OLD NEW ZEALAND

Hokitika Guardian, 10 August 1932, Page 3

OLD NEW ZEALAND

PAST OF THE MAORI RACE. OBJECTS THAT HOLD GLAMOUR. : WELLINGTON, August 8.

Saying that Maori history was suggestive of further study, Bishop Bennett,’ in an address to the Hastings Rotary Club, stated that the race had much that was Worth perpetuating and much that was worth preserving.

The bishop exhibited a number of articles dealing with Native lore and history, arid gave a short account of each. -The first cumo that he showed was a spear obtained from the Chatham Islands, and in speaking of it he expounded an interesting theory with regard the possible existence of the moa on the islands iw-’days gone. by. J Nevertheless, the Chatham ■ Maori**' who gave him the spear, ;->vhiftb was supposed to ; be a moa spear; * wild was made probably of moire, or of manuka, held to a belief that the moa used to exist there, arid their tl?eory was that the ‘ Natives of the time ihunted the moas: from-.' the, hillsides, drove them down into the iyet- mudflats , till they Were herded together there, and then captured or speared, them. That theory might account for the fact that bones,' were not visible, to, searchers to-day. The spear was, many generations dld ) perhaps hundreds oi years old, and ’had lain; in the water whence it-was taken by present-day islanders; - : - - i .'cv r-c ■ ‘ .■ ■ ;; ;

Two interesting places had recenitQy b©6ri ; brought before his notice-.- Ofiie was ail ancient cave-built Maori house in the -Mokau, arid thei other was a fighting pa near Apapuni., It was said that; the .house in the Mokau was built by a man-eating warrior named Rauparaha,: who lived- at the beginningtof fast century, arid .whose descendants were stil] living and liad spoken about the.house to his Lordship, ; Rauparaha hfid migrated from the Waikato to a locality halfway .between, iKawhia and: the Mblcau, and had built his house in fi cave high up on a cliff, afterwards buidlirig a path up to it. It was of the.ioiv style of architecture anciently used, by the Maori, ond was no-higher than three or four feet .from the ground. Indeed, the door was so low that one had to crawl on liailda and • knees to enter. .. < - " ; '

. r rhe original flax and reed were still there, and- the puriri timbers Were in a splendid state bf pj-eservation, There were rio signs that, European tools oi; weapons had been, used in its con-r stfuotion, and it appeared to liave been 1 made entirely- with Maori axes and carving implements. . . The fight) nife pa at Ara-puni also was extraordinarily interesting. It wa.s on the opposite; side,. of the lake from the wain taiad. th.d consisted of the remains of the -origin®! ■ palisade, the diigouts, the ditcheSj and other features. It was little known,.. hoiyeyflu, for even to-dgy it was' so tapu that the Maoris ivoirld take , nobdoy bn to it.v The: nearest that. they .would ..approach was to within a few hundred yards, when they' wbulcl stop and peiat to it. • ' v •' ■ ;

In Tact-, the MrioriS said that no one had ever been able- to obtain a. photo.graph of it, and explained that though, attempts had been made, v the tap.u influence cauried the exposure to come out black. Tlie Maori belief was that to break the sacred law of tapu meant only to court subsequent disaster. Bishop Bennett’S next exhibit was a shell of the pupuyangi, wjiieh he had obtained in North Auckland. It was called “the shell from the heavens,” and waß famous for its inhabitant’s -habit of climbing trees and whistling. Tt was usually found in the kauri, about fifty feet up. Actually,', it was not the shell-fish itself that whistled. The explanation was that an opening on/ the she® ffi C cd the wind ]n a certain way, and caused a -whistling sound. The whistling could be heard from a quarter to half a mile a why, and its sound was considered a bad ouien.

BATTLE OF OHAEAWAI. The next exhibit by the bishop was a cannon ball fired by the British at the Battle of Ohaeawai on July 1. 1845. Jt was one of the best fortified pas that the Maoris 'ewer erected. There were two sets of palisades, one inside and one . outside three or four feet 'apart. .The outer palisade was fortified with puriri posts fifteen feet high and sunk five feet in the ground and with fuix bushes tied all round both for protection and for camouflage. Fiv6 hundred pakehas under Colonel Gespard were fighting one hundred Maori*; who, • showing great bravery and cleverness, “wiped the floor with the pakehas.” Of the pakehas, 185 were killed or wounded, and about ten Maoris werei killed. The Maori women and children, who were hidden in an underground dugout, helped by making cartridges aud filling, the men’s muskets with stones, hits of iron, and anything that Would make up the shortage of ammunition. Colonel. Gespard, whb foolishly decided to at-| tack the pa, which was pretty well impregnable, flout over 100 men to, their doom. The pakehas, however, j fir sit fired from a big cannon on the; hillside, hut the ball, instead of striking the pa., went off at an angle and struck in a. puriri tree. Tt was the cannon hall now in hi'fi Lordship’s possession. Bishop Bennett, then went on to speak of the ancient Maori custom of mortifying the flesh with cuts as a si'rn of grief, and mentioned that the practice was referred to in the Pentatenoes as having been known in Bibica,i tunes. The Maori ctmfom was to use small a.rd sharp pieces of ohs’dinn. and at , I? ll tiki in 1902 he Imd actually seen a young Maori woman at a tangi cut-

ting herself as she wailed out " her j grief.. She had tln-ee oj- four pieces! of obsidian in each hand and blood . was pouring from every wound. It had been a custom for the relatives to take the most precious relic of the deceased, usually a tiki, and after smashing it to bury it. with the dead. At OhinemutUj when he was performing a ceremony at the Native: Chureh, | he had seen a oave filled with; human j bonus, .and from among. them he had ] obtained a beautiful broken.': tiki>