THE MAORI IN FRANCE

Nelson Evening Mail, 22 September 1916, Page 6

THE MAORI IN FRANCE

A DWELiLEK, FRO&I TAUPO. "TIPPERARY" IN NEW GUISE. j In the green lanes of France you may i meet at any time with anen of all colours. I There are" black men marJhing there, brown, men, and 'bronze, besides all the English and French soldiery. A while ago a long column swung along the roaJ to the tune of a melody sung •in time to the marching feet. The tune you would know, but the words would be new to you, or at least seem so. He roa te wa ki Tipirere, Hie tino mamao, He roa te wa ki Tipirere, Ki taku kotiro, E noho pikatiri, Hei kona rehita koea, He mamao rawa TSpirere Ka tae ahua. It is an old friend in a new guise, and the last word' of the 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 that sing it? ((writes a correspondent in the Times). On the under side of the world there is a land where the trees never turn yellow. Where the summer is a fair division of the year with a month and a half thrown in for good measure. It is a land of big spaces, full, broad rivers, and turquoise lakes. In the south there are great mountains with their peaks clothed in perpetual snow, and their glaciers moving towards the sun-bathed plains. In the interior there lived a race of chivalrous warriors who fought a greatfight against British troops. Now New Zealand is as ißritish as Sussex, and the spirit of the d'ark-skinned fighters who j took up arms against the red-coats has j come to France in the Maori contingent, j

FOR KING AND EMPIRE. "When Britain first declared war there ■was an immediate response from the Dominions, and s the Maoris asked' that they should- he allowed to fight- for their filing -with their "pakeha" (whitemen) brothers. At first there were obvious difficulties, and it was not for some time that the "Government was able to aacede to their request. Then there came a time when there was great rejoicing in the Maori,pas, and; the young men flocked to the recruiting offices, as 'became the sons of a fighting race. It was disgrace to be hoeing the kumara-beds when the manhood of England; was needing respite Irom the battle. They would go over the sea to help the .King and' the Empire, and so they came, first to Gallipoli and' then to "France. They are children in spirit, and their pleasnres have always been of their own devising. They hadi no written language, hut they handed* down an oral tradition the_ most complex (genealogical trees and their own detailed and picturesque folklore. There as another side to them that ■evidenced) as the result of the civilisation that we have taken them, but that is not the side we are interested in. When the war came to New Zealand it found one Maori 'boy dwelling beside the waters of Z/ake Taupo. He was happy as he could be and not overworked. He had , been taught English by the Catholic priest of Waihi, and : he could read- the papers slowly, -but sufficiently well to tell that here was a, great adventure offered him. H© sat in the "whare one night reading from the cables how the Gerjxians had thrown our army back from •Mods. He did not know where Mons "was, bob he knew that men were wanted. He asked if he could go to fight, hut was told that it was not a war for the Maori. Their at last came his chance. He took his younger brother out to the potato paddock and gave him detailed 'instructions as to what he was to do if the kumaras "were by any chance ready for digging before he came hack from settling the King's affairs. He shook hands solemnly with his grandfather and performed the "hongi," rubbing his own flat nose on the tattooed face of the old ma s- He • shouldered! his bundle and walked away past! the hot springs, through the imanuka scrub with its sweet-smelling flowers, until he struck ~e •coach road under M-aunganamu, the little pocket-edition, of a volcano with its dead crater filled with foxgloves.

THE FIG-KTIXG SPIRIT. He walked to Waiouru, and then he a train. Tn 10 days he was wearing a khaki jacket and a helmet, and doing tedious drill on a hard-trodden square. Then, after the allotted! space of training, ie was embarked with his fellows, all of his own race, and the long journey v ffSypt commenced. Arrived at Gal•"Pj he got his first taste of fighting, and heredity came uppermost. Disregardthat an impressive sergeant-major had drummed into this head, he forgot that a bayonet was for use at close quarters. was sent with other ifaoris on a little piece of work that demanded nrach steadiness and the "utmost quiet. They crept along the dere to attack the lurk. It .was to be a surprise attack, and the rifles were not to be fired. It was a surprise, and Hone went into the thick of the. melee with his rifle clubbed like th-e "tiaha" or the "teko-teko" of his forbears. It was hard work, but orders were obeyed), and : there were no noises but the sound of hard breathing, and the thud of the rifle-stocks and the cries of the wounded!. Their object was achieved, and that night on the beach ncmder Walker's they sat and talked in their own tongue of the glories of, that calf-hoar.

, Then they came to 3Tranee, andi we find them swinging along ! between the hi<*h poplars to the tune of "Tipperarj*," sung sweetly in their soft voice and with the perfect that all Polynesian races are able to put into their music. Hone came, too, and here he is at the head of the column with two stripes on his sleeve. As he imardhes he wishes wistfully that his old' grandfather and little Hori, his brother, couldi see him now and could have heard the cheers that, greeted them it ®^ ree ' s the first French town they-passed through. 'Once more he was in the thick of things, but this time ho did not march back to the bivouac. A stretcher carried him to the waiting motor-ambulance, and he was hurried to th hospital, where a surgeon shook his bead sadly over him. He lay There for two days, but his pp:nt was already half round the world to the quiet lakesidte where the white sand is washed 'by waters as blue as the clear sky. He thought himself back at laupo sitting under the shade of the manuka bushes. The steam from the hot pools in the tea-tree was wafted across t r ' the boiling mud geysers t gUrgled like goblins as he told_ his brother and the old man of how he had fought the Turk and the Ger-r-.-ns.. • The nurse at the other end of the ward was suddenly conscious of soft sincin-r, iSw 3 * S A 6 £ ar ? e ? lon S th « passage-way between the beds she heard that the voice JW Hone's. She, too, knew the tune, out the words were strange to her. "He roa te wa fci Tipirere, he tino mamao," he. sang. And then a s the little boiling pools chuckled' and laughed softly, and* tlio note of & distant bell-bird came across the arm of the lake from VVaitanui, 'he closed his eyes and his spirit went to the place where all good warriors go-