CHINAMAN v. MAORI.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 325, 4 January 1911, Page 6

CHINAMAN v. MAORI.

Down Taumarunui way an old Maori many years ago planted cherry trees. The "gardening' was f'.iirly well done, saw: that the planting was too close and much of the sunlight To-day there is a nourishing: grove of cherries, and the; descendants of this practical old Maori may be found at the Taumarunui railway station on the arrival of trains, bawling with racuous and ungrammatical voice, "Cherry Eipe!" This aspect of trade, the retail, where tie handles ready cash, appeals to the Maori mind, but the wholesale side, where hope is deferred, has not quite the same attraction. The local Chinaman approached the Maori with the object of opening up tradu relations. "How muehee the chelly?" queried the bland Asiatic. "Sickpc-n a pound," replied the Maori, and a wooden expression came into the features of both. "Sispen a pound! Too mnchee, too muehee; my clustomela give me sispen a pound : Where my plofit?" gesticulated the Chinaman. "Oh!" said the Maori; "you see, I keep the profit."

The Chinaman did not see. ard went off with a puzzled expression. He resumed negotiations again in a few days. "How muehee the chelly?" "Sispen a pound!" again replied the Native. "But where my plofit? I sell people sispen, I get nothing. Where my plcfit?" asked the Chinaman Oh, I keep the profit," said the Maori, imperturably. This dialogue has gone on for some time now, and it is believed that the Asiatic has at last made it clear that it will be in the interests of the Maori to dispose of cherries at the wholesale rate of fourpence and that the Maori has at last grasped the idea which brings him into touch with a wholesale trade.