HINTS FOR THE MAORI PEOPLE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume VI, Issue 23, 15 November 1859, Page 2

HINTS FOR THE MAORI PEOPLE.

Chapter V. How can we save the Maori children from dropping off one by one, like unripe fruit? We have spoken of the best means tliis. First, by forbidding the women • to-'carry"'■•heavy, weights, when pregnant. Secondly, by feedingthe mothers better before iarid a iter* their children are born. Thirdly, : by providing proper food for the children for the first three or four years of their - ives. By tjiat time their back teeth will have all pome, and they can chew animal or vegetable food well. There are only two kinds of food really necessary for children, . flour, baked, or made into bread, and milk. Arrowroot, rice, sago, are all good, specially .Cor.babies, who like change of food, but most children thrive on bread and milk. Flour baked in a pot till dry is better for babies than bread.

Now both these articles of food, flour and milk, may be got anywhere in New Zealand, if the fathers care enough for their children to take some trouble about them. If .Maori men care more for making money than for rearing healthy children it isof no use writing any more on the subject. Nothing in this world worth doing can be done without pains and forethought. It has pleased God to leave it free to us human creatures to care or not to care for our young. The beasts are governed by some law which they must obey. Look at the birds. By the instinct which God has given them they build their nests warm and dry and soft, for the little ones not yet come. The mother sits unweariedlv on her eggs till they are hatched, and then broods over fie young birds to keep them warm and to defend them from harm. The father bird spends his whole time day by day, looking for food for his young and for the mother bird. They never leave off caring for them, till the young are strong enough to fly and to take care of themselves. All creatures do the same, even the insects, spiders and such like. God has given to women who are mothers natural food for their young, and he puts love into their hearts towards them. But no law such as guides Ihe beasts compels men and women to watch over their young. God has given us understanding hearts to know what is right and it is oiir sin and shame if we neglect to do it. Flour is the first thing we have spoken of as necessary for children. Now there is, as you all know, no difficulty in growing wheat enough in this land to supply every body with bread. There are ploughs or in every village through thecountry, and plenty of land. And yet, at this lime, in Waikato, the people are half starved and the children are fed on cabbages, lorn root, or potatoes only fit for the pigs. !n NVaihekc and other places around, there is no flour, them is scarcely grain enough for planting. The men had run in debt in the town and ai! their autumn harvest went at ouce to the storekeepers in payment!

It is want of forethought, not want of] food, which starves your children. Will j the fathers not love enough for j Iheir little children to think beforehand I of their wants through the winter? Lo, children and the fruit of the womb are a gift and heritage which cometh of ihe Lonl. Is this heritage to perish and starve in a bnd of plenty, for lack of the love which a bird ! shows to its yovng, a cat to her kit lens ? Maori men and women do love their children in a way.- They sorrow when they are ill : they sorrow yet more when they die. Hut tree love is shown by working for and helping others, not by crying over them when •ur thoughtlessness and selfishness has killed them. (To be continued.J