THE MAORI IN FRANCE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1632, 2 November 1916, Page 4

THE MAORI IN FRANCE.

“TIPPERARY’’ IX XEW HUISE. (London Times.) In the green lanes of France yon may meet at any time with men of all colours. There are black men marching there, brown men, and bronze, besides all the English and French soldiery. A while ago a long column swung along (he road to the tune of a melody sung in time to the marching feet. The tune you would know, but the words would he new to yon, or at least seem so. He roa (e wa ki Tipirere, He lino mamao, He roa te wa ki Tipirere, Hi laku kotiro, E noho pikatiri, Hei kona rehita koea, He mamao rawa Tipirere, Ka tae alma. It is an old friend in new guise, and the last word of tin* first line will tell you that it is none other than “Tipperary." But what is the tongue that it is sung in and what of the men who sing it ? On tin* under side of the world there is a land where Hie trees never turn yellow. Where the summer is a fair division of Hie year with a month and a-lmlf thrown in for good measure. It is a land of big spaces, full, broad rivers, and turquoise lakes. In the south (here are great mountains with their peaks clothed in perpetual snow and their glaciers moving towards the sun-hat bed plains. In (he interior there lived a race of chivalrous warriors who fought a great light against British troops. Xow Xew Zealand is as British as Sussex, and the spirit of the dark-skinned fighters who took up arms against the xed-eoats has come to France in the Maori contingent.

FOR KING AND KM FIRE, .When Britain first declared war there was an immediate response from Hie Dominions, and the Maoris asked that they should he allowed to fight for their King with their “pakelm” (whiteman) brothers. At frjtst: there were obvious difficulties, arid it was not for some time that the Government was able to accede to their request. Then there came a time when there was great rejoicing in the Maori pahs, and the youn& men flocked to the recruiting offices, its became the sons of a lighting race. It was disgrace to be hoeing the kumara beds when the manhood of England was needing respite from the battle. They would go over the sea to help the King and the Empire, and so they came, first to Gallipoli, ami then to Era nee. They children in spirit, and their pleasures have always been of their own devising. They had no written language, but they banded down by oral tradition the most complex genealogical trees and their own detailed and picturesque folklore. There is another side to them that has been evidenced as tin* result of the civilisation that Ac have taken (hem, but that is not (lie side we are interested in. When the Avar : came to New Zealand it found one Maori boy dAvelling beside the Avaiers of Lake Taupo. He Avas happy as he could be and not oA T erworked. He had-been taught English by the (Catholic priest of Waihi, and he could read tin 1 papers slowly, but {sufficiently avcll to tell that there was a great adventure offered him. He sat in the Avhare one night reading from the cables bow tin' Germans had IhroAvn our Army back from Mons, He did not knoAv Avhero Mons was, but lie knew that men were Avanled. He asked if he could go to fight, but Avas told that it Avas

not ;i \v;ir for tlio Maori. Thou a*, last came his ohanoo. He took Ills younger lirollior out lo (ho potato paddock and gave him dotailod instructions as to what lie was lo do if I ho knmaras won* hy any chance ready for dipping hofore ho oame baok from sol i ling- tlu* King’s affairs. Ho shook hands solemnly with his grandfather, and performed the ‘‘hongi,” nibbing his own Hat nose on the tattoed face of the old man. Ho shouldered his bundle and walked away past the hot springs through the manuka until he struck the coach road under Maunganaam, the little pocket-edition of a, volcano with its dead crater filled with fox-gloves. THK FIGHTING SPIRIT. He walked to Waioimi, and then he took a train. In 30 days lie was wearing a khaki jacket and a helmet and doing tedious drill on a hard-trodden septan*. Then, after the allotted space of training, ltd was embarked with his fellows, all of his own race, and the long jour-

ney to Engpt commenced. Arrived :il Gallipoli ho got his first taste of fighting, find liorodiiy Ciimo uppermost. Disregarding :ill that an impressive sergeant-major h:id drummed into his head, he forgot llnil ;i biiyonet was for use at close (pnirters. He \v:is sent with the other Maoris on ;i little piece of work thiil demanded much steadiness and llit* nlmost quiet. They crept alone; the dere to altaek the Turks. It was to he a surprise altaek, and ihe rides were not to he tired. It was a surprise, and Hone went into the thick of the melee with his rille elnhhed like the “liaha” or the “ieko-feko” of his forhears. it 'was hard work, Iml orders wore obeyed, and there were no noises but the thud of the rille stocks and the cries of ilie wounded. Their object, was .achieved, and that night on the beach under Walker's (hey sat and talked in their own tongue of the "lories of that half-hour. Then they came to France, and we lind them swinging a lon ft between tin l high poplars to the tune of “Tipperary" sung sweetly in their soft voices and with the perfect lime that all ihe Polynesian races aro able to put into (heir music. Hone came, 100, and here ho is at the iiead of (he column with two stripes on his sleeve. As he marches lie wishes wistfully that his old grandfather and little Ifori, his brother, could see him now and could have heard the cheers that greeted them in (hist reels of the first French town they passed through. Once more he was in the thick of things, hut this time he did not march hack to the bivouac. A stretcher carried him to the waiting motor-amhuhince, and he was hurried'to the hospital, where a surgeon shook his head sadly over him. He lay there for two days, but In’s spirit was already half-way round Ihe world Vo the quiet lakeside where the white sand is washed by waters as blue as (lie clear sky, He thought himself hack at Taupo sitting under the shade of the manuka hushes. The steam from the hot pools in the li-tree was watted across (he water and the boiling mud geysers chuckled and gurgled like goblins as he told his brother and the old man of how he had fought, the Turk-and (he Hermans. The nurse at the other end of the ward was suddenly conscious of soft singing, ami as she came along the passage-way between (he beds she heard that Ihe voice was Hone’s. She, 100, knew the tune, but ihe words were strange to her. “He roa fe wa ki Tipirere, lie lino mamao," in* sang. And then as (lie little boiling pools chuckled and laughed softy and the note of a distant bellbird came across (be arm of the lake from Waitanni he closed Ids eyes, and his spirit went to the place whore all good warriors go.