HINTS FOR THE MAORI PEOPLE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume VI, Issue 19, 15 September 1859, Page 1

HINTS FOR THE MAORI PEOPLE.

Chapter 111.

We have spoken of two causes of the rapid decrease of the Maori population. Ist, From the women being ill-fed whilst pregnant, and from their being allowed by the men to carry heavy weights and to work beyond their strength; 2nd, From the babies and little children having food unQt for them, and not having milk, which is their natural food. But there is another cause of sickness and of death which is fatal to all alike—men, Women, and children—and that is, the use

of rotten corn and of rotteu potatoes. We often hear Maori folk giving reasons for their sickliness. Some say, English food has disagreed with them; otherssay,Eoglish clothing is killing them. And it is very true that there are many causes for the unhealthiness of the Maori race. English clothing is very good in itself, when we have clothes to change after being in the rain. If a Maori man has only one pair of shoes, and gets them soaked through with wet, and sils with them on his feet, he will probably catch a bad cold, and have a cough or a fever; and so with his blankets. But one of the greatest causes of death and sickness is not from any English custom, nor is it from the customs of your forefathers, but it comes from a custom of your own making. It is not above thirty years since the Maories began to steep corn in water and when it had become rotten to eat it. Many of the middle aged people remember when they Grst ale it. The practice began among the Ngapuhi people and gradually spread through the country, bringing with it swellings in the neck, hips, and sides, such as had never been before in this country. When Captain Cook wrote his book about the New Zealanders, he spoke of their great healthiness. The only ailment he noticed, commonly was disease of the eyes. Could any Captain of a man-of-war say the same thing of the Maories in these days? On the contrary, it is rarer to see any young person without some scar or some sore on the body. Nor is this to be wondered at. For God has laid down laws for us, both for our souls and our bodies. If we sin against these laws, we are sure to be punished. If it be a law for the health of our souls, the punishment will fall upon the soul. If it be a law for the health of the body, the punishment will fall upon the body, and there it will show itself in the shape of disease or death. The food which we swallow is in our body till all the power of it has been'

drawn out. That power then passes into the blood and goes into every part or the body. If then the food be wholesome, the body is filled with healthy blood and the man is strong and active. But if we put rotten food into our stomachs, the power that passes from it is deadly and pofsonous. The blood becomes diseased, the man gradually loses strength and vigour. If he has great natural strength, his body tries to get rid of the filthy stuff which cannot nourish it. He has swellings in the neck or on the thigh. If he be weakly, the mischief falls within on the lungs or the liver. He is said to die of consumption, but he dies really of eating unwholesome food. We do not write thus because rotten corn or potatoes is a new food to us, and therefore disgusting. Fern root is a new kind of food to us, but we do not speak thus of it. A great deal of the food which we cat daily was not known to our forefathers. Potatoes were brought from America. They were first seen by us three hundred years ago, when our ships sailed thither. They were t'ue food of the native people there. So, rice, sugar and coffee, which every body uses now, were only bought by very rich people for many hundreds of years. Tea was brought from China for the first lime about two hundred years ago. But we take good care not to introduce any rotten or unwholesome food. We may thrive on all kinds of food in this worlds if it be but sweet. In cold countries, where wheat and corn will not grow, people live almost entirely on meat. In hot countries, like India, a little rice and a few cocoa nuts, or some! butter, is enough for those who work hard. In New Zealand, we all know that food will grow abundantly, and from the East Cape alone, in 1857, the Maories supplied 46,000 bushels wheat to English traders. In one year by canoes there were brought to Auckland 200 ions of potatoes, 1400 baskets, of onions, 4700 baskets of maize, 4300 pigs, 45 tons of fish* besides peaches, cabbages, pumpkins, grapes, melons, fowls and turkeys. In 1857, in the Bay of Plenty, and in the

Taupo and Rotorua districts, the natives had 5000 acres of wheat, 3000 acres of potatoes, 2000 acres of maize, JOOO acres of kumaras. Besides all this wealth, thev had 200 cattle, and 5000 pigs. We have not spoken of the thousands of bushels of wheat grown every year in Waikato and the Waipa districts. And yet, with all this abundance which God has given you, you live on a food which is killing you and your children. Letho mansay, it is God's will that the Maori man should die out. It is man's folly and man's covetbusness thatare the true causes. For the real use of money is to get good food and good clothing for a man and for his children. If an Englishman earns money, he parts with it in order to buy some of that very abundance of: wheat and other kinds of good food whidh the Maori man has grown. The Maori man parts with the whole of the food which he has grown in order to get the money. This is the difference between us and you. What good shall money do us, if we have no wholesome food for ourselves or our families? We write to the Magistrates and the Chiefs and the old men. You, the old men, can remember the time when no food so disgusting as rotten corn was eaten. Even shares flesh, which is bad enough, cannot poison you as decayed vegetable food does. It is an evil new custom, only thirty years known here, and already we see the effects. Where are the tall, strong, powerful men like those of old, like you to whom we JJTM e ? .'; Shall not ibis evi l cease? You the Magistrates try to put down the habit of drinking spirits. Can you not try to put dow n;}ke habit of eating unclean food.S, Q°A! U ■ .M>e beginning gave to men every herb and tree bearing fruit, for fool. Again, after the flood, to Noah, God gave cattle and fowls and fish, as well as all green herbs for man's food. ? In all the old days, we read of good food. Abraham, when strangers came to him and he made a feast for them, had flour, and butter, and milk, and a calf to put before them. Even in Egypt, where the children of Israel were ill treated and were slaves, thev had good food given them, flsh, and melons* and onions* and cucumbers. The very things which would abound in this land. The only time we read 0 f rotten food, is as a punishment. In the wilderness God fed the people with manna* a sweet and good food. They could not in their journeyings stop to cultivate the ground, nor would crops grow,. «ove here and there by the little springs of water. So, day by day, they had to gather

the fresh manna, which fell all around their tents in the early morning. Some of them were idle and disobedient, and gathered enough at one time for two days. The punishment was that the manna became corrupt and stank, and nobody would eat it. We have written to the old men who are wise; the young boys and girls will not listen; they are like our children, foolish and greedy, thinking only of what is pleasant to the taste. We don't let our children eat what they crave. We give them what is good for iheni. Do you, the Chiefs, destroy the pits of corn and you will do more to slop sickness and death among your people, than all the Doctors and Medicine in the world can do for them.