“WITH MAORI SAVAGES."

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5085, 7 February 1927, Page 4

“WITH MAORI SAVAGES."

AN AMERICAN ON CHBISTUHUBCH. ISLAND RENT BY EARTHQUAKE. The ignorance of a section of the United States Press, regarding Ndw Zealand, its cities and people, is at times remarkable, and the gullibility of some members, of literary staff when interviewing 'travellers does not redound to the intelligence of the pressmen concerned. In 1922 a very imaginative young lady, Beatrice A. Manning, paid a visit to New Zealand. Since then she has been some time returning to her home town, Albany, in New York State, a town about the. size. Of Wellington. The, young lady was interviewed by a pressman, and the tale she 'iold regarding the seini-barbarous natives of the. South Island and the earthquake in Christchurch on Christmas Day of 1922 would have done credit to the most- imaginative and melodramatic o'f modern-day writers. A cutting was sent .to a King Country resident from one of the Albany (New York State) papers, and was headed : “With Maori Savages.” THE STORY. The article read as follows.: — The South Island of New Zealand, where Christmas weather is like that of northern Junes, provided the strangest Christmas in the experience of Miss Beartice A. Manning. 409 State Street, who has possibly ranged farther over 'Mie. world than any other resident of Albany. Although for several years Miss Manning has passed most o'f her time in travelling, and has covered the remotest corners of the earth, the Christmas of 1922, which found her at the littlfe, British colony of Christchurch, at the extremity of SPiuth New Zealand, is the only one she has. celebrated in a foreign land. An earthquake, which rent the island in the midst Of a balmy, hibiscus scented afternoon, and a feast at sundown with a semi-barbarous Maori tribe, were the. highlights of a somewhat lurid holiday at the farthest end of the world. “We, were motoring back to Christchurch after a flfty-mile trip across the island when the earthquake occurred,” said Miss Manning. “We were all seized with a dreadful dizziness, which we could not account for until we saw the earth heaving, throwing pedestrians to the ground and bouncing automobiles several feet into the air. SEEING THINGS. “The tower of a public building, and the steeple of a church in the centre of the city, crashed to the ground only a fe.w feet away from us. Although the damage in outlying regions was heavy, and the loss o)C life among the natives very great, the town where we were escaped with less punishment, and we did not realise at the time the extent of the. disaster. “The Maoris celebrate a feast of their own on December 25. I have never discovered the origin of it, but coming at the height of the harvest, and characterised in part by a ceremony based on ancestor worship, i< sugge.sts a combination religious and harvest feast. They call it the day o'f thankfulness.

“We sat down at evening with about 100 members o£ the tribe, ranged Turk fashion around a large grass mat, with a huge earthern bowl in the centre, called the kava cup, containing a drink the natives brew from fruit and nuts. The dishes served were principally fish, the exotic fruits pe-. culiar to the climate, and a native dish called poi. The tribe performed a sort of weird dance, in sitting posture during the feast, and danced after the meal was over.” ■ ,

The. foregoing 'extracts reveal that Miss Manning’s imagination is in no, direction at fault, whatever her sense of accuracy.