 4

PAKEHA AND MAORI.

REMINISCENCES OF THE EARLY DAYS.

(Bγ W. 8., Tk KrxnJ

Should readers ask for dates and names of persons and places, they ask for what is their due. But look you: were this rule strictly exacted, the historian might lay down his pen; for much nay often tho best, is as a byroad tho lord of the demesne wishes to reserve for a privacy the public shall not trespass upon. It may peer through a of ficticities he permits the historian* to plant, but though there the privilege ends, the byroad retains its form and grade, up and down which the lord and his company walk and talk undisturbed. Yet here and there between branch-loop and leafless spaces, by voice and familiar motion, thoso who know will recognise the persons described in this narrative, and forbear with mc. *'¥es, young man, I was asnamea; bat age and experience assuage asperities that seem to youth time never will abrade. My name is May Tuina Priestly—Tuma is Maori for odd numbers, and because I was a third child, my native nurse suggested the name, and mother consenting, it was giveu mc Our father wa3 a clerk in a London India House, and to shield his youngest brother's theft of £10, took the charge upon niniseif and was transported to Van Dieinen s Land, from whore, after a two years' servitude, ho escaped to Hokiauga, and that happened which 1 must relate as suits best my meuiorx-" Thus far our converse was question and answer, for Tuma was given to trailing tender threads on winding paths and loitering over disentangles &re the skirt of memory . brueued aaainst this bush and that ot incident, KS through all, having the impress of a cyclopedic knowkxigo and quaint pith 3 speech surprising in one so aged End circumstanced. And because J search for evidence in support ot my contention that the Maori, whatever to his own race ho migat bo, to tno paiveha was just what the pakeiia was to him, reminded mo of this seventy years aged lady and her narrative, collated from notes made 45 years ago, is hero set ° U(t mother came across from Sydney as companion to the captains wite. For the company in wnose employ he sailed was formed but not established— the cantain was commissioned to establish i£-end to that end brought axemen, and tools, and trade goods and set hands to cutting spars; the natives with a right good heart helping for little pay or none, proud to have white men trust and dwell with them *or only sealers and whalers, and such like, in sparse spots, were known till then. Terribly tatooed warriors the Maoris seemed. Not that I thought totoo disfigured this, to us, jovial and genial race. A chief in head-dross, robe <n state, erect, spear in hand, and finely tatooed face, impressed one that hero stood a Man, distinguished — imperial; and though 'in a class apart, the equal of the chevroncd, laced, and frogged lordling, who, without this decorative brilliance, appeared but a sorry parody. Wo saw tatooed white men, which added nothing to their manhood, but rather emphasised a degradation too prominent to be disguised by a facial ornature meant to wed grace to dignity! „„ "One day, a man of, say, 30, spruce and cleanly, asked "for work. As the Gaptain wanted white workers with lqoal -experience, he was engaged. At thitHime only an ignorance of current etiquette, even after extended comradeship, asked, or led up to questions that invited information as to a person s past, if he did not choose to tell. Even volunteered avowals failed to satisry unless face and manner supplied affirmative collaterals. For no one expected to be told the truth. Tho roving class met in these seas: why were they here, if. not to nurse a sore unfit for decent view? Abbreviated nick and Christian names, suggested by facial, cast or corporeal deformity, as 'Jim the hare,' euphonised into 'Jimmare, , etc., were civilly responded to as concessions to mutual courtesies. So it came as a wrinkle-browed surprise to tho Captain s wife, when, six months later, mother confided to her friend that 'Chartoff,' alias Charlej the toff,' alias Charles Tunstal, the keep-himself-to-himself spruce applicant for work, had asked hor to marry him; at the same time conveying an unspoken guess what her answer had been. 'Ahl And yoxi bebelieved his tale?' cautious World "Wisdom enquired of the hot-faced impenitent, when told what the opening of this history records. 'Also, what about young Finnis, on the other side?' " 'Bother young Finnis. I only agreed to wait to be quit*of him. I don't think I could trust my life to his sudden vile tempers!' "So mother became- Mrs Tunstal, married by the Captain according to prevalent usage, when sea r captains were seamen and sea-kings; splicers of cordage, 'main braces,' and nuptial. rop>es; legal and respectable. And they retired to the small rustic, but neat, hermitage, a mile distant, the British 'hatter,' no matter where, lays down as a first-keel that shall build, plank by plank, the argosy of a large and prosperous nation. Also tue chip, laden with spars and the Captain's wife, departed, leaving Tunstal in charge. "Two days later a strange craft came up to tho anchorage, to also get spars and found a trade, but discovering this side to be already occupied, at once shifted its berth across the bay to found a trade there; for such was one of our unwritten laws that made for peace. Henco it was a week before the two parties met. "From the new camp one Sunday, a young fellow, a sort of supercargo or clerk of stores, called Finnis, wandered out with his gun and came upon this rustic home, and seeing a woman with her back to him trimming plants, stood and waited. Presently she turned anu saw him and ricked her body, and turned red. then white, the while the man intently took etock of her. She wanted to speak; to explain something: anything to change that pitiless stare! At last—as help comes to eVery woman in her hour of need—speech returned. Also the right speech; tho speech composed : the speech that without superfluous detail covers all: -Is that you, finnis? Come in. My husband has .lust pone down to tho camp. He-will be back soon.'

