EARLY DAYS IN H.B.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 25, 13 February 1937, Page 6

EARLY DAYS IN H.B.

Maoris Then Were a "Hard-Working Lot" MR CROSSE'S ADDRESS Further reminiscences of the early days of Hawke's Bay were narrated by, 'Mr T. E. Crosse, of Hastings, at the weekly luneheon meetihg of the Hastings Rotary.Club yesterday afternoon. Mr Crosse dealt. mainly with some of the characteristics of the Maoris and their "habits and customs. The Maoris of those days, he said, were a hard-working lot. They had to be hard-working because they had to feed themselves, and there were a good many more of them than at present. Pas were very plentiful, being scattered about all over the place, esp-ecially near the coast and along the rivers, streams and creeks. Quite. a number of settlers in the district grew a small quantity of wheat, and this was in fairly big demand for feeding the population. It was necessary to grind down the wheat, and this was usually done with a small liand machine. ■ On the gates of many homCsteads there was often found -a notice which read: "Grind or go on." the implication being that before food was given it was necessary that tho visitor should do his share of the grinding of the wheat. ' 1 There was really no currency, as we know currency, in vogue in those days." said Mr Crosse. "The shilling and half-crown really were useless, there being no shops to spend the money in and no method of making use of the money.\ Twists of tobaeeo were very much used in the system of buying and selling. There was invariably a good order of tobacco included with the slores which were obtained once, perhaps twice, a year from Wellington-" , Tobacco IJsed in Deals The tobacco was of good quality, though not of the same attractive appearance as tobacco was made up iuto these days, being very blaek. If a settler desired to' buy half a pig from a Maori it was generally forthcommg for the handing-over of two or three sticks of tobacco. More extensive buying, said Mr Crosse, Svas usually transacted with a blanket, which was looked upon as providing a good suit of clothes for a Maori, though quite. a number of the Maoris never wore European clothing. # • The speaker said that in his 30 years' experience- with .the Maoris he did not come across a single ease of robbery by the Maoris. Of course, there were some exceptions, but persoV^lly he.had foun.d the natives very honest in that respect. When there wa» to be a big gathering of Maoris in the district and it was known that certain of the 1 ' light-fin-gered brigade" were eontemplat.ing making a visit, warning was usually given by other members of the tribe. The Maori was always ready for business, and he liked to malse the b'est of any opportunity that came his way to do a little special business," said Mr Crosse. An example of this was provided in an experience that befel his father. Mr Crosse, senr., had set fire to some scrub and fern as part of his clearing operation, but the fire had spread a great deal farther than anticipated, and as a matter of fact it took over a month to burn itself out. They All Lose Same Pig A week or so after the fire had started on old Maori complainea that ne had lost a tame pig in the fire, and as compensation Mr " Crosse gave him a couple of sticks of tobacco. Further complaints of lost tame pigs f ollowed, but the little difficulties were soou smoothed out upon the handing-over of a stick or two of tobacco. It was not until later that Mr Crosse learnt that the Maoris never kept tame pigs. They were too much of a nuisance round the pas, and anyway there were so many wild pigs about that there was no need for keeping tame ones. Detailing a lengthy journey undertaken by his "family from north of Napier to the Porangahau distriet, Mr Crosse said it was necessary to have

the assistance of the Maons ror Jong journeys of that kind. "It is almostimpossible to describe nowadays just what wonderful people the Maoris were in those days," he said, "when you come to think of the long journey through wild country, the many days spent with the Maoris all around and yet there was no dange'r from them. As a matter of fact, the Maoris in Hawke's Bay were never a fighting people. They were not built that way. The fighters came from up the north, and they did dearly love fighting."