MAORI PHILOSOPHY.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1140, 23 March 1872, Page 2

MAORI PHILOSOPHY.

The following extract is from one of a ; series of sketches supplied by a lady in Rangitikei to the ApdraUtsim. Its beauty of ! style, apart ifrom other merits, is sufficient recommendation : — :' - : 7 Essentially the Maori w a wanderer... Here irif the summer season j gone'in"tlie autumn ; there in the fishing season, gone again at the "kumera" time. Hereto* day and gone to-morrow, ; unembarrassed by household lares and Debates, robed in his all-iraportanf; blanket, with his never-failin; pipe, he comes andgoe?, moving north and south as the fancy takes ■hi^. y'"^Hdus>Hbld;caresl^&n'Jivbe.kngisß:..--them not./; :^a ; 'thon.g^.',ot..,tte - slfntii^Oflcreep3\nths lfntii^Oflcreep3\nth its cautiousdpubts and chUlsV into Maori-land. " Trust <no future to^r ever pleasant ? Let tie dead pastjiiury , its dead. " Such a sentiment ras this' breathes mutely -from every Hoar in 'iKe Maori life. The present is all sufficing. ' The present kiss pressed upon warm lips, the present caress fierce and passionate, the present hunger all- prevailing, the,-, present council of war all engrossing, . the present "tangi" all abandoned to grief. To-morrow my mistress may leave s me and her kisses and the soft twine of her arms, be mine no longer ; to-morrow I may be more hungry than I am now, _ or not hungry at all ; to-morrow the fight (s may be over and the .tangi be Bung for^ me. Pardieu ! give unto to-morrow the things which may be to-morroir.'s ; ,;let ; ,/ us five to-day and forget io-mqTt6w*_ Such is the summing up : of Maori philosophy, simple and sweet. " Moko " kissed "Moringa" to-day, and to-mor-row had gambled her away; ! <f Wainiate ? ' « is far inland to-day, and to-morrow he is lulled to sleep by the moan ; of the sea. f-, I To-day the low fiat is green and glancing, and to-morrow the flood waves, Burginc and muddy, eddying over each, path and t nook. In the night came the spirit of the waters, and to-day cornea the flood. One day by the sea side are low thatched > whares, the canoes' float in the bay and the children paddle in the shallow rock pools. A little curl of smoke shines dark in the afternoon sun, and aheap of white mussel shells is left to bleach in the sun. A low chant sounds from the far canoe ; a man lies stretched on the smooth sand* ? asleep. To-morrow they are gone ; the? nigh', wind has levelled the hastily erected whares; the ashes of the fire are eddied over the sand. r . r '■' > \