"'Yes, Madge, it is 1. , Then with nsi ? g m a . ng, 7 voice: ' So her e it is you are! This, how you wait for mc! This, the newly-married couple I heard floatnig rumours of! The woman I perilled my neck and soul for! That I changed my name for. That I Vr my name for. That I ' sly •Married to whom ? Who is the lout you preferred to mc? Tell mc his name that I may chase him to the ends of the earth and kill him!' •

_ At the wo , k11 , % , the protective instinct for child and mate, common to the sex, whispered. 'Keep eilent! Decoy him away! Like the mother duck that pretends a broken wing to invite easy capture, bnt away from where her dnckhngs lie hid. 'Do not speak of killing, Finnw. Wβ will go end meet Eim, as the friends that we are, eince you will not come in.' She mnst temporise with this madman, whose cross-eet jaws, searins stare, and ready compliance, tell of murder.. without speech! So she pnt on her hat, and passed out to Hm, Should she snatch.

lat the gun? He gave her W Her light social finalities-,,>*****£- ! unanswered, but none the .leas «"m dered omens of evil m ber , _It. Presently he asked: 'How ranch n»«j» er is it?' 'Not far. Just P&s* &* Maori pa there.' ... "When they arrived abreast of it, the chief sat outside tho palisading m the sun and watched them advance. Now, the chief loved this white woman, whose very smile of cheer ana ready hand with simples our mothers used to brew, with househoW J™.™ 8 ' were as healing balm to his children at flu and teething time. Th' s whlto woman who never lied to th,em, n f c J € T cheated with false weights. That s**owed their maids to cut out and sew roundabouts, and on a slate anvil how to beat out pot hooks, and. in vice-lixe fingers, bend hangers. That came ana went among fierce visage, noise, and war without fear, unprotected, but safe as if cased in boiler-plate. Tho woman that never despised their customs, but with a dexterous hand clipped here and there uncouth ferocities. That haa heard much of their language and songs, and taught them fringes of her own. Now looked into" his eyes, and ho in hers, and past, at tho whito savage there; and. dimly understanding, asked solemnly: My daughter, what is it? Is it tins stranger with the gun?' And she husked: "Ac; Ko taku tane, c. men ana kia patua c ia! , (Yes; ho intends to kill my husband)/ , "Fleet are the intuitions of Natures children; few of words, a prehensile brain, and a cunnnic that is devilish when in tight places. So he looked at the man and gun; the distance between him and them; judged of his tomahawksweep, a weapon without which no Maori left his house; thought of his mandate to kill, to capture, or disable; chance and tho gods shall tell. With which decision ho rose grandly: lell him, my daughter, that the custom of tho Maori permits no stranpor to pass his food; enter then my pa. " 'But I don't want his —cryptogram —food! 'No?' fiercely: 'That is an insult tho Maori understands to mean war. Sign wo then the pact: here is my tomahawk; exchange with mo your <*un, and go in neace to man your tribe. , 'Tell him. Madge, or what your name is now, I'll taste his food; but give up my gun; No!' So signing mother to go first, and tnc stranger to follow, ho stood aside; and just as lin- ,- n's pa=pcd throutrh tho narrow entrance, two powerful hands leaped at his collar slack; a knee like an anchor fluko cine into tho small of his back, and a joint contraction of theso forces combining in a mutual heave, doubled Finnis bark as one snaps a pocketknife,. and laid him upon the ground with a damaged spino! 'Is it my daughter's will to see him smell the odour of my axe? No? Then ropes here, my children; ropes here! My : daughter, the danirer is past. What next? Why, then, thero in tho distance walks your husband. I shall fire this gun and signal him. , v "W T hen he arrived and became possessed of the disturbance, and stepped up to view the capture, he stooped once: then he stooporl again; then, retreating a pace, folded his arms and cried sternly: 'Was tho world, Jim, not wide enough to keep us two apart? Were you not satisfied with the solution of the problem you set five years aeo, when for the £10 you stole from tho firm's till, I surrendered my pros- •-'* ttit name among my ldnd, my l ; berty, that mother might think her r'nrliTiq: uuve, that your evil genius, Hke Brutus's, must follow mo to this Pbili™-i lipre. and n second time 1 wreck my life!' And to" the chief: Itelease him. He is my brother!' "

This is no romance, as romances are built from to-finial: from furniture to fnrnitnre. It is an outline rlftch to be shnflod as each render wills, and as evoked emotions promnt <?o ;to each ,tnis armpl ends. It is the ■«*.miT>'fl wave of a W struck over a iin-nrlrprt roars asm. rprf will ttto as lortfr as ovptt ntirr>nTi fceart i* h»Tran...fiTJd. strike + h(it:.bfill ,ag3ip. ,:It is ii TDPT"orv. rno'v"^' , '? bore, to fl'ns-*-rri-kr» Viv Mrs Tnnc-ffil nnr , oHpf+nvn f-V-nr! V(3 -fc oncf P<TfMT| f|iO trnt-h fSUTI-nr-rxst! fi j>s tvf -T'l l -—+*•?»£ ns ■rc' o treated the Maori so the Maori treated us.