A SACRED MAT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1067, 4 March 1911, Page 5

A SACRED MAT.

• WHICH SAVED A LIFE. .The finest sentiment of lovo and respect on tho part of a Maori family was embodied in ah episode in connection with tho-last rites 1 attendant upon tho deathof the lato'Mr. T.- W. M'Kenzie. .When he arrived, hi/Wellington in February, 1840—before Wellington was Wellington, as a'matter ,of facias a boy of thirteen, he went ashoro in'ono of tho ship Adelaide's boats, and with tho adventurous spirit of boyhood wandered from the beach at Thorndon into tho wilderness of scrub ajid bush that lay between tho harbour front and the hills. Among certain of the., Maoris.the coming of the white' mail- 1 was- the reverse, <bf ■welcome, and of these'the Chief Poriitu, el the Pipitea pa, was one. Ho saw the boy. and was, it is related, working up to tne murder point, when bis wife rushed on before him, and covered the boy • with a native mat,, signifying, by the act that he wjis to be harmed, 1 and that she R mshecrto"a3opt him.' At once'; young M'Kenzie and tho mat became tiipu, and the mat has been passed down as • an heirloom of the l orutu family. " The mat was regarded, with great veneration by Porutu's fiftn, th-3 late E. Piti (Harry Pitt), who was boatman in'the Customs service for many years in Wellington, and when he died it was bequeathod to his son, Mr. Pitt, of Wainui. When tlie latter heard of the death of Mr. M'Kenzie, on Wednes-days-he entrusted the sacred mat to his wjro.to bring" jnto'Wellington, offering ±o lend'tho mat' fof 'the 'bedecking of the death chamber until after tho funeral. Needless' l .to -sav, tho -venerable old mat (said to hoover 100 years old), which did such'" signal'"'service seventyone years ago, has been viewed with ho little emotion by tho members of Mr. M'Kenzie's family, and tho offer, so kindly meant, was warmly accepted.