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MAORIS OF THE PAST.

FIFTY YEARS AGO,

IS THE RACE VANISHING ?

The Times correspondent, avlio is accompanying the Prince of Wales, is despondent about the Maoris. Commenting on the picturesque welcome they gave the Royal visitor (says the London Observer), he speaks of its poignant interest as “evidently the last distinctive festival of the Maoris,” and he suggests that the race is in danger of disappearing through change of custom and intermarriage with the white.

“All, I think, he means to imply,” said Sir Thomas Mackenzie, High Commissioner for New Zealand, “in an interview is that the typical Maori is changing. The old warrior is passing away; but the race is not diminishing in numbers. For some years it has been just about stationary, from forty to fifty thousand. And to-day the conditions, from the point of view of the health of the race, are very much better than they were. The Maori in illness receives much more, careful attention than was formerly the case. He no longer goes, as he used to do, to the Tohunga, or priest, for his medicine. He has either a European doctor to attend to him or a trained doctor of his own race. NOTABLE HALF-CASTES. “Though the delegates who have taken part in the reception to the Prince of Wales would be fairly representative of the race, the Maoris the Prince will have seen about Rotorua are less typical than others. They, it is true, have come much in contact with tourists and settlers during the last half-century, and have intermarried with the whites, but in other parts of New Zealand there has been nothing like the same intermixture.

“In the early days of European settlement in the country a runholdcr or sheepfarmer Avould marry the daughter of a chief, and in no Avay lose caste by the alliance, bis children being received on the same footing as those of Europeans. These marriages, however, are not taking place now to the same extent.

“Some of the finest families in New Zealand are half-caste. Take Sir lames Carroll; he is a halfcaste, and one of - the very ablest and most eloquent men in New Zealand. His father Avas a Avhaler, and bis mother the daughter of a union between two of the greatest Maori families in the IJ'orth Island. He has enormous influence Avith the Maoris, and he did a very great deal to settle and maintain peace between them and the Europeans.” Speaking of the origin of the race, Sir Thomas said: “The Maoris are supposed to have come from the uplands of Asia. Driven out by the Aryan'race many centuries ago, they took to the sea in the Gulf of Persia, and navigated the Paeilic from East to West.

“They became great navigators from Easter Island to Ncav Zealand, and peopled the SandAvich Islands, Tahiti, Samoa, Now Zealand, Raratonga, and partly Fiji. There Avere different emigrations to Ncav Zealand. The first Avas about the ninth century, but.the great emigration Avas in the thirteenth century.

“The race Avas noted for its groat generals. Perfect sappers and engineers, the Maoris could run up

fortifications sufficiently strong to defy British artillery, as' the episode shows in Avhich they Avere folloAved up the Waikato by British troops. “Rewi Maniapoto, a famous Avarrior, was forced to throw up a pa, a fortilication, Avherc he Avas surrounded by British troops, some DOO strong. The Maoris numbered only 300, including women and children. Their stock of provisions soon became exhausted, and Captain Gilbert Mair, an accomplished Maori linguist, Avas sent by General Cameron to persuade them to surrender.

“Rewi Maniapoto’s reply was: “We are lighting for our land, and Ave intend to continue to light.’ ‘Thou,’ said Captain Mair, ‘don’t let us kill the women and children; send them out before hostilities are renewed.’ A Maori woman overhearing this proposal, declared from the palisade, ‘We shall stand Avith our men, and avo shall light for ever, and for ever, and for ever.’ “In the end- the Maoris cut through the British force. Many Avere killed, but Roavl Maniapoto and a considerable number of his followers escaped. THEIR CHIVALRY;

“There is another incident worth reciting. At one time an armistice was arranged between the Maoris and the British force. The soldiers fraternised a good deal, and when hostilities were resumed, much to the regret of the followers of both leaders, the Maoris, who were about to send a volley into the British, shouted, ‘Lie down, Hikity-lifth (their name for the 65th Regiment), ‘we ax - e going to shoot.’ “Another story, thoroughly authentic, also illustrate their wonderful chivalry. A British force had been much reduced by lack of provisions, and the Maoris, knowing the low state of the British larder, sent them their breakfast just before an engagement was about to start. When they were remonstrated with by their leaders they replied, ‘How can Pakeha (Europeans) light on an empty belly'?’ “Three thousand Maoris came to fight in the great war. Many died in England from consumption; many were killed in France. One man who lost both legs a year or two before the end was asked whether he was going back to his people. “He replied, ‘Mo, I am not going

back. If I did they would say, Well, the war is over and you are victorious,’ and I should have to tell them that “I lost my legs, but the war is not over,” and then they would say, “Why did you come home? You ought to have got other legs to continue lighting.” ’ “The Maoris have always considered it shamefnl cither to return without victory or to be taken a prisoner of Avar. No matter lioav high the rank of the man, if be is taken prisoner - by an enemy he loses bis status. A Maori Avould rather, therefore, be killed than captured, and if he should be captured ho Avould endeavour to goad his captor to' kill him by heaping upon him all sorts of insults.”

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MH19200722.2.28

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2153, 22 July 1920, Page 4

Word count
Tapeke kupu
999

MAORIS OF THE PAST. Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2153, 22 July 1920, Page 4

MAORIS OF THE PAST. Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2153, 22 July 1920, Page 4

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