MAORI KITE FLYING.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1588, 4 November 1912, Page 2

MAORI KITE FLYING.

AN ANCIENT CUSTOM. It is not generally known that the pastime of kite-flying so beloved of small boys to-day was formerly one of the recognised institutions of the Maori people. The kite among the Maoris formed tho subject of a leetnre delivered a few days ago at Auckland by the Vett, Archdeacon Walsh, a .recognised authority on Native customs. lute-flying, it appears, was not with tlio old Maoris a mere frivolous amusement, but had its place even in hallowed legend. ll.mi himself, according to Polynesian mythology, was a,kiteflyer, and his kite is recorded to have been made of aute—lienee the term "manuante,"' which means "ante-bird," otherwise "kite." Kite-flying was associated with, "semi-religious observances, ' ami charms, couched in poetical language, were chanted to make them fly. Some of these manu-alites were of enormous size, and are described as requiring from 150 to 200, and others from 300 to 400 yards of string. But the gigantic "manu-kahn" (hawk) took 70 men to control it, and 1200' yards of string. Attendant on th'o religious significance of tho kito. was its use rn divination. It was also employed to indicate land suitable for settlement, and sometimes as a means of communication between ono district and another. The Maori kito does not exist to-day. I'rol)-. ably , there is . not a single authentic example of one extant. But some idea of what a roanu-aute must have been like is to bo gained- from the fine model in tho Auckland Museum made for Sir George Grey by tho East Coast Natives. Made of raupo stretched on a manuka frame, with body and wings coloured red and black in strips, its head is covered with ante and decorated with hawks' feathers. In appeara.neo it resembles a gigantic hawk, With outstretched wings measuring, ten to twelve feet from tho tip of one wing to the tii) f ' le other. Professor Segar, ■who presided at the lecture, referred to the contempt that some people had for kite-flying as a childish amusement, and pointed out that it wfts by flying a ki.ts that Benjamin Ftanklin proVtd that thunder and lightning wore duo to the presence and electricity in tho atmosphere. Kite-flying may also be said, to have been the precursor of aviation